Posted on 06/04/2002 1:45:03 PM PDT by Dallas
Insider notes from United Press International for June 4 ...
They're not exactly telling the world about it, but the Jordanians have identified the five men killed by the combined fire of Jordanian and Israeli troops as they tried to slip into Israel recently as Saudi nationals. Earlier accounts had simply reported that the five would-be infiltrators had been spotted at the Israeli-Jordanian border, south of the Dead Sea, and were subsequently killed in a three-way firefight with Jordanian border guards on the one side and Israeli soldiers on the other. All five were killed on the Jordanian side, and a knowledgeable Amman source said the investigating authorities are keeping quiet about their identity. That, reasons the source, makes it unlikely they belonged to Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terrorist network. If the Jordanians had killed five al Qaida members they would have wanted to brag about it -- especially to Washington.
-0-
As if he doesn't have enough to worry about, Afghanistan's interim leader Hamid Karzai also has to deal with pressure from several governments to return their "jihadis" or fighters who were members of either the Taliban or al Qaida. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and the Philippines are among the countries asking Kabul to hand over their respective nationals, ostensibly at least to be tried in their own country. But the going is slow. For example, 304 Pakistani jihadis have been repatriated so far, but officials in Islamabad say there are many more to come. Karzai's interim administration insists it needs to carry out its own investigation first -- which is Afghan speak for the United States gets first crack. Pakistani sources say there are at least 14 FBI centers in Afghanistan screening and interrogating detainees -- with more than a little help from Israeli Mossad and India's Research and Analysis intelligence personnel.
-0-
There's more than a slight whiff of the Wild West in Afghanistan these days. Kabul has its International Security Assistance Force to maintain law and order, and various warlords control the towns, but on the open stretches of desolate highway it's open season for criminals of every description. Frequent targets for Afghan gangs are tankers carrying aircraft fuel and containers with shipments of strategic supplies, which are held for ransom. The worst stretch of "bandit territory" is between Bagram and Kandahar air bases. In some recent hold-ups the brigands force drivers to pump out the fuel into containers, which the thieves then market to local consumers. Though ISAF has started to electronically tag the trucks, and has increased air coverage, the gangs continue to flourish. One problem for the ISAF is that its mandate is limited to Kabul and the capital's environs. Karzai's efforts to persuade the U.S.-led alliance to extend the security force's reach have so far met with refusal from Washington. So the roads remain a criminal wasteland.
-0-
By the end of this week, Israel's Ministry of Defense should start receiving high-intensity, high-resolution satellite pictures of a large swath of the Mediterranean littoral from Mauritania to Turkey and beyond to Central Asia via Ofek-5, its military reconnaissance satellite launched last week. Israel's Weapon Systems and Space Technology center in Yehud has already received its first transmissions from an altitude of 300 miles, and the Ministry of Defense said the images were of "amazing quality." The comments are the first time the Israelis have commented on Ofek's capabilities; previous references were couched in defense double-speak such as describing the project as an "experimental platform." Israeli defense officials were saying the launch was timely in light of the progress they say has been made by Iran in developing long-range ballistic missile systems -- to say nothing of keeping an electronic eye on whatever Saddam Hussein may be up to...
Copyright © 2002 United Press International
Jordan may have let them in, Isreal didn't and apparently the Jordanis didn't let them leave.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.