War against terror

[walker 0]

Hi all

***BREAKING NEWS***

It is believed that the Syrian Security Services seem to have foiled an attack on the US embasy in Damascus.

From the BBC

Quote[/b] ]Last Updated: Tuesday, 12 September 2006, 07:54 GMT 08:54 UK

Blasts heard at US Syria embassy

Explosions and heavy gunfire are being reported near the US embassy in the Syrian capital, Damascus.

Security forces have sealed off the Rawda area, which houses other embassies, security installations and senior officials' residences.

There has been no official confirmation of developments in Damascus, which has seen several blasts in recent years.

Syria is an authoritarian state where the security forces exert tight control on the population and the media.

A security source told the BBC it is believed Syrian forces may have foiled a bomb attack on the US embassy.

Ambulances and fire engines were seen rushing to the area through the mid-morning traffic.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/5337458.stm

Follow link for possible updates, Article quoted in full as considered fair use for short report breaking news

My guess would be Al Qaida another case of the not so sticky fly paper. Trained and battle hardened insurgents comming in from Iraq. Indications from the video by Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's second-in-command were attacks in the middle east.

Al-Qaeda's strategy seems to be moving toward a simulataneous multiple assault middle game. Interestingly it appears Al-Qaeda sees it as a two dimensional chess game. This is a probable weakness

Opening Game

Tie up the coalition in Iraq (Achieved)

Tie up NATO in Afghanistan (Achieved)

Scare the Pakistani Army out of the tribal areas (Achieved)

Begin using Pakistan as a recruiting ground (Achieved)

Begin using Afghanistan to train up a large insurgent force, in defeating western tactics within strike distance of the future battle ground of Pakistan (Achieved)

Use the insufficient coalition troops in Iraq to recruit a large force of disafected people to be the insurgency. (Achieved)

Use the insufficient coalition troops in Iraq to train up a large insurgent force, in defeating western tactics within strike distance of the future battle ground of the middle east (Achieved)

It is a major millitary tennet that you should not train your enemy but that is what the NeoConMen have been doing by Rumsfeld's deliberate policy of not planning to win the Iraq war. It is a policy that makes me angry beyond words at the gross stupidity.

Probable Middle Game

Look to start destablising countries in the middle east.(Almost achieved in Iraq)

Begin spectacular assaults particularly in Middle East countries.

Look to gain power in Palestine by removing Fatah and Hamas.

Look to begin a long term siege on Israel. Isreal has already fallen in to the psychology of bunkerism witness the wall so actions will be to reinforce that Israeli preconception.

I would expect similar attacks in Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

We should be seriously worried if the attacks are also in Kuwait and the other Gulf states.

Probable End Game

Al-Qaeda's Long term goals are the obvious ones I said some time back:

Mecca and Pakistans Nukes.

Of course there are other players the board is not a two dimensional chess board, it is a multi ordinate world and the world is Chaotic in nature so one must consider that:

"...The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men

Gang aft agley..."

Robert Burns (1759-1796).

Poems and Songs.

To a Mouse

That said Al Qaida is based on self organising cell structure so is able to adapt but adaptive structures are open to change of objective and hierarchy. Yet another attack point. Subverting cells, providing fake cells, questioning the heirarchy. Creating internal divisions and schisms.

Kind Regards Walker

[walker 0]

Hi all

Traditional Republicans with a real military background and understanding of the issue said no to the Chickenhawk NeoConMen by refusing to redefine the Geneva Conventions to allow torture.

Quote[/b] ]Senators Defy Bush On Terror Measure

Panel Backs Rival Bill On Interrogations

By Charles Babington and Jonathan Weisman

Washington Post Staff Writers

Friday, September 15, 2006; Page A01

A Senate committee rebuffed the personal entreaties of President Bush yesterday, rejecting his proposed strategies for interrogating and trying enemy combatants and approving alternative legislation that he has strenuously opposed.

