Target Centermass

Category: War on Terror

  • Is Afghan Poppy Crackdown Working?

    It looks for now like it is, as the President Hamid Karzai’s hardline stance against the drug crop may be having a significant effect.

    The top U.N. drug official is heading to Afghanistan to check out reports that farmers are heeding government calls for a “holy war” on the rampant drug trade by slashing opium cultivation.

    Foreign and Afghan officials are forecasting a drop of between 30 percent and 70 percent in this year’s crop, as once verdant expanses of poppies are being sown with wheat instead.

    In eastern Nangarhar province and southern Helmand, poppy production could be down by more than three-quarters this year, the officials said, though reliable statistics are not yet available.

    The reports suggest at least an initial response to President Hamid Karzai’s U.S.-sponsored campaign against the illegal Afghan narcotics industry, which last year supplied an estimated 87 percent of the world’s opium, the raw material for heroin.

    […]

    Skeptics say drought, disease and falling opium prices — not Karzai’s eradication program — are responsible for the drop in cultivation.

    […]

    The United Nations said that although bad weather and plant disease significantly reduced the opium yield last year, the total output was about 4,200 tons. It valued the trade at $2.8 billion, or more than 60 percent of the country’s 2003 gross domestic product, and warned that Afghanistan was turning into a “narco-state.”

    Under pressure from the United States and Europe, Karzai has called for “jihad,” or holy war, against the drug industry, which is believed to benefit guerrillas, warlords and corrupt officials.

    Foreign diplomats give some of the credit to Mohammed Daoud, a former militia commander and the government’s top anti-narcotics cop. Daoud, a deputy interior minister, summoned provincial police chiefs to Kabul and told them they would be fired if they didn’t halt poppy cultivation.

    Daoud said in an interview he expected cultivation to fall by 50 percent to 70 percent this year.

    A Western official involved in counternarcotics was more cautious, saying the decrease could be 30 percent or more.

    Even worst case, this is a vast improvement. So what’s the pocketbook hit for Uncle Sam right now?

    The U.S. government is paying thousands of people in Helmand and Nangarhar $3 a day to clean irrigation ditches and repair roads instead of planting poppy.

    Really, just a pittance. Is it worth it, along with the continued military efforts for stability?

    Farmers in two traditional growing areas of Nangarhar told an AP reporter they stopped planting poppies because they were told to by powerful local landowners and security officials.

    “It was good business, but they said we should stop, and wait and see,” said Abdul Wahid, a bearded sharecropper resting under a stand of mulberry trees next to his fields.

    “If we get help, maybe it’s gone for good. If not, we’ll plant again.”

    Yes. Yes. Yes.

  • Democracy a Chance to Divide Iraq’s Insurgency

    Holy crap, it appears the USA Today pretty much agrees with my interpretation of the latest alleged Abu Musab al-Zarqawi tape — that it is a statement of fear of democracy. To go one further, they spell out their idea of a way to use democracy as a wedge between foreign terrorists like al-Zarqawi and the Iraqis working with them.

    A week before Sunday’s scheduled elections, perhaps inadvertently, al-Qaeda terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi revealed one weakness the United States can exploit. A taped audio message attributed to Zarqawi declared a “fierce war” on “this evil principle of democracy,” threatening everyone associated with the elections, from voters to poll workers to candidates.

    A group of Sunni Arab leaders in Iraq soon provided an equally revealing response. They said they would get involved in politics and in shaping a future constitution — despite encouraging Sunnis to boycott the elections.

    The Sunni leaders aren’t, of course, insurgents. But they helped expose a divide between foreign and Iraqi insurgents. Zarqawi and Iraq’s Sunni insurgents have joined forces to fight a common enemy: the U.S. occupiers. Over the long term, however, they have very different goals.

    Zarqawi has natural appeal to bin Laden fundamentalists who want to bring Taliban-style rule to the Middle East. The idea of democracy — man’s law against Allah’s — has long been an abomination to them.

    But that path is not one that would appeal to most Sunnis in Iraq. In polls last year, most favored some kind of representative government, with just an Islamic flavor.

    That distinction is useful in finding ways to fight the insurgency. Most Iraqi Sunnis, as the politicians’ statements showed, are mainly worried about losing the political clout they enjoyed for decades under fellow Sunni Saddam Hussein and his predecessors, despite making up less than 20% of Iraq’s population.

    But enough to opt for the kind of Dark Ages followers of Osama bin Laden aspire to? Not likely, given the kind of middle-class secular lives most have lived.

