core dump %

2003-03-18T12:34:00.000-08:00

Mashing Our Monster
By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON — Everyone thinks the Bush diplomacy on Iraq is a wreck.
Some people do. Not everybody...
It isn't. It's a success because it was never meant to succeed.
Picked right up on that, didn't you?
For the hawks, it's a succès d'estime. (If I may be so gauche as to use a French phrase in a city where federal employees are slapping stickers over the word "French" on packets of French dressing and on machines dispensing French vanilla yogurt at the Capitol. Seeing this made me long for the cold war, when you could eat your Russian dressing in peace and when Jackie Kennedy brought France to heel with élan, brains and charm, rather than scattershot embargos and inane suggestions in the capital L' Enfant planned that we disinter our war dead in France.)
Kinda like referring to the Japanese is Japs, or the Germans as Krauts in WWII, isn't it? No doubt Jackie Kennedy could have brought the Krauts to heel with élan, brains and charm, but we had to rely on killing them. Luckily, we don't have to do that to the Frenchies and Fritzies today...
Sure, the Bushies might be feeling a bit rattled right now, with the old international system and the North Atlantic alliance crashing down around their ears.
Thought you picked up on the fact that it wasn't meant to succeed, Mo? I think they kicked over the traces intentionally. If the UN had been worth keeping, they'd have kept it. But since it was rotten, it broke...
But you can't transfigure the world without ticking off the world.
Especially not those parts of the world that hate you. Sad, but true...
It's not a simple task, carving new divisions in Europe, just as Europe is moving past the divisions that led to the greatest tragedies of the 20th century.
Unless they were only pretending to, or trying to convince themselves they had. Y'see, if they had, then the EU wouldn't have split, would it?
The Bush hawks never intended to give peace a chance. They intended to give pre-emption a chance. They never wanted to merely disarm the slimy Saddam. They wanted to dislodge and dispose of him.
If he's dead, he won't bother us anymore, will he?
The president's slapped-together Azores summit is not meant to "go the last mile" on diplomacy, as Ari Fleischer put it. If Mr. Bush really wanted to do that, he'd try to persuade some leaders who disagree with him; he'd confront the antiwar throngs in London, Paris or Berlin and not leave poor, exhausted Tony Blair to always make the case. The hidden huddle in the Azores is trompe l'oeil diplomacy, giving Mr. Blair a little cover, making Poppy Bush a little happy. Just three pals feigning sitting around the campfire singing "Kumbaya," as the final U.S. troops and matériel move into place in the Persian Gulf and the president's "Interim Iraqi Authority" postwar occupation plan is collated.
There were four, not three. There was no campfire. "Kumbaya" is probably the last thing they'd ever think of singing. And there's no acute on materiel.
The hawks despise the U.N. and if they'd gotten its support, they never would have been able to establish the principle that the U.S. can act wherever and whenever it wants to — a Lone Ranger, no Tontos.
They despise the UN for being ineffectual. Ineffectual is what got us 9-11 — remember back when you were wearing long red gloves, in the anthrax scare, Mo?
Cheney, Rummy, Wolfy, etc. never wanted Colin Powell to find a diplomatic solution. They hate diplomatic solutions. That's why they gleefully junked so many international treaties, multilateral exercises and trans-Atlantic engagements.
... because they weren't working and everybody was too polite to point that out. So somebody said, "Okay, Colin, give it a whirl. If it doesn't work, to hell with them, and we'll do something that doeswork...
They blame the popular Mr. Powell for persuading Bush 41 to end Desert Storm with Saddam still in power, so that the Army would not look as if it was slaughtering the retreating Iraqi Republican Guard. Once the war stopped, American troops could not intervene to help Shiite Muslims rising up in the south, a rebellion encouraged by Bush 41. Saddam massacred the rebels. Mr. Powell embodies what the hard-liners want to root out of the American psyche: an "enfeebling" caution, bred by Vietnam, about sending American troops to impose American values.
Mr Powell represents a willingness to try and work through the system. If the system had worked, he'd have been a hero. Because it didn't work, he'll be one of those who discard it and try to build something else that does work...
We'll soon know if the hawks' ambitious foreign policy experiment has a miraculous result, or an anarchic one.
In about 30 hours, in fact...
The Los Angeles Times reported on Friday that a classified State Department report debunks the hawks' domino theory and expresses doubt that installing a new regime in Iraq will foster democracy.
Since it's in the LA Times it must be true. We can forget about everything that's been done that contradicts the debunkery...
And Don Van Natta Jr. of The New York Times reveals that Al Qaeda is using rising anger among young Muslims about the plan to overthrow Saddam to recruit and groom a new generation of terrorists.
They've been trying to do that all along. They were trying to do that before 9-11. They were trying to do that before the first attack on the WTC. What's so different about yesterday afternoon?
It's not easy to superimpose morality with certainty.
It's be nice if somebody gave all of us some certainty, but there ain't no such thing. The best you can do is a strong "likely."
As Roger Morris, the author of a Nixon biography, wrote in The Times last week: "Forty years ago, the C.I.A., under President John F. Kennedy, conducted its own regime change in Baghdad, carried out in collaboration with Saddam Hussein."
Oh, it did not. Maureen, do you believe everything you read?
And America is not known for its long attention span or talent for empire building. As Bob Woodward reports in his book "Bush at War," a month into the bombing of Afghanistan, when the Taliban stronghold of Mazar-i-Sharif fell, Mr. Bush turned to Condoleezza Rice, in a moment straight out of "The Candidate," and asked: "Well, what next?"
He probably had some ideas when he said that, but Maureen likes to pretend he's clueless. Cheeze, I'm glad this gal doesn't make policy.

2003-02-27T18:32:00.000-08:00

Fidel Goes to China
BEIJING (AP) - As Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba in 1959, China was in the throes of an ultimately catastrophic push toward converting all private farms to communes. Yet while the Cuban leader stuck doggedly to his communist guns, China over the past decades junked such dreams of utopia and transformed a vast, agrarian state into one of the world's chief market economies. For the 76-year-old Castro, who last visited China seven years ago, the difference was bewildering. ``I can't really be sure just now what kind of China I am visiting, because the first time I visited, your country appeared one way and now when I visit it appears another way,'' Castro said Thursday in a meeting with the head of China's legislature, Li Peng. ``You can say that every so often your country undergoes great changes.''
It's called prosperity, Fidel. You wouldn't know what that is...
China and Cuba are two of the last remaining one-party communist states, but the similarity just about ends there. Cuba muddles on with a planned communist economy still reeling from the loss of Soviet subsidies. Meanwhile, China has become aggressively mercantile, growing into the world's manufacturing powerhouse. Its cities are littered with new high-rises, their streets clogged with vehicles.
Impressive, what junking the Five Year Plan approach does, isn't it?
Castro was briefed on China's economic reforms by Vice Premier Wen Jiabao, the country's No. 2 economic official, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It paraphrased Castro as saying ``China's future was certain to be prosperous.''
And Cuba used to be...
No other details - including whether they discussed the possibility of applying Chinese-style reform in Cuba - were immediately released.
My guess is "no." Implementing capitalism -- which is what China's got -- means admitting he's been screwing around for the past 44 years....
China and Cuba ran along parallel communist tracks for years after Castro took power. China undertook first the Great Leap, which created a famine that killed an estimated 30 million people, and then the Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong's convulsive last attempt at perpetuating his revolution. Their histories began to diverge, though, as China embarked on reforms after Mao's death in 1976. Beginning in the 1980s, the planned economy was steadily dismantled, setting the stage for today's relative prosperity - even while the Communist Party maintained its stranglehold on political power.
Demonstrating, lest we forget, that the form of government can be irrelevant, as long as the citizenry has a measure of individual liberty. An oligarchy, which is what they rightly have now, can work just as well as a repubic. It just offers more opportunities and temptations for abuse. Compared to the U.S., or to Taiwan, or to Japan, the Chinese are still regimented. Compared to China in the throes of the Great Cultural Revolution they're free as little birdies.
The basis of that growth - foreign investment totaling hundreds of billions of dollars and the emergence of a dynamic private sector - remain largely alien concepts in Castro's Cuba. China now provides hundreds of millions of dollars in economic credits to Cuba, as well as some direct aid. Castro's talks with Chinese President Jiang Zemin earlier this week focused on economic ties and concluded with the signing of an economic cooperation agreement and Chinese aid package for Cuba. Castro met later Thursday with Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji, who praised Castro's leadership and ``insistence on Cuba's national sovereignty and people's independence in complicated and ever-changing times.''
He's being indulgent of his poor relations. I wonder if Fidel cringed?
He spoke also with Vice President Hu Jintao and Vice Premier Wen Jiabao. Hu and Wen are expected to take over as China's president and premier, respectively, at the annual legislative session beginning next week.
Fidel's got a little problem here, and he's probably too old and set in his ways to do anything about it. It must cut the old man to the quick to see the empirical evidence of his failure.

2003-02-25T12:25:00.000-08:00

Holding peace in contempt
By Molly Ivins
Originally published February 25, 2003
AUSTIN, Texas -- Before we all work ourselves into such righteous snits we can't even talk to one another anymore, let's see what we can agree on. Wanting to get rid of Saddam Hussein does not make anyone a bloodthirsty monster or a tool of the oil companies. Being worried to death about the consequences of invading Iraq does not make anyone unpatriotic or in favor of Saddam Hussein.
Sweet reason? From Molly? Okay, where's the hook?
Whether it's better to kill the snake or leave the snake alone, that is one question. But the question we're stuck on now is whether there's a better choice. Some of us think containment can work, and the reason we think so is because it already has. More Iraqi weapons were destroyed by U.N. inspectors in the '90s than were destroyed by the gulf war. Why not see if it will work this time? What about a U.N. resolution saying, "Any place Saddam Hussein doesn't let the inspectors go into gets bombed immediately"?
Depends on the type weapons destroyed. Tanks, APCs, and artillery pieces weren't on the inspectors' destruction lists. While the "gets bombed immediately" resolution might sound good to Molly, it's doubtful it'd ever pass. If it did pass, it's doubtful the Frenchies, Fritzies, and Arabs would let it be implemented without at least eight weeks of ~~hollering~~ debate, during which time anything of interest would be moved out.
The president did an unfortunate disservice to the cause of reasonable debate Feb. 18 when he said of the worldwide demonstration against the impending war: "Some in the world don't view Saddam Hussein as a risk to peace. I respectfully disagree." Painting the antiwar movement as pro-Hussein gets us nowhere.
Ummm... They're not conspicuously anti-Sammy. Ramsey Clark, in fact, thinks he's just a dear...
What the Europeans are trying to say is not that they think Mr. Hussein is harmless -- we've got near-universal agreement that the man is a miserable jerk, including, as near as one can tell, from most Iraqis. The difference is over how to handle him, and the United States has put itself in the unfortunate position of looking as though we'd rather go to war, unprovoked, than work at a way to defang Mr. Hussein peacefully. It is this bellicosity that is so unbecoming to us and so troubling to many of our allies. Why this disdainful dismissal of a peaceful alternative?
Maybe Molly should have a quick peek at why the Iraqis, especially those outside the country, don't like Sammy. Even without WMDs, he's still a bloody-handed dictator who represents a danger to life and limb, not to mention dignity and bank account, of everyone else in the country. The only people who might be safe from him are his two sons, who're chips off the old block. Even if Sammy disarmed today and played by the international book of rules, his citizenry would still be stuck with him.
It seems to me quite reasonable that friends might differ over whether Mr. Hussein is better handled by invasion or by containment. Why this should lead to our throwing around names likes "Euroweenies" and "EUnuchs" is beyond me.
For approximately the same reason Bush and Co. are compared to the Third Reich every three days or so, only with more basis in fact.
Timothy Garton Ash, a British writer, put his finger on an important aspect of American anti-Europeanism: "The most outspoken American Euro-bashers are neoconservatives using the same sort of combative rhetoric they have habitually deployed against American liberals," he wrote. Precisely.
Either that, or people who're disgusted by the excesses of American leftism tend to become neoconservatives, and thery're tired of shutting up and taking what the lefties dish out without response. The lefties don't appear to like the fact.
Richard Perle, chair of the Pentagon's Defense Advisory Board, goes around Europe behaving as though he thought he were on Crossfire, and Donald Rumsfeld is just as bad. Crossfire combatants are not noted for their diplomacy. Using the language of right-wing radio talk-show hosts, complete with macho posturing, is reassuring to no one.
Whereas telling Eastern Europe to shut the hell up is...
Mr. Bush once described something as "the language of diplomatic nuanced circles." One could wish he were rather more practiced in it. It is not reassuring to be told we are going to war because he "has already seen this movie" and is bored by it. Far be it from me to discourage blunt speaking, but issues of war and peace are not aided by displays of petty impatience. There is something deeply unserious about it.
What Molly's missing here, probably because she wants to, is the fact that the Bush team is actually engaged in some pretty intricate diplomacy, building a coalition not only of the willing, but also of the hesitant and the fearful, even while fighting off diplomatic countermoves from the Frenchies and, to a lesser extent, the Fritzies and the Arabs. The Arabs, in particular, are in disarray, and Chirac has managed to lose it so severely on at least one occasion that it'll take him years to mend those fences.
It is this flip, cavalier streak in our foreign policy, the contemptuous dismissal of peaceful alternatives, that is making some Europeans conclude this administration is dangerous. What your momma told you about flies and honey is still true. Why not try persuasion instead of bullying? For that matter, why not see if the inspections work before we go racing into this "preventive war"?
Do you think another twelve years should be enough? Or should we give them more?
The diplomatic situation continues to deteriorate. Not to use the language of "diplomatic nuanced circles," Turkey held us up for a bigger bribe. The Bush administration has made a complete hash of North Korean policy. On Feb. 5, the deputy director of the North Korean foreign ministry, Ri Pyong-gap, told The Guardian: "The U.S. says that after Iraq we are next. But we have our own countermeasures. Pre-emptive attacks are not the exclusive right of the U.S." Great, just what we worried about when Mr. Bush first announced this pre-emptive war doctrine -- it's catching.
The North Koreans didn't become our enemies because they went onto the Axis of Evil list; they went onto the Axis of Evil list because they're our enemies. They announce this on a near daily basis in their press. Molly's not paying attention...
In Africa, they think the United States is trying to sabotage the United Nations because it is now headed by Kofi Annan, a Ghanaian. Even Nelson Mandela said, "Both Bush as well as Tony Blair are trying to undermine an idea [the United Nations] that was supported by their predecessors. Is this because the secretary-general is now a black man? They never did that when secretary-generals were white."
Slinging the race card was pretty over-the-top of old Nelson. He also managed to color Annan's predecessor a darker shade, and to imply that Iraqis are, if not black, then certainly very dark. The race card was also flung when we went into Afghanistan, another war that Molly opposed, implying that the mostly-just-as-white-as-Molly-is Afghans were, ummm... brown. Or maybe black. It's entirely possible to regard Kofi as a paragon of ineptitude without taking his skin shade into consideration at all. If one closes one's eyes, he's just as ineffectual as when they're open.
Look, the rest of the world is deeply worried about the possibility that this war could set off a holocaust. That is not a concern that should be treated with contemptuous dismissal.
Neither is the possibility that Sammy and/or his allies will visit another attack on this country on a par with 9-11. Bin Laden declared war on us. Only the stupid work hard at forgetting that fact. And bin Laden makes common cause with Sammy, even though he regards Sammy as an infidel. If Bush is wrong, and Sammy isn't as much of a threat as he thought, the Iraqis are still freed of an oppressive dictatorship and they can start spending their oil money on groceries instead of building the Fourth Largest Army in the World® and gobbling up Kuwait. If Molly is wrong, and Bush takes her advice, and Austin is wiped out in a smallpox plague, it'll be a bit late to say "Whoops. Y'shouldn't have listened to me."

2002-10-21T18:14:00.000-07:00

The Saudi way
Khalid Hasan, The Friday Times
Saudi Arabia has been above criticism in Pakistan for two reasons. Saudi Arabia is the land of Islam’s birth and seat of its holiest places. Two, the Kingdom has remained a good friend of Pakistan, helping it tide over its financial difficulties and generally being supportive on all major issues, including Kashmir. Saudi governments and the Saudi way of life has almost never been subjected to critical analysis, nor has the Saudi interpretation of what Islam is and what Islam is not been questioned for fear of causing offense.
Loosely translated, that means that Arabia is revered as the birthplace of Islam, and the Saudis are revered because they have a really big checkbook and they support Muslim countries against all comers, regardless of right or wrong.
However, after the events of September 11, the focus on the Kingdom and how it interprets Islam has come under sharp and sometimes hostile scrutiny in the West. This may also be the time for us to take an objective, dispassionate look at the austere version of our religion that the Kingdom promotes at home and what it has spent many years and hundreds of millions of dollars on promoting abroad. The Saudi view of Islam is based on what is known as Wahabism, an interpretation of Islam that al-Qaida and the Taliban have offered as spiritual justification for their actions. It is these strident, intolerant, violent voices that appear to have set the current Islamic agenda, an agenda whose costs are now being borne by the entire world of Islam, including Muslims living in other countries
Wahhabism is an interpretation of Islam that takes it to a logical extreme. That's unpleasant enough, but it's their country, and they're free to screw it up any way they want. Islamism, the export version, takes it up at that point and then takes it to illogical extremes.
Had all the enemies of Islam, past and present, got together to work out the most effective way to harm Islam, do injury to its followers and tarnish its image, they could not have come up with a more deadly, a more successful scheme than the World Trade Centre attacks of 11 September 2001.
He's called that one right. Had the Saudis after 9-11 been sympathetic and cooperative, horrified at the idea of such large-scale terrorism perpetrated against innocent people, our relationship with them would still be good. Instead, they were arrogant and blustering, giving every indication of having a dirty conscience, and we took the attack as Islam's true colors. Too bad for the Sufis and the Islmailis and all the other Muslims who aren't nutbags; they let the wahhabis present themselves as true keepers of the faith, and we're taking them at their word...
Nothing has been the same since and nothing will be same for the foreseeable future for Muslims. Those who reside in the West, and in such a normally tolerant country as the United States, have witnessed with growing dismay the erosion of what was once the American way of life. Being a Muslim is in itself reason enough to be suspect in a given situation.
He's got a distorted view of the U.S. He's been reading entirely too many accounts in the Islamic press. Such incidents as there have been have been minor, with nothing organized. Given the same situation with Westerners in a Muslim country, there'd have been blood flowing in the gutters...
Sometimes the hostility is palpable, at other times subtle. At times, it may be only imagined, but that things have changed for Muslims since that fateful day in September is a fact of life and a very sad and unpleasant fact of life A friend of mine in Virginia who was running a small business selling laptop computers has said that his sales fell in the wake of 9/11 and have never really recovered. Some said their bank credit facilities had been curtailed. Others said they had lost customers. Muslims have had problems when out looking for house rentals. School children have borne the brunt of this assault and have had to put up with taunts and insults. Many Muslims have lost their lives or suffered serious physical assault and injury. The recent increase in shockingly unseemly attacks on Islam’s most revered figure are something that was almost unheard of before 9/11. Muslims can only protest through their ineffective organisations, but these protests have little or no impact. Some of those making these attacks are President George Bush’s close political allies and supporters. The Washington Post newspaper asked the President recently to publicly distance himself from these men. He has done no such thing so far and is not likely to. The general attitude is summed up in the saying: Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims.
He's distanced himself from the domestic buttheads sufficiently for most domestic consumption. Falwell and Robertson and their by-products have been dismissed by most people, including most conservatives, as not bright enough to discuss the problem without drooling. On the other hand, the Saudi imams have been spraying spittle and venom in full force, non-stop, since well before 9-11. Monkeys and apes and hate-thy-neighbor are weekly staples of Friday sermons. Most of us think Bush has been entirely too gentle with the Saudis — and maybe with Muslims in gentle. Islam has shown itself demonstrably not to be a religion of peace, unless it's the peace of the grave.
And all these indignities have been brought upon Muslims and all this harm done to them because of the contorted thinking of those who claim to be waging ‘jihad’ for the greater glory of the religion by which they swear and in whose name they operate. While the Saudis may have always acted out of the goodness of their hearts and for their love of Islam and its timeless message, the fact is that they have funded organisations and patronised groups that have an extremely narrow and intolerant understanding of Islam.
He might want to rethink that "goodness of their hearts" stuff. To us, it looks like a program directed at world domination and the destruction of our civilization...
They are unaware of the contribution made by Islam to the flowering of world civilisation and culture, of science and medicine, of art and literature. Their concept of Islam is based on ignorance and a lack of understanding of the true nature of this great civilising and intellectually liberating force.
And also on a healthy dose of self-interest. To a midieval mind, surrounding yourself with two or three layers of buffer states is a pretty good defense...
It may be instructive to take a look at how the Saudis view religion. Saudi Arabia is an Islamic monarchy - a contradiction in terms - which offers no legal protection for freedom of religion. All citizens are to be Muslims under the law. Public worship of other faiths is forbidden, though their followers may do so in private, but not always is this permitted. There are seven million foreigners in a population of 17 million, including 0.9 million Pakistanis, 1.5 million Indians, 1.0 million Bangladeshis, 0.8 million Filipinos, 130,000 Sri Lankans and about 1.1 million Egyptians, Palestinians and Lebanese.
Even when the House of Saud falls, we won't consider the War on Terror over until there's freedom of religion in Arabia — not only for "people of the book," as the Koran calls for, but also for Ba'hais, Buddhists, Taoists, animists, and atheists.
Practices contrary to the teaching of the 18th century reformer Muhammad bin Abdul Wahab are discouraged, such as observing the birthday of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) and visits to the tombs of revered Islamic figures. Anyone spreading a contrary interpretation of Islam or Islamic practices is dealt with strictly, sometimes in prison. All mosque imams are on state payroll and foreign imams are forbidden from leading Friday prayers, which the government describes as part of its “Saudization” plan to replace foreign workers with Saudi citizens.
They've got enough "holy men" running around not to need to import any...
There is discrimination against women. Their testimony in the Kingdom’s courts does not carry the same weight as that of a man. Women may not marry non-citizens without government permission and men must obtain approval from the Ministry of Interior to marry women outside the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Women cannot marry non-Muslims, while men can marry Christians and Jews. While women have to demonstrate legally specific grounds for divorce, men may pronounce divorce without cause. If divorced or widowed, a woman may keep her children up the age of seven if they are boys, and nine if they are girls. Thereafter, the custody goes to the husband or his family.
We'll also be able to tell the War on Terror is over when you can go out and have a few beers at a titty bar in Mecca. I doubt if I'll live to see the day, but my kids might. I plan on leaving a small bequest in my will to be spent only for that purpose...
The majority of the world’s Muslims and Muslim states do not follow these practices. Is theirs then not the way which is truly representative and is that not the message which should be going out to the world?
Unfortunately, Muslims states have been severely influenced by the wahhabis, and it's doubtful they'll be able to revert to previously tolerant forms of Islam. After the war crests, there will probably be a net decline in the numbers of Muslims, and there will be a certain decline in the numbers of antilibertarian Muslims. Our ideals — freedom to do what a person wants as long as it doesn't physically hurt someone else — will eventually kill Islamism and possibly Islam with it, just as it has killed Communism and Fascism.

2002-10-03T14:16:00.000-07:00

Gelaev: The Bio
When the Kremlin and the military need a boost in their Chechnya campaign, there is one Chechen warlord who seems to magically ride to the rescue time after time -- Ruslan Gelayev.
Do tell? That's mighty nice of him...
Gelayev inexplicably pulled his fighters out of Grozny when the military told rebels to withdraw from the Chechen capital in January 2000, paving the way for the city's recapture by federal forces. Until Gelayev left, the rebels could have indefinitely held off federal troops, according to military experts.
"Ruslan! Get outta town now, or we'll kill you all!"
"Hokay."
In a baffling decision that handed the military a stunning battle victory later that year, Gelayev stayed put in his hometown of Komsomolskoye on the Chechen plains despite an order by Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov to move his men into the mountains. Federal forces surrounded the village and killed several hundred rebels before Gelayev managed to escape with a handful of his men.
"Well, there was this Rula Lenska film festival they wuz runnin'..."
Last month Gelayev ordered 150 of his fighters to move into Ingushetia -- precisely when Moscow needed fresh evidence of Chechen rebels crossing into Russia from Georgia's Pankisi Gorge to justify threatened strikes. Seventeen Russian soldiers died in an ensuing battle near the village of Galashki late last week.
And almost half Ruslan's force...
Chechens who know Gelayev, 38, call him a sharp, independent-minded man with simple ways. They expressed doubt that he works hand in hand with Russian forces, but said perhaps he is unwittingly being manipulated by the secret services. "Gelayev is a clever man, but he is a peasant and his mentality is that of peasant," said Shamil Beno, who served as foreign minister under first Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev. Gelayev is narrow-minded and would not consent to assisting Moscow, he said.
"He ain't a traitor. He's jest stoopid..."
Sharip Asuyev, a Chechen journalist who has interviewed Gelayev several times, agreed. "I don't think he plays games with the Russian secret services," he said. "But it is quite possible that they use him without his knowledge."
"Hey, Ruslan! Over there! Is that Elvis?"
"Huh huh. Where?"
"(Har har. Got 'im again!)"
A fighter in Gelayev's group told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Gelayev was wounded in the Galashki fighting.
"Ow!"
"Don't kill him, Volodya! They might get somebody who ain't a screw-up!"
Gelayev is thought to be currently hiding in Chechnya. "Gelayev is the most independent of all warlords, and he acts separately from rebel leaders Aslan Maskhadov and Shamil Basayev," said Alexei Malashenko, a Chechnya expert at the Moscow Carnegie Center.
"Duh. Ain't nobody tells me what to do. Huh huh."
Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze told Georgian television last year that Gelayev was "noble" and "an educated man with common sense." He echoed the statement last month, saying he had seen no proof that Gelayev was a terrorist and that he considers him an "educated person." Subsequent attacks by Gelayev's men against Russian troops on Chechnya's border with Georgia only increased the Kremlin's resolve.
And didn't help Shevardnadze's case one little bit...

