Ansar al-Sunnah has executed three Jordanian truck drivers for what the group calls the drivers being agents of America.

“We don’t see any difference between them and the Americans,” a statement attached to the video said. “On the contrary, they work night and day in aiding the Americans to find the houses and locations of the mujahedeen (holy warriors).”

One of the men interviewed before being shot said he worked for the Jordan-based Shaheen Co. contracted by U.S. forces to supply Iraqi police academies in Hillah and Kut, south of Baghdad.

[snip]

“I am filled with remorse,” one of the victims said during a taped interrogation. “This company is contracted by American troops.”

He claimed he was not forced to confess.

After the executions were shown, a voice on the tape said, “This is the fate of every agent.”

There are a couple of interesting insights with the translations provided by the Associated Press. Ansar al-Sunnah seems to claim these truck drivers aide in helping Coalition forces find houses of terrorists in Iraq, the key word being truck drivers. They delivered supplies to the Iraqi police and are not instrumental in either covert operations or discovery of the terrorist network.

One of the victims reveals his former company was contracted out by the United States to which the Associated Press reports he followed this statement by saying he was not forced to “confess.” Confess what? Confess that the United States has contracted out companies to deliver supplies to the Coalition forces and the Iraqi police? This is something that is well known and well documented.

Ansar al-Sunnah continues to target Arabs they deem are working for a Democratic Iraq. They have made a name for themselves through executing Iraqis and other Arabs as well as targeting Iraqi National Guard and Iraqi policemen.

If you so wish, you may download the video here, courtesy of Infovlad.

Diggers Realm linked with Army Of Ansar Al-Sunnah Kills 3 Iraqi Truck Drivers [Video]
The Jawa Report linked with American Kidnapped in Iraq

Three Romanian journalists were taken hostage in Baghdad just hours after the trio interviewed Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

The three were abducted Monday night near their Baghdad hotel, officials said Tuesday — the latest journalists to be taken hostage in Iraq.

They were identified as reporter Marie Jeanne Ion, 32, and cameraman Sorin Dumitru Miscoci, 30, from Bucharest-based television station Prima TV, and Romania Libera reporter Ovidiu Ohanesian, 37.

Ion sent a message to her newsroom saying “Help, this is not a joke, we’ve been kidnapped.” Ion speaks fluent Arabic and is believed to have been in contact with her captors while she phoned into the newsroom to report the abduction. There have been no ransom demands or any other type of demands made as of yet.

As we’ve seen time and time again with abductions of journalists, most journalists are taken for ransom money and most likely this case is no different. Romania has become a strong ally of the United States and U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has called Romania a “strategic partner and an ally against terror” with 800 soldiers in Iraq.

Update:
The three were able to send out messages prior to being abducted as reported above. One of the journalists said the following over the phone.

“I heard her imploring the attackers not to kidnap them because they come from a poor country which won’t be able to pay the ransom,” [news editor of Prima TV Dan Dumitru] said.

This will not matter because in all liklihood the trio will appeal to nations whom have given out a ransom before (Libya, Saudi Arabia, Phillipines, France, Italy, etc.); a sad state of affairs where we are because ransoms are paid. A crisis center has been set up in Romania to handle the negotiation for the hostages release.

Update:
The trio have now appeared on video tape with a fourth, an Iraqi-American translator for the group. One colleague of the translator indicates the group is seeking a ransom. More here.

Other Coverage:
The Jawa Report
Diggers Realm
Hyscience

Diggers Realm linked with Three Romanian Journalists Taken Hostage In Iraq
Hyscience linked with Romanian Journalists Taken Hostage in Iraq
The Jawa Report linked with Romanian Journalists Taken Hostage in Iraq, Plea for Help

This is a bit bizarre.

DENVER (AP) — The Colorado Supreme Court threw out the death sentence Monday of a man convicted of raping and killing a cocktail waitress because jurors consulted the Bible during deliberations.

The court said Bible passages, including the verse that commands “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” could lead jurors to vote for death.

The justices ordered Robert Harlan to serve life in prison without parole for the 1994 slaying of Rhonda Maloney.

The judge overruled the sentence handed down by a “jury of his peers” because some jurors consulted the Bible in making their decision of the death penalty. Should judges throw out testimony for witnesses swearing on the Bible too?

The secrecy of Saddam Hussein’s chemical and biological weapons program was vast and spread throughout Iraq. As earlier reported, even Saddam’s top aides and generals did not know that Iraq did not have any weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). Saddam Hussein even bribed UN weapons inspectors to keep the heat off of what most of the world believed was his WMD program.

