Showing posts with label US Terror. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US Terror. Show all posts
Friday, October 10, 2008
Iran concerned about US acts of terror
"It is of great concern that many civilians are slain and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of countries are violated under the pretext of tracking down terrorists," Ishaq al-e-Habib told the UN session.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Death squads, disappearances and torture
"The world is made up, as Captain Segura in Graham Greene's 1958 novel Our Man in Havana put it, of two classes: the torturable and the untorturable. "There are people," Segura explained, "who expect to be tortured and others who would be outraged by the idea.""
Monday, October 29, 2007
Who's Behind the PKK? In a word: Washington
by Justin Raimondo - Oct 29, 2007
The recent threat by the Turks to invade Iraq in hot pursuit of PKKterrorists has the administration scrambling to appease Ankara and stave off a major blow to its claim that the U.S. occupation has provided "stability" to the region. Kurdistan, after all, has been touted up until now as a model of peace, prosperity, and unalloyed happiness – a foretaste of the country's golden future, provided "defeatists" in the U.S. don't pull the rug out from under our imminent victory. To see this veritable utopia smashed by Turkish force of arms would be a disaster for Washington – but even worse would be the revelation of how we got ourselves into this wholly untenable position to begin with. Worse, that is, for whoever would be indicted and prosecuted for pulling off what may turn out to be one of the most ambitious, and dangerous, "rogue" operations since Iran-Contra.
The serial numbers of arms captured from PKK fighters have been traced back to U.S. shipments to Iraqi military and police units. Responding to Turkish complaints, the Americans claim these arms were diverted by the Iraqis – presumably the Kurdish regional government – but the Turks aren't buying it: if the large quantity of U.S.-made arms (1,260 seized so far) turns out to have been directly provided to the PKK by the Americans, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul warned, U.S.-Turkish "relations would really break apart." U.S. diplomats immediately rebuffed this suggestion, and Washington dispatched the Pentagon's general counsel, William J. Haynes, to the scene, where he met with top Turkish military leaders. According to at least one report, "The meeting discussed an ongoing investigation by the U.S. Department of Defense into reports that U.S. arms were being sold by U.S. troops in Iraq."
Another clue to what is really going on here is provided by the news that the FBI has volunteered to help the Turks find out where the PKK is getting its funding and weapons – and doesn't that strike you as odd? FBI director Robert Mueller said, "We are working with our counterparts elsewhere in Europe and in Turkey to address the PKK and work cooperatively, to find and cut off financing to terrorist groups, be it PKK, al-Qaeda," or whatever. Yet why would the FBI get involved at all, unless, of course, Americans were somehow involved? Foreign Minister Gul confirmed this to the Turkish media, stating:
"1,260 weapons captured from the PKK are American-made. We documented it to the U.S. These are of course not given directly to the PKK by the U.S. These are the ones that were given to the Iraqi army. Unfortunately some U.S. officers were corrupt. The Department of Defense informed us that a serious investigation is underway."
Is it that a few bad apples are "corrupt" – or something else?
As Seymour Hersh has reported, the U.S. and Israel are financing and otherwise aiding the Kurdish Party of Life, otherwise known as "Pejak," founded to "liberate" western Iran, which has a large and restive Kurdish population. Furthermore, the ties between the PKK and Pejak are more than merely fraternal: they are basically the same organization, sharing not only bases in the mountainous Quandil region of Kurdistan, but also common personnel and leadership.
The sudden outbreak of PKK violence – two spectacular ambushes, one of which resulted in the killing of 12 Turkish soldiers and the capture of eight, who are now being used as bargaining chips – also requires some explanation. Up until this point, the PKK had carried out low-level operations, with groups of six to eight militants planting bombs and generally harassing the Turks on a small scale. In recent months, however, the overall level of attacks has undergone a radical increase, with hundreds of PKK fighters deployed in a single attack and a new sophistication in terms of both firepower and the technical equipment required to pull off complex operations such as the recent ambush-and-capture.
Ever since the Syrians stopped supporting the PKK in the late 1990s, the group was largely incapable of launching major operations and had to content itself with terrorist actions directed at tourist facilities. Membership was down, cut virtually in half, and the capture of their leader, Abdullah Ocalan, demoralized large sections of the PKK, amid reports of splits. The revival of the group's fortunes coincided with news of the Pejak-U.S. connection and – tellingly – the disappearance of U.S. munitions and other equipment from Iraq.
