Hi there, !
Today Tue 10/21/2003 Mon 10/20/2003 Sun 10/19/2003 Sat 10/18/2003 Fri 10/17/2003 Thu 10/16/2003 Wed 10/15/2003 Archives
Rantburg
532755 articles and 1859139 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 30 articles and 94 comments as of 5:25.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area:                    
Army kills Hamas man, two other Paleos in Gaza
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
3 00:00 Frank G [3] 
0 [1] 
0 [] 
1 00:00 Baltic Blog [1] 
1 00:00 Frank G [] 
10 00:00 Bomb-a-rama [] 
0 [] 
2 00:00 Doug [] 
2 00:00 PBMcL [] 
7 00:00 CrazyFool [3] 
5 00:00 Robert Crawford [1] 
6 00:00 Cyber Sarge [] 
0 [] 
2 00:00 Alaska Paul [] 
5 00:00 Frank G [1] 
2 00:00 Robert Crawford [] 
1 00:00 Raj [1] 
6 00:00 Alaska Paul [] 
6 00:00 Raj [3] 
4 00:00 Scooter McGruder [] 
7 00:00 Dishman [5] 
5 00:00 Bomb-a-rama [] 
4 00:00 PBMcL [] 
0 [] 
2 00:00 Frank G [] 
0 [] 
1 00:00 Ben [] 
4 00:00 Super Hose [5] 
6 00:00 Old Patriot [] 
2 00:00 Ben [1] 
Arabia
Saudi Arabia’s crown prince slams extremists
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz on Friday denounced extremists as deviants of the Islamic faith and called for stronger institutions to counter creeping militancy.
Better take that seriously, Prince. They're out to get you...
He said in a speech on the final day of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) summit that the crisis facing the world’s Muslim community was partly intellectual in nature.
Other than the explosives, you mean?
This emanates from increasing “over zealousness, leading to extremism, which turns them to terrorism.”
I think it stems from indulging, supporting, and financing violence against the people you don't like and then being surprised when somebody decides he doesn't like you, either. There's also a heavy dose of religious fanaticism involved, that's aggravated by ignorance, brutality, the desire to despoil others of their wealth and women, and in-breeding.
Stressing that Islam is a religion of kindness, mercy and tolerance, Prince Abdullah said a “minority” of deviant terrorists should not be allowed to tarnish the image of Islam. “The bullets that kill women and children, terrorise those secured in their safety and destroy innocent communities do not come from rifles but from deviant thoughts and misguided interpretations of our great religion and its noble message.” He urged the 57-member OIC to strengthen institutions to help counter rising extremism among Muslim youth.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 10/18/2003 01:32 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Let's see here:
He wants a Majority to Tarnish The Image of Islam™ and He's claiming that bullets can be fired from the mind. In my world that qualifies for the white sleeveless jacket.

ps Somebody call Kim du Toit I think he would want a picture for his collection.

dorf
Posted by: Anonymous || 10/18/2003 11:05 Comments || Top||

#2  He's claiming that bullets can be fired from the mind. -- Also bottle rockets can be launched from your anus; saw it done in Jackass the Movie.
Posted by: Super Hose || 10/18/2003 12:54 Comments || Top||

#3  Next he'll be claiming he can fire laser beams from his nipples.
Posted by: Charles || 10/18/2003 13:07 Comments || Top||

#4  Leave it to Rantburgers to take someone's absurd and totally off-the-wall premise and run with it till it drops. LOL! Bottle rickets, that's rich. Oh, the imagery, and I have not even had breakfast yet!
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/18/2003 14:17 Comments || Top||

#5  Not rickets, rockets.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/18/2003 14:18 Comments || Top||

#6  "My nipples explode with .. lasers"
Posted by: Dishman || 10/18/2003 18:00 Comments || Top||

#7  ooops, my bad.. should've been
"My nipples explode with laser light"
Posted by: Dishman || 10/18/2003 18:01 Comments || Top||


'US national' in Saudi al-Qaida cell
A group of al-Qaida sympathisers broken up by Saudi authorities worked for Aramco oil company and includes a US national, a senior Riyadh official has revealed.
Another traitor?
The official, who spoke on Friday on condition of anonymity, did not provide more details about the US national, who he said was among the 7-10 people captured during the summer of 2002. Saudi Aramco is the Saudi Arabian state-owned oil company and a spokesman in Houston could not immediately be reached for comment. Adil al-Jubair, foreign policy adviser to Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abd al-Aziz, told reporters in Washington his country had taken many steps to fight “terrorism” including more restrictions on financial flows. Saudi authorities have detained "well over 500 people" who are “terrorism” suspects, he said. "We have stifled a number of operations, terrorist operations," Jubair said. "We have contributed to stifling operations not just in Saudi Arabia but in other countries, including in the United States," he added. Reacting to the Saudi revelation, a federal law enforcement official in Washington said the FBI did not have any information about a US national in custody in Saudi Arabia related to such an incident.
But then, contradicting himself...
The US government originally brought that individual, who was of Saudi origin with an American passport, to the attention of the kingdom's authorities, the US source said on condition of anonymity.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 10/18/2003 00:44 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So Atom Ant wants to take credit for a jugging we provided the arrest info on? What's with all the "stifling"? Did "All In The Family" just go into syndication there?
Posted by: Frank G || 10/18/2003 9:04 Comments || Top||

#2  just what the hell IS a national, anyway. a US citizen ? someone with US papers who is not a citizen ? aaaahhhh jeeez here Edith...will you shuushup.
Posted by: Anonymous || 10/18/2003 10:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Aramco Saudis in favored families (apparently req'd, now; once it was more merit-based) get a "work assignment" of 1 yr (or more) in the US or UK with some Aramco affiliate - oil company or supplier - ostensibly for "training" though they don't really have to do dick cuz Aramco covers salary & expenses. Takes the wifey(ies) along. Strangers in a Normal Land. A full year. Do the math. Boink! Since he pops in the US: instant BS citizenship / passport. End of assignment, they go home and he grows up a TotalFuckingLoonie. Burn him.
Posted by: .com || 10/18/2003 12:13 Comments || Top||

#4  500 in jail without knowledge of their future. The Suadis are honing in on our gig. Does the 500 include any arson survivors?
Posted by: Super Hose || 10/18/2003 12:59 Comments || Top||


Britain
Sponger Hamza is back
HOOK-handed cleric Abu Hamza is back sponging off the taxpayer — living at his old house with his wife. Hamza has been hiding in a secret bolthole while he battles Home Secretary David Blunkett’s decision to revoke his British nationality. But now he has sneaked back to the five-bed West London home where his wife and eight children live on handouts worth £1,000 a week.
"Hey, baby! I', back! Ready to make it nine?"
"Ohh! Abu! You silver tongued devil, you!"
Hamza, 45, dubbed Captain Hook, is shielded by a posse of minders who stop traffic every time he goes out and use a fleet of cars to confuse pursuers.
Wonder who pays for them?
Yesterday he gave an hour-long rant outside his old power base, the now boarded-up Finsbury Park Mosque in North London. He accused British politicians of lying about conflict in the Middle East.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 10/18/2003 17:37 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Telegraph has more detail:

"Police in north London have entered into an agreement with Hamza to block off a road and allow him to preach to his followers in the street every Friday."
This is blatently illegal.

"Each week at least 12 officers are on duty outside Finsbury Park mosque, which has been closed and boarded up since a police raid in January, as Hamza preaches and prays. The cost of policing is set to rise steeply because Hamza's citizenship hearing before the Special Immigration Appeals Commission has been delayed until next April, 12 months after Mr Blunkett announced he was taking action. The delay has occurred despite the fact that Hamza is the only person facing proceedings under the legislation whereby people can be stripped of their citizenship for behaviour "seriously prejudicial" to British interests."
He's a suspected threat to the nation, sufficient to warrant legistation being drawn up to deal with him, and he's not even under lock and key?! This is madness.

"Yesterday more than 150 people gathered to hear the Egyptian-born cleric describe Israel as a criminal state, attack the media as Zionist and denounce Western politicians as corrupt homosexuals. As Hamza arrived in his C-registered Mercedes around 1pm, officers closed St Thomas's Road to traffic using barriers and police tape. Police then assisted Hamza's followers, some masked, in stewarding the meeting by keeping photographers and cameramen behind the barricade. The offence of obstructing the highway was ignored and there was no police interpreter present as he began preaching in Arabic."
He should be banged up for obstructing the highway, not given a police bodyguard.

I'm not in favour of censorship, as a rule. But it's beyond a joke having the hook-handed cleric's ravings subsidised with taxpayers' money, especially given the pending assessment of his citizenship, and status as "seriously prejudicial" to British interests. Time to send him back to Egypt.
Posted by: Bulldog || 10/18/2003 19:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Wish I were still in England. Had some friends in one of the local villages in Northamptonshire that would have gladly helped out in a modest extradition effort. Hay hook, firmly implanted under the chin, short length of rope (about ten feet), attached to the nose gear of a C-5 out of Mildenhall. Get about halfway over the Atlantic, and "splash". No body, no remains, no problem.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 10/18/2003 20:12 Comments || Top||

#3  WTF???? why isn't he dead or a catcher in prison?
Posted by: Frank G || 10/18/2003 21:16 Comments || Top||


Europe
France warns against Iran action, says military intervention would be ridiculous
The US pursuit of forcible regime change is not a viable or safe policy in the dangerous world that exists after September 11, the French foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin who is alleged to be a man, said in an interview with the Guardian.
So far we’re 2 for 2.
In a wide-ranging critique of US policy in the Middle East and beyond, Mr De Villepin said that any military action against Iran over its alleged nuclear weapons would be "absolutely ridiculous".
Which is why, Sparky, we haven’t done that so far.
He also said that, in spite of Thursday’s UN security council resolution giving the US-British force in Iraq a mandate, "the conditions for real progress on the reconstruction of Iraq are not complied with today... Reconstruction has to have a partner, you have to have real sovereignty in Iraq if you want to have the Iraqi people working with you."
We seem to be managing so far.
Mr De Villepin declined to commit France to providing reconstruction assistance at next week’s donors’ conference in Madrid, in spite of urgings to do so from Washington.
Because they’re broke. Their deficit violates the EU guidelines for the 3rd year in a row. They don’t have it.
While emphasising France’s desire to patch up relations with the US and to work with it on a range of international issues, the foreign minister also questioned Israel’s US-backed security policies. He said Europe should play a vital role in advancing the peace process, not least because of Europe’s close trade and aid links with Paleostinian terrorists and boom-boys both sides. "I think that Israeli policy during the past months and years shows clearly that if you are going to imagine that only through security you are going to find solutions, you are mistaken...
The problem isn’t that force has been tried and found to have failed. It’s that force hasn’t been tried. The Israelis need to reach out and touch the Paleo leaders.
"We think that using force, on the contrary, is going to... give new reasons to some people [like al-Qaida] to oppose you us." Mr De Villepin sketched out a French vision of a radically different approach to foreign policy in which differences of culture, society and religion should be weighed alongside questions of security. "Regime change can not be a policy on its own in today’s world," he said. "You have to be respectful of sovereignty.
"Unless you’re dealing with a former colony."
"Of course, there are very difficult situations when human rights are concerned... we have known that in Kosovo and Rwanda and Bosnia and Ivory Coast and Senegal and .... So in rare situations, we have to address these kinds of problems by military means. But you have to have the support of the international community... If there is one country that imagines it can solve this matter alone, we are going to see more vengeance, more difficulties, more problems, and the world is going to be more unstable."
He makes this up as he goes along, doesn’t he?
After his visit, it was announced that Mr De Villepin and Mr Straw and the German foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, are to visit Tehran on Monday to try to defuse the nuclear arms row. To the annoyance of the Bush administration, Britain, France and Germany have offered to supply civilian nuclear technology to Iran in return for its abandoning any ambition to seek nuclear weapons capability.
We’re annoyed because we learned from North Korea that you can’t trust thugs who promise to stop their nuclear programs in exchange for ’civilian nuclear technology’. And youse guys weren’t paying attention.
Posted by: Steve White || 10/18/2003 11:37:36 AM || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Everything here indicates taking the appeasement approach to new and dizzying heights. What a load.