    No insurgency — Maoist guerrillas, Algerians fighting French rule or Vietnamese trying to rout Americans — can parlay military inferiority into advantage without maintaining support among local populations.

    Go give it a read.

  • Gitmo Prisoners Attempted Mass Hanging

    Ah, missed opportunities.

    Twenty-three terror suspects tried to hang or strangle themselves at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay during a mass protest in 2003, the military confirmed Monday.

    The incidents came during the same year the camp suffered a rash of suicide attempts after Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller took command of the prison with a mandate to get more information from prisoners accused of links to Al Qaeda or the ousted Afghan Taliban regime that sheltered it.

    Between Aug. 18 and Aug. 26, the 23 detainees tried to hang or strangle themselves with pieces of clothing and other items in their cells, demonstrating “self-injurious behavior,” the U.S. Southern Command in Miami said in a statement. Ten detainees made a mass attempt on Aug. 22 alone.

    U.S. Southern Command described it as “a coordinated effort to disrupt camp operations and challenge a new group of security guards from the just-completed unit rotation.”

    Guantanamo officials classified two of the incidents as attempted suicides and informed reporters. But they but did not previously release information about the mass hangings and stranglings during that period.

    […]

    Alistair Hodgett, a spokesman for Amnesty International’s office in Washington, was critical Monday of the delay in reporting the incident.

    “When you have suicide attempts or so-called self-harm incidents, it shows the type of impact indefinite detention can have, but it also points to the extreme measures the Pentagon is taking to cover up things that have happened in Guantanamo,” he said.

    Amnesty International and the International Red Cross should immediately conduct investigations and rapidly condemn the prisoners for torturing themselves.

    Officials said Monday they differentiated between a suicide attempt in which a detainee could have died without intervention and a “gesture” they considered aimed only at getting attention.

    Army Gen. Jay Hood, who succeeded Miller as the detention mission’s commander last year, has said the number of incidents has decreased since 2003, when the military set up a psychiatric ward.

    In 2003, there were 350 “self-harm” incidents, including 120 “hanging gestures,” according to Lt. Col. Leon Sumpter, a spokesman for the detention mission.

    Last year, there were 110 self-harm incidents, he said.

    […]

    The military has reported 34 suicide attempts since the camp opened in 2002, including one prisoner going into a coma and sustaining memory loss from brain damage.

    Of the 23 men who tried to hang or strangle themselves during the 2003 protest, two required hospital treatment and then were transferred to the psychiatric ward, the military statement said.

    Sixteen remain at Guantanamo Bay, while seven were transferred to other countries, the statement said without giving details. Some transferred detainees have been released while others continue to be detained in their native or other countries.

    The problem here is a matter of effort. Either the detainees don’t really have their hearts in it, or we’re putting too much energy into saving them from themselves.

    C’mon, ya terrorist bastards, step up and take one for the team.

  • Military May Face Reservist Shortage

    The Associated Press paints a grim picture of the toll the war against Islamist terror is taking on the U.S. reserve components.

    The strain of fighting a longer, bloodier war in Iraq than U.S. commanders originally foresaw brings forth a question that most would have dismissed only a year ago: Is the military in danger of running out of reserve troops?

    At first glance the answer would appear to be a clear no. There are nearly 1.2 million men and women on the reserve rolls, and only about 70,000 are now in Iraq to supplement the regulars.

    But a deeper look inside the Army National Guard, Army Reserve and Marine Corps Reserve suggests a grimmer picture: At the current pace and size of American troop deployments to Iraq, the availability of suitable reserve combat troops could become a problem as early as next year.

    The National Guard says it has about 86,000 citizen soldiers available for future deployments to Iraq, fewer than it has sent there over the past two years. And it has used up virtually all of its most readily deployable combat brigades.

    In an indication of the concern about a thinning of its ranks, last month the National Guard tripled the re-enlistment bonuses offered to soldiers in Iraq who can fill critical skill shortages.

    Similarly, the Army Reserve has about 37,500 deployable soldiers left — about 18 percent of its total troop strength.

    The Marine Corps Reserve appears to be in a comparable position, because most of its 40,000 troops have been mobilized at least once already. Officials said they have no figures available on how many are available for future deployments to Iraq.

    Both the Army and the Marines are soliciting reservists to volunteer for duty in Iraq.

    “The reserves are pretty well shot” after the Pentagon makes the next troop rotation, starting this summer, said Robert Goldich, a defense analyst at the Congressional Research Service.

