Iraqi Tips Lead to Bomb Factory Discovery
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Feb. 26, 2007 – Tips that led to the discovery of a bomb-making factory in western Iraq demonstrate that the Iraqi people are fed up with terrorists operating in their midst and stepping forward to help remove them, military officials in Baghdad told reporters today.

Officials from 3rd Brigade, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 6, briefed reporters about a search for weapons caches that ultimately led to the bomb factory Feb. 20 in Gharmah, about 10 miles east of Fallujah.

Army Capt. Matt Gregory, commander of Company A, described the materials uncovered during the raid: blasting caps, ballistic glass used in up-armored Humvees, and five vehicles, one full of propane tanks and initiation devices.

But only when the team continued its mission and found a chemical workshop and metal workshop did they realize the significance of their find, Gregory said. They found homemade explosives and "quite a sizable selection of chemicals," including canisters of chlorine, several 55-gallon barrels of nitric acid and several bags of fertilizer, as well as a Russian bomb.

"At that point, we realized that this objective was a lot bigger than what we had planned for and what we had ever hoped to find," he said.

The team returned after daylight to continue the search, he said, finding mortar and artillery rounds, rockets and enemy documents.

Army Lt. Col. Valery Keaveny, the brigade's commander, called the cooperation that led to the find proof that the Iraqi people don't like living under the intimidation campaign al Qaeda has imposed on them.

When the brigade first arrived at Camp Fallujah in the fall, "we quickly found the local civilians were terrorized and were threatened, and they did not like life under al Qaeda. They wanted a way out," Keaveny said. "And we found very quickly that, once we showed our compassion and our professionalism, they would be willing to work with us."

Over time, relationships built between the troops and the local Iraqis led to tips and information about al Qaeda that led to actionable intelligence. The effort began to have a domino effect as one raid led to more intelligence that led to even more raids -- most recently, the bomb-making factory.

"We continue to conduct more raids, recovery more documentation, more IED-making materials, more sniper capabilities," Keaveny said.

Iraqis are demonstrating that they want to be a part of this effort and help clear their communities of terrorists, he said. "We are seeing the locals stand up more and more, working with us, working with the Iraqi security forces, police and army, for their road ahead," he said. "The Iraqi people are standing up for their own freedom (and) ... so that their kids can grow up without ... oppression from al Qaeda."

http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/australia.asp
Let's hear it for Australia

Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told on
Wednesday to get out of Australia, as the government targeted
radicals in a bid to head off potential terror attacks.

A day after a group of mainstream Muslim leaders pledged loyalty to
Australia and her Queen at a special meeting with Prime Minister John
Howard, he and his Ministers made it clear that extremists would face a
crackdown.

Treasurer Peter Costello, seen as heir apparent to Howard, hinted that
some radical clerics could be asked to leave the country if they did
not accept that Australia was a secular state, and its laws were made
by parliament. "If those are not your values, if you want a country
which has Sharia law or a theocratic state, then Australia is not for
you", he said on national television.

"I'd be saying to clerics who are teaching that there are two laws
governing people in Australia: one the Australian law and another the
Islamic law,that is false. If you can't agree with parliamentary law,
independent courts, democracy, and would prefer Sharia law and have the
opportunity to go to another country, which practices it, perhaps,
then, that's a better option", Costello said.

Asked whether he meant radical clerics would be forced to leave, he
said those with dual citizenship could possibly be asked to move to the
other country. Education Minister Brendan Nelson later told reporters
that Muslims who did not want to accept local values should "clear off.
Basically people who don't want to be Australians, and who don't want
to live by Australian values and understand them, well then, they can
basically clear off", he said.

Separately, Howard angered some Australian Muslims on Wednesday by
saying he supported spy agencies monitoring the nation's mosques Quote:
"IMMIGRANTS, NOT AUSTRALIANS, MUST ADAPT. Take It Or Leave It. I am
tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some
individual or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks on Bali, we
have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of
Australians." "However, the dust from the attacks had barely settled
when the 'politically correct' crowd began complaining about the
possibility that our patriotism was offending others. I am not against
immigration, nor do I hold a grudge against anyone who is seeking a
better life by
coming to Australia." "However, there are a few things that those who
have recently come to our country, and apparently some born here, need
to understand."
"This idea of Australia being a multicultural community has served only
to dilute our sovereignty and our national identity. As Australians, we
have our own culture, our own society, our own language and our own
lifestyle."
"This culture has been developed over two centuries of struggles,
trials and victories by millions of men and women who have sought
freedom"

"We speak mainly ENGLISH, not Spanish, Lebanese, Arabic, Chinese,
Japanese, Russian, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to
become part of our society, Learn the language!"

