Missile kills Pakistan tribal head

CNN ^ | Friday, June 18 | Syed Mohsin Naqvi

[AdmSmith]

ISLAMABAD (CNN) -- A tribal leader accused of harboring Al Qaeda militants in Pakistan's western border region was killed Thursday night in a targeted missile strike, according to Pakistan intelligence sources. The Associated Press quoted an army spokesman Friday as identifying the tribal leader as Nek Mohammed, a former Taliban fighter.

He was killed late Thursday at the home of another tribal chief, the spokesman said.

"We were tracking him down and he was killed last night by our hand," Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan told The Associated Press.

[Dog]

I checked this is what it says for the Mantoi map

1024x768.

I'm using Win98.

[Coop]

What did Sun Tzu say about knowing your enemy? :-)

[jeffers]

Sorry, left this out.

My experiences in the mountains tells me that every single valley has a river or stream at the bottom of it. The runoff has to go somewhere, but in some dry areas, there may not be any rain or runoff except at certain times of the year.

You can get some indication of normal rainfall from the false color on the satellite image overlays. Light green is an alpine area above the treeline or an open meadow if below treeline, dark green is thick forest, and bluish-purplish-grayish is bare rock. If it trends towards brownish-purplish-bluish-grayish, it is scree or talus, loose rock varying from boulder to fist sized.

There are plusses and minuses to moving along creekbeds in the mountains. A big part of the water in them is snowmelt and that water is COLD. Steep streams are fast moving streams which usually carve a slot in bottom of the U shaped valley. It can be very difficult and dangerous to move from the creek itself to the flatter creekbed right beside it, sometimes twenty or more feet of loose near vertical rock and dirt. Once you are in (or out) or the creekbed, you are somewhat committed until the terrain decides otherwise.

Naturally, lower elevations and valleys (Class I) are the least desireable terrain in mountainous areas, because of the channelizing effect and because access to the most desireable terrain, the ridgelines (Class III), can be limited by the steep intervening Class II terrain.

On the plus side, animals need water, and they create a network of game trails along both sides of a valley, generally from just above the creek gully to where the sides of the valley rise too steeply to maintain footing. Humans will have trouble negotiating some of the upper game trails. All the trails tend to follow the contours and therefore tend to parallel the creek or waterway.

Thinner air causes rapid breathing at the slightest exertion, and having water nearby can allieviate thirst, negate the effects of altitude sickness, and allow units to move quicker under lighter loads since they don't have to carry as much water. Many times the waterways act as the sewage systems for the entire drainage, and animal feces can introduce bugs you do not want to take chances with. Filtration or chemical treatment may be necessary to prevent outbreaks of diarhea that can last 18 months and reult in the loss of one third to one half normal body weight.

In some cases access to the water may require rope and harness depending on how deep the stream has cut into the valley floor.

[jeffers]

I prefer a hardware firewall at the periphery of the network for several reasons. I've seen AV and firewall threads hang and stop working on desktop and server platforms, leaving you wide open without alerting you to the fact that the processes were no longer working. If you do depend on a software firewall, make sure the underlying OS is patched to date at all times.

Once behind a hardware firewall, you could allow Windows ICS to serve access to the net, with an additional software firewall such as Norton, Kerio or Zone Alarm, you could run Squid, Snort and Samba on the Linux box and let it be the gateway, or you could just patch all the computers into the firewall's switch ports and run with the single firewall. Note that the first two solutions, to be effective for more than just themselves, would require two NICs, one to the firewall, and the other to your switch or hub for the other machines to access.

Another option would be to run one box or the other connected to the net, and not proxy serve at all, using a seperate network for secure file and print sharing.

Frankly, a Windows box behind a hardware firewall, properly configured and patched to date and with current AV protection will defeat 99.9% of the automated vulnerability scans you will find on the net, as will a similarly set up Linux box. That leaves the dedicated cracker, who will find a way in eventually, no matter what you do. Fortunately, very few people ever attract the attention of such a person.

