November 15, 2004
A week ago today I noted that the AP was using Bilal Hussein to cover the terrorists' side of the story from Fallujah. You can see some of Bilal Hussein's propaganda photos here. Mr. Bilal became APs 'embed' to those forces trying to kill Americans all over Iraq. By hiring a photographer to follow our enemies and to distribute their propaganda, the AP has betrayed our country. Let me suggest that there are higher standards of morality than so-called journalistic ethics. When your fellow countrymen are dying in a war, the highest obligation is to nation. By distributing images and messages of the enemy you bolster their support. There is a reason the resistance in Iraq is not getting any lighter, it is because the messages they recieve in their media is that they are winning. Why give up when you think you are winning?
Today the AP releases a story on the harrowing ordeal Hussein went through as he tried to escape Fallujah. It comes as no surprise to learn that Hussein's anti-American roots go deep. He is a native of Fallujah, the town that brought you 'We love you Zarqawi' and 'Let's mutilate the bodies of American civillians'. AP story via Boston News:
In the weeks before the crushing military assault on his hometown, Bilal Hussein sent his parents and brother away from Fallujah to stay with relatives.Wow, you mean you didn't realize that a 'war zone' meant, you know, a 'war zone'?? more...The 33-year-old Associated Press photographer stayed behind to capture insider images during the siege of the former insurgent stronghold.
''Everyone in Fallujah knew it was coming. I had been taking pictures for days,'' he said. ''I thought I could go on doing it.''
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This is very sad. Chad at In the Bullpen has some interesting analysis. Let me just add that this is not a slam-dunk identification. The Islamist terrorists who are behind this murder could just as easily have killed an Iraqi woman for dying her hair blonde. In any event it reveals the type of scum we are up against.ABC News:On Sunday, U.S. Marines found the mutilated body of a Western woman as they searched for militants still holding out in Fallujah. The woman could not be immediately identified, but a British aide worker and a Pole are the only Western women known to have been taken hostage....Marines also found the disemboweled body of a Western woman wrapped in a blood-soaked blanket on a street in Fallujah. Two foreign women Margaret Hassan, 59, director of CARE international in Iraq, and Teresa Borcz Khalifa, 54, a Polish-born longtime resident of Iraq were abducted last month but the body could not be identified without further tests.
(Images-- Above right
olish hostage Teresa Borcz Khalifa in terrorist video. Left: Margaret Hassan pleads for her life after terrorists threaten to behead her.)
“It is a female… missing all four appendages, with a slashed throat and disembowelled, she has been dead for a while but only in this location for a day or two,” said Benjamin Finnell, a hospital apprentice with the Navy Corps, who had inspected the body.Others: In the Bullpen, Blogs of War, Backcountry Conservative, Interested Participant, Digger, Command Post
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Let me just say that it is good diplomacy for the President to pretend that he cares about Arafat's passing. It is also a good idea for the State Department to pretend that this represents a historic turning point for Middle East peace. Thank goodness, though, that I am neither an Administration official or an employee of the State Department. I am a blogger--an amateur pundit. I practice speaking truth to power something or other.
I'm not going to tow the party line. Yasser Arafat? Good riddance. Middle East Peace? Pipe dream. The Arabs in the occupied territories are headed for a civil war. Here is more evidence from CTV:
On Sunday evening, militants firing assault rifles burst into a mourning tent for deceased Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, killing two security guards and wounding six others.Commissar wonders if there is a Zionist conspiracy here? Misha wishes the PM all the best.Abbas had just entered the tent, along with 10,000 others, including about 3,000 armed men, most of them police officers. He stood with Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan and shook hands with mourners.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia insists the shooting was not an attempt to kill Abbas, who is also known as Abu Mazen.
"What's happened, we're sorry for what's happened, but anyhow it is not targeting Abu Mazen personally," Qureia said....
For his part, Abbas also denies that he was targeted, saying a "random shooting" broke out. "But not in my direction." He also denied reports that the gunmen shouted any slogans against him.
The Associated Press reported that the gunmen barged into the tent shouting, "Abbas and Dahlan are agents for the Americans!''