    The story goes on to further detail the deployments and their inherent strain on the Guard and Reserve. It does, however, include a positive note about how the citizen-soldiers have carried out their missions.

    In some respects, the use of Army and Marine reservists in Iraq has been a success story. Goldich, the defense analyst, said their performance has generally been excellent. Commanders sing their praise.

    Hooahhh, troops, and thank you.

  • Zarqawi’s ‘Most Lethal’ Lt. Nabbed

    There was a wealth of good news out of Iraq today.

    Iraqi security forces have arrested the “most lethal” top lieutenant of al Qaeda’s leader in Iraq — a man allegedly behind 75 percent of the car bombings in Baghdad since the U.S.-led invasion, the prime minister’s office said Monday.

    Sami Mohammed Ali Said al-Jaaf, also known as Abu Omar al-Kurdi, was arrested during a Jan. 15 raid in Baghdad, a government statement said Monday. Two other militants linked to Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s terror group also have been arrested, authorities announced Monday.

    Al-Jaaf was “the most lethal of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s lieutenants,” the statement said.

    […]

    Al-Jaaf was responsible for 32 car bombing attacks that killed hundreds of Iraqis, the statement said.

    “Abu Omar al-Kurdi claims responsibility for some of the most ruthless attacks on Iraqi police forces and police stations,” said Thaer al-Naqib, spokesman for interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

    The statement said al-Jaaf “confessed to building approximately 75 percent of the car bombs used in attacks in Baghdad since March 2003,” al-Naqib said.

    Authorities also announced Monday that Iraqi security forces had arrested a man described as the chief of al-Zarqawi’s propaganda operations.

    And in the northern city of Mosul, Iraqi forces seized one of al-Zarqawi’s weapons suppliers.

    Excellent.

  • Purported al-Zarqawi Tape: Democracy a Lie

    I have previously written that the greatest enemies of the blood-drenched Islamist bastards are democracy and freedom, which is why they are desperately struggling and murdering to hold back the tide of time in Iraq. Don’t agree with me? Well, check out their own words on the matter.

    An Internet recording claiming to be from wanted terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi condemned democracy as “the big American lie” on Sunday and said participants in Iraq’s January 30 election are enemies of Islam.

    The authenticity of the message could not immediately be confirmed by CNN.

    “We have declared a bitter war against democracy and all those who seek to enact it,” said the speaker in the 35-minute message.

    “Democracy is also based on the right to choose your religion,” he said, and that is “against the rule of God.”

    […]

    The speaker attacked the Iraqi interim government as a tool used by the “Americans to promote this lie that is called democracy … You have to be careful of the enemy’s plots that involve applying democracy in your country and confront these plots, because they only want to do so to … give the rejectionists the rule of Iraq. And after fighting the Baathists … and the Sunnis, they will spread their insidious beliefs, and Baghdad and all the Sunni areas will become Shiite. Even now, the signs of infidelity and polytheism are on the rise.”

    […]

    “Oh, people of Iraq, where is your honor?” he asked. “Have you accepted oppression of the crusader harlots … and the rejectionist pigs?”

    “For all these issues, we declared war against, and whoever helps promote this and all those candidates, as well as the voters, are also part of this, and are considered enemies of God,” the tape said.

    These terrorists cannot win a battle of ideas. By definition, their only true weapon is fear — it is the needed ingredient in how they “fight” and how they rule when empowered. They ask for honor from others yet exhibit none themselves. Their leader squawks of bitter war but tucks his tail and runs from Fallujah, choosing instead to hide and occasionally surface bravely on the internet.

  • Germany Nabs 2 Suspected al-Qaida Members

    I find this story especially interesting because of the financial twist.

    German police arrested two suspected al-Qaida members Sunday believed to have plotted a suicide attack in Iraq — with a side venture in insurance fraud, taking out a policy on the suicide bomber to use the money to fund the terror organization.

    The chief suspect, 29-year-old Iraqi Ibrahim Mohamed K., is also believed to have tried to obtain nearly two ounces of uranium in Luxembourg.

    He also “played a not unimportant role in al-Qaida, because he showed signs of contact with Osama bin Laden and met with Ramzi Binalshibh,” one of the plotters of the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States, chief federal prosecutor Kay Nehm told reporters.

    The Iraqi, a resident of Mainz, was arrested on suspicion of recruiting suicide attackers in Germany and providing logistical help to al-Qaida, Nehm said.

    The other suspect, a 31-year-old Palestinian, identified as Yasser Abu S., was allegedly recruited by the Iraqi to be a suicide bomber in an attack in Iraq. The Palestinian is a Bonn medical student, who was born in Libya and has an Egyptian passport, Nehm said.

