The Front Page
March 20, 2007
Bombs Intended as Duds, London Suspect Testifies
2005 Transit Scare Is Described as Antiwar Message
Washington Post
LONDON -- A man accused of conspiring to bomb London's public transport system in July 2005 told a court Monday that he deliberately made fake devices that were not meant to explode but would spread fear and panic as a protest against the invasion of Iraq.
Muktar Said Ibrahim, 29, said he learned how to make the devices on the Internet, downloading a Web video on which an Arabic-speaking man in a ski mask described how to make explosives from hydrogen peroxide, an easily obtained household chemical...
--- Oh, it was just an anti-war protest. They wanted to make a statement. They wanted to "make a difference." So young and idealistic.
Ibrahim and his co-defendants -- Yassin Omar, 27, Adel Yahya, 24, Manfu Asiedu, 33, Hussain Osman, 28, and Ramzi Mohamed, 25 -- all deny charges of conspiring to murder and cause explosions. They face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted...
Ibrahim, who was born in Eritrea and moved to Britain at age 13, said he was angry about the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and had attended antiwar demonstrations. Finding these had little effect, he said, he decided to take "positive action."...
--- We're just anti-war hippies, really.
He said he and Omar first discussed the idea of a bomb hoax around September 2004.
"He said, 'What if we do something that would stand out,' " Ibrahim said. "Something like fireworks or firecrackers, something that would make noise and cause panic."
Ibrahim described how he and several of the others bought hydrogen peroxide -- a chemical commonly used in bleaching and hair-coloring products -- from cosmetics stores, then boiled it in a saucepan at Omar's apartment to reach a concentration of 70 percent. The chemical was mixed with flour, packed into plastic tubs and topped with detonators made with the explosive triacetone triperoxide, or TATP.
The devices were carried onto three subway trains and a bus.
--- We just want peace! Ok, here's the punchline...
Ibrahim said his initial plan had been to make eight to 20 realistic-looking devices, which would be left in public places and not detonated. "I didn't think I was going to be in any trouble, because it was a hoax," he said.
--- I was just kidding!
Sure buddy.
March 15, 2007
Al-Qaida No. 3 says he planned 9/11
AP
WASHINGTON - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confirmed his notoriety as al-Qaida's most ambitious operational planner when, according to military transcripts, he confessed to planning and supporting 31 terrorist attacks, topped by 9/11, that killed thousands of innocent victims since the early 1990s.
The gruesome attacks range from the suicide hijackings of Sept. 11, 2001 — which killed nearly 3,000 — to a 2002 shooting on an island off Kuwait that killed a U.S. Marine.
Many plots, including a previously undisclosed plan to kill several former U.S. presidents, were never carried out or were foiled by international counterterror authorities.
"I was responsible for the 9/11 operation from A to Z," Mohammed said in a statement read Saturday during a Combatant Status Review Tribunal at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Mohammed's confession was read by a member of the U.S. military who is serving as his personal representative...
--- This will hurt those 9/11 truthers. But they'll say this was a forced confession because Dick Cheney started threatened to pull his finger nails out.
Keep fighting for the real truth, morons!
In laying out his role in 31 attacks, his words drew al-Qaida closer to plots of the early 1990s than the group has previously been linked, including the 1993 World Trade Center truck bombing in which six people died.
Six people with links to global terror networks were convicted in federal court and sentenced to life in prison for that attack.
Mohammed made clear that al-Qaida wanted to down a second trans-Atlantic aircraft during would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid's operation.
And he confessed to the beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in a section of the statement that was excised from the public document, The Associated Press has learned. Pearl was abducted in January 2002 in Pakistan while researching a story on Islamic militancy. Mohammed has long been a suspect in the slaying, which was captured on video...
--- What a résumé.
The transcripts refer to a claim by Mohammed that he was tortured by the CIA, although he said he was not under duress at Guantanamo when he confessed to his role in the attacks. The CIA has said its interrogation practices are legal, and it does not use torture.
Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, questioned the legality of the closed-door sessions and whether the confession was actually the result of torture.
"We won't know that unless there is an independent hearing," he said. "We need to know if this purported confession would be enough to convict him at a fair trial or would it have to be suppressed as the fruit of torture?" ...
--- Come on dude. You really think the CIA made him say all of this? You really think the CIA is behind 9/11? Do you think Dick Cheney is an alien? Do you really believe "evil neocons" could pull off such a conspiracy in a quest for global domination? Look how incompetent they've turned out to be. No, that's not really a swipe at "neocons". But if they could bungle Iraq so bad, how could they possibly pull off a massive stunt like 9/11?
Why am I actually trying to reason with you truthers?
In listing the 28 attacks he planned and another three he supported, Mohammed said he tried to kill international leaders including Pope John Paul II, President Clinton and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
He said he planned the 2002 bombing of a Kenya beach resort frequented by Israelis and the failed missile attack on an Israeli passenger jet after it took off from Mombasa, Kenya.
He also said he was responsible for the bombing of a nightclub in Bali, Indonesia. In 2002, 202 were killed when two nightclubs there were bombed.
Other plots he said he was responsible for included planned attacks against the Sears Tower in Chicago, the Empire State Building and New York Stock Exchange in New York City, the Panama Canal, and Big Ben and Heathrow Airport in London — none of which happened.
--- The saddest part is that thousands of maggot defense lawyers would love to defend him... since this is all the doing of ... yes, Dick Cheney.
March 14, 2007
President Bush Sends Immigration Message to Congress From Mexico
AP
MERIDA, Mexico — President Bush sent a long-distance message to Congress from the southeast tip of Mexico: The future of U.S. relations south of the border hinges on immigration reform.
"I'm going to keep repeating it while I'm here in Mexico — that I know our country must have comprehensive immigration reform," said Bush, who returns to Washington on Wednesday after a second day of meetings with Mexican President Felipe Calderon...
The president could not promise Mexico that Congress will pass his guest worker program. He could only promise to work hard to make it law.
--- Jesus H. Christ, why don't you go to Mexico and stay there since you're so turned on by them. You treat them like they voted you in. Run for president of Mexico.
"Our nations share a 2,000-mile border, and that should be a source of unity, not division," Bush said. "So we're working together to keep both sides of the border open to tourism and trade, and closed to criminals and drug dealers and smugglers and terrorists and gun runners."...
--- Right.
You really want to enforce that border control. Stop all that terrific cheap illegal labor taking jobs from Americans that "Americans won't do."
Just before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Bush stressed the importance of the U.S. relationship with Mexico. The war in Iraq, which Mexico did not support, and Afghanistan shifted Bush's focus to the Middle East and Mexicans felt neglected...
--- Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. We were protecting ourselves and neglecting Mexicans. Isn't that horrible.
Puta.
March 12, 2007
Report: Al Qaeda Threatens Germany and Austria Over Forces in Afghanistan
AP
CAIRO, Egypt — Islamic militants threatened to attack Germany and Austria unless the two European nations break ranks with the U.S. and withdraw their personnel from Afghanistan, according to a Web statement.