"Most Australians believe in God. This is not some Christian, right
wing,
political push, but a fact, because Christian men and women, on
Christian principles, founded this nation, and this is clearly
documented. It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of
our schools. If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another
part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our
culture."
"We will accept your beliefs, and will not question why. All we ask is
that you accept ours, and live in harmony and peaceful enjoyment with
us."
"If the Southern Cross offends you, or you don't like " A Fair Go",
then
you should seriously consider a move to another part of this planet. We
are happy with our culture and have no desire to change, and we really
don't care how you did things where you came from. By all means, keep
your culture, but do not force it on others.
"This is OUR COUNTRY, OUR LAND, and OUR LIFESTYLE, and we will allow
you every opportunity to enjoy all this. But once you are done
complaining, whining, and griping about Our Flag, Our Pledge, Our
Christian beliefs, or Our Way of Life, I highly encourage you take
advantage of one other great Australian freedom, 'THE RIGHT TO LEAVE'."
"If you aren't happy here then LEAVE. We didn't force you to come here.
You asked to be here. So accept the country YOU accepted."
Maybe if we circulate this amongst ourselves, American citizens will
find the backbone to start speaking and voting the same truths!!
SEND THIS TO EVERYBODY YOU KNOW, IF YOU AGREE !!!
AMERICA,WHERE IS YOUR BACKBONE? THIS IS REAL.

SUNNI MUSLIM GROUP CRITICIZES BAGHDAD SECURITY PLAN. The Sunni-led
Muslim Scholars Association has criticized the Baghdad security plan,
claiming in statements posted on its website on February 24 that U.S.
forces have killed scores of civilians in security sweeps in Sunni
Arab neighborhoods. The association pointed to one such operation in
the Al-Mashahidah district, calling the bombing of a house there a
"barbaric massacre" of civilians; Iraqi Brigadier General Abd
al-Karim Khalaf said the operation targeted members of the insurgent
group Islamic Army in Iraq. The association also claimed that Iraqi
security forces, in collaboration with militiamen from Shi'ite cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr's Imam Al-Mahdi Army, are carrying out what it called
sectarian displacement operations. One statement implied that the
Iraqi government is aware of such operations, but chooses to remain
silent. The association also claimed that Interior Ministry forces
targeted the Al-Amil neighborhood in a series of raids, pointing out
that the neighborhood is the home of a Sunni Arab woman who claimed
she was raped by Interior Ministry forces (see next item). KR

Suspected al Qaeda Leader, Others Captured; Weapons Cache Found
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Feb. 26, 2007 – Coalition forces detained 15 suspected terrorists, including a suspected al Qaeda in Iraq emir, in raids throughout Iraq today; Iraqi forces found a large weapons cache Feb. 24; and Iraqi and coalition forces announced the casualty toll from yesterday's car-bomb attack in Habbaniyah, military officials reported.

During an operation in Baghdad, coalition forces captured a suspected al Qaeda in Iraq emir and one of his associates.

Three suspected foreign terrorist facilitators were captured in operations northeast of Samarra, and eight more were captured in a foreign fighter safe house west of Mahmudiyah.

In downtown Ramadi, coalition forces captured two suspects in a foreign fighter safe house. Intelligence reports indicated members of the cell were planning suicide operations against coalition or Iraqi forces.

"Coalition forces are making progress dismantling the foreign fighter and al Qaeda terrorist networks inside Iraq," said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman. "These operations send a message to terrorists that they will be caught and prosecuted for their crimes under the Iraqi justice system."

Separately, Iraqi police and coalition military officials placed the number of those killed in yesterday's suicide truck bomb attack in Habbaniyah at about 31 Iraqis killed and 75 wounded. The attack occurred at about 4 p.m. in a busy intersection as citizens were exiting a mosque after evening prayer. The blast affected a nearby school and an Iraqi police station.

The target of this latest al Qaeda in Iraq-led attack is not known, officials said. Iraqi police established triage for the victims of the attack, and coalition medical personnel assisted in the treatment and evacuation of the wounded civilians.

In Baqubah, information provided by a concerned citizen led Iraqi police officers from Judidah and coalition forces from the 1-12 Combined Arms Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, to a large improvised explosive device cache Feb. 24.

The cache consisted of two explosively formed projectiles, a completed improvised mine, more than two dozen mortar rounds and 15 rockets, six rocket launchers, five anti-aircraft rounds, more than two dozen RPG warheads, more than 400 plastic and steel containers in various stages of fabrication for IED construction, and large quantities of IED-making material.

"The vigilance of the Iraqi police and the willingness of the people of Diyala to end the cycle of violence led to this discovery," said Col. David W. Sutherland, 3-1 Cav. commander and senior U.S. Army officer in the Diyala province.

A coalition forces explosive ordnance disposal unit safely disposed of some of the munitions with the majority of the cache being transferred to Forward Operating Base Warhorse.

(Compiled from Multinational Corps Iraq news releases.)

