SUSPECTS LINKED TO FAILED ATTACKS OF JULY 21: Muktar Said Ibrahim, 27, Ramzi Mohammed, 23 and Yasin Hassan Omar, 24: Charged with attempted murder, conspiracy to murder, possessing or making explosives and conspiracy to use explosives.
Hamdi Issac, 27, also known as Osman Hussain: Charged in Rome charged with association with the aim of international terrorism.
Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, 32: Charged with conspiracy to murder, reportedly over bomb found July 23 inside backpack in London park.
SUSPECTED ACCOMPLICES: Yeshiemebet Girma, 29, wife of Hamdi Issac; her sister Mulumebet Girma, 21; and her brother Asias Girma, 20: Charged with withholding information from police about Issac's whereabouts and helping him evade arrest.
JULY 7 SUICIDE BOMBERS: Hasib Hussain, 18, from suburb of Leeds in northern England: Blew himself up in double-decker bus at Tavistock Square.
Shahzad Tanweer, 22, of Leeds: Died in blast on subway train near Aldgate station.
Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, Leeds resident who had moved to West Yorkshire: Died in Edgware Road subway blast.
Jermaine Lindsay, 19, Jamaican-born Briton: Died in explosion between King's Cross and Russell Square subway stations.
DETAINED PRIOR TO DEPORTATION: Abu Qatada, radical Muslim cleric described by Spanish judge as Osama bin Laden's "spiritual ambassador in Europe." Nine other detainees not immediately identified.
OTHERS: Magdy el-Nashar, 33, Egyptian chemist detained in Cairo after July 7 bombings: Freed Aug. 9 after Egyptian authorities said he was not linked to attack. On day of release, told reporters he knew two of July 7 bombers casually in Leeds.
Haroon Rashid Aswat, 30, accused by U.S. of conspiring to set up jihad training camp in Oregon in 1999-200: Deported from Zambia to Britain last week and arrested by British police on U.S. warrant. Appeared in London court Thursday; ordered held until hearing in September.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2005 00:00 ||
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A woman who is said to be a sibling of a notorious Chechen warlord, Doku Umarov, has gone missing in Russiaâs restive province of Chechnya, the Interfax news agency reported citing its source in the local administration.
Natasha Khumadova, a resident of Urus-Martan, was abducted in the early hours of Friday by unknown gunmen, the republican Interior Ministry reported. Khumadova is a sister to Doku Umarov, a notorious rebel leader who is believed to have been involved in a number of heinous terrorist attacks, the police reported. The authorities suspect him of assisting Shamil Basayev in organizing a blast in Znamenskoye where 14 people were killed after a UAZ truck hit a mine earlier this summer.
A source in the Urus-Martan district administration told Interfax on Friday that several armed people broke into Khumadovaâs house and threatening her with weapons led her away. The search for the woman was launched, the source said.
Could have been a wedding party.
Russian rights activists, on their part, do not rule out that Khumadovaâs disappearance could be an act of what they describe as counter-taking of hostages aimed to exert pressure on the rebel leader. âFor the time being the circumstances of the Umarov sisterâs disappearance remain unclear but, perhaps, what we see here is the so-called counter-taking of hostages. Human rights groups have long voiced concern about that practice as being one of the most dangerous tendencies in Chechnya,â Dmitry Grushkin, spokesman for the Memorial human rights group said on Friday.
He recalled that earlier Doku Umarovâs father, too, was abducted, according to rights groupsâ reports.
To recap, 8 relatives of the former Chechen separatist leader, Aslan Maskhadov, went missing in late 2004. After Maskhadov was killed during a security raid in March of 2005 all of them returned home, in June of 2005.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/12/2005 14:11 ||
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Syrian national Louai Sakra, captured at Diyarbakir Airport, appears to be an al-Qaeda region head.
The key al-Qaeda member, who visits Turkey frequently, was hosted by Habib Akdas, the head of al-Qaeda Turkey organization. The bookkeepers of the financing provided by al-Qaeda through Sakra for November 15-20 attacks were Habip Akdas and Gurcan Bac.
Sakra is reported to have consulted Osama bin Laden himself about the plan to attack Israeli cruise ships in Antalya.
Sakra contacted bin Laden three months ago for the last time. Police determined Sakra came to Turkey many times between 1998 and 2000.
The region head, reported to be one of the few persons who can speak with al-Qaeda leader Laden, used his right to remain silent at the police headquarters and prosecutor's office. However, police sent the interrogation minutes to the prosecutor's office.
He was trained by Iraqi insurgents in bomb fabrication as he took part in bomb attacks.
An Istanbul court arrested him after the duration of legal custody expired.
The other Syrian national Hamed Obysi, captured at Antalya was arrested on Wednesday.
"I did not aim to hurt Turkish people. I was to target Israeli tourists. The attack would have taken place in the open sea. No Turk would have been hurt," Sakra reportedly said.
Officials reported he was responsible for al-Qaeda in Syria, Jordan, Iran, Iraq and Turkey.
Police indicated Sakra and Obysi, who aimed to attack Israeli cruiser ships at Antalya, came to Antalya to activate the sleeping cells for the purpose.
Sakra is also reported to have rented an eight-meter long boat anchored at Antalya Port.
Security units have begun to chase after the sleeping cells, which are to be commissioned to realize bombing attacks. According to a high-ranking police official, it is not possible for one to sacrifice himself who directly meets with bin Laden, finances many bloody attacks and is the region leader.
