Target Centermass

Category: Europe

  • 66 Years Ago Today

    On Sept. 1, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded neighboring Poland, the last in a long series of acts that officially triggered World War II.

    This invasion finally woke up the world to the danger it had been appeasing or essentially overlooking for years. I have previously summarized the years of militaristic aggression and expansion that preceeded WWII as follows:

    In post-9/11 America, much has been made of the appeasement that preceded World War II, especially the case of the Sudetenland and the Munich Agreement. Somewhat lost in the sands of time are the military conflicts in the years leading up to the outbreak of the war. Chief among these are the Sino-Japanese War, with the Japanese occupation of Manchuria and a wealth of atrocities that make Abu Graib look like a four-year-old’s birthday party, and the Spanish Civil War, the proving ground for the troops, equipment and tactics of the Soviets, Germans and Italians. Even more obscure is the invasion of Ethiopia (then Abyssinia) by Benito Mussolini’s Italy in 1935.

    Finally, there was Case White, the German code name for the Polish campaign. Two days later, France, Britain and Australia responded by declaring war on Germany. The Poles fought valiantly and the campaign was not as brutally one-sided as commonly thought. The Polish military was forced to give significant ground, hoping to make a stand until its allies in western Europe could put their forces into play against Germany; unfortunately, Case White was essentially closed when the Poles were stabbed in the back by the Sept. 17 invasion by the Soviets from the east. Still, action dragged on until the first week of October. It should be noted that a great many Poles escaped the brutal conflict and continued to contribute to Allied efforts throughout the war.

    Today, German and Polish leaders paid tribute to the anniversary.

    Sirens wailed and religious leaders led prayers for the dead as the presidents of Poland and Germany stood together solemnly Thursday on the Baltic peninsula where World War II began 66 years ago.

    Horst Koehler is only the second German president to attend the annual ceremonies on the Westerplatte peninsula, following the example of his predecessor, Johannes Rau. His presence comes amid signs of deepening friendship between the former foes, despite some lingering bitterness.

    More than 50 million people died in nearly six years of war launched by Nazi Germany — including an estimated 6 million Poles, half of them Jewish.

    In 1939, Poland was invaded by Germany to its west and the Soviet Union to its east. After the Nazis attacked the Soviets, Poland came entirely under German control and subject to a brutal occupation. It become the hub of Hitler’s program to exterminate Europe’s Jews, under which 6 million were murdered.

    At the ceremony on Westerplatte, Koehler and Polish president Aleksander Kwasniewski walked to a monument to the war’s first victims. They were killed on the peninsula in the Baltic port of Gdansk when a German warship began shelling a Polish munitions depot and garrison on Sept. 1, 1939, as the Nazis launched their invasion.

    To the roll of military drums, Koehler and Kwasniewski walked behind soldiers, who placed large wreaths on their behalf, and bent over simultaneously to arrange the wreath’s ribbons, each in the colors of their respective national flags.

    The presidents then took two steps back, joined hands for a moment of silence and bowed toward the wreaths.

  • Quick Hits, 23 AUG 05

    Young Muslims choose Sept 11 for day of action

    Islamic youth organisations that were not part of Prime Minister John Howard’s summit yesterday say they have been working against extremism behind the scenes.

    They have chosen a date for a planned day of action – September 11.

    The group says it wants to try to change the date’s association with extreme Islamic violence, and to highlight how mainstream Muslims have become victims of prejudice and bias.

    Granted, 9/11 is rather obvious, but it should be noted that there is no shortage of anniversaries of bloody radical Islamist terror strikes. Methinks these folks are moving too slowly, and that by years.

    Army Specialist Casey Sheehan – Someone You Should (Have) Know(n)

    Casey Sheehan’s Sergeant asked for volunteers. Sheehan had just returned from Mass. After Sheehan volunteered once, the Sergeant asked Sheehan again if he wanted to go on the mission. According to many reports (and according to his own mother), Casey responded, “Where my Chief goes, I go.”

