Well, on the plus side, we have this year's version of "wardrobe malfunction."Sonic Youth wrote:asymmetrical warfare
New Developments II
"...it is the weak who are cruel, and...gentleness is only to be expected from the strong." - Leo Reston
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
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Sonic Youth
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Oh, please. That was nothing.panos wrote:No wonder your country goes down the drain. If anyone here ever dared to say something like that, next minute he would be escorted by some guys in white to a mental institution.
'Killing themselves was unnecessary. But it certainly is a good PR move'
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington and Hugh Muir
Monday June 12, 2006
The Guardian
The Bush administration stared down a new wave of international condemnation of Guantánamo yesterday, dismissing the suicide of three inmates at the prison camp as a "good PR move" and an "act of asymmetrical warfare".
The deaths of two Saudis and a Yemeni prisoner, who used knotted bedsheets to hang themselves in their solitary cells, brought renewed calls from European governments and human rights organisations to bring the 460 inmates to trial, or close the camp down.
But Bush administration officials rejected suggestions that the three had killed themselves out of despair at their indefinite confinement. "It does sound like this is part of a strategy in that they don't value their own lives, and they certainly don't value ours and they use suicide bombings as a tactic," Colleen Graffy, the deputy assistant secretary of state for public diplomacy, told BBC's Newshour yesterday. .
"Taking their own lives was not necessary, but it certainly is a good PR move to draw attention."
On Saturday, the camp's commander, Navy Rear Admiral Harry Harris, said the three suicides were an al-Qaida tactic. "They have no regard for life, neither ours nor their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us," he told a conference call of reporters.
The hard line from an administration official comes at a time of increasing international criticism at the handling of terror suspects at Guantánamo.
The Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, a staunch ally of the US in Iraq, said Guantánamo was damaging America's image in the world, and undermining the global war on terror. "I think it would be to the benefit of our cause and our fight for freedom and for democracy if the facilities at Guantánamo were closed down," the Danish leader told CNN.
In Stockholm, Sweden's foreign minister, Jan Eliasson, voiced similar concerns about the lack of due process. "It shows the importance of letting the prisoners free or giving them a statutory trial."
Tensions were amplified by the comments from administration officials, which lawyers for the detainees call deeply offensive.
"It's very clear that any human being who is kept in indefinite detention over 4 years, not given any kind of hearing, and whose life and fate is subject to such uncertainty inevitably will contemplate suicide, and the fact that three of them finally succeeded comes as no surprise," said Gitanjali Gutierrez, a lawyer for the Centre for Constitutional Rights, which represents most of the detainees.
"This is not an act of warfare, it is a consequence of inhumane and immoral treatment of human beings by the United States."
In Britain, Massoud Shadjareh, of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, said: "This is the sort of statement that SS officers in Nazi Germany would have been envious of. This is exactly how they justify their demonisation of those whose fundamental human rights have been removed. Who else would talk like that? We know there are two sorts of people, those who demonise and those who accept it. They are both equally responsible for what is happening there."
Inayat Bunglawala, of the Muslim Council of Britain, said he deplored the "incredibly insensitive and callous" comments. "The deaths of these three people was not an act of war, it was an act of desperation. These are men who have ben kept in legal limbo for several years without any charges ."
President George Bush has said he would like to see the camp emptied, and at the weekend expressed "serious concern" about the suicides. A military official at Guantánamo yesterday said the bodies of the three men would be dealt with in accordance with Muslim tradition, and that a fatwa had been obtained to allow for autopsies.
It remained unclear yesterday whether the men would be buried at the base, or would be returned to their home countries. Pentagon officials said consultations were under way with the Saudi and Yemeni authorities. However, a Saudi interior ministry official told the Associated Press that procedures had begun to send home the bodies of two detainees, identified yesterday as Mani bin Shaman bin Turki al-Habradi and Yasser Talal Abdullah Yahya al-Zahrani. The Yememi prisoner was named as Ali Abdullah Ahmed.
The deaths - the first since Guantanamo was established four and a half years ago - come three weeks after three prisoners tried to kill themselves and a fourth prisoner, attempting to hang himself, lured guards into an attack by his fellow barrack members.
Earlier this month, the authorities confronted a hunger strike by more than 80 prisoners - including the three who committed suicide. Eight were still on hunger strike yesterday, said a spokesman and naval commander, Robert Durand, including five who are being force-fed.
Authorities at the prison yesterday said they were discussing new measures to prevent suicides, including withholding sheets from the detainees until bedtime.