The same official claims that $120,000, which was found in Sakra's pocket, had been brought to be given to the families of militants preparing for this activity. This is the reason that the operation is kept secret from the beginning to the end.
Turkish police had first decoded the name Sakra after the suicide attacks in Istanbul. When Adnan Ersoz and Mehmet Ince, who are part of the al-Qaeda Turkey structure, had been detained, they gave the name Louai Sakra.
Sakra's best known code name among al-Qaeda members is Syrian Alaaddin.
Syrian Sakra is registered as financer and among the wanted persons list in the "Al-Qaeda's Turkey Elements" judicial document continuing at Besiktas the 10th High Criminal Court. Intelligence Office gives the following information about Sakra:
The financer of the terrorist activities is referred as having many faces in the intelligence report. His real name is Luayibi Mohammed Hac Bakr al-Saka, born in Syria in 1973 and lives in Europe. He is one of the top-ranking administrators of al-Qaeda and runs the financial work of the organization. "Lian Ben Mohammed Saka," "Abu Mohammed," "Abu Haya al-Suri," and "Ala al-Din" are some of the code names he uses.
Information about Syrian Louai Sakra can be found in the depositions made by Ersoz and Ince. Intelligence reports have that the $50,000 of $150,000 used in the activities were provided by Syrian Sakra when Aktas could not get sufficient financial support from al-Qaeda in Pakistan.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/12/2005 13:41 ||
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Police in a north Toronto suburb said on Friday they had uncovered a cache of what appeared to be explosives and ammunition at a shopping mall, prompting a temporary evacuation. "There was a vacant unit, it was being cleaned by some cleaners and they found some boxes of what appears to be military ammunition, army bullets, some grenades, and dynamite," said York Region Police Constable Laurie Perks. Some of the ammunition did not appear to be live, she said, adding that experts had been sent in to detonate the explosives. Part of the mall was temporarily evacuated, but has since been reopened, she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2005 18:03 ||
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#1
Worship materials from the mosque that was there before?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 18:37 ||
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#1
Good article. My hunch is that the spectulation at the end will eventually become fact: Committee staff witheld the Able Danger revelations from key committee members, and therefore from the Committee's report, to protect that all-important Clinton Legacy-- and not screw up Hillary's chances at becoming President.
If she does, of course, you can bet the bank that each and every one of those staffers who participated in keeping Able Danger away from the Committee's eyes will get a plum assignment in her administration.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
08/12/2005 19:02 Comments ||
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#2
Listening to Rush to day about Able Danger, it appears the no Looney Left Democrats are pretty upset that their president let them down.
911 Commission was an CYA maneuver and as one Demorat put it today on the radio someone should hang
#3
will get a plum assignment in her administration.
I'd bet a more likely gift will be a subpoena if Weldon keeps it up, and he will....
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 19:23 Comments ||
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#4
Heh. I think you're right...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
08/12/2005 19:36 Comments ||
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#5
I want to hear from the men of Able Danger. I care not to hear from any congressmen (or women), staffers, Commission members, journalists or pundits.
Subpoena them and let them speak.
All other talking heads and usual suspects can shut their piehole.
Starting now.
Able Danger, where are you? Tell us. Don't let them do it for you.
WASHINGTON (AFP) - An FBI terrorism task force in Los Angeles earlier this week warned of possible Al-Qaeda attacks with tanker trucks in three major US cities around September 11, a media source reported.
Law enforcement officials questioned the reliability of the warning, while government officials who were briefed on it described it as credible and specific enough to warrant attention, said The New York Times. Issued Wednesday, the warning said "Al Qaeda leaders plan to employ various types of fuel trucks as vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices in an effort to cause mass casualties in the US prior to the 19th of September," according to law enforcement officials who have read it, the daily said.
It warned that terrorist would seek to hijack gasoline or oxygen tankers or trucks and ram them into a gasoline station to cause major explosions."Attacks are planned specifically for New York, Chicago and Los Angeles," it said, adding that it was "unclear whether the attacks will occur simultaneously or be spread out over a period of time." The attackers, the advisory said, "will be members of small Al-Qaeda cells which are spread throughout the US." Their goal, added the advisory, "is to collapse the US economy."
An unnamed law enforcement official told the Times said the advisory had information about "a generic threat ... trucks have been talked about by Al-Qaeda all the time. They used that tactic around the world..."
"The information is uncorroborated, and the source is of questionable reliability," said Department of Homeland Security spokesman Brian Roehrkasse, adding, however, that the information "continues to be evaluated by the intelligence community."
Nevertheless, law enforcement officials interviewed by the daily said they were concerned about possible attacks timed with the fourth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist strikes on New York and Washington."There's always that possibility and it's something we always look at very closely because it is such a symbolic day," said a senior Justice Department official who also asked not to be identified.
#1
How many of us have nightmare scenarios -- short of nuclear, and quite possible -- that we refuse to discuss out loud?
This comes quite close to mine.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/12/2005 11:55 Comments ||
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#2
Semis would work well too. There are a lot of things the terrorists could do, but haven't. Which makes me wonder how effective the cells in the US are now and how much they have been damaged by the WOT.
#4
This is getting to be an annual tradition. Maybe they'll pop the champagne Sept. 12th like the 72 Miami Dolphins do when the last undefeated NFL team loses.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
08/12/2005 12:05 Comments ||
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#5
"Attacks are planned specifically for New York, Chicago and Los Angeles,"
Somehow, I had a feeling it would be blue areas that would be primary targets.