    Blackfive pays tribute to a fallen soldier who deserves far more attention for far better reasons than his own mother, the media’s story of the month and the anti-war movement’s latest hope to undercut our current military efforts.

    Suicide bombs breakthrough gives police vital clues

    The four terrorists who killed 56 people in London on July 7 triggered the bombs themselves by pressing a device similar to a button, senior police sources have told the Guardian.

    The discovery scotches the theory that the four British-born men may have been duped into carrying the rucksack bombs on to three crowded tube trains and one bus, unaware they were going to explode.

    This is an interesting development — the London bombers apparently were not duped as some had theorized. This only should compound European fear of the true danger of the radical Islamist threat in its midst. Ah, but will it?

    Military History Wiki

    Blogs of War readers may be interested in participating in a new Military History Wiki.

    Not much of a quote there, but John Little at Blogs of War points us to an interesting fledgling internet project — an open-source military history site. I’ve bookmarked it already and will certainly be paying attention to its growth.

  • Bosnian War Criminal Arrested

    Don’t cry for him, Argentina.

    Milan Lukic, one of the most wanted war criminals from the carnage in Bosnia, was due to appear before a judge in Buenos Aires yesterday after being captured on Monday.

    After seven years on the run from war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Lukic was seized outside his apartment in Argentina, after collecting his wife and daughter at the airport.

    “When he got out of the taxi, police appeared everywhere,” said the superintendent of the building. “He had lots of money on him – dollars, euros.”

    Lukic is unlikely to be transferred to the tribunal for several weeks. Argentina is not party to the fast-track transfer agreements that former Yugoslav and some European countries have agreed with the tribunal.

    Lukic was first named and his alleged crimes detailed in the Guardian in 1996, and he was charged two years later. The indictment accuses him of the “extermination of a significant number of Bosnian Muslim civilians, including women, children and the elderly”.

    […]

    Lukic’s chosen hiding place has fuelled investigators’ suspicions that Argentina is becoming a safe haven for Serbian fugitives, as it was for Nazi war criminals. Most of Lukic’s fellow indictees have hitherto gone underground in Bosnia, Serbia or Russia, but he is the second alleged war criminal from the former Yugoslavia to be found in Buenos Aires. In June, extradition from Argentina to Serbia was agreed for Nebojsa Minic, wanted for war crimes in Kosovo. “There may be a network there,” said one official close to the investigation.

    Argentina — still the destination of choice for war criminals on the lam.

  • Talk to me, Goose

    Well, it certainly seems that I’ve lost my blogging edge of late. Jet wash, flat spin, got to punch out … okay, enough of that silly zoomie theme.

    Let’s turn to the blogroll for help.

    • First, it seems that the Associated Press has gotten caught with a little anti-war editorializing in the headline of a story that’s already tragic enough. Later versions of the story carried a more appropriate headline, but graphical evidence of the switcharoo was blogged by Captain Ed of Captain’s Quarters. Bob Owens of Confederate Yankee has even more.
    • The Mudville Gazette hit a little bump in the road today when Mrs. Greyhawk’s always-anticipated Dawn Patrol post was lost without saving. Later, Greyhawk decided to rub it in a little.
    • Chad at In the Bullpen analyzes the news of a new video tape from terrorist Ayman al-Zawahiri.

      In all fairness, Zawahiri and Al Qaida threatened England before Blair was in power, but why let the facts get in the way of a rambling psychopath.

    • JohnL at TexasBestGrok finally resurrects his SF Babes Poll with a Stargate Atlantis contest. Previous winners can be drooled over at in his Gallery of SF Babes.
    • Did you know a tank has heavier armor than other military vehicles? In a fisking after my own heart, Paul at Wizbang! tears apart a “news” piece whose author seems surprised by that fact.

      So let me see if I understand about this new “weakness” that has been “exposed.”

      An Amphibious vehicle does not have the same armor as a tank. — I’ll type that again in case the shock of this sudden revelation might be too much to comprehend…. An Amphibious vehicle does not have the same armor as a tank.

