Posted on 05/01/2005 10:41:55 AM PDT by Straight Vermonter
Margaret Hassan's killers seized in Iraq
By Lutfi Abu Oun
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. and Iraqi forces raided homes on the outskirts of Baghdad on Sunday and detained several men believed to be linked to the death of British aid worker Margaret Hassan, who was kidnapped and killed late last year.
Iraqi police said the morning raids happened not far from Madaen, a town just south of Baghdad where insurgents have been active in recent weeks. They said 11 people were seized, at least five of whom had admitted complicity in Hassan's murder.
The arrests, which may mark a small breakthrough in the effort to bring insurgents to justice in Iraq, came amid a surge in guerrilla activity in the past three days -- ever since Iraq formed its first democratically elected government in 50 years.
Some of the violence has been focused in Madaen, where three car bombs exploded on Friday. At least nine people were killed in car bombings and shootings in Baghdad on Sunday.
Hassan, a British national who headed CARE International in Iraq, was kidnapped last October. She was killed about a month later after appealing on video tapes made by her abductors for British forces to withdraw from Iraq. Her body was never found.
"We are aware that a raid was conducted and that items were recovered that we believe may belong to Margaret Hassan," a spokesman for the British embassy in Baghdad said.
"There is reasonable evidence to believe that the items were Hassan's ... it seems likely. But until our police have finished their investigation we cannot say definitively."
He said British police, many of whom are based in Iraq and assist in training Iraqi security forces, were investigating but could not say when their probe would end.
Iraqi authorities said clothing, a bag and identification documents belonging to Hassan had been found at the scene, but the embassy official declined to say what items were discovered.
Hundreds of foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq over the past 18 months. Around 50 have been killed, some by beheading, after their abductors' demands were not met.
Former student sentenced for helping terrorist group (Wyoming)
BY ANGELA BROOKS
A former WyoTech student who attempted to aid a terrorist organization was sentenced to two years in federal prison Thursday.
Mark Robert Walker, 19, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in El Paso, Texas, following his Nov. 6 arrest while attempting to cross the border from Mexico into the U.S.
Agents with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized $2,200 that Walker was carrying, as well as a laptop computer, receipts and journals. He was later identified as the administrator of an Islamic Web site that supported the Somalian terrorist group, Al-Ittihad Al-Isiami.
In addition to a prison term, United States District Judge David Briones ordered Walker be put under supervised release for three years after he gets out.
“Terrorists can only operate effectively in secret and with a steady flow of money,” U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton said. “Mr. Walker attempted to give aid and support to a known terrorist group.”
According to a report in The Daily Herald, Walker was a 2004 graduate of Stanwood High School in Stanwood, Wash., where he was a member of the chess team and a regional winner of the National Geographic Bee. Fellow classmates said he was smart and had a large vocabulary.
Walker created a stir in high school with an odd yearbook message next to his senior picture talking about taking over Somalia, his plans for world supremacy and his “future heroic death,” the newspaper reported.
A school district investigation into the matter was thwarted after Walker and his family moved to Rochester, N.Y.
Walker was enrolled at WyoTech in Laramie at the time of his arrest. His roommate alerted authorities after learning that Walker had used his computer to make arrangements with the violent terrorist group.
Walker fled, and was arrested in Mexico, where he planned to meet someone who described himself as an Islamic extremist named Khalid.
Walker admitted he planned to travel to Somalia to provide financial and technical support in an attempt to help overthrow the current government in Somalia and replace it with an Islamic government.
Additionally, he intended to support the group as a soldier by providing materials and technical assistance with weapons and by creating and maintaining Internet sites for recruitment purposes, Sutton said.
“Thanks to aggressive law enforcement, he was unable to get very far and is now on his way to federal prison,” Sutton said.
Walker also went by the name “Abduallah.” He frequently posted on terrorist forums, where he once stated “I feel that I should leave for Som., we badly need mujahideen.” A mujahideen is a person who wages a holy war.
Al-Ittihad Al-Isiami is Somalia’s largest militant Islamic organization. It rose to power in the early 1990s and was placed on the U.S. list of global terrorist organizations on Sept. 24, 2001.
The maximum penalty Walker could have received was 10 years in prison and a $50,000 fine.
Algeria arrests militants, soldiers killed
Algiers, Algeria, Apr. 30 (UPI) -- Two soldiers were killed and two suspected militants accused of killing 20 civilians were arrested,the Algerian interior ministry said Saturday.
The ministry, in a statement, said security forces arrested two Islamic gunmen earlier in April, adding they confessed to slaughtering 20 civilians in al-Arbiyaa region, 31 miles (50 kilometers) north of the capital.
The statement said the "terrorists" also confessed that three others from the same group had participated in the massacre and authorities were searching for the fugitives.
The ministry said authorities seized an unspecified amount of weapons and bombs that were in the possession of the suspects.
Meanwhile, Algeria's al-Watan daily said two soldiers were killed Friday when a bomb exploded in Boumerdass province, 37 miles (60 kilometers) east of Algiers.
It quoted security sources as saying the incident took place while the army was combing the area in search of gunmen.
3 civilians, 4 militants killed in air strike in central Afghanistan
KABUL (AP) - An air strike on a suspected insurgent camp in central Afghanistan killed three civilians and four militants, the U.S. military said Saturday.
All seven died when warplanes attacked the camp in Uruzgan province on Friday, a military statement said.
"The attack killed one Afghan woman, one Afghan man and a child," the statement said. Two more children were wounded and taken to the U.S. base in the southern city of Kandahar for treatment, it said.
