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Algerian security forces bang Ali Abu Dahdah
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Afghanistan
US to hunt the Taliban inside Pakistan
I wonder how much of this article is true?
KARACHI - Since last September, North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces in Afghanistan have been pressing Islamabad for the right to conduct extensive hot-pursuit operations into Pakistan to target Taliban and al-Qaeda bases.

According to Asia Times Online contacts, NATO and its US backers have gotten their wish: coalition forces will start hitting targets wherever they might be.

Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf is expected to
make an important announcement on extremism during an address to the nation in the next day or two.

The ATol contacts in Islamabad say that coalition intelligence has pinpointed at least four centers in the tribal areas of North Waziristan and South Waziristan on the border with Afghanistan from which Taliban operations inside Afghanistan are run. These bases include arms caches and the transfer and raising of money and manpower, the latter in the form of foot-soldiers to fight with the Taliban-led insurgency.

Operations inside Pakistan might be carried out independently by the United States, probably with air power, by Pakistani forces acting alone or as joint offensives. In all cases, though, the US will pull the strings, for instance by providing the Pakistanis with information on targets to hit.

Musharraf has apparently already told his military commanders, the National Security Council and decision-makers in government of the development.

Officially, both NATO and Pakistan deny any agreement on hot-pursuit activities. Major John Thomas, spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, told Asia Times Online, "The ISAF would not strike any targets across the border. That is not part of our mission. We work with the Pakistani government closely on cross-border issues. The ISAF does not have a counter-terrorism mission that I know of."

Similarly, the director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations of the Pakistani Armed Forces, Major-General Waheed Arshad, said NATO forces would not be allowed to intervene in Pakistani areas. He conceded that Pakistan is wary of growing extremism in the country, but said there is no threat of Talibanization.

"The Taliban are a problem for Afghanistan, not Pakistan. There are a few extremist groups operating in Pakistan and we have our own indigenous mechanism to counter them through law-enforcement agencies, and through paramilitary and military deployment," Waheed said.

Nevertheless, the ATol contacts are adamant that an agreement is in place for increased operations on Pakistani soil, given the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and US fears of al-Qaeda using Pakistan as a base for planning operations in the West. There are precedents.

Last month, US Central Intelligence Agency drones targeted a madrassa in North Waziristan, and 20 people were killed. CIA drones tried to take out al-Qaeda No 2 Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri in January 2006 in Bajur Agency. Zawahiri survived, but 18 people died. In December 2005, al-Qaeda leader Hamza Rabia was killed by a CIA predator aircraft in the town of Mir Ali, North Waziristan.

However, new operations, which could begin within weeks, if not days, are expected to be much larger in scale.

A border in name only
In recent meetings at both the policy and operational levels between Washington and Islamabad, it was acknowledged that Pakistan simply cannot control its border with Afghanistan. Pakistan has established numerous military posts in the tribal areas, but with distances of as much as 20 kilometers between them they can't stop the cross-border flow, especially given the rugged nature of the terrain.

On the Afghan side of the border, NATO and the Afghan National Army have also established posts, but they are even less numerous than on the Pakistani side and, given their isolation, are open to enemy fire.

While most of the Taliban's cross-border activity takes place from the Waziristans, it extends to Chaman, Zhob and Noshki in the southwest and Bajaur and Mohmand in the northwest.

In North West Frontier Province, the settled towns of Tank, Laki Marwat, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan have all but been taken over by the Pakistani Taliban and they recruit from these areas. The circle is expanding up to the Valley of Peshawar, which includes Peshawar city and Mardan. However, the Taliban's influence in the Valley of Peshawar is still basic.

On the other hand, a pro-Taliban force named Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Mohammadi (TNSM) has spread rapidly, and its influence ranges from Bajaur, Malakand, Swat Valley and Mingora. The TNSM sent 10,000 men to Afghanistan in 2001 to fight against the US-led invasion. The organization is dedicated to the enforcement of Islamic laws. Like the Pakistan Taliban, the TNSM uses scores of illegal FM radio stations as a propaganda tool, and its popularity increases with every passing day.

All roads lead to the mosque

All these pro-Taliban/al-Qaeda zones on the Afghan border have connections with the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad, run by outspoken brothers Maulana Abdul Aziz and Ghazi Abdul Rasheed. The brothers are openly pro-Taliban and also run large Islamic seminaries for boys and girls.

The Pakistani establishment believes Aziz is in fact the new leader of all the Taliban and al-Qaeda assets spreading through northwestern Pakistan, especially the zone commanded by the TNSM. Aziz delivers lectures by telephone every evening to TNSM members.

Lal Masjid has had numerous high-profile run-ins and standoffs with the government, but Islamabad has never risked an outright confrontation, given the power and influence of the brothers and their standing in the jihadist world.

They can be expected to organize sustained resistance should NATO/US forces launch attacks into Pakistan. Some reports claim that about 70 suicide bombers are waiting to be unleashed from the mosque. But any attack on the mosque could set off a chain reaction all the way from Islamabad to the Afghan border and beyond, in the process throwing Pakistan further into turmoil.

At this point in the "war on terror", this is something the US does not want, at least not until it has had one more crack at rooting out the Taliban and al-Qaeda from Pakistan. Washington has paid Pakistan about $1 billion a year for the past five years for its efforts in tackling terrorism. Now the US administration wants more return on that money.

Musharraf already faces intense opposition over his suspension of his chief justice on charges of malfeasance. Both political and religious opponents are riding the bandwagon with a vengeance, especially as the country faces presidential elections this year.

Senior US officials, including John Negroponte, the deputy secretary of state, and Richard Boucher, the assistant secretary of state, recently visited Pakistan to spell out to opposition leaders that the US is still behind Musharraf, although it will support the participation of secular, democratic political parties in government.

This development occurred even as Washington voiced its dissatisfaction over Musharraf's performance with regard to the Taliban: it pointed to Pakistan's clear involvement in supporting the insurgency in Helmand province since last year.

Indeed, the US was even prepared to withdraw its support of Musharraf, who seized power in 1999, but after a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney to Pakistan, the general remains in favor. Cheney's office is believed to run the United States' Pakistan policy.

The reasons are probably twofold: the US needs Pakistan's support should it attack Iran (covert operations into Iran are reportedly already taking place from Pakistan), and the US is concerned over the revival of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Pakistan.

With regard to the latter, the head of the US Central Command, Admiral William Fallon, followed up Cheney's visit, warning Islamabad that the US needs Pakistan's assistance and approval to confront the bases. He also made it clear that any delay on the part of Pakistan to allow NATO operations could result in another major terror operation in the West. And if that happens, Pakistan will face the music.

Musharraf has already agreed to take some prisoners from the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay (see Pakistan to help as the US's jailer, Asia Times Online, June 29). Now he's opening his doors to the United States' soldiers. It's a move fraught with danger for Musharraf and Pakistan, and one that could influence the direction of both the war in Afghanistan and the "war on terror".
Posted by: Sherry || 07/02/2007 14:38 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  Yeah, I'll believe it when the JDAMs start falling.
Posted by: danking_70 || 07/02/2007 14:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Nuke the border from orbit. It is the only way to be sure.
Posted by: DarthVader || 07/02/2007 15:07 Comments || Top||

#3  Okay. Just let us know where you want it.
Posted by: Halliburton: Earthquake/Tsunami Division || 07/02/2007 15:14 Comments || Top||

#4  Where's the fence?

/various mullahs
Posted by: Excalibur || 07/02/2007 15:31 Comments || Top||

#5  All these pro-Taliban/al-Qaeda zones on the Afghan border have connections with the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad, run by outspoken brothers Maulana Abdul Aziz and Ghazi Abdul Rasheed. The brothers are openly pro-Taliban and also run large Islamic seminaries for boys and girls.

Yet no one can bring themselves to cap these two turds. Targeted killings of Islam's clerical elite are vital if we're ever to win this battle. As to US ops in Pakistan, it's about time. They should have been happening from the moment we landed in Afghnistan.
Posted by: Zenster || 07/02/2007 15:43 Comments || Top||

#6  Sounds like a trap to me. Get the US over the (Nonexistent) border and show "All the EEEEvil 'Mercans invading.

Step carefully troopies, shoot first and often.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 07/02/2007 16:05 Comments || Top||

#7  Best Taliban hunting within Pakistan is within the ISI.
Posted by: mhw || 07/02/2007 16:21 Comments || Top||

#8  Remember that everything that happens there is based in lies and treachery, and that the only currency is to extend your power or diminish that of your enemies.

So no matter what is said, what matters is what is done. But even then, be careful in assuming that the reason something is being done is actually what is given as the reason.

In this case, Perv could have simply let his subordinates know that NATO would be on their turf and not to shoot at them, discreetly.

He could have denied that they crossed or did anything in Pakistan. Or everything that NATO did, he could claim his army did.

He could have created a major distraction somewhere else in the country, so that any NATO actions would be less noticeable.

Or he could have loudly protested any NATO entry, using it as an excuse to send the Pak army there to prevent it (having the army overrun and attack the extremists "to protect them".)

There are any number of gambits he could have, and probably has done. So why this one? What's his angle? Assume the worst.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 07/02/2007 16:21 Comments || Top||

#9  SHHHH! Be vewy, vewy quiet! We're hunting Talibunnies!
Posted by: Elmer Fudd || 07/02/2007 16:31 Comments || Top||

#10  How much of this has to do, with Bush out in about 18 months, Perv, with the Demos in the WH, probably will lose the backing of the United States, and probably get overrun by the crazies.

He may be betting that we can take out that cancer in his corner before Bush leaves. Regardless, there's lots of nukes that need to be kept out of certain hands.
Posted by: Sherry || 07/02/2007 17:32 Comments || Top||

#11  Best Taliban hunting within Pakistan is within the ISI.

End of story.
Posted by: Zenster || 07/02/2007 18:30 Comments || Top||

#12  In the 1880s it was the US Army, the Apache, and the Mexican border. The US finally got tired of the Mexican government [even then] refusing to control their border and subsequently launch raids into the safe areas of the Apache in Mexico. Of course the Mexican government protested. Enough pressure in intercepting and pursuing the Apache raiding parties on the American side of the border resulted in the Apaches turning on easier game in Mexico, finally forcing Mexico City to finally take action.

The most of the players have changed but the story line remains the same. Funny and sad at the same time.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/02/2007 21:32 Comments || Top||

#13  Cheney's office is believed to run the United States' Pakistan policy.

Right. an indicator of the credibility of the balance of the article.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 07/02/2007 21:59 Comments || Top||

#14  "Cheney's office is believed to run the United States' Pakistan policy."

We can but hope....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 07/02/2007 22:10 Comments || Top||


Airstrikes kill 107 including 45 Afghan civilians
Elders in an area of southern Afghanistan pounded by foreign forces’ air strikes against the Taliban said they had recovered the bodies of 45 civilians with 62 rebels also dead, while a suicide bomber blew himself up near a NATO convoy, a mayor said on Sunday.

The toll was the latest in a series of conflicting claims about how many people were killed in the US-led coalition and NATO bombing raids in Helmand province on Friday. The mayor of Girishk district, Dur Alisha, told AFP on Saturday that 65 civilians and 35 Taliban were killed, according to an initial investigation. On Sunday he amended the figure by saying that only 45 bodies of civilians had been recovered. “People are digging under the rubble for more bodies. There’s a possibility that more people might be under debris,” he added. Twenty-three civilians were wounded, said Alisha, head of a commission comprised of government officials and villages elders appointed to investigate the bombing in the villages of Haidarabad and Mandawa. Village elders provided the figures, he added.

NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said its numbers were “significantly lower” than those provided by local officials but it would not give details.

Meanwhile, a suicide bomber blew himself up on Sunday near a NATO convoy in Grishk, officials and a witness said. Two Afghan passers-by were also wounded in the bombing, local police commander Amanullah told AFP.