#6
This is laughable. Ramming a gasoline tanker into a gas station is only going to cause a huge fire, primarily at the gas station and its next-door neighbors. And an oxygen tanker is even sillier -- oxygen is not a fuel and is not explosive. Its hazard is that it will cause a more-intense fire that air will, because the oxygen in air is diluted with nitrogen. Where's the fuel to go with it? In the underground tanks at the station? Finally, many of these tankers have double walls with insulation between them -- it's not like they're going to easily rupture widely by hitting some gas pumps or the gas station building. How often do you hear about tanker fires?
If this is the best AQ can do, they're not much of a threat to western civilization.
#8
So the official terrorism task force of the FBI comes up with the possibility of terrorist attacks around the anniversary of 9-11. Frigging brilliant. My dog could come up with that one for a lot less that the gov't can.
What we need is the public involved in civil defense. We have eyes and ears all over the country. That is how we watch for terrorists. We do not have the infinite resources to have the professionals protect us agains everything imaginable.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/12/2005 15:55 Comments ||
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#9
They also picked up on July 4th and the whole Christmas shopping season (which now begins, I believe, on July 5th.)
What they need to do, actually, is get a big almanac called 'This Day in Islamic History' and find all the dates for battles fought centuries ago. Then they might have something less intuitively obvious to even the most casual observer.
GOVERNMENT troops stormed Friday a suspected Abu Sayyaf hideout in the southern Philippine island of Jolo, Sulu province, barely two days after 26 people were injured in twin bombings here blamed to the militant group tied to al-Qaeda terror network, officials said.
Officials said a still undetermined number of militants were either killed or wounded, but a government soldier was also injured in the fierce fighting that erupted in the hinterland of Indanan town.
"One of our soldiers was injured and initial reports suggested that many terrorists were either killed or wounded. Fierce fighting is still going on," said Brigadier General Alexander Aleo, the island's military commander.
Troops stormed a suspected Abu Sayyaf hideout in Tarang village after intelligence reports said two militant leaders, Albader Parad and Umbra Gumbahali Jumdail, alias Dr Abu Pula, were spotted there.
"It was not immediately known if Parad and Jumdail were killed or wounded in the attack, but we will get all of them dead or alive," the general said.
The duo were among a dozen known Abu Sayyaf leaders wanted by the United States in connection with the killing of Californian tourist Guillermo Sobero in 2001 and Kansas missionary Martin Burham in 2002.
Government forces captured early this year Parad and Jumdail's jungle camp in Jolo's Karawan mountain complex after killing and wounding more than three-dozen militants in two weeks of fierce fighting.
Authorities blamed the Abu Sayyaf and its ally the Jemaah Islamiya in Wednesday bombings in Zamboanga City that destroyed several buildings in the busy business district and is notorious for kidnapping foreigners and local traders in the southern Philippines and holding them for hefty ransoms.
The government offensive came barely a day after President Gloria Arroyo condemned the bombings and ordered the police and military to get to the root of the attacks and bring their perpetrators to justice.
A police spokesman, Leopoldo Bataoil, on Friday said they would mount pre-emptive strikes against the Abu Sayyaf group and their allies. "We will hold pre-emptive strikes and hunt down terrorists in their known hideouts," he said.
National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales earlier said at least 10 Indonesian Jemaah Islamiya bombers are in the Philippines and were planning to mount a series of attacks and claimed the latest explosions could be part of a larger terror plot.
Security forces are on heightened alert in the southern Philippines following the two Abu Sayyaf bombings. Soldiers and policemen, backed by armored vehicles, were spotted patrolling downtown Zamboanga since the bombings.
The first bomb, planted under a parked mini-van along Campaner Street. in downtown Zamboanga, exploded around 7.20 p.m., wounding a group of civilians. The powerful blast destroyed the van completely and damaged two small buildings nearby. A second explosion 30 minutes later ripped through the second floor of a three-storey building in Climaco Street just 50 meters away from the main police headquarters.
No group claimed responsibility for the explosions, but military and police blamed the bombings to the Abu Sayyaf group, tagged in previous attacks in the south that killed and wounded hundreds of people the past decade.
Last week, security forces arrested here an Abu Sayyaf bomb-maker Alex Alvarez, who is blamed for the series of bombings since 2002 that killed dozens of people, including a US soldier participating in an anti-terror training with Filipino troops.
Authorities suspect the attacks were in retaliation for his arrest.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/12/2005 13:50 ||
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THE three Bali bombers are facing execution within a matter of weeks, as Indonesian authorities are believed to have begun the process. Possible dates for the executions currently being touted around the streets of Bali include August 25 or September 9.
The three, all sentenced to death in 2003, are the so-called smiling assassin Amrozi, his older brother Mukhlas and the defiant field commander Imam Samudra. All three were jubilant when their death penalties were handed down and have never uttered a word of regret about their murderous deeds.
However, lawyers and prosecutors involved in the three cases, who are generally the first to be notified of any impending executions, said yesterday they had not been informed. Lawyer Wirawan Adnan, who was on the legal team representing all three condemned to death, said he was yet to receive official notification but had heard rumours that letters from Indonesian authorities in Jakarta were about to be issued. "I have heard talk out on the streets but that's all I have heard. I have yet to receive the letter of notification. At this point I still do not know which one of them will be executed. I have not been told the timeframe," Mr Adnan said yesterday.
The prosecutors who handled each of the cases have also not been told a word yet, although a representative from each of the cases is required to attend the actual execution. Putu Indriarti, who prosecuted the so-called ringleader Mukhlas, said yesterday she had not been told but she was more than ready to stand and watch the terrorist Mukhlas being shot.
