The Cosgriff Informant

Must-See TV

2006-06-09T04:59:00.000-07:00

Expert analysis on our first president:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc9y5ayeeb4&eurl=

Islamic militia appears in control of Somalia capital

2006-06-05T20:03:00.000-07:00

5 June 2006

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- An Islamic militia that wants to establish a fundamentalist government in Somalia said Monday it has seized control of the capital after weeks of fighting in the Horn of Africa nation.

The militia, whose growing power is raising fears that Somalia could follow the path of Afghanistan's Taliban into the hands of al Qaeda, appeared in control of Mogadishu.

"We want to restore peace and stability to Mogadishu. We are ready to meet and talk [to] anybody and any group for the interest of the people," Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, chairman of the Islamic Courts Union, said on a radio broadcast.

The militia has been battling a secular alliance of warlords for control of the country, and their fighting has grown increasingly violent since February. More than 300 people have been killed and 1,700 wounded, many of them civilians caught in the crossfire.

The United States is widely believed to be backing the alliance in an attempt to root out members of al Qaeda who might be operating in the Horn of Africa, but American officials have declined to confirm or deny those reports.

The United States has carried out no direct action in Somalia since the deaths of 18 servicemen in a 1993 battle made famous by the film "Black Hawk Down."

The Islamic militants are the first group to consolidate control over all of Mogadishu's clan-divided neighborhoods since the collapse of the last government in 1991, giving them enormous political and economic power in Somalia.

Attempts to reach leaders of the secular alliance were not immediately successful. Most of them appeared to have fled the city by Monday afternoon.

The fundamentalists accuse the alliance of working for the CIA, while the alliance says the militias have links to al Qaeda.

The two sides began competing for influence after a U.N.-backed interim government slowly began to gain international recognition. But the interim government has failed to assert control outside its base in Baidoa, 155 miles (250 kilometers) from Mogadishu. The government has not even been able to enter the capital because of the violence.

Still, interim Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi recently fired four powerful warlords who were serving as ministers, leaving the alliance without any support in the government.

In the past, Islamic leaders have denounced the interim government, insisting that any new law be based on Islamic scripture. How the government will react to Monday's development was not immediately clear, but both the president and prime minister have rejected suggestions of forming an Islamic republic.

Somalia, an impoverished country of 8 million, has been divided into rival fiefdoms since 1991, when warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

Attacks on Iraq Oil Industry Aid Vast Smuggling Scheme

2006-06-05T19:56:00.000-07:00

THE NEW YORK TIMES
June 4, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 3 — The sabotage attacks that have crippled Iraq's oil pipelines and refineries for the past three years are now being used to aid a vast smuggling network that is costing the Iraqi government billions of dollars a year, senior Iraqi and American officials here say.

Once thought to be only a tool for insurgents to undermine the government, the pipeline attacks have evolved into a lucrative moneymaking scheme for insurgents and enterprising criminal gangs alike. Ali Al Alak, the inspector general for the Oil Ministry, said the attacks are now orchestrated by both groups to force the government to import and distribute as much fuel as possible using thousands of tanker trucks.

In turn, the insurgents and criminal gangs — distinguishing among them has become increasingly problematic — have transformed the trucking trade into a potent tool for smuggling.

In many cases documented by Mr. Alak and other Iraqi officials, truckers, often collaborating with smuggling gangs, pay bribes or use forged papers to inflate the value of their load, tamper with their fuel meters, or simply turn their loads over to the gangs.

As a result, as much as 30 percent of imported gasoline is promptly stolen and resold abroad by smugglers, according to American and Iraqi officials. The shortfall is part of what forces Iraqi families to spend more on fuel from the black market, where it is far more expensive than from legal outlets.

The poisonous blend of smuggling and sabotage is yet another blow to the economy of a country whose huge oil reserves were expected before the 2003 invasion to pay for its reconstruction.

The network is so pervasive and entrenched, the officials say, that fuel importers brazenly arrive at depots with half-empty tankers and arrange to have their deliveries certified as complete. It is also lucrative for the smallest of businesses. Bakers, brick makers and even fishing boat operators find it more profitable to sell fuel, which they receive at subsidized prices, to illicit traders rather than operate their businesses.

It is unclear where in these operations the simple urge to make a buck ends and schemes to finance insurgent activities or disrupt the workings of the Iraqi government begin. But American and Iraqi officials say that a mix of insurgents, organized criminal groups and scores of independent operators are working together in some loose network to keep their grip on the system and turn enormous profits.

Borders are porous, roads are unsafe, officials at state-run oil companies are accused of being in league with insurgents and Iraq's oil wealth is carried out of the country in ships and tanker trucks as American and British overseers look the other way, the Iraqi and American officials say.

The smugglers interrupt domestic tanker deliveries as well as those bringing in fuel from abroad.

Three hurt in protests over TV parody of Hezbollah chief

2006-06-05T19:55:00.000-07:00

03 June 2006

Friday, June 2, 2006 (AFP) - Three people were wounded during street protests overnight Friday by followers of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah after a television satirical show portraying its chief Hassan Nasrallah.