Hmmm... So we have the PM's in a 69 and now the FM's in a menage a trois? WTF comes next? A daisy-chain of deefense?

This really is getting out of hand. And I gave Straw credit for better taste. Sheesh.
Posted by: .com || 10/18/2003 12:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Jeepers... why is it that everything out of this Frog's mouth sounds like nonsensical claptrap? Is it the French language that jumbles up his thought processes so what comes out is a kind of "idea salad", or is he just stupid? Or is this a result of a profound moral bankruptcy permeating all of French culture?

Inquiring minds want to know...

Posted by: Dave D. || 10/18/2003 14:07 Comments || Top||

#3  We’re annoyed because we learned from North Korea that you can’t trust thugs who promise to stop their nuclear programs in exchange for ’civilian nuclear technology’. And youse guys weren’t paying attention.

Why would you expect France and Germany to care about this? If their dealings result in a mess in Iran, they sure as hell aren't going to bother cleaning it up, and would probably not be in any position to do so anyway.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 10/18/2003 14:23 Comments || Top||

#4  Hey, don't be too rough on the French. Le Pin serves a very useful function as the devil's advocate, when no rational person in most any other government wants to be embarrased to put forth such insane, self defeating, and self destructive plans for action.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/18/2003 14:25 Comments || Top||

#5  Can you believe this? The french make me want to puke... seriously they are despicable. They just announced to the world and specifically Iran that they don't have to listen to the UN and allow inspections of their nuclear program because the UN demands will not be backed by force if france has any say. They just made the world more dangerous yet again just by opening their ignorant mouths. Can we get these morons off the security council ASAP? Every day I despise the French more and more... I just don't know if they are completely stupid, completely immoral or some mix of both...
Posted by: Damn_Proud_American || 10/18/2003 15:45 Comments || Top||

#6  If you hate the Frogs like I do:
www.fuckfrance.com
Posted by: Greg || 10/18/2003 17:43 Comments || Top||

#7  Didn't we attempt 'appeasement' with Hitler back in the 30's. Didn't France learn back then that appeasement does not work with these people?

At least Germany should remember it dammit!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 10/18/2003 23:09 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Kashmir 'militants' killed after siege
Guess that makes it 90,002 martyrs...
Two suspected Islamic militants have been shot dead in Indian-administered Kashmir after a raid on the home of the chief minister. Indian security forces killed them both after storming a Srinagar shopping complex where they were holed up. The centre had been surrounded by police after Friday's attack. Ten people trapped inside the four-storey Al Jan complex were rescued. The BBC's Altaf Hussein in Srinagar says it is the first time the Indian authorities have carried out such an operation without blowing up the occupied building.
Sometimes you've got to do that, sometimes you don't...
The abortive attack on the home of chief minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed is the most serious incident since an upsurge in separatist violence in Kashmir over the past two months. Two soldiers were killed and a number of civilians injured - including two press photographers - when militants threw grenades near Mr Sayeed's house and soldiers and security guards fired back.
Since this is Kashmir, the grenades prob'ly missed the soldiers and killed the civs. The best part:
Three different militant groups - Al Nasirin, Farzandan-e-Milat and Al Mansurian - said they carried out the raid.
"We each contributed two-thirds of a guy..."
A spokesman for Al Mansurian, Abu Shakir, told a local news agency: "Our target was [the] chief minister's residence, but the two gunmen who launched the attack stormed the wrong building."
"Mahmoud! You're holding the map upside down!"
However, Indian Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani accused the well-known Pakistan-based militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, of being responsible. Referring to Pakistan, he added: "The attack shows that our neighbour's attitude hasn't changed yet."
Haven't seen any of the three groups before, so they're probably a false nose and moustache for Lashkar e-Taiba...
Islamabad responded by denying any involvement in the attack.
"No, no! Certainly not!"
"There is no truth in Advani's allegations. We have nothing to do with the violence in Kashmir," said Pakistan's information minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed.
"Lies! All lies!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 10/18/2003 17:26 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Musharraf not the boss, I am: Jamali
ANI Islamabad, October 18
      Pakistan Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali has said it is he who is in charge of Pakistan and not President Pervez Musharraf. "I am running the country as per the Constitution, not the president," Jamali said in an interview that was published in the Khaleej Times. Jamali said he, Musharraf, the National Assembly and the Senate were acting in unison. Denying that Pakistan’s opposition parties were being victimised, he said: "There is no harassment as there was in the past."  About the possibility of the government entering into a deal with Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) over the Legal Framework Order (LFO), he said: "Politics is a dialogue. Either they convince me, or I convince them."
"Or we'll try to have each other killed..."
He said he had stated in Parliament that former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was corrupt. On Kashmir, he insisted that all Pakistani citizens, including armed forces personnel, wanted an amicable settlement of the dispute with India.
And there you have it.
Posted by: .com || 10/18/2003 2:15:43 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "I am also better looking than Musharraf - the constitution says so"
Posted by: Frank G || 10/18/2003 17:24 Comments || Top||


Violence erupts in Indian temple town
Simmering tensions erupted into violence yesterday in the northern Indian town of Ayodhya. Police reacted to prevent Hindu activists from staging a mass rally on the ruins of a razed mosque at a disputed holy site. They fired rubber bullets and tear gas at a mob of Hindu extremists attempting to break a security cordon, an AFP correspondent witnessed. Activists of the right-wing Hindu nationalist organisation Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP, or World Hindu Council) had been gathering here in defiance of a ban, to participate in a rally on the disputed ruins of the destroyed 16th century Babri mosque. Trouble began soon after a trainload of about 1,000 activists arrived in Ayodhya yesterday morning.
bussing in the protestors, huh?
They were taken by police to the Karsewakpuram, an open complex used for meetings, for an ’organised arrest’.
1000? - must’ve been like herding cats
However, as police began making arrests, the activists attacked them with iron rods and stones. The activists then locked themselves behind the iron gates of the complex and climbed on the roof of a building from where they began throwing stones at the police. The trouble subsided after about an hour with the arrest of top VHP Hindu leader Ashok Singhal and several of his followers.
Jugtime!
’Five rounds of rubber bullets were fired in the air,’ said Inspector-General of Police V.K. Rai, who was slightly injured in the stone-pelting. There were no immediate details of other casualties. After the arrests, the activists were taken away in buses to various jails and the Karsewakpuram complex was vacated.

About 1.5km away from the site of the ruins, a group of about 20 Hindu militants burnt an effigy of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. They shouted slogans demanding that the Prime Minister hand over the site of the destroyed mosque to them so a temple can be built. Ayodhya was flooded with about 10,000 security personnel who were on duty to prevent the rally, which was banned by a court order. Hindus claim the mosque was built by a Muslim king after demolishing a temple to their god Ram. They have, for decades, been demanding the site be given to them for temple ’reconstruction’.

The 1992 demolition sparked nationwide riots in which about 2,000 people were killed. After the demolition, the Hindus erected a makeshift temple before a court ordered that the status quo be maintained - essentially preventing both Hindus and Muslims from taking over the site. Since the court order, Hindus have been allowed to visit the temple only in small groups, while no public meeting or slogan-shouting is allowed anywhere near the site as its future is being decided by the courts. ’In no way will we allow them to hold the meeting,’ district magistrate J.P. Sharma told AFP. ’They will also not be allowed to (shout slogans). If they do, we will arrest them.’ In the past few days, police in Uttar Pradesh have arrested about 20,000 Hindu activists to prevent them from reaching Ayodhya to attend the rally. In response to the restriction and the security clampdown on its activists, the VHP has called on its supporters to block roads and railway tracks across Uttar Pradesh state, where Ayodhya is located. -- AFP
Not all loonies are Pakis
Posted by: Frank G || 10/18/2003 11:20:28 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I dunno, I kinda like the Hindu faithful. They aren't trying to destroy all infidels or anything. The Muslims have a habit of building a Mosque on top of any other faith's temple that they can. The Hindus are just trying to take one back. I hope they succeed, and I'd like to see similar action to recaim the Temple Mount in Jerusalem from the scum-sucking Muslim Waqf. I mean, just look at what the effin' Muslims did to Joseph's Tomb, they're perfectly happy to destroy anything that's not a Mosque - I say turnabout is fair play, and these Hindus have my full support!
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 10/18/2003 14:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Don't forget the Hagia Sophia. Granted, it's not a mosque anymore, but it should be a church again.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 10/18/2003 14:18 Comments || Top||

#3  The Hindu extremists are on record about being against all relgions and have killed and threaten personnel from christian to Sikh organizations
Posted by: Anonymous || 10/18/2003 16:23 Comments || Top||

#4  "Granted, it's not a mosque anymore, but it should be a church again."

Should it? I don't find much of a reason for it to be so, anymore than I think that the Parthenon should have the function of a temple to the goddess Athena, rather than a historical site...

The historical value of Hagia Sophia seems to me atleast as great as the religious value -- I'm quite satisfied with it being just a museum.