Talk about the planned executions is now rife in Bali, where many of the Balinese people remain extremely angry about what the terrorists from Jemaah Islamiyah did to their island in October 2002, and from which they are still recovering. Terrorist bombs at the Sari Club and Paddy's Bar killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
Appeals by the trio to Indonesia's highest court, the Supreme Court, have been rejected and the trio refused to seek clemency from Indonesia's president. However, the Denpasar District Court, as a matter of practice, sent clemency letters on their behalf in August 2004. Yesterday Suraatmaja, the court public relations officer, said court officials had not yet received a response to the request sent one year ago.
Yesterday Indonesian prosecutors also demanded the death sentence for Iwan Darmawan, a key suspect in the 2004 Australian Embassy bombing in Jakarta that killed 11 people.
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
08/12/2005 00:34 ||
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#1
Take them out to a firing squad and wackem' w/ bullits dipped in PIGS BLOOD!!!!
The Philippines said Thursday it was hunting 10 Indonesian extremists who were feared to be plotting suicide attacks, as security was stepped up following a spate of bombings in the south.
National Security Advisor Norberto Gonzales said the Indonesians, from an extremist group linked to Al-Qaeda, could be behind two bomb blasts in the southern city of Zamboanga on Wednesday which injured at least 26 people.
He said two of the militants were already believed to be in the capital Manila scouting possible targets with the help of Filipino accomplices from the Abu Sayyaf group.
Police in Zamboanga meanwhile announced they were questioning four suspects about the blasts.
The Abu Sayyaf, a gang of Islamic militants blamed for the bombing of a ferry last year in Manila Bay that killed more than 100 people, were also suspected of planning the attacks in Zamboanga.
"The searches will be intensified," said Gonzales, adding that possible targets in Manila such as hotels and shopping malls had been alerted.
Gonzales said the Philippines had received a tip-off from unspecified foreign governments about the 10 Indonesians who were believed to be from the Jemaah Islamiyah group behind the 2002 bombings on the island of Bali.
He declined to elaborate on the sources, but a security official told AFP that at least two top JI lieutenants who played key roles in the Bali attacks had slipped into the southern island of Mindanao.
The two were identified as Omar Patek and Dulmatin, whose real name is Joko Pitono and who allegedly helped assemble the bombs that killed 202 people on the Indonesian resort island.
Gonzales said the Indonesian suspects may be working closely with Dulmatin.
"What is important here is we are beginning to see a new development as far as terrorism is concerned in the Philippines," Gonzales said.
He said Jemaah Islamiyah was "beginning to employ non-Filipinos in the Philippines terror action, this to us is significant."
The military said Wednesday's blasts in Zamboanga, which tore through a mini-bus and an inn, could be meant as a diversionary tactic by the Abu Sayyaf to slow a military offensive against the group.
The militants, including Abu Sayyaf leader Khadaffy Janjalani, have been in a cat-and-mouse chase with the military in the jungles of central Mindanao island since July.
"The police and military are under strict orders by the president to get to the root of these attacks and bring the perpetrators to justice," President Gloria Arroyo's spokesman Ignacio Bunye said.
Zamboanga city police director Henry Lozanes said four suspects were being questioned about the blasts.
"We picked up three suspects for questioning and another one suspect was questioned from among those wounded," he said.
Police officials said the bombs in Zamboanga appeared to have been made with ammonium nitrate, a substance also used in fertiliser.
National police chief, Director General Arturo Lomibao, visited the bombing sites and ordered tighter security in the city, describing the bombings as "a terrorist attack meant to harm civilians."
The last major bombings in Zamboanga city took place on October 17, 2002 when two bombs exploded in a shopping mall, leaving six dead and 150 wounded.
Security analysts in the region say that while the Abu Sayyaf ranks have fallen in recent years after its key leaders were captured or killed, its cells have been infiltrated by JI militants.
A military intelligence report has also said that up to 40 JI militants trained last year in a rebel camp controlled by the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The MILF is negotiating peace with Manila and has denied the report.
Lebanon freed the radical Muslim cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed on Friday, hours after Britain declared he would not be allowed to return to its shores. Lebanon's prosecutor general, Judge Said Mirza, told The Associated Press he ordered Bakri's release after it appeared "that he has not yet committed any crime and there are no criminal records against him." Mirza added Bakri was a free man.
As lawless as Lebanon has been, you'd think they could come up with something.
It was not immediately clear where Bakri was headed after his release from the General Security building in east Beirut.
"Feets get me outta here!"
General Security officers arrested Bakri in Beirut on Thursday, five days after he flew to Lebanon on holiday from Britain, where he has lived for the past 20 years.
Britain said Friday it had barred the Muslim cleric from returning because his presence was "not conducive to the public good."
During his detention, the General Security department said he was being questioned about the circumstances of his entry to Lebanon. Lebanese newspapers reported that Syria would like Lebanon to hand over Bakri, but this could not be confirmed with the Syrian authorities on Friday - the Muslim sabbath. Bakri, 45, holds Syrian and Lebanese citizenship.
And a British welfare card.
He caught British public attention recently when he said he would not inform the police if he knew Muslims were planning attacks such as the July 7 suicide bombings in London that killed 56 people, including four attackers. He claimed Islam prohibited him from reporting Muslims to the British police.
British prosecutors said they were studying Bakri's remarks with a view to charging him with solicitation of murder or incitement to withhold information known to be of use to police.
In an interview with Lebanon's Future TV, recorded minutes before his arrest, Bakri said he was being targeted for his political views and would not return to Britain. He denied any links to al-Qaida or any other group of terrorists.