"Germany will face more threats and dangers if it doesn't withdraw its troops from Afghanistan," an unidentified speaker said in a video statement posted Saturday on an Islamic Web site used by Al Qaeda -linked militants.
The authenticity of the video could not be verified, but it was released by the Voice of the Caliphate, which is said to be run by Usama bin Laden 's Al Qaeda group...
--- You bastards. I'm going on the Sound of Music tour in two weeks! As if this will change my plans.
The unidentified speaker, whose face was blurred, said about 2,700 German soldiers in Afghanistan will "not be safe from attacks" by the Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters in the war-torn nation. He also threatened that the militants will carry out attacks in Austria and against Austrian personnel in Afghanistan...
--- Contemplate the image of my middle finger in your face, you burqa babies.
Germany has no troops in Iraq but has troops serving with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, most of them focused in the north of the country.
Austria also has no troops in Iraq and has just five officers in Afghanistan.
--- Five officers?
Would Austria actually call home five people?
Probably.
Though somehow I think Vienna won't be on top of the hit list.
March 7, 2007
Burqa-clad Taliban leader caught as NATO attacks
Reuters
KABUL - Afghan soldiers have captured a Taliban leader who tried to flee a security operation in the south dressed in a burqa, NATO said on Wednesday.
Tuesday's capture in Kandahar province came as NATO launched a major offensive in neighboring Helmand to secure a key hydroelectric dam and combat the opium trade.
The man was named as Mullah Mahmood and described as an expert bomb-maker. U.S.-led coalition forces also detained five more suspected militants in eastern Khost this week.
--- Cross-dressing terrorist maggot. These terrorists have no honor or courage but they make themselves out to be warriors.
"Brave freedom fighters" hiding under sheets discuss their depravity
Fighting is expected to be heavy in 2007 after the bloodiest year since the Taliban's ouster in 2001. The Taliban warn they have thousands of suicide bombers ready for action.
--- How brave! The Taliban trains young men to kill themselves while their leaders hide under burqas.
March 2, 2007
Sudan, Iran vow to defeat 'enemies of Islam'
AFP
KHARTOUM - Iran and Sudan's presidents, whose hardline regimes are under intense international scrutiny, struck a defiant pose on Thursday in the face of Western pressure vowing to defeat the "enemies of Islam."
--- I'm working on the list of the "enemies of Islam"...
UPDATE: "The Enemies of Islam According to Mahmoud and Omar, Allah Be Praised"
"We are determined to foil the conspiracies aimed at planting the seeds of discord among Muslims," Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir said at a press conference with his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad...
In a joint statement, they drew "the world's attention to Israel's possession of nuclear weapons" and called for a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction.
During a meeting with Sudanese clerics Wednesday, Ahmadinejad launched into one of his trademark diatribes against the Jewish state.
"Zionists are the true incarnation of Satan," he was quoted as saying by Iran's official news agency...
--- Wow. That's original.
Iran's ambassador to Khartoum, Reza Amiri, said before Ahmadinejad's trip that he hoped business partnerships could help increase the volume of two-way trade to 70 million dollars a year from 43 million dollars now.
However, an issue that has also been at the heart of Iran-Sudan ties is military cooperation, with Sudanese Defence Minister Abdel Rahim Mohammed Hussein having visited Iran three times over the past year.
According to press reports, Sudan has shown interest in acquiring Iranian missiles and unmanned aircraft.
--- I'm getting really sick of Iran.
February 27, 2007
U.S. Base in Afghanistan Targeted During Cheney Visit
Washington Post
Vice President Cheney was shuttled into a bomb shelter at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan this morning after a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the main gate in an attack Taliban officials say was aimed at the vice president.
--- Idiots. You don't mess with DICK.
Cheney was uninjured and in no real danger from the blast, which killed four people, including a U.S. soldier, at the gate of the Bagram Airfield.
Although the vice president heard what he described as a "loud boom" at around 10 a.m. Afghan time, the explosion occurred far from the building where Cheney had spent the night awaiting a meeting with Afghan President Hamad Karzai...
Speaking about the incident en route to Oman following a two-hour meeting with Karzai, Cheney said the attack was meant as a blow against the Afghan president, but would "not affect our behavior."...
--- Mr. Understatement. I love it.
The Reuters news service reported that Taliban spokesman Mullah Hayat Khan took credit for organizing the quick attack.
"We wanted to target . . . Cheney," Khan said, the wire service reported, adding that he spoke by phone from an undisclosed location.
--- Well that guy's dead.
Hooooooohaaaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!! The bitch is mine.
February 26, 2007
Jordan queen urges Muslims to reject extremism
AFP
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia - Jordan's Queen Rania said Muslims must recognise that much of the terror in recent years has been committed in the name of Islam, if they want to be taken seriously by the West.
"We are right to deplore Islamophobia and the branding of Muslims as terrorists," she told an annual economic forum in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah.
"But we must face up to the horrible truth that many of the worst terrorist attacks in recent years have been committed by people who claim to be acting in the name of Islam," she said.
--- This is good. This is a start.
"We are right to question Western governments when their actions only make it easier for radicals to recruit new followers. But our moral authority depends on our willingness to reject the voices of extremism and violence in our midst," Rania said.
--- She's playing both sides here, but I'll take it.
Like other VIP guests in Saudi Arabia, she was exempted from wearing the long black abaya which is required for Saudi and foreign women in the conservative Muslim kingdom.
--- That's good.
A dark glass screen separated male and female delegates attending the forum in the same hall.
--- That's not so good.
Dark? ... Glass ... screen?
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, another keynote speaker, told participants that ignorance and poverty were major factors that drive people to violence.
"We have to declare war against ignorance and poverty," he said.
Almost one trillion dollars are allocated to the defence industry around the world, Erdogan said, adding that some of these funds should be spent on fighting poverty and famine.
The outgoing Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Turki al-Faisal, said ignorance, poverty, injustice and incitement were all to blame for violence.
"Ignorance is the first culprit" in making some young people, whether Saudi or American, espouse extremist ideas, said Turki, a former intelligence chief who now heads a think tank in Saudi Arabia.
--- Ignorance and poverty my tookus. Geez, what hypocrisy, I mean the Saudi royal family has gazillions that they keep for themselves.
"Unjust and unfair behaviour on the part of political leaders is the second culprit. Poverty which makes a person lose any hope of social or economic betterment is the third culprit," he said.
"Religious and political diatribe which uses all three of these culprits is the fourth culprit," Turki told the gathering.
--- Uhhhhhhh, whatever you say. These are still voices of moderately moderate rhetoric that we can be thankful for.
Staying positive here.
February 23, 2007
Security professionals gloomy on terrorism outlook
Reuters
BRUSSELS - The international terrorist threat is increasing as more recruits become radicalised, even though police and intelligence agencies are getting better at disrupting militant plots.