2002-09-14T10:53:00.000-07:00

EXCLUSIVE: The last battle
Part 1: Exit Osama, enter Hekmatyar
By Pepe Escobar
Oh, boy! More stuff by Pepe...
ASADABAD, eastern Afghanistan - It's 7am in dirt-poor, semi-devastated Martyr's Square in this town in the heart of Kunar province. The sun is already shining high and the big, brash American anti-terrorist show is in town.
Pepe doesn't like the big, brash American anti-terrorist show...
And what a show it is. Nine vehicles, ranging from Humvees to Toyota HiLux vehicles customized with machine guns, carrying as many as six soldiers each, all engineered to raise serious hell, take possession of the square. The whole town is watching. A commando group climbs up the rickety stairs to the balcony of the Istiqlal - the only hotel in town and whose unbelievably filthy washrooms are crammed with graffiti of the new jihad against America - and engages in a search-and-destroy operation against two "culprits", as the local Pashtuns put it: this Asia Times Online correspondent and his companion, Pashto-speaking, Peshawar-based journalist Majeed Baber.
Oh, no! They're coming to get Pepe! Quick! Hide him!
The Special Forces are relatively polite - but firm. Identity documents are checked and then digital still photos and video footage is erased - under severe vigilance. Next time, the cameras will be confiscated. Although the whole process is totally illegal, all is justified in the name of the "tense" security situation. Scott, one of the soldiers, is a little more affable than the others, who share a uniform blank, psychopath-style gaze. Scott confirms on the record - and he will be the only one to do so - that the real mission is "to get Hekmatyar", the former Afghan premier and famed mujahideen warlord, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of the Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan (Islamic Party).
Damn, Scott! It was supposed to be a surprise! But you've got to forgive the poor guy. He hasn't got the patented psychopath-style gaze down yet...
Scott argues the footage and photos might fall into the wrong hands. "They might see how many we are, what we are doing." As if "they" didn't know already. Some intelligence information is exchanged and the show departs with a bang to look for the bad guys. Later, the whole town will keep coming back to ask in utter perplexity, "What were the Americans telling you? Have you done anything wrong?"
"They" might very well not know already. Toldja, it's supposed to be a surprise...
Make no mistake. This is it. One year after September 11, this is the ultimate frontline, the last, crucial battle in the new Afghan war - as the best Pakistan-Afghanistan insiders have been predicting for months. Or maybe the battle is just beginning. The fact is that now between 300 and 400 American Special Forces - according to different estimations of local Pashtun commanders - are now based in Kunar in hot pursuit of the newly-promoted number one "dead or dead" enemy in the war against terrorism in Afghanistan: Hekmatyar, the Pashtun leader and the only premier in history with the dubious distinction of shelling his own capital, Kabul, in mid-1992, causing the death of as many as 25,000 people, until his bases were destroyed by the Taliban in early 1995.
The Talibs destroyed his bases, which implies he's not invincible. We destroyed the Talibs, which implies we can destroy Hek, too...
Even though the war against terrorism costs roughly US$1 billion a day, Osama bin Laden has not been found. Ayman "The Surgeon" al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's number two, has not been found. Taliban supremo Mullah Omar - who escaped from B-52 bombing last November on the back of a Honda 50cc motorcycle - has not been found. So the new bogeyman is Hekmatyar, who is gathering forces for his new jihad to drive foreign troops out of Afghanistan.
Chances are Binny is titzup. Chances are nearly as good Ayman is titzup. And the Ex-Potentate, Protector of the Faithful is riding around on a motorbike somewhere in eastern Afghanistan hollering at people to straighten their turbans...
Scores of international journalists are gathering at the Tora Bora to "commemorate" September 11 - perhaps hoping to shoot a bin Laden video in one of the myriad caves in which he was reputed to have hidden before escaping well before the advancing US troops arrived. Asia Times Online, instead, is trying to confirm privileged information according to which Hekmatyar is hiding somewhere in Kunar; former mujahideen leader "Professor" Abdul Rassoul Sayyaf - renamed by his Arab patrons Abd al-Rabb al-Rasul Sayyaf - has been to Kunar; and bin Laden and al-Zawahiri may or may not have recently been in Kunar.
We know Sayyaf is the Soddies' inside man in the Northern Alliance. We know Kunar is chock full of indignant Pashtuns. Maybe Pepe should have gone to the Tora Bora commemoration instead...
The American Special Forces - housed in a huge compound that used to be the local jail on the outskirts of Asadabad - have been camped since the end of June; in the beginning they were less than a dozen, now they're hundreds, but still they haven't found what they are looking for. The search - for Hekmatyar, for al-Qaeda, for supporters, for clues in the middle of ever-shifting alliances, for escape routes - is a complex puzzle. There's only one way to go - and it is to criss-cross information volunteered by all the major players. What we find is a dizzying web of political, military, tribal and religious friction.
Ay! 'Tis stuff beyond the ken of mere westerners. Those orientals, they're just too inscrutable for us to ever understand...
In Hekmatyar America has a formidable foe, as the Soviets found out to their cost in their Afghanistan adventure in the 1980s. He issued an anti-American fatwa in June, and last week he reconfirmed a jihad against "American invaders" and the "persecution of Pashtuns". His Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan now runs the show and Hekmatyar can count on hundreds of loyal and very experienced commanders - such as Maulana Jalaluddin Haqqani, the former number one military commander of the Taliban. Al-Qaeda is collaborating with Hezb-i-Islami, but only in a supporting role.
That's all stuff we knew or guessed before. As pointed out above, the Talibs crushed Hek, we crushed the Talibs - why on earth would Pepe think Hek would crush us?
The Hezb-i-Islami - 75 percent of it made up of Pashtuns - is the most revolutionary and disciplined of all the Afghan Islamist parties. It's nothing remotely similar to a bunch of turbans roaming around in pick-up trucks, as often the Taliban were.
So why'd the Talibs beat the crap out of them?
The Hezb is a modern organization. Recruitment and promotion is based on skill and merit - and not on social roles or how well one can recite the Koran. Hezb leaders have all been educated in Afghanistan - not in Pakistani madrassas (religious schools). Hekmatyar is a radical Islamist. During the anti-Soviet jihad his party was the absolute favorite of the Afghan refugees in Pakistan, where Islamabad helped the Hezb control 250 schools - from which 43,500 students graduated. These students are the core of the party's new generation, and they make up most of the soldiers of Hekmatyar's conventional military force, the Lashkar-i-Isar (Army of Sacrifice).
And stuff the Talibs beat them up and threw them out. Tusk. Tusk.
During the anti-Soviet jihad, Hekmatyar received tens of millions of dollars from Libya and Iraq. And prior to Saddam Hussein invading Kuwait in 1990, the Saudi and Kuwaiti governments and private donors had provided as much as a billion dollars to Hekmatyar. The Hezb was also the darling of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Islamic conservative wahhabis from Saudi Arabia. It was also the favorite of moderate Pakistani generals and - the icing on the cake - the operations wing of the US's Central Intelligence Agency.
It also wasn't the one that was beating up the Russers. That was Masood and his half-starved Tadjiks and Uzbeks...
This went on until late 1989, when Bush senior's administration realized that the USSR was collapsing - and Afghanistan lost its strategic importance. When the priority was to "kill Russians" - according to the crude lingo of the times - the US gave free reign to the ISI to distribute cash and weapons in Afghanistan, with no American supervision. The lion's share always went straight to Hekmatyar and Sayyaf.
While Masood did the fighting, leave us not forget. But Pepe's argument here is that Hek is a creature of the Merkins and we're about to reap what we've sown...
It is fair to say that practically every Pashtun tribe or clan had or has a branch or faction with a link to Hekmatyar. So it is no wonder that the man is now skillfully playing the ethnic card. In his most recent audiotaped address to people all over the Pashtun belt to the east of the country he asks rhetorically why only Pashtuns are being bombed, arrested or killed by the Americans. Hekmatyar touches the right chord in any tribal Pashtun heart when he says that Pashtuns have been humiliated by Americans searching their houses without any warning, confiscating their weapons and - an unpardonable sin in Pashtunwali, the tribal code of honor - physically searching their women.
Tough. The Pashtun areas are the ones that are crawling with al-Qaeda and Talibs - and Hekmatyar supporters...
Pashtuns in Kunar and Nangarhar are convinced the Tajik-dominated Northern Alliance was behind the killing of Haji Abdul Qadir - the only Pashtun vice-president in President Hamid Karzai's government in Kabul. Portraits of Qadir are ubiquitous in Nangarhar while not a single Karzai portrait is to be seen. Karzai, although a Pashtun, is widely despised as an American puppet and a hostage of the powerful Northern Alliance ministers, such as commander Mohammed Fahim, the Afghan Defense Minister. Karzai's own security service is totally infiltrated by experienced Hezb-i-Islami operatives, possibly why he now relies on US bodyguards for his personal protection.
Strangely enough, the Merkins started out not really knowing much about the ethnic differences in Pakland. To most of the current crop of intel analysts and decision makers there wasn't much difference between a Pashtun and anybody else. 'Twas the Pashtuns themselves, through their love for the Talibs and their consistent bad faith, who accentuated the differences...
Haji Matheullah Khan Safi is the core commander of Kunar. In theory, he is working with the Americans. He says that he used to speak English - but adds, emphatically, that "with this war I forgot everything". According to him, the Americans have been in Kunar for at least two months. "When they got here, we had problems with local commanders in different checkposts. Now this is finished. The province is under a single administration."
And the significance is...?
Haji Matheullah is the first to tell what will be a recurrent story of how a group of high-ranking Arabs escaped from Jalalabad after the city fell to the Northern Alliance on November 12. "There was a huge compound full of Arabs. The most important escaped to Kunar." The Arabs were helped by Hezb-i-Islami people, by Haji Roohullah (a Kunar wahhabi rising star, recently arrested and now in American custody at Bagram air base on the outskirts of Kabul) and Kashmir Khan (a high commander close to Hekmatyar whom some define as a gangster). "There were only nine Arabs at the time. But one of them was severely injured, died, and was buried near Asadabad. The eight that remained arrived in Daish and then the valleys of Shigal. There were at least four important people among them - maybe Abu Zubaida." Zubaida, an al-Qaeda strategist, was later arrested in Faisalabad, Pakistan, in late March.
Gosh. That's inspiring. I just can't figure why the Merkins are hounding these poor people looking for al-Qaeda sympathizers...
Haji Matheullah cannot or is not willing to confirm a now famous meeting in the beginning of August between Hekmatyar, Sayyaf and other key people that took place in Kunar. "It is not easy for Sayyaf to get into this area. But everyone knows their thinking is the same." He comments with a Pashtun proverb. "If you don't eat the onion, you don't smell." And then he adds, "Some activities in this area might confirm that Hekmatyar could be in the remote mountains northeast of Asadabad." A few minutes later, though, comes a new twist: "If all the people are thinking that Hekmatyar is in Kunar, he may well be in Kunar. And if Hekmatyar is in Kunar, Osama and al-Zawahiri may be as well, because they are all in contact."
Or at least Hek bruits it about that they are. The thought that Binny and Ayman are backing him lends a certain cachet of invincibility to his move. If they're both dead and decomposing, who's to say him nay, unless the bodies are found?
We talk about how Hekmatyar - by satellite telephone, on the BBC Pashto service - announced that he supported a new jihad against the Americans, launched in Gardez and Khost, in Paktia province. "Are you sure it was a sat-phone, or tape?" He then switches to attack mode. "We did the jihad 20 years ago against the Russians, for the stability of the country and for the sake of Islam, and then we gave Kabul to these people - Hekmatyar, [Rashid] Dostum, [Burhanuddin] Rabbani, Sayyaf. What did they do to Kabul and the country? They destroyed Kabul, they destroyed the country and now they want it again."
Sounds like the more reason to support the Karzai regime. We know the old crew didn't work. But that's reason, and we're talking about Pashtuns, and Pepe's doing the reporting...
The situation in Kunar is increasingly tense. Two weeks ago, two missiles hit the American compound in Asadabad. Haji Matheullah finally fires on all cylinders and admits fighters, numbering about 500, are probably hiding in the mountains. "It takes 48 hours to get there, by walking. We heard they bought a lot of new weapons, RPGs, rocket launchers." The route they most likely took is from Nawaqui, a village on the Pakistani border. On the Pakistan side lies the region dominated by the fierce black-turbaned Sufi Muhammad, who sent thousands of madrassa students in a jihad against the Americans last October. Most were killed or captured and Sufi Muhammad is now languishing in a Pakistani jail.
That's certainly an indication we should be scared to death of him and his 500 ~~schoolboys~~ fighters...
Haji Matheullah notes that the Americans in Kunar don't have helicopters. Anyway, that would not help: "These people could stay in the mountains during the whole winter. They collected food. They have a lot of money. They have support from Pakistan, across the border. The only way for the Americans is to go there on foot, through the mountains and jungle."
Yes, where no westerner dare go. Afghanistan is death to westerners. Only Pashtuns can live there, y'know...
Kunar still holds a lot of sympathy to Wahhabism. "Twenty years ago, the Arabs got here and started their aid to widows, orphans, kids. There was a lot of money. When people saw what we call 'load, coat and boot', they converted to Wahhabism. The sheikhs, they wanted to spread Wahhabism all over Afghanistan, starting from Kunar. For this reason, the region still has a lot of relations with the Arabs."
Does that mean they'd all convert to Christianity if the Merkins came in and did the same? How about Judaism? How about agnosticism? They seem to be for sale to the highest bidder...
What Haji Matheullah is actually saying is that in the community there's still a lot of support for al-Qaeda. That's why people in Kunar are so incensed by the arrest of Haji Roohullah. But at the same time he is also saying that "the common people support Americans, they think they are helpful". The characteristically Pashtun twists and turns of the conversation are spiced up: "Afghans never liked foreign invaders." And then comes the punchline. "Afghanistan has problems with Pakistan and China. The Americans want to finish the influence of neighbors on Afghanistan. They [Americans] created a nightmare for us. When they create light, they can go."
Nope. Doesn't make any sense to me, either...
Haji Amanullah is the man responsible for Asadabad's security. But, significantly, he is still a military Hezb-i-Islami commander. This flagrant contradiction requires extreme diplomacy. His basic judgment of the American presence is "if they want to stay long, for security reasons, and if they do not disturb the people, they are welcome. But if they continue to search houses, scare people - the people's temperament won't stand them for any more than three months."
But if they disturb people for security reasons... There's no point to that statement, either. Maybe the Merkins should just hang around and shoot any Chinese or Paks or Samoans who walk by...
The security commander confirms that at the beginning of July Hekmatyar visited Kunar, and then went north into Nuristan. He was in touch with local commanders, "But people in Kunar told him they could not guarantee his safety. He might be in Xinjiang [western China]." But this is extremely unlikely as Beijing - ultra-sensitive towards the Muslim Uighur region in western China - would know it right away. In once again a characteristically indirect Pashtun manner, Haji Amanullah finally implies that Hekmatyar is alive - and in the region.
Meaning Haji Amanullah has no idea where the hell he is...
In his view the Kunar Wahhabis "got a lot of aid from the Arabs and Osama. They still have a lot of money. But they are not more than 10,000 followers." Haji Roohullah, according to him, was and still is receiving money from Pakistan's ISI.
Meaning they're a little minority, and if they're only in it for the money they'd probably make good Ba'hais, too...
The story of the Arab escape from Jalalabad receives a new, savoury twist in Haji Amanullah's version. "I saw nine Arabs at the time. Commander Saburlal arrested them - and then he helped them to escape. They left all their own vehicles and money." Saburlal was also arrested a few days ago, and is now under American custody at Bagram air base.
Guess Pepe's not the only one Haji Amanullah told the story to, huh?
Raiz Khan Mushwani is only 18. With his boyish good looks and disarming smile he could be a heartthrob in a boy band or a Hollywood television series. But he is the son of Malik Zarin - the number-one core commander of Kunar (so one assumes that Haji Matheullah is in fact number two). Malik Zarin spends most of his time in crucial meetings in Kabul. His son stays in Asadabad . Raiz says that "more than 20 people" are working closely with the Americans. And he, at only 18, is their commander.
Oh, for Chrissake. Talk about seasoned combat leadership...!
Raiz is happy as "the Americans are bringing peace". Americans, he says, "choose their own informers", "have one American Pashto-speaker, an air force soldier named Kay" and are not paying directly for information, "only for expenses". The American morale, according to Raiz, is "fresh, there is no tension". Their commander is one "Captain Ryan, who came from Bagram". Raiz thinks that the Americans will stay for long. They have "no helicopters or tanks, but there is a helipad in the compound". In fact, every night the activity is feverish, for as long as three hours - with surveillance by drones. Raiz confirms that the mission is to get Hekmatyar. Not surprisingly, he does not know where bin Laden could be. "Sometimes, as a joke, the Americans ask me if I know something." Everybody in Asadabad talks about how in a patrolling mission in ultra-sensitive Pech Dara a month and a half ago, four men were shot and killed by the Americans just because they were carrying a Kalashnikov. Another lethal case of cultural misunderstanding. Raiz insists that "the Americans recognized the mistake".
"Gosh, I'm sorry I killed you..."
Gradually, in the Kunar puzzle, emerges the crucial figure of another commander, Khan Jan. Khan Jan is a distinguished Hezb-i-Islami commander, as well as being the mayor of Asadabad. The Americans tried to arrest him and they raided and, according to some, even fired on his house. They think that he meets regularly with Hekmatyar, Raiz admits. "Khan Jan has popular support in the area." As we talk to Raiz, we finally learn that none other than Khan Jan himself is in the same compound. He came to meet Malik Zarin - or Raiz - to complain about heavy-handed American tactics. But Raiz does not want to meet him. He belongs to the Mushwani tribe, while Khan Jan is from the Salarzai tribe. Tribal enmity is deadly - especially now that one of the tribes has been selected to work closely with the Americans. Raiz admits, "It is clear there is a movement among people to fight the Americans." But the "jihad is over", says the son of the most powerful military commander in Kunar - at least for the moment.
My guess is that it will in fact go by tribe. Among these beturbanned Hatfields and McCoys, if the Salarzais support Hek, then the Mushwanis will by Gawd support the Merkins...
The plot thickens. Ahmadullah is a cousin of the crucial character, the Wahhabi superstar Haji Roohullah. He recognizes that Haji Matheullah and Malik Zarin are "well-relationed with the Americans". But he quickly adds, "Zarin is creating problems because he targeted Haji Roohullah and his tribe." He stresses that "people from all over Kunar demand the release of Haji Roohullah because he fought against the Taliban and took over the area. Americans have to tell us what charges they have against him."
Probably the same antics his neighbors are talking about, helping the al-Qaeda killers escape...
Last November, Ahmadullah was fighting against the Taliban alongside Hazrat Ali - the American's favorite commander in Nangarhar province. After he came to the area, Haji Roohullah called him: he needed people to take over Asadabad. Ahmadullah confirms that commanders Sabarlal and Najinuddin Khan, among others, took over Asadabad "under the supervision of Haji Roohullah" and had been ruling the area ever since. But now both Haji Roohullah and Sabarlal are under arrest by the Americans.
Sounds reasonable. What're we missing?
Ahmadullah was an eyewitness to the massive Taliban escape last November. "The Taliban crossed to Pakistan in Marawara" - the direction of Bajaur agency in the Pakistani tribal areas. Hazrat Rahman was another commander at the time in Marawara who supported the Taliban. Ahmadullah saw 48 trucks coming, carrying at least 12 men each, a mix of Arabs and Taliban: "Hazrat Rahman took all their weapons and helped them escape." Then came another convoy of Pakistani Taliban, who also profited from the services of Rahman.
Good old Rahman. This was at the same time the Paks were saying their border was sealed, of course. On the other hand, it was the same time the Talibs were puffing and blowing and saying they were never gonna surrender...
Ahmadullah fiercely criticizes "those people who are collaborating with the Americans" - meaning Haji Matheullah and, most of all, Malik Zarin: he is implying that the arrest of Roohullah is a power game between commanders of different tribes. Ahmadullah also stresses that "we are ideological enemies of the Arabs because they killed our leader in '92, Maulvi Jamil Rahman Salafi." The portrait of Salafi is displayed at most of Asadabad's businesses. One Abdullah, an Egyptian, went to Bajaur agency and shot Salafi in a mosque in 1992 because he was against Arab proselytizing in the region.
I'm confused. It's the Merkins who're against that sort of thing. Oh. They're flatland furriners. That explains it.
Personally, Ahmadullah claims "not to know if Hekmatyar is here". But he assumes that Hekmatyar and Kashmir Khan are working together. Kashmir Khan "disappeared" a month ago and remains one of Hekmatyar's top commanders.
Good to know... This being Afghanistan, he'll probably not put a noose around his neck for it, but tactically it can be valuable piecing together who's who...
Presiding over the Kunar puzzle is the governor of the province, Sayed Muhamad Yusuf. But he is not from Kunar: he is from neighboring Laghman province. He was appointed by Hamid Karzai's central government and spends most of his time asking villagers to support Kabul - an unenviable task, as Pashtun houses are being permanently raided by bullish American soldiers. He insists that "all the nation is behind the Karzai government". The recent assassinations in Kabul and the attempt against Karzai in Kandahar are dismissed as "the usual". "President [John F.] Kennedy was assassinated, General Zia [ul-Haq of Pakistan] was killed."
And in Afghanistan they'll kill everybody in sight if you turn your back...
A long white beard disguises the steely character of Yusuf, a former jihad commander in the 1980s. The governor is playing a tremendously skillful diplomatic game, trying to accommodate the anger of local populations against American methods, the demands of the Americans themselves, and the conflicting interests of powerful and sidelined commanders. He insists that "all the people here are fed up with war. There is no chance of a battle in Kunar."
People like Pepe are looking for that to happen, but the "battles" sound more like the usual intertribal snipings that're common in Pakland. This is an area where blood feud is a national sport...
The governor thinks that the Americans came "under the flag of the UN to create peace in the land of the Afghans. Kunar is too sensitive, a border province, the geographic situation is too important". He does not think that Hekmatyar, bin Laden or al-Qaeda are in Kunar. He says "there's only a 5 percent chance" of Hekmatyar and some Arabs being in the province. He hasn't heard of any eyewitnesses: "The ideal place for them would be Nuristan." This is a huge mountainous enclave between Laghman and Kunar, northwest of Asadabad.
Is Pepe going to go to Nuristan to look? Stay tuned for tomorrow's installment...
The governor recognizes the mesmerizing cultural shock between America gung-ho culture and Pashtun culture. "I asked, why are you doing like this. They said because we receive information in a hurry, we don't want to waste time. But they are not checking anything. I was in a jirga [meeting] and I told the people the Americans are coming to your villages because of your informers. And they are giving bad information." So how do the Americans gather intelligence? "They ask us sometimes. But most of the time they do it on their own. Some teenagers, they told them they had seen Hekmatyar in Dangan. The Americans went there, stayed the whole night. They got into a house, they only saw women and kids." He denies that the Americans armed eastern Afghanistan commanders, although "they did arm commanders in Kandahar".
The eastern Afghanistan commander brought their own arms. They produce Kalashnikov knockoffs locally...
And then, in a slip, the crucial word "invasion" comes up. "The Taliban, they were Afghans, but they always made mistakes. Due to the Taliban we are now facing invasion of these forces." If even the ultra-diplomatic governor commits a Freudian slip of this nature, in the dusty streets and tea houses of Asadabad there is widespread talk about "invasion".
They were happy enough to receive it ten months ago. But this is Pashtunistan, and there is no word for "gratitude" in Pashto...
Ghulam Ullah, the head of education in the province, warns in a soft voice, "We all think Americans came here with the support of the UN. We don't look at them as invaders. But we do not accept Americans as rulers of this country."
Neither do the Merkins...
This sums up half of the popular perception in Kunar. The other half is already involved - surreptitiously for now - in an anti-American jihad.
Tell us how, Pepe. You've been rambling...
"Hekmatyar is not here," the smiling young men answer in chorus when questioned about the whereabouts of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the famed mujahideen warlord busy gathering forces to kick foreign troops out of Afghanistan, a man desperately wanted by the US.
Meaning they don't know if he is or not...
It's 7am in the tiny village of Aman Koot, in Shigal district, and the convoy of the governor of Kunar, Sayed Muhamad Yusuf - packed with dozens of uniformed Kunaris armed with Kalashnikovs - is parked by the side of the dusty, rocky road. The governor is inside a mud-walled compound, addressing a shura (meeting), trying to calm down the locals, all furious with the heavy-handed tactics used by American soldiers in searching houses for "terrorist suspects". The American Special Forces are also on the spot - this time in four customized Toyota Hi-Lux vehicles equipped with machine guns - patrolling the road and combing the surrounding fields, although they are not with the governor. "We're not with anybody. We're Americans," says one of the soldiers. They don't confirm or deny that they are protecting the governor this morning - but they certainly prevent us from getting into the compound to follow the shura, although we have been invited by the governor's people. All in the name of the "tense" security situation. There's an eerie feeling that a missile could zoom in from behind the mountains at any moment. We are less than three hours trekking from the porous Pakistani border.
That "eery feeling" is probably pretty widespread. But Afghan memories are short...
The young men crowded around us are eager to talk because with the Americans there's no dialogue. "It's not possible for us to support Hekmatyar in front of the Americans, now that jihad is finished." The smiling crowd is "very hopeful" for the future: they list as their only problem the absence of a cricket pitch - with all those maize fields and mountains. And they insist that they don't have "any concern" about the Americans: "We welcome them."
Sounds like they welcome them. Where's the grouse, Pepe?
They are not exactly welcomed back by the Americans, though, even if it is their own country. Kids swarm the dusty road. Some soldiers pick up a stick and start shooing them off. No chance for anybody to get even close to one of the Mad Max Toyotas. Two soldiers combing the fields with their precision rifles held high are surrounded by a mini-mob. Kids ask for pens. A few minutes later a local comes with a tin plate full of mutton slices - a characteristic sign of Pashtun hospitality. The soldiers recoil in utter disgust. Some start shouting "Back up!" to no avail. "Zai" - the Pashtun equivalent, would produce a better effect.
Doesn't sound like the Special Forces guys I've known. A recall eating grasshoppers in Vietnam because the locals did, and beetle soup in Laos. Never could learn to like the Vietnamese fermented duck eggs, though. Couldn't get past the smell. How old was the mutton?
We depart following the governor's convoy and soon stop at another dismal village where the four American vehicles are parked in a semi-circle, practically in combat-ready mode. They see us, they radio messages to each other - "Your Asia Times connection is here again." It's all part of a cat-and-mouse game developed over a few days. They know that we are here - and they don't like it. We know where they are and where they're going - and they don't like it.
Pepe's kidding himself here...
Every night, when they patrol Asadabad, Kunar's capital, they point their night vision goggles to the roof of the Istiqlal hotel where we are staying to check whether we're filming them. On a visit to the American compound, in a former prison on the outskirts of Asadabad, we are met at the gate by two soldiers, one of them carrying a pistol in one hand and X-ray goggles in another. The armed soldier is very polite, but absolutely "no quotes", not even a "How's the weather?", unless we are cleared by Bagram air base on the outskirts of the capital Kabul.
That means they're disciplined troops, not blabbermouth local boys...
After a quick stop in the village of Asmar, the crucial part of the governor's day is spent at a jirga (council) meeting in the village of Dangan - reached by an absolutely hair-raising, back-breaking rocky mountain trail. It's the first time ever that a Kunar governor has visited this village - which is not even on the map: that is a measure of the reigning tense situation. The convoy is greeted by a long circuitous line of very young madrassa (religious school) students immaculately dressed in blue. An armed sentry in a watchtower, next to the black-green-red Afghan flag, commands a spectacular view of the lush valley and the surrounding mountains - a landscape that evokes the most pristine mountain valleys in the Panjshir or in Kashmir. Before the jirga, some of the students engage in a heart-warming rendition of an Afghan national poem, whose lyrics say, "We know how to grow flowers in this land, we don't need guns, we need pens." Some elders weep. Then, in a fairytale courtyard naturally protected by trees from the scorching sun, the governor resumes his complex diplomatic ballet, forcefully telling the locals not to spread false information on Hekmatyar's whereabouts. The Hezb-i-Islami supremo is extremely popular in the region.
Pepe keeps saying that. He keep quoting people who like the Merkins. Are we getting Pepe's opinion or the locals'?
On a more environmental mode, the governor insists, "You have to protect your forests from Pakistani loggers." At the capital, Asadabad, the only business is the timber business - all of it controlled by six or seven powerful commanders, all of them with privileged connections with Pakistani companies. In Dangan itself, people diversify, and practically everybody is now back into cultivating poppy. The governor pleads with them not to.
If only because it will tick the Merkins off...
After the governor's speech, the village elder, the green-turbaned Sayed Mehbwob, takes the stage and delivers a blistering performance. Fiery eyes, booming voice and an expressive face straight out of tribal theater, he details to the governor how the Americans are disturbing the peace of his tribe. Later, he spells out to us some of the grievances. According to Mehbwob, two months ago, when the Americans got to Dangan, someone fired an RPG at them. The Americans didn't say who they were looking for. Three days later they came back and "struck the house of Zhulam Khan with mortars for four hours. There were people inside, but mercifully no one was injured."
Hmmm... Cause: RPG rounds. Effect: Four hour shelling by mortars. He doesn't make that connection, does he?
Then, a few days ago, says Mehbwob, the Americans broke into another house at night: "They broke a lot of boxes [Pashtuns keep a lot of their possessions in tin containers]. They checked the clothes of the women. There were only women and children inside the house. Now everybody in the area is afraid. This is against Pashtun tradition."
Maybe they shouldn't fire RPGs at people who come visiting?
Mehbwob confirms that the Shinkai home of the very popular Hezb-i-Islami commander and mayor of Asadabad, Khan Jan, was also raided by the Americans "because they thought he had information that would lead to Hekmatyar". Mehbwob is stinging: "We don't know who they are looking for. Sometimes they say it's Osama [bin Laden], sometimes al-Qaeda, sometimes Hekmatyar, and now they say they are looking for terrorists." Another village elder cuts to the chase. "I think the Americans are foolish. There is tension everywhere in Afghanistan. What are they doing in this area."
He just said what they were doing. Who does he have to ask the question he's just answered? Doesn't seem like it's the Merkins who're foolish...
The head of education in Kunar, the affable Ghulam Ullah, offers a more nuanced perspective. "Kunar is part of a body that has 32 parts. We support the central government. Kabul is recognized by all the world." He sees the war on terrorism being waged "by civilized nations. America is part of a coalition. We see the peacekeepers in Kabul and the American presence in this area in the same way. We do not see them as invaders. The Russians were invaders. We kicked them out. And we are here to help Afghans."
Okay. Thanks for your support... What's Pepe make of all this?
But the Americans may be making serious mistakes, such as arresting the popular Wahhabi leader Haji Roohullah. "Roohullah is a national religious leader." The motto at the office of Haji Roohullah is "Unity is the best policy". The educator, on the arrest of Roohullah, says that "all the tribes have long enmities. One of them is creating problems [he means the Mushwani tribe]. Roohullah was the first to start loya jirga negotiations in Kunar." Ghulam Ullah is absolutely right when he recalls that the Afghan jihad against the Russians in the 1980s "started in Kunar, through the family of Roohullah".
But at the same time, Roohullah picked the wrong side when the Talibs fell. Tough, living with those consequences, isn't it?
Ghulam Ullah is among the few in the region who reject Hekmatyar's ruthless methods: "We have a lot of differences with Hezb-i-Islami. In 1990, we had a parliament in Kunar, a democratic election for the chief of this area ... Roohullah won. The Hezb-i-Islami started fighting because they lost. They killed 12 of Roohullah's supporters. So we have no relationship with Hekmatyar, Hezb-i-Islami or al-Qaeda. Hekmatyar got Osama to north Kabul and then they sent an Egyptian to kill our religious leader, Maulvi Jamil Rahman Salafi. Hekmatyar and Osama were our first enemies. So how can we give them help."
Sounds pretty much like Hek's tactics...
The real sensitive relationship, for Ghulam Ullah, is between Americans and local collaborators: "I'm not blaming Americans, because they don't know our traditions. I'm blaming those working with them. They are kids [a reference to Raiz, the son of pro-American Asadabad commander Malik Zarin, and his army of teenagers]. They want to fill their pockets. And they want to obliterate Pashtun tradition." Last week, Ghulam Ullah met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim in Kabul. He is hopeful. "I'm sure Haji Roohullah will come back soon. But these people who created problems for him must get behind bars." It's unlikely that the Americans will incarcerate their few local partners in Kunar.
In Afghanistan, no one's every guilty...
Back to Asmar, at what the locals call the Capitol building, the governor is reclined in his cushion, surrounded by what amounts to an informal cabinet meeting, with everyone seated on carpets sipping green tea. Someone asks the governor point blank, "Are you going to search these disinformers and put them in jail?" There's no clear answer. At 3pm the charismatic Khan Jan shows up - received with all-around reverence. The governor and Khan Jan launch into an elaborate conversation revolving around the relationship between the commander and Hekmatyar. The governor says, "We have two types of mujahideen in Afghanistan. One of them was boiling tea for the mujahideen who were in the front against the Russians. The other was in fact in the frontline. The Taliban were boiling tea, and then they started creating problems. [Former president Burhanuddin] Rabbani is now creating all kinds of problems for the government. He had support in 1996, not anymore." Khan Jan tells the governor that two days ago he went to talk to the Americans, and they told him that they had intelligence in the area proving that he (Khan Jan) was the problem.
The problem with intel is that the bad guys can feed you false information. The problem for the bad guys is that intel's collated - a piece from one place is matched against a piece from another place, and then both are matched with the transcript of a phone conversation.
The background for the terse exchange, inevitably, is once again tribal enmity. The Americans are working with the Mushwani tribe - to which Malik Zarin, the core commander of Asadabad and his son Raiz, belong. Khan Jan is a member of the Alizai - a sub-clan of the Salarzai tribe. Mushwanis and Salarzais are "brothers" only in name: the atmosphere is more like fraternal hatred. The Salarzai are accusing the Mushwanis of spreading false information to the Americans. Malik Zarin fought against the Taliban. But the Taliban at one time were supported by Malik Zarin's cousin. It soon became a battle of cousin against cousin. Now Salarzais believe that Malik Zarin is exacting his revenge.
And us Merkins don't really care...
The future of Kunar - the last battle of the new Afghan war, and the first frontline of the new anti-American jihad - will be decided by this cast of characters. Haji Matheullah - the number-two core commander - and Malik Zarin - the number-one core commander - plus his 18-year-old son Raiz and his army of teenagers, will keep working with the Americans. The governor will keep his skillful diplomatic balancing act. The local populations remain split between feelings of silent anger or joining Hekmatyar's appeal for a jihad against the American invaders. Khan Jan, mayor of Asadabad, may be working secretly with Hekmatyar. There are no prospects of Haji Roohullah being released from Bagram air base. Hekmatyar may be hidden and plotting in the mountains, 48 hours on foot to the northeast of Asadabad. And the Americans are bound to keep treating the local populations with a total lack of sensitivity.
Pepe doesn't make a very good case for this...
The crucial fact is that the post-Taliban Pashtun counterrevolution is already in full swing. And it's once again Pashtuns against Tajiks: the Pashtun belt against a central government in Kabul dominated by the Northern Alliance, where the Pashtun President Hamid Karzai is derided as a mere American puppet.
But nobody's derided him in Pepe's article...
Bacha Khan Zadran is a powerful warlord with a strong military presence in three key Pashtun belt provinces: Paktia, Paktika and Khost. He is openly confronting Kabul, which nominated what the Pashtuns call "a kid", Abdul Taniwal, as the governor of Khost. Kabul is after Zadran. But Zadran's tribe has forcefully asked Karzai to fulfill an earlier pledge and appoint him as head of the three provinces. A few days ago in Gardez, the simple presence of Zadran inside the American compound for four hours started a riot, because the locals thought that he had been arrested.
And then the locals kicked the sonofabitch out of town...
In Kunar, Haji Roohullah's arrest is not reaping any benefits for the Americans. On the contrary.
On the other hand, not arresting him wouldn't have reaped them any benefits, either. So to hell with it, I'm glad they jugged him.
In Nangarhar the Americans have relied since the Tora Bora campaign on the wily Hazrat Ali, a Pachai: the Pachais are derided by the Pashtuns. Americans are only working with commanders recommended by the Northern Alliance. They are being fed bad intelligence, no intelligence, and in the process are being drawn into the tangled web of warlord tribal rivalry. Under these circumstances, "peace" is impossible: US National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice's recent claims that the security situation in Afghanistan had improved in the past year is nothing short of ridiculous.
Any statement to the contrary is nothing short of ridiculous. The Taliban are out of power. That makes things better by definition...
Hamid Karzai's security services are totally infiltrated by ultra-disciplined Hezb-i-Islami operatives. The 4,800 international peacekeeping soldiers in Kabul are seemingly ineffective. Under their watch, two Afghan ministers have been assassinated in broad daylight and a car bomb exploded last week in Kabul, killing 30 people and wounding 167. An assassination attempt on Karzai was only narrowly averted in Kandahar.
On the other hand, the assassination attempt on Karzai was thwarted and there have been a number of other terror attempts nipped in the bud - to include one yesterday, involving a truck rigged with explosives. A similar intercept was made a month or two ago. Hek's Secret Army of Doom isn't as secret as he'd like to think it is, and some of his double agents are triples...
The US - as did the former USSR - has underestimated the indomitable Pashtuns, at its peril.
Pepe, on the other hand, seems intent on overestimating them. They're too undisciplined to make good soldiers...
Many empires have already paid the price for this carelessness. The American strategy in the Pashtun belt has been the catalyst for re-starting the civil war in Afghanistan. On the night of September 10, eyewitnesses claim to have spotted Gulbuddin Hekmatyar himself not in Kunar, but in the Teraha valley, in Khyber agency (in Pakistan) - on the other side of the Tora Bora. Hekmatyar was deep in a conference with a group of influential mullahs.
The Pak side of the border seems the more likely place to find him...
What the US is up against now is a formidable coalition involved in a jihad to kick out what it sees as foreign invaders. The coalition groups Hekmatyar and the Hezb-i-Islami's "Professor" Sayyaf, with his wealth of Arab connections and sponsorship; Ishmail Khan, the "Emir of southwest Afghanistan", who is very close to Iran; Mullah Omar (still hiding in safety somewhere in Kandahar province) and his formidable former Taliban military commander, Jalaluddin Haqqani; plus vast middle-level support from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence.
That's about the lineup we expected, with the exception of Ismail Khan and the addition of Rabbani...
At the end of a gruelling day, on the dusty Asmar-Asadabad road, Azad (his name means "free"), a Pashtun villager, definitely not a fundamentalist, stops the car to show us his house perched on a hill. The landscape around is breathtaking, as usual. The American Special Forces are only minutes away - we cross their convoy on our way back. Azad gazes at the classic Afghan panorama and murmurs, almost to himself, "The Americans are here because the world community has made a promise to the Afghan nation. But if they have their own agenda, I'll have to take care of this. Because I am the owner of this land."
To me, unlike Pepe, it sounds like they're giving the Merkins the benefit of the doubt.

2002-08-30T11:30:00.000-07:00

Binny in Kunar?

By Pepe Escobar, Asia Times...
Al-Qaeda, "the base", is now extinct. Al-Qaeda has a brand new name: Fath-e-Islam (Victory of Islam). And Fath-e-Islam's leader, none other than Osama bin Laden, is very much alive. But not anymore in Pakistan. Osama has returned to Afghanistan. More precisely, the Kunar province.
Christian Science Monitor had a similar report on August 9th...
Key players in the ultra-complex Pakistan-Afghanistan game had been saying that since the fall of Kabul in November 2001 that "the last battle" in this ongoing war would be in Kunar. The scenario now seems more than likely. The Taliban and the rebranded al-Qaeda have full tribal support in Kunar — where everybody seems to know someone who died from the American bombing of Afghanistan. A Pashtun notable puts the issue succinctly, "If the Americans are serious about grabbing Osama, they will have to put up a fight. On the ground. Man to man. There will be a lot of body bags."
Ummm... Probably not. That's the Pashtun way, as long as they have the other side outnumbered, anyway. If we could get a fix on him, rather than sending in lots of young fellows to do battle with the turbans on the ground it's more likely we'd level everything for a couple miles in either direction and then poke through the rubble. And if everyone knows someone who died in the bombing, guess everyone was pretty closely involved with the Taliban in one way or the other, so my sympathy meters still snoozing...
On August 10, the Daily Ummat, the number one Urdu-language paper in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, published a front-page story filed from Asadabad, Afghanistan (the capital of Kunar). The story did not appear in other Pakistani English-language papers, nor in the international media, for that matter. The story was headlined "Osama spotted in Pakistani area - Dir". Dir, in the northern strip of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) is about 80 kilometers from the Afghan border in Kunar province. The story also said that Ayman al-Zawahiri, aka "The Surgeon", was reorganizing al-Qaeda something like 50 kilometers west of Chitral. Chitral, north of Dir, is at the base of the Hindu Kush mountains.
The article wasn't all that ignored. It formed the base for the al-Quds al-Arabi story on Binny being back at the helm...
The story was essentially quoting an Afghan defense ministry source — that is, a source close to the powerful Northern Alliance commander and now Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim in Kabul. Pashtuns and even Tajiks (Fahim is Tajik) comment that in the current scenario, "the Americans in Kabul cannot control Fahim — well, maybe 10 percent of him", according to a Pakistan-Afghanistan insider. Anyway, American military sources, according to the story, were "fearing al-Qaeda may launch full-scale activity in the coming few weeks or months", starting with an attack in eastern Afghanistan.
Fahim probably doesn't feel like he needs controlled. He still controls an essentially independent force, works for a Pashtun because of the political arrangement last November rather than because they've forged any real alliance, and expects the Talibs to make a serious try at a comeback. He probably expects to have to use his independent Tadjik force because he can't rely on the Pashtun forces — and most of his Pashtun fellow ministers...
According to the Afghan defense ministry, al-Qaeda — or Fath-e-Islam — has reorganized and has established training centers in Pakistan; it is trying to get hold of surface-to-air missiles from China; and will launch a series of attacks against the Afghan government. The Afghans add that the Americans believe that these two al-Qaeda training centers enjoy cooperation from China. One of them is identified as being 140 kilometers north of Gilgit - the capital of the Pakistani northern areas — in an area called Markash, close to the Chinese border.
So it would seem Fahim is right to keep his powder dry. And that any American cooperation with the Pashtun forces is going to be suspect...
The story gets some of the facts right. Al-Qaeda has, indeed, been in touch with Hezb-e-Islami (the Islamic Party founded in 1975) and has been assured of the cooperation of its volatile leader, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the ultra hardline Pashtun mujahideen and former prime minister who devastated his own capital, Kabul, with rockets in mid-1992. And al-Qaeda has also extended its network of informers in Asadabad, the capital of Kunar, capitalizing on the unrest the American presence is causing all over the Pashtun tribal belt.
The unrest comes regardless of anything the Merkins do, or don't do. You have to be a two-faced xenophobe to be a card-carrying Pashtun.
But a key Pashtun source, fluent in Pashto, Dari, Urdu and English and acquainted with all the major players in the complex Afghanistan-Pakistan new great game, identifies not a few but a whole collection of holes in the story. Let's call him Haji S. For starters, Haji S dismisses the notion of an al-Qaeda training center in northern Pakistan near China: "This region simply does not accept foreigners. People speak only local languages, like Balti or Brushiski." He points to Afghan-American disinformation trying somehow to involve China, "The Chinese are being accused of harboring terrorists and selling weapons to al-Qaeda. This is serious. The Chinese know they are being encircled."
It also doesn't fit with the overall picture of the terror machine. So let's go ahead and discount China...
As far as the sheik with a US$25 million price tag on his head is concerned, Haji S is adamant: "Osama bin Laden would never have crossed that border. Pakistan has extensive military forces there — in the constabulary, the Bajaur Scouts, paramilitary forces. And now, whatever the Pakistani army knows, is immediately shared with the FBI." This means, according to Haji S, only one thing: bin Laden and the Fath-e-Islam leadership are themselves based in Kunar. "The Americans know it, of course. But they simply cannot get into Kunar. It is full of mountains and the area is religiously ultra-conservative, and 100 percent pro-Taliban."
I'm not at all sure I agree with Pepe's source here, though I'll admit he may know more than I do. Pak might have all the military forces at its disposal there, but Binny's support and encouragement from ISI dind't evaporate after October, no matter how much Perv wanted it to. And I'm positive that ISI and the Pak coppers aren't funneling everything they know to the FBI — there's been enough evidence to the contrary. The operations that have been coordinated in advance through proper channels are the ones that have blown; the ones that have been slapped together at the last moment, usually using the local coppers, have been the ones that worked. Keep in mind that Binny's successor was working from Pakistan, not from Afghanistan, in Faisalabad and Lahore, closer to Qazi and General Gul than to Mullah Omar.
Another Pashtun source confirms the analysis of Haji S: "Americans in Kabul are scared. They get bad information all the time. They don't understand that Afghans take the money today and forget about it tomorrow. The Americans came too early, they didn't do their homework."
And the Pashtuns tend to be overconfident, don't they?
American forces in Afghanistan to date seem to have followed a pattern of highly-publicized operations in the wrong places. The latest example happened this past weekend, when hundreds of Special Forces backed by helicopter gunships and planes, and with the help of Afghan government units, encircled the village of Tani, south of Khost, and also advanced to Zormat, the biggest district of Paktia province — an area where anti-American sentiment is as extreme as anywhere else in the Pashtun belt. Locals hate the Northern Alliance's grip on Hamid Karzai's government in Kabul. Zormat is near the area of the huge Operation Anaconda last March — the biggest US offensive in the war so far. Anaconda was basically a failure: most Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters managed to escape to the NWFP. This time in Zormat, the Americans carried house-to-house searches and apprehended a few guns — nothing extraordinary as any tribal Pashtun male has been carrying a gun for centuries. Basically, the Americans found no Taliban and no al-Qaeda. The escape pattern is always the same: Taliban and al-Qaeda — in this last case Chechens — are tipped off by local tribals, hide in the mountains or melt into the local population, cross to the NWFP, and then return.
That tells me that the problem isn't with the intelligence, but with the fact that the weasels are everywhere one turns. It's a problem the G2's and S2's are going to have to learn to deal with...
The commander of the 3rd Brigade Task Force of the 82nd Airborne Division, James Huggins, was forced to admit the failure of this operation in Zormat: "It was clear to me there was advance warning at each of the sites we went to." The "advance warning" always comes from the local population and even from warlords whose alliances lie with suitcases full of dollars, not with the American agenda.
So how do we deal with that? Short of killing the local warlords, anyway? Tough one...
It may be totally un-Hollywoodish for American — and Western — public opinion to digest the fact that these soldiers are being sent on futile missions, and some in the process are being killed for it. But a lot of information about the war simply does not travel — or is edited out by the Western media. Veterans of the jihad against the Soviets in the 1980s remember that loads of Russian equipment used to be available in the bazaars of Quetta and Peshawar in Pakistan. Now anybody can buy night-vision devices, brand new M-16s, fireproof jackets and trekking boots. Where? In the bazaar in Miram Shah, in the NWFP, close to the Afghani Paktia province, where the Americans have a base. The goods are all-American, captured from American casualties.
Or stolen from American supplies...
Pashtuns swear that American casualties are mounting, although for the Pentagon they don't exist. Different sources in Peshawar and Islamabad confirm there are American casualties every week. Even now in the tribal areas there is a lot of talk on what happened in Helmand province last December - when 200 Americans were surrounded in a valley by only 37 Taliban, and many were slaughtered, with some beheaded. A humble porter of Shaheen Cargo confirmed the story at the time: he complained that his shoulders were sore because he had spent the night carrying coffins to a transport plane.
The jihadi press has been reporting large numbers of deaders since before operations began in Afghanistan. There were the 22 or 28 or 32 Americans, including high-ranking officers and women who were captured at Shah-i-Kot, for instance. The stories have been, as far as we know, apocryphal, something like the miracle tales of the early Christians. This guy with the sore shoulders saw it with his own eyes, helped lug the coffins onto the transport plane... Except that we don't do it that way. We simply don't hire local porters to lug coffins onto cargo planes. In fact, I'm thinking back many years, but I can't recall ever seeing a foreign national touch an American KIA, with the exception of medical personnel — not that I'm an expert on the subject, by any means. I could be wrong, but I think this guy worked cleaning the bodies out of the Black Hole of Calcutta, too.
If American forces venture into Kunar they will be against tremendous odds. Kashmir Khan — the most powerful Hezb-e-Islami commander — keeps his base in the mountains of Kunar. Haji S says that "even the Taliban at the time did not disturb him. He is not interested in ideology or politics. He is interested in power." This also means that Kashmir Khan is unbribable by the Americans.
Hokay. No problem. What're the coordinates?
Before the Taliban came to power, adds Haji S, "the provinces of Nangarhar and Kunar were the strongest and most fortified hubs of the Hezb-e-Islami. They were captured from the Soviets. And of course Hekmatyar himself is in Kunar." Hekmatyar allegedly still controls 80-odd Stinger missiles — another major reason preventing an American attack.
Not too sure about this, either. There were at least two Hezb-e-Islami parties, or maybe factions. One did control Nangahar, but it was the Eastern Shura, headed by Yunus Kalis, who was allied with Rabbani, rather than with Hekmatyar. Of course, things may have changed since, then; Kalis is approximately 186 years old, and was nearly as xenophobic as Hekmatyar, but last I checked Hazrat Ali, his commander, was still working with the Merkins, at least when it was to his advantage.
For Haji S, the notion that the Pakistani military would know about the presence of al-Qaeda in Dir and Chitral and do nothing about it is nonsense: "Either the military are conniving with al-Qaeda, which of course is impossible: or they are helpless, which is not the case, not with [Pakistan President General Pervez] Musharraf acting as such a good pal of Bush's." General Tommy Franks, the head of the US Central Command, said at Bagram air base in Afghanistan last Sunday that the war on terror needed to be expanded to the countries neighboring Afghanistan. Pashtun insiders interpret this as an admission of failure to find the Taliban and al-Qaeda where they really are: in Kunar.
They can interpret it that way all they want. What it represents is a realization that we're getting the same nonsense we got when fighting the North Vietnamese in South Vietnam without being able to go into Laos and Cambodia after them. Pakland's government has been demonstrated as being highly not-monolithic ever since 9-11. Hamid Gul's faction remains ensconced in the ISI and they're perfectly happy working hand-in-glove with al-Qaeda and the domestic fundos toward the goal of khalifate. I think Haji S dissembles here, and probably for a purpose.
The Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman, the extremely able diplomat Aziz Khan, took no time to reply to Franks: there's no reason for the US to enter Pakistan to look for the Taliban and al-Qaeda. When asked how Pakistan would act if the US made a formal request for American troops to cross to Pakistan to go after terrorists, Aziz Khan was unflappable, "Why should we suppose that the US would make such a request now that we are at the fag end of the exercise."
The Paks have quite a few other reasons for not wanting to carry out large-scale operations in NWFP, quite apart from ISI-Qaeda-Taliban canoodling. The area bristles with guns — they talk about the American "cowboy mentality"! — and represents one of the world's preeminent centers of ignorance and disease. The terrain is difficult, the people shoot on sight, and the fundo establishment tries to start riots and threatens civil war every time the shakey central government tries to assert any authority there. They're perfectly happy having the area ruled by warlords and mullahs, usually the same thing, and figure the gummint can butt out...
There's the rub. This may be the "fag end" from the Pakistani perspective, but American generals from Tommy Franks down are now increasingly talking of staying in Afghanistan "for years". In Afghanistan, and of course in Pakistan as well, where America is operating its own air bases, in strategic Baluchistan.
This would be a stoopid move on our part. I hope they drop the idea. We should depart as soon as the central government is capable of killing their own bad guys, with an offer of help at a later date if they need it.
The key player to watch in the next few moves in the game is "Engineer" Hekmatyar — as he is known in Afghanistan. The man is back with a vengeance. It is important to remember that during the jihad in the 1980s he always placed the long-term goal of an Islamic revolution above resistance to the Soviets.
That means he was as willing to sell out his fellow jihadis as he was to kill Russers, often even moreso.
And during the Taliban rule starting in 1996 he was patiently waiting for an opening in self-imposed exile in Iran. Haji S insists that Hekmatyar has access to "an unlimited amount of weapons". "And despite the opposition of Hamid Karzai and the Americans, he had 319 members in the loya jirga [grand council] in June [that finalized the current government in Kabul] and he controls four loyal governors. He has installed his own governor even in Kunduz." Hekmatyar is a Kharruti Pashtun who comes from a family of traders settled in a district of Kunduz, in the predominantly Tajik northern Afghan plains.
That's why we've been looking for him. He's a troublemaker and a rocket down his gullet will be the best thing for Afghanistan. I consider him more dangerous to Afghanistan than Binny.
According to Haji S, Hekmatyar's first move in a showdown against the Karzai government could be to block Sarobi, a religiously hardcore strategic bottleneck on the Jalalabad-Kabul road. And that would be only the beginning. Haji S adds that a few weeks ago Hekmatyar said strictly off the record that "Americans won't be here [in Afghanistan] in one-and-a-half years. Two years will be the maximum." Tommy Franks may not be aware of these plans.
That doesn't necessarily mean Gulbuddin's going to throw us out. I hope we don't intend on staying in Afghanistan forever...
Another top intelligence source revealed to Asia Times Online that in the beginning of August a key meeting took place in eastern Afghanistan — more exactly in Kunar. The importance of this meeting can be attested by two subsequent visits to Islamabad this week: US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, next Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah. It is known for sure Hekmatyar was one of the key guests at the Kunar meeting. Every intelligence service on the planet is now scrambling like mad to find out exactly who else was there — and what was decided. If they had the answers, they would indubitably unveil the road map for the next two years in the South Asia-Central Asia new great game.
This is a pretty long, meaty article, but Pepe's not really telling us a lot that's new. We knew Hekmatyar was cozying up to the al-Qaeda-Taliban thugs, and we knew the "new name" of al-Qaeda. We knew Kunar was a hotbed of activity by the Bad Guys. And Pepe smokes up enough fundamental facts — which Hezb is in control of Nangahar, for instance, and the facts of al-Qaeda-Taliban presence in the NWFP, not to mention the guy with the sore shoulder — to cast some doubt on some of his conclusions. Dan Hartung referred to him as "US-skeptical" in an e-mail on this article, and his previous reporting hasn't been particularly objective. He seems to have only one source for the story, Haji S, and I suspect Haji S has his own agenda to push.