A good website for a wide variety of security software and ...network analyzers...is:

www.insecure.org

[jeffers]

Well, yeah, but he didn't say you had to torture yourself looking at him.

I believe we could solve much of the third world's starvation problems just by combing the crumbs out of his beard.

[Boot Hill]

“What monitor resolution do you normally use?”

I normally use a resolution of 1.3 arc minutes!   J

--Boot Hill

[nuconvert]

I'll go along with the crowd. But here's my 2cents :

I vote for shaded relief overhead view with villages rivers and roads with several villages marked, but not too cluttered. Maybe an ocassional two dimensional rendering of the three dimensional elevation models.

monitor resolution? 1024 x 768 (but can be adjusted)

I can zoom in on your maps now.

connection is cable

A couple of possible road & trail systems might be nice, but they definitely need to be distinguishable from known main roads.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for the info.

I am on cable , so I can handle big maps, the more detail the better.

Really like what you have been showing us .

[AdmSmith]

According to this Nek was targeted on demand from Kabul.
The next question is what to do with these prisoners? I guess that my advice not can be considered PC...
http://www.hipakistan.com/en/detail.php?newsId=en69568&F_catID=&f_type=source

650 prisoners still want to wage Jihad

ISLAMABAD: As many as 650 Pakistani prisoners in Afghan jails have threatened that they would launch Jihad when they were set free, said Abdullah Abdullah, Afghanistan Foreign Minister, here Wednesday.

"These prisoners are determined to strike against the US and Kabul governments", he said. He was talking to journalists here on Wednesday morning during a breakfast meeting.

He said the prisoners made their intention known to Kabul officials and American investigators who met them before deciding about their fate. He said this caused delay in the release of these detainees.

However, the minister said the Americans had completed the process of screening and cleared majority of the prisoners, who would be handed over to Pakistan.

He said, "It will be interesting to see that how Pakistani government deals with those defiant prisoners who are still ready to fight and die in the name of Jihad."

He said the Wana operation is in the interest of both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

He said the operation would end penetration of armed militants into Afghanistan from Pakistan. He added "Kabul really expects more" from Islamabad in this regard.

He claimed that Neik Mohammad was targeted on the insistence of Kabul that considered him responsible for infiltrations and disturbances in Afghanistan.

Abdullah was accompanied by top aides and the Kabul ambassador to Pakistan.

[AdmSmith]

More on the Stick and Carrot:

http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/july-2004/15/main/top15.asp

Army builds goodwill against Al-Qaeda in tribal areas

KHALANAI (AFP) With its freshly-built roads, schools, clinics and wells, the tribal district of Mohmand along the Afghan border is a showpiece for the Pakistan armed forces. Just 200 kilometres further south in Waziristan, the military is engaged in a bloody conflict with local tribesmen sheltering Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who have fled over the border from Afghanistan. But in Mohmand, some 50 kilometres northwest of Peshawar, the soldiers see themselves more as aid workers than fighters.

"We have asked the Army to help us out of our misery," said local chief Mohammed Ali Halimazai in the village of Khalanai, which for the past year has been the local headquarters of the military.

"Our children need development, we no longer want to be considered backward," said the tribal chief, accompanied by around 20 other local chiefs who were invited by the Army to meet foreign journalists on a rare Press trip to the area.In the middle of this region of jagged peaks and arid plateau, some 400,000 people from six different tribes live in extreme poverty and isolation.

"For decades we have been left alone, but now all that is gone," explained Malik Ashraf, a wizened old man with a white beard and a revolver strapped to his waist. He is the chief of a village bearing his name, Ashrafabad, where he has given the military some land to build a school. The buildings has no furniture or teachers yet, but nonetheless around a dozen kids were lined up for the Press and military to recite the alphabet.