In Britain, Bakri founded the now-disbanded radical Islamic group al-Muhajiroun, which came under official scrutiny, particularly after some of its members praised the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. In an interview published in the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Anba on Friday, Bakri condemned the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, saying he did not condone violence except in cases of resistance against foreign occupation.
He added he did not intend to get involved in political or religious activities while in Lebanon, where he plans to settle.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/12/2005 14:10 ||
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#1
Gonna send for the wife and kids, scumbag, or let them stay in England and make them send you a cut of their welfare checks, seeing how you ain't getting yours anymore?
#3
"It was not immediately clear where Bakri was headed after his release from the General Security building in east Beirut."
Bakri: "I don't know what happened, all I remember is that they shot me with an elephant dart, and now..wait a minute..wait a minute..this looks familiar..this was my other location where I used to preach "politics"..I could be wrong but, I believe I am in the Anti-Jew Division of CNN."
#4
LOL PR - but it would've been better Satire if he'd woke up in the pro-Jew section of CNN, with Christiane "Warslut" Amanpour standing by
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 17:50 Comments ||
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#5
My guess, He will be heading for the saftey of Pakistan soon. Leabanon has a extradition with Syria. The" Powers that be" had a talk with him and he will be leaving Lebanon soon.
#6
so long as he takes his spawn and surrogate leech with him into that dark night
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 18:19 Comments ||
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#7
Welcome to The Village asshole. You are number 19.
Posted by: Col Flagg ||
08/12/2005 18:52 Comments ||
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#8
SPoD,
As dangerous as it is to disagree with you, "El Presidente of Paki, have enough cockroaches in the house. He doesn't need more coming in from the outside.
If he enters Pakiland, I think he is a dead man. (Wait, I think I have something in my eye, ok, its gone now)
#9
I think alot of the noise we hear out of Pakistan is for western consumption Poison Reverse. There are plenty of Pakistani that will welcome the person with open arms and phyiscal support. He isn't safe in Leabanon, he knows that now.
#1
"While the left and the feminists rail against Bush and the Bush doctrine, grave, terrible crimes against humanity go unpunished."
The demented Left have no problems at all with late term abortions muchless, care about "inhumanity" across the world. GOP is considered more cruel than OBL.
There is one bit of good news. I read an article in the WSJ that broadband users are watching less and less TV (idiot box). As prices of broadband come down, WSJ is expecting an explosion of broadband in homes. The more unfiltered news people get from WWW (especially blogs), the more aware people become, of world atrocities. Links like this is not possible without unfiltered news which is why the Demoncats want the courts, FTC, and FCC to control web content. This is a losing battle for the Demons, yet they still keep walking into traffic without looking both ways. The blogger on this link wants people to become more aware, well an explosion of broadband is a start.
You want true compassion then, MSM must be destroyed without prejudice. Broadband is a start.
Not to change topics but:
**My wife is having thorasic (rib extraction) surgery, this morning. Jews and Christians at RB, please pray for my wife. Thanks!!**
#2
Why not prayers to Allan, PR? You afraid your wife would come back in a burka? Seriously, I just sent up a prayer for her...keep us updated.
Back to topic, I think this is spot on. I've personally turned off the idiot box (at least for News, with the exception of Fox News, and I'm even getting sick of them...Aruba 24/7). As broadband (and even area wide wireless networks) come down in price, the news will get out. Just think of all the "news" the MSM has been smacked down on in the past year or two (that they would've gotten away with, just 5 years ago)...abu Gharib 24/7; Dan Rather on Bush's Air Reserve "story"/fake but true; beheadings by the jihadis being covered up; and the "good news" reports that somehow don't make it to press, but you can easily find online; etc. You'll always have your diehard MSM fans, but just look at how Fox News is kicking CNN/MSNBC's arse! I'll always favor Rantburg as my news source, though. Thanks Fred!
Posted by: BA ||
08/12/2005 9:56 Comments ||
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#7
OT, but...I am currently in MSM "rehab" having canceled my lifelong addiction to taking a daily newspaper (Chicago Tribune most recently) 2 months ago.
My first news scan of the day is Rantburg. Fox News has to answer to advertisers to be available to us, so they are forced to at least address the next big story- however I give them credit for at least packaging up detailed coverage into predictable slots- Greta's etc.
Unfettered access to world events is the strength of this blog.
By the way, I am still mildly suprized that canceling my subcription to the Chicago Tribune after 16 consequtive years didn't generate at least a simple phone call from someone in that organization as to the reasons I wrote "cancel" on my invoice.
Thank you for the prayer. Just got back from the hospital. The surgery was successful and she is in recovery.
Thank you, Jesus, that everything went well. I prayed, "Jesus use the medical staff as your instruments, and I want you to do the surgery."
The ironic thing is that she is going to medical school next year to eventually become a cardio-thorasic surgeon. I guess she will be telling her future patients, "not only am I a surgeon, I was also a patient so trust me, I really know how you feel"
Capsu78,
"didn't generate at least a simple phone call from someone in that organization"
I know excatly how you feel. I donate to different Jewish and Christian ministries/charities around the country. But, I sent an email to the Joel Osteen "Lakewood Church" asking for a physical address so I can send some money. You wouldn't believe the response. The reply, didn't have the words "thank you", "thank you for wanting to be a partner," or even any other kind words. The ONLY thing on the email body was the address. I know that's what I asked for but, the empty response was out of line. I send my money to another ministry.
