Welcome! Our goal at Winds of Change.NET is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. Thursday's Winds of War briefings are given by me, Colt, of Eurabian Times.
TOP TOPICS
- UPDATE: Free-Lebanon.com says there has been a military coup in Syria (via Discarded Lies - still unconfiemed, see comments section)
- The New York Times has reported that the 'looting' (their term) of WMD facilities was systematic. Looters with cranes and flat-beds.
- At least some Syrian intelligence personnel are said to be leaving Beirut. Syrian puppet Emile Lahoud united with the Maronite Patriarch to tell people to limit their shows of force. Men like the Patriarch are why I'm pessimistic about Lebanon's chances - more here. There is evidence of a cover-up in the Hariri murder. Syria's U.N. ambassador says Syria will leave when Lebanon can fill the vacuum. The French are looking to evacuate some 20,000 citizens - quietly. As ever, Publius Pundit has more Lebanon news.
- Hammorabi has a hunch that the rumours about Zarqawi being captured are true.
- Tests for anthrax in Pentagon and Fairfax have come up negative.
Other Topics Today Include: Iran murders opponents; U.K. supplies body armour; Hezbollah needs guns to kill Zionists; palestinan terrorists build up strength; Abbas to release senior P.F.L.P. terrorist; the P.K.K. returns; Zarqawi wants to inflitrate from Mexico; D.H.S. warns of hijack vulnerability; converts under threat; Paris bomber sentenced; Kashmir roots lead to London; Socialist aided GIA, later 3/11, terrorist; FBI busts SAM smugglers; Bangladeshi cops arrest Zionist provocateurs; India wants LeT listed; pirates kidnap Japanese in Indonesia; and much more.
IRAN
- U.S. Policy Option on Iran, Take 2.
- Iran is using assassins to silence critics around the world.
- The U.K. is to give Iran body armour to help combat drug smuggling. No, really. The U.K. has refused to supply components for ejector seats for the aging Phantoms used by the Israeli air force, on the grounds that they might be used in human rights violations.
- Speaking of human rights violations, Islamic justice has been meted out to a serial paedophile and murderer. He was lashed, then hung from a crane.
- If you aren't reading Regime Change Iran, you should be.
THE MIDDLE EAST
- Iraqi investigators says Italian intelligence is not co-operating? in the hunt for the 'kidnappers'.
- Hezbollah says they only need their weapons to kill Israelis. A Washington Times op-ed looks at Hezbollah's past.
- Jordanian Islamists have slammed terrorists in Iraq, characterised as 'targeting Iraqi civilians and kidnapping of foreigner journalists and workers'. Nothing about 'collaborators', or our guys. Presumably they're fair game.
- Here's an interesting look at the palestinians' perceptions of international donors.
- Farkash says terrorists have greater capabilities than several months ago, and have intelligence about the terrorists. But they figure it'd be better to let the P.L.O. handle Israel's security.
- Israel has handed over Jericho to the P.L.O..
- Peace-maker Abbas, having secured the release of several hundred terrorists held by Israel, and security for thousands more, wants to release some of his own, specifically, the man behind the assassination of an Israeli minister.
- Egypt is considering buying 100 F-16s.
- The P.K.K. is back.
- The Carnival of the Liberated is up, and now includes Afghani bloggers.
- The Egyptians helped Iraq develop the chemical weapons that Saddam went on to use on the Kurds.
THE AMERICAS
- TIME Magazine: Watch the Border. Zarqawi is looking to hit 'soft targets' by travelling across the Mexican border.
- A Homeland Security report says that airliners are still vulnerable to attack. More here, with the likely death tolls for different attacks...
- In 1996, President Clinton tried to convince the Saudis to behead Osama Bin Laden.
- China recently gave itself the right to invade Taiwan, and the U.S. is not pleased.
- You might think that saying Israelis should be killed by terrorists is a hate crime. The Canadian courts disagree.
EUROPE
- Converts from Islam to Christianity face threats of abuse and harrassment.
- An undercover reporter says that the slums of Brussels are breeding grounds for Islamism.