That gloomy view appeared to prevail at a major security conference in Brussels this week where participants were asked to complete a "counter-terrorism scorecard" assessing progress over the past year.
Only one person agreed "strongly" and 19 agreed "somewhat" with the statement that the global terrorist threat had fallen in the last 12 months, against 82 people who disagreed, half of them strongly. Eighteen had no view or were not sure...
--- Gloom and doom on a Friday? In Brussels?
European Union counter-terrorism coordinator Gijs de Vries said the EU had taken important steps to protect ports and airports, improve security features on passports, clamp down on terrorist finances and beef up police and justice cooperation.
But he said more needed to be done to combat radicalisation.
"Mainstream Muslims need to reclaim Islam from the extremists, and non-Muslims must support them where they can."
--- Like that's gonna happen.
Among other concerns raised at the three-day conference: the likelihood of terrorists gaining increased access to short and medium-range missiles in coming years, or attempting an attack using chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons.
"Terrorist use of weapons of mass destruction in the future is a near to absolute certainty," said Greg Austin, analyst at the EastWest Institute.
--- Doesn't that make you shiver? Well, who's gonna fight? Nobody. And America has already thrown in the towel.
Philippine counter-terrorism ambassador Benjamin Defensor struck a rare note of optimism, saying Southeast Asian militant groups like Jemaah Islamiah were on the retreat as governments pursued them both by force and by reaching out to communities to undermine their hardline message.
"The leadership of these organisations are slowly being neutralised or eradicated, so slowly the support is eroding," he said in an interview with Reuters. "They're losing right now in Southeast Asia."
--- We'll take the bright spots. More please.
February 22, 2007
In French Campaign, Immigrants Find a Voice -- Voter Registration Soars After '05 Suburban Riots
Washington Post
MANTES-LA-JOLIE, France -- Fernand Trigano stood beside a rack of $8 jeans and watched French presidential candidate Francois Bayrou work a street market in an immigrant suburb of Paris, shaking hands over baskets of dried fish, stacks of flat bread and mannequins modeling head scarves.
"Salaam alaikum!" shouted a young man in a leather jacket, offering the traditional Muslim greeting "Peace be upon you."
"Salaam alaikum," replied Bayrou, the candidate from the centrist Union for French Democracy party now running third in opinion polls before the April 22 presidential election...
--- Oh the love! They burned France and now they found their voice!
Bayrou's campaign stroll through the ethnic mixing bowl of Mantes-la-Jolie represents a dramatic shift in France's stodgy, elitist political system. Sixteen months after immigrant neighborhoods exploded in the country's worst civil unrest in nearly half a century, the suburbs are emerging for the first time as a potent force in the presidential campaign...
--- Isn't that nice? The stodgy French are handing over their country, piece by piece, to Algeria. Et al.
Thousands of small, vocal political action groups representing Africans, Arabs and young people have sprung up in suburbs across the country, fledgling challengers to the political monopolies of unions and other establishment organizations.
--- Stick it to the establishment dudes. Those stodgy French, with their democracy and freedom. Whatcha gonna replace it with? Sharia? Or some modified authoritarian so-called republic like Turkey, or Egypt, or Syria? Stodgy, huh, you ain't seen nothing yet.
Voter registration has skyrocketed in every French demographic group and nearly every district -- urban, suburban and rural. Across the country, voter registration is up nearly 50 percent over the last presidential election in 2002, according to preliminary figures. In some localities, the number of new voters increased more than 300 percent, according to tallies by the daily newspaper Le Monde...
"The parties did not expect all these new voters," said Mohammed Mechmache, president of AC-le feu, which translates as Enough of Fire, a neighborhood association in the nearby suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois, where the 2005 rioting began. "They pose a real problem because no one knows who they're going to vote for. They are the ones who will make the difference in this election."...
--- No kidding. Rioting seems to work very well. The rewards are endless.
And many of the new political activists say they question whether candidates promising improvements in the suburbs will deliver if elected.
"It's a good thing that the candidates are going to certain neighborhoods, but they should have done this long ago," said Mechmache. "Are they going to come back after the elections? Are they just going to pass by with their big cars and not even stop?
"If they make people dream, then forget about them, I can assure you that the social turmoil we experienced in the suburbs in 2005 is going to be far worse," he said. "More people are going to be on the streets -- people of all age groups, because everyone feels concerned now."
--- Give us what we want or we'll burn down France, except this time it will be worse. Oh well.
February 20, 2007
Muslim Cabbie Charged With Running Over Students After Religious Dispute
Fox News
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A Muslim cabdriver from Somalia ran over two college students near Vanderbilt University after getting into an argument with them about religion, police said.
Ibrahim Ahmed, 37, a driver for United Cab, picked up two men near the Vanderbilt campus early Sunday morning, Capt. Mike Alexander of the Nashville Police Department said, referring to the incident report...
A conversation about religion ensued between the driver and his two fares. The local FOX affiliate in Nashville confirmed from a friend and fellow co-worker that Ahmed is a Sunni Muslim from Somalia.
At some point, according to the police, the two men exited the cab, and the cabbie also got out. They paid him his fare, and then they exchanged words.
--- Assuming the conversation was something like "you goddamn terrorist... Muslims are evil," or worse, they're just idiot punks. Not exactly grounds for attempted murder I would think.
According to the incident report, Ahmed then returned to his cab as the students fled on foot. Ahmed then allegedly drove across a parking lot, jumped a curb and struck the two men.
One of the students, identified as Jeremy Invus, was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center with critical injuries. The other passenger, Andrew Nelson, avoided the cab...
--- You can't say Islam had nothing to do with it. But I'm not defending the punks either.
"We are working with the police to see what happened," United Cab manager Cherrie Machado said.
"I don't believe he will be working here anymore, but that is up to the licensing cab board — whether they will pull his permit — and the owners of the company."
--- And this is the stupidest part of the story... they're actually considering letting him continue to be a cabbie!
February 20, 2007
Muslim "fanatic" kills Pakistani woman minister
Reuters
LAHORE, Pakistan - A suspected Islamist zealot shot dead a Pakistani woman provincial government minister on Tuesday because he believed women should not be in politics, officials said.
Zil-e-Huma, social welfare minister of the Punjab government, a women's activist and supporter of President Pervez Musharraf, was about to give a speech to dozens of people when the lone attacker shot her in the head. She died later in hospital.
The gunman, identified as Mohammad Sarwar, was immediately arrested.
Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat told Reuters the gunman had been implicated in six previous murder cases but had never been convicted because of a lack of evidence.
--- Six previous murder cases. Say what?
"He considers it contrary to the teachings of Allah for a woman to become a minister or a ruler. That's why he committed this action," the police said in a statement.
Huma, 37, was married with two sons. Her husband is a doctor. She also ran a small fashion design business in Gujranwala.
--- Sickening.