"What the hell?"
Win Butler
Win Butler
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112-1041439588
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Guantanamo suicides 'acts of war'
BBC News
The suicides of three detainees at the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, amount to acts of war, the US military says.
The camp commander said the two Saudis and a Yemeni were "committed" and had killed themselves in "an act of asymmetric warfare waged against us".
Lawyers said the men who hanged themselves had been driven by despair.
A military investigation into the deaths is now under way, amid growing calls for the detention centre to be moved or closed.....
'Creative'
Rear Adm Harris said he did not believe the men had killed themselves out of despair.
"They are smart. They are creative, they are committed," he said.
"They have no regard for life, either ours or their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us."
(Psychopath.)
BBC News
The suicides of three detainees at the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, amount to acts of war, the US military says.
The camp commander said the two Saudis and a Yemeni were "committed" and had killed themselves in "an act of asymmetric warfare waged against us".
Lawyers said the men who hanged themselves had been driven by despair.
A military investigation into the deaths is now under way, amid growing calls for the detention centre to be moved or closed.....
'Creative'
Rear Adm Harris said he did not believe the men had killed themselves out of despair.
"They are smart. They are creative, they are committed," he said.
"They have no regard for life, either ours or their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us."
(Psychopath.)
"What the hell?"
Win Butler
Win Butler
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Blast from the past. (Note when this article was written.)
Avoiding attacking suspected terrorist mastermind
Abu Musab Zarqawi blamed for more than 700 killings in Iraq
By Jim Miklaszewski
Pentagon Correspondent
NBC News
Updated: 7:14 p.m. ET March 2, 2004
With Tuesday’s attacks, Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant with ties to al-Qaida, is now blamed for more than 700 terrorist killings in Iraq.
But NBC News has learned that long before the war the Bush administration had several chances to wipe out his terrorist operation and perhaps kill Zarqawi himself — but never pulled the trigger.
In June 2002, U.S. officials say intelligence had revealed that Zarqawi and members of al-Qaida had set up a weapons lab at Kirma, in northern Iraq, producing deadly ricin and cyanide.
The Pentagon quickly drafted plans to attack the camp with cruise missiles and airstrikes and sent it to the White House, where, according to U.S. government sources, the plan was debated to death in the National Security Council.
“Here we had targets, we had opportunities, we had a country willing to support casualties, or risk casualties after 9/11 and we still didn’t do it,” said Michael O’Hanlon, military analyst with the Brookings Institution.
Four months later, intelligence showed Zarqawi was planning to use ricin in terrorist attacks in Europe.
The Pentagon drew up a second strike plan, and the White House again killed it. By then the administration had set its course for war with Iraq.
“People were more obsessed with developing the coalition to overthrow Saddam than to execute the president’s policy of preemption against terrorists,” according to terrorism expert and former National Security Council member Roger Cressey.
In January 2003, the threat turned real. Police in London arrested six terror suspects and discovered a ricin lab connected to the camp in Iraq.
The Pentagon drew up still another attack plan, and for the third time, the National Security Council killed it.
Military officials insist their case for attacking Zarqawi’s operation was airtight, but the administration feared destroying the terrorist camp in Iraq could undercut its case for war against Saddam.
The United States did attack the camp at Kirma at the beginning of the war, but it was too late — Zarqawi and many of his followers were gone. “Here’s a case where they waited, they waited too long and now we’re suffering as a result inside Iraq,” Cressey added.
And despite the Bush administration’s tough talk about hitting the terrorists before they strike, Zarqawi’s killing streak continues today.
Avoiding attacking suspected terrorist mastermind
Abu Musab Zarqawi blamed for more than 700 killings in Iraq
By Jim Miklaszewski
Pentagon Correspondent
NBC News
Updated: 7:14 p.m. ET March 2, 2004
With Tuesday’s attacks, Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant with ties to al-Qaida, is now blamed for more than 700 terrorist killings in Iraq.
But NBC News has learned that long before the war the Bush administration had several chances to wipe out his terrorist operation and perhaps kill Zarqawi himself — but never pulled the trigger.
In June 2002, U.S. officials say intelligence had revealed that Zarqawi and members of al-Qaida had set up a weapons lab at Kirma, in northern Iraq, producing deadly ricin and cyanide.
The Pentagon quickly drafted plans to attack the camp with cruise missiles and airstrikes and sent it to the White House, where, according to U.S. government sources, the plan was debated to death in the National Security Council.