#9
Proison Reverse, I'm glad your wife came through the surgery well. Here's hoping for a rapid and relatively pain free recovery. And best of luck to you both for the progress of her medical career!
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 17:53 Comments ||
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#11
Good news indeed PR.
Posted by: Col Flagg ||
08/12/2005 18:55 Comments ||
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#12
Thanks, everyone for the kind words.
My kids and I are going to the hospital to spend time with my wife. There are so many tempting articles I want to comment on but I will have to put fingers in sleep mode for tonight.
tw,
Did you get my instructions yesterday on html bullet points? Here you go just in case.
--Copy and paste this (li class="MsoNormal" style="") to the RB comment window. Don't use the parentheses. BUT add "<" right before "li" and ">" right after second quotation mark This will give you your bullet point. Add a space after the second greater that sign and type your text.
For example, this how it would look like with 3 bullet points.
The controversial Muslim cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed was last night held in a Beirut prison after he was arrested by Lebanon's general security department less than a week after he fled from the UK.
Even the Lebanese know better than to let this mook run around.
The preacher was detained after leaving a television station where he said he would not go back to the country that has been his home for 20 years and where his wife and six children live. "I will not return to Britain unless I want to go there as a visitor or as a tourist," he said. "After all these years of being an expatriate I want to come back. I don't want to go back to Britain unless the government announces personally that I am no longer persona non grata."
"They can mail my welfare checks to me here!"
Around midday yesterday, Mr Bakri, who had been in hiding from the British media who followed him to Beirut, was surrounded by 10 heavily armed soldiers who were waiting outside the state-sponsored Future TV. Witnesses described how the soldiers flagged down a green Nissan hire car with the cleric and a driver inside. "They stopped the car in the middle of the road," one said. "After a few minutes, Bakri left the car and they put him in an official Range Rover ... When he was arrested, he looked astonished. At first when they stopped him he kept talking on the phone."
All they needed was the perp walk.
Last night the Lebanese interior ministry denied that Mr Bakri had been arrested at the request of any other country and said he was being held at general security facilities.
"We don't need the British to know that this nut is dangerous."
In a statement, the general security department said: "Following the receipt of security information, the general security is conducting an investigation regarding the situation of the Lebanese Omar Bakri Fistok [his family name] in order to take the appropriate measure." Last night his spokesman, Anjem Choudary, said he understood the cleric had been released by Lebanese officials but that was unconfirmed. "The information I have from the family is that he has now been released," he said. "It was just an informal discussion about the fact that they don't really have a file on him in Lebanon. They wanted to know what his purpose was for coming to Lebanon, how long he was going to stay and what he was going to do. He has not been in Lebanon since he was 17 and he is not wanted there for any crimes."
"But they're going to hold him anyway -- some talk about 'general principles', whatever that is," said the perplexed lawyer.
In the Future TV interview, Mr Bakri said al-Qaida did not exist and he did not know anybody who belonged to the organisation. He said he had disbanded al-Muhajiroun because he had been persecuted by the "Zionist" media in Britain and that he had not worked as a preacher since then. "There is no doubt that the London bombings affected my decision in returning to Lebanon," he said. "It was one of the major reasons. I condemn killing of innocent people."
"But since they're all infidels ..."
UPDATE: He's Free. EFL:
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Lebanon freed the radical Muslim cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed on Friday, hours after Britain declared he would not be allowed to return to its shores. Lebanon's prosecutor general, Judge Said Mirza, told The Associated Press he ordered Bakri's release after it appeared "that he has not committed any crime and there are no criminal records against him." Mirza added Bakri was a free man.
It was not immediately clear where Bakri was headed after his release from the General Security building in east Beirut. Lebanese newspapers reported that Syria would like Lebanon to hand over Bakri, but this could not be confirmed with the Syrian authorities on Friday - the Muslim sabbath. Bakri, 45, holds Syrian and Lebanese citizenship.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/12/2005 00:00 ||
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a nicely placed rifle butt (ironically paid for by Bakri's Euro-begging) and this is all in the past...I can dream, can't I?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 0:06 Comments ||
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#2
**snicker and snort*** God works in mysterious ways.
#7
Extradited to Syria? And you thought your "pad" was horrible in Lebanon, lol! AR makes a good point...he may have been spoiled by a country that truly practices tolerance and forgot the wild west mayhem that occurs daily in Lebanon/Syria. Good riddance!
Posted by: BA ||
08/12/2005 9:34 Comments ||
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#8
He lied so often, he fell for it!
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/12/2005 9:44 Comments ||
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#10
"At first when they stopped him he kept talking on the phone."
Hey everyone - Don't get your hopes up! - It may be they only arrested him for talking on a cell phone while rifding in the car. There are laws like that here in the US, remember?
Okay Infidels! Get Yur Game Plan Right Here, Just in Time for Football Season
Per Speigel
In the introduction, the Jordanian journalist writes, "I interviewed a whole range of al-Qaida members with different ideologies to get an idea of how the war between the terrorists and Washington would develop in the future." What he then describes between pages 202 and 213 is a scenario, proof both of the terrorists' blindness as well as their brutal single-mindedness. In seven phases the terror network hopes to establish an Islamic caliphate which the West will then be too weak to fight.
1. The First Phase Known as "
the awakening
" -- this has already been carried out and was supposed to have lasted from 2000 to 2003, or more precisely from the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in New York and Washington to the fall of Baghdad in 2003. The aim of the attacks of 9/11 was to provoke the US into declaring war on the Islamic world and thereby "awakening" Muslims. "The first phase was judged by the strategists and masterminds behind al-Qaida as very successful," writes Hussein. "The battle field was opened up and the Americans and their allies became a closer and easier target." The terrorist network is also reported as being satisfied that its message can now be heard "everywhere."
