Operation Phantom Fury--Day 203 - Now Operations River Blitz; Matador--Day 98

Top Afghanistan cleric shot dead

KABUL: : Suspected Taliban militants on Sunday shot dead a leading Islamic cleric in southern Afghanistan, an official said.

Maulvi Abdullah Fayyaz, chief of Kandahar's Islamic Council, was killed in front of his office by unidentified gunmen, deputy police chief General Mohamed Salim said. Maulvi Fayyaz was a top Islamic cleric in Kandahar province. He was known as a close supporter of President Hamid Karzai.

A purported spokesman of the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call from an unknown location.

Gunmen kill 11

Meanwhile, gunmen fired at a vehicle in eastern Afghanistan, killing 11 civilians in what was believed to be a personal dispute, officials said on Sunday. The shooting occurred in Kunar province on Friday, said Dad Mohammed Rasa, an official at the Ministry of Interior in the capital, Kabul. He said police were investigating the killing and no one had been arrested.

Video of hostage

A private television station in Afghanistan on Sunday aired a brief video showing an Italian aid worker kidnapped 13 days ago.

The video broadcast by Tolo TV showed Clementina Cantoni (32), in a sitting position wrapped in a blanket. Two armed men with their faces covered pointed guns at her head.

``I am Clementina and today is 28,'' Ms. Cantoni said on the video.

She was dragged from her car by armed gunmen on May 16 in Kabul. The identity of the suspected kidnappers remained hazy after various media organisations have received conflicting demands for Ms. Cantoni's release. —

AP/AGENCIES

Twelve civilians were killed after unknown assailants opened fire on them in eastern Afghanistan's Kunar province, the provincial governor said(AFP/File/Shah Marai)

A private television station in Afghanistan aired a brief video showing an Italian aid worker kidnapped 13 days ago(AFP/Shah Marai)

An Afghan former fighter lays down his weapons before handing them over to U.N. personnel as part of the nationwide Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration program (DDR) in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, May 29, 2005. Since the beginning of the DDR 57,000 militiamen have been disarmed in the country in a program that is expected to end in June. (AP Photo/Tomas Munita)

Afghans former fighters have lunch during the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration program (DDR), before handing over their weapons to U.N. personnel in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, May 29, 2005. Since the beginning of the DDR 57,000 militiamen have been disarmed in the country in a program that is expected to end in June. (AP Photo/Tomas Munita)

The dead body of a top Afghan Muslim cleric Mullah Abdul Fayaz, lays at the mortuary of a local hospital in Kandahar, Afghanistan on Sunday, May 29, 2005. Gunmen Sunday shot and killed the top Muslim leader in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province, a week after he led a call for people not to support Taliban rebels, police said. (AP Photo/Noor Khan)

Army Maj. Paul Suskie of North Little Rock, Ark., is shown in this photo he provided, just before he departed the remote Paktika Province of Afghanistan for the capital, Kabul, on April 3, 2005. Suskie faced a simple choice - whether to take a helicopter flight out of a remote part of Afghanistan on April 3 or on the 6th. He took the earlier flight and the second one crashed, killing 18 people. Suskie says his decision will haunt him for the rest of his life, but believes the experience of losing two friends in the crash has made him appreciate the importance of Memorial Day. (AP Photo/Paul Suskie

Army Maj. Edward J. Murphy, 36, of Mount Pleasant, S.C is seen in this photo taken April 3, 2005, provided by Maj. Paul Suskie of North Little Rock, Ark., as Suskie was leaving the remote Paktika Province for Kabul, Afghanistan. Murphy died April 6, 2005, when his Chinook helicopter crashed in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Paul Suskie)

Army Spc. Sascha Struble, 20, of Philadelphia, N.Y., is shown April 3, 2005, in Paktika Province, Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border in this photo made available by Maj. Paul Suskie of North Little Rock, Ark. Struble was killed along with 17 others on April 6 when his Chinook helicopter crashed. (AP Photo/Maj. Paul Suskie)

White House conducting counterterrorism review

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration is conducting an internal review of its global war on terrorism strategy as it tries to adjust to changes in the al Qaeda network and from other militant threats, administration officials said on Sunday.

U.S. forces have killed and captured key members of al Qaeda since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but the network's leader, Osama bin Laden, has not been found.

"We are constantly looking at ways to strengthen our global counterterrorism strategy. ... That is what an interagency review is all about," said Frederick Jones, spokesman for the White House National Security Council.

White House officials declined to say what specific policy changes would come out of the high-level review, first reported by the Washington Post in Sunday's edition.

The Post said the review was aimed at moving away from a policy that has stressed efforts to capture and kill al Qaeda leaders, and toward what a senior official called a broader "strategy against violent extremism."