Nearly one out of every 25 weapons provided to the Iraqis by the U.S. has disappeared. Furthermore, the system for tracing them never functioned. 370,000 light weapons have been sent to Iraq by the U.S. since 2003, yet just 3 percent had their serial numbers recorded by the U.S. Defense Department prior to being handed over. For some unfathomable reason, the general who was in charge of that particular task – by the name of Petraeus – has never been held accountable for what is one of the biggest scandals of the war.
The idea that "corrupt" U.S. soldiers sold weapons on the black market to PKK guerrillas is not all that far-fetched, but the absence of any system to account for all these guns invites larger-scale suspicions. Could it have been set up that way precisely because the Pentagon – or someone else – wanted to make sure the weapons couldn't be traced? This would certainly facilitate the arming of groups like Pejak, to put pressure on the Iranians and give the serial regime-changers in the Pentagon a huge weapons cache from which to draw at will.
We know that both the U.S. and Israel have been aiding Pejak, and surely this allowed the PKK to feed off of the arms pipeline, albeit "indirectly." The Israeli factor is yet another angle to this story: Seymour Hersh also reported that the Israelis have taken out a rather large stake in Kurdistan, not only investing in several major business operations but also involving themselves in the training of Kurdish "commandos." Could some of these commandos possibly be PKK operatives?
Both Iran and Turkey have pledged to cooperate in eradicating the Kurdish threat, and this cooperation is yet another reason for the general decline in relations between Ankara on the one hand and Washington and Tel Aviv on the other. What was once a tight alliance started to unravel when the Turks refused to let the U.S. use their territory as a launching pad for the invasion of Iraq, and things have gone rapidly downhill since. The regime-changers inside the administration, centered around Dick Cheney's office and the civilian upper reaches of the Pentagon, may have decided that the Turks have to be thrown overboard now that the campaign to target Tehran is going full-gear. If the Kurds' price for subverting the Iranian regime is covert aid for their continuing assault on Turkey, then it hardly beggars belief that the War Party is willing to pay it: loyalty is not one of their strong suits, as Iraq's Shi'ites can readily attest.
I have a great deal of difficulty believing that the large number of confiscated American weapons that apparently found their way into the hands of PKK fighters just happened to show up on the black market, without any knowledge or complicity by higher authorities. How high the "corruption" goes, remains to be seen. What we do know is this: the War Party isn't shy about engaging in "rogue" operations and doing end-runs around the properly constituted authorities when it suits their purposes.
A recent demonstration by Turkish students against PKK terrorism had the protesters denouncing both the Kurds and the U.S. government: "Down with the PKK!" – they shouted – "Down with the U.S.!" In Turkey, at least, they seem to know who and what is behind the wave of terrorism that has shaken the country.
In America, however, it's a different story altogether: the "news" media hasn't really said anything about the FBI investigation and the possible involvement of Americans, nor do we hear much about the U.S. – or Israeli – connection to the Kurdish "liberation" groups, such as Pejak, except from Hersh and a few others. As far as the "mainstream" media is concerned, what's going on between the Turks and the Kurds is just another of those ancient, endless Middle Eastern blood feuds. No one bothers to ask: Why is this old problem escalating now?
That the PKK and Pejak have turned themselves into pawns of the War Party is quite understandable: after all, they want to liberate their people and unite them in the age-old dream of a "Greater Kurdistan." Like Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress, they are ready, willing, and able to use the Americans in order to advance their own agenda. The question for the U.S. Congress, however, is whether the American taxpayers are now subsidizing terrorism directed at the Turks in order to further the War Party's agenda.
The recent threat by the Turks to invade Iraq in hot pursuit of PKKterrorists has the administration scrambling to appease Ankara and stave off a major blow to its claim that the U.S. occupation has provided "stability" to the region. Kurdistan, after all, has been touted up until now as a model of peace, prosperity, and unalloyed happiness – a foretaste of the country's golden future, provided "defeatists" in the U.S. don't pull the rug out from under our imminent victory. To see this veritable utopia smashed by Turkish force of arms would be a disaster for Washington – but even worse would be the revelation of how we got ourselves into this wholly untenable position to begin with. Worse, that is, for whoever would be indicted and prosecuted for pulling off what may turn out to be one of the most ambitious, and dangerous, "rogue" operations since Iran-Contra.
