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Syrian Interior Minister "Commits Suicide"
Today's Headlines
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Bangladesh
Allah’s Dal man names leaders
Allah’s Dal, an Islamist militant outfit, has over 500 members across the country and is able to carry out subversive activities like the Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh. This statement was made by Babul Ansari on Tuesday to officials of the Joint Interrogation Cell. Babul, an arrested leader of Allah’s Dal, was placed on a 10-day remand on October 5. Ansari, a junior security staff of the parliament secretariat, was arrested for his links with the Mujahideen, a banned Islamist outfit responsible for the countrywide bomb blasts of August 17. He disclosed the names of 20 leaders of Allah’s Dal to the interrogators on Tuesday who lead the party residing at separate places all over the country, said sources in the interrogation cell.

The regional leaders are Motin Mehedi, Ibrahim Hiru, Mostafizur Rahman Shahin, Mahfuz, Ripon, Liton-1, Liton-2, Boma Ripon, S Alam, Tipu, Jhantu, Biplab, Saiful, Azad, Moazzem, Rashed, Babu, Prince, Majnu and Tushar. Of them, Motin Mehedi was assigned coordinating the bombing operations in Gaibandha. He maintained close links with Bangla Bhai and is wanted in the Gaibandha bombing case. Law enforcers have already launched drives and raids in different parts of the country to nab them. Babul continued to deny his and his party’s involvement in the August 17 bomb blasts. He, however, admitted planning to carry out fresh attacks. Babul also admitted that he, along with Mujahideen cadres moved in the city’s key point installations before the August 17 bombing. ‘Ansari disclosed that they had plans to come to the limelight like Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh,’ said an official of the cell that comprises officials from intelligence agencies. He said though the militant groups operate under separate identities, they have the same goal of forcefully establishing Islam and the rule of Allah in Bangladesh.
Posted by: Fred || 10/12/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bangladesh seems to have as many Jihadi outfits as Pakland, we just don't hear about them nearly as much. It's a pity we will likely be hearing more about them in the future.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 10/12/2005 1:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Last Rantapalooza, I was telling Dan how much I was dreading Bangla heating up, simply because of the sheer number of bad guy groups. I'm now thinking seriously of becoming an alcoholic...
Posted by: Fred || 10/12/2005 10:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Bangla just needs to beef up the ranks of the RAB and then build a few more deserted fish packing plants...
Posted by: Seafarious || 10/12/2005 10:41 Comments || Top||

#4  Nah, won't work, there's a limited supply of shutter guns in the police lock-up ...
Posted by: Steve White || 10/12/2005 11:41 Comments || Top||

#5  I hear there's a consignment of country guns on the way tho.
Posted by: Shipman || 10/12/2005 15:39 Comments || Top||


Police raid JMB den in Rajshahi
Law enforcers hunting for persons behind the countrywide chain bombings on Tuesday raided a militant hideout in Rajshahi and seized bomb-making materials and jihadi books. Tipped by confessions statements of arrested Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh cadres, the Rajshahi Police raided a house at Baliapukur and recovered bomb-making material and a large number of jihadi books, certificates and cash account books. No one was arrested as residents had fled before the raid. The house has been placed under police control.

The Boalia police said militants, including its operation commander Bangla Bhai used to live in the rented house, owned by one Rabiul Islam, a mason by profession. ‘Operation to carry out bombing in Rajshahi city on August 17 was coordinated from the house,’ said a police official. Sub-inspector Ahsanul Kabir told New Age that four cadres of Jagrata Muslim Janata, an Islamist outfit, Hasib, Shihab, Matin and Hafizur had earlier been arrested in Natore for masterminding bombing in Natore town on Aug 17. The Boalia police on Monday brought them from Natore for interrogation on a five day remand. As per Hasib’s confession, the police raided the house and recovered the materials that proved links of the Aug 17 serial bomb blast. Quoting Hasib, the police said 13 Mujahideen militants were deployed in Rajshahi to plant the bombs.

Hasib told the police that they had been living in the house for the past two and half years and executed the organising activity. Another house, Noor Bhaban, at Natore town was also reported to be the stronghold of the Jagrata Muslim Janata. He said Rajshahi regional commander Abdus Samad of Singra upazila of Natore bore all the monthly rents of both the houses (Rajshahi and Natore) and other organisational expenditure. Hasib said Abdus Samad sent him to Rajshahi on August 16. Earlier, on August 13, he went to Natore to attend a meeting relating to the bombing operation. Citing the confessional statement of the four militants, the police said planning of August 17 incident began in January and was kept secret. The field level militants were informed at the August 13 regional meeting.
Posted by: Fred || 10/12/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  owned by one Rabiul Islam, a mason by profession

soooo.. it really is an evil plot by the Masons!
Posted by: 2b || 10/12/2005 0:28 Comments || Top||


Britain
Britain to ban Harkat
The United Kingdom will ban Harkat-ul-Jihad, an Islamist outfit of Bangladesh, said an announcement of the UK Home Office on Monday. Quoting a statement of the British home secretary, Charles Clarke, the Guardian reported on Tuesday that Harkat, along with 14 international organisations, would be banned in Britain under its Terrorism Act 2000. The act has clauses that a member of a proscribed organisation in Britain is punishable with a 10-year jail term.
Posted by: Fred || 10/12/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iranians trained Iraqis to kill our boys
ELITE troops from Iran were last night accused of training Iraqi bombers to kill British soldiers.

Insurgents are being taught to kill in special camps run by fanatics from the country’s Revolutionary Guard. They then slip back over the border to attack Our Boys in southern Iraq — and pass on bombing techniques to DOZENS of other extremists.

Eight British soldiers have already been killed by new-style roadside devices traced to Iran. Defence sources told The Sun last night: “There is evidence the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is running training packages for insurgents.

“They are in the form of ‘train the trainer’. Up to ten people at a time are being taught how to make these new devices. They return to Iraq and pass it on to another 50.”

The Iranians’ efforts are part of a Middle East-wide network of terror identified by Western intelligence bosses. Terrorists facing British troops in Basra are also thought to be receiving help from camps in Lebanon and Syria.

The revelation of help from Iranian troops is bound to reignite the already furious row between London and Tehran over the recent bombings. The new armour-piercing bombs from Iraq have the power of THREE ordinary landmines and are detonated through infrared. Renegades from the outlawed Mehdi army of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr are suspected of carrying out the attacks. But British troops have made a crucial breakthrough, it also emerged yesterday.

Two of the infrared detonators have been discovered intact, which could help untangle the supply chain.

They've made another break-through: they're realize that wearing berets and talking nice to people isn't getting the job done in Basra.
A military source in Basra said: “It’s the first time we have found one of these things whole, rather than just in fragments after an explosion.

“One was attached to a charge on a hidden device on a main road.”

A massive cache of explosives has also been discovered, made up of 50 rockets, ten mortar bombs and 64 landmines. The find followed a dramatic arrest operation in Basra last week when troops held 12 suspected insurgents, including three crooked cops.
Posted by: Captain America || 10/12/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  My urge to vaporize the mullahs is outweighed only by the fact that Iran's mullah-stocracy's "date with the Devil" is drawing near.
Posted by: anymouse || 10/12/2005 8:39 Comments || Top||

#2  We need to help the Devil along. They don't call us the Great Satan for nothing.
Posted by: john || 10/12/2005 10:50 Comments || Top||

#3  ..Iran's mullah-stocracy's "date with the Devil" is drawing near.

I won't be holding my breath. A lot of things should have happened sooner but didn't, and some haven't happened at all.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 10/12/2005 10:53 Comments || Top||

#4  bomb...I think the regime is a lot more tenuous than people thin. When it unravels....it's gonna be like watching a garage door spring break.
Posted by: anymouse || 10/12/2005 11:58 Comments || Top||

#5  The problem is the timing: which is going to explode first, the population boomb or the nuclear bomb?
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/12/2005 12:57 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Shining Path Guerrillas Intimidate Peruvian Villagers
AYACUCHO, Peru (AP) - A band of about 40 suspected Shining Path guerrillas armed with assault rifles entered a remote jungle village earlier this month and told residents to cast blank ballots in an upcoming national referendum, police said Wednesday. The rebels rounded up the inhabitants of Ccahuasana sometime during the first week of October and "recommended" they not indicate on their ballots whether they support a redistricting plan that would merge 16 of Peru's 24 departments into five new regional governments. The incident was detailed in a police report obtained by The Associated Press. The referendum, set for Oct. 30, will test a proposal pushed by President Alejandro Toledo aimed at providing local governments more autonomy from the central government and a greater share of resources.

The rebels, who authorities believe are members of the Maoist-inspired guerrilla group, warned the residents to not cooperate with police.
They also reportedly told residents of the village, 360 kilometers (223 miles) southeast of the capital Lima, that they would provide them with the necessary protection to continue growing coca - the raw material for cocaine - despite government efforts to eliminate the crop. Police said they believe the rebels belonged to a column led by two guerrillas identified as "Comrade Alipio" and "Comrade Nancy."
Nancy? Now there's a name to strike fear into.....nah
The Shining Path launched a campaign of car bombings, sabotage and assassinations in 1980 to overthrow the government and install a communist state. The fighting took nearly 70,000 lives, although the violence dropped off significantly in 1992 following the capture of the group's founder, Abimael Guzman, and other key leaders. Several hundred guerrillas continue to operate in Peru's highland jungles, where they run protection for cocaine traffickers.
Posted by: Steve || 10/12/2005 14:39 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  El Sendero Luminoso de Jose Maria Mariategui...a force to be reckoned with under the charismatic Guzman...but without him?
Posted by: borgboy || 10/12/2005 15:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Somebody forget to put the final stake in the heart.
Posted by: 3dc || 10/12/2005 16:16 Comments || Top||

#3  Well, the source for the story is AP. Don't trust everything you read.

Assuming the story is true, 40 communists intimidating a single village is pretty small potatoes.

And everyone say Hi to Lori Berenson, who is still rotting away in prison, for supporting these assholes.
Posted by: gromky || 10/12/2005 16:56 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Caucasus Corpse Count
Four policemen have been killed in Russia's rebel Chechnya and neighbouring Dagestan, a region suffering increasingly from the overspill of separatist violence, local media and police said on Tuesday.

News agencies reported that the bodies of two of the policemen were found in Chechnya -- where separatists have fought Russian rule for a decade -- after being kidnapped earlier this year.

The agencies said the body of a 19-year-old woman who worked at the local administration was found with one of the police victims near the regional capital, Grozny.

In Dagestan, another Muslim region that is growing increasingly unstable under the impact of the violence from Chechnya, gunmen killed two police officers on Monday before fleeing into a road tunnel about 50 km (30 miles) east of Makhachkala, the region's largest city.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 10/12/2005 00:54 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Al-Qaeda operatives smoked in Ingushetia
Russian forces have killed two militants in the North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia close to the border with Chechnya. It was reported that the militants were obeying Al Qaeda orders. One of the militants blew himself up during the fight, ITAR-TASS news agency reported, citing the local security service press center. A source in the Prosecutor General’s directorate in the North Caucasus was quoted by the RIA-Novosti news agency as saying the militants were linked to Al Qaeda. However, a directorate official quoted by Interfax could not confirm this information. “The armed people resisting federal forces are unambiguously members of illegal armed groups. It is too early to speak of their involvement in Al Qaeda,” the official said. The source that mentioned the Al Qaeda links added that one of the militants had managed to escape and that law enforcement structures in the region were searching for him.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 10/12/2005 00:44 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


China-Japan-Koreas
U.S. accuses North Korea of $100 bill counterfeiting
The Bush administration formally has accused North Korea of manufacturing high-quality counterfeit $100 "supernotes" for the first time, according to an indictment made public yesterday as part of a 16-year probe. "Quantities of the supernote were manufactured in, and under auspices of the government of, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea)," said the indictment of Irish national Sean Garland and six others. "Individuals, including North Korean nationals acting as ostensible government officials, engaged in the worldwide transportation, delivery, and sale of quantities of supernotes."

It was the first time the federal government provided details of North Korea's suspected counterfeiting of U.S. currency. The May 19 indictment was unsealed Saturday after Mr. Garland was arrested in Belfast. A Justice Department spokesman said the State Department will file a formal extradition request for Mr. Garland in the next several days. Mr. Garland, leader of the Marxist-Leninist Worker's Party, an arm of the Official Irish Republican Army, used his party contacts in North Korea and other nations to coordinate the purchase of fake $100 bills forged in North Korean, the indictment stated.

"This arrest is one of the most significant related to the 16-year-long investigation into the distribution of this family of highly deceptive counterfeit U.S. currency notes," said U.S. Secret Service Special Agent James B. Burch, head of the Washington field office. The indictment accuses Mr. Garland of meeting with North Korean government officials in Warsaw in 1997 to buy a quantity of supernotes.