- The Kashmir jihad is getting at least some cash from the U.K..
- A jihadi terrorists has been sentenced to 10 years for plotting to suicide bomb the U.S. Embassy in Paris.
- Italy is planning to pull its troops out of Iraq.
- Commenter Joe A. translated a report from the Spanish press that the leader of the 3/11 cell was helped out several times by a Socialist official, who knew of his GIA past.
- Joschka Fischer says that Germany has a duty to protect Israel.
- The FBI has charged 18 people with a scheme to smuggle SAMs and other arms in to the United States. The 'buyer' claimed to have ties to al-Qaeda.
ASIA & AUSTRALASIA
- Bangladeshi police have arrested two terrorists, but a minister knows what's really going on: ‘As part of the conspiracy being hatched by the Zionist forces against Islam and the Muslim nations, an identified quarter here has been trying to label the country a haven of the fundamentalist forces.'
- Who were Kosovo, Global and Robot? They're dead now, but who were they before?
- India wants Lashkar e-Taiba banned by the United Nations.
- Compare and contrast: the CDI's Afghanistan report, and Arthur Chrenkoff's. (Thanks to Joe Katzman.)
- Afghan Warrior - probably Afghanistan's first blogger.
- Rusty has news of a hostage-taking by pirates in Indonesia, and points out that the pirates are probably Islamists.
And finally...
- The age-old debate rages on... Do Dungeons & Dragons players make good soldiers?
Thanks for reading! If you found something here you want to blog about yourself (and we hope you do), all we ask is that you do as we do and offer a Hat Tip hyperlink to today's "Winds of War". If you think we missed something important, use the Comments section to let us know.
I totaly missed any news of a possible coup in Syria. Checking to see if there is any meat to the story.
Looting isn't a proper term for it?
One could get the inference that you believe the Iraqi government waited till Bagdad fell to begin shipping it's illegal equipment out of the country.
Suppose that could have happened. But I'd say it's a really long longshot.
Davebo is correct, the Iraqi government would have removed stuff before the invasion. That removal process must have been done by someone else. I am not sure who though.
Davebo
I have to agree with your assessment on that one. Another thing that doesn't seem to be explained is when did the National Organizations know that these sites were in fact a problem. I don't recall any one in the national community advising the American Troops to highly guard certain installations or areas prior to or during the war. If someone has any information on that I'd certainly like to know about it.
I've looked at the BBC, NYT, Al-Jazeera, the Lebanese Bloggers Forum, and various other blogs and sites which might plausibly confirm the news of a Syrian Coup/Military rebellion. NO LUCK.
I don't know when the "looting" necessarily happened, but we should keep in mind that after the First Gulf War started, Saddam ordered his air force to Iran for safe keeping. That Iran is still keeping his air force safe might have deterred a subsequent operation to move his WMD programs out of the country, but it is a potential pattern.
Patrick
I am stunned at the casual pronouncement of a military coup in Syria. I checked MSM and saw no mention of Syria. So what is the deal?
For your America's section, the FARC may have cells in Honduras according to El Heraldo and a couple former Latin American President's met about the possiblity of terrorism in Latin America
That coup appears to be an active disinformation plot:
http://www.kurdmedia.com/news.asp?id=5346
Jordanian Islamists have slammed terrorists in Iraq, characterised as 'targeting Iraqi civilians and kidnapping of foreigner journalists and workers'. Nothing about 'collaborators', or our guys. Presumably they're fair game.
Strictly speaking, our guys /are/ "fair game". Attacking military targets is not terrorism, it's warfare. Attacking civilians--which does include, incidentally, people collaborating/cooperating with the coalition or the Iraqi government--is terrorism.
This ongoing attempt to redefine "terrorism" to include attacking any target, military or otherwise, that's on our side is not helpful.
Free-Lebanon.com says there has been a military coup in Syria
If true, this is huge news--and I'm not certain at this point whether it'd be good or bad. Is there any substance to this story? I have yet to find anything corroborating it online, but then if news out of the country is being as tightly controlled as the article says, that's not surprising. What is surprising is why that silence isn't as deafening as the news itself, from the perspective of a journalist.