2. The Second Phase "Opening Eyes" is, according to Hussein's definition, the period we are now in and should last until 2006. Hussein says the terrorists hope to make the western conspiracy aware of the "Islamic community." Hussein believes this is a phase in which al-Qaida wants an organization to develop into a movement. The network is banking on recruiting young men during this period. Iraq should become the center for all global operations, with an "army" set up there and bases established in other Arabic states.
3. The Third Phase This is described as "Arising and Standing Up" and should last from 2007 to 2010. "There will be a focus on Syria," prophesies Hussein, based on what his sources told him. The fighting cadres are supposedly already prepared and some are in Iraq. Attacks on Turkey and -- even more explosive -- in Israel are predicted. Al-Qaida's masterminds hope that attacks on Israel will help the terrorist group become a recognized organization. The author also believes that countries neighboring Iraq, such as Jordan, are also in danger.
4. The Fourth Phase Between 2010 and 2013, Hussein writes that al-Qaida will aim to bring about the collapse of the hated Arabic governments. The estimate is that "the creeping loss of the regimes' power will lead to a steady growth in strength within al-Qaida." At the same time attacks will be carried out against oil suppliers and the US economy will be targeted using cyber terrorism.
5. The Fifth Phase This will be the point at which an Islamic state, or caliphate, can be declared. The plan is that by this time, between 2013 and 2016, Western influence in the Islamic world will be so reduced and Israel weakened so much, that resistance will not be feared. Al-Qaida hopes that by then the Islamic state will be able to bring about a new world order.
6. The Sixth Phase Hussein believes that from 2016 onwards there will a period of "total confrontation." As soon as the caliphate has been declared the "Islamic army" it will instigate the "fight between the believers and the non-believers" which has so often been predicted by Osama bin Laden.
7. The Seventh Phase This final stage is described as "definitive victory." Hussein writes that in the terrorists' eyes, because the rest of the world will be so beaten down by the "one-and-a-half million Muslims," the caliphate will undoubtedly succeed. This phase should be completed by 2020, although the war shouldn't last longer than two years.
A Serious Plan?
But just how serious is this scenario? "Al-Qaida makes no compromises," says the book's author Fouad Hussein. He obviously believes that this seven-point plan could well become the guiding principle for a whole range of al-Qaida fighters. Hussein is far from an hysterical alarmist -- in fact he is seen as a serious journalist and his Zarqawi book is better than most of the reports in Arabic on the subject. Only last year, the journalist made a film which was received with great interest and was shown on the German-French TV channel arte. In it he provided deep insights into al-Qaida's internet propaganda machine.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/12/2005 16:42 ||
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barkeep, plz place in this in the correct sprocket.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/12/2005 16:50 Comments ||
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i call BS. This seems to assume that way back in 2000 they assumed that the US response to 9/11 would be an attack on Iraq, which gives AQ far too much prescience. I think its much more likely that they thought wed get trapped in a spiral of escalation in Afghanistan, like the Russians did. If THATS the case then idea that phase 3 would focus on Syria, Jordan and Turkey makes no sense.
I think that since November 2001, when things went offtrack for them in Afghanistan, theyve largely been playing by hear, trying to take advantage of targets of opportunity. This looks like an attempt to take the current situation, and make it look like a coherent strategy, rather than anything that was planned in 2000 or earlier.
The reality is that somewhere during this process the real "awakening" will happen and the men of the West will recognize the re-animate evil of Islamism.
How many terrorist attacks will we accept and how many restrictions on our freedoms will it take before we say: "Enough yet?" Once the populace of the West says "Enough!" then it will only be a matter of a relatively short time before the Caliphate and all the Islamist dreams are crushed under our heel.
Then... back to our private pursuits. Message to Islamists: Tug on the bulls testicles and you are going to get the horns.
#6
sorry OT whatever happened to all the plame/wilson stories? I haven't heard any Rove or Novak conspiracies in a while. Is the MSM quietly trying to let the issue go. I dunno, maybe Cindy Sheehan is more credible. I mean if Michael Moore is supporting her she's gotta be pretty legit.
#7
I agree with liberalhawk. Nobody, and particularly not the jihadis, expected us to fare very well in Afghanistan. This whole fantasy was predicated on the US being caught in a quagmire like the Soviets.
#8
So, I should be preparing for worldwide Islamic rule in 15 years.
Right.
This resembles my plan to be a multimillionaire:
Phase 1: graduate and go out on my own
Phase 2: (details to be filled in later)
Phase 3: Wallow in my wealth
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
08/12/2005 18:25 Comments ||
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"I interviewed a whole range of al-Qaida members with different ideologies to get an idea of how the war between the terrorists and Washington would develop in the future."
I hope he learned that this is not just Washington's fight, but a struggle between all freedom loving people and the demons who are seeking world domination.
Also, I keep wondering about this Caliphate of one and one half million Muslims. That would mean that the Caliphate included both Shiites and Sunnis equally. But hasn't the 1300 year old animosity between the two sects been about which is the true Caliphate? Can the Shiites really expect to be included or will the 'Islamic Army' fight them as non-believers too?
#10
the Wahhabis and Sunnis will be the sultanate princelings, the Shiites the seething majority doing all the work - all is at peace in the new Caliphate
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 18:50 Comments ||
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#11
I think Phase 2 is either:
"Accept billionaire trainee position."