“Here we had targets, we had opportunities, we had a country willing to support casualties, or risk casualties after 9/11 and we still didn’t do it,” said Michael O’Hanlon, military analyst with the Brookings Institution.
Four months later, intelligence showed Zarqawi was planning to use ricin in terrorist attacks in Europe.
The Pentagon drew up a second strike plan, and the White House again killed it. By then the administration had set its course for war with Iraq.
“People were more obsessed with developing the coalition to overthrow Saddam than to execute the president’s policy of preemption against terrorists,” according to terrorism expert and former National Security Council member Roger Cressey.
In January 2003, the threat turned real. Police in London arrested six terror suspects and discovered a ricin lab connected to the camp in Iraq.
The Pentagon drew up still another attack plan, and for the third time, the National Security Council killed it.
Military officials insist their case for attacking Zarqawi’s operation was airtight, but the administration feared destroying the terrorist camp in Iraq could undercut its case for war against Saddam.
The United States did attack the camp at Kirma at the beginning of the war, but it was too late — Zarqawi and many of his followers were gone. “Here’s a case where they waited, they waited too long and now we’re suffering as a result inside Iraq,” Cressey added.
And despite the Bush administration’s tough talk about hitting the terrorists before they strike, Zarqawi’s killing streak continues today.
"What the hell?"
Win Butler
Win Butler
The transcript for Olbermann's show can be found here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13204430/
Here are some choice snippets:
OLBERMANN: Let‘s return to this planet. To recap Coulter‘s argument, the wives of those who died in the worst attack in this nation‘s history enjoyed their husband‘s deaths and profited off them, they have publicized 9/11, their positions as widows immunize them from any criticism or debate over their opinions. All of this stated by a commentator much of whose income in the last four-and-a-half years has derived from her speachings and writings about the deaths of those same men on 9/11. All this stated by a commentator who staunchly, repeatedly, and enthusiastically defended an administration that began to politicize 9/11 within a month of the nightmare and has never paused for a moment since. All of this stated by a commentator who has called those who have criticize her and her party un-American and now godless, all of this stated by a commentator who is bitching that these 9/11 widows can‘t be criticized while she is writing a book and going on TV and venomously criticizing them.
And especially this:
OLBERMANN: The way Ann Coulter always does when she‘s criticized. Ms. Coulter‘s monthly walk on the swaying tightrope of her own emotional stability did not end there. In her book she also wrote, “And by the way, how do we know their husbands weren‘t planning to divorce these harpies. Now that their shelf life is dwindling, they‘d better hurry up and appear in ‘Playboy.‘”—
Appearing in “Playboy” and getting divorced, neither of those being scenarios Ann Coulter is ever going to have to deal with in her life.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13204430/
Here are some choice snippets:
OLBERMANN: Let‘s return to this planet. To recap Coulter‘s argument, the wives of those who died in the worst attack in this nation‘s history enjoyed their husband‘s deaths and profited off them, they have publicized 9/11, their positions as widows immunize them from any criticism or debate over their opinions. All of this stated by a commentator much of whose income in the last four-and-a-half years has derived from her speachings and writings about the deaths of those same men on 9/11. All this stated by a commentator who staunchly, repeatedly, and enthusiastically defended an administration that began to politicize 9/11 within a month of the nightmare and has never paused for a moment since. All of this stated by a commentator who has called those who have criticize her and her party un-American and now godless, all of this stated by a commentator who is bitching that these 9/11 widows can‘t be criticized while she is writing a book and going on TV and venomously criticizing them.
And especially this:
OLBERMANN: The way Ann Coulter always does when she‘s criticized. Ms. Coulter‘s monthly walk on the swaying tightrope of her own emotional stability did not end there. In her book she also wrote, “And by the way, how do we know their husbands weren‘t planning to divorce these harpies. Now that their shelf life is dwindling, they‘d better hurry up and appear in ‘Playboy.‘”—
Appearing in “Playboy” and getting divorced, neither of those being scenarios Ann Coulter is ever going to have to deal with in her life.
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Mister Tee
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Flipp, did you see Keith Olbermann go after her last night? It was of the no-mercy variety he usually saves for O'Reilly -- beautiful stuff.
The trouble with Coulter is, her whole shtik is saying ghastly things -- like a small child making a doody -- and pointing out the horror of them only gives her the attention she clearly craves.
The trouble with Coulter is, her whole shtik is saying ghastly things -- like a small child making a doody -- and pointing out the horror of them only gives her the attention she clearly craves.