2002-08-16T07:36:00.000-07:00

Samiul Haq the first angry cleric
Maulana Samiul Haq was even more sidelined during the Afghan war than Maulana Fazlur Rehman. He was put in the Senate as an ‘expert’ by General Zia because of his Akora Khatak seminary. He it was who tabled the more stringent Shariat Bill in parallel to General Zia’s enforcement of Shariat. He was hardline in the Pushtun tradition and advocated the kind of Islam that Mulla Umar finally imposed on the hapless people of Afghanistan. His parting of the ways with the bigger JUI imposed on him the burden of making himself more distinct. His angry statements in the press promised a tough society for Pakistan, especially for women whom he did not want to see without hijab in public and working in places where men too were present. The Akora Khatak Haqqaniya seminary near Nowshehra, set up by his more respected father, gave him the leg-up he needed. Some of the Afghans who spent time in his seminary later became important people around Mulla Umar who himself thought Samiul Haq was more credit-worthy than Maulana Fazlur Rehman. President Karzai now says that the Islam of the Taliban was not the religion of the Afghans but was sent to Kandahar from the Deobandi seminaries of Pakistan. The truth of the matter is that the two clerics who benefited the most from the rise of the Taliban were Mufti Shamzai of Karachi and Maulana Samiul Haq of Nowshehra. When Mulla Umar invited the fawning clerics of Pakistan to Kandahar, he used to channel the invitations through Akora Khatak. It is possible that Samiul Haq even vetted these invitations.

2002-08-16T07:35:00.000-07:00

Maulana Fazlur Rehman and the new philippic
If the visage of Qazi Hussain Ahmad easily conveys anger, that of Maulana Fazlur Rehman is deceptively benign. A well-fed man with a naturally smiling face, he has to compensate by notching up the rhetoric of rage a bit higher than the others. During the war against the Soviet Union, JUI was on the outer fringes of influence since Islamabad was favouring the Qazi-Hekmatyar option in Afghanistan. It was not strong in Punjab and the Deobandi breakaway Sipah Sahaba was still in its embryonic phase in Jhang. JUI was however strong in Balochistan and in the Tribal Areas, from where it returned candidates in the National Assembly. Maulana Fazlur Rehman played on the Benazir-Nawaz rift in the centre to keep his party in the jockeying position. In return for non-opposition, the PPP government got him into the Foreign Affairs Committee of the parliament and gave his men a few embassies in Africa. A rumour about diesel quotas has never been proved whenever challenged by him but it has persisted. His angry phase came when the Taliban appeared on the scene and the ISI began to back the Deobandis as the surrogate army for its proxy war in Kashmir. Suddenly a strong nexus developed in Karachi from an early JUI breakaway seminary started by another Pushtun, Maulana Yusuf Banuri, after 1947, when the JUI run by Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s father took to the peaceful path. Sipah Sahaba boys began going to Afghanistan as trainee warriors, and for the first time the JUI started getting a feedback from Punjab. Mufti Shamzai, another Pushtun, was placed on the shoora of both Sipah Sahaba and the JUI. His contacts with Mulla Umar in Kandahar, based on thousands of Taliban released from his seminaries in Balochistan, lent him additional charisma, which redounded to his power. The rise of Sipah Sahaba bestowed power on many leaders; in return, its Punjabi leader, Maulana Azam Tariq, was accepted by the Pushtuns as their leader for the first time.

It was after Pakistan’s switch to Deobandi jehad that Maulana Fazlur Rehman ratcheted up his Islamic rage. He gave out threats to all Americans when Washington began asking for the head of Osama bin Laden, and Mulla Umar came under pressure. People say that Maulana Fazlur Rehman was never close to Mulla Umar, but he set himself up as the foremost defender of the Kandahar regime in Pakistan. His anger outdid the anger of Qazi Hussain Ahmad and tended to make Pakistan dangerous to foreigners to such an extent that he had to be restrained by General Musharraf. Presenting a contrast to Qazi Hussain Ahmad when he was talking to the Americans in Washington, he lashed out at the policies of General Musharraf after September 11. Having convinced everyone of his ability to unleash violence through acts of public defiance in Quetta in 2001, he fulminates against America with great effect, triggering advisories and sending American officials packing from Pakistan. In Dera Ismail Khan, from where he fights his elections, Pushtun filmstar Musarrat Shaheen arose as a profane challenge to his pious leadership after setting up her Musawat Party.

2002-08-16T07:33:00.000-07:00

‘Qazi is coming!’
I've excerpted this bio from a Friday Times article for future reference...
Qazi Hussain Ahmad is a Pushtun leading a predominantly Punjabi party from the heart of Punjab in Lahore. He has politically activated his party and taken it out of the religious polemic that had characterised its past. The fact that the founder Maulana Abul Ala Maududi kept clear of the Shia-Sunni controversy, has helped him steer the party away from Pakistan’s sectarian quagmire. Qazi’s high-water mark of leadership came during the Afghan war against the Soviet Union. His close relationship with Hizb-e-Islami’s Gulbuddin Hekmatyar allowed him to influence Pakistan’s Afghan policy. Prime minister Nawaz Sharif was particularly amenable to his persuasion, if not actually scared of his stern personality. Qazi used to invite himself to the meetings the prime minister held with the exiled Afghan militias to ensure that Hekmatyar got a dominant post in any government-in-exile formed in Islamabad and Peshawar. He probably adopted an angry style because it seemed to work better.

Under prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, Qazi began campaigns that cut into the writ of the government in the name of defence of people’s rights. The slogan was QAZI ARAHA HAI, with Qazi Sahib delivering the most angry speeches ‘on the spot’ against the elected governments. Yet his check on the party stalwarts, some of whom (like his deputy Liaquat Baloch) were known to be violent in the past, remained firm. He stayed just this side of actually tilting the party into war with the governments. He got beaten up at times but that only enhanced his reputation as a fighter. His planning was far better than that of the other enraged cleric from Chakwal, Maulana Akram Awan, who got himself into a trap by declaring an assault on General Pervez Musharraf’s government in Islamabad. (Maulana Awan was quoted as saying that Qazi Sahib thought him ‘saada’.) Qazi raises the temperature of the masses in a measured fashion. He ‘won’ the Jamaat referendum against the CTBT and gave his party a nimbus of political savvy. The fact that his party’s links with the jehadi militias (Hizbul Mujahideen and Al-Badr) faded over time gave him new ‘non-terrorist’ status and allowed him to do some high-profile ‘statesmanship’ in the United States. He called General Musharraf a ‘security risk’, appealed for his removal and attacked his private life. His angry face is the most effective political challenge to the status quo in Pakistan. Interior minister General (Retd) Moinuddin Haider said: ‘Is he a stable person?’ After that Qazi spent a time in confinement. The other members of the Afghan Defence Council who remained thus confined were the fellow-Pushtuns, Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Maulana Samiul Haq.

2002-08-10T18:39:00.000-07:00

Militant Muslims Outside Parliament
The real threat over the issue [of sharia in Indonesia] came from the extra parliamentary movement rather than from within the parliament itself.

Among groups that turned out were the Islamic Defender’s Front (FPI), which staged demonstrations in front of the parliament building. The public was made aware that there is still a wide spectrum of Muslim groups committed to building an Islamic state in Indonesia.

Research conducted by Dr Robert Hefner shows that the new Muslim middle class since 1980s onward have tended to concentrate on positions in the state bureaucracy and in state-sponsored business (see Robert Hefner, Islam and Nation in the Post Suharto Era, in The Politics of Post-Suharto Indonesia, edited by Adam Schwarz and Jonathan Paris).

The educated and urban profile of these new Muslim leaders made them more inclined to Middle East examples such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in their Islamic orientation, in contrast to Muslim scholars such as Dr Deliar Noer, Dr Nurcholis Madjid, Amien Rais, and Syafei Maarif, who are more inclined to Western culture because of their US based-education.

No wonder if a number of personalities from militant Muslim organizations such as Ja’far Umar Talib from Laskar Jihad tend to be more puritanical and fanatical in their understanding of the Islamic teachings than Madjid, Deliar Noer or Amien Rais.

As the paramilitary division of the Communication Forum of Followers of the Sunna and the Community of the Prophet (Forum Komunikasi Ahlu Sunnah wal-Jama’ah), the Laskar Jihad draw their inspiration from Wahabism, the official school of Saudi Arabia.

Wahibism takes a hard-line in defining who should be regarded as a believer of Islam, stating that no deviation from shariah is permitted. They also draw a firm distinction between the world of Islamic believers and that of unbelievers.

Wahabism as a phenomenon of Islamic fundamentalism gained considerable success in Saudi Arabia from the strong support of the Ibnu Saud dynasty.

Thus, the puritanism of Wahabism goes hand in hand with the authoritarian regime of the Ibnu Saud dynasty.

Laskar Jihad’s close connection with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia was crafted when Ja’far Umar Talib studied at the Maududi Islamic Institute in Pakistan.

With his Pakistan connections, Ja’far came in contact with the Pakistani Jama’at-I Islami, Afghan Mujahiddin Afganistan and Muslim Brotherhood.

All these Muslim organizations receive Saudi Arabian financial aid, channeled by Rabitat al-Alam al-Islami (Muslim World League).

Rabitat is the principal organization used by Saudi Arabia in spreading Salafi-Wahabism propaganda, including in Indonesia.

Their principal local counterpart in Indonesia is Dewan Dakwah Islamiyah Indonesia (Islamic Propagation Council of Indonesia - DDI).

DDI was established by prominent leadera of the modernist Muslim political party Masyumi, which foundered politically because of its obsession with the idea of building an Islamic state in Indonesia.

The leader of FPI, Habib Rizieq Shihab, also took a similar path to that of Umar Talib.

Habib Rizeq studied at the King Muhammand Ibnu Saud University in Riyadh under the sponsorship of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), a forum for political and economic cooperation between Muslim countries established in 1962.

The fear arises that the puritanism and fanaticism of Wahabism as an Islamic School of thought and the militancy of Islamic organizations such as Laskar Jihad and FPI would tend to go hand in hand with those who support militarism.

This alarm bell was rung by former President Abdurrahman Wahid when he raised the possibility of religious-fascism, an unholy alliance between the military and militant Muslim politicians.

2002-08-02T17:22:00.000-07:00

COUNTERINSURGENCY FLOUNDERS AS TERRORISM CHANGES FORM
Algeria Interface runs an article on the progress (or lack thereof) in Algeria's war against Islamist terrorism. A three-month terror campaign by the GIA (Armed Islamic Group) and the GSPC (Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat) was met by a military counteroffensive around Algiers and in Lower Kabylia. While the campaign was reasonably successful, mainly due to the individual toughness of the Algerian troops, it also revealed weaknesses. The DCC, the Algerians' top commando unit, fought the operation with foot patrols, tracking the Bad Guys the old-fashioned way, and the casualties reflected the approach. A pseudonymous Commander Boudjemâa blamed fatigue, with some officers going without relief for months at a time.

An average of 100 people a month have been killed this year in Algeria, with the attacks increasing in frequency and violence in late spring. Rather than hitting remote towns and villages, the Islamists have aimed at Algiers and the area around it. Nor has the pressure in the countryside been relieved. Said Boudjemâa:

"The wave of attacks has not come as total surprise. In central Algeria and in the Algiers area the rise of new emir [commander], Rachid Oukali, dubbed Abou Tourab, has ushered in a new era of dissidence in the GIA since the death of Antar Zouabri. Not everyone has sworn allegiance to him and the chief of some katibas [battalions] have been opening up new fronts to make a name for themselves."

Algeria's problems include a lack of modern equipment. There are three sets of night surveillance equipment in the entire country, for instance. But the deeper problem is that there is still support -- given either willingly or out of a sense of self-preservation -- to the Islamists. Self-defense militias are rare (and risky to belong to), and an antiterrorist "hotline" put in place a month ago has yet to receive a call.

Aggravating this situation is the fact that the Islamists are working with Algeria's not inconsiderable criminal element. According to Interior Minister Nourredine Zerhouni, GIA has begun hiring street thugs to kill policemen and retrieve their weapons.

Given the vicious nature of both the Islamist gangs in the country, the idea of an amnesty for the GSPC was dropped shortly after floating. Commandant Boudjemâa again: "Since the Americans put the GSPC on their terror blacklist, there’s been a definite feeling that we’re all out to track down [GSPC supremo] Hassan Hattab."

2002-06-18T07:33:00.000-07:00

Palestinian Elections Now
By Edward Said

Six distinct calls for Palestinian reform and elections are being uttered now: five of them are, for Palestinian purposes, both useless and irrelevant. Sharon wants reform as a way of further disabling Palestinian national life, that is, as an extension of his failed policy of constant intervention and destruction.

This is as opposed to the Paleostinians' failed policy of constant mindless destruction.

He wants to be rid of Yasser Arafat, cut up the West Bank into fenced-in cantons, re-install an occupation authority -- preferably with some Palestinians helping out -- carry on with settlement activity, and maintain Israeli security the way he's been doing it.

Being rid of Yasser sounds like a great idea, not only for the Israelis but also for the Paleostinians. The fences appear to be necessary to keep crazed killers out of civilized areas. Haven't heard a word about an "occupation authority" except for one Edward Said. Now, the settlements are something that can be argued over. But there aren't many other security options open to the Israelis that don't involve deporting large numbers of people -- or killing them. Not being Paleostinians, they're too civilized to do the latter and the former is probably an absolute last resort.

He is too blinded by his own ideological hallucinations and obsessions to see that this will neither bring peace nor security, and will certainly not bring the "quiet" he keeps prattling on about. Palestinian elections in the Sharonian scheme are quite unimportant.

They don't seem real important to the Paleostinians, either. It took outsiders hollering about them to even bring the subject up.

Second, the United States wants reform principally as a way of combating "terrorism," a panacea of a word that takes no account of history, context, society or anything else.

Nope. We look no further than our own dead. We should be considering the Israeli dead, and the Chechen dead, and the Kashmiri and Indian dead, and we should be avenging them in blood. But we're a squeamish lot, at least until the next atrocity.

George Bush has a visceral dislike for Arafat, and no understanding at all of the Palestinian situation. To say that he and his disheveled administration "want" anything is to dignify a series of spurts, fits, starts, retractions, denunciations, totally contradictory statements, sterile missions by various officials of his administration, and about-faces, with the status of an over-all desire, which of course doesn't exist. Incoherent, except when it comes to the pressures and agendas of the Israeli lobby and the Christian Right whose spiritual head he now is, Bush's policy consists in reality of calls for Arafat to end terrorism, and (when he wants to placate the Arabs) for someone somewhere somehow to produce a Palestinian state and a big conference, and finally, for Israel to go on getting full and unconditional US support including most probably ending Arafat's career. Beyond that, US policy waits to be formulated, by someone, somewhere, somehow. One should always keep in mind though that the Middle East is a domestic, not a foreign, policy issue in America and subject to dynamics within the society that are difficult to predict.

One can take exception with Bush's Middle East policy, and many do. The fits and starts are in response to the situation on the ground, which tends to lurch without rhyme or reason. He's decided that there will eventually have to be a Paleostinian state, even though he knows perfectly well it'll be no different from any other Middle Eastern kleptocracy, unless it's worse. One part of his administration would like to see the Paleos dealt with using a stick, and the other favors the carrot and good intentions. One part of the Paleostinians would like their own state, the other faction hasn't the imagination to do other than bomb and kill and demands that the Israeli state go away. That pulls policy in four different directions, and doesn't even consider internal Israeli politix. But I think Bush has decided that the state's eventually going to come, and the Saudis have made their peace proposal, and he's going to nail the two together, regardless of how many Hamas or Islamic Jihad or al-Aqsa thugs explode. Once there's a state, the Paleostinians can either conduct themselves as a state or the Israelis can declare proper war on them and kill large numbers, which would probably be a good thing.

All this perfectly suits the Israeli demand, which wants nothing more than to make Palestinian life collectively more miserable and more unlivable, whether by military incursions or by impossible political conditions that suit Sharon's frenzied obsession with stamping out Palestinians forever. Of course there are other Israelis who want co- existence with a Palestinian state, as there are American Jews who want similar things, but neither group has any determining power now. Sharon and the Bush administration run the show.

Isn't it pretty simplistic, especially for a fellow who considers himself a high-powered thinker, the attribute Israeli actions to a belief that Sharon doesn't like the Palestinians?

Third, is the Arab leaders' demand which as far as I can tell is a combination of several different elements, none of them directly helpful to the Palestinians themselves. First is fear of their own populations who have been witnessing Israel's mass and essentially unopposed destruction of the Palestinian territories without any serious Arab interference or attempt at deterrence.

Last time they intervened was 1973. Got 'em a lot, didn't it? Unlike the Paleostinians, they don't favor self-destruction.

The Beirut summit peace plan offers Israel precisely what Sharon has refused, which is land for peace, and it is a proposal without any teeth, much less one with a timetable. While it may be a good thing to have it on record as a counter-weight to Israel's naked belligerence, we should have no illusions about its real intention which, like the calls for Palestinian reform, are really tokens offered to seething Arab populations who are thoroughly sick with the mediocre inaction of their rulers.

I'm always impressed by the guys who can find the Real Intentions behind any move. As we all know, nothing is as it seems. Why, the Bilderbergers... Oh, never mind.

Second, of course, is the sheer exasperation of most of the Arab regimes with the whole Palestinian problem.

Getting tedious, isn't it?

They seem to have no ideological problem with Israel as a Jewish state without any declared boundaries, which has been in illegal military occupation of Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank for 35 years, or with Israel's dispossession of the Palestinian people. They are prepared to accommodate nicely those terrible injustices if only Arafat and his people would simply either behave or quietly go away.

On the other hand, if Yasser and crew did behave, there wouldn't be any justification for occupation, would there? The Paleos would look a lot more virtuous. But since they can't control their collective impulses toward violence, this is what they've got.

Third, of course, is the long-standing desire of Arab leaders to ingratiate themselves with the US and, among themselves, to vie for the title of most important US ally. Perhaps they are simply unaware of how contemptuous most Americans are of them, and how little understood or regarded is their cultural and political status in the US.

It's something about failed states. They just don't induce much respect. And there aren't a lot of Arab states falling over themselves to be our pals.

Fourth, in the chorus of reform are the Europeans. But they only scurry around sending emissaries to see Sharon and Arafat, they make ringing declarations in Brussels, they fund a few projects and more or less leave it at that, so great is the shadow of the US over them.

At least we agree on something. They're about as ineffectual a bunch of pseudo-Real Politikers as could be imagined. You think we have contempt for the Arabs? How many Arabs are named Vedrine or Patten or Robinson or Larsen?

Fifth, is Yasser Arafat and his circle of associates who have suddenly discovered the virtues (theoretically at least) of democracy and reform. I know that I speak at a great distance from the field of struggle, and I also know all the arguments about the besieged Arafat as a potent symbol of Palestinian resistance against Israeli aggression, but I have come to a point where I think none of that has any meaning anymore. Arafat is simply interested in saving himself. He has had almost ten years of freedom to run a petty kingdom and has succeeded essentially in bringing opprobrium and scorn on himself and most of his team; the Authority became a byword for brutality, autocracy and unimaginable corruption.

Cheeze. We agree on something again!

Why anyone for a moment believes that at this stage he is capable of anything different, or that his new streamlined cabinet (dominated by the same old faces of defeat and incompetence) is going to produce actual reform, defies reason. He is the leader of a long suffering people, whom in the past year he has exposed to unacceptable pain and hardship, all of it based on a combination of his absence of a strategic plan and his unforgivable reliance on the tender mercies of Israel and the US via Oslo.

That and his unwillingness to form an administration. He's been acting as the head of a cabal, not as a head of (potential) state.

Leaders of independence and liberation movements have no business exposing their unarmed people to the savagery of war criminals like Sharon, against whom there was no real defence or advance preparation. Why then provoke a war whose victims would be mostly innocent people when you have neither the military capacity to fight one nor the diplomatic leverage to end it? Having done this now three times (Jordan, Lebanon, West Bank) Arafat should not be given a chance to bring on a fourth disaster.

Bingo! Ya got it!

He has announced that elections will take place in early 2003, but his real concentration is to reorganise the security services. I have long pointed out in these columns that Arafat's security apparatus was always designed principally to serve him and Israel, since the Oslo accords were based on his having made a deal with Israel's military occupation. Israel cared only about its security, for which it held Arafat responsible (a position, by the way, he willingly accepted as early as 1992).

And has since totally ignored. No, I take that back. He hasn't ignored it. He's just reversed it. Having achieved his short-term aims at the time, he went on to revert to killing and mayhem to achieve the next set of short-term aims.

In the meantime Arafat used the 15 or 19 or whatever the right number of groups was to play each off against the other, a tactic he perfected in Fakahani, and which is patently stupid so far as the general good is concerned. He never really reined in Hamas and Islamic Jihad which suited Israel perfectly: it would have a ready-made excuse to use the so-called martyr's (mindless) suicide bombings to further diminish and punish the whole people. If there is one thing along with Arafat's ruinous regime that has done us more harm as a cause it is this calamitous policy of killing Israeli civilians, which further proves to the world that we are indeed terrorists and an immoral movement. For what gain no one has been able to say.

The name of the Palestinians has been soiled for at least a generation. And the foul effects of the educational and propaganda systems will probably continue soiling it for longer than that.

Having therefore made a deal with the occupation through Oslo, Arafat was never really in a position to lead a movement to end it. And ironically, he is trying to make another deal now, both to save himself and prove to the US, Israel and the other Arabs that he deserves another chance. I myself don't care a whit for what Bush, or the Arab leaders, or Sharon says: I am interested in what we as a people think of our leader, and there I believe we must be absolutely clear in rejecting his entire programme of reform, elections, reorganising the government and security services. His record of failure is too dismal and his capacities as a leader too enfeebled and incompetent for him to try yet again to save himself for another try.

Better the devil we don't know in this case, since he couldn't be worse.

Sixth, finally, is the Palestinian people who are now justifiably clamouring both for reform and elections. As far as I am concerned, this clamour is the only legitimate one of the six I have outlined here. It's important to point out that Arafat's present administration as well as the Legislative Council have overstayed their original term, which should have ended with a new round of elections in 1999.

Well, that's the usual One Man-One Vote-One Time routine, isn't it?

Moreover, the whole basis of the 1996 elections were the Oslo accords, which in effect simply licensed Arafat and his people to run bits of the West Bank and Gaza for the Israelis, without true sovereignty or security, since Israel retained control of the borders, security, land (on which it doubled and even tripled the settlements), water and air. In other words, the old basis for elections and reform, which had been Oslo, is now null and void. Any attempt to go forward on that kind of platform is simply a wasteful ploy and will produce neither reform nor real elections. Hence the current confusion which causes every Palestinian everywhere to feel chagrin and bitter frustration.

No! No! Don't feel frustration! We know that causes you to explode!

What then is to be done if the old basis of Palestinian legitimacy no longer really exists? Certainly there can be no return to Oslo, anymore than there can be to Jordanian or Israeli law. As a student of periods of important historical change, I should like to point out that when a major rupture with the past occurred (as during the period after the fall of the monarchy because of the French Revolution, or with the demise of apartheid in South Africa before the elections of 1994 took place), a new basis of legitimacy has to be created by the only and ultimate source of authority, namely, the people itself. The major interests in Palestinian society, those that have kept life going, from the trade unions, to health workers, teachers, farmers, lawyers, doctors, in addition to all the many NGOs must now become the basis on which Palestinian reform -- despite Israel's incursions and the occupation -- is to be constructed.

Oh, we're gonna do the Workers and Peasants thing, huh? That's worked well, hasn't it?

It seems to me useless to wait for Arafat, or Europe, or the US, or the Arabs to do this: it must absolutely be done by Palestinians themselves by way of a Constituent Assembly that contains in it all the major elements of Palestinian society. Only such a group, constructed by the people themselves and not by the remnants of the Oslo dispensation, certainly not by the shabby fragments of Arafat's discredited Authority, can hope to succeed in reorganising society from the ruinous, indeed catastrophically incoherent condition in which it is to be found. The basic job for such an Assembly is to construct an emergency system of order that has two purposes. One, to keep Palestinian life going in an orderly way with full participation for all concerned. Two, to choose an emergency executive committee whose mandate is to end the occupation, not negotiate with it.

You can't end it without negotiating with it. If you attack Israel militarily, as it sounds like you're suggesting, you'll get tromped again. If you do negotiate, you can get what you want -- but you can't do it while negotiating out of one side of your mouth and dispatching boomers out of the other.

It is quite obvious that militarily we are no match for Israel. Kalishnikoffs are not effective weapons when the balance of power is so lopsided. What is needed is a creative method of struggle that mobilises all the human resources at our disposal to highlight, isolate and gradually make untenable the main aspects of Israeli occupation e.g., settlements, settlement roads, roadblocks and house demolitions. The present group around Arafat is hopelessly incapable of thinking of, much less implementing, such a strategy: it is too bankrupt, too bound up in corrupt selfish practices, too burdened with the failures of the past.

Well, hurry and think of something. If you realize that Kalashnikovs aren't enough, and you don't want to negotiate, what are the alternatives? Especially since they all seem to involve "struggle."

For such a Palestinian strategy to work there has to be an Israeli component made up of individuals and groups with whom a common basis of struggle against occupation can and indeed must be established. This is the great lesson of the South African struggle: that it proposed the vision of a multiracial society from which neither individuals nor groups and leaders were ever deflected.

Oh, some sort of internal Fifth Column thing. It ain't gonna happen with Paleobombers showing up every few days.

The only vision coming out of Israel today is violence, forcible separation and the continued subordination of Palestinians to an idea of Jewish supremacy. Not every Israeli believes in these things of course, but it must be up to us to project the idea of co-existence in two states that have natural relations with each other on the basis of sovereignty and equality. Mainstream Zionism has still not been able to produce such a vision, so it must come from the Palestinian people and their new leaders whose new legitimacy has to be constructed now, at a moment when everything is crashing down and everyone is anxious to re-make Palestine in his own image and according to his own ideas.

I'm not versed in the intricacies of Zionism, but I don't see that a Zionist state and a Palestinian state side by side is incompatible with the idea. Israel's problem with the Palestinians from the first has been the Armed Struggle of the Palestinian People, first helped along by the Arabs, then by the Soviets, and now by the Arabs again. The entire idea of negotiations carries with it a willingness to make tradeoffs to get at least most of what you want. It also carries with it a willingness to live up to one's agreements, which is something Yasser never managed to pick up. Lies, perfidy, violence and racism don't make good negotiating tools. The Palestinians have many points they could be making, but no one can hear them in the noise made by exploding fanatics.

We have never faced a worse, or at the same time, a more seminal moment. The Arab order is in total disarray; the US administration is effectively controlled by the Christian Right and the Israeli lobby (within 24 hours, everything that George Bush seems to have agreed with President Mubarak was reversed by Sharon's visit); and our society has been nearly wrecked by poor leadership and the insanity of thinking that suicide bombing will lead directly to an Islamic Palestinian state.

Yeah, yeah. Christian right and Israeli lobby. So what else is new? It's not only the Christian right who support Israel in the fight against the Palestinians -- it's better than three out of four Americans. The reason for the support isn't a national love of Zionism, or brainwashing by insidious Jews. It's the lies and the killing, followed by more lies and more killing.

There is always hope for the future, but one has to able to look for it and find it in the right place. It is quite clear that in the absence of any serious Palestinian or Arab information policy in the United States (especially in the Congress) we cannot for a moment delude ourselves that Powell and Bush are about to set a real agenda for Palestinian rehabilitation.

You've been putting your spokesmen on the talking head shows. Can't you find some liar who at least aren't clumsy?

That's why I keep saying that the effort must come from us, by us, for us. I'm at least trying to suggest a different avenue of approach. Who else but the Palestinian people can construct the legitimacy they need to rule themselves and fight the occupation with weapons that don't kill innocents and lose us more support than ever before? A just cause can easily be subverted by evil or inadequate or corrupt means. The sooner this is realised the better the chance we have to lead ourselves out of the present impasse.

In this entire diatribe, there's not a single concrete suggestion for a policy that doesn't involve "armed struggle." There's not a single suggestion of negotiating in good faith. I suppose suggesting autobooming might be bad tactics is a step in the right direction, but Said's not suggesting that they're wrong, only that they're bad tactics. Americans -- and Israelis -- realize they're dealing with people who lack consciences. That tells me there's no end in sight to the problem.

2002-06-14T09:51:00.000-07:00

Chakwal Diary: Pakistan must emerge from the shadows into the light
By Ayaz Amir

No tears need be shed over the latest and, hopefully, the last of our great turnarounds: this time over Kashmir. It was both inescapable and inevitable. The knots of our warrior school of thought were intertwined: Afghanistan and Kashmir being salient features of the same strategy. When we untied the one, we were bound sooner or later to untie the other. Only we did not realise it at the time and even while doing a turnaround on Afghanistan insisted there was no question of a change, much less a sellout, on Kashmir. Defiant towards India we told it to "lay off" – a statement whose irony has multiplied with the passage of time. Caught between an Indian anvil and an American pair of forceps applied relentlessly, we have finally bid a farewell to arms in Kashmir. It is to the past we have taken a giant leap: back to 1989.

This is a battle that's not quite over, though things are looking hopeful at the moment. The jihadis are crying "treason" and having shootouts with each other. The level of mindless violence might even be down, despite the desires of the professional killers.

India's policy of intimidation on which it embarked in December has been thus amply vindicated. Through the threat of war it has achieved that which it would have been hard put to gain through actual war.

It was a thoroughly justified policy, since the Pak-backed thugs attacked the country's Parliament. That single move, especially coming a couple months after the only barely less egregious attack on the Red Fort in Srinagar, showed the jihadis had totally taken leave of their collective senses. If you cannot reason with your enemy, if you cannot negotiate, then you have to slap him.

It is behaving like a victor too. In response to the commitment wrung from Pakistan to end support for 'militancy' in Kashmir, it has offered a few crumbs: the recall of a few warships from its western waters; a lifting of the ban on Pakistani flights over its territory; and beefing up its mission in Islamabad. The world is being expected to take these moves-or de-escalatory steps in the latest American jargon – as huge concessions made by a generous (and forgiving) India as a reward to Pakistan for good behaviour.

Give the Pak record for duplicitousness, they're being pretty generous. The jihadis were "being brought to heel" in January, and they were back to work more busily than ever by March.

To cover its confusion in this trying hour Pakistan is reduced to laying out another smokescreen (several having been laid since September). Louder than before it is beating the drum of a meaningful dialogue on Kashmir and asking the international community to throw its weight behind this idea.

And the international community doesn't see that it's worth the investment to pull Pak's fat from the fire. They screwed it up, they should clean up the mess.

Seen in the light of what has been squeezed out of Pakistan these are plaintive noises. If there has been no meaningful dialogue on Kashmir these last 53 years is there going to be one now when India rejoices in a triumph which has been so long in the making? Not for nothing is Vajpayee looking 10 years younger than his age.

There can be "meaningful dialog" as long as the Paks don't do the anti-Clausewitz routine, where diplomacy becomes war by other means.

Pakistan's guardians have one standard answer to these multiple retreats: that Pakistan had no choice. This is true enough and no doubts should be entertained on this score. A hand caught between an anvil and a hammer has no choice. This was our predicament in September and although we tried putting a brave face on it this was also our predicament in December when, to our gathering amazement, the attack on the Indian Parliament brought us, the original recruits in America's 'war on terror' into the cross-hairs of the same war. Hoisted on our petard: this is not what we had bargained for.

Alliance doesn't bring immunity from stupidity.

But Pakistan's guardians still do not say that the policies forged in the crucible of 'jihad' and now abandoned under pressure were in themselves flawed. On the contrary, by insisting on the no-choice argument they imply that there was nothing wrong with those policies. Only the external environment changed in such a way as to make them untenable. This is shirking responsibility.

It would be suicidal for Perv to admit that the policy was ~~stupid~~ flawed at this stage. There are too many dead bodies, and all of them too fresh. Bet to pretend that a sea change, if such it is, is either temporary or in response to factors over which Pakistan has no control.

Pakistan or rather its guardians had no business seeking "strategic depth" in Afghanistan.

It was arrogant and stupid. It was a brag they didn't have the resources to back up.

They had every right to support the freedom struggle in Kashmir but no business to forge that struggle in Pakistan's image or sustain a policy which amounted to fighting to the last Kashmiri. These were our original sins to which we only lend a false dignity when we harp on the no-choice argument.

Pakland had every right to push for a meaningful plebiscite in Kashmir and Jammu, but not to interfere in the area. Their own section of J&K isn't exactly a bastion of freedom. Bringing in mercenaries, starting with Paks, then including all sorts of people who couldn't find Kashmir on a map until recruited and paid, made them look like the Bad Guys -- because they actually were.

If a policy was good, it should not have been abandoned no matter what the pressure. If it was flawed from the start, and not worth preserving in the face of risk, our guardians (for it is they who call the shots) should have ditched it a long time ago without waiting for September and its grim fallout to catch up with them.

It's tough to walk away from those sunk costs, isn't it? That's a lot to write off -- a total loss with no insurance. It's gotta hurt. It's also gotta be done.

In the event, Pakistan's name has been dragged through the mud. It has received little thanks for the unstinted cooperation extended to the U.S. for its war on Afghanistan and the continuing campaign, much of it within Pakistan, against the scattered and fleeing remnants of the Al Qaida brigade. Instead it is portrayed as an irresponsible state harbouring and supporting terrorism while Vajpayee is praised (by our American friends) for his leadership in this crisis. It can't get any worse than this.

That's a pretty accurate assessment of the situation...

But breast-beating is to no avail. We must look ahead. What recent events have done is to show us our worth and standing. Humain apni aukat dikha dee gaye hai (we have been shown our standing). Which is no bad thing provided we draw the appropriate conclusions, the foremost being that we must cut our coat according to our cloth.

And now we're getting down to specifics...

What good our huge defence spending when we were the first to blink? Why is defence spending set to increase this year when if the recent standoff with India provides proof of anything, it is of our peaceful intentions? Was war truly on our doorstep or did we lose our nerve? There has to be an honest answer to this question.

War was really and truly at your doorstep. Pak's allies were prepared to stand back and watch her be annihilated if the powers that be refused to come to their senses. Perv and the jihadis between them had reduced the choices to either stopping or going forward, and going forward was an option only in the sense that self-destruction is an option.

Let me not be misunderstood. I am making no plea for going to war, only pointing to the contradiction between a policy of peace, which since September we have assiduously pursued and for which our leadership deserves praise, and a hike in defence expenditure. The two point in opposite directions.

Two factors contribute to this. First, it is a characteristic of tin-hat dictators to put their money into the military. It's easier to define than domestic programs, and all those guns and rockets look really neat in parades. Second, in Pakistan the military actually does represent a force for internal stability, producing a pool of relatively well-educated, literate men who are employed in civil positions as well, a sort of uniformed civil service.

And, pray, what of our nuclear deterrent? In our moment of greatest danger it was less an asset than a huge liability. In happier times our guardians subscribed to the notion that this deterrent gave us strategic cover to pursue other objectives: namely, our Afghan and Kashmir policies. First in September and then in December, our nuclear deterrent, far from giving us a sense of security, scared the daylights out of us because we were led to believe that in case of war it would be the first target to be struck. This is argument enough for banning the use of the word strategic in Pakistan. It has caused enough mischief over the years.

Are you starting to see Pakistan as the poor neighbor, with the car up on blocks out front, admiring his shiny, expensive gun? That's what you look like to the rest of the world.

While we are at the task of ideological restructuring, a thought might be spared for the nuclear and missile monuments which deface many of our cities. Aesthetic eyesores which only underscore the national penchant for boastfulness, it is time they were pulled down and sold for scrap.

Agreed. They make the nation a laughingstock.

Let us be rid of the bluster and the false notions which have plagued our national life for so long. There is no need to sugarcoat our several U-turns. The people of Pakistan see them for what they are. It is the warrior school of thought which has to look afresh at its priorities.

Throwing large amounts of limited national resources into maintaining a war-making structure doesn't help the national health and welfare. Devoting time to arguing with the neighbors isn't going to fix your sagging porch. And they're not going to give you theirs and they're not going to let you take it away from them.

This should be a time for healing, for pulling the curtains on the flip-flops of the last nine months. No matter if Pakistan's cup of humiliation is full. This was the result of illusions nurtured in the past. If we turn our backs on the past we can make something better of the future.

He's still seeing that "cup of humiliation" where he could be seeing a burst of lucidity and good sense...

But only if we return first to the principle of legitimate government. The military has to realise that it has no monopoly on wisdom or patriotism. From Ayub Khan onwards every time it has decided to walk alone, the country has had to pay a heavy price. Let us not repeat the past. The choice is not between the summit or the abyss: nothing dramatic like that. If General Musharraf chooses, he is still in a position to balance personal ambition with the larger good. But only if he gives up on the dimly-understood ideas of constitutional reform his inner coterie of advisers seems obsessed with.