Frances Townsend, President Bush's top adviser on terrorism, told the Washington Post in an interview that the review was needed to take into account the "ripple effect" from years of operations targeting known al Qaeda leaders linked to the Sept. 11 attacks.

"Naturally, the enemy has adapted," she was quoted saying. "As you capture a Khalid Sheik Mohammed, an Abu Faraj al-Libbi raises up. Nature abhors a vacuum."

The newspaper said much attention is focused on how to deal with a new generation of terrorists schooled in Iraq, including jihadists who have since moved to other countries across the Middle East and Western Europe.

Bush last week credited counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan and Iraq with putting key al Qaeda leaders "on the run, and now they spend their days avoiding capture."

U.S. officials said an Internet posting on Web sites used by Iraqi insurgents said last week that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the group's leader in Iraq, had been wounded was credible. However, the group said Zarqawi was now leading a new Iraqi offensive.

On CBS's "Face the Nation" Sunday, U.S. Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff added, "getting him (Zarqawi) probably won't stop this jihad movement. The al Qaeda will put somebody else into the breach."

The review could lead to a new national security presidential directive, superseding the one issue shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, that promised "the elimination of terrorism as a threat to our way of life," the Post said.

"It is aimed at making sure we are doing everything we can to protect the American people from those who seek to do us harm," Jones said.

Explosion shakes NATO headquarters in Kabul

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - An explosion shook the headquarters of NATO's 8,000-strong security force in the Afghan capital on Monday, but there were no immediate reports of injuries, a spokeswoman for the force said.

The blast occurred "in the vicinity'' of the International Security Assistance Force compound, said Lt. Col. Karen Tissot Van Patot.

She said officers were investigating the cause of the explosion.

An Afghan police officer outside the compound, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a rocket had hit inside the heavily fortified base, which is near the U.S. Embassy and other diplomatic missions in central Kabul.

Sirens wailed across the city for about 30 minutes after the blast.

After a winter lull, loyalists of Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime and other militants opposed to President Hamid Karzai's U.S.-backed government have ramped up their insurgency with a series of bombings and other attacks.

U.S.-led coalition forces and Afghan troops have hit back hard, killing nearly 200 suspected insurgents and capturing dozens since March. - AP

The Taleban may be gone, but the abuse of women goes on

JEREMY LOVELL

WOMEN are raped, murdered and abused with impunity all over Afghanistan, despite the overthrow of the Taleban that was supposed to have ushered in a new era of rights for women, Amnesty International says in a new report.

The London-based human rights group said entrenched feudal customs meant Afghan men often treated women as chattels who could be abused at will without fear of official retribution.

"Throughout the country, few women are exempt from violence or safe from the threat of it," the Amnesty report said.

"Husbands, brothers and fathers remain the main perpetrators of violence in the home but the social control and the power that they exercise is reinforced by both state authorities and informal justice systems," it added.

Nooria Haqnagar, a spokeswoman for Afghanistan's ministry of women's affairs, acknowledged that abuse was still rife. "In some remote areas, men deal with women like animals," she said.

The report's author, Nazia Hussein, who travelled all over the country conducting interviews, said it was shame that matters had not improved since the United States-led war which ousted the Taleban in late 2001.

"A lot of women told us they had hoped things would change rapidly for the better after the overthrow of the Taleban, so there is a sense of disappointment," she said.

"But on education, employment and security there is a feeling that, generally, things have not improved ... and in some cases have got worse."

Ms Hussein cited the case of one woman in an arranged marriage, whose husband beat her from the wedding night onwards and through two pregnancies and who eventually ran away to her parents' home but was forced to return because of family pride.

Attempts to talk to men - including government officials - revealed at best, verbal concern but no action, and at worst, the attitude that it was not a problem.

"It is about tribes and codes of conduct based on age-old customs, not religion," she said. "It is really, really important that this issue is flagged up - especially in terms of donor states."

She said there were glimmers of hope, with women entering politics and starting to make their voices heard - at least in some urban areas.

But in the outlying rural areas there was evidence the situation had worsened.

The report said violence against women was openly tolerated and it was vital that the authorities stepped in to protect women - not only from agents of the state but also private individuals and groups.

"Reform of the criminal justice system is integral to the protection of all Afghan women and it is the responsibility of the state to provide legal safeguards," it said.

Amnesty urged the Afghan government to publicly condemn violence against women and to promote education to transform customs that treated women as an underclass.