The serial numbers of arms captured from PKK fighters have been traced back to U.S. shipments to Iraqi military and police units. Responding to Turkish complaints, the Americans claim these arms were diverted by the Iraqis – presumably the Kurdish regional government – but the Turks aren't buying it: if the large quantity of U.S.-made arms (1,260 seized so far) turns out to have been directly provided to the PKK by the Americans, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul warned, U.S.-Turkish "relations would really break apart." U.S. diplomats immediately rebuffed this suggestion, and Washington dispatched the Pentagon's general counsel, William J. Haynes, to the scene, where he met with top Turkish military leaders. According to at least one report, "The meeting discussed an ongoing investigation by the U.S. Department of Defense into reports that U.S. arms were being sold by U.S. troops in Iraq."
Another clue to what is really going on here is provided by the news that the FBI has volunteered to help the Turks find out where the PKK is getting its funding and weapons – and doesn't that strike you as odd? FBI director Robert Mueller said, "We are working with our counterparts elsewhere in Europe and in Turkey to address the PKK and work cooperatively, to find and cut off financing to terrorist groups, be it PKK, al-Qaeda," or whatever. Yet why would the FBI get involved at all, unless, of course, Americans were somehow involved? Foreign Minister Gul confirmed this to the Turkish media, stating:
"1,260 weapons captured from the PKK are American-made. We documented it to the U.S. These are of course not given directly to the PKK by the U.S. These are the ones that were given to the Iraqi army. Unfortunately some U.S. officers were corrupt. The Department of Defense informed us that a serious investigation is underway."
Is it that a few bad apples are "corrupt" – or something else?
As Seymour Hersh has reported, the U.S. and Israel are financing and otherwise aiding the Kurdish Party of Life, otherwise known as "Pejak," founded to "liberate" western Iran, which has a large and restive Kurdish population. Furthermore, the ties between the PKK and Pejak are more than merely fraternal: they are basically the same organization, sharing not only bases in the mountainous Quandil region of Kurdistan, but also common personnel and leadership.
The sudden outbreak of PKK violence – two spectacular ambushes, one of which resulted in the killing of 12 Turkish soldiers and the capture of eight, who are now being used as bargaining chips – also requires some explanation. Up until this point, the PKK had carried out low-level operations, with groups of six to eight militants planting bombs and generally harassing the Turks on a small scale. In recent months, however, the overall level of attacks has undergone a radical increase, with hundreds of PKK fighters deployed in a single attack and a new sophistication in terms of both firepower and the technical equipment required to pull off complex operations such as the recent ambush-and-capture.
Ever since the Syrians stopped supporting the PKK in the late 1990s, the group was largely incapable of launching major operations and had to content itself with terrorist actions directed at tourist facilities. Membership was down, cut virtually in half, and the capture of their leader, Abdullah Ocalan, demoralized large sections of the PKK, amid reports of splits. The revival of the group's fortunes coincided with news of the Pejak-U.S. connection and – tellingly – the disappearance of U.S. munitions and other equipment from Iraq.
Nearly one out of every 25 weapons provided to the Iraqis by the U.S. has disappeared. Furthermore, the system for tracing them never functioned. 370,000 light weapons have been sent to Iraq by the U.S. since 2003, yet just 3 percent had their serial numbers recorded by the U.S. Defense Department prior to being handed over. For some unfathomable reason, the general who was in charge of that particular task – by the name of Petraeus – has never been held accountable for what is one of the biggest scandals of the war.
The idea that "corrupt" U.S. soldiers sold weapons on the black market to PKK guerrillas is not all that far-fetched, but the absence of any system to account for all these guns invites larger-scale suspicions. Could it have been set up that way precisely because the Pentagon – or someone else – wanted to make sure the weapons couldn't be traced? This would certainly facilitate the arming of groups like Pejak, to put pressure on the Iranians and give the serial regime-changers in the Pentagon a huge weapons cache from which to draw at will.
We know that both the U.S. and Israel have been aiding Pejak, and surely this allowed the PKK to feed off of the arms pipeline, albeit "indirectly." The Israeli factor is yet another angle to this story: Seymour Hersh also reported that the Israelis have taken out a rather large stake in Kurdistan, not only investing in several major business operations but also involving themselves in the training of Kurdish "commandos." Could some of these commandos possibly be PKK operatives?