Dozens of young men briefly cut off the Beirut airport road overnight Friday by burning tyres to block a nearby highway located near Beirut's southern suburbs -- a stronghold of the Lebanese militant group, police said.

"God, Nasrallah and all of the southern suburbs," chanted the men, waving yellow Hezbollah flags.

Just after the end of the programme late Thursday, Hezbollah followers also held protests in various sectors of the capital and in several towns in southern Lebanon during the night.

The protests only ended after Nasrallah personally made a plea for calm on television during the night in order "to protect the country's security and stability."

He also called for the need to find ways to protect "political and moral values."

Information Minister Ghazi Aridi plans to hold a meeting in his office to resolve the situation.

"Three of us spent the night in hospital for treatment after we were beaten" by some protestors in Beirut's Christian neighborhood of Ashrafiyeh, said Sami Gemayel, son of former president and the supreme chief of the Christian party Kataeb Amin Gemayel.

Gemayel told AFP that he suffered bruises in his back, while university students Gilbert Rizk and Bassam Samarani underwent surgery on their faces and noses.

"We were awaiting the army to stop the protestors from entering Ashrafiyeh, and we did not want them to enter Monot street," which is lined up with restaurants and nightclubs, he said.

"Then, suddenly dozens of them attacked us. They beat us with their hands, iron bars and batons," said Gemayel.

The weekly satirical programme, which showed a man impersonating Nasrallah wearing a beard and turban, is broadcast on the LBCI private television and includes sketches which regularly portray Lebanese politicians.

"This programme is part of a campaign aimed at liquidating the resistance," Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar told reporters during the overnight protests.

Hezbollah has faced growing domestic and international pressure to disarm, particularly with the passing of UN Security Council Resolution 1559, which was adopted in September 2004 and called for the disarmament of all militias in Lebanon.

Hezbollah, the only armed group not required to lay down its weapons after the 1975-1990 civil war in Lebanon because it was spearheading the fight against Israel, is considered a terrorist organisation by Washington.

U.S. studying Iran's retaliation options

2006-06-05T19:50:00.000-07:00

03 June 2006

WASHINGTON (AP) -- If cornered by the West over its nuclear program, Iran could direct Hezbollah to enlist its widespread international support network to aid in terrorist attacks, intelligence officials say.
In interviews with The Associated Press, several Western intelligence officials said they have seen signs that Hezbollah's fundraisers, recruiters and criminal elements could be adapted to provide logistical help to terrorist operatives.
Such help could include obtaining forged travel documents or off-the-shelf technology - global positioning equipment and night goggles, for example - that could be used for military purposes.
The senior officials spoke only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive positions they occupy.
Hezbollah was responsible for the 1983 bombings of the U.S. Embassy and the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. The group's Saudi wing, in coordination with the larger Lebanese Hezbollah, is blamed for the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia in 1996 that killed hundreds of American servicemen.
Tensions between Iran and the U.S. and its allies have grown over Iran's expanding nuclear program. Iran insists its aims are peaceful; leading U.S. officials say they are convinced the Iranians intend to develop a nuclear weapon within the next decade.
John Negroponte, head of the U.S. intelligence network, suggested in an interview aired Friday by the British Broadcasting Corp. that an Iranian bomb could be a fact in as little as four years away, although he admitted, "We don't have clear-cut knowledge."
The U.S. and five other world powers agreed Thursday on a plan designed to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions. Iran's president, without directly mentioning the proposal, pledged Friday that the West would not deprive his country of nuclear technology.
The Bush administration and U.S. allies know Iran could order attacks. Some officials believe that threat is a bargaining chip worth more to Iran if kept in reserve.
Given that diplomacy could fail to defuse the nuclear standoff, U.S. intelligence agencies are studying Iran's options to retaliate: using oil as a weapon, attacking Americans in Iraq and elsewhere, unleashing Hezbollah or deploying other tactics.
To the State Department, Hezbollah is a militant Lebanese group classified as a terrorist organization. Its terrorist wing, the Islamic Jihad Organization, is a global threat with cells in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, South America, Asia and North America. Before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Hezbollah was responsible for more American deaths than any other single terrorist organization.
Yet in many countries, Hezbollah is praised for providing education, medical care and housing, particularly in Lebanon's south, and raising money for it is legal.
So far there are no signs the Iranian-backed group is planning an imminent attack on U.S. interests. But that possibility has counterterrorism agencies keeping close watch as the friction with Iran grows.
U.S. analysts believe the potential is greater for Iran to use terrorism to retaliate, rather than to strike first. But they have considered scenarios under which Iran may view its own pre-emptive attack as a deterrent.
One senior official said that if Iran was backed into a corner and considered U.S.-led military action as inevitable, the Iranians might calculate that terrorism could break international unity, increase pressure on the U.S. or shift American public opinion.
U.S. analysts, however, are cautious in their judgments about what might lead Iran to order strikes.
Hezbollah, which means Party of God, was founded in 1982 to respond to Israel's invasion of Lebanon. The radical Shiite organization advocates for Israel's elimination and the establishment of an Islamic government in Lebanon modeled after the religious theocracy in Iran.
With some exceptions, Hezbollah has not targeted the United States in recent years - a strategic decision that gives the group more freedom to operate, according to one U.S. counterterrorism official.
On orders from Iran, Hezbollah was tied to a string of kidnappings and assassinations of Westerners in the 1980s, including the abduction of the CIA's station chief in Tehran, William Buckley, in 1984.
Hezbollah is accused of bombing the Israeli Embassy and a Jewish community center in Argentina in the early 1990s, killing more than 100. The group denies the charges.
A former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said before and right after the Sept. 11 attacks that Hezbollah was believed to have the largest embedded terrorist network inside the U.S. "I have no reason to believe that there has been a dismantlement of that capability," said former Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla.
Steven Monblatt, the head of the Organization of American States' Inter-American Committee Against Terrorism, said tensions with Iran could lead Hezbollah to take steps to prepare attacks on Western interests in Latin America and elsewhere.
"I think it is legitimate to be concerned about situations where terrorist groups will not have an operational base, but will have made the preparations to establish one," said Monblatt, a former State Department official. "I don't know anyone alleging an operational cell right now. Now, how do you distinguish an operational cell from a sleeper operation - a more kind of logistical base?"
Leadership in Hezbollah is exercised by Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, a Shiite Muslim cleric who took over after Sheik Abbas Musawi was killed in southern Lebanon in an Israeli helicopter strike in 1992.
Hezbollah gets significant support from Iran, Shiite communities and particularly the Lebanese diaspora. One official said the group has access to several hundred million dollars a year, much of it going to the social service network in southern Lebanon.
The organization has been linked to all kinds of organized crime, including drug trafficking, drug counterfeiting and stolen baby formula. The substantial profits are thought to be funneled almost entirely back to the Middle East.
Kevin Brock, a career FBI agent who is now deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center, recently told reporters that the U.S. has active investigations into Hezbollah around the world.
"The prioritization obviously has been al-Qaida, but that doesn't mean Hezbollah has dropped off the screen by any stretch of the imagination," Brock said.
The FBI and other law enforcement agencies have had success in breaking up Hezbollah-linked crime rings, including a cigarette-smuggling operation in North Carolina.
This year, the Justice Department announced an indictment charging 19 people with a global racketeering conspiracy to sell counterfeit rolling papers, contraband cigarettes and counterfeit Viagra. Portions of the profits, law enforcers allege, went to Hezbollah.
Extensive operations have been uncovered in South America, where Hezbollah is well connected to the drug trade, particularly in the region where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet. The area has a large Shiite Muslim immigrant population.

