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Thread 4: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1096779/posts |
Posted on 02/24/2004 3:19:05 AM PST by Revel
Edited on 05/26/2004 5:19:43 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
February 24, 2004 -- WASHINGTON - The Pentagon has dispatched the elite commando force that hunted down Saddam Hussein to Afghanistan for a new operation aimed at getting Osama bin Laden, officials said yesterday. Military sources confirmed that members of the shadowy Task Force 121, the unit that conducted the high-tech search for Saddam and his henchmen, have recently begun operating in the remote mountainous region along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border where bin Laden and key al Qaeda and Taliban fugitives are believed to be hiding. The Task Force is made up of highly trained Delta and SEAL commandos, as well as CIA paramilitary operators. It operates outside normal military channels.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
It did bring to mind the threat to France's rail system that was in the news recently.
European Leaders Condemn Spain Bombing
By ROBERT BARR, Associated Press Writer
LONDON - European leaders condemned Thursday's bombings that killed scores of Madrid commuters as an attack on Spanish democracy.
Spanish officials blamed the Basque separatist group ETA, but the leader of an outlawed Basque party denied the organization was involved.
"It is an outrageous, unjustified and unjustifiable attack on the Spanish people and Spanish democracy," European Parliament President Pat Cox said in the legislature in Strasbourg, France.
"There is a general election due in Spain on Sunday. What happened today is a declaration of war on democracy," he said.
"Let Sunday show that Spanish democracy is determined to overcome terrorism," Cox said.
European Commission President Romano Prodi called the attacks "ferocious and senseless"
"This is not a political act, it is criminal act against defenseless people ... a perverse act of terrorists," Prodi said.
In Dublin, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, who holds the EU presidency, said the "timing of the bombings was clearly designed to wreak the greatest level of havoc ... and cannot be justified by any political cause."
"This terrible attack underlines the threat that we all continue to face from terrorism in many countries and why we all must work together internationally to safeguard our peoples against such attacks, and defeat terrorism," British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) said.
President Bush called Aznar to express solidarity and sympathy, condemning "this vicious attack of terrorism in the strongest possible terms," National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Aznar supported Bush in the war against Iraq despite opposition in Spain.
Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi denounced the "abominable violence that wounds every principle of civil existence" but said they would reinforce Europe's commitment to unite to combat terrorism.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer expressed his horror.
"These despicable terror acts that have claimed so many victims fill us with deep sadness and outrage," Fischer said in Berlin.
In Copenhagen, the Danish government "expressed its deepest sympathy to the victims, their families and to the people of Spain," said Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller, who added "his condemnation of such acts of terror."
French President Jacques Chirac wrote to Spanish Premier Jose Maria Aznar, condemning these "terrible attacks against Madrid's rail network that have plunged Spain into mourning."
"In these horrifying circumstances, I extend in my name and in the name of the French people, my most sincere condolences," Chirac wrote.
Pope John Paul II called the attacks "abominable."
"The Holy Father reiterates his firm and absolute disapproval of such actions that offend God, violate the fundamental right to life and undermine peaceful coexistence," said the message sent from the Vatican to Spanish Church authorities.
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer condemned "this mindless act of cruelty and barbarism."
Chilean President Ricardo Lagos said he was "shocked" by the bombings.
"This is an attack on people who work, on young people going to school to study, an attack on all human beings that has no justification whatsoever," Lagos said.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi expressed condolences to the families of the victims in a message conveyed Japan's Embassy in Madrid.
Doesn't matter. Spain was once ruled by the 'Moors' and the koran says that no square inch of land can revert back from islamic rule...
On icy days we had to wrap our bare feet in barbed wire for traction...
DISCLAIMER: The above is called satire and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the poster, FR, or anyone else alive or dead. Coincidences to real people or events are just that; coincidences.
HENDAYE, France - Border police tightened security Thursday between France and Spain following train bombings in Madrid that killed more than 170 people and wounded hundreds of others.
