Posted on 06/09/2003 9:05:35 PM PDT by null and void
Good Morning.
Welcome to the daily thread of Operation Infinite Freedom - Situation Room.
It is designed for general conversation about the ongoing war on terror, and the related events of the day. Im addition to the ongoing conversations related to terrorism and our place in it's ultimate defeat, this thread is a clearinghouse of links to War On Terrorism threads. This allows us to stay abreast of the situation in general, while also providing a means of obtaining specific information and mutual support.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An explosion at an Iraqi ammunition facility has killed three Iraqis and wounded two others, the United States Central Command said.
The explosion at Ad Diwaniyah, about 75 miles south of the capital Baghdad, occurred on Monday morning, CentCom said in a statement posted on its Web site early on Tuesday.
It said U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq sustained no casualties in the explosion.
The cause of the blast was not immediately clear and an investigation was underway, it added.
An explosion at Diwaniyah last month killed one U.S. soldier and injured another. The U.S. Central Command said at the time it did not believe the blast was the result of "hostile action."
CentCom said U.S. troops in Iraq intend to help clear the ammunition facility on Tuesday once they make sure it was safe to do so.
In a separate incident, CentCom said a fire caused a series of explosions at an ammunition supply point near the Muslim holy city of Kerbala, also south of Baghdad, on Monday afternoon but caused no casualties. It said no "hostile action" was believed to be behind the fire.
CentCom said U.S. troops in Iraq intend to help clear the ammunition facility on Tuesday once they make sure it was safe to do so.
If it wasn't safe for U.S. troops then what were those Iraqis doing in there?
Rumsfeld suggests Saddam source of Iraqi unrest
LISBON (AFP) - Saddam Hussein may be behind Iraq's continuing unrest even if he is dead, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said as US occupation authorities strugggled to stave off anarchy and rebuild the devastated land.
Rumsfeld and US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) also defended the administration's decision to invade and occupy Iraq against those who say it was based on a lie, flatly denying they exaggerated the threat posed by Saddam's Baath party regime.
En route to Europe, Rumsfeld suggested the missing Saddam was still inspiring remnants of his regime to resist the US-led occupation.
Pro-U.S. women protesters display placards during a rally outside the headquarters of the U.S. Marines based in Kut, 112
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Syria's president, seeking to allay U.S. concerns, said Monday his country stopped fleeing Iraqi officials at the border and turned back those who had slipped in.
U.S. officials had threatened sanctions against Syria, accusing it of harboring fleeing members of Iraq's ousted regime, and of providing Iraq with military equipment.
The pressure led to speculation that Washington saw Damascus as the next U.S. military target after Iraq, but U.S.-Syria tensions eased after a May 3 visit by Secretary of State Colin Powell to Damascus.
"We completely closed the border" with Iraq before the end of the war, Syrian President Bashar Assad told Dubai-based Arabic satellite channel Al Arabiya in an interview monitored in Beirut.
"Some of these (Iraqi) officials who had arrived at the Syrian border were not allowed to enter. Some of them were on the (U.S. wanted) list and others were not on the list."
After the collapse of Saddam's regime on April 9, the U.S. Central Command released a list of the 55 most-wanted former Iraqi officials. Topping the list are the ousted Iraqi leader and his two sons, Odai and Qusai. The United States has captured nearly two dozen of the officials on the list.
Assad said that although U.S. forces captured Iraqi government officials near the border with Syria, "it was proven later that they did not originally come from Syria or they came but they were sent back."
Noting that Syria had not been invited to the summit in Aqaba, Jordan, last week to launch the road map for Middle East peace, Assad said it focused on Palestinian issues.
"I think the Syrian track as far as they (Americans) are concerned is put off for now," Assad said.
Syria and Lebanon have criticized the so-called "road map" as excluding them from the peace process with Israel.
Assad Syria did not fully control its border with Iraq and some Iraqi Iraqi government officials "probably" entered the Syrian-Iraqi border through "unofficial outlets and they left without our knowledge."
"There is a strong tribal connection between Syria and Iraq," he said of the vast desert areas between the two countries. The Iraqi-Syrian border is 310 miles long.
Assad said Syria has not handed over any fleeing Iraqi officials to the Americans and will not do so if any official is captured.
"They (Americans) know that we will not hand over any Iraqi," he said. "If Iraqi officials are captured, we will send them back to Iraq."
Assad said when U.S. officials asked him during the Iraqi war if Syria was harboring members of Saddam's government, he reminded them of the hostility between the rival Baath parties ruling in Damascus and Baghdad.