The indictment is the second major U.S. case involving North Korean supernotes. In September, authorities in California arrested several Chinese nationals in connection with suspected North Korean supernote trafficking. That indictment, however, only identified North Korea as "country 2."
And we all know what happens to "number two's"
U.S. officials said identification of North Korea as the source of the counterfeit notes was delayed in order not to upset the six-party talks in Beijing on North Korea's nuclear arms program. A tentative agreement on Pyongyang's dismantling of its arms program was reached last month.

Mr. Garland and the six other men are charged with conspiring from 1997 to 2000 to buy more than $1 million in supernotes from the North Koreans during travels in Ireland, Britain, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Germany and elsewhere. Mr. Garland, through his lawyer, has denied the charges. He was released on bail Saturday.
The indictment also said that North Korea successfully modified its forged notes to include the new "big head" $100 bill -- so named for its larger likeness of Benjamin Franklin -- after the U.S. Treasury Department redesigned the bill in 1996 in an effort to thwart counterfeiters.

Prosecutors also accuse Mr. Garland of attempting to mask North Korea as the source of the counterfeit notes by limiting those with knowledge to a close circle of associates and telling others that Russia was the location where they were produced. Using his position as Worker's Party leader and his Dublin business known as GKG Communications International Ltd., Mr. Garland would make official party visits around the world to make arrangements for the supernote purchases, the indictment said.

The indictment indicates that North Korea was using its diplomatic outposts in Russia, Belarus and Poland to provide the supernotes to Mr. Garland and his accomplices. The six co-defendants charged in the indictment are outside the United States and are being sought by U.S. and British authorities.
Posted by: Steve || 10/12/2005 14:23 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  State-sponsored counterfeiting is, no matter how you look at it, equivalent to a declaration of war.

Solutions, anyone?
Posted by: .com || 10/12/2005 15:23 Comments || Top||

#2  You know that not even a nuke with Kim's fingerprints being found in Central Park would be casus belli anymore, don't you?
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 10/12/2005 15:41 Comments || Top||

#3  A 16-year probe?
Posted by: Seafarious || 10/12/2005 16:17 Comments || Top||

#4  Iran is doing it too.
One of the stories is that Clinton was going to shoot some cruise missiles at the factory but after considering the cost of the missiles compared to the actual number of bills counterfied figured it wasn't worth it. One has to wonder if any of those bills helped finance 911.
Posted by: 3dc || 10/12/2005 16:18 Comments || Top||

#5  "A 16-year probe?"

To paraphrase F Scott Fitzgerald:
"Civil service employees are not like you and me, they have job security."
Posted by: .com || 10/12/2005 16:46 Comments || Top||

#6  It's like prosecuting the mob: you can know they're guilty, but finding the smoking gun that let's you nail the biggies is hard.

Doubly so when you go after another government.
Posted by: lotp || 10/12/2005 16:58 Comments || Top||

#7  Garland took the fake notes to Birmingham for further distribution throughout the UK. They also were distributed using diplomatic pouches by NK envoys to Moscow. Doesn't this tie official state sponsorship of terrorism to the UN?
Posted by: Danielle || 10/12/2005 16:58 Comments || Top||

#8  They should be referred to the UNSC. That'll teach not to share.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 10/12/2005 17:08 Comments || Top||

#9  Brer: I read your comment as "They should be referred to the USMC." That would a great idea.
Posted by: Classical_Liberal || 10/12/2005 17:37 Comments || Top||

#10  Not suprising this is just one of many illicit things the Norks have been doing. Another major thing is Meth production enmass and shipped to S. Korea and Japan. Counterfit money is something I think all sides cladestant forces use in some amount. I dont know about tantemount to war but this should definatley qualify as a end to all Aid in any form from the US, and further Isolation. I personally think we should just tell the Norks to suck it and starve and in the mean time put up a blockade and tell the Norks all thier ships have to either go to S. Korean ports for inspection or ship goods to the S. then on out. Their is not much they could do to stop this and who cares if they build Nukes. Kim Il is bent but he is also a aithiest that values life and he knows full well even if he did hit a west coast US city his and all his bretheren would be glass filler. In the mean time he could just sit and pray his people dont wake up and kill him before they all starve to death. Either way isolated and cut off. His only trade route beside sea is thru China that a simple warning that if the Norks got caught sending weapons to X nation the Chinease would be treated as Co-Defendant. China dont like US but they arent stupid.
Posted by: C-Low || 10/12/2005 17:41 Comments || Top||

#11  Overheard at the US Mint:
"Hey Joe! Crank up ol' Betsy. We're supposed to produce three billion Korean Won by next tuesday..."
Posted by: mojo || 10/12/2005 17:49 Comments || Top||

#12  hehe

What is the only thing an American truly cares about... yes greenbacks

ribbit
Posted by: Angugum Unumble6535 || 10/12/2005 17:53 Comments || Top||

#13  Angugum's about as smart as he/she/it sounds. Fuckwit.
Posted by: .com || 10/12/2005 18:29 Comments || Top||

#14  Mr. Garland, through his lawyer, has denied the charges. He was released on bail Saturday.

Which he paid with a stack of sequentially numbered $100 bills.
Posted by: Scott R || 10/12/2005 20:00 Comments || Top||

#15  Angugum Unumble6535 = Definitely
it
class.
Posted by: Red Dog!! || 10/12/2005 20:16 Comments || Top||


Europe
Holland looks into Banning Islamic Niqab
Dutch Immigration and Integration Minister Rita Verdonk is to investigate the possibility of banning the wearing of the niqab which covers the body of the Muslim woman entirely and only shows her eyes. She made the announcement during a session of the Dutch parliament, in answer to a question from right-wing independent MP Geert Wilders, but indicated the ban would not take effect immediately. Instead, it would come to effect after a law is passed forbidding women to wear the niqab, during certain times and in specific locations, after consulting the authorities, including the security services. According to Wilders, those who wear the niqab are difficult to identify and be seen by those around them. He demanded the veil be outlawed in public spaces and government buildings.

An estimated million strong Muslim immigrants live in the Netherlands, the majority from Morocco and Turkey. In the past, Wilders had made a number of requests in parliament, which caused great concern with the Muslim community in the Netherlands. In the wake of the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh by an Islamic extremist of Moroccan origin, he pleaded for a number of mosques to be shut down and imams extradited. In neighboring Belgium, a number of local councils have started to fine women who wear the niqab in public. With the federal government not interfering with local decisions, provinces are fee to act as it they fit and respond to local concerns.
Posted by: Fred || 10/12/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Okay, this is getting muddled...

The niqab is the traditional Arabian style face veil. Think of those black velvet paintings...

The burqa is like the niqab, around here it connotes the Afghan style face-veil - the mesh thingy.

The abaya is the head to toe potato sack.

A "full burqa" is an abaya integrated with the mesh face veil.

Got it? Lol. Now take it off!
Posted by: .com || 10/12/2005 7:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Groups of wymyns wearing the traditional black (Arab style) abayas are referred to as MBO's (Moving Black Objects) or Ninjas.
Posted by: .com || 10/12/2005 7:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Oops, almost forgot. There is also the yowza.
Posted by: .com || 10/12/2005 8:01 Comments || Top||

#4  Mandatory hot pants and tube tops.
Posted by: ed || 10/12/2005 9:24 Comments || Top||

#5  In Australia they are called mailboxes.
Posted by: Grunter || 10/12/2005 14:49 Comments || Top||

#6  "In Australia they are called mailboxes."

I haven't heard that one... Um, what, exactly, are called mailboxes? The veils, the whole pkg, gaggles of them in public?
Posted by: .com || 10/12/2005 14:55 Comments || Top||

#7  Why don't they make Horse Blinkers for musos?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 10/12/2005 16:25 Comments || Top||

#8  Hiding ones face in public should be a crime. Their can be no good reason for it.

No one who can't be visibly indetified should be allowed in a government building ever. They should not be allowed to work in the secular government at all ever.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 10/12/2005 16:27 Comments || Top||

#9  The whole package is the mailbox, and the eye slot is where you pop in the letters.
Posted by: Grunter || 10/12/2005 18:29 Comments || Top||

#10  Heh, gotcha, Grunter - that's a good one. It's a bizarro sight along the Corniche - the road in the al Khobar / al Dammam area that runs along the coast of the Gulf of Rumsfeld - to see gaggles of mailboxes picnicking with their families... Everyone else is recognizable as a person - with these black amorphous masses hovering over the scene... Then, to make it even more bizarre, there are the young Saudi males dragging the Corniche to check out the "chicks" - in their ninja get-ups. What can they "see"? Beats the hell out of me. They must develop a special eye or sense to be able to tell anything, including species, about what they're looking at from 30+ yards away. Freaky.
Posted by: .com || 10/12/2005 18:43 Comments || Top||

#11  So what do the womed do at the picnics, .com, about shovelling in food? One would need some kind of an access port through the cloth.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/12/2005 19:01 Comments || Top||

#12  It's got a thread loop sewn at the upper corner of the face veil on one side and a hook it slips over sewn on the head portion - or at least the one I saw up close did... They unhook the veil, snarf up a bite, and re-hook to chew. You realize we're not supposed to get so close that we can actually see such things - dat be some Islamic Overlord's pet y'know - though I have, lol, once in a grocery store... but that's another story, heh.
Posted by: .com || 10/12/2005 19:11 Comments || Top||

#13  maybe it's an olfactory decision, PD
Posted by: Frank G || 10/12/2005 19:30 Comments || Top||

#14  You referring to scoping out chicks? From 30+ yds away? Heh.
Posted by: .com || 10/12/2005 19:37 Comments || Top||

#15  yeppers....and the amount of flies/seagulls they attract
Posted by: Frank G || 10/12/2005 19:46 Comments || Top||

#16  Standing in line behind a transplanted arab woman the other day at Safeway. She was so ugly that when the checkout lady asked her.."paper or plastic", I interupted and said.."PAPER!"
badda bing badda boom.
Posted by: Red Dog || 10/12/2005 20:31 Comments || Top||

#17  Be sure to double bag.
Posted by: ed || 10/12/2005 20:56 Comments || Top||

#18  #8: Hiding ones face in public should be a crime. Their can be no good reason for it.

Batman, Robin,The Lone Ranger, Zorro, Catwoman, Spiderman, The Shadow, The Phantom, and about 50 copycats, ;)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 10/12/2005 21:24 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Would-be Bush assassin's confession aired
A U.S. citizen accused of joining Al Qaeda and plotting to assassinate President Bush said in a videotaped confession that he was motivated by hatred of American support for Israel. Ahmed Omar Abu Ali also said on the tape, played in court for the first time Tuesday, that a top Al Qaeda operative in Saudi Arabia "made it clear I became one of them and that I could speak in the name of Al Qaeda." The 13-minute confession was videotaped in 2003 by authorities in Saudi Arabia, where Abu Ali attended college. His attorneys want the confession thrown out. They argue that the 24-year-old falsely confessed after being tortured and whipped by the Saudis, and they say U.S. authorities were complicit in the torture. Prosecutors deny Abu Ali was mistreated.

U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee viewed the videotape Tuesday over defense objections, saying he wanted to observe Abu Ali's demeanor. At several points on the black-and-white videotape, Abu Ali could be seen yawning and chuckling to himself. When he discussed his training with a Kalashnikov rifle, he pantomimed a rifle attack. Other parts of the tape appeared to be a monotone regurgitation of a statement that prosecutors have acknowledged was written for him by the Saudis. Prosecutors also have said he was given an opportunity to revise the statement. In the confession, Abu Ali says he "was interested in jihad and the idea of mujaheedin" because of "my hatred of the United States for support of Israel against the Palestinian people." He said he discussed numerous possible terrorist acts with two Al Qaeda leaders in Saudi Arabia, Ali abd al-Rahman al-Faqasi and Sultan Jubran Sultan al-Qahtani. They encouraged him to return to America, integrate into society and establish an Al Qaeda cell, he said. Abu Ali said he favored the idea of assassinating Bush rather than attacks on military targets or plane hijackings "because it would be easier to carry out because he appears in so many public places."

Prosecutors allege that Abu Ali, who grew up in Virginia, joined Al Qaeda while in Saudi Arabia and confessed to plotting terrorist acts, including assassinating the president and U.S. senators. He is charged with conspiracy to assassinate the president, conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy and contributing services to Al Qaeda, and could face life in prison if convicted. The defense argues that U.S. authorities worked with the Saudis to investigate and denied Abu Ali's constitutional rights to an attorney and to remain silent. Several FBI agents testified Tuesday that the Saudis investigated and interrogated Abu Ali on their own. The pretrial hearing on the validity of Abu Ali's confession is expected to continue into next week.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 10/12/2005 00:42 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Judge "BRUCE LEE" oughta kick this guys ASS himself!!!!!
Posted by: ARMYGUY || 10/12/2005 7:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Transfer the case to a different Judge...