February 15, 2007
Experts: Al Qaeda-Linked Bombings Could Herald New Wave of Violence in Algeria
AP
RABAT, Morocco — A deadly and carefully planned series of bomb attacks in Algeria by an Al Qaeda affiliate may signal a new escalation in violence that could spread across North Africa and enter Europe, experts say...
--- I needed experts to tell me that an Al-Qaeda affiliate wants to blow up Europe. Thanks. They've only been saying it for years.
Tuesday's bombings flew in the face of the Algerian government's bid to turn the page on a bloody Islamic insurgency that tore the nation apart in the 1990s. The attack also has ominous implications for the government of Algeria and its neighbors who are allied with the U.S.-led war on terror.
--- They are our allies? Well, sort of I guess.
"It's clearly a serious development," Hugh Roberts, the North Africa project director for the Brussels, Belgium-based International Crisis Group said Wednesday. "We may be heading into a fresh period of serious terrorist activity."
--- Belgium-based. What do you expect. Thanks for telling us hicks in the sticks who didn't realize Europe was under attack because we're too busy spittin' tobacca and watching NASCAR.
Towns across Algeria's Kabylie region awoke Tuesday morning to a series of seven bombings, some car explosions, that largely targeted police stations. Six people were killed and about 30 injured.
Al Qaeda in Islamic North Africa — the new name for the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, known by its French abbreviation GSPC — claimed responsibility for the bombings via a Web site and a phone call to al-Jazeera...
The GSPC rejected the government's Charter for Peace and Reconciliation, a voter-approved effort to come to terms with the insurgency that killed 150,000 people in the 1990s.
--- I like that "come to terms" euphemism for appeasement. Appeasement always works. But it's us dang Americans what caused this. *spit*
*ding*
France's leading anti-terrorism judge warned this week that the GSPC's alliance with Al Qaeda poses a grave threat to Europe. "The GSPC wants to carry out attacks in Europe, especially in France, Italy and Spain, and destabilize North Africa," Jean-Louis Bruguiere told The Associated Press on Tuesday in New York.
--- Really. Wow. Next thing you're gonna tell me is that the world is round! *buuuuuuuuuuurrpp*
February 14, 2007
U.S. military insists cleric left Iraq
AP
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq said Wednesday that Muqtada al-Sadr has left the country and is believed to be in Iran, despite denials from the radical Shiite cleric's supporters. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell declined to comment on the reasons al-Sadr had left the country or give more details.
"We will acknowledge that he is not in the country and all indications are in fact that he is in Iran," Caldwell told reporters in Baghdad...
--- O where is Muqtada? Where is he hiding, behind children? In a cave? Where is this brave warrior who likes to hide behind rocks?
Let's play "Where's Muqtada??????????"
A spokesman for the Sadrist bloc said the assertion that al-Sadr had fled was part of a "psychological war" by U.S.-led forces to try to prod the cleric into the open.
"The leadership of Muqtada al-Sadr is a brave one and will not leave the field," Saleh al-Ukaili said.
--- Riiiiiiiight. He is a brave one.
February 13, 2007
Al-Qaida's No. 2 calls for Muslim unity
AP
CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, called for Muslim unity and said American elections that gave Democrats control of Congress would not change U.S. policy in Iraq, in a new audiotape released Tuesday by a U.S. group that tracks extremist messages.
--- Windbag.
The Washington-based SITE Institute released a transcript of the audio, which it said it had intercepted from Islamic militant Web sites where his messages are usually posted...
"The people chose you due to your opposition to Bush's policy in Iraq, but it appears that you are marching with him to the same abyss," al-Zawahri told the Democrats according to the transcript...
--- It's interesting that he sounds like Cindy Sheehan. Otherwise, yeah yeah. Whatever you say.
Al-Zawahri called what he described as Bush' failure in Iraq and the growing Taliban resistance in Afghanistan the "most important events" of the past year. He also said that "the people cooperating with the United States in Afghanistan and in Iraq would be abandoned by the Americans once they fail, the same way they did in Vietnam."
--- That's nice.
The al-Qaida leader also threatened that countries allied to the United states in the region "must reap their bitter harvest," and specifically named Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
--- That's nice.
He called on all Muslims to strive for unity, "even if they are Afghans, Persians, Turks or Kurds."
--- What a bitch.
February 8, 2007
Palestinian foes vow to end bloodshed
The Australian
THE feuding leaders of Hamas and Fatah have pledged that a deal to end deadly intra-Palestinian battles and form a unity government is only days away - a move that may lead the international community to end its crippling aid boycott...
--- Maybe now they can continue to kill Jews with international support!
"End bloodshed" in the title? That's deranged.
The international backers, known as the Quartet [European Union, Russia, the US and the UN], have also demanded that Hamas renounce violence, but could still be willing to end the boycott without such a statement...
--- Where would diplomats be without Palestinian terrorism? If Palestinians renounced violence, the diplomaggots would have to work at McDonalds.
The Hamas and Fatah leaders were invited to Mecca by Saudi monarch King Abdullah in what he said was a last-ditch attempt to prevent civil war in the occupied territories.
--- Alright I won't say it, but you know what I'm thinking.
Alliance split over Iran nuclear defiance
AP
VIENNA, Austria - Europeans are accusing Americans of strong-arming them into cracking down on Iran in the latest trans-Atlantic conflict, a dispute that is straining efforts to maintain a joint front on Tehran over its refusal to freeze uranium enrichment.
U.S. officials, in turn, complain that Europe is not pulling its weight because individual nations are placing business interests above the common goal of keeping Iran from heading down a path that could lead to nuclear weapons...
European officials and industry representatives told The Associated Press of increased calls by U.S. Treasury or embassy officials on European banks, oil companies and other sensitive industries in recent weeks to get them to cut back on dealings with Iran.
"All the oil companies will tell you that they are having regular visits from the U.S. embassies in their countries," said a European oil consultant, speaking on the sidelines of last week's Vienna meeting of the National Iranian Oil Co. with international oil firms seeking to do business with OPEC's second-largest producer of crude...
--- So... Europeans only care about OIIILLL. Hypocrites. Damned cowardly liars tell us we're spilling blood for oil! Halliburton and all that.
With America shut out of Iran, oil companies from other countries remain eager to take up the slack, particularly because Tehran's petroleum industry is not under U.N. sanctions. Though it has fallen since then, total European Union trade with Iran was at more than $25.85 billion in 2004, the last year complete figures were available...
--- And they talk down to us because of our SUVs.
"Nobody in Europe is going to give up the opportunity of doing business with Iran just for the sake of pleasing the Americans," the oil consultant said.
Such attitudes clearly rankle U.S. officials.
--- I can see why!
February 7, 2007
Australia nuclear plant plot trial opens in Paris
Reuters
PARIS - A French Muslim convert suspected of plotting to attack an Australian nuclear power station protested his innocence on Wednesday and said he had no faith in French justice.
--- Maybe he'd enjoy Saudi justice then?