Police stopped people on foot and searched cars and other vehicles, creating traffic jams at several checkpoints between the two countries, including Hendaye and Behobie. At the Biriatou border crossing, heavy trucks were stopped for security checks.
The French Basque region has long been a haven for militant Spanish Basques, although it has largely been spared the violence that has scarred the Spanish Basque provinces, just across the border.
President Jacques Chirac condemned the Madrid attacks and pledged "solidarity with Spain in fighting against this abominable scourge."
"Nothing ever justifies barbarity. Democracies must be — and will be — united in combatting this without weakness," Chirac said.
Cooperation between the two countries has been stepped up in the last few years, and French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said in a message of sympathy that France will "contribute to strengthening increasingly tight cooperation with the kingdom of Spain."
More than 130 Basque militants are being held in French prisons — half of them convicted of terror-related crimes and the rest awaiting trial, according to judicial officials.
Spanish officials blamed Thursday's bombings on the Basque separatist group ETA. But the leader of an outlawed Basque party linked to the group denied the attack was the work of ETA.
France has arrested numerous Spanish ETA members hiding out in the French Basque region, located in the southwest near the Pyrenees Mountains.
ETA is also known to have used France to supply its network with explosives. It allegedly joined up with the Breton Revolutionary Army, a tiny separatist movement in Brittany in western France, to steal eight tons of dynamite from a warehouse in 1999. Some of the explosives are thought to have been used in attacks by ETA and the Breton group.
By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - An American citizen was arrested Thursday on charges she acted as an Iraqi spy before and after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, accepting $10,000 for her work, prosecutors said Thursday.
Susan Lindauer, 41, was arrested in her hometown of Takoma Park, Md., and was to appear in court later in the day in Baltimore, authorities in New York said.
She was accused of conspiring to act as a spy for the Iraqi Intelligence Service and with engaging in prohibited financial transactions involving the government of Iraq under dictator Saddam Hussein.
According to an indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Lindauer made multiple visits from October 1999 through March 2002 to the Iraqi Mission to the United Nations in Manhattan.
There, she met with several members of the Iraqi Intelligence Service, the foreign intelligence arm of the government of Iraq that allegedly has played a role in terrorist operations, including an attempted assassination of former President George H.W. Bush, the indictment alleged.
The government said she accepted payments from the Iraqis for her services and expenses amounting to a total of $10,000, including $5,000 she received during a trip to Baghdad in February and March 2002, where she met with Iraqi intelligence officers.
Her acceptance of the money and her willingness to bring it home from Iraq violated a law prohibiting transactions with a government that sponsors international terrorism, the government said. The indictment did not specify a motive.
The charges against Lindauer were included in an expanded indictment in the case against Raed Rokan Al-Anbuge, 28, and Wisam Noman Al-Anbuke, the sons of Iraq's former liaison with United Nations weapons inspectors.
The brothers were charged last year with acting as Iraqi government agents and conspiring to do so, prosecutors said. The indictment said Lindauer conspired with the brothers.
On Jan. 8, 2003, prosecutors said, Lindauer tried to influence U.S. foreign policy by delivering to the home of a U.S. government official a letter in which she conveyed her access to and contacts with members of Saddam's regime. The official was not identified in the indictment.
The United States invaded Iraq in March of last year, and the government fell the following month.
The indictment said she met on two occasions in Baltimore in June and July with an undercover FBI agent who posed as a Libyan intelligence representative who was seeking to support resistance groups in postwar Iraq. It said she discussed the need for plans and foreign resources to support these groups.
According to the indictment, she continued to correspond with the undercover agent until last month and followed the agent's instructions to leave packages on two occasions in August in "dead drop" operations.
Lindauer, who has not yet been assigned a defense lawyer, faces up to 10 years in prison on the most serious charge and five years on the lesser charge if she is convicted, prosecutors said.
Thu Mar 11, 7:02 AM ET
By Barbara Slavin, USA TODAY
Two sons of Saddam Hussein escaped to Syria after the U.S. invasion of Iraq a year ago but were ultimately expelled by the Syrian regime, former and current Bush administration officials say.