    • Speaking of tanks, ol’ tanker Eric of Eric’s Grumbles Before the Grave ponders what it means to support the troops, beginning with the extremes.

      The left screams that “support the troops” means immediately ending a war they deem illegal and immoral, bringing the soldiers home, giving up everything they have accomplished and pretending that the world is now full of flowers and sweetness. The right, on the other hand, claims that “support the troops” means that you must blindly support the President, no matter what, in terms of foreign policy. Of course, neither side says this in this fashion, that is my interpretation of their insanity.

      There’s obviously plenty of room for debate in this area, and Eric is always up for a discussion in his comments section.

    • Over at Ace of Spades, Ace finds another reason to hate the European Union — cleavage control. You have to love any writing that includes the phrases “ale-trollop” and “lager-slut.”

  • Islamic ‘Martyrs’ Who Begged for Mercy

    In swift fashion, British and Italian security personnel have nabbed five suspects believed to be responsible for the 7/21 attempted London bombings. The Scotsman, quickly becoming one of my favorite news sources, details the police work, fortunate breaks and tips that led to the quick round-up that now has at least one terrorist broken and babbling like a scared little child.

    Dirty, hungry, tired and humiliated, Osman Hussain was already a broken man when Italian security officers took him in for questioning. The suspected bomber had been seized in Rome the previous day as part of an astonishing intelligence operation that snared all of the fugitives being hunted for bringing Islamic terrorism to the UK.

    In London four other suspects, Muktar Said-Ibrahim, Yasin Hassan Omar, Ramzi Mohammed and Wahbi Mohammed, were being grilled by specialist interrogators at the high-security anti-terrorist unit at Paddington Green.

    Unable to sleep on the uncomfortable concrete slabs and under the round-the-clock glare of the strip lighting in their cells, the prospect of hours of endless questioning will have been daunting.

    It seems Osman was the first to break.

    Yesterday morning, Italian officials alleged that the 27-year-old Briton, who has Ethiopian citizenship, had begun to give up information, giving the first insight into how the July 21 gang, which tried and failed to blow up London’s public transport, operated.

    In what was said to be a signed confession he admitted carrying the rucksack containing explosives but insisted he never intended to kill anyone. Instead he wanted to sow the “seeds of terror”.

    It just breaks my heart to see such well-intentioned Islamists reduced to this. Hey, they never wanted to kill anyone, just maybe arouse some social interest. Pay no attention to the bombs wrapped in nails. Make no mistake, these terrorists certainly wanted blood. They certainly wanted lives. I’m just not certain this handful of scum really wanted to be martyrs.

  • Today in the War against Islamist Terror

    I have to open with my favorite story of the day.

    Hanoi Jane takes on Iraq war with US bus tour

    Hollywood star and activist Jane Fonda is planning to take a bus tour across America to call for an end to US military operations in Iraq in a move that has already drawn sharp reactions from both the pro- and anti-war camps.

    Ms Fonda, who earned the nickname Hanoi Jane after she was photographed sitting on a north Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun at the height of the Vietnam war, said she would be joined by families of Iraq war veterans and her daughter on the tour.

    “I’ve decided I’m coming out,” she told a cheering audience during an appearance in New Mexico to promote her autobiography, explaining that Iraq veterans had encouraged her to break her silence.

    “I have not taken a stand on any war since Vietnam,” she added. “I carry a lot of baggage from that.”

    Ms Fonda said her anti-war tour in March would use a bus that runs on vegetable oil.

    “I can’t go into any detail except to say that it’s going to be pretty exciting,” she said.

    By exciting, I assume she’s talking about more than the vegetable oil. Look, there is enough to dislike about this woman without erroneous hyperbole, so check the facts of her history.

    It is my opinion that this woman cost lives, both American and our allies. It is apparently her intent to do so again by providing support to the hopes of our enemies. In my view, she has previously committed treason. She seems less intent to do so as blatantly today; I extend to her an invitation to fly over for a photo-op with the beheading terrorists. Perhaps she could feature them in a new exercise DVD. Otherwise, I wish her no success in this latest endeavor but would have no regret for any deserved emotional anguish she may have coming. I truly hope that she suffers no physical harm at the hands of private individuals, but I also don’t want her to enjoy a single welcome reception.