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Two relatives of Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, who were kidnapped last week, have been released and a third relative still remains in captivity, said a spokesman for Allawi on Monday.HT: JamesThe two women relatives of the prime minister were released on Sunday, but there was still no word on Allawi's cousin, said the spokesman, without giving further details.
Others: Backcountry Conservative, Digger
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November 13, 2004
The plane travelling from Amsterdam carrying Andrea Cianferoni, the young aid worker taken hostage in the Philippines and released after circa 48 hours, landed in the 'Amerigo Vespucci' Airport in Florence just a few minutes late. Cianferoni was picked up from the plane by police agents and brought by police car to their offices in the airport. Awaiting Andrea were his parents, brother and a small crowd of friends and acquaintances.
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After the GWOT-Pakistan becomes an ally, closes radical madrasas, ends it's nuclear exporting business, arrests or kills hundreds of al Qaeda terrorists, and is hunting for the remaining few.
This AP piece in the Billings Gazette gives me hope. One thing not mentioned in the quoted part below, is that the General interviewed said he does not believe Osama bin Laden is in Waziristan as many in the West have speculated:
Between 7,000 and 8,000 Pakistani forces have been deployed in a three-pronged offensive in the eastern reaches of the rugged region this week, the latest in a series of bloody military operations that have left at least 170 Pakistani soldiers and nearly 300 militants, including 100 foreigners, dead since March.Using artillery and helicopter gunships, the army says it has overrun several rebel bases and killed between 30 and 40 militants _ although it has so far only recovered six bodies.
Among the villages taken is Nano, the home of Abdullah Mehsud, a one-legged former Guantanamo Bay prisoner who has emerged as a rebel leader since he was freed from U.S. custody in March. The 28-year-old rose to prominence after allegedly masterminding the kidnapping of two Chinese engineers last month. He remains at large...
But Khattak claims success. He estimated that the number of foreign guerrillas has dwindled from 500 or 600 in March, to around 100 now. He says the rest have died, fled or been captured, although he could cite only one, a young Tajik, who had been caught alive.
He contended that the entire western portion of the region, controlled by the Wazir tribe, had been pacified. Five renegade leaders signed a peace deal with the government this week. However, a bomb attack in the main town of Wana on Saturday that killed at least three soldiers and one passer-by showed the threat of sporadic attacks remains.
In the eastern portion, home to the Mehsud tribe, about 300 local fighters are still putting up resistance alongside the foreign militants, but Khattak expected the entire region would be under army control within the next two months.
"I hope we should not take long. By the end of this year, we should be able to see a very peaceful South Waziristan," he said.
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November 12, 2004
UPDATE 5/10: Army of Ansar al-Sunna website releases images of Japanese hostage Akihiko Saito. Images, story, and link to website.
UPDATE 4/22/05: Islamic Army in Iraq shoots down civilian helicopter, murders survivor. Story, images, and video here.
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Buried in this story is the news that the Army of Ansar al-Sunnah, the Army of Islam in Iraq (Islamic Army in Iraq), and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al Qaeda in Iraq (formerly Tawhid and Jihad) now confirm working with one another in anti-Coalition terrorist activities. I have reported several times in the past that various terrorist organizations have been cooperating in Iraq, but until today there was no official confirmation from the groups themselves. Also, no mainstream publication seemed to have picked up on the odd cooperation that was happening between these formerly unrelated groups with different political visions of a future Islamist state.
Zarqawi's terrorist group (formerly known as Tawhid and Jihad) is a Sunni organization operating in the former Ba'athist strongholds of the Sunni triangle. The Army of Ansar-al Sunnah operates in areas in and around the Kurdish areas in Northern Iraq, although it's operatives are probably Sunni Arabs. The Army of Islam in Iraq operates in Southern Iraq and is a Shia organization modeled after Hamas and Hizballah--with possible links to the Iranian government.
During two of the Army of al-Sunnah's videotaped beheading murders at least one person present identified themselves as a member of Zarqawi's group (Oct. 15th and Oct. 11th). Earlier today, I also noted that one of the hostages freed in the Fallujah assault was a Syrian man "taken by the Islamic Army in Iraq, a Shia terrorist organization which operates in the south of Iraq....More evidence that terrorists are willing to set aside sectarian differences for the sake of a common goal." I guess my hunch was confirmed. more...