Some of members of Saddam's government, he said, were responsible for "massacres in Syria that led to the death of tens of thousands of people" _a reference to a wave of bombings and attacks that rocked Syrian cities for about four years in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
"If the United States has (a list of) 50 wanted, we have 150 wanted (Iraqis), Assad said. "That's why we did not allow any to enter."
VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia - Pro-Moscow officials in Chechnya said Monday that more than 30 rebels had surrendered their weapons under a Russian amnesty, but fighting continued, with nine servicemen killed in the last 24 hours.
The amnesty, portrayed as a key step toward peace in the region, went into effect after it was published in official newspapers on Saturday. It excludes any rebel accused of grave crimes like rape and attempted murder.
The measure does not guarantee immunity from prosecution to people accused of trying to kill a federal serviceman or police officer. Critics say that makes it all but meaningless.
Rudnik Dudayev, head of Chechnya's Security Council, said more than 30 rebels had taken advantage of the amnesty by Monday evening, according to the Interfax news agency.
Denis Vyazemtsev, a spokesman for the Chechen branch of the Federal Security Service, told Interfax that authorities would help those who get amnesty find a job and return to peaceful life.
Meanwhile, fighting continued, with nine Russian servicemen killed over the past day, an official in Chechnya's Moscow-backed administration said.
Rebels fired on Russian positions 20 times, killing two troops and wounding nine, the official said on condition of anonymity.
Four servicemen were killed and nine wounded when their convoy came under fire, the official said. One riot police officer was shot dead outside the regional capital, Grozny, and two servicemen were killed and three wounded in a clash within the city.
Russian forces have battled Chechen separatists for much of the past decade. A 1994-96 war ended in a cease-fire and de facto independence for the region. Russian troops returned three years later after rebel raids on a neighboring Russian region and after a series of deadly apartment-house bombings in Russian cities that were blamed on the rebels.
MADRID, Spain - A prosecutor sought terrorism indictments Monday against 13 suspected members of al-Qaida, including a suspect allegedly linked to the Sept. 11 attackers.
Prosecutor Pedro Rubira filed the request to a magistrate of the National Court who is expected to take at least several weeks to decide whether to indict the suspects.
The lead suspect, Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, was one of eight men arrested on November 18, 2001, two months after the Sept. 11 attacks. American and Spanish authorities say Spain was a major staging ground for the attacks along with Germany.
Monday's request said Yarkas had close ties with Sept. 11 ringleader Mohamed Atta and other purported planners of the attack. When Yarkas was arrested in 2001, officials said his Madrid telephone number was included in an address book found in a Hamburg apartment where Atta once lived.
Yarkas was the only one of the 13 suspects accused specifically of taking part in Sept. 11. Rubira said he also recruited members for al-Qaida, inviting young men to his home for meals and showing them videos of rebels fighting Russian troops in breakaway Chechnya.
The other 12 suspects are accused of belonging to or collaborating with a terrorist organization, illegal weapons possession and forgery.
Rubira asked that charges be dropped against four suspects on bail, including two who allegedly shot video of U.S. landmarks and passed the tapes along to leaders preparing for the Sept. 11 attacks. Rubira did not wants those charges dropped.
MOSCOW - Russia's security service said Monday that it had detained 55 members of a banned secretive Islamic group, Hizb-ut-Tahrir, and confiscated weapons and explosives from them.
The activists detained in Moscow on Friday were citizen of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, two former Soviet republics in Central Asia, a spokesman for the Federal Security Service, or FSB, said.
The FSB spokesman, who spoke on customary anonymity, said the authorities had confiscated 500 grams of plastic explosives and several hand grenades from two of the detained members of the group.
He refused to provide details about the detention.
Hizb-ut-Tahrir, or the Liberation Party, is a secretive organization banned in many nations that aims to unite all Muslims under a caliphate ruled by Islamic Shariah law. It emerged in the Middle East and spread to former Soviet Central Asia in the 1990s. The group says it does not advocate violence.
The Russian Supreme Court banned Hizb-ut-Tahrir in February as a terrorist organization.
LISBON (Reuters) - The United States has said its failure to find Saddam Hussein may be emboldening the fallen leader's Baath party supporters to attack U.S. forces in Iraq.
The former Iraqi president has not been seen since the fall of the Iraqi capital Baghdad two months ago.