Forget my last, I just notice the date. That is from last year, stupid me.
Everyone,
I emailed a few people/bloggers in Damascus I know. Everything is A-OK, no coup. http://www.publiuspundit.com/?p=674
incidentally, people collaborating/cooperating with the coalition or the Iraqi government--is terrorism.
Going to tell my sister that she lived in a street named after a terrorist.
USMC
I think it's a safe bet that we knew about the vast majority of sites that were looted. According to several reports the UN Inspectors had most under surveillance and had verified the controlled items in many during the inspection period prior to the invasion.
I'm not trying to dog the DOD for failing to secure these sites quickly but I do think it's a reasonable criticism considering our previously stated concerns. I don't think anyone can deny that allocating forces to guard the oil ministry while seemingly ignoring these facilities is at least a bad PR move considering our claims in the runup to war.
PD Shaw
The story makes clear that the looting appears to have occurred in the weeks following the invasion.
Apologies about the casual nature of the top Syria article. It was about 12:30 here...
Going to tell my sister that she lived in a street named after a terrorist.
golf clap Congratulations for setting a new low in creatively editing a sentence to make it mean the opposite of what it originally meant. You don't by chance work for Fox News, do you?
Meanwhile, the intellectually honest can feel free to re-read the original comment, in context, upthread.
Hi, I did a check at sana.com and posted it on several sites!
Have a look at this page :
http://www.sana.org/english/headlines/18-3/newspaper.htm
The Syrian dailies on Friday highlighted the following headlines: (according the french version of their site there was only ONE newspaper published today)
(my remarks between parentheses)
* President Assad congratulates Ireland on its national day. (from where?)
* Turkish Circles hail Turkish president’s expected visit to Syria.. and demand Washington to put an end to Israel’s armament and occupation of Syrian Golan.
* People Assembly re-elects al-Abrash as a speaker and Qaddoura as a Deputy.. it also diverts written questions to its specialized resources. (????)
* Tartous demonstration pledges boosting President’s positions in facing challenge. (which challenges? the french version speaks about “+ABSOLUTE SUPPORT*”)
* Lebanese President Emile Lahoud warns against rising doubt against constitutional institutions’ role.
* Major-General Jamil Sayyed, director general of the Lebanese Surete General, : We reject exploiting the crime of Hariri assassination for political reasons.
* Two years after the US invasion against Iraq.. Bush is facing an expensive war.
—–
Normally they report what Assad is doing during the morning, noon, tea-time etc…
I would not ne surprised that free-lebanon.com has very reliable info. Wait and see…
Should have copied more.
Attacking civilians--which does include, incidentally, people collaborating/cooperating with the coalition or the Iraqi government--is terrorism.
Going to tell my sister that she lived in a street named after a terrorist.
The WWII resistance killed also collaborators. Don't think they will like it when you call them terrorists.
I'm going to use very simple sentences so that you can understand, since reading comprehension does not seem to be your strong suit.
People in Iraq collaborating with the coalition are civilians.
People in Iraq killing civilians are terrorists.
Therefore, attacking collaborators is terrorism.
----
I realize you probably didn't like it when I pointed out that attacking American soldiers is not terrorism. That's your problem--it's not a matter of politics, it's a matter of facts. Some people are willing to distort facts and language to push their agenda, such as widening the definition of terrorism to include attacks on military targets. These people are simply being intellectually dishonest in order to justify including just about everything under the rubric of the "war on terrorism".
You may not like having that pointed out, but it doesn't give you an excuse to further distort what I said in order to try to make it sound like I said the opposite of what I did.
I do get your point but the resistance in Europe did kill a lot of collaborators and those acts are seen as heroic. You call that terorisme but than you will loose the terrorisme == bad effect.
ps. What about the police. Are the military targets or not? Or does that depend on if they are officially military (like the guardia civil) or not (like Scotland yard)
Pressed to fast on post
should have said:
You can call that terorisme but than you will loose the terrorisme == bad effect.