Sketches and calculations to make a helium-powered balloon bomb filled with anthrax have been found in the Kabul office of an NGO headed by Bashiruddin Mehmood, one of the two Pakistani nuclear scientists detained in Islamabad for questioning on alleged links with Osama bin Laden. Such a balloon bomb was capable of showering anthrax over areas as vast as New York or Washington DC. The premises belonged to the Ummah Tameer-e-Nau, whose president was Mehmood. Mehmood, along with Abdul Majid (another scientist) were detained again in Islamabad for questioning.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/28/2001 ||
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Eight Western journalists have now died in Afghanistan since the war began, and news organizations including Reuters, the Associated Press, the BBC, the Washington Post and America's major TV networks have withdrawn their employees from the country.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/28/2001 ||
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More than 40 sites that might have been used to conduct research on chemical, biological or nuclear weapons have been identified in Afghanistan, and some are still in Taliban hands. Gen. Tommy Franks said at a briefing in Tampa that no evidence of actual weapons has been found. He denied reports that samples of sarin had been found.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/28/2001 ||
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A Canadian journalist was being held for ransom, an apparent captive of Taliban fighters. Ken Hechtman, 32, a Montreal-based freelance reporter, was reportedly being kept in a windowless room in or near Spin Boldak.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/28/2001 ||
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At Kandahar, the Taliban is âwaiting anxiously to confront the US troops and to embrace martyrdom in the fightâ, The Frontier Post reported. Taliban sources said that more than 6,000 of their troops have been killed all over Afghanistan since the start of the air campaign.
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11/28/2001 ||
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Mullah Mohammad Omar - said to be unhurt after US air raids in Kandahar - made a radio broadcast telling the Taleban not to yield any more ground in the face of the Northern Alliance advance. "This is not a question of tribes. This is a question of Islam," the self-styled Emir of Afghanistan was quoted as saying. Hamid Karzai, who is still not dead, says a delegation of tribal elders is trying to persuade the Taleban to surrender.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/28/2001 ||
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Normality Watch: Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D) yesterday vetoed legislation that would have regulated smoking in the privacy of people's homes, reversing course after a rash of worldwide ridicule and a public opinion backlash. The professionally indignant immediately counter-attacked: Matt Drudge reports that the Montgomery County community of Kensington has banned Santa Claus from its annual tree lighting ceremony this Sunday. "Because two families in our town felt that they would be uncomfortable with Santa Claus being a part of our event," Mayor Lynn Raufaste said. "At least now Santa can stay at home and smoke, if nothing else," mocked one Montgomery County lawmaker.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/28/2001 ||
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A suspected anthrax letter sent to Chile bore a Swiss postmark but may have been mailed from New York. Dr. Antonio Banfi, a pediatrician in Santiago, Chile, received the letter -- with a Swiss postmark and a Florida return address -- two weeks ago. Swiss Federal Police said the letter was part of a large mailing sent on behalf of a Florida company by the New York branch of the Swiss Post Office. Swiss Post International Inc. provides worldwide bulk mailing services for companies. Under U.S. rules, letters sent within the country by international post offices must carry a foreign postmark. The letter sent to Chile bore a postmark from Zurich, Switzerland, but had no date -- typical of letters sent by the New York branch. Officials at Mosby Inc., a publisher of medical journals, told the Orlando Sentinel that whoever mailed the letter listed their headquarters as the return address. Mosby is one of three publishing imprints owned by Harcourt Health Sciences.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/28/2001 ||
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The United Nations ordered a global freeze on assets held by every member of the former Taliban government in Afghanistan, vastly expanding the list of individuals and organizations whose holdings are blocked after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The new list names 152 Taliban officials, beginning with Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar, and ending with senior officials in government ministeries from the education department to zoning. It also includes accounts of Afghan-related businesses, including one held at a Citibank in New Delhi, India.
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11/28/2001 ||
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Soldiers killed 13 rebels in an attack in western Nepal. Five other rebels were arrested and a truck laden with arms, explosives and money was recovered following the gunfight in Salyan, 250 miles west of Katmandu. The army suffered no casualties.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/28/2001 ||
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Belgian authorities arrested an Algerian following a series of raids on a suspected false passport ring believed linked to the assassination of Afghan opposition leader Ahmed Shah Massood. The arrest came after authorities released 12 people who had been detained in house raids Monday. The raids are believed part of an investigation into whether two suicide bombers who fatally wounded Massood on Sept. 9 in his northern Afghan headquarters had been operating out of Belgium. Massood's killers posed as journalists and were carrying Belgian passports. The 30-year-old Algerian asylum-seeker was charged with forgery and gangsterism.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/28/2001 ||
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German authorities arrested a Moroccan man they say controlled a bank account used to move large sums of money to the Sept. 11 hijackers, saying he had a long history of "intensive contacts" with the terrorists. The arrest of 27-year-old Mounir El Motassadeq at his home in Hamburg was the first in Germany directly related to the terror attacks.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/28/2001 ||
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Two Palestinians and a Jordanian arrested last week in the Philippines are suspected of recruiting for Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network. Authorities said they seized pistols and bomb-making components from Mohammad Sabri Selamah, 35, a Palestinian carrying Iraqi documents. Also arrested were Ahmad Abd Bin Masria, 32, a Palestinian with a Lebanese passport; and Hussam al Ddeen Hasan Ali, 36, a Jordanian.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/28/2001 ||
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Not really minding if Iraq goes first, Somalia's new interim prime minister, Hassan Abshir Farah, has said America could deploy troops in the country to monitor and track down alleged terrorists activities there. Somalia is on Washington's list of terrorist states and US intelligence officials are reported to believe that al-Qaeda members fleeing Afghanistan may head for Mogadishu.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/28/2001 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
