Free Republic

NEW DELHI: NOW THAT the war in Iraq is finally underway, let’s pause to consider what America has to say. This is a just war, according to Washington, because it seeks to remove an unelected dictator who possesses weapons of mass destruction, has previously attacked a neighboring country, and has oppressed vast sections of his own population. India, in common with most of the world, has rejected this position. We argue that America has acted too hastily, that it should have given more time to the weapons inspectors and that it should not act unilaterally (with only England and Australia...

We don't have the heart to make merciless fun of this particular ABC-TV journalist, given that he appeared exhausted, puffy-faced, and filthy, but we have to say something. He was very, very upset that the British had told him the vicinity of Safwan was clear, but he came across some mines [gulp] up road and heard some gunfire [horrors]. He was also very, very upset that instead of being greeted as a liberator, he was called a Satan by members of the public at Safwan, who pushed him on why the promised food, aid, etc. had not arrived, and why...

FOR MONTHS, Arab and Muslim American lobby groups have passionately spoken out against war with Iraq, citing the potential for everything from the mass murder of Iraqi babies to the creation of tens of thousands of baby bin Ladens. Warnings of dire consequences have flooded underground Internet chat rooms frequented by the most vitriolic voices in these groups. Rarely did any of these activists cite the destruction Saddam Hussein has wrought on the Iraqi people or condemn his terror-enabling Ba’athist regime. Rarer still was there condemnation of the extremist rhetoric emanating from Islam's lunatic fringe, including the ethereal ruminations of...

A former pro-Taliban ISI chief, who made an unceremonious exit in 2001 after Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf promoted junior Army Generals, has been appointment as Chief of the Army-run Fauji Fertiliser Corporation. Mahmood, who spent over an year in hibernation, staged a comeback into the Pakistan power structure after he was appointed Chief Executive of the FFC by Musharraf in his capacity of Army Chief, media reports said here even though there was no official announcement. He succeeds Amjad Shoib who reportedly completed his tenure. The FFC is a sub organisation of the Army-run Fauji Foundation, local daily The Nation...

NEW DELHI (dpa) - A Japanese student tried to commit suicide in the strife-torn northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, apparently because it didn't match with what he had seen in travel brochures, a news report said Sunday. Koichiro Takata, a 22-year-old student from Japan, said, "This is not the Kashmir I have known and read about. I was hurt," the Indian Express newspaper reported. A student of opthalmology, Takata said he was depressed by the ominous presence of gun-toting security personnel and the absence of happy people. As he walked for nine kilometres from Srinagar city airport, Takata...

SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - Seven people, including three civilians and a rebel, were killed on Friday in a fierce gun battle with suspected separatists who were holed up in a hotel in Indian Kashmir, police said. The three dead civilians were trapped inside the three-story hotel when the gunbattle erupted in Poonch near a cease-fire line dividing Indian and Pakistan Kashmir, a police official said. During the clash, in which three security men also died and nine people were wounded, police fired a rocket at the hotel, damaging part of the building. "We have three civilians dead who were inside...

RAJOURI, Mar 13: Two persons were killed and 33 others were injured in a powerful explosion inside a passenger bus at the Bus Stand here this morning. Subsequent clashes between police and the youths in which the cops opened firing and teargas led to injuries to 10 more persons including SHO Rajouri Inspector Hamid Choudhary and five cops. Several vehicles were damaged by the mob. In second explosion in the town during last three days, the militants detonated a high intensity explosive device inside a passenger bus No. 4585 JK02D at 1050 hours, minutes before the bus was scheduled to...

Indian police have defused six bombs at a train station in the capital, Delhi. The devices were found a day after a bomb on a train killed 11 people in India's commercial centre, Bombay (Mumbai). Security in both cities has been increased to prevent further attacks. No one knows who was behind the attacks. Police cautious Delhi police say the bombs they defused were crude devices. No timing devices were attached to the explosives. BOMBAY BLASTS Jan 2003 - 30 injured in market blast Dec 2003 - 23 injured in blast at McDonald's outlet Dec 2003 - 2 killed in...

In Indian Kashmir, an explosion on a passenger bus has killed four people, and left nearly 20 others injured. Police say the bus was parked at a terminus in the border town of Rajouri when a fire ripped through it following a powerful blast. Panicked commuters ran for cover. Most of those injured were standing close to the bus. The bus had arrived from a village in Rajouri district, and was about to leave for Jammu, Kashmir's winter capital about 80 kilometers away. Soon after the blast, angry residents took to the streets, pelting stones at security forces and chanting...

NEW DELHI, Mar 12: A plan of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist outfit to carry out a strike in Delhi or Mumbai similar to the Parliament attack was foiled today with the killing of a top Pakistani terrorist of the outfit in Noida adjoining the national capital. His unidentified accomplice, however, managed to escape during the encounter between the two terrorists and a joint team of Special Task Force (STF) of Uttar Pradesh and Noida Police. Manzoor Dar alias Sirajudin Khan, JeM area commander of Baramulla district in Jammu and Kashmir hailing from Sakkar in Pakistan’s Sindh province, was killed at around...

