Posted on 05/22/2005 6:56:43 PM PDT by TexKat
A girl who was watching American and Iraqi soldiers on patrol in front of her house smiles when she sees a news photographer as Airman First Class Andrew Pulido is on guard during a foot patrol in a northern neighborhood of Mosul May 10, 2005. He is assigned from the US Airforce to the 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment of the Styker Brigade, for the purpose of coordinating air support.
OPERATION PENINSULA NETS 184 TERROR SUSPECTS
May 23, 2005
Release Number: 05-05-28
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OPERATION PENINSULA NETS 184 TERROR SUSPECTS
DIWANIYAH, Iraq – Polish and Iraqi Soldiers nabbed 184 terror suspects and seized weapons parts, ammunition, possible bomb-making materials and propaganda in As Suwaryah May 19 and 20.
Multi-National Division Central-South’s 1st Polish Brigade and the 19th Iraqi Army Brigade conducted Operation Peninsula to round up terrorists and eliminate their base of operations.
Among the items confiscated were parts to various weapons and 6,000 AK-47 rounds. Troops also confiscated paramilitary clothing.
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CONCERNING THIS RELEASE, CONTACT THE MULTI-NATIONAL DIVISION CENTRAL-SOUTH PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER. PIOMNDCS@POCZTA.ONET.PL OR PIOMNDCS@WP.PL.
A holy Quran which, according to members of the National Guard, survived the explosion of a car bomb at lunchtime outside the popular Habayibna restaurant, where police officers often meet for lunch, in the Talibia area of northern Baghdad, Iraq Monday, May 23, 2005, killing at least three people and injuring more than 70 according to eyewitnesses and hospital officials. (AP Photo / Mohammed Uraibi)
So they don't think it possible that someone just set it on the seat AFTER the explosion?
KABUL (AP) - Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces arrested 15 suspected drug traffickers and seized a large quantity of opium in a major counter-narcotics swoop in a southern province, local officials said Monday.
Elsewhere, the bodies of two men, thought to be Uzbeks who were kidnapped as they drove down a highway in another southern province last week, were found shot to death, said Ali Khail, spokesman for the governor of Zabul province. He blamed Taliban rebels.
The counter-narcotics operation began Sunday in Helmand province and continued Monday. An Afghan force, supported by coalition soldiers and helicopters, seized 32 assault rifles, three vehicles and the opium, which was then destroyed by burning, officials said. A former provincial intelligence chief was among those arrested.
The commander of the police anti-narcotics squad, Gen. Said Kamal Sadat, said helicopters from the U.S.-led coalition participated in the raids.
The U.S. military in Kabul said its forces were not involved. British officials, who have a lead role in the anti-drug campaign, declined to comment.
The raid came as Afghan President Hamid Karzai pressed for more assistance in fighting the opium trade during a meeting Monday with President George W. Bush in Washington.
Bush told reporters he made it clear to Karzai "that we have got to work together to eradicate the poppy crop."
Opium poppies are the raw material for heroin. Their cultivation has soared since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Last year, cultivation reached a record 131,000 hectares, yielding nearly 80 per cent of world supply.
Karzai said he hoped Afghanistan would be free of opium poppy crops within five or six years and that Afghan farmers find alternative crops like honeydew melons and pomegranates.
The Uzbek Embassy said local authorities had informed them that five or six armed men had attacked two trucks driven by Uzbeks last week and that at least one of the men had been killed, but the fate of the other was not known.
However, Khail said local residents had found two bodies Sunday in an area between Shinkay and Sori districts about a two-hour drive from the scene of Wednesday's kidnapping, and had alerted police.
Khail said the two men appeared to be about 35 years old and had been shot with AK-47s. He said authorities were sure they were the kidnap victims, but couldn't provide their names.
Separately, the United Nations on Sunday called for Afghan human rights investigators to be allowed into Bagram, the main U.S. base in Afghanistan, after the New York Times reported that poorly trained U.S. soldiers there had repeatedly abused prisoners.
"Such abuses are utterly unacceptable and an affront to everything the international community stands for," said Richard Provencher, UN spokesman in Afghanistan. The U.S. military did not respond to requests for comment Sunday.
Karzai also commented on recent reports of abuse of Afghan prisoners by their American captors. "We are of course sad about that," he said in Washington. But, he added, "It does not reflect on the American people."
Bush, meanwhile, said American troops in Afghanistan will remain under U.S. control despite Karzai's request for more authority over them.
"Of course, our troops will respond to U.S. commanders," Bush said, with Karzai standing at his side at the White House. At the same time, Bush said the relationship between Washington and Kabul is "to co-operate and consult" on military operations.