What a bitch. She's all about stirring the pot and clearly this is a lame ploy to sell more of her books. Someone needs to just shoot her in the Adam's apple and be done with it.
Coulter calls 9/11 widows "witches"
By Claudia Parsons
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Conservative author Ann Coulter sparked a storm on Wednesday after describing a group of September 11 widows who backed the Democratic Party as millionaire "witches" reveling in their status as celebrities.
"I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much," Coulter writes in her book "Godless: The Church of Liberalism," published on Tuesday, referring to four women who headed a campaign that resulted in the creation of the September 11 Commission that investigated the hijacked plane attacks.
Coulter wrote that the women were millionaires as a result of compensation settlements and were "reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzis."
The four, Kristen Breitweiser, Patty Casazza, Mindy Kleinberg and Lorie Van Auken, declined to discuss the book in detail but issued a statement saying they had been slandered.
"There was no joy in watching men that we loved burn alive. There was no happiness in telling our children that their fathers were never coming home again," said the statement signed by the four, along with a fifth woman, Monica Gabrielle.
The four women, who live in or around East Brunswick, New Jersey, became friends after September 11 and formed a group that agitated for the investigation. "Our only motivation ever was to make our nation safer," they said.
Coulter, whose books include the bestseller "How to talk to a Liberal (If You Must)," argues in the new book the women she dubs "the Witches of East Brunswick" wanted to blame President George W. Bush for not preventing the attacks.
She criticized them for making a campaign advertisement for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry in 2004, and added: "By the way, how do we know their husbands weren't planning to divorce these harpies? Now that their shelf life is dwindling, they'd better hurry up and appear in Playboy."
PERSONAL ATTACKS
Asked by Reuters why she made such personal comments, Coulter said by email: "I am tired of victims being used as billboards for untenable liberal political beliefs."
"A lot of Americans have been seething over the inanities of these professional victims for some time," she added.
The New York Post, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News. Corp., on Wednesday slammed the comments in an article headlined "Righty writer Coulter hurls nasty gibes at 9/11 gals."
Coulter, a regular television commentator and figurehead for some conservatives, was challenged on NBC's "Today" show on Tuesday over what host Matt Lauer called "dramatic" remarks, prompting her to say "You are getting testy with me."
Coulter is known for a combative column after September 11 saying: "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." In one book, she wrote: "Even Islamic terrorists don't hate America like liberals do."
Her latest comments were quoted on radio stations in New York on Wednesday and the book was the subject of debate on Web sites such as www.salon.com. The Daily News newspaper's front-page headline was "Coulter the Cruel."
The controversy appeared to be doing no harm to sales of Coulter's latest book, which was listed as the fourth best seller of the day at online retailer Amazon.com on Wednesday.
06/07/06 14:59 © Copyright Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved.
Coulter calls 9/11 widows "witches"
By Claudia Parsons
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Conservative author Ann Coulter sparked a storm on Wednesday after describing a group of September 11 widows who backed the Democratic Party as millionaire "witches" reveling in their status as celebrities.
"I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much," Coulter writes in her book "Godless: The Church of Liberalism," published on Tuesday, referring to four women who headed a campaign that resulted in the creation of the September 11 Commission that investigated the hijacked plane attacks.
Coulter wrote that the women were millionaires as a result of compensation settlements and were "reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzis."
The four, Kristen Breitweiser, Patty Casazza, Mindy Kleinberg and Lorie Van Auken, declined to discuss the book in detail but issued a statement saying they had been slandered.
"There was no joy in watching men that we loved burn alive. There was no happiness in telling our children that their fathers were never coming home again," said the statement signed by the four, along with a fifth woman, Monica Gabrielle.
The four women, who live in or around East Brunswick, New Jersey, became friends after September 11 and formed a group that agitated for the investigation. "Our only motivation ever was to make our nation safer," they said.
Coulter, whose books include the bestseller "How to talk to a Liberal (If You Must)," argues in the new book the women she dubs "the Witches of East Brunswick" wanted to blame President George W. Bush for not preventing the attacks.
She criticized them for making a campaign advertisement for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry in 2004, and added: "By the way, how do we know their husbands weren't planning to divorce these harpies? Now that their shelf life is dwindling, they'd better hurry up and appear in Playboy."
PERSONAL ATTACKS
Asked by Reuters why she made such personal comments, Coulter said by email: "I am tired of victims being used as billboards for untenable liberal political beliefs."
"A lot of Americans have been seething over the inanities of these professional victims for some time," she added.
