Reuters:

Saudi security forces killed 10 suspected al Qaeda militants during raids and shootouts in the past two days, including a gunman who is on the kingdom's most wanted list, the Interior Ministry said Thursday. A ministry statement read out on state television said three militants were killed on Tuesday while police shot dead seven on Wednesday after two suicide car bombs exploded in Riyadh. [continue]

And as long as I'm spending a few minutes at the keyboard let me add this question just to mix things up a bit. Where is Osama bin Laden?

I've been saying off and on that Africa is the best bet. Bin Laden is a mystic who may be holed up in the place where his 'prophetic powers' first were revealed to the faithful: Somolia. Pure speculation, but there it is.

Another thought, though, has occured to me recently: Iraq. As much as bin Laden likes to think that Allah revealed the weakness of America in Somalia, his experiences in Afghanistan fighting the Soviets shaped his view of warfare. In his recent messages to the faithful he has used the protracted war in Afghanistan as the military model for defeating the US in Iraq. So, maybe bin Laden has decided to return to the center of action.

Just a thought.

PS: As i posted this I noticed the Interested Participant's news that a top al Qaeda figure in Iraq was captured. Maybe this New Year will be better than last?

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But I still have a little bubblegum left, so the ass kickings won't start right away. Maybe not 'til after Christmas. Dr. Shackleford was gracious enough to give me a spot as a guest blogger here at the esteemed Jawa report. This despite the fact that I am unemployed, yet still haven't found the time to post a single thing on my own blog in a week; and more to the point have no discernable talent whatsoever.

Rusty is a really nice guy. He won't get his ass kicked. I'll just quietly chew bubblegum in the corner when he's around.

Rusty has a habit of offering cogent analysis and insightful commentary on the events of the day. In keeping with the high standards of blog journalism he has established, I offer you this collection of links to weird things I've found on the web over the last week:

Do you like animals? I mean really like animals? Then go to this attractively designed, but yet ultimately horrifying webpage.

Ever feel the need to send a message to those annoying people like me who speak loudly on their cell phones? Well, look no further than right right here where, through the magic of the interweb, you now have printer-ready cards to hand out to the offending mobile phone user.

Over at my blog, The Ministry of Minor Perfidy, we've long been concerned about the looming threat from giant killer robots. (For example, here and here.) But this is going way, way too far. We do not need our new robot overlords taking over our excretory functions.

Only $5.95!

And, just so you know.

To wrap this little link fest up, a link to one of my own posts, which will lead you to hours of wasted time on a medieval siege weapon simulator. Not quite as fun as the Yeti-smacking-the-penguin game, but good nevertheless.

If you all behave very nicely, I might even comment on world affairs. My dad is a historian, and I can ask him things, and then tell you what he said. Just don't tell my dad I said that. I'd never live it down.

by Buckethead

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It appears that Salvatore Santoro was only captured very recently. Reports about the Italian man going missing and reports of his death came almost simultaneously. Zaman reports that Mr. Santoro was working for a British non-governmental organization. Xinhua reports that Mr. Santoro was 52 and from the Campania region near Naples. The Islamic Movement of Iraqi Mujahidin is new to me, but could simply be another translation of The Islamic Army in Iraq which operates in Ramadi, where Mr. Santoro was taken captive. Al Jazeera:

An Italian captive identified as Salvatore Santoro has been killed by his captors in Iraq, Aljazeera television reported.

Aljazeera on Thursday broadcast pictures of Santoro's passport and showed him sitting bound and blindfolded in a ditch with a gun to his head. In separate footage, four masked and armed men were shown reading a statement.

Quoting a statement from the "Islamic Movement of Iraqi Mujahidin", Aljazeera said Santoro had been killed after the group had found evidence that he supported the Americans....

A group of people took the photographer to Ramadi, in western Iraq, "where they showed him the body of a man and a passport.

Related: Italian Hostage Enzo Baldoni Murdered

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A new audio tape of Osama bin Laden has been posted at an Islamic bulletin board. The tape is over 70 minutes long, but several news agencies are already in the process of translating it. Here are some of the highlights, gathered from various press sources. Interestingly, the official english language newspaper of Saudi Arabia does not report the tape.

