Posted on 05/15/2005 5:57:08 PM PDT by TexKat
Tennessee National Guardsman Sgt. 1st Class Joel Gibbons, a cavalry scout platoon sergeant from 1st Squadron, 278th Regimental Combat Team, 42nd Infantry Division, Task Force Liberty, stands guard while an Iraqi child passes along information of an enemy weapons cache found near the Iranian border to the commander of the squadron. by Sgt. Matthew Acosta This photo appeared on www.army.mil.
CAMP FALLUJAH, IRAQ - Corporals Keith Richardson, Andy Aranda, Wade Scott, Jarrod Bowers, Stephen Cornish, Nolan Ruby, Nicholas Mentges, Daniel Nichols and Sgts Christopher Rosetti and Daniel Blackwell all hold up banners sent to them from students at Fagley Middle School in Portage, Indiana. The students took time to put packages together to send to one of their teachers brother-in-laws, Capt. Ed Nevgloski, Weapons Company Commander. The Marines are from 1st and 3rd Platoons
Photo by: Lance Cpl. Athanasios L. Genos
Unannounced visit: Condoleezza Rice arrived under very heavy security to meet Iraqi leaders
Rice Makes Surprise Visit to Iraq Amid Escalating Violence
By Neil MacDonald Baghdad 15 May 2005 MacDonald report- Download 335k Listen to MacDonald report
On a surprise visit to Iraq, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says that country is emerging from a long nightmare of tyranny into freedom. On her trip, she met with key government figures, including President Jalal Talabani. Ms. Rice said the political process is the answer for the Iraqi people.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made an unannounced, and heavily guarded, visit to Iraq, where she met Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and key officials in his recently formed cabinet.
After the meeting, Secretary Rice spoke about the need for Iraq's constitutional process to include all of the country's main ethnic and religious groups.
"We are impressed that the government is inclusive… there is a need for the constitutional process to be inclusive," she said.
Secretary Rice and Mr. Jaafari also talked about the need for ongoing support from the international community, as well as about the need to equip and train Iraqi security forces as quickly as possible.
She pointed out that only one year has passed since Iraqis regained their sovereignty, and only weeks since the formation of an elected government.
Ms. Rice said that Iraq could not be fixed overnight, but that progress was being made. "I think we are all impressed with the progress Iraqi security forces are making," said Ms. Rice.
She refused to set a timetable for the withdrawal of the U.S. led coalition's troops.
Her first stop was the northern city of Salahuddin, followed by a meeting with Kurdish Democratic Party leader Massoud Barzani at his mountain headquarters.
The one-day trip was Ms. Rice's first visit to Iraq since her appointment as the U.S. government's top diplomat.
Previously, she accompanied President Bush on a visit for Thanksgiving in 2003. The former National Security Advisor was one of the main policymakers behind the U.S.-led invasion.
She is the first senior U.S. official to visit Iraq since Mr. Jaafari's government was sworn in.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice listens while Iraqi PM Ibrahim al-Jafaari speaks at a press conference in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone in Iraq
Her visit came as U.S. Marines wrapped up a week-long offensive against insurgents along the Syrian border. Operation Matador left about 125 insurgents dead, and secured an area known as the main route into Iraq used by foreign fighters, including suicide bombers.
Iraq has witnessed a surge of militant attacks since April 28, when the government was announced.
As the U.S. offensive ended, followers of Jordanian militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi reportedly released Anbar provincial governor Raja Nawaf, who was taken captive prior to Operation Matador. The governor's family said he was released without conditions.
But elsewhere in Iraq, bombings and drive-by shootings continued, killing a high-ranking Shiite cleric and a Ministry of Industry official.
Police, meanwhile, said they had found the bodies of 34 men, shot dead execution-style. Police said the bodies were found at three different locations within less than 24 hours.
An Afghan man picks up a copy of the holy Koran to recite at the Pul-i- Khishti mosque in Kabul May 15, 2005. Photo by Ahmad Masood/Reuters
Newsweek says Koran desecration report is wrong
Sun May 15, 2005 08:29 PM ET
By David Morgan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Newsweek magazine said on Sunday it erred in a May 9 report that U.S. interrogators desecrated the Koran at Guantanamo Bay, and apologized to the victims of deadly Muslim protests sparked by the article.
Editor Mark Whitaker said the magazine inaccurately reported that U.S. military investigators had confirmed that personnel at the detention facility in Cuba had flushed the Muslim holy book down the toilet.
