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U.S. military suspends joint patrols with Afghans
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 3: Non-WoT
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 6: Politix
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Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 09/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336067 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I've been looking at internet too much, I'm seeing double.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/18/2012 8:27 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Afghan blast kills 8 South Africans: govt
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Sept 18 Agencies - The International Affairs Ministry says eight South African citizens have been killed in a suicide bomb blast in Afghanistan.

Spokesman Nelson Kgwete said that the victims are believed to have been employed by a South African aviation company based at Rand Airport in Johannesburg. A suicide bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into a mini-bus carrying foreign aviation workers to the airport in Kabul early on Tuesday, killing at least nine people in an attack that a militant group said was revenge for an anti-Islam film that ridicules the Prophet Mohammed. The attack took place on the eight-lane highway sometime after 6.30am (1200 AEST).

The blast, which went off in front of a petrol station, was so powerful it hurled the minibus at least 50 metres.

Earlier on Tuesday, a spokesman for NATO's US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed an explosion near the airport, but said there was no current report of casualties among its personnel.

Witnesses said there was smoke spewing into the sky and a heavy police deployment at the scene of the attack, contributing to a major traffic snarl-up on the busy road. An eyewitness at the scene said he was waiting for a bus to go to work at 6.45am when he saw a small white sedan ram into the minibus.

"The explosion was so powerful and loud that I could not hear anything for 10 minutes," said Abdullah Shah, a teacher waiting at a bus stop. "It was early and there wasn't much traffic or there would have been many dead."

Reuters reported a jihadist group, Hezb-e-Islami, had claimed responsibility for the attack, in reprisal for an anti-Islam film that ridicules the Prophet Mohammed.
The Afghanistan train wreck continues. The rule is, never get involved in a civil war unless you know which side you are supporting.
Posted by: phil_b || 09/18/2012 07:34 || Comments || Link || [336067 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Very sad. Former SADF personnel have paid a heavy price for their assistance to the US in both Iraq and Afghanistan. There is no work for white South Africans at home, they must go elsewhere. The hiring quota under (BEE) Black Economic Empowerment (Yes, gov't enforced hiring quota) is one white per ten blacks. I'm sure the President 'Shower Head' Zuma government is well pleased with this tragic event.

By the way, I have never seen a black South African contractor in Afghanistan, Iraq, Bahrain, or Kuwait.

Posted by: Besoeker || 09/18/2012 7:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Correction, my bad. One black South African dog handler in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/18/2012 8:17 Comments || Top||

#3  update
Twas a femme fatale wot done it.
Female bomber kills 12 in Kabul
Posted by: tipper || 09/18/2012 11:11 Comments || Top||

#4  The post-attack photo looks horrendous - the minibus carrying the South Africans was annihilated. Very powerful explosion. My prayers to all of the victims' families.
Posted by: Raider || 09/18/2012 16:22 Comments || Top||


U.S. military suspends joint patrols with Afghans
The strategy for getting U.S. forces out of Afghanistan depends on training Afghan soldiers and police to protect the country themselves, but on Monday the U.S. military suspended most joint field operations with Afghan forces because so many Americans are being killed by the men they are training.

Afghan government troops have turned their guns on NATO forces 36 times this year, killing 51, most of them Americans. That is more attacks than the last two years combined.

The order effectively suspends "until further notice" most of the operations which U.S. and Afghan troops conduct side by side. At higher headquarters, Afghans and Americans will still work together, but in the field small unit operations putting Afghan soldiers alongside Americans -- the guts of the U.S. strategy to turn the fighting over to Afghans -- will be suspended unless an exception is granted by a commanding general.

The order was issued after a long weekend in which four American and two British troops were killed by so-called "insider attacks" -- Afghans turning their guns on their supposed allies.

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey called the surge in insider attacks "a very serious threat to the campaign."

One U.S. official put it simply: "We have got to do a better job at protecting our troops."

U.S. officials say that somewhere between 10 percent and 25 percent of the insider attacks are the work of enemy infiltrators. The rest are the result of personal insults and just plain cultural misunderstandings.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336090 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Maybe Dempsey could call the Afghanis personally and ask them to play nice.
Posted by: SteveS || 09/18/2012 1:35 Comments || Top||

#2  How many died upholding a COIN strategy that didn't have a sponsor after Petraeus left?
Posted by: Varmint Oppressor of the Hatfields7975 || 09/18/2012 2:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Is there any patterns?
Posted by: Menhadden Ebbomoger5510 || 09/18/2012 2:57 Comments || Top||

#4  The strategic wedge directed by the Quetta Shura last year is working. Next step, entire Afghan units go rogue, establish no-go/no-fly areas for ISAF, in support of the Taliban. Border crossings and other areas adjacent the border with Pakistan will be first. Watch it happen.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/18/2012 7:35 Comments || Top||

#5 
Is there any patterns?