The main theme picked up by Al Jazeera is that regimes in the Middle East are corrupt. Why? Because they cooperate with the United States. Saudi Arabia is used as the example of an apostate regime. Terrorism is a direct result of that apostasy:

The responsibility for the current situation in Saudi Arabia rests with the regime," said the voice on the tape, broadcast on one of the principle Islamist Internet sites and subsequently on Aljazeera.

In Saudi Arabia, it is the king and not Allah who commands sovereignty and complete obedience," the voice on the tape said. "I advised the government two decades ago to remedy the situation ... but it has not changed at all."

"We pray to Allah to welcome the souls of the mujahidin (Islamic fighters) who attacked the American consulate in Jeddah," he said, referring to the 6 December attack in the Saudi city in which four of the attackers, together with five non-American embassy staff members, were killed...

We are not talking about a corrupt, impious leader, but about the apostasy and collaboration of leaders with the infidels. Since there is no difference between [Paul] Bremer, the former governor in Baghdad, and [Iyad] Allawi, the current leader, in applying US policies in Iraq, there is no difference between Bremer and the rest of the region's leaders in applying US policies," bin Ladin said....

Addressing "Muslims in Saudi Arabia in particular and in other countries in general", bin Ladin said: "This is a message about the conflict between the leaders of Riyadh and people of the country and the way to solve it."

"The necessity of security and safety, the sanctity of Muslims' blood, the necessity of harmony and union and the dangers of conflicts and separation (division) have been discussed a great deal in Saudi Arabia," he said.

"They have claimed that the mujahidin are responsible for the continuing incidents in Saudi Arabia. But it is very clear that it is the government's responsibility as it has ignored all conditions required to ensure safety and prevent bloodshed."

Bin Ladin added: "If we want to correctly, practically and scientifically solve the conflict, we should know its reality, roots and directions. Part of this conflict is internal, but in other dimensions it is a conflict between international non-believers supported by the US-led apostates on the one side, and the Muslim nation and the mujahidin brigades on the other side."

The speaker on the tape blasted Saudi rulers as "corrupt Zionists" who were stooges of the United States and whose rule was "an extension of the crusader wars against Muslims"....

"Some people say that yes it (reform) is possible because they started holding national dialogues and they started with municipal elections, but I say that this will not change anything," the speaker said. "The only way to reform is the toppling of the regime through armed struggle."....

While calling for change, the speaker scoffed at overtures such as promised municipal elections and a national dialogue Saudi rulers recently initiated to open public debate on democratization and other issues.

"This hasn't changed anything ... the best they can do is that they will go into the elections game as happened before in Yemen and Jordan or Egypt and move in a vicious circle for dozens of years, this is regardless of the fact that it is prohibited to enter the infidel legislative councils," the speaker said.

Here is some news about the nation wide protests. Al Jazeera:

Hundreds of Saudi security forces kept an iron grip over central Riyadh on Thursday to thwart protest marches planned by an exiled dissident against the kingdom's absolute monarchy.

Riot police with helmets, batons and shields lined a main street in the Saudi capital while a helicopter hovered above the area where London-based opposition figure Saad al-Fagih had called for tens of thousands of people to assemble.

Saudi police arrested two men who fired a pistol in the air near a spot where anti-monarchists had planned an illegal demonstration Thursday, a security official said.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said police in the Red Sea port of Jiddah chased down the men and arrested them. The two are likely linked to the exiled dissident who had called for the protests in Jiddah and Riyadh, the Saudi capital, the official said.

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Robert Spencer in Front Page Mag (via LGF) quotes Ayattollah "I like sex with 9 year olds, just like Muhammed" Khomeini:

“Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. Those [who say this] are witless. Islam says: Kill all the unbelievers just as they would kill you all! Does this mean that Muslims should sit back until they are devoured by [the unbelievers]? Islam says: Kill them, put them to the sword and scatter [their armies]…. Islam says: Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword and in the shadow of the sword! People cannot be made obedient except with the sword! The sword is the key to Paradise, which can be opened only for the Holy Warriors! There are hundreds of other [Qur’anic] psalms and Hadiths [sayings of the Prophet] urging Muslims to value war and to fight. Does all this mean that Islam is a religion that prevents men from waging war? I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim.”

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Why was I taken hostage? Dark skin.

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A Turkish engineer and two Afghans held hostage by Taliban allied terrorists since yesterday have been released unharmed today.