Another official said a vehicle of NATO’s ISAF was on fire but he had no information about military casualties. “It was a suicide bombing on a NATO convoy. One NATO military vehicle is in flames right now,” Alisha told AFP. The ISAF media office in Kabul could not immediately confirm the attack. A witness named Feda Mohammad said the vehicle had burst into flames. “I could see a NATO car in flames. It was burning,” Mohammad told AFP.
Posted by: Fred || 07/02/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  It's getting to be kinda like RAB and the Tales from the Crossfire Gazette.
Posted by: Elmereter Hupash6222 || 07/02/2007 0:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Elders in an area of southern Afghanistan pounded by foreign forces’ air strikes against the Taliban said they had recovered the bodies of 45 civilians with 62 rebels also dead

I guess it begs the question as to why civilians were congregating in large numbers with a large group of terrorists...but I digress.
Posted by: anymouse || 07/02/2007 6:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Even if we got 1 Taliwhacker and 106 civies, I'd call that a success.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 07/02/2007 7:54 Comments || Top||

#4  A feature, not a bug.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 07/02/2007 7:55 Comments || Top||

#5  Time to reevaluate how soft & gillible the Great Satan really is, honored elders of Islam.
Posted by: gromgoru || 07/02/2007 8:43 Comments || Top||

#6  Once again, I ask the MSM (Muslim Statistics Media) how you tell the difference, in Afghanistan, between a Talibunnie and a civilian. Fred has pictures of both and they all look the same to me - especially from 12k feet.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 07/02/2007 10:22 Comments || Top||

#7  'mouse, could also be terrorturds using civilian hamlets as concealment &/or staging areas. Either with or w/out the consent of said civilians. I know a lot of the Iraqi-terrorturds like to emplace mortar positions in alleys or streets between family dwellings. They know our reluctance to send counter-battery IDF if there are many civvies in the area. (they also love to park stuff next to schools and mosques - go figure) I have no idea what happened in this particular afghan case however.
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 07/02/2007 10:41 Comments || Top||

#8  Maybe they used the 2000lbers from our new line of prOkOrdnace™
Posted by: Mike N. || 07/02/2007 11:04 Comments || Top||

#9  Did they recover a shutter gun?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 07/02/2007 11:30 Comments || Top||

#10  MSM = muslim statistics manipulation?
Posted by: JohnQC || 07/02/2007 11:43 Comments || Top||

#11  No, "Muslim Statistics Manufacturing"
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 07/02/2007 16:09 Comments || Top||

#12  All 107 are civilians. By definition. We do not oppose an actual nation's armed force, but a collection of armed civilians of various nationalities.
Posted by: Glenmore || 07/02/2007 18:11 Comments || Top||

#13  Taliban are totally integrated with opium growers. Under Karzai - a Pashto - Afghans finally began producing heroin. Talk of "Summer Offensives" means: assertion of claims to the Taliban's now traditional 5% of proceeds from the trade of Euro-ruination. Karzai has to go.
Posted by: McZoid || 07/02/2007 20:53 Comments || Top||


Afghan Violence Numbers
At least 2,800 people have died in insurgency-related violence in Afghanistan in the first six months of the year, according to a count by The Associated Press. The following breakdown is based on AP figures unless otherwise stated.

THE DEAD:
  • 1,900 Taliban fighters. The U.S. says these include 39 mid- and top-level commanders.
  • 314 civilians killed by international or Afghan military action, according to the U.N.
  • 279 civilians killed by insurgents, according to the U.N.
  • 350 Afghan police and soldiers.
  • 96 international troops, including 46 Americans.
  • RISING VIOLENCE
  • 83 percent rise in attacks in eastern Afghanistan this year, according to the U.S. troops who operate in that area.
  • 200 percent approximate rise in suicide bombings in eastern Afghanistan this year.
  • 1,032 airstrikes in Afghanistan through May 31 this year, compared with 266 strikes in Iraq.
  • Posted by: Steve White || 07/02/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

    #1  Dead giveaway: "According to the U.N."

    Need say more?
    Posted by: Jack is Back! || 07/02/2007 10:23 Comments || Top||

    #2  Almost twice a week now, the ISAF issues a press release about a civilian death. Tailgating a NATO convoy is fatal these days. Note I did NOT say U.S.

    Some of our allies have a less sophisticated fire discipline.
    Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 07/02/2007 18:40 Comments || Top||


    Africa North
    Algerian security forces kill Ali Abu Dahdah
    Security forces killed a man described as the military adviser to the head of an Al Qaeda affiliate in Algeria in an assault last week on a mountain hideout, the newspaper Liberte reported on Sunday.

    Ali Abu Dahdah, whose real name is reported as Ali Dis, was killed on Wednesday along with two bodyguards in a forest in the hills above the town of Amizour in the Mardj-Ouamane area, the daily reported without citing sources.

    Abu Dahdah was a member of a group calling itself Al Qaeda in Islamic North Africa. The group was formerly called the Salafist Group for Call and Combat but changed its name after formally allying with Al Qaeda at the start of the year under the leadership of Abdelmalek Droukdel.
    Posted by: Fred || 07/02/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa

    #1  Cool graphic! I think I've seen that lady in the DIA cafeteria....was it last year, or the year before?
    Posted by: Besoeker || 07/02/2007 3:46 Comments || Top||

    #2  Besoeker: She's the porridge lady. Brown sugar? BTW, does anyone here know what besoeker means in Dutch?
    Posted by: Jack is Back! || 07/02/2007 10:25 Comments || Top||

    #3  Nee Jack, ek het keen idee...whahahaha.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 07/02/2007 11:32 Comments || Top||

    #4  A relative of Idi Amin Dahdah, I assume...
    Posted by: mojo || 07/02/2007 12:37 Comments || Top||

    #5  the grapis is really an portfolio photo of Rosie auditioning for the FTD florit delivery person....
    Posted by: USN, Ret. || 07/02/2007 12:59 Comments || Top||

    #6  "Ali Abu Deadah, whose real name is reported as Ali Dis(troyed) . . ."
    Posted by: Mike || 07/02/2007 15:23 Comments || Top||

    #7  Why don't they try the Thamesmen or the New Originals.
    Posted by: Super Hose || 07/02/2007 23:09 Comments || Top||


    Arabia
    Convoy boom at Queen of Sheba temple kills seven Spanish tourists
    Seven Spanish tourists and two Yemeni drivers were killed on Monday when a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into their convoy at an ancient temple in Yemen on Monday, officials said.

    The interior ministry said the bombing in the restive northeastern region of Marib appeared to be the work of the Al-Qaeda network. "Preliminary information indicates that the Al-Qaeda organisation is behind the cowardly attack," an interior ministry official told the Saba news agency. "This criminal attack has killed seven Spanish tourists and two Yemeni nationals who worked as drivers and tourist guides, and wounded six Spanish tourists and two (Yemeni) nationals."

    Witnesses told AFP the attack occurred as the tourists were wrapping up a tour of a temple in Marib which dates back 3,000 years to the time of the biblical Queen of Sheba.

    The ministry official said the convoy which was carrying 13 tourists was attacked by an "explosives-laden car driven by a suicide terrorist." In Madrid, an official had said earlier that six Spanish tourists had been killed and seven others injured in the attack. Witnesss said the blast took place around 6:00 pm (1500 GMT) in Marib, 170 kilometres (about 106 miles) east of the capital Sanaa, an area rich in archeological treasures and popular with tourists.
    Posted by: Seafarious || 07/02/2007 14:46 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia

    #1  How's that appeasement deal working for ya, Zapatero? Your UNIFIL guys and now this.

    You have to be a really dedicated or adrenaline-addicted tourist to want to go to Yemen, I would think.
    Posted by: Glenmore || 07/02/2007 14:59 Comments || Top||

    #2  ...an area rich in archeological treasures and popular with tourists.

    Yeah, but it's still in Yemen.
    No thanks.
    Posted by: tu3031 || 07/02/2007 15:23 Comments || Top||

    #3  Yep kill a couple of Spanish and the Spanish Socialist deal machine will be on its way.
    Posted by: Elmusonter Guelph3676 || 07/02/2007 15:27 Comments || Top||

    #4  Until the Spanish decide to get in it to win it I could care less what the Orcs do to them.
    Posted by: Excalibur || 07/02/2007 15:32 Comments || Top||

    #5  This also says a lot about how degraded Al-Quada is. They have to go after the people that have already surrendered in a country friendly to them.
    Posted by: DarthVader || 07/02/2007 15:36 Comments || Top||

    #6  They are probably retirees on an organized trip, they really didn't deserve to die like this; no matter what I think about the spanish gvt, this is sad to see innocents die (and I'm counting the two drivers in that, for that matter). I'm all for "live and let live", and this continuous stream of pointless, base killings of ordinary people in iraq, Thailand, UK, Spain,... is disgusting.
    Posted by: anonymous5089 || 07/02/2007 15:44 Comments || Top||

    #7  I'm all for "live and let live", and this continuous stream of pointless, base killings of ordinary people in iraq, Thailand, UK, Spain,... is disgusting.

    Welcome to Islam. All of this is straight out of the Koran.
    Posted by: Zenster || 07/02/2007 15:46 Comments || Top||

    #8  Also outraged about their drive to destroy the world's history. That shrine belongs to all of us.
    Posted by: Seafarious || 07/02/2007 15:46 Comments || Top||

    #9  Yep, sad and pointless. Did the temple sustain significant damage?

    I hope the local popo are piecing together just how AQ knew exactly where and when to hit them. Also, was it a euro/amer tourist target of opportunity or did they know they were whacking spaniards?
    Posted by: Broadhead6 || 07/02/2007 15:59 Comments || Top||

    #10  For Al Q and for Islam of the 4 normative judicial schools the Queen of Sheba Temple doesn't deserve to stand. To them it is from the unenlightened age before Mohamot (like the Bhuddist Relief in Afghanistan) and is worse than valueless because it is a reminder of the era before the last prophet.

    Of course to the Yemani Tourism Bureau, the Temple is an important asset. Thus the strike makes a great deal of sense from the Al Q point of view. Not only do you kill infidels striking terror into their heart but destroy the jahiliya (think from the dark times).
    Posted by: mhw || 07/02/2007 16:19 Comments || Top||

    #11  Dayum, mhw beat me to it.

    Also outraged about their drive to destroy the world's history. That shrine belongs to all of us.

    Yes, and as mhw noted such historic shrines are no more than Islamic urinals. If in doubt, I refer you to the Wailing Wall.
    Posted by: Zenster || 07/02/2007 20:11 Comments || Top||

    #12  The bus tour of East Rutherford, NJ must have been booked.
    Posted by: Super Hose || 07/02/2007 22:29 Comments || Top||


    Britain
    Mobile phone calls failed to trigger London blasts: report
    The attempted London car bombings were meant to be detonated by calls to mobile phones in the two vehicles, but failed for technical reasons, the Evening Standard reported Monday. The calls made on the phones allowed police to trace those behind the failed attacks last Friday, the London daily evening newspaper said, without giving sources. The phones were meant to set off blasts when they were called, but the devices failed to detonate the mixture of gas canisters and nails in the two Mercedes cars parked in London's entertainment district.

    The bombers twice called the car outside the "Tiger Tiger" nightclub on Haymarket off Piccadilly Circus and the one in nearby Cockspur Street off Trafalgar Square four times, it added. Calls logged on the phones led detectives to addresses in Liverpool, Glasgow and Staffordshire in the English West Midlands, the Evening Standard said.
    Posted by: Seafarious || 07/02/2007 12:28 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Britain

    #1  thank God for morons! And for alert and brave London police.

    That said...this was a bullet dodged by accident. The ineptitude of the Jihadi wannabes cannot be counted on to save the day in the future.

    The Brits need to start listening in on some of the phone calls these morons make BEFORE those calls are to a cellphone linked to explosives!
    Posted by: Justrand || 07/02/2007 12:38 Comments || Top||

    #2  "Can you hear me now?"
    Posted by: Raj || 07/02/2007 12:42 Comments || Top||

    #3 
    It's the Network!
    Posted by: doc || 07/02/2007 12:52 Comments || Top||

    #4  I'm sure that Reuters, AP or BBC will happily report what those technical difficulties were so that the bad guyz can get it right the next time.
    Posted by: GK || 07/02/2007 14:23 Comments || Top||

    #5  LMAO Doc!
    Posted by: Grumenk Philalzabod0723 || 07/02/2007 17:47 Comments || Top||


    Hunt for terror cell
    Posted by: anonymous5089 || 07/02/2007 09:55 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Britain

    #1  at another site there was informed speculation that the burned jihadi was being treated at the same hospital he worked at (as an MD)
    Posted by: mhw || 07/02/2007 10:35 Comments || Top||

    #2  New meaning to a 'flaming jihadist'. May he reach room temperature slowly.
    Posted by: Phinater Thraviger || 07/02/2007 13:15 Comments || Top||

    #3  Wrong, reach room temperature screaming his lungs out, as soon as possible.
    Posted by: Redneck Jim || 07/02/2007 16:15 Comments || Top||

    #4  New meaning to a 'flaming jihadist'. May he reach room temperature slowly.

    Wrong, reach room temperature screaming his lungs out, as soon as possible.


    Can't we all just get along? How about "screaming his lungs out while reaching room temperature slowly at the most opportune moment"?
    Posted by: Zenster || 07/02/2007 20:26 Comments || Top||


    British Arrests 5th Suspect
    British police arrested a fifth person Sunday and raided homes in three cities in connection with attempted car bombings that officials say are connected to al-Qaeda. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who took over from Tony Blair on Wednesday, said in a nationally televised interview that "we are dealing, in general terms, with people who are associated with al-Qaeda."