Both Iran and Turkey have pledged to cooperate in eradicating the Kurdish threat, and this cooperation is yet another reason for the general decline in relations between Ankara on the one hand and Washington and Tel Aviv on the other. What was once a tight alliance started to unravel when the Turks refused to let the U.S. use their territory as a launching pad for the invasion of Iraq, and things have gone rapidly downhill since. The regime-changers inside the administration, centered around Dick Cheney's office and the civilian upper reaches of the Pentagon, may have decided that the Turks have to be thrown overboard now that the campaign to target Tehran is going full-gear. If the Kurds' price for subverting the Iranian regime is covert aid for their continuing assault on Turkey, then it hardly beggars belief that the War Party is willing to pay it: loyalty is not one of their strong suits, as Iraq's Shi'ites can readily attest.
I have a great deal of difficulty believing that the large number of confiscated American weapons that apparently found their way into the hands of PKK fighters just happened to show up on the black market, without any knowledge or complicity by higher authorities. How high the "corruption" goes, remains to be seen. What we do know is this: the War Party isn't shy about engaging in "rogue" operations and doing end-runs around the properly constituted authorities when it suits their purposes.
A recent demonstration by Turkish students against PKK terrorism had the protesters denouncing both the Kurds and the U.S. government: "Down with the PKK!" – they shouted – "Down with the U.S.!" In Turkey, at least, they seem to know who and what is behind the wave of terrorism that has shaken the country.
In America, however, it's a different story altogether: the "news" media hasn't really said anything about the FBI investigation and the possible involvement of Americans, nor do we hear much about the U.S. – or Israeli – connection to the Kurdish "liberation" groups, such as Pejak, except from Hersh and a few others. As far as the "mainstream" media is concerned, what's going on between the Turks and the Kurds is just another of those ancient, endless Middle Eastern blood feuds. No one bothers to ask: Why is this old problem escalating now?
That the PKK and Pejak have turned themselves into pawns of the War Party is quite understandable: after all, they want to liberate their people and unite them in the age-old dream of a "Greater Kurdistan." Like Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress, they are ready, willing, and able to use the Americans in order to advance their own agenda. The question for the U.S. Congress, however, is whether the American taxpayers are now subsidizing terrorism directed at the Turks in order to further the War Party's agenda.
Iran says papers show U.S. backing ‘terrorists’
Official says U.S. allowing Kurdish rebels to freely operate in Iraq
Reuters - Oct 28, 2007
TEHRAN - Iran has access to evidence of U.S. support for terrorist groups in the Middle East, a senior Iranian official was quoted as saying on Sunday.
Iran's new chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, made the allegation in comments to visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, whose country may soon send troops to hunt down Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq.
Tehran says the rebels are operating in Iraq with U.S. forces present in the country and this shows Washington is refraining from tackling them.
Like Turkey, Iran also has faced cross-border attacks by Kurdish rebels and has shelled targets inside Iraq in response.
"Escalation of terrorism in the region is one of the direct results of the presence of occupiers in Iraq, particularly America," Jalili, an ally of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said according to the country's state broadcaster.
"And there are documents and information available proving America's support for terrorist groups in the region," he said, without giving details. Jalili is also the new secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council.
Response to U.S. allegations?
The United States often accuses Iran of backing and training militias responsible for some of the bloodshed threatening to tear Iraq apart. Tehran denies the charge and blames the violence in Iraq on the presence of U.S. forces.
The two countries are also locked in a stand-off over Tehran's nuclear program, which Western powers suspect is aimed at developing bombs. Iran says it only wants to generate electricity.
Washington last week dubbed Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction and accused its Quds force of backing terrorists. It also imposed sanctions on more than 20 Iranian companies, major banks and individuals.
At a joint news conference with Babacan, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Sunday also accused the United States and Israel of involvement in terrorism in the region.
"We see ... their hand behind some of the regional terrorist activities," Mottaki said.
Babacan, whose country's ties with the United States have deteriorated sharply in recent weeks, thanked Iran for helping Turkey fight the PKK guerrillas and said the two sides had talked about continuing their cooperation.
The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) launched its campaign for a Kurdish homeland in southeastern Turkey in 1984. More than 30,000 people have been killed in the conflict since then.
Jalili on October 20 replaced Ali Larijani as Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, a move analysts saw as signaling a toughening of Tehran's position in the atom row.
Reuters - Oct 28, 2007
TEHRAN - Iran has access to evidence of U.S. support for terrorist groups in the Middle East, a senior Iranian official was quoted as saying on Sunday.
Iran's new chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, made the allegation in comments to visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, whose country may soon send troops to hunt down Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq.
Tehran says the rebels are operating in Iraq with U.S. forces present in the country and this shows Washington is refraining from tackling them.