The bipartisan vote sets up a legislative showdown on an issue that GOP strategists had hoped would unite their party and serve as a cudgel against Democrats in the Nov. 7 elections. Instead, Bush and congressional Republican leaders are at loggerheads with a dissident group led by Sen. John McCain ®, who says the president's approach would jeopardize the safety of U.S. troops and intelligence operatives...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn....60.html

Follow Link for the full story

A letter from Colin Powell also points out that the actions of the NeoConMen Liars are degrading the name of America and tarnishing the USA's moral status.

The voters in the USA need to think carefuly when one of the few visits of the President to Congress is to lobby for the right to torture.

Quote[/b] ]A Defining Moment for America

The president goes to Capitol Hill to lobby for torture.

Friday, September 15, 2006; Page A18

PRESIDENT BUSH rarely visits Congress. So it was a measure of his painfully skewed priorities that Mr. Bush made the unaccustomed trip yesterday to seek legislative permission for the CIA to make people disappear into secret prisons and have information extracted from them by means he dare not describe publicly.

Of course, Mr. Bush didn't come out and say he's lobbying for torture. Instead he refers to "an alternative set of procedures" for interrogation. But the administration no longer conceals what it wants. It wants authorization for the CIA to hide detainees in overseas prisons where even the International Committee of the Red Cross won't have access. It wants permission to interrogate those detainees with abusive practices that in the past have included induced hypothermia and "waterboarding," or simulated drowning. And it wants the right to try such detainees, and perhaps sentence them to death, on the basis of evidence that the defendants cannot see and that may have been extracted during those abusive interrogation sessions.

There's no question that the United States is facing a dangerous foe that uses the foulest of methods. But a wide array of generals and others who should know argue that it is neither prudent nor useful for the United States to compromise its own values in response. "I continue to read and hear that we are facing a 'different enemy' in the war on terror," retired Gen. John W. Vessey Jr., a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote in a letter to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) this week. "No matter how true that may be, inhumanity and cruelty are not new to warfare nor to enemies we have faced in the past. . . . Through those years, we held to our own values. We should continue to do so."

Another former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and one more intimately familiar with the war on terrorism, also weighed in this week: "The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism," former general and secretary of state Colin L. Powell wrote to McCain. "To redefine Common Article 3 would add to those doubts." ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn....87.html

Follow link for the full article

I am reminded of this little poem

Quote[/b] ]When the Nazis came for the communists,

I remained silent;

I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,

I remained silent;

I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,

I did not speak out;

I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,

I did not speak out;

I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,

there was no one left to speak out.

How long before the NeoConMen use the same legislation they propose to torture any one who opposes them in the USA?

How long before the NeoConMen secret police knock at your door?

How long can the USA remain a democracy with the NeoConMen controling the US Republican party?

A very worried walker

[JdB 151]

I'm sure there has to be a way towards impeachment somewhere...

Fighting terror is fine, but fighting terror with terror...

[EiZei 0]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5369198.stm

Quote[/b] ]

US 'threatened to bomb' Pakistan

The US threatened to bomb Pakistan "back to the stone age" unless it joined the fight against al-Qaeda, President Pervez Musharraf has said.

General Musharraf said the warning was delivered by former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage to Pakistan's intelligence director.

"I think it was a very rude remark," Gen Musharraf told CBS television.

Pakistan agreed to side with the US, but Gen Musharraf said it did so based on his country's national interest.

"One has to think and take actions in the interest of the nation, and that's what I did," he said.

With friends like these..

[walker 0]

Hi all

@EiZei

Yes not the most sensible of things to do. It is far to easy for people to do exactly what General Musharraf has done. Then use it as pretext to break relations at a future date.

With Pakistan already signing a deal with the tribal area chieftans I think this part of such a Pakistan strategy.

Now it looks like we may be locked in to a war in Afganistan with a porous border. Shades of Russia in Afghanistan any one?

Increasingly I see an out-manouvered bunch of NeoConMen and the worlds first international lame duck super power president.

The great game is afoot with a new player Saudi Arabia me thinks.