-or- "Receive check from John Beresford Tipton."
#12
3. The Third Phase This is described as ... Al-Qaida's masterminds hope that attacks on Israel will help the terrorist group become a recognized organization.
Attacks on Israel? Yeah, right... Organization recognized for causing every arab capital to glow in the dark...
Releasing photos and videotapes of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison would aid al-Qaida recruitment, weaken governments in Iraq and Afghanistan and incite riots against U.S. troops, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff warned in court papers.
The American Civil Liberties Union is seeking the release of 87 photographs and four videotapes taken at the prison as part of a lawsuit it filed in October 2003.
Gen. Richard B. Myers wrote in recently unsealed court papers filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan that it was ''probable that al-Qaida and other groups will seize upon these images and videos as grist for their propaganda mill.''
The ACLU complaint seeks information on the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody and the transfer of prisoners to countries known to use torture. It also contends that prisoner abuse is systemic.
The government submitted an additional request to the court Friday arguing that some information in its court papers that remains blacked out should not be made public.
In a response to the arguments by Myers, the ACLU submitted a declaration by retired U.S. Army Col. Michael E. Pheneger, who said Myers ''mistakes propaganda for motivation.''
Pheneger, a military intelligence officer from 1963 to 1993, said that Iraqi insurgents average 70 attacks a day and that they ''will continue regardless of whether the photos and tapes are released.''
Pheneger said he believed that releasing the photos would lead to a thorough public examination of the administration's decision to approve interrogation techniques that the Army had long prohibited.
''The first step to abandoning practices that are repugnant to our laws and national ideals is to bring them into the sunshine and assign accountability,'' he wrote.
Myers said his views about the pictures were supported by Gen. John P. Abizaid, head of the United States Central Command, and Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the commander of the American forces in Iraq.
An investigation into the abuse depicted on the pictures continues, Myers said.
''I condemn in the strongest terms the misconduct and abuse depicted in these images,'' he said. ''It was illegal, immoral and contrary to American values and character.''
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, who will decide whether to release blacked-out versions of the pictures and videotapes, has said photographs ''are the best evidence the public can have of what occurred'' at the prison.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/12/2005 20:49 ||
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Hellerstein, Alvin K.
Born 1933 in New York, NY
Federal Judicial Service:
U. S. District Court, Southern District of New York Nominated by William J. Clinton on May 15, 1998, to a seat vacated by Louis L. Stanton; Confirmed by the Senate on October 21, 1998, and received commission on October 22, 1998.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/12/2005 20:54 Comments ||
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#2
another Clinton contribution to the WOT.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 21:20 Comments ||
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Lawyer wonder why they get no respect? There should be a season for TRANZI lawyers. No bag limit. To bad there is not. Might be different if I could think of one right of mine they had protected, but I can't. Might be different if they made my country a safer place to live but they haven't and will not. I would rather spend tome with a rattle snake or mountain lion than a lawyer.
#6
Pheneger, a military intelligence officer from 1963 to 1993, said that Iraqi insurgents average 70 attacks a day and that they ''will continue regardless of whether the photos and tapes are released.''
Despite being in military intelligence for thirty years, this Pheneger's not too bright. The issue isn't whether the -- improper -- release of these photos will inspire more attacks in Iraq. It's whether they'll inspire attacks in New York, DC, Chicago, Detroit, LA, San Francisco, London, Paris, Madrid, Berlin...
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/12/2005 22:30 Comments ||
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Another thing -- the abuses at Abu Ghraib had nothing to do with approved interrogation techniques. That the ACLU keeps banging that drum is just proof that they're a tool of our enemies.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/12/2005 22:32 Comments ||
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#8
I think General Myers is being over-sensitive. If photos of terrorists with their heads blown off from sniper fire or of dismembered terrorists from American artillery fire don't inspire the Muslim faithful to anger, the sight of terrorists merely being humiliated certainly won't. I think the Abu Ghraib pictures are amusing - such are the sissified methods of American prison guards play-acting at torture in the very prison where real torture, with beheadings and genuine torture implements were carried out by Saddam's minions.
#9
I could go on about Military Intelligence officers but lets just say that most are at least twice removed from the actual intelligence operations. Now if Pheneger were a a MI officer attached to an Embassy doing overt intell then maybe he would have a feel about how these photos would affect people in Iraq and Afghanistan. But given that those very same intell types have yet to be right on even ONE aspect on the WOT I would be leary from taking his advise (see "Slam Dunk" and WMDs). There is nothing to be gained from releasing these phtos and I think it's time for the ACLU to understand that thier first name is AMERICAN and act in the bes interest of America and not terrorists.
#10
Let us assume for a second that Gen Myers is wrong. If so, what possible purpose would it serve to release the photos. We would not learn anything we don't know.
The ONLY thing that could be achieved is what Myers is concerned about - that via Al Jihad TV and the MSM these pictures will become a recruiting tool for the Jihadis.
The fact that the ACLU doesn't care - tells you all you need to know about the ACLU.
#11
DMFD: Let us assume for a second that Gen Myers is wrong. If so, what possible purpose would it serve to release the photos. We would not learn anything we don't know.
I think General Myers is being too politically correct. The kind of people who would be influenced by the kind of play-acting depicted in the Abu Ghraib pictures are the same kind of people who are already terrorists because of the American invasion of Iraq. The Abu Ghraib pictures depict humiliation. The pictures coming out of Iraq every day are of terrorists getting dismembered and blