The governor of Kandahar called a mass meeting at the site of Taliban executions to pledge loyalty to Kabul and say he would not attack a neighboring warlord. Thousands of Afghans gathered in the Kandahar sports stadium to hear local leaders call for the return of ex-King Zahir Shah and the establishment of a loya jirga, or tribal grand council, to decide Afghanistan's future. Governor Gul Agha told about 13,000 people that no attack would take place against Herat warlord Ismail Khan without orders from the interim government in Kabul. "We will follow the orders of our leaders in Kabul," Agha said, dismissing remarks this week by his intelligence chief, Haji Gullalai that 20,000 troops were poised for an operation against Khan's mainly Tajik fighters based in the western city. Someone must have mentioned "daisy cutter." They've been wanting to invade Herat since a day or two after the Taliban beat it.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/24/2002 ||
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Flanked by his lawyers and guards and dressed in a green prisoner jumpsuit, his hair closely cut and beard shaved, John Walker Lindh said quietly "I understand" when four charges against him were read at the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia. Lindh was charged in a criminal complaint with conspiring to kill Americans abroad and providing support to two terrorist groups including al Qaeda. He was also accused of engaging in prohibited transactions with the deposed Taliban government that harbored bin Laden. But outside the court his father proclaimed Johnny Jihad's innocence. "John loves America. We love America. John did not do anything against America," Frank Lindh said.
We can tell he loves his country. We could see it in his eyes when he was hanging out with his buds at Qala-i-Jangi, when they killed Mike Spann.
Ow. That zit looks really painful.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/24/2002 ||
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The provincial chief of Jamaat-i-Islami, Mohammad Ibrahim Khan, while holding the US responsible for the current crisis in the region, said that the America was harbouring terrorist organizations and anti-Muslim forces across the world. Speaking at a public meeting in Peshawar, he said that Muslims were the victims and not terrorists as being painted by the West and the US. The JI leader said that government policies were creating uncertainty among the masses, adding that the regime had failed to address a single vital national issue. He said India had put its forces on high alert and deployed army on the eastern borders while the government was busy in arresting politicians. The government, he alleged, had put the country's security at stake and was following the US agenda. The JI leader asked President Musharraf to tender resignation and hand over powers to an interim government to hold general elections in the country. He also demanded restoration of fundamental rights of the people and release of Qazi Hussain Ahmad and Maulana Fazlur Rehman. Pakland will be a lot better of when it's not overrun by religious psychoceramics. These rants always seem to end with the demand that Musharraf resign and hand over power to whomever's speaking.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/24/2002 ||
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Muhammad Sobeih, Palestinian representative to the Arab League, decried the lack of Arab support. "For the first time, the Arab street is silent during such a critical period," he told reporters in Cairo.
Qatar's foreign minister, Sheik Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr Al Thani, said Arabs "don't have the power" to help the Palestinians. "We are obliged to beg the Americans for a settlement," he said on Al-Jazeera television after talks with U.S. officials in Washington.
Even Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, one of Arafat's closest allies, hasn't spoken directly to Arafat in weeks. Poor Yasser sits by the phone. They don't call, they don't write, they don't send ammunition. His birthday comes and goes and no one remembers.
"you don't send me hummous anymore" Posted by Anonymous 1/25/2002 6:07:48 AM
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/24/2002 ||
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Former Lebanese Christian warlord Elie Hobeika was killed in a car bomb explosion outside his home in Beirut. The explosion also killed at least three of his bodyguards. Hobeika, 45, led Lebanese Christian militia forces who in 1982 swept through the Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps in Muslim west Beirut, slaughtering hundreds of men, women and children.
Lebanon accused Israel of the car bomb killing, saying it was designed to undermine a war crimes lawsuit in Belgium against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Israel denied any role in the killing. A Lebanese group saying it opposed Syria's continued grip on the country claimed responsibility in a faxed statement, calling Hobeika a traitor for his present-day allegiance to Damascus. The claim could not immediately be verified. From what I understand, which isn't much, he's not much of a loss. But the pattern - bomb, kill, massacre, then start over again - is getting boring.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/24/2002 ||
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Two Algerian men charged with membership in al-Qaida appeared in court in Leicester where prosecutors and defense lawyers laid out a timetable for their trial. Baghdad Meziane, 36, and Brahim Benmerzouga, 30, were charged last week with membership in al-Qaida and terrorism-related offenses. British officials suspect the two men were also part of a foiled al-Qaida plot to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Paris. The two Algerians, arrested in Leicester two weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, are the first people charged in Britain with belonging to al-Qaida, an offense under Britain's Terrorism Act. I suppose it's stoopid or insensitive or something to ask why they weren't in Algeria. Why foul someone else's nest? Is this like dogs peeing on trees? (We're searching for the real root causes here.)
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/24/2002 ||
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Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinians who were trying to infiltrate a settlement in Gaza. Soldiers opened fire on a band of armed terrorists trying to attack a settlement. Earlier in Gaza, the mangled bodies of two Palestinians were found after daybreak. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said the two were killed in a "heroic martyrs' operation." Israel radio said it was apparently a failed suicide bomb attack against a nearby Jewish settlement. In Ramallah, a Palestinian intelligence officer was killed in a clash with Israeli forces. Yep. That was a real heroic martyr's operation. I hate it when my vest explodes before I get where I was going.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/24/2002 ||
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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.
