Word: abu
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RETIRED. U.S. Major General Geoffrey Miller, 56, former commander of detention facilities at Guantánamo Bay and deputy commanding general for detainee operations in Iraq; from the U.S. Army; in Washington. The interrogation techniques the two-star general helped organize at Gitmo and Abu Ghraib were so controversial that Miller retired rather than face rebuke. Army officials, insisting Miller was wrongly taking the fall, awarded him with the Distinguished Service Medal at his Pentagon retirement ceremony...
Every so often, something happens that causes the Iraqi government and the Bush Administration to announce that a turning point has arrived for the beleaguered country. In the month that I was away from Baghdad, there were two such events: the killing of terrorist Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi and the appointment, after weeks of political haggling, of new ministers of Defense and the Interior. The ministers, a Sunni and Shi'ite, respectively, had been touted as independent and nonsectarian--new brooms to brush away the rampant corruption in the two crucial security ministries. Interior, in particular, would be cleansed...
...delicate sectarian consensus that ended decades of bloody civil war. Domestic political stability rather than military effectiveness has been the guiding principle of its development. "The Lebanese army is a mirror of all the country; its job is to maintain stability in the country," said Retired General Salim Abu Ismail, a former military attache to Washington and the managing editor of Al Defaiya Defense Magazine. "During the Civil War, every sect had a portion of the army. In the late '80s, we had at least two armies, one Christian, one Muslim...
...Hizballah has split the south into military sectors, the smallest subdivision consisting of two or three neighboring villages. Other than having noms de guerre such as Abu Mohammed, Arabic for the father of Mohammed, or Haj Rabieh, the fighters also are designated code numbers. Haj Rabieh extracts from his pocket a laminated piece of paper listing the positions and code numbers of local Hizballah men in his area. He is 103 and Abu Mohammed is 121. Haj Rabieh demonstrates by picking up his walkie-talkie and calling number "47" When "47" answers, Haj Rabieh says "God give you strength...
...proceeding and believe that Hizballah's hit-and-run tactics are succeeding against Israel's technological superiority. But they say that Hizballah's leadership has exercised some restraint. "Sayyed Hassan could have ordered a rocket strike on the petrochemical plants in Haifa, but he didn't," says Abu Mohammed, referring to Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, Hizballah's leader. He adds that Islam teaches them to treat people with love and as brothers. But what about the firing of rockets into towns and cities in Israel? "This is war. We have to. They are hitting us," replies Haj Rabieh...