The New York Post, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News. Corp., on Wednesday slammed the comments in an article headlined "Righty writer Coulter hurls nasty gibes at 9/11 gals."
Coulter, a regular television commentator and figurehead for some conservatives, was challenged on NBC's "Today" show on Tuesday over what host Matt Lauer called "dramatic" remarks, prompting her to say "You are getting testy with me."
Coulter is known for a combative column after September 11 saying: "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." In one book, she wrote: "Even Islamic terrorists don't hate America like liberals do."
Her latest comments were quoted on radio stations in New York on Wednesday and the book was the subject of debate on Web sites such as www.salon.com. The Daily News newspaper's front-page headline was "Coulter the Cruel."
The controversy appeared to be doing no harm to sales of Coulter's latest book, which was listed as the fourth best seller of the day at online retailer Amazon.com on Wednesday.
06/07/06 14:59 © Copyright Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved.
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Sonic, nobody is saying that all violence will end as a result of this, but it is good that this guy -- who personally beheaded innocent people-- is gone. He can no longer be the driving force behind much of the violence.
You won't hear any "bring 'em on" quotes from the President on this one.
You won't hear any "bring 'em on" quotes from the President on this one.
"Because here’s the thing about life: There’s no accounting for what fate will deal you. Some days when you need a hand. There are other days when we’re called to lend a hand." -- President Joe Biden, 01/20/2021
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Sonic Youth
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That wasn't enthusiastic enough, Mister Tee. Just like Harry Reid. How rote! How partisan! Always thinking of your self-interests first!
By the way, one hour later 19 Iraqi civilians were blown to smithereens. So, what difference does this make in the long run? What's going on is a religious war. That's going to stop all of a sudden? No. Are the insurgents who hate our guts suddenly going to back off? No. (A lot of the crime going on over there is apolitical.) Are our troops coming home next month as a result of this? No. He was a shithead who got blown up. Very nice, as far as it goes. And it changes nothing.
By the way, one hour later 19 Iraqi civilians were blown to smithereens. So, what difference does this make in the long run? What's going on is a religious war. That's going to stop all of a sudden? No. Are the insurgents who hate our guts suddenly going to back off? No. (A lot of the crime going on over there is apolitical.) Are our troops coming home next month as a result of this? No. He was a shithead who got blown up. Very nice, as far as it goes. And it changes nothing.
"What the hell?"
Win Butler
Win Butler
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Sonic Youth
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Zarqawi killed in Iraq air raid
BBC News
Militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, blamed for killing thousands of Shias and US forces in Iraq, has been killed in an air raid.
The leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq died in a strike against an isolated safe house about 8km (five miles) north of Baquba, the US said.
US President George W Bush said the death was a severe blow to al-Qaeda.
The news came shortly before the Iraqi parliament approved the key posts of defence and interior ministers.
The two crucial roles had remained unfilled despite the formation of a coalition government last month.
Fingerprints
"We have eliminated Zarqawi," Prime Minister Nouri Maliki told a news conference in Baghdad, sparking sustained applause.
The head of US-led forces in Iraq, General George Casey, said the strike took place at 1815 (1415 GMT) on Wednesday.
It was a co-ordinated attack involving US and Iraqi air and ground forces, a US military spokesman told the BBC News website.
Jordanian-born Zarqawi was said to have been in a meeting with associates at the time. Several other people were reported to have been killed in the raid.
General Casey said Zarqawi's body was identified through fingerprints, facial recognition and known scars. He promised to give more details on the raid later on Thursday.
Reports say a statement on the internet attributed to an umbrella group for jihadi organisations including al-Qaeda in Iraq has confirmed Zarqawi's death.
Tip-offs
Correspondents say it remains to be seen if one man's death will bring a breakthrough in Iraq.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was not a global mastermind like al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, says the BBC's security correspondent, Frank Gardner.
Instead he was a bloodthirsty and violent thug, who made enemies and several mistakes that might have contributed to his downfall.
These included ordering a triple suicide bombing against hotels in Amman, Jordan, last November, that killed 60 people, our correspondent says.
A Jordanian official told the Associated Press that Jordanian agents had contributed to the operation against Zarqawi.
Mr Maliki said intelligence from Iraqi people had helped track down Zarqawi, who had a $25m (£13m) price on his head - the same bounty as that offered by the US for Bin Laden.
'Justice'
In Washington, Mr Bush said the strike had "delivered justice to the most wanted terrorist in Iraq".
