DUBAI — Dubai port, a leading world operator, signed a deal with the United States yesterday under which US officers will help screen US-bound containers that have been identified as a potential risk. Containers shipped to the US number between 1,000 and 2,000 on an annual basis.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/13/2004 12:00:00 AM ||
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#1
A nice effort, but what about ports (and there are many more) that send a larger number of containers to the U.S.?
#2
Patience, BaR. Necessarily limited resources means they start with the most likely source of problems. Starting January 2002, U.S. Customs inspectors were stationed at the twenty highest risk ports, such as Hong Kong, those which ship the most to the U.S. These top 20 ports handle some 70% of the shipments arriving in the U.S. There is a nice overview from the Homeland Security head for international affairs of the situation as of June this year. It looks to me that, with Dubai port getting ready to go on-line, Homeland Security is starting in on the second tier. And, the Office of Management & Budget provides a look forward for 2005 on all the Homeland Security initiatives, which I found quite interesting.
Actually, it looks like Bush is applying that Harvard MBA training quite competently to the issues surrounding homeland security, and quietly making, to me, astounding progress.
Colombian troops have captured a top leftist rebel commander suspected of masterminding the 1999 kidnapping of an entire congregation from a Roman Catholic church, the army said Sunday. Ramiro Velez, a regional leader of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, the smaller of Colombia's two rebel groups, was arrested Saturday during an operation in Chachaui, 300 miles southwest of Bogota, said Gen. Reinaldo Castellanos. "He directed all the terrorist activity in the southwest of the country. He is a very important commander, a member of the ELN's national directorate," Castellanos told reporters. Velez, known by the alias "El Viejo" ("The Old Man"), is accused of rebellion, kidnapping and ordering attacks on villages and the country's energy infrastructure. He is blamed for the May 1999 gunpoint abductions of 180 Roman Catholic worshippers from the La Maria church in the southwestern city of Cali, the army said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004 2:27:54 PM ||
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A committal hearing has begun for a Sydney architect accused of planning a major terrorist attack on the electricity grid and a defence site.
Sydney Central Local Court is being asked to decide if there is enough evidence for 34-year-old Faheem Khaled Lodhi to face trial on nine terrorism-related charges.
In opening the case, Commonwealth prosecutor Richard Maidment SC told Sydney Central Local Court that between May and October last year, Lodhi created several false identities to buy maps of the electricity grid and obtain the prices of chemicals.
He is accused of downloading aerial photographs of defence sites in Sydney from the Internet.
The court also heard that Lodhi was closely linked to French terrorism suspect Willie Brigitte.
Mr Maidment told the court that Lodhi had established false identities for Brigitte. Prosecutors also allege that in 2001 Lodhi was an official in a terrorist training camp in Pakistan. The committal hearing is set down for six days.
International terrorism charges and allegations of ties to al Qaeda might be enough to scare away some cellmates, in some countries. But Italian mobsters jailed on the island of Sardinia, apparently outraged by terrorism, beat up an Algerian terror suspect and threatened to kill him unless he got himself transferred to a new prison. The same threat was made against at least one other Algerian inmate. "You guys set off bombs and do massacres. If you don't change prisons, you're dead," the criminals were reported to have told Saadi Nassim, in comments confirmed by his lawyer.
Italian mobsters have forgotten more about intimidation than these guys will ever know.
The case won prominence in leading Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on Friday in a story headlined: "Muslim prisoners beat up by Camorra," referring the Naples-based mob organization. The criminals who threatened Nassim were themselves accused of murder, the paper said, without naming names.
They'd rather not be beaten up themselves
Nassim is fighting charges of belonging to a cell linked to al Qaeda. A judge has authorized Nassim's transfer to a new prison, and a decision in the 2-year-old case is expected sometime next year.
The inference that there is organized crime involving persons of Italian origin is the opinion of the writer of the original article and in no way refelects the opinion of the poster or the members of his family.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/13/2004 2:06:09 PM ||
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#1
think the new prison will be devoid of irritated italian criminals? Me neither
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 14:27 Comments ||
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Hahahaha,this is just tooooo funny.Saadi is learning a lesson in intimadation from the masters of intimidation.I feel so sorry for him(wink,nudge,nudge),hahahaha.
