Operation Phantom Fury--Day 270 - Now Operations River Blitz; Matador--Day 165

Various Media Outlets | 8/4/05

[TexKat]

This image made from an undated video broadcast Thursday, Aug. 4, 2005 on pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera, shows al-Qaida's Ayman al-Zawahri speaking Kalashnikov rifle propped up behind him at an undisclosed location. In the video, al-Zawahri threatened more destruction in London, saying British Prime Minister Tony Blair would be to blame. (AP Photo /Al-Jazeera via APTN)

Al Qaeda video warns Brits of more attacks

DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's second in command Ayman al-Zawahri warned Britons in a video aired on Thursday that Prime Minister Tony Blair's policies will bring more destruction to London.

He also warned the United States that al Qaeda will continue to launch deadly attacks until U.S. troops quit all Muslim countries.

"Blair's policies brought you destruction in central London and will bring you more destruction...," Zawahri, Osama bin Laden's deputy, said in a tape aired by Al Jazeera television.

"What you have seen in New York, Washington and Afghanistan, are only the initial losses and if you (United States) continue the same hostile policies you will see what will make you forget those horrors," he said in reference to the Sept. 11 attacks.

He said bin Laden had offered a truce to Western countries asking them to pull out their armies from Iraq and Afghanistan in order to live in peace.

"To the people of the crusader coalition ... our blessed Sheikh Osama has offered you a truce so that you leave Muslim land. As he said you will not dream of security until we live it as a reality in Palestine and until all your infidel armies leave Prophet Mohammad's lands," he said.

"Our message to you is clear, strong and final: There will be no salvation until you withdraw from our land, stop stealing our oil and resources and end support for infidel (Arab) rulers," Zawahri added.

[TexKat]

Video: al-Qaida Vows More Attacks Vs. West

By MAAMOUN YOUSSEF, Associated Press Writer

CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri threatened more destruction in London, saying in a videotape broadcast Thursday that British Prime Minister Tony Blair would be to blame.

Al-Zawahri also threatened the United States with tens of thousands of military dead if it does not withdraw its troops from Iraq immediately.

The tape, aired on the pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera, was delivered exactly one month after the July 7 bombings in London that killed 56 people, including four suicide attackers.

"Blair has brought to you destruction in central London, and he will bring more of that, God willing," al-Zawahri said in the tape, referring to the July 7 and July 21 attacks on London's subways and buses.

In London, Blair's Downing Street office declined to comment on the broadcast.

Al-Zawahri, an Egyptian doctor who merged his militant faction with that of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in the late 1990s, spoke with a Kalashnikov rifle propped up behind his right shoulder against a plain background.

He has been in hiding since the United States invaded Afghanistan in late 2001.

In the latest videotape, al-Zawahri warned the United States it could expect significantly more casualties from its military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"As for you, the Americans, what you have seen in New York and Washington, what losses that you see in Afghanistan and Iraq, despite the media blackout, is merely the losses of the initial clashes," he said, referring to the Sept. 11 attacks blamed on al-Qaida.

"If you go on with the same policy of aggression against Muslims, you will see, with God's will, what will make you forget the horrible things in Vietnam and Afghanistan."

He then addressed Americans, saying, "The truth that has been kept from you by (President) Bush, (Secretary of State Condoleezza) Rice and (Defense Secretary Donald H.) Rumsfeld is that there is no way out of Iraq without immediate withdrawal, and any delay on this means only more dead, more losses.

"If you don't leave today, certainly you will leave tomorrow, and after tens of thousands of dead, and double that figure in disabled and wounded."

Referring to the Western nations contributing troops to the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, he said: "As to the nations of the crusader alliance, we have offered you a truce if you leave the land of Islam.

"Hasn't Sheik Osama bin Laden told you that you will not dream of security before there is security in Palestine and before all the infidel armies withdraw from the land of Muhammad?" al-Zawahri added.

"Instead (of accepting the truce), you spilled blood like rivers in our countries and we exploded the volcanoes of wrath in your countries."

He did not name any countries apart from Britain, but he appeared to be referring to the terror attacks in Madrid, Spain, last year that were linked to al-Qaida.

"Our message is clear: you will not be safe until you withdraw from our land, stop stealing our oil and wealth and stop supporting the corrupt rulers," al-Zawahri said.

The tape showed al-Zawahri positioned in front of a woven cloth that moved with the wind and showed the sunlight, indicating it appeared to be made outdoors. He was wearing a white robe and a black turban and emphatically wagged his finger at the camera while speaking.