The report sparked angry and violent protests across the Muslim world from Afghanistan, where 16 were killed and more than 100 injured, to Pakistan to Indonesia to Gaza. In the past week it was condemned in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Malaysia and by the Arab League.
On Sunday, Afghan Muslim clerics threatened to call for a holy war against the United States.
"We regret that we got any part of our story wrong, and extend our sympathies to victims of the violence and to the U.S. soldiers caught in its midst," Whitaker wrote in the magazine's latest issue, due to appear on U.S. newsstands on Monday.
The weekly news magazine said in its May 23 edition that the information had come from a "knowledgeable government source" who told Newsweek that a military report on abuse at Guantanamo Bay said interrogators flushed at least one copy of the Koran down a toilet in a bid to make detainees talk.
But Newsweek said the source later told the magazine he could not be certain he had seen an account of the Koran incident in the military report and that it might have been in other investigative documents or drafts.
Whitaker told Reuters that Newsweek did not know if the reported toilet incident involving the Koran ever occurred. "As to whether anything like this happened, we just don't know," he said in an interview. "We're not saying it absolutely happened but we can't say that it absolutely didn't happen either."
INCIDENT UNDER INVESTIGATION
The acknowledgment by the magazine came amid heightened scrutiny of the U.S. media, which has seen a rash of news organizations fire reporters and admit that stories were fabricated or plagiarized.
The Pentagon told the magazine the report was wrong last Friday, saying it had investigated earlier allegations of Koran desecration from detainees and found them "not credible."
Newsweek reported that Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita reacted angrily when the magazine asked about the source's continued assertion that he had read about the Koran incident in an investigative report. "People are dead because of what this son of a bitch said. How could he be credible now?" DiRita told Newsweek. The May 9 report, which appeared as a brief item by Michael Isikoff and John Barry in the magazine's "Periscope" section, had a huge international impact, sparking the protests from Muslims who consider the Koran the literal word of God and treat each book with deep reverence.
Desecration of the Koran is punishable by death in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Newsweek, which said opponents of the Afghan government including remnants of the Taliban had used its report to fan unrest in the country, said it was not contemplating disciplinary action against staff.
"This was reported very carefully, with great sensitivity and concern, and we'll continue to report on it," said Newsweek Managing Editor Jon Meacham. "We have tried to be transparent about exactly what happened, and we leave it to the readers to judge us."
U.S. officials opened an investigation but maintained that members of the Guantanamo security force were sensitive to the religious beliefs and practices of the detainees in U.S. custody.
U.S. national security adviser Stephen Hadley earlier on Sunday stressed the report had not been confirmed. "If it turns out to be true, obviously we will take action against those responsible," Hadley said on CNN's "Late Edition."
Newsweek's Whitaker said that when the magazine first heard of the Koran allegation from its source, staff approached two Defense Department officials. One declined to comment, while the other challenged a different aspect of the May 9 story but did not dispute the Koran charge.
The magazine said other news organizations had already aired charges of Koran desecration based "only on the testimony of detainees."
"We believed our story was newsworthy because a U.S. official said government investigators turned up this evidence. So we published the item," Whitaker said.
"Our original source later said he couldn't be certain about reading of the alleged Koran incident in the report we cited," he wrote.
Sunday 15th May, 2005
Syed Saleem Shahzad - Asia Times
Both Pakistani and US intelligence believe that they are hot on the heels of Osama bin Laden, after his trail went cold months ago.
"Both the US and concerned Pakistani authorities are positive that in the coming days we shall be around Osama bin Laden," a senior Pakistani official told Asia Times Online in an exclusive interview, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The potential breakthrough in the hunt for bin Laden follows the arrest of al-Qaeda operative Abu Faraj al-Libbi in Pakistan last week, and an important lead he divulged during interrogation. Abu Faraj was interrogated by various agencies, including Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, Britain's MI6 and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.
This is according to the Pakistani official, who was assigned by Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf - the target of two assassination attempts allegedly masterminded by Abu Faraj - to coordinate and oversee investigations involving recent al-Qaeda detainees in Pakistan.
"The arrest of al-Libbi has only one significance for Pakistan, and that is that he was involved in assassination plots on Musharraf. Apparently there is no way that we will get Osama bin Laden through al-Libbi. MI6 also interrogated al-Libbi separately, and they are also of this opinion, that al-Libbi is little more than a foot soldier and no way eligible to be named as an operational chief. However, US interrogators have a different opinion and they call al-Libbi the catch of the year," the official said.