    Truce as French sign up for joint action

    Britain and France called a truce in their disputes over Europe’s future and its financing yesterday to announce fresh co-operation in the fight against terrorism, including sharing the names of “jihadists” living in their countries.

    After talks in Downing Street, Dominique de Villepin, the French Prime Minister, and Tony Blair played down recent disagreements and set out a four-point programme of joint action as a result of the London bombings.

    They agreed that France and Britain would exchange the names of persons in each country who had been trying to incite extremism. They would also retain communications data from telephone calls and e-mails for longer, exchange information about how to protect vulnerable targets and work together to combat the “radicalisation” of the Muslim community.

    Their meeting came as Mr Blair told Muslims in Britain that they had a duty to come forward with information about those involved in terrorist attacks. “My message to anybody who may know of any information about those responsible for last Thursday’s attack is to give that information to the police.

    “There will be people who know information about those that have participated in the attack. The photographs [of the suspects] are pretty strong, good quality has been given. There will be people who know something. It is part of our duty, in order to protect our country, that people come forward and give the police the information they can.”

    I don’t doubt the genuine concern of the French about Islamist terror, as they currently have a sufficient threat of it within their own borders. My continued disdain for the French is greatly stirred by their willingness to impair American efforts, meant for the betterment of survival for the U.S. and all of western culture, to squelch the Islamist movement, just for the sake of France’s own short-term geopolitical gain. President Jacques Chirac’s willingness to enable a continued global threat by opposing U.S. international policy, merely for the purpose of setting up a Franco-led European Union as an alternative global power, has been simply disgusting.

    Egyptians surround villages said to be harboring Sharm bombers

    Egyptian sources say that security forces surrounded two Bedouin villages next to Sharm El-Sheikh on Monday suspected of harboring terrorists responsible for the bombings that killed 88 people last Friday.

    The two suspects reportedly hiding in the villages of Al-Royasat and Hurum are said to be Pakistani nationals.

    According to earlier reports published in the Arab press, the Egyptian police are looking for nine Pakistani citizens that apparently disappeared after the attacks took place, leaving their passports and possessions in the hotel rooms they were staying in.

    The current leadership in Egypt has as much to fear from Islamist terror as does the West and other authoritarian Arab states. The difference is that the West is working to subvert a radical culture; the Arab states are looking to prolong despotic reigns. That is where Iraq provides the hub — a possibly democratic, econically and culturally free, alternative to the typical Arab state is a severe danger to the Islamist movement, but it is also a threat to the existing governments in the region. Is it any wonder that Arab support has been lukewarm at best, behind-the-scenes hostile at worst?

  • Police Concede Slain Suspect Not Bomber

    Tragic.

    London’s police commissioner expressed regret today for the slaying of a Brazilian electrician by officers who mistook him for a suspect in the recent terror bombings, but he defended a police shoot-to-kill policy as “the only way” to stop would-be suicide bombers.

    […]

    The man shot Friday at the Stockwell subway station was identified as Jean Charles de Menezes, 27. Witnesses said he was wearing a heavy, padded coat when plainclothes police chased him into a subway car, pinned him to the ground and shot him five times in the head and torso in front of horrified passengers.

    Blair initially said Menezes was “directly linked” to the investigation of Thursday’s attacks, but police then said Saturday he had no connection to the bomb attempts.

    “This is a tragedy,” Blair said today of the shooting. “The Metropolitan Police accepts full responsibility for this. To the family I can only express my deep regrets.”

    Here is a lengthy look at the slain man and his grief-stricken family: Man shot by police was in wrong place at wrong time.

    From that sad tale I would like to highlight the following:

    Within 20 minutes, the Brazilian whose interest in all things electrical was sparked at the age of eight by dismantling a broken transistor radio and making it work again, would be dead.

