FoxNews reports Hamid Karzai has confirmed Gul Agha Shirzai as governor of Kandahar since he has so many guns. Gul Agha was the governor of Kandahar whose misgovernment gave the Taliban their start.
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12/09/2001 ||
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Johnny Jihad, at Camp Rhino, has begun to spill his guts. Johnny is "being treated in a manner consistent with protections provided enemy prisoners of war under the Third Geneva Convention," according to US Central Command. Johnny will be handed over to US civilian authorities for disposal as soon as possible, the Pentagon says, and then they're going to have Camp Rhino thoroughly fumigated. Johnny was gaunt and dehydrated but in good condition as he recovered from a gunshot wound to his leg. He was receiving intravenous fluids through a really thick, really dull needle. Wonder whatever happened to Mohammad Junaid?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/09/2001 ||
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A Northern Alliance military helicopter crashed near Taloqan, killing 20 people. The MI-8 helicopter was bound for Kabul with 20 military personnel on board. The helicopter crashed at Farkhar, about 22 miles southeast of the town. Among the victims was Mohammad Mustafa, commander of a unit which had guarded Ahmad Shah Masood. Two Pashtun commanders, Arbab Mohammad Hashim and Mirza Ghulam Nasiri, both of whom defected to the Alliance after Kunduz, also died in the crash. Hashim's supporters were alleging that their leader was deliberately killed. More likely, the "unfortunate accident" would have been to shut up Mustafa. It's a favorite technique in Iraq. Betcha there's an easily deniable connection to Rasool Sayyaf.
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12/09/2001 ||
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A videotape of bin Laden obtained in Afghanistan provides more proof he was behind the WTC attacks. The tape shows bin Laden being interviewed or meeting with a cleric. He is speaking in Arabic and discussing the terrorist attacks. In the 40-minute tape, bin Laden said he was at a dinner when he was told a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. Bin Laden shared the information with others at the dinner and they cheered. Bin Laden described the damage around the twin towers in New York as greater than expected and praised Allah for more success than anticipated.
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12/09/2001 ||
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Osama Bin Laden is personally leading about 1,000 fighters defending his mountain strongholds in eastern Afghanistan, a Northern Alliance spokesman said. Mohammad Amin said from Jalalabad that anti-Taliban forces had pushed al-Qaeda out of their bases in Tora Bora and were attacking them in nearby forests. "Osama himself has taken the command of the fighting. He, along with around 1,000 of his people, including some Taliban officials, have now dug themselves into the forests of Spin Ghar after we overran all their bases in Tora Bora," Amin said.
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12/09/2001 ||
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General Abdul Rashid Dostam pledged not to resort to force of arms despite his dissatisfaction with the make-up of the interim government. He said the power-sharing deal "did not work out as I would have liked" but added: "But in any event there will be no war. The dividing out of power will not now go on by means of force... People say General Dostum will again start bloodletting and war. This is not true. We will hold negotiations in Kabul. The rule of law will return." He'll let the Pashtuns shoot it out. Just to be on the safe side, he's not going to travel by helicopter.
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12/09/2001 ||
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Ex-potentate Mullah Mohammad Omar and a band of diehard fighters shot their way out of Kandahar on Friday and are hiding in nearby mountains, a Pakistani newspaper claimed. The News daily quoted Taliban sources as saying Omar's forces engaged in a fierce gunbattle with fighters loyal to Hamid Karzai before leaving town in a convoy of vehicles. Frontier Post, on the other hand, says Mullah Omar was captured Friday night and is near Kandahar in the custody of warlord Khalid Pashtoon. In Kabul, Mullah Abdul Raouf, who had been banned by the Taliban from preaching in his own mosque, said an international tribunal should try Omar and sentence him to death.
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12/09/2001 ||
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Fighting broke out between rival Pashtun clans seeking to lay claim to Helmand province. Forces under Noorzai tribal commander Abdul Rahman Jan took control of the capital, Lashkar Gah, after heavy fighting overnight. Rahman Jan threw about 500 militiamen into the battle against Barakzai tribal commander Hafeezullah Jan, who eventually withdrew from the town leaving about seven dead from both sides and many injured. Hafeezullah Jan had occupied Lashkar Gah without a fight on Friday, after the Taliban surrendered under a pact with Hamid Karzai.