    Terrorism analysts said it appeared that the timing and location of the planned bombings were intended to coincide with Brown's first days of office. They also noted that Brown is Scottish.

    "That was probably a major factor in this," said M.J. Gohel, chief executive of the Asia-Pacific Foundation, a London policy group that specializes in security issues. "Otherwise, it makes no sense as to why they would pick that particular moment as well as Glasgow as a target." Gohel said the perpetrators may have been trying to fuel public pressure for a rapid withdrawal of British troops from Iraq, an issue that was already looming as a major test for Brown's government.

    Peter Clarke, Scotland Yard's chief of anti-terrorism operations, said the investigation was "fast-moving. It is no exaggeration at all to say that new information is coming to light hour by hour." Police were searching homes and buildings near Glasgow and in Staffordshire and Liverpool. Clarke said "extremely valuable" forensic information was found in the two Mercedes sedans. He said the links between the Glasgow and London attempted bombings were becoming "ever clearer."

    "I'm confident -- absolutely confident -- that in the coming days and weeks we will be able to gain a thorough understanding of the methods used by the terrorists, of the way in which they planned their attacks, and of the network to which they belong." He also said thousands of hours of closed-circuit television footage was being analyzed.

    Scottish police, who encouraged the many witnesses at Glasgow Airport to hand over any cellphone and camera images of the incident, said they were receiving about 100 calls an hour from the public.

    In a quarterly intelligence report leaked to the Sunday Times of London and published April 22, Britain's Joint Terrorism Analysis Center revealed that a senior al-Qaeda commander had advocated carrying out an attack in Britain before Blair left office. According to the report, intelligence officials had recovered a letter written by Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, a top al-Qaeda operative who was later captured by the CIA, detailing al-Qaeda's desire to attack Britain during "a change in the head of the company," apparently referring to the handover of power from Blair to Brown.
    Posted by: Pappy || 07/02/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Britain

    #1  I hope they're pouring hot sauce on the prick with the burns.
    Posted by: Howard UK || 07/02/2007 3:45 Comments || Top||

    #2  Terrorism analysts said it appeared that the timing and location of the planned bombings were intended to coincide with Brown's first days of office.

    I wonder if they're also working hard to pull something off before the muslim sacred month of Rajab starts on the 16th July? Fighting during the sacred months is considered to be a sin.
    Posted by: Gladys || 07/02/2007 5:28 Comments || Top||

    #3  Two more picked up in Glasow, according to Fox News, aged 25 and 28. Steve Emerson (author of Jihad Unlimited) just said Scotland Yard promised him more surprises to come when he spoke to them last night. We do live in interesting times!

    Gladys, you're right in theory, but in practice the jihadis seem to increase the tempo during the various holy months because of the extra holiness. It's only the infidels who aren't allowed to attack them then, as far as I can tell. :-(
    Posted by: trailing wife || 07/02/2007 7:26 Comments || Top||

    #4  Two of the suspects are Doctors!!!!

    Hardly the poor oppressed people that we are told in the news everyday!!!!
    Posted by: Paul || 07/02/2007 10:25 Comments || Top||

    #5  more surprises to come

    Two of them are physicians!
    Posted by: Jack is Back! || 07/02/2007 10:28 Comments || Top||

    #6  Yeah... Physician, heal thyself... bwahahaha..
    Posted by: Howard UK || 07/02/2007 11:13 Comments || Top||

    #7  I've got a quart jar of Cajun hot spice, if the Brits want to borrow it for our young splodeydope's wounds. There are seven kinds of pepper in it, plus sea salt and ground mustard seed. Makes great gumbo, but I don't know what it would do to a burn "victim".
    Posted by: Old Patriot || 07/02/2007 12:37 Comments || Top||

    #8  Late from CNN: 8 suspects now in custody, 3 are doctors.....
    Posted by: USN, Ret. || 07/02/2007 17:45 Comments || Top||


    Terror timeline: airport inferno
    AS THE green Jeep Cherokee swept through the roundabout at Glasgow Airport and approached the terminal building, its two occupants steeled themselves for an apocalypse.

    The driver was dressed in a blue boiler suit with black plastic bags tied around his feet. His partner, in the front passenger seat, wore a dirty, grey T-shirt and sand-coloured cargo trousers. It was the first day of the summer holidays, yet these men were not tourists.

    At 3:15pm on Saturday, on a day when an estimated 35,000 passengers were due to pass through Scotland's busiest airport, the Jeep sped along a road restricted to taxis, suddenly veered right and then, just as swiftly, the driver spun the wheel hard left. The Jeep passed between the protective steel bollards and smashed into the front of the main doors of Terminal 1, scattering stunned passers-by. The vehicle's wheels were jammed under an advertising board and witnesses rushed to assist what they believed to have been an accident.

    So charitable a notion was quickly corrected by the driver, who, witnesses said, poured out petrol which set the front of the car alight. Climbing out of the car, he was quickly engulfed in flames, yet he still struggled to the boot where several gas canisters are believed to have been stored. As one witness said: "It was amazing how calm he appeared."

    As the driver, a massive man, described as over 6ft tall with a broad build, struggled with the boot, Stephen Clarkson, an off-duty police officer, snatched up a fire extinguisher and tried to put out the flames. The man turned and is alleged to have screamed: "It's a bomb. It's a bomb."

    A confused struggle then took place with police officers who arrived and squirted CS spray into the driver's face.

    Meanwhile, witnesses said the Jeep's passenger tried to run into the terminal with canisters of gas or petrol, before being tackled by security guards, police and members of the public.

    Airport staff began spraying the car with a fire extinguisher but were forced back when it exploded. At 3:16pm, the two men were dragged out on to the central reservation as the fire alarm began to sound and a mass evacuation of the airport began.

    As passengers streamed out of the terminal, they passed - and some filmed - the driver, his clothes incinerated and his partially naked body badly burned. One shouted: "Let him burn."

    The Jeep's passenger, meanwhile, had his hands cuffed behind his back and was led off to a police van.

    THE airport's major incident planning procedures were swiftly launched. The airport was shut down. Air traffic controllers began contacting flights en route and steered them away to alternative terminals, including Edinburgh, Prestwick and Newcastle. Those planes already queuing on the runway were instructed to wait - a long afternoon and evening had begun. On board, some passengers switched on their mobile phones and downloaded images of the blazing car.

    The first of 16 fire engines arrived at Glasgow Airport by 3:23pm, followed shortly after wards by a major incident control unit, a large articulated truck from which the work of dozens of staff was co-ordinated. The blazing car had ignited part of the roof of the terminal building, and it and the Jeep were bombarded with thousands of gallons of water from high-pressure hoses.
    more at link
    Posted by: Seafarious || 07/02/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Britain

    #1  "Let him burn."

    Agreed, well done, crispy jihadi is the only good jihadi.
    Posted by: twobyfour || 07/02/2007 2:41 Comments || Top||


    #3  And while I'm at Youtube, something *totally* OT :

    #8 Reverend Horton Heat, #7 anon?

    I really don't want to know....
    Posted by Barbara Skolaut
    (from the "Mes Aïeux" dégénération clip thread)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-W5afL3X1c
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qn4lJqbv7So
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URVaQ3v0svE
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHaNrRoZ6LY
    Posted by: anonymous5089 || 07/02/2007 6:43 Comments || Top||

    #4  CS spray? Sheesh ... The officers should have had sidearms and shot the Son of Allan.
    Posted by: doc || 07/02/2007 8:26 Comments || Top||

    #5  "So sorry, Mister....Abu. We seem to be freah out of morphine."
    Posted by: Seafarious || 07/02/2007 8:47 Comments || Top||

    #6  Uh, the guy's on fire; a little CS isn't going to deter him in any way.
    Posted by: Rob Crawford || 07/02/2007 9:41 Comments || Top||

    #7  You'd think the left wing would at least critize these jihadis for using non green vehicles.
    Posted by: mhw || 07/02/2007 9:45 Comments || Top||

    #8  Ticker:
    "An SUV crashed into the front of Glasgow Airport...the SUV's motive is not known."
    Tabloid headline
    "When Doctor's attack"
    Sympathetic psychological view:
    "It is this expert's opinion that these two certainly did not try to hurt anyone--this was a 'cry for help'"
    Right-wing view:
    "Terrorists today rammed and detonated a mass-casualty bomb at Glasgow Airport...failing only to detonate the main charge"
    Left-wing view:
    "Certainly there must have been a reason the good doctors did what they did"

    Not mentioned anywhere:
    Islamic or Muslim terrorists.

    Their names:
    Dr. Mohammed Jamil Abdelqader Asha
    Ahmed Asha
    Marwah Asha
    Dr. Bilal Talal Abdul Samad Abdulla
    "Asha's family said that he was born in Saudi Arabia and raised in Jordan. His family, they say, is Palestinian."

    Pardon me while I 'hold my breath' and watch outside for 'winged swine'...
    Posted by: logi_cal || 07/02/2007 23:07 Comments || Top||


    Two doctors held over bomb attacks
    GulfBravoMC posted the same story from Sky News at almost the same moment. EFL.
    Two doctors were among five people being held as terror suspects last night after the bomb plots in London and Glasgow. One was one of two men who tried to drive a blazing Jeep packed with petrol, gas canisters and nails into Glasgow Airport on Saturday.

    Both doctors were working at UK hospitals and were apparently here legally.
    The radio announcer thought it was unheard of, perhaps even "troubling" that doctors were involved in jihad. I s'pose he's never heard of Rantissi or Zawahiri.
    The radio announcer doesn't understand that it's the smart ones that get you in trouble. The dumb bunnies are cannon fodder humping AK's around in Pashtunistan and serving as target practice for our Special Forces. The smart ones get enough education and life-experience to immigrate to the West and become involved in deep-laid plots.
    The revelation raises the horrifying prospect that Al Qaeda propaganda is reaching beyond disaffected young Muslims. "These are highly-educated, articulate and intelligent people," one security source said. "They are men trained to heal but they were planning unbelievable atrocities."
    Sporadic sudden jihad syndrome or a deep-laid plot?
    Two of the five people arrested were a woman of 27 and her 26-year-old husband, boxed in by unmarked police cars as they drove on the M6 in Cheshire. Other motorists said the woman was wearing a Muslim veil. The fifth suspect, a man, was arrested at Liverpool's Lime Street station shortly after the city's John Lennon Airport was closed following the discovery of a suspicious vehicle.

    One of the doctors, the man arrested on the M6, was said to be a Jordanian-born doctor at the North Staffordshire Hospital in Stoke-on-Trent. He lived with his wife and baby in a rented house in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, where forensic officers were carrying out a detailed search last night. The doctor is suspected of having played a key role in the planning of the terror strikes.
    So very likely educated in Jordan and then came to Britain, obstensibly to complete his medical training. Thousands of young men and women with medical degrees from across Asia do this every year to both American and European graduate medical training programs.
    One of the two men overpowered as they attacked Glasgow Airport has 90 per cent burns and is too badly injured to be interviewed, but the second was being questioned last night. Police believe they are all part of a previously unknown Al Qaeda-linked cell made up of people of Middle Eastern origin.
    As opposed to Laplanders?
    As opposed to Pakistanis, I think.
    The doctor involved in the Glasgow attack is an Iraqi who is thought to have been granted asylum in the UK while a third suspect comes from Lebanon. At least one other member of the cell was still being hunted last night.
    More--a summary of the whole thing--at the link
    Posted by: twobyfour || 07/02/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Britain

    #1  Doctors or no I still say these guys are frickin morons.
    Posted by: Elmereter Hupash6222 || 07/02/2007 0:53 Comments || Top||

    #2  The doctor involved in the Glasgow attack is an Iraqi who is thought to have been granted asylum in the UK while a third suspect comes from Lebanon. At least one other member of the cell was still being hunted last night.

    I'll bet his name is Mudd now! ....sorry, it just came out.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 07/02/2007 2:03 Comments || Top||

    #3  Mo' hamed,

    Mo' problems
    Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 07/02/2007 4:26 Comments || Top||

    #4  They must have been impoverished. As if that were the only reason for Islamic Quran taught Muslim terrorism for Allen.

    Spit.

    Foot note. The BBC interviewed one eye witness and asked her if they looked, Asian. The dumb whore bought the PC BS and said, "yes they did".
    Posted by: Icerigger || 07/02/2007 6:17 Comments || Top||

    #5  Well, I must confess that I spent the weekend in a rather drunken haze, Friday right through to Sunday night.

    However, it still seemed so massively obvious that the MSM would miss the most fundamental point about these attacks, namely that they were directly and publicly sanctioned by the Pakistani Minister Mohammad Ejaz ul-Haq in an open statement to the worlds media that "SUICIDE ATTACKS ARE JUSTIFIED". Their national assembly then demanded that Britain withdraw the Rushdie knighthood, (OR ELSE?). The Iraqi Foreign Minister has also gone on record as saying that this could be used to justify attacks.

