Target Centermass

Day: May 5, 2005

  • Marine Cleared of Mosque Shooting

    A justified act, as it should be.

    An American soldier who was caught on film shooting an unarmed Iraqi man lying still inside a mosque during an attack on Fallujah last year has been cleared of any wrongdoing.

    The unnamed marine was cleared by investigators who said he was acting in self-defence.

    The shooting, captured by news channel NBC, took place during a fierce street battle in in Fallujah at the beginning of November last year.

    Soldiers had been warned that insurgents could fake death to lure them into traps.

    At the time, the soldier said that the man on the ground had moved. He then shouted out before firing at the man.

    According to reports, the marine is also said to have shot three other unarmed insurgents inside the mosque.

    Another marine is still under investigation for a separate shooting inside the mosque where forces discovered a large cache of weapons.

    These are the actions that are forced upon our troops by the tactics of our enemy.

    Still, it’s a shame this video ever saw the light of day, for all the damage it caused. This non-story carried far more resonance in the American and global media than the Fallujah campaign itself, one of the most spectacular examples of urban assault in history.

  • Domino Theory, Terrorist Style

    Tip a big domino.

    Watch the result.

    More al-Qaida suspects seized in terror raids across Pakistan

    Pakistani soldiers swooped on two dozen suspected al-Qaida fighters after interrogating the man believed to be the terror network’s third in command, officials said yesterday.

    Abu Faraj al-Libbi, captured this week, is thought to be al-Qaida’s operations chief, and security forces in Pakistan said he could also provide leads to the whereabouts of the network’s leader, Osama bin Laden, and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri. Both are believed to slip frequently between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

    Yesterday, raids in Lahore, the capital of the eastern province of Punjab, Peshawar, capital of North-West Frontier Province, and the Bajaur tribal area, resulted in the arrest of more than 20 other al-Qaida suspects, as well as the seizure of guns and grenades.

    Analysts said the success of the operations justified Pakistan’s assertion that it was winning the war against terrorism. “From the arrests it looks as if Pakistan has been quite successful in containing al-Qaida activity on its own soil,” said Khalid Mahmud of the Institute of Regional Studies in Islamabad.

    Bin Laden aide had ten-strong British network

    Al-Qaeda’S third-in-command, being interrogated after his capture in Pakistan, was in close contact with ten militants working for him in Britain, according to investigators.

    So far Abu Farj al-Libbi has refused to reveal the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden and his key accomplices.

    His British cell is said to include a radical cleric and a terror suspect awaiting trial but the eight other men are still at large.

    Their role was allegedly to carry cash around the world for the network using a number of aliases. Counter-terror officials are not certain of the identity of the eight suspects, who are said to be of Pakistani and North African origin. British officials hope that they will eventually be allowed to question al-Libbi.

    Let’s hope the dominoes keep falling.

  • Rockets Take Game 6

    101-83.

    After blowing a halftime lead and trailing at the end of the third quarter, the Rockets blow it wide open in the final stanza to live to fight another day … and keep my interest in this NBA season alive until at least Saturday.

    Now, back to blogging.

  • Of Blast Walls and Bomb Belts

    A good soldier, whether he leads a platoon or an army, is expected to look backward as well as forward, but he must think only forward.

    —General Douglas MacArthur

    War is adjustment. In this story, both sides adapt to the other’s tactics.

    Iraqis seeking jobs with security forces were targeted once again Thursday when a suicide bomber with explosives strapped to his body mingled among hundreds of men and blew himself up in one of four attacks that killed 26 people.

    The attacks are part of a surge of violence that has killed more than 200 since Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced his new government last week with seven positions still undecided.

    Many recruitment centres, to prevent car bombings, have been turned into small fortresses surrounded by concrete blast walls and razor wire. But militants are striking back with an old weapon: the suicide bomber belt.

    […]

    In the deadliest attack, police said an insurgent blew himself up outside an army recruitment office about one kilometre from Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, home to government offices, foreign embassies and U.S. forces.

    At al-Yarmouk Hospital, the morgue was overflowing with mangled bodies after the blast. One man lay screaming on his bed – both his legs had been blown off. Pools of blood covered the floor.