The constitutional reform will come. He can push it now, or the Paks can wait ten, twenty years, and then implement it. If they wait, the world will further pass them by. If they wait long enough, they'll become a quaint backwater of ignorance and disease. People will come from Mali and Zimbabwe and Burma to see how po' folks used to live.

Pakistan has gone through enough experiments. Over the last nine months it has suffered enough in spirit. It needs a period of calm and healing to regain that buoyancy of spirit which seems missing from the national mood. Forward then to the elections and out with half-baked theories of presidential empowerment. Given a measure of good leadership (Gen. Musharraf still being in a position to provide that) Pakistan has strength and resilience enough to emerge from the shadows into the light.

And none too soon.

2002-06-13T09:06:00.000-07:00

Anti-Islam decisions to draw Allah’s wrath
By Hafiz Muhammad Saeed
There are two options left with the authorities – either to abandon the Jihad in Kashmir to assure the world that infiltration has been stopped and delay the war risk looming large on Pakistan or stick to our stand and be courageous come what may be.

Even if it's the death and destruction of millions and what's left of Pak becoming a pariah state.

As is being said that war in imminent if infiltration of Mujahideen is not stopped. War will extremely disastrous so accept whatever the conditions being forwarded by the US and allies. What benefits and risks are hidden under this perception must be seriously reviewed. We think that the policy may delay the war for the time being but it will intensify the dangers being faced by the country.

"The time being" can be as long or as short as Pakland prefers. It can represent a first step toward improved relations with India and the rest of the world, or it can represent a period in which to rebuild and strengthen the jihadi infrastructure so the Paks can try again later and then be tromped flat.

At a first stage we shall lose Kashmir as well as the confidence of the Kashmiris. We shall be committing a historical mistake by allowing sacrifices by 90,000 Kashmiris to go wasted.

So would India. Same 90,000, too. Sounds like an impasse.

And this is so heinous sin that our coming generations will not forgive us and our name will be written in the list of traitors. Even abandoning of Kashmir shall appease India and America enough to refrain them taking hostile steps against Pakistan. They shall demand that Mujahideen must be crushed.

Yeah. Those are the guys who were trying to start a nuclear war to set up a crackpot caliphate. Their elimination would seem to be indicated. Throwing them back into the labor force will have its economic consequences, but in ten years they could be working at productive pursuits and maybe Pak wouldn't be the economic basket case it's been...

They shall say that as mosques and seminaries are the nurseries of Mujahideen, eliminate them or face action from India and America.

That's a true statement, too. Breeding grounds for mindless hatred and violence should be suppressed.

A crackdown will have to be launched on the given list of demands and religious parties and institutions will be made a target “to save Pakistan.”

That means Jamaat e Islami and JUI would be suppressed and put out of business. With them would go their armed wings -- the jihadis. That would mean peace and domestic tranquility, at least of a sort, for Pakistan.

The allies will not stop here. Then they will demand that Pakistan should open its nuclear installations to inspection, as these are a security risk for the rest of the world. And if Pakistan will hesitate a war like situation will be created on its borders again.

Actually seems a reasonable demand, since the most of the rest of the world's nuclear powers are doing it.

The steps will have hollowed the country internally. There will be a distance between the government and the masses, as the latter will lose their trust in the former. Economic sanctions and blockades will be additional steps. Even if the authorities shall bow to this pressure as a last resort to “save the country,” the war risk will never subside. The nation will be squeezed to death to tell the world what happened with the country that had come into existence in the name of Islam. That is what India wants.

If India has belligerent intentions toward Pakistan, and Pakistan is doing nothing to provoke them, then India is in the wrong. Since that isn't the situation at this moment, we can leave it to be dealt with in the future. War-mongering by India would be just as bad as war-mongering by Pak lunatics is now.

No one should misunderstood this fact that the allies targeting Pakistan in the world war against Islam are unanimous in their thinking. The people of Pakistan shall be told that there is only one way to live – become a sub-sovereign state of the United States. If so happens then people will do find mosques here but there will be no calling of Allah is Great as has happened in Kordoba. There will be sermons for US hegemony in mosques where prayer leaders will be like they are in Turkey. The invitation for “There is no god but Allah” will be eliminated and instead US World Order will be promoted. We shall be told that accept the western secular-ism or be ready to die.

Kordoba? He's again talking about something that happened 500 years ago, the fall of Spain to the Christians. It's the same theme Bin Laden was harping on. The idea of western culture, with its emphasis on individual liberty, becoming accepted curls the poor guy's hair. He has visions of Muslim women hanging out in bars, drinking beer, and turning him down when he's feeling horny. Turkey represents the nightmare of secularism.

We think that the path of courage and bravery is better.

"Give me iron-fisted theocracy or give me death!"

We shall first of all collectively seek divine forgiveness for our mistakes. We cannot be absolved of what happened with the Muslims of Afghanistan. Reforming our national policies we shall have to find some way to get rid of the agreements made with the unbelievers against the commands of Allah. Enforce the Shariat of Allah to create an atmosphere of certainty and solidarity instead of political intrigues.

Using the shield of Shariah, take power and suppress all dissent...

The nation must be prepared for Jihad for those who are ready to offer sacrifices can never be overpowered. Abandon the United States instead of abandoning Kashmiris. Adopt the path of honour and dignity. Take courageous decisions and stick to them, as it is the call of time. War with India will not harm us as much as our decision to surrender our sovereignty.

It will make you radioactive dust, blockhead.

Return to Allah; comply with His commandments to win His help. Solicit support from other Muslim nations. That is the only way to safety.

That's what you're trying to do. That will either give you the raw numeric strength to overcome the West, or it will result in the eradication of all forms of Islam.

One cannot avert war by refusing to face it. Make full preparations for war to terrorize the enemy. Plug the loopholes that invite external interference. Only an independent, autonomous and strong Pakistan can safeguard the interests of Kashmir and the Muslims living in other parts of India.

"Other parts of India" is not Pakistan. He's reserving the right to interfere in the internal affairs of a neighboring nation...

The recent missile tests are welcome and hopefully will send a message to India. But there is still need to show villainy (sic!). Only sticking to our freedom, faith and principles can deter the enemy and check the conspiracies of the unbelievers. May Allah grant us the intellect to understand these affairs.

The recent missile tests were a stupidly belligerent move that could have forced the two nations into war. But if war is your objective, then I guess they'd be considered a good thing.

2002-05-02T10:53:00.000-07:00

Indonesian Jihad

Standing before a humble mosque, Abu Jibril Abdurrahman quickens his cadence as he approaches the emotional crescendo of his sermon: "Oh God," he implores, "help us to destroy the infidels who have killed our children."

Somehow the children of Muslims are always being killed. Nobody else's kids ever get it.

At this, a ragged chorus of "God is great!" goes up from three-dozen armed followers. The Indonesian preacher's voice quavers as he takes up a Koran in his left hand and a battered pistol in his right. "You can't just have the Koran," he says, extending the pistol skyward, "without the steel. You will bring down the steel."

That's the important part. Guns. We in the West steadfastly refused to believe these barbarians are declaring crusades against us, no matter how many times they tell us.

The sermon, delivered on the island of Halmahera in early 2000 and now on a recruitment video being distributed by the Indonesian Mujahidin Council, is chilling. It's no secret that Islamic militants are part of a religious war in the Maluku provinces that has killed 6,000 people since 1999. But this video, obtained by the Monitor, offers direct evidence of an Al Qaeda connection to this war.

Ties which the Indonesian government steadfastly refuses to admit, which is the point of this article...

The ongoing conflict between Christians and Muslims, the al-Qaida ties to local preachers, and the refusal of the government of President Megawati Sukarnoputri to arrest the key figures behind the violence are some of the reasons the U.S. says the country is becoming an al-Qaida haven. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage testified to Congress about Indonesia last month: "We are really worried that places that have sectarian violence can become the breeding ground (for terrorism) ... It is an open, very hospitable country, and it is a Muslim country. It is one we fear that al-Qaida could operate in relatively freely."

It used to be hospitable, anyway.

Jihad arrives in Maluku
Jibril's speech inspired a reorganization of Muslim fighters in Maluku that led to a deepening of the religious war. What had been a local conflict was transformed by the arrival of such jihad groups as Jibril's from outside the province. Though Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim country, the tiny Maluku provinces are about 50 percent Christian. The jihad groups have kept the fires raging in the country's worst communal conflict for two years and have insisted that they won't leave until the Christians there are wiped out or converted. Some parts of the Indonesian military are sympathetic to the group, which has left it untouchable.

The fix is in. That was a lesson they learned when they turned ISI in Pakistan.

Last Friday, an associate of Jibril, Jaffar Umar Thalib, urged a Muslim gathering to reject a recent peace agreement and go back to war with the "infidels." Over the weekend, 14 Christians were killed in renewed fighting.

Any peace agreement with them will be abrogated within a short time. They reversed the Clauswitzian tenet that war is diplomacy by other means, so that diplomacy is war by other means.

While the U.S. is worried that the Maluku war could lead to the arrival of Al Qaeda in Indonesia, both Singapore, and Malaysia say the group has already been here. Officials in Singapore and Malaysia say that Jibril ran operations for a terrorist group called the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), which received money and training from Aal-Qaida. Nearly 24 alleged members of the JI were arrested in Singapore and Malaysia last October, according to both governments, and investigators say the prisoners have told them that Jibril was the group's second in command and primary recruiter. Police from Singapore and Malaysia say Abu Bakar Bashir, who leads the Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI), also runs the JI. Bashir, who lives openly here, says neither he nor Jibril, an old friend and fellow MMI leader, have ties to terrorism.

It just depends on your definition of terrorism. If you're a self-righteous Muslim fanatic, slaughtering people who don't think like you isn't terrorism, it's logic.

The Indonesian government says that Singapore and Malaysia's evidence against Bashir and his associates is not compelling. They say that they've seen no evidence that the MMI, which its neighbors say is a local front for the JI, is anything more than a peaceful advocate for the establishment of Islamic law. Yet the revenge attacks that Jibril helped to inspire in the Galela district of Halmahera, where the sermon was delivered, argue otherwise.

Again, the fix is in. And those who aren't fixed are scared to death the same tactics will be turned against them if they try to crack down.

In late 1999, Christians in the neighboring district of Tobelo participated in a massacre of about 400 Muslims at Christmas, according to witnesses and aid workers. That massacre inspired a national Muslim backlash, and an outpouring of aid, arms, and fighters to Halmahera and neighboring islands. Jibril, who Singapore officials say received military training in Afghanistan, was in the vanguard. He and other MMI members arrived in Maluku January 2000 to organize a more effective Muslim fighting force.

That's a bare statement that the massacre happened. Was there any context to it, or did it occur out of the blue?

Jibril's network

The chubby-cheeked Jibril and his colleagues introduced a centralized command structure in the provincial capital of Ternate, delivered money for communications equipment and better weapons, and provided ideological inspiration, according to a Western investigator. By the middle of 2000, the fighters Jibril helped to organize had routed local Christians with a series of well-coordinated attacks on Christian targets using speedboats from Ternate and local militias.

Wonder where they got the money for the communications equipment and weapons? I can be indignant over something, but I still don't have the money for heavy-duty military equipment to enforce my indignation. The ideological inspiration sounds pretty familiar, though, so we can guess where the money originated.

The worst massacre was in Galela on July 19, 2000, which claimed more than 250 lives. "This was self-defense,'' says Fauzan Al-Anshari, a Jakarta-based MMI leader, who acknowledges that the MMI sent fighters to the region in 2000. "We had to strike back."

See, it's self-defense when the other side's unarmed. It's jihad when they are.

Al-Anshari says the MMI wasn't worried whether its actions were illegal.

You don't have to worry about such things when the fix is in.

"When Muslims are attacked by Christians, it's our duty to act. No one else will stand up for us."

Other groups can rely on government, police, and even army, but not us, by Allah!

The reorganization of the Muslim militias by outsiders had profound consequences, turning what had been a balanced and predominantly local conflict fought with homemade weapons into a national issue fought with mortars and M-16s. The fiercer fighting completely separated the Muslim and Christian populations of the two provinces, a separation that prevails today.

That was the intention.

Suspicion of Christians and other non-Muslims is a key tenet of both the teachings of Jibril and Bashir, a close colleague during most of the 1980s and early 1990s. Jibril's and Bashir's religious vision is of a vigorous, aggressive Islam that brooks no insults from nonbelievers.

What's the difference between suspicion and hatred? Why is it essential to have a chip on your collective shoulder?

"We are not terrorists - the U.S. and the Jews are trying to frame us," says Bashir in a recent interview with the Monitor. "They don't like us because we teach true Islam, one that stresses dying a martyr and jihad. The U.S. doesn't like that because it makes Muslims strong. I'm just a teacher. I'm not a violent man."

He's also a liar, but we won't dwell on that.

Bashir says throughout history, Muslims "never start trouble - we are always attacked first."

See what I mean?

Indonesia's reluctance to crack down

U.S. officials view Malaysia and Singapore's claims as credible and have been alarmed by Indonesia's refusal to arrest Bashir. While Indonesia has helped deport some alleged foreign terrorists, it has refused to act against Indonesians who are alleged to have ties to al-Qaida. Analysts say the government of President Megawati Sukarnoputri is afraid of losing political support from Muslims if she takes a harder line.

Scared spitless is more like it.

"There are people here who, whatever the evidence against them, are clearly a major threat, judging solely by their statements,'" says a Western diplomat. "But there are a lot of people here who feel that some of these groups have legitimate grievances, so that makes the government reluctant to crack down."

That's the nature of the fix. Ask ISI.

Jibril's 2000 sermon was on one of his first visits to his homeland in nearly a decade. After serving a jail sentence here in the early 1980s for promoting the creation of an Islamic state, he exiled himself to Malaysia.

And continued his activities.

Bashir's vision of an Islamic state

Outside of militant circles, he was not a well-known figure. Jibril returned to Malaysia, where police officials allege that he set about arming and financing a group there called the Malaysian Militant Group. Then in May 2001, two men with ties to Jibril and Bashir were killed and a third was captured in a failed bank heist. The captured man described Bashir and Jibril as leaders of a terror group who had ordered the robbery. Jibril was arrested soon after and is still in custody in Malaysia. Bashir, however, was already living in Indonesia, and Indonesian officials have refused to extradite him, saying they don't feel Malaysia's evidence is strong enough.

Nor will they ever feel it's strong enough.

Throughout the allegations of terrorism, Bashir has kept an open door with journalists, saying it's been a good opportunity: The time is ripe, he says, to make Indonesia an Islamic state, and he needs to use every avenue possible to make his views known.

As long as the money's there, grab it and run with it.

2002-04-26T12:12:00.000-07:00

Kathy on blind spots, me on hatred...
Kathy Kinsley does some Thinking Out Loud on the subject of blind spots.

"It's pretty obvious to me that they are a warrior culture, and simply cannot conceive that a culture which prefers peace could possibly counterattack the way we did. That's one blind spot I see in them. That warrior mindset is also what makes them believe that the US rules Israel (or vice-versa). Someone must always rule... Can we use that? Make them worry about each other more than us?

They may be evil, they may be perpetual victims. They may be evil victims. But, whatever they are, they are damned good at finding our blind spots. We need to find theirs."

Funny Kathy should bring that up. I was thinking along the same lines yesterday, on the subject of hatred, which is one of the things we have a hard time conceiving. We in the Land of the Free have actual legislation against "hate crimes" and we have innumerable talking heads on the terriblevision decrying "hate." What we don't have is a conception of what real hatred is. When we do get that conception, we do our best to shake it off as quickly as possible. We do have our loons - assorted Nazis, Klansmen, and such, who try to fall into the Timothy McVeigh/Matthew Shephard category. Most of us "hate" the thugs who perpetrated 9-11. But with the exception of some (not even all) of the Nazis/Klansmen/such we don't approach the hatred our enemies are capable of perpetrating. It's a cultural thing, one that's always been there but which has grown more pronounced since the end of WWII. We've taken the concept of chivalry to heart and extended it to all of the earth. All men are America's brothers. This has been a good thing, as we've absorbed a larger than usual number of immigrants, some of whose cultures have been disturbingly different, and we've made them our own with more apparent success than Europe has done.

The Other Side makes me think there's a defect in the English language, one that should be fixed. Our concept of hatred is different from theirs. We may "hate" injustice, for instance, but we don't think in terms of ripping its guts out. They do. We simply aren't very good at dehumanizing our enemies to the point we regard them as vermin to be exterminated. They are.

Consider, today Muslim-Muslim hatred led to a Shiite mosque being bombed and a dozen or so women were killed, and more were maimed. The Palestinians took revenge for the killing of one of their al-Aqsa heroes by killing three collaborators. The festivities included putting cigarettes out in the bullet holes and fathers bringing their kiddies to watch the show. When Israeli soldiers were trapped and killed by Palestinians last year their killers and their friends lined up to smear themselves with the blood of the dead, a badge of "honor.". These degrees of depravity are beyond the understanding of most of us; the "hatred" is of an entirely different caliber.

Will the grandchildren of today's Islamothugs inherit the ability to dehumanize that way? Not once we've beaten them. The grandparents of the Japanese raped Nanking, yet today Japan is a decent and civilized nation. The grandparents of the Germans perpetrated the most horrific campaign of extermination against a people since the Mongols were building pyramids of skulls. Today Germany, too, is a decent and civilized nation. But the grandchildren of today's Islamists won't have the chance to be decent and civilized if we can't keep our level of hatred high enough to destroy what the Other Side is trying to build. More to the point, if we let them succeed, our own grandchildren will feel perfectly free to regard those they don't agree with as subhuman and to treat them accordingly.

2002-04-24T12:12:00.000-07:00

Would-be bomb boy squeals like a pig, lies like a rug
A Muslim militant on trial admitted in court he took part in a plot to blow up a synagogue in the French city of Strasbourg early in 2001, but denied that he aimed to hurt anyone and insisted he was not acting on the orders of al-Qaeda or Osama bin Laden.
I mean, who expects anybody to be hurt when you blow up a building or two?
In the second day of the high-profile, high-security trial, 26-year-old Aeurobi Beandali told the Frankfurt high court that "it was never my intention to hurt anyone." Rather, he wanted to protest against France's policy in Algeria and Israel's policy in Palestine, he said. "I wanted relations between Israel and France to be destabilized," Beandali said.
Well, that part's prob'ly true. 'Course, we're talking about France, so you coulda just asked and they'd have called Israel a few names.
The defendant admitted that Beandali was not his real name, but he asked for that name to be used in order to help protect his family.
Ummm... That means he's lying about what his name is, right? And we should believe anything else he says because...?
Beandali was answering charges that he and three other defendants -- Salim Boukhari, Fouhad Sabour and Lamine Maroni -- plotted to bomb "a lively public square" in Strasbourg in December 2000, possibly the Christmas market near to Strasbourg cathedral.
Like for maximum carnage?
German prosecutors also believe the four men and another defendant -- Samir Karimou -- were members of a terrorist organization and that they trained at bin Laden's al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan between 1998 and 2000. Beandali admitted he had spent a year "in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan" up until August 2000.
Yep. Sounds like they trained there...
During the first three months, he had attended a "school of faith" run by the Taliban. For the other nine months, he trained in a military camp.
First the madrassah, then three times as much military training.
But he had had to finance the whole undertaking himself and his training "had nothing to do with al-Qaeda or Osama bin Laden" Beandali insisted.
What a suckah! Signed him up and made him pay his own wages. Uh... Wonder where he got the money for a year's vacation? From Mom?
Beandali said that the bomb plot, apparently foiled by joint efforts on the part of German, British, Italian and Spanish intelligence services, was to blow up the synagogue "at the end of January or the beginning of February 2001." The explosion was to have been detonated via a remote device, filmed and then distributed for broadcast by international television stations, he said.
Y'mean, like al-Jazeera broadcasts Binny's home movies? But you don't have anything to do with Binny? Are you affiliated with al-Jazeera, by chance?
And the bomb was to have gone off after the end of Saturday prayers, thereby ensuring that no-one was in the building where they could be hurt.
Oh, certainly not!
Beandali insisted he had not been acting as a member of a terrorist organisation, but in retrospect his scheme should be seen more as the work of "a small group of criminals".
There's a difference?
"I have never been dependent on orders from Osama bin Laden and have never identified myself with his goals," he said.
Another of those guys that says Binny's a wimp.
He told the court that the Strasbourg Christmas market and the cathedral had never been the target of the attack as the prosecutors claimed. Beandali explained that his accomplice, Boukhari, had been sent to Strasbourg to make a videotape of the area had mistakenly filmed the cathedral and market instead of the synagogue.
Well, that's certainly possible. They're both buildings...
When police searched the suspects' apartment in late December 2000, they found a 20-minute tape, on which comments are heard in Arabic such as "That is the cathedral of God's enemies" and "You are going to hell, as God wants it."
Hmmm... Didn't say "that this is the synagogue of God's enemies," huh? That would appear to weaken his story just a tad. Maybe 1.5 tads.
Answering charges that a large quantity of explosives were found in the two Frankfurt apartments where four of the defendants were arrested, along with weapons and other material including the videotape, Beandali said those weapons had not been "destined for any attacks" on German soil.
Certainly not. Strasbourg's in France.
He had simply been asked to pass them on to "the Islamic Front" in France for transport to Algeria.
Just helping a friend. What's wrong with that?
In his testimony, Beandali distanced himself from the Strasbourg attack. "At the time, I thought it legitimate. But today I recognise that such action cannot be justified by anything," he said.
That means he was caught before the "boom."
Beandali condemned any action in which innocent children and women might be killed and described September 11 as a "black day" in history and for the Islamic world in particular.
Yeah. Stirred up the coppers and put them into the likes of him. Flat ruined everything.
At the end of Beandali's testimony, the judges decided the hearing be adjourned until Thursday, May 2.
They should be done chuckling by then.

2002-04-21T09:35:00.000-07:00

Saudi intellects: US and Israel are Axis of Evil
A group of Saudi intellectuals and writers has condemned the United States and Israel and described them as the axis of evil in the world, borrowing a phrase US President George Bush has used for Iran, Iraq and North Korea. The 113 Saudis, some of them prominent writers for respected Saudi papers, said the American role in the Israeli military operation against the Palestinians was "shameful" and said the "Israeli massacres do not differ in shape or form from what the Nazis did."
They're really working on this propaganda war. It's common practice before and during hostilities.
The writers called in a statement released Saturday on all Arab governments to severe diplomatic, political and economic ties with Israel and urged Arabs to boycott all American products.
Saw that just yesterday, in fact. Funny, that idea occurring to so many people at once.
"We consider the United States and the current American administration the nurturer of international terrorism with distinction and it, along with Israel, form the axis of terrorism and evil in the world," said the statement.
We don't finance terror networks. We're states. We maintain armies and intel organizations. Unlike the Saudis, we don't rely on armies of mercenaries and terrorists to accomplish our political ends. Unlike the Palestinians occasional Saudi cannon fodder, we don't explode without warning.
The statement said Arab governments should take "serious and responsible steps ... and apply all means of pressure on the American administration to make it feel that its huge interests in the Arab region are threatened." It said failure to do so will lead to "national disasters that will include everyone."
Escalating into open hostilities will bring national disasters that include the Saudis.
Among the signatories were a writer for the widely respected Al-Hayat and a former undersecretary of the Saudi Interior Ministry.
So this is pretty mainstream opinion among the muckety-mucks?
The statement comes at a time when anti-American sentiment is at a high level over what Arabs see as U.S. support for Israel in the conflict with the Palestinians.
High, and being whipped higher.
On Friday, the chief cleric of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Sheik Abdul Rahman al-Sudais, called on the Arabs to abandon peace efforts with Israel because they were "impossible."
Oh, those clerics. They are men of peace, aren't they?
Al-Sudais said Arabs should bid farewell to peace with the Jews, whom he described as "the scum of the human race, the rats of the world, the killers of prophets and the grandsons of monkeys and pigs."
Well, you certainly could reason with people like that, could you? If you wanted to reason, I mean.
He called on Muslims to stand with the Palestinians financially and in kind, saying that peace with Israel was futile because it only "accepts liquidating its opponent, taking over his land, making his people homeless and canceling his dignity. They want the state of Greater Israel. They want to eliminate the nation of one God and the Quran."
There must be lots of Israelis blowing up in Arabia. Wonder what the boundaries are on the Ummah?
Original article

2002-04-21T08:05:00.000-07:00

Georgia expecting armed intrusions in Kodori Gorge
The threat of an armed invasion of Georgian territory, the Kodori Gorge in particular, is becoming more and more real every day, as Tbilisi claims. This was announced during the session of Parliamentary Committee on Defense and Security of Georgia by its Chief Georgi Baramidze.
How much of this is pointing with alarm for internal consumption is open to question...
The Chief of the Committee called on the government of Georgia to give full and serious consideration to the report made by Defense Minister Lieutenant General David Tevzadze about «the concentration of troops and vehicles of the prospective aggressor in the lower area of the Gorge and on the approaches to it», which was recorded by the Republic's secret services. The member of Georgian parliament also considers it unacceptable not to react to the threat which is impending over the country.
Kodori Gorge is part of the breakaway Republic of Abkhazia. It's crawling with banditti and thugs, but it's not associated with international terror organizations for the most part. Probably there is some Chechen involvement, but the drivers are groups like the Forest Brothers.
In turn, State Security Minister of Georgia Valery Khaburdzania claims that the recruitment of armed groups of Northern Caucasus is now under way in Abkhazia. He reported it on Thursday in his speech during the session of Georgian Parliamentary Committee of Defense and Security, after the Committee Chief Mr.Baramidze spoke with the alarming news. Besides that, as the head of Georgian security mentioned, according to the operative information, concentration of combat equipment of both Abkhaz and Russian sides is being observed in Tkvarcheli district of Abkhazia.
Abkhazia sez Georgia's getting ready to beat it up. Georgia sez it ain't so, which is probably true since they can't afford it. There was an embarrassing incident when the Russers showed up in Kodori with blue helmets without being invited by the Georgians and had to leave.
Chairman of the State Department of the Border Security of Georgia Lieutenant General Valery Chkheidze also claims that in Abkhazia deployment of troops from the side of the Russian border is being carried out. He also referred to the operative data and reported that for instance «the other day from the direction of river Psou several buses full of people in civilian clothes arrived». Georgian Defense Minister Lieutenant General David Tevzadze holds the same opinion. Lt.General Tevzadze mentioned that «the concentration of forces on the territory of Abkhazia is taking place in two main directions».
So they're building up along both the Abkhazian and the Russian sides? If it is a buildup of tough guys, they probably plan on using one or both as safe havens. The Georgians would probably do the hot pursuit thing into Abkhazia, probably not into Russia proper. The Russian Internal Security forces would probably have something to say about the Bad Guys, though.
Reacting to all these statements, Vice President of Abkhazia Valery Arshba stated that the reports by the Georgian side about the concentration of Abkhaz troops in the lower area of the Kodor Gorge are «nothing but a mere provocation».
Well, some people get provoked when other people tell the truth about them. Are the Bad Guys there, or not?
In the meantime, another event occurred in Georgia, the event that best characterizes the atmosphere of expecting something worse to happen. Last Wednesday flight from London to Tbilisi was suddenly cancelled. In Georgia they do not exclude that the reason for the flight cancellation was a terrorist act that had already been planned. National Television mentioned in this regard that the flight which departed for Georgia circled up in the air for 40 minutes and then was returned to the runway. Meanwhile, one of the passengers left the plane right before the departure.
Didn't want to go "boom" with the rest of them, huh?
According to the official version, the flight was cancelled because of an emergency. According to the republican television however, American instructors were on board of the airbus. They were supposed to arrive in Georgia as part of the program of cooperation in preparing counter-terrorist squads of the Georgian military. Besides that, representatives of Georgian Police and Special Service of Government Security, who were on an internship in the US, were also on board of the plane.
Which would have made it a desirable target to generic Bad Guys.
One of the witnesses of the incident, the Chairman of Georgian Control Chamber Sulkhan Molashvili, who was on his way from the US, stated in the TV interview that during the emergency landing fire engines and British special services arrived at the airport. He expressed hope that the investigation will establish the reasons of what happened.
And who made it happen.
Original article

2002-04-21T06:10:00.000-07:00

Protesters Spread Out Across Capital
Marching with puppets and placards and armed with many messages, tens of thousands of protesters joined forces on a warm spring Saturday to demonstrate peacefully against everything from U.S. policy in the Mideast to globalization and corporate greed.
Sounds like protest for the sake of protest, doesn't it?
Protesters massed at sites across the city, then swarmed down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Capitol, in an eclectic crowd that mixed young communists, Black Panthers and "Raging Grannies." People came in busloads from around the country to show there are vibrant opposition views in the United States.
Hmmm... Wonder where the money comes from? Chartering buses ins't cheap, and arranging accomodations for thosuands isnt' simple. You can't put a Raging Granny up with the same folks who're just waiting to take in a New Black Panther.
"I think the movement is beginning to wake up," said 80-year-old Valerie Mullen of Vershire, Vt., part of the "grannies" group. She said she came to protest "any war."
Is she protesting Binny and Fazl and Qazi and Prince Abdullah, too? And Yasser and Shiekh Yassin and Mullah Fudlullah and the ISI and Abu Sayyaf? Has she a response in mind that makes sense when one or all of them launch? Or will she just try and glue her legs back on and give them all a nice group hug?
Six-year-old Kira Appleman of Silver Spring, Md., came with her mom and held aloft a sign that said, "Palestinian children have rights, too." Palestinian flags proliferated as demonstrators marched through downtown.
Obviously at age six the child has fully formed and matured political opinions. We should listen to her closely. Her mother sounds like a level-headed sort, too. Wonder if the little girl was wearing a toy dynamite belt?
The various groups converged for a concluding rally near the Capitol and support for the Palestinians' cause was the main theme of the day. Authorities do not provide official crowd figures for demonstrations in Washington, but Police Chief Charles Ramsey gave a rough estimate of 35,000 to 50,000.
How many of them were the same 35 - 50,000 who are at every one of these gatherings, like Valery the Raging Granny? How do they make their livings? I have to work every day to keep body and soul together and to support a small family in a modest home. How do they afford to travel all over the country and sometimes all over the world? And who pays to have all those signs professinally printed? They aren't cheap.
With helicopters hovering overhead, police with wooden batons and their riot gear close by kept watch around the city, standing shoulder to shoulder along the marchers' route. A brief rain shower sent some demonstrators ducking for cover but most continued their march.
Don't worry about the cost to the public. It's only tax money. They can always print more.
"It's been very peaceful, very orderly, just the way it's supposed to be," said Assistant Police Chief Terrance Gainer.
Wonder where the black mask crowd is? Still getting their sneakers primed?
While no demonstrators were arrested during the day's events, afterward 25 protesters were arrested for unlawfully entering an underground parking garage and using it as a sleeping area for the weekend demonstrations, said police spokesman Quintin Peterson.
Y'mean they just barged in and took it over? Well, people are more important than property. It's not like there's any connection between the two, after all.
More protests were planned for the next two days, and Ramsey said police were "going to have our hands full" on Monday, when several unauthorized rallies were expected during morning rush hour.
That's right. They usually save the black mask kiddies for toward the end.
The White House had a front-row seat for a number of the protests Saturday, but President Bush missed the scene. He was spending the weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.
Doesn't matter if nobody's home. Send him a message anyway. Doesn't even matter if you have a coherent message.
It was the spring meeting of world financial powers at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund that attracted the protesters to Washington, but anti-globalization forces did not seem to mind sharing the stage with many other causes.
They keep following them around. Same script every time, too, except when they meet somewhere the cops'll toss them in the jug for years at a time and maybe hit them with clubs.
The various protests are "all connected in the sense that it's all part of how the world economic structure works," said 24-year-old Brad Duncan of Detroit.
Brad's Mom must be really proud of him. He must be really smart to figure how freeing Mumia connects to the Argentine banking system.
At the financial institutions' spring meeting two years ago, police made 1,300 arrests during the week.
Wonder how many of the people who were jugged for nominal periods then will be jugged for nominal periods this time?
This time, one of the biggest groups sought to show solidarity with the Palestinians and protest U.S. policy that demonstrators said was tilted toward Israel.
Wonder how many bus tickets the Saudis bought?
Protesters marched with two open wooden coffins bearing young sisters of Palestinian descent. When 7-year-old Philastine Mustafa was overcome by the heat, a young boy quickly took her place.
Sounds like she had lotsa fun.
"My people back home her age are being killed," said Anwar Mustafa, 33, of Philadelphia, the father of the girls. "Me and my daughters can spend a little time in the heat to show people who don't know."
Well, if you ever go back to Palestine, stay away from any pizza shops. If they ever meet any Jews, which they won't, make sure they stay away from any Passover dinners.
In a counterdemonstration, a few hundred people gathered on the mall to show their support of U.S. policies. Some carried signs that said "Peace through superior fire power."
Sounds nearly as stoopid as the demonstration they were countering, but it's probably better than doing nothing at all.
Outside the barricaded buildings of the IMF and World Bank, where world financial powers were meeting, a 30-foot-tall inflated Earth bearing a "For Sale" sign and the Citibank logo was erected. "It's becoming a global doomsday economy," said 22-year-old Rob Fish of New Jersey.
Oh, c'mon. Real Men don't speak Cliche. The scary part to me is that this jerk was old enough to vote last year.
Not all the groups were in perfect agreement. When Black Panthers chanting "jihad" and "holy war" hoisted a Palestinian flag next to a picture of Osama bin Laden, a Palestinian activist urged them to take the flag down.
It doesn't say much for your innaleck when Palestinian activists have more sense than you do, does it?
Original article at FoxNews.com

2002-01-19T19:15:00.000-08:00

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2002-01-18T09:34:00.000-08:00

The Alliance
Israelis beat up Palestinian Authority for bat mitzvah attack

Israeli aircraft attacked Palestinian government headquarters in the West Bank town of Tulkarem and moved troops into Ramallah in retaliation for a Palestinian shooting up a little girl's bat mitzvah. Israeli forces occupied the Ramallah homes of Tawfeek Terawi, the Palestinian Authority's intelligence chief, and Fatah movement leader Marwan Barghouti. Israeli troops also reoccupied the town of Bitunia, which is adjacent to Ramallah in the West Bank, and Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer ordered the army to close off access to the Palestinian territories.
Al-Aqsa Brigades claimed the "credit" for this attack, and the Palestinians bitched that the Israelis had their plan already worked out to avenge the attack. It's pretty hard to justify an attack that vicious and stupid.

Terror Networks
Lashkar and Jaish to stand down

Lashkar-e-Tayyeba and Jaish-e-Mohammad have decided to suspend their activities in Jammu and Kashmir in response to the crackdown by the Musharraf government in Pakistan. Sources said radio intercepts by Indian security agencies reveal both groups have asked their cadres to restrain their activities for the time being. About 1,000 activists of the two groups — a majority of whom are Pakistani nationals — are presently active in the Kashmir Valley and parts of Jammu region. Most commanders of the two groups have gone underground to escape arrest.
They intend this to be a temporary measure, but if Pakland keeps up the pressure and keeps the funding cut off, the gunnies are goners. India wins, Pakland wins, we win. Thank you, Mr. Rumsfeld! By the way, that stuff about "For every Osama you kill, a thousand will spring up to take his place" - that's all hooey. When you cut off a snake's head, the body wiggles for awhile, but eventually it dies.

Aideed: Al-Qaeda arriving in Somalia

Several members of Al-Qaeda arrived in Somalia last week, via the port of Obio, Somali warlord Hussein Mohamed Aidid told reporters in Ethiopia. Aidid's father's forces were involved in heavy fighting with an ill-fated UN operation spearheaded by US troops in Somalia in 1993. Aidid named the arrivals as Sheikh Abdurahman Jhalid Zubeir from Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdellah Al-Mahdi from Yemen, and Sheikh Abdelmejid and Sheikh Zeit Abu Mussa from Egypt. He said members of a local extremist group, Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya, also entered Somalia with the al-Qaeda members.
Aidid isn't his father - in fact he's an ex-Marine, who fought in the Gulf War. Bite the bullet, recognize him as the government, and give him the support to clean up the country.

Bosnia turns over six Algerian gunnies to U.S.

Bosnian authorities turned six Algerian terror suspects over to U.S. authorities after a tense all-night standoff with protesters in front of a Bosnian jail. A Sarajevo court initially had ordered the men released because their period of detention without being charged had expired. Supporters of the men clashed with police to prevent the transfer, but police used batons to clear the way for police vehicles transporting the hooded and shackled men. U.S. officials confirmed the six, who were arrested in October by Bosnia police, had been handed over, but would not reveal their present whereabouts. Human rights officials in Sarajevo immediately condemned what they described as illegal and unethical pressure by Americans in Sarajevo on local authorities to turn the men over, despite several local court rulings that should have prevented the transfer.
That's okay. Criticize all you want. As long as we have them. We'd probably like to talk to their "supporters," too, if it's alright with the human rights wieners.

Brits arrest four more gunnies in Leicester

Anti-terrorist police arrested four people in Leicester in the latest phase of a continuing operation to round up suspects believed to be involved with terrorist activities. The arrests of two men and two women, aged 28 to 31, on immigration charges followed the arrests of 13 people in London and Leicester on Thursday. All 17 people are now in custody in Leicester and are being questioned by agents from the security forces as well as immigration authorities. Nine of the men arrested during Thursday's operation were held on suspicion of terrorism, and the rest of the suspects face charges related to immigration offenses. Officials had no immediate comment on reports by a French radio station, Europe 1, that the arrests were linked to investigations into planned attacks by Islamic militants in France.
Britain will look much nicer after a good housecleaning, too.

Seven Russian troops killed in Dagestan

Seven Russian soldiers died and three others were seriously wounded when a troop truck was blown apart in the center of Makhachkala, capital of Dagestan. Dagestan, a mainly Muslim province which borders on Chechnya, has seen several flare-ups of unrest of its own over the past few years.
Being next door to Chechnya doesn't help matters. Y'know, the more money the Saudis put into the area, the higher the level of violence becomes. Just can't understand why.

Greece on al-Qaeda hit list

Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou said Greece had been told that it had been targetted by Al-Qaeda. Papandreou told reporters that the information came from Lebanon and was gleaned from Al-Qaeda prisoners who were not identified. He gave no further details, but a Foreign Ministry source said Greek officials had been briefed on the situation by US and Israeli intelligence services. They were told that Al-Qaeda suspects arrested in Lebanon had been planning attacks against US and European targets in Greece and other European countries.
Can't understand why they'd target Greece. You can't get much more anti-American than they are.

Home Front
No teevee trial for Moussaoui

A federal judge has denied a request for televised coverage of the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui.
He can't have a pony, either.

Sara Jane gets two ten-year sentences

Mad bomber-turned-housewife Sara Jane Olson was sentenced to two consecutive 10-year prison terms for her role in a 1975 bomb plot during an emotional court hearing in Los Angeles, and was then shipped off to Sacramento to face a newly filed murder charge that also stemmed from her days in the Symbionese Liberation Army.
Too bad about that, Sara Jane. Look on the bright side: you could be on your way to Guantanamo. Move over, Mumia!