    This was less than a fortnight ago and when the bombs arrive, what genius conclusion do our highly paid media analysts come up with? It was "Al-Qaeda", apparently, whoever they are, who did it because Gordon Brown is taking over as PM. Maybe they were also incensed by the public smoking ban which came into effect over the weekend?

    What has happened here is some folks have taken it upon themselves to respond to an act of open sedition, effectively a declaration of war from Pakistan and the Iraq Minister.

    That's it, I've had enough. Troops out, droids in.

    If they dont get it by now, they never will. Time to learn the hard way.

    Unfortunately, it doesnt look like we are going to "get it" anytime soon, either. The media continue to blame these attacks on our foreign adventures assigning their dialectic materialist interpretations of what motivates people, whilst willfully ignoring what is actually coming out of their mouths, which is that it doesnt really matter whether we try to make a difference, or continue to support whatever fascist happens to crawl to the top of the pile at any given moment.

    They hate & want to kill us for who and what we are. What we do, say and believe.

    Israel have the right idea. Good fences make good neighbours.
    Posted by: Admiral Allan Ackbar || 07/02/2007 6:48 Comments || Top||

    #6  Israel have the right idea. Good fences make good neighbours.

    Not while sewage pipes are abundant. The problem doen't have any solutions that do not require getting one hands dirty, I'm afraid.
    Posted by: gromgoru || 07/02/2007 8:52 Comments || Top||

    #7  Doctors of Pathology? Altered records? Deceit?
    Posted by: Phinater Thraviger || 07/02/2007 9:17 Comments || Top||

    #8  Icerigger: I can imagine a reporter asking a witness if the Virginia Tech shooter looked "Asian". In North America this would refer to east Asians including, as it turns out, a Korean guy.

    Yes, the BBC will spin this. Obviously. But by asking if the men looked "Asian" they are asking if they looked Pakistani. In the UK, "Asian" refers to south-asians (of the 1.6m muslims in the UK, 1m are from Pakistan). There is nothing "PC" about the expression and the respondent is not a "dumb whore" for using an expression you do not use in the United States.
    Posted by: Excalibur || 07/02/2007 9:33 Comments || Top||

    #9  Yeah - I did notice the Beeb presenters looking increasingly worried as eye-witness after eye-witness used the expression 'asian' - thought they might start beeping it out. Couldn't let the people know the truth etc...
    Posted by: Howard UK || 07/02/2007 9:55 Comments || Top||

    #10  I think he was saying that she was a dumb whore because she's British.

    Just kidding! Just kidding! It was too easy not to take.
    Posted by: Mike N. || 07/02/2007 9:56 Comments || Top||

    #11  The revelation raises the horrifying prospect that Al Qaeda propaganda is reaching beyond disaffected young Muslims. "These are highly-educated, articulate and intelligent people," one security source said. "They are men trained to heal but they were planning unbelievable atrocities."

    As noted by Icerigger, the reportage desperately tries to connect terrorism to economic plight or lack of education rather than ideology. Neither is the above any sort of news. Years ago a survey was done of Palestinian bomb vest atttacks. The large majority of attackers were well educated individuals from middle class families and not the impoverished ignoramuses the media would have us think. The final unspoken implication they so fear to broach is that terrorism permeates Islamic culture at all levels.

    There need to be severe repercussions for the Pakistani and Iraqi ministers who sanctioned these attacks. This is not just enabling behavior, they are effectively authorizing terrorist retaliation by their actions. Such evil should not go unrewarded. Both Musharraf and al-Maliki need to be castigated for their deafening silence on this matter.
    Posted by: Zenster || 07/02/2007 10:18 Comments || Top||

    #12  Oh and Zen, I forgot to mention Iran.

    Sorry.
    Posted by: Admiral Allan Ackbar || 07/02/2007 10:29 Comments || Top||

    #13  Zenster:
    There need to be severe repercussions for the Pakistani and Iraqi ministers who sanctioned these attacks. This is not just enabling behavior, they are effectively authorizing terrorist retaliation by their actions

    You're not usually known for your soft wording, Zen. I would have said the statements were orders, myself, rather than authorisations.

    ...although not having read the statements in the native tongue puts me at a slight disadvantage. I have not heard the words "fatwa" or "fard" mentioned; does anybody else know the implications in respect to Islamic Sharia? Not that Sharia is a monolithic beast by any means, but any parallels or legal principles which confirm this theory?
    Posted by: Admiral Allan Ackbar || 07/02/2007 10:45 Comments || Top||

    #14  Years ago a survey was done of Palestinian bomb vest atttacks. The large majority of attackers were well educated individuals from middle class families and not the impoverished ignoramuses the media would have us think. The final unspoken implication they so fear to broach is that terrorism permeates Islamic culture at all levels.

    It's fascinating watching you come so close to getting it, almost stumbling over the truth, but then regaining your balance and wandering away from it.

    You notice that a survey of Pakistani bombers came mostly from the middle or upper class, in a country where most people aren't, and then conclude that it's all because of islam.

    If the higher classes in Pakistan were Moslem and all the lower classes Christians, Jews, and Hindus, that conclusion might make sense.

    You're so interested in turning the fight against fanaticism into the fight against the billion or so people who live in an arc running from Morocco to Mindanao that you actually pass up, if not actively reject, information that could actually work in the fight against the fanatics.
    Posted by: Abdominal Snowman || 07/02/2007 10:53 Comments || Top||

    #15  You notice that a survey of Pakistani bombers came mostly from the middle or upper class, in a country where most people aren't, and then conclude that it's all because of islam.

    If the higher classes in Pakistan were Moslem and all the lower classes Christians, Jews, and Hindus, that conclusion might make sense.

    ...rrrrriiiight...

    Ohhh Kayyy thennnnnnnnnnn.

    So forget the "war on terror" (a misnomer in my book, in any case) forget "Wars on Islamofascism" or "Jihadism"

    "War on Middle Classes" it is then.
    Posted by: Admiral Allan Ackbar || 07/02/2007 11:10 Comments || Top||

    #16  A.S.

    #1 - Correlation is NOT Causation

    #2 - I do not rule out the option of turning moderates against extremists, as you advocate. I do, however believe that those same "moderates" are endowed at birth with the same reason as me and that however damaged that may be by years or decades of indoctrination through fear of ostracism or death in many cases, that they have a right to see and hear the truth.

    #3 The enemy of my enemy is my friend is a stupid Arab proverb. The enemy of your enemy is just that, nothing else. An ally at best.
    Posted by: Admiral Allan Ackbar || 07/02/2007 11:23 Comments || Top||

    #17  The press is acting astounded that doctors could be involved in a terrorist plot. Che Guevara, Joseph Mengele, and Ayman Muhammad Rabaie al-Zawahiri are or were physicians.
    Posted by: JohnQC || 07/02/2007 11:55 Comments || Top||

    #18  And it's sliding by you too.

    I just tried googling on "middle class" and "fanaticism" and wound up with a bunch of sites regurgitating the same tired gorram marxist cant... kinda ironic because the group I was going to bring up next in the discussion: the weather underground.

    How many of the people who were actually planting bombs and the like in the US in the 60's were the children of sharecroppers and the like?
    Posted by: Abdominal Snowman || 07/02/2007 12:15 Comments || Top||

    #19  Well I'll vote for cutting the Islamic areas off from civilisation and letting them keep at their religiously mandated level of technology (i.e. concentrating on the next meal instead of the next ied).
    Posted by: Bright Pebbles in Blairistan || 07/02/2007 13:01 Comments || Top||

    #20  I'm afraid you've completely lost me on that one.

    It must have slid by me entirely, whatever it is you were trying to say.

    Alternatively you could just be a complete idiot. I'm going with that theory for the time being, until you can show me otherwise.




    Are you actually suggesting that whenever I see pictures of seething hordes burning effigies of whatever happens to have annoyed them that day, waving banners proclaiming their intentions to kill and destroy, that this is caused by their "Middle Classness"?

    Or that the Weather Underground were not motivated by Leninist / Trotskyist terror ideologies, but rather formed their opinions through excessive consumption of Starbucks Coffee & fairtrade chocolate?

    Naturally, individuals with access to money and at least a rudimentary form of education are likely to stand a higher chance of succeeding in creating attacks of more serious proportions.

    However, in this case, it seems that even a Doctorate in medicine wasnt quite sufficient to teach this one Jihadi to bring explosives to a bomb attack
    Posted by: Admiral Allan Ackbar || 07/02/2007 13:34 Comments || Top||

    #21  Alternatively you could just be a complete idiot. I'm going with that theory for the time being, until you can show me otherwise.


    And I'm going to go with the theory that you're a mental defective who's so concerned about carrying out your own pathetic little prejudices that you don't care about losing the war as a result.
    Posted by: Abdominal Snowman || 07/02/2007 13:56 Comments || Top||

    #22  And I'm going to assume you both mean well, and would have communicated much more effectively face to face instead of via keyboard and monitor.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 07/02/2007 14:28 Comments || Top||

    #23  Cagefight!!!!
    And if you two make it worth putting it on pay-per-view, this could open a brand new genre in sports spectacle! I mean, I'm sure people would pay good money to see, say, Johnny Knoxville rassles Bigfoot!
    Posted by: anonymous5089 || 07/02/2007 14:32 Comments || Top||

    #24  I wonder if Doctor Death was a qualified Doctor?

    Hopefully someone in MI5 will be checking, and if he's not we have to go through all the Doctors who are 'slammers in the UK.

    The US should consider doing the same.
    Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 07/02/2007 14:53 Comments || Top||

    #25  It appears the Jordanian, who is the one badly burned, worked at a hospital in London. The Iraqi worked at the Glasgow hospital where the Jordanian is being treated.
    Posted by: lotp || 07/02/2007 15:03 Comments || Top||

    #26  A few more human examples of reasons to encourage the use of contraceptives amongst "asians." hahaha
    Posted by: Broadhead6 || 07/02/2007 16:16 Comments || Top||

    #27  If so, pull him out of that particular hospital immediately, he'll likely have friends, allies, fellow jihadists, etc there (Aid, escape, suicide, etc)
    Posted by: Redneck Jim || 07/02/2007 16:26 Comments || Top||

    #28  A few more human examples of reasons to encourage the use of contraceptives amongst "asians."

    Send them free condoms.
    Posted by: 8872 || 07/02/2007 17:07 Comments || Top||

    #29  re #25, it appears from this story that the guy who was burned was neither the Jordanian nor the Iraqi doctor. If he is a physician, that leaves the "Indian convert from Hinduism to Islam" that was mentioned in original reports. I.e. Pakistani from Kashmir, at a guess.
    Posted by: lotp || 07/02/2007 17:52 Comments || Top||

    #30  With all due respect admiral, you didn't lose the plot because you couldn't. You never picked up on it to begin with.

    Why is it that the most despicable acts of terrorism are committed by the middle and upper class no matter what the totalitarian cause? From ME Islamist radicals to European leftists all the way across the pond to American and South American leftist groups, its usually successful people or people from successful families that do the dirty work. Chew on that for a bit and get back to us. If it helps uncloud your mind, remove terrorism from this question and just concentrate on the other groups.
    Posted by: Mike N. || 07/02/2007 18:11 Comments || Top||

    #31  Snowman's got a good point.
    "How many of the people who were actually planting bombs and the like in the US in the 60's were the children of sharecroppers and the like?"
    The poor are usually struggling too hard just to survive to be able to engage in re-ordering of the social structure, whether through force or debate. Plus, it doesn't occur to them to try - they don't have the education or exposure to alternatives to even imagine the actions (excepting, now, Islamic mosque/madrassa 'education'). No, 'revolutionaries' come from the well-to-do, who have the education, resources and time to be 'active'; Jefferson couldn't have written the Declaration of Independence if he was back on the farm weeding the tobacco plants instead of having slaves doing it; Khomeini couldn't have organized the overthrow of the Shah if he was shoving sheep from one clump of brush to another (not equating the two, just the circumstances allowing them to build revolutions.) To stop this most dangerous Islamic 'revolution' we need to address the educated, non-poor who for some demented reason have been drawn to the Evil One.
    Posted by: Glenmore || 07/02/2007 18:28 Comments || Top||

    #32  With the islamics I don't think there is a single profile for a terrorist. Islam is the driver of terrorism. It just depends who picks up on the fanaticism. Much of the fanaticism gets flamed in the mosques.
    Posted by: JohnQC || 07/02/2007 18:40 Comments || Top||

    #33  Not just the Moskkks, John. Its very important that we remember that the "schools" are worse because the kids spend more time there. It would stand to reason that the more time an orc spends in "school" the more likely they are to be radicalized.