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"As for you heroes of Islam in Fallujah, praise for your Jihad, praise for your nation, praise for your religion. (Have) one hour's patience, and then you will see the results," the speaker said after identifying himself as al-Zarqawi.Others: Chad at ITB, DeWaun at ViMH more..."Rejoice my nation. There is no doubt that God's victory is on the horizon," the speaker said, adding a challenge to "the Americans to show the truth of what goes on on the battleground."
The speaker also said Kurds and Shiites serving with the Iraqi forces have "sold their religion" and claimed the U.S.-Iraqi offensive in Fallujah had been blessed by "the infidel's imam," Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
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A Syrian man found handcuffed in a house in Fallujah is the driver who was taken hostage with two French journalists by militants in August, U.S. military officials said Friday.Hat tip: JamesMohammed al-Joundi, discovered late Thursday by U.S. Marines sweeping through the city, told military officials he had been separated from the journalists about a month ago, Marine Capt. Ed Bitanga said.
There have been no signs of journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, a U.S. military spokesman said. The trio disappeared Aug. 20 on a trip to the holy city of Najaf.
"We can confirm that the driver of the two French hostages has been rescued," the spokesman said....
At one point, al-Joundi was blindfolded and interrogated by his captors in a room where he saw a black flag with crossed swords, Bitanga said.
The driver also said he saw several other hostages being held, including two Czech nationals - one of whom was injured. He did not specify how many others he saw.
The hostage said he doesn't know what happened to the two Frenchmen after he was separated from them, Bitanga said.
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Iraqi armed fighters have kidnapped an American who works as a manager at Baghdad airport.Novinite:In a videotape sent to Aljazeera, the captors identified themselves as the 1920 Revolution Brigades, a group which has previously seized foreigners working with US forces.
Arabic TV station Al-Jazeera has broadcast a videotape showing what it says is an American contractor of Lebanese origin held hostage in Iraq.Hat tip: Slant PointThe balding, middle-aged man was shown carrying a US passport and an identification card in the name of Dean Sadek. He was sitting in front of a green wall.
Al-Jazeera did not air any audio but quoted Sadek as saying all businesses should stop cooperating with US authorities.
The Qatar-based television said the kidnapping was claimed in the name of the 1920 Revolution Brigade, a known insurgent group. The name refers to the uprising against the British after World War I.
It's not immediately clear when or where Sadek was kidnapped.
Others: Slant Point, Quinton, Joyner, Alan Brain
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November 11, 2004
Clarke said he envisaged the network breaking down into smaller, disparate cells which would be more easily infiltrated and dealt with, bringing an end to the group's ability to carry out major attacks along the lines of the Sept. 11 attacksChad continues the conversation with this post. Very good thoughts, and well thought out."Terrorism will go back to being about more local issues. It will be reduced to a level which people can live with," he said....
Clarke pointed to Iraq, where Baathist supporters of deposed president Saddam Hussein were fighting alongside foreign Jihadists linked to al Qaeda although the groups had nothing in common.
Ultimately the Baathists would go their own way and pyramid would be weakened.
Clarke noted that even association with bin Laden's network had proved damaging to the cause of other militants such as Chechen separatists.
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The problem, in short, is not the race, but the ideology of Muslim immigrants. For over thirty years, besotted EU officials have concluded pact after pact with the Arab League that made for massive Muslim immigration into Europe without assimilation. Would the new European Muslims accept European pluralism? That was assumed — betraying a shocking naivete and ignorance of what Islam has historically taught about the nature of society and the proper relationship between Muslims and non-Muslims.Another story via Robert in The Guardian:The problem is not racism, but precisely a clash of civilizations, or a clash between two radically opposing views of how society should be ordered. Another news item from Holland last week vividly illustrated that fact: when Dutch artist Chris Ripke commemorated van Gogh by painting a mural featuring the words “Thou shalt not kill,” a local mosque leader complained to police. The mural, you see, was “racist.” The police obediently sandblasted away the offensive message.