Prosecutors say Willy Brigitte and Sajid Mir, his co-accused who is being tried in absentia, considered targeting a nuclear research reactor on the outskirts of Sydney.
Brigitte, 38, who faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of associating with criminals involved in terrorist activities, told the main Paris criminal court that French investigators had produced a biased case against him.
"I have no confidence in French justice, in the justice system of this country. I have lost all hope of being understood," he said, after first mumbling a prayer in Arabic.
--- So misunderstood.
The court heard how Australian police, arresting Brigitte for breaching immigration rules, had found in his pocket a printout of an Internet page on Australian nuclear and military facilities. He was promptly deported back to France.
But defense lawyers said Brigitte had merely gone to Australia to rebuild his life -- not to plot attacks on Australian soil on the orders of Islamic militants...
---- Poppycock.
Australia's chief spy said Brigitte, born in the French Caribbean territory of Guadeloupe, had been "almost certainly involved" in activities aimed at harming the country. Australia has been targeted by militant Islamic groups because of its role alongside U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But Brigitte said a proper investigation would have shown that "I am not a terrorist, that I never prepared, organized, or was involved in any terrorist activity whatsoever."
"Terrorism is contrary to my conception (of Islam), contrary to the teaching of Islam, which teaches the respect of human life."
--- Yawn.
Testimony from Brigitte's two former wives in France showed he embraced a radical form of Islam after converting in 1998 and his religious beliefs became increasingly more strident.
He joined a group conducting military-style training in Fontainebleau Forest near Paris and later graduated to weapons and explosives training in camps on the Pakistan-Afghan border.
Witness statements said Brigitte had expressed regret he was prevented from fighting alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan when U.S. forces invaded after the September 11, 2003 attacks.
His lawyers said Brigitte had gone to Yemen, Chechnya, Kosovo and Pakistan to deepen his faith and carry out humanitarian work. The trial resumes on Thursday.
--- Terrorism IS humanitarian work to these f***s.
Or, he's being set up by John Howard, because John Howard is part of the neocon fascist dictatorship that invented this whole terrorism thing anyway which is only a ruse.
Israel weighing force against Hezbollah
AP
JERUSALEM -Israel's defense minister on Wednesday accused Syria of allowing the rearmament of Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon and said Israel has the right to act "forcefully" against the Shiite militia to counter the threat.
Defense Minister Amir Peretz's comments came days after Israel said it discovered four bombs in northern Israel recently planted by Hezbollah guerrillas. The Israeli claim, denied by Hezbollah, immediately raised tensions along the volatile border...
--- Time for Round 2. This time I hope Israel TKO's them.
Speaking to visiting U.S. Jewish leaders, Peretz said Syria, Hezbollah's main ally, is continuing to allow weapons shipments to the group to cross its border with Lebanon.
"We can't under any circumstances ignore the transfer of weapons and ammunition to Hezbollah," Peretz said. While Israel remains committed to the cease-fire, he said, "we reserve the right to protect the citizens of the state of Israel and we will do this forcefully without any compromises."...
In Beirut, a Hezbollah official declined comment.
--- Since when does Hezbollah decline to comment? Wow.
Israeli military officials said the bombs were planted in recent days, under the cover of bad weather. If true, it would mark a violation of the cease-fire and indicate a failure by the international peacekeepers to prevent new attacks on Israel.
Hezbollah denied the allegation, saying the explosives were planted months ago before the war. U.N. officials are looking into the Israeli report.
--- The UN is looking into it. Well then we'll get right down to the bottom of it!
February 6, 2007
Suspected suicide attack at Islamabad airport
AFP
ISLAMABAD - A suspected suicide bomber blew himself up after opening fire at Pakistan's Islamabad International airport, killing himself and injuring at least five people, security officials said.
The attacker headed towards the VIP section of the airport in a car and began firing when security staff stopped him, injuring two guards, airport security official Akram Khan told AFP.
The man then blew himself up in the car park outside the building, wounding at least another three people, Khan said.
--- Pakistan really is the armpit of Islamic terrorism. Hey, I stopped short of saying "armpit of the world."
"It is believed to be a suicide attack," Khan said. "At least five people have been injured including two guards and the suspected bomber is dead."
--- What the hell is a suspected bomber? The guy obviously blew himself up. He didn't "suspectedly" blow up and "suspectedly" injure five people.
Khan added: "He was driving towards the VIP lounge in a car. The guards stopped him at a checkpost and tried to search him but he opened fire. Then he exploded.
--- It sounds a lot like he just exploded. I mean, sort of like spontaneous combustion. Maybe Al-Qaeda propaganda can make you explode by holding in all that hate.
February 5, 2007
Indian police arrest 4 for planning blasts in Delhi
Reuters
NEW DELHI - Four militants from a Pakistani-based group fighting Indian rule in Kashmir who were arrested on Sunday had been plotting bomb blasts in crowded market areas of the Indian capital, police said on Monday.
The militants from the Jaish-e-Mohammad group were carrying three kilograms of RDX explosives and were going to plant three explosive devices at the busy markets, officials added.
"I cannot give you the names of which markets they were targeting for the bomb blasts. They were supposed to carry out the blasts immediately, maybe today," Karnal Singh, a counter-terrorism official, told a news conference.
--- India, the leaders of the world against terrorism.
February 1, 2007
French leader backtracks on Iran comment
AP
PARIS - President Jacques Chirac backtracked Thursday and said a nuclear-armed Iran would be unacceptable, reversing earlier comments that Tehran's possession of a nuclear bomb would not be "very dangerous."
--- Buffoon.
"France, along with the international community, cannot accept the prospect of an Iran equipped with a nuclear weapon," Chirac's office said in a statement seeking to limit fallout from the French leader's remarks to the International Herald Tribune and two other publications.
"The Iranian nuclear program is opaque and therefore dangerous for the region," the statement added. It urged Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment, and said the United Nations would respond to such a move by suspending sanctions and that negotiations with Tehran would resume.
The statement followed a remarkable morning of damage-control by Chirac's office, which took the unusual step of asking reporters to come over in person for a clarification about his comments that Iran's possession of a nuclear weapon would not be "very dangerous" and that if used on Israel, Tehran would be immediately "razed."
--- Tehran would be razed? This spaghetti spine can't even control them "youths" around the corner throwing molotov cocktails.
Chirac, who made the comments during a Monday interview, called reporters back the next day to try to have his quotes retracted.
The publications said the interview was tape-recorded and on the record...
--- Serious buffoon. "Oh, I didn't realize that the Jews were listening!"
I am not a buffoon, you're a buffoon! And you're mean!
On Monday, Chirac said of Iran and its nuclear program: "I would say that what is dangerous about this situation is not the fact of having a nuclear bomb. Having one or perhaps a second bomb a little later, well, that's not very dangerous."
--- What's one nuclear bomb? I mean, how many Jews could you kill with JUST ONE!