    This furthers highlights how critical it is to separate church from state. We tend to think that spreading democracy in the ME is just about secular governments, its not. We, as a culture have forgotten that the ME, or anywher else for that matter, cannot have a democracy without separating church and state. This is job one for any democracy because it cannot exist otherwise.

    Those in this thread that are claiming its all classes, not just the poor, are correct, but they are correct for the wrong reason.

    The poor are just that. The poor bastards are along for the ride.
    Posted by: Mike N. || 07/02/2007 18:49 Comments || Top||

    #34  My mother's family lives in and around Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire. It's a typically British small post-industrial town. It doesn't have (or at least didn't when I was last there a few years ago) a large immigrant population or any kind of racial problems. Thinking about, probably a good place to escape the notice of anti-terrorism police.
    Posted by: phil_b || 07/02/2007 18:58 Comments || Top||

    #35  This furthers highlights how critical it is to separate church from state. We tend to think that spreading democracy in the ME is just about secular governments, its not. We, as a culture have forgotten that the ME, or anywher else for that matter, cannot have a democracy without separating church and state. This is job one for any democracy because it cannot exist otherwise.

    Absolutely, Mike N. Here, we are in total agreement. It is why dismantling Iran's leadership is so important. Islamic theocracy must go. Without wishing to put too fine a point upon it, please understand how the Koran's core doctrine mandates installation of a caliphate theocratic government at every turn. This is why I went to such lengths yesterday in clarifying about how shari'a law and Islam are completely inseparable. Shari'a is the legal code while the Koran is a manual for the violent and forceful installation of that selfsame code.

    Those in this thread that are claiming its all classes, not just the poor, are correct, but they are correct for the wrong reason.

    The poor are just that. The poor bastards are along for the ride.


    I dispute this. Somehow, France's proletariats manned the barricades in order to overthrow an eliteist and abusive aristocracy. To quote Jim Morrison's Marxist mouthings, "They've got the guns but we've got the numbers".

    The poor aren't just "along for the ride", they are a social substrate that has the ability to enable or defeat those who would use them as so much fodder. Islam's underclass has yet to demonstrate any displeasure with their clerical elite's malfeasance. While I would much rather selectively target the Islamic aristocracy—if success remains wanting—at some point the poor will have to answer for their own lack of response. Yes, they should be last in line, but they are not, and cannot remain utterly immune. Nazi Germany's underclass—at least those who escaped the ovens—enjoyed no such respite, nor should Islam's poor. Just as our colonial forefathers were obliged to place their lives on the line to thwart tyranny, so must Islam's underprivileged Muslims.
    Posted by: Zenster || 07/02/2007 20:00 Comments || Top||

    #36  I'm not buying all of this but I'll throw my unsolicited $.02 in anyway.

    It seems obvious to me that upper &/or midclass muslims (though I'm not sure what the economical measurement is for middle class - western or MME standards?) would be the architects behind most terror plots. Money, logistics, assets, tribal power, connections, access to western education, leadership ascribed to them due to father's wealth as part of their regional social mores (i.e. - social mobility due to hard work doesn't get the same recognition in the ME as it does in the west - better to be the son of a general than of a farmer who worked his way up), etc. The wealthy are usually the idea men in the ME, I'd venture Pakiland falls in that boat as well.

    IMHO - a plausible psychological reason for some supposedly middle-class muslim to go postal in the face of conventional western wisdom is that they are trying to amend for some misplaced inner guilt. Not for being born wealthy like the white guilt ridden pussys in our country, but because of their taste for western "decadence" via their wealth, etc. Though I have no hard evidence to back me up nor claim to (other than my own experiences) - I think they have a need to lash out at what they see as a western society that's tempted them to taint their islamic faith. I find this all terriby ironic as you'd think that the *higher* educated folks such as doctors would see easily clear contradictions from the koran for things as simple as a person's anatomy. Then I'd figure God given logic would kick in and they'd connect the dots about the rest of it.

    Beyond that, most of the dudes doing the killing by vbied or otherwise in iraq were poor guys - granted - cannon fodder. A lot of the ones that got whacked were poor illiterate schleps from other ME countries.

    $$$ shot - *if* conservatively there are 15% of 1.2B muzzies that are extreme (at least according to Pipes) - that's about 150 million folks that want to kill us, have us pay the dhimmi, or whatever condition I'm not a big fan of. Call me cynical but I doubt the majority of them are middle class.
    Posted by: Broadhead6 || 07/02/2007 20:28 Comments || Top||

    #37  Zen, two things.

    1) You're point about the French only points to the age old truth that the poor fight the wars. Which, if you take a good look, supports my position. The poor are lead by the more successful revolutionary leadership. The poor in "developing" nations generally are uneducated and ignorant and have a tendency to be impressed and inspired by good public speakers, which a person can't be without an education of some sorts. Think of them as a source of labor being tapped by their leaders. In Americas case, they had been tapped by philosophically exceptional leadership. In Islams case, they are being tapped by leadership following a philosophy that shit is too good to describe. I cannot overstate the importance of who influences and ultimately leads the poor.

    The various western revolutions happened at what was essentially the peak of the enlightenment. If you'll indulge me for a moment, I would like to compare Islam today to early western enlightenment. Islam is just beginning its enlightenment. For the most part, anyone in the ME teaching anything unacceptable to the church suffers the same fate that western blasphemers did. Think Galileo Galilei. Hell, for that matter, think 50's rock musicians.

    I still insist that Islam can be an individual religion without being a state religion. It might not be as easy as it was with Shintoism(sp?), but it is possible. I know this because it has already been done. Turkey aint just good eatin, its the model for the future of Islam.

    The west had already separated church and state when the industrial revolution came, allowing the west its explosive expansion in wealth and all the things that brings. Most importantly, power outside of the government which is power to influence government. Arguably, these two combined forces more than anything is what put us lightyears ahead of Islam.

    While the ME can't realistically expect to get in on some sort of second industrial revolution, separation of church and state will still bring yet untold advantages for the people. (I don't want to harp on Turkey, but even though they missed out on the industrial revolution, they've done pretty damn well) Its no secret that people generally do well for themselves when not ruled by repressive theocratic or kleptocratic thugs. Once the repressive church no longer holds people back by serving functions that belong to the state, barring kleptocrats, the people will succeed, bringing them power outside the government and therefore power over the government.

    This country is a fine example of what a people can achieve when they have power over the government. (by no means am I saying that Palestine is the new America)

    This is a very long war and strategies that might look like they will win it relatively quickly will not. This war has a longer lifespan than anyone reading this. At 29, I do not expect to live to see the end.

    Oh, and don't worry, it won't take as long as western enlightment. Islam has the advantage of the entire western world already showing Islam the way and actively "assisting" it along. That's an incredibly powerful advantage over anything Europe had.
    Posted by: Mike N. || 07/02/2007 20:58 Comments || Top||

    #38  Somehow, France's proletariats manned the barricades in order to overthrow an eliteist and abusive aristocracy.

    Maximilien Marie Isidore de Robespierre was hardly a member of the proleteriat.
    Posted by: Pappy || 07/02/2007 20:59 Comments || Top||

    #39  Broadhead6, that's a good point about lashing out at what it hates. Much like the straight guy breaking a bottle over the fags head because the straight guy secretly wants to give cone.
    Posted by: Mike N. || 07/02/2007 21:03 Comments || Top||

    #40  wow, Mike N. #37 was intelligent and thought-out without vitriol. I don't think we can be friends, I'd feel inadequate, LOL
    Posted by: Frank G || 07/02/2007 21:39 Comments || Top||

    #41  Frank, eat me.

    Can we be friends now?
    Posted by: Mike N. || 07/02/2007 21:42 Comments || Top||

    #42  OK, but you get your own damn drinks in the O-Club, k?
    Posted by: Frank G || 07/02/2007 21:53 Comments || Top||

    #43  Mike - have you ever watched "Sleeper Cell: American Terror"? If not - there's a muslim guy whose a part of a cell that's gay - kind of same thing in converse.

    I hope you're right about their enlightenment phase. I've considered that as well. A couple of my superfluous brain droppings fwiw:
    (let me preface that I am not a religious zealot by any stretch, I'm just putting forth unproven pontifications based of my take on western history and christianity - not meant to advocate any org religion as I am not a big fan of any)

    *Muslims say that islam is their politics. I'm not sure christianity ever had anything of that parallel (sure, medieval a sides where the king was ordained by the church, etc). Plus, the whole ethical construct of Jesus of Nazareth is about a 180 degree swing from the central prophet in islam. Not only his historical roots but also his occupation, dealings w/peoples of different ethnic backgrounds, beliefs, etc. Point is, islam is politics for a good portion, that's a hard issue to crack.

    *Someone pointed out the "give unto ceasar" proverb. I'm not sure islam has a parallel concept & I'm not sure how to get them to that point. You mentioned Turkey, admittedly I'm not as educated on how they've come to this point in history chronologically - I'll have to do some studying. We trained w/them once about 9 yrs ago during a joint training evolution. Not very impressive from a military or hygenic standpoint, though I digress. IIRC, Turks are also of different ethnic leanings than the rest of the ME? Least the ones I knew in Detroit were adamant that they were not related to the arab.

    * Other than what I advocated about debunking islamic teachings the other day in that long thread we had - my hope for the rest of the ME is small. The ceasar concept has allowed many christians to co-exist real well with many forms of gov't.

    *Maybe islam at this point in time is where christianity was in about 1375 a.d. - fortunately during europe's enlightenment wmd's, mass transit, oil, nuclear technology, and mass media were not an issue. I hope islam's enlightenment isn't so painful that those weapons are called for or used. I'm uncertain at this point. My real hope is that one of their fool's doesn't get the chance to open our pandora's box. Also, will we have the patience to help them through their growing pains? If the oil runs out and we go alternative will we? Another factor - China - will they be patient if the oil goes dry in 50 yrs?

    *We've also touched on muslim middle class extremism. I've tied it to a guilt/lash out reflex - totally debateable but the best I could come up w/off the top of my head. Right now, we are actively educating the iraqis. Most Americans believe education tends to make a more liberal less extremist religious society. I'd say the same on the surface. However, if we've already discussed that higher educated, more affluent muslims are perpetuating, financing, & planning the most violent acts then what's the point? IMHO - basic education is fine *but* if we don't as a society start challenging islam in the theoretical and academic arena (to include not feeling guilty about satire and cartoons) and don't stand are f*cking ground on the undisputable facts and truth then why educate these people? If we're gonna get all weak kneed about telling it like it is and kowtowing everytime one of these b*tches crows about being offended then let's just save the money. Why have them become more upwardly mobile and affluent if in the end it only makes them better at supporting and planning negative things for the west? If we don't attach some sort of concrete no-shit plan to really moderate these folks (to include dealing w/some of their f*cked up religious leaders) then I'd say we're wasting our cash.

    *okay, I've killed enough bandwidth.
    Posted by: Broadhead6 || 07/02/2007 21:54 Comments || Top||

    #44  Broadhead6 - I always consider your input a great use of Fred's bandwidth. I'm generous that way, with someone else's resources, but I don't think Fred would disagree :-)
    Posted by: Frank G || 07/02/2007 21:57 Comments || Top||

    #45  Broadhead6, the Turks are Turkic, the Arabs are Semitic. Another way of saying Asia Minor vs. the Middle/Near East/Fertile Crescent. Turkey's split came after the Ottoman Empire fell around WWI. Their big hero, Kamil Ataturk, attributed the Ottoman decline to the religion/politics singularity that you discuss, and decreed the removal of Islam from the public sphere, to be enforced by the Army. It worked until the EU forced acceptance of Islamic parties in politics.

    Unless you wanted a deeper analysis, in which case you'll need someone else. ;-)
    Posted by: trailing wife || 07/02/2007 22:05 Comments || Top||

    #46  Thanks Frank. Ditto.

    Question for the crowd (and I'm being serious) - are there any sects of Islam that promote scientific learning &/or push for learning outside of literature or soft sciences?

    I'm not familiar w/any though that doesn't mean there are not any. Point being, catholic church actually encourage one of it's org's to pursue scientific research (can't remember details). If the muslims had a similar thing then that's the sect in their faith we need to take a look at.
    Posted by: Broadhead6 || 07/02/2007 22:07 Comments || Top||

    #47  Turkey aint just good eatin, its the model for the future of Islam.

    Then the future of Islam doesn't look very appealing as the Turkish military has overthrown the civilian government 3 times in the last 60 years, and may be on the verge of doing so again.