Then again I don't consider myself a Christian but an agnostic rather -- and Christians may have a different perspective on this...
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 10/18/2003 19:20 Comments || Top||

#5  I'm not a Christian, either, but it's time for the Muslims to get a thumb in their eye.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 10/18/2003 20:17 Comments || Top||


Saudi-Pak Ties Based on Shared Values
Boilerplate to go with Prince Abdullah's visit to Pakland. I guess they don't realize how ominous that sounds...
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have traditionally enjoyed very close relations. Religious affinity and historical ties have led to understanding on almost all regional and international issues. The relationship is based on mutual trust and confidence and draws its strength from a common cultural heritage and shared values.
The Paks fawn on the Arab master race. It's good for the ego...
Since its foundation in 1947, Pakistan has established a strong sense of community with the Islamic countries of the Middle East, especially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as a fundamental principle of its foreign policy. These close brotherly ties have been further strengthened by mutual feelings of Islamic brotherhood and concern for the well-being of the Islamic Ummah. The close cooperation between the two countries is also evidenced in the support Riyadh and Islamabad extend to each other in international forums such as the United Nations, the Organization of the Islamic Conference and others.
Yep. Two players on the same team. Soddy Arabia provides the money and the head cheeses, Pakland provides the muscle and some of the middle management...
Saudi Arabia has provided and continues to provide considerable economic and financial assistance, which has played an important role in the economic development of Pakistan. The brotherly relations have been marked by regular exchanges of high-level visits between the two countries, the most recent being that of the president of Pakistan to the Kingdom in June 2003 and the current visit of the crown prince to Pakistan. The visit of the crown prince will give the two leaders an opportunity to discuss not only the current situation in South Asia but also recent developments in the Middle East, the Gulf region and Afghanistan besides reinforcing Pakistan’s bilateral relations with Saudi Arabia in all fields.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 10/18/2003 10:01 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Pakistan body ’may be al-Qaeda man’
Okay, so Khadr might have gotten away, but at least someone else might have been taken out.
18 suspected militants were held in the tribal areas operation
American and Pakistani security officials are investigating whether one of eight suspected al-Qaeda men killed during a military operation in Pakistan’s tribal region of Waziristan this month is a key terror suspect. Habis Abdullah al-Saoub, also known as "Samarkand", is an American national of Jordanian origin and is wanted by the FBI on charges of aiding or assisting al-Qaeda. The FBI believes he left the United States in October 2001 to join the jihad, or holy war, in Afghanistan. Reward money of up to $5m has been put up for information leading to his arrest. Samarkand should not be difficult to identify - the FBI’s internet site says he has a three- to five-inch vertical scar on his lower back and a piece of flesh from one of his earlobes is missing.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 10/18/2003 5:20:31 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  and a piece of flesh from one of his earlobes is missing.

Did he fight Mike Tyson while in the States?
Posted by: Raj || 10/18/2003 19:19 Comments || Top||


Nuggets from the Urdu press
America faked 9/11
Writing in daily Insaf, Dr Shahid Masood who does a news commentary on ARY TV channel said that there was increasing evidence that America actually manipulated the 9/11 incidents to initiate a new policy towards the Islamic world. He said there was not enough proof that the third hijacked plane was actually brought down by a tussle in the plane and not by the American fighter planes flying alongside the aircraft. He said there were only two Israelis in the World Trade Center buildings at the time the hijacked aircraft struck them.
Cheeze. Now we're down to two. Yesterday it was 60...

Take Bangladesh back!
Quoted by daily Pakistan, senior editor Majeed Nizami said that the army should retake Bangladesh and liberate Kashmir instead of conquering its own country. He said a presidential system would not work in Pakistan. If it was tried then the provinces would break up. Kalabagh Dam should be built without taking the consent of the provinces. There was no need to consult them because if it was not built people would die of thirst in Pakistan. He said Pakistan was incomplete without Kashmir. He added that Pakistan could not become the country the Quaid-e-Azam had dreamed of.
Good idea. Unleash the army, by Gawd!... Uhhh... By the way: How did Pakland come to lose Bangla?

Sheikh Rashid is politically dead
Quoted in Nawa-e-Waqt, Hafiz Hussain Ahmad of JUI said that information minister Sheikh Rashid was politically dead and would not survive four takbeers. He said some politicians changed bosses and fathers frequently. PML(N) leader Makhdoom Javed Hashmi said that corps commanders had asked for a full-time army chief last year. He said soon a repeat of what happened to Junejo will happen. In Khabrain chief minister NWFP Durrani answering Sheikh Rashid said that his government was not dead in two nafals. If governments could be toppled by clowns then provinces would be run only by clowns. He said the province will enforce namaz and will equally enforce fasting.
Maybe he's not really politically dead. Maybe he just politically smells funny?

Ideology Council recommends death and mutilation
According to Nawa-e-Waqt, Council for Islamic Ideology recommended that under Sura Maida of the Quran all citizens should be allowed to seek punishment for rebellion against the state. Sura Maida gives death, crucifixion, exile and mutilation (hand or one foot and one hand). Article 6 of the Constitution gives death or life imprisonment to those who abolish the Constitution.
"Yessir, that's zackly what we need! More death and mutilation!"

Lack of entertainment
According to daily Pakistan chief justice of the Lahore High Court while hearing the appeal of filmstars Shahzadi and Madiha to drop charges of fahashi (obscenity) said that Pakistan had no means of public entertainment and more curtailment of it was not possible. Meanwhile a sessions judge in Lahore issued arrest warrants of film stars Saima, Nargis, Reema and Naseebo for recording a song in rain. He even called members of the censor board who had passed the film in which the dance in the rain was featured.
"Hey! You can't dance in the rain! That's un-Islamic! Come to think of it, dancing anywhere's un-Islamic. Bailiff! Kill or mutilate them!"

Lashkar Jhangvi terrorists let off
According to Khabrain, a Multan terrorist court headed by judge Abdul Qadir Shah acquitted a number of Lashkar e-Jhangvi terrorists and their notorious leader Malik Ishaq because there was no convincing proof against them. The terrorists were charged with shooting and killing two Shiites near the clock tower in Faisalabad in 1997.
Shucks, we reported that a month ago...

Against Abdus Sattar Edhi
Daily Pakistan published reactions of various leaders to a statement earlier made by Pakistan’s greatest philanthropist, Abdus Sattar Edhi. PML(N) Ghulam Dastgir Khan from Gujranwala said that Edhi’s proposal that Pakistan should sign the CTBT proved that he was a crazy man who had become rich from giving bath to corpses. He said that Edhi was working for foreign agencies against Pakistan. He said the crores [hundreds of thousands] Edhi lost through his runaway second wife belonged to the nation and were not Edhi’s. MMA leader in Gujranwala Hazarvi said that Edhi by recommending signatures on the CTBT was a mad man working for the Jews. He said Edhi’s remarks against Mullah Omar were most unjust. Mullah Omar was a great soldier of Islam who lost one eye in jihad. He said Osama bin Laden too was a soldier of Islam.
I don't know who Abdus Sattar Edhi is, but I think I like him...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 10/18/2003 02:11 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Retake Bangladesh? Why? It's all of two inches above sea level, everyone in the country hates the Urdu speakers, and it is just about the poorest place on earth.

Singing in the rain=good. Dancing in the rain=bad.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 10/18/2003 7:39 Comments || Top||

#2  would not survive four takbeers

What's a takbeer?
Posted by: Shipman || 10/18/2003 9:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Sounds like a draft - possibly a yard? ;-)
Posted by: Frank G || 10/18/2003 9:10 Comments || Top||

#4  Majeed Nizami said that the army should retake Bangladesh ...

How exactly will the army get from Pakland to Bangladesh -- as tourists? I can see it now:

"We would like to apply for visas, please."
"Visas? What's your purpose?"
"Um, ... tourism. Yes, that's it. We wish to see the many holy sites in the far east of your country."
"I see ... that's a mightly large stack of visa applications you have there."
"We're very pious. Can't you tell by our large numbers of rifles turbans?"
"I can imagine. Visas denied. Next!"
Posted by: Steve White || 10/18/2003 11:25 Comments || Top||

#5  Osama ever stood very far of the Russians and
his "fighting" consisted in handing money to jihadis but in Pakistan. His crossings of the border were rare, short and shallow. He deserves the title of great coward of Islam.
Posted by: JFM || 10/18/2003 11:26 Comments || Top||

#6  Take back Bangladesh and for a free bonus, you get all the arsenic you can want in the well water.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/18/2003 14:31 Comments || Top||


‘Pakistan must dispel negative image’
Boy, that's easier said than done...
German Ambassador to Pakistan Dr Christoph Brummer said on Friday Pakistan could improve its international image by removing doubts about nuclear proliferation, resolving its disputes with India, and strengthening democracy.
Shooting Hafiz Saeed would be a big step in the right direction...
In a speech on ‘Europe, Germany and Pakistan’ arranged by Government College University’s Political Science Department, Dr Brummer said Pakistan should move closer to India by solving the smaller problems before moving onto the major ones, such as Kashmir. Dr Brummer said there are certain perceptions of Pakistan in the world, especially European, that hinder closer ties. “They feel many sources of instability, such as infiltration in Kashmir, a hampered democracy, meaning the functioning of democratic institutions and debate on the Legal Framework Order. There are doubts about nuclear proliferation and human rights issues such as sectarian violence, drug abuse and women’s rights. These are deeply concerning.”
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 10/18/2003 01:13 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  oh so many things come to mind - I'm overwhelmed...
Posted by: Frank G || 10/18/2003 1:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Ambassador Brummer added:
To further help improve Pakistan's image, we must shut down Rantburg and that guy Paul Maloney. Can't have people reading about what Pakistanis actually discuss among themselves.
Posted by: Tokyo Taro || 10/18/2003 3:54 Comments || Top||

#3  Regards Pakiland's problems, both internal and external, a solution exists that just cries out to be recognized. I consider it a true test of leadership and humanitarianism.

Using a tidbit from Dennis Miller's rant against pedophiles in which he says that anyone who feels they might harm a child should "lean into the strike zone and take one for the team" - I could suggest that Pakistan could use all of their expertise and develop a plan whereby, with proper placement and population management, they could blow themselves up without harming anyone else. Waiting for a weather pattern with sufficient days of calm would be the catch, I think.

This would do nicely. Perv, Pls impl ASAP. Thx.
Posted by: .com || 10/18/2003 5:22 Comments || Top||

#4  Drying up the money for looney's program would be a good start.........
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/18/2003 14:33 Comments || Top||

#5  ‘Pakistan must dispel negative image’

Taking care of Islamic radicals - clergy and follower alike - would be a start.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 10/18/2003 17:11 Comments || Top||