Chavez: Carlos the Jackal 'A Good Friend'

2006-06-05T19:47:00.000-07:00

02 June 2006

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez brought up Carlos the Jackal during a meeting of oil producers Thursday, calling the Venezuela-born terrorist who once took hostages at an OPEC meeting "a good friend."
Carlos, whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, gained notoriety during the Cold War for staging a string of bombings and assassinations. He is serving a life sentence for murder in France.
Chavez recalled in his speech how Ramirez once in a letter referred to the Venezuelan leader's 1999 tour of OPEC member states.
He said Carlos, "a good friend," said in the missive from his prison that the tour appeared "hair-raising."
"I will never forget that phrase from Carlos," Chavez said.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries met in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas on Thursday and decided to keep crude output steady.
Chavez provoked controversy in 1999 when he confirmed he had written a letter to Ramirez. He addressed Ramirez as "Dear compatriot" and, according to press reports, signed it "with profound faith in the cause and the mission, now and forever."
Chavez, who describes himself as a socialist revolutionary, has said the letter was intended to express "human solidarity" with Ramirez but not "political solidarity."
Ramirez has testified that he led a 1975 attack that killed three people at the OPEC headquarters in Vienna, Austria. Among the 70 hostages seized in the attack was Venezuela's then-oil minister, Valentin Hernandez Acosta. The hostages were freed in Algeria.
He was captured in 1994 and later convicted in the in the 1975 murders of two French investigators and a Lebanese man.

Rotting cargo prompts crew SOS

2006-06-05T19:46:00.000-07:00

02 Jun 2006
FOUR Myanmar and four Indian seafarers have been stranded on a Malaysian cargo ship off Johor, Malaysia's southernmost state, without pay for the past six months. Malaysia's Trade Union Congress received an SOS from the seafarers when their health became seriously threatened by rotting soya beans in the cargo hold of the 9,000-dwt general cargo ship Paulijing. MTUC Johor chairman Bosko Augustine told Fairplay today the union's headquarters in Kuala Lumpur had requested its Johor branch to assist after receiving a request from the crew members to appeal to the owners to pay their back wages and to repatriate them home. Bosko said the rotting cargo was so bad that there was a concern that the crew's health might be affected and that a doctor was being sent on board to examine them. "Conditions on board are certainly no good for the crew," he said. The owner of the Kuching-registered vessel, Michael Ong, could not be contacted for comment but sources said a court order had forced the vessel to remain in Johor waters for the last nine months following a legal dispute between certain parties.