A warry walker

[Ironsight 1]

Quote[/b] ]<span style='font-size:17pt;line-height:100%'>France to probe bin Laden death report leak</span>

PARIS (Reuters) - France's Defense Ministry said on Saturday a secret service report saying al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had died could not be confirmed but said it would launch an inquiry into the leak of secret documents.

The Defense Ministry issued the statement after a French regional newspaper, L'Est Republicain, published a report quoting a French secret service report as saying Saudi Arabia is convinced al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden died of typhoid in Pakistan last month.

"The information published this morning in the L'Est Republicain newspaper relating to the supposed death of Osama bin Laden cannot be confirmed," the Defense Ministry said.

"The Defense Minister (Michele Alliot-Marie) has asked that an inquiry be carried out to determine the origin of the leak that can be punished by criminal charges."

The newspaper printed what it said was a copy of the report dated September 21 and said it was shown to President Jacques Chirac, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and France's interior and defense ministers on the same day.

"According to a usually reliable source, the Saudi services are now convinced that Osama bin Laden is dead," the document said.

"The information gathered by the Saudis indicates that the head of al Qaeda was a victim while he was in Pakistan on August 23, 2006, of a very serious case of typhoid which led to a partial paralysis of his internal organs."

The report, which was stamped with a "confidential defense" label and the initials of the French secret service, said Saudi Arabia first heard the information on September 4 and that it was waiting for more details before making an official announcement.

A senior official in Pakistan said no foreign government had shared information with Pakistan that would back up the report of bin Laden's death.

From Reuters.com

[walker 0]

Hi All

Good news if true.

Unlikely to affect Al Qaeda though bit of a Hydra that one.

Kind Regards Walker

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Pity the Legionnaires didn't get him - what a trophy he would make. Typhoid?

[EiZei 0]

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_2003103,00.html

Quote[/b] ]

Hopes fade that Osama is dead

24/09/2006 08:01 - (SA)

Washington - Saudi Arabia said on Sunday it had no evidence that Osama bin Laden had died, shedding further doubt on a secret document leaked in France that said Saudi secret services believed he had died last month.

France and the United States said on Saturday they could not confirm the report in French regional daily L'Est Republicain which quoted France's DGSE foreign intelligence service as saying the Saudi secret services were convinced the al-Qaeda leader had died of typhoid in Pakistan in late August.

[SPQR 0]

It would be too good if true, dying like a carpet from typhoid or else, without help and blessing from God the Magnificient, instead of entering in the martyrdom after being killed by a bomb, captured alive and trialed or alse

[Nemesis6 0]

What they should do is mix a lot of pig guts, pig fat and blood in with these missiles they kill terrorists with. Why - No paradise for them according to their Koran.

[SPQR 0]

Thus becoming the true threatening Shaitan, enraging all the muslim world, included all moderates, (guess how long USA and Israel would be able to stand before falling from a total petrol blockade). The kind of idea which brought Peace in Middle East.

Seeing AQ thug band dying stupidly, one after another like fumbing in the stairs and breaking their thin neck would make people think twice about their supposed Oneness and thir fight blessed by God.

Afterall, Godthe Allmighty could allow his messagers of death to ridiculously fumble in a stair and kill themselves accidentaly  

(Or their god should be renamed Goof the Bigfunny   )

[Sophion-Black 0]

(Or their god should be renamed Goof the Bigfunny)

That was a little off-key. What people fail to realize, is that their God is the God of Abraham (as is Christianity and Judaism). All three of theese major religions are very closely related. Even to the point of the Old Testament/Torah/parts of the Quran, thier identical! So STOP pulling religion into this thread!

On a side note, that would be that best thing to happen to OBL. People will start to think "Hey... this guy was struck down by God! He ain't good after all!"

[Garcia 0]

On a side note, that would be that best thing to happen to OBL. People will start to think "Hey... this guy was struck down by God! He ain't good after all!"

Or not...

Just think about it. If you got a über christian family where their kid on 5-6 years dies in a car accident or of some disease, what do they usually think? You actually think they'll go "Oh, our child was evil, so God wacked him/her..."? I'd think they would go with the old trusty "God needed our child in heaven. He/she was so nice that God wanted him/her for himself...". Therefor it's as likely to hit the other way. People will think that Osama did so much "good" that Allah decided he decerved a spot in paradise...