    Remember that between Galileo and Voltaire lies the 17th century, when the Europeans resolved their religious differences by the adoption of the policy of cuius regio eius religio. How deeply this has increased the liberality of Europe is demonstrated by the decision of Tony Blair to announce his conversion to Roman Catholocism two days ago instead of two years ago.
    Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 07/02/2007 22:18 Comments || Top||

    #48  sects? Dunno of any specific. There's a huge number of ex-Iranians who were educated, then came to the US for college - my alma mater - San Diego State - a had a bunch in 79-83 (my term) that were none too interested in going home. They were muslims who would hoist beers Fridays with my fraternity guys in Monty's Den. I work with a few still (24 yrs later, and they stay in character - either they are in DEEP cover, or the Zen std is BS). Most are pretty good civil engineers, and, as far as I know, not planning to kill me
    Posted by: Frank G || 07/02/2007 22:20 Comments || Top||

    #49  my point being - there are Iranians, et al, who value technical education, and (apparently) want it for productive "i.e.: western" reasons - good salary, productive for society, as much status as engineers get,....
    Posted by: Frank G || 07/02/2007 22:26 Comments || Top||

    #50  Broadhead, I've never heard of the flick, but will keep an eye out for it. Sounds interesting to say the least. The contradictions alone are worth it.

    Turkey is Shia, btw. Ata- something or other(I'm drawing a blank on spelling) Separated church from state in 1920.

    The ethical differences between Islam and the religions that don't suck are indeed considerable. I'm not all that up on Islam, but I believe you are correct. They don't have a render unto ceaser clause. Islam hides with taqqiya instead.

    The Church as it was in Europe was, in one way, very similar to the church today in Islam in that it could, with little more than a few words, call men to arms. In addition, it also called many wealthy people to fund and lead the army. (basically wealthy landowners/knights funded and lead their own armies for the purpose of serving the churches military goals. This was how the armies were raised for the crusades) This is by far the most important thing that must go and had to go in Europe. Without an ability to raise an army, the church cannot fill more than token functions of the state. The real power will be taken by those with an army. "the guy with the guns collects the taxes."

    Islam has no choice but to someday turn state functions over to the state. If they don't, they will run out of money when the oil runs out. Either way, they're done as a state. No money = no army. If they don't turn over the power to the state before the oil money runs out, they're gonna be jealous of the rest of Africa. Bones in the lip are gonna start looking pretty extravagant.

    I mostly agree with your point about education. They invented numbers, if they can't figure out 2 + 2, screw 'em. I also agree that Islam needs to be aggressively challenged on its bullshit. Christianity was challenged with new discoveries and new philosophies, Islam need only be challenged with what's already well known.

    Because of things like its ethics and its lack of recognition of the state, Islam will in ways be harder to reform than Christianity was. In other ways, it will be easier. While Christianity was grappling with incredible discoveries that turned the world on its head, things like the world really isn't flat and the earth isn't the center of the universe. In addition to the newfound philosophy that the church really shouldn't act as the state. What Islam has to comes to grips with is common sense. Things like, if you beat your wife you should get punched in your face and personal hygene. We already invented those products for them.

    This war will be won when Islam separates church and state. It will because it has to. The teachings of Islam will adapt to fit the new paradigm or it will die out.

    Either way is fine with me.
    Posted by: Mike N. || 07/02/2007 22:40 Comments || Top||

    #51  Fits and spats, NS. I refer you to the fine post a week or so ago by Chuck Simmins regarding Americas early difficulties.

    In addition to his post, I would also draw your attention to the civil war. That post covers our first 40 years. A generation from that this country was torn in half and no sooner did it come back together and we lost our President to a home grown assassin.

    It took this country a century to get it together. Also, using this country as a yard stick by which to measure all others is, quite frankly, completely unfair to the rest of this stupid world.
    Posted by: Mike N. || 07/02/2007 22:52 Comments || Top||


    Down Under
    Australian Authorities say 1 arrested in connection with UK, Scotland Terror Attacks
    A 27-year-old doctor was arrested last night in Brisbane in connection with the foiled terrorist plots to blow up car bombs in London and Scotland.

    The man, who was not Australian born, was a registrar at the Gold Coast Hospital in Southport. He did not have a return ticket for his flight.

    Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said the man was arrested by a counter-terrorism team comprising Queensland police and Australian Federal Police officers after advice from UK authorities.

    Mr Beattie said he understood the man had been attempting to leave Australia.

    Brisbane Airport has confirmed that only one flight - destined for Kuala Lumpur - was delayed last night.

    The man is helping police with inquiries and no charges have been laid, but a number of search warrants are being executed across south-east Queensland.

    Two other suspects being held in Britain are also doctors. The Brisbane arrest is the eighth in connection with the bombings.
    Posted by: Oztralian || 07/02/2007 20:51 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Britain

    #1  There is suppose to be a news conference on soon and i suspect in the coming days a number of search warrants will be executed.
    Posted by: Oztralian || 07/02/2007 20:55 Comments || Top||

    #2  Couple of wrong number cell phone calls and he figured reception was better in Australia? Happy reception, Doc.
    Posted by: Phinater Thraviger || 07/02/2007 20:58 Comments || Top||


    Home Front: WoT
    Eighth arrest in terror inquiry
    Police investigating the failed car bombings at Glasgow Airport and London have arrested a man abroad, bringing the number of people detained to eight.
    I'll bet that burned guy is squealing like a - pardon the expression - pig. The pain associated with burns is some of the most excrutiating in the world. couldn't happen to a nicer guy. And remind him that taking narcotic painkillers is against his religion.

    Police have not specified in which country the arrest took place.
    anybody willing to wager a guess?

    It is also understood the Metropolitan Police will be taking charge of both inquiries and are to transfer a suspect held in Scotland to the UK capital.
    That's a shame. The Scots are fun as hell, great and warm people with a terrific sense of humor, but if you've ever been in a pub on a Friday night, you'd know not to get 'em angry! And no doubt, these SOB's got 'em plenty angry

    Iraqi Bilal Abdulla will be taken to Paddington Green police station where another doctor is also being quizzed.
    three muslim doctors. perhaps the oath they take is different from the oath nonmuslim doctors take.
    Posted by: PlanetDan || 07/02/2007 16:47 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Britain

    #1  three muslim doctors. perhaps the oath they take is different from the oath nonmuslim doctors take

    I bet that they interpreted Hippocratic Oath that they can be licensed hipocrites. What's a couple of letters, not much diff...
    Posted by: twobyfour || 07/02/2007 18:44 Comments || Top||

    #2  LGF says 5 doctors have been arrested (so far).
    Posted by: phil_b || 07/02/2007 18:44 Comments || Top||

    #3  Yup, the NHS is going to take a staff hit soon I think.
    Posted by: lotp || 07/02/2007 18:46 Comments || Top||

    #4  Regardless of the bombers' origins—in light of how a Pakistani government official's open demands for terrorist reprisals went unchallenged—I hope that Britain will take a long hard look at restricting or closing all immigration and travel to or from Pakistan.

    I would also hope that people take particular notice of how many medical doctors seem to have been involved in these brutal attacks. This is taqiyya at its very worst. The Hippocratic oath specifically swears; "Never to do deliberate harm to anyone for anyone else's interest".

    Quite obviously—as has been repeatedly demonstrated—Islamic doctrine somehow supercedes even the most basic commitments to the preservation of life. While this is no great surprise—coming as it does from an avowed death cult—it still must serve notice to the West of what an ethical perversion taqiyya and Islamic doctrine as a whole are at every turn.
    Posted by: Zenster || 07/02/2007 19:36 Comments || Top||

    #5  MSNBC just reported, another one arrested in Austria.
    Posted by: Sherry || 07/02/2007 19:48 Comments || Top||

    #6  MSNBC just reported, another one arrested in Austria.

    Lemme guess, Achmed Schicklgruber.
    Posted by: Zenster || 07/02/2007 20:07 Comments || Top||

    #7  It was Australia, not Austria:

    An eighth man -- described only as 27 years old -- was arrested in Brisbane, Australia, Monday night, said Peter Beattie, the premier of the state of Queensland.

    He indicated more warrants have been issued.
    Posted by: lotp || 07/02/2007 20:13 Comments || Top||

    #8  Killing infidels is OK for Muzzie doctors.
    Posted by: Keystone || 07/02/2007 20:16 Comments || Top||

    #9  It was Australia, not Austria:

    Okay, lemme guess, Taj ("cat meat") al-Hilali.
    Posted by: Zenster || 07/02/2007 20:21 Comments || Top||

    #10  Hah --- spell check failed me!!! I knew that... was checking the spelling and on the phone at the same time, and duh..... choose the wrong spelling!!! sorry
    Posted by: Sherry || 07/02/2007 20:49 Comments || Top||

    #11  More from The Independent:
    A suspected secret cell of foreign militants, believed to be linked to al-Qa'ida and using British hospitals as cover, are being questioned over the terrorist attacks in London and Glasgow.

    Police carried out 19 raids across the country, arresting nationals from Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Among those arrested was Mohammed Jamil Abdelqader Asha, a 26-year-old neurologist who was born in Saudi Arabia but is of Palestinian origin and was travelling on a Jordanian passport. He and his 27-year-old wife, a medical assistant, were arrested on the M6 in Cheshire, in connection with the attempted bombings in London.

    Also under arrest was Bilal Talal Abdul Samad Abdulla, an Iraqi from Baghdad who arrived in the UK in April 2006. He is said to have been one of the two men in the Cherokee Jeep in the Glasgow airport attack, and is suffering from third-degree burns.

    His companion, under arrest, is also from Iraq, while two other men, aged 25 and 28, arrested in Paisley yesterday, were said to be doctors from Saudi Arabia.

    Police carried out a controlled explosion on a blue Vauxhall car yesterday at Royal Alexandra Hospital, in Paisley, near Glasgow, where Dr Abdulla worked and where he is being treated for his injuries. It was the second such detonation at the hospital, following a white BMW on Sunday. Strathclyde Police said the two vehicles were "connected" with the airport attack.

    Dr Asha, 26, has been in Britain since 2005 and had worked at the North Staffordshire Hospital, where his office was being searched yesterday following a raid at his home at Sunningdale Grove in Newcastle-under-Lyme. There were police searches in the same town two miles from Dr Asha's home at Priam Close, Bradwell, which, according to neighbours, was rented by another doctor and his wife.

    Dr Abdulla, who had qualified in Baghdad in 2004, a year after the US-led invasion, has been in Britain since August 2006. He is said to have lived in Jordan before arriving in the UK.

    Detectives believe that a Mercedes involved in the failed attacks in London came from Scotland. They have tracked part of the car's route south last week using number-plate recognition technology mounted in cameras along the M6.

    Further searches were carried out in Liverpool at the home of a man who had been arrested after being disabled with a taser gun after police surrounded his car. According to neighbours, the man was a doctor from India who worked at Halton Hospital in Cheshire. A colleague told the newspaper, Muslim News, that the man may have been detained because he was using the mobile telephone and internet account of another man who has recently left Britain. Last night Dr Asha's father, Jamil Asha, asked King Abdullah of Jordan to intercede on behalf of his son.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 07/02/2007 20:59 Comments || Top||

    #12  CBS news had video of the arrest of Asha with the cat meat wife in the obligatory burqa bag on the side of the highway being interrogated.
    Posted by: Frank G || 07/02/2007 21:06 Comments || Top||

    #13 
    Islamic Attention Whore


    nice skin asshole have fun recovering from your 3rd degree burns
    Posted by: RD || 07/02/2007 21:21 Comments || Top||

    #14  I wonder if he prescribed some heavy duty painkillers for himself and his buddy before the attack.
    Posted by: lotp || 07/02/2007 21:34 Comments || Top||

    #15  apparently, "undernourished" won't be a defense rationale?
    Posted by: Frank G || 07/02/2007 21:43 Comments || Top||

    #16  lotp I wonder if he prescribed some heavy duty painkillers for himself and his buddy before the attack.

    humm, hadn't thought of that good catch, prolly so..

    btw, it's up to 6 "Doctors" [in name only] now who have been picked up.

    lotp, think they had their fingers crossed when they took this?

    Hippocratic Oath

    Hippocratic Oath—Modern Version

    I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:

    I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.

    I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.

    I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.

    I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery.

    I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.

    I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.

    I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.

    I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.

    If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.
    Posted by: RD || 07/02/2007 21:45 Comments || Top||

    #17  Dunno. I'm not even sure whether doctors in, say, Jordan take that oath. It would be interesting to know -- anybody have info on this?
    Posted by: lotp || 07/02/2007 21:47 Comments || Top||

    #18  RD, for such people it can work for certain very specific definitions of human being, no King's X needed. I remember the story some years ago of a Scandinavian (?) doctor who refused to treat Americans.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 07/02/2007 21:49 Comments || Top||

    #19  A 27 year old neurologist. I guess NHS must attract the brightest doctors in the world. Too bad they aren't bright enough to build a bomb that works.
    Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 07/02/2007 21:53 Comments || Top||

    #20  #18 RD, for such people it can work for certain very specific definitions of human being, no King's X needed. I remember the story some years ago of a Scandinavian (?) doctor who refused to treat Americans.