    Witnesses described how he vaulted the ticket barriers at Stockwell, then started running down the escalators before bursting into a carriage of a stationary northbound Northern Line train looking “petrified”.

    So, to wrong place and wrong time, let’s add wrong attire and wrong behavior. As a rule of thumb, I’d like to suggest not looking and acting like a threat in public places. At least not while Islamists are doing the same with the intent of killing.

    Tragic? Yes. A mistake. Certainly not. As I blogged my reaction to the initial reports, I wrote essentially the same, though I would like to withdraw a little now that more is known.

    Justified? Check the circumstances, check the attire, check the weather. Then ask the Israelis if they have any experience with unusual attire and things going kaboom. Justified? Oh hell yes. Unfortunate? Yes, as well. I’d much rather have this piece of trash in custody spilling his guts than in the Tube spilling his blood. Still, I’ll settle for the blood.

    The last two sentences were incorrect in this specific case. The rest stands.

    At least for the time being, this unfortunate incident will not change the Brits’ shoot-to-kill tactics.

    British police admitted today that a Brazilian electrician they shot dead in a crowded London Underground train had nothing to do with the terror bombings, but they will stick to a policy of shooting suspected suicide bombers in the head.

    […]

    London’s police chief Ian Blair conveyed the force’s “deep regrets” to the family of the dead man which has made angry protests, but he urged people to understand the context of the killing.

    He said police first had to deal with the danger of stopping suicide bombers.

    Blair also said the Brazilian was pursued because he had emerged from a block of apartments which police were watching as they hunted men who made a failed attempt to bomb subway trains and a bus last Thursday, he said.

    “It was not just a random event… It was firmly linked to the ongoing operation,” said Blair.

    Blair confirmed Press reports that British police were pursuing a “shoot-to-kill-in- order-to-protect policy” and could not guarantee that a similar mistake would not happen again.

    “There’s no point in shooting at somebody’s chest because that’s where the bomb is likely to be,” Blair said. “There’s no point in shooting anywhere else because if they fall down they detonate it.

    “It is drawn on the experience from other countries, including Sri Lanka.”

    Quite right. War is ugly and mistakes happen but it must be realized that this is not a knee-jerk response. Rather, it is a reasonable course forced upon us by the tactics of our enemy.

  • “This changes the face of London”

    Is it possible the 7/7 bombings didn’t get through to some Londoners? Is it really possible that yesterday’s attack was insufficient to make clear the actuality of the war? Apparently so, as there are still some who refuse to face it today, even after a dramatic chase and shooting on the Underground.

    Police Shooting Startles and Worries Londoners

    It was around 10 a.m. on a sunny, summery Friday when London crossed a once-unthinkable line in its unfolding war on terror.

    In a city where most police officers do not carry guns, the shock from the shooting death of a man in a subway car was palpable. It raised questions about police firearms practices, kindled uncertainty among Muslims and deepened the anxiety of a city that looks, these days, under siege.

    The police said they had trailed a man, described as South Asian in appearance, from a house in Stockwell that they had under surveillance. He was clad in bulky clothes on a warm summer day, witnesses said.

    He vaulted over a turnstile and dashed onto a train, with plainclothes police officers right behind him. The police said the man did not obey orders to stop, so the officers shouted at the passengers to get down and take cover.

    The man stumbled onto a train, and a passenger, Mark Whitby, told the BBC: “I looked at his face. He looked sort of left and right, but he basically looked like a cornered rabbit, a cornered fox. He looked absolutely petrified, and then he sort of tripped, but they were hotly pursuing him.”

    The officers “couldn’t have been any more than two or three feet behind him at this time,” Mr. Whitby said, “and he half tripped and was half pushed to the floor, and the policeman nearest to me had the black automatic pistol in his left hand.”

    The officer with the gun “held it down to the guy and unloaded five shots into him,” Mr. Whitby said.

    The gunshots reverberated much further than the grimy confines of Stockwell station, in a hardscrabble neighborhood of south London. It was the first such shooting in memory. Between 1997 and September 2004, the police opened fire on 20 occasions, killing 7 people and wounding 11, according to the Metropolitan Police. The statistics do not specify where the shootings took place.