Yeah, when there are Afghans around, these spontaneous murders break out.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 09/18/2012 12:06 Comments || Top||

#6  Well, at least we finally got the enemy to wear uniforms.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 09/18/2012 12:07 Comments || Top||

#7  We should have treated them as the enemy and not an ally and shot when necessary.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/18/2012 13:18 Comments || Top||

#8  There is one effective solution: leave. We gain nothing from staying in Afghanistan. I feel bad for those Afghans who want to enter the modern world, but they seem a small minority.
Posted by: remoteman || 09/18/2012 16:34 Comments || Top||

#9  The strategic wedge directed by the Quetta Shura last year is working. Next step, entire Afghan units go rogue, establish no-go/no-fly areas for ISAF, in support of the Taliban. Border crossings and other areas adjacent the border with Pakistan will be first. Watch it happen.

Isn't this a Pashtun-only thing? Wouldn't the appropriate thing to do be de-Pashtunize the Afghan force? That's what any colonial power of yore would have done. Heck, the old-style response to things like this would be to do a number on the perp's extended family.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 09/18/2012 18:38 Comments || Top||

#10  There is one effective solution: leave. We gain nothing from staying in Afghanistan. I feel bad for those Afghans who want to enter the modern world, but they seem a small minority.

The old response to things like 9/11 was to erase the perps' relatives and/or tribe from the gene pool. Our response has been to try to civilize them. The mind boggles.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 09/18/2012 18:41 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
AMISOM, Gov't forces capture Al shabab bases
(Sh. M. Network)--Officials in Somali government says the national army allied with the African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
forces seized several strategic positions that had been under the control of the Al-Shabaab
... the successor to the Islamic Courts...
for the past three years.

Mohamed Farah, the front man of Somali forces in Jubba regions, told Shabelle Media by phone that the allied forces took full control of the last Al shabab pockets located on the outskirts of west of the port town of Kismayo during armed confrontations over the last two days.

"We attacked Al shabab fighters on Sunday in the strongholds and killed at least 4 combatants during the combat near Kismayo city, he said.

Tensions are reportedly high in the battled areas as pro-government forces show determination to move closer to Kismayo, the final Al-Shabaab stronghold major town, 500 Km south ofSomalia's capitalMogadishu.

Al-Shabaab has neither released statements on the military advances nor said a word about the seizure of these new areas beyond Bibi and Birta Dheer.
Posted by: Fred || 09/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336068 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Toll rises to 40 in S. Sudan military boat sinking: Army
[Al Ahram] South Sudan's military on Monday raised to about 40 the corpse count from a "friendly fire" incident last week in which it sank one of its own river boats at night.

"The final corpse count is between 37 and 40" from the incident last Wednesday in which the army fired at the boat transporting soldiers on the River Nile, military front man Philip Aguer told AFP.
Posted by: Fred || 09/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336069 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
US Consulate in Benghazi recieved the warning cable, ignored it.
The title for this is totally wrong. Clearly states "Copies of the cable were not sent to other U.S. outposts in the region, including the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya"
A U.S. intelligence cable warned the American Embassy in Cairo of possible violence in response to Arabic-language broadcasts of clips from an anti-Mohammedan film, U.S. government sources said on Monday.

The cable, dispatched from Washington on September 10, the day before protests erupted, advised the embassy the broadcasts could provoke violence. It did not direct specific measures to upgrade security, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

However,
if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well...
under standard diplomatic procedures, Egyptian government officials and security forces were notified of U.S. concerns, since host governments are responsible for ensuring the security of foreign diplomatic missions on their soil, the sources said.

Copies of the cable were not sent to other U.S. outposts in the region, including the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, where violence took the life of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. The ties between the Benghazi violence and the crude anti-Mohammedan film are still unclear.

The sources said the cable, which is still classified, was sparked by the broadcast on Saturday, September 8 by al-Nas, an Egyptian satellite TV network, of what its presenters described as extracts from an English-language film denigrating the Prophet Mohammad.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/18/2012 09:16 || Comments || Link || [336074 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The film broadcast on the 8th? Everything I've seen said it was released the 10th--if so, who leaked it to them early?
Posted by: Lumpy Elmoluck 5095 || 09/18/2012 15:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Based on this article, plus another news source saying that Egypt has charged 8 of its citizens (US residents), it appears that an advance copy of the video must have been sent to Egypt. Possibly by the guy who made the film. Apparently it's the advance copy that fell into the wrong hands - and was circulated. And this triggered all of the subsequent embassy riots.
Posted by: Raider || 09/18/2012 16:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Consulate was warned 3 days prior!