In June, Al-Jazeera broadcast a videotape of al-Zawahri disparaging the U.S. concept of reform in the Middle East and saying armed jihad was the only way to bring change in the Arab world.

[Gucho]

Video: al-Qaida Vows More Attacks Vs. West

August 4, 2005

By MAAMOUN YOUSSEF - Associated Press Writer

CAIRO, Egypt Al-Qaida deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri threatened more destruction in London, saying in a videotape broadcast Thursday that British Prime Minister Tony Blair would be to blame.

Al-Zawahri also threatened the United States with tens of thousands of military dead if it does not withdraw its troops from Iraq immediately.

The tape, aired on the pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera, was delivered exactly one month after the July 7 bombings in London that killed 56 people, including four suicide attackers.

"Blair has brought to you destruction in central London, and he will bring more of that, God willing," al-Zawahri said in the tape, referring to the July 7 and July 21 attacks on London's subways and buses.

In London, Blair's Downing Street office declined to comment on the broadcast.

Al-Zawahri, an Egyptian doctor who merged his militant faction with that of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in the late 1990s, spoke with a Kalashnikov rifle propped up behind his right shoulder against a plain background.

He has been in hiding since the United States invaded Afghanistan in late 2001.

In the latest videotape, al-Zawahri warned the United States it could expect significantly more casualties from its military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"As for you, the Americans, what you have seen in New York and Washington, what losses that you see in Afghanistan and Iraq, despite the media blackout, is merely the losses of the initial clashes," he said, referring to the Sept. 11 attacks blamed on al-Qaida.

"If you go on with the same policy of aggression against Muslims, you will see, with God's will, what will make you forget the horrible things in Vietnam and Afghanistan."

He then addressed Americans, saying, "The truth that has been kept from you by (President) Bush, (Secretary of State Condoleezza) Rice and (Defense Secretary Donald H.) Rumsfeld is that there is no way out of Iraq without immediate withdrawal, and any delay on this means only more dead, more losses.

"If you don't leave today, certainly you will leave tomorrow, and after tens of thousands of dead, and double that figure in disabled and wounded."

Referring to the Western nations contributing troops to the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, he said: "As to the nations of the crusader alliance, we have offered you a truce if you leave the land of Islam.

"Hasn't Sheik Osama bin Laden told you that you will not dream of security before there is security in Palestine and before all the infidel armies withdraw from the land of Muhammad?" al-Zawahri added.

"Instead (of accepting the truce), you spilled blood like rivers in our countries and we exploded the volcanoes of wrath in your countries."

He did not name any countries apart from Britain, but he appeared to be referring to the terror attacks in Madrid, Spain, last year that were linked to al-Qaida.

"Our message is clear: you will not be safe until you withdraw from our land, stop stealing our oil and wealth and stop supporting the corrupt rulers," al-Zawahri said.

The tape showed al-Zawahri positioned in front of a woven cloth that moved with the wind and showed the sunlight, indicating it appeared to be made outdoors. He was wearing a white robe and a black turban and emphatically wagged his finger at the camera while speaking.

In June, Al-Jazeera broadcast a videotape of al-Zawahri disparaging the U.S. concept of reform in the Middle East and saying armed jihad was the only way to bring change in the Arab world.

2005 Associated Press

[TexKat]

Iraqi leaders gear up to break constitution deadlock

Thu Aug 4, 5:28 AM ET

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi leaders prepared for a conference to try to break the deadlock on a draft constitution amid unabated violence that left 10 people dead, a day after 14 US marines were killed by rebels.

US President George W. Bush insisted that his troops would remain in Iraq until their mission is accomplished, despite heavy military losses, including Wednesday's attack, one of the deadliest against US forces since the war.

"The violence in recent days in Iraq is a grim reminder of the enemies we face," Bush said in a speech in Texas town.

Iraq was preparing on Thursday for a national conference to be held on Friday on the constitution, ahead of an August 15 deadline for a draft of the charter to be submitted to parliament.

"All the top leaders will take part" Mahmud Othman, a Kurdish member of the committee drafting the constitution told AFP. "They will try to find solutions to the problems still outstanding."

But he added: "It's going to be a really difficult task."

Issues still in play include "federalism, official languages, the relation between religion and state, the name of the republic, the rights of women and the question of Kirkuk", the oil-rich northern province which Kurds want included in their own autonomous region, Othman said.