He acknowledged it would not end unrest in the country, but he said the "ideology of terror has lost one of its most visible and aggressive leaders".
Violence continued on Thursday as 13 people were killed and 28 injured in a bomb on a Baghdad market, police said.
Zarqawi was accused of leading the rash of kidnappings and beheadings of foreign workers.
It has been suggested that he appeared personally on one video posted on the internet, cutting off the head of an American hostage.
A video released in April showed Zarqawi shooting an automatic rifle and berating the US for its "arrogance". The video provided the most up-to-date picture of the fugitive.
BBC News
Militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, blamed for killing thousands of Shias and US forces in Iraq, has been killed in an air raid.
The leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq died in a strike against an isolated safe house about 8km (five miles) north of Baquba, the US said.
US President George W Bush said the death was a severe blow to al-Qaeda.
The news came shortly before the Iraqi parliament approved the key posts of defence and interior ministers.
The two crucial roles had remained unfilled despite the formation of a coalition government last month.
Fingerprints
"We have eliminated Zarqawi," Prime Minister Nouri Maliki told a news conference in Baghdad, sparking sustained applause.
The head of US-led forces in Iraq, General George Casey, said the strike took place at 1815 (1415 GMT) on Wednesday.
It was a co-ordinated attack involving US and Iraqi air and ground forces, a US military spokesman told the BBC News website.
Jordanian-born Zarqawi was said to have been in a meeting with associates at the time. Several other people were reported to have been killed in the raid.
General Casey said Zarqawi's body was identified through fingerprints, facial recognition and known scars. He promised to give more details on the raid later on Thursday.
Reports say a statement on the internet attributed to an umbrella group for jihadi organisations including al-Qaeda in Iraq has confirmed Zarqawi's death.
Tip-offs
Correspondents say it remains to be seen if one man's death will bring a breakthrough in Iraq.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was not a global mastermind like al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, says the BBC's security correspondent, Frank Gardner.
Instead he was a bloodthirsty and violent thug, who made enemies and several mistakes that might have contributed to his downfall.
These included ordering a triple suicide bombing against hotels in Amman, Jordan, last November, that killed 60 people, our correspondent says.
A Jordanian official told the Associated Press that Jordanian agents had contributed to the operation against Zarqawi.
Mr Maliki said intelligence from Iraqi people had helped track down Zarqawi, who had a $25m (£13m) price on his head - the same bounty as that offered by the US for Bin Laden.
'Justice'
In Washington, Mr Bush said the strike had "delivered justice to the most wanted terrorist in Iraq".
He acknowledged it would not end unrest in the country, but he said the "ideology of terror has lost one of its most visible and aggressive leaders".
Violence continued on Thursday as 13 people were killed and 28 injured in a bomb on a Baghdad market, police said.
Zarqawi was accused of leading the rash of kidnappings and beheadings of foreign workers.
It has been suggested that he appeared personally on one video posted on the internet, cutting off the head of an American hostage.
A video released in April showed Zarqawi shooting an automatic rifle and berating the US for its "arrogance". The video provided the most up-to-date picture of the fugitive.
"What the hell?"
Win Butler
Win Butler
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Sonic Youth
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Probe: 14 nations aided U.S. on secret flights
Swiss official leading inquiry describes ‘global spider’s web’
The Associated Press
Updated: 2:18 p.m. ET June 7, 2006
PARIS - Fourteen European nations colluded with U.S. intelligence in a “spider’s web” of secret flights and detention centers that violated international human rights law, the head of an investigation into alleged CIA clandestine prisons said Wednesday.
Swiss Senator Dick Marty said the nations aided the movement of 17 detainees who said they had been abducted by U.S. agents and secretly transferred to detention centers around the world.
Some said they were transferred to the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and others to alleged secret facilities in countries including Poland, Romania, Egypt and Jordan. Some said they were mistreated or tortured.
“I have chosen to adopt the metaphor of a global spider’s web, a web that has been spun out incrementally over several years using tactics and techniques that had to be developed in response to new threats of war,” Marty said.
Marty provided no direct evidence but charged that most European governments “did not seem particularly eager to establish” the facts.
“Even if proof, in the classical meaning of the term, is not as yet available, a number of coherent and converging elements indicate that such secret detention centers did indeed exist in Europe,” he wrote, saying this warranted further investigation.
Marty relied mostly on flight logs provided by the European Union’s air traffic agency, Eurocontrol, witness statements gathered from people who said they had been abducted by U.S. intelligence agents and judicial and parliamentary inquiries in various countries.