Multiculti firefighters' memorial is no more

A developer has scrapped plans to commission a politically correct statue that would have changed the races of two of the three firefighters who took part in a celebrated flag-raising at Ground Zero. After talks with Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta, developer Bruce Ratner abandoned efforts to erect the statue, which was to be based on a photo that made the front pages of newspapers nationwide. All three firefighters in the original picture are white. But Ratner's plan called for one fireman to be white, another to be black and the third Hispanic - setting off a firestorm of controversy.
Millions of us non-politically correct rubes are highly gratified. It's our feeling that honoring the three specific firefighters would have honored all firefighters. Changing the races of the men makes them abstractions. It honors the commissioner's piety and relegates the actual heroes to side issues. There's also the argument that among those working in the ruins were other "races" than the three represented, so there really should be more than just three. There should be an Athabaskan to honor the Native Americans, and an Eskimo, and a Hindu, and a Sikh, and a Bushman and an Australian aborigine... Don't foget the handicapped - put one of the firemen in a wheelchair. And women. We have two sexes, you know. Make sure at least some of those are female. Don't make the bosoms too big, 'cuz that'd be sexist. Oh, and the lesbians: have some of the females holding hands or something, okay? And we all know there were lots of dogs there, working right alongside the people, so add a puppy.

There actually are practical problems with how to represent the "Hispanic race." I personally think it was the sombrero that shot the whole idea down in the end.

2002-01-18T08:31:00.000-08:00

Correction! Correction! Correction!
Yesterday Rantburg reported, based on faulty wire service information, that a Palestinian snuffy had shot up a wedding party in Israel. We deeply apologize for mistakenly accusing an al-Aqsa hero of such an atrocity. It wasn't a wedding party, it was a bat mitzvah.
So there. Those young girls can be dangerous, you know. Takes a lot of guts to shoot 'em up. Especially the singer, and the girl's granddaddy. Significantly, when Abed Hassouna's gun jammed guests, including young Nina's grandmother, rushed at him, hurling beer bottles and chairs. Motti Hasson, a neighbor, slammed the snuffy's face with a chair. Guests thumped the sonofabitch unconscious and dragged his bleeding carcass outside the banquet hall. A police officer arriving at the scene put him away like any other mad dog.

Seems being a crazed gunman's getting to be a dangerous occupation, even for suicide killers.

2002-01-17T12:32:00.000-08:00

India-Pakistan
Peace seems to be on the horizon for Indo-Pak

India's defense minister said he believes that despite another terrorist attack blamed on militants in Kashmir, the standoff between his country and Pakistan may be "on the way to resolution." Asked about a Kashmir bomb blast that killed one and injured 15, he said: "Against the backdrop of recent developments I have reason to believe sooner or later these issues will now be on the way to resolution."
The Bad Guys miscalculated terribly in the Parliament bombing. It was supposed to be a diversion from Tora Bora, maybe involve Pakland and India in a spat and draw troops from the western border. Instead, it brought the two countries to the edge and scared the Paks enough that they ended up cracking down seriously on the religious loons. Following closely on the heels of getting waxed in Afghanistan, the gunnies were shown to be not as tough as they appeared. Truly an historic event.

Fazlur Rahman goes underground... Three more groups to be banned

Pakistan is planning to ban three more militant outfits active in Kashmir: Harkat-ul Mujahideen, Al Badar and Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami. The government is holding high level deliberations to ban these outfits and the announcement could come in the next few days. There have been reports of police arresting leaders and militants of these two groups. Police also raided the house of the leader of Harkat ul Mujahideen, Fazlur Rehman Khalil, but he managed to go underground.
If it's the same Fazlur Rehman, he's one of the signators of the Crusade Against Christians and Jews, along with Binny and al-Zawahri. It's be a lot better for world peace and the health and safety of numerous Pakistanis if he met with some sort of tragic accident.

Kashmir thugs bomb market

A bomb exploded in a busy market in Indian-administered Kashmir, killing one man in the first major suspected guerrilla attack since Pakistan began a crackdown on Islamic militants. The blast coincided with the arrival in New Delhi of Secretary of State Colin Powell on a mission to defuse tension between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan. Eight other people were injured in the blast, three critically. The makeshift bomb concealed in a drain exploded in the Kanakmandi market of Jammu, the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir. "This was obviously a militant attack. No sane element would do this," a police official said.
That statement pretty much sums it up in a nutshell (so to speak). From the point of view of an unbalanced mind, some "special gift" had to be prepared for Powell's arrival, especially given the crackdown on loons in Pakland. "Whatever you do, don't disagree with him. It'll set him off."

Crackdown on Bad Guys continues in Pakland

Police arrested scores of suspected militants in Kashmir and sealed dozens more offices of Islamic extremists as part of President Pervez Musharraf's crackdown on terrorism. In the latest raids, police closed offices of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jaish-e-Mohammed in the capital of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir as well as several other cities and towns of the region. Authorities also closed down offices of the Harakatul Inqalab-e-Islami, a smaller militant group. In most major cities and towns of Pakistani Kashmir, banners, billboards and wall-chalking calling for jihad against India have been removed. More arrests were also reported in Punjab, Sindh and other parts of Pakistan.
A country always looks better after a thorough housecleaning, doesn't it?

Three snuffies depart gene pool in Kashmir

The Indian army killed three militants in the first major gun battle between security forces and rebels since Islamabad outlawed two frontline pro-Kashmiri separatist groups in Pakistan. Police said the dead men belonged to the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Nice shootin', Mukkerjee! Lessee, here. That's 4,995 left to go.

Terror Networks
Al-Aqsa snuffy bumped off

Khamis Ahmed Ali, 42, a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, was killed near the Askar camp in a half-hour shoot-out. An Israeli military statement said that "a unit on operations overnight in the village of Askar, in a sector where Israel ensures security, surprised an armed terrorist who was killed in an exchange of fire." The death brought to 1,138 the number of people killed as a direct result of the intifada, or Palestinian uprising, including 874 Palestinians and 242 Israelis. His body was handed over to the Palestinians.
Snuffy will get a nice funeral, with lotsa people shaking their fists and shooting guns into the air to show their manhood. Then they'll forget about him move on to the next deader. Sad, isn't it? A person never expects his own death to be boring. Enjoy the virgins, Khamis.

Palestinian suicide thug shoots up Israeli wedding party

A gunman opened fire on a packed wedding hall in the Israeli city of Hadera, wounding some 20 people, police sources said. The sources said the attacker was a Palestinian, with a belt of explosives strapped on, who had also hurled a grenade. At least five people were killed. A source said the gunman was shot but it was not clear if he had been killed.
Well, we certainly hope he's not dead. There are some people who'd like very much to talk to such a heroic fellow. We've found that people are much less likely to be armed when they're at weddings, too.

PFLP sez it'll kill Palestinian Authority security chiefs if it can't have its way

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine threatened the lives of Palestinian Authority security chiefs if they do not stop arresting their members. "We warn the Palestinian Authority's security leaders, especially Tawfiq al-Tirawi, head of West Bank intelligence, and Ramallah police chief Mohammed Saleh, to stop arresting our members and leaders, otherwise our hand will reach them whatever guards they may have," the group said in a statement.
Any time now, they're gonna go to the matresses. These guys get their dialog from bad movies, don't they?

Israel jugs nine PFLP

Nine members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine were arrested by Israeli security services in the West Bank. They are accused of having prepared attacks against Jewish settlers with weapons provided by the PFLP in Nablus.
Bet those arrests made certain Palestinian Authority biggies happy. Imagine being able to say to yourself, "Maybe I'm gonna get blown up, but at least I know it ain't gonna be by Ali "Lips" Moussa or Hasni "Big Tony" al-Mansour." Wotta comforting feeling.

MNLF looking for an excuse to resume hostilities

Up to 50 members of the 400-member police "special mobile group", drawn from detained Muslim leader Nur Misuari's Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) guerrilla group, were to have been shipped out of Misuari's stronghold of Jolo. However, the men have refused to turn in their firearms and decamp, demanding that Army Scout Rangers and Marines also be pulled out of Jolo. "If their demand is not met, they may return to the hills," an official warned. The former rebels have been restricted to camp since Wednesday, when members of the unit allegedly butchered three Scout Rangers in a clash at the Jolo public market. The unit was also involved in a firefight with Marines in Jolo on Tuesday that left 32 people dead including nine Marines.
Not to be brutal or Machiavellian or anything, but wouldn't it be a lot more cost-effective if there was an "unfortunate accident"? Maybe something involving explosives?

The Alliance
Five al-Qaeda caught wearing women's clothes in Pakistan

Five suspected members of al-Qaida network were arrested in Pakistan after a high-speed car chase as they tried to flee into a tribal area out of the government's reach disguised in women's burqas. The men were taken into custody outside Daoud Khel in Punjab province after they struck a pedestrian and police chased them. Local police said the men included a Saudi, a Yemeni and at least one Pakistani.
Hey, guys. You're not in Afghanistan anymore and the Taliban's not there anymore. You'll have to stop when you hit one of the "natives" with your car. By the way, that's a stunning burqa, Adbul. Oooh, and there's matching underwear, too! How stylish!

Two Algerian snuffies charged in Britain

Two Algerian men allegedly involved in a plot to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Paris were charged with membership in al-Qaida and police said eight others were arrested under Britain's Terrorism Act in raids north of London. Brahim Benmerzouga, 30, was charged with directing terrorism, inciting terrorism overseas, membership in a proscribed organization and conspiracy to support terrorism by raising funds. Baghdad Meziane, 37, was charged with possession of racist videos and a solar-powered battery which could be used to power explosive devices or make satellite telephone calls. Both men had been detained by immigration authorities since their arrest on Sept. 25 in the city of Leicester, 100 miles north of London, according to the Crown Prosecution Service. The prosecutors said both men were suspected of involvement in the Paris embassy plot.
See you later, boys. Much later. Bet they're wondering how many times their names and aliases appear in those Afghan computer files.

Singapore info leads to Philippines arms cache

Philippine authorities dug up a cache of explosives and arrested three men with suspected links to al-Qaida network. Authorities were acting on information supplied by Singapore, which is investigating a suspected al-Qaida cell in its midst. Among the stockpile, authorities found cylinders of explosive materials packed in cartons and wrapped in blue plastic. The markings on the cylinders indicated they were manufactured in the Philippines province of Bataan, west of Manila. Police also dug up 17 dismantled M-16 rifles, detonation cords and other bomb-making materials. Officials would not release information on the three men arrested. Workers dug up the arms cache in the yard of a house rented by a man identified as Abu Ali Ramos in the village of Labangal.
Nice, the way all those little pieces of intel fit together. The hard drives in Afghanistan lead to the gunnies in Malaysia and Singapore, and the Singapore lead stretches to Indonesia and the Philippines.

Yemen to toss foreign religious fanatics

More than 100 foreigners enrolled in Muslim religious schools in Yemen, including British and French nationals, have been detained and are awaiting deportation, an official newspaper reported.
Yemen has enough trouble of its own, without importing it from elsewhere.

International
Sammy sez Iraq is ready to take on the US

Iraq won't be caught off guard if attacked by U.S. forces, sometime romance novelist and President-for-Life Saddam Hussein said. During an address marking the 11th anniversary of the start of the Persian Gulf War, Saddam accused the United States of resorting to war rather than dialogue. He warned it would lead to the United States' collapse "in the near future" as the world's sole superpower.
Yeah, yeah. Just shut up, Sammy. We'll get to you after we've taken care of the important stuff. Sammy's a good illustration of the difference between "terrorism" and "terrible." This guy's ego is bruised because no one's afraid of him.

Arafat: Israelis kill Palestinian children for spare parts

Wall Street Journal's Best of the Web today posts this link to Arafat's charge, via Islamic Association for Palestine press release, that Israelis kill Palestinian children and sell their body parts.
The truth is out there. This isn't it.

2002-01-16T19:43:00.000-08:00

India-Pakistan
Musharraf introduces electoral reforms...

President Pervez Musharraf has agreed to a long-standing demand from the non-Muslim minority for a single electorate system. The president also substantially increased the number of seats in the National Assembly and increased the quota of seats reserved for women in a series of reforms ahead of elections later this year. Under the existing separate system of voting, 10 seats were reserved for non-Muslim minorities, with exclusive elections for their communities. The system, introduced in 1985, was strongly opposed by non-Muslims, particularly Christians. "It will remove insecurity in the Christian community," said Shahbaz Bhatti, president of Christian Liberation Front. The National Assembly, dissolved after the 1999 coup which put Musharraf in power, will be increased from 237 seats to 350 in the elections expected to be held by October. The number of seats reserved for women has been raised from 20 to 60, and 25 new seats have been created for technocrats. The reforms also include a requirement that National Assembly candidates must hold a university bachelor's degree. That should be good for a raft of votes from grateful minorities, and at the same time should weaken the influence of the fundos. Requiring a bachelor's degree locks out the madrassah graduates. Not a bad move. Only thing that bothers me: Does everybody in Pakistan have a "Liberation Front"?

Almost 2,000 thugs rounded up in Pakland...

As part of a sweep ordered Saturday by President Musharraf, authorities have rolled across Pakistan, climbing compound walls, breaking down doors and arresting men they say are Islamic militants. Since Musharraf banned two anti-Indian groups and three other organizations, police have sealed 615 offices and arrested 1,957 suspects. Surprising, the number of arrests that took place in well-to-do neighborhoods. Yasss. Surprising. Heh heh.

Pakland cracks down on madrassahs...

The Pakistani government has sent a 21-point questionnaire to all madrasas and mosques in the country seeking adminstrative and functional details. The exercise is part of the implementation of the measures announced by President Musharraf in his televised speech to the nation against religious extremism and sectarianism on Saturday. The questionnaire seeks information on the year of the establishment of the madrasa or the mosque, the sect it belongs to, details of its office-bearers, its source of funding (government, local or private donations), and whether it is housed in in a built-up premises or mud structure. The madrasas not getting themselves registered with the government during the current exercise will be closed down, an official said. Also shut will be the seminaries found indulging in sectarianism, extremism and terrorism. There will be a great weeping and gnashing of teeth over this. They've fought previous efforts along the same lines tooth and nail.

Gunnies shoot up Lahore airport...

Two unidentified men exchanged gunfire with security men at the Lahore airport, wounding at least three security men. The gunmen, riding a car, fired volleys of bullets at the Airport Security Force officials at the main entrance. The security officials fired back, smashing the car's windshield, but the gunmen managed to escape. No group claimed the responsibility for the attack, which occurred when no flights were scheduled. There will be lots more of these little episodes as the Professionally Pious register their unhappiness with Musharraf.

Mysterious fire destroys records on banned groups...

The mysterious fire that broke out in a 16-storey state-owned building in Islamabad reportedly destroyed valuable records containing information on Islamic militant outfits, some of them which were banned by the Pakistan government. The 16-storey building was largely gutted in the fire and fire officials said that more than 10 floors were completely destroyed. The fire was initially noticed in the top 16th floor which housed the records of the militants outfits. Golly. What a surprise. Who could've expected such a thing? I'll bet you could knock Hamid Gul over with a feather.

125 Pak jihadis return from Afghanistan...

125 jihadis of the now-banned Tanzim Nifaz Shariat-i-Mohammadi (TNSM) arrived home after being released from prisons in Afghanistan. The activists were part of the thousands of other TNSM volunteers who had gone to Afghanistan led by their now-detained amer Maulana Sufi Muhammad in November. Hundreds have returned since the fall of the Taliban and thousands others are still unaccounted for, or are in prisons in Afghanistan. One of the activists said that at least 12,000 of the formr TNSM volunteers had been arrested in Kandahar, Kunduz and Kabul. That figure sounds a bit high. It's probably a euphemism for "a whole lot."

India eases stance with Pakland...

India said it was open to dialogue with Pakistan and called a speech by the Pakistani president "path-breaking." Indian Home Minister Lal K. Advani praised a speech in which President Musharraf condemned terrorism and vowed to curb Islamic militants. Advani's comments followed his return from Washington and came on the eve of a visit by Secretary of State Colin Powell. Musharraf appears to have taken a deep breath and set about doing things right. Here's hoping he's successful - and that none of his constituents shoots him.

Terror Networks
PLO arrests head of PFLP...

Israel has dismissed Chairman-for-Life Yasser Arafat's arrest of Ahmed Saadat, the head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said it was another faked arrest in Arafat's "empire of lies". Israel denies Arafat has made good on promises to crack down on radicals when he pledged a ceasefire last month that led to several weeks of relative calm. The Damascus-based PFLP, a secular left-wing faction of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, warned the arrest would sink the Palestinian Authority into "complete political confrontation with all nationalist and Islamic Palestinian forces, without exception, and with the Palestinian people in its entirety". Abdel Rahim Mallouh said a senior Palestinian Authority official had told the PFLP its chief was being invited to a political meeting. Awwww. We can't believe that! Arafat? Lie to somebody? You gotta be kiddin'! That'd never happen - not Mister Good Faith! (Actually, this little Parcheesi game is getting boring.)

Palestinian bumped off by mistake...

A Palestinian man carrying medical supplies was found dead in his car in the West Bank. Israeli police said gunmen apparently mistook him for a Jew. It was the third shooting death in two days on the West Bank. Oops. Sorry 'bout that.

MNLF violence continues in Philippines...

Five soldiers were killed in fresh fighting in the southern Philippines island base of jailed Moro National Liberation Front leader Nur Misuari, pushing the death toll to 37. Provincial governor Yusop Jikiri said the soldiers were attacked on Wednesday near the Jolo public market, a day after a firefight around a pro-Misuari rally nearby left up to 32 people dead, including nine soldiers and 20 Misuari supporters. The fighting occurred a week after Malaysia deported Misuari to stand trial for rebellion.
The tactic will be to escalate violent clashes to the point where the Great Man's release can be demanded with some chance of compliance. Some hostages, maybe a few head-choppings, and he's back on the streets.

Arroyo taking heat over US help against Abu Sayyaf...

President Gloria Arroyo has come under fire for the planned deployment of US Special Forces troops in the southern Philippines for joint operations against Abu Sayyaf. Senators demanded an intelligence briefing, and an opposition leader warned that both governments were retracing the circumstances that led to the US military debacle in the Vietnam War. First steps in opposing the operation: bring political pressure to bear to call it off.

Nepali Maoists stage jailbreak...

A group of Maoist terrorists attacked the central jail of Surkhet district in Nepal, and helped to free 32 inmates by digging a tunnel at the backside compound of the jail. One group of Maoists attacked the jail with guns and kept security personnel occupied by exchanging fire with them while others helped the inmates escape. Background noise. This is one of the few groups operating that's not associated with al-Qaeda. The politicals seem almost quaint.

The Alliance
Al-Qaeda money man turns himself in...

A leading financier of the al Qaida terrorist network has turned himself in at the airport in Kandahar. CNN, quoting U.S. military sources, reported early Wednesday that the as yet unnamed financier "literally showed up at the front gate ... and is now in custody." The financier's surrender came not long after American troops captured seven more prisoners. Military officials said it was not clear if the prisoners were from al Qaida or the Taliban, but they were captured in eastern Afghanistan, where defense officials believe al Qaida members are still at large. Nice to have the money guys. You get the checkbook, you get the organization.

Possible chem weapons discovered in Afghanistan...

US forces have discovered canisters at an undisclosed site in Afghanistan that from the outside appear to be chemical weapons. "There are canisters that have been found that ... externally .. appear to be weapons of mass destruction. But until we get into them, look at them, analyze it, find out what it was, we're not going to know," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said. He said the canisters appeared to contain chemical agents. Not a surprise. There were reports last month of cannisters labeled "Sarin" gas. Turned out they were empty.

Al-Libi sings, Yemen plot uncovered...

Foreign Ministry officials in Yemen said information received from the United States came from interrogations of a senior al-Qaida figure, Ibn Al-Shaykh al-Libi, who is in U.S. custody, tipped them to the threat against the US embassy in Sana'a. Al-Libi is a Libyan who ran some of bin Laden's training camps. The plan called for detonating a truck loaded with a ton of explosives. That's one blocked. There will be others. Eventually they'll manage to get one to work again. But until then, let's keep pushing our advantage. Doesn't sound like al-Libi expects to be going anywhere, ever. Otherwise he wouldn't have broken omerta.

Home Front
More al-Qaeda gunnies arrive at Guantanamo...

A third group of 30 Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners from Afghanistan arrived at the U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo. The arrivals bring the number of captives held at the "Camp X-Ray" detention center to 80. Perhaps Mary Robinson would like to pop by and care for them, since she's so concerned.

More charges against Maxwell Smart...

A new indictment against attempted Shoe Bomber ~~Maxwell Smart~~ "Richard Reid," included charges of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, attempted homicide of U.S. nationals overseas, placing explosive devices on an aircraft, attempted destruction of an aircraft, attempted murder of 197 passengers and crew, interfering with a flight crew, attempting to set fire and destroy an aircraft, and a new anti-terrorism offense, attempted wrecking of a mass transportation vehicle. Ummm... The sentiment is good, but I was always taught that "weapons of mass destruction" referred to Chemical, Biological and Nuclear weapons.

Sneaker Boy was al-Qaeda target scout...

Captured computer files in Afghanistan indicate "Reid's" travels last summer were a target scouting mission for al-Qaeda. "Brother Abdul Ra’uff" followed the same itinerary as Shoe Boy during the same time frame. A senior Israeli intelligence official says Israel is "positive" Reid was been sent to Israel by al-Qaida to scope out possible targets. That would seem to indicate "Brother Abdul" was a pretty trusted operative. It would also seem to line him up for the high jump.

Johnny Jihad to be charged with conspiracy to kill Americans...

The U.S. Justice Department charged American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh with conspiracy to kill Americans overseas. He will be tried in a civilian court and could face life in prison. The U.S. military, which has been holding Walker, will turn him over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation to face trial in the U.S. He was captured at Konduz and took part in the Kala-i-Jangi uprising. Mike Spann was killed at Kala-i-Jangi. Guilty. Shoot him. How come we haven't seen Mary Robinson dwelling on the illegality of the Kala-i-Jangi uprising?

Algerian boom boy jugged for 24 years...

Mokhtar Haouari, an Algerian who belonged to a militant Islamic group with suspected links to Osama bin Laden, was sentenced to 24 years in prison for his role in a plot to bomb the Los Angeles International Airport and U.S. millennium celebrations. Haouari, 33, was found guilty last July of conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist act by helping Ahmed Ressam bring explosives into the state of Washington from Canada in late 1999. Just lock him up and leave him there until somebody takes a hostage or two. It'll come.

Charges against five Symbionese Liberation Army goons...

Five members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, a radical U.S. group which gained fame in the 1970s by kidnapping newspaper heiress Patty Hearst, were charged with murder in connection with a 1975 bank robbery which killed a bystander. Authorities announced the charges after police raided homes in Oregon and California to arrest three of the suspects: Emily Harris, her ex-husband Bill Harris and Michael Bortin. Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully said that first degree murder charges would also be filed against Kathleen Ann Soliah, who as Sara Jane Olson pleaded guilty in October to aiding and abetting a separate crime committed by the extremist group, and James Kilgore, a former SLA member who remains at large. The murder charges stem from the April 21, 1975 shooting death of Myrna Opsahl, a 42-year-old mother of four who was shot and killed when the group raided the Crocker National Bank in Carmichael, California. Even if the perps are rounded up in an old folks' home, they should still be brought to trial, no matter how long ago it was. The victim will still be dead. There's no difference between them, Shoe Boy, Johnny Jihad, or the al-Qaeda snuffies at Guantanamo.

International
Mary Robinson sez al-Qaeda prisoners are POWs...

Taliban and al Qaida fighters held at a U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are prisoners of war who should be repatriated once armed hostilities end unless they face criminal charges, a U.N.'s human-rights official said. "The overwhelming view of legal opinion is that they were combatants in an international armed conflict and their status is defined and protected by the Geneva Conventions of 1949," said Mary Robinson, U.N. high commissioner for human rights. "They are prisoners of war." Asked about reports of an estimated 50 prisoners being drugged while transported and kept in outside cages, Robinson told reporters, "We are very concerned and are seeking to ascertain more information." Shucks, Mary. We sure are sorry we turned down your offer to round them up for us. Nice of you to step in and take charge, now that the shooting's over.

2002-01-16T13:37:00.000-08:00

Today's Pat and Mike Joke
Pat and Mike were approaching a Londonderry pub when there was suddenly an enormous explosion. A Prostestant bomb had gone off in the very building they were intending to visit. Quickly they ran toward the building, and as they did, a head rolled out of the smoldering ruins and across the pavement, to spin to a stop before them. Pat stooped, picked it up and held it for Mike to see.

"Sure now Mike, isn't this Sean Murphy?"

Mike looked closely, then let his breath out in relief. "No, Pat, no, it couldn't be. It's an amazin' resemblance, I'll admit, but Murphy is much taller than that."

2002-01-16T10:45:00.000-08:00

No Senzayuma Watch
Andrea points to an MSN article harping on PC office manners. She sez "Guess what? It's not nice to make fun of minorities! Wow. Who knew?"

Some things stick in your mind, and others stick in your craw. That article's been in the craw all night and throughout most of the day. I've jumped up and down to try and loosen it, and I had the Little Woman (less than 18 inches tall!) heimlich me a couple times, all with no success.

MSN must be a really crummy place to work, a place utterly devoid of humor. If the old senzayuma is what sets man apart from the animals, MSN must be overrun by swine. Think how many jokes you've ever heard in your life that haven't been at someone's expense, drawing a verbal caricature. Pat and Mike? The priest, the minister and the rabbi? Bruce and Lance? Alistaire and Percy? The French army? Abdul and his beloved camel? Cowboy Tom and the sheep? All the hundreds of Clinton jokes? "There were these two hookers, see?" How about Ole and Lena, every Chinese laundry joke ever told, and all those Polish jokes? Tyrone and Tyreene? Horny men? ("'Grewsome, isn't it?' - 'Yes, hasn't it!'") Little Johnny jokes are offensive to foul-mouthed little boys, Little Suzy jokes to promiscuous little girls. Perhaps elephant jokes don't offend a group from one point of view, but let's not be speciesist, or the Animal Liberation Front will burn your house down and PETA will sue you.

The really, really awful thing about PC is its utter lack of a senzayuma. The (small L) libertarian cringes at the attempt to control one's very thoughts. Comes the libertarian revolution, after we've shot all the professors of English and sociology and the staff of Salon, everyone will have to take his/her/its/their turn in the barrel of mockery. It is more (small D) democratic for a proud people to be able to offend not only everyone but anyone, with the question of who a person will offend at a given moment being left to tact and good manners.

2002-01-15T19:30:00.000-08:00

India-Pakistan
Musharraf sez no compromise on support to Kashmir struggle... Religious fanatic parties can't operate under new names... Pak gunnies to go underground... Paks can't find the money trail... 5,000 thugs on banned group rolls... Six religious fanatic leaders arrested in Quetta...

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said his government would never compromise its support for the Kashmiris' struggle against Indian rule despite its crackdown on Islamic militants. "There should be no doubt in any mind about our commitment to the Kashmir cause and the people of Kashmir," he said while addressing the inaugural session of the newly constituted National Kashmir Committee. "We will continue to support the just freedom struggle of Kashmiris politically, diplomatically and morally," the general was quoted as saying by the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just make sure they can the "armed struggle" approach. Talking's not as romantic as shooting and blowing things up, but it'll be more effective and it prevents radioactivity.

The Pakistan government said the five radical Islamic groups it banned at the weekend were prohibited by law from operating under new names. The interior ministry also said in a statement newspapers might be prosecuted if they published statements in support of the banned groups. The Nation newspaper on Monday quoted a spokesman from the banned Tehrik-e-Jafria Pakistan (TJP) as saying it would operate under the name of Quaid-i-Millat Jafria. Shucks. They hate it when that happens. They'd still be crazed killers even if they renamed themselves the Snuggly Puppy Party.

Pakistani militants belonging to the five banned outfits have gone underground to circumvent the order of President Pervez Musharraf. Commanders of the rebel groups have ordered thousands of followers to go into hiding. Many have already changed their identities. In another move to prevent their telephone messages from being tapped, Islamic militants said they were working to build a communication network that would enable them to continue their actions without tipping off the authorities. A follower of Lashkar-i-Taiba said that members would keep in touch with one another via "web-based e-mail, internet bulletin boards and electronic paging, as well as short-messaging services on their mobiles." If they'd been doing it right from the start, they'd already be hidden underground. Up until now, Pakland hasn't even been trying to make it hard on the snuffies.

Pakistani officials have had little success in tracking down the financial assets of the terrorists. The Central Bank has so far found no money in their accounts. No surprise. Lots of their money's in ISI coffers, but probably the bulk of it is in the accounts of affiliated "charities" and other dummies. Look into religious institutions' accounts, too; there'll be a bunch there. The remainder's outside the country - not that much, 'cause it's harder to reach - and in wife and kiddy accounts, a single remove from the actual user. You're welcome. Glad to help.

Pakistan's Interior Ministry has estimated that the five Kashmiri rebel groups have about 5,000 people on their rolls, many of them trained in guerrilla warfare. That's really not a huge "army" in a state of 150 million or so. They'll form a threat to law and order until the money runs out - not from their own coffers, but from al-Qaeda and whoever's the next level up from Osama bin Laden. Once that's gone, they'll wither away because they'll have to get jobs.

Militants ambushed BSF patrol parties at two places, injuring a sub-inspector in Jammu and Kashmir where two gunnies, including a self-styled district commander of Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen, were arrested. Well, guess that's 4,998 left on the rolls. We're making progress, aren't we?

Police arrested six leaders of religious parties as part of the crackdown on activists of extremist organizations. The leaders were taken into custody when they gathered outside the Quetta Press Club to address a press conference. Meanwhile, provincial authorities raided over 160 madrassahs functioning in different parts of Balochistan. Golly. That's terrible. Those poor, pious holy men! Well, Hazel, guess things'll be quiet around there for awhile.

The Alliance
US intel going over the books with Kuwait... MILF in cease-fire with Philippines... MILF to give up kidnaping hobby... Levin sez we may shake the Saudi dust from our feet...

An American intelligence delegation is meeting with several security, financial and banking officials in Kuwait to collect information about bank accounts and names in the framework of the terrorism-fighting campaign. The least glamorous part of intelligence gathering is wading through piles of financials. It's also among the most productive parts. Bet all those address books and check stubs they picked up in Afghanistan made the search a lot easier.

The Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have agreed to set up local monitoring teams to ensure compliance with the ceasefire and rehabilitation agreement they signed in August. The agreement calls for a halt to the fighting, normalization in the conflict areas in Mindanao, and relief, rehabilitation and development programs. Representatives of government and MILF negotiating panels met in Cotabato City on the composition of the monitoring teams, which will include representatives of local government units, two non-government organizations, and the religious sector. The negotiating panels have also urged representatives of the Organization of Islamic Conference to "observe and monitor" the ceasefire as well as the implementation of an agreement contained in a joint communiqué the two sides issued on Aug. 7. How interesting. Yesterday US Special Forces were on their way to advise the government troops, today MILF (they changed their name?) is ready to adhere to the agreement they made last year. Sadly for Abu Sayyaf, the openly al-Qaeda affiliated group won't have the option. They'll have to change their hats and pretend to be somebody else, or else go to Yemen.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front vowed to impose “harsh sanctions” against its members who are involved in kidnapping. Ghazali Jaafar, MILF vice chair for political affairs, issued the stern warning following police and military reports about alleged links of some MILF rebels to kidnapping groups in Mindanao. The warning came in the wake of a threat from Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte that he would lead an attack against MILF camps that were being used as sanctuaries of kidnapping groups. Ain't it coincidental that they should decide to go out of the kidnaping business now? Next thing you know, they'll stop chopping people's heads off. Of course, jihad won't be quite as much fun without it.

The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee wants the United States to close the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia and shift its air operation to another base in the region, possibly Bahrain. "The situation at the Saudi base seems very unclear. We may need to move that base," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. "I have an unease about our presence in Saudi Arabia. I think we may be able to find a place where we are much more welcomed openly." Levin added that behind the scenes, the Saudi government is no more welcoming than it behaves publicly. "I do think there is a real problem when we are told by a country, presumably an ally, doesn't want us to be seen," he said. "They act as though somehow or other they are doing us a favor." As the Saudis told Bush last August, the time may have come for a parting of the ways. Bahrain or Abu Dhabi might appreciate us more than our "best friends" the Saudis. And next time Iraq decides to roll south, maybe they'll pass Kuwait and take Saudi Arabia instead. Should that come to pass, we might have to have our national hair done, so we won't be able to make it to the defense until all the Saud family is in Monaco or Biarritz. There might even be a personable young Emir in Bahrain or Abu Dhabi who wouldn't mind too much picking up the governmental reins in Arabia.

Terror Networks
Al-Aqsa bumps off somebody's granddad... Palestinian snuffies shoot another woman... Philippine political rally leaves 20 dead... MNLF coordinating with Abu Sayyaf...

Two Israelis, one of them an 72-year-old man, were killed in West Bank attacks, despite official Palestinian insistence that a truce with Israel was still in force. Avi Boaz, 72, a resident of the Maale Adumim Jewish settlement, was found with a bullet wound to the head in Beit Sahur, a Palestinian town near Bethlehem. Israel accused the Palestinian naval police of complicity in Boaz's abduction and killing at a police checkpoint, saying they had either turned a blind eye, or possibly even helped. The killing was claimed by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. Al-Aqsa said the settler was "an officer of the Zionist intelligence services" and that his killing was "a lesson ... for those with the blood of our people on their hands". Yeah. So let that be a warning to all those septuagenarian secret agents. Besides, they're so much easier to bump off than the younger ones. Less likely to be armed, too.

Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli woman and injured another in a drive-by shooting at the gates of the Jewish settlement of Givat Zeev. Fatah leaders insisted a ceasefire declared by Arafat a month ago was still in force. Yeah. An old man and a woman - no big thing. Inconsequential. Just ignore them while we "negotiate."

Army troops in civilian clothes reportedly fired at a 10,000-strong rally in Jolo, Sulu by supporters of Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) founder Nur Misuari and then shot it out with responding police forces, leading to at least 20 deaths and numerous casualties. Col. Jose Mabanta, Armed Forces spokesman, said nine Marines, two cops, three civilians and a Moro National Liberation Front integree were killed. At least six other persons were wounded though some reports put the number of wounded at 18. Initial reports were confusing, but sources said the fighting started after cops arrested at least one Marine in civilian clothes for carrying a grenade. Sounds like a wonderful time was had by all, except for the dead. MNLF sez the government set it up to justify having the Americans work with the locals against them, but this sounds more like a traditional Philippine political rally.

The Abu Sayyaf and armed followers of MNLF leader Nur Misuari are fortifying their forces in preparation for launching attacks in Western Mindanao. The leader of the Misuari forces, Papa Jalaide, has been meeting with Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Inundail since Jan. 8 in Sulu. Jalaide, together with several leaders of Abu Sayyaf including Ghalib Andang alias "Commander Robot" and Mujib Susukan, were among those charged for rebellion along with Misuari for leading the attack on an Army headquarters in Sulu in November. More than 100 people, mostly Misuari loyalists, were killed in the attack. A formidable enemy, indeed. I've often thought of naming myself "Commander Robot." It has such a romantic ring.

International
Sudan peace talks in Switzerland...

Ceasefire talks in Switzerland between the Sudanese government and the main rebel group have got off to a positive start. The two sides are meeting behind closed doors in the central Swiss town of Burgenstock to try and agree on a ceasefire in the mountainous Nuba region. Eleven representatives of the Khartoum government and seven members of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) arrived in Burgenstock, near Lucerne, for talks sponsored by Switzerland and the United States. Wonder if the government negotiators brought any slaves with them. They do make such thoughtful gifts. Sure is nice to see this set of Taliban trying to get civilized.

2002-01-14T18:09:00.000-08:00

India-Pakistan
India waiting and watching... Over 500 arrested in Punjab... Pak mullah sez Islamic revolution brewing... Afghan Defense Council mullah calls for riots in Peshawar... Hurriyat tries to put a good face on it... Lashkar will try to carry on... Pak Muslim League just hates it... Baker's dozen snuffies decomposing in Kashmir...

Defense minister George Fernandes made it clear that India will not pull back its troops from the borders with Pakistan until General Musharraf translates his words into ‘‘concrete action’’ on the ground. The onus is now on the Pakistani President to ‘‘act fast’’ to deliver on his commitments. ‘‘The mobilization of Indian forces at the border is complete and any effort at de-escalation can come only, and I repeat only, if and when cross-border terrorism is effectively stopped,’’ said Fernandes on the eve of his visit to the US. Can't expect much yet. If Musharraf can hold it together through a crackdown on the psychoceramics things'll get better. But India's probably still got as much chance of facing a religious loon as Musharraf's successor sometime soon.

Government officials say they envisage a step-by-step process of rapprochement, should Musharraf persist on his reform course. ‘‘We will not be wanting for a response whenever Pakistan does anything positive, but we will not stick our necks out either,’’ says a senior Cabinet minister. Yeah. Don't take it too fast, and lend a hand when you can. The fundos are a significant minority in Pakland, but they're not that big a minority. The Paks really should think "secular," though. That's their ultimate salvation.

At least 254 offices of four banned religious militant groups have so far been sealed and 533 activists arrested in the Punjab. Good haul. The Bad Guys say the number was higher, but they tell lies even when they don't have to.

A Pakistani Muslim cleric said President Pervez Musharraf's sweeping crackdown on religious extremism was sowing the seeds of Islamic revolution. Maulana Abdul Aziz, imam of Islamabad's main Red Mosque, said while there had been no immediate backlash to Musharraf's crackdown, announced on a Saturday, a reaction was brewing. "This government is paving the way for Islamic revolution by creating hurdles for the Islamic parties. There may not be instant reaction but they will respond once dust is settled," the preacher said of Musharraf's decision to ban five militant Muslim groups, including two fighting Indian forces in Kashmir. Here's hoping he continues his rant in jail soon. But we suspect the worst he'll get is house arrest.

"Jihad runs in our blood, and it can't be eliminated just by banning few groups in the country," said Maulana Samiul Haq, chief of the Afghan Defense Council, a coalition of 35 pro-Taliban Islamic militant groups. He called on all Muslims to join in an anti-government demonstration Jan. 27 in Peshawar. Hell, yeah! Jihad's lots more fun than getting a job and working for a living and being a good citizen. And it pays more, when you're a mullah. If you're really lucky, you can make your country just like Afghanistan was.

Syed Ali Geelani, a prominent Jamiat-i-Islami leader and former chairman of the All-Pakistan Hurriyat Council, said, ‘‘It is encouraging to note that Pakistan would continue to offer political, diplomatic and moral support to Kashmiris.’’ Senior Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq categorically rejected Musharraf’s declaration that Pakistan would not allow extremists to perpetuate terrorism in the name of ‘‘Kashmir struggle’’. ‘‘Musharraf’s declaration would not prevent Kashmiri from carrying on the ‘freedom struggle’, he said. Hurriyat conduits in Pakistan have also informed its leadership in Srinagar to lie low following Musharraf’s speech. Meanwhile, besides arresting four middle-level Hurriyat leaders, in Srinagar and Anantnag, police raided the houses of Hurriyat leaders. Police also searched the houses of two relatives of senior Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani in Buchpora. The Paks are now implementing the much-needed crackdown. Hopefully it'll continue.