Those invited to attend the national conference include Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari and Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, representing the ruling Shiite-based Alliance, President Jalal Talabani and Massud Barzani, representing the Kurds, former Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi, along with Hamid Majid, representing the communists and former president Ghazi al-Yawar.

The leaders, most of whom took part in the drafting of the transitional administrative in March 2004, will take up these unresolved points.

The national conference is due to report by August 12 and any matters still unresolved will be put to the full parliament for decision by majority vote.

A national referendum on the constitution is planned for October 15, to be followed by general elections in mid-December and the setting up of a new government at the start of next year.

Thamer al-Ghadban, a legislator from Allawi's party, told reporters Wednesday that drafters agreed on the system "to reinforce democracy and prevent the return of a dictatorship."

Iraq will be a parliamentary republic with a strong prime minister and a figurehead president, according to the latest draft of the constitution.

"The highest executive authority in the country and the commander in chief of the armed forces will be the prime minister, while the post of head of state will be largely honorific," Ghadban said.

Parliament will designate the president, who in turn will choose a vice-president. The prime minister will be from the political group "most represented in National Assembly," and will have the authority to ratify international treaties, Ghadban said.

The system represents a radical change compared to the last half century of dictatorship, where the only legislative bodies were rubber stamps for the powerful executive.

The new constitution is a key element in Iraq's political transformation following the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in April 2003 and is an important milestone in US plans for a military withdrawal from Iraq.

On Thursday 10 Iraqis were killed in a series of attacks, four of them in a suicide bombing in Dahuk, in northern Iraq, including three policemen in the northern city of Kirkuk during an attack on their patrol.

And an aide to Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi, Haidar Mohammed Ali al Dujaili, was gunned down in his bed in southeast Baghdad, while the US military said a New York police officer serving as an army reservist was shot dead by a sniper on the outskirts of Baghdad on Tuesday.

As of Wednesday, a total of 1,811 US military personnel have died in Iraq since the invasion, according to Pentagon figures.

[Coop]

See article in Post #38.

[Gucho]

Police take to streets to reassure Londoners


An armed police officer patrols Charing Cross train station in central London, August 4, 2005. Exactly four weeks after suicide bombers struck the capital, thousands of police took to the streets on Thursday in a high visibility security operation to reassure jittery Londoners. (REUTERS/ Jeff J Mitchell)

Thu Aug 4, 2005 02:05 PM BST

By Paul Majendie

LONDON (Reuters) - Four weeks after suicide bombers struck the capital, thousands of police took to the streets on Thursday to reassure jittery Londoners as al Qaeda warned there would be more attacks.

Underground rail stations swarmed with police, many of them armed, as millions of commuters headed into work.

"It is certainly a very big police operation," said Deputy Chief Constable Andy Trotter. "We are out there to reassure Londoners and also to deter any further attacks."

Al Qaeda's second in command Ayman al-Zawahri issued a warning to Britain in a new video aired on Thursday.

"Blair's policies will bring more destruction to Britons after the London explosions," Zawahri, Osama bin Laden's deputy, said in a tape aired by Al Jazeera television.

Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Bush's closest ally, has consistently rejected the idea that Britain's involvement in the war in Iraq is linked to the attacks on London last month.

On Thursday, the Piccadilly underground railway line was fully operational for the first time since four British Muslim suicide bombers killed 52 people on three trains and a bus on July 7.

Offering an intriguing glimpse into the investigation, New York police chief Raymond Kelly said the bombs were made from simple ingredients like hair bleach. Three of them were set off by mobile phones, he said.

"It's more like these terrorists went to a hardware store or some beauty supply store," Kelly said.

According to U.S. media reports, he said the explosives were stored in refrigerators and then shipped in coolers to a railway station outside London where the bombers took a train to the capital.

His briefing, partly based on information from New York officers sent to London to monitor the police inquiry, was the first detailed account of the methods used by the bombers.

In another wave of attacks two weeks after the first, four bombs failed to detonate and, after the biggest manhunt in British history, four suspects were arrested, including one seized in Rome.

NERVES FRAYED

The police operation after the attacks -- one of the biggest ever seen in the capital -- is costing an extra 500,000 pounds a day, officials have said.

Undercover officers mingled with commuters trying to spot would-be bombers while the massive coverage by uniformed officers was designed to make people feel safer.

Nerves in London are still frayed. Panicked passengers smashed windows and jumped from the upper deck of a bus on Tuesday after a small fire developed, apparently accidentally.

A 23-year-old man arrested after the failed July 21 attacks has been charged under British terrorism laws with hindering the police investigation by protecting a possible suspect.