    “While we were standing in line, a man walked…right up to the heavily guarded entrance gate, as if he wanted to ask the guards a question,” said Anwar Wasfi, who was injured on his leg and arms.

    “Suddenly, an explosion occurred and I was knocked over. I passed out and opened my eyes wounded in the hospital”

    At least 13 people were killed and 20 wounded in the blast, Lieut. Salam Wahab said at the recruitment centre.

    A similar attack Wednesday, in which a suicide bomber blew himself up in a line of police recruits in the northern city Irbil, killed 60 Iraqis and wounded 150.

    Both sides will continue to adapt, though it does seem that the tactics available to the terrorists are rather limited, achieve little against Americans and do nothing to help their cause with the Iraqi populace.

  • Afghanistan: the Bad, the Good

    Afghan Rebels Step Up Attacks, Killing 9 Near Pakistani Border

    Nine Afghan soldiers were killed and three were wounded in an ambush Thursday in southern Afghanistan, in the most deadly single attack by rebels against the newly trained Afghan National Army, a military spokesman said.

    US forces kill 64 Taliban militants

    In the bloodiest fighting in Afghanistan in nine months, the US and government forces killed 64 Taliban-led militants, the US military said on Thursday; nine Afghan troops and a policeman were also killed.

    Seven US soldiers were wounded in the fighting, which began on Tuesday. American warplanes and helicopters pounded bands of militants in clashes in Zabul and Kandahar.

    That cannot be considered a Taliban success.

  • Rockets-Mavs Game 6 Halftime

    Rockets lead 52-45 in a must-win.

    Let’s blog.

  • N.Y. Governor Wants Freedom Tower Redesign

    The security standards for the rebuild of NYC’s Ground Zero have changed, and the governor is now requiring accompanying changes to the “Freedom Tower” plans.

    The Freedom Tower to be built on the former World Trade Center site must be redesigned to address security concerns raised by the police department, Gov. George Pataki said Wednesday following a meeting with the mayor and other officials.

    “We believe that a building that meets the NYPD standards can be built consistent with (architect) Daniel Libeskind’s master site plan,” Pataki said in a statement.

    The meeting between Pataki, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein, city police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and other officials was sparked by a security assessment the police department provided last month.

    The New York Times reported Sunday that because of the assessment, Silverstein has proposed seeking public financing — possibly hundreds of millions of dollars — to address security concerns.

    Redevelopment officials have said the completion of the 1,776-foot tower, scheduled for 2009, would be delayed by up to a year to address the security issues.

    The tower is expected to be built on the former World Trade Center site as a tribute to the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks and to help improve the lower Manhattan economy. It would be the tallest tower in the world.

    Its cornerstone was laid July 4, 2004, but the police department’s assessment forced the architects to rethink elements of the structure — including its location on the northwest side of the 16-acre World Trade Center site, which is owned by the Port Authority.

    Police have declined to talk specifically about their concerns over safety, citing security reasons.

    A preliminary design intended to address the security concerns will be released in the next several weeks, said Kevin Rampe, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. president who is leaving at the end of the month.

    On Monday, the mayor had said safety concerns needed to be addressed as lower Manhattan’s redevelopment continues.

    “In 1993, there was a bombing at the World Trade Center, and we did not learn our lesson, and we paid for that with close to 3,000 lives,” Bloomberg said then.

    “This is a building, particularly the Freedom Tower, that is built to be a symbol, and symbols are great if you are encouraged by the cause, and they are potentially a target by people that hate the cause.”

    Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer, who had publicly complained Tuesday of “inertia” slowing the rebuilding process, on Wednesday praised the governor and mayor for moving “quickly and decisively.” He also called for officials to “move full speed ahead” on other revitalization projects.

    The complications with the Freedom Tower will not delay plans for a new performing arts center, set for 2009 or 2010, and the trade center memorial and new PATH commuter train station, both set for 2009, rebuilding officials said.

    Want a symbol for the world to see? Rebuild the towers. But that’s just my opinion.