Sun May 29, 9:04 PM ET - Iraqi soldier stop vehicles at a checkpoint along a highway leading south out of Baghdad. Iraq unveiled a security plan for Baghdad called Operation Lightning involving some 40,000 soldiers and police, after a sharp escalation of attacks that has seen more than 650 people killed this month alone since the formation of the new government.(AFP/Ahmad al-Rubaye)

Ahmad Ayubi and his wife, Mazari, carry their daughters, ages 6 and 14 months, to a Muslim shrine to pray for a cure for the brain disorder that already killed two of their eight children. Photo Credit: By N.c. Aizenman -- The Washington Post Photo

In Afghanistan, New Misgivings About an Old but Risky Practice

Marriage Between First Cousins Tied to High Rate of Congenital Disorders

By N.C. Aizenman
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, April 17, 2005; Page A16

KABUL, Afghanistan -- By local standards, they were an ideal match: first cousins, raised in the same house since birth, and, within a year of their marriage, the proud parents of a plump baby boy.

But not long after their son's first birthday, Ahmad and Mazari Ayubi noticed that little Masi's head was starting to wobble. By the time he was 2, the boy was paralyzed from the neck down and mentally retarded, and Mazari began to suspect what the doctors would later confirm:

"It's because [Ahmad] and I are related that this happened," she said sadly, as she cradled the youngest of three more children born with the same disorder. "Perhaps it is better for cousins not to marry."

Such doubts are the first hairline cracks in what remains a bedrock tradition in Afghanistan. Although statistics on the prevalence of marriage between first cousins in the country are not available, anecdotal evidence from health workers, government officials and Afghan families suggests the practice is widespread and deeply ingrained.

"There is a saying in our country that a marriage between cousins is the most righteous because the engagement was made in heaven," said M. Marouf Sameh, chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Kabul's Rabia Balkhi Women's Hospital.

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British to assault Taliban stronghold

Commander warns that peace-enforcing task in Afghanistan could occupy troops 'for a generation'

Martin Bentham in Kabul
Sunday May 29, 2005
The Observer

Hundreds of British soldiers are to be sent to fight the Taliban in their heartland of southern Afghanistan under plans drawn up by military chiefs to bolster the authority of President Hamid Karzai's fledgling government. At least 1,000 soldiers will be deployed to help restore order across five of Afghanistan's most lawless provinces as part of an expansion of Nato operations. At the same time, Britain's commanding officer in Afghanistan admitted that it will be 'years', possibly 'a generation', before Britain will be able to leave the country.

The provinces include Uruzgan, home of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, and Kandahar, the former Taliban stronghold. The area is where resistance to the West and the government in Kabul remains a threat and where only last weekend a US soldier was killed and three injured in a Taliban attack.

The deployment, which will take place next spring, will mark a significant extension of Britain's role in Afghanistan and prompt concerns over the level of UK military commitments overseas, especially while the conflict in Iraq continues.

So far British troops have been deployed principally in the capital, Kabul, and in the largely peaceful northern cities of Mazar-e-Sharif and Meymaneh. The south, by contrast, has remained largely beyond the control of Karzai's government and has been patrolled only sporadically by US troops seeking Taliban and al-Qaeda remnants. There have been a number of clashes, leading to American fatalities, as well as attacks on aid workers, who now regard much of the region as a 'no-go' area.

Although an official announcement of the plan to send British troops to the south has yet to be made, Colonel James Denny, commander of British forces in Afghanistan, told The Observer that a decision would be announced next month. He said the move would require British troops to engage in 'peace-enforcing rather than peace-keeping'.

'We are looking at a series of options,' Denny said at the British headquarters in Kabul. 'We are looking at moving into the southern region - Nimruz, Helmand, Kandahar and Zabul provinces. The threat from the Taliban and al-Qaeda is higher there than in the north, so we may have to change our rules of engagement - to move to a more aggressive posture.'

Denny said the provinces posed numerous challenges. There is only one metalled road, communications were difficult and the heat in the summer was more intense than in the north. The area is populated largely by Pashtun tribes - the Taliban's principal supporters - whose beliefs, codes of honour and general way of life differ significantly from those of the population in the areas where British troops operate now.

'It's going to be challenging and an interesting environment, but it is certainly possible to achieve success,' he added. 'We've achieved success in the north and there's no reason why we shouldn't be successful in the south.'

Denny also warned that there was no swift exit for Britain from Afghanistan, despite last year's election of Karzai and the growing capabilities of the Afghan forces.

'Afghanistan has a history as being difficult to govern. There has always been a degree of lawlessness, not just for the past 30 years but for 300 or 400 years. What we have to do is to build the capability of the Afghan forces to deal with that and allow Nato and coalition forces to withdraw. It could be a generation,' he said.

Colonel Huw Lawford, a British officer working for Nato, said the coming mission would be vital: 'You will not be going out in Land Rovers, you will be going out in armed Warrior vehicles, and you will not be walking around in a beret, you will be going out in a tin hat, with a rifle and body armour.'

Iraq's Zarqawi not in Iran, says official

Sun May 29, 7:00 AM ET

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran denied on Sunday a British newspaper report that al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had fled to the Islamic republic after being seriously injured in a U.S. missile attack.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said the report in the Sunday Times newspaper was without foundation.