Gateway Pundit


The Obama Administration was warned three days before the 9-11 attack about the deteriorating security in Benghazi.
The deadly Islamist attack was carried out on the 11th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks on America and only three months after the same consulate was bombed.

Three days before the deadly assault on the United States consulate in Libya, a local security official says he met with American diplomats in the city and warned them about deteriorating security.


More at Powerline
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/18/2012 18:26 Comments || Top||

#4  Three days before the deadly assault on the United States consulate in Libya, a local security official says he met with American diplomats in the city and warned them about deteriorating security.

That's a tad different than "US Consulate in Benghazi received the warning cable, ignored it."
Posted by: Pappy || 09/18/2012 18:39 Comments || Top||

#5  Pappy.... good catch, my error, point taken. Simply remove the word..... "CABLE". I think we'll have it correctly worded at that point.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/18/2012 19:18 Comments || Top||

#6  What disturbs me more is the dickdance obfuscation of the entire tragic incident. While the Taliban openly celebrates and further encourages the burning of US Embassies from the ME to South Asia, the administration has yet to declare the attacks terrorist related.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/18/2012 19:22 Comments || Top||

#7  The SPIN stops ... when 7.62 bullets find their targets.
Posted by: Raider || 09/18/2012 19:28 Comments || Top||

#8  Apparently, the "Zombie/Ghost Apocalypse" also applies to the Diplomatic Corps + Buildings ...

To wit,

* WAFF > [jimstonefreelance.com] THERE IS NO [I repeat "NO" ...] US EMBASSY, CONSULATE, OR ANY US REPRESENTATION OF ANY SORT IN BENGHAZI, LIBYA; KILLINGS NEVER HAPPENED.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 09/18/2012 21:44 Comments || Top||

#9  What disturbs me more is the dickdance obfuscation of the entire tragic incident.

There is no blame, there is no responsibility. The bodies are only shown when it's politically convenient.

Brave New World, what?
Posted by: Pappy || 09/18/2012 23:07 Comments || Top||


Islamists destroy saint's tomb in Mali: Officials
[Al Ahram] Islamists have destroyed the tomb of a Mohammedan saint in a northern Mali region under their control, two months after similar incidents in the region brought widespread condemnation, sources said Monday.

"The Islamists on Saturday destroyed the mausoleum of Cheik El-Kebir, 330 kilometres from Gao," a local politician told AFP on condition of anonymity. "Twelve of them arrived at the site. They demolished the mausoleum with hammers, picks."

The sources said the Islamist bad turban Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) was responsible for the destruction.

"Today in Gao, the Islamists boasted about the destruction of the mausoleum of Cheikh El-Kebir. They said they had smashed the mausoleum on Saturday, a town leader who would not give his name told AFP. "This is a crime," he added.

Oumar Ould Gaddy, a Gao resident who is believed to be close to MUJAO, confirmed the reports.

"Cheik El-Kebir's mausoleum north of Gao was destroyed. That's true," he said. "The Islamists have confirmed this. There is another mausoleum which they will also destroy soon."

Kebir's tomb is venerated by the Kunta tribe whose members live in Mali, Algeria, Mauritania and Niger.

The latest attack came two months after Islamists destroyed two tombs at the ancient Djingareyber mud mosque in Timbuktu soon after taking over northern Mali amid chaos in the wake of a coup attempt in the capital Bamako.

The fighters from the Islamist group Ansar Dine (Defenders of Faith) began their destruction of the city's cultural treasures on July 1, shortly after UNESCO placed them on a list of endangered World Heritage sites.

Declaring the ancient Mohammedan shrines "haram", or forbidden in Islam, Ansar Dine set about destroying seven of Timbuktu's 16 mausolea of ancient Mohammedan saints.

They also destroyed the sacred door of the 15th-century Sidi Yahya mosque.

Along with Sidi Yahya, Djingareyber and the Sankore mosque bear witness to Timbuktu's golden age as an intellectual and spiritual capital which was crucial in the spread of Islam throughout Africa.
Posted by: Fred || 09/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336069 views] Top|| File under: Ansar Dine

#1  You stay classy, Islam.
Posted by: American Delight || 09/18/2012 6:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Islamists won't mind if that Mecca-meteorite gets demolished
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 09/18/2012 16:04 Comments || Top||

#3  I thought it was moon rock.
Posted by: American Delight || 09/18/2012 20:25 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Nigerian troops kill Boko Haram spokesman
[Al Ahram] Nigerian troops have killed Islamist sect Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
front man Abu Qaqa, a senior security source said on Monday, following a shootout in the northern city of Kano in which two men were also incarcerated
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
The Nigerian security source, who could not be named, said the man killed had been identified as Abu Qaqa, whose name frequently appears in pronouncements on behalf of the sect from its northeastern base.