Ismael Abdurahman, who appeared in court on Thursday and was remanded in custody until August 11, is the first person to be charged as part of the investigation into the attacks but is not one of the four men suspected of trying to set off the bombs.

British police believe all four men they had been hunting over the July 21 attacks on three underground trains and a bus have now been captured.

Three are in custody in Britain and a fourth in Rome. Britain has formally requested that Italy extradite Hamdi Issac, arrested last week in Rome, and officials say they hope the extradition process will be completed by the end of the year.

© Reuters 2005

[Just A Nobody]

Thanks TexKat

Isn't this the guy that was reported captured a couple weeks back, or do I have him confused with someone else?

[Gucho]

Click Major Steve Warren's report on August 4th, 2005

[TexKat]

Isn't this the guy that was reported captured a couple weeks back, or do I have him confused with someone else?

Ayman al-Zawahri captured? That would be news to me Justanobody.

[TexKat]

A U.S. Marine inspects the remains of a vehicle destroyed by a roadside bomb Wednesday, killing 14 Marines and a civilian interpreter, in Barwana, near Haditha, Iraq, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2005. This was the deadliest roadside bombing suffered by American forces in the Iraq war. (AP Photo/Jacob Silberberg)

Another Marine Killed in Same Iraq Valley

By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. military said Thursday that another Marine was killed in action in the same Euphrates River valley where 14 Marines died in the worst roadside bombing targeting American forces in the Iraq war.

A car bomb also hit members of a radical Shiite militia in northern Iraq as attacks nationwide killed at least 11 people Thursday.

The latest Marine casualty was in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province 70 miles west of Baghdad. The Marine was killed by small-arms fire Wednesday — the same day 14 Marines and an Iraqi civilian translator died when a huge bomb destroyed their lightly armored vehicle near Haditha.

The latest death brought to at least 24 the number of Marines killed over the last week in along the Euphrates Valley in one of the bloodiest periods for U.S. forces in months. In all, at least 45 American service members have died in Iraq since July 24 — all but two in combat.

Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called the Iraq campaign a tough situation "that's going to get tougher before it gets easier."

"The truth of the matter is that we've made some pretty significant miscalculations in term of policy from the outset, and we leave these Marines in a very, very tough spot," Biden said Thursday on CBS's "The Early Show."

The U.S. command, meanwhile, said soldiers from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment killed five insurgents who attacked Iraqi police Wednesday in the northern city of Tal Afar. There were no American casualties.

Elsewhere, gunmen attacked an Iraqi army patrol Thursday in Dujail, 50 miles north of Baghdad, killing four Iraqi troops, Brig. Ali Kadhim said.

Two Iraqi soldiers from the elite Wolf Brigade also were killed in a car bombing near a Shiite shrine in Daquq, 20 miles south of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. The brigade members were accompanying a delegation from the Mahdi Army of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr back from Tal Afar, where they delivered supplies to beleaguered civilians.

The delegation had stopped at the shrine when the blast occurred. Two clerics from al-Sadr's group also were killed, according to police Col. Mohammed Saleh Abbas. He said tensions in the area were running high after the blast.

Three other policemen were killed in a drive-by shooting in Kirkuk earlier Thursday, officials said.

In Baghdad, an aide to Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi was assassinated at his home early Monday. Police said gunmen broke into the home of Haider Mohammed Ali al-Dujaili, head of the public relations department in Chalabi's office, and shot him to death.

One of Chalabi's security guards was killed in an ambush Sunday south of Baghdad. Chalabi, a former Pentagon favorite, was not in the convoy.

Violence is on the rise in Iraq despite plans by President Bush to begin withdrawing American forces next year and gradually hand over security to the Iraqis.

The bombing that killed the 14 Marines occurred near Haditha, 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, along a major infiltration route for foreign fighters entering the country from Syria.

A Marine officer, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, said the troops were traveling in an armored amphibious vehicle to assault insurgent positions near the Haditha dam when a thunderous blast flipped the vehicle over and set it afire.

The Marines killed Wednesday were assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines based in the Cleveland suburb of Brook Park, Ohio, and attached to the Regimental Combat Team-2. Nine of them were from a single smaller unit in Columbus, Ohio.

Bush called the attack a "grim reminder" that America is still at war. U.S. leaders have been hoping that political progress toward a constitution and broadly elected government will dampen an intransigent insurgency.

At least 1,822 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

As part of the political strategy, the Interior Ministry announced that a nationwide security operation was under way to protect voter registration centers for October's constitutional referendum and December's general election.