That was my 1st thought too. That book was not in the car at the time of the explosion.
The invinsible Koran you know.
The one in Guantanamo might have even put its ownself in the toilet after being touched by an infidel.
Muslims call for day of outrage
5/20/2005 6:04 PM
By: News 14 Carolina
The IPPA is encouraging others to voice their concerns about prisoner mistreatment and religious intimidation by calling or e-mailing the White House.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Newsweek recently retracted a controversial story about American interrogators desecrating the Quran at the detention center in Guantanamo Bay, but the Islamic Political Party of America is calling for a national day of outrage on May 23.
The IPPA is encouraging others to voice their concerns about prisoner mistreatment and religious intimidation by calling or e-mailing the White House.
A recent Newsweek story described American interrogators desecrating the Quran at the detention center in Guantanamo Bay.
"We are constantly told that this is not a war against Islam and if it truly isn't – which I believe religion probably plays a small part in this war – but if it truly is not against Islam, they would stop using religious intimidation," said IPPA chairman Jibril Hough.
"Our whole purpose of this is to get people to call in – not only Muslims, but concerned Christians and Jews and anybody who loves justice and right," IPPA national organizer Ali Abdur-Rashid said.
Newsweek has stated that despite its retraction, it will continue to investigate charges of religious intimidation.
Iraq News, BAGHDAD, International human rights organisations have raised concern over the Iraqi prime ministers' recent announcement that the death penalty would be implemented as a way to control ongoing violence and insurgency in the country.
"It's true that they have been having serious security problems in the country but the death penalty certainly is not appropriate. What they are doing is just suppressing human rights in the country. We are against this decision," Middle East spokeswoman for Amnesty International (AI), Nicole Choueiry, told IRIN from their London headquarters.
Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, announced on 16 May in Baghdad that the death sentence would be retained and that the new government would be prepared to use it. He added that insurgents were trying to start open warfare between Shi'ites and Sunnis.
Iraq's interim government reinstated the death penalty for crimes including murder, kidnapping and drug running in August 2004.
Al-Jaafari vowed to concentrate efforts on anyone targeting Shi'ites and Sunnis.
"The new government will strike with an iron fist against any criminal who tries to harm a Sunni or a Shi'ite citizen," he said. His speech came amid an increase in violence which has resulted in the deaths of more than 490 people since his government was formed on 28 April 2005.
[Iraq News] Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) officials told IRIN that the use of the death penalty was an abuse of international human rights laws. They said this should be taken into consideration when drafting the new constitution, which should promote human rights and not take them away.
A senior official at the Ministry of Human Rights (MoHR), who did not want to be named, said that the situation was very sensitive and should be dealt with carefully when drafting the new constitution. He added that the decision could trigger pressure from international humanitarian groups worldwide. The ministry has not responded to the prime ministers remarks.
The decision of whether to implement the death penalty under the new constitution has sparked reaction from some local religious leaders.
"No human can determine if a person can live or not. It is in the hands of God. Our community is totally against this idea and will fight it. We cannot use death to correct the insecurity. You will just be taking more lives and if charged they should pay in prison and not in graves," Sheikh Omar Shaker, a Sunni senior religious leader, told IRIN in the capital, Baghdad.
Activists of India's National Akali Dal party shout anti-Pakistan slogans for alleged involvement in terrorist activities in New Delhi after a series of blasts rocked two cinema halls in New Delhi(AFP/Prakash Singh)
India on red alert after three blasts in two days
Asia News, NEW DELHI: A state of red alert has been sounded in the Indian capital New Delhi as investigations continue into two cinema hall blasts on Sunday night that killed one person and hurt over 50 others.
Another explosion on Monday injured one man, but it remained unclear if it was linked to the earlier blasts.
Meanwhile a controversial film, believed to be the motive behind Sunday's explosions, has been withdrawn from theatres across the country.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh went to the hospital to visit the injured while a special police cell trained to deal with terrorist activities investigates the blasts.
No one has claimed responsibility and officials say it's too early to say if the explosions are part of a longer-term terrorist strategy.
K K Paul, New Delhi's Commissioner of Police, said: "Preliminary investigations have been made but to say that a hi-tech operation had been carried out is too soon."
India's Home Minister Shivraj Patil said militants probably chose the occasion of the Indian government's first anniversary to create unrest.
So the heavy guard at railway stations and airports has to be maintained.
Mr Shivraj Patil said: "... A day on which the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government was formed and that has its own significance. In view of this, we have asked the police to be extra careful and be more vigilant to avoid such incidents."