He said that one of the two incarcerated
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
was suspected to be a top Boko Haram commander.

A front man for the military and police joint task force in Kano, Lieutenant Ikedichi, said checks were being made to determine the identities of the three men.

Nigerian authorities in March claimed to have captured Abu Qaqa, but the man turned out to be another of the sect's members. Verifying his death is complicated by the fact that the name is probably a pseudonym.
As long as he's dead he can call himself anything he wants...
Posted by: Fred || 09/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336071 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram


Europe
Muslims Clash With Police In Europe As Governments Mull Limits Of Free Speech
European countries condemn the anti-US violence, but concerns are growing over the impact of the unrest.

The rage over a US-made anti-Islamic video spread to Europe over the weekend, when festivities took place between protesters and police in several cities even as mainstream Moslem community leaders joined European governments in condemning violence sparked by the film.

French police cooled for a few years
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
150 demonstrators who gathered outside the US embassy in Gay Paree on Saturday and 250 protesters were set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
in Belgium over the weekend after confrontations in the country's second city, Antwerp. Around 300 people chanted anti-US slogans outside the American Embassy in London on Sunday.

Moslem leaders in La Belle France and Belgium were quick to condemn the violence despite their outrage over the video, which mocks the Prophet Muhammad.

"Don't associate French Moslems with these marginalized events," said Mohamed Moussaoui, president of the French Council of the Moslem Religion. "Moslems should use legal and just means to defend their religion."

European governments have been united in condemning the anti-American violence in several mainly-Moslem countries and have expressed their support for Washington following the killing last week of J. Christopher Stevens, the US ambassador to Libya.

French President François Hollande summed up the mood by expressing "La Belle France's complete solidarity with the United States."

European media followed a similar line. "When US flags burn, embassies are vandalized, and diplomats are murdered, it is an attack on the West, and not just America," wrote the German tabloid Bild.

Behind the scenes, officials said European countries were putting diplomatic pressure on Moslem governments to condemn the violence, attempt to defuse anti-US tensions and increase security at Western embassies.

European diplomats noted that Egypt's Islamist President Mohammad Morsi finally issued a statement condemning the attack that killed Stevens after holding talks with European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
officials in Brussels on Thursday -- although an angry phone call from US President Barack Obama
This is a teachable moment...
is reported to have helped persuade Morsi to speak out.

Despite the support for the United States, however, there is concern in Europe that the scale of anti-American feeling unleashed by the low-budget video represents Obama's failure to reach out to the Moslem world, and that his re-election prospects may be jeopardized.

Karim Emile Bitar of the Institute for International and Strategic Relations in Gay Paree warned TV coverage of the recent attacks could produce an effect similar to 1979's assault on the US embassy in Tehran, which was followed by a drawn-out hostage crisis.

"My first reaction, when I saw the images coming out of Egypt and Libya, was to ask if Barack Obama risked ending up like Jimmy Carter
... the worst president ever. Maybe the second worst. The votes aren't all in yet...
," Bitar told La Belle France 24 television. The hostage crisis is believed to have cost Carter re-election the following year.

"What's worrying now is that these incidents could allow the radical right in America to get ahead in the debate, using stereotypical caricatures of the Moslem world."

That prospect worries people on a continent where a poll published last week showed 71 percent approve of Obama's foreign policy.

However,
there's more than one way to stuff a chicken...
analysts said Europeans hope the violence will fade. They stressed it's too early to speculate over American and European support for Arab Spring revolutions that toppled dictators who had kept a lid on Islamist extremism in countries such as Libya, Tunisia and Egypt.

"I don't think that we're seeing, for the moment, any kind of wider misgivings about whether Europe was right to support the revolutions," said Anthony Dworkin, a US foreign policy specialist at the European Council on Foreign Relations. "America confronts deep-seated suspicion across the Middle East and these things develop over time," he added in a telephone interview from London. "This is not just about Obama."

Although European governments have been united in their condemnation of the violence provoked by the "Innocence of Moslems" video, officials said they would probably disagree about whether to ban such provocative works.

The ongoing unrest is rekindling debate from 2005, when cartoons representing the Prophet Muhammad also provoked violent protests after they were published in a Danish newspaper.