#7
The Italian Mob is extremely vicious. Over the years, they have killed hundreds of Italian public officials. Because Italy has no death penalty, none of these gangsters has ever had to pay with his life. If they're not afraid of killing Italian public officials, I can't really see why they would have a problem with killing a mere jihadi.
#9
Saadi should think of it as an opportunity for martyrdom. Glory be to Allan...
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 15:27 Comments ||
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The movie "La Scorta" was made about the day-to-day routine of guarding an Italian magistrate from the Mob. Although I have no idea how accurate it is, it is one of the tensest movies I have watched - very gut-churning and claustrophobic, combined with a sense of the inevitability of disaster. Oh - and it's subtitled and features a score by Ennio Morricone, the guy who did the Clint Eastwood classics - the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More.
Iran acknowledged for the first time Sunday that it has convicted some Iranian nationals of supporting al-Qaida, saying the number was fewer than five. The United States has accused Iran of harboring al-Qaida operatives, with some U.S. counterterrorism officials alleging hard-line elements within the Iranian regime may have developed working relationships with some senior al-Qaida officials who fled to Iran after the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. Iran has rejected the accusations. "A few pro-al-Qaida Iranian nationals have been tried and convicted," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters. Their number, he said, is less than "the fingers on one's hand," he said, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency. He did not give details, including when they were convicted, what sentences they had received or what sort of support they had provided Osama bin Laden's terror network. Asefi said cases of foreign nationals in Iran with alleged links to al-Qaida are still under investigation and no trial dates have been set, IRNA reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004 2:30:14 PM ||
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A member of the Palestinian militant group Hamas escaped unhurt on Monday when a bomb blew up his car in the Syrian capital Damascus, a Palestinian source said.
Too bad
Curses! Foiled again! Shoulda used the Zionist Death Ray™!
"This is the second incident in which an explosion targets a Hamas member," the source said. He said the bomb, placed under the driver's seat, blew up shortly after the unnamed member and his daughter had parked the car and left it.
Hummm, being of a nasty suspious mind, I wonder if he blew his own car up. That sort of thing is a career enhancement in his circle.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/13/2004 12:11:03 PM ||
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Yeah, their cars never mysteriously blow up on their own. Wonder if he was picking up or delivering?
Two aid workers have been shot dead in the conflict-ridden Darfur region of western Sudan, their employer said Monday. The British Charity Save the Children said their two employees, a medical assistant and a mechanic, both Sudanese nationals, came under fire Sunday while travelling in clearly marked humanitarian vehicles on the main road between Mershing and Duma in South Darfur. "We deplore this brutal killing of humanitarian workers in Darfur", the agency's director of International Operations Ken Caldwell said in a statement. The organisation said its operations in the area have been suspended and that the African Union force in Darfur is investigating the shooting. In October, two other Save the Children staff, one British citizen and one Sudanese, were killed when they drove over a landmine in North Darfur. The African Union, whose forces monitor the ceasefire signed between the Darfur rebels and the Sudanese government in April, has said the number of violations have risen in recent weeks.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004 7:50:05 PM ||
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Israel has called on [its] nationals to leave Iraq immediately. Israeli officials said Israelis in Iraq were deemed to be in danger of abduction and death. They said an undetermined number of Israelis were in Baghdad as well as in northern Iraq. On Sunday, the government's Counter-Terrorism Command issued a warning against Israeli travel to Iraq. In the first such acknowledgement, the unit also called on Israelis to leave Iraq immediately. Arab diplomatic sources have asserted that scores of Israelis were providing services and training to Kurdish militias in northern Iraq. The sources said Israelis have also been engaged in business ventures with Kurdish companies and transporting goods to and from Iraq.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004 7:48:11 PM ||
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#1
sad, but good, advice
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 20:38 Comments ||
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...an undetermined number of Israelis were in Baghdad as well as in northern Iraq.