Any thoughts, Bear?
Posted by: Elmoper Omereque5097 || 10/12/2005 9:25 Comments || Top||

#3  This kid's smirk drives me nutz.
Posted by: Seafarious || 10/12/2005 12:35 Comments || Top||

#4  dittos Seafarious

I'll never remember this asshat's name but that smirk I may never forget.
Posted by: Red Dog || 10/12/2005 13:08 Comments || Top||

#5  The smirk of a troll.
Posted by: Shipman || 10/12/2005 15:45 Comments || Top||

#6  #5: The smirk of a troll.

Let's see if he still smirks as the firing squad assembles.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 10/12/2005 21:27 Comments || Top||


Iraq
The Iraqi Army in Action
October 12, 2005: Despite the controversy over independent operations certification, that has been in the news recently, the Iraqi military has clearly been coming into their own. Iraqi combat divisions have taken over security work in several parts of the country. On October 3, the 6th Iraqi Division assumed formal authority over Baghdad's central and northern districts, where it has been operating for several months. Also operating in the Baghdad area is the Ninth Iraqi Division (Mechanized), which has been teamed up with the U.S. 1st Armor in raiding operations over the major road networks. The Iraqi 4th Division has been conducting raids and cordon and searches along the Tigris River Valley north of Baghdad, up to Tikrit. The Iraqi 2nd Division has been operating with good success in extending control in and around Mosul out to Tal Afar. A battalion of the Iraqi 2nd Division was moved to Tal Afar at the end of August by the Iraqi 23rd Air Transport Squadron (operating C-130 airplanes). This was the first report of the new Iraqi Army supported by the new Iraqi Air Force.

The on-going Anbar (central Iraq) province campaign has been firmly anchored by the 1st Iraqi Division, which is also called the Iraqi Intervention Force (IIF). This Iraqi Division has and continues to conduct operations in and around the gateway cities of the Euphrates River Valley – Fallujah, Ar Ramadi, Rawah, and Al Khalidiyah. Units of this Division have a year or more of combat experience. The Division consists of 4 brigades (each with 3 battalions). The IIF has received intense training for urban operations including the art of street fighting and building clearing. In addition to the Intervention force, the Iraqi Army has two elite battalions. The Commando Battalion is a Ranger-type strike force. The Iraqi Counter-terrorism Battalion is trained for insertion and extraction to conduct hostage rescue or leadership raids. These elite forces are selected for experience and undergo extensive screening and background checks. The operations by their nature are more elusive to track.

The Iraqi 5th Iraqi Division has been undergoing training exercises in and near Kirkuk including raids and mass casualty training. The training includes actual operations. At the end of August, elements of the Iraqi 5th Iraqi Division performed six-day combined operations involving elite Iraqi Special Operations Forces. The 8th Iraqi Division operates and trains on the road network between the two rivers south of Baghdad. Several battalions of this Division have completed initial certification toward independent operations. The training is focused on counter-insurgency operations, cordon and search, check points, and patrolling. The training for independent brigade and division operations is continuing. Like all training beyond basic in the new Iraqi army, “live” action is involved, since Iraqi 8th Iraqi Division units have reportedly conducted over 100 operations capturing weapon's caches and apprehending suspected terrorists.
Posted by: Steve || 10/12/2005 09:32 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Quagmire?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 10/12/2005 9:56 Comments || Top||

#2  How long before MSM claims that these tactics are being used against our own forces?

Too much training of Iraqi forces -- Headline in 5, 4, 3, ...
Posted by: Master of Obvious || 10/12/2005 10:11 Comments || Top||

#3  Hmm. 3rd Division seems to be missing from that list. Still in training?
Posted by: Mitch H. || 10/12/2005 10:39 Comments || Top||

#4  "Today in Washington, there are renewed fears that the Iraqi army has grown too strong, despite eliminating most of the insurgency. As most US troops return home, will George W. Bush legacy be one of recreating the army of the former regime of Saddam Hussein. We'll get differing opinions tonight from our experts. On the right Patrick Buchanan and from the left, Donna Brazile." [Courtesy MSNBC 2007]
Posted by: Covert Floridian || 10/12/2005 10:42 Comments || Top||

#5  Hrm. News reports put an Iraqi 3rd Division in Western Ninevah, around Tall Afar.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 10/12/2005 10:42 Comments || Top||

#6  You think the neighborhood is starting to take notice? Damascus? Ryhad? Istanbul? Theran?
Posted by: john || 10/12/2005 10:58 Comments || Top||

#7  How many well trained Iraqi divisions does it take to stop Syria and Iran from sending bombers and bombs over the border, and start soiling their pants instead ?
Wouldn't you think the neighbors would play nice now ?
Posted by: wxjames || 10/12/2005 11:02 Comments || Top||

#8  Well trained and battle hardened. Outside of Israel, the Middle East has never seen a force of this advanced capability. The neighborhood has changed.
Posted by: john || 10/12/2005 11:03 Comments || Top||

#9  All the training and equipment in the world matters little unless there is proper motivation, loyalty and dedication. It doesn't necessarily take years of training to create an effective unit. Sounds like they are starting to move beyond simply getting their feet wet. Are they viewing this as a fight they must win or else. Do most of them see it as a struggle for their future. That is the real test. They have to have a sense of having a real stake in something the outcome of which matters to them otherwise it's just another job with all the ramifications that entails.
Posted by: GrandfathersArmy || 10/12/2005 11:06 Comments || Top||

#10  The Pentagon is playing to the MSM's delusions, to end up utterly humiliating them again. They do this because they know the media has figured out a catch-22 'defeat at any price' scenario:

"If things are going badly, then the US should cut its losses and leave. But if things are going well, then the US is no longer needed and should leave."

The way you defeat such nonsense, is to be more nonsensical. In the face of 8 fully operational, deployed and engaged Divisions, you complain that only 1 Battallion is "certified". After taking down 500 enemy, you highlight that you lost five men. If nothing else, you self-criticize over how enemy prisoners are treated.

The idea is that any *unbiased* individual will take a look and know that it is nonsense. And they won't question the Pentagon, they will question the MSM who unabashedly focused on it, for being stupidly credulous. And this makes the MSM shrill, *insisting* that the nonsense is important, facts be damned.

That is why blog media criticisms circulate like wildfire. They are the little boy pointing out that the emperor is naked.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 10/12/2005 11:37 Comments || Top||

#11  Well things are not as bad as CNN would have you believe but they aren't completely rosy either.

1. Ramadi, a very big city, is again a mess of terrorist and criminal gangs and so are some smaller cities and towns.

2. Shia militia (possibly Kurd militia also) have been wiping out Sunni civilians who they identify as terrorist enablers. The fatalities are, I think, in the hundreds each month. This has been going on for a while but has been stepped up over the past few months without being noticed by CNN, etc. For now, this activity has been a very positive thing but it will have to be stepped down at some point.
Posted by: mhw || 10/12/2005 12:51 Comments || Top||

#12  The Commando Battalion is a Ranger-type strike force

This has got to be the 1 "certified 1" batallion.
Posted by: Shipman || 10/12/2005 13:10 Comments || Top||

#13  "without being noticed by CNN, etc."

Kinda hard to see from a Green Zone hotel bar, I'd wager. Which is fine with me - we're past the point where the MSM can be trusted with facts to report, anyway. We'll have to keep spreading the word the old-fashioned, albeit new-tech enabled, way.

I look forward, eagerly, to the day these young people of the US Military are home and become politically active. They will swamp the Ritters, et al, as well as the entrenched asshat Pols we suffer now. Big changes coming in the future. LTC Kurilla, and those with similar ethics and experience, may not have the patience with the "system" he needs to run for office, but what a voice, what a powerful force against the lies and distortions, he (they) will be. Just my opinion, but I believe big changes will come post-Iraq.
Posted by: .com || 10/12/2005 13:19 Comments || Top||

#14  From Tigerhawk at http://tigerhawk.blogspot.com/2005/10/lt-gen-david-petraeus-speaks-at.html
after attending a Princeton meeting with General Patraeus presenting:
-------
The other interesting question involved the "public relations" war. "Are we losing the PR war to the enemy? What are you doing on the marketing PR front?"

General Patraeus said that they have given the media an enormous amount of information, including countless important metrics for measuring progress, but that it is largely ignored. He observed that the enemy “On many days it is impossible to break through the steady drumbeat of sensational attacks occurring in Baghdad throughout the country. The opening of the new military academy got no coverage at all, even though it was a big event with the whole Iraqi government in attendance."
Posted by: Sherry || 10/12/2005 14:11 Comments || Top||

#15  Those big changes will start coming soon as the vets return home and replace the aging and ineffective boomer donks.
Posted by: Ulaise Slung7208 || 10/12/2005 14:13 Comments || Top||

#16  I look forward, eagerly, to the day these young people of the US Military are home and become politically active.

Petraeus for President!
Posted by: Parabellum || 10/12/2005 19:28 Comments || Top||


From Ayman to Zarq With Love - Full July 9 Letter Contents
A senior American intelligence official said Tuesday that a document obtained this summer by American forces in Iraq had provided the United States with "a comprehensive view of Al Qaeda strategy in Iraq and beyond" and a revealing glimpse into "the intentions of the enemy."

A complete version of the 6,000-word document, a letter in Arabic from Ayman al-Zawahiri, the No. 2 leader in Al Qaeda, to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the group's top agent in Iraq, was made available Tuesday for the first time.

In it, Mr. Zawahiri told Mr. Zarqawi that the American occupation of Iraq had provided Islamic militants with a historic opportunity to win popular support.

"Our planning must strive to involve the Muslim masses in the battle, and to bring the mujahed movement to the masses and not conduct the struggle far from them," Mr. Zawahiri said in the letter, dated July 9.

Officials at the Defense Department and other government agencies first disclosed the existence of the letter last week, but at the time agreed to release only three sentences. In releasing the full text on Tuesday, in Arabic and English, the office of John D. Negroponte, the new director of national intelligence, took the extraordinary step of posting it on his office's Web site, www.dni.gov.

The letter, written in calm, sophisticated language, included injunctions to Mr. Zarqawi to keep in mind the political as well as the military aims of the anti-American insurgency in Iraq, where Mr. Zarqawi leads the group Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. The senior American intelligence official said a comprehensive review had left no doubt that it was sent by Mr. Zawahiri, an Egyptian physician who has served as Al Qaeda's principal strategist.

The letter alluded to difficulties facing Al Qaeda's leaders, including what Mr. Zawahiri calls "the real danger" posed by the Pakistani military in its searches for militants in northwestern Pakistan, near the Afghan border, where Mr. Zawahiri and Al Qaeda's leader, Osama bin Laden, are believed to be hiding.

Full 13-page letter available at link
Posted by: Captain America || 10/12/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ixnay on the Illing-kay the Ia-shay, and PS send money soon.
Yeah, sounds calm and sophisticated to me.
This is priceless. A letter from a beaten man.
Posted by: Grunter || 10/12/2005 1:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Here is the link to the letter in case you don't want to click through the NYT (flash ad) and DNI (not immediately apparent where the letter is) websites.
Posted by: 11A5S || 10/12/2005 8:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Seems like a repost to me, my comments therefore are a repost of the other thread's.

What I find interesting is that al-Zarqawi is chided by al-Zawahiri for (allegedly? apparently?) being "deceived by the praise of some of the zealous young men and their description of you as the shaykh of the slaughterers, etc. They do not express the general view of the admirer and the supporter of the resistance in Iraq."

Should I take this to mean that al-Zarqawi not only has his own autonomous outfit riding al-Qaida's coattails (hence the name "al-Qaida in Iraq") but is surrounded by yes-men?

This might explain why al-Zawahiri sounds to me borderline reverential towards al-Zarqawi, emphasizing that al-Zarqawi is the man on the ground and begging for "from the front" news... which in turn might say a lot about al-Zawahiri's own level of communications and ability to network.

Oh, and two questions about al-Zawahiri's lengthy 'discussion' of the Shia question:
#1: "Imam Ali Bin Abi Talib, may God honor him" The heck, what's a Wahhabist saying this for???
#2: Is it just me, or does he make al-Zarqawi's fatwas look schizophrenic by covering all the bases in that big, question-filled paragraph?

By #2, I mean al-Zarqawi's flip-flopping on the Tater Tots...
Posted by: Edward Yee || 10/12/2005 8:33 Comments || Top||

#4  I really like the part where Ayman has to hit up Zarq for $100,000. Priceless.

Also, boo hoo hoo about his wife and kids. Payback is a bitch, huh, Ayman. Unfortunately, it seems that he has a back up breeder and has already cranked out another little bomb guidance system, er child. And Ayman, if you don't want to see your little family tragedy replayed within the 5 PSI overpressure line (prolly the 2 PSI o/p line given third world construction methods) a few hundred million times over, then you might want to think about ending all of these little jihadi games.

