 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This thread has been locked, it will not receive new replies. |
|
Locked on 11/03/2004 12:43:19 AM PST by Admin Moderator, reason:
Thread #21: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1268023/posts |
Posted on 10/12/2004 8:58:00 PM PDT by nwctwx
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Please keep us updated on what you hear about arafat, UK Guy. When I first heard the report of his illness earlier today, I couldn't help but think it might be a ruse to enable him to leave Ramallah. Such a cynic I am.
But then again, he is already allowed to leave Ramallah whenever he wishes to do so. Israel just won't allow him to return if he leaves. :)
So, I can't figure out the benefit to him to feign a serious illness...but we should keep monitoring the situation because who knows what that nasty Egyptian holds up his sleeves...
Last night the moon was kind of oily with brown, red, blue around it...but tonight it is just a dark covering creeping up on the big orange harvest moon.
Laughing... Cindy!
Welll.....am I right?
Good Read!
SHADOW WAR
THE UNTOLD STORY OF HOW BUSH IS WINNING THE WAR ON TERROR
By Richard Miniter
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20041026-090700-5561r.htm
Part three: Bin Laden's Iran alliance.
Osama Bin Laden fled Afghanistan following the battle of Tora Bora in December 2001. He briefly retreated into the Pakistan-controlled portion of Kashmir in January 2002.
By June 2002, bin Laden had reportedly moved south into Baluchistan, a mountainous, autonomous tribal region in western Pakistan. It was a sensible place for him to hide. The Baluch are a nation without a country; their ancestral homeland straddles Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran. It is likely that his confederates have family and friends among the Baluch. A number of high-ranking al Qaeda operatives are ethnic Baluch, including Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and Yousef's uncle, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the operational planner of the September 11 attacks.
The Baluch have a long history of harboring terrorists. Saddam Hussein financed Baluch terrorists against Pakistan as far back as 1969, Iraq expert Laurie Mylroie told me.
In July 2002, Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf announced that he was sending commandos into the tribal areas of Pakistan to flush out bin Laden. If Pakistani troops were quick and thorough, bin Laden would find himself surrounded—and perhaps even betrayed for the $25 million price on his head. Relying on the goodwill of Baluch cutthroats, he must have known, was not a viable long-term strategy.
Seemingly desperate, bin Laden recorded an extraordinary audiotape and sent it via courier to Ali Khomenei, the grand ayatollah of Iran's Supreme Council. On that tape, according to a former Iranian intelligence officer I interviewed in Europe, bin Laden asked for Iran's help. In exchange for safe harbor and funding, he pledged to put al Qaeda at the service of Iran to combat American forces in Afghanistan and in Iraq, where al Qaeda leaders believed American intervention was inevitable. Bin Laden reportedly pledged, "If I die, my followers will be told to follow you [Khomenei]."
Apparently the taped appeal worked. Murtaza Rezai, the director for Ayatollah Khomenei's personal intelligence directorate, began secret negotiations with bin Laden. Under the agreement between the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and al Qaeda, several convoys transported bin Laden's four wives, as well as his eldest son and heir apparent, Saad bin Laden, into Iran. Saad reportedly remains there today.
Then, on July 26, 2002, bin Laden himself crossed into Iran from the Afghanistan border near Zabol, traveling north to the Iranian city of Mashad.
Over the next year, bin Laden holed up in a series of safe houses controlled by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard between Qazvin and Karaj, two cities along a highway west of Teheran. He moved frequently to avoid detection or betrayal. He was not alone. Two intelligence sources told me bin Laden was "guarded by the Revo-lu-tionary Guard."
Bin Laden also traveled with al Qaeda's number two man, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was wounded and required medical treatment, my sources said. For a time, bin Laden moved freely with and crossed into Afghanistan at will, usually through an Iranian border checkpoint near Zabol?.
Why would Iran, a predominantly Shi'ite Muslim land, work with a predominantly Sunni Muslim terror organization like bin Laden's? The short answer is personal connections, shared goals, and a common enemy. Ayman al-Zawahiri, a bona fide Sunni extremist, has received financial support from Iran since 1988. Bin Laden himself is believed to have met with Iranian intelligence officials at Islamic conferences in Khartoum, Sudan, in the early 1990s. Both bin Laden and the mullahs share an Islamist worldview that calls for the armed overthrow of Arab dictatorships and the restoration of a single caliph who will rule according to Shari'a law.
Finally, they share enemies, including many Arab leaders, the United States, and the rest of the Western world.
Whether the Sunni-Shi'ite divide is as wide among radical Islamists as some analysts say, few can dispute that Iran's increasing isolation and the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq has provided Teheran with a strong incentive to seek out new allies.
Bin Laden is not the only senior al Qaeda member who has reportedly sought sanctuary. Saad bin Laden is believed to be hiding in the western city of Kermanshah, hard on the Iraq border. Saif al-Adel, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed's successor as commander of al Qaeda's military wing, is also said to be there...
Administration officials expect bin Laden will most likely be captured in Pakistan. Yet policymakers would be wise to turn their attention to Iran's documented links to global terrorist networks, including bin Laden's. With vast oil revenues, a long history of supporting terrorists, and a fathomless desire to achieve its ideological aims at the expense of American lives, it certainly deserves its place on President Bush's "Axis of Evil."
/snip/
It won't be red till it's near totality, I think that's just after 11pm EST.
Thank you, Fullwave. I am glad to see Tracking Terrorism is back on track! I missed the site while it was offline.
Interesting Link:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1259464/posts
re post no. 2247
Ditto, ditto, ditto!
Russia's got the missing weapons...guess those retired miltary advisors got paid!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1259470/posts
SNIP: A videotape obtained Tuesday by Associated Press Television News featured a warning by masked gunmen that if Fallujah is subjected to an all-out assault, they will strike "with weapons and military tactics" that the Americans and their allies "have not experienced before."
I prefer not to think about that, actually! Blushing...retching...
News is breaking left and right today...
GERTZ // THURSDAY // WASH TIMES: Russian special forces troops moved many of Saddam Hussein's weapons and related goods out of Iraq and into Syria in the weeks before the March 2003 U.S. military operation, The Washington Times has learned. John A. Shaw, the deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, said in an interview that he believes the Russian troops, working with Iraqi intelligence, “almost certainly” removed the high-explosive material that went missing from the Al-Qaqaa facility, south of Baghdad.
Here is my beef with this Bill Gertz report:
It is unfair that the credit for this news is being given to the Washington Times. I adore the WT and Bill Gertz tremendously, but Debka reported the Russian convoys with Iraq's WMDs headed toward Syria before the war ever started. Debka was first, and World Net Daily probably followed in reporting the possibility.
Debka is right far more than they are ever credited. I just wanted to add my voice to cite Debka as the first source for the same information that the WT story now provides.
I do remember the convoy.
At the time it sounded like it was a big 'oops' and the Russian convoy danced with some bombs.
Ahh, thank you.
wow, the moon rioght now looks EXACTLY as it does in the pic with the suitcase nuke, nuke explosion, and OBL's face over the moon
Thanks for pointing that out MamaD.
For "our" side (pro-GWB -- not so much pro-attack) he was, I suppose. Others might have voiced similar comments.
However, hitlery's october surprise is probably entirely different.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