Like Turkey, Iran also has faced cross-border attacks by Kurdish rebels and has shelled targets inside Iraq in response.
"Escalation of terrorism in the region is one of the direct results of the presence of occupiers in Iraq, particularly America," Jalili, an ally of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said according to the country's state broadcaster.
"And there are documents and information available proving America's support for terrorist groups in the region," he said, without giving details. Jalili is also the new secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council.
Response to U.S. allegations?
The United States often accuses Iran of backing and training militias responsible for some of the bloodshed threatening to tear Iraq apart. Tehran denies the charge and blames the violence in Iraq on the presence of U.S. forces.
The two countries are also locked in a stand-off over Tehran's nuclear program, which Western powers suspect is aimed at developing bombs. Iran says it only wants to generate electricity.
Washington last week dubbed Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction and accused its Quds force of backing terrorists. It also imposed sanctions on more than 20 Iranian companies, major banks and individuals.
At a joint news conference with Babacan, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Sunday also accused the United States and Israel of involvement in terrorism in the region.
"We see ... their hand behind some of the regional terrorist activities," Mottaki said.
Babacan, whose country's ties with the United States have deteriorated sharply in recent weeks, thanked Iran for helping Turkey fight the PKK guerrillas and said the two sides had talked about continuing their cooperation.
The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) launched its campaign for a Kurdish homeland in southeastern Turkey in 1984. More than 30,000 people have been killed in the conflict since then.
Jalili on October 20 replaced Ali Larijani as Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, a move analysts saw as signaling a toughening of Tehran's position in the atom row.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
US Backed Terrorist Group Explode Car Bomb In Iran Killing 11 Iranian Soldiers, 31 Wounded
Note how none of this is carried in the "free" US media
A War On Terrorism or a War Of Terrorism?
Democrats.com - October 26, 2007
Reports as usual vary wildly and small wonder that some news sources are trying to pin this on yet another subsidiary of "Al Qaeda". But this wasn't a suicide attack.
The terrorists drove a car, packed with explosives, up to a bus carrying soldiers of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Some reports say that they forced the bus to stop by firing on it with automatic weapons, others that they blocked the road with the car while pretending to have broken down. Either way, they quickly escaped on motorbikes before detonating the car bomb by remote control.
Reports claim so far 11 soldiers killed and up to 31 wounded. A terrorist attack on this scale against Iran's elite forces, in broad daylight is unprecedented.
The official Iranian news agency announced that five arrests have been made including the ring leader and a major investigation has been launched to determine who else is involved in the attack.
It also claims to have evidence that the terrorist group was backed by the United States.
Explosion kills 11 members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards
Iranian News Agency
A car bomb killed 11 members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards on Wednesday in the deadliest attack in years near the Pakistani border, and Iran accused the United States of backing militants to destabilize the country.
A Sunni Muslim militant group called Jundallah, or God's Brigade, which has been blamed for past attacks on Iranian troops, claimed responsibility for the bombing. The blast represented a sharp flare-up of violence in the remote southeast corner of Iran, near Pakistan and Afghanistan, that has long been plagued by lawlessness.
The area is a key crossing point for opium from Afghanistan and often sees clashes between police and drug gangs. At the same time, Jundallah has waged a low-level insurgency in the area, led by Abdulmalak Rigi, a member of Iran's ethnic Baluchi minority, a community that is Sunni Muslim and is present in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Rigi has said his group is fighting for the rights of impoverished Sunnis under Iran's Shiite government.
An al-Qaida-linked group of the same name has carried out attacks in Pakistan, but Pakistani officials say it is not connected to the Iranian militants. Iranian officials blamed "insurgents" and "terrorists" for Wednesday's bombing -- and accused the United States of backing them to sow instability in Iran.
The London Times
February 15, 2007
The official Iranian news agency quoted an unnamed official as saying evidence suggested that the bus attackers had support from the United States.
Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie, Iran's Intelligence Minister, claimed last week that Tehran had identified 100 spies working for the United States and Israel in the border areas.
The attack follows sporadic violence in Iran's oil-rich south-western province of Khuzestan, which has a minority Arab population, and borders southern Iraq, where British troops are based.
Explosions killed more than 20 people in Khuzestan's capital, Ahvaz, in 2005 and early 2006. London has denied as "ludicrous" Iranian accusations that Britain has fomented instability in Khuzestan.
BBC News
Correspondents say an attack of this size and nature is unprecedented in Iran - hitting an elite force in daylight in an open street. Reports say suspects behind the bombing have been arrested.