"It is obvious that this bomb, at the moment it was launched, obviously would be destroyed immediately," he said. "We have the means — several countries have the means to destroy a bomb."
--- I wouldn't be so sure doofus.
January 31, 2007
British Police Arrest 8 Allegedly Plotting 'Iraq-Style' Kidnapping
Fox News
BIRMINGHAM, England — British police arrested 8 suspects allegedly plotting an "Iraq-style" kidnapping in a nationwide anti-terrorism operation Wednesday morning.
Streets in England's second largest city, Birmingham, were sealed off and authorities said a series of predawn raids were conducted at multiple addresses.
Police sources told FOX News' sister network, Sky News, that the plot involved the abduction of an unnamed "not high-profile" man in his 20s. The suspects wanted to film his torture and beheading and post it on the Internet for propaganda purposes. The intended victim was made aware of the plot and is now in police protective custody.
--- Sir, it is our regret to inform you that these people were going to chop your head off. Please come with us.
Boy, that's got to be tough to wake up to.
This is the fault of only one man, the true terrorist, George W. Bush, President of the Great Satan. Obviously.
January 29, 2007
University students to be screened amid nuclear fears
Daily Telegraph (AU)
BRITAIN may force foreign postgraduates studying nuclear physics or biochemistry to undergo tough new security checks amid fears they could use their knowledge to make nuclear weapons.
Students from outside the European Union face screening, regardless of their home country, under a government plan revealed in The Observer newspaper.
An unnamed Foreign Office source said students' visa applications would be blocked if they were thought to be risky following security checks into why they were coming to Britain and what they studied before.
--- Good idea. But aren't there terrorists hiding in the EU too?
Iraqis: At least 200 insurgents killed
AP
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi officials said Monday that U.S.-backed Iraqi troops had targeted a heavily armed religious cult called "Soldiers of Heaven" in a weekend battle that left 200 fighters dead, including the group's leader, near the holy city of Najaf...
Authorities said Iraqi soldiers supported by U.S. aircraft fought all day Sunday with a large group of insurgents in the Zaraq area, about 12 miles northeast of the Shiite holy city of Najaf.
Provincial Gov. Assad Sultan Abu Kilel said the assault was launched because the insurgents planned to attack Shiite pilgrims and clerics during ceremonies marking Ashoura, the holiest day in the Shiite calendar commemorating the 7th century death of Imam Hussein. The celebration culminates Tuesday in huge public processions in Najaf, Karbala and other Shiite cities...
--- They're gettin' gashouse!
January 26, 2007
Troops Authorized to Kill Iranian Operatives in Iraq
Washington Post
The Bush administration has authorized the U.S. military to kill or capture Iranian operatives inside Iraq as part of an aggressive new strategy to weaken Tehran's influence across the Middle East and compel it to give up its nuclear program, according to government and counterterrorism officials with direct knowledge of the effort.
For more than a year, U.S. forces in Iraq have secretly detained dozens of suspected Iranian agents, holding them for three to four days at a time. The "catch and release" policy was designed to avoid escalating tensions with Iran and yet intimidate its emissaries. U.S. forces collected DNA samples from some of the Iranians without their knowledge, subjected others to retina scans, and fingerprinted and photographed all of them before letting them go...
--- We had these guys in custody, and we let them go so they could kill our troops. No wonder we're in this mess.
"There were no costs for the Iranians," said one senior administration official. "They are hurting our mission in Iraq, and we were bending over backwards not to fight back."...
--- What leadership. What resolve. What stupidity.
The wide-ranging plan has several influential skeptics in the intelligence community, at the State Department and at the Defense Department who said that they worry it could push the growing conflict between Tehran and Washington into the center of a chaotic Iraq war...
--- Don't you hate bureaucrats? They're more concerned about Iranian operatives than American troops.
Senior administration officials said the policy is based on the theory that Tehran will back down from its nuclear ambitions if the United States hits it hard in Iraq and elsewhere, creating a sense of vulnerability among Iranian leaders. But if Iran responds with escalation, it has the means to put U.S. citizens and national interests at greater risk in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere...
--- We have to face them sometime, and I'd prefer now, before they take over Iraq and Lebanon. Jeez, ask the Ethiopians.
Advocates of the new policy -- some of whom are in the NSC, the vice president's office, the Pentagon and the State Department -- said that only direct and aggressive efforts can shatter Iran's growing influence. A less confident Iran, with fewer cards, may be more willing to cut the kind of deal the Bush administration is hoping for on its nuclear program. "The Iranians respond to the international community only when they are under pressure, not when they are feeling strong," one official said.
--- Very good. There's one official with a brain.
Afghan who had statues destroyed killed
AP
KABUL, Afghanistan - A NATO airstrike destroyed a Taliban command post in southern Afghanistan, killing a suspected senior militant leader, the alliance said Friday. Separately, an assailant gunned down an Afghan lawmaker who, under the former Taliban regime, oversaw the destruction of two Buddha statues carved into a cliff.
Maulavi Mohammed Islam Mohammadi, who was the Taliban's governor of Bamiyan province when the fifth-century Buddha statues were blown up with dynamite and artillery in March 2001, was killed on his way to Friday prayers in Kabul, said Zulmai Khan, Kabul's deputy police chief.
--- Oh, man, that just makes me feel warm inside.
Mohammadi was elected in 2005 to represent the northern province of Samangan in Afghanistan's parliament.
After he was elected, Mohammadi said he should not be held responsible for the destruction of the statues, which the Taliban considered to be idolatrous and anti-Muslim.
"It was foreigners like Chechens and Arabs with the Taliban who made the decision. They were crazy people," Mohammadi told The Associated Press at the time. "Even though I was governor, I had no power."
--- You were the "Taliban's governor" weren't you? What, did they force you to be governor, governor? Ok, maybe the death penalty for blowing up statues is extreme, but still, I can't help but think of divine retribution or karma here.
January 25, 2007
U.S. to more than triple aid to Lebanon
AP
PARIS - The United States pledged to more than triple its economic aid to the fragile democratic government in Lebanon, but Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would not speculate Thursday on the fate of the donation should Hezbollah militants take power.
--- The easy way to look like you care.
French President Jacques Chirac opened a donor conference for Lebanon on Thursday with a plea for international support, which he said was vital for the war-scarred country.
Lebanon "more than ever needs the unanimous support of the international community," said the French leader, at the conference bringing together more than 30 nations.
--- Why don't you French move back in and kick Hezbollah out?
Did I just actually say that?
The Bush administration is seeking $770 million in new aid for Lebanon. The money, which must be approved by Congress, would fund long-term redevelopment and immediate rebuilding from the devastating summer war between Hezbollah militants and Israel.
"This is a package that is for Lebanon," Rice said when asked if the money is contingent on the survival of a U.S.-backed government in Beirut. "Lebanon is a democracy."
--- Not for long, though I hope I'm wrong.