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12/09/2001 ||
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India will soon send a team of senior police officials to Kabul to help in setting up an efficient policing system there. Recalling his recent meeting with the home minister of Afghanistan's interim regime, Yunus Khanooni in New Delhi, Home Minister L K Advani said India had assured the visiting dignitary that all possible assistance would be given for reconstruction.
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12/09/2001 ||
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An advance UN team which will prepare the way for a multinational peacekeeping force arrived in Kabul. The seven-member team from the UN's peacekeeping operations in New York included representatives of the military, civilian police and the judiciary. Watch the silverware, guys.
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12/09/2001 ||
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In Spin Boldak, residents said scores of gunmen were now roaming the streets as different tribal factions jostled for control of the border checkpoint, customs office and security in the town. Residents said the main market was closed with many shopkeepers unwilling to risk looting by opening for business.
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12/09/2001 ||
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A group of former Taliban backed by Pakistan announced they were breaking with the movement and reviving their old party, Khudamul Furqan Jamiat or "Association of the Servants of Quran," which had followed the main chance with the former ruling militia years ago. The group was headed by mid-level Taliban functionaries and thugs. They declared their support for the UN-sponsored peace process and are in contact with Hamid Karzai. To show how moderate they are, they only beat their own wives.
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12/09/2001 ||
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Across southern Afghanistan, while local Taliban soldiers are negotiating surrender, the foreigners among them are desperately deserting their sinking ship. In Zabol province, an Arab Taliban paid a taxi driver $3,000 to take him to the border with Pakistan. The defeat of the Taliban has led to the appearance of robber bands which have put up checkpoints on many roads.
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12/09/2001 ||
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Dr Mohammed Shajahan, the leader of the Harekat e-Islami party representing the Hazara Shia Muslim minority in Ghazni, said: "The Taliban still control about 50 per cent of this province. I have just had a meeting with them and they have promised to surrender by 3pm today. If they surrender their weapons and cars and go home, then we guarantee their security."
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12/09/2001 ||
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"The breakdown of the government should be as much about religious as well as ethnic differences," said Ayatullah Mohsini, Harkat-i-Islami faction leader, who returned to Kabul after five years exiled in Iran letting other people do the fighting. "What we want in the next government is 20 percent. The population of Afghanistan is approximately 20 million and about 20 percent are Shias," he said.
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12/09/2001 ||
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Eastern Shura in Afghanistan kicked out 12 Pakistani volunteers who fought along with the Taliban militia. "They were brought in cars and asked to walk into Pakistan," said a border guard at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border at Torkhum in the Khyber Tribal Agency. Sources said Khyber Agency authorities took custody of the 12 and put them in lock up in Landikotal subdivision. They were released by Rasool Sayyaf's Ittehad-e-Islami in Kabul.
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12/09/2001 ||
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Yvonne Ridley, the British journalist captured by the Taliban on 28 September and held for ten days, thinks she is important enough that Western intelligence agencies tried to get her killed to bolster public support for the air strikes on Afghanistan.
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12/09/2001 ||
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Members of Congress are on their way to a $4,900 pay raise in January as the Senate used a midnight vote to thwart an effort by Sens. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., to block it. The latest boost is for 3.4 percent and will raise members' annual salaries to $150,000. Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., voted not to block the increase.
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12/09/2001 ||
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Malaysia is stepping up a crackdown on illegal immigrants by planning to whip foreigners entering the country without valid documents. Currently, only second-time offenders are liable to be whipped. Oooh. That's a comfort.
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12/09/2001 ||
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North Korea accused the United States of trying to start a war against against it, and said it will respond to war with war. The statement came after President Bush issued a fresh warning last week to Iraq and North Korea that there would be consequences if they produce weapons of mass destruction. Bush demanded that the North allow U.N. experts to inspect its suspected nuclear weapons program.
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12/09/2001 ||
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Two Palestinians were charged in the Oct. 17 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi, the first Israeli Cabinet minister killed by Palestinians. Mohammed Rimawi, from the West Bank village of Beit Rima, was charged with murder. Saleh Alawi, from east Jerusalem, was charged as an accomplice. The charge sheet said Hamdi Koraan, from Ramallah, shot Zeevi, and Basal Samer accompanied him. Koraan and Samer are believed to be still at large in Palestinian-controlled areas.