‘Mujahideen have right to cross LoC’
The latest rant from Hafiz Saeed...
The mujahideen have a right to cross the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir to fight a jihad against Indian forces, Professor Hafiz Saeed said at the close of a three-day Jamaat ud-Dawa congregation on Friday. “This cannot be called infiltration because Kashmir is the jugular vein of Pakistan and fighting for freedom is not a sin,” Mr Saeed said in a fiery speech to a large gathering at the Markaz Yarmok here. “We deduce our military and jihad planning from the Holy Quran and one day the Almighty will give us Khilafah and the government.”
"Someday I'll have a jewelled turban... and dancing girls... and a Grand Vizir..."
He said if President General Pervez Musharraf wanted to end the political deadlock brought about by the Legal Framework Order (LFO), he should suspend the constitution and declare the Quran the supreme law of Pakistan. “Moreover, military training should be declared compulsory for every child of five years and above so we are able to combat the infidels and establish the rule of the Quran,” he said. “We will never let Hindus to construct a temple to Ram in Ayodhya. The Muslims of India will reconstruct the Babri Mosque instead.” He predicted that India would soon crumble and “each of its parts will become a Pakistan”.
That's what he and Qazi are working toward...
He admitted that JD activists were fighting in India and other parts of the world. “Jihad is our obligation and we will sacrifice everything for it. We are not just fighting in Kashmir, but also in Afghanistan, Iraq and Chechnya,” the Jamaat ud-Dawa chief said.
"No, no! Certainly not!" Mr. Minister of Information sez...
Mr Saeed urged the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to fight a jihad “in defence” of Islam. “If it does not wage jihad, it is useless for Muslims and Islam. The OIC should establish a united force with Pakistan as its nucleus and introduce a joint currency,” he added.
Yep. Any time now...
However, he was against jihad within Pakistan. “Those who associate us with jihad in Pakistan are agents of Satan. We have directed our Mujahideen not to use weapons against any Muslim in Pakistan,” he said.
"Of course, our definition of a who's a Muslim is pretty tight..."
More than a hundred thousand people including women and young children attended the Jamaat ud Dawa congregation to hear their chief speak. Some of the veiled women attended Friday prayers carrying their infants. JD activists armed with clubs maintained security in and outside the congregation, while young men armed with Kalashnikovs and other guns kept a lookout on temporarily erected posts in the centre. Hundreds of banners, many urging people to take up arms in jihad, were hung up. In front of each camp was a box asking for donations to fund jihad and for the families of those killed fighting it. At the end of the congregation, JD leaders made repeated announcements asking for contributions.
Mr. Minister of Information sez this doesn't happen, either...
Mr Saeed was scheduled to meet journalist at the end of the congregation, but cancelled the meeting without explaining why. Former Inter-Services Intelligence chief General (r) Hamid Gul and others attended the congregation on Friday and met Mr Saeed.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 10/18/2003 01:10 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In previous years the Lashkar conference also hosted Jihadis from across the Muslim world, one time a Pakistani veteran of Kashmir showed up with the head of an Indian soldier. I wonder if Lashkar's Arab buddies decided to stay home this year?
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 10/18/2003 2:58 Comments || Top||

#2  "Someday I'll have a jewelled turban... and dancing girls... and a Grand Vizir..."

Grand Vizir another good name for an SUV.
Posted by: Shipman || 10/18/2003 9:13 Comments || Top||

#3  Grand Vizir another good name for an SUV.

The only model of the Chrysler Grand Vizir available in Pakland has leather seats. Pig leather seats. Wotta smooth ride!
Posted by: Steve White || 10/18/2003 11:27 Comments || Top||

#4  "...repeated announcements asking for contributions."

"These nice young men with their AK's will be passing the collection plate."
Posted by: PBMcL || 10/18/2003 16:47 Comments || Top||


‘Osama’s aide escaped after Waziristan raid’
A top associate of Osama bin Laden escaped a major army sweep earlier this month along the border with Afghanistan, but some cannon fodder low-level Al Qaeda operatives were killed and captured in the raid, intelligence officials Friday. Three intelligence officials on Friday told The Associated Press the raid was carried out on a tip that Ahmed Said Khadr, an Egyptian-Canadian dual national and suspected Al Qaeda financier, was in the region.
Lucky for him, Mahmoud the Weasel was, too...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 10/18/2003 01:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Waziris agree to surrender 6 men
A major tribe in Shakey area of South Waziristan Agency has agreed to surrender six men wanted for allegedly sheltering Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects.
How about the suspects? Where're they?
Anwar Ali Shah, deputy administrator of South Waziristan Agency, told Daily Times Friday by phone from agency headquarters Wana that the Sperkey tribe, a sub-tribe of Wazir, promised to hand over the wanted men tomorrow (Saturday). “The agreement came after successful negotiations with the tribe,” he added. The sub-tribe’s willingness to hand over the wanted men comes after the administration assured them that the tribesmen would not be handed over to the US.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 10/18/2003 00:57 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So? The Perky tribe that hangs around Shakees? Do they get a discount off meals? Are they related to the Bugtits?
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 10/18/2003 7:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Is Katie Couric from the Sperkey tribe? Shakey's used to run a pizza chain out here. These guys get around
Posted by: Frank G || 10/18/2003 9:16 Comments || Top||


Two killed in attack near CM’s house in Kashmir
Militants opened fire near the residence of Held Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohommad Sayeed and detonated two explosions Friday, killing two paramilitary soldiers, before fleeing into a shopping centre and battling with security forces. Three soldiers and four civilians were wounded in the blasts near the home of Mufti Sayeed, who was not home at the time of the attack. Nine soldiers and police were injured hours later in battles against the militants who hurled grenades and fired guns from within the Ali Jan shopping complex.
Well, that sounds like a legitimate military target...
Soldiers and police in combat gear stormed the building after seven hours and fought their way to the fourth floor where they evacuated seven trapped students using a rope ladder. Soldiers evacuated nine shopkeepers while the militants hurled grenades intermittently and fired from different locations, said MA Shah, a senior police official.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 10/18/2003 00:53 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Dutch Marines Find "Suspect Shells" in Iraq
Could be another false alarm (hence all the caveats), God knows we’ve had plenty of those. OTOH, there’s always a chance that this a genuine find.

Dutch marines clearing munitions in the southern al-Muthana province of Iraq have called in British and American weapons inspectors after finding “a few dozen suspect shells”, a Defence Ministry spokesman in the Netherlands said Saturday.

Some 1,100 Dutch marines have been based in the region since August under the British-led stabilisation force.

“We are there clearing unused and old munitions, some dating back to the Gulf war, and found a few dozen shells of which we aren’t 100 per cent sure of the contents,” spokesman Robin Middel said. “We aren’t saying these are chemical weapons, it could be anything,” he said.

The 130-mm artillery shells found October 8th showed “several indications of some kind of chemical reaction”, Middel said. “They could be regular munitions that have become discoloured by the heat and sun.”

Following standard procedures, Dutch marines buried the suspect munitions in air tight bags 1.5 metres (4 feet) underground, Middel said.

British commanders overseeing the Dutch operation have been informed and weapons experts called to conduct inspections.

The Netherlands was not involved in combat operations during the Iraqi war, but gave political support to the United States and provided Turkey with Patriot rocket-defence systems.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 10/18/2003 12:08:54 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


South Korea to Send More Troops to Iraq
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - In a boost for the United States, South Korea pledged Saturday to send more troops to Iraq but did not specify how many or whether they would be combat troops. The decision came two days after the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a U.S.-led resolution aimed at getting more troops and money to help stabilize Iraq and speed its independence.
So the resolution will do some good after all, eh?
``The government will decide on the number, characteristics and timing of the dispatch after considering the U.S. request and public opinion,’’ said Yoon Tae-young, a spokesman for South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun. South Korea’s military’s capacity and other factors would also be taken into account, Yoon said. South Korea sent 675 non-combat troops to Iraq earlier this year.
I think they could spare a brigade, mixed combat and support.
Alongside 130,000 American soldiers, there are currently more than 20,000 troops or security forces in Iraq from 26 nations, most of them organized under two peacekeeping contingents: under the British in the south and under the Poles in central Iraq.

The United States is pressing other nations to contribute forces. South Korea is the second nation after Turkey to announce that it has agreed to do so. But parliament must first approve and some lawmakers oppose deployment. South Korea’s major political parties did not immediately say whether they would go along. ``We will clarify our position after collecting opinion from inside and outside the party,’’ the main opposition Grand National Party said in a statement. The party has 149 seats in the 272-member National Assembly.

South Korea also plans to contribute $200 million over the next four years to help rebuild Iraq, in addition to $60 million in aid this year, Yoon said.

The United States has been asking South Korea to send troops to help restore security. South Korean officials said the United States didn’t specify how many troops it wanted, but cited the Polish-led international division of 9,500 troops as an example for South Korean involvement.
Did someone say, ’brigade’?
``One thing that has been decided is that we will send troops to Iraq,’’ said South Korea’s National Security Adviser Ra Jong-yil. ``Nothing else has been decided.’’
I sense a certain lack of enthusiasm.
South Koreans are divided over sending troops to Iraq. Some believe it would boost Seoul’s military alliance with Washington, which is vital to South Korea’s national security. Some 37,000 U.S. troops are based in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War. Others say the U.S. war in Iraq was unjustified and South Korea shouldn’t send soldiers. The earlier dispatch of non-combat troops set off protests in Seoul. ``We will stop the dispatch at all costs,’’ said Park Suk-min, a spokesman at a coalition of NKor inspired simpletons civic groups opposing the Iraq war. ``We don’t need national interests won by joining an invasion.’’

President Roh has said he fears that if South Korea is distracted by operations in Iraq, North Korea could take measures that would cause a deterioration of the situation on the Korean Peninsula.
This distraction thing is easy to manage. I recall a certain president who talked on the phone with a congressman while getting ... oh, but that’s a different story!
Posted by: Steve White || 10/18/2003 11:46:40 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ok, how 'bout pulling out our troops out of SK to send to Iraq if they don't? It only seems fair.
Posted by: Baltic Blog || 10/18/2003 16:18 Comments || Top||

#2  It looks like we will be pulling some troops out. Link:
Posted by: Doug || 10/18/2003 17:22 Comments || Top||


Leak Halts Iraqi Oil Flow to Turkey
"Dammit, Murat, I said COUNTER-clockwise!"
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - Iraq resumed pumping oil through its northern pipeline to Turkey on Saturday but stopped the flow after about two hours because of technical problems. The brief pumping - the first flow through the pipeline in two months - illustrates the uphill battle Iraq faces in restoring its oil industry, essential for reconstruction in the war-battered nation.

Gurhan Unal, a top official at Turkey’s Ceyhan port, said a leak in the pipeline from the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk stopped the flow before the oil reached Ceyhan, the Anatolia news agency reported. While sabotage has stopped the flow of oil through the 600-mile pipeline in the past, Iraq said technical problems - not sabotage - caused the disruption at around 11 a.m., a Turkish energy ministry official said. Repairs were under way, the Anatolia news agency quoted Unal as saying. A Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the flow could resume as early as Sunday.

Getting the northern pipeline running is crucial to Iraq’s economic recovery; it carries crude from the vast northern fields that provide nearly half of Iraq’s exports to world markets. Though postwar oil sales resumed in June, the supply comes all from the south, amounting to 1 million barrels of oil a day compared to the 2.1 million Iraq pumped before the U.S.-led liberation invasion.

L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civilian administrator for Iraq, has said the country loses $7 million a day when the northern pipeline is not in service.