"This is an unprofessional kind of fabricating news," Asefi told a weekly news conference. "Iran is a clear and transparent country, where such covert activities do not take place."

Quoting a senior insurgency commander in Iraq, the Sunday Times said Zarqawi had shrapnel lodged in his chest and may have been moved to Iran. It said his supporters might try to move the Jordanian-born militant to another country for an operation.

Zarqawi, accused of masterminding suicide bombings, ambushes and assassinations in Iraq, was wounded three weeks ago when a U.S. missile hit his convoy near the northwestern Iraqi city of al Qaim, the Sunday Times quoted the unnamed source as saying.

Washington has offered a $25 million bounty for Zarqawi.

The United States has accused Iran of harboring al Qaeda militants who escaped Afghanistan after U.S. troops invaded in late 2001 following the Sept. 11 attacks.

Tehran acknowledges that al Qaeda members have managed to cross its long and hard-to-police borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan. But it denies providing safe-haven to al Qaeda members and has extradited scores of suspected militants who have fled to Iran in the last four years.

Premier's Offer of Talks With Basque Group Roils Spain

By RENWICK McLEAN

May 29, 2005

MADRID, May 28 - The Basque militant group ETA may be weakening, but any discussion over its possible demise is dividing Spain to a degree that its attacks rarely have.

Two weeks ago, Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero won parliamentary backing for a proposal to negotiate with the group if it would renounce violence.

The government said the future of ETA was bleak enough that it might be persuaded to disband if offered a chance to negotiate small concessions from Madrid, like the return of imprisoned ETA members to Basque jails.

But the proposal has drawn sharp criticism from the families of victims of ETA bombings, as well as from scholars and editorial writers, and has driven a wedge between the major parties on an issue once considered exempt from partisan politics: the fight against ETA.

Members of the main opposition group in Parliament, the Popular Party, have attacked Mr. Zapatero's proposal as tantamount to appeasing terrorists.

The only way to defeat ETA, the opposition party says, is to crush it using all the powers available to Spain's law enforcement agencies.

But members of Mr. Zapatero's Socialist Party say an offer of dialogue contingent on the renunciation of violence may bring a quicker and more peaceful solution. They also contend that Spanish law enforcement agencies could be reaching the limits of their success against ETA, and that persuasion may be the only way to strike the final blow.

The government says the proposal is its own initiative, but there has been speculation on editorial pages here that it is rather a response to an overture from ETA, an assertion government officials deny.

"There is no type of contact, nor any messenger from the government to contact anyone," the deputy prime minister, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, said Friday at her weekly news conference.

ETA, which are the initials for Homeland and Liberty in the Basque language, has killed more than 800 people since 1968 in its campaign to establish an independent Basque state encompassing sections of northern Spain and southern France.

Although the group continues to carry out bombings, including four in the past two weeks that wounded several people, it has not carried out a fatal attack in two years.

A long-term effort by the police to infiltrate ETA has been successful, officials said, weakening the group psychologically and organizationally. In addition, the scar of the March 11, 2004, Madrid train bombings, for which the previous government at first blamed ETA, has added to public revulsion at terrorist attacks of any origin.

Mr. Zapatero would not be the first Spanish prime minister to try negotiating with the group. The government of his predecessor, José María Aznar of the Popular Party, met with the group in 1998 and 1999 after ETA called a cease-fire. In 1989, Prime Minister Felipe González, a Socialist, also authorized talks. None of those meetings produced an agreement.

Despite these failures, some scholars say that Mr. Zapatero is right to offer dialogue once again.

Some scholars contend that Mr. Zapatero has fallen into a trap set by ETA, which they say has been giving false signals that it is willing to disband in order to set off political divisions over how to manage the peace.

Even if that was not ETA's intention, it appears to have been the result. Several groups that represent victims of terrorist violence are planning a march in Madrid on June 4 to protest the government's offer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/29/international/europe/29spain.html

Members of the Iraqi counter-terrorism force, the elite of the Iraqi army, shoot at a target using US M-4 rifles at a training camp west Baghdad. With four death sentences handed down within the space of days, judicial executions are set to return to Iraq where the authorities are desperate for a deterrent to halt rampant insurgent attacks.(AFP/Karim Sahib)

Death penalty returns to Iraq, with a vengeance

Sun May 29, 6:36 PM ET

BAGHDAD (AFP) - With four death sentences handed down within the space of days, judicial executions are set to return to Iraq where the authorities are desperate for a deterrent to halt rampant insurgent attacks.

Seven convicted Iraqi criminals and insurgents are currently on death row and although the sentences have yet to be carried out, the interior ministry have vowed that the first hangings will take place next month.

While the looming prospect of executions is worrying human rights groups, the government insists it has no alternative. "We must maintain order and dissuade criminals and terrorists," said government spokesman Leith Kubba.

The death sentence was widely practised under now imprisoned former dictator Saddam Hussein, who himself could face the death penalty if he is ultimately found guilty of charges of crimes against humanity.

Capital punishment was suspended by the former US military commander in Iraq, General Tommy Franks, soon after the invasion, before being reinstated in June last year by the unelected interim Iraqi government.

Three common law criminals were sentenced to death in Karbala, southern Iraq, a month later for the murder of relatives, but the sentences have yet to be carried out.

On May 21 however, Interior Minister Bayan Baqer Solagh ended uncertainty over the use of the death penalty when he said it was "still applicable" and would be rigorously applied.

Since Iraq's first elected government took office in late March, judges have ordered that four men be executed for their crimes.

The day after Solagh's declaration, a special criminal court sentenced three rebels to death for rape, kidnapping and murder, the insurgents sent to death row.

Members of the public attending the trial applauded the sentences and shouted "Long live justice".

And on Wednesday, an Iraqi army captain who served under Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death for killing police and soldiers in insurgent attacks.

The first sentences would be carried out "in the next 10 days", the court said, but no one has been executed yet despite heightened public expectation.

"This is what most Iraqis want," said Kubba.

With insurgent attacks this month having claimed more than 650 lives, the government has the backing of the people -- the main victims of insurgent violence -- to do whatever it takes to stop the violence.

According to a poll conducted by the US International Republican Institute published earlier this month, 60 percent of Iraqis want the nation's constitution, currently being drawn up by lawmakers, to mention "extensive use of the death penalty".

Only 29 percent oppose capital punishment being enshrined in the constitution.

"It is very difficult for Iraqis to live in such a situation of insecurity," said lawyer Nizar al-Sammarai.

"For the time being, we need something to stop (the violence) and that's the death penalty."

Yet research has shown that the death penalty does not act as a deterrent, and is especially unlikely to in Iraq where almost daily suicide bombings testify to a ready supply of people prepared to die for their cause.

"It shouldn't be applied to all criminals, only those who carry out (insurgent) attacks," tempers Abdel Majid al-Sabawi, a professor of constitutional law who wants capital punishment to be repealed once peace is restored.

"The death penalty alone is not enough," he said. "The government must also apply stringent security and political measures."

In addition, Sabawi fears that innocent men may be executed because of failures within the new justice system.

While few Iraqis speak out against the use of the death penalty, foreign rights groups regularly lobby for a moratorium.

"We have written to the government asking them not to apply this law and we call on them not to carry out the sentences already passed," said Amnesty International's Said Boumedouha.

"We are worried about the way in which trials are carried out," he said, slamming such programmes as Iraqiya television's "Terrorists in the Grip of Justice" in which alleged militants confess their crimes, often bearing signs of beatings.

"I recognise that Iraq is faced with serious security problems and that the population has a wish for revenge," said Human Rights Watch's Joe Stork.

"But human rights cannot be decided by public opinion."

Gunmen kill anti-Taliban cleric in Afghan south

Mawlavi Abdullah Fayaz was gunned down by two armed men riding a motorcycle as he was leaving his office in the heart of Kandahar city Sunday May 29, 2005.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Richard Myers rides his motorcycle with his wife Mary Jo across Memorial Bridge along with thousands of other bikers during the annual Rolling Thunder memorial ride in Washington Sunday, May 29, 2005. The Rolling Thunder event, coinciding with the Memorial Day weekend, has been focusing attention on POW-MIA issues since 1988. Riders also advocate for veterans' rights. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Riders Gather for Rolling Thunder Tribute to Veterans

The early morning sun glistened off the Vietnam veteran pins on Paul Sirks' blue denim jacket as he waited for the Metro at the New Carrollton, Md., station this morning.

i-Newswire, 2005-05-29 - The 20-year Army veteran, who served in Vietnam during 1965, 1966 and "a little bit of '67," and his friend Diana Plummer, who also sported a blue denim jacket with Vietnam pins and American flags, were on their way to support those riding in the "Rolling Thunder" tribute in Washington.

Sirks and Plummer are members of the Harley Owners Group Chapter in Annapolis, Md. Originally from Ohio, this is the third year Sirks and Plummer have participated in Rolling Thunder, which pays tribute to those killed in Vietnam and remembers those missing from all conflicts. They said they participated in last year's Rolling Thunder but opted to watch from the sidelines this year. Their chapter will have about 400 riding from the Pentagon across the Memorial Bridge to the National Mall's Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

"It feels good to be part of the ride," said Sirks, who voluntarily enlisted in the Army. "There's nothing like it. But, you don't get to see all the bikes."

Plummer said she sees the changes in her friend's face as the day progresses.

"He's lucky to be here," she said, referring to wounds that earned Sirks three Purple Heart medals.