EU counties were divided back then between those who supported calls for international restrictions on what's perceived as insults to religion and others who backed freedom of speech regardless of the offence it causes believers.

Germany has now barred Terry Jones, an American evangelist preacher who supported the film, from entry and Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle is seeking to ban a far-right group from organizing a screening of the film.

"Insulting other religions is prohibited by the criminal code," he told ARD television on Sunday. "There are also questions of maintaining public order and the public peace."

However,
there's more than one way to stuff a chicken...
opposition parties warned against violating fundamental rights of free speech. "From what I've seen, this film is filled with crass stupidity, but not criminal content," Green party human rights
One man's rights are another man's existential threat.
front man Volker Beck told the news magazine Der Spiegel.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336069 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We'll continue to see domesticated Muslims mouthing words of accomodation while the wild ones continue to denegrate nonMuslims, I expect.
Posted by: Varmint Oppressor of the Hatfields7975 || 09/18/2012 2:36 Comments || Top||

#2  The EUSSR has always hated people being restricted from preventing people from saying what they like.

This is an excuse to curtail freedom, no wonder the EUSSR loves it.

After all the mo-vid was just the after-attack justification, the real reason was al-libi getting his 72 white raisins.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 09/18/2012 7:36 Comments || Top||

#3 
"Don't associate French Moslems with these marginalized events," said Mohamed Moussaoui, president of the French Council of the Moslem Religion. "Moslems should use legal and just means to defend their religion."


Like killing school kids and torching every car in sight?
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 09/18/2012 12:04 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
LSU sent text alert to evacuate Baton Rouge campus after bomb threat on Monday
Baton Rouge - A bomb threat was reported Monday on LSU's Baton Rouge campus and the university sent out a text alert asking everyone to "evacuate as calmly and quickly as possible." The alert said to check lsu.edu for updates.

The news hounds gathered for LSU Coach Les Miles' weekly presser also were asked to leave the school's athletic administration building and at around 11:55 a.m. LSU Sports Information Direction Michael Bonnette sent out a news release canceling the presser.

All classes were canceled and cars were streaming off campus creating bumper-to-bumper traffic around the campus.

Last Friday bomb threats were made at the University of Texas at Austin, University of North Dakota in Fargo and the much smaller Hiram College in northeast Ohio.
Either the threats are the terrorist activity, or someone wants to see how we react.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336068 views] Top|| File under:

#1  All classes were canceled and cars were streaming off campus creating bumper-to-bumper traffic around the campus.

Checking patterns. Don't have to put the bomb on the campus, just the choke points on the egress routes. The bumper-to-bumper traffic becomes the target.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/18/2012 11:51 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Former Town Nazim among 11 dead in Karachi violence
[Dawn] Dr Tariq Pervaiz Mehmood, a former Town Nazim and his friend were rubbed out after faceless myrmidons opened fire on them, DawnNews reported.

Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
chief Syed Munawar Hasan condemned the killing of Dr Tariq Pervaiz Mehmood, calling it an act of terrorism. Former City Nazim Naimatullah Khan also condemned the killing and called for the killers to be enjugged
You have the right to remain silent...
. Meanwhile,
...back at the laboratory the fumes had dispersed, to reveal an ominous sight...
MQM-H chief Afaq Ahmed also condemned the attack according to a blurb.

A tortured body was recovered from Napier Road area, raising the corpse count in the city to eleven so far in various acts of violence.

In Azeempura, one man was killed in a firing incident. A body was recovered from Nishter Road while another was found in a gunny bag in Ramswami.

Meanwhile in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, a woman and her daughter were tortured and killed. On Rehmat Chowk, Orangi Town, faceless myrmidons killed Dr Shahzad Iqbal. After the incident, the area was extremely tense.

In Shah Faisal Colony near Star Gate, a man named Farhan was killed after faceless myrmidons sprayed him with bullets. In Kalri, Lyari
...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot....
town, the tortured body of a man was found.

In different raids carried out in various city areas, police managed to nab ten culprits. Special Investigation Police nabbed two hit mans Mohammad Rafiq alias Memon and Mohammad Sadeeq alias Noman Taynee from Hub River Road and recovered weapons from their possession.

Meanwhile,
...back at the laboratory the fumes had dispersed, to reveal an ominous sight...
CID police carried out a raid in Peerabad and enjugged
You have the right to remain silent...
two Tehrik-e-Taliban men Noran Gul and Dost. A huge cache of arms was recovered from their possession.

In Korangi Industrial Area enjugged
You have the right to remain silent...
three culprits were nabbed
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
after a police encounter. However two of their accomplices managed to run away. A cycle of violence and arms were also seized during the attack. In another raid, police placed in long-term storage
Into the paddy wagon wit' yez!
three extortionists from Al Asif Square.