It is not clear whether any of the money would directly fund efforts to disarm Hezbollah, something the United States insisted must be part of a settlement to end the war but which has never happened.
--- I think it's pretty clear it will never happen.
I'm pretty cynical today I guess.
Father kills daughter; doubted virginity
AP
AMMAN, Jordan - A Jordanian man fatally shot his 17-year-old daughter whom he suspected of having sex despite a medical exam that proved her chastity, an official said Thursday. The man surrendered to police hours after the killing, saying he had done it for family honor.
A state forensic pathologist, who works at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine in Amman where an autopsy was performed, said in a phone interview that the girl had run away from home several times for unknown reasons....
"The tests proved that she was a virgin," the pathologist said. The girl returned home only after her father signed a statement promising not to harm her, he added.
The father shot the girl four times in the head on Tuesday. On Wednesday, an autopsy was performed that again showed "she was still a virgin," the pathologist said.
The crime is the first "honor killing" this year in Jordan, where many men consider sex out of wedlock to be an almost indelible stain on a family's reputation. On average, about 20 women in the country are killed by their relatives in such cases each year. Women have been killed for simply dating.
--- Was she like "uncovered meat" or something? This is not isolated either. Some think honor killing is required by Islam (which equals peace).
Global human rights organizations have condemned such killings and appealed to King Abdullah II to put an end to them.
--- Oh yeah, those human rights organizations never stop condemning such killings. You hear it all the time, in between squealing yelps against American hegemony.
In response, the government has abolished a section in the penal code that allowed for "honor" killers to get sentences as lenient as six months in prison. Instead, the government has told judges to consider honor killings on a par with other homicides, which in Jordan are punishable by up to 15 years in jail.
--- Fifteen years for four bullets to the head. Now that's real justice.
But attempts to introduce harsher sentences have been blocked by conservative lawmakers who argue that tougher penalties would lead to promiscuity.
--- Gotta keep that meat covered, or else the Jews will destroy us!
January 24, 2007
Lebanese PM blames Iran, Syria for deadly protest
AFP
TOKYO (AFP) - Lebanon's embattled premier has pinned the blame on Iran and Syria for a Hezbollah-backed nationwide opposition strike during which three people died, in remarks published in Japan.
Lebanon has "been paying the price of imposed decisions coming from outside countries, like Iran and Syria," Prime Minister Fuad Siniora told Japan's Kyodo News.
--- Ya think? Case study in the art of stating the obvious.
Hezbollah, which is supported by Syria and Iran, led Tuesday's one-day nationwide strike in a bid to bring down Siniora's Western-backed government.
Three people were killed and 133 others were wounded in armed clashes, fistfights and stone-throwing in various areas of the country.
Siniora denounced the protests as "an undemocratic way of expressing one's opinion."
"If they say they have the majority of people supporting them, then they shouldn't resort to such an action," he said.
--- Won't anybody come to his aid?
January 23, 2007
U.S. warns Iran to back down
AP
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - A second U.S. aircraft carrier strike group now steaming toward the Middle East is Washington's way of warning Iran to back down in its attempts to dominate the region, a top U.S. diplomat said here Tuesday.
Nicholas Burns, U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, ruled out direct negotiations with Iran and said a rapprochement between Washington and Tehran was "not possible" until Iran halts uranium enrichment.
"The Middle East isn't a region to be dominated by Iran. The Gulf isn't a body of water to be controlled by Iran. That's why we've seen the United States station two carrier battle groups in the region," Burns said in an address to the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center, an influential think-tank...
--- Finally some action. Although I doubt Iran is trembling much in fear.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said the U.S. buildup in the Gulf was intended to impress on Iran that the four-year war in Iraq has not made America vulnerable.
The American aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis and several accompanying ships are heading toward the Gulf to join an aircraft carrier group already in the region, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. The Stennis is expected to arrive in late February...
--- Even if it's just a poker face, at least we're finally playing poker.
Some among the audience of Dubai-based diplomats and analysts complained that American wars in the Middle East were already threatening the region's stability and asked Burns to sort out Iraq and the Israel-Palestinian conflict before turning attention to Iran.
--- Naturally, here comes the anti-American perspective which makes it a story worth printing.
"What we are not interested in is another war in the region," Mohammed al-Naqbi, who heads the Gulf Negotiations Center, told Burns. "Iraq is your problem, not the problem of the Arabs. You destroyed a country that had institutions. You handed that country to Iran. Now you are crying to Europe and the Arabs to help you out of this mess."
--- Iraq is your problem too idiot. Yeah, Iraq had institutions. Secret police, concentration camps, mass graves, you know, all the usual cultural institutions.
January 18, 2007
Australian Muslim Cleric Sparks Outrage by Calling Jews 'Pigs' and Encouraging Jihad
The Australian
SYDNEY, Australia — The firebrand cleric who went overseas just days before some of his cohorts were rounded up in the nation's biggest counter-terrorism raid is the subject of a new police investigation, after a call for children to join jihad as holy warriors appeared in a DVD being sold in Australia.
Sydney-born Sheik Feiz Mohamed's radical sermons — available on the internet and on DVDs and videos — have become popular with Muslims around the world.
--- How naive can we be. People are still shocked by this?
In one video, running on the hugely popular website YouTube, he admonishes his followers in English for not "sacrificing a drop of blood" as martyrs...
Sheik Feiz, a member of Sunni Islam's fundamentalist Wahhabi sect, left Australia for Lebanon in late 2004, just days before federal and state police and ASIO conducted raids in Sydney and Melbourne, arresting 23 people on terror-related charges.
The cleric calls two of the accused terrorists close friends and knew all of the Sydney men arrested.
He has links to almost every notable member of Australia's Islamic community and continues to direct his Global Islamic Youth Center — the nerve center of Islamic youth in Sydney, setting the tone for 4000 youths, their families and fraternities...
--- Nazis, that's what they are. It's been heard before, under a different guise. But remember, they're just a teeeeeeeny minority. Hitler's party started the same way.
"In our times it is the fear of death, the fear of sacrificing your finger, your toe, a drop of blood that is more honourable than anything else," he says.
"Why? Because martyrdom to us is, is not as appealing to us, as it was to those ancestors, the great warriors ... who lived around the best creature that walked the earth, Mohammed."...
--- Are you saying the ancestors of Islam were great warrior martyrs? Does that mean Islam was spread by violence? Huh, it's ok if you say it. Damn you pig. You're the pig.
In an exclusive interview with The Australian, Sheik Feiz said that every one of those remarks could be put in context.
"The jihad I speak of is not one of violence," he said. "It is one of personal struggle against things like mischievousness, temptation and personal harm. I have never advocated violence against Australians or anyone embracing the Australian way of life. I have never called for people to be harmed. If anyone fights you for what you are, you defend yourself."
"I don't believe in suicide bombing, I don't believe in violence against others. We don't invite that, we don't encourage that. We denounce that. This is not Islamic law and it is not moral."...
--- Pig's arse!!