The blasts occurred at two packed cinema halls showing the film 'Jo Bole So Nihal'.
The film has been condemned by Sikh religious bodies which argue its contents depict sacrilege at Sikh shrines.
Also, the use of a sacred prayer as the film's title has hurt religious sentiments.
Although it's not confirmed that the attacks were linked to the film, most theatres have pulled it out.
Filmmakers in Mumbai have also called for steps to protect the financial interests of their fraternity.
Boney Kapoor, a filmmaker, said: "We should all collectively put a protest to the authorities that such things should not happen because this could snowball into a major, major financial loss to the producer, the distributor, the exhibitor, for no fault of theirs."
The topic of religion in commercial cinema has almost always raised hackles in India.
Several public interest litigations in the past have called for the censorship of sections, or the withdrawal of an entire film.
The debate is open: is it about Indian society taking films too seriously? Or, are filmmakers deliberately adding the controversial element to raise free publicity and greater returns at the box office?
The two pilots completed mission qualification training to become A-10 pilots in just over two weeks; the training normally takes up to three months.
By U.S. Air Force Capt. Mark D. Gibson 455th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, May 23, 2005 — Two 74th Fighter Squadron A-10 pilots from Pope Air Force Base, N.C., put the pedal to the metal to be ready for combat.
U.S. Air Force Capt. Rich Waldrop and U.S. Air Force Capt. Ryan Youngblood flew their first sorties as fully qualified A-10 pilots in a combat mission over Afghanistan.
Most new A-10 pilots fly their first operational sortie over a training range in the United States.
"The main difference between flying an operational sortie here in theater than back in the States is here a pilot must be prepared to take and give fire in support of friendly ground forces," said Lt. Col. Christopher Plamp, the 74th's director of operations.
With their squadron leaving for Afghanistan soon, the two pilots completed mission qualification training to become A-10 pilots in just over two weeks; the training normally takes up to three months.
They achieved this success with the help of a dedicated instructor pilot, Maj. Rob MacGregor, who had completed two tours in Afghanistan and is now on his third.
Their training was tailored to reflect the different missions and threats they would encounter in Operation Enduring Freedom with an emphasis on close-air-support missions.
"I personally certified Youngblood and Waldrop and 'cleared them hot' as mission-ready wingmen," said Lt. Col. Jeff Cowan, their squadron commander. "I had all the confidence in the world they would be spun up in time to deploy. I am extremely proud of them and honored to have them as my wingmen."
Asia News, SYDNEY : The chief of Australia's armed forces General Peter Cosgrove has revealed he kept his son's deployment to Baghdad a secret, even when his son was hurt in a car bombing.
Private Philip Cosgrove, 25, was one of eight Australian troops wounded when a car bomb exploded near their convoy in Baghdad in January.
Cosgrove said that when he saw his son off at the airport last December, he did not wear his uniform so as not to alert the media.
"My wife and I attended just as private citizens, just a mum and dad. I wore civvies that day," Cosgrove told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
"I may have been overprotective but I just thought it was prudent under the circumstances that there should be no particular pressure on either my son or the other soldiers by having somebody with a well-known name as one of the young, private soldiers on the frontline in Baghdad."
Cosgrove said his son was not badly injured in the car bombing.
Cosgrove, who retires in July, said he prayed every day that his son was in Iraq and was relieved when he returned home on Saturday.
"I suppose I knew on a daily, almost hour-by-hour basis, the sort of hazards our folk were facing. And that's different to what most parents have as knowledge and that probably made it a bit more difficult," he said.
"So to some degree you had to put that on the backburner and simply do the job I'm expected to do which is to be responsible for all of our people and not get overly focused on my young son, love him though I do."
Australia has about 450 troops deployed in and around Baghdad and is in the process of deploying another 450 to the country's south to protect Japanese army engineers and train Iraqi security forces.
Cosgrove also said on Monday that the troops being sent to southern Iraq could be home within eight months.
Prime Minister John Howard announced last month that the head of the air force, Air Marshal Angus Houston, would replace Cosgrove as chief of the Australian Defense Force.
"He received some minor injuries but they were not too bad. Others were more seriously injured than him, both in that incident and in others of that particular time frame so he was lucky," he said.
"But I knew fairly quickly and I was able to reassure his mum that he was fine."
May 23, 2005
by Armando Duke
FBI agents arrested Ronald Grecula of Bangor Pa. in Houston after the Pa. man attempted to sell the undercover agents a bomb, thinking they were Al-qaida representatives.