"It might give heart to the Baathists who may want to hope that they can take back that country, which they are not going to succeed in doing," Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said late on Monday.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israeli helicopter gunships fired at least seven rockets towards Gaza City on Tuesday, witnesses said.
The target of the attack was not immediately known, but first reports said a car was struck by one of the missiles. Huge plumes of black smoke rose into the sky, and ambulances raced to the scene.
Construction workers take to the rooftops of Camp Delta as assembly of the new units continues in this April 7, 2002 file photo at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. Guantanamo officials are ready to provide a courtroom, a prison and an execution chamber if the order comes to try terror suspects at the base in Cuba, the mission commander said Monday, June 9, 2003.
Guantanamo Eyes Possible Execution Chamber
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Guantanamo officials are ready to provide a courtroom, a prison and an execution chamber if the order comes to try terror suspects at the base in Cuba, the mission commander said.
Although no new directive has been given and no plans have been approved, a handful of experts are looking at what it will take to try, imprison and, if need be, execute detainees accused of links to Afghanistan's fallen Taliban regime or to the al-Qaida terror network.
"We have a number of plans that we work for short-term and long-term strategies but that's all they are — plans," Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller said in a telephone interview Monday.
BUNIA, Congo (Reuters) - About 40 French troops arrived in the Congolese town of Bunia on Tuesday, starting the deployment of the main component of a 1,400-strong international force sent to stop tribal fighting.
The French troops arrived by military plane at the town's small airport, secured by an advance party of French soldiers who arrived on Friday.
"If we need to use force we are allowed," Captain Frederic Solano told reporters. "For the moment, our mission is to secure and protect the town and to try to find a political resolution (to the fighting)."
About 100 more French troops were expected late on Tuesday in the town, where thousands have fled their homes following an upsurge in fighting between rival groups of gunmen.
A small United Nations force, MONUC, has been unable to stop a month of bloodshed as ethnic Hema and Lendu militias battled for control of Bunia and the surrounding countryside. Hundreds have been killed and tens of thousands been forced to flee.
The new force, which will include about 1,000 French troops backed by jets and armored vehicles has a stronger U.N. mandate. However, its mission ends on September 1 and is only intended as a temporary measure to allow the U.N. to reinforce MONUC.
Powell Heads for Talks in Argentina
SANTIAGO, Chile - Secretary of State Colin Powell is on a goodwill mission to Argentina, ready to offer friendship to newly installed President Nestor Kirchner and hoping to put U.S.-Argentine relations on a sounder footing.
Powell was flying to Buenos Aires Tuesday after attending an Organization of American States foreign ministers meeting here on Monday.
A senior OAS official said there was optimism that the U.S.-Argentine relations can prosper now that President Bush has a new team of economic advisers.
Abdel Aziz Rantisi
Hamas Leader Survives Israeli Attack
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israel targeted a Hamas leader, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, in a missile strike Tuesday and injured him in the leg, doctors said. Two dozen people were hurt.
The missile strike jeopardized efforts to persuade militant groups, including Hamas, to halt attacks on Israelis. It also appeared to violate the spirit of a U.S.-backed peace plan, as part of which Israel promised to refrain from actions that undermine trust.
There was no immediate Israeli comment.
Hamas quickly threatened revenge. "This crime will not pass," said Mahmoud Zahar, another Hamas leader. He said there would be more attacks on Israelis.
"Israel can expect severe punishment for this crime," he said.
The attack began when three Israeli Apache helicopter gunships appeared over Gaza City before noon Tuesday, and fired at least seven missiles toward Rantisi's Jeep Pajero in a crowded thoroughfare. Rantisi's vehicle burst into flames and was quickly reduced to a scorched heap of metal.
Palestinian doctors said Rantisi was injured in the leg, and was undergoing an operation at Gaza City's Shifa Hospital. Initial reports of one man having been killed could not be confirmed. A total of 25 people were wounded, including three of Rantisi's bodyguards and Rantisi's son, said Dr. Moawiya Hassanain, director of Shifa Hospital.
The Israeli missile strike came as Egypt was making a renewed effort to persuade Hamas and other militant groups to halt attacks on Israelis. The Egyptian intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, was to meet with Hamas leaders in Gaza on Wednesday, but it was not clear whether the talks would be held as planned.
Last week, Hamas announced that it was breaking off truce talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, complaining that he has been too conciliatory to Israel, particularly in his speech at a Mideast summit last week.
At the summit, Abbas called for an end to the "armed intefadeh" and denounced violence against Israelis everywhere.