Meanwhile,
...back at the Hubba Hubba Club, Nunzio had his hands full of angry bleached blonde...
the funeral prayers of a firing victim Ali Reza was held at Shahra Pakistain. Reza was killed during festivities in front of the US consulate on Sunday during protests regarding an anti-Islam video. He was buried in Wadi-e-Hussain. The situation remained tense in the surrounding areas while faceless myrmidons torched a bus in Samanabad area.
Posted by: Fred || 09/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336073 views] Top|| File under:


Protests against anti-Islam film leave one dead, two injured in KP
[Dawn] One person was killed and two others were maimed, on Monday, as a result of police gunfire during protests against the anti-Islam film "Innocence of Mohammedans" in the Upper Dir district of Khyber Pakhtunkhawa (KPK) province.

Rallies against the sacrilegious film were held across the northwestern province, leading to violent protests and gunfire from the police who were trying control the mobs.

Police fired on the mob in the Wari area of Upper Dir district when protestors torched the Wari Press Club building and offices of local magistrate besides other government buildings.

One person was killed and two others were maimed in the firing, which turned the protestors furious and they pelted stones at the police and set ablaze other buildings as well.

The lawyers' community of the KPK observed a 'black day 'and boycotted court proceedings on the call of Khyber Paktunkhawa Bar Council and businesses remained suspended for the day in the high court and other courts across KPK.

Protests in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
also turned violent as rallies were taken out separately in parts of the city converged towards the US consulate, which had prompted the administration to beef up the cordon by deploying extra personnel, stopping the mob from getting close to the consulate on Khyber Road.

Rallies taken out by the student wings of the Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
and the Awami National Party marched towards the consulate but were stopped by law enforcement agencies.

Meanwhile,
...back at the comedy club, Boogie was cracking himself up, but nobody else seemed to be getting the non-stop jokes...
the Difa-e-Pakistain Council (DPC) announced its plans for a long march on October 1 for Tahaffuz-e-Namoos-e-Rislaat (Council for Protection of the Finality of the Prophet ((PTUI!))).

Speaking at a meeting of DPC at Markaz-e-Islami in Peshawar, the provincial president of JUI-S and the DPC leader Mualana Yousaf Shah said that the council will start a Long March from Peshawar to Jamrud for the Tahaffuz-e-Namoos-e-Rislaat and condemn the derogatory film on the life of Prophet ((PTUI!)).

Shah said that the DPC would also hold a big protest rally in Bannu on September 25 to condemn the drone attacks and would march towards the North Wazoo Agency to express their solidarity with the innocent rustics being targeted by the US drones.
Posted by: Fred || 09/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336070 views] Top|| File under:


Karachi 'anti-Islam film' protest turns violent
[Dawn] A rally in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
in protest of an anti-Islam film met with shelling from police personnel on Monday as the demonstrators tried to march on the US Consulate, DawnNews reported.

The rally was being led by the Islami Jamaat-e-Talaba
...The Islamic Students' Organization: the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami, where young Moslems are trained into the arts of street fighting...
(IJT), the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
(JI). The atmosphere turned tense when the protestors, demonstrating near the city's MT Khan road, tried to march towards the US Consulate located a small distance from the scene of the protest.

A large contingent of Rangers and police personnel was guarding the area, and roads had been blocked in anticipation of the protests.

Security personnel opened aerial fire to stop the protestors from marching towards the high security area where the consulate is located. Clashes ensued as demonstrators pelted security personnel with stones, damaging one of their vehicles.

A senior police official said 30 students were placed in long-term storage
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
at the demonstration organised by the religious party.

A demonstrator died Monday after being shot in the head during similar festivities with police near the US consulate on Sunday, a hospital official told AFP.

Angry Moslems demonstrated across Pakistain in protest of the low-budget movie, entitled "Innocence of Moslems", which ridicules the Holy Prophet ((PTUI!)). The religiously offensive film has sparked fury across the Moslem world.

Earlier today, a person was killed and two others were maimed by police gunfire during a similar protest in the Upper Dir district of Khyber Pakhtunkhawa province.

Protests in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
also turned violent as rallies taken out separately converged towards the US consulate, which had prompted the administration to beef up the cordon by deploying extra personnel, stopping the mob from getting close to the consulate on Khyber Road.

Up to 3,000 university students, teachers and employees marched in Peshawar after boycotting classes, police had said.

The foreign ministry condemned the film last week, saying it would provoke hatred and had hurt the people of Pakistain.