The city of Zahedan lies in the province of Sistan-Baluchestan, which borders both Afghanistan and Pakistan. It has been hit by a string of attacks and kidnappings blamed on the hardline Sunni group called Jundallah.
Iranian officials have accused Britain and the United States of supporting ethnic minority rebels operating in the Islamic republic's sensitive border areas.
Tehran Times
Five suspects have been arrested, an official of the Sistan-Baluchestan Governor General’s Office announced.
“The detained individuals entered the province from another country and according to their confessions, they committed the terrorist act based on a plan to incite division between Shias and Sunnis and provoke ethnic strife,” Soltan-Ali Mir told the Mehr News Agency.
The ringleader of the bombing is among the five, he added. “Some of the arrested terrorists entered Iran two days ago,” Mir stated.
Sunni ulema in Sistan-Baluchestan Province have condemned the bombing, he added. A major operation is underway to identify and arrest all the others involved in the act.
A War On Terrorism or a War Of Terrorism?
Democrats.com - October 26, 2007
Reports as usual vary wildly and small wonder that some news sources are trying to pin this on yet another subsidiary of "Al Qaeda". But this wasn't a suicide attack.
The terrorists drove a car, packed with explosives, up to a bus carrying soldiers of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Some reports say that they forced the bus to stop by firing on it with automatic weapons, others that they blocked the road with the car while pretending to have broken down. Either way, they quickly escaped on motorbikes before detonating the car bomb by remote control.
Reports claim so far 11 soldiers killed and up to 31 wounded. A terrorist attack on this scale against Iran's elite forces, in broad daylight is unprecedented.
The official Iranian news agency announced that five arrests have been made including the ring leader and a major investigation has been launched to determine who else is involved in the attack.
It also claims to have evidence that the terrorist group was backed by the United States.
Explosion kills 11 members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards
Iranian News Agency
A car bomb killed 11 members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards on Wednesday in the deadliest attack in years near the Pakistani border, and Iran accused the United States of backing militants to destabilize the country.
A Sunni Muslim militant group called Jundallah, or God's Brigade, which has been blamed for past attacks on Iranian troops, claimed responsibility for the bombing. The blast represented a sharp flare-up of violence in the remote southeast corner of Iran, near Pakistan and Afghanistan, that has long been plagued by lawlessness.
The area is a key crossing point for opium from Afghanistan and often sees clashes between police and drug gangs. At the same time, Jundallah has waged a low-level insurgency in the area, led by Abdulmalak Rigi, a member of Iran's ethnic Baluchi minority, a community that is Sunni Muslim and is present in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Rigi has said his group is fighting for the rights of impoverished Sunnis under Iran's Shiite government.
An al-Qaida-linked group of the same name has carried out attacks in Pakistan, but Pakistani officials say it is not connected to the Iranian militants. Iranian officials blamed "insurgents" and "terrorists" for Wednesday's bombing -- and accused the United States of backing them to sow instability in Iran.
The London Times
February 15, 2007
The official Iranian news agency quoted an unnamed official as saying evidence suggested that the bus attackers had support from the United States.
Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie, Iran's Intelligence Minister, claimed last week that Tehran had identified 100 spies working for the United States and Israel in the border areas.
The attack follows sporadic violence in Iran's oil-rich south-western province of Khuzestan, which has a minority Arab population, and borders southern Iraq, where British troops are based.
Explosions killed more than 20 people in Khuzestan's capital, Ahvaz, in 2005 and early 2006. London has denied as "ludicrous" Iranian accusations that Britain has fomented instability in Khuzestan.
BBC News
Correspondents say an attack of this size and nature is unprecedented in Iran - hitting an elite force in daylight in an open street. Reports say suspects behind the bombing have been arrested.
The city of Zahedan lies in the province of Sistan-Baluchestan, which borders both Afghanistan and Pakistan. It has been hit by a string of attacks and kidnappings blamed on the hardline Sunni group called Jundallah.
Iranian officials have accused Britain and the United States of supporting ethnic minority rebels operating in the Islamic republic's sensitive border areas.
Tehran Times
Five suspects have been arrested, an official of the Sistan-Baluchestan Governor General’s Office announced.
“The detained individuals entered the province from another country and according to their confessions, they committed the terrorist act based on a plan to incite division between Shias and Sunnis and provoke ethnic strife,” Soltan-Ali Mir told the Mehr News Agency.