"Nevertheless," said the official, "the arrest cannot be down-played as insignificant. During interrogation, al-Libbi pointed [out] Bajur Agency, a tribal area situated in North West Frontier Province, where we found an al-Qaeda sanctuary and arrested many important operatives, including an Uzbek."
Despite repeated questioning from Asia Times Online, the official refused to say whether the Uzbek was the leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Tahir Yaldevish, who has been widely reported to have been seen in Pakistan's tribal areas. "This is a state secret," the official said.
"Neither will I tell you his name nor give you any hint, but it is true that there is big 'head money' on him, and as a result of interrogations so far we are quite sure that through him we will be getting Osama bin Laden, or at least we will be around his sanctuary and be able to track his area of rotation. At present, we are completely in the dark."
The official believes that a breakthrough will come soon, but this carries problems. "After that [bin Laden's apprehension] a new debate will start on whether Osama should be arrested in Pakistan's tribal areas or not," said the official.
"I am not part of any strategic community, but my political acumen suggests that in the present drive we will find Osama bin Laden in our tribal areas, and I am sure we will soon ... we should try to push him to the other side of the border and then let US troops arrest him. He should not be arrested by or in Pakistan. Because if that happens, I tell you that the Pakistan army will lose its honor among the masses forever, and at the same time there would be retaliation against the government beyond our comprehension, and in that process anything is possible, real terrorism, bloodshed and even revolution," he continued.
Recalling his experience in dealing with the interrogation of the Uzbek, the official maintained that it had been "truly incredible".
"You can differ in ideologies, but it is difficult not to be impressed by conviction. We are politicians - compromise, retreat and lies are part of our business, but believe me, I passed one hour with that Uzbek and I admitted to myself some guilt - his unbreakable conviction for his cause was the reason.
"He was blindfolded, and when an interrogator served him a glass of water, he said, 'Make sure that it is [served] with the right hand, and not the left hand.' [as per Muslim custom] He gave a full lecture on their cause, and said that he had no regrets that he had joined al-Qaeda. He even recognized me from my voice, as he said that he had often heard me on television, and advised that I should take care as soon everybody 'would be accountable before Allah'.
"I am the person who is monitoring things very closely, and I see the arrest of bin Laden not very far away, this is the same opinion of the US authorities following al-Libbi's arrest. But whether it will bury extremism once and for all, or spark it, is a different debate," the Pakistani functionary commented.
Afghan men leave the front gate of the governor's office in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, where they were cleaning after protesters set fire to the building the previous day Thursday, May 12, 2005. A day after riots in Jalalabad left four people dead protests continued around Afghanistan for a third day as news of a reported abuse of Islam's holy book at the U.S. jail in Guantanamo Bay spread to the capital. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
Rocket Hits hospital in Kabul A rocket hit the operating theatre of a hospital in the Afghan capital Kabul late on Saturday, causing extensive damage and sparking a fire but without causing any casualties, officials said on Sunday, May 15, 2005. "Luckily we did not have any patient undergoing an operation when the rocket hit, so there were no casualties but we had around 20 patients in other rooms of the hospital," chief doctor Assadullah Azizi said. Afghan interior ministry spokesman confirmed the incident but could not confirm what caused the blast.
Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri addresses the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Australia, Friday, May 13, 2005. Kasuri told his audience at the independent think tank, that he condemned the alleged desecration of the Quran by soldiers at the U.S. military camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba that has sparked three days of rioting in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Afghan police stand in front of U.N's headquarters as children play with a burned car in Jalalabad, Afghanistan Thursday May 12, 2005. A day after riots in Jalalabad left four people dead, protests continued around Afghanistan for a third day as news of a reported abuse of Islam's holy book at the U.S. jail in Guantanamo Bay spread to the capital. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
Activists shouting anti-US slogans during a demonstration in Pakistan. Allegations that US guards at the 'war on terror' detention camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba threw Korans in the toilet surfaced more than a year ago but it was not until this week when riots broke out in Afghanistan that the US military ordered an investigation.(AFP/Tariq Mahmood)
By Qurban Ali Hamzi
FAIZABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A group of Afghan Muslim clerics threatened on Sunday to call for a holy war against the United States if it fails to hand over in three days military interrogators reported to have desecrated the Koran.
The warning came after 16 Afghans were killed and more than 100 hurt last week in the worst anti-U.S. protests across the country since U.S. forces invaded in 2001 to oust the Taliban for sheltering Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network.