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Yemeni journalist Abdulkareem al-Khaiwani is in prison. Jane Novak has this essay published in three newspapers in the Muslim world. From Pakistan's Daily Times:

He is not allowed a pen in a country of 60 million guns. Sentenced to one year at hard labour, he is in prison where he has been beaten, his jaw broken. His friends and colleagues may not speak with him. He is a newspaper editor...

Abdulkareem al-Khaiwani spends this night in a Yemeni prison because his inquiring pen is deemed a greater threat than the 60 million guns, when it is his pen that is among his nationÂ’s greatest assets.

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Syria and Iran accused of aiding insurgency. Interestingly enough, Iran is accused of aiding Abu Mussab Zarqawi's al Qaedi in Iraq movment. Via Chad at In the Bullpen this from the AP:

Iraq's defense minister on Wednesday accused neighboring Iran and Syria of supporting terrorists in his war-ravaged country.

Hazem Shaalan also accused Iran of backing the al-Qaida in Iraq terrorist group headed by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and said his country's opponents want "turbaned clerics to rule in Iraq."

Shaalan said Iraqi authorities obtained information about Iran's role in Iraqi's insurgency after last month's arrest of the leader of the Jaish Mohammed (Mohammed's Army) terrorist group during U.S.-led operations in Fallujah.

"When we arrested the commander of Jaish Mohammed we discovered that key to terrorism is in Iran, which this the number one enemy for Iraq," Shaalan told reporters in Baghdad.

It is unlikely that the strict Sunni followers of Zarqawi would like an Islamic Republic modeled after Iran. But they are actively cooperating with the Shia terrorist organization the Islamic Army in Iraq which patterns itself after the Iranian backed terrorists Hezboallah and Hamas. Zarqawi's ideal state would be pre-war Afghanistan, not Iran. However, the two groups do share the same goal of the Islamist state ruled by Sharia law. Further, both groups see a common enemy in the Great Satan of the US.

Iran, then, may be helping al Qaeda based on either the shared goal of the Islamic state or as simply a practical matter of shared interest in ousting the US from the region.

Update: Great analysis by McQ on Iran's involvement in the upcoming elections. Wretchard is equally skeptical that the elections will solve many problems. I agree.

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Ok, IÂ’ve been dodging writing, which is just no good at all, so time to pick up the keyboard once again and get to work, so to speak.

So, where to begin? Well, this bit about the Marine shooting that guy in Fallujah brings to mind a whole lot of things about the nature of warfare that, I think, get lost in the airy-fairy discussion of the mechanics of killing people and breaking things. Donald Sensing, in this post, points out the first, and by far, the most disturbing, class of error made in understanding warfare. The notion that war isnÂ’t about killing people, but rather some sort of arcane (possibly obsolete) form of political expression, is not just stupid, but downright deadly. For it ignores not only what the point of warfare is, but completely obscures the very features of warfare that distinguish it from mass murder. In fact, this kind of mistaken thinking is entwined with barracks lawyering about just war theory and the Geneva Convention.

The second, fairly pervasive misunderstanding is that war is only about killing people. Oddly enough, these two errors are often spouted by the same people (although not at the same time). On one hand, when war is thought of in the abstract, these folks will tend to view it as some sort of clinical form of the application of pressure, but once the balloon goes up, then they quite often revert to the industrialized slaughter view of warfare, particularly when confronted by images of the very real cost of the butcher’s bill. I suspect that the core of this is due to the fact that the Second World War generated so much film footage, that for many people, they can make no fundamental distinction between armor battles involving panzers and T-34s at Kursk, and the drive to Baghdad. Or to look at it another way, two noted futurists, Alvin and Heidi Toffler assert that, essentially, the lethality of weapons systems has increased by an order of magnitude every decade since the end of the Second World War. Thus, current systems would be more than six orders of magnitude – or a million times – more lethal than their Second World War counterparts.

There are a huge numbers of other common misperceptions on the nature and qualities of soldiers themselves, the purposes and effectiveness of weapons, the costs of war, and reasonable expectations about the realities of the battlefield. All these and more are things that are sources of error that pollute discussion about current events in Iraq, and, more generally, the employment of force in conflicts. But this incident in Fallujah effectively highlights the dangers of the first two kinds of errors. more...

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It's true. Just a different George Bush. You want the truth? You can't handle the truth. Reuters:

The censors at al-Azhar, Cairo's center of Islamic learning, have recommended the government ban a 19th century biography of the Prophet Mohammad by a scholar portrayed in the Arabic media as an ancestor of President Bush.