The military didn't say whether U.S. planes carried out the attack or give details of the victims. A spokeswoman had no further details.
Afghan officials and human rights groups have complained repeatedly about civilian casualties in U.S.-led military operations, saying heavy-handed tactics could stoke sympathy for militants who have maintained a stubborn insurgency since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
American commanders insist they modify their operations to try to avoid hurting civilians and accuse militants of using civilians for protection.
Among recent incidents involving civilian casualties was a March 22 firefight in Paktika province which left seven people dead, including two children and a woman. A suspected militant and two other insurgents were also killed.
The next day, U.S. troops fatally shot a boy in eastern Kunar province in pursuit of a suspected bombmaker.
The military said Friday's incident occurred during a series of attacks over two days against insurgents in Uruzgan, a mountainous province which U.S. and Afghan authorities have failed to pacify despite intense military operations.
Top HM commander among four arrested in J-K
JAMMU: A self-styled platoon commander of Hizbul Mujahideen outfit was among four persons arrested in Doda district, official sources said here on Saturday.
Acting on intelligence reports, troops raided a hideout in Puhia area of Doda district on Friday night and arrested four persons including a top HM commander.
They have been identified as Farooq Ahmed alias Shakher, the platoon commander of the outfit in Kishtwar belt and two over ground workers (OGWs) of HM.
They have been sent to joint interrogation cell.
Troops also arrested two more OGWs identified as Bashir Ahmed and Gulam Mohideen Sheikh from Monu Bal area in Banihal Tehsil of Doda district on Thursday night, they said.
The recoveries from them included one pistol, one magazine, 120 rounds, six grenades and one map, they said, adding they have also been sent to the interrogation cell.
Eight militants held in northern Pakistan
GILGIT: The Northern Areas police claim to have arrested four suspected militants involved in different cases of murder and bomb blasts that were committed in the preceding months following Jan-8 sectarian violence in Gilgit.
A statement issued by the Police department said police have arrested the "real" culprits involved in a blast on April-16 at a Naltar mosque and identified them as Yusuf Ali s/o Ghulam Rasool and Safdar Abbas s/o Asghar Ali residents of Lower Naltar but settled in Chilmisdas.
It said the accused hurled two homemade devices into the mosque but one of them did not go off while three persons were injured.
Police said that they had arrested a proclaimed offender Shah Qalandar s/o Mir Ghazi resident of the Lower Bargu from Chakkarkote for his involvement in the abduction and subsequent murder of two of his village men Ijlal Hussain and Azam Ali on February 21 in Bargu village and throwing their bodies into the river Gilgit.●
Eight killed in separate incidents in Jammu and Kashmir
Eight persons, including four terrorists and two security personnel, were killed and six jawans injured in separate incidents in Jammu and Kashmir since last night, official sources said on Saturday.
Two terrorists of Hizbul Mujahideen were killed in a fierce gunbattle at Salar in Pahalgam area of south Kashmir's Anantnag district on Saturday morning, a defence spokesman said.
Security forces got a tip off about the movement of the terrorists in Salar area and laid an ambush. On being challenged, the terrorists opened fire on the security forces which was retaliated, he said.
The slain terrorists have been identified as Nissar Ahmad Poswal alias Nasir Chothal and Ghulam Hassan Mir alias Hassan Gashti, the spokesman said adding an AK rifle, a pistol and some incriminating documents were recovered from them.
Another terrorist, belonging to Lashkar-e-Toiba, was killed in a gunbattle with security forces at Chowkibal in Kupwara district on Friday night, the spokesman said.
In another encounter, a police spokesman said security forces shot dead a terrorist of Hizbul Mujahideen Peer Panchal regiment during search operations at Gala-Gunda in Kalakote area of Rajouri district on Friday night.
One AK rifle, a wireless set, five grenades and some ammunition were recovered from him.
Constable Surinder Singh of Indian Reserve Police was killed when terrorists opened fire on a patrol patry near Tangipora in Anantnag district on Friday night, the spokesman said.
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I hate these cowardly terrorists, killing middle aged women, they make me sick.
And as for the home-grown aider and abbetor, he should be executed.
I firmly believe that when we start executing those jihadists who don't manage to off themselves we'll start making the whole jihad thing a lot less attractive.
Margaret Hassan bump.
George Walker Bush?
A popular middle name.
Walker, Texas Ranger ? :~ )
Former student sentenced for helping terrorist group (Wyoming)
BY ANGELA BROOKS
(snip)
Mark Robert Walker, 19, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in El Paso, Texas, following his Nov. 6 arrest while attempting to cross the border from Mexico into the U.S.
Agents with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized $2,200 that Walker was carrying, as well as a laptop computer, receipts and journals. He was later identified as the administrator of an Islamic Web site that supported the Somalian terrorist group, Al-Ittihad Al-Isiami.
Ping
I hope it's in the Iraqi courts, as (I believe) they have the death penalty.
Talabani is anti-death penalty. That's why there are arguments over the fate of Saddam.
EXCERPT:
An Iraqi man has been sentenced to life in prison in connection with the murder of Margaret Hassan, the British aid worker abducted and killed in Iraq in 2004.
Mrs Hassan's remains have never been found
Mustafa Salman was charged with aiding and abetting the kidnappers. Two other defendants in the case were freed.
The judge said Salman had received a plastic bag from an associate who asked him to hold on to it. Four months later Iraqi security forces raided Salman's home and found Mrs Hassan's purse and documents in the bag.
update ping
Thanks, Cal.
Strange that Iraq makes no effort to find the body.
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