    Prosecutors said the Iraqi took out a $1 million life insurance policy on the medical student, who was then to fake his death in a car accident in Egypt. The majority of the insurance payoff was to fund al-Qaida activities, they said.

    After the faked death, the Palestinian was to go to Iraq to carry out a suicide bombing, the prosecutor said.

    The story goes on to point out that the Iraqi suspect had trained multiple times at the al-Queda camps in Afghanistan before the terror-loving Taliban regime was toppled. Details of other recent German moves against radical Islamists within their borders are also listed.

  • Victims’ Families Criticize ‘Al Qaeda Reader’

    It looks like Osama bin Laden’s personal version of Mein Kampf is going to be made available to the U.S.

    The original thoughts of Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders will be made available in English next year in a book, “The Al Qaeda Reader,” whose publisher says is intended to educate the American people.

    The book, which has been criticized by some who suffered in al Qaeda attacks, offers a history of the radical Muslim group, with interviews with bin Laden and his associates and a tract on Islamic struggle by his right-hand man Ayman al-Zawahri.

    A spokeswoman for publisher Doubleday said it was important for Americans to understand the mind of their enemy.

    “This gives a direct perspective on their philosophy,” Suzanne Herz said on Thursday.

    But some who lost loved ones in the September 11 hijacked plane attacks objected.

    “I do not want to give the terrorists any platform to forward their agenda,” said Jack Lynch, whose firefighter son Michael was killed at New York’s World Trade Center.

    “I fear this book could ignite the lunatic fringe in this country who are sympathetic to al Qaeda,” he said.

    […]

    The book draws on two texts published in the Middle East in the 1990s — one from International Jihad Press, which has no known address, the other printed by a small imprint in Jordan.

    The first text is “The Battles of the Lion’s Den of the Arab Partisans in Afghanistan” — a compilation of interviews with bin Laden and his associates giving an oral history of al Qaeda.

    The second source is “Bitter Harvest,” a treatise on jihad penned by al-Zawahri.

    The publisher stresses that all profits will go to charity. I see the concerns about the possible arousing of sympathizers legitimate; however, I would have to think that the lunatic fringe is already in the terrorists’ camp as much as they can be.

    Besides, there is value in knowing one’s enemy.

  • Text Messaging Lets Iraqis Tip Authorities

    This is an encouraging look at how personal technology is playing an increasing role, as Iraqis are using cell phones to help in the fight against the terrorists.

    The tip came in fast, telegraph-terse, and discreet. Maj. Mohammed Salman Abass Ali al-Zobaidi of the Iraqi National Guard scrolled down to read it: “Black four-door Excalibur. Behind cinema.”

    From cell phone screen to local authorities: Acting on the recent text message tip to the Iraqi National Guard commander, police in a nearby town tracked down a black car behind the theater, and arrested the driver for suspected links to insurgent attacks.

    In the volatile Shiite-Sunni towns south of Baghdad known as the “triangle of death,” Iraqi civilians increasingly are letting their thumbs do the talking, via Arabic text messages sent from the safety of their homes, Iraqi security forces and U.S. Marines say.

    At a time when U.S. and Iraqi security forces are desperate for information on attacks – preferably in advance – mobile phone text messages allow civilians to pass on information from a discreet distance, their identities shielded from security forces and their neighbors.

    Although a cell phone displays the caller’s number, phone records are so chaotic in Iraq that chances are slim anyone could track down a tipster. And text messages can be sent to the most trusted officer, a far safer avenue than calling a police station that might be riddled with informants.

    “Many, many people tell us about the terrorists with this,” al-Zobaidi said, tapping his black cell phone and thumbing down to show more messages.

    “All the time, I hear his phone – beep beep beep beep, beep beep beep beep,” said Sgt. Eddie Risner of Ocala, Fla., part of a Marine contingent working with guardsmen to try to block attacks and put a credible Iraqi security force on the street.

    […]

    In Iskandariyah, Marines of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit say they’ve halved the daily attack rate – in large part through constant patrols devoted to hunts for bombs, weapons caches and possible insurgents.

    On this day, Marines found three bombs the hard way – by running across them on patrols, and by having at least one blow up as they drove by. There were no injuries.

    The fourth bomb of the day was the biggest: a vehicle packed with 10 to 15 100mm mortar rounds.

    Marines found that the easy way – a teenager tipped off Iraqi police, who called the Marines. The Americans blew up the bomb remotely, creating a blast that stopped pedestrians and sent flocks of startled birds into the air.