Pakistan's prime minister Zafarullah Jamali says that his country has decided it will not support war against Iraq. In a televised address to the nation, the Pakistani leader has appealed for more time to find a peaceful solution of the Iraq crisis. Prime Minister Jamali says that Pakistan has based its position on principles and national interests. But he would not say how his country will vote if a new resolution on Iraq comes before the U.N. Security Council. "We have taken a decision that it is going to be very difficult for Pakistan to support the war against Iraq,"...

LONDON - Since 9/11, Britain has emerged as America's closest ally in the war against terrorism. Ironically, Britain is also a major base of operation for some of the most radical Islamic organizations, including some direct supporters of Osama bin Laden. But it took September 11th before the activities of these militant groups were taken seriously. In January of 2002, British military intelligence working in eastern Afghanistan made a shocking discovery in the mountains of Tora Bora. During searches of Osama bin Laden's cave complex, they found the names of 1,200 British citizens, all Muslims, who trained with the Al...

There is absolutely nothing trivial about the capture of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (who will be referred to as KSM for the sake of convenience in the rest of this article) in Rawalpindi day before yesterday. It is the culmination of six months of painstaking monitoring and many close misses by US federal agencies in conjunction with Pakistani authorities. Some typically overenthusiastic news reports have described KSM as al-Qaeda’s ‘number three man’ while others habitually given to interpretations that diminish or denigrate the achievements of the Coalition have already begun a revisionist campaign to brand KSM as ‘over the hill’ or...

<p>With the capture of top al Qaeda terrorist Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (known as "KSM"), getting him to disgorge the contents of his brain quickly and truthfully is critically necessary before his network has a chance to vanish undercover.</p> <p>What, then, would the most efficient and effective form of interrogation be? In 1995, the Philippine State Police captured an al Qaeda agent. They knew he was planning some terrorist act, but didn't know what. So they tortured him — the old-fashioned way, right out of the movies with putting out cigarettes on his testicles, breaking his ribs, the whole brutal nine yards. It took two weeks and finally he broke, revealing a plot to hijack 11 airliners. By exposing and unraveling the plot, the torture saved hundreds, perhaps thousands of lives, so it was clearly justified.</p>

SRINAGAR, Mar 4: A group of four militants of Lashkar-e-Toiba have died due to heavy snowfall when their hideout collapsed in the Pir Panjal foothills in south Kashmir during last night. Meanwhile, unidentified gunmen, believed to be militants, have killed four civilians in south Kashmir since last evening and left a CPI(M) activist critically wounded this evening. Informed sources in south Kashmir told EXCELSIOR that a group of Lashkar-e-Toiba militants was putting up at the Kotha of one Rustum Tantray in Antak Behak, situated in the Hapatnar area in the foothills of Pir Panjal. Due to heavy snowfall, the structure...

The US ambassador to Pakistan, Ms Nancy Powell has let the cat out of the bag by publicly validating the Indian claim that Pakistan has not fulfilled its promise of stopping infiltration into Kashmir. Pakistan’s alleged support for North Korean nuclear programme is taken seriously in some Washington circles. Furthermore, many in the US governing circles believe that Pakistan has not done enough to eradicate terrorist groups. Therefore, behind the scenes, the US is not buying the Pakistani claim of being a frontline state against terrorism. The Bush administration, obsessed with Iraq and North Korea, has no choice but to...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- Four people and the "Help the Needy" organization have been indicted in New York for illegal financial transfers to Iraq, the Justice Department said Wednesday. Meanwhile, a Saudi in Boise, Idaho, has been indicted for visa fraud because he allegedly failed to disclose his connection to a group that promoted terrorism on the Internet. The New York indictment was unsealed Wednesday morning in Syracuse. The four defendants and two entities -- Help the Needy Inc. and the Help the Needy Endowment Inc. -- are charged with conspiring to transfer funds to Iraq in violation of...

<p>WASHINGTON -- Critical industries and key infrastructure should take steps to guard against potential terrorist attacks, including checking for possible infiltrators among employees, according to a new government warning.</p> <p>The FBI and the National Infrastructure Protection Center said in the bulletin that security routines should be varied and officials should think back to unusual incidents that might indicate they are being targeted.</p>

SRINAGAR, Feb 13: Even as the whole Valley of Kashmir was busy in the holy sacrifice of rams and goats—a day after Idd-ul-Azha— militants kidnapped five civilians from Bonkoot village of Bandipore and slaughtered two of them. Owner of a fitness centre has been kidnapped from Qamarwari outskirts in the capital city. Meanwhile, Police captured a person who was under treatment at SMHS Hospital after getting critically injured in a mine blast in Tral area. Informed sources in north Kashmir told EXCELSIOR that heavily armed gunmen, widely believed to be pro-Pakistan militants, appeared at Bonkoot village, 12 Km from Bandipore...

New Delhi, Feb 11. (UNI): The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) today said the Vajpayee Government should fully support the U.S. war on Iraq as this would weaken the radical Islamic forces that pose a danger to the world civilisation, particularly the Hindu civilisation. "Today the biggest threat to the world is from radical Islam," VHP International General Secretary Praveenbhai Togadia told a press conference here. Claiming that the U.S. war against Iraq was a war between the world civilisation and the Jehadis and fundamentalist Muslims, Togadia said India would be the worst sufferer if it did not support America now....