A few metres away, two wells are being dug. "Before, the villagers had to walk 20 kilometres to fetch water," said General Mohammed Iqbal, the commander of the brigade in charge of development aid for Mohmand.

So far around 100 kilometres of roads have been built, along with dozens of schools and clinics, and around 200 wells. Most of the projects have been built and financed by the military. While the Army refuses to divulge figures, the local civilian administration estimates it has spent around 784 million rupees ($15.3 million) on development projects this year.

Mohmand was the last of the seven tribal agencies that the military entered in June 2003. Since the founding of Pakistan in 1947, the tribal areas had existed largely outside the control of the government in Islamabad. But the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, coupled with Pakistan's strong support for the US-led war on terror, have eroded much of the tribal areas' autonomy.

In an attempt to prevent Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the military occupied the eight major passes connecting the two countries.

"There is no longer a no-go area," said General Iqbal, referring to the territory held by the Baezai and Khewazai tribes along the frontier.

For over a year the Pakistani border posts have come under sporadic artillery fire from Afghan militias or what the military calls "miscreants", but Iqbal said there had been not a single attack during the past week. Standing side-by-side with soldiers, the local chiefs in Mohmand insist there are no Al-Qaeda or Taliban militants sheltering in their areas, even though the Afghan provinces of Nangarhar and Kunar on the other side of the border remain extremely unstable.

Just a year ago there was no real border between the two countries here, but now around 200 people a day are formally vetted as they pass through.

"There is no infiltration and no sanctuary for terrorists," said Iqbal, adding that he hoped Mohmand could become a model for the whole tribal zone.

[AdmSmith]

No folks, try again. This guy is not important we want Maulvi Abbas and Javed Khan.

http://www.geo.tv/main_files/pakistan.aspx?id=29740

Wanted Maulivi Shukat-ullah handed over to authorities in Wana

WANA, SOUTH WAZIRISTAN: A wanted Maulvi Shukat-ullah was handed over Thursday to political administration in Shakai area of South Waziristan.

Maulvi Shukat-ullah was accused of harbouring foreign militants in the area.

The political administration had given a list of 44 to Shakai tribe, wanted persons who were believed to have been giving refugee to the foreign militants in the area, according to reports.

The tribe reached a pact that it will hand over those 44 wanted persons as per list.

[nuconvert]

"threatened that they would launch Jihad when they were set free"

I'd say the solution is obvious.......

[jeffers]

Seems to me that the carrot (attempted political solutions) only gets dangled while the stick is setting up for the next op.

I'm willing to bet that the concussion from the bomb comprising the second assassination attempt on Musharraf (and possibly the first one too), was noticable inside the President's vehicle.

When told by a reporter that AQ had threatened to kill members of the Pak government, Musharraf responded "I have news for them. I will kill ALL of them".

[POA2]

I just have to believe TF 121 is going to produce someone big soon - (though, what are the odds that UBL/Zawahiri are actually in Iran??)

Pakistani restrictions slow U.S. search for bin Laden By Rowan Scarborough THE WASHINGTON TIMES Osama bin Laden remains on the run along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, with the U.S. manhunt hindered by restrictions on the movements of covert warriors.

Defense sources say bin Laden plays less of a hands-on role in running al Qaeda than at the time he managed the September 11 plot. A new crop of terror leaders now is planning attacks at the local levels in extremist spinoff groups linked to bin Laden.

"He is much less in day-to-day control because he is on the run so much," a defense source said yesterday. "To the extent that he runs operations, he uses cutouts, human messengers, because he doesn't use cell phones."

U.S. government promises to capture the terror mastermind have ceased in recent months. As bin Laden stays under the radar, an ally, Abu Musab Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq, has dominated headlines as one of the world's most gruesome terrorists

Meanwhile, bin Laden moves through the rugged mountains by any means available — foot, donkey or vehicle — and attracts a loyal following willing to provide cover, defense officials say.