[theavonlady 2]

A warry walker

Don't warry, be happy!  

What no one has mentioned here - and its relevance seems to be beyond the analysis of the mass media - is that the leader of Ansar al-Sunna and his aides have been captured in Iraq.

It's not too difficult to do a little googling to investigate why this is a nice catch.

[TrevorOfCrete 0]

im a little disturbed by the evidance of Israeli personel in Northern Iraq training Kurdish forces. Rumored to be used for gurilla warfare against Iran in a possible war.

[theavonlady 2]

evidance

And then you say:

Quote[/b] ]Rumored

So is it evidence of rumors or rumors of evidence?

Why would the Kurds want to attack the Iranians?

And why are you worried?

Are you also concerned about Iranian spies, terrorists and weapons in Iraq?

[TrevorOfCrete 0]

yes i am, but im more worried about israel putting there nose in and turning iraq into more of a mess than its already in.

evidence that they are there, rumors as to there purpose   , ill try find the story.

here

here

here

[theavonlady 2]

yes i am, but im more worried about israel putting there nose in  and turning iraq into more of a mess than its already in.

evidence that they are there, rumors as to there purpose   , ill try find the story.

here

here

here

That's old new but enjoy it.

[TrevorOfCrete 0]

yes i am, but im more worried about israel putting there nose in  and turning iraq into more of a mess than its already in.

evidence that they are there, rumors as to there purpose   , ill try find the story.

here

here

here

That's old new but enjoy it.

yes, its quite an old story, just didnt think id seen it brought up here before. still, quite worrying

[theavonlady 2]

Doesn't bother me!

Anything messing up Iran's grand schemings is just fine.

Wishing the Kurds the best of luck in their endevours.

[CsonkaPityu 0]

I think the kurds will be busier with the turks. The kurdish minority in Turkey wants some autonomy and in this age of information they can't just massacre the kurds off like they did with the armenians.

[TrevorOfCrete 0]

Doesn't bother me!

Anything messing up Iran's grand schemings is just fine.

Wishing the Kurds the best of luck in their endevours.

some easy listening perhaps?

keep an open mind

[Garcia 0]

Doesn't bother me!

Anything messing up Iran's grand schemings is just fine.

Wishing the Kurds the best of luck in their endevours.

Tell me, do you share Nemesis' views on Syria/Iran supplying Hezbollah?

Quote[/b] ]Israel is a country. Supplying a country as a whole is not the same as supplying a terrorist militia with personel, rockets, rifles, RPGs, etc. Iran and Syria helping this terrorist militia in these ways are direct acts of war/aggression against Israel, and Israel should strike the puppeteers, not the puppet.

Lookie...

That's a quote from Nemesis...

Just want to get your view on this. I mean, seeing that you support Israel supplying a milita, do you have problems with Iran/Syria doing the same?

[theavonlady 2]

Doesn't bother me!

Anything messing up Iran's grand schemings is just fine.

Wishing the Kurds the best of luck in their endevours.

some easy listening perhaps?

keep an open mind  

What is it you think I am not open to on that BBC page?

]Just want to get your view on this. I mean, seeing that you support Israel supplying a milita, do you have problems with Iran/Syria doing the same?

First of all, there is no confirmation that Israel is supplying the Kurds. It's unclear to me if the rumors are referring to Israelis that are government agents or freelancers.

But assume for discussion's sake that they are government agents. Then it would depend what their goals are there. If they contribute to the safety of Israel but support an illegitimate cause, then of course I don't support them.

What's defined as illegitimate? Obviously opium smuggling is. Defending against a potential Iranian assault? Possibly good, possibly not. Planning on freeing Kurd claimed areas of other countries? No.

As for Nemesis' statement, I don't agree with it because whether an entity is a country or a militia is not the relevant criteria for justifying support or not. It's the cause that counts.