Earlier this week, an explosion ripped open part of the main pipeline linking the northern oil fields to the al-Doura oil refinery and the Mussayab power plant. That oil was earmarked for domestic use.
I think we need some good ol’ Texas riggers out there kicking butts and making things work.
Posted by: Steve White || 10/18/2003 11:41:52 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Leak Halts Iraqi Oil Flow to Turkey

Hmmm. Why aren't there calls for a Justic Department investigation? It has to be a coverup! Its', it's...............woops, wrong kind of "leak". ;)
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 10/18/2003 14:26 Comments || Top||

#2  I suspect we've got the riggers. Finding enough trustworthy folks to guard 600 miles of pipeline may be a bigger problem.
Posted by: PBMcL || 10/18/2003 17:04 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Myanmar troops capture Karen rebel base
Rats!
In a major offensive, Myanmar government forces have taken an ethnic Karen stronghold near the border with Thailand, leaving about 1,500 people homeless and in hiding, observers in northern Thailand said Friday. The offensive against the 7th Brigade headquarters of the Karen National Liberation Army began last month in Paan district of Karen State, opposite the Thai town of Mae Sot. A Western journalist who visited the scene of the fighting on Wednesday said 80 Karen guerrilla defenders had been holding out against 400 Myanmar government troops besieging the stronghold, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) inside Myanmar. It fell Thursday, but most of the defenders apparently escaped. Mahn Sha, the secretary general of the rebels’ political wing, the Karen National Union, denied any major loss by his forces, saying his guerrillas held no permanent positions in the area. He told The Associated Press by telephone that sporadic fighting has been going on for the past 10 days, after about 3,000 government troops entered the Pa-An area. Mahn Sha claimed 120 government soldiers had been killed in the fighting and Karen casualties numbered only 12 wounded. The claims could not be corroborated and KNU’s reports in the past have sometimes proved to be exaggerated.
Those are pretty lop-sided sounding numbers — I'll admit I hope they're true, though. I admit to liking the Karens. They're a forest tribe, many of them Baptists, believe it or not. The ladies smoke pipes and they're very friendly, nice people. The Burmans — the majority ethnic group in Burma — tend to look down on them, and the junta's been trying to stamp out their autonomy movement for years.

The Shans, their neighboring tribe and occasional allies, are related to the Thais. They're less stable than the Karens, being prone to siezures. You don't want to be around when the fit hits the Shan...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 10/18/2003 01:44 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ***** C O F F E E __ A L E R T *****

"You don't want to be around when the fit hits the Shan... "
And here I was taking you seriously for the first 15 words or so. Shit!

I have wonder if this is anywhere near the incontinent Foo Tribal area.

I'll check the CIA maps, but first I gotta clean up. ;-)
Posted by: .com || 10/18/2003 2:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Burma, Myanmar, another British mess. After the Karen fought bravely for the brits in ww1 and 2 they got nothing in return. They were promised a free homogenous state bu that never happened. Even after all of them changed to christianity.
Posted by: stevestradamus || 10/18/2003 5:23 Comments || Top||

#3  That's right, Stevey. 55 years after Burmese independence, and it's Britain's fault that the Burmese junta are employing 350,000 men in a campaign to crush an army of 5,000 Karen. The Karen did fight with the allies in WWII, when they resisted the Japanese, and Britain shouldn't have reneged on her promise to grant the Karen minority a spearate state upon independence, but things are not necessarily all about what happened a half century ago. I suppose you'll blame the British for the Burmese government's treatment of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi too?
Posted by: Bulldog || 10/18/2003 13:17 Comments || Top||

#4  The Burmese Junta (SLORC) is just like North Korea, but without the nuclear reactors. The Karen just want to be left alone in peace, and I support them. By the way, the Shan that Fred mentioned happen to be among the most beautiful people in the world. Absolutely gorgeous! If you've ever met any, you know what I'm talking about. ;-)
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 10/18/2003 14:33 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
New Tape from Binny en route ...
Arabic satellite television Al Jazeera said on Saturday al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had sent an audio message advising the United States to quit Iraq.

The television has yet to broadcast the audio tape but made a text of it available to the media.

As Drudge would say, developing. We should no more after it’s broadcasted.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 10/18/2003 12:10:57 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  According to the AP release, he's making an appeal to the Bin Laden Youth movement to join the jihad. I hope they wear their little armbands so we can spot them more easily.
Posted by: Dar || 10/18/2003 13:01 Comments || Top||

#2  This is just another recording done before Binny was crushed by falling rocks.
Posted by: Charles || 10/18/2003 13:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Special merit badge offer for bomb packing into a Soap Box Derby car.
Posted by: Super Hose || 10/18/2003 13:23 Comments || Top||

#4  Seems to me to be an al Q recently-squeezed effort. It's playing on the conspiracy theorists' orgasmeme (to coin a phrase) that 9-11 was organised by the US itself (maybe it should have been recorded in French and German, too). From al Jazeera (which unquestioningly attributes the voice to binny):

Aljazeera has broadcast a message from Al-Qaida figurehead Usama bin Ladin advising the United States to leave Iraq, and urging Iraqis to wage holy war on the US "crusaders". In the tape, played on Saturday, the man blamed by the US for organising the September 11, 2001 attacks gave separate messages to listeners in Iraq and in the US.

To the US, he issued a stark warning that his followers would carry out further actions both inside and outside the United States. "We, God willing, will continue to fight you and will continue martyrdom operations inside and outside the United States until you abandon your oppression and foolish acts," he said. To Iraqis, he encouraged resistance against the US-led forces that have ousted former leader Saddam Hussein and taken control of the war-ravaged country. He saluted groups that have carried out attacks on the occupying coalition forces, which include soldiers from Spain, Britain, Poland and Australia, as well as the United States.

He also threatened others such as those Gulf states that allowed their territories to be used as a launchpad for attacks against Iraq, especially Kuwait.
Posted by: Bulldog || 10/18/2003 13:32 Comments || Top||

#5  Oops, misread the transcript. Ignore the stuff I wrote about the US setting up 9-11. [red face]
Posted by: Bulldog || 10/18/2003 13:34 Comments || Top||

#6  Arabic satellite television Al Jazeera said on Saturday al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had sent an audio message..

Sorry boys, but you'll have to do a better job of convincing people that bin Laden is actually ambulatory and up to no good. He's DEAD, and no amount of "audio messages" is going to change that. Produce a genuine video where he references recent events, and that might just do the trick.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 10/18/2003 14:10 Comments || Top||

#7  Produce a genuine video where he references recent events, and that might just do the trick.

The video would have to show him holding a copy of today's New York Times with his GPS coordinates on a sheet of cardboad in front of him.
Posted by: Steve White || 10/18/2003 19:08 Comments || Top||

#8  You say that he's dead, but do you actually have any reason to claim this other than the fact that the videos+tapes aren't unconvincing of his continued existence? This reminds me of people who claimed that Saddam must be DEAD, simply because the tapes in question weren't convincing them that he was alive.

This all seems to boil down to "he's dead because he hasn't given us definite signs he's alive" -- and I'm not at all sure that's a reasonable attitude to take when pursuing a war criminal. It makes it all to easy for him to convince us to stop the search, just by not convincing us that he isn't still alive.

As for me I don't know if he's dead or not. But I think that if he's dead then that's actually worse - because it means that he's tormenting us from beyond the grave, and won't stop tormenting us fora a long while. It means that Al Qaeda has survived his death.

If he's alive on the other hand, then he could one day be killed, his body shown as with Saddam's boys. And perhaps a big part of Al Qaeda would disintegrate because of it.

Hoping he's dead already... eh, what good does that do to anyone? It's like being glad that even killing Osama wasn't a crippling blow for Al Qaeda. Let's hope that he's alive so that when he *is* killed it *will* prove to be a crippling blow.

In short, let's hope he's alive so he may yet be killed.
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 10/18/2003 19:10 Comments || Top||

#9  Aris - most Rantburgers, myself included, are of the opinion that bin Laden's ego is sufficiently large to be unable to avoid such a prolonged news blackout, approaching two years since the battle, as it were, of Tora Bora. That's the gist behind Bomb-a-rama's 'put or shut up' statement.
Posted by: Raj || 10/18/2003 19:50 Comments || Top||

#10  The video would have to show him holding a copy of today's New York Times with his GPS coordinates on a sheet of cardboad in front of him.

Nah, just a reference to recent events, like maybe saying that Saddam's downfall is only a temporary setback and that he'll return, or something to that effect. It doesn't have to be precise.

This all seems to boil down to "he's dead because he hasn't given us definite signs he's alive" -- and I'm not at all sure that's a reasonable attitude to take when pursuing a war criminal.

Given bin Laden's past history, and the sudden change of behavior after the assault on Tora Bora, it's rather difficult to assume that his situation is the same as before. That means he is likely to be incapacitated in some way. (which includes death)

It makes it all to easy for him to convince us to stop the search, just by not convincing us that he isn't still alive.

Even if he were still alive, his organization is being methodically taken apart from underneath him, which is something that needs to be be done whether he's dead or not. Since it can't be established that the guy is still putting around on his own two feet, then might as well devote more resources to going after his underlings, no?

As for me I don't know if he's dead or not. But I think that if he's dead then that's actually worse - because it means that he's tormenting us from beyond the grave, and won't stop tormenting us fora a long while.

All these audio communiques prove is that someone at Al Jazeera sympathizes with bin Laden's cause, and nothing more. You may think of it as torment, but I have a rather thick skin, and these communiques strike me as Madonna-esque; someone whose time has come and gone is still trying to grab a piece of the spotlight.

It means that Al Qaeda has survived his death.

The confirmation of bin Laden's death wouldn't cause the immediate collapse of Al Qaida. But it's going to be hard-pressed to continue as it was without its leader.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 10/18/2003 20:31 Comments || Top||


Kill Americans Whose Blood is 'Like the Blood of a Dog'
More from MEMRI's excerpts from The Voice of Jihad...
The magazine featured an article by Sheikh Nasser Al-Najdi, who wrote: "
Dogs, like other animals, are not assigned [religious] missions and commandments, and [religious prohibitions] are not forbidden them; they were created according to a particular nature, and they do not deviate from their nature. They are different from the infidel, who was created by Allah in order to worship Him and in order to believe in His monotheism, but who denied Him, and took other gods beside Him. Anyone who is satisfied with what is said above concludes that the heresy of that infidel and his rebellion against the religion of Allah requires the permitting of his blood and [sanctions] his humiliation, and that his blood is like the blood of a dog and nothing more.
That's pretty comforting. Who was the goober the other day bitching about us going off to "conquer Muslimdom"? Do y'think, just by chance, that we might have a tiny bit of justification someplace? Why do they hate us? Because we're us.
"What is said above is sufficient to cause the monotheist
 to burn with desire for the blood of the infidel, to slaughter the enemy of Allah, and to cut him up into pieces. This is not strange at all.
Not if you're psychotic, anyway...
"If a believer would not be willing to stand the sight of someone walking on the earth whom he had heard cursing his father or harming his honor, then how much more so when someone curses his God, Whom he loves more than the love he feels for his beloved. How [will he stand it] while Allah permits him [to kill the infidel] and he knows that killing this man, as far as Allah is concerned, is like killing a dog?