    Although most London police officers are unarmed, since 9/11 Londoners have grown used to seeing special armed units, who have been given antiterrorism training.

    Police rules require officers to give warning if they intend to open fire and to “ensure that their responses are proportionate and appropriate in the circumstances and consistent with the legitimate objective to be achieved.” Officers are supposed to aim for immobilizing body-shots, but television reports said Friday that shoot-to-kill shots had been authorized to prevent suicide bombings.

    Even as Londoners absorbed the news of the shooting, a debate unfolded whether it was justified.

    Justified? Check the circumstances, check the attire, check the weather. Then ask the Israelis if they have any experience with unusual attire and things going kaboom. Justified? Oh hell yes. Unfortunate? Yes, as well. I’d much rather have this piece of trash in custody spilling his guts than in the Tube spilling his blood. Still, I’ll settle for the blood.

    The article from this point on consists mainly of a back and forth as Londoners chimed in on the developments. I’d like to highlight a few and leave the rest of the article for y’all to peruse. I’ll then turn to a few other pieces of news.
    (more…)

  • London. Again.

    (c) FreeFoto.com

    Second verse same as the first. Only less so.

    Two weeks to the day after the July 7 London bombings, attackers tried — and failed — to set off explosive devices at three Tube stations and on a double-decker bus.

    Police said evidence left behind in Thursday’s attempted bombings has given them what may be a “significant breakthrough” in their investigation.

    Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair told reporters the intention of the terrorists “must have been to kill” and that some of the devices failed to explode.

    There are reports of one person wounded, although ambulance services said they did not transport anyone from the scenes.

    There’s is no official word at this time that the latest terror attack was the work of Moslem radicals, but let’s safely say they do have a pretty good track record in these matters. There’s an old saying that has been modified to more adequately match reality: the race isn’t always to the swiftest nor the fight to the strongest … but that’s the way to bet. The terrorists aren’t always radical Islamists, but putting your money down on the red crescent would seem to have a generally solid rate of return.

    Maybe we should all just sit down and have a nice little powwow on the matter. Just yesterday, Prime Minister Tony Blair pondered on a conference to ponder on how best to deal with Islamic extremism. British Moslem leaders countered with a call for an investigation into the motivation of the terrorists. Great, throw in a few rounds of kumbayahs and we might be on to something.

    Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday he is considering calling an international conference on how to eliminate Islamic extremism following last week’s terror bombings in London, while Britain’s Muslim leaders demanded a judicial inquiry into what motivated the four “homegrown” suicide bombers.

    Want to understand them? Want their motivation? Well, I have it — they want and feel they deserve domination of the whole freakin’ world. Ace also has it and spells it out quite clearly [emphasis in original].

    The Islamofascists do not need fresh provocations for their mass murders. They have 1400 years of greivances they want payback for.

    And, by the way, the ideology is expansionist, imperialist, and colonialist– they want to control all territory they once held, and they want to controll all territory which Muslims have, through immigration, “colonized.” They believe it against the demands of Allah for any Muslim to subjugate himself to any authority except a strict Islamic one.

    Do you really think they just want Israel and Iraq?

    What about the disputed areas of Kashmir? What about Muslim-heavy areas of the Balkans? What about East Timor? What about non-Muslim parts of Lebanon? What about Africa?

    What about the scores of smoldering little civil wars going on all over the world, the majority of which involve Muslims fighting non-Muslims?

    Why does the left insist on believing that actual diagnosable psychopaths — and I am NOT using that term hyperbolically; Islamofascists are true psychopathic murderers — are somehow “reasonable” and if we just give them a little they’ll be satisfied with that?

    Does a shark stop eating after its third fish?

    You can appease to your heart’s content, ladies. But they want Spain back too.

    So please write out a list of all the territory of the world you are willing to cede to viciously medieval thugocratic rule in the interests of buying “peace” from people who have told you, out of their own mouths and with no equivocation, they simply want to eradicate you and there’s nothing you can give them that will change their minds.