After hanging around Rantburg these last few years, me thinks that the real reason that Ayman is upset over Zarq's tactics is that Zarq is now getting the full advantage of the Golden Chain while Ayman is whithering on the vine. I honestly don't think Ayman could give a damn otherwise.

Interesting that Ayman is having to justify his existence to Zarq (I published all these tapes and articles, really Zarq) rather than the other way around. In fact, in the letter, Ayman practically annoints Zarq as Caliph. I think that Binny is dead.
Posted by: 11A5S || 10/12/2005 9:10 Comments || Top||

#5  What I find most informative is him stateing(in around about way),several times,just how isolated he is.
Posted by: raptor || 10/12/2005 13:24 Comments || Top||

#6  Upstaged by a sociopath's sociopath who seems not to have read, understood or agreed with the AQ gameplan/masterplan. It's gotta hurt after all the effort OBL and sidekick Ayman put into the grandiose PR efforts. Brother can you spare 75 cents please I gotta get my sat phone turned back on to stay in the game.
Posted by: MunkarKat || 10/12/2005 14:04 Comments || Top||


Iraqis Reach Breakthrough Deal on Charter
Iraqi negotiators reached a breakthrough deal on the constitution Tuesday, and at least one Sunni Arab party said it would now urge its followers to approve the charter in this weekend's referendum. Under the deal, the two sides agreed on a mechanism to consider amending the constitution after it is approved in Saturday's referendum. The next parliament, to be formed in December, will set up a commission to consider amendments, which would later have to be approved by parliament and submitted to another referendum.
Strikingly similar to America, 1789: we wrote a Constitution, and in order to address concerns turned around and put together twelve amendments (of which ten were ratified). This is a great deal, if it holds, and pretty much should allow a federal Iraq to come into being.
The agreement boosts the chances that the draft constitution will be passed Saturday. Shiite and Kurdish leaders support the draft and the United States has been eager to see it approved to avert months more of political turmoil, delaying plans to start a withdrawal of U.S. forces. In return, the agreement guarantees Sunni Arabs the ability to try later to introduce major changes they want, aimed at reducing the autonomous powers that Shiites and Kurds would have under the federal system created by the charter, negotiators said.
Posted by: Fred || 10/12/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  the two sides agreed on a mechanism to consider amending the constitution after it is approved in Saturday's referendum

I quite agree. Having an amemdment process allows the constitution to remain a living document. That was the real problem with the EU's constituional effort -- they tried to answer all present and future needs at one go, and ended up with an unwieldy, unacceptable monster. Maybe next time the Europeans will learn from the Iraqis' experience. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/12/2005 13:01 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas Militants, Would-Be Bomber Captured
EFL:Israeli forces disguised as vegetable vendors captured a senior Hamas operative who had been on the run for eight years, while others caught a 14-year-old boy whom militants tried to push into becoming a suicide bomber, the army said Wednesday. Israel's new arrest raids across the West Bank came as part of a recent crackdown on militants following Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip last month. Undercover forces - some disguised as vegetable vendors - arrested Ibrahim Ighnimat, a Hamas militant linked to a 1997 suicide bombing that killed three Israelis, four shooting attacks and the kidnapping and killing of an Israeli soldier, the army said. Israel has been hunting for Ighnimat, 47, for eight years and has doggedly collected information about him, said Lt. Col. David Kimchi, commander of the operation. Troops followed Ighnimat for several days and learned his daily routine before the arrest in the village of Tsurif, Kimchi said. The "vegetable vendors" were used to get forces into the town _ considered one of the more hostile in the Hebron region, he said. Ighnimat was sitting in the yard of his house when the soldiers arrived and tried to flee, but was arrested almost immediately, Kimchi said.

In another raid, the army arrested a 14-year-old Palestinian boy who told his interrogators that militants from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades _ which has ties to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement _ pressured him to carry out a suicide bombing after he quarreled with his father. Militant groups have increasingly turned to youths to carry out attacks in recent years, hoping the army would be less suspicious of them. The boy, identified by militants and his parents as Salah al Jitan, would have been one of the youngest Palestinian suicide bombers. Salah's parents, who confirmed their son is 14, said that after they quarreled with him about a month ago, five armed Al-Aqsa militants came to their house to tell them to leave the boy alone. Last week, they came again, this time to take him away for a suicide bombing, said his father, Moussa al Jitan. The father said Salah did not want to go, adding that he would not let them take him. The teenager did not leave the house until Israeli forces arrested him Monday, a move his parents welcomed. "Good, he will be in jail. That's better than dying," said Sariel al Jitan, his mother. The teenager said the militants threatened to kill him and tell everyone he was a collaborator with Israel if he didn't carry out the attack, the army said. Jamal Tirawi, an Al-Aqsa commander the army accused of recruiting the boy, said the account was "a lie." Tirawi said Salah was 17 and approached the group to volunteer to carry out an attack. Al-Aqsa refused because he is the only son in his family, Tirawi said. "The boy is lying, and the Israelis are lying," he said.

Meanwhile, in Dahariya, southwest of Hebron, a gunbattle erupted after troops surrounded a house and called on Hamas fugitive Haitham Battat to surrender. Battat was wanted in connection with a suicide bombing in Beersheba in May. During the fighting, bulldozers began demolishing the home, and Battat's mother was brought in to urge him to surrender. Shouting into the loudspeaker, she told him she loves him. Five minutes later, the fugitive left the house with his hands up.
Posted by: Steve || 10/12/2005 14:32 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "yeah, everyone's lying! Only I, scumbag Jamal Tirawi, tell the truth!"
Posted by: Frank G || 10/12/2005 18:40 Comments || Top||

#2  If I was Jamal, I would be keeping clear of vegetables.
Posted by: john || 10/12/2005 19:21 Comments || Top||

#3  "Uh, hold on guys -- I gotta go. I think I hear my mother calling...."
Posted by: Haitham Battat || 10/12/2005 19:28 Comments || Top||


IDF Deploys New Radar System Near Gaza
The IDF has deployed a sophisticated new radar system near the Gaza Strip, which it is hoped will give early warning to Israeli residents of incoming Katyusha missiles, Kassam rockets and possibly mortar rounds, military sources have told The Jerusalem Post.

The system is the prototype for a state-of-the-art wider missile defense system, the Nautilus, which has been in joint development by Israel and the United States for almost a decade and is ultimately intended to be able to intercept such incoming fire with a high-energy laser beam.
The Halliburton Evil Zionist Death Ray, Mark II.
But it is not clear when, or even if, the full Nautilus laser gun, which in testing by the US has tracked and successfully intercepted Katyushas and mortar rounds, could be ready for deployment.

The system is also known as a Tactical High-Energy Laser (THEL). The radar has been in place for at least one month, but it is not known whether it successfully tracked any of the Kassams fired from the Gaza Strip last month following disengagement.

The IDF is testing the Nautilus radar to supplement the robust TPQ radar system already used to detect Kassam rocket attacks. The TPQ is the system which activates the Red Dawn alert sirens in Sderot and other borderline communities to warn residents of incoming rockets.

According to security sources intimately familiar with the design, the THEL radar is designed to track 15 targets simultaneously. The full system would then use a powerful laser to fire a beam intended to destroy incoming missiles, rockets and even some artillery and mortar shells. Sources said it is able to fire a beam every five seconds.

The program was started in 1996 to provide an answer to Katyusha threats along the Lebanon border. The US stepped in since it believed it could be developed as a mobile laser to give theater-based protection to its forces. Developed in conjunction with Northrop-Grumman, the project has cost nearly $90 million. It was supposed to be ready for the battlefield by 2007, but the program was recently shelved by the US since it proved too bulky to make the mobile version requested by the US Army. Israel is still hoping to salvage the program, because the issue of mobility is deemed less critical here.

The fixed version of the laser is apparently still at the White Sands missile range in New Mexico, but could possibly be sent to Israel should testing with the radar prove successful.

Home Front Command sources have said they are working feverishly to come up with a warning system that would detect incoming mortar rounds. Without mentioning the Nautilus, they have said a solution is very close.

In addition, a senior Home Front officer said they believe the Palestinians have reached the ultimate range of Kassam rockets and would not be able to increase the number of Israelis being threatened by the homemade missiles.
Posted by: Jan || 10/12/2005 00:20 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Over the ramparts of heavenly Zion, the Gipper is grinning...
Posted by: Ptah || 10/12/2005 7:49 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Wahid: Indonesian police or military may have played role in 1st Bali bombing
CHAOTIC scenes marred yesterday's third anniversary of the Bali bombings as a former Indonesian president suggested his country's military or police may have been behind one of the 2002 bombings.

A violent mob of 2000 angry protesters stormed Bali's Kerobokan jail, breaking down a wall outside the prison and demanding the execution of three of the Bali bombers.
Chanting "Kill Amrozi, kill Amrozi", the crowd removed part of the jail's main steel door before riot police stopped them from entering the prison where some of the Bali bombers are held.

The violence co-incided with the claim by former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid that Indonesian police or military officers may have played a role in the first Bali bombing.

Wahid told SBS's Dateline program that he had grave concerns about links between Indonesian authorities and terrorist groups and believed that authorities may have organised the larger of the two 2002 Bali bombings which hit the Sari Club, killing the bulk of the 202 people who died.

Officials and experts were quick to play down his claims which, if true, would have grave diplomatic consequences for Australia's relationship with its nearest neighbour.
Asked who he thought planted the second bomb, Mr Wahid said: "Maybe the police ... or the armed forces." "The orders to do this or that came from within our armed forces, not from the fundamentalist people."

Speaking in Jakarta last night, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said "it's just rubbish".

Singapore-based terrorism analyst Rohan Gunaratna said the report had "absolutely no credibility". "The Indonesian police have been doing a great job of hunting down the terrorists."

He said Indonesia's political leaders were committed to combating terrorism and there was "no evidence to suggest TNI (Indonesian military) involvement, either". "I can't understand why a man of his standing would be raising such issues," Mr Gunaratna said.

Greg Fealy, an Indonesian expert at the Australian National University, said Mr Wahid's claim was a "bizarre suggestion". "There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that the Indonesian police are in cahoots with the terrorists."

Mr Wahid's claims will not help the investigation into last week's Bali bombings, which left 23 people dead, including four Australians.

The protesters who tried to storm Kerobokan jail yesterday were seeking the three ringleaders of the 2002 bombings - Amrozi bin Nurhasyin, his elder brother Mukhlas and Imam Samudra. But the three were moved for security reasons to Batu prison on Nusakambangan, an island south of Java before yesterday's third anniversary of the attacks.

Dateline also reported claims that Indonesian intelligence had close links with many local terrorist groups. "There is not a single Islamic group either in the movement or the political groups that is not controlled by (Indonesian) intelligence," said former terrorist Umar Abduh, who is now a researcher and writer.

He has written a book on Teungku Fauzi Hasbi, a key figure in Jemaah Islamiah, who had close contact with JI operations chief Hambali and lived next to Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir.

He says Hasbi was a secret agent for Indonesia's military intelligence while at the same time a key player in creating JI.

Documents cited by SBS showed the Indonesian chief of military intelligence in 1990 authorised Hasbi to undertake a "special job". And a 2002 document assigned Hasbi the job of special agent for BIN, the Indonesian national intelligence agency.

Security analyst John Mempi told SBS that Hasbi, who was also known as Abu Jihad, had played a key role in JI in its early years.

"The first Jemaah Islamiah congress in Bogor was facilitated by Abu Jihad, after Abu Bakar Bashir returned from Malaysia," Mr Mempi said. "We can see that Abu Jihad played an important role. He was later found to be an intelligence agent. So an intelligence agent has been facilitating the radical Islamic movement."

Meanwhile the investigation into the second Bali bombings appears to have stalled.

Bali police chief Made Mangku Pastika yesterday denied the detention of 45-year-old construction worker Hasan was significant in the investigation into the triple suicide bombings, while senior police refused to confirm speculation in the local press that a man named Yanto was one of the three suicide bombers.
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World || 10/12/2005 16:54 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I taken to reading the jakarta Post online. There is clearly a lot of tension between the military and police, as the newly democratic government tries to rest control of the levers of power from the military without triggering a coup.

BTW, I think the reference to police is a misquote. Anti-terrorism responsibility was taken away from the military and given to the civilian police shortly before Bali (I believe), and it wouldn't put it past the military to have facilitated the bombings to prove the new policy was a mistake.
Posted by: phil_b || 10/12/2005 21:21 Comments || Top||


Lynch Mob Protesters try to storm Bali jail
Angry Indonesians have tried to break into a jail which houses convicted Bali bombers, on the third anniversary of the 2002 attacks on the island. Hundreds of protesters stormed the prison demanding the immediate execution of three militants sentenced to death for their role in the attacks. The three - Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Mukhlas - were moved to another jail on Tuesday amid security concerns. The crowd reportedly removed a prison door, but were then blocked by police.