Israeli agents and businessmen go where NGOs fear to tread.
An Australian man of Lebanese origin has been detained in northern Iraq by Kurdish militiamen and Australian officials are investigating whether the detainee has links to terrorists, Kurdish and Australian officials said Sunday.
"Y'ain't from around here, air yew?"
"Crikey!"
Ahmed Jalal, 22, was recently arrested by members of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in Sulaimaniyah, 160 miles northeast of Baghdad. The official said Jalal was arrested because his brother is believed to be detained in Lebanon in relation to terrorist activities.
"Hey! Just 'cuz he's involved with turbans don't mean I am!"
"Oh, yeah? Whaddya you do for a living?"
"I work for an Islamic charity!"
"Book him, Mahmoud!"
Julie McDonald, a Canberra-based spokeswoman for the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs, confirmed that a Sydney man had been detained by the PUK in northern Iraq. "This matter is under investigation by proper authorities who are looking into possible terrorist connections of the detained 22-year-old," McDonald said without identifying him or elaborating further. McDonald said Australian officials in Baghdad had learned of the man's arrest on Nov. 30 from the International Committee of the Red Cross and that his relatives in Sydney, Australia's largest city, have been notified.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004 2:37:08 PM ||
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#1
I've been wondering why the Red Cross is handling things in Iraq. Isn't that more properly the sphere of the Red Crescent?
Insurgents rained mortar rounds on a U.S. base in Afghanistan, wounding three Afghan government soldiers, while 14 suspected Taliban were arrested, American and Afghan officials said Monday. Eleven mortar rounds fell near the base in southeastern Paktika province in the past 24 hours, a U.S. military spokesman said. The wounded soldiers from the new U.S.-trained Afghan National Army were evacuated to a field hospital at a larger U.S. base in neighboring Khost province and were in stable condition, said the spokesman, Maj. Mark McCann. No American soldiers were reported hurt.
McCann said eight Taliban members were detained in a raid about a week ago in Char Cheno district of Central Uruzgan province after American forces received intelligence on their whereabouts. One was believed to be a brother of the former Taliban governor of Kandahar, the southern city that was the hard-line regime's capital. McCann declined to identify him.
Afghan troops seized another six suspected Taliban in the same province on Saturday, Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Zaher Mohammed Azimi said. Two were Taliban commanders called Mullah Ghulam Nahim and Abdul Qadir, he said.
Azimi also reported the injury of six Afghan civilians in an explosion Saturday near Asadabad, in eastern Kunar province. Three were taken to the main U.S. base at Bagram, north of Kabul, where they were recovering after treatment, he said. The cause of the explosion was unclear, although the area has seen roadside bombings aimed at Afghan and U.S. security forces as well as clashes between rival Afghan factions.
About 18,000 mainly American troops continue to hunt militants in southern and eastern Afghanistan, three years after U.S. and allied forces ousted the hard-line Taliban regime for harboring al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. The U.S.-led force last week began a new winter-long offensive aimed at weakening rebels ahead of parliamentary elections slated for the spring, and at persuading Taliban militants to accept an Afghan government amnesty.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004 1:03:24 PM ||
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One of the field commanders of Hamas' Qassam Brigades in Nablus city was killed early Monday in clashes with Israeli occupation soldiers who besieged a number of buildings in the city in a bid to arrest him. More than 20 Israeli army jeeps, five tanks, armored vehicles and two bulldozers had advanced into Al-Jabal Al-Shamali area since 10.00 pm Sunday and encircled a number of houses. The Israeli forces started firing live bullets and tank shells at one of the buildings where the the Hamas man Ihsan Shawahna, 28, was entrenched. He refused to give himself up and exchanged gunfire with the Israeli troops wounding three of them before he was hit with a fatal bullet in the head leading to his instant death.
"You'll never take me ali...BANG!..."
The body of Shawahne, who has been on the run for a long time, was left on the ground for several hours, PIC reported. Palestinian sources said that soldiers broke into a number of houses in the same area, wreaking havoc in the process before arresting Hussein Hassiba
."Yar, we be the havoc wreaking IDF! Moshe, kick that puppy! Yar!"