Even if Pakistan follows up on its President‘s declaration against supporting terrorism, an immediate end to militancy in the Valley is unlikely. Laskhar-e-Taiba and other Pakistan-based militant outfits have reiterated their resolve to continue the ‘‘holy war’’ in Jammu and Kashmir. Army sources point out the ammunition dumped by the militants over the past 12 years will help them carry on for six more months at least even if Pakistan actually stops sending consignments of arms and ammunition to militants. According to a Laskhar militant Abdul Majid alias Batta, there are about 2,000 young boys in the LeT ranks operating here, who are indoctrinated to the extent that they would kill even their parents to carry out their Amir‘s (leaders) orders. If the Bad Guys let up at all, they're finished. Right now they're probably trying real hard to find more funding - assuming the ISI really cuts them off.

Secretary General of Pakistan Muslim League Saranjam Khan has said that Gen Pervez Musharraf had strengthened the weak and anaemic case of the terrorist state of India by succumbing to her unjust demands. Ummm. Yep. We can put him down in the "no" column.

Indian troops shot dead 13 "freedom fighters" including two alleged Dutch gunmen. Indian security forces claimed that two of the slain militants were from the Netherlands and said they were gunned down after they attacked a patrol in Srinagar. "Armed with knives the two attacked a BSF patrol party, injuring two of our men," an Indian army spokesman said. "Alert BSF personnel guarding the gate of the hotel shot the two dead." The BSF identified them as "el-Bakiolli Ahmed" and "el-Hussuowi Khaliq" and said they held Dutch passports. Five members of Kashmir's Hizbul Mujahideen group were also shot dead in separate gunbattles in southern Kashmir. Two of them were from Pakistan. Six other gunmen were killed in other fights in the area. That's the stuff. Keeping on shooting and knifing. Import a few outside gunnies. And then sit around and try to figure out why the government's cracking down on you just for bringing the nation to the brink of nuclear war.

Terror Networks
Palestinian networks back in business...

An Israeli soldier was killed in ambush and his officer was injured Monday hours after a Palestinian militant accused of killing at least nine Israelis died in a bomb explosion. The flare-up follows the death of Raed Mahmoud Raaf Carmi, 27, chief of Fatah's armed wing in Tul Karem. Carmi was killed when a bomb exploded near his car while he was walking in the street. Palestinian Information Minister, Yasser Abed Rabbo, said the attack "represents a new escalation. It is an invitation by the Israeli government for a suicide attack. This is more playing with fire. This is a clear representation of the intentions of (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon and his government." Israel Radio quoted Fatah's al Aksa Brigades as assuming responsibility for the soldier's death and saying the cease-fire was cancelled because of the attack on Carmi. Israeli officials did not assume responsibility for Carmi's death -- one of them terming it a "work accident," a euphemism for having a bomb go off prematurely and killing the person building the bomb or planting it -- but said it proves the Palestinians lied when they said he was in custody. More background noise killings. Life's so boring when when a cease-fire is in effect. Can't prove your manhood without potting a few Jews now and then.

The Alliance
Three Brit al-Qaeda in Guantanamo, more on the way... 450 al-Qaeda in custody... Banditi kidnap American in Afghanistan... US to lend a hand in Philippines... Threat to embassy in Yemen...

Three Britons are among suspected al-Qaeda and Taleban prisoners being held by US forces on Cuba. Six more Britons suspected of links to the Taleban or al-Qaeda in Afghanistan are reportedly being sent to the camp. Enjoy your Caribbean vacation boys. Don't have too many Bahama Mamas!

The U.S. military now holds almost 450 "extremely dangerous" prisoners, 20 of them at Guantanamo. Another 30 prisoners are en route to the jail, comprised of a series of open 6-by-8-foot cells. U.S. Marines and Army soldiers have 361 "detainees" at Kandahar and 52 in Bagram. Even more important than the detritus of al-Qaeda are all those notes, papers, computers and phone lists they're picking up.

The United States said it was investigating reports that an American citizen had been kidnapped in Afghanistan and was being held hostage. "The details are unclear. The Bureau of Consular Affairs is in touch with the American's supposed wife, and with Embassy Islamabad," a State Department spokeswoman said. War's over. Let's get back to the traditional business of the country.

U.S. special forces will join the Philippine military in operations against Muslim guerrillas, but will limit themselves to advice and will not take part in combat. The operation, billed as a joint exercise, will be the first significant military expansion of Washington's war against terrorism beyond Afghanistan. In line with curbs in the Philippine constitution, the special forces and other U.S. troops supporting them will not go into battle themselves against the rebels. Not a good place to be, but the PI will be better off without Abu Sayyaf. They seem to be doing a good enough job themselves against the Moro National Liberation Front. Unless they can line up new funding, both groups should be slowly evaporating within the next six months.

The U.S. Embassy in the Yemeni capital Sanaa tightened security and suspended some services after the Yemeni government passed on information suggesting "an increased terrorist threat." Yemeni authorities deployed extra police around the embassy and closed off some nearby streets after a caller told embassy staff that the mission and U.S. citizens would be attacked. A State Department official said the threat was linked to al Qaeda. The remnants will need to have some sort of a hit in the near future just to convince the jihadis that they're still alive and operating.

International
Sudan offers cease-fire...

Sudanese President Omar Hassan Bashir offered to temporarily stop bombing rebel positions for four weeks in a meeting with former Sen. John Danforth, President Bush's special envoy to the conflict. "We offered to declare a voluntary, unilateral cessation of aerial bombing for four weeks as a test," Bashir's top adviser on the conflict, Ghazi Salah el-Din Atabani said. Atabani said he hoped the move would "prepare the atmosphere for a comprehensive cease-fire." U.S. officials in Danforth's delegation were skeptical. Are he trying to make the point that just because he practices slavery he's still not in the same category as the Taliban? US prestige would appear to be up.

2002-01-11T13:20:00.000-08:00

Middle East
Palestinians bust three for arms shipment...

Palestinian security forces arrested three Palestinian officials accused by Israel of involvement in a bid to smuggle a shipload of weapons seized by Israeli commandos last week. An internal panel of inquiry appointed by the Palestinian Authority said the men were called for questioning and then taken into custody. They are Major-General Fuad al-Shobaki, director-general of finance for all the Palestinian Authority's security apparatus; Fathi al-Razen, deputy commander of Palestinian naval police; and Adel al-Mughrabi, a high-ranking officer in the naval police. The announcement was made shortly after Secretary of State Colin Powell backed Israel's demand that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat arrest those responsible for the alleged smuggling plot. Bet that "interrogation" started with the words "What the hell were you thinking?"

2002-01-11T13:14:00.000-08:00

The Alliance
Gunnies being relieved of Russian-made manhood at Spin Boldak... Somalia is "terrorized" by the US...

U.S. troops began disarming militia fighters in the town of Spin Boldak. Security men of Gul Agha Shirzai, governor of Kandahar, had also disarmed many of the private militias in the city. A Reuters reporter saw two U.S. soldiers enter a room at a checkpoint set up by a militia group near the border with Pakistan while a third soldier stood guard outside. A few minutes later the soldiers emerged from the room carrying about 16 Kalashnikov rifles that they dumped in their vehicle. Cheese. Next thing you know those guys are gonna have to get jobs.

The president of Somalia's transitional government said his people had been "terrorized" by a U.S. propaganda campaign portraying the country as a possible haven for Osama bin Laden's followers. President Abdiqassim Salad Hassan said that fears of U.S. military strikes were hindering efforts to bring peace to the country. Abdiqassim said his government had set up a committee to combat terrorism and arrested several suspects, but its efforts were being hampered by a lack of resources. The government still only controls parts of the capital Mogadishu and other patches of territory, competing with warlords who flourished after the fall of military ruler Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991. Gosh. That's really terrible to be so terrorized. Are you having bad dreams of dead warlords' bodies being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu? If the central "government" has so little control, perhaps it should ask for assistance.

2002-01-11T10:56:00.000-08:00

Anti-Terror Operations
Singapore springs two sympathizers, keeps 13 live ones... Bad Guys shipped express to Guantanamo...

The Singapore government has released two of 15 suspected terrorists arrested last month, but the remaining 13 will be detained for two years under the Internal Security Act. The 13 men are members of the clandestine organization JI, and eight are confirmed to have gone to Afghanistan for training in al Qaida terrorist training camps. Before leaving for Afghanistan, members of JI conducted religious studies and physical training in Malaysia. The ministry claimed the local JI organization is part of a larger JI network with cells in Malaysia and Indonesia. Officials said the group was part of a larger organization called a "shura," which is headed by Hambali Nurjaman Riduan Isamuddin, who is wanted by the Indonesian and Malaysian authorities. The two persons released were not members of JI, but they had donated funds they had collected to the Philippine Moro Islamic Liberation Front purportedly for its welfare organizations. The original UPI article has a good discussion of the structure of the terror network: the "shura" (council) is made up of regional-level organizations like Jamaat Islami, which in turn contain functional arms - "fiahs." The fiahs are made up of a number of cells, consisting of 3 - 5 members each.

The first group of al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners arrived at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo under heavy guard, shipped fresh from Afghanistan. The 20 shackled prisoners are the first of at least 371 detainees to be shipped away from the region. Enjoy your Caribbean vacation, boys! You might want to consider taking a cruise next time.

The United States , ending a post-Sept. 11 trend of avoiding criticizing Russia's campaign in Chechnya, accused Moscow of using "overwhelming force" in its battle with Muslim rebels there. The sharp words came a day after Moscow announced results of one its bloodiest crackdowns in the secessionist province for a year, saying it had killed 92 rebels in a month. The US has just used "overwhelming force" in Afghanistan with good results. The Chechens made up a significant portion of the problem we faced there. What makes the State Department think they're "freedom fighters" back home? How can the al-Qaeda ties be ignored? The US should be congratulating the Russians - and expressing sympathy for their dead and wounded.

2002-01-11T08:59:00.000-08:00

Bread and Circuses
Politically correct revisionism in Noo Yawk... OJ to honor Ground Zero with his presence... Enron shredded evidence... Museum works to trivilialize the Holocaust... California congressman scores 50 Grand in pork for tatoo removal... California to sue PG&E for going bankrupt...

At the behest of the Professionally Sensitive, a model of the three firefighters raising the flag which was unveiled on December 21, to have replicated the photo exactly, was reworked to depict firefighters of three different races (the original three were all white), because "people of all races contributed to the rescue effort." OJ is expected to tour Ground Zero as part of a new documentary he's making about his "life and times and the American justice system." The firm that audited the books of collapsed Enron Corp., Arthur Andersen LLP, disclosed that a "significant but undetermined" number of documents related to the company had been destroyed. A Jewish museum's planned exhibit that includes a Lego concentration camp and "designer" canisters of poison gas was criticized as trivializing the atrocities committed during World War II. Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif., scored $50,000 in federal funding last month for a tattoo removal program in her Santa Barbara, Calif., district. California's attorney general filed suit against PG&E Corp., alleging the San Francisco-based company engaged in illegal, unfair and fraudulent business practices that drove its utility subsidiary Pacific Gas and Electric Co. into bankruptcy.
PC Rampant, OJ, Stinking Corruption, Trivializing the Suffering of 6 Million, Pork, and Demagogues. I repeat: Mickey Kaus was right, just a little off on his time frame. Which shall we choose? The Banality of Evil? Or the Evil of Banality?

2002-01-10T09:32:00.000-08:00

Beirut Daily Star reports on a meeting of leading Sunni and Shiite figures in Beirut this week. Where to start? At a conference held in the Commodore Hotel, some 130 clerics from the Far East, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East were in attendance.

Speaking during the opening of the two-day conference for the Saving Jerusalem and Support for the Palestinian People, the heads of the Lebanese and Palestinian resistance movements and senior Shiite and Sunni clerics stressed the role that clergymen could play in promoting the Palestinian cause.

It seems the involvement of the clergymen - the ayatollahs, mullahs, emirs, muftis and whatnots - has been the factor that's inflamed the situation from a frustrating localized dispute to the status of a world war.

Hizbullah’s Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah spoke about “the need for honest fatwas,” and also the threat of “killing the essence of the resistance.”

“This threat can only be overcome with the help of the ulema all around the Muslim world,” Nasrallah said.

Over the last two decades, resistance movements in Lebanon and Palestine have been recognized as groups “qualified for victory,” Nasrallah said, citing their suicide operations and unceasing willingness to undertake resistance activities.

This piece of seemingly meaningless blather actually states that the Lebanon and Palestine thugs have been leading the fight and that they are the ones who should be in charge when victory comes their way. Arafat and his PLO aren't mentioned. To use an Israeli term, he's "irrelevant."

Nasrallah argued that the main character of a “mujahid” is his strong belief in God and his will to die in his name. “This belief creates inside of him an unimaginable ability to tolerate pain,” he said.

Well, yes. Allowing oneself to be detonated would seem to indicate a willingness to tolerate pain, at least briefly. Unaddressed is whether this is a good thing or a bad thing.

“When voices hired by leading news televisions and satellite channels come and say that suicide attacks are against religion, that they are not a form of martyrdom, and that standing in the face of Israel under the prevailing circumstances will lead to destruction of the nation, they shake the belief of resistance fighters,” he said.

Truth or falsity isn't addressed, merely the desirability of the fatwah from the standpoint of propaganda. If in fact the suicide attacks are against religion, and the suicidists do in fact go to hell rather than cavorting with almond-eyed virgins for eternity, that would tend to discourage self-detonation, thereby harming the Cause. The Cause, in good totalitarian tradition, is more important than the individuals making it up and in whose name it is purportedly being run.

“We are not asking for political fatwas that justify the strategic decisions that we have already adopted. We are only asking for honest fatwas,” Nasrallah said.

Unless the fatwahs run counter to the strategic decisions, of course.

The head of Hamas’ politburo, Khaled Mashaal, invited clergymen across the Muslim world to “arouse the nation” to interact and support the resistance. He also stressed the importance of talking about suicide operations and their status regarding the concept of jihad.

One could point out that they talk about little else in Hamas circles. But the Learned Elder of Islam is addressing the fact that suicide bombing is in danger of falling out of favor, along with the jihad mentality, in the wake of the thumping it has received from the US.

Mashaal also underlined the necessity of finding a Muslim definition for terrorism “in the face of the American and Zionist definition of the term” and expressed his hope that international events would not shake Arab and Islamic values, goals and principles. “The resistance will continue, it is our destiny, and our strategic alternative,” Mashaal said.

In other words, "It's what we do." Finding a "Muslim definition of terrorism" involves some sort of semantic convolution which will exclude active terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, and somehow include "state-sponsored terrorism" by the USA and Israel. The ideal definition by these lights will include a statement that no act perpetrated by a Muslim can be defined as terrorism unless it is directed against other Muslims.

As for the regional peace process, Mashaal said it was insufficient to merely reject the settlement and announce the failure of the negotiations. He found it necessary to assess the peace process “as a reaction to those who are still trying to promote it and the insistence of the Arabs to support it and to give it a chance.”

In other words, not only must the peace process be discredited, but so also must those trying to support it - another dig at Arafat and his "moderate" factions. Note here that there is no suggestion of offering a counterplan to portions of the "peace process" that don't meet with the Learned Elders' approval. Peace motions are to be accepted or rejected in toto. The exchange of opinions goes only one way.

“The project (to establish a political settlement with Israel) has torn our people apart, destroyed our national unity, and turned a part of our people into servants of Israel’s security,” Mashaal said.

They should be killed or at least discredited. If discredited, they can be shot after victory.

He said the peace option has weakened a part of the political leadership of the Palestinian people, “many of whom have become professional beggars.”

That doesn't mean their funding has been cut off - that won't happen - but that they're begging for crumbs of peace from the negotiating table.

Senior Shiite cleric Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah invited clergymen to educate Muslims about the essence of the Palestinian cause, because “the Islamic world lacks awareness and cultural appreciation of this issue.”

Yeah. Sometimes they think about eating or something. They've got to drop those bad habits and concentrate on the important stuff, like jihad.

Discussing the history of the Palestinian issue, Fadlallah said that the problem with Arabs is that they always react rather than have their own plan. He lamented their disorganization in the face of the Zionist project, which was carefully designed 100 years ago.

Yasss. Obviously Zionism is a carefully laid plot, a hundred years old, perpetrated against the innocent Arabs, and they have to form their own counterplot to foil it. This is a world view that gives psychosis a bad name.

“The international game began, and Zionism started interfering in the Arab and Islamic world, instigating sectarian friction and introducing the fever of military coups and ideologies,” Fadlallah said.

Over the last 50 years, the Arabs chose to act within small circles that eventually crippled them and induced them to fight wars against each other and boycott one another, Fadlallah said.

Damn those Jews for introducing military dictatorships, assassination, bad faith, wars, pestilence, a crummy educational system, and mistreating women! Wait. Strike that last one. Arabs don't mistreat women. Anyway, all the problems of the Muslim world can be laid at the door of the Jews, except for the ones that can be laid at the door of the Americans.

Iranian cleric Sayyed Ali Akbar Mohtashami, invited ulema to promote the creation of a fund for the support of Palestine. He also criticized the American bias toward Israel as well as America’s actions in the United Nations.

Yes! Yes! We need more contributions! Why, there are holy men living on meager salaries. There are gunmen whose families are going hungry. Give 'til it hurts, brother! (that's a quote from the eminent Muslim cleric Ali Akhbar Gantry)

“Many countries and organizations have been urging the United Nations and the Security Council, since the beginning of the uprising, to send supervisors to the occupied land and to put an end to the massacres taking place there. This has repeatedly been vetoed by the United States,” he said, asking rhetorically whether the US was a member of the UN or controlled the world body.

Yes to the former, no to the latter. It would seem that people who practice self-detonation would be able to control the urge themselves. And when peacekeepers were sent to Lebanon they were blown up by suicide bombers.

Mohtashami also said the international community was well aware that Palestinian resistance was a legitimate right, “a right also stipulated by the UN charter.”

Just as Israel's right to exist is recognized in a UN resolution, though not quite as unequivocably. Clausewitz described war as diplomacy by other means, but then he was a westerner, so what the hell did he know?

Sheikh Yehia Ismail Ahmad, secretary-general of the Azhar Ulema, invited all Muslims and Arabs to join forces and criticized Washington’s handling of the Palestinian issue.

And Washington should roundly criticize the Arabs' handling of the Palestinian issue. There's a tit for your tat.

Ahmad said that while many Palestinian mothers are not able to find anyone to cry with them over the loss of their sons and daughters in the conflict, former US President Bill Clinton recently issued a statement to mark the loss of his dog.

The dog was hit by a car. He didn't blow himself up. Well, maybe he did stage a suicide attack on a Buick, but he didn't know any better. Perhaps the Palestinians don't, either?

Speaking on behalf of the Syrian Mufti Ahmad Kaftaro, Sheikh Raja Dib invited Arabs and Muslims to overcome their differences and to cooperate in order to reach victory. “Our world is witnessing a peculiar situation where the colonial media describes the resistance of unarmed citizens as terrorism,” Dib said.

Our world is also witnessing a peculiar situation in which the Arabs somehow confuse Kalashnikov-totin' yahoos strapped with dynamite with unarmed citizens. If they were truly unarmed, if they were (dare we suggest it?) non-violent there would be lots of room to talk and lots of room to criticize Israel. But you can't have "armed struggle" without occasional 50-ton shipments of armaments, can you?

2002-01-10T03:40:00.000-08:00

Anti-Terror Operations
Somalia already getting too hot to hold the snuffies... Somali PM sez they're cleaning up the act... Still bombing Khost cave complex... Terrorist havens shutting down...

Warlords from Somalia and terrorists linked to the al Qaeda network have been spotted moving from the African state to nearby nations. A group was spotted recently as they fled to Yemen. The Somalian fighters' movement comes amid growing reports that the United States is considering military operations against al Qaeda terrorists in that country. They are now on the run. What a nice feeling. Just hope they don't let them stop to regroup.

The president of Somalia's transitional government ruled out any US strike on his country, which he said no longer harbors terrorist organisations. "We have succeeded in opening a direct dialogue with the Americans and we do not think the United States will carry out any kind of strike against Somalia," Abdulkassim Salat Hassan said. "Somalia no longer harbours camps of al-Qaeda network. Somalia is in the anti-terrorist camp." Somalia's Prime Minister Hassan Abshir Farah said Sunday that "bin Laden can't come to Somalia and get safe haven... We have trained 26,000 police. We can find and arrest anyone they tell us to." Fine. Start with Mohammad Aideed. We'd like his head on a platter with an apple in his mouth. When you've got him, we'll tell you who to go after next. Better hurry, before they're all gone to Yemen. Must say, they seem to be taking it a lot more seriously than the mullahs did.

Bombing raids were carried out for a fifth day against a large cave complex in eastern Afghanistan where al Qaeda and Taliban forces have been trying to regroup. U.S. warplanes attacked the complex near Zhawar Kili, destroying several buildings, defense officials said. Mopping up Afghanistan will take a long time - and it doesn't look like we're going to get any help from the Pashtun section of the country. If the Bad Guys can stage a single major success, it'll be a propaganda victory for them that could cause some of the Taliban to "unsurrender."

Christian Science Monitor has an analysis piece that says terrorist havens have begun shutting down around the world. Countries such as Yemen and Sudan are at least attempting a crackdown. Countries that have battled insurgencies with terrorist links - the Philippines, for one - are eager to redouble their efforts, with increased U.S. help. Yeah. But let up in our efforts for a month or two and they'll start crawling back out from under their rocks. The hardest part about sustaining this war will be when they're in hiding and the public can't see a danger remaining. Attention's already turned from al-Qaeda to Cornell West and Paula Zahn, both of which "controversies" make the Condit affair look substantial. Mickey Kaus was just off by a couple months.

India-Pakistan
Pak to adopt a moderate path?... Musharraf gets go-ahead to ban Bad Guys from military... Bhutto's party calls for independent election commission, dropping of charges... Pak jugs another Jaish biggie...

President Pervez Musharraf will tell his countrymen this week that after 20 years of rampant extremism, the South Asian nation will return to its original values as a modern, tolerant Islamic state, according to the country's foreign minister. "We are reverting to the dream of our founding father who envisaged Pakistan as a moderate and progressive Islamic state based on principles of freedom and tolerance," Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdus Sattar said in an interview yesterday. "The subject of his speech will be militancy and extremism." That would indicate a sea change in Pak policy. It should also fire up all the religious lunatics against Musharraf. It'll be interesting to see if he can hold it together.

President Musharraf approved various steps to curb sectarian terrorism, religious extremism and ensure law and order in the country due to intense international pressure. The go ahead for these steps was given by the President in the concluding session of two-day Corps Commanders Conference at the General Headquarters. "These steps or recommendations were about banning the extremist organisations and after the approval... some of the extremist religious parties and groups are expectedly to be banned." The meeting discussed the law and order situation in the county in detail and agreed that stern actions must be taken to curb sectarian terrorism and religious extremism. Could be the generals have finally realized the religious lunatics were doing too much damage to the country. Who wants to be another Afghanistan?

Pakistan Peoples Party in its Provisional Cabinet meeting has urged the present government to hold general elections under independent commission and withdraw all "fabricated" charges against their party leader Benazir Bhutto. Might as well bite the bullet and get it over with. Musharraf's going to need their support to hold things together when the fundos go nuts.

Pakistan police have arrested a senior Jaish-e-Mohammad leader, Hasan Barki. Barki was arrested here on his arrival from Bahawalpur, a town in Punjab province where Jaish has its headquarters. With his arrest, almost all major leaders of the terrorist outfit have been detained by the government. During the past few days, Barki had been speaking to the press about his group's resolve to carry on with its militant attacks in Kashmir and elsewhere in India. Now he can carry on his attacks from the jug. Here's hoping the Paks keep him there for awhile. They sure are starting to look sincere in their cleanup. If they turn over the Most Wanted list, the ball will be in India's court.

Middle East
Congressmen dump meeting with Yasser...

Three U.S. lawmakers canceled a planned meeting with Chairmain-for-Life Yasser Arafat, saying Israeli officials have convinced them Arafat was behind an attempt to smuggle 50 tons of weapons from Iran. Rep. Peter Deutsch, D-Fla., said he and two other members of the House canceled their Thursday meeting with Arafat after an Israeli military intelligence briefing. Deutsch called the shipment "a watershed incident" in Israeli-Palestinian relations and said it also threatened U.S. contacts with Arafat. "This action has, I believe, already begun a re-evaluation in the administration and the State Department of the relationship with the Palestinian Authority and with Yasser Arafat," Deutsch said. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., and Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., were also to have attended the meeting with Arafat. Yasser has managed to step in it pretty deep this time. It'll probably be three, maybe even four months before the incident's forgotten.

Israel's attorney general will press criminal charges against the Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Ikremeh Sabri, for allegedly breaking the national law against terror. The mufti is a Palestine Liberation Organization appointee. In Islamic law, a mufti is an attorney who writes opinions on legal subjects to help judges decide cases. Charges have not yet been filed. It's not clear what kind of penalty Sabri might face. However, police investigated a meeting that Sabri allegedly held in Lebanon with Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah. Sabri has allegedly publicly called for the destruction of the United States, Great Britain and Israel. Israel has also accused Ahmad Jamus of sedition for allegedly calling for attacks on Jews in public sermons at the Al-Aksa mosque in Jerusalem. Jamus is one of Sabri's deputies. It doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to host someone who's calling for your destruction. And it doesn't seem particularly courteous to call for the destruction of the people hosting you.

Terror Networks
Lashkar Jihad still operating on Sulawesi...

New York Times carries an article on Lashkar Jihad and its war against Christians on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. "Although both sides suspect provocateurs, with either a local or national agenda, no one seems to be able to say who is stoking the conflict." Yet another tiresome jihad by the put-upon Islamists against their oppressive neighbors, complete with the traditional beheadings. This is another organized atrocity that should be dying down shortly after the funding is cut off.

Home Front
US blocks phony Islamic "charities"...

The U.S. government blocked the financial assets of two organizations and two individuals suspected of financing terrorism. The order applied to two organizations: the Afghan Support Committee and the Revival of Islamic Heritage Society. The committee, which the government said bin Laden set up, has offices in Peshawar, Pakistan, and Jalalabad, Afghanistan. The action affected the society's offices in Pakistan and Afghanistan but not in Kuwait. The two individuals named in the order are Abu Bakr Al-Jaziri of Peshawar, whom the government said is the finance chief of the Afghan Support Committee and also had served as bin Laden's chief fund-raiser; and Abd al-Mushin Al-Libi, whom the government said runs the Pakistan office of the Revival of Islamic Heritage Society and manages the Afghan Support Committee's office in Peshawar. These individuals and organizations "have been stealing from widows and orphans to fund al Qaeda terrorism," Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill said. Gosh. Wotta surprise. Stealing from widows and orphans? Who'da thunk it?

International
Indonesia rediscovers Muslim moderation... Saudis tell Turkey to butt out... Nazareth Islamist leader tells Pope to butt out... Bush tells Iran to butt out...

In Indonesia, moderate Muslims have begun rediscovering their moderation as often violent support for Islamic extremists appears to have peaked. Tamalia Alisjahbana has collected 10,000 signatures for a petition against religious extremism that she plans to present to President Megawati Sukarnoputri. The petition opposes severing diplomatic relations with the United States and asks the government to protect foreign nationals in the country, after hundreds of U.S. and other foreign workers fled in fear over the angry protests. How nice. Where the hell were you when they were chasing the foreigners out of the country? How do you know we want diplomatic relations with you? It's amazing how a single successful military campaign can shift the onus of pleasing from one party to the other. It's about damned time somebody worried about "the volatile American street."

Saudi Arabia hit back at Turkish protests over the demolition of an Ottoman-era fort in Makkah, telling Ankara not to meddle in its internal affairs and saying the fort would be rebuilt in due course. "The Kingdom was only exercising its sovereignty over its territory," Minister of Islamic Affairs and Endowments Saleh Al-Sheikh said. "No one has the right to interfere in what comes under the state’s authority." The Ajyad fort will be rebuilt by experts in the same traditional way it was first built and at the same site, albeit not on the Bulbul Hill, Al-Sheikh said. And they complain about arrogant Westerners? And how does one rebuild an ancient fortress that's been demolished? One might build it anew, in the same style, but then it won't be "ancient." It will be "new."

Salman Abu Ahmed, leader of the Islamic Movement in Nazareth, accused Christian leaders including the pope and the top Roman Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land, Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, of exerting pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to halt construction of a controversial mosque near a major Christian shrine in Nazareth. "We are very surprised that the pope stood against our right to build the mosque," Abu Ahmed said. "There are no problems between Christians and Muslims in Nazareth. It's only Christian leaders like the pope and Michel Sabbah who have a problem with the building of the mosque." The Vatican declined to comment on the situation. It was beneath their dignity to comment. More of that damned Western arrogance. Y'see, it's Western arrogance whenever an Islamist rabble rouser can't have his way. And it's impossible for a Muslim to be arrogant, 'cuz Islam's a peaceful religion and ours - whatever the hell it is - isn't.

President Bush, in a blunt warning to Iran, said the U.S.-led coalition "will deal with them diplomatically, initially" if Tehran tries to destabilize war-torn Afghanistan. Bush delivered the warning as administration officials fretted over reports that Iran is trying to challenge the authority of the interim government in Afghanistan, and may be giving safe harbor to al-Qaida terrorist leaders fleeing U.S. and allied military troops there. "Diplomatically, initially" is a subtle way of saying "knock it off or we'll twist your nose." Great Satans have long memories. Sometimes we can remember 20 years back.

2002-01-09T17:31:00.000-08:00

Indo-Pak
Paks set up moderate committee on Kashmir... Shoot-out at Kashmir mosque... Jaish and Lashkar to be shut down?... Four Lashkar deaders in Kashmir, two real people... LLTE is funded by ISI, armed by al-Qaeda...

In an attempt to alter the extremist image of Kashmiri militancy, the Pakistan government constituted a National Kashmir Committee to be headed by former president of Pakistan occupied Kashmir Muhammad Abdul Qayyum Khan, who is opposed to involvement of hardline Islamic militant groups in the Kashmir insurgency. That's a nice conciliatory move. We imagine there will be others. Musharraf looks like he's serious.

One of two militants holed up in a mosque in Kashmir was killed and the other surrendered after an encounter with security forces. The encouter followed when security forces surrounded the mosque in which militants fleeing a search operation had taken refuge. The incident took place in Bamrada village, 40 km northwest of Srinagar. "We called on the militants to give themselves up, and they responded with gunfire," a senior district police official said. After a series of similar incidents, the authorities warned last year they would neutralise any militants using mosques as a place of refuge during encounters with the security forces. It's extra propaganda points if you can get a few bullet holes in the local mosque.

General Pervez Musharraf will announce a ban on the Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Tayyeba on Saturday, official sources said in Islamabad. The long-awaited speech on a new terrorism policy will also include bans on two domestic sectarian terrorist groups, Tehrik-i-Fiqah Jafaria and Sipahi Sahaba. That single move should defuse the tensions between the two countries, assuming he follows through and actually shuts them down. They will, of course, try to come back under assumed names, but that can be dealt with if the Paks are really serious.

Six people, including four Lashkar-e-Tayyeba militants, were killed in separate incidents in Kashmir valley. Yes. It would be nice to be rid of them for good. There are lots of other problems both Pakistan and India could be working on.

The Sri Lankan Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam is an Inter-Services Intelligence-aided terrorist outfit, former Union law minister Dr Subramanian Swamy charged in an interview with an Indian publication. "Recently, an Afghan diplomat told me that Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda supplied the LTTE with weapons. Today, the LTTE has run out of funds, as its channels of funding have been choked by the United States-led campaign against terrorism in Afghanistan. It is for this reason that the LTTE is practically suing for peace with Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe." Thought their turnabout was pretty abrupt. Didn't know about the ISI involvement but it's believable. LLTE has been bad news for another perfectly nice country that didn't deserve to have someone else's problems exported to it. Just another argument in favor of disbanding ISI - which remains politically impossible for Musharraf.

Middle East
Ceasefire has ceased: Hamas gunnies hit Israeli army post...

Hamas gunmen killed four Israeli soldiers in the first successful attack into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip. The two gunmen disguised as police officers attacked the army post outside the kibbutz of Kerem Shalom, across the border from Rafah, before being gunned down themselves by the Israeli army. All four soldiers killed, including an officer, were Bedouin Arabs serving in the Israeli army. The army commander of southern Israel, General Doron Almog, accused Salah Shahadeh, a close associate of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassine, of planning the attack and demanded that the Palestinian Authority arrest him. The PA leadership condemned the attack and vowed to crack down on any violation of the ceasefire ordered by Arafat. "We do not accept under any pretext this violation of our national decision to decree the ceasefire and we will act against any damage to our security," it said in a statement. Facts of life, Middle East style: Any kind of a peace will be harmful to the "clergy" and political hacks who control the snuffies. If peace were to come about through some accident, the justification for their funding would go away. The hard boys themselves come cheap and they're disposable, but it takes a lot of money from "charitable donations" to buy all those arms and ammunition, even more to keep the top leadership living in the style to which they've become accustomed.

The Alliance
Law and order to come to Kabul?... Marine aircraft down in Pakistan... Karzai says Afghanistan to follow the free market... Turkey sez for Islamist party leader to step down... Brits freeze charity funds for al-Qaeda involvement...

A US Marine Corps KC-130 air refueling aircraft carrying seven marines crashed into a mountain while making an approach to land at a forward operating base in southwestern Pakistan. TV news reports say all crewmen are presumed dead.

Interior Minister Yunus Qanooni has ordered the Afghan military to quit Kabul within three days and leave security duties in the capital to Afghan police and an international peacekeeping force, his ministry said. Permits to carry weapons have already been prepared to prevent "irresponsible" people from bearing arms inside Kabul. The International Security Assistance Force is expected to number some 4,500 troops by the end of this month. The force's powers will be limited to "assist in the maintenance of the security" in Kabul and its surroundings. Qanooni is another of the Good Guys in the Afghan drama - another Masood protege. He had his police force put together and trained before they took Kabul.

In his first televised address to the nation Hamid Karzai said his administration supports a free market. "Social and economic progress in our country is dependent on a free market economy and private sector development," he told Afghan Television. "The government will lessen its interference in economic affairs. This will pave the way for freedom and private sector initiative... The people will be allowed to take part in a free press. I agree with the constitution and I respect it." Freedom of economy and speech, he cautioned however, was limited by "national interest". He did not elaborate. Karzai said the greatest threat to peace and security in the country was the number of guns on the streets. He said he had given instructions to his security chiefs that armed factions should be incorporated into a national army as soon as possible. Karzai has a tough row to hoe. Chances are he won't succeed - but if he does, think what an example to the rest of the Muslim world! If the energy and resources they put into making war were to go into commerce, they'd become a rich nation.

Turkey's top court ruled that the leader of a popular pro-Islamic party violated laws by founding the party -- a ruling that could force the politician to step down as the party's chief. The Constitutional Court said Recep Tayyip Erdogan, head of the Justice and Development Party, was banned from being among the party's founding members because of a prior conviction for inciting religious hatred. Turkey takes this stuff seriously. What's scary is that they've been taking it seriously since the 1920s, and it's still not gone away.

The government froze the assets of a Muslim charity in Britain after a similarly named U.S. group was designated a terrorist organization with alleged links to the al-Qaida network. The Society of the Revival of Islamic Heritage, based in Stratford, east London, is being investigated by the government Charity Commission for possible links with the U.S.-based Revival of Islamic Heritage Society, which the U.S. Treasury placed on its list of designated terrorist organizations. "Your pledge of just $500 a month can pay the salary of this gunman!"

International
Somalia's been warned - again... Sudan sez "Let's talk about what terrorism is... Human rights group demands UN do something about Jihad regimes...

The United States has warned several countries, especially Somalia, they must deny safe haven to terrorists if they want to avoid becoming targets in the US war on terrorism, Secretary of State Colin Powell told The Washington Times. But... but... But there's nobody there but them chickens! They said so!

East African foreign ministers approved a Sudanese proposal calling for an international conference on terrorism. The announcement came after a closed-door meeting of the ministerial council of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) ahead of a summit of the seven-member grouping. The proposal calls for holding an international conference for the "identification of terrorism" and for fighting it "within international legitimacy". IGAD comprises Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. This is another proposal to talk about the subject endlessly, arguing over definitions, rather than doing anything about it. The US is using a working definition of terrorism right now: People who slam civil aircraft into buildings. Seems pretty simple.

The Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights urged the United Nations to appoint someone to investigate what it called "jihad violence" against non-Muslims and moderate Muslims in several Asian, African and Middle Eastern countries. At a rally outside United Nations headquarters, speakers from Afghanistan to Indonesia to Sudan cited the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States by suspected Islamic militants as even more reason for the world to pay attention to allegations of persecution in majority-Muslim countries. In a letter delivered at the U.N. gates to Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the group demanded that he appoint a special rapporteur to examine "the status and conditions of non-Muslim minorities, women, and humanist, moderate Muslims in states ruled by Islamic majorities." What an interesting development - a human rights group that's concerned with human rights! They're right, too. Sufis and other Muslim minorities take it just as hard as the Christians, Buddhists, Zoroastrians and Ba'hais.

Home Front
Moussaoui wants TV trial, just like OJ got... Heavily armed loon worked in nuclear power plant...

Lawyers for Zacarias Moussaoui, the first person indicted in the Sept. 11 attacks, supported a legal bid to televise and increase public access to his trial, saying it would enhance the fairness of the landmark case. But the U.S. government argued against making an exception to the rule that prohibits cameras in federal court, saying televising the conspiracy trial set for October could endanger jurors, witnesses and court officials. "If you don't acquit, your car might explode. Nothing to do with us, of course."

A former nuclear plant mechanic with a massive arsenal of more than 200 weapons was arrested for allegedly threatening workers and supervisors after he was fired from the San Onofre power plant in Southern California. The 43-year-old man, who authorities declined to name, was arrested on Tuesday. Deputies found a cache of 200 weapons, including assault rifles and grenades, and thousands of rounds of ammunition at his home in Laguna Niguel and at a rented storage facility. Hmmm. No. We probably didn't want him working at a nuclear power plant. Don't think we wanted him working at the local gas station, for that matter.

2002-01-09T08:01:00.000-08:00

Joanne Jacobs sez "This is the key difference between anti-idiots and idiotarians: We like to make distinctions. Idiotarians can't tell X (animals, targeting civilians, requiring burqas, etc.) from Y (people, trying to avoid civilian casualties, allowing bikinis, etc.). -- 1/8", thereby igniting universal agreement. This is the failure I was blogging about a few days ago to make the elementary distinctions of logic: "Socrates is a man, but all men are not Socrates." A closely allied lifeform is the Ideot, which substitutes ideology for thought.

2002-01-08T11:13:00.000-08:00

India-Pakistan
Israel-Indo line up against terror networks... Two Pak gunnies dead in army camp attack... Jammu organization sez Indos should just get it over with and declare war... Jaish sez crackdown will make no difference... Pak Muslim League agrees... Sikhs signing up in Punjab... Mid Easterners arrested in India on document charges... Pak Muslim League trying to consolidate factions to oppose Bhutto's party...