Nations listed
He concluded that several countries let the CIA abduct their residents, while others allowed the agency to use their airspace or turned a blind eye to questionable foreign intelligence activities on their territory.
He listed 14 European countries — Britain, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Bosnia, Macedonia, Turkey, Spain, Cyprus, Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Romania and Poland — as being complicit in “unlawful inter-state transfers” of people.
Some, including Sweden and Bosnia, already have admitted some involvement.
Marty put airports in Timisoara, Romania, and Szymany, Poland, in a “detainee transfer/drop-off point” category, together with eight airports outside Europe.
The 67-page report, addressed to the 46 Council of Europe member states, will likely be used by the council, a human rights watchdog, to put pressure on the countries implicated to investigate.
Marty said Romania and Poland were part of what he called a “renditions circuit.”
He said one plane arrived in Timisoara, Romania, from Kabul, Afghanistan, on the night of Jan. 25, 2004, after having picked up Khaled El-Masri, a German who said he had been abducted by foreign intelligence agents in Skopje, Macedonia, and taken to the Afghan capital.
Marty said the plane with the crew that he said accompanied El-Masri stayed in Timisoara for 72 minutes before leaving for Spain.
“The most likely hypothesis of the purpose of this flight was to transport one or several detainees from Kabul to Romania,” Marty said in the report, without elaborating.
Similarly, Marty said he believed the Szymany airport in northeastern Poland was used for a rendition flight in September 2003.
Officials in Romania and Poland denied the allegations Wednesday.
Separate inquiry
A parallel investigation by the European Parliament has said data show there have been more than 1,000 clandestine CIA flights stopping on European territory since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Officials said it was not clear if or how many detainees were on board, and have not shed any light on allegations of CIA secret prisons.
Allegations that CIA agents shipped prisoners through European airports to secret detention centers, including compounds in eastern Europe, were first reported in November by The Washington Post.
Poland’s prime minister denied Wednesday that CIA planes carrying terror suspects ever stopped or dropped off prisoners in Poland.
“This is slander and it’s not based on any facts,” Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz told reporters in Warsaw.
Former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski admitted he had heard of a few cases of secret landings by CIA planes in Poland, saying it was “natural” in the global fight against terrorism.
Romeo Raicu, head of Romania’s parliamentary committee overseeing foreign intelligence services, told The Associated Press: “There is no evidence there were such detention bases in Romania.”
He noted that agreements with the U.S. and NATO allow their aircraft to land in Romania and to fly over Romanian territory.
“The responsibility for what those planes transport is not Romania’s responsibility,” he said.
British version
Britain said it had granted two of four U.S. rendition requests.
The first concerned Mohammed Rashid, a man later sentenced in the United States to seven years in prison in connection with the bombing of a Pan Am flight in 1982.
A second was to transport Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-Owhali via London’s Gatwick airport. He was sentenced to life in 2001 for his role in the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi.
“I have to say, the Council of Europe report has absolutely nothing new in it,” British Prime Minister Tony Blair said.
Clandestine prisons and secret flights via or from Europe to countries where suspects could face torture would breach the continent’s human rights treaties, including the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Council of Europe has no power to punish countries for breaching the treaty other than terminating their membership in the organization. Based on irrefutable evidence, the European Union might be able to suspend the voting rights of a country found to have breached the convention.
Swiss official leading inquiry describes ‘global spider’s web’
The Associated Press
Updated: 2:18 p.m. ET June 7, 2006
PARIS - Fourteen European nations colluded with U.S. intelligence in a “spider’s web” of secret flights and detention centers that violated international human rights law, the head of an investigation into alleged CIA clandestine prisons said Wednesday.
Swiss Senator Dick Marty said the nations aided the movement of 17 detainees who said they had been abducted by U.S. agents and secretly transferred to detention centers around the world.
Some said they were transferred to the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and others to alleged secret facilities in countries including Poland, Romania, Egypt and Jordan. Some said they were mistreated or tortured.
“I have chosen to adopt the metaphor of a global spider’s web, a web that has been spun out incrementally over several years using tactics and techniques that had to be developed in response to new threats of war,” Marty said.
Marty provided no direct evidence but charged that most European governments “did not seem particularly eager to establish” the facts.
“Even if proof, in the classical meaning of the term, is not as yet available, a number of coherent and converging elements indicate that such secret detention centers did indeed exist in Europe,” he wrote, saying this warranted further investigation.