The bombings on 12 October 2002 killed more than 200 people, and badly affected Bali's tourist industry. Earlier this month the island suffered another attack, when three suicide bombers killed 20 people.

The BBC's correspondent in Jakarta, Rachel Harvey, says that in sharp contrast to the aftermath of the 2002 attacks, the predominantly Hindu population of Bali has been spurred into action by this latest bombing.
There have been regular protests against the militants in recent days, as local people attempt to rebuild their lives for a second time in three years.

Wearing traditional Balinese headbands and sarongs, about 500 people tried to break into Denpasar's Kerobokan jail on Wednesday, shouting: "Kill Amrozi, kill Amrozi!" and "We have been waiting for three years." "Kill Amrozi! Give us back our peaceful Bali!"
Amrozi was the first militant to be arrested, and was nicknamed the "smiling bomber" for his apparent indifference to victims of the attacks.

While he, Imam Samudra and Mukhlas have been sentenced to death for their involvement in the attacks, they are still on death row waiting for the end of their appeals process. The crowd called for Amrozi's immediate execution, a demand which our correspondent says would be very hard to achieve under Indonesia's legal system. The mob was also angry that Amrozi and four other men had been moved from Bali on Tuesday to a more secure prison on the island of Nusakambangan, east of Java. "We are angry [Amrozi] has been moved from here," one protester, Endra, told the French news agency AFP. "We feel Amrozi is being protected by the government." A Bali security official was quoted by the Jakarta Post saying that following this transfer, 19 of the 30 men convicted of the 2002 attacks remained on Bali.

Wednesday morning began in Bali with a memorial service to the people who died in the attacks exactly three years ago. Relatives and survivors of the bombs gathered at Bali's Ground Zero to commemorate the event in a simple ceremony. They stood in front of the marble memorial to those who died to observe 202 seconds of silence, one for each of the victims of Bali's first bomb attack. Eight-eight of the dead were Australian - and some of those who knew them had made the trip to Bali for the service, where they were joined by Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. Others held separate events in Sydney and Melbourne.

Mr Downer said his country was committed to helping Indonesia in its battle against militants. Our enduring friendship, he said, will see the eventual demise of the terrorist menace. The commemorative events were planned long before the second attack on Bali earlier this month.
But according to our correspondent, the latest suicide bombings have added another layer of poignancy and grief to the occasion.
Posted by: Steve || 10/12/2005 08:42 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  wonder if Amrozi was still smiling?
Posted by: Frank G || 10/12/2005 9:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Downer should be saying he is interested in helping the Balinese. The Indos will do nothing. If he were really smart, he'd be in contact with the Balinese who want to leave Indonesia and set up a separate country.
Posted by: Huperesh Gleath3060 || 10/12/2005 9:26 Comments || Top||

#3  "... the predominantly Hindu population of Bali has been spurred into action by this latest bombing."

Right from the Z-Man's manual on How to Make Friends and Influence People. Bombings are finally getting results. Keep the good work up. We're not all Spanish.
Posted by: Thromble Chineting2817 || 10/12/2005 9:33 Comments || Top||

#4  A mob eager to lynch Islamic terrorists? It warms my heart!
Posted by: Sheik Abu Bin Ali Al-Yahood || 10/12/2005 13:08 Comments || Top||

#5  I doubt these guys will ever be put to death. Muslims don't kill outher muslims for killing unbelievers. The fact that let the proven head of JI go with a slap on the wrist and reduced prison time is all the proof you need. His "schools" are still operating and turning out islamoid death zobmies. What more evidence is required?

Indonesia will populate Bali with muslims and the natives will get the shaft like every other provence has. Islam must rule over all, it's in their holy book.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 10/12/2005 16:24 Comments || Top||

#6  Justifiably Angry Indonesians have tried to break into a jail which houses convicted Islamist murderers, on the third anniversary of the 2002 terrorist attacks on the islands hindu population. Hundreds of citizens stormed the prison demanding the immediate execution of three terrorists sentenced to death for their role in the bombing of civilians. The three muslims- Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Mukhlas - were moved to another jail on Tuesday to prevent the mob justice. The crowd reportedly removed a prison door, but were then blocked by police.

The terrorist bombings on 12 October 2002 murdered more than 200 people, as well as badly affecting Hindu Bali's main industry tourism. Earlier this month the island suffered another terrorist attack, when three Islamist suicide bombers murdered a further 20 people.

The Gramscian Broadcasting Corporations propagandist in Jakarta, Rachel Harvey, says that in sharp contrast to the aftermath of the 2002 attacks, the predominantly Hindu population of Bali has been spurred to respond forcibly to this latest attack on them. There have been regular protests against the islamic terrorism in recent days, as local people attempt to rebuild their lives for a second time in three years.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 10/12/2005 17:58 Comments || Top||

#7  "Keep that lynch mob out of the jail, Legume. If they got in here, they'd string those convicted bombers up in a heartbeat."

"Ah . . . sir, excuse me for what may be impertinence, but you did say, 'If they got in here, they'd string those convicted bombers up in a heartbeat,' did you not?"

"Yes, I did."

"But sir, isn't that a good thing? Stringing up bombers, that is? . . . Sir?"

"Well, now that you mention it, it does sort of seem not to have a downside, does it not?"

"My point exactly, sir."
Posted by: Mike || 10/12/2005 18:15 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Obituary: Ghazi Kanaan
Ghazi Kanaan was appointed interior minister in a major cabinet reshuffle in October 2004. Before joining the government, he was head of Syrian intelligence in Lebanon. The 63-year-old brigadier-general was born in the coastal governorate of Lattakia in 1942. He graduated from military college in 1965 and rose to become head of intelligence for the central region. He became a close aide to the late president, Hafez al-Assad, in the early 1970s.

Like his predecessor at the Interior Ministry, Ali Hammoud, Mr Kanaan had a long career at the top of the Syrian intelligence in neighbouring Lebanon. Between 1982 and 2002 he headed the security and intelligence branch in Beirut. Analysts say that made him the most powerful figure in Lebanon, to whom the country's military and political leaders reported directly on all major issues. In 2002 he returned to Damascus to head the Political Security Branch, where he remained until his cabinet appointment.

His appointment, four months ahead of his expected retirement, was said to be a confirmation of his "principal role" in the Syrian decision-making process. However, some observers say Mr Kanaan was appointed in response to a number of unprecedented security incidents in 2004, including the killing of a Hamas leader in a car bombing in Damascus that September, and clashes with the Kurdish minority in the northeast of the country. Lebanon's main English language newspaper, the Daily Star, described Kanaan as a "capable and reliable pair of hands".

Although he left Lebanon three years previously, he was thought to have maintained his influence in the country until Syria completed the withdrawal of its forces in May 2005. The pullout came after mass protests by Lebanese people and international pressure sparked by the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February. The US froze his financial assets in July, saying they aided terrorism in Lebanon, and banned American firms from doing business with him. The US Treasury Department alleged that during his time as intelligence chief he made certain that Syrian military intelligence officers played an active role Lebanese politics and supported the anti-Israeli resistance group Hezbollah. "In 2002, three rockets in a convoy allegedly escorted by Kanaan were personally delivered across the Syrian-Lebanese border to Hezbollah in Lebanon," the department said in a statement. Mr Kanaan was married with four sons and two daughters.
Buh bye, Ghazi. Say hi to Himmler for us.
Posted by: Seafarious || 10/12/2005 10:59 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Interesting....they must be unraveling the truth. A little trivia I also find interesting: Bin Laden's mother was from Latakia as well as his first wife, a cousin. He went there every summer with her and liked riding horses on the beach. I have suspected Mugniyey was behind Hariri's death, perhaps in conjunction with Bin Laden. He was too flashy, as one of the richest men in the world, for the envisioned Caliphate.
Posted by: Danielle || 10/12/2005 11:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Open question for Fred, Emily, Steve, AB and Pappy: does a 'suicide' merit the 1) fat lady or 2) accordion lady?

Does our opinion change if the autopsy reveals he shot himself twice in the head?
Posted by: Steve White || 10/12/2005 11:48 Comments || Top||

#3  I leave the fat lady graphic to Fred's jurisprudence. Above my pay grade, as the military types would say.

I always thought the Accordion Lady was here to entertain us while we await confirmation of a rumor that a Mr. Big has gone to meet his Maker. All too often though, the medical examiners forget to drive in the wooden stake and Mr. Big pops up a week later, AK-47 merrily blazing away.
Posted by: Seafarious || 10/12/2005 11:55 Comments || Top||

#4  How do we know even the body is really Ghazi Kanaan's?
Posted by: Glereper Craviter7929 || 10/12/2005 19:05 Comments || Top||

#5  Oh, it'll be easy, Glereper.

He's the corpse with one bullet hole in the palm of his hand, two in his belly and three in the back of his skull.
Posted by: Parabellum || 10/12/2005 19:12 Comments || Top||


Assad interview with CNN slated for 17:30 GMT
The Assad interview with CNN slated for 17:30 GMT is curiously awaited in Washington, Paris, Cairo, Riyadh and Jerusalem. The Syrian president is being squeezed hard by Waashington to back away from aiding the Iraqi insurgency, meddling in Lebanon and his sponsorship of Palestinian terrorists. The interview may presage a possible policy U-turn.
If Assad caves during a CNN interview, will they urge him not to give in to Bush?
DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources reveal: in the background of these events, Assad’s uncle Rifat Assad was a highly-honored guest of Saudi King Abdallah in Riyadh this week. Banished to Paris by his brother, former president Hafez Assad, for scheming against him, Rifat offered to return to Damascus to save his nephew, overhaul his government and security and patch up his relations with Washington. He proposed creating a pan-Arab observer force to police Syria’s border with Iraq and stem the flow of anti-US guerrillas and terrorists across.
SEE: Fox - Henhouse
Syrian vice president Farouq a Shara arrived in Riyadh at the same time, but the Saudis were not able to arrange for the two to meet.
Posted by: Steve || 10/12/2005 09:06 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  CNN is going to encourage the stupid Ass[ad] to continue business as usual. They need another war to whine and cry about. Ratings! Drama! They've all but conceded the Iraq theater to the Coalition. Its down to reporting drive-by's [drive-into's as well]. They certainly don't want to cover the Coalition/Iraqi successes along the river route.
Posted by: Thromble Chineting2817 || 10/12/2005 9:41 Comments || Top||

#2  pan-Arab observer force to police Syria’s border with Iraq

Yeah, right...
Posted by: Howard UK || 10/12/2005 10:44 Comments || Top||

#3  DEBKA is about as accurate as CIA's Directorate of Intelligence. Rummy's still got a few smoking holes in the ground in Syria however. CF-out.
Posted by: Covert Floridian || 10/12/2005 10:45 Comments || Top||


Damascus is building a proxy army of Palestinians into Lebanon
DEBKAfile Exclusive: Syria continues to pump armed Palestinians in Lebanon ahead of publication of the UN Hariri murder probe’s findings before Oct 25. Among the 1,300-1,500 fighting men sent from Damascus’ Palestinian refugee camps into Lebanon earlier this month, is a contingent of the radical Popular Front-General Common led by Ahmed Jibril. They have set up an forward operational command base in the Beqaa Valley town of Qusaya. They have also taken charge of combat units in the Palestinian refugee camps of Beirut, Burj al Berajneh, Sabra and Shatila, and placed them on the ready to repulse a possible Lebanese army offensive.