The ringleader of the bombing is among the five, he added. “Some of the arrested terrorists entered Iran two days ago,” Mir stated.
Sunni ulema in Sistan-Baluchestan Province have condemned the bombing, he added. A major operation is underway to identify and arrest all the others involved in the act.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
New round of US shootings claims young lives
by Kate Randall - Oct 13, 2007A series of disturbing and violent incidents involving teenagers and deadly weapons over the past week once again points to mounting social tensions in the US and deep-seated alienation among young people. The communities shaken by these incidents include urban and suburban areas, as well as small-town America.
Such events have occurred periodically in the years since the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. But with each new eruption, the authorities and the media reveal their inability to provide any serious explanation for either the specific incidents or the general phenomenon of young people resorting to homicidal and, in many cases, suicidal violence.
Each outburst is met with disbelief and treated simply as a law-enforcement problem, replete with new calls for more police and beefed-up security.
In Crandon, Wisconsin on October 7, 20-year-old Tyler Peterson, a Crandon High School graduate and sheriff’s deputy, shot and killed six people who had gathered at a friend’s apartment for pizza.
Peterson arrived at the apartment at around 2:30 a.m. He began an argument with his former girlfriend that became heated and she demanded he leave. He returned minutes later armed with an AR-15 rifle and proceeded to gun down six people and wound another before he was shot and killed by police.
All of the victims were either students or graduates of Crandon High School. Crandon, a small community of about 2,000 in northeastern Wisconsin, is known in the region as a vacation destination for hunting, fishing and snowmobiling, and is also the home of the Crandon International Off-Road Raceway.
Funerals began Friday for the victims, who included: Bradley Schultz, 20, a criminal justice major at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Lindsey Stahl, a 14-year-old freshman and animal rights activist; Jordanne Murray, 18, Peterson’s former girlfriend; Aaron Smith, 20, who worked casually as a construction worker; Lianna Thomas, 18, who left behind a twin sister; and Katrina McCorkle, 18, a senior and longtime friend of Jordanne Murray.
The town is a state of shock following the shootings. Charlie Neitzel, 21, the only one at the party to survive the shooting, sustained extensive gunshot wounds. It is too early to know the long-term effects of his injuries. Charlie’s aunt told the press that he is “devastated” and “mourning the loss of many of his closest friends.”
In a statement earlier this week, the shooter’s family apologized and said, “We are struggling to respond like most of you. We do not know what we should do. Like you, many of us are asking why and looking for answers.”
Just three days later, on October 10 in Cleveland, Ohio, Asa Coon, 14, entered a downtown high school and went on a shooting rampage, wounding two students and two teachers before taking his own life.
The young man, a new student at SuccessTech Academy, an alternative high school for gifted and troubled teens, had a long history of family and mental health problems. According to court records, he had spent time in two juvenile facilities and was suspended from another school last year for attempting to harm a student.
A report by a Cortland County, New York social worker in 1997, when Asa Coon was three, said that he lived with his family in a garbage-strewn home. According to the caseworker, his older brothers threatened neighbors with knives, rocks and a fake bomb.
When Asa was four years old, his mother, Lori Looney, was found guilty of neglect by the county juvenile court. His father was not involved with the family.
In 2005, Asa admitted in juvenile court that he had punched his mother in the eye and yelled obscenities at her. He was ordered to attend weekly counseling sessions, perform community service and attend anger management classes. He was never able to attend the anger management classes because, at age 11-12, authorities said he was too young.
According to the email correspondence between caseworkers who treated him, he “made a suicidal statement” and was given medication to treat depression and hyperactivity. Reporting on a home visit, a court officer noted that Asa was “polite and well mannered.”
After Asa slapped his mother in 2006, a court magistrate ordered psychological testing and family therapy. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that he was eventually placed in an interim shelter, where he attempted suicide.
The family’s troubles persisted. The Monday before he opened fire at SuccessTech Academy, Asa’s older brother Stephen, 19, was arrested in connection with an armed robbery. The day after the shooting, on Thursday, Stephen Coon was arrested again for a parole violation.
Christina Burns, a volunteer at one of the schools Asa Coon attended, said he was an intelligent student who was prone to mood swings and was unable to concentrate. She was angry that no one reached out to him.
“This all could have been prevented if he had the proper intervention,” she said. “That child was tormented from his classmates every single day. Everybody’s making him out to be a devil, a demon, but nobody knows what was going on with this kid.”