For years, he has traveled with his top deputy, Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahri, a surgeon whom one U.S. official described as particularly vicious.

Washington believes bin Laden is still alive. He has not been heard from since April and no longer appears in videotapes. An April audiotape of bin Laden turned up at Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based satellite news channel that the Pentagon says is sympathetic to Islamist terrorists.

In that tape, bin Laden offered a "truce" to any European country that pulled its troops out of Iraq. In a January audiotape, he called on all Muslims to conduct a holy war in the Middle East against Americans.

Before a spring offensive code-named Mountain Storm, U.S. military officers in Afghanistan made bold predictions that bin Laden would be captured by the year's end. That rosy scenario has given way to more sober comments.

Asked at a June 17 press conference how the hunt for bin Laden and former Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar was progressing, Lt. Gen. David Barno, the top commander in Afghanistan, made no predictions.

"That hunt continues," he said. "We have a focused effort here that's dedicated on a daily basis to looking for those leaders that are at the tops of these organizations, but it's important to get at the organization, the network, and to take down those terrorist networks as attacking the leadership. We'll continue to focus on finding the key leaders in these organizations and bringing them to justice."

A second Pentagon source said the measured statements reflect the reality of trying to catch elusive terrorists in vast, rugged areas, some of which are off-limits to uniformed personnel.

Despite a new offensive by Pakistani troops, there remain areas in the tribal regions of eastern Pakistan where government troops will not go. Although the CIA operates in Pakistan, the country is off-limits to American infantrymen who could hunt for bin Laden in the same way they hunted down Saddam Hussein and his two sons in Iraq.

"They remain optimistic, but the amount and ability of Pakistan to cooperate ebbs and flows," the official said. "There are certain places Pakistani forces can go and certain places where they cannot."

Last winter, the Pentagon shifted elements of the secretive Task Force 121 from Iraq to Afghanistan to aid the search for bin Laden.

The task force is a mobile mix of intelligence collectors, aviators and warriors. It includes CIA officers; a military intelligence unit that has been known as Grey Fox; Navy SEALs and Army Delta Force soldiers attached to Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC); and the 160th Special Operations Regiment.

A senior defense source said JSOC and U.S. Special Operations Command have planned scores of missions for Task Force 121, but the team has not located bin Laden or al-Zawahri.

[PoorMuttly]

Oh. I thought it only killed his head...like from the nek up.

So what number am I for this pun...373..?.....

[nuconvert]

you have a link for that article?

[Dog]

I came across this old article....something in it set my radar off.

Al Qaeda member killed in Abbottabad

The secrete agency came to know that few members of al-Qaeda were proceeding towards Abbottabad, on which they chased them till they reached in the city, SSP, Syed Feroz Shah told Online.

The suspected militants opened fire on the members of law enforcement agencies prompting them to retaliate. During the gunfire, one unidentified suspected militant was killed while his two colleagues ran away, he said.

A facsimile of Quran, a "Tasbeih" and Rs.100/- were recovered from the possession of killed suspect, while a pillow, two bed sheets and a medical prescription were recovered from the confiscated car, SSP added.

The dead body of the suspected terrorist was later sent to DHQ Hospital for an autopsy. It is pertinent to note here that the operation was kept very secret and the officials of the police and the Army refused to give any information about the operation to the media persons.

Who was this???

[nuconvert]

Don't know

[AdmSmith]

No idea, but here is a Tasbeih



However, the modern Islamist naturally purchase this Electronic Tasbeeh with Azan and Qibla Direction Finder

The ideal all-in-one gadget for the modern Muslim! Handy and stylish, this versatile electronic tasbeeh features a choice of two prayer periods (33/100), 5 times full Azan, compass with Qibla direction finder based on country and area code input, luminous LCD display (blue backlight), 12 hour digital clock with day function, stopwatch and countdown timer. Size 55 mm x 80 mm.

[Dog]

Iranian prayer beads..