An al-Azhar official, who asked not to be named, said on Monday the ban applied to the original English version of The Life of Mohammad by the scholar George Bush, first published in 1830 and reissued in the United States in 2002.

He did not give a reason but press articles on an Arabic translation of the book have criticized its account of early Islamic history. They quote Bush as saying Muslims spread Islam by force and persecuted Christians, for example.

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I'm still skeptical about the outcome of all this--no, not Juan Cole tin-foil skeptical, just cautious in my optimism--- but it seems like a step in the right direction. 79 parties, including a top Sunni Muslim party, have registered to run candidates in the upcoming Iraqi elections.

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Getting warmer.....The details are sparse, but from the various press reports I pieced together it seems that Hassan Ibrahim Farhan Zaydi was involved in coordinating the Islamist efforts of Abu Mussab Zarqawi's al Qaeda in Iraq with former Saddam loyalists and Baath party members who are pan-Arabists but secular. The announcement came in the middle of a press conference by Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi where he also announced that the trials of former regime members will begin next week. The Courier:

He added that an alleged senior figure among the foreign-inspired Islamists who are believed to be making common cause in an anti-American insurgency with secular former Saddam loyalists had also been caught.

"In addition to the members of the former regime, there are terrorist elements that came from abroad," Mr Allawi said.

"A person called Hassan Ibrahim Farhan Zaydi was killed. He is one of Zarqawi's people. Two of his aides were detained.

"Of course he was killed in a confrontation. These were involved in major acts of destruction."

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Oh, those human rights abuses. But what about Abu Ghraib?!?! Via Jeff Quinton this news from Reuters:

Laborers digging on a construction site in northern Iraq uncovered human skulls and bones on Tuesday, which interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said were part of a mass grave believed to contain some 500 bodies. Allawi told Iraq's National Council in Baghdad that the grave was found near the city of Sulaimaniya in the autonomous Kurdish region in the northeast of the country, where Saddam Hussein's forces carried out atrocities in the late 1980s. "Today a mass grave was discovered in the city of Sulaimaniya, with the initial number of 500 martyrs," he said.

Above: A sculpture of Nawzad Girashae a Kurdish artist in the room where he was tortured. The Red Security Building, Sulaimaniya. The rest of Maureen McLuckie's photo album of her trip to Kurdistan can be found here.

Others: J. Quinton, J. Joyner, Command Post, In the Bullpen

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I'm sorry, did my use of the word retarded offend you? The retard was also a whore. Yes, a retarded whore. You think that's offensive? How about a religion that sentences retarded whores to death? Now that's offensive. Amnesty International:

A 19-year old girl, “Leyla M”, who has a mental age of eight, reportedly faces imminent execution for “morality-related” offences after being forced into prostitution by her mother as a child. According to a Tehran newspaper report of 28 November, she was sentenced to death by a court in the central Iranian city of Arak and the sentence has now been passed to the Supreme Court for confirmation.

Leyla M was reportedly sentenced to death on charges of “acts contrary to chastity” by controlling a brothel, having intercourse with blood relatives and giving birth to an illegitimate child. She is to be flogged before she is executed. She had apparently “confessed” to the charges. Earlier reports stated that there would be an appeal, and the 28 November report indicates that this process is now at an end.

Social workers have reportedly tested her mental capacities repeatedly and each time have found Leyla to have a mental age of eight. However, she has apparently never been examined by the court-appointed doctors, and was sentenced to death solely on the basis of her explicit confessions, without consideration of her background or mental health.

Leyla was forced into prostitution by her mother when she was eight years old, according to the 28 November report, and was raped repeatedly thereafter. She gave birth to her first child when she was nine, and was sentenced to 100 lashes for prostitution at around the same time. At the age of 12, her family sold her to an Afghan man to become his “temporary wife”. His mother became her new pimp, “selling her body without her consent”

Paranthetically Digger ran a poll on "Should Prostitution Be Legalized?" last week. I'm guessing that even the %14.9 percent of right-wing hate-monger Christians who answered "No, It's Immoral" wouldn't favor the death penalty for purveyors of the world's oldest occupation. Just a hunch.

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Expatica. The Zarkawi it talks about is Abu Mussab Zarqawi. Could this have something to do with the chemical weapons lab found in Fallujah?