He eventually ended up in a downtown detention center, and then a mental hospital, where it was determined he might suffer from bipolar disease. He was eventually enrolled in SuccessTech, a predominantly black school in downtown Cleveland.
Asa Coon, who was white, stood out in his habitual outfit of black clothes and a trench coat, with an empty gun belt strapped to his leg. LaToya Sparks, 15, told the New York Times, “He was chubby and short, and he was the only kid in school who dressed like a Goth.”
Fellow students reported that he was an atheist and a follower of rocker Marilyn Manson. A schoolmate told CNN that the Monday before the shootings he was beaten up after saying “F—- God” during an argument. He was suspended for three days.
“When he got suspended, he said, “I got something for y’all,’” a schoolmate told CNN. “I thought he was just playing, because he, like, said that all the time. But I see that he was for real.”
Asa Coon’s uncle, Larry Looney, said his nephew was upset about the suspension, and that teachers and administrators wouldn’t listen to his side of the story regarding the fight. Looney told the Associated Press that Asa had been bullied all his life and was excited to be accepted into SuccessTech, which specializes in technology and entrepreneurship. “He really had high hopes because he knew ... this was his best chance, this was the safest type of environment,” Looney said.
Local authorities and the media have made much of the fact that Asa Coon was able to enter the school building on the day of the shootings without his weapons being detected, walking past an armed security guard. The school board has portable metal detectors that are randomly moved from school to the school, but none was present at SuccessTech that day.
Asa went to a fourth-floor bathroom, changed clothes, took weapons out of a duffel bag and emerged to begin his rampage. Despite the existence of 26 security cameras, he was able to walk down a school hallway and start shooting. Students ran screaming and hid under tables and in closets.
When Asa saw police arrive he shot himself behind the ear with a .38-caliber shell loaded with pellets. Next to his body, police found two revolvers—.22 caliber and .38 caliber, with ammunition for each—and three folding knives.
Appearing on ABC’s “Nightline,” one of the teachers wounded in the shootings, David Kachadourian, was pressed by interviewer Martin Bashir on the issue of school security: “There’s no metal detector at the entrance to the school and we understand that parents have been campaigning for additional security for some time. Does it suggest that security hasn’t really been a high enough priority?”
The teacher answered, “I would say that this kind of situation is so out of the normal, so totally unexpected and unexpected, that it’s not something that anybody would have foreseen.”
Kachadourian had a more perceptive interpretation of the tragic incident and Asa Coon’s outburst. “It’s really, really sad to think that he had so much pain and so much anger that he just felt like he could do nothing else,” he said. “There’s a lot of pain in the world. There’s a lot of suffering by kids and a lot of it is invisible or barely visible—as a teacher, it’s really scary to think about how much pain there is out there that we don’t know about.”
He added, “It’s scary to think about kids who are carrying so much pain around and what they have to live with and what they have to endure, and you worry about them a lot.”
What is the source of this pain and suffering? Young people growing up in America today live under conditions of exploding social inequality. Funds are cut for social programs and jobs and wages are slashed. This finds reflection in working families overwhelmed by economic problems that can translate into domestic violence or neglect, both physical and emotional. Families fragment.
At the same time, youth are witness to a ruling establishment that—while worshipping the accumulation of wealth for the few—promotes militarism in a worldwide “war on terror” and the resulting death and human misery. At home, civil liberties are attacked as both big business parties pass legislation authorizing domestic spying and deep inroads into basic democratic rights.
This atmosphere breeds violence and disorientation.
In another disturbing incident this week involving teenagers and guns, a 14-year-old boy in a Philadelphia suburb was arrested Friday morning for planning what authorities referred to as a “Columbine-type” shooting at a local high school. Police were alerted by another boy who had been approached by the youth to participate in the plot.
A search Wednesday of the boy’s home in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania turned up a 9mm semiautomatic rifle, about 30 air-powered guns, seven hand grenades, swords, knives, a bomb-making book, videos of the Columbine attack, and a hand-painted Nazi flag. The arsenal was in clear view in the boy’s bedroom. The boy said two .22-caliber weapons were also stored at a friend’s house.
The teenager has been charged as a juvenile with solicitation to commit terror and other counts. The judge also ordered that he undergo psychiatric and educational achievement evaluations.
His mother, Michele Crossey, 46, has also been charged with six criminal counts in connection with buying her son bomb-making equipment and firearms, including two rifles and a handgun. The charges against her include unlawful transfer of a firearm, possession of a firearm by a minor, corruption of a minor and endangering the welfare of a child.
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