The clerics in the northeastern province of Badakhshan said they wanted President Bush to handle the matter honestly "and hand the culprits over to an Islamic country for punishment."
"If that does not happen within three days, we will launch a jihad against America," said a statement issued by about 300 clerics, referring to Muslim holy war, after meeting in a mosque in the provincial capital, Faizabad.
The statement was read out by Abdul Fatah Fayeq, the top judicial official in the mountainous, conservative province near the borders of Tajikistan and China.
Muslim clerics have traditionally been teachers and leaders in Afghan society and throughout its history they have rallied public opinion and sometimes led uprisings against unpopular rulers and foreign occupiers.
Newsweek magazine said in its May 9 edition investigators probing abuses at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay found that interrogators "had placed Korans on toilets, and in at least one case flushed a holy book down the toilet."
Muslims consider the Koran the literal word of God and treat each book with deep reverence.
The United States has tried to calm global Muslim outrage over the incident, saying disrespect for the Koran was abhorrent and would not be tolerated, and military authorities were investigating the allegation.
GROWING RESENTMENT
The protests began in the eastern city of Jalalabad on Tuesday. Violence broke out there on Wednesday and clashes occurred in several different places on Thursday and Friday. Scattered protests on Saturday were mostly peaceful.
Three people were killed and 21 hurt in Badakhshan on Friday.
While some Afghan analysts say Muslim rage over the desecration report sparked the protests, not hatred of America, there is growing resentment of U.S. troops, especially in southeastern areas where they are most active.
The United States commands a foreign force in Afghanistan of about 18,300, most of them American, fighting Taliban insurgents and hunting militant leaders, including bin Laden.
President Hamid Karzai, a staunch U.S. ally, has urged the United States to punish anyone found guilty of desecrating the Koran. He said foreign hands were behind the disturbances, but did not identify them.
The anti-U.S. protesters have also criticized Karzai and his U.S.-backed government, attacking and torching provincial offices and police stations as well as U.N. and aid agency compounds.
President 'has assassination plan'
By Pascal Fletcher in Caracas, Venezuela
May 16, 2005
IF Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was assassinated, his Government had a contingency plan to prevent his enemies from taking control of the world's No. 5 oil exporter, the President said.
"Some people might want to kill me, but they don't dare ... because if they did, they fear what would happen the next day," the Venezuelan leader said in a television broadcast.
Mr Chavez, a firebrand nationalist who often accuses the US Government and domestic opponents of plotting to topple or kill him, and who survived a coup in 2002, said his ministers, the armed forces and his supporters would know what to do if he were ever assassinated.
"We have a plan worked out in the event something happens to me. Those who are thinking about it should know this and that they won't have a good time of it if this happens," he said during his weekly "Hello President" TV and radio show.
Mr Chavez, who was first elected in 1998, did not detail the plan. But he has said before that if he were killed, Venezuela would become ungovernable and its oil shipments to its biggest client, the US, would be halted.
US officials dismiss his allegations of a US assassination plot as ridiculous. But they often criticise him as a left-wing trouble maker allied to Cuba's communist president, Fidel Castro, a long-time foe of Washington.
Mr Chavez, who won a referendum on his rule last August, said if his enemies did kill him, he did not think they could govern Venezuela. A recent opinion poll put his popularity level at 70.5 per cent, a five-year high.
In a message to his supporters yesterday, he said, "You can't let anyone come and seize our country".
"The revolution should be intensified," he added in a four-hour broadcast in which he criticised the US model of capitalism and expressed his preference for socialism.
Mr Chavez has been spending Venezuela's oil wealth to fund free health and education services for the poor and distribute subsidies and credits for workers' co-operatives he says should be the basis for a new kind of socialism.
His critics say his statist and interventionist economic policies, and systematic persecution of political opponents, are turning Venezuela into a replica of Castro's Cuba.
But Mr Chavez denies this. "The Cuban model can't be copied. We don't want to copy it and we won't," he said yesterday.
Sun May 15, 3:53 PM ET
YANGON (AFP) - Military-grade explosives were used in last week's triple bombing in Yangon that left at least 19 dead, Myanmar's junta said, blaming foreign-trained "terrorists" for the attacks.
Traces of the explosives, known as RDX, were found at the blast sites in two upscale shopping centers and a convention hall, the information minister, Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan, told a press conference.
"The RDX cannot be produced in Myanmar, and it is not available in the country. It can only be produced by superpower nations for use by their militaries," he said.
"RDX is found in a neighboring country," he said, apparently referring to Thailand.
Kyaw Hsan said timers on the bombs used advanced technology and that a "world-famous organization" -- the junta's usual way of referring to the US Central Intelligence Agency -- gave 100,000 dollars to the bombing operation.
The bombers were among a group of 20 people trained by three foreigners, including a journalist, near the Thai border at an ethnic Karen rebel camp called Zala, the minister said.
He did not identify the foreigners.
"The terrorists were well-trained saboteurs," Kyaw Hsan said.
He also added three political and student groups to the list of ethnic rebel and pro-democracy organizations the military blames for the attacks: the National League for Democracy-Liberated Areas, the Democratic Party for a New Society, and the All Burma Students' Democratic Front. The groups have no history of collaboration in their activities.
Four other organizations already blamed by the junta have denied involvement.
Myanmar's police chief, Brigadier General Khin Yee, said the government has offered a five million kyat (about 5,250 dollar) reward for information about the blasts.
"We have put a reward of five million kyats to whoever can give information leading to the arrests of these saboteurs," he told the press conference.
Police have printed 10,000 pamphlets announcing the reward and were distributing them on street corners, he said.
The May 7 bombing left 19 dead, according to the military, but neighboring Thailand put the number at 21. Witness accounts said dozens may have died.
Kyaw Hsan said 59 people remained in hospital.
Among the targets of the May 7 attack was a convention hall where a Thai trade fair was underway.
The bombings were the worst to hit the capital since the military took power about 40 years ago.
Myanmar watchers could provide no consensus on who was behind the blasts, but agreed that the military's claims were not credible.
Among the possible explanations proposed by analysts were that the blasts were set by radical ethnic fighters from the border areas, or by the military itself, or that the bombs were some sort of internal score-settling, or even a flare-up of Islamic extremism.
Iraq blames Arab militants for two weeks of carnage
(AFP)
15 May 2005
BAGHDAD - The Iraqi government blamed foreign Arab militants on Sunday for igniting a startling upsurge in rebel violence that has claimed more than 400 lives within the space of two weeks.
Leith Kubba, spokesman for new Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, described the attacks as a “virus from abroad” perpetrated by militants brought up in Islamist areas in Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
“There has been a renewed increase of attacks in Iraqi towns and particularly in Baghdad... These criminals are trying to prove that the government is incapable of protecting the people,” he said.
The insurgency was spurred by “extremist groups from abroad” who were out to set “a scene of permanent violence” to “intimidate people” and turn them against the government, he told a news conference.
“They do not have a political plan. They do not have a long-term strategy” and aim only to fight US forces wherever they can find them, Kubba said.
“This is a virus that came from abroad and has started to spread to the Iraqi youth,” he added.
Some 400 people have been killed and hundreds of others wounded in about 70 car bomb attacks since the government took office at the start of the month, he said, making it one of the bloodiest periods in Iraq’s postwar transition.
“Everyone knows that there are neighbourhoods in Jordan and Saudi Arabia characterised by aggressive and extremist thought which are producing individuals who think they can enter paradise by attacking the first police station in Iraq,” he commented.
Kubba suggested that the current wave of indiscriminate bombings proved that the rebels had “no political plan and no long-term strategy” and were fighting a rear-guard action.
“The number of those who sympathise with them has decreased” because of the indiscriminate bombings, he said, adding that rebels were trying to better “the quality” of their attacks to compensate for their falling numbers.
The government spokesman’s comments are not the first time a top Iraqi official has explicity blamed foreign elements for the litany of violence currently haunting Iraq.
Syrian intelligence has been blamed for being behind recent attacks in the north of the country, charges vehemently denied by Damascus.
Evidence that a Jordanian was behind the February 28 suicide attack in Hilla south of Baghdad that killed 118 people prompted a diplomatic crisis between Amman and Iraq as well as furious Shiite protests.
Iraq’s most wanted man – Al Qaeda frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- is himself a Jordanian national who faces a death penalty handed down in absentia in his homeland.
Five suspects, four of them Palestinian, detained after a deadly Baghdad bombing last week were paraded on Iraqi state television overnight, “confessing” to their role in the attack which killed 15 people and wounded 84.
One of the Palestinians, who identified himself as Amer Abdullah, a resident of the eastern Baghdad neighbourhood of Baladiyat, told how he prepared the car bomb at the request of another Palestinian he identified as Ibrahim Idi.
“Ibrahim Idi promised me 300 dollars but I never got a cent,” he said, adding that Idi “travels frequently to Syria,” Iraq’s western neighbour which has been the target of repeated US allegations of complicity with anti-US insurgents.
However the Palestinians’ arrest has been contested both by their neighbours and by Iraq’s main Sunni Muslim clerics’ association who insist they are innocent.
Kubba claimed that tribes that in the past were sympathetic to the rebels are now shifting their support as the government broadens its appeal by including Sunni Arabs in the cabinet and other positions of authority.
Iraqi insurgents kidnap two drivers - Arabiya TV
16 May 2005
DUBAI: Iraqi insurgents have kidnapped two drivers, one of whom is Palestinian, and given their foreign employers 24 hours to stop operating in Iraq, Al Arabiya television said on Sunday.
The channel aired a videotape it had received showing the men, described as drivers for an unnamed foreign firm, sitting on the ground as masked men held a large knife and a rifle to the head of one of them.
The nationality of the second man was not given.
The channel said the group had demanded the men's employer stop working in Iraq within 24 hours, or it would use an "iron fist". Banners seen in the video named the group as the Junaid Jihad Squadron and bore Islamic slogans in Arabic.
Iraqi insurgents fighting the US-backed government have often taken foreigners hostage, including some from countries with no connection to the Iraq war. Many have been released but some have been killed.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3282356a12,00.html
Iraqi children play by a destroyed armoured vehicle near Rommana village near Qaim, about 320 kilometers (200 miles) northwest of Baghdad in Iraq Sunday, May 15, 2005. U.S. forces have been engaged in operation Matador in the area, one of the largest U.S. campaigns since militants were driven out of their Fallujah stronghold in November. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Neighbours inspect houses destroyed during fighting in Rommana village near Qaim, about 320 kilometers (200 miles) northwest of Baghdad in Iraq Sunday, May 15, 2005. U.S. forces have been engaged in operation Matador in the area, one of the largest U.S. campaigns since militants were driven out of their Fallujah stronghold in November. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Residents inspect a destroyed armoured vehicle near Rommana village near Qaim, about 320 kilometers (200 miles) northwest of Baghdad in Iraq Sunday, May 15, 2005. U.S. forces have been engaged in operation Matador in the area, one of the largest U.S. campaigns since militants were driven out of their Fallujah stronghold in November. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Neighbours inspect houses destroyed during fighting in Rommana village near Qaim, about 320 kilometers (200 miles) northwest of Baghdad in Iraq Sunday, May 15, 2005. U.S. forces have been engaged in operation Matador in the area, one of the largest U.S. campaigns since militants were driven out of their Fallujah stronghold in November. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
MOSCOW, May 15 (KUNA) -- Former Chechen vice president Vakha Arsanov was killed Sunday when Russian forces raided a house in Staropromyslovsky district in the Chechen capital Grozny, reported the Russian television.
The Russian forces found burnt bodies of four militants, who were killed in the raid.
"The bodies were damaged in a fire in the wooden building they were staying in. A forensic medical examination will help identifying them," a source in the Chechen prosecutor's office told Russian news agency, Itar-Tass.
However, intelligence has pointed that Arsanov's body has been among them, said the television.
A source in the Chechen Interior Ministry told Itar-Tass, the four militants were inside a house during a ministry operation. "They rejected the surrender proposal and were killed in the clash," he said.
Arsanov, 46, supported Chechen separatist leader Dzhokhar Dudayev since 1991. He fought against federal forces together with Chechen armed units in 1994-96. In January 27, 1997, Arsanov was elected as the Chechen vice-president with former president Aslan Maskhadov.
Suspended University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian smiles as he makes his way through the media with his wife Nahla, left, before entering the United States Courthouse, in this Dec. 12, 2002 file photo, in Tampa, Fla. Jury selection in Al-Arian's trial begins Monday, May 16, 2005. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)
Ex-Professor's Terror Trial Set to Begin
By VICKIE CHACHERE, Associated Press Writer
TAMPA, Fla. - Ten years ago, American student Alisa Flatow boarded a bus headed to a Gaza Strip beach resort for a much needed break from her studies.
At the Israeli settlement of Kfar Darom, a young man sat in a van loaded with explosives. As the bus approached, he steered his rolling bomb at it with ferocious speed and slammed into the bus' side. Eight people — seven Israelis and Flatow — died in the April 9, 1995, terrorist attack.