Patel insists that Hizb is no threat to the west, but part of it. But he adds that the west "needs to understand what is really an inevitable matter, and that is that Islam is coming back, the Islamic caliphate is going to be implemented in the world very soon ... The Muslim people need to realise that the way in which they will restore a form of dignity and bring civilisation back to the Islamic world is to establish a modern caliphate."The call to re-establish the caliphate, the single Islamic state that existed for a millennium and a half, until the end of the Ottoman empire in 1924, forms the thrust of the group's message. But its call for Muslims to be strong is not just political; it is also religious: "Secularism has failed the world" declares a Hizb poster.
Bringing the caliphate back will not be easy: at one debate on the future of Iraq, held just off Brick Lane, an American journalist warned the audience that America, China and India would never tolerate an Islamic state "strung like a belt across the world. There would have to be a response."
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UPDATE: Christian Science Monitor:
In the course of locating seven weapons caches in a single block around a mosque in northeast Fallujah, an Iraqi platoon Wednesday found a suitcase full of vials labeled "Sarin," a deadly nerve agent.NPR reported yesterday afternoon that US troops had found what they believed to be Sarin gas in Fallujah. I would caution that the report had not verified whether or not the substance was Sarin, only that troops suspected that it was.While further analysis determined that the find was probably part of a Soviet test kit with samples, its discovery in a room with mortar shells appeared to indicate an intent to weaponize the material.
According to NPR, Iraqi forces attached to Bravo Company found a truck that was loaded with weapons. In the truck was a briefcase with four packages containing ten vials each. The packages were labelled "Sarin-VGases" in English.
One Marine is reported as saying, "Awesome" upon the discovery of what potentially could be WMD, claiming that he now felt vindicated that the war was justified. The Marines also had intelligence that Sarin was in Fallujah and came prepared carrying gas masks.
It should be noted that the NPR report noted that the substances have not been independently analyzed yet. I was going to save this until it was confirmed, but since Glenn and James have put it out there, I figured I'd let my readers in on it too. Occasionally these reports turn out to be true, but often these early reports don't pan out.
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US troops have found three Iraqi hostages in the basement of houses in Falluja, handcuffed and starving, a marine officer said.No word on the hostages name yet. WaPo:"We have found Iraqi hostages in basements, handcuffed by their hands and ankles, starving, thirsty and tortured," said marine Major P.J. Batty, adding that three hostages in total had been found.
A battered hostage, his wrists and ankles shackled to a wall, has been rescued by U.S. Marines moving through Fallujah, military officials said Thursday, providing further evidence that the rebel-held city was being used as a hideout for kidnappers.Hat tip to James Joyner.Marine spokesman Maj. Francis Piccoli said the hostage was found about 4:40 p.m. Wednesday as troops engaged in a house-to-house sweep as part of the ongoing assault on Fallujah, the rebellious, mostly Sunni city about 35 miles west of the capital. Piccoli said the hostage's nationality was unknown. The rescued man said he was a taxi driver and that he had been held for 10 days without food or water.
In other news, Jeff Quinton confirms something reader Laura sent me this morning, that two Marine Cobra helicopters were shot down in Fallujah. Luckily, it looks like all Marines were accounted for and unhurt from the incident.
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Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat Is Dead, Several independent sources confirmed to the Jawa Report. Arafat's Inexplicably Diagnosed Syndrome is said to have caused a massive shut down of his entire immune system. Mrs. Arafat Is Doing Solace in her chic Paris home, but would not comment on whether or not Arafat's Illness Did Sew contention and confusion in the ranks of the PLO leadership.
Asked If Dozens of Infidels Saw the corpse, France's top military physician would not comment. His Immediate Version of the story was a simple statement, "Mr Yasser Arafat, president of the Palestinian Authority, has died at Percy military hospital at Clamart on November 11 at 3:30 am (0800 IST)" more...
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November 10, 2004
UPDATE: This is an archive page. If you are looking for more recent news about terrorist communiques or videos, please go to our MAIN PAGE HERE. Updated daily.