    Their worldview must be reshaped or eliminated. It’s as simple as that, and the civilization we cherish and hope to pass on to our progeny hangs in the balance.

  • Terror ‘Round the World

    Not in too much of a mood for blogging tonight, so how about link dumpalooza on the war against Islamist terror?

    Let’s start with what, in my view, is the most disgusting story of the day.

    Suicide bomber kills 18 Iraqi kids

    Tiny plastic sandals, some tattered and stained with blood, lay in a pile near a child’s crushed bicycle. Mothers wailed and beat themselves after a suicide bomber killed 18 children and teenagers getting candy and toys from American soldiers.

    One of the soldiers was among the up to 27 people killed in Wednesday’s blast in an impoverished Shiite Muslim neighborhood. At least 70 other people, including three U.S. soldiers, were wounded. A newborn was among those hurt.

    […]

    “There were some American troops blocking the highway when a U.S. Humvee came near a gathering of children,” said Karim Shukir, 42. The troops began handing out candy and smiley-face key chains.

    “Suddenly, a speeding car bomb…struck both the Humvee and the children,” Shukir said.

    Americans give chocolate. Islamists give death. Tell me this is not a war that needs to be fought.

    Australia to redeploy troops to Afghanistan

    Australian Prime Minister on Wednesday announced that Australia will send 150 troops to Afghanistan at the request of the United States, Afghanistan and others to combat the regrouping of Taliban and al-Qaeda networks.

    The troops, comprising SAS (Special Air Services) soldiers, commandos and logistic support, will be deployed in September, when parliamentary elections will be held in the war-ravaged country.

    The fresh troops will stay there for 12 months working with the US troops.

    […]

    Australia sent 1,500 strong troops to Afghanistan in 2001 but withdrew all the troops in 2002. There is only one Australian engineer being engaged in mine clearance in the Asian country at present.

    Welcome back, blokes. As an aside, I’ve always held the Aussie spirit in very high regard.

    Labor alarmed by PM’s talk of terror attack

    Labor’s foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd is alarmed by Prime Minister John Howard’s comments that the possibility of suicide bombing attacks in Australia like those seen last week in London cannot be ruled out.

    Mr Howard says he does not believe the Government’s decision to redeploy soldiers to Afghanistan will make Australia more of a target but says he cannot count out the possibility of an attack here.

    “We shouldn’t complacently imagine that there aren’t potentially suicide bombers in this country,” Mr Howard said.

    Mr Rudd says if Mr Howard has intelligence about potential threats he should make it public.

    “If you have have no intelligence that there are suicide bombers in Australia, then make that plain to the Australian people as well,” he said.

    Mr. Rudd, I have some relevant intelligence for you: there are people out there that would love to kill you. And me. And any infidel they can touch with their knives or shred with their bombs.

    British Police Search for Mastermind of Blasts

    Britain said today that it was hunting the mastermind of the terror attacks here last week, and the British Home Secretary offered the first official indication that officials believe the four attackers were suicide bombers who “blew themselves up” in the blasts.

    The police said late today that officers had raided a home in Buckinghamshire, around 40 miles northwest of London and close to Luton, where police seized a car laden with explosives one day earlier. Police officials declined to give further details or to say whether the raid, conducted under anti-terrorism laws, was against the home of a fifth suspect.

    The four coordinated mass-transit bombings last Thursday confronted Britons with the very scenario they feared most – an attack by British-born terrorists drawn from the ranks of disaffected Muslims and seeming to copy the grim tactics of assailants in Israel or Iraq that most Britons see only on their television screens.

    Make no mistake — suicide bombers will find there way to many more western countries. The London attacks underscore the dire situation many European nations must soon face, that of large pockets of isolated, unassimilated Moslem immigrants that are fertile breeding grounds for radicalism and violence.

    Pakistan ‘thwarted’ UK pre-poll plot

    Pakistan helped Britain avert a terrorist attack ahead of the general election in May by alerting officials to a potential plot, the Pakistani interior minister said on Wednesday.