Marty relied mostly on flight logs provided by the European Union’s air traffic agency, Eurocontrol, witness statements gathered from people who said they had been abducted by U.S. intelligence agents and judicial and parliamentary inquiries in various countries.
Nations listed
He concluded that several countries let the CIA abduct their residents, while others allowed the agency to use their airspace or turned a blind eye to questionable foreign intelligence activities on their territory.
He listed 14 European countries — Britain, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Bosnia, Macedonia, Turkey, Spain, Cyprus, Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Romania and Poland — as being complicit in “unlawful inter-state transfers” of people.
Some, including Sweden and Bosnia, already have admitted some involvement.
Marty put airports in Timisoara, Romania, and Szymany, Poland, in a “detainee transfer/drop-off point” category, together with eight airports outside Europe.
The 67-page report, addressed to the 46 Council of Europe member states, will likely be used by the council, a human rights watchdog, to put pressure on the countries implicated to investigate.
Marty said Romania and Poland were part of what he called a “renditions circuit.”
He said one plane arrived in Timisoara, Romania, from Kabul, Afghanistan, on the night of Jan. 25, 2004, after having picked up Khaled El-Masri, a German who said he had been abducted by foreign intelligence agents in Skopje, Macedonia, and taken to the Afghan capital.
Marty said the plane with the crew that he said accompanied El-Masri stayed in Timisoara for 72 minutes before leaving for Spain.
“The most likely hypothesis of the purpose of this flight was to transport one or several detainees from Kabul to Romania,” Marty said in the report, without elaborating.
Similarly, Marty said he believed the Szymany airport in northeastern Poland was used for a rendition flight in September 2003.
Officials in Romania and Poland denied the allegations Wednesday.
Separate inquiry
A parallel investigation by the European Parliament has said data show there have been more than 1,000 clandestine CIA flights stopping on European territory since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Officials said it was not clear if or how many detainees were on board, and have not shed any light on allegations of CIA secret prisons.
Allegations that CIA agents shipped prisoners through European airports to secret detention centers, including compounds in eastern Europe, were first reported in November by The Washington Post.
Poland’s prime minister denied Wednesday that CIA planes carrying terror suspects ever stopped or dropped off prisoners in Poland.
“This is slander and it’s not based on any facts,” Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz told reporters in Warsaw.
Former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski admitted he had heard of a few cases of secret landings by CIA planes in Poland, saying it was “natural” in the global fight against terrorism.
Romeo Raicu, head of Romania’s parliamentary committee overseeing foreign intelligence services, told The Associated Press: “There is no evidence there were such detention bases in Romania.”
He noted that agreements with the U.S. and NATO allow their aircraft to land in Romania and to fly over Romanian territory.
“The responsibility for what those planes transport is not Romania’s responsibility,” he said.
British version
Britain said it had granted two of four U.S. rendition requests.
The first concerned Mohammed Rashid, a man later sentenced in the United States to seven years in prison in connection with the bombing of a Pan Am flight in 1982.
A second was to transport Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-Owhali via London’s Gatwick airport. He was sentenced to life in 2001 for his role in the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi.
“I have to say, the Council of Europe report has absolutely nothing new in it,” British Prime Minister Tony Blair said.
Clandestine prisons and secret flights via or from Europe to countries where suspects could face torture would breach the continent’s human rights treaties, including the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Council of Europe has no power to punish countries for breaching the treaty other than terminating their membership in the organization. Based on irrefutable evidence, the European Union might be able to suspend the voting rights of a country found to have breached the convention.
"What the hell?"
Win Butler
Win Butler
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Sonic Youth
- Tenured Laureate
- Posts: 8008
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 8:35 pm
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<span style='font-size:17pt;line-height:100%'>2,482</span>
A Look at U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq
Thursday June 8, 2006 12:46 AM
By The Associated Press
As of Wednesday, June 7, 2006, at least 2,482 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 1,955 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
The AP count is one less than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Wednesday at 10 a.m. EDT.
The British military has reported 113 deaths; Italy, 32; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 17; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Slovakia, Denmark three; El Salvador, Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Romania, one death each.
A Look at U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq
Thursday June 8, 2006 12:46 AM
By The Associated Press
As of Wednesday, June 7, 2006, at least 2,482 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 1,955 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
The AP count is one less than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Wednesday at 10 a.m. EDT.
The British military has reported 113 deaths; Italy, 32; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 17; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Slovakia, Denmark three; El Salvador, Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Romania, one death each.
"What the hell?"
Win Butler
Win Butler