Because we're infidel societies, we have all these prohibitions against killing other human beings. If you've got a turban, those prohibitions don't apply, so you're free to chop people up in little pieces because they won't align their thinking to yours. Krazed killers? Homicidal maniacs? Bloodthirsty loons? Certainly not! Just pious Muslims, doing God's will...
"My Jihad-fighting brother, don't you want Paradise? Don't you want to protect yourself from Hell?
 Kill the polytheist, kill the one whose blood is like the blood of a dog, kill the one whom Allah ordered you to kill and whom the Prophet of Allah [Muhammad] incited you against. Have you not seen him, whose blood is like the blood of a dog, cursing your religion and taking your sister captive? Have you not seen him, whose blood is like the blood of a dog, occupying the lands of the Muslims, controlling the land of the two holy places, and leading colonialism in Mecca and Al-Madina? The one whose blood is like the blood of a dog that ignored all the nations of the world and chose the Muslims, to make them weep and make the world laugh at them. The one whose blood is like the blood of a dog has introduced his treacherous agents to [rule] over the loyal faithful clerics

Important safety tip: Never laugh at a lunatic, no matter how ridiculous he sounds. He'll chop you into little pieces if he gets the chance...
"Bush, the son of Bush, is a dog and the son of a dog; his blood is the blood of a dog; his bark is the bark of a dog; and he has all the traits of a dog except for loyalty. Thus, he is a hyena
 [Saudi Interior Minister] Nayef Ibn Abd-Al-Aziz may Allah fight him, has no brains, honor, shame, religion, manhood, morality, or credibility
"
"He's ugly, he has bad breath, his feet are flat, and his mother wears combat boots..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 10/18/2003 00:36 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sheikh Al-'Ayyiri managed the Al-Qa'ida website until he was killed by Saudi security forces in June 2003. His biography says that he served as Osama bin Laden's personal bodyguard in Afghanistan and then in Sudan until he returned to Saudi Arabia and was arrested following the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing. Sheikh Al-'Ayyiri was close to Khattab, and after he was released from the Saudi prison he wrote several essays for the "Voice of the Caucasus" website, among them "A Guide to the Perplexed on the Captives," "Martyrdom Operations: Suicide or Shahada?"

Those exact same articles used to be displayed on the Islamic Youth Movement's Australianwebsite

That's the same group whose leader has been accused of being an Australian member of al-Qaeda, he has denied everything, of course.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 10/18/2003 3:05 Comments || Top||

#2  I wondered if I'd ever find common ground with any Jihadi - and to my amazement I have: we both revile Prince Nayef. Both asinine and friendless, Nayef has managed the impossible.

Al Najdi's commentary and logic is certainly sufficient to help convince the fence-sitters - who can read.

Question: Is there a reliable source of translated Arabic press / websites other than MEMRI which doesn't mince words?

I have some people I would like to get this sort of info to for their consideration, but somewhere along the way they've allowed themselves to be convinced that MEMRI is unreliable. So, any unapologetic alternative(s) I can check out??? The remarkable lack of available and reliable Arabic translation combined with the duplicitous nature of Arab politicians and Jihadis makes this problematic.
Posted by: .com || 10/18/2003 5:12 Comments || Top||

#3  Woof. Woof. I'm starting to think Islam is a house of cards and if we just vaporized Mecca and Medina the whole scheme would collapse. Such an event just might get these fatalistic, flea-bitten varmints thinking about how Allah could allow such a thing.
Posted by: Ned || 10/18/2003 5:31 Comments || Top||

#4  This suggests a new marching cadence for our armed forces:

Who let the dogs out?
Woof woof woof woof
Who let the dogs out?
Woof woof woof woof
Posted by: Mike || 10/18/2003 7:18 Comments || Top||

#5  Dogs are thousands of times smarter, more loyal, and more moral than any jihadi.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 10/18/2003 12:58 Comments || Top||

#6  Pigs are about twice as bright as dogs, and a good Chinese Red can weigh in at 700 pounds. I think the US should SERIOUSLY think of training a couple of thousand Chinese Red pigs as security animals for use in the Middle East. Can't you just picture the first Jihadi that gets blindsided by one of these big porkers, then grabbed by the family jewels in a ten-inch set of VERY strong jaws? What's he gonna do, eh? Shoot the pig, and have the teeth clamp down permanently? Slowly lie there and hope the pig's handler shows up RIGHT AWAY?

Not only that, but if any are killed in the line of duty, you can have a teriffic Hawaiian luau...
Posted by: Old Patriot || 10/18/2003 20:50 Comments || Top||


"The Voice of Jihad"
From MEMRI. There's enough in this one article to mine for months...
Supporters of the Al-Qaida organization in Saudi Arabia launched a new on-line magazine, "The Voice of Jihad." The magazine was described as a "bimonthly dealing with Jihad and the Mujahideen in the Arabian Peninsula."
Why is Jihad Necessary in Saudi Arabia? - An Editorial
The editorial of the first issue of "The Voice of Jihad" was penned by "Jihad warrior Suleiman Al-Dosari," who wrote: "A tremendous obligation has been entrusted upon us – Jihad for the sake of Allah
 Allah has imposed the obligation of Jihad in [several] cases, all of which exist in this generation: starting from repelling the aggression of the infidels, through fighting the apostates, supporting the oppressed, and liberating captives and prisoners. It includes voluntary Jihad, [that is] fighting the infidels so that they will pay the Jizya [poll tax paid by non-Muslims living under Muslim rule], with humiliation, into the hands of [the Muslim rulers]. All these are commandments that apply to every Muslim individually, or obligations that apply collectively. But as long as they are not carried out by a large enough number of Muslims, they are commandments that apply individually

"Pay your dhimmi tax like good little infidels and maybe we'll let you alone, unless we feel like slapping you around or taking your women..."
"One of the greatest places in which Jihad is a commandment applying to each Muslim individually is the land of the two holy places [i.e. the Arabian Peninsula]. In this land there is the occupying Crusader enemy who steals the land's treasures, determines its policy, and sets out from it to make war on the Muslims.
Other than oil and camels, Arabia doesn't have much to steal, except for sand. Seems like we pay for oil. The rest of it's a pretty generic bitch. For all their aversion to swine, you can't beat an Islamist when it comes to hogwash.
It also has an apostate agent government, and it implements the plans of colonialism, supports the infidels, and rules by a law that is not the law of Allah

The Soddies just aren't Islamic enough, no matter how many heads they lop off...
Its prisons hold the oppressed who are subjected to insufferable tortures, and in it there are aggression and curses against Allah, insult to the religion, and contempt for the believers, [and all this] under the protection and patronage of the family of Saud, whose members simultaneously silence the reformists [the opponents of the regime demanding 'reform' towards a more fundamentalist state] as well as those who call for virtue, and jail those who call on them to impose the law of Allah.
The will of Allah, of course, involves imposing Islam on the known universe...
"It is amazing that many Jihad youths turn to other arenas and abandon this great arena and the [mission of the] liberation of the pure land [namely Saudi Arabia] from the defilement of the Crusaders and their lackeys, even though this land is the worthy land for Jihad that requires purification and liberation more than any other land. There are many reasons for this [amazing phenomenon], among them
 the cruel attack led by those who abandoned [the Jihad movement] who tremble in fear [the clerics who support the Saudi regime] and who find nothing wrong with their land being occupied by American female soldiers
"
Babes. They just can't stand the idea of troops with bosoms. They're afraid one of them might beat them up.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 10/18/2003 00:23 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Babes. They just can't stand the idea of troops with bosoms. They're afraid one of them might beat them up."

LOL! Oh man, that really brings back a funny memory... one of the first things I heard after arriving in Saudi Arabia right after Gulf War I was this:
http://www.amble.com/the_mp_urban_legend.htm

As for the Jihadis, sooner or later even the most die-hard pfools among us will get it: they are the aggressors and instigators of this fight - and it won't be over until they are no more. It is they who have chosen to make it a fight to the death. They will get their wish. QED.
Posted by: .com || 10/18/2003 4:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Any time I read any of this, it reminds me of Spock's line in Star Trek V "Why does God need a starship?"

If Allah is so all powerful, why does he need you to kill, murder, violate all his commandments in his name for him?

But actually I see this as good news. The House of Saud has been paying off the jihadis for too long, hoping to not get bit by them. This says it did not work, and their time is coming.
Posted by: Ben || 10/18/2003 4:42 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Terror Probe Points to Va. Muslims
This isn't going to be good for your image...
A secretive group of tightly connected Muslim charities, think tanks and businesses based in Northern Virginia were used to funnel millions of dollars to terrorists and launder millions more, according to court records unsealed yesterday. An affidavit from Homeland Security agent David Kane said that the Safa Group, also known as the SAAR network, in Herndon had sent more than $26 million in untraceable money overseas and that leaders of the organization "have committed and conspired to . . . provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations."

The probe of the Herndon groups is the largest federal investigation of terrorism financing in the world, authorities have said. And the unsealing of Kane's report marks the first time the government has alleged the main purpose of the Virginia organizations, set up primarily with donations from a wealthy Saudi family, was to fund terrorism and hide millions of dollars. Kane said the convoluted nature of the myriad financial transactions and the fact that much of the money was sent to tax havens with bank secrecy laws make it impossible to trace the final destination of much of the money. But he said the pattern of the money's movement, coupled with the association of leaders of the Safa Group with suspected terrorists, were strong indicators the group was financing terrorism. "There appears to be no innocent explanation for the use of layers and layers of transactions between Safa Group companies and charities other than to throw law enforcement authorities off the trail," Kane wrote.

In March 2002 federal agents raided the organization's offices on Grove Street in Herndon as well as the homes of eight of the leaders of the group. The raids prompted widespread protest among the Muslim community. Muslim leaders accused law enforcement officials of carrying out a witch hunt and said the raids, in which computers and other office equipment were seized, was hurting legitimate businesses. The 101-page affidavit was released yesterday at the request of the Wall Street Journal. The document, which also includes several lengthy attachments, lays out the government case in detail for the first time, including alleged financial ties going back almost two decades between the Safa Group and groups under investigation for terrorist ties in Florida and Dallas.

Yesterday, Nancy Luque, a lawyer for many of the individuals and companies cited in the affidavit, said the document is filled with "rank speculation by agent Kane." She said that at the time the Safa Group began its work with the Florida and Dallas groups, they were not under investigation. "It doesn't show that one penny went to a terrorist or a terrorist organization," she said of the affidavit. "Given the lack of evidence of any money going to any terrorist organization, it is no wonder the government has released this affidavit, which to me means the case is at a dead end. . . . They can leave it out there to smear everyone."

The affidavit charges that overlapping companies in the Safa Group were deliberately set up to "layer" or obscure the final destination of millions of dollars that moved in complicated transactions among organizations led by the same small group of people. It details how, from 1996 to 2000, charities in the Safa Group raised $54 million and that $26 million was sent to the Isle of Man, a known tax haven where bank secrecy laws make it impossible to trace the final destination of the money. About $20 million went to Safa Group charities and $8 million went to people and groups outside the organization, according to the group's own Internal Revenue Service filings. The purpose of all the transactions, Kane said, is "to route money through hidden paths to terrorists, and to defraud the United States by impeding, impairing, obstructing and defeating the lawful government functions of the IRS."

In a five-year period, four groups in the network sent more than $26 million to the Isle of Man. The initial money to set up the Safa Group was $3.4 million hand-carried in 1980 from Saudi Arabia by Ibrahim Hassaballa, Kane said. The heart of the network in the early years was the SAAR Foundation, named for Sulaiman Abdul Aziz Rajhi. While the SAAR Foundation legally dissolved in December 2000, Kane said the company maintained a bank account that continued to receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in wire transfers and deposits over the next year, making it a "way-station for money being routed around the world by the Safa Group." The affidavit alleges leaders of the Safa Group knowingly supported the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), both designated terrorist entities by the United States in 1995. Senior investigators said leaders of the Safa Group also put millions of dollars into banks and companies that financed Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization.

