UPDATE: Al Qaeda's Stolen cars

Remember this post, The Stolen Cars of Al Qaeda?   "The Iraqi Coast Guard seizes four tankers carrying smuggled cars in the Shatt Al-Arab channel South of Basra, this just 5 days after the Iran Coast Guard captured 15 Brit sailors and marines who had boarded a ship with possible smuggled cars in the Shatt Al-Arab channel South of Basra.

Check out the map. This is what it is all about, the smuggled cars most likely came from Dubai UAE (sse map) and prior to that Tampa or Savannah USA.

U.K. demands release of sailors as tensions rise

CTV.ca News Staff

The members of the Royal Navy were detained in the Persian Gulf after boarding a merchant ship they believed was being used to smuggle cars into Iraq, said CTV's London Bureau Chief Tom Kennedy.

Britain said the incident took place in Iraqi waters where it has UN permission to routinely board and search merchant vessels in the Shatt Al-Arab channel South of Basra.

The Iraqi Coast Guard seizes four tankers carrying smuggled cars. WNA News

Coastguards managed last night to seize four Iraqi tankers carrying smuggled cars at the entrance to Shatt Al-Arab channel south of Basra city.

UPDATE: It just doesn't stop.

The first daily in the Arabian Gulf Kuwait Times
Gang smuggling stolen cars busted in Jahra, Kuwait

KUWAIT: Farwaniya detectives led by Maj Nayef Al-Hassawi recently busted a gang of automobile smugglers in Jahra that specialized in stealing and smuggling luxury vehicles out of the country. After receiving eight reports of buses stolen within just a couple of days, detectives intensified their investigations and checked the northern borders to check if they had been smuggled into Iraq.

Their investigations bore results when they received information that buses matching the description of the models had actually crossed over into Iraq. Three of the drivers who smuggled the buses into Iraq were arrested (two Iraqis and an Iranian) and they admitted that they had been hired for the job and that an Egyptian customs representative had helped them to get the buses through.

Iraq car bombings up 30 percentAlert Net

Comments

[Robert4]

Ummm, Pamela, Dubai isn't on that map.

[DoctorDentons]

Ummm, R4, Dubai is in the UAE just NE of Abu Dhabi...it is on the Trucial Coast road to Oman at the tip of the country...Dubai is an Emirate not a country. We installed a pipeline the entire length of that coast and Dubai is really not worth mentioning.

Ummm, R4, Pam didn't draw the map so find something else to get pissy about.

[BT in SA]

Have had the news on all day - well, guess its only 10:15A in the States [it's 5:15P in Saudi] and haven't heard a single WORD of this on the news. In fact, but for the fact that the Sailor's are going to tell their stories for $$$ now, not much news on that issue, either. A bit about the cruise ship that went down, the Imus spectacle [good grief did he not think there'd be some backlash?], and of course the news we are all anticipating and holding our breath for - the fact that tomorrow we'll finally find out who Dannilynn's daddy is!

But NOTHING on this. And yes, I see the pattern. Interesting. [Are the cars "stolen" or is there documentation, prior to them being loaded on a ship, required that would show otherwise? Being used for all those experiments of cars spontaneously combusting in a country bordering Iran, perhaps?!?]

[Robert4]

D-Cups,

I know where Dubai is. However, when someone refers readers to a map to locate a city, it makes sense for that city to actually be marked on the map.

[DubiousD]

Okay, why was my earlier post deleted?

Anyway, to recap, stolen US vehicles have been showing up in Iraq since before the battle of Fallujah. Associated Press reporter Robert Burns testified to this fact when when US soldiers raided a former al-Zarqawi stronghold and found a truck with Texas Department of Transportation stickers which the military says was being converted into a VIED.

[Robert4]

probably because that is a dhimmi thing to say.

[DubiousD]

Um... okay, I'll bite... why is pointing out that stolen US vehicles are being used as car bombs to kill soldiers and civilians in Iraq a dhimmi thing to say?

[Robert4]

you didn't say they were stolen you said they had texas DOT stickers on them. Texas is supporting Zarquarwi? Only if you're got a terminal case of BDs/

[DubiousD]

The entire point of Pam's post (I thought) is that stolen cars are making their way into the Persian Gulf where they're being employed for terrorist activities.

Right?

So what do I do? I provide corroborating evidence from a MSM news source that this is not a new development, that in fact US vehicles have been used as car bombs in Iraq dating back to at least 2004. What do I care whether it was from Texas? It could be from Alaska for all that it matters.

[Robert4]

you said that either texas's governor wasn't good enough to keep his DOT cars or texas's governor was in league with the terrorists. either way, its BDS and that's why your post got pulled.

[DubiousD]

Robert4, with all due respect, you're insane.

"You said either that texas's governor wasn't good enough to keep his DOT cars"

Never said it. Never thought it. Never implied it.

"... or texas's governor was in league with terrorists."

Ditto. Ditto. Ditto.

Again, permit me to quote Robert Burns' AP story on November 18, 2004:

"Several dead bodies were on the premises, and a giant crater was seen outside the severely damaged building (al-Zarqawi's headquarters). American forces also found a truck with a Texas Department of Transportation registration sticker inside the compound."

and Richard Beeston's dispatch in the Times of London, November 19, 2004:

"In a separate building in Fallujah’s industrial zone, soldiers found a lorry surrounded by bags of sodium nitrate explosives. The vehicle had an American registration sticker reading “Texas Department of Transportation” and was clearly being prepared as a suicide bomb."

The only inference I drew from these items is that al-Qaeda (or somebody connected to AQ) stole this vehicle out from under our noses. Wouldn't you draw the same conclusion?

[1389]

Thanks for keeping an eye on this topic.

My own late lamented SUV may very well have taken this route when it was stolen, over a month ago.

I sure don't see much effort on anybody's part to control this problem.

So I blogged about it here:

Is your car going to the Middle East - without you?

Sure wish we could hold our elected officials' feet to the fire and get them to be more proactive about this. Meanwhile, our insurance bills go through the roof...