Minister Bayan Jabr said the monthlong operations began Aug. 1 but gave no details. As of Wednesday, 544 registration centers were opened throughout the country so 16 million voters could register, he said.

[AdmSmith]

Is this posted?
http://management.silicon.com/government/0,39024677,39150983,00.htm

US Army gags blog-o-soldier for "classified" info breach

The US military has demoted and fined a soldier for publishing "classified" information on his personal blog, an Army spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday.

Leonard Clark = former Democratic candidate for Arizona governor

[TexKat]

Iraqi men grieve outside a hospital following an attack by insurgents in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk August 4, 2005. More than two years of war, occupation and insurgency have turned Iraq into possibly the most psychologically damaged nation in the world, one of the country's top psychiatrists said on August 4. (Stringer/Iraq/Reuters)

Iraq's national psyche traumatised -- doctor

By Luke Baker

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - More than two years of war, occupation and insurgency have turned Iraq into possibly the most psychologically damaged nation in the world, one of the country's top psychiatrists said on Thursday.

Dr Harith Hassan, the former head of Baghdad's Psychological Research Center, estimated that more than 70 percent of the private clients he sees each week are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a severe anxiety condition.

"Iraq is one of the most stressed, oppressed countries in the world -- you can see the suffering every day, every hour, even every minute," Hassan told Reuters in an interview.

"Psychologically, it may be the worst affected country in the world. It's something experts are worried about and that we need to look into ... The long-term implications are profound.

"What's going on is really a catastrophe from a psychological and a societal point of view," he said.

Aside from the initial impact of the war, with its "shock and awe" U.S. bombing, Iraqis have had to deal with occupation by foreign forces, the random, widespread death brought about by insurgents, and the growing effects of sectarian tensions.

Hassan said sectarian division was one of his biggest concerns, with Iraqis increasingly being defined, and defining themselves, by classifications that were not common before.

"The sectarianism -- that goes straight into the heart of a family and can be very damaging," he said.

DAMAGED PSYCHE

"You may have a Shi'ite father and a Sunni mother, and the children don't really know how they are defined, but they are being forced to define themselves as one or the other," he said.

"Iraq hasn't experienced these sorts of divisions before and it is creating terrible psychological trauma."

Iraq's population is made up of Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim Arabs, Kurds, who are also mostly Sunni Muslims, and several smaller groups including Turkmen, Christians and Yazidis.

Insurgents, who draw the bulk of their support from the Sunni Arab community, have increasingly engaged in tit-for-tat killings of Shi'ites in recent months, raising the fear of civil war. Kurds and Christians have also been attacked.

"It's what's going on between us now that worries me most," said Hassan, who studied in Britain and the United States.

With the help of a research center in the United Arab Emirates, Hassan has begun a preliminary study into the extent of post-traumatic stress disorder in Iraq. He is particularly concerned about the prevalence among women and children.

"It's very widespread, the situation is really very bad," he said. "I see 15-20 people a day just at my private clinic and I would say that not less than 70 percent of them are suffering from PTSD. The stories I hear are shocking."

If he can secure assistance from the World Health Organization, the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health and other groups, Hassan hopes to conduct a nationwide study of the problem over the next 18 months.

"The country needs it. Things are getting worse and worse," he said. "We need to understand what is happening to our national psyche and try to resolve it."

[Just A Nobody]

I'm sorry ... should have done this before posting. Wishful thinking on my part I guess.

From the Daily Terrorist Round-Up 7/28/05: KERBALA, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi commandos have captured an Egyptian said to be a close associate of Ayman al- Zawahiri, al Qaeda's number two, following a raid south of Baghdad, police sources said on Wednesday.
Police named the suspect as Hamdi Tantawi

[TexKat]

Thanks Justanobody.

[Gucho]

Israeli kills 3 in bus shooting--police

04 Aug 2005 15:22:42 GMT

Source: Reuters

JERUSALEM, Aug 4 (Reuters) - An Israeli in military uniform shot dead three people aboard a bus in the northern Galilee region on Thursday, police said.

Police said the gunman had been arrested in the incident in the Israeli Arab town of Shfaram. They said initially that the attacker was a soldier but later that they were not sure.

Channel 2 television said the shooting appeared to be linked to a local feud and not to a Palestinian revolt against Israel.

AlertNet news

[OXENinFLA]

[OXENinFLA]

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[Gucho]

[Gucho]

Operation Phantom Fury--Day 271 - Now Operations River Blitz; Matador--Day 166