The 600 Palestinians manning Jibril’s longstanding fortified bunker base at Naama south of Beirut are also on alert. Among them are also members of the Abu Mussa breakaway Fatah splinter and Saiqa, the Palestinian terrorist group linked to the Syrian Baath party. The new arrivals were this week sighted practicing combat with live ammo for the first time since the 1980s.
Nice to get them all in one location
Posted by: Steve || 10/12/2005 09:02 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Meanwhile
Syrian interior minister commits suicide
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan committed suicide in his office on Wednesday, the state news agency said, three weeks after being questioned by a U.N. team probing the assassination of Lebanon's Rafik al-Hariri.
Posted by: gromgoru || 10/12/2005 10:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Sounds pretty UNWISE.
Posted by: closedanger || 10/12/2005 21:28 Comments || Top||


Syria's Interior Minister / ex-Intel Chief 'commits suicide'
Syria's Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan has committed suicide, the official news agency in Damascus says.
Did he fall? Or was he pushed?
One shot in the back of the head or two?
State media reports he ate his gun: "There was blood on his face the initial indications are that he put the gun in his mouth and shot himself," a political source said, adding the incident took place at around 11 a.m.
Colonel Mustard had no comment.
He was reportedly questioned by a UN investigator last month over the murder of ex-Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri. For many years Kanaan was Syria's powerful intelligence chief in Lebanon, which was dominated by Syria until its military withdrawal earlier this year. He returned to Damascus in 2002 as political intelligence chief and joined the cabinet in 2004. "Interior Minister Brig Gen Ghazi Kanaan committed suicide in his office before noon," the Syrian Arab News Agency (Sana) reported.
I've been expecting this. I just didn't know who was going to be the goat.
The authorities are carrying out the "necessary investigation" into the incident, Sana said. Hours before his death, Kanaan contacted Voice of Lebanon radio station and gave what he called his "final statement". He asked for his comments to be passed to other broadcast media.
"I want to make clear that our relation with our brothers in Lebanon was based on love and mutual respect...
we only control and assasinate those we love
We have served Lebanon's interest with honour and honesty," he said.
The UN report on Hariri's assassination is expected to be published before the end of October. Correspondents say it is likely to implicate Syria's intelligence regime and its allies in Lebanon in the bombing, that killed 20 people in central Beirut in February.
That'd be Ghazi, alright. Though, truth to tell, I thought it'd be one of his deputies nobody's ever heard of. Then he'd have been mildly criticized for not maintaining tighter control.
Big trouble needs a big scapegoat
Damascus has denied any involvement in the Hariri bombing, but it immediately came under heavy international pressure to relinquish its political and military control on Lebanon.
They can deny all they want, but the corpse says they dunnit...
The UN investigator, German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, questioned seven senior Syrian officials in Damascus during a visit at the end of September, Lebanese media reported.
I wonder how many others of the seven are looking nervously over their shoulders about now?
Between the 1980s and his departure, Kanaan was Syria's top official in Beirut, whom Lebanese leaders had to report to directly on political and security issues, correspondents say. The United States froze his assets there in July saying he had aided terrorism in Lebanon.
Let's see if this 'suicide' - whether unilateral or assisted - derails the push to hold Assad accountable.
My guess is that it will, in the short run. But they've been kicked out of Leb on Bashir's watch, and now one of his inner circle's had to take one for the team. I'm guessing Ghazali's on really thin ice, but that Bashir's little brother Maher won't be implicated. And I'll still stand by my ash heap of history by 9-11-2006 prediction.
Posted by: lotp || 10/12/2005 08:40 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He was reportedly questioned by a UN investigator last month
Apparently, he committed suicide a month too late...probably was going to be questioned again. No raisins for him:-(
Posted by: Spot || 10/12/2005 8:51 Comments || Top||

#2  From DEBKA: Radio Lebanon has just aired an interview with Syrian interior minister Ghazi Kenaan taped Tuesday, October 11. His suicide was announced by the Syrian news agency Wednesday. The late Gen. Kenaan stressed Damascus had always looked after Lebanese interests and concluded: “This is my last declaration.”
As longtime chief of Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon, he has come under suspicion as co-plotter in the murder of Lebanese leader Rafiq Hariri in the report due for release any day by the UN inquiry commission. As prop of the Assad regime from the days of Bashar’s father, Hafez, Kenaan’s death is a major upset for Damascus. Its occurrence hours before Assad was to go on the air for a landmark CNN interview suggests the president may have been preparing to sacrifice close aides to mute Washington’s pressure on his own policies.


Ghazi may now be found responsible for everything from the Hariri assasination to the breakup of the Beatles
Posted by: Steve || 10/12/2005 9:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Nah, the Beatles' were done in by the Jooos. Everybody knows that.
Posted by: lotp || 10/12/2005 9:20 Comments || Top||

#4  That explains Yoko Ono...
Posted by: Raj || 10/12/2005 9:34 Comments || Top||

#5  I wonder, how did he commit suicide --- by shooting himself in the back of the head a couple of times? Didn't somebody do it that way in Baghdad just before the war? Sounds more 'mafia' than islamist.
Posted by: Glenmore || 10/12/2005 9:41 Comments || Top||

#6  The technical term is he was abu Nidal'd.
Posted by: ed || 10/12/2005 9:45 Comments || Top||

#7  What makes anyone think he actually committed suicide? Geez, this sounds like a bad TV script.
Posted by: Curt Simon || 10/12/2005 10:05 Comments || Top||

#8  Syrian Assisted Suicide Syndrome...common ME medical condition.
Posted by: john || 10/12/2005 11:21 Comments || Top||

#9  It's difficult to believe that someone would commit suicide over a report from the UN. With their track record, I wouldn't believe the UN if they told me the sky is blue and water is wet.
Posted by: JerseyMike || 10/12/2005 11:25 Comments || Top||

#10  It's difficult to believe that someone would commit suicide over a report from the UN.

Jersey...You might if they threatened to kill you and everyone that is related to you if you didn't do it yourself.
Posted by: anymouse || 10/12/2005 12:32 Comments || Top||

#11  A prominent Lebanese legislator and journalist, Gebran Tueni, cast doubt on the report. ``It is not known for sure if he committed suicide, or was made to commit suicide,'' Tueni told Al-Arabiya from Paris. ``In Syria, there are some people who want to hide the facts, and don't want everything about the Syrian period in Lebanon to be known.''

"Do it for your children, Ghazi"
Posted by: Steve || 10/12/2005 12:32 Comments || Top||

#12  Sounds more 'mafia' than islamist.

Hey It's business, youse no.. just one of dem things.

Litta Pita got the contract to wack Big Fats and fu*ked it up. Badda Bing
Posted by: abu Carmine || 10/12/2005 13:00 Comments || Top||

#13  If you look at the party structure and operations of the Baathists in both Syria and Iraq, you will see a great many similarities to an organized crime family.

If you shoot yourself in the mouth, how do you get blood on your face?
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 10/12/2005 16:13 Comments || Top||

#14  Beat his own head in with a baseball bat?

Man, that's DEDICATION!
Posted by: mojo || 10/12/2005 17:42 Comments || Top||

#15  Yep, he shot himself six times in the head, paused briefly to reload, and shot himself six more times.
Posted by: DMFD || 10/12/2005 18:11 Comments || Top||

#16  well at least he didn't blow himself up....
Posted by: Frank G || 10/12/2005 19:18 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
Al-Qaeda TV suggests Hamas military wing now under Binny's aegis?
A fresh edition, the third to date, of a 'news bulletin' purporting to be al-Qaeda's appeared Tuesday on the Internet including an item suggesting that the military wing of the Palestinian Hamas group has joined the international Jihadist cause. "The information network of the Palestinian Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigade (Hamas' military wing) has created a video, 'the resistance will prevail' in which it exalts a great Jihad to free Jerusalem" said the bulletin's announcer, adding "may Allah help them stay firm on the road to the truth." The first edition of the newscast 'Sout al-Khalifa' (Voice of the Caliphate) appeared on the Internet on 21 September.

The choice of opening item gives the impression that the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigade, the military arm of Hamas, is entering the Jihadi galaxy alongside groups such as al-Qaeda in Iraq and Ansar al-Sunna, though to date there has been no proof of any link between al-Qaeda and Hamas.

In a marked change, the presenter - whose face is covered by a red Kefiya, (traditional Arab headgear) - appears without the rifle or the copy of the Koran which were alongside the newsreader in the previous editions.

The latest bulletin is dedicated to Ramadan and the presenter offering his greetings to Muslims for the start of the holy month.

Items include statements of the Islamic groups active in Jihad; al-Qaeda in Iraq, the Islamic Army in Iraq, Ansar al-Sunna and the Ezzeddin al-Qassam Brigades - the military arm of Palestinian Hamas.

The news broadcast focuses on the latest video by Ansar al-Sunna, entitled "the difference between the followers of the Merciful and those of Satan", which is accompanied by several minutes of footage showing Islamic mujahadeen and Iraqis fighting alongside American forces.

There is space too for a video by al-Qaeda in Iraq to commemorate the first anniversary of the death of Omar Hadid, head of the organisation in Fallujah. Also included is a list of the attacks carried out by Iraqi armed groups over the past week.

Regarding the announcement by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group that it had killed two American marines, the presenter reads the comments published in a statement by an Iraqi Al-Qaeda leader, Omar al-Baghdadi. He justifies the fact that a video proving the death of the two servicement had not yet been issued, saying this is not possible because the town of Ramadi is surrounded by US troops.

The presenter recalls that for the first time - reporting the alleged death of the two marines - the Qatari television Al Jazeera had defined Abu Maysira al-Iraqi as official spokesman of al-Qaeda in Iraq. He also criticises the fact that "the statement was read in only six news bulletins".

The newscast continues with the presenter reading the latest information of the situation in Gaza, informing the audience of the attempt by the Palestinian police to arrest the son of a Hamas leader, Abdelaziz Rantisi. In its description of the gunbattle that followed, it describes the Hamas militia as 'mujahadeen' on a par with those of other groups within the al-Qaeda galaxy.

The latest edition of "Voice of the Caliphate" concludes with brief news items about Afghanistan Egypt and Algeria. On Afghanistan there is news of the Taliban's actions against American troops and the arrest in Pakistan last week of the Taliban's spokesman, Abdelatif Hakimi in Pakistan.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 10/12/2005 00:46 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This channel seems to be riding the Palestinian issue extremely hard, obviously for propaganda reasons, so I don't see it as a sign of some sort of new alliance.

Of all the Palestinian factions active in the intifada, who else would Al Qaeda support other than Hamas?
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 10/12/2005 1:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Does it mean that Israel can exterminate them now, without Big Chief in DC blowharding?
Posted by: gromgoru || 10/12/2005 4:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Does this also mean WE can start executing hamas in the U.S.??? I know of a couple groups!!!
Posted by: ARMYGUY || 10/12/2005 6:57 Comments || Top||

#4  It would seem that the jhihad in Afghanistan is over, Iraq is terminal, and that it is time to move on to greener (Hamas)pastures.
Posted by: john || 10/12/2005 11:12 Comments || Top||

#5  When will Bush declare Hamas a terrorist org and everything and everyone associated with them as suspect and worth detention, questioning, and mid level torture ?
Posted by: wxjames || 10/12/2005 11:12 Comments || Top||

#6  The U.S. has not already declared Hamas a terrorist group?!?
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/12/2005 13:08 Comments || Top||

#7  Yes, we have - back on Nov 2, 2001. It's the Euros that keep insisting it matters that Hamas says it has a political wing (i.e. legit) and a military wing. Recall the arguments we've had over this since 9/11 with the EU.

The squirrels are posting disingenuous ankle-biting BS.

State Dept List.

The blowhard is gluglug. Same old dyspepsia and bile.
Posted by: .com || 10/12/2005 13:35 Comments || Top||

#8  Hamas is like the old Chicago Al Capone organization. They would set up soup kitchens for the poor and displaced during the Great Depression. Great PR and a way to buy loyalty for their main line of endeavor, which was illegal liquor, prostitution, drugs, in short, all the nasty mob interests. Hamas is into jihad and murder as their main line of work.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/12/2005 14:34 Comments || Top||

#9  "Hamas is like the old Chicago Al Capone organization. They would set up soup kitchens for the poor and displaced during the Great Depression. Great PR"

Kind of like the unions and the US Democratic party back then? Always a back door into politics.
Posted by: closedanger || 10/12/2005 21:27 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan-Pak-India
A front-row seat in the plodding war on the Taliban
This is the first in a three-part series of articles from the Christian Science Monitor. Their reporter is embedded with the 82nd Airborne as they work to evict the Taliban from the southern villages of Afghan Land ...
BADO KALAY, AFGHANISTAN – The squad jumps from the back end of a Chinook helicopter into a swirl of sand kicked up by the rotors. We take positions on the bank of a mountain stream and pause in silence, scanning the hillside for movement.

The eight-member team is young - the oldest is 28 - and all are fighters of the elite 82nd Airborne, nicknamed the "Ghost Busters." Their mission: To work with about 40 US and 10 Afghan soldiers from a nearby base to sweep villages never before visited by US forces. They're looking for Taliban or their weapons.

For the next five days, I will have a front-row seat in what some call "The Other War," where 18,000 US troops continue fighting four years after ousting the Taliban government and sending Osama bin Laden into hiding. I will accompany a US Army squad carrying a mere 40 lbs. of body armor, notebooks, water, and MREs, while they carry up to 115 lbs. of "battle rattle" - guns, ammo, food, body armor, radios, and night-vision equipment.

Together, we will tell a lot of unprintable jokes, see a lot of sheep, find a few Taliban weapons caches, and try to reassure scared villagers.
See the rest at the link
Posted by: Seafarious || 10/12/2005 11:04 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Patrolling the endless tiny villages of rural Afghanistan truly re-defines iron man sport. What the correspondent misses by just going out with the pickets, is the real purpose of the exercise: shmoozing with the locals.

The US forces go out of their way to convey what every Afghan admires: a rich and very generous, powerful and overwhelmingly strong warlord. A warlord of warlords. And yet they always come in respect and bearing precious gifts. They ask for nothing in return, needing nothing. But if the Afghans wish to share information about their mutual enemies, then the generocity of the Americans is beyond belief. Quite literally.