U.S. forces killed Uday and Qusay Hussein on July 22 after a fierce shootout in Mosul, Iraq, about 70 miles from the Syrian border. But their whereabouts before then have not been public knowledge. (Related story: Generals plead for more help in securing border region)
Syria's ambassador to the United States, Imad Moustapha, said his government "categorically denies" letting Saddam's sons into Syria. He said similar charges made in the past turned out to be wrong and "evaporated into thin air."
The U.S. account was provided by one former and two current U.S. officials who have detailed information about Saddam's sons' travels. One was involved in the U.S. invasion, and the other two have direct knowledge of U.S. diplomatic exchanges with Syria's government. They asked not to be named.
The disclosure comes as the Bush administration is on the verge of imposing new sanctions against the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, with which it has had difficult relations. Besides objecting to Syria's behavior during the war, the United States accuses Syria of supporting anti-Israeli militant groups and developing weapons of mass destruction. In January, President Bush signed the Syria Accountability Act, which authorizes diplomatic and trade penalties against Syria.
Assistant Secretary of State William Burns told the House International Relations Committee on Wednesday that there will be "very firm implementation" of the law soon. Weapons sales to Syria are banned because the country is on a State Department list of terrorism sponsors. The new law bans the sale to Syria of U.S. items with dual military and civilian uses. The administration could also restrict other trade and prohibit Syrian airliners from flying through U.S. airspace.
The Bush administration harshly criticized Syria during the initial phases of the Iraq war for allowing Iraqi regime members into the country and permitting weapons and foreign fighters to cross the other way. The Syrian government, which had lucrative trade relations with Saddam's regime, opposed the invasion and has had trouble adjusting to the Bush administration's assertive foreign policy - and to the fact that its next-door neighbor is now a U.S.-occupied nation.
"Before, after and during the war, Syrian behavior was appalling," says Judith Kipper, a Middle East expert at the Washington office of the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York-based think tank. "Syrians just don't understand that their geopolitical situation has changed."
The U.S. officials said that Qusay and Uday had spent time in Syria after the war began March 19. One current U.S. official said it was possible that the two men crossed in and out of Syria several times before they were finally expelled, traveling with a small number of aides and bribing border guards to gain entry. Their mother, Saddam's first wife, Sajida, also fled to Syria and may still be there. Two of her daughters and their children have been given asylum in Jordan.
The U.S. officials said that the Syrian government may not have known initially that Qusay and Uday were in the country.
It was not clear when the U.S. and Syrian governments found out that the two were in the country, or when or why they were expelled. But shortly after the fall of Baghdad, Bush administration officials publicly accused Syria of harboring high-level Iraqi fugitives and hinted that the war might expand into Syria if it did not change its ways.
Next to Saddam, who was captured by U.S. forces in December, Uday and Qusay were the most wanted men on a U.S. list of 55 top regime officials. Qusay ran much of Iraq's security apparatus and was viewed as Saddam's successor after Uday was crippled in an assassination attempt in 1996.
Their deaths were a major morale boost for the Bush administration, although attacks on U.S. forces and their Iraqi allies have continued.
From Jill St. Claire's site: This was posted on an Islamic BB yesterday...
3-10-2004
The ten deviations cure us Allah and you from it the sheikh with praiser Al-Ali
The sheikh Hamed bin Abd Allah the Al-Ali
Compliance its saying he was above and so that the criminals way becomes clear and with its saying but we throw the truth on the falsehood then brands it, if he is perishable and for you the hell which describes, then so that we appear thanks to God, the severest ten deviations killing of the Islamic nation, Satan and its publication have made it on the tongues of its soldiers and submissive to its scheme between the Muslims in this hard stage from the nation history, so that he humiliates it to its enemies, then you beware it and warn you from behind you
http://www.homelandsecurityus.net/
My comment: ten bombs...
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