Sirks' eyes teared as he talked about the friendships that combat creates.

"Some came back; some didn't. I'll see them today," he said as he wiped his eyes.

The Army veteran said patriotism is important and that the big story with Rolling Thunder is the people who travel across the country to participate. Each year since the rally was first held in 1988, the number of riders has grown. Last year, an estimated 400,000 motorcycles made the ride.

In preparation for his part in Rolling Thunder, Vietnam veteran Richard "Poncho" Pontious took his motor home from Las Vegas to Ohio and got a "couple of days rest" before heading to Ontario, Calif., to join up with a group that was riding from there. They started their journey May 18 and rode anywhere from 127 to 400 miles a day to reach the rallying point in the Pentagon's North Parking lot.

On days they didn't rack up the mileage, the bikers stopped at schools and told their stories to children. One such stop was in West Virginia. The children, said Pontious, had held events to raise money to pay for the bikers' lunches. "They put on a show ( for us )," he added. "It was outstanding. I can't wait to do it again next year."

This year's ride took on a special significance for Pontious. Fellow rider and Vietnam veteran Tom "Ghost" Titus lost his son, Army Spc. Brandon T. Titus of the 10th Mountain Division, last August during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

This ride, said Pontious, was in memory of Brandon. "It's important to not let anyone forget all the men and women who give their lives for the freedoms in this country," added the Purple Heart recipient. "A lot of people paid the maximum and shouldn't be forgotten. There are people who will never know the cost.

"They just don't know," he said as talked about sharing a bunker with someone one minute and having that person gone the next. "We need to work our way to a war-free world," he added as he wiped tears from his eyes.

Although they're not veterans, Barb and Rich Smerkar of Greensburg, Pa., said they strongly support the efforts of Rolling Thunder and that's why they ride.

Barb said they normally don't take their bikes out when it's raining, but they braved a downpour at their home May 27 to get here on time to ride from the Pentagon to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. "It's just that important to us," she added.

"It's important to support the veterans and those serving today and appreciate what they do for us," said Rich. "We take a lot for granted."

"If not for them," added Barb, "we wouldn't be sitting here today."

By K.L. Vantrtan
American Forces Press Service

A biker stands guard as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, rear, speaks during the annual Rolling Thunder memorial ride at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington Sunday, May 29, 2005. The Rolling Thunder event, coinciding with the Memorial Day weekend, has been focusing attention on POW-MIA issues since 1988. Riders also advocate for veterans' rights. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Rumsfeld, Myers Join Bikers Saluting Vets

WASHINGTON - Thousands of motorcycles rolled down the streets of the nation's capital Sunday in a rally organized by Rolling Thunder, a biker group that supports veterans' rights.

The group has been staging the rally on Memorial Day weekend since 1988 to focus attention on POW-MIA issues.

Many of the bikers took part in the annual memorial ride from Arlington National Cemetery to the National Vietnam War Memorial before heading to the Lincoln Memorial.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard Myers, and his wife joined the thousands of bikers riding through Washington.

Later in the day, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld gave a speech to members of Rolling Thunder near the Lincoln Memorial. He thanked the veterans' commitment to the cause of freedom.

In a photo provided by the Lincoln Highway National Museum, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld poses with an unidentified Vietnam veteran after making a speech at the Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial, Sunday, May 29, 2005, in Washington. This is the 18th year for Rolling Thunder, which started in 1987 and brings thousands of bikers each year from across the country to celebrate Memorial Day at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, honoring veterans and POW/MIA's from all wars. (AP Photo/Lincoln Highway National Museum, Craig Harmon)

U.S. Air Force General Richard Myers (2nd R), Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, walks with his wife Mary Jo Myers (C) and Rolling Thunder founder Artie Muller (L) at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, May 29, 2005. Gen. Myers led thousands of Rolling Thunder motorcycle riders into Washington for their annual rally for veterans. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, center, is surrounded by bikers before speaking during the annual Rolling Thunder memorial ride at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Sunday, May 29, 2005. The Rolling Thunder event, coinciding with the Memorial Day weekend, has been focusing attention on POW-MIA issues since 1988. Riders also advocate for veterans' rights. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

U.S. Air Force General Richard Myers (C), Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and his wife Mary Jo Myers (R) accept memorial baseball-style cards from Carolyn Maupin (L), mother of missing U.S. Army Sgt. Matt Maupin, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, May 29, 2005. Maupin, who was taking part in a Rolling Thunder Memorial Day biker rally, said her son was captured in fighting outside of Baghdad, Iraq, on April 9, 2004. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

British troops on patrol in the southern town of Basra in Iraq Sunday, May 29, 2005. A British soldier was killed Sunday and others injured when a British military convoy came under attack in the Kahla area, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Amarah, 290 kilometers (180 miles) southeast of Baghdad. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani) Email Photo Print Photo

British Soldier Killed, Others Injured in Iraq Attack (Update2)

May 29 (Bloomberg) -- An attack on a British unit near Al Amarah in Iraq killed one person and injured others, a spokesman for the U.K.'s Ministry of Defence in London said today.