Meanwhile, in nearby Balata refugee camp Israeli soldiers stormed the house of Nimir Ka'bi also at dawn Monday for the fifth time over the past five days.
"Morning, Nimir, good to see you again. Got any coffee?"
Eyewitnesses said that seven army patrols encircled the home of Ka'bi and soldiers fired wildly at houses in the area. Occupation troops had arrested 11 members of the Ka'bi family including four brothers and caused the burning of Ka'bi's home in a previous incursion.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/13/2004 12:32:15 PM ||
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In Baghdad, a militant in an explosives-laden car waiting in line to enter the western Harthiyah gate of the heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses the U.S. Embassy and Iraq's interim government, detonated the vehicle as he drove toward the checkpoint, police said. Dr. Mohammed Abdel Satar of Baghdad's Yarmouk Hospital said 13 people were killed and 15 wounded in the suicide blast. The U.S. military said there were no injuries to its troops. Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq group claimed responsibility for the bombing in a statement posted on an Islamic web site regularly used by militants. "On this blessed day, a lion from the (group's) Martyrs' Brigade has gone out to strike at a gathering of apostates and Americans in the Green Zone," the group said in a statement, the authenticity of which could not be immediately verified.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004 12:07:45 PM ||
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U.S. soldiers and Iraqi police detained more than 50 Iraqis in several raids targeting insurgents in the Baqouba area, north of Baghdad, the military said Sunday. Two raids were conducted on Saturday in Hib Hib, a town about 40 miles northeast of Baghdad, in a "search for known insurgents," according to a statement released by the 1st Infantry Division. Soldiers also seized a range of firearms and other weapons in the raids, the military said. Seems the intel machine is churning out hits. Rock 'n roll, boyz!
Posted by: .com ||
12/13/2004 12:30:32 AM ||
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#2
The question for me though is how much of that 50 captured is going to be catch and release.
Posted by: N Guard ||
12/13/2004 10:18 Comments ||
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The question for me though is how much of that 50 captured is going to be catch and release.
It can't be said enough - entice the jerks into attacking, then use our firepower to decimate them. No capturing, no arresting. If these jihadists are willing to become martyrs, then the appropriate action to take is to grant them their wish promptly. As hardheaded as Arabs are, it's difficult to believe they wouldn't get the message if it became apparent that no jihadi was being captured alive.
Seven U.S. Marines were killed in two separate incidents in Iraq's Anbar province, a vast region encompassing the battleground cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, the military said Monday. It was unknown whether the deaths Sunday were connected to heavy fighting in Fallujah. American warplanes pounded the city with missiles as insurgents fought running battles with coalition forces. On Sunday, the military reported the death of another U.S. Marine in Anbar. The seven members of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force died while conducting ``security and stabilization operations'' in Anbar, the military said in a statement. The statement gave no other details about the deaths, saying the release of more information could place U.S. personnel at risk. The names of the dead were withheld pending notification of their families.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/13/2004 12:00:58 AM ||
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#1
Americans are dying in Iraq for the State of Israel on basis of Jewish lies about WMD.
#12
In flight to TS's home now...Simi Valley, was it?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 9:42 Comments ||
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#13
I'm with The Death Ray Group now. No more bed wetters for me.
But we could use some practice since, you know, the ummmmmmmmmm...Paris thing got over with. I'll talk to my supervisor...
Posted by: The Mossad ||
12/13/2004 9:43 Comments ||
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#14
Americans are dying in Iraq for the State of Israel on basis of Jewish lies about WMD. Visit ADLUSA on the web for more info -- that's a .com dedicated to restoring America's dignity.
#15
Americans are dying in Iraq for the State of Israel on basis of Jewish lies about WMD. Visit ADLUSA on the web for more info -- that's a .com dedicated to restoring America's dignity.
#16
Americans are dying in Iraq for the State of Israel on basis of Jewish lies about WMD. Visit ADL USA [no spaces] on the web for more info -- that's a .com dedicated to restoring America's dignity.