Rantisi, a leader of the Hamas political wing, is considered a hardliner in the Islamic militant group. He has been among the most vocal in opposing a halt to attacks on Israelis.
In the past, Israel has killed scores of wanted Palestinians in helicopter missile strikes. Tuesday's attack apparently marked the first time Israel targeted a political leader of Hamas.
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Shouting "Long live the king," about 1,500 Iraqi tribal sheiks and monarchists welcomed Sharif Ali bin Hussein, a cousin of Iraq's last king who returned here Tuesday after spending 45 years in exile.
The London investment banker, who left Iraq in 1958 — the year he was born — flew in by chartered jet and then drove to his family mausoleum that still cradles the remains of two of Iraq's previous kings, Faisal I and Ghazi.
"After so many years outside Iraq, I have come home to my country," Sharif Ali told the crowd.
LISBON, Portugal - On a four-day visit to Europe, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is thanking nations that supported the U.S.-led war in Iraq and asking for more postwar help to keep the peace there.
He said the failure of the U.S.-led coalition to prove deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is dead may be fueling continued violence and resistance in the country. -(Well, let's see if this is the last we will hear about this statement if true that is what Rumsfeld actually said).
"There are people who may fear that he could come back," Rumsfeld said Monday.
"If they fear he could come back, they might be somewhat slower in an interrogation to say what they know" and it could "give heart" to some from Saddam's Baathist Party who hope "that they can take back that country."
Rumsfeld said 41 countries are considering assistance to Iraq and some half dozen have committed forces. He didn't name them, but he said the first forces should be ready in September.
"We have a very aggressive effort to bring in forces from other countries in sizable numbers," Rumsfeld said.
He spoke during a flight to Portugal, where he was to thank officials Tuesday for their support in a war that was unpopular in much of the rest of Europe.
Rumsfeld was to meet later in the day with Albanian officials, who also supported the campaign to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction.
He is to end his tour at a NATO meeting in Brussels, but not before stopping Wednesday in Munich for the 10th anniversary of the joint German-U.S. George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies. The Marshall Center was founded in 1993 to stabilize and strengthen post-cold war Europe through education and training of military and civilian officials.
"The NATO meeting ... provides an opportunity for me to thank some friends and allies — people who have been helpful. Clearly, we will be doing that in Portugal and Albania," Rumsfeld said.
"At the 10th anniversary of the Marshall center, there will be ... a good number of ministers of defense also helpful and cooperative who are graduates."
Portugal is looking for a way to re-equip the outdated Portuguese armed forces despite a recession and cash problems. It is trying to negotiate the purchase of six new Hercules C-130J transport planes from U.S. company Lockheed Martin. It also wants Iraqi reconstruction contracts, and has lobbied for a NATO regional command headquarters to be installed at Oeiras, outside Lisbon.
Portugal did not provide military help for the Iraq war, but it plans to send some 100 police there to help with security and humanitarian aid distribution.
Albania just held a joint exercise with U.S. forces aimed at boosting the ex-communist country's ability to respond to humanitarian crises and other emergencies.
European giants France and Germany led the continent's opposition to the U.S.-British military action; states lending diplomatic support included Denmark, Italy, Latvia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Romania and Croatia.
Rumsfeld said he did not doubt that intelligence on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction will prove correct, despite the failure after two months to find the weapons the Bush administration said were the rationale for the war.
Rumsfeld said resistance to U.S. forces was not nationally organized, but confined to certain regions.
He blamed violence in the region from Baghdad north to Saddam's hometown of Tikrit on Saddam loyalists who survived because there were relatively few battles in that area.
AYACUCHO, Peru - Gunmen seized 60 people, including eight foreigners, in a predawn raid on their pipeline construction camp in the Peruvian Andes, the defense minister said.
Army troops have been sent to the area and "the government has taken the necessary measures to liberate the kidnapped people," said Defense Minister Aurelio Loret de Mola, reading from a statement late Monday.
Police said earlier that they believed the attackers were members of the Maoist Shining Path guerrilla group. But Loret de Mola only described them as "armed criminals" without elaborating further or providing details of the rescue.
The Argentine petroleum company Techint has been using the camp near Toccate, 220 miles southeast of Lima, to build a section of pipeline to carry natural gas from Peru's Amazon jungle across the Andes to the Pacific coast.
Omar Quesada, the top official in the region, said the attackers had seized 2,700 sticks of dynamite and had demanded a $1 million ransom as well as communications equipment.
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