****Exclusive**** Must Cite Jawa Report****
The Islamic Army in Iraq has shot down a US warplane, the Jawa Report has learned. Below is an image taken yesterday from a website claiming to speak for 'The Islamic Army in Iraq'. The website has since been shut down, possibly by certain unnamed patriotic hackers. Yesterday we reported the story, but unable to speak Arabic misunderstood the photo of the lone masked terrorist as a threat that jihadi forces now had unmanned drones that would be used against Coalition troops. Thanks to long-time friend Evariste for providing a translation of the website, we can now confirm that the photo is that of a US 'warplane' shot down by the Islamic Army in Iraq.
Continue below to see the 'warplane' photo and part of the translation of the threat that went along with it. more...
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Iraqi troops have found "hostage slaughterhouses" in Fallujah where foreign captives were held and killed, the commander of Iraqi forces in the city said Wednesday.Hat tip to James Joyner who also notes, "It would be nicer to find Zarqawi and the other perpetrators." Indeed it would.Troops found CDs and documents of people taken captive in houses in the northern part of Fallujah, Maj. Gen. Abdul Qader Mohammed Jassem Mohan told reporters.
The most notorious abductions in Iraq have been by the al-Qaeda-linked group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was believed to be in Fallujah but who commanders now say likely fled the city before the huge offensive launched this week by U.S. and Iraqi forces.
Mohan did not say that remains of captives were found and did not comment on whether the houses were believed linked to al-Zarqawi or any of several other militant groups that have claimed kidnappings.
"We have found hostage slaughterhouses in Fallujah that were used by these people and the black clothing that they used to wear to identify themselves, hundreds of CDs and whole records with names of hostages," the general said at a military camp near Fallujah.
Mohan was unsure if the hostage records included the names of any of the at least nine foreigners still in the hands of kidnappers — most notably, British aid worker Margaret Hassan, French journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot and two Americans.
Other coverage: Digger, In the Bullpen, Command Post, Cranky Neocon, Kevin Aylward, and others.
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Saudi security forces clashed with four suspected terrorists in the Al-Jamia district early yesterday morning. One terrorist was killed, and three were captured during the two-hour long siege. One of the three was a foreign national, the Interior Ministry said.According to Brig. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, a ministry spokesman, two security officers were injured in the operation that resulted in the confiscation of eight Kalashnikovs, 100 locally made bombs, machine guns, hand-grenades and live ammunition.
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A militant group kidnapping three family members of Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi threatened on Wednesday to kill them if Allawi doesn't order a withdrawal from the besieged Fallujah.CTV:In a statement, the group known to be Ansar al-Jihad (Partisans of Holy War) claimed responsibility for the abduction and threatened to behead the three if Allawi fails to meet its demands in 48 hours.
"We demand the agent government liberate all the prisoners in Iraq, women and men, and lift the siege over Fallujah and stop the military action against the city," said the previously unknown group.
Gunmen have abducted at least two members of interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's family from their Baghdad home on Tuesday. The militants are threatening to behead them if their demands are not met. ...Others: Jeff Quinton at BC, Steve at PoliBlog, Michele at Command Post, Alan at Command Post, James Joyner (still hasn't made the Jawa his home page), and others."We promise Allah and his messenger that if the agent government doesn't respond to our demands within 48 hours, they (the hostages) will be beheaded," the group says on the website.
Interim government spokesman Thair al-Naqeeb says the prime minister's first cousin Ghazi Allawi was seized along with the cousin's daughter-in-law as they were leaving their home in southwestern Baghdad Tuesday evening.
"Ghazi Allawi is 75 years old. He has no political affiliation, and is not holding a government post," the government statement said.
Reuters says Ghazi Allawi was taken along with his wife and son. Sources also tell Reuters that there had been a short gunbattle at the cousin's home before they were seized.
Ansar al-Jihad also said in its Web posting it abducted three people.
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November 09, 2004
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The new website for the Islamic Army in Iraq had this picture posted at their website. On closer inspection, their new weapon seems to be nothing more than a model airplane. I guess you could strap some dynamite on to it..... The Islamic Army in Iraq operates south of the Sunni triangle. Allied forces should be on the lookout for these airplanes.
If anyone would like to translate, I'd love to hear the threat that went along with this.
UPDATE: We have a translation--this is really a plane they shot down. See this post.
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