    TW, well then, I wouldn't want that asshole treating you or my mother, sister etc.

    To think that our tremendous Corpsman "Docs" and Mil Physicians give first World care to freshly wounded terrorist in Iraq etc. I'm sure the Brits will do for these sub-humans.

    I repeat myself but, we are LUCKY beyond measure, we have alot to be Proud of.
    Posted by: RD || 07/02/2007 22:06 Comments || Top||

    #21  When a doctor does go wrong he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge.

    --Sherlock Holmes in The Sign of Four
    Posted by: Cromert || 07/02/2007 22:07 Comments || Top||

    #22  I'll be back...

    ima go on a jihadi hunting trip,

    /puts on his cloaking device...
    Posted by: RD || 07/02/2007 22:12 Comments || Top||

    #23  They can open a new clinic.
    Posted by: Super Hose || 07/02/2007 22:25 Comments || Top||


    India-Pakistan
    Pakistan busts suicide bomber gang
    PAKISTANI intelligence officers have busted a gang of Islamic militants supplying suicide bombers and explosive devices to Taliban fighters in neighbouring Afghanistan, police said. The eight-member gang led by former fighters of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group was based in Quetta, the capital of southwestern Baluchistan province, a senior police official said. They used to collect materials and volunteers from the central province of Punjab, the official said, requesting anonymity. The suspects were arrested in Punjab over the past few days. "During the interrogation they confessed to having carried out a series of suicide bombings and bomb blasts against foreign forces in Afghanistan over the past several years,'' he said.
    Truncheons were applied appropriately.
    He identified the gang leaders as Mufti Saghir Ahmed, a veteran of the 1980s war against invading Soviet troops in Afghanistan, and wanted militant Mohammad Safeer. Both are members of the Jaish group, he said. Safeer was wanted over an attack on a church in the Pakistani town of Taxila in 2003.

    "The suspects were preparing remote-controlled devices for the Taliban in Afghanistan,'' the official said.

    "It's a major breakthrough in the fight against terrorism and reflects Pakistan's strong commitment to fight militancy,'' a senior security official said. The network was supplementing Taliban fighters based in southern Afghanistan, he said. They had "links'' with former mujahedin leader Jalaluddin Haqqani and his pro-Taliban son Siraj Haqqani, he added.
    This article starring:
    JALALUDIN HAQQANITaliban
    MOHAMAD SAFIRJaish-e-Mohammad
    MUFTI SAGHIR AHMEDJaish-e-Mohammad
    SIRAJ HAQQANITaliban
    Jaish-e-Mohammad
    Posted by: lotp || 07/02/2007 19:20 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Jaish-e-Mohammad


    FRB extends detention of Rashid Rauf, accomplice
    The Federal Review Board (FRB) headed by Justice Hamid Ali Mirza on Saturday extended the detention by 60 days of the alleged mastermind of a London terror plot and an accomplice. Rashid Rauf and Rengzaib are being kept at Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi. Rauf was arrested on August 8 on his way to Multan from Bahawalpur, while Rengzaib was arrested from Haripur, NWFP, on August 30. However, the board did not extend the detention period of Khalid Mehmood Rashid, already detained under the Security of Pakistan Act. “The review board did not extend the detention period of my client since he was innocent and all charges against him were totally false,” Rashid’s counsel Hashmat Habib told Daily Times. Khalid Mehmood Rashid was extradited to Pakistan on August 7 last year from South Africa for his alleged contacts with the suicide bombers behind London’s 7/7 bombing.
    Posted by: Fred || 07/02/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda


    2 killed trying to plant bomb
    Two suspected terrorists were killed late on Saturday night while attempting to plant a bomb in a Hazarkhani warehouse, in the jurisdiction of Yakatoot police station, police said.

    A Yakatoot police station official said two unidentified people were planting a bomb in a Degure & Logistic warehouse when the bomb went off at 1:30am killing both of them on the spot. He said they appeared to be Afghans in their mid-twenties. Vehicles carrying goods for American forces in Afghanistan use the warehouse, he added.

    A police statement said three time bombs, hand grenades and two kg of explosives were also recovered, which were later defused by the bomb disposal squad. A broken AK-47 and a pistol were also recovered from the crime scene. The bodies of both suspects were sent for DNA tests, it said.

    Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Abdul Majeed Marwat told Daily Times, “We cannot rule out Taliban involvement in the incident, as the bombers tried to disrupt the supplies for American soldiers in Afghanistan.” Commenting on an earlier Peshawar bus terminal explosion, the CCPO said it was a continuation of the previous blasts in Peshawar.
    Posted by: Fred || 07/02/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


    Eight grenade-tossers arrested in attacks on Christians
    LAHORE, Pakistan - Pakistani police arrested eight Islamic militants on Sunday suspected of involvement in 2002 grenade on a Christian school and a church in which 10 people were killed. The suspects, caught during raids by special police teams in the city of Lahore, were plotting another attack, said senior police officer Masood Aziz. ‘We had information that they were planning a terrorist attack in Baluchistan (province) and they were gathering weapons and explosives for that,’ Aziz told a news conference.
    I'm mildly surprised that they were arrested. I'll be more surprised if they're taken to trial. I'll be flabbergasted if they do hard time.
    Community service, doing outreach to troubled yoots.
    The suspects were members of banned Sunni Muslim militants groups Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Al Furqan. Both are believed to have links with Al Qaeda.

    The suspects were believed linked to two attacks. In the first, militants attacked a school for the children of foreign missionaries near the hill town of Murree, 50 km (30 miles) northeast of Islamabad, on Aug. 5, 2002, killing six Pakistanis. Four days later, four nurses were killed in a grenade attack on a church at a hospital in the town of Taxila, near Islamabad.
    Posted by: Steve White || 07/02/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Jhangvi

    #1  I'm surprised, too. Where's AI?
    Posted by: anymouse || 07/02/2007 3:46 Comments || Top||

    #2  Terrorist militants attacked a school for the children

    Oh Brave Lions!(TM) One of you will vanquish a thousand of them...
    Posted by: Admiral Allan Ackbar || 07/02/2007 7:06 Comments || Top||

    #3  How long until they are released? A stern speaking-to by the judge ("Be more careful next time and don't get caught - it gets embarrassing.") should be sufficient punishment, don't you think?
    Posted by: Glenmore || 07/02/2007 7:14 Comments || Top||


    Iraq
    Michael Yon: Baqubah update
    E-mail to the Instapundit.

    Baqubah has gone quiet. Very little fighting. There might be more to come, but overall the people have turned against al Qaeda and are pointing them out day by day. The people are pointing out the bombs. Baqubah received its first food shipment in 10 months just a few days ago, even while light fighting was still on. I was there for the food distribution and am writing a dispatch on it. The primary object now is to start to restore a sense of normalcy in the city. Remember Ramadi? That crazy city of death and fighting? Writers hardly want to go there any more because it's quiet. I am very curious if Baqubah will go that way. So far so good. There are serious sectarian issues here in Diyala Province, but with al Qaeda on defense instead of offense, the people in Baqubah have a chance to do what those in Ramadi and other cities are doing: reclaim their lives.
    Posted by: Mike || 07/02/2007 14:36 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency


    7 Iraqi policemen killed in bombings
    Two Iraqi policemen were killed on Sunday when a roadside bomb exploded near their patrol in eastern Baghdad, while a suicide car bomber killed five policemen in Ramadi. Following the detonation of the roadside bomb, gunmen sped by in a car and showered the policemen with machine gun fire, a police officer said. Three policemen and three civilians in the area were wounded, the officer added. The explosion and shooting occurred around 10am in east Baghdad’s Zayona neighborhood. Separately, Police Captain Abbas Al-Dulaimi said the suicide car bombing was aimed at a police station in the eastern side of Ramadi. He said 14 people had been wounded in the blast, including three policemen, adding that the casualty count might rise. Also Sunday, the bullet-riddled body of a senior police commander was discovered in Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city, police said. Colonel Nasser Hamoud, who was in charge of the city’s prisons, had been kidnapped along with three of his guards the day before, another officer said. The guards were released a few hours later, he added.
    Posted by: Fred || 07/02/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency


    26 ‘Iran-linked militants’ killed in Iraq raid
    US and Iraqi forces backed by helicopters killed 26 militants suspected of links to "Iranian terror networks" in raids in the Baghdad Shiite district of Sadr City yesterday, the US military said.

    "Coalition forces conducted two separate raids targeting suspected secret cell terrorists during pre-dawn hours Saturday in Sadr City," the military said, adding that another 17 suspects were detained in the operations. "It is believed that the suspected terrorists have close ties to Iranian terror networks and are responsible for facilitating the flow of lethal aid into Iraq," it added.

    Tehran has always denied the charges, insisting it supports the Shi’ite-led government of Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki and blaming Iraq's myriad conflicts on the US occupation.

    Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday dismissed the US allegations, according to Iranian state television.

    "American accusations against Iran about Iraq... are unfounded," Khamenei said. "There is no doubt about the Iranian government's and people's hatred towards the US administration but America's problem stems from elsewhere."
    Posted by: Pappy || 07/02/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Mahdi Army

    #1  You have no chance Iran. Surrender immediately.
    Posted by: newc || 07/02/2007 1:37 Comments || Top||

    #2  Tehran has always denied the charges

    Looks like all sides agree that Iran should not have any forces in Iraq. That will come in handy when they catch Ahmanutjob running around Iraq with an AK-47.
    Posted by: gorb || 07/02/2007 2:21 Comments || Top||

    #3  gorb, doubting Ahmadinutjob would be so brave, but whenever any Iraninutjob is encountered in Iraq, it should be returned in a perforated state.

    Make it rendered, no return necessary.
    Posted by: twobyfour || 07/02/2007 2:26 Comments || Top||

    #4  ‘Iran-linked militants’

    Who? Odd that they are not named.

    Hizbullah?



    Posted by: twobyfour || 07/02/2007 5:09 Comments || Top||

    #5  In Sadr. Sounds like we need more feet on the ground in that rat nest.
    Posted by: Icerigger || 07/02/2007 6:12 Comments || Top||

    #6  On FoxNews this morning, they said the military announced they've proved a direct connection between Iraq and Hizb'allah of Lebanon, via Iran, and that the Ayatollah (Not sure which one, I focussed on a tricky bit of ironing at that moment) was in the chain of command. Hizb'allah is running the training of extreme Shiites in batches of 60, then leading them back home, and shipping some millions of dollars worth of weaponry to them each month. I think they picked up one of the top Hizb'allah people in Iraq in March, and more since, but I was not paying proper attention to the report. Sorry!
    Posted by: trailing wife || 07/02/2007 8:02 Comments || Top||

    #7  Sadly from a political level, unless Iran does something much bigger than this (everyone on the 'burg knows this is big enough to start interdicting Iran in a sane environment) the avg American civilian will not give this much traction. Thank the msm & our congresscowards for that. Too many Americans have bought the bill of crap called the war is lost or are tired of it. It would take a fairly big Iranian incursion or the use of a wmd for the American public to situp take notice, at least imho.
    Posted by: Broadhead6 || 07/02/2007 10:46 Comments || Top||

    #8  Good work gentlemen. Your country owes you... lesse, geranium orcs are worth triple points, so if I split the interger, carry the eleven and multiply by triple and add the bonus for bagging more than 2 dozen in one outing thats.. lots of beer.
    Posted by: Mike N. || 07/02/2007 11:26 Comments || Top||


    Car bomb kills 5 policemen in Ramadi
    BAGHDAD - A suicide car bomber killed five policemen in Ramadi on Sunday in the Sunni-dominated province of Anbar, Iraqi police said. Police Captain Abbas Al Dulaimi said the attack was aimed at a police station in the eastern side of Ramadi, a restive city 110 km (68 miles) west of Baghdad. Dulaimi said 14 people had been wounded in the blast, including three policemen, and he warned that the casualty count might rise.
    Posted by: Steve White || 07/02/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency

    #1  Hope none of the dead were pro-US.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 07/02/2007 13:07 Comments || Top||


    Israel-Palestine-Jordan
    Hamas arrests Army of Islam official
    Hamas on Monday arrested the spokesman of a shadowy group holding British reporter Alan Johnston, a move that could give it a bargaining chip to secure the Briton's release.
    .
    .
    .
    In retaliation, the Army of Islam kidnapped 10 Hamas members in Gaza.
    A new "civil" war?
    Posted by: gromgoru || 07/02/2007 08:45 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

    #1  Pass the popcorn, this is going to be good.
    Posted by: Jack is Back! || 07/02/2007 10:44 Comments || Top||


    Israel approves transfer of 4 Jordanian prisoners
    JERUSALEM - The Israeli cabinet on Sunday approved a proposal to transfer four Jordanians serving life sentences to Jordan to complete their prison time in their home country, a government source said. ‘The cabinet approved the prime minister’s proposal to release four Jordanian prisoners to complete their life term in Jordan,’ the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

    An Israeli court sentenced the four to life in jail for killing two Israeli soldiers in November 1990, four years before the two neighbouring states signed a peace treaty.
    When's the next religious holiday? Expect King Abdullah to pardon the four then.
    Prime Minister Ehud Olmert put the proposal before the cabinet as a goodwill gesture to Jordan’s King Abdullah II who had asked that the prisoners be allowed to complete their sentence in a Jordanian jail. ‘Jordan gave Israel a commitment that the king would not pardon the four during the next 18 months,’ a senior government source said.
    Hah.
    Following the cabinet approval, the four Jordanians are now expected to be transferred on Tuesday or Wednesday, the official added.
    Posted by: Steve White || 07/02/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  the four Jordanians are now expected to be transferred on Tuesday or Wednesday to medical school in Liverpool, the official added.