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12/09/2001 ||
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A Palestinian suicide bomber detonated explosives at a crowded hitch-hiking post near Haifa, wounding at least eight people. The blast left the suicide bomber badly wounded. When police saw he was still moving and feared he might detonate more explosives, they shot him dead.
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12/09/2001 ||
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Chairman-for-Life Yasser Arafat said the Palestinian police have already arrested 17 key militants out of a list of 33 presented to him by American officials, and said he will continue pursuing the rest despite the continuing Israeli airstrikes. Asked whether he would be prepared to face down resistance by the militants and their growing legions of supporters, Arafat smiled and said: "You are speaking with Yasser Arafat. I know how to do it. I know how to do it." We were afraid of that.
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12/09/2001 ||
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Israeli forces entered the Palestinian village of Anabta killing four Palestinian policemen in an exchange of fire. An army statement said troops entered villages to conduct searches and arrest "people engaged in terrorist activity." Anabta Mayor Hamdallah Hamdallah charged that the four police were shot "in cold blood." Israel Radio reported that Palestinians opened fire on the Israeli soldiers from two vehicles, and the soldiers returned the fire, killing the gunmen. Witnesses said Israeli forces detained 25 people in Anabta.
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12/09/2001 ||
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Indian security forces shot dead 10 rebels in gunbattles in Kashmir. Four militants were killed in a gunbattle in Budgam district west of Srinagar. Security forces also shot dead six rebels in two gunbattles in Kupwara district northwest of Srinagar.
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12/09/2001 ||
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Three men were killed and one was injured in Sanaa when hand grenades they had in their car exploded. Yemen's Saba news agency quoted an Interior Ministry official as saying preliminary investigations suggested there were no sabotage motives behind the incident. They were, ummmm, decorating a Ramadan tree, that's it!
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12/09/2001 ||
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Philippine communist rebels said they would order their forces to observe a month-long cease-fire to take effect from next weekend upon receipt of a reciprocal gesture by the government. They don't celebrate Tet in the Philippines.
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12/09/2001 ||
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Government troops repelled a Maoist rebel attack on a communications tower in the mountains of Nepal and killed at least 50 guerrillas. Four soldiers were killed and eight wounded in the 7-hour battle night in Rammate, a village 250 miles west of Katmandu. The rebels fled after the fight.
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12/09/2001 ||
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Twelve Russian servicemen and police troops were killed and 22 wounded in the latest round of skirmishes with rebels and land mine explosions in Chechnya.
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12/09/2001 ||
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British journalist Robert Fisk evidently received severe head injuries in his mugging in Pakistan: "It doesn't excuse them for beating me up so badly but there was a real reason why they should hate Westerners so much. I don't want this to be seen as a Muslim mob attacking a Westerner for no reason. They had every reason to be angry - I've been an outspoken critic of the US actions myself. If I had been them, I would have attacked me." He does that regularly, you know.
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12/09/2001 ||
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Former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto has said the separatist movement in Kashmir will suffer a setback with the fall of Taliban as the international community will not tolerate participation of foreign militants, and welcomed New Delhi's peace initiatives in the valley.
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12/09/2001 ||
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Home Secretary David Blunkett signaled that planned legislation by the Labour government envisaged immigrants having to learn English in order to obtain British citizenship. "Enforced marriages and youngsters under the age of 16 being whistled away to the Indian subcontinent, genital mutilation and practices that might be acceptable in parts of Africa are unacceptable in Britain," Blunkett belched. "We need to be clear we don't tolerate the intolerable under the guise of cultural difference." Why'd you have to do it before?
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12/09/2001 ||
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Libyan special envoy, president of the Qadhafi International Foundation for Charity Associations (QIFCA), Saif El Islam Al-Qaddafi demanded general amnesty for the innocent Arabs stuck in Afghanistan. Pakistan has been asked to make arrangement for the release of Arabs nationals, their children and women who have no concern with Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. "President Musharraf has given us assurance that the government of Pakistan would do its utmost for the early exit of innocent Arabs from Afghanistan," he said. Qaddafi called on President Musharraf to deliver a special message from Col. Muammar Qaddafi and to convey Libyaâs solidarity, support and understanding for Pakistanâs principled and courageous decision to join the international coalition in the fight against terrorism. Really.
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12/09/2001 ||
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Britain would need assurances that Osama Bin Laden will not face the death penalty after an extradition to the United States if the alleged terror mastermind was captured by British troops, Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/09/2001 ||
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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.