Iraq-based al-Qaeda terrorist Abu Mussab al- Zarkawi is planning a terror strike of greater magnitude than the 11 September 2001 attacks in New York and Washington, according to a German newspaper report published on Monday.

The daily Tagesspiegel in Berlin quotes a follower of al-Zarkawi as saying the Jordanian radical, who is believed to be behind many of the kidnappings and attacks in Iraq, had told him there would be "a really big event" soon.

According to the follower, named as Fathala F., al-Zarkawi had told him the attack would be bigger than the 11 September attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

Tagesspiegel said it interviewed Fathala F., who is being held by US forces in Iraq, during a six-hour meeting last Thursday.

Fathala F., a Kurdish member of the Iraqi terror group Ansar al- Sunna, said he had met al-Zarkawi in Falluja before US forces moved into the rebel stronghold last month.

The report said Fathala F. has been offered a special witness deal by US authorities in return for information. It said security authorities believe his account of the meeting with al- Zarkawi to be genuine.

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What does a guy gotta do to get a fatwa issued against him around here? I'm calling you out. You got served. Now issue a fatwa against me or forever be known as my bitch you religion of cowards!

Via LGF this Middle East Times article:

One recent fatwa forbade the practice of yoga on the grounds that it is an ascetic Hindu practice.

Another declared that Muslims should not use the internet because it makes them waste their time.

Most recently, a fatwa announced that ironing women's pants was forbidden as women are not allowed to wear pants in Islam.

"Flooding people's minds with fatwas," is how veteran writer and columnist Salama Ahmad Salama described the current situation. "The problem in not with Islam... this phenomenon encourages people not to use their minds when dealing with the simplest issues," wrote Salama in the daily Al Ahram last month.

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Funny, in the movies the guys who are 'resourceful' in the procurement process never seem to get caught--or if they do they get a wink and nod for being the loveable scamp. In real life it gets you time. I heard the same story on NPR today. Pictured right-Tony Curtis plays a submarine supply officer forced to take 'creative license' in procuring needed supplies in Blake Edward's 1959 classic Operation Pettycoat.

I have a feeling there is a whole lot of stuff being left out of this story. It doesn't pass the smell test. From the very first sentence the story is set in the context of the 'armor problem' in Iraq, even though this story has nothing to do with lack of armor. Via James Joyner this CBS New York article:

At a time when some U.S. troops in Iraq are complaining they have to scrounge for equipment, six Ohio-based reservists were court-martialed for taking Army vehicles abandoned in Kuwait by other units so they could carry out their own unit's mission to Iraq...

The reservists took two tractor-trailers and stripped parts from a five-ton truck that had been abandoned in Kuwait by other units that had already moved into Iraq, one of the reservists, Darrell Birt of Columbus, told The Associated Press on Sunday.

Birt, a former chief warrant officer, and the others were charged with theft, destruction of Army property and conspiracy to cover up their crimes. Birt said he and two others pleaded guilty and the other three were convicted. All received six-month sentences.

``Nobody ever reported these trucks stolen. The deal was, when you are moving, if it was going to take more than 30 minutes to fix it, you left it,'' said Birt, who was released in November. ``I'm a Christian man and I can't ignore what we did, but it was justified to get us in the fight and to sustain the fight.''

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UPDATE: This is an archive page. For the latest information on terrorist communiques and videos, please go to the MAIN PAGE here.

-------------------------------------
The Army of Ansar al-Sunnah has released a video of a Turkish worker captured in NorthMosul. The video may be downloaded here or excerpts from the video here. The group has threatened to murder the Turk for his 'collaboration'. To the right is a still image taken from the video.

The Army of Ansar al Sunnah also released another new propaganda and recruiting video. Details here. Interestingly, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi'sal Qaeda in Iraq has been relegated to posting messages at Islamic bulletin boards since the US began it's Fallujah campaign. It would seem that the same sort of show of force is now needed in and around Mosul, the Army of Ansar al-Sunnah's main base of operation.

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This Mathaba.Net article describes what it is like being a translator for various intelligence agencies. It also describes a surveillance operation of Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, now in custody for his role in the Madrid train bombing, watching the Nick Berg beheading video:

"That's the way, Allah is great, Allah is great, Allah is greatÂ…. Go to Hell, enemy of God, kill him Â… cut his head off," Ahmed growled amid sounds of the slaying. "If it was me, I'd have burned him to show him that this is what hell is like."

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