In the past month, two individuals with ties to the Safa Group have been in federal court. On Oct. 9 Soliman S. Biheiri, who handled investments for some of the leaders of the Safa Group, was convicted on two counts of immigration fraud. He awaits sentencing, and prosecutors have requested he receive 10 years in prison because of allegations that Biheiri's company was used to fund terrorism. Abdurahman Alamoudi, a well-known leader of the American Muslim community who also led several organizations in the Safa Group, was arrested earlier this month on charges of illegally traveling to Libya. He is being held without bail pending his trial, and prosecutors successfully argued for his detention without bail on grounds that he was financing terrorists.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 10/18/2003 17:14 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Caribbean
Two more defectors from Cuban workers’ paradise
Two dancers for Cuba’s renowned National Ballet have defected during the dance company’s tour of the United States. Gema Diaz and Cervilio Amador slipped away from the Cuban ballet company company last Saturday in Daytona Beach, Florida, where the dancers were scheduled to perform. Mr. Amador says the two met with an immigration attorney this week and plan to ask for political asylum. The Miami Herald newspaper quotes Mr. Amador as saying the two want to live in freedom. The Cuban National Ballet has not commented on the defections. The dance company is on a 20-city tour of the United States, and is currently in New York.
At press time, there was no official comment from Cuba regarding the US offer to expatriate Alec Baldwin and Sean Penn in trade.
Posted by: Dar || 10/18/2003 3:52:57 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Give them instant citizenship if they're hot.
Posted by: Baltic Blog || 10/18/2003 16:20 Comments || Top||


Home Front
This Is Outrageous
Sick, wounded U.S. troops held in squalor
Hundreds of sick and wounded U.S. soldiers including many who served in the Iraq war are languishing in hot cement barracks here while they wait — sometimes for months — to see doctors. The National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers’ living conditions are so substandard, and the medical care so poor, that many of them believe the Army is trying push them out with reduced benefits for their ailments. One document shown to UPI states that no more doctor appointments are available from Oct. 14 through Nov. 11 -- Veterans Day.

"I have loved the Army. I have served the Army faithfully and I have done everything the Army has asked me to do," said Sgt. 1st Class Willie Buckels, a truck master with the 296th Transportation Company. Buckels served in the Army Reserves for 27 years, including Operation Iraqi Freedom and the first Gulf War. "Now my whole idea about the U.S. Army has changed. I am treated like a third-class citizen." Since getting back from Iraq in May, Buckels, 52, has been trying to get doctors to find out why he has intense pain in the side of his abdomen since doubling over in pain there. After waiting since May for a diagnosis, Buckels has accepted 20 percent of his benefits for bad knees and is going home to his family in Mississippi. "They have not found out what my side is doing yet, but they are still trying," Buckels said.

One month after President Bush greeted soldiers at Fort Stewart — home of the famed Third Infantry Division — as heroes on their return from Iraq, approximately 600 sick or injured members of the Army Reserves and National Guard are warehoused in rows of spare, steamy and dark cement barracks in a sandy field, waiting for doctors to treat their wounds or illnesses. The Reserve and National Guard soldiers are on what the Army calls "medical hold," while the Army decides how sick or disabled they are and what benefits — if any — they should get as a result. Some of the soldiers said they have waited six hours a day for an appointment without seeing a doctor. Others described waiting weeks or months without getting a diagnosis or proper treatment.

The soldiers said professional active duty personnel are getting better treatment while troops who serve in the National Guard or Army Reserve are left to wallow in medical hold. "It is not an Army of One. It is the Army of two — Army and Reserves," said one soldier who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, during which she developed a serious heart condition and strange skin ailment.

A half-dozen calls by UPI seeking comment from Fort Stewart public affairs officials and U.S. Forces Command in Atlanta were not returned. Soldiers here estimate that nearly 40 percent of the personnel now in medical hold were deployed to Iraq. Of those who went, many described clusters of strange ailments, like heart and lung problems, among previously healthy troops. They said the Army has tried to refuse them benefits, claiming the injuries and illnesses were due to a "pre-existing condition," prior to military service.

Most soldiers in medical hold at Fort Stewart stay in rows of rectangular, gray, single-story cinder block barracks without bathrooms or air conditioning. They are dark and sweltering in the southern Georgia heat and humidity. Around 60 soldiers cram in the bunk beds in each barrack. Soldiers make their way by walking or using crutches through the sandy dirt to a communal bathroom, where they have propped office partitions between otherwise open toilets for privacy. A row of leaky sinks sits on an opposite wall. The latrine smells of urine and is full of bugs, because many windows have no screens. Showering is in a communal, cinder block room. Soldiers say they have to buy their own toilet paper. They said the conditions are fine for training, but not for sick people.

"I think it is disgusting," said one Army Reserve member who went to Iraq and asked that his name not be used. That soldier said that after being deployed in March he suffered a sudden onset of neurological symptoms in Baghdad that has gotten steadily worse. He shakes uncontrollably. He said the Army has told him he has Parkinson’s Disease and it was a pre-existing condition, but he thinks it was something in the anthrax shots the Army gave him. "They say I have Parkinson’s, but it is developing too rapidly," he said. "I did not have a problem until I got those shots."

First Sgt. Gerry Mosley crossed into Iraq from Kuwait on March 19 with the 296th Transportation Company, hauling fuel while under fire from the Iraqis as they traveled north alongside combat vehicles. Mosley said he was healthy before the war; he could run two miles in 17 minutes at 48 years old. But he developed a series of symptoms: lung problems and shortness of breath; vertigo; migraines; and tinnitus. He also thinks the anthrax vaccine may have hurt him. Mosley also has a torn shoulder from an injury there. Mosley says he has never been depressed before, but found himself looking at shotguns recently and thought about suicide. Mosley is paying $300 a month to get better housing than the cinder block barracks. He has a notice from the base that appears to show that no more doctor appointments are available for reservists from Oct. 14 until Nov. 11. He said he has never been treated like this in his 30 years in the Army Reserves. "Now, I would not go back to war for the Army," Mosley said.

Many soldiers in the hot barracks said regular Army soldiers get to see doctors, while National Guard and Army Reserve troops wait. "The active duty guys that are coming in, they get treated first and they put us on hold," said another soldier who returned from Iraq six weeks ago with a serious back injury. He has gotten to see a doctor only two times since he got back, he said. Another Army Reservist with the 149th Infantry Battalion said he has had real trouble seeing doctors about his crushed foot he suffered in Iraq. "There are not enough doctors. They are overcrowded and they can’t perform the surgeries that have to be done," that soldier said. "Look at these mattresses. It hurts just to sit on them," he said, gesturing to the bunks. "There are people here who got back in April but did not get their surgeries until July. It is putting a lot on these families."

The Pentagon is reportedly drawing up plans to call up more reserves. In an Oct. 9 speech to National Guard and reserve troops in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Bush said the soldiers had become part of the backbone of the military. "Citizen-soldiers are serving in every front on the war on terror," Bush said. "And you’re making your state and your country proud."
Posted by: tipper. || 10/18/2003 11:18:22 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is this for real? I'm a little sceptical. This would be a pretty juicy story for the liberal media. Why haven't they been all over it? I'll belive this stuff when I read some corroborating reports, but right now I'm not buying it. It sounds too much like an updated fictional account of those scenes from Oliver Stone's "Born on the 4th of July".
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 10/18/2003 14:14 Comments || Top||

#2  This sounds like BS to me. If I call tri-care and complain of a "sore throat", they tell me that they are "out of appointments" until a date in the future. But if I break my leg or complain of difficulty breathing, they can see me the next day or in the emergency room. Sounds like someone got wind of the "out of appointments" and is desperately trying to make it into an issue. It's been like that for a long time.

The examples here are weak. ""They have not found out what my side is doing yet, but they are still trying," Buckels said. As for the example of "Parkinson's Disease", once again it sounds like they are presented with a condition and they aren't quite sure what is happening. Oh...like either of those situations NEVER happens in a civilian hospital. If these are the best two examples the reporter could come up with, it's all pretty weak if you ask me.

As for the living conditions, it sounds like they aren't great - but that they have moved the excess patients into the training barracks due to lack of space.

Sounds like the situation could be improved - so good, let them use this as their negative propaganda. Hopefully the end result will be money allocated to improve the situation. That's ok by me.
Posted by: B || 10/18/2003 17:00 Comments || Top||

#3  The Instapundit has attempted to contact the appropriate official. Might be worth waiting for further details before commenting.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 10/18/2003 17:09 Comments || Top||

#4  If this is true then perhaps they should claim to be illegal aliens....then they will get instant medical treatment for free.

Pretty sad I know...
Posted by: GregJ || 10/18/2003 17:49 Comments || Top||

#5  I know the military medical service isn't the best. It's a pain in the rear during good times, and these are definitely NOT good times. The conditions they describe remind me of temporary holding quarters for "walking wounded" medical evacuation personnel in Frankfurt. There may be other such places elsewhere.

Fort Stewart is NOT a garden spot at best (My SIL was stationed there during GWI, and deployed with the 24th ID). Yet these are better quarters than I stayed in at Cam Rahn Bay in 1971, during an evaluation.

Right now, the entire military system, from top to bottom, is stressed - badly stressed. The local clinic has six doctors deployed to Europe to help with wounded. Getting a routine appointment is difficult, and could end with a waiting period of a month or more. Here in Colorado Springs (hope of part of the 3rd ID), the local hospital uses a large number of contract physicians to fill the gaps, and it's STILL a long wait.

As for evaluation of physical conditions for disability retirement, I began processing my paperwork to upgrade my disability in December, 1999. We're still at it. None of that's handled by the active military - it's all done through the Veterans' Administration. VA Hospitals have been a horror story for several decades. If these conditions were at a VA medical facility, it would make a lot more sense - those facilities usually aren't set up to house people even overnight, much less for a long stay.

Military medical services need improvement, but nothing like the major revamping and overhauling (including firing a bunch of incompetent middle managers) that the VA needs.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 10/18/2003 20:32 Comments || Top||

#6  Reservists generally are last in line for medical services (ahead of retirees). Since we have just completed a major callup, I am not surprised that there a few that are on medical hold. The service won't release them to civilian life or back to active callup until they can determine how bad they are. Since there are still a lot of Medical personnel in Southwest Asia they are just going to have to wait. At least they are not a retiree like me. I am in line behind them.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 10/18/2003 22:36 Comments || Top||


Africa: Southern
Noczim runs dry
And this is from the Herald, staunchly pro-gummint...
THE National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM) has run dry, paralysing the public transport sector and almost all the Government and quasi-government departments’ operations. Court operations throughout the country have been affected with the Zimbabwe Prison Services failing to ferry remand prisoners to court. Farmers have also been affected with only 280 000 litres of the projected 150 million litres of diesel having been delivered for tillage nationwide as of yesterday. Even the army has not been spared either and some army vehicles have been seen refuelling at private service stations. Several other Government departments’ operations have been grounded and in some parts of the country, relatives of sick people referred to bigger institutions have been asked to fuel up Government ambulances for the sick to get help. In some places, Government ambulance fleets have been grounded for some time and police patrols in many areas, especially the communal areas, were now either by public transport, on bicycles or on foot.
"Patrol 58, 2-11 in progress at 4451 Mugabe Court!"
"Roger. ETA's is about three hours."
"Three hours?"
"There ain't another bus until then!"
Worst-hit, however, is the public transport system that relies solely on Noczim fuel to remain viable and most buses, both rural and urban, have been grounded or abandoned at service stations. While initially the withdrawal of buses by operators pushing for a fare review by the Government affected commuters, the new transport crisis throughout the country is due to fuel shortages. "There is no fuel here, not a single drop although some is expected early next week," a source at Noczim said. This was, however, against a background of a statement by the Minister of Energy and Power Development Ambassador Amos Midzi that there is adequate fuel.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 10/18/2003 09:51 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This development will provide an excess of tires for teh necklacing of whomever they blame for the economic catastrophe they have brought upon themselves.
Posted by: Super Hose || 10/18/2003 12:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Well, Bob:

Turn out the lights, the party's over......