The attack against task force Maysan occurred at about 9 a.m. Iraqi time, as the soldiers were on their way to a meeting with Iraqi security forces, the spokesman said. The incident, which is under investigation, appears to have been the result of an explosion, he said. He declined to provide further details.

In Baghdad, two people were killed and six others wounded in a suicide car bomb attack near the oil ministry today, Agence France-Presse reported, citing an unidentified interior ministry source. In western Baghdad, a car bomb killed three people and injured 20, AFP reported.

Also today, nine Iraqi soldiers were killed and three wounded by a car bomb at an army roadblock, AFP reported, citing an unidentified Iraqi Defense Ministry official.

In this photo provided by the Palm Beach Sheriff's Department, shown is Rafiq Abdus Sabir, a Boca Raton, Fla., physician, date and location unknown. Sabir, and Tarik Shah, a self-described martial arts expert in New York, were both charged in Manhattan federal court with conspiring to provide material support to al-Qaida, according to the U.S. Attorney's office in the Southern District of New York. (AP Photo/Palm Beach Sheriff's Department)

2 Accused of Conspiring to Aid Terrorists

NEW YORK - The FBI arrested a Florida doctor and a New York martial arts expert on federal terrorism charges, saying they conspired to treat and train terrorists, federal prosecutors announced Sunday.

Rafiq Abdus Sabir, a Boca Raton physician, and Tarik Shah, a self-described martial arts expert in New York, were both charged in Manhattan federal court with conspiring to provide material support to al-Qaida, according to the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York.

Both men are American citizens.

Prosecutors said Sabir agreed to treat jihadists, or holy warriors, in Saudi Arabia. Shah agreed to train them in hand-to-hand combat.

The one-count complaint details a sting operation from 2003 to 2005 in which the two men took an oath pledging their allegiance to al-Qaida.

Sabir was arrested Saturday and was held at the Palm Beach County Jail. It was not immediately known where Shah was being held.

Both men were scheduled to be arraigned in federal court on Tuesday, Shah in New York and Sabir in Florida.

FBI Arrests Two With Alleged Ties To Al Qaeda

UPDATED: 9:36 pm EDT May 29, 2005

NEW YORK -- Prosecutors are expected to announce charges against two men with New York ties who they say wanted to help the Al Qaeda terror network, according to a report on WNBC-TV in New York.

Law enforcement officials identified one of the suspects as Dr. Rafiq Abdus Sabir.

FBI agents arrested Sabir at his home in Palm Beach County, Florida over the weekend.

Officials said his arrest is the result of an ongoing terror-related investigation in New York. Investigators said Sabir and another man in New York, Terik Shah allegedly pledged support for Al Qaeda and offered to help them in New York and overseas with Jihaddist activities.

Shah is a martial arts expert and may have offered his expertise to help train terrorists, investigators said.

Investigators would not say who the men were in contact with overseas, but officials said the two men were caught with the help of an informant.

Spokesmen for the New York Police Department and FBI declined comment, but investigators told WNBC that charges against Sabir and Shah are expected to be announced this week and will include material support for terrorism.

Attempts to reach Sabir's relatives in New York were unsuccessful.

Records indicate Sabir received his medical training at Columbia University.

He worked at several area hospitals in New York before moving to Florida where investigators apparently became concerned about some of his alleged ties to terror.

Shah was already in custody before Sunday's announcement.

Investigators said their alleged ties to Al Qaeda were well under way when their informant learned of the alleged plot.

Anti-Missile Tests Set For Airliners

Device would disable shoulderfired weapons before they hit.

By ERIC LIPTON

The New York Times

In an airplane hangar north of Fort Worth, Texas, technicians are preparing to mount a fire-hydrant-shaped device onto the belly of an American Airlines Boeing 767. It is an effort that could soon turn into a more than $10 billion project to install a high-tech missile defense system on the nation's commercial planes.

The Boeing 767 -- the same type of plane that terrorists flew into the World Trade Center -- is one of three planes that, by the end of this year, will be used to test the infrared laser-based systems designed to find and disable shoulder-fired missiles. The missiles have long been popular among terrorists and rebel groups in war zones around the world; the concern now is that they could become a domestic threat.

The tests are being financed by the Department of Homeland Security, which has been directed by Congress to move rapidly to take technology designed for military aircraft and adapt it so it can protect the nation's 6,800 commercial jets. It has so far invested $120 million in the testing effort, which is expected to last through next year.

Yet even before the tests begin, some members of Congress, and several prominent aviation and terrorism experts, are questioning whether the rush to deploy this expensive new anti-terrorism system makes sense.

