Saturday, August 20, 2005

Surface to Air Jordan

So yesterday in Jordan a group of holy rollers, er, warriors tried to fire 3 Russian made Katyusha rockets at docked naval vessels linked with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit in Aqaba, Jordan. I say tried because they whiffed. One of the rockets flew over the bow of the USS Ashland and hit a warehouse. Another missile fizzled out and landed about 15 yards from the airport in Eilat, Israel. Another whiff. The Katyusha rocket is well known for being innacurate, so naturally terrorists gravitate to them. These rockets were fired from a local warehouse recently rented by 4 people with Egyptian and Iraqi nationalities. It shouldn't be long before these idiots find themselves on the wrong end of a dark and disturbing torture session in a dark and secluded Jordanian jail cell. One of the moments of comic relief in this story is the reaction of the Al Qaeda-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades PR department. "A group of our holy warriors ... targeted a gathering of American military ships docking in Aqaba port and also in Eilat port with three Katyusha rockets and the warriors returned safe to their headquarters." Only terrorists can find cause for celebration in failure. Ahh, the terrorist spirit- if at first you don't succeed, strap on a bomb belt and find an open marketplace.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

MILF Hunters

I'm watching...


Yesterday I caught this article on Yahoo about joint Phillipino and American forces disrupting training by Al-Qaeda linked terror groups in the island enclave. There are 2 main terror groups in the Phillipines, Jemaah Islamiya and MILF, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Clearly, the latter group doesn't understand the humor in their acronym. Most Americans in a certain age range think of MILF as something a bit different. I won't go into what the abbreviation means, if you have to ask, you'll never know. That and this isn't a porn site. Both of the terror groups are known for their attempts to turn the Phillipines into an Islamic nation, apparently Christianity just didn't suit their needs. The groups, along with the Abu Sayaff group, are also known for a string of kidnappings, pirate attacks and the Bali bombings in 2002. The kidnappings generally devolve into beheadings when the Phillipine government refuses to pay ransom to these thugs. The most noted of these are the beheading of Guillermo Sobero in June 2001, and the 2002 kidnapping of Martin and Gracia Burnham. The latter ended somewhat badly when combined American and Phillipino forces tracked down the Abu Sayyaf and got into a firefight with them. The Phillipine President Gloria Arroyo was quick to dismiss American involvement, but an American helicopter was seen and U.S. forces were there training their foreign counterparts. Martin Burnham was executed as soon as the fighting began, his wife survived despite taking 8 bullets in the leg. Perhaps one day the Russians will swallow their pride and ask for a joint exercise into Chechnya. I won't hold my breath.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

AP gets it wrong

The Associated Press had an interesting little article today about a pair of museums that are having a bit of trouble getting what they want. To be specific, the International Freedom Center and the Drawing Room are learning that many people don't care much for them. Well that's not completely true. The Drawing Room is a pre-existing museum/gallery in Soho (that's NYC, people). The International Freedom Center is a bit more noxious, mainly that George Soros has taken it upon himself to provide a fair amount of funding. It's main purpose is to enlighten normally rational people as to the roots of 9/11 and why it's all our fault. That may be a bit extreme, but then again it's probably dead on. Amy Westfeldt, the AP writer, is under the impression that either of these museums were just given a spot at the WTC site. Her quote is, "The Freedom Center and the Drawing Center are parts of cultural space long planned at the trade center site." No, they were suggested as part of a group of 200 different potential participants. They've gained a measure of notoriety as a result of people's objections to their participation, rather than the natural conclusion which would be to memorialize the victims. Read the article and come to your own conclusions, but I had a little trouble not being unhappy with the tone of the article.

Ground Zero Museums move

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

ABCs of Terror revisited

So after ABC showed the interview of Shamil Basayev on Nightline, quite a few people had a little problem with them. Namely Russia. The government of Russia has declared ABC News persona non grata in reaction to the interview. Seems like the least they could've done if you ask me. Upon further review, however, it seems that the interviewer, Andrei Babitsky, has a little history with Chechnya. In the mid-90s he gained some level of notoriety for his reporting on the situation between Chechnya and Russia. Then, in 2000 he was apparently kidnapped, or arrested, and traded to the Chechens for some Russian soldiers, 2 from what I gather. It would seem that the Russians didn't like his stance on the growing tensions, mostly that it was pro-Chechen. It could be that his coverage wasn't so much pro-Chechen but that it wasn't pro-Russian. It could also be that he was somewhat sympathetic to the Chechen resistance (terrorism) and this gave him the idea to volunteer to be traded for the soldiers. This would also give the Chechens the idea to later grant him interviews in order to gain sympathy from weak willed people who think women and children are perfectly viable targets for murder. It's kind of hard to cut through the BS with the results of a google search. You either get the Russian side or the Freedom of Speech advocates, but I have yet to find some middle ground in the results. It seems to me that the Chechens probably saw an opportunity to make some waves and Babitsky saw it as a chance to grab hold of some spotlight again. The whole thing stinks as far as I'm concerned, I'm sure this guy didn't know where he was, but he certainly knows how to get in touch with some Chechen warlord types. This isn't a case of outing a source, it's a case of turning in murderers. With that, I'll put up some links, have a nice night.

Globalsecurity.org report


IFEX report (a little biased)

San Francisco Chronicle article