Now her parents are looking for justice half a world away in Tampa, where a former computer science professor and three others are going on trial on charges they helped fund the terrorist group that carried out the bombing. Jury selection begins Monday.
Sami Al-Arian, a University of South Florida professor and nationally known Palestinian rights activist, was already secretly under investigation by FBI foreign intelligence agents at the time of the bombing.
Al-Arian had established an Islamic academic think tank, a school, a mosque and a charity for Palestinian children — but authorities were questioning whether the true mission of Al-Arian's work was to finance terrorist attacks in Israel.
In a 53-count indictment, Al-Arian, Sameeh Hammoudeh, Hatim Naji Fariz and Ghassan Zayed Ballut are accused of racketeering, conspiracy and providing material support to terrorists. Five other men have been indicted but are still at large.
The men face life in prison if convicted of charges they used Al-Arian's think tank and charity as fundraising fronts for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
"These people, they have no respect for life," said Alisa Flatow's father, Stephen Flatow of West Orange, N.J. "They will continue to pick on innocent people just to accomplish their means. That's why this trial is so important. You have to send a message."
Al-Arian is alternately viewed as a crusader for Palestinian rights who is being persecuted for his unpopular views and as a terrorist who hid behind a veil of legitimacy while secretly financing deadly attacks thousands of miles away.
"Much of what people are saying about Sami Al-Arian could have been said likewise about Nelson Mandela," attorney William Moffitt said.
"Now Nelson Mandela is a hero for having supported his people. Sami Al-Arian is a villain for being the voice of the Palestinian people. There aren't really a lot of voices in this country who have spoken favorably for the Palestinian people."
Prosecutors contend there is direct evidence of Al-Arian's involvement with actual attacks. The indictment alleges that in 1993, Al-Arian sent four wire transfers of nearly $2,000 each to the relatives of four convicted Islamic Jihad terrorists who had been convicted of the murder of three Israelis.
They point to video from the early 1990s in which a fiery Al-Arian shouts "Death to Israel" or when he shared the stage with Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman, the blind Egyptian cleric convicted for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Al-Arian's attorneys question how a supposedly dangerous terrorist financier could have gained access to the White House and met with Presidents Clinton and Bush.
Nearly two dozen other prominent political and government leaders from both parties — Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Trent Lott, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and House Speaker Dennis Hastert among them — are reported by Al-Arian's attorneys to have had contact with him.
If Al-Arian "is supposedly this awful terrorist, how did he get so close to these people is a really interesting question," Moffitt said. He declined to elaborate on Al-Arian's prominent connections, calling them a key component of the defense.
The prosecution said more important than his well-placed contacts are the shadowy figures with whom Al-Arian did business.
Chief among them is Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, one of the five indicted co-conspirators who has not yet been arrested. Al-Arian brought Shallah to the University of South Florida to run the think tank, the World and Islam Studies Enterprise. Shallah abruptly left Tampa in mid-1995 and resurfaced in Damascus as the Islamic Jihad's new leader.
Stephen Flatow, who has been subpoenaed to testify, said he was not told until 2003 that agents believed there was a connection between Al-Arian and the bombing that killed his daughter.
"I felt very, very good our government was finally standing up for Americans who are killed by other Americans on the other side of the world," he said. "If someone is going to provide the means to commit a crime, you are just as guilty as the person who pulled the plunger. If anything, these guys are cowards."
Tens of thousands young people in T-shirts bearing Soviet-style red stars march to a patriotic rally organized by the nationalist pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi, which is Russian for Ours, in Moscow, Sunday, May 15, 2005. The red flags with diagonal white crosses, a mix of Soviet and Russian imperial-era imagery, are Nashi's party flags. The 'Our Victory' gathering, which was also to feature World War II veterans, was meant to affirm Russia's independence, said the group Nashi. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)
Pro-Kremlin Youth Group Rallies in Moscow
By MARIA DANILOVA, Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW - Tens of thousands of young people in red-and-white T-shirts bearing Soviet-style stars marched down one of Moscow's main avenues Sunday in a patriotic rally organized by a nationalist pro-Kremlin youth group.
The tightly choreographed rally featured young people thanking World War II veterans for the victory over Nazi Germany and was meant to demonstrate Russia's determination to hold a powerful place in the world.
"The veterans fought and died in the war and on the battlefield for our independence. We will have to defend this independence in business and the economy, in the factories and (university) lecture halls," said Vasily Yakemenko, the leader of Nashi (Ours), the group that organized the rally.