It's been a good run, but now it's time to pay. Amos Midzi, the "Baghdad Bob" of the energy field in Zim can't talk his way out of this one for you.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/18/2003 14:11 Comments || Top||


Africa: West
Chea Retains Defence Ministry in New Government
Daniel Chea, who served as Defence Minister under disgraced former president Charles Taylor, was confirmed in his post on Thursday by the new broad-based transitional government led by Gyude Bryant.
I'd call that a bad sign. I'd say there was worse to come...
The ebulliant Chea directed Taylor's bush war against two rebel movements which signed a peace deal with the government in August. He was one of two Taylor loyalists to retain their jobs in Bryant's broad-based administration. The other was Health Minister Peter Coleman.
Under the terms of the peace deal, Taylor's National Patriotic Party (NPP) and the two rebel movements each have the right to name five ministers in Bryant's 21-member cabinet, which will guide Liberia to fresh elections in 2005. The other Taylor loyalists nominated to serve in the new cabinet were Christian Herbert, the former labour minister, who becomes Minister of Planning and Economic Affairs, Horatio Dan Morias, the former superintendent of Maryland County in Southeastern Liberia, who becomes Minister of Internal Affairs, and Lenn Eugene Nagbe, a close advisor of Moses Blah, who becomes Minister of Posts and Telecommunications. Taylor's senior battlefront commander, Roland Duo, was named as Assistant Defense Minister for Navy Affairs. Blah himself did not figure on the NPP list. It appears, that like Sekou Conneh, the leader of the main Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel movement, he will not form part of the new broad-based government.
Decided to become the man behind the curtain, did he? I thought he'd try and hold on to power himself. Guess he's either more subtle than I thought or doesn't control enough guns and bustiers...
However, Thomas Nimely, the leader of the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), the smaller rebel movement, has put his name forward to become foreign minister.
"Me! Me! Pick me! I wanna go to Gay Paree!"
He has yet to name MODEL's other nominees to the cabinet.
"I'll get around to it, I promise. Ple-e-e-e-ase lemme go to Gay Paree!"
LURD has so far appointed four of its five ministers. These are Kabineh Janneh, its chief negotiator at the peace talks, for Minister of Justice, Luseni Kamara for Finance, Vamba Kanneh for Transport and Lavalla Supuwood, a figure who was close to Charles Taylor, for Labour.
Formerly close to Chuck? Or Chuck's man in the opposition?
A senior LURD source told IRIN on Wednesday that the movement would not release its full list of nominees for government jobs, pending "proper clarification" on the assistant ministerial posts.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 10/18/2003 09:41 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  To the Minster of Sanitation, I recommend at least a 2 1/2 inch diameter hose and an all-purpose nozzle for the hosing of the mounds of collected human feces and refuse in the capital. Corpses will have to be removed by the wheelbarrow boys as no amount of hosing will surfice - a hose will take care of the cigarette butts, though.
Posted by: Super Hose || 10/18/2003 12:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Super Hose---Powhaten adjustable nozzle?
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/18/2003 14:13 Comments || Top||

#3  Boy, you two are way too into your manual hydraulics
Posted by: Frank G || 10/18/2003 15:18 Comments || Top||

#4  Nah,Frank.Just you average,everyday hosers.
Posted by: Raptor || 10/18/2003 18:50 Comments || Top||

#5  Ok - I can't contest the avg . part lol
Posted by: Frank G || 10/18/2003 21:37 Comments || Top||


Middle East
Army kills Hamas man, two other Palestinians in Gaza
JPost Reg Req’d
Troops fired on Saturday at a group of Hamas guerillas laying explosives along paths used by Israeli tanks in the Salam neighborhood of the Rafah refugee camp, the army and Hamas members said. Three Palestinians, including senior Hamas field commander Tariq Abu Hussein, 39, and another Hamas member, Hussam Mughier, 26, were killed and 10 wounded, Palestinian doctors and witnesses said.
nice shooting Avner! Bagged your limit!
Several bystanders who came in their car to evacuate casualties were fired on by a tank and machine guns, witnesses said.
"Leave ’em!"
One woman in the car, Widad Ajrami, 28, was killed and her husband and a brother-in-law were wounded, said a relative Mohammed Ajrami. The car was riddled with bullets and its seats were smeared with blood and littered with shards of glass. An army spokeswoman said soldiers only shot at armed men and no tank shell was fired.

On Friday, the US Embassy in Israel halted travel by American officials to the Gaza Strip and said it is reviewing security arrangements in response to a deadly attack on a US convoy earlier this week.

Meanwhile in Nablus, Hamas put on an angry display Friday evening, with dozens of masked men promising to continue attacks on Israelis. During the demonstration, one man portraying a suicide bomber walked into a paper model of an Israeli bus; then a loud bang was heard and the bus was burned.
Pathetic - musta been the Friday prayer skit?
Posted by: Frank G || 10/18/2003 9:32:50 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Only "Palestinians" would be stupid enough to drive into the middle of a firefight. Congratulations, Widad Ajrami! You've managed to get yourself iced by Israelis. Your family must be incredibly proud.

Sigh, what a bunch of retarded savages! I think it's time to end the "Palestinian" occupaion of Israel's Gaza, Judea, and Sumeria. Transfer them all back to Jordan, Egypt, or Lebanon.
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 10/18/2003 14:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Scooter, they were probably caught in fire coming from the Paleos, and the report is just the cover story. It wouldn't be the first.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 10/18/2003 20:19 Comments || Top||


Home Front
US judge denies Moussaoui’s four motions
A federal judge trying the case of Frenchman Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged in the United States in the September 11 attacks, Thursday denied four of the defendant’s hand-scrawled motions. Judge Leonie Brinkema said in her blanket denial that the motions offered “no new evidence or legal argument to justify any reconsideration of the rulings at issue.” Moussaoui is defending himself, although the court has appointed three “standby attorneys” to advise and assist him when necessary. His pleadings to the court have been semi-literate diatribes, hand-scrawled on lined notebook paper, in which he pours scorn on the court, the judge, his standby lawyers, the justice system and the United States. Many pages contain footnotes in Arabic. In her own footnote to Thursday’s ruling, Brinkema warns Moussaoui that “he abuses his right to access the court and to represent himself by filing groundless motions to reconsider and by injecting rhetoric, which he may find clever, but which wastes the court’s time and undercuts any meritorious claim that should be considered.”
I know this was going to be bad when the clowns and the elephants showed up. Shoulda put him before a military tribunal, shot him, and had it over with.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 10/18/2003 01:48 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He is a loony. Deport him back to France under no charges and let him walk their streets.
Posted by: Super Hose || 10/18/2003 13:05 Comments || Top||

#2  France is already loony enough. And we are a bit questionable for letting him defend himself.
Posted by: Tom || 10/18/2003 17:33 Comments || Top||

#3  self represintation is well within his rights.But not very smart.
Posted by: Raptor || 10/18/2003 19:03 Comments || Top||

#4  "I say we shooot him."

"Yeahhhhhyy!"

"And then we deport him."

"Yeahhhhhyy!"
Posted by: Raj || 10/18/2003 19:12 Comments || Top||

#5  Raj, you're being too easy on him. I say we strap him into a 1967 Volkswagen bug, strap THAT atop a large Titan-4D booster, and launch the whole thing to the moon. Then all we have to worry about is some alien showing up with a citation for littering.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 10/18/2003 20:35 Comments || Top||

#6  OP, my favorite torture fantasy is to strap someone on the front of the Intrepid, douse him / her (no, I'm not bitter) with salt water and cruise the SE Expressway during a January snowstorm.

Of course, I'm on a low budget...
Posted by: Raj || 10/18/2003 20:39 Comments || Top||


International
OIC pledges to fight terrorism
The 10th Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) summit ended on Friday with its 57 members affirming their commitment to combat terrorism.
Yeah, buddy! We're gonna get right on it...
In a final communiqué at the end of the two-day summit, the OIC also tempered calls for the US to withdraw from Iraq and condemned Israel for its threats to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and airstrike in Syria. The OIC member states pledged to “contribute to multilateral efforts to counter this scourge (terrorism),” while making the point of including “state terrorism,” a term usually used to refer to Israel’s military actions.
But natch. Thoroughly predictable...
The communiqué also rejected “selectivity and duplicity of standards in combating terrorism and all attempts to associate terrorism with a particular religion or culture”.
"'Specially ours. It's ain't like it's us Muslims who go around spewing unreasoning hatred, y'know..."
The OIC called for a UN sponsored conference to “distinguish between terrorism and the legitimate struggle for the right to self-determination of people living under occupation or foreign domination” — a reference particularly to the Palestinians.
"Yeah. We're against dogs that bite. But our dog's justified..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 10/18/2003 00:50 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Careful there fellas. Ya might want to reword that a bit. That is exactly what Israel is trying to do, struggle for the right of self-determination.
Posted by: Ben || 10/18/2003 4:33 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
30[untagged]

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2003-10-18
  Army kills Hamas man, two other Paleos in Gaza
Fri 2003-10-17
  Yasser declares state of emergency
Thu 2003-10-16
  Bali boom boy gets life
Wed 2003-10-15
  4 Americans murdered in Gaza
Tue 2003-10-14
  Turkish embassy in Baghdad boomed
Mon 2003-10-13
  Hassan Hattab deposed?
Sun 2003-10-12
  Al-Ghozi departs gene pool
Sat 2003-10-11
  Indonesian church torched, two killed by armed men
Fri 2003-10-10
  U.S. Nabs Fedayeen Saddam Leader
Thu 2003-10-09
  Iraqi Leaders Don't Want Turkish Troops
Wed 2003-10-08
  Algeria pounds Salafist HQ
Tue 2003-10-07
  Yasser on his deathbed?
Mon 2003-10-06
  Azam Tariq late!
Sun 2003-10-05
  Israel bombs IJ target in Syria
Sat 2003-10-04
  20 dead in Haifa boom


Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
18.188.40.207
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
(0)    (0)    (0)    (0)    (0)