Homeland Security officials have repeatedly cautioned that no credible evidence exists of a planned missile attack in the United States. But there is near unanimity among national security experts and lawmakers that because of the relatively low price and small size of the missiles -- the most popular of which are U.S.-made Stingers and Soviet-made SA-7s -- and the large number of them available on the black market, they represent a legitimate domestic threat.

The concern is not just for the lives that would be lost in the shoot-down of a single plane, proponents say. It is for the enormous economic consequences that would result if the public were to lose confidence in flying.

"We are long overdue for a passenger aircraft to be taken down by a shoulder-launched missile," said Rep. John L. Mica, R-Fla., who is pushing for the systems to be installed. "We have been extremely, extremely lucky."

But a significant contingent of domestic security experts, citing the broad range of ways that terrorists might strike next and noting studies that show that shoulder-fired missiles present less of a threat at airports than do truck bombs or luggage bombs, say the administration's focus on these missiles may be misdirected.

"People have probably assumed that these kinds of weapons would work with much greater certainty," said K. Jack Riley, the director of the public safety and justice program at the Rand Corp., a nonprofit research organization that has studied threats from shoulder-mounted missiles. "This is not as big a threat as people might think."

ATTACKS PROMPT URGENCY

Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems are competing to build the devices, which rely on plane-mounted sensors that detect heat-seeking missiles and then automatically fire infrared lasers to jam or confuse the missiles' guidance systems. The defense would be used for about a 50mile area around airports, while planes land or take off.

The American Airlines Boeing 767 and two jets owned by Northwest Airlines and FedEx will be tested to determine whether they remain as airworthy with the new technology aboard and to figure out if, in simulated attacks, the defense system is reliable. For now, no passengers will be aboard.

Shoulder-fired missiles were introduced by the Americans and the Soviets in the 1960s to protect ground forces. A recent congressional study found that more than 350,000 exist in the arsenals of governments worldwide. But they also are a favorite of rebel groups and terrorists. At about 6 feet long and 50 pounds, they are easy to transport, and older models can cost only a few hundred dollars.

Calls for putting the defense systems on commercial planes took on new urgency in 2002. That year, two missiles were fired at a Boeing 757 in Kenya that had been chartered by an Israeli airline. Both missed.

And in November 2004, an Airbus A300 cargo plane flown by DHL was struck by a missile on takeoff from the Baghdad airport. The plane lost hydraulic power but was able to land.

"This is one of the greatest dangers we face in the air," said Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., who has helped lead the push in the Senate for the deployment of missile defense systems.

Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems have briefed members of Congress, urging them to invest in the systems, and Northrop has commissioned a poll in an effort to demonstrate public support for the program. One Northrop briefing featured photographs of men in long, loose robes taking a missile launcher out of a car and firing a round into the air.

SEEKING TO LOWER COSTS

As the tests proceed, Homeland Security officials are looking for ways to lower the price tag. It has been estimated that it could cost $10 billion to install the systems on all commercial jets and as much as $40 billion over the next two decades, once maintenance and operational costs are added in. By comparison, the entire budget proposed for aviation security in the United States is $4.7 billion for the coming fiscal year.

Homeland Security has asked BAE and Northrop Grumman to design systems that would cost no more than $1 million per plane, rather than the roughly $1.6 million some industry experts had expected. And the devices must work without need of repair for 3,000 hours, instead of the 300 hours required for military jets, according to specifications set by Homeland Security.

But even if the contractors can lower the costs, airline industry representatives and some terrorism experts say the price is hard to defend.

Thanks for your postings. In the first in this seriew you sent:
"Iran is a clear and transparent country, where such covert activities do not take place.”

WHAT A RIOT! Haw haw haw! They must have hired Baggy Dad Bob! Meanwhile the jerks are moving all the nuclear faciities into super deep bedrock underground facilities. Transparent.
Hardy hard hard haw haw.

Hopefully Operation Lightning shall be a long drawn out affair, at least a month long or more. Then repeated again and again. Branching out to the southern sector of the triangle of death area and north to Baquaba, Balad etc..
Meanwhile our Marines are keeping up the pressure on the west side of the Euphrates from Al Ramadi up to Syria.

"At least I found out that I am not the only one in the neighborhood having problems."
I should have bet you a dime on that one. The problem is in a DSL junction box somewhere. e.g. where all the DSL lines meet to then get amplified if requierd to keep signal levels up, and then routed elsewhere depending on type phone/cable services you have in your area. Someone screwed up or there is a bad terminal panel at that box. Hope they find it soon.

Bump

I forgot to follow up on your "go granny go" comment last night :)

a 72-year-old grandmother, is currently on a solo expedition aboard her sailing vessel USSV Dharma.

Go granny go!!

CLICK HERE :)