    Aftab Khan Sherpao said that information shared by Pakistan with Britain led to arrests in various countries, including Pakistan, and that the plot was “aborted”.

    “Before the general elections in the UK we had received reports that [a terrorist attack] may arise before the elections, and that was aborted because of the information provided by the government of Pakistan,” Mr Sherpao told reporters in Islamabad.

    This story, along with the recent bombings, show the flawed concept of treating this war exclusively as a criminal matter, even with large cooperation from the international community. Law enforcement and intelligence has to be perfect or blood flows. That is the reason why such a strategy must be coupled with something more. Currently, that something more is trying to provide an alternative to the radical culture by building a viable, democratic Iraq. If that fails, the alternative strategy may eventually have to be far bloodier.

    Italy convicts 2 on terror charges

    An Italian judge on Wednesday convicted two North Africans of belonging to an extremist cell alleged to have planned attacks in Italy, including one against Milan’s subway.

    Judge Silvia Milesi sentenced the defendants — Moroccan Mohamed Rafik and Tunisian Kamel Hamraoui — to up to four years and eight months in prison, a defense lawyer said.

    A third suspect, Tunisian Najib Rouass, was sentenced to one year and two months in prison on the lesser charge of inciting violence, while a fourth, Tunisian Romdhane Ben Othmane Khir, was acquitted, said lawyer Ilaria Crema.

    All defendants denied the charges, and those convicted are expected to appeal the ruling. Prosecutor Roberto Di Martino described the verdict as a “balanced ruling.”

    I do sincerely hope that the aim of the ruling was for justice rather than balance.

    Italy police detain 174 people in anti-terror sweep

    Police raided scores of homes and detained 174 people across Italy on Wednesday in a sweeping anti-terrorism crackdown on suspected Islamic militants.

    “The operation has been prepared for some time and confirms Italy has never lowered its guard in the face of terrorist risks,” Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu told journalists.

    The crackdown, involving 201 search warrants from Milan to Naples, follows last week’s deadly attacks in London and comes a day after Pisanu warned that terrorism was “knocking on Italy’s door” and urged parliament to strengthen security laws to prevent an attack.

    “I’m not saying that we have seized terrorists. It’s a preventative operation in high-risk environments,” Pisanu said before the announcement of detentions.

    Okay, so you won’t say you seized terrorists. Would you at least describe the round-up as a “balanced raid” of potentially murderous radical Islamist bastards?

    Now, let’s bring it home to America where the “T” word apparently finally has some bite.

    Muslim Leader Gets Life for Inciting Jihad

    A man convicted for what he said — words that prosecutors said incited his followers to train for violent jihad against the United States — had a few more things to say yesterday in a federal courtroom in Alexandria before he was sentenced to life in prison.

    Ali Al-Timimi, a prominent Muslim spiritual leader, delivered an impassioned statement in which he asserted his innocence, read the preamble to the U.S. Constitution and said his religious beliefs do not recognize “secular law.” He then compared himself to the Greek philosopher Socrates, who was sentenced to death for corrupting the young and dishonoring the gods of Athens.

    “I will not admit guilt nor seek the court’s mercy,” Timimi told a courtroom crowded with his supporters and prosecutors. “Socrates was mercifully given a cup of hemlock. I was handed a life sentence.”

    […]

    The Timimi case culminated an investigation in which 11 Muslim men, all but one from the Washington area, were charged with participating in paramilitary training — including playing paintball — to prepare for “holy war” abroad. Timimi was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the earlier case, in which nine men were convicted in 2003 and 2004.

    […]

    The heart of the government’s evidence against Timimi was a meeting he attended in Fairfax on Sept. 16, 2001, five days after the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center. Timimi told his followers that “the time had come for them to go abroad and join the mujaheddin engaged in violent jihad in Afghanistan,” according to court papers.

    Treason.

    Hey, if the guy wants hemlock, give him some freakin’ hemlock already.

    That’s tonight’s global terror link-o-rama. It’s a small (terror-filled) world after all.