"The government of Pakistain strongly condemns the airing of a defamatory video clip in the US, maligning the revered and pious personality of Prophet Mohammad," said a statement issued by the ministry.
Posted by: Fred || 09/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336069 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


SC orders blocking of blasphemous content
[Dawn] The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Pakistain Electronic Media Regulation Authority (Pemra) and the Pakistain Telecommunications Authority (PTA) to block blasphemous content on a social media website, DawnNews reported.

The apex court issued the order after taking a suo motu
...a legal term, from the Latin. Roughly translated it means I saw what you did, you bastard...
notice of blasphemous content on the website.

The court had taken a suo motu notice of the blasphemous film and ordered the registrar office to prepare a notice on it.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said that Pemra and PTA should exercise greater caution regarding the material that is present on the Internet.

Moreover, the chief justice remarked that the PTA chairman would be summoned to court.

Justice Khilji Arif Hussain also remarked that the non-removal of blasphemous content from the website was unfortunate.

The court's decision came in the wake of widespread protests in Pakistain and other countries with sizeable Mohammedan populations against an anti-Islam film available on the Internet.
Posted by: Fred || 09/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336070 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


PM orders immediate shutdown of Youtube services
[Dawn] Pakistain's Prime Minsiter Raja Pervez Ashraf has ordered immediate shutdown of video-sharing website Youtube in the aftermath of protests against anti-Islam film "Innocence of Mohammedans," which is still available on the website, DawnNews reported on Monday.

In a directive issued to the Ministry of Information Technology, the PM stated that the decision was taken after Youtube decided against removing the film and the shutdown will remain effective until the website removes all content from the sacrilegious film.

In a statement released last week, Youtube said it would not remove the film as it does not violate its terms of use, despite pressure from the White House to review its decision.

At the filing of this report (2045PST) the website still remained accessible in Pakistain.

Protests against the film have broken out all across the Mohammedan world and have spread over Pakistain in the last few days, with one person being killed in violent protests on Monday.

While Youtube has not removed the controversial clip, it has blocked access to it in countries where violent protests have remained unabated. These include Libya, Egypt and most recently, India and Indonesdia.

YouTube cited "the very sensitive situations" in those two countries.

In its Friday statement, YouTube said that outside of Libya, Egypt, India and Indonesia, the video will remain on its website.

"We work hard to create a community everyone can enjoy and which also enables people to express different opinions," the YouTube statement said.

"This can be a challenge because what's OK in one country can be offensive elsewhere. This video -- which is widely available on the web -- is clearly within our guidelines and so will stay on YouTube. However,
today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday...
we've restricted access to it in countries where it is illegal such as India and Indonesia as well as in Libya and Egypt, given the very sensitive situations in these two countries. This approach is entirely consistent with principles we first laid out in 2007."

Interior Minister Rehman Malik
Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship.
later on, while speaking at a presser, said that a letter will written to the OIC chairman regarding the matter as well as the Secretary Interpol.
Posted by: Fred || 09/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336067 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Pakistain without LOLcats? It was the only thing that made the place bearable. I can haz civilization?
Posted by: SteveS || 09/18/2012 2:45 Comments || Top||

#2  No one explained to him that the internet was designed originally to survive a nuclear war by being a system of interlinking nodes that if one part is cut, a route around still allows the flow of information. The only sure way to obstruct the flow is to physically cut one part of the node from the net. While the Chinese, working with American businesses, have made strides in trying to control the net, there are still work arounds that permit seepage of information in and out.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/18/2012 10:51 Comments || Top||

#3  This means the ISI won't be able to publish anymore recruiting videos, right?
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 09/18/2012 12:06 Comments || Top||

#4  Those 5 users are gonna be really pissed.
Posted by: George Dark Lord of the Poles8370 || 09/18/2012 16:41 Comments || Top||


Eight militants killed in Orakzai
[Dawn] Eight Death Eaters were killed when security forces pounded their positions in Khadezai area of Orakzai Agency
... crawling with holy men, home to Darra Adam Khel, the world's largest illegal arms bazaar. 14 distinct tribes of beturbanned primitives inhabit Orakzai agency's 1500 or so square kilometers...
on Sunday, officials said.

They said that three hideouts of Death Eaters were also destroyed in the artillery shelling by security forces. They claimed that eight Death Eaters were killed in the action, however, independent sources didn't confirm the claim as local media has no access to the area.

Security forces also conducted search operation in some pockets of the troubled tribal agency and recovered suicide jackets, weapons and ammunition. No arrest was made during the search operation.
Posted by: Fred || 09/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336068 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Iraq
Suicide car bomb kills four in Baghdad
[Dawn] Iraqi officials say a suicide car boom struck one of the gates to Storied Baghdad
...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
's heavily guarded Green Zone, killing four people, including three security officers.