Behind Iraq’s chemical weapons labs was a scientist named Rihab Rashid Taha who is currently in U.S. custody. Miss Taha is believed to have engineered the program during the 1980s, some of which were used by Chemical Ali against the Kurds in Northern Iraq. Now Taha claims she got rid of the anthrax she was instrumental in producing at the gates to one of Saddam Hussein’s many palaces.

The microbiologist’s dilemma, she has told U.S. interrogators, was that her team 12 years earlier had destroyed the lethal bacteria by dumping it practically at the gates of one of Saddam’s main palaces, and the feared Iraqi despot might grow enraged at news of anthrax on his doorstep.

Taha chose silence in 2003, thus stoking suspicions of those who contended Iraq still harbored biological weapons. Soon thereafter, two years ago this month, the United States invaded.

“Whether those involved understood the significance and disastrous consequences of their actions is unclear,” the CIA-led Iraq Survey Group says of Taha and colleagues in its final report on Iraq weapons-hunting. “These efforts demonstrate the problems that existed on both sides in establishing the truth.”

What is beyond belief to me is the shroud of secrecy within Iraq preceding the war in Iraq was not just with outside intelligence agencies, it was with the Iraqi people, top aides, generals and even scientists as well. If Saddam Hussein did not have any WMDs, why did he not grant the UN full access to inspect what they wished to inspect?

Saddam Hussein kicked UN weapons inspectors out of Iraq on numerous occassions, only letting them back inside Iraq right before the war. He defied the entire international community over a program which is believed to have been shelved during the early 1990s yet no stockpiles of WMDs were found.

I admit, there are rumors of a transfer of WMDs to Syria with the aide of Russia, however this has yet to be proven and most likely will never be proven unless Syrian President Bashir Assad is toppled either from outside forces or from Syrians. There have been small amounts of chemical weapons found inside of Iraq, but the small quantity is far from what was believed to be housed inside the country.

Iraqi Interior Minister Falah al-Nakib claims to have Al Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi surrounded (via The Jawa Report).

“We have not arrested al-Zarqawi,” Interior Minister Falah al-Nakib said during a news conference. “He is surrounded in a certain area, and we hope for the best. This operation is ongoing. We hope that the situation will be completely different in Iraq at the end of this year.”

Al-Nakib said al-Zarqawi was moving in “more than one area,” but declined to provide more details.

Whether this means Zarqawi is actually surrounded in a house or a specific area or whether this is just strong wording by the Iraqi Interior Minister talking on how the Iraqi forces are “surrounding” terrorists is unclear at this moment. The optimist in me hopes Zarqawi is inside of a house and will come out crying for mercy recorded on video tape for the world to see. The cynic in me believes the Interior Minister has taken a cue from Baghdad Bob.

Update:
The Associated Press is reporting the same quote from al-Nakib (al-Naqib). Well, almost.

He added that Iraq’s most-wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was “surrounded in more than one area, and we hope for the best. He’s moving between more than one area.”

Who misquoted al-Naqib? Most likely it was Sofia News Agency and it was probably due to a translation error. This does shed more light on the statement though. It appears that the al-Naqib said Zarqawi was surrounded because there are Iraqi forces looking for him in several areas. It’s not the surrounded like most of us are familiar with; it’s the surrounded as in “We have soldiers around those areas he might be hiding in.”

This is a let down.

Hyscience linked with Zarqawi Surrounded?

Wow!

KHARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) - Sudan has for the first time arrested military and security officials accused of rape, killing and burning villages in the Darfur region of western Sudan, the justice minister said Monday.

Ali Mohamed Osman Yassin told reporters a government committee had arrested 15 members of the police, military and security forces in Darfur for human rights abuses and they would be sent to court immediately.

“They are military people … from the army, military and security,” Yassin said. “(They are accused of) different crimes. It includes rape, killing, burning and other things — different kinds of atrocities.”

Without question this is in response the the United Nations agreeing to send peacekeepers to Sudan. Possibly the United Nations does still serve a purpose.

The New York Sun has learned that Nancy Powell, the former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, failed to distribute wanted materials for Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan for the past two years.

Ambassador Nancy Powell, America’s representative in Pakistan, refused to allow the distribution in Pakistan of wanted posters, matchbooks, and other items advertising America’s $25 million reward for information leading to the capture of Mr. bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders.