While the Mufti of Australia, Taj Din al-Hilali, sparked national outrage by comparing scantily clad women to uncovered meat, Sheik Feiz once told a meeting at Bankstown, in Sydney's southwest Muslim heartland, that indecently dressed women were setting themselves up for rape.
--- You're setting yourself up for a bullet in the head, Sheik.
January 17, 2007
Top al-Qaida-linked militant killed
AP
MANILA, Philippines - A top al-Qaida-linked militant, accused of the kidnapping of three Americans in 2001 and of masterminding one of Southeast Asia's worst terror attacks three years later, has been killed, the Philippine military said Wednesday.
Jainal Antel Sali Jr., popularly known as Abu Sulaiman — a top leader of the Abu Sayyaf rebel group — died in a fierce gunbattle Tuesday with army special forces, military chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon said.
Sulaiman is the highest-ranking Abu Sayyaf commander killed by U.S.-backed troops. Washington had offered up to $5 million for his capture...
Good night!
--- Well done. Once again, I ask; who gets the iPods of these murderers?
Sulaiman allegedly helped plot a February 2004 bombing that triggered a ferry fire, killing 116 people in Southeast Asia's second-worst terror attack.
But he was best known in the U.S., perhaps, as the alleged mastermind of the kidnapping of the Burnhams, another American and Filipino tourists from a resort on the southeastern island of Palawan in 2001. The third American, Guillermo Sobero, was beheaded.
The kidnappings prompted Philippine authorities to allow the deployment of U.S. troops in the southern Mindanao region to train and arm Filipino soldiers working to wipe out the resilient Abu Sayyaf...
--- But now, he is dead. Allegedly.
Sulaiman, a 41-year-old civil engineer, joined the Moro National Liberation Front in 1996, but broke with the Muslim separatist group after it signed a peace accord with the government.
After working for a few years in Saudi Arabia building highways and buildings, police intelligence reports said, he returned home and joined the Abu Sayyaf in the late 1990s.
--- Oh the irony; a builder who destroys. Another casualty in the attempted restoral of the caliphate.
January 11, 2007
New US general will copy British 'softly-softly' style
The Times (UK)
The new US ground commander picked by President Bush to direct the military “surge” into Iraq believes that the war can be won with a radical change of tactics: those used by the British in Malaya and Ulster.
Lieutenant-General David Petraeus, handed perhaps the toughest US military assignment since the Vietnam War — to stabilise Iraq and defeat its militias — is one of the Army’s premier intellectuals and a devoted student of counter-insurgency techniques used by the British and French during the last century...
--- This article makes me a little more optimistic. Full article here.
Having co-authored the US military’s counter-insurgency manual, General Petraeus believes that only by combining military strength and sensitive interaction with locals can an insurgency be defeated. He has been influenced by a study of the British in Malaya during the 1950s by John Nagl, a Pentagon official...
The British defeated the insurgency in Malaya, he writes, because of a “civil-military strategy based on intelligence derived from a supportive local population”...
The British, with their colonial history, are far better at combining local diplomacy with military force, a model General Petraeus wants to emulate...
--- He's well studied and has much real-war experience.
General Petraeus, Commander of the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq in 2003, is largely credited with being one of the only US officers who succeeded in bringing order to his region of Iraq by establishing a British colonial model of civil-military interaction.
--- That's also encouraging.
In Mosul he entered an area with 110,000 former Iraqi Army soldiers and 20,000 Kurdish militiamen. But unlike the tactics in much of Iraq, General Petraeus took pride in conducting raids with minimum violence.
He introduced “cordon and knock”: Houses were surrounded, but not entered, and suspected insurgents were invited to turn themselves in. He allowed imams to inspect his jails and never blindfolded detainees.
--- Uh, well, maybe the softer approach could work. This guy has studied the strategy and implemented it. Even though when he left it fell apart.
But then of course, look what happened to the British Empire.
Alright, maybe it's 50/50 that we'll pull it off, as opposed to what I said below: "not likely."
Americans weigh new Bush plan for Iraq
AP
Frustrated by mounting U.S. deaths in Iraq, looking for a way out or a way forward in the nearly four-year-old conflict, Americans considered Bush's plan Wednesday night and responded with a mixture of frustration and cautious, last-ditch hope.
--- I still think he's not taking the gloves off. He needed a 180 degree change in direction, and he went about 45 degrees. I don't know what all the facts are, but why couldn't we temporarily add 100,000 troops? Seal the Syrian border. Declare martial law. Alternatively, start using some air power. Ground ops are not our strength. Bush needed to be Trumanesque in his speech, which was mediocre. Mediocrity seems to be his best effort. I fear an escalation by Al-Qaeda and the militias, and a year from now far more violence. There is a chance it could improve, but not likely.
And I really doubt that "reconstruction and infrastructure projects that will create new jobs" is the answer.
If you're gonna win, then overwhelm them, otherwise get the troops out of there. Let them have their civil war, and if we don't like the way it's going we'll bomb the hell out of them. Stop sending kids on suicide missions!
January 10, 2007
Al-Qaida chief in Somalia may be dead
AP
MOGADISHU, Somalia - A senior al-Qaida suspect wanted for bombing American embassies in East Africa was killed in a U.S. airstrike, a Somali official said Wednesday, a report that if confirmed would mean the end of an eight-year hunt for a top target of Washington's war on terrorism.
In Washington, U.S. government officials said they had no reason to believe that the suspect, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, had been killed. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the information's sensitivity...
--- I'll take a maybe.
A senior Somali government official also said a small U.S. team has been providing military advice to Ethiopian and government forces on the ground. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information...
--- We know it's sensitive information, alright already. Ethiopia should be giving us advice on Iraq.
Fazul, the al-Qaida suspect believed killed in the airstrike Monday, was wanted for allegedly planning the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania...
Fazul, 32, joined al-Qaida in Afghanistan and trained there with Osama bin Laden, according to the transcript of an FBI interrogation of a known associate. He had a $5 million bounty on his head for allegedly planning the 1998 embassy bombings, which killed 225 people...
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said, meanwhile, that eight terror suspects had been killed in the U.S. airstrike, and he was awaiting results of DNA testing to determine their identities. He said he believed they were high-ranking members of the Somali Islamic movement.
--- I'm relieved that there was no real war. They all ran away. And we can't beat them in Iraq?
Bush set to announce troop buildup plans
AP
WASHINGTON - President Bush will tell the nation Wednesday night he will send more than 20,000 additional American forces to Iraq, acknowledging that it had been a mistake earlier not to have more American and Iraqi troops fighting the war, a senior administration official said.
Seeking support for a retooled strategy to win support for the unpopular war, the president also will acknowledge that the rules of engagement were flawed, White House counselor Dan Bartlett said.
--- Too little, too late. When you had the Congress you should have woken up! You think, even if this goes through, that 20,000 will end it? I certainly hope so. I'll wait for the entire speech to comment further.