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Indian leaders exchanged views on the war against terrorism - a priority for both nations as they fight militant groups accused of deadly attacks on their soil. "The world is not divided between East and West," Peres said after meeting with Home Minister L.K. Advani. "The world has a new division now, the countries that harbour terrorism and the countries that fight terrorism." Beginning of a new logical world alignment. It'll be interesting to see who's on which side ten years from now. Being against terrorism is, of course, a sure sign of being a Zionist conspirator. Vajpayee will probably be discovered by the Pak or Saudi press to be secretly Jewish, or at least on the payroll of International Zionism.

A three-member suicide squad made an abortive bid to storm the Indian Army's Brigade Headquarters at Kupwara in north Kashmir triggering an exchange of fire that left two snuffies and a soldier dead. The heavily-armed gunnies in combat fatigues drove a stolen car to the main gate of the camp masquerading as security personnel. But they were intercepted by troops manning the traffic check-point near the main gate. One of the militants got off the vehicle and opened fire as the other two attempted to sneak into the camp. Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the strike. One of the deaders was from Pak-occupied Kashmir, the other was a Pak.

The Jammu Mukti Morcha has urged the Indian government to end the menace of terrorism once and for all by launching a war against Pakistan. ‘‘A war with Pakistan would be cheaper than being bogged down continuously in counter-insurgency operations,’’ JMM chief Virender Gupta said. Army personnel have remained deployed throughout Jammu and Kashmir for over a decade to counter terrorism, and over 35,000 people killed. He does have a point. Which makes more sense, fighting a war and losing 35,000 people or not fighting a war and losing the same numbers over a longer period, but with the prospect of losing more?

Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammad has threatened to intensify its activities: "Our target now will be the Indian Air Force, Indian Navy besides Indian Army and paramilitary forces," JeM chief in Jammu and Kashmir Abu Hijrat said. "The crackdown by Pakistani government on the JeM and Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT) will not make any difference as far as jehadi organisations are concerned." Dunno if you guys want to do that. They're a lot better armed than women and children and your other usual targets.

A senior leader of the Pakistan Muslim League said that action against Pakistani groups will have no impact on the Kashmir freedom struggle. Muhammad Ejaz-ul Haq said he that Kashmir's "freedom struggle," being indigenous, would be unaffected by Pakistani government measures. The senior PML vice-president said, "Killing of over 80 thousand Kashmiri people during the armed struggle was a testimony to the fact that it [the movement] was indigenous and Pakistan was extending only moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiris. You saw reports of Egyptians, Palestinians and people from other countries being killed in Afghanistan but no such instance could be traced in Kashmir." On the other hand, there are lots of Pakistani dead, and the planning and money boys aren't necessarily the same as the trigger boys.

Thousands of men from Punjab villages near the border with Pakistan streamed into an army recruitment center to volunteer for the Indian army. The seven-day recruitment drive is aimed at Sikhs, who are famous for their bravery in wartime and have historically made up a large proportion of the 1.2 million force. That's the bad part about being an Islamic state: you're limited in your choice of tough guys.

Two Jordanians and a Palestinian were arrested in a northern Indian town for allegedly carrying fake passports, according to police who said they were questioning them over suspected links to the militant Hamas group. The three were arrested by Indian intelligence police in Lucknow on charges of tampering with their passports and visa fraud. Wonder who's financing their travels through the mysterious East?

Faced with a difficult October 2002 general elections scenario, the Pakistan Muslim League is trying to unify and merge smaller factions into its fold. Daily Jang says that the move is at the intigation of the military government in order to contain the Pakistan People's Party in the coming polls. Golly. What a surprise. Some things are just too predictable. That produces the counterforce to pull Musharraf back toward the fundos, which means more pressure to support the gunnies in Kashmir. It'll be interesting to see what kind of coalition actually grows up.

Terror Networks
Philippine troops bump off 11 Moro Liberation snuffies... A dozen dead in Chechen siege... Baker bumped off in Kosovo...

Philippine army troops clashed with Muslim rebels, killing at least 11 guerrillas believed to support a renegade former governor. The fighting in a mountainous area straddling three towns in Sulu wounded at least four soldiers, the officials said. Soldiers also recovered firearms left by the guerrillas, who were being pursued by troops. Abu Sayyaf rebels were with followers of Nur Misuari, a former governor of an autonomous Muslim region now accused of ordering attacks on government troops to disrupt November elections. Yeah. If I can't be governor, ain't nobody gonna be governor. So take that, you Infidels!

At least two-dozen people were killed in continuing violence in Chechnya, where Russian forces are conducting a manhunt for rebels. 12 Chechen rebels were killed Monday, the Orthodox Christmas, in Argun. One of the dead was identified as a Chechen commander, Magomed Gutsuiyev. Russian federal forces have encircled Argun since Saturday, allowing only women, children and the eldery to move in and out of the city. Some 40 people have been brought in for questioning. Sounds like some sort of profiling. No doubt they should be severely censured. An e-mail campaign will surely follow.

In Kosovo, a booby-trapped grenade strapped to the front door of a bakery killed a Serbian man in Kamenica, igniting fresh concerns over brewing ethnic violence in the region. United Nations police said they have no suspects in the death of the 35-year-old owner of Zeka Bakery. Investigators from 66th Military Police Company, along with U.N. and local authorities, combed through the rubble in search of clues. Could be they didn't like his pies, more likely they didn't like his nationality. Still way too many hard boys running around Kosovo.

The Alliance
Taliban made off with all the cash on the way out the door... Taliban muckety-mucks surrender... Kandahar hospital stand-off: And then there were six... NGOs stealing bread out of the mouths of the hungry in Afghanistan... US forces catch another 14 al-Qaeda gunnies... US gets Hot Pursuit agreement from Pakland... Indonesian religious fanatics decry insidious American plot... "We'll take you to court!" Malay fundos threaten... Saudis won't change curriculum for the West... Syria taking baby steps to lighten up... Willing to help US against Bad Guys... Tehran doesn't want a Jew as British ambassador... Somalis say they like us, so don't bomb, okay?...

Washington Post runs a front-page article on how the mullahs looted the country as the going got tough. They hauled the money away in sacks, five and six million dollars at a time, totaling around $100 million. That's a lot of protection money. And a nice little retirement fund when Mullah Omar turns up in Monaco or Biarritz with a shave and a bath and a new wifelet or two.

Three former ministers from Afghanistan's Taliban government have surrendered to authorities in Kandahar. “Among those who surrendered were former minister of defence Mullah Ubai Dullah, minister of justice Mullah Turabi and minister of mines and industry, Mullah Saadudin,” a spokesman said. Separately, an Afghan tribal commander said the head of the Taliban's information department and one of their senior spokesmen, Abdul Hayee Motmain, had been detained and handed over to US forces. Did any of them bring any of the money they stole when they left town?

In Kandahar, a heavily armed al-Qaida fighter blew himself up rather than be captured as he tried to escape from a hospital where he and six comrades have taken over a ward. Mohammad Rasool jumped from the second-story window at Mir Wais Hospital, found himself surrounded by guards and detonated a grenade, killing himself. The al-Qaida fighters in the hospital have held off guards for weeks by threatening to kill themselves if approached. Goodbye, Mohammad. It wasn't pleasant knowing you. Give our regards to your 72-year-old virgin.

U.S. forces operating in the Khost region captured 14 al-Qaida fighters without resistance, including two thought to be senior figures. The two were taken to the Marine base at Kandahar airport for interrogation, along with cell phones and laptops found with them. No telling what happened to the others. It probably wasn't pleasant. Welcome to your shipping container, boys.

Some international aid agency personnel are joining warlords in stealing and remarketing vast amounts of donated wheat and other rations destined for Afghanistan, according to UN officials. Because of pilfering, some food shipments have dwindled by more than half on their long journey from donors to the hungry, more than 20 aid officials and villagers said in interviews. ''In reality, there is a big loss of food,'' said Atiq Ullah Muhmond, a program officer for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees. ''There is a lot of corruption. It's the NGOs,'' or nongovernmental organizations; ''it's people with guns. We are trying to minimize it, but we can't stop it. We have no other alternative; we haven't had the international staff recently to oversee what is going on.'' No doubt Chomsky and company will get right on this. Sounds like some sort of silent genocide by NGOs.

US troops are set to pursue enemy leaders into Pakistan as fears grow that Osama bin Laden and some of his key lieutenants have escaped over the border. General Tommy Franks, commander of US forces in Afghanistan, said Pakistan had agreed that US troops can cross the border to work alongside Pakistani troops attempting to follow al-Qaeda terrorists and Taliban fighters. "We could contact [Pakistan] and say, all right, we are observing people and we are going to follow them into Pakistan," he said in an interview. Wonder how long they've been working to set that up? Big concession from the Paks, but something that should have been worked out a month ago.

Leaders of Muslim groups in Indonesia, including two of the country's largest, said the arrest of militants in Singapore and Malaysia was part of a United States-led conspiracy against Islam. Nadhlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, together with the Indonesian Ulema Council, outfits operating on the fringe and some legislators, criticized the detentions. The comments suggest that it might be difficult for the Malaysian authorities to gain access to two Indonesians identified as "directing figures" of the detained militants. These are Indonesian Mujahiddin Council Head Abu Bakar Bashir alias Abdus Samad, and preacher Hambali alias Nurjaman Riduan Isamuddin -- both of whom are said to be in Solo, central Java. Din Syamsuddin, secretary general of the Indonesian Ulema Council, the nation's top Islamic authority, said that since the Sept 11 attacks on America, Washington and its allies appeared to be "finding fault" with Islam. Our dead and maimed, and our seeming offense with their gunmen and mad bombers are just a pretext. The real reason for the American war against terror is that we don't like them. Never have, never will. If it was Lutheran nut jobs grabbing their AKs at every turn and rushing out to indulge in "armed struggle" by killing people indiscriminately we'd be doing nothing about it. Everybody knows that.

Malaysia's main opposition party, the Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) gave the Singapore Straits Times seven days to publicly apologize over an article allegedly linking the party with the Al-Qaeda terrorist network. Describing the article which appeared on Jan 4 as defamatory and libelous, party Secretary General Nasharudin Mat Isa said Pas' lawyers would file a suit against the writer, publisher and printer of the newspaper if they failed to apologize before the deadline. The article stated that Al-Qaeda has established political ties with PAS and military links with Kumpulan Mujahideen Malaysia. Nasharudin added that PAS, as an Islamic party, abhorred violence. Well, taking them to court is better than bombing their offices. Very unusual for fundos. And we've seen how the fundos engage in non-violent fist shaking, gun-totin', and bombing campaigns. Oh, and let us not forget the Philippine fundos' cute habit of kidnaping people and cutting off their heads.

Saudi Minister of Education Muhammad Al-Rasheed denied the Saudi school curriculum would be overhauled in the wake of criticisms from Western countries. "Our curriculum is based on well-established principles, determined by our needs and the requirements of our society," Al-Rasheed said. "No one has the right to interfere in our (internal) issues or dictate to us what he wants," the minister said. Saudi Arabia has reacted angrily to Western claims that the religious-orientated education system in the Kingdom breeds extremists and needs to be changed. Go ahead. Keep cranking out those majors in religious studies and ordnance. There's nothing to worry about. Actually, they're making changes, but they won't link it to 9-11 or OBL, just saving a little face while preserving a little self.

Syria appears to be taking steps to allow a degree of secular opposition, while excluding the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. Eight Nasserist, Arab nationalist and Communist parties have been allowed to set up offices and publish their own newspapers, and they have been given access to campuses. Well, this is a good time to do it. Opening up political discussion across a narrow (but still wider) spectrum will let some of the pressure for change off the regime and might even lead to a two-party system - though not anytime soon and without any wide disparity between philosophies. Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood people aren't looking as good as they did a few months ago. People running around hollering "jihad" look a lot more like insular, brutal yokels than daring freedom fighters.

Daily Jang reports Syria is willing to come on board with the US. President Bashar al-Assad said after a meeting with a visiting US congressional delegation that "Syria is willing to cooperate with any country in the struggle against terrorism." Assad urged the United States to "take advantage Syria's successful experiences," apparently referring to the bloody repression of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria at the end of the 1970s and in the early 1980s. The Brotherhood, which had been accused of carrying out terror attacks in Syria, was dissolved, its members jailed or forced into exile. Make friends with them in this case and then get to work on them to wedge them out from under Iran's wing. And as an added bonus, they'd be happy to see Iraq beaten up.

A diplomatic storm is brewing between Britain and Iran, over Tehran's refusal to accept the appointment of David Reddaway as the new British ambassador to Iran. According to the daily Jomhuri Islami, Iran has stated that Reddaway, who is the director of public services in the British Foreign Office, "is a Jew, who is an MI6 agent." In response, Britain is threatening to downgrade diplomatic ties if Reddaway is not acknowledged by Tehran. Oh, a little outright racism never hurt anyone's diplomatic relations. Sure hope the Brits don't roll over on this one - it'll mean Britannia's spine is entirely gone.

"When we heard what happened with the twin towers on the radio, we were very, very sorry," emphasizes the local imam in the Somaili village of El Wak, Sheikh Ali Abdi Mohammad. "We like America very much, and we invite you to like us too. Anyway, Islam cannot allow for any killing. That is not what I preach." Al Ittihad was expelled from the village more than two years ago by a coalition of local tribes and the Ethiopians. "Those days are gone" says District Commissioner Yussuf Haji Osman. "We did not welcome them then, we would not do so now." Amazing what a good bombing campaign can do somewhere else. We remember how well you liked us when we were delivering groceries ten years ago, and then thanked us by dragging our boys' bodies through the streets. We remember.

2002-01-07T13:27:00.000-08:00

India-Pakistan
Musharraf rejects all terrorism, not just the kind he doesn't like... Musharraf and Vajpayee meet... Pak reviewing Indo Most Wanted list... Jamiat Ulema Pakistan religious fanatics support their government against India... Muslim League religious fanatics don't...

Pakistan's president declared that his country rejects all forms of terrorism, for the first time making no attempt to exclude Islamic militants whose conflict with India over the disputed territory of Kashmir has brought the nations to the brink of war. The statement followed a meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose visits to India and Pakistan over the past two days turned into an exercise in shuttle diplomacy aimed at defusing simmering tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals. Musharraf told reporters in Islamabad: "We are taking steps within Pakistan to bring some degree of normalcy, balance, introducing a tolerant society, checking any form of militancy. All that is being addressed and a final decision will be given when I come and address the nation in a few days' time." Good move, Mr. President General. You won't regret it, unless one of the armed religious lunatics running around your country shoots you. Hope the cleanup operation goes well.

A brief meeting between the leaders of India and Pakistan failed to resolve a standoff between the nuclear-armed neighbors. The private meeting at a regional summit in Nepal was the first between Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf since both countries put their armies on war alert last month. Can't expect the problem to be resolved in a single meeting. At least they're talking. That's better than making faces at each other while they point rockets.

In an apparent climbdown from his hardline stand, President Musharraf said his government was "in the process" of analysing the cases of 20 individuals whose extradition has been demanded by India. Musharraf's remarks came a day after he had during the just-concluded SAARC summit in Kathmandu rejected handing over any of the 20 people India wants for their involvement in the December 13 attack on Parliament, 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts, 1999 Kandahar hijacking and other crimes. What a good move. You don't need them in Pakistan, anyway, and the Indos can probably find something to do with them.

Chief of Jamiat Ulema Pakistan and United Front, an umbrella organization of six religious parties, Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani has assured every possible cooperation and help to the government to ensure national security. Addressing the central, provincial and district leaders of JUP, he said the masses including the workers of all religious parties would join the Pakistan army against any Indian misadventure to defend the homeland. Well, that's certainly a comfort. The religious fanatics are hoping they'll find it easier bumping off Hindus than they did fighting jihad against the Americans.

Pakistan Muslim League has condemned Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for his arrogant attitude and muffled threats to Pakistan during the SAARC meeting despite the continuous endeavors of Pakistan to avert a war in the region. Muhammad Siddique-ul-Farooque said that as long as the country was under the subjugation of rootless and unrepresentative rulers, India would continue taking Pakistan and all its peace overtures for a ride. He said that the weak and apologetic foreign policy of Pakistan had emboldened India to attack Pakistan any time. He said General Musharraf still had time to quit and save Pakistan otherwise he would add another chapter of woes to the history of the country like his predecessors. Yes. Musharraf should quit immediately and hand power over to Muhammad Siddique-ul-Farooque. That will certainly defuse any tension in the area.

Middle East
Palestinian ship captain sings... Yasser to investigate...

The Palestinian captain of a ship seized by Israel with 50 tons of offensive weapons on board said in jailhouse interviews that the shipment was intended for the Palestinians and that he got his smuggling instructions from a Palestinian Authority official. Kinda dents the "It wasn't us" claim, doesn't it? Still cold with your pants down, ain't it, Yasser?

Presiden-for-Life Yasser Arafat announced he was launching an internal investigation into Israel's seizure of a ship the Israelis said was smuggling arms, and vowed to punish anyone involved. The Palestinian Authority, which has denied Israeli charges that Arafat and other leaders were behind the alleged smuggling attempt, took action after meeting U.S., European and Russian officials seeking to end more than 15 months of bloodshed. No doubt they'll be shocked - Shocked! - at what they find.

Terror Networks
Mad bomber explodes himself, others, at Christmas celebration... Maoists blow Indian temple, abduct priest...

A man set off a hand grenade in a pub in northern Serbia, killing four people and injuring another 20. The blast happened at the Big Rouge pub in Novi Knezevac, near the Hungarian border. The man died in the explosion along with three other customers. The pub was packed with people celebrating Orthodox Christmas. The motive for the blast was not known. And Merry Christmas to you, too, you terrorist bastard.

More than 500 armed extremists of the outlawed Indian Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) attacked the century-old Khajwati Math at Bodh Gaya and blew up the main building with dynamite. The extremists also looted property and cash besides beating up the mahant and the priests. One of the main priests is missing and is said to have been abducted. They sound like real nice fellows. The Indos don't really need this, when they're preoccupied with Kashmir and Pakistan and possible nuclear holocaust.

The Alliance
Binnie's wife picked up in Yemen... Killer kiddie skips... Turk snuffies sentenced to the jump... Saudis tear down Ottoman treasure for a new hotel... Russians shell Argun to dislodge Chechen rebels... Saudi debt going up...

Osama bin Laden's favorite wife, her bodyguards and one of his babies were reportedly captured in Yemen, firming up investigators' suspicions he may be living there. Yemeni authorities arrested Amal Ahmed Al-Sadah, bin Laden's third wife, who sneaked out of Afghanistan with their infant daughter, Safia. Amal's bodyguards, possibly members of al Qaeda. Bin Laden has four wives and, according to estimates, more than 40 children. Intelligence agents unearthed documents that suggest bin Laden beat it to Yemen before bombs dropped on his Tora Bora compound in November. Yemen, is is? Now ain't that a surprise. You read it here first.

Afghan tribal elders postponed a meeting in eastern Khost to decide the fate of a 14-year-old boy suspected of killing a U.S. soldier after the teen-ager disappeared. Yeah. On a motorcycle, no doubt. It's wearing thin.

A Turkish court sentenced three men to death for the killings of four prominent writers and academics in an alleged plan to establish an Islamic state in Turkey. The three were found guilty in the slaying of journalist Ugur Mumcu, killed by a car bomb in 1993, and three other prominent secular writers and intellectuals during the 1990s. The verdict ended a 17-month trial in which prosecutors accused the defendants of membership in shadowy Islamic extremist groups, such as Tevhid-Selam and the Jerusalem Warriors. The groups were said to advocate replacing Turkey's strictly secular system with a state based on Islamic law. The sad part is that it takes 17 months to put away the hard boys who spent just a few days killing their betters.

Turkey's culture minister accused Saudi Arabia of engaging in a "cultural massacre" of Ottoman treasures after Saudi authorities tore down a 200-year-old castle in Mecca to make way for a hotel complex. Damn those arrogant westerners! They have no appreciation for the cultural treasures of others... Oh. Never mind.

Russian forces shelled Chechnya's third-largest town, and fighting erupted in other parts of the republic, leaving at least three soldiers reported dead and eight wounded. Argun had been under Russian fire since Thursday as federal forces tried to flush out rebels, some of whom are believed to have fled another Russian operation in the nearby village of Tsotsin-Yurt. The fighting in Argun and Tsotsin-Yurt, east of Grozny, is some of the fiercest seen in Chechnya in recent months.

Saudi Arabia's debt is expected to increase over the next year. Gulf analysts said stagnating oil prices will make the kingdom one of the biggest debtor nations in the world. Riyadh is expected to owe more than $200 billion by the end of 2002. A study by Saudi economist Ihsan Bu Hlaika said the kingdom turned into a debtor from the oil prices that first stabilized and then dropped during the 1980s. Hlaika said the kingdom has repaid only a small part of its domestic debt. That funding international subversion gets expensive, doesn't it? Wonder what their expenditure per ruthless henchman is?

Fifth Column
Jihad threatened for Britain...

A British Muslim who claims to have sent volunteers to Afghanistan to aid the Taliban said they may return to Britain to launch terrorist attacks against government and military targets. Hassan Butt, 22, leads the Pakistan wing of the British-based Al-Muhajiroun. He said some of the Britons he recruited to fight with Afghanistan's Taliban government were killed by U.S.-led forces. Those who survived could now launch a "new phase" of terrorism in their British homeland. Keep working on it, Hassan. If you're lucky you could be another Guy Fawkes. And when the innocent are dangling from lamp posts next to your remains, you'll have gotten what you want, right?

2002-01-06T16:27:00.000-08:00

Chistopher Johnson, over at Midwestern Conservative Journal sez

Current political considerations may require the Bush Administration to steer between the Scylla of Saudi corruption and the Charybdis of Islamic radicalism. But at some point, this country is going to have to face reality. Apart from their oil, we have nothing in common with Saudi Arabia as it is presently constituted or is likely to be constituted in the future. Nothing at all. The longer we pretend otherwise, both politically and economically, the more trouble we will have and the longer our war on terrorism will go.

Saudi stock with the US public has gone down dramatically since September 11th, a fact of which the Saudis are all too well aware. They've been alternating between bellicosity at the way us nasty Westerners are picking on them, and being conciliatory. Behind the scenes, my guess is that they're covering quite a few tracks as well as they can.

Somewhere in the USA there is a group of intelligence analysts who are much more interested in Saudi state policies, both overt and covert, than they were on, say, September 10th. They are probably just as interested in the policies of the Wahhabi clergy, which they probably ignored before September 11th. They are piecing together conversations, reports of meetings, statements in the Saudi press, conversations with travellers, and - most important - records of financial transactions to build a picture. Somewhere else are a few people with higher pay grades who are reading daily reports on what that picture looks like. Somewhere not too far from there, there are men in green suits who are putting together and regularly revising big stacks of dry-reading plans in 3-ring binders - arcanae like movement timetables, requisitions for ammunition - and maps. There are lots of maps, each of them laying out a geographic sector and assigning it to a military unit. Somewhere further away there are other guys in green suits, down at the motor pool, painting their tanks in desert camo.

If the Saudis are very smart they will drop the bellicosity. They don't have the gunnies to make it stick, at least not before there are cigar-smoking Methodists having a few beers and some Carolina-style barbeque with scantily-clad babes in the ruins of Riyadh.

When they've dropped the bellicosity, they can start unobtrusively cleaning up their mess - we aren't a vindictive lot. We'll know they've made a start toward mending fences when the Grand Mufti in Makkah meets with a terrible accident. We know by now all about the madrassahs and the steady diet of anti-American propaganda, raising kids from elementary school age into the desire to pop off a few infidels on the way to Paradise. We know about the "charitable donations" that buy the arms and ammunition to be used to achieve those ends. We've noticed that everywhere the Wahhabi brand of Islam is exported, there are bloody clashes between its adherents and whatever brand of infidel it is they're living next to. We've looked a little further into Dagestan, Chechnya, Kashmir and Afghanistan, talked to a few Filipinos and Indonesians. They're onto the idea in Singapore and even in Malaysia, too, by the way.

While they're cleaning up, how can the Saudis dig themselves out of their public opinion hole? Be polite. Be very polite. Do a thorough and public house-cleaning at home. (No doubt they'll be "Shocked!" at what they find.) Dump the arms and ammunition and dump the hard boys. Exporting snuffies to terrorize a good part of the world is a good way to be thoroughly disliked, once people notice. If the Saudis want to fund schools, that's fine. They would even gain merit (to use an unbeliever's term) if rather than running schools for subversion they opened technical and business schools run along the same lines as the madrassahs - i.e., free to poor kids. They would do a Hell of a lot more good for the countries in which they're located, and they'd be the one way to restore the Saudis' good name.

They won't do that, though. It would mean dumping the Wahhabi tub-thumpers and running the risk of having them turn against the government. And it's a lot easier to turn a kid into a gunman than into a scientist.

2002-01-06T16:01:00.000-08:00

Happy Fun Pundit says Slate's Jacob Weisberg seems to have bought the "Lowenstein Institute" wheeze. He does seem to be paraphrasing its intent pretty well.

2002-01-06T07:26:00.000-08:00

India-Pakistan
India wants US to go bail for Pakistan... Pak drone shot down... Musharraf offers to free Bhutto's husband... PPP wants elections, now!... Interim administration in Pakland?... New Lashkar head is a Pak, too... Five thugs bumped off in Kashmir gunfights... Pak coppers raid Jaish hideouts... Jugged mercenaries shifted to avoid jailbreaks...

As a condition to defuse the confrontation with Pakistan, India wants a commitment from the United States to see to it that Pakistan follows through on cutting off support to groups waging jihad in Jammu and Kashmir. The foreign ministers of India and Pakistan are privately discussing terms under which the rivals could sit down for talks about resolving the crisis. Similar American commitments have worked well in the Middle East, haven't they? Pakland is a sovreign nation that has a strong lunatic fringe. The USA has never done well dealing with lunatic fringes. We have invariably come out with egg on our faces and sometimes teeth on the floor.

India shot down an unmanned Pakistani spy drone that had intruded into Indian airspace in Kashmir.There was no official confirmation of the report. The drone had flown eight kilometers (five miles) into Indian air space in the Kashmiri border district of Poonch. The incident sparked a heavy exchange of artillery fire between Indian and Pakistani troops massed on both sides of the border.

Pakistani authorities have offered to free from prison the husband of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto as long as he makes a plea bargain. Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari were convicted of corruption in 1999 and she has lived in self-imposed exile since then, while Zardari has been in prison. Bhutto, prime minister from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996, and Zardari both denied involvement in corruption. Last year the Supreme Court cancelled their convictions and ordered a retrial, which has yet to start. Musharraf is very sensibly trying to mend a few domestic fences. The Bhuttos can hold out for complete dismissal if they like. Musharraf needs the support of Pakistan People's Party as a counter to what he's lost from his crackdown on the fundos. There's already been speculation about a Musharraf as President/Benazir as Prime Minister arrangement to come out of the elections scheduled for October. Bhutto has put herself and her party in the anti-fundo camp and has supported Musharraf's efforts to go after the religious loons.

Speakers at functions on the 74th birth anniversary of the PPP founding Chairman the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto demanded immediate restoration of democracy and the constitution, holding of fair elections under an interim civilian set-up and transfer of power to an elected civilian government. PPP leaders demanded the armed forces be banned from civilian affairs and concentrate on national defense. No doubt Musharraf intends to get around to that some day, but he's not going to let it happen any time before next October, if then. Even if it takes place, the danger will remain of another military takeover. Pakland needs a concerted propaganda effort within the military against involvement with civilian affairs, and it will take at least until a new generation of officers has arisen before the danger is past. Meanwhile, it has to fight against the sectarian fifth column that's even more dangerous and which is allied with elements within the military. Musharraf probably envies the proverbial snowball's chance.

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf is considering appointing an interim prime minister to head an interim government likely to be created by the end of this month. The interim government will be tasked with overseeing the transition to democracy by October this year as mandated by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Several names for the interim premier are under consideration but Sindh Governor Mian Soomro is most likely to be the top choice of the military government although current Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz is also a strong contender. We can pretty well bet it won't be any of the Bhutto party, and that they'll try to use the time between now and October to build up an alternative structure. It'll be tough, though, without being able to co-opt the support of the fundos. Look for an increase in "nudge-nudge-wink-wink" and that'll lead to more friction with Indoland. "What a tangled web we weave!"

The new chief of the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba is a Pakistani of Kashmiri origin and operates from the Pakistani town of Bahawalpur. After Abdul Wahid Kashmiri was designated the chief of Lashkar following the arrest of leader Hafeez Syed by Islamabad, intelligence agencies could find little on him in their records. Wahid is operating from Bahawalpur in tandem with other top leaders, including Abul Ubaid, Abu Usman and Abul Thalla. Usman is the overall in-charge of the military operations of the group, Ubaid looks after operations in the Jammu region and Abu Thalla in Kashmir. "We don't think there is any change," a senior intel officer said. Fits in with my expectation that the leadership would remain where it's safe and warm and cozy, while the cannon fodder went across the border to shoot people and get killed. As my sainted father used to say, "Tough guys always end up working for smart guys." And the smart guys consider themselves too important to let themselves be killed in action.

Five militants, three of them belonging to Pakistan-based Lashker-e-Toiba, were killed in gunbattles with security forces in Poonch and Rajouri districts of Jammu and Kashmir. Y'see, guys, it doesn't matter how tough you are, when you're dead your only talent remaining is decomposition. No doubt the Smart Guys back where it's safe will send flowers. That will be very nice and a great comfort to your families. The sad part is that so many Good Guys end up getting killed trying to protect other people from the Tough Guys.

Jang/The Nation reports that representatives of two militant Muslim groups said Pakistani police in central Punjab raided mosques, homes and offices searching for activists and guns. "Police entered our homes, insulting our elders and women. They searched our homes for weapons and messed everything up," said a spokesman for the Jaish-e-Mohammad group, Hassan Burki. A provincial official confirmed the latest round of some 60 detentions saying the activists were being picked up on the instructions of the central government. I hate it when the provincial police pop in to insult my elders and women and take all my heavy weapons. Every time they do that, I get hoppin' mad.

In the wake of intelligence reports about militants' plans to storm jails to help foreign mercenaries escape, 187 detainees have been shifted from Jammu and Kashmir to high security prisons outside the state. Among them, 98 are foreign mercenaries. Damn. And those jailbreaks are always so romantic. They always get the yokels fired up. Oh, well. Find something else. Interesting, that half of the jugged Bad Guys are foreigners.

Terror Networks
Chechen thugs kill 16 Russian troops...

Chechen rebels killed 16 Russian soldiers as they ambushed an armored column. The radical Chechen site, Kakvaz Center, quoted warlord Khattab saying that 15 other Russian troops were wounded in the attack near the village of Tsa-Vedeno. After Afghanistan and the stellar performance of the Chechens there, these attacks look less and less like "freedom fighters" and more and more like what they really are.

The Alliance
Hekmatyar aide sez he supports Karzai. Pigs whistle... Pak families trying to ransom their jihadis... Dostum ships Uzbek killers home... Saudis: No politics during Haj... Learned Elders of Islam to try and define terrorism... Iran snuggles up with Iraqi opposition...

A close aide of bloodthirsty warlord and leader of the Hizb-e-Islami Gulbadin Hikmatyar, Commander Haji Kashmir Khan, announced full support to the new interim government in Kabul. He was addressing to a gathering at Asadabad, the capital city of Kunar province of Afghanistan. Kashmir Khan expressed full confidence in the leadership of Hamid Karzai. He hoped that the new government would lead to the development and prosperity of the war-torn country. Either that endorsement cost a bundle or the regime can expect some serious burrowing from within. Or both.

Some Pakistani parents have paid as much as 2,00,000 rupees to get their sons back from the late festivities in Afghanistan, but not all can afford to pay such high prices, Pakistani journal The Friday Times reported, quoting jehadis who had managed to return home. To get back their sons, many of whom are jugged in Afghanistan, the parents, who are unable to pay high prices, are pressurising the Tehrik-i-nifaaz-i-Mohammdai (TNM), the organisation which sent thousands of Pakistanis to Afghanistan to wage 'holy war'. The organisation and its leaders are hiding from anxious parents. The TNM is an ultra orthodox organisation in the north-west frontier province of Pakistan, headed by Maulana Sufi Mohammad. Sufi was arrested on his return from Afghanistan and is now in a jail in Dera Ismail Khan. Hand me a tissue, will you? Life's really tough for the cannon fodder class, ain't it? What's really unusual in this case is that Mullah Sufi is jugged himself. Could this be described as "A holy man's war and a poor sap's fight?"

General Dostum has forcibly returned at least 10 Uzbek prisoners to Uzbekistan, his intel chief Usman Khan confirmed. That move was taken after Uzbekistan's president, Islam Karimov, put pressure on Dostum and his officials to turn over the prisoners, who were members of the outlawed Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. The prisoners, who said they faced almost certain death on terrorism charges, had said they wanted to claim political asylum in Afghanistan. Dostum said he had turned the men over to United States forces. It is not clear whether American investigators held or questioned the men before they were sent back to Uzbekistan. G'bye, boys. Hope you enjoyed the jihad. Say hello to the folks in Uzbekistan!

Saudi Arabia has warned pilgrims against indulging in any form of political propaganda during Haj and said anyone caught violating the country’s laws will be prosecuted. Wonder if that covers recruiting jihadis? Have we decided to become ~~cautious~~ discrete?

Scholars from around the world who began a six-day conference in Makkah were urged to work out a clear definition of terrorism to help ward off a malicious smear campaign against Islam and Muslims. Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh, the Kingdom’s grand mufti and head of the Senior Ulema Council, urged the convention to "defend Islam by clearing all baseless accusations which aim at distorting the image of the religion." He said Islamic states in general, and Saudi Arabia in particular, have been the target of "a fierce and criminal campaign by ... unfair and unjust media which have been reversing facts and using false information to defame Islam and Muslims." The objective for the Learned Elders of Islam is to work out a Protocol that will make a distinction between "terrorists" and "freedom fighters." This will result in sophistry similar to that the Paks are coughing up over Kashmir and the Palestinians continue to burp over their fight. What won't be addressed - guaranteed - is the legitimacy of politicians and holy men using hard boys with guns as the policy tool of first resort.

Seif Ellahi, the official in charge of the Iraqi desk at the office of Iranian spiritual leader Ali Khameini is holding talks in Syria with the Islamic, national and Kurdish wings of the Iraqi opposition. Sources indicate a new Iranian tactic in dealing with the Iraqi opposition: openness to all opposition wings and working to achieve democracy in Iraq. The Iranian ambassador in Damascus organized a working luncheon for Ellahi which was attended by leading figures at the Iraqi opposition. Ellahi also met with the chairman of the Iraqi al-Watan ("Homeland") party Mashaan al-Jabouri. Iran would seem to be expecting Saddam's Iraq to go down. They also seem to expect the US to use the same technique: supporting an indigenous opposition, leading to an interim government. Having sat out the war against the Taliban, not out of ideology but because they didn't think it could be done, they're going to try and get in on the ground floor in Iraq so they can have some influence with the new regime. That's something they don't have, not yet anyway, in Afghanistan. Whatever successor state (or states) comes about, they can be worked, because Iran will have been there from the first. They may even start putting some significant money into the project, if it looks feasible.

2002-01-05T12:29:00.000-08:00

Home Front
Fox and NBC news are reporting that a small plane has crashed into the Bank of America offices in Tampa, Fla.

Damage appears minimal from TV footage. Police and fire are on the scene. NBC reports one person on board. Flight originated in St Petersburg, flown by student pilot. Plane was being shadowed by a Coast Guard helicopter when it crashed. Unconfirmed reports say the pilot may have been as young as 15 years old. Plane took off without clearance. First guess, it looks like a Kiddie Kopy Kat Killer.

India-Pakistan
Musharraf and Vajpayee shake hands - Vajpayee would rather be in Philadelphia... Paks and Indos trade fire in Kashmir... Kashmiri students march for independence... Pak cops thump demonstrating religious loons... Faisalabad thugs sprung...

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf shook the hand of Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee at a South Asia summit, but the gesture did little to break the ice between the countries. Vajpayee accepted Musharraf's outstretched hand, but immediately repeated a demand that Pakistan halt what India calls "cross-border terrorism." An Indian official dismissed the handshake as grandstanding. Later, Pakistan officials sought to signal a breakthrough by saying Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar and Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh met on the sidelines of the summit. But Indian officials said there had been no such meeting. "There was absolutely no bilateral discussions between the two sides at any level," a spokesman for Vajpayee told reporters. The Paks act like they are still trying to figure what the Indos are so mad about.

Villages in India-controlled southern Kashmir came under intense mortar fire from Pakistani army units. On the Pakistan side of the Line of Control, Darra Sher Khan village in the Poonch district was shelled by the Indians during the morning and then again in the early afternoon.Yes, I've often found gunfire to be a very convincing argument, too.

400 activists of a pro-independence Kashmiri students' group staged an "anti-war" rally calling on India and Pakistan to give up their claims on Kashmir. The rally through the streets of Muzaffarabad was organized by the students wing of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front. Carrying placards and banners, the participants shouted slogans calling for a defusion of tensions between the two nuclear rivals and for Kashmiri independence. This is the "pox on both your houses" approach. Whichever side eventually wins gets to shoot them.

Police used batons to break up a demonstration by the Jamaat-i-Islami against the continued detention of Qazi Hussain Ahmad, Maulana Fazlur Rehman and other "religious" leaders. JI provincial amir Prof Muhammad Ibrahim charged that President Gen Pervez Musharraf was following the American agenda and had thus become a security risk for the country. He said that Musharraf must be removed and the power handed over to an interim setup headed by honest and pious people. "Us raving religious lunatics will guide our nation to new heights of greatness and Islamic purity! And if you don't like it, we'll kill you."

All the arrested activists of religious parties in Faisalabad were released by the police at the the direction of the provincial Home Department. Special police teams arrested over two dozen activists of the Tehrik-i-Jaferia Pakistan, the Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan and the Lashkar-i-Taiba during surprise raids on their houses and offices on Thursday. They were released in the early hours of Friday. Yep. Looked pretty much like a crackdown for awhile there.

Middle East
Zinni still trying...

U.S. peace envoy ~~Sisyphus~~ Anthony Zinni met Palestinian officials, emerging still optimistic about truce prospects despite heightened tensions over Israel's seizure of a shipload of smuggled arms. Polyanna couldn't have said it any better. The violence will wax and wane dependent upon internal Palestinian politix, helped along by occasional tanks and aircraft from the Israeli side.

Terror Networks
Singapore rounds up its own al-Qaeda...

Singapore authorities have arrested 15 suspected militants, some of them trained at al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan, for allegedly plotting bombings. The suspects were arrested last month, and detailed information on bomb construction and photographs and video footage of targeted buildings in Singapore were found in their homes and offices. Al-Qaida-linked material, falsified passports and forged immigration stamps were also found. The suspects have links to militant groups in Malaysia and Indonesia. The 15 were detained under Singapore's Internal Security Act, which allows people to be held indefinitely without trial. All of the arrested except one is Singaporean. The other suspect used to be Singaporean and is now a Malaysian citizen. Thirteen of the suspects are members of a clandestine organization called "Jemaah Islamiah." And who said Afghanistan had no exports but opium?