    Marines befriended the teenager later at a police station. It’s the tips and the cooperation with local security forces that Marines want to encourage, they said.

    But few Iraqi civilians want to risk being seen as informants.

    That’s where text messaging comes in.

    “That way, they’re not seen leaving their homes,” said Marine Sgt. Justin Walsh, of Cleveland.

    Al-Zobaidi, the Iraqi National Guard local commander, put up fliers when he took the position, succeeding a brother who had been assassinated in the same post.

    The fliers had al-Zobaidi’s cell number, and encouraged residents to get in touch if they knew of impending attacks.

    The message is still getting out. In Iskandariyah on Friday, Marines urged a group of men on a street corner to come forward with information. One looked reluctant, and drew his hand across his throat to show why he wouldn’t be providing his name.

    “Do you have the chief of police’s cell number?” he asked.

  • U.S. Safely Passes Latest Terror Milestone

    So the Olympics and the presidential inauguration went off without dirty bombs or crashed planes. Does that mean we’re safe?

    The terror attack that Attorney General John Ashcroft warned of last spring never happened, President Bush’s inauguration marking the last of a series of major events that he considered prime targets.

    U.S. officials and counterterror experts say it’s unclear whether any plots were thwarted, and they warn the relative quiet should not be viewed as evidence terrorists have turned their attention elsewhere.

    Back in May, Ashcroft and other senior administration officials said intelligence channels had picked up persistent indications that the al-Qaida network or its confederates wanted to mount an attack aimed at disrupting the U.S. elections. “A clear and present danger” was how Ashcroft described it.

    Then came a succession of high-profile events, starting with the G-8 summit of leading industrialized countries in June at Sea Island, Ga., and continuing through the Democratic and Republican presidential nominating conventions the following two months. The Olympics occurred amid extraordinary security in Greece in August, followed by the hectic final weeks of the U.S. presidential campaign and the Nov. 2 election itself.

    The final event was Thursday’s inaugural ceremony, parade and festivities, again under unprecedented security. The worst that happened was a minor scuffle between anti-war protesters and police.

    […]

    Nothing happened.

    While all of the events mentioned were certainly high profile, that does not necessarily mean that they were ever thought of as targets by al-Quida. If anything, the terrorists have shown that any regular ol’ day can become high profile. There was a time when Sept. 11 was just another day on the calendar.

    So, was the drumbeat of warnings necessary? Or, was it, as some Democrats claimed, a calculated move by the Bush administration to scare Americans into re-electing a president whose campaign centered on keeping the country safe.

    “All of the intelligence pointed to al-Qaida’s readiness and fervent intent to hit us and hit us hard,” Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo said. “We know al-Qaida wants to hit us now. They’ve been unable to because of the vigilance of the American people and the dedication of federal, state and local law enforcement officers.”

    The heightened threat announcements and heavy security at major events are becoming the norm in the aftermath of the 2001 terror attacks. No government agency or private company wants to be blamed for not doing enough to prevent the next terror plot, which still is almost universally expected.

    That any Democrats made such a claim about the alerts is simply disgusting, especially knowing that those same Democrats would have sought to make political hay of an attack by arguing that we were not safe under Bush.

    Dale Watson, former counterterror chief at the FBI, said the potential magnitude of an al-Qaida attack requires a full-scale response to every terrorism tip, no matter its source or perceived veracity.

    “Since 9/11, you can’t afford to say, `Well, this is nuts, we’re not going to do anything about it,’” said Watson, now with the Booz Allen Hamilton consultancy company. “If you don’t do everything you can, you’re setting your head on a block to be chopped off if something happens.”

    This lack of this edge was the attitude, albeit somewhat understandably pervasive at the time, that allowed the events of 9/11. Can such an edge be maintained?

    Former FBI deputy director Weldon Kennedy said a danger exists that without an attack people will tire of the incessant warnings and begin to ignore them, and governments and business will begin balking at spending the enormous sums needed for extra security.

    “Now is not the time to cease and desist. Al-Qaida is not going away,” said Kennedy, now with the Guardsmark LLC security firm. “The biggest fear is that we will slip into a mind-set where we ask, ‘Is it really worth it?’”

    Yes, that is the fear. Yes, they will try again on our homeland, and we will continue to try to thwart them. Can we sustain the effort the vigilance requires as we seek to cut the legs out from beneath the terrorists’ movement abroad? I honestly expect more successful terror on our soil, as we have to be right every time while the Islamist bastards only have to get through once.