Instead, thousands of matchbooks, posters, and other material - printed at taxpayer expense and translated into Urdu, Pashto, and other local languages - remained “impounded” on American Embassy grounds from 2002 to 2004, according to Rep. Mark Kirk, Republican of Illinois.

While there is disagreement over the effectiveness of whether or not a reward and advertising seeking out Bin Laden would work, these materials were already printed up and awaiting Powell’s approval to distribute. Why Powell chose not to is beyond me and reprehensible if for no other reason than to waste taxpayers’ money.

Senior State Department officials say that the program was shelved because it was ineffective, which is true because Bin Laden is not in custody, however any and all advertising is a good thing in trying to net a criminal. Surely Pakistanis know of the U.S. desire to capture bin Laden, however dangling a $25 million carrot to the public in theory would only help drive Pakistanis to issue tips.

It’s a conspiracy I tell you!

“I just want to say to fans in every corner of the Earth, every nationality, every race, every language, I love you from the bottom of my heart,” Jackson said toward the end of the hourlong interview broadcast live on the Internet.

“I would love your prayers and your goodwill, and please be patient and be with me and believe in me because I am completely, completely innocent. But please know a lot of conspiracy is going on as we speak,” he said.

Following these statements, the so-called King of Pop invited all fans to send their children to Neverland for one giant sleepover. Jackson never learns nor can ever realize just how strange it is for a grown man to want to share his bed with children.

Since a few months after the toppling of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Sunni Iraqis have waged war against the United States and the entire Coalition because what they call is occupation. The Sunnis were the ruling party and chosen people in Iraq under Hussein, a Sunni himself. While the Kurdish and Shiite Iraqis stood to gain the most in a new Democratic Iraq because together they consist of 80 percent of Iraqis, the Sunnis had the most to lose.

This realization by the Sunnis sparked many Sunnis to join terrorist groups, though some formed a terrorist group, or join the Baathist-led insurgency. Sunnis boycotted the Iraqi elections and only trickled to the polls once they realized they would be left in the dust if they did not vote. Sunni Sheikhs were the “voice of reason” to encourage Sunnis not to vote, although terrorist groups also called on Sunnis to abstain as well.

Now it appears the Sunni Sheikhs are not done advocating a step back from Democracy and a step towards chaos as some Sunni Sheikhs are openly advocating strikes against Kurds and Shiites.

“The Americans aren’t the problem; we’re living under an occupation of Kurds and Shiites,” Sunni leader Sattar Abdulhalik Adburahman told a gathering of tribal leaders to deafening applause. “It’s time to fight back.”

Last week, Sunni sheikhs openly called on tribal leaders to lend political and logistical support to Sunni fighters locked in what they see as a necessary fight for survival as a minority in Iraq.

Too often we hear of Islamic clerics throughout the world releasing fatwas (religious edicts) or inciting violence towards the West, but now Sunni clerics are inciting violence towards Iraqis. The Iraqi government has bent over backwards to include Sunnis in the government despite the low Sunni voter turnout and the lack of desire by many Sunnis to participate in the government. Seats have been set aside in the parliment and a leadership position has all but been promised to a Sunni.

What thanks do the Sunni clerics have for this act? They urge violence and call fellow Iraqis an occupation force.

Prisoners at Camp Bucca in Southern Iraq dug tunnels out of the prison. These tunnels cleared the walls yet no one has escaped according to U.S. soldiers in charge of the prison.

The attempted jailbreak was extremely elaborate, another US spokesman said.

He said it was believed that the tunnels had been dug over several weeks and prisoners had waited for poor weather and low visibility before trying to make an escape.

A shovel cut from a water container was said to have been used to dig the tunnel.

Maj Lee said the entrance to the tunnel was under a floorboard and was concealed with dirt.

Fox News has reported U.S. soldiers became aware of the tunnel after finding several piles of dirt in the prison facility. They began to look where the dirt came from and found the tunnels. There were two main tunnels with smaller tunnels under a few prison cells.

BBC has a few pictures of the tunnels, seen here, and they are quite elaborate. It is believed the tunnels were dug with wooden and metal buckets, metal shards and rocks.

It is rather alarming that these tunnels were completed and the prisoners were just waiting for the right time to escape. Camp Bucca houses over 6,000 prisoners which would create quite a problem for the Coalition forces to try to contain the escape had it happened. Clearly there needs to be better use of technology to watch these types of escape attempts, but it was the good work and keen insight of U.S. soldiers which foiled this escape attempt.