An Afghan knows that he may risk his life by giving information, but by doing so, he may get the wealth of a dozen years of hard work. Just by the good fortune of having Americans around, he does not have to do the back-breaking labor of digging a meagre water well, instead getting a good well that will last for generations. For Americans seem to enjoy digging water wells, as they do it everywhere they go.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 10/12/2005 12:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Fascinating perspective, Anonymoose.:-) But even if less than perfect, this series of articles from the Christian Science Monitor, whose reports are referenced often by National Public Radio and other news media, marks the winning of a battle with the mainstream media. Perhaps one day we'll win that war.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/12/2005 12:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Well, I think the MSM is trying to migrate its embarassment into a "good war/bad war" dichotomy. Saying that they were actually *for* Afghanistan from the beginning, because it's such an obvious winner; and yet keeping their anti-war mantra up against Iraq.

They really were rattled by the first Afghan elections. It shook a lot of them to their bones. So now they are trying to have their cake and eat it, too. Most of them are still in the denial phase about Afghanistan, refusing to even mention it.

But I would never confuse this with their "coming around" to the big picture idea. They would have to renounce far too much to do that.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 10/12/2005 14:21 Comments || Top||

#4  Interesting comments... I think that MSM stalwarts like WaPo are inviting the occasional OpEd piece from non-Moonbats - such as the one that set me off the other day. First, I don't think they could write a balanced piece - they're too entrenched and awash in Kool Aid, themselves and it provides distance to maintain their "liberal" and "progressive" credentials. Second, it begins to open the window a bit to allow them to pretend to be "balanced" and merely reporting, not driving an agenda. Of course they presume we're all fools out here in flyover America - and don't notice the 50-1 ratio of crap to fact. Just beginning to cover their "bets".

It will be interesting to see what they do if the Iraqis pass the constitution - and actually begin to function as a republic. A WaPo Int'l desk Editor was on Fox this morning - and admitted passage would be huge, a major chip for Bush. He even opined that it would "make" Bush's presidency. He didn't acknowledge that this, and more, had already transpired in Afghanistan, of course. Can't expect him to actually be honest and balanced, merely to try to appear to be so.
Posted by: .com || 10/12/2005 14:50 Comments || Top||

#5  The Bush presidency was made the day the first "operatives" arrived in Afghanistan. The MSM is loath to say so. 8 years of Clintons refusal to do anything of note in the war that AQ was waging on us.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 10/12/2005 18:40 Comments || Top||

#6  SPO'D, you're right on the money there.

When those airliners destroyed the twin towers I said to myself "This Bush guy had better do something about these mutha farkers!"


He did. And I've supported him ever since. Pretty much.
Posted by: Parabellum || 10/12/2005 19:09 Comments || Top||


Taliban tactics
October 12, 2005: When they get the chance, the Taliban seems to have been undertaking coordinated ambushes of late. The pattern apparently is that they set up a series of ambushes along the route they suspect an Afghan or Coalition patrol will pass – or perhaps have intel about. They let the patrol through one or two of the ambushes, and hit it with the second or third trap. That way, they can hit any relief column that approaches by the same route, or re-ambush the patrol as it tries to press on or retrace its steps. This trick probably won’t work too often, especially now that it’s become apparent that’s what they’re up to.

At least one prominent Taliban leader seems to be quietly urging the rest of the leadership to accept “amnesty and reconciliation” with the new Afghan government. Reportedly former Justice Minister Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, one of the most radical clerics during the Taliban regime (he supervised the religious police and directed the destruction of the two giant sandstone statues of the Buddha in Bamian), he is working with great caution, as he fears assassination by even more extreme elements.
Posted by: Steve || 10/12/2005 09:21 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Islamo-cockroaches are no different than the drug lords of Mexico and Central/South America, US gangs, and the old-school Mafia. It's a one-way street.

What they have to realize is that they made choices...and may have to make the ultimate choice for the greater good.
Posted by: anymouse || 10/12/2005 10:04 Comments || Top||

#2  During the Soviet war, the Afghans pulled off one of the most appalling ambushes I have ever heard of. For their part, the (unknown) Russian commander in charge rivalled British General Elphinstone as one of the most incompetent commanders of all time.

A major highway connected two large cities. On one long stretch, it passed through a narrow valley between two long mountains. Oddly, on both ends of the highway, at the entrance and the exit of the mountain pass, were bridges over deep gorges. To protect this section of highway, there was a chain of outposts on *one* of the mountainsides facing it.

The Afghans crossed over the backside of that mountain, to engage the protective outposts from above. Before they were overwhelmed, and their positions taken, they radioed calls for help to both cities, who sent large armored and infantry reaction forces on the highway. Their air support was delayed for several hours, because of coordination problems.

The two reaction forces met on the highway, about at the middle area between the two mountains. Then the Afghans blew both bridges, trapping both reaction forces in the open. Tanks, tracks and trucks were then mercilessly hosed for several hours, until they were wiped out.

Then the Afghans withdrew back across the mountaintop over which they had come, leaving only a few of their number behind. When eventually, a huge number of Soviet CAS arrived, the only ones left to greet them were this few number.

Each of whom had several Stingers.

And thus, as the icing on the cake, many Soviet aircraft and helicopters joined the wreckage of the tanks, tracks, trucks, and human remains on the valley below.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 10/12/2005 12:20 Comments || Top||

#3  and remember you can thank Jimmy (Give peace a chance) Carter and Zbigniew Brzezinski for those Stingers. Reagan and the Elephants get a bad rap.

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/episode-17/brzezinski2.html
Posted by: anymouse || 10/12/2005 12:29 Comments || Top||


Rockets fired at Afghan capital
A rocket exploded outside the residence of the Canadian ambassador in the Afghan capital today, wounding a guard, while a second damaged a government building, police said. The pre-dawn attacks came hours before a visit by US Secretary for State Condoleezza Rice to the capital for talks with President Hamid Karzai and other Afghan officials. The residence is tucked away behind a heavily fortified street of the diplomatic enclave, about 1km from the presidential palace, the US embassy and headquarters for the NATO-led peacekeeping mission.

The second rocket landed inside an intelligence department office not far from the palace, police said. No one was wounded but that it had caused some damage, they said. Residents said another rocket had hit elsewhere in the city, but this could not be immediately confirmed.
"Thank God the rockets did not come during the day time, otherwise it would have caused lots of deaths," a senior city police told Reuters.
It was not immediately clear who fired the rockets, but a policeman guarding the site of the attack outside the residence blamed Taliban guerillas. No Taliban member could be immediately reached for comment.

Kabul has come under a series of rocket attacks since US-led forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001 but they have not caused any serious damage or casualties. The attack is the latest in a spate of violence by militants in the country, mostly in the south and east, in which dozens of people have been killed after last month's presidential and parliamentary polls. The violence included five suicide attacks, one in the capital that killed more than 10 national army officers two weeks ago, and four in less than a week in the southern city of Kandahar where four British government officers were wounded. Eighteen national police were killed in adjacent Helmand province on Monday.
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World || 10/12/2005 01:54 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "No Taliban member could be immediately reached for comment."
If these guys can be "reached for comment", why can't they be "reached to pop them".

Posted by: plainslow || 10/12/2005 9:27 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
GSPC kills 2 in Algeria
Islamic militants with suspected links to al Qaeda stormed a coffee house and cut the throats of two people in eastern Algeria days after voters approved an amnesty for rebels, newspapers reported on Tuesday.

Newspapers El Watan and Le Quotidien d'Oran quoted survivors as saying about 30 rebels, disguised as security forces, were preparing to slit the throats of another 18 civilians when lights from a vehicle prompted them to flee to a nearby forest.

The attackers, suspected members of the Qaeda-aligned Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), believed the vehicle was a police car, the newspapers said. The attack happened on Sunday.

Authorities were not immediately available for comment.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 10/12/2005 00:58 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan-Pak-India
Hard boyz kill 18 Afghan coppers
Eighteen Afghan policemen died in an ambush by insurgents in the southern province of Helmand, a government spokesman said on Tuesday, in the latest spate of violence by suspected Taliban militants.

It is the deadliest attack on the German-trained Afghan national police since U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001. The ambush occurred in Helmand's Registan district on Monday afternoon and was followed by a clash that went on until early Tuesday, an interior ministry spokesman said. "As a result of the ambush or clash, 18 policemen were martyred and four others wounded," the spokesman, Mohammad Yousuf Stanekzai, told Reuters.

A senior provincial police was among the victims, Stanekzai said. He did not know if there were any casualties among the attackers, whom he described as "Afghanistan's enemies", a term often used by Afghan officials to mean Taliban and their al Qaeda allies.

The attack occurred in an area infested with drug traffickers, militants and beset with strife stirred up by feuding tribes. Violence has increased in several parts of southern and eastern Afghanistan in recent weeks, coinciding with last week's start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Militants believe they will receive a big reward from Allah if they either die or kill while fighting enemy forces in the holy month.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 10/12/2005 00:52 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Remember back in 03-04 when some dhimmis wanted us to break off hostilities in Afghanistan during Ramadan?
Posted by: mhw || 10/12/2005 8:28 Comments || Top||

#2  .....suspected Taliban militants.???

What, you think maybe the Smurf Liberation Front is involved?
Posted by: john || 10/12/2005 10:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Smurf Liberation Front?
After the Belgian UNICEF ad ...

ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

Smurfette, former TV star whose severe injuries were depicted on Belgian TV, says she will go to New York UN headquarters and give everyone a good left hook!

"I can now park in the Blue zone, which matches what there is left of me..."
Posted by: BigEd || 10/12/2005 11:37 Comments || Top||

#4  LOL! Now all I need is a button-sized version of that suitable for use as a link, and a home link for the "Smurf Liberation Front." I could put it next to the "Free Piglet" button at my 'blog. (And I really need to add a "Free Speedy Gonzales" button too one of these days).
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 10/12/2005 20:14 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
Egypt denies existence of al-Qaeda Sinai base
An Egyptian security source denied in comments published Tuesday Israel's claim that Al-Qaeda network established a base in the Sinai Peninsula. Al-Gumhuriyah daily quoted the source as saying "that there is absolutely no Al-Qaeda base in Sinai," adding that the security forces are still operating in Sinai to control "all elements still at large within Al-Halal mountain after taking part in the recent Sinai attacks."

On Sunday, Israel's Intelligence Chief Gen. Ze'evi-Farkash said Al-Qaeda had built at least one base in Sinai, from where activists are sent to Gaza Strip and from there to Israel.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 10/12/2005 00:45 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Proof positive that it DOES exist, AFAIAK.
Posted by: Ptah || 10/12/2005 7:42 Comments || Top||

#2  The Sinai is home to the ancient mines. They dug vertical shafts into the rock, then extended horizontal tunnels large enough to work in underneath the rock. Earthquakes have sometimes concealed the entrances with falling rock, as was the case with the Qumran caves, but the ancients were far more talented than most would imagine. Petra is quite the carved city, with towering pillars and facades fairly recently unearthed. I have no idea how this was done, but I wouldn't be surprised if Bin Laden had a new cave complex high in the hills. The stated goal has always been Israel, Jerusalem in particular, so Al Qaeda in the Sinai and Gaza should surprise no one.
Posted by: Danielle || 10/12/2005 10:23 Comments || Top||

#3  It was done by using hammers and chisels of harder stone on softer stone, Danielle, as a diamond scratches glass. They just took things slower in the olden days, is all. :-)

It is interesting how only weeks ago Egypt was saying that the attacks on the Sharm hotels was clearly an act of Al Qaeda - Beduin branch, and now they're saying AQ isn't there. I wonder what they discovered in their search for the perpetrators?
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/12/2005 11:53 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan-Pak-India
LeT, JeM, HuM, Hizb ul-Mujahideen, and Badr bases crippled by quake
While the reports say that the deadly earthquake has crippled militant's infrastructure in Pakistan administered Kashmir, a second attempt to infiltrate the Line of Control was foiled today by the Indian army.

Military intelligence sources in Indian administered Kashmir revealed that several wireless intercepts have highlighted that militant groups, Lashkar-e-Taibba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Hizbul Mujahideen and Al-Badr have suffered heavy causalities.

A defense spokesperson reported that the Indian army killed eight militants as it foiled a second infiltration attempt in the Nowgam sector of the Kupwara district from across the border, since the killer earthquake struck Jammu and Kashmir on October 8, 2005.

Five AK assault rifles, one shutter gun two pistols and a large quantity of bullet ammunition and explosives were found by the RAB belonging to the killed militants, the spokesman said. This was the second unsuccessful attempt by militants, following Sunday's attempt in which eight militants were killed by the troops in Gulmarg of the Baramulla district.

The Lashkar-e-Taibba hospital and madrassa (religious school) which operate in Muzaffarabad, in Pakistan controlled Kashmir are completely damaged. Muzaffarabad was the epicenter of the earthquake that struck on Saturday morning killing thousands on both sides of Kashmir.