    Editorial correction needed.

    /L 808 RDT
    Posted by: Jack is Back! || 07/02/2007 10:46 Comments || Top||


    Southeast Asia
    Terrorists in southern Thailand kill three and injure one
    Two separate roadside bombings aimed at patrolling units injured three officers, while a rubber taper was shot dead at close range as violence continue unabated Monday in the deep south.

    The roadside bomb appeared to be a trap aimed at a unit of police officer in Yala's Krong Pinang district. One officer was seriously wounded from the explosion as he was removing a banner that blamed the rangers for the violence incidents, including the killing of villagers because they were unable to capture the insurgents.

    In Narathiwat's Rangae district, a group of soldiers also came under a roadside bomb attack. Two suffered minor injuries.

    In Yala's Raman district, rubber taper Kadir Yusoh, 47, was shot dead while riding his motorbike near his village, while a 28 year old villager, also a Muslim, whose name was not made avialable, was killed by gunfire in nearby Narathiwat province.

    The shootings came a day after a group of men opened fire on a 58 year old Islamic teacher and his five students in Pattani province. The teacher died, while two boys aged nine and 11 were injured. In the same district on Sunday, a woman was killed and a soldier and a local mayor were injured when gunmen opened fire on a teashop.

    The ongoing violence came in the backdrop of an ongoing door to door shakedown operation by security forces in Yala's district of Banang Sta and Narathiwat's Sunai Padi. At least 200 villagers have been detained without charges under emergency Law for further questioning. "At least 40 of these individuals are believed to be the leadership position," said Colonel Acra Thiproch, spokesman for the army. Colonel Peeraphon Wiriyakul, commander of the Task Force 3 in Narathiwat said the shakedown has forced many insurgents to leave the area.

    Prince of Songkhla University in Pattani's Associated Professor Srisompob Jitpirom said the "aggressive" campaign was part of the military's effort to restore their tarnish image but warned that negative consequences could follow as local Muslim villagers still distrust the authorities. Local residents consistently accused the authorities of carrying out target killings and abuse of power.
    Posted by: ryuge || 07/02/2007 08:20 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Thai Insurgency


    Thai army detains 50 in raid on Muslim village
    Are the gloves coming offf or is this just the usual?
    BANGKOK: Thai security forces raided a village in the rebellious Muslim south yesterday and detained 50 men with bomb-making material, an army spokesman said. The detainees were taken for questioning to an army camp in Narathiwat, one of three provinces where more than 2,300 people have been killed in a three-year separatist insurgency in the Malay-speaking region.

    The dawn raid, which involved 100 troops and police, followed tipoffs from villagers that a group of militants were hiding in the village, Colonel Atthadej Mathanom told Reuters by telephone. The detainees can be held without charge for 28 days under an emergency law.
    Last month, the army detained 160 Muslims after rebels intensified attacks on government schools, civil servants and security forces
    Posted by: Steve White || 07/02/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Thai Insurgency

    #1  Naw. They'll be released after the women, children and fluffy ducks set up a roadblock to protest.
    Posted by: Elmereter Hupash6222 || 07/02/2007 0:56 Comments || Top||

    #2  This is Thailand, we are talking about here, not EUrop or the United States of America/Arabia.

    They let things fester for a while, but when the time comes, they dont mess around.
    Posted by: Admiral Allan Ackbar || 07/02/2007 7:11 Comments || Top||

    #3  We had this yesterday.
    Posted by: gromgoru || 07/02/2007 8:48 Comments || Top||


    Syria-Lebanon-Iran
    DEBKA: Spanish cut covert deal with Hizballah
    The Spaniards negotiated their secret arrangement behind the backs of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and UNIFIL Lebanon commander Gen. Claudio Graziano.

    It violates UNIFIL’s mandate and has already encouraged other contingents to follow suit, thereby starting the disintegration of the entire UN Resolution 1701 regime for the Lebanon ceasefire.
    DEBKAfile reveals a clandestine approach to Hizballah commanders in Beirut made by officers of the Spanish UN contingent. It was made after the loss of six members in a terrorist attack last Sunday, June 24. The Spanish peacekeepers offered Hizballah intelligence and military collaboration in return for protection and agreed to set up a hot line for their exchanges.

    Monday, July 2, Israeli marks the first anniversary of the Second Lebanon War in which 114 Israeli soldiers and 43 civilians lost their lives and two servicemen were abducted as a result of Hizballah attacks from Lebanon.

    That war ended in August, 2006, when Israel and Hizballah accepted a ceasefire under UN Security Council resolution 1701. It was secured by a newly-expanded UN force in S. Lebanon, which was mandated to distance Hizballah from the Israeli border and monitor the region to prevent the Shiite militia from returning, re-arming and redeploying rockets.

    DEBKAfile’s Israeli military sources say that the Spaniards negotiated their secret arrangement behind the backs of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and UNIFIL Lebanon commander Gen. Claudio Graziano. It violates UNIFIL’s mandate and has already encouraged other contingents to follow suit, thereby starting the disintegration of the entire UN Resolution 1701 regime for the Lebanon ceasefire.

    Such undercover deals with Hizballah also bolster its active pro-Syrian and pro-Iranian campaign to destabilize the pro-Western Fouad Siniora government in Beirut.

    DEBKAfile’s sources add some details. The Spanish officers arrived in Beirut with a promise to take care of elements which Hizballah found annoying in the interests of generating a “friendly environment” in South Lebanon. That was only for starters.

    The 1,100-strong contingent patrols the eastern sector of S. Lebanon which includes Al Khiyam and the disputed Shebaa Farms opposite Israeli Metula, Mt. Dov and Mt. Hermon. Our sources report that Hizballah was quick to catch onto the Spanish officers’ vulnerability and suggested that the presence of its militiamen in the banned sector would have averted the attack, which cost six Spanish lives, including three Columbian members of the contingent. They claimed that the terrorists who blew up the Spanish patrol fled to the Shuba area. Hizballah would have given chase were it not for the ban on its entry to the area.

    DEBKAfile reports there is no corroborating evidence that the terrorists who attacked the Spaniards did indeed escape in that direction.

    Hizballah chiefs continued to press their advantage with the Spanish troops by demanding permanent briefings on any military movements visible from the sector they monitor. This could only refer to the movements of the Lebanese and Israeli military.

    Our intelligence sources reveal that UNIFIL’s French and Germany commanders are considering sending similar delegations to Beirut for the same kind of secret fruitful chats with Hizballah leaders.

    Barely one year after the Lebanon War, Hizballah has not only managed to recover its former strength, replenish its rocket arsenal and rebuild its fortified bunker network, but is in the process of breaking up the UN peace force in South Lebanon. Component-units are more than ready to play ball with the very party whose disarmament was the key element in its mission description.
    gromgoru and I posted this article at nearly the same time. His comment from the post:
    To me, the only surprising thing about that all is how long it took for EUros to go from looking the other way to active cooperation with Hizbullah
    Posted by: lotp || 07/02/2007 09:47 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah

    #1  While DEBKA usually merits saline additives, the following has a thoroughly Arab ring to it:

    Our sources report that Hizballah was quick to catch onto the Spanish officers’ vulnerability and suggested that the presence of its militiamen in the banned sector would have averted the attack, which cost six Spanish lives, including three Columbian members of the contingent. They claimed that the terrorists who blew up the Spanish patrol fled to the Shuba area. Hizballah would have given chase were it not for the ban on its entry to the area.

    This is their typical "our hands are tied!" sort of excuse for being unable to prevent the terrorism they are all too often up to their necks in. We've already seen UN forces sharing military intelligence with Hezbollah. That, combined with Spain's previously craven conduct, suddenly makes this new malfeasance quite plausible.
    Posted by: Zenster || 07/02/2007 10:03 Comments || Top||

    #2  The Zapatero government shows its character once again.
    Posted by: Mike || 07/02/2007 10:38 Comments || Top||

    #3  The Spanish peacekeepers offered Hizballah intelligence and military collaboration in return for protection and agreed to set up a hot line for their exchanges.

    Just formalized the arrangement? Thought the UN peacekeepers(?) had been doing this all along.

    This is a pact made in hell with the devils deciples.
    Posted by: JohnQC || 07/02/2007 11:40 Comments || Top||

    #4  Thought the UN peacekeepers(?) had been doing this all along.

    Yup.
    Posted by: mrp || 07/02/2007 13:05 Comments || Top||

    #5  Wonder how the Spaniards would feel about being caught in the middle of yet another "crossfire" situation?
    Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 07/02/2007 14:17 Comments || Top||

    #6  NOTE: The source is DEBKA which probably means the entire thing is a fabrication based on some tiny shred of truth. I can't recall when I have *ever* seen an accurate report about *anything* from DEBKA.

    What is that crap posted on this site?
    Posted by: Neville Slimble2200 || 07/02/2007 15:04 Comments || Top||


    Jund Al Sham militants disband in south Lebanon camp
    The Islamist faction Jund Al Sham that fought a deadly gun-battle with the Lebanese army last month has been dissolved, a Palestinian source with another Islamist group said Sunday. The Usbat Al Ansar source said that 23 members of Jund Al Sham in Ain Al Helweh camp on the outskirts of the port city of Sidon have joined up with Usbat at a meeting late Saturday, while the rest had laid down their weapons.

    Usbat Al Ansar has detained three other members of the group on suspicion of hurling a grenade at an army checkpoint last week, in an incident that caused no casualties, he said. "Some of them worked for certain intelligence services ... Today, there is nothing called Jund Al Sham," the source said, declining to be named.

    The reported dissolution of Jund Al Sham comes as the Lebanese army continues a deadly six-week-old showdown with Arab Islamist fighters of Fatah Al Islam in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon. On June 4, in an apparent show of solidarity with Fatah Al Islam, Jund Al Sham clashed with the army on the outskirts of Ain Al Helweh, Lebanon's largest camp, in a gunbattle that killed two soldiers and two militants.

    Under an arrangement dating back almost four decades, the Lebanese army is not permitted to enter the Palestinian camps, where security is the responsibility of Palestinian factions. Jund Al Sham had last week tried to set up sandbag barricades in Ain Al Helweh, but was prevented by mainstream Palestinian forces, another source at the camp said.

    Most members of Jund Al Sham, a tiny group of about 50 members, many of them on the run, are Lebanese. The Sunni group, which has no clear hierarchy of leader, also includes Palestinians. They fought against the army during an Islamist revolt that broke out on New Year's Eve in 1999 in the predominantly Sunni area of Dinnieh of north Lebanon. The clashes left 45 people dead.

    Posted by: Fred || 07/02/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Jund al-Shams

    #1  Time for false nose and mustachios?
    Posted by: Seafarious || 07/02/2007 9:34 Comments || Top||

    #2  Chadors.
    Posted by: lotp || 07/02/2007 9:38 Comments || Top||

    #3  "Some of them worked for certain intelligence services

    My money is on Syria.
    Posted by: Paul || 07/02/2007 10:23 Comments || Top||


    G'morning...
    Posted by: || 07/02/2007 00:01 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  There's something about Mary...
    Posted by: twobyfour || 07/02/2007 0:41 Comments || Top||

    #2  Time to go to bed...
    Posted by: Jeremiah Glock4046 || 07/02/2007 0:43 Comments || Top||

    #3  Very nice! I'll take poolside sunshine and chrome over brass and a dimly lit, smoke filled room anyday.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 07/02/2007 2:07 Comments || Top||

    #4 
    Posted by: KatieSventy || 07/02/2007 7:00 Comments || Top||

    #5  Marie "The Body" McDonald. An interesting, but short and tragic life.
    Posted by: Mullah Richard || 07/02/2007 8:59 Comments || Top||

    #6  Where's the rest of her?
    Posted by: Jack is Back! || 07/02/2007 10:20 Comments || Top||

    #7  kind of Meg Ryan cute
    Posted by: Frank G || 07/02/2007 15:19 Comments || Top||



    Who's in the News
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