The Alliance
One-eyed Mullah on the run again... Taliban regrouping?... Mullah Zaeef, meet the Great Satan... Indo cops rescue Bangla kids from life as camel jockeys...

In Afghanistan, ex-potentate Mullah Mohammad Omar may have evaded encircling Afghan and U.S. forces at Baghran by motorcycle, according to a report from Kandahar. This "Hey, let's negotiate a surrender" stuff is starting to get old. Find who's suddenly prosperous, hit him very many times, and next time just Daisy Cut.

Frontier Post (not the most reliable source) reports that the Taliban has begun regrouping and intends to attack Kabul. The shuras of Paktika, Paktia and Helmand are run by Taliban under assumed names. They might want to wait a little while before doing anything rash.

The U.S. military in Afghanistan has taken control of Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, the former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan. He is now among 307 Taliban and al Qaeda being held by the American military. Perhaps we can collect the whole set of mullahs. They'd look nice hanging over the national mantle.

Indian immigration officials said they had rescued nine Bangladeshi boys, aged between four and eight years, from traffickers taking them to Saudi Arabia to work as camel jockeys. In a similar incident in September 1997, 38 Bangladeshi boys destined to be camel jockeys were rescued by Chennai immigration officials. Cheeze! Is there no cruelty the Arabians are incapable of perpetrating?

2002-01-04T11:00:00.000-08:00

India-Pakistan
Vajpayee and Musharraf at the same dinner - so what?... Vajpayee sez SAARC should focus on economic issues instead of impending slaughter... Blair tries to please both sides, pleases neither. Wotta surprise... Pak sez "My, what a lot of troops you have! Mind pulling back a little?"... Pak crackdown on religious thugs... India still waiting for "the authorities" to round up perpetrators of atrocities... Another small-fry spy jugged in India... Pak planners: Maybe crazed killers aren't the best policy tool... Crazed killer/religious lunatic umbrella organization sez maybe crazed killers aren't the way to go... Crazed killers don't agree...

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf attended a royal banquet. The meeting was the first since the leaders had put their armies on war alert, but they showed no signs they might discuss a peaceful resolution. There appeared to be little chance they would have substantive talks during the SAARC summit, already shortened by the Pakistani President's late arrival. When newspersons were allowed to photograph the seven South Asian leaders gathered for the first time in three years, Vajpayee and Musharraf stood at the opposite ends of the line of dignitaries. Doesn't sound real promising. "Vajpayee had the fish sticks, Musharraf the meat loaf. At one point Vajpayee acknowledged the presence of Musharraf by passing him the salt when asked. After the banquet both leaders returned to their rooms."

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee urged the SAARC summit to focus on economic issues and warned that politics should not hold up the regional body. Vajpayee sought to shift attention at the summit of the seven-member South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, away from mounting tensions between India and Pakistan. What the hell kind of economic policies are you gonna have to implement when you're radioactive?

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said "of course, Pakistan has a very strong position on Kashmir and they are entitled to that political position but I think most people recognise and indeed the action of (Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf) has demonstrated that there cannot be any place for the type of terrorist act that we have seen in the past few weeks. Therefore, what is necessary is for the action to be taken against terrorism and then for the situation to be de-escalated to be calmed down. I will try to talk to both sides in order to make sure that we exercise as great a calming influence as possible." Translated: "Hmmm. Yasss. Both sides have their points. Perhaps we should stop the indiscriminate killing of women, children, puppies, kittens and baby ducks so we can discuss them." That's guaranteed to frost both sides.

Pakistan called on India to pull back its troops, saying that "maybe their whole Army" was deployed at its border. "We feel the Indian government must pull back ... to de-escalate tensions," Pakistani spokesman Rashid Qureshi said in Kathmandu ahead of the SAARC summit. Of course they've got a a lot of troops. They've got a billion people, fer cat's sake! Where'd you think they were gonna put them? France?

Pakistan has arrested more than 130 militants, including leaders of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad. "The crackdown which started last night is still going on," Javed Iqbal Cheema said. LeT and JeM were among those detained. The Sunni extremist Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan said police rounded up more than 200 of its supporters in overnight sweeps while a Shiite radical group Tehreek-e-Jafria Pakistan said 100 of its members were detained. Now, you might not think that rounding up significant numbers of wild-eyed gunmen and religious lunatics would have much of an effect on the quality of public discourse, but you might be surprised.

14 of the 20 thugs, killers and "criminal masterminds" India has requested Pakistan to extradite have Interpol "Red Corner" notices on them. An Interpol notice against Jammu and Kahsmir Liberation Front chief Amanullah Khan has been pending for over a decade and Pakistan had taken no action despite the fact that Amanullah Khan lives in Rawalpindi and is a known figure. "Red Corner" warrants are issued only after the agency is satisfied with the evidence submitted by a requesting country.No doubt the Paks were just about to get around to picking them up. Someone might try explaining this sort of thing to the Fifth Columnists who keep whining about how rather than conducting military operations we should be getting warrants from "the International Criminal Court" to "bring the perpetrators to justice."

A Pakistani ISI agent and four of his accomplices were arrested in West Bengal. The agent confessed that he had been collecting information on 33 Corps army headquarters in Siliguri. The raid led to the recovery of half a kilo of RDX, a grenade, arms and floppy disc on Army installations, restricted Army maps, Army special train movement maps and pocket diaries listing a large number of telephone numbers in Pakistan and the UAE. Sounds like a very painful experience. This is a real bad time to be him.

"It is time for Pakistan government to re-assess its Kashmir policy of supporting militancy and shift emphasis to diplomatic, political and human rights issues concerning Kashmir cause," said former information minister Mushahid Hussain. He said Pakistan should stop playing of favorites in supporting leaders in Kashmir since a similar policy had backfired in Afghanistan. "We must respect feelings and choices of the Kashmiri people and should not intervene in their internal affairs to the extent that they start distancing themselves from us," he said. Former director general of Institute of Strategic Studies of Pakistan Lt Gen (Retired) Kamal Mateenuddin said the military government should bring about fundamental changes in the Kashmir policy by first asking all militant groups to wind up their activities from Pakistani soil. That's good thinking. A little less jihad and a little closer to norms of international behavior does it. It's also good thinking to have people you don't like start your cars, to have other people you don't like taste your food at meals, and not to walk down any dark alleys, at least for awhile. Know whudda mean?

Hurriyat Conference has decided to send a three-member delegation to Delhi to meet diplomats of different countries to find an "honorable and fair" solution to the Kashmir issue. Comprising Jamaat-e-Islami leader Syed Ahah Geelani, J&K Peoples Conference chairman Abdul Gani Lone and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front president Mohammad Yassen Malik, the delegation will leave shortly. The delegation "will meet envoys of different countries and stress ... an honourable and fair solution to the lingering Kashmir issue to ensure peace and tranquility and a secure future". Hmmm. Interesting development. They could simply be stepping out of the path of an on-coming bus. Trouble is, if they work something out, someone else will ignore it, tarring them with the same duplicitous brush. And if they were to work out something that was actually enforceable, someone will shoot them.

Gunmen fired with automatic rifles at the house of Abdul Ghani Lone, senior leader of the Hurriyat Conference, but neither he nor his family were hurt, police said Friday. See what we mean?

Middle East
Palestinians caught with pants down in arms shipment... But it's all an Israeli plot... Iran sez so, too, so that must make it so...

Israeli commandos raided a vessel in the Red Sea, capturing 50 tons of Iranian-made weapons being smuggled in by members of Yasser Arafat's security forces. The vessel was seized in international waters about 300 miles from Israel's Red Sea port Eilat in a joint operation by Israel's navy, air force and intelligence services. The vessel had been bought by the Palestinian Authority and the captain and several crew were members of the Palestinian naval police. Chairman-for-Life Yasser Arafat denied any knowledge of the shipment and offered his full cooperation and a full investigation. Cold with your pants down, ain't it, Yasser? And you know they're still gonna bill you for all that stuff. And I'll betcha they won't give the boat back, either.

In denying the smuggling accusations, Palestinian officials said the Israeli government made the allegations to sabotage American mediator ~~Sisyphus~~ Anthony Zinni's mission. Damn those perfidious Jews. They do that all the time. Just your typical Mossad frame-up operation.

Iran claims it has no military cooperation arrangements with the Palestinians. "Every day, the Zionist regime is making baseless claims and takes undue advantage of the indifference of international forums to the suppression of Palestinians in order to increase its inhumane activities," a foreign ministry spokesman said. Of course not. It's just business. Strictly business.

Terror Networks
A baker's dozen thugs rounded up in Malaysia... Irish killer blows his own head off...

Malaysian authorities have arrested 13 people they suspect may be linked to Sept. 11 terrorist suspect Zacarias Moussaoui. Authorities accuse the suspects of belonging to an Islamic militant group that Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad says aimed to topple the government and establish a hardline Islamic state comprising Malaysia, Indonesia and the southern Philippines. The suspects belonged to a wing of the Kumpulan Militan Malaysia. The group, also known as the Malaysian Mujahadin Group, trained in Afghanistan and has links with Islamic extremist organizations in Indonesia and the Philippines. It's like picking lice off the body politic.

A suspected anti-Catholic militant was killed when the pipe bomb he was carrying exploded in his face. William Moore Campbell, 19, died when the bomb exploded outside an abandoned house in Coleraine. Police said the victim lived nearby and the house was being used by Protestant paramilitary outlaws to store weapons. Faith and Begorrah! The lad's whole day was ruined, do doubt. 'Tis sad, the low-quality explosives we get these days.

The Alliance
Bad Guys kill one of our own... One-eyed Mullah hunt goes house-to-house... Ismail Khan's a law 'n' order kind of guy... Learned Elder of Islam sez we're arrogant tyrants...

A U.S. Army Special Forces soldier was killed by small-arms fire in eastern Afghanistan, the first member of the American military to die from enemy fire inside the war-torn country in the three-month-old campaign. A CIA officer was wounded in the shootout but was expected to survive.Mopping up is the most dangerous part. Surprised we've gone this long without taking a real combat fatality. Sadly, he probably won't be the last.

U.S. ground troops, working closely with Afghan fighters, conducted house-to-house searches around Baghran, where Kabul officials said they were fairly certain ex-potentate Mullah Omar was hiding. Earlier, Afghanistan's Minister for Reconstruction told Germany's ARD television he believed Omar had been captured. Australia's ABC television said it had heard the same from a senior official of the Northern Alliance. U.S. military officials denied knowledge of it. "Hi, Mrs Abdullah. Is Omar home? Well, if you see him, tell him we were looking for him, okay?"

Forces loyal to Herat Governor Ismail Khan have arrested a former Taliban militia commander, Mulla Wali Jan, who is said to have led an attack on the Iranian consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif in 1998. Since his arrest, the former militia commander has been locked up in Herat jail. The attack left eight Iranian diplomats and two journalists dead. The Herat court will try the commander after it starts functioning under the 1932 constitution, which was revived after the fall of the Taliban government. Sure hope we're supporting Ismail Khan as much or more than we're supporting crooks like Gul Agha Shirzai. He's one of the few Afghan leaders who's actually looking out for his fiefdom.

The imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca slammed Western arrogance saying, that it thrives on humiliating and subjugating other nations. Sheikh Saleh ibn Humeid said in his Friday sermon, televised around the world by satellite channels, that there is a huge gap between theory and practice of the Western principles of democracy, freedom and human rights. Today’s world order is "dark, characterized by arrogance, haughtiness, humiliation and disdain. It is characterized by tyranny, suppression of peoples and nations, domination and monopolization," the imam said. "What kind of principles are these that create hatred, and educational systems that allow humiliation (of others)? What kind of a system is this that sows arrogance and conceit?" Those Learned Elders of Islam get downright huffy when they can't have their way, don't they?

2002-01-04T07:32:00.000-08:00

I have lotsa work to do this morning - one of those unreasonable demands of my employer. Will mine for atrocities this evening. Until then, I leave you with this thought:

The entire world seems to be divided into three parts - wits, half-wits, and humorless bastards. Where do you fall?

Did it hurt?

2002-01-03T07:17:00.000-08:00

India-Pakistan
Blair wants to help... Pak: give us evidence, we'll try our own thugs... Indos bump off a dozen small fry... Jaish sez campaign of mad-dog killing will continue...

British Prime Minister Tony Blair's office said he wants to mediate between Pakistan and India over the Kashmir dispute.

President Pervez Musharraf ruled out the possibility of handing over any Pakistani national accused of carrying out terrorist attacks to the Indian authorities. President Pervez Musharraf said so at a joint meeting of the Pak National Security Council and federal cabinet. Musharraf stated that action would certainly be taken if credible and satisfactory evidence was provided to Pakistan. The government was ready to try those found involved in the Dec 13 attack on the Indian Parliament. "President Musharraf remarked that Pakistan wants peace, but with honour and dignity," Information Secretary Anwer Mehmood said.

Indian security forces killed 12 gunmen, including five self-styled commanders of pro-Pak outfits, in separate encounters while losing a paramilitary in Kashmir valley. Militants abducted a forest official and his two guards and shot dead an alleged police informer during the period. Five militants of Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen, including two top "commanders", departed the gene pool in an encounter with Army troops at village in the border district of Kupwara. More small fry, cheap and easily replaced.

Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad vowed there would be no scaling back of its "holy war" against India in Jammu and Kashmir despite a clampdown by Pakistan authorities. "I declare on behalf of my organisation that our jihad will continue in J&K as long as our last fighter and India's last soldier is there," Jaish spokesman Rana Farooq Tahir said. "We are not afraid of war (with India). Rather we want it to take place because Kashmir can only be liberated from India by military means," Tahir said. And there we have it. The bigwigs will stay where it's warm and safe and cozy, 'cause they're too important to lay down their lives. Operations will continue in J & K until the last cheap and easily replaced cannon fodder hoodlum has been expended. And if they're lucky, they'll bring on a major war and the annihilation of millions. Gotta love 'em!

Middle East
"The difficult we do immediately. The impossible sometimes takes forever"... Saudis funding Hamas bomb-makers...

~~Sysiphus~~ US envoy Anthony Zinni is back in the Middle East, attempting to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Hamas engineers are developing a new missile called Qassam 3. It can carry 10 kilograms of T.N.T. explosives, and reach a distance of 10 kilometers (about 6 miles). Israeli officials arrested a Hamas activist who was on his way from the Gaza Strip to Saudi Arabia, "to arrange funding for the Qassam missile project," and transfer it to the West Bank. Documents were found on the emissary describing in detail the development process of the missile in the Gaza Strip, those behind these activities, financial costs and the intentions of the command in Gaza to transfer the knowledge and experience to their cohorts the West Bank. How industrious. And how nice of the Saudis to fund such industry. Wonder which charitable organization it was? We should send them a "thank you" card.

The Alliance
Talibs ready to surrender the One-Eyed Mullah... Azerbaijan arrests attempted mad bombers... Somalia next in the barrel?...

Supporters of ex-potentate Mullah Mohammad Omar have agreed to hand him over to Afghan authorities if the US bombing campaign is halted. Taliban commander Rayes Baghran said he would also surrender along with his force of up to 1,500 men. Rayes Baghran is also holding talks with Haji Shir Mohammad, the governor of Helmand province, who has declared his allegiance to Afghanistan's interim leader Hamid Karzai. Like, violence never solves anything, man! 'Course, in this case it probably won't. He'll try to scoot somewhere else so they can do it all over again.

U.S. and allied military forces are stepping up aerial-reconnaissance flights over Somalia in preparation for raids against al Qaeda terrorist bases there. 100 al Qaeda terrorists were identified recently in Somalia. The terrorists were part of the Islamic rebel group there known as Al-Ittihad Al-Islam. The Mogadishu-based group, known as AIAI, is linked to Somali warlord Hussein Mohammed Aideed and has close ties to al Qaeda. "Somalia will likely be next," said one defense official familiar with defense planning. Golly. Aideed. Who'da thunkit? Told you the Rangers want to go back. They might even be looking forward to dragging his deceased carcass through the streets, though they're really too gentlemanly to actually do that.

Azerbaijan arrested six members of an Islamic group that was believed to be preparing an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baku. The six included five Azeris and one Ukrainian national. A seventh person, an Uzbek national, was still being sought. The group was also targeting other international organizations in Baku. They were said to be members of a little-known Islamic militant group called Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which reportedly has followers across Central Asia, and also has links to the Islamic militants fighting the Russian army in Chechnya. Golly. Chechnya. Wotta coincidence.

Home Front
SneakerBoy's Dad sez he had a tough life... Firefighters and victims at WTC had it tougher... 500 pounds of Oklahome-city style bomb materials missing in LA... Good Guys 1, Left Mullahs 0, in Madison, Wis...

The Jamaican father of ~~Maxwell Smart~~ "Richard Reid" has come to the defence of his son, blaming his own prison life for the events of December 22. "Look at the terrible childhood he had and the broken home he came from," Robin Reid, 51, told The Mirror tabloid. "Look at the father he had. I have spent 18 years in total behind bars. That can't have helped can it? With that kind of childhood, what sort of defence could he put up against lunatic religious fanatics leading him astray?" Cue violin crescendo... Oh, well. Too late now. He's already an attempted crazed killer. Just go back to your own petty thievery and dope dealing, Robin, and we'll take it from here.

The bodies of 10 firefighters and three civilians were pulled from the rubble of the World Trade Center as excavation crews opened up the lobby of one of the collapsed towers. Any one of them would have been worth a couple dozen SneakerBoys and his Dad.

Police throughout the Los Angeles area were on alert for a stolen flatbed truck and 500 pounds of potentially explosive nitric acid that remained unaccounted for less than 24 hours before the national college football championship game at the Rose Bowl. Los Angeles police said the thieves who took the vehicle from a business likely were not connected to terrorists and probably were unaware of potential dangers posed by the acid, which was stored in five 100-pound silver metal canisters. Ummm... Maybe you should operate on the assumption they do know, that they are connected, and that way people might look just that little bit harder for them.

The Madison, Wisconsin, school board president, who attracted criticism when he voted against allowing students to say the Pledge of Allegiance, told fellow board members he would not seek re-election. Sometimes the Good Guys do win. You can take his head off the pike now. They're done playing buzkashi with the rest of him.

Fifth Column
Ramsey Clark still loves Saddam...

Arguing that a decade of U.N. sanctions have nearly destroyed the Iraqi people, former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, the veteran pacifist and anti-war advocate, led the formation of a group to oppose U.S. military action against Iraq. The group, a coalition of anti-war and civil action groups called ANSWER urged Americans to "act now to stop war and end racism," and join a march on Washington on April 27 to persuade the Bush administration that Americans are opposed to further military action. "To me it is the worst possible memorial you could have to those who died at the Pentagon and World Trade Center on Sept. 11th is to kill poor people in other countries by the thousands," Clark said. Clark's been in love with Sammy since the Gulf War. In fact, he seems to have a soft spot for all tin-hat dictators. Wonder where he gets his money? Wonder how much of it's written off as charitable donations. Wonder how much of it comes from Iraq - and Saudi Arabia.

2002-01-02T07:17:00.000-08:00

India-Pakistan
India-Pak shake hands while thugs try to torpedo meeting... Lashkar says it'll blow the Taj Mahal... Pak cuts funding to mercenary Kashmir groups... Kashmiri "freedom fighter" mob moves offices to Kashmir... Pak condolences for baby massacre... Pak mob opposes extraditing crazed gunmen... Pak kiddies may learn to read and write... Islamists: "Hey, hey! Ho ho! Musharraf's got to go!"... Jamiat-e-Islami head jugged...

Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar shook hands, spoke amiably and smiled in a conference room in Katmandu, Nepal, where a meeting of South Asian nations is convening, hinting that diplomatic talks could ease the disharmony that has pushed troops toward their shared frontier. But suspected Islamic militants detonated two grenades near the legislature in Srinagar, wounding at least 18 people in the summer capital of Jammu-Kashmir. And in southern Kashmir, Indian and Pakistani forces traded mortar and small-arms fire across the border. Their bosses, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, are scheduled to join other leaders there Friday. Unless Lashkar thugs can torpedo the meeting by killing enough women, children, puppies, kittens and baby ducks.

Lashkar-e-Taiba has threatened to blow up the Taj Mahal. Security around the 17th century marble monument has been tightened following an e-mail threat from the group. "They have threatened to blow up the Taj Mahal, some other monuments and important government buildings in Lucknow," an official said. Did Lashkar headhunters pick up Mullah Omar when the regime went under? Either that, or they picked up a few pointers from the Talibs. Shucks, that'd put blowing the Bamian Buddhas to shame. When it comes to barbarity, Lashkar leaves the Taliban in the dust. Besides, it's just a monument to some woman, and we know what they're worth. Real men don't have romance in their souls. They have Kalashnikovs. And grenades. And turbans. "Beauty and grace are un-Islamic, and must be destroyed."

In a significant scaling down and reorientation of its Kashmir policy, Islamabad will cut support to Pakistan-based terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed. However, it will continue to provide moral and diplomatic support – but not military training or supplies -- to “indigenous” Kashmiri groups like Hizbul Mujaheddin, provided such groups purge themselves of all non-Kashmiri Muslims. General Musharraf is believed to have given these assurances to Washington through the offices of the US ambassador in Islamabad in an effort to forestall a threatened war by India and punitive measures by Washington. Wot? No Arabs? No Chechens? No Paks? How can you fight a proxy war of attrition without mercenaries?

Jaish-e-Mohammad said it was moving its offices into Kashmir to escape a crackdown by Pakistani authorities. Officials of the mob say about 100 activists across Pakistan have been detained in the sweep. Shoots the crap out of those property values, doesn't it? Maybe they're gonna become indigenous Kashmiris so they can get back at the funding trough.

Pakistan condemned the attack in a remote village near Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir in which five civilians including one woman were killed by "unknown" (Lashkar-e-Taiba) gunmen. "The government of Pakistan offers condolences to the bereaved family," a Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman said. Gosh. Usually they don't notice little incidents like that. Maybe it was shooting the baby that did it.

The United Jehad Council, an umbrella organisation of some Pakistan-based militant outfits, has strongly opposed extradition of 20 terrorists demanded by India from Islamabad. "If it happens, everything would be finished," UJC chairman and Hizbul Mujahideen leader Syed Salahuddin said. He said the council would re-evolve its future strategy in the next few days in the wake of Pakistan government's crackdown on militants. The government action was "disappointing." Salahuddin said his organisation condemned the arrest of former leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba Hafiz Saeed and Maulana Masud Azhar, leader of Jaish-e-Mohammad and other jehadi leaders. Yeah, it's always disappointing when your crazed gunmen are extradited to places they committed their crimes. That means you'll have to hijack some more airliners to get them sprung, and Kandahar won't be a good place to land them this time.

The governors of Balochistan, Punjab and the NWFP will shortly promulgate ordinances on compulsory primary education.
The federal ministry of education had asked the educational ministries of the three provinces to promulgate the ordinance as early as possible. The move would create an influx of students at the primary level in the country. Under the law, it will be compulsory for the parents, except in case of a genuine excuse, to send their children to primary schools. That would seem calculated to undermine the madrassah system. The Saudis might have to find some other way to inculcate the suicide bomber philosophy into the little kiddies.

The Pak Jamaat-i-Islami has warned India to desist from any aggression against Pakistan saying that the entire nation will become an impregnable fortress for defence of the motherland. Addressing the annual meeting of JI's Ladies' Auxillary, secretary general of the party Syed Munawwar Hasan criticized the government for relying on the US rather than on the people. The JI leader referred to what he termed the inept policies of the government. He said President Pervez Musharraf should form a consensus interim government to tackle the situation, and hold free and fair elections for transfer of power to a democratically elected government. (I.e., to him.)

Jamaat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed was again put under house arrest at the Tanda Dam Rest House. The local jail is full of detained al-Qaeda.Maybe it was something he said.

Middle East
Israel continues cleaning up Palestinians... Al-Aqsa Martyrs say they'll be good...

The Israeli Army launched a sweeping arrest campaign, capturing 10 Palestinians in extensive operations in Palestinian territories. Israeli soldiers abducted one of the men, identified as Ryad Saadi Ayad, in a covert operation in the autonomous Palestinian area adjacent to the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in the Gaza Strip. Ayad, 27, was arrested by soldiers from a special unit disguised as Palestinians for his involvement in mortar fire against Israeli targets. Earlier, Israeli troops moved into Qabatiya, in the northern West Bank, and arrested four brothers, including Nasser Zakarni, a member of Hamas. A firefight broke out but no one was wounded.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a hard-line splinter group from Arafat’s Fatah movement, said in a statement they would adhere to the Palestinian leader’s Dec. 16 call for an end to attacks on Israel. "We pledge an absolute commitment to all the decisions issued by Arafat and the presidency," said the statement from the group. Damn. Now that is a surprise. Wonder what the definition of "adhere" is?

The Alliance
Another deader and now negotiating for the one-eyed mullah... Russians continue grinding Chechens... Yemenis continue chasing al-Qaeda... Kuwait sez Bad Guy's not really theirs... Hekmatyar ready for a comeback now that better men have kicked out the Taliban...

Negotiations for the surrender of ex-potentate Mullah Mohammad Omar were under way in southern Afghanistan, and the former ruling militia's intelligence chief was killed in U.S. bombardment last week. Qari Ahmadullah was believed to be the highest Taliban official to be killed in the campaign. Abdullah Tawheedi, a deputy intelligence minister for the interim government in Kabul, confirmed Ahmadullah's death. Ahmadullah, 40, had been identified by the coalition as one of the Taliban leaders it was trying to capture. He was among 25 people killed in Naka, in Pakhtia province, on Dec. 27, when U.S. planes attacked a house where he was staying. Would that have been the village where there weren't any Taliban or al-Qaeda according to Afghan Islamic Press? Or was that another one?

Ten Chechen civilians died during heavy fighting between Russian forces and Chechen separatists in the south of the republic. The victims, including women and a one year-old child, were killed as Russian forces shelled the village of Tsatsan-Yurt which they have been surrounding for several days. Rebels also claimed to have killed up to 40 Russian soldiers and to have wounded a similar number around Tsatsan-Yurt, but the Russian high command denied any losses. Russian forces launched a special operation around three villages near the capital, Grozny, and said that they had killed 84 separatist fighters and arrested 20 during the offensive. A high-profile fatality was top separatist warlord Ruslan Shilayev, said to be sixth in the hierarchy of Chechen rebel commanders. The world is a better place without him.

Yemeni special forces backed by tanks and helicopters raided a village where Al Qaeda were believed to be holed up, leaving 12 people dead. Several more men on both sides were wounded. Yemeni army and police units laid siege to Al Hosun village in Marib province. The special troops fired shells “in the hunt for elements who returned recently from Afghanistan and who are believed to be members of Al Qaeda.” A gunbattle followed between government forces and men of the Abeideh tribe, who have sheltered the Al Qaeda supporters. The clashes “left 12 people dead from the two sides,” a tribal dignitary said. Army tanks also entered the fray and several houses were destroyed, witnesses said. Welcome home, boys. Enjoy the hospitality.

Kuwait announced that one among the names listed on the European Union list of persons connected to terrorism, said to be a Kuwaiti, is a Pakistani. Muhammad Khaled al-Sheikh who was identified as a Kuwaiti is in reality a Pakistani citizen but was born in Kuwait. Khaled al-Sheikh is suspected to be involved in an attack attempt against an American plane in the Philippines in 1995. And they wouldn't want him even if he was.

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was organizing a militia of former Taliban fighters, Pakistani militants, and Pashtun warriors with the aim of destabilizing the new government in Afghanistan. Hekmatyar, leader of a Pashtun political faction, relentlessly shelled Kabul in the early 1990s as he tried to drive the Tajik-dominated government of Burhanuddin Rabbani from power. For years, Hekmatyar received money and arms from Pakistan, until Islamabad turned its patronage to the Taliban. The civil war killed thousands of Afghans, left tens of thousands more homeless, and obliterated whole neighborhoods in the capital city. While Hekmatyar is now reportedly in Iran, a Jalalabad intelligence officer said he has been told that Hekmatyar is trying to draw together an opposition fighting force. The officer said he did not have details about Hekmatyar's plans or strategy, but he emphasized that such a militia could become a significant concern and that intelligence operatives ''will be positioned to find out more information.'' Afghanistan needs this guy like it needs a good civil war. Hekmatyar may be the most evil man in the world.

Home Front
Moussaoui sez "no plea" - trial scheduled for one of these days...

Zacarias Moussaoui, the first man to be indicted on charges involving the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring with Osama bin Laden to kill thousands of people. The trial was set to open on Oct. 14. Moussaoui, a 33-year-old French citizen of Moroccan descent, said in a statement to the court: "In the name of Allah I do not have anything to plead. I enter no plea." But U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema said she understood that to be a plea of not guilty and Moussaoui's defense attorney Frank Dunham said, "Yes." October? Ten months from now? What the hell happened to the right to a speedy trial? And how does "I enter no plea" transform into a "not guilty"? Sounds at best Alford-ish, if not "ya got the goods on me, coppers."

2002-01-01T06:01:00.000-08:00

India-Pakistan
Vajpayee sez knock off the proxy war... Lashkar heroes bump off a baby in Poonch... To hell with Musharraf, jihad goes on in Kashmir... And we'll blow ourselves up to prove it!...

Six Gulf countries denounced the attack on the Parliament at the GCC meeting in Muscat, and called on the UN Security Council to defuse tensions between India and Pakistan. Yeah, that should do it. Works every time.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee called on Pakistan to shed its "anti-India" mentality and crush terrorist groups on its soil to allow a dialogue on all bilateral disputes, including Kashmir. In an article published on New Year's Day, Vajpayee also warned the Indian people to be prepared for any eventuality in the light of the "unprecedented" crisis that has brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war. "As I have said earlier, India does not want war. But we have a sovereign right to defend ourselves against cross-border terrorism, which is a proxy war that is already thrust on us," Vajpayee said. "Pakistan will be solely responsible for the consequences of encouraging terrorism against India."

An infant and an eight-year-old boy were among the six persons of a Hindu family killed in a massacre by Lashkar-e-Taiba militants in a village in the border district of Poonch. In the second attack against minorities in the last three days in the Rajouri-Poonch belt, militants wearing combat fatigues swooped down on the home of an ex-serviceman in a remote moutainous village and fired indiscriminately at the family. Five members of the family were killed in the firing and two others seriously wounded. Sources said Lashkar militants were behind the massacre. Yeah, that proxy war.

Indian security forces have destroyed at least 12 Pakistani bunkers and killed 10 Pakistani soldiers in retaliatory gunfire across the border in Kashmir.

Lashkar-e-Taiba mouthpiece Yahya Mujahid said the arrest of Hafiz Mohammed Saeed and other leaders ‘‘will not affect the jehad in Kashmir’’. Mujahid confirmed that Saeed had been arrested by Pakistani authorities en route to a central committee meeting in Islamabad. He regretted that Pakistan President Musharraf had bowed to the pressure created by ‘‘American and Indian propaganda that the LeT is a terrorist organisation’’. Mujahid said, ‘‘It doesn’t matter what the government does, the people of Pakistan are with us, they support the jehad in Kashmir’’. Translated: "Nothing will stop us from killing women, children and babies. That's what we do, y'know?"

A terrorist suicide squad stormed a heavily guarded Army transit camp at Drugmulla in North Kashmir. Two terrorists and one soldier died, while two civilians were injured. Elsewhere, at least eight militants of Hizbul Mujahideen were gunned down by the troops during 15 hours of festivities in south Kashmir. One soldier died and one was injured. Actually, it's kinda fun watching those bastards blow up, if you're not standing too close to 'em.

Middle East
Palestinian chorus to sing "Well hello, Zinni! This is Nablus, Zinni! It's so nice to have you back where you belooong!"... Palestinians say killing suicide bombers "fans the flames"... Israel uses tanks to arrest four Bad Guys...

Hopes for a breakthrough in the stalled Middle East peace process were raised as US and Palestinian officials announced the return of special envoy Anthony Zinni after a dramatic drop in violence. Arafat has arrested scores of militants, including an estimated 10 on a list of 33 top suspects submitted by Israel through Zinni. That's scores of small fry, plus 10 out of 33 Criminal Masterminds. They claimed they had arrested 17 of the 33 way back on December 2nd. Wonder where seven of them went? Our original ~~guess~~ prediction (December 5th) was that he'd round up a dozen or so and that they'd be released as soon as things cool off again.

The Palestinian Authority accused Israel of "fanning the flames" with the killing of six Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, while Israel said at least three of the men were suicide bombers trying to sneak into Israel. Helping suicide bombers meet their 72 virgins is "fanning the flames"? They thought they were being helpful.

Six tanks and four jeeps rumbled into Qabatiya near Jenin, sparking an exchange of fire. One of the men arrested in the operation belonged to Hamas. Two others were linked to Fatah. The army said three of the detained men "were suspected of involvement in terror activities" and said one of them was found with an assault rifle. Assault rifles are regarded as Russian-manufactured manhood in the Middle East.

The Alliance
Al-Qaeda detritus to move from Pakland to Kandahar... Handler sez Binny doesn't look well... One-eyed mullah hunt in Helmand... Saudis have traditional New Year celebration... Jordanian-American al-Qaeda may get the jump...

About 150 arrested al-Qaeda will be shifted from a Pakistani jail in Kohat to a US prison camp in Kandahar for more intensive interrogation. The detained al-Qaeda -- mostly from Egypt, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and other Arabian peninsula countries -- would be flown to Kandahar in batches. Four at least would be moved to Islamabad for deportation. Those would be the ones who know somebody, or brought cash.

ABC News reported the US armed forces had "circumstantial but compelling" evidence that Osama bin Laden was alive. The report said the United States had intercepted communications originating in Iran, in which the caller said: "You should keep bin Laden (using a code name) off of the television. He looks bad, he looks sick, and it is demoralizing to his people." Either he's alive, or they didn't get the news he's dead. Al-Qaeda has handlers in Iran? An ayatollah checking up on his investment?

Anti-Taliban forces were readying to corner former Protector of the Faithful Mullah Mohammad Omar. The intelligence chief in Kandahar said he had asked villagers in Helmand to hand Omar over. "We have told them to give us Omar, but no ultimatum has been issued," Haji Gullalai said. "We have two goals: to disarm irresponsible people and to get Omar, who is a criminal for the Afghan people and the whole world." He said he and tribal allies had assembled a force of up to 2,000 fighters and they were ready to try to capture the fugitive if he was not handed over. Prime Minister Hamid Karzai says American forces have launched a mission to capture Omar. Afghan officials suspect he is in the Baghran area. Maybe they've actually got a bead on him. If they get him, Afghan Islamic Press will probably say he's a civilian.

Three Saudi men were beheaded for committing acts of sodomy and "seducing young men." Well, that taught 'em a lesson, by God.

The lawyer of Raed Hijazi, a Jordanian American being tried on charges of plotting to carry out terrorist acts in Jordan, insisted his client was not guilty and called for his acquittal. On December 12, the prosecution asked for the death penalty against Hijazi and two other defendants, both fugitives. They are Ahmed Nazal Khalayleh, a Jordanian living in Afghanistan, and Mohammed Haj Saqa, a Syrian living in Germany. Hijazi was sentenced to death in absentia last year along with 21 of the 28 Islamists accused of plotting terrorist attacks on US and Israeli targets during millennium festivities. He was subsequently arrested in Syria and extradited to Jordan, where he is also accused of illegally fabricating and possessing explosives and must be retried on those same charges. Chief Magistrate Colonel Tayel Raqqad said a hearing for the verdict would be set soon. But Hijazi shouted from the dock: “Why not announce the death penalty now?” Hijazi's name is on a US list of alleged terrorists published after the September attacks. We're hoping this guys takes up cervical bungee jumping soon.

Terror Networks
Indonesian Muslims blow up churches to celebrate New Year... Eurobombers ring in the New Year around Strasbourg... Traditional Chechen New Year festivities in Grozny... Islamic New Year in Karachi... Hindu New Year in Lucknow...

Indonesia began the New Year with four churches bombed and one person dead from a grenade blast, after revellers elsewhere in the country welcomed in 2002 with fireworks and trumpets. Christian, Adventist and Pentecostal churches in the Sulawesi capital of Palu were rocked by simultaneous blasts as midnight struck, shattering church windows and injuring one person. In the light of day a fourth bomb exploded as worshippers gathered to celebrate New Year's Day mass at another Pentecostal church at 9:30 am, injuring two policemen who were inspecting the parcel it was wrapped in. In Jakarta a grenade exploded in front of a restaurant in the city's southern entertainment district at 3:30 am, blowing off a man's hand and killing him. And Happy New Year to you, too, you xenophobic terrorist bastards.

An explosion at a village hall in the town of Barr, near Strasbourg, France, left nine people injured. The cause of the blast, which occurred as New Year's celebrations were ongoing, was not immediately known. It was apparently caused by an bomb placed outside the village hall where some 150 New Year revellers, including several children, were celebrating. Earlier in the evening another explosion destroyed an electrical transformer in the local sports stadium. plunging the community into darkness for an hour. Elsewhere in the Strasbourg area some 40 vehicles were set alight and three police officers injured by gunshot. And Happy New Year to you, you cheese- (or cous-cous) eating terrorist bastards.

Rebels attacked the headquarters of the Russian Federal Security Service in the Chechen capital Grozny, firing grenades and automatic weapons, but caused no casualties. And Happy New Year to you, too, you vicious Caucasian bastards.

At least nine people were wounded on when a bomb that police suspect was planted by Islamic militants exploded outside a popular club in Karachi. The time bomb, hidden inside a car, exploded in the parking area of the beachside Mariana Club, located in one the most affluent neighborhoods of the city. Three cars were also destroyed. No group claimed responsibility, but police said they suspect Islamic militants. Fundamentalist Muslim groups abhor New Year celebrations and consider them contrary to the teachings of Islam. Shabab-e-Milli, the youth wing of the orthodox Jamaat-e-Islami, or Islamic Party, had warned people against celebrating the New Year. And Happy New Year to you, too, you humorless Islamic bastards.

Adding to the confusion, hundreds of revelers fired shots in the air in various Karachi neighborhoods to celebrate the New Year despite heavy police presence and tight security. At least 15 other people sustained bullet wounds as New Year's revelers fired into the air with automatic weapons in several other neighborhoods. One was in critical condition. And Happy New Year to you, too, you morons. (Cause? Effect? There's a relationship?) Assault rifles are regarded as Russian-manufactured manhood in South Asia, too.

Two New Year eve revellers were injured when Hindu Sena activists opened fire with home-made revolvers to disrupt the celebrations at a fun club in Lucknow. The activists, led by their state unit president Alok Dube, reached the Super Fun and Food Centre, broke the window panes and tried to disrupt the New Year bash there. The security guard posted at the centre fired his weapon to disperse the mob. Earlier, the Hindu Sena had warned that it would stall all programs organized in the city's hotels and clubs on the New Year eve because they are against the Indian culture. And Happy New Year to you, too, you humorless cow-loving bastards. (Yup. That Super Fun and Food Centre's a real threat to traditional Hindu values!)