#17
Americans are dying in Iraq for the State of Israel on basis of Jewish lies about WMD. Visit ADL USA [no spaces] on the web for more info -- that's a .com dedicated to restoring America's dignity.
#18
Americans are dying in Iraq for the State of Israel on basis of Jewish lies about WMD. Visit A D L U S A [no spaces] on the web for more info -- that's a .com dedicated to restoring America's dignity.
#19
Americans are dying in Iraq for the State of Israel on basis of Jewish lies about WMD. Visit A D L U S A [no spaces] on the web for more info -- that's a .com dedicated to restoring America's dignity.
#20
Americans are dying in Iraq for the State of Israel on basis of J_ewish l_ies about WMD. Visit A D L U S A [no spaces] on the web for more info -- that's a .com dedicated to restoring America's dignity.
#21
Americans are dying in Iraq for the State of Israel on basis of J_ewish l_ies about WMD. Visit A D L U S A [no spaces] on the web for more info -- that's a .com dedicated to restoring America's dignity.
#22
Americans are dying in Iraq for the State of Israel on basis of J_ewish l_ies about WMD. Visit A D L U S A [no spaces] on the web for more info -- that's a .com d_edicated to restoring A_merica's d_ignity.
#23
Americans are dying in Iraq for the State of Israel on basis of J_ewish l_ies about WMD. Visit A D L U S A [no spaces] on the web for more info -- that's a .com d_edicated to restoring A_merica's d_ignity.
#24
Americans are dying in Iraq for the State of Israel on basis of J_ewish l_ies about WMD. Visit A D L U S A [n_o s_paces] on the web for more info -- that's a .com d_edicated to restoring A_merica's d_ignity.
#25
Americans are dying in Iraq for the State of Israel on basis of J_ewish l_ies about WMD. Visit A D L U S A [n_o s_paces] on the web for more info -- that's a .com d_edicated to restoring A_merica's d_ignity.
#26
Americans are dying in Iraq for the State of I_srael on basis of J_ewish l_ies about WMD. Visit A D L U S A [n_o s_paces] on the web for more info -- that's a .com d_edicated to restoring A_merica's d_ignity.
#27
Americans are dying in Iraq for the State of I_srael on basis of J_ewish l_ies about WMD. Visit A D L U S A [n_o s_paces] on the web for more info -- that's a .com d_edicated to restoring A_merica's d_ignity.
#28
A_mericans are dying in Iraq for the State of I_srael on basis of J_ewish l_ies about WMD. Visit A D L U S A [n_o s_paces] on the web for more info -- that's a .com d_edicated to restoring A_merica's d_ignity.
#29
A_mericans are dying in Iraq for the State of I_srael on basis of J_ewish l_ies about WMD. Visit A D L U S A [n_o s_paces] on the web for more info -- that's a .com d_edicated to restoring A_merica's d_ignity.
#3
and no half-crazed cry of 'Allahu Akbar' to greet the reaper's blade...
(see similar recent posting on 'why not to fire an rpg from the middle of the street.')
Posted by: Howard UK ||
12/13/2004 9:20 Comments ||
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#4
That's why tankers refer to infantry as "crunchies", folks...
#7
Yikes! We should thank Al Jazeero, Arabiya, BBC and other enemy media for encouraging the cannon-fodder to believe that these piss-poor tactics are adequate.
It appears that this was an HE round that impacted just out of sight to the right, turning the alley into a kind of ad hoc cannon in its own right, with Mr. Jihad-al-Rambo firmly attached to the muzzle.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
International terrorism charges and allegations of ties to al Qaeda might be enough to scare away some cellmates, in some countries. But Italian mobsters jailed on the island of Sardinia, apparently outraged by terrorism, beat up an Algerian terror suspect and threatened to kill him unless he got himself transferred to a new prison. The same threat was made against at least one other Algerian inmate. "You guys set off bombs and do massacres. If you don't change prisons, you're dead," the criminals were reported to have told 