Related Sites:
Multinational Corps Iraq

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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/26/world/asia/26pakistan.html?_r=1&th=&oref=slogin&emc=th&pagewanted=print

February 26, 2007
Bush to Warn Pakistan to Act on Terror

By DAVID E. SANGER and MARK MAZZETTI
WASHINGTON, Feb. 25 — President Bush has decided to send an unusually tough message to one of his most important allies, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the president of Pakistan, warning him that the newly Democratic Congress could cut aid to his country unless his forces become far more aggressive in hunting down operatives with Al Qaeda, senior administration officials say.

The decision came after the White House concluded that General Musharraf is failing to live up to commitments he made to Mr. Bush during a visit here in September. General Musharraf insisted then, both in private and public, that a peace deal he struck with tribal leaders in one of the country’s most lawless border areas would not diminish the hunt for the leaders of Al Qaeda and the Taliban or their training camps.

Now, American intelligence officials have concluded that the terrorist infrastructure is being rebuilt, and that while Pakistan has attacked some camps, its overall effort has flagged.

“He’s made a number of assurances over the past few months, but the bottom line is that what they are doing now is not working,” one senior administration official who deals often with South Asian issues said late last week. “The message we’re sending to him now is that the only thing that matters is results.”

Democrats, who took control of Congress last month, have urged the White House to put greater pressure on Pakistan because of statements from American commanders that units based in Pakistan that are linked to the Taliban, Afghanistan’s ousted rulers, are increasing their attacks into Afghanistan.

For the time being, officials say, the White House has ruled out unilateral strikes against the training camps that American spy satellites are monitoring in North Waziristan, in Pakistan’s tribal areas on the border. The fear is that such strikes would result in what one administration official referred to as a “shock to the stability” of General Musharraf’s government.

General Musharraf, a savvy survivor in the brutal world of Pakistani politics, knows that the administration is hesitant to push him too far. If his government collapses, it is not clear who would succeed him or who would gain control over Pakistan’s arsenal of nuclear weapons.

But the spread of Al Qaeda in the tribal areas threatens to undermine a central element of Mr. Bush’s argument that he is succeeding in the administration’s effort to curb terrorism. The bomb plot disrupted in Britain last summer, involving plans to hijack airplanes, has been linked by British and American intelligence agencies to camps in the Pakistan-Afghan border areas.

General Musharraf has told American officials that Pakistani military operations in the tribal areas in recent years so alienated local residents that they no longer provide the central government with quality intelligence about the movements of senior Islamic militants.

Congressional Democrats have threatened to review military assistance and other aid to Pakistan unless they see evidence of aggressive attacks on Al Qaeda. The House last month passed a measure linking future military aid to White House certification that Pakistan “is making all possible efforts to prevent the Taliban from operating in areas under its sovereign control.”

Pakistan is now the fifth-largest recipient of American aid. Mr. Bush has proposed $785 million in aid to Pakistan in his new budget, including $300 million in military aid to help Pakistan combat Islamic radicalism in the country.

The rumblings from Congress give Mr. Bush and his top advisers a way of conveying the seriousness of the problem, officials said, without appearing to issue a direct threat to the proud Pakistani leader themselves.

“We think the Pakistani aid is at risk in Congress,” said the senior official, who declined to speak on the record because the subject involved intelligence matters.

The administration has sent a series of emissaries to see the Pakistani leader in recent weeks, including the new secretary of defense, Robert M. Gates. Mr. Gates was charged with prompting more action in a region in which American forces operate with great constraints, if they are allowed in at all.

“This is not the type of relationship where we can order action,” said an administration official involved in discussions over Pakistan policy. “We can strongly encourage.”

Relations between General Musharraf and Mr. Bush have always been tense, as the Pakistani leader veers between his need for American support and protection and his awareness that many Pakistani people — and the intelligence service — have strong sympathies for Al Qaeda and the resurgent Taliban. Officials involved with the issue describe the current moment between the leaders as especially fraught.

Mr. Bush was deeply skeptical of the deal General Musharraf struck with the tribal leaders last year, fearing that it would limit the government’s powers to intercede in what Mr. Bush has called the “wild west” of Waziristan, administration officials said at the time.

During his visit to Washington last fall, General Musharraf said the agreement he signed with tribal leaders, giving them greater sovereignty in the region, had “three bottom lines.” He said one was “no Al Qaeda activities in our tribal agencies or across the border in Afghanistan.” The second was “no Taliban activity” in the same areas. And the third was “no Talibanization,” which he described as “obscurantist thoughts or way of life.”

American intelligence officials have made an assessment that senior Qaeda leaders in Pakistan have re-established significant control over their global network and are training operatives in some of the camps for strikes on Western targets.

One American official familiar with intelligence reports about Pakistan said intelligence agencies had established “clear linkages” between the Qaeda camps and the plot to blow up trans-Atlantic flights that was thwarted last August. American analysts said the recent trials of terrorism suspects in Britain showed that some defendants had been trained in Pakistan.

American officials say one reason General Musharraf agreed to pull government troops back to their barracks in North Waziristan and allow tribal leaders greater control over security was to give him time to rebuild his intelligence network in the border region gradually.

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company