About 50,000 people grouped in columns walked down Lenin Avenue to the sound of military songs and marches. Many waved the group's flag, whose diagonal white cross on a red background mixes Soviet and Russian imperial-era imagery.
"We came here to support the veterans, to thank them for their victory," said Valya Lavrova, an 18-year-old business student from the city of Ivanovo, northwest of Moscow. "We want to see Russia united, to see it become a superpower again."
Many Russians are sensitive about foreign influence, particularly with the Cold War powerhouse struggling to recover following the Soviet collapse, and leading officials including President Vladimir Putin have warned that forces in the United States and other Western countries are seeking to weaken Russia. There is also concern about neighboring China's growing clout.
Most of the people in the rally were high school or university students, many bused to Moscow from a dozen regions. Some said they had been prohibited by organizers from talking to journalists, and some were unclear about the purpose of the rally.
"They told us there would be some kind of parade in Moscow, or something like that," said Sem Babayev, a 16-year old high school student from the town of Podolsk, south of Moscow.
The area where the rally was held was cordoned off by police squads and closed to traffic for hours.
Citing Moscow police, the ITAR-Tass news agency said 22 members of a communist youth group were detained nearby for trying to hold an unauthorized demonstration of their own.
More than 1,000 police and soldiers guarded the event. Several police warned that anyone not wearing a special rally T-shirts adorned with large red or white stars would be barred from participating.
Nashi was founded last month in Moscow to replace Walking Together, another pro-Kremlin youth group that Yakemenko used to lead. Walking Together became notorious for staging book-burning ceremonies and allegedly paying group members.
The rally came six days after Putin hosted dozens of world leaders for celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the Nazi defeat in World War II, addressing a Red Square military parade that was full of Soviet-era symbolism and stressing the Soviet role in the allied victory.
I have tried this weekend to catch up a bit Kat.. what wonderful news you always have. A treasure chest of info..
Thanks again for all the effort & I know for you it is a labor of love, but just letting you know there are lots of us who appreciate it...
Al-Qaeda's back has been broken, says Musharraf
By Jo Johnson and Farhan Bokhari in Rawalpindi
Published: May 15 2005 22:04 | Last updated: May 16 2005 00:34
General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's military ruler, has claimed this month's arrest of a senior al-Qaeda operative has helped to “break the back” of the terrorist organisation, severing the links between the central command and members on the ground.
In his first interview since the arrest this month of Abu Faraj al-Liby, al-Qaeda's alleged number three, Gen Musharraf said: “We have broken their back. They cease to exist as a cohesive, homogenous body under good command and control, vertical and horizontal.”
Some European security experts have been sceptical about Mr al-Liby's importance to the terrorist network, but Gen Musharraf maintained that his capture was “very significant” and that it had led to other key arrests in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi.
“He is the man who was in charge of al-Qaeda operations, internal and external and, of course, on a personal basis the man who masterminded the suicide attacks on me,” Mr Musharraf, the target of two assassination attempts in December 2003, told the Financial Times.
“Whatever they are now capable of doing is individual and group actions divorced from central command and co-ordinated centrally. They are on the run in the mountains, not in contact with each other,” he added.
However, Mr Musharraf, the chief of the Pakistani army, said the al-Liby arrest, hailed by President George W. Bush as “a critical victory in the war on terror”, had failed to produce any clues to the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden.
During the interview, the army general also called for “maximum punishment” for any US soldiers found guilty of desecrating the Koran ata Guantánamo Bay interrogation centre. Later, Newsweek said it had erred in its report that a copy of the Koran had been put down a toilet at the camp in Cuba. Anti-US riots over the report have seen more than a dozen killed in Afghanistan.
Mr Musharraf was adamant he would not be persuaded by the US to drop plans to build a gas pipeline from Iran. This would cross Pakistan and India and is seen as a cornerstone of a two-year-old peace process between the two neighbours.
Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, has warned the countries against proceeding with the $4.5bn (€3.5bn) pipeline, which State Department officials say could expose energy-deficient India and Pakistan to US sanctions.
Gen Musharraf maintained he would take a decision by year-end that would be based solely on Pakistan's national interest.
Qatar and Turkmenistan could provide politically easier substitutes for Iranian gas, but both face considerable logistical difficulties.
He said: “We are short of energy. We want gas immediately. Our industry is suffering; investment coming to Pakistan is suffering, so Pakistan's interest is to get gas fast. Iran is the fastest source.”
Thanks DC. Hope you as well as your aunt are doing fine.
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.