On Sunday, a statement issued by Syed Salaudin, chairman of the United Jihad Council, an umbrella organization of militant groups based in Pakistani Kashmir declaring the suspension of all operations in Indian Kashmir. A statement followed it from Jamait Ultafa to the media saying, "We have lost many of our men, several lie buried. Several are critical so we announce the temporary suspension of all activities."

The Indian army chief, General J. J Singh also stated Tuesday, that training and recruitment camps operating in Pakistan controlled Kashmir might have been 'affected' in Saturday's killer earthquake. He told media, "many of the camps were located in the Balakot, Manshera, and Rawalkot areas of Pakistani Kashmir, so when entire villages in these areas were wiped out, it is likely that these militant camps were also affected."

Tehrik-ul-Mujahideen (TuM), said the buildings of some organizations around Muzaffarabad had been damaged with "boys (militants) buried under it." They added that the majority of the training camps were located near the epicenter of the quake with Lashkar's office and hospital in Muzaffarabad destroyed.
Quelle horror.
The three camps of Lashkar-e-Taibba at Muzaffarabad headed by Zakir-ul Rahman and each having at least 100 recruits, have also been demolished by the earthquake. Twenty kilometers north of that location, another Lashkar camp was situated at Manshera, which has also been destroyed by the devastating earthquake. The recruitment camps of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Al-Badr at Batrassi and Ougi and Hizbul Mujahideen at Jungle-Mangal, have been damaged largely, the sources said.

Security experts in Indian administered Kashmir say that Pakistan has refused Indian assistance because Indian presence would have disclosed the fact that Pakistan ran militant camps, which Pakistan has always denied.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 10/12/2005 00:39 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Guess what is top on the list of places to be repaired?

I wonder how much humanitarian aid will be diverted to repair terrorist training schools.
Posted by: gromky || 10/12/2005 2:44 Comments || Top||

#2  They added that the majority of the training camps were located near the epicenter of the quake with Lashkar's office and hospital in Muzaffarabad destroyed.

Good.
Posted by: Ptah || 10/12/2005 7:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Gee, which side is GOD on ?
Posted by: wxjames || 10/12/2005 11:15 Comments || Top||

#4  How on earth did Bush and Halliburton pull that one off? I thought their earthquake machine was still in testing.
Posted by: LongPoll || 10/12/2005 17:50 Comments || Top||

#5  We've moved on to phase two.
Posted by: Halliburton Earthquake/Tsumani Division || 10/12/2005 19:17 Comments || Top||

#6  Obviously not on LeT, JeM, HuM, Hizb ul-Mujahideen, and Badr's terror operations side.

How many more to go? Be specific on location. I AM sure the rest may be leveled quite easily.
Posted by: closedanger || 10/12/2005 21:18 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks & Islam
Al-Qaeda in Iraq Has Replaced the Mother Organization in Afghanistan
The Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF) – an Islamist organization that posts online messages, usually associated with Al-Qaeda, posted on August 29, 2005, on various Islamist forums, a document dealing with the warfare policy of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. The document was signed by someone identifying himself as a Saudi named Abu Abdallah Ahmad Al-Imran.

The following are main points:
  • Al-Zarqawi Has Become Commander of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, and Perhaps Even in the Entire Middle East and North Africa
  • Many Saudis went to Iraq in order to join Abu Musaab Al-Zarqawi, who was well known in Afghanistan.
  • After the fall of the Ba'ath party, Al-Zarqawi's organization emerged under its previous name: Jamaat Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad
  • Then came the great alliance: Zarqawi swore an oath of allegiance to Sheikh Al-Islam the Imam and Jihad fighter, Osama bin Laden, and became the commander of Qaedat Al-Jihad in Iraq, and perhaps in the entire Middle East and North Africa
  • Zarqawi employs three main courses:
    1. The first course – isolating the American army: targeting Arab translators
    2. The second component is targeting policemen and the Iraqi National Guard
    3. The second course [sic] is targeting ambassadors, both Arab and foreign, to isolate the Iraqi government
      "As for the claim that it is forbidden [by Shari'a] to kill the emissaries [i.e., the ambassadors], this is a completely erroneous claim, since the ban on killing emissaries applies to those to whom the emissaries are sent. If Algeria had sent its ambassador to Qaedat Al-Jihad in Iraq, then it would have been forbidden for the organization to kill him, since he would have been protected [by the ban]. [But] he [i.e. the emissary] was not sent to us... The Jihad fighters in Iraq, who are waging a holy war against the Crusader alliance, have repeatedly warned all countries not to dispatch their ambassadors, since their fate will be death. So they [the fighters] are not to blame...
    4. The third course is targeting the infidel militias and the leaders who represent heresy and atheism among the Shiites
      "We must clear the scene of all rivals now, before the American forces withdraw, at which point a bitter war will begin against this treacherous army [of] 'the descendants of Al-'Alqami.'"

      "The targeting of the Badr Brigades aims to accomplish two goals: to avenge the Sunnis and Sunni religious scholars who were harmed by the Shiites, and to destroy this army before the area is free of Americans, so that the path will be clear for the Jihad fighters to take control of Iraq, establish Shari'a courts, suppress innovation and deviation from religious law and custom, and [put an end to] reprehensible actions.
  • Qaedat Al-Jihad in Iraq is in fact the re-establishment of another Al-Qaeda organization which spreads Jihad around the world, just like the mother organization did after Afghanistan.
  • Abu Musaab Al-Zarqawi spent over a year preparing for the war against the Americans before the American invasion of Iraq, establishing bases and stores and recruiting supporters – especially in the Najd and Hijaz regions and in Yemen – and these supporters then became [his] recruitment agents in these regions.
High on a Throne of Royal State, which far
Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Hind,
Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand
Showrs on her Kings Barbaric Pearl & Gold,
Satan exalted sat, by merit rais'd
To that bad eminence; and from despair
Thus high uplifted beyond hope, aspires
Beyond thus high, insatiate to pursue
Vain Warr with Heav'n, and by success untaught
His proud imaginations thus displaid.
Posted by: Fred || 10/12/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  IOW, now that IRAN is dev nukes, Zarqy-babe is daring Dubya to invade IRAN, and by extens helping Hillary get elected by getting America involved in another MSM-verified "quagmire", a "quagmire" which, unlike IRAQ-AFGHANISTAN, Dubya and America can NOT be successful vv OSAMA = SALADIN/SELIM = TRUE MAHDIS PC Cult-of-Pesonality, plus the risk of Sino-Russo intervention. Zarqy's taeching position at Penn State can't be saved unless the Federal level of Gummint, and only the Fed level, expands, expands, E-X-P-A-N-D-S-S-S TO GLORIOUS COMMIE-SOCIE SUPER-WELFARIST, SUPER-SUBSIDIST, DEFICIT-RIDDEN/WRITE-OFF PHILLY CHEESESTEAK HEIGHTS.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/12/2005 0:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Thanks, Fred, for the John Milton passage(Paradise Lost 2nd book) A great classic of the West. I hope that we do not lose these good things of the west that few really appreciate, it seems.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/12/2005 0:20 Comments || Top||

#3  Zarqawi swore an oath of allegiance to Sheikh Al-Islam the Imam and Jihad fighter, Osama bin Laden, and became the commander of Qaedat Al-Jihad in Iraq, and perhaps in the entire Middle East and North Africa

and has his eye on Binny's Gold Turban thinking; "Why not me? I'm doing all the fighting."
Posted by: Steve || 10/12/2005 8:29 Comments || Top||

#4  The Milton image popped to mind as soon as I read this, only with Beelzebub sitting on the throne, muttering into his beard against Satan...
Posted by: Fred || 10/12/2005 10:24 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan-Pak-India
70 Lashkar bad boyz killed in quake
Approximately 70 militants of the outlawed group Lashkar-e-Taiba died in the massive earthquake which struck Pakistan and part of Kashmir on October 8, a party leader said on Tuesday.
Was Hafiz Saeed among them, we hope?
The guerrillas from the Pakistan-based Lashkar, now known as the Jamaat-ud-Daawa, died in Muzaffarabad after the 7.6-scale quake struck the region.
Yep. That was where God struck them dead.
A leader of the underground outfit, Maulana Abdul Aziz Alvi, said that the group had taken a severe blow.
"I mean, Allah is really cheesed at us!"
"This casualty figure may cross 100 and even more, as we have no information about those killed in other areas of Muzaffarabad," he said.
"I guess we're lucky the Lord didn't chase down and kill each of us personally..."
The group members who survived the earthquake were attending funerals after every two to three hours, he said, while the Jamaat's religious schools and mosques had been razed to the ground.
That's evidence enough for me. See you in church, Sunday morning...
More than a dozen members died when the roof of the party office collapsed during a meeting, he said.
That's worth at least a twenty in the collection box...
"People are in desperate need of tents, blankets, medicine and water," he said, criticising the government its slow response. A Jamaat spokesman in Lahore said that party chief Hafiz Saeed was not in the region at the time of the quake and was still alive.
Damn. I was hoping he'd been squished to a pulp when a mosque dropped on him...
"The Jamaat has a strong following in all the earthquake-hit areas.
"... which is why the earthquake struck where it did. Muzaffarabad was the epicenter of the earthquake, y'know. Now the survivors are all coming down with boils and I've heard there's a swarm of locusts on the way. We figger it's because we don't get enough shariah in our lives, of course..."
"Saeed is safe and well," spokesman Yahya Mujahid said. "It's time to do jihad (holy war) of a different nature, by helping people in this hour of need.
Maybe it's time to give up Evil?
The Jamaat teams are working day and night," he said.
...and Allan knows best.
Posted by: Fred || 10/12/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Better dig out a Q'u'o'r'a'n out of the rubble and reread the Ops Manual relevant passages to see where they went wrong.

But we infidels know where they went wrong. No, it was not due to lack of piety. They have piety up the wazoo. It was due to the lack of knowledge of strength of materials and especially what certain materials do when you shake the sh*t out of them.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/12/2005 0:14 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm sure Hafiz Saeed's mansion is built solidly and expensively enough to withstand an earthquake. At least now he has his pick of the more attractive widows of his Jihadis, something he has shown a propensity for taking advantage of in the past.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 10/12/2005 1:08 Comments || Top||


'Pakistani and Indian nukes safe after quake'
Somebody was wondering about this yesterday...
Posted by: Fred || 10/12/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It was me. Link gives a VBS error...
Posted by: 3dc || 10/12/2005 0:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Try this.
Posted by: Unolush Whasing6501 || 10/12/2005 0:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Me too.

Here's another link.

More's the pity...
Posted by: DanNY || 10/12/2005 0:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Nevermind. Backslashes are getting stripped from the URL. Just search at Daily Times for "pakistani indian nukes." The story is the first search result.
Posted by: Unolush Whasing6501 || 10/12/2005 0:53 Comments || Top||

#5  I don't doubt that the Indian nukes are safe.

But I perhaps suspect that may be less true for the Paki side. It might also have wreaked havoc on their production facilities which I thought were in the northwest part of the country...
Posted by: DanNY || 10/12/2005 8:16 Comments || Top||

#6  I gotta believe (hope?) that part of putting up with Perv is making sure we know the nukes are under control.
Posted by: Whiger Omeath9910 || 10/12/2005 9:35 Comments || Top||

#7  Aren't nukes fairly delicate creatures? Can we hope that after all this excitement, the technicians will have to take each one apart to make sure nothing inside was jostled out of alignment, and that they aren't quite as careful putting the things back together again?
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/12/2005 11:48 Comments || Top||

#8  TW-
Actually, my guess would be that these weapons aren't assembled and ready for use. Would be a lot safer if you had the weapon in one place, the pit in another, and then assembled it.
Safer for Perv, that is. Hard to work Allah's will with an incomplete weapon.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 10/12/2005 19:50 Comments || Top||



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Wed 2005-10-12
  Syrian Interior Minister "Commits Suicide"
Tue 2005-10-11
  Suspect: Syrian Gave Turk Bombers $50,000
Mon 2005-10-10
  Bombs at Georgia Tech campus, UCLA
Sun 2005-10-09
  Quake kills 30,000+ in Pak-India-Afghanistan
Sat 2005-10-08
  NYPD, FBI hunting possible bomber in NYC
Fri 2005-10-07
  NYC named in subway terror threat
Thu 2005-10-06
  Moussa Arafat's deputy bumped off
Wed 2005-10-05
  US launches biggest offensive of the year
Tue 2005-10-04
  Talib spokesman snagged in Pakland
Mon 2005-10-03
  Dhaka arrests July 2000 boom mastermind
Sun 2005-10-02
  At least 22 dead in Bali blasts
Sat 2005-10-01
  Leb: 'Army deploys troops along Syrian border'
Fri 2005-09-30
  Fatah wins local Paleo elections
Thu 2005-09-29
  Hamas big turbans run for cover
Wed 2005-09-28
  Syria pushing Paleo battalions into Lebanon

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