The officials say Monday's kaboom took place during the morning rush hour near the bridge over Tigris River connecting the Karradah district and the Green Zone, where most government offices, the parliament and several embassies and foreign missions in Iraq are located.

They officials say sporadic gunshots followed the blast.

A hospital official says 14 people were maimed in the kaboom.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to the media.
Posted by: Fred || 09/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336068 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Gaza court gives life terms to 2 killers of Italian activist
[Al Ahram] Four Paleostinian hardliners were cooled for a few years
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
, two for life, on Monday after a Gazoo military court found them guilty of the kidnap and murder of an Italian peace activist in April 2011.
Mahmud Al-Salfiti and Tamer Al-Husasna were found guilty of kidnapping and murdering Vittorio Arrigoni and each sentenced by the court in the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-ruled enclave to life imprisonment.

Another member of the Salafist group, Khadr Faruk Jerim, received a 10-year prison term for kidnapping the Italian while a fourth, Amer Abu Ghola, was cooled for a few years
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
for a year for providing the house in which Arrigoni was found hanged.

The tribunal also ordered to dismiss Salfiti, Husasna and Jerim from the police force they served on. Abu Ghola is a fisherman.

Arrigoni, 36, a long-time member of the pro-Paleostinian International Solidarity Movement, was kidnapped on April 14, 2011.

Shortly after his disappearance, a previously-unknown Salafist group released a YouTube video showing a bruised and bloodied Arrigoni and threatened to kill him within 30 hours if Hamas failed to release a group of jihadist prisoners.

Hamas security forces found Arrigoni's body shortly afterwards, ahead of the stated deadline, in an abandoned house in northern Gazoo.

Among those held by Hamas the group demanded be freed was Sheikh Hisham Al-Saedini, a leader of the Salafist group Tawhid wal Jihad. He was eventually released last month following Jordanian intervention.

Hamas quickly incarcerated
You have the right to remain silent...
several suspects in the case, and a week later raided a house where three more suspects were reportedly hiding.

Two were killed during the raid, and a third was taken into custody.

Arrigoni's death shocked the local community and international aid workers and activists in Gazoo, where he had lived and worked for much of the three years prior to his death. His murder was the first of a foreigner in Gazoo since Hamas took over in 2007.
Posted by: Fred || 09/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336072 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria air raids on border with Lebanon
[Al Ahram] Syrian warplanes bombed areas of Syria near the Lebanese border on Monday, a Lebanese military front man told AFP. "There was bombing on Syrian territory, not Lebanese territory," the front man said.

Earlier, inhabitants of Arsal, a border region in Leb's Bekaa Valley, told AFP they saw Syrian planes flying over the area at dawn.

Syrian rebels and their sympathisers often carry out operations inside Syria before crossing back over the porous and sometimes undefined border into Leb.

Moreover, shelling from Syria into Leb and cross-border shootings have become near-daily occurrences in recent months.

Lebanese officials have protested only twice to Damascus
...The place where Pencilneck hangs his brass hat...
, whose troops withdrew from Leb in 2005 after three decades of occupation.
Posted by: Fred || 09/18/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336071 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria



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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2012-09-18
  U.S. military suspends joint patrols with Afghans
Mon 2012-09-17
  Libya arrests 50 after US envoy's killing
Sun 2012-09-16
  Yemeni official: DNA tests did not prove the killing of Al-Shihri
Sat 2012-09-15
  Al Qaeda in Yemen urges Muslims to kill U.S. diplomats over film
Fri 2012-09-14
  Pakistan orders anti-Islam video block on YouTube
Thu 2012-09-13
  Egyptian protesters, police continue to clash near U.S. Embassy
Wed 2012-09-12
  US Official Killed In Libya Prophet Protest
Tue 2012-09-11
  Somali election: Hassan Sheikh elected as president
Mon 2012-09-10
  Yemen says kills deputy regional head of al Qaeda
Sun 2012-09-09
  Three injured in blast at Indonesia ''bomb workshop''
Sat 2012-09-08
  Canada breaks off relations with Iran
Fri 2012-09-07
  Pakistan evicts Save the Children foreign staff
Thu 2012-09-06
  Drone Strike in Yemen Kills 5 'Qaida' Militants
Wed 2012-09-05
  20 Civilians Killed, 50 More Injured in Nangarhar Suicide Attack
Tue 2012-09-04
  Syria Warplane Kills 18 People in Single Attack in al-Bab

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