May 23, 2005 (AXcess News) Houston - FBI agents arrested Ronald Grecula of Bangor Pa. in Houston after the Pa. man attempted to sell the undercover agents a bomb, thinking they were Al-qaida representatives.
According to the FBI, Grecula, 68, told agents that he was willing to build a bomb for a terrorist group he knew would use the explosive device against Americans.
Grecula is to appear in court Monday. The Pa. man is being charged with attempting to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, specifically al-Qaida.
Grecula faces 15 years in federal prison if convicted and could be fined up to $250,000.
An informant had introduced Grecula to an undercover FBI agent as a member of Al-qaida, authorities said. He negotiated with the informant and agent for weeks before agreeing to meet in Houston where he knew he was offering to build and sell a bomb to terrorists to be used on Americans.
Federal agents recorded their conversations with Grecula where he outlined his expertise in building explosives and had cautioned the undercover agent about being careful so they weren't caught with the bomb.
Baghdad, 23 May (AKI) - The number two of the al-Qaeda network, Ayman al-Zawahiri, visited Iraq under a false name in September 1999 to take part in the ninth Popular Islamic Congress, former Iraqi premier Iyad Allawi has revealed to pan-Arab daily al-Hayat. In an interview, Allawi made public information discovered by the Iraqi secret service in the archives of the Saddam Hussein regime, which sheds light on the relationship between Saddam Hussein and the Islamic terrorist network. He also said that both al-Zawahiri and Jordanian militant al-Zarqawi probably entered Iraq in the same period.
"Al-Zawahiri was summoned by Izza Ibrahim Al-Douri – then deputy head of the council of the leadership of the revolution - to take part in the congress, along with some 150 other Islamic figures from 50 Muslim countries," Allawi said.
According to Allawi, important information has been gathered regarding the presence of another key terrorist figure operating in Iraq - the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
"The Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi entered Iraq secretly in the same period," Allawi affirmed, "and began to form a terrorist cell, even though the Iraqi services do not have precise information on his entry into the country," he said.
Allawi's remarks come after statements to al-Hayat by King Abdallah II of Jordan over Saddam's refusal to hand over al-Zarqawi to the authorities in Amman.
On this question Allawi said: ''The words of the Jordanian King are correct and important. We have proof of al-Zawahiri's visit to Iraq, but we do not have the precise date or information on al-Zarqawi's entry, though it is likely that he arrived around the same time."
In Allawi's view, Saddam's government "sponsored" the birth of al-Qaeda in Iraq, coordinating with other terrorist groups, both Arab and Muslim. "The Iraqi secret services had links to these groups through a person called Faruq Hajizi, later named Iraq's ambassador to Turkey and arrested after the fall of Saddam's regime as he tried to re-enter Iraq. Iraqi secret agents helped terrorists enter the country and directed them to the Ansar al-Islam camps in the Halbija area," he said.
The former prime minister claims that Saddam's regime sought to involve even Palestinian Abu Nidal - head of a group once considered the world's most dangerous terrorist organisation - in its terrorist circuit. Abu Nidal's organisation was responsible for terrorist attacks in some 20 countries, killing more than 300 people and wounding hundreds more.
He added that Abu Nidal's refusal to cooperate with Islamist groups was the reason for his death in Iraq, in the summer of 2002.
Helo makes emergency landing in Iraq
Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Monday, May 23, 2005
BAGHDAD — A U.S. military CH-47 Chinook helicopter was forced into an emergency landing early Sunday south of Samarra, military officials said, resulting in only minor injuries for those aboard.
Few details were available on the incident, but a military press release said an engine problem was to blame. No information was given on what unit the helicopter belonged to, how many were aboard, and what the injuries were to those hurt.
The 42nd Infantry Division send a quick reaction force to secure the landing site and did not encounter any enemy fire. An investigation is being conducted.
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=29292
By SITE Institute
May 23, 2005
The Islamic Army in Iraq posted three videos over the weekend showing the group’s latest attacks on American Forces in Iraq.
The first video, accompanied by a statement claiming responsibility for "firing…mortars on American forces at Abu Ghraib" on Sunday May 22, 2005. According to news reports, this attack occurred during "Operation Squeeze-Play", the largest joint US-Iraqi offensive operation yet to take place in Baghdad. During the offensive, centered on the Abu Ghraib neighborhood of Baghdad, almost 300 militants were detained overnight.
A second video shows a nighttime operation resulting in the destruction of “an America transport vehicle in Taji”;
Finally, the third video shows a dual roadside bombing of two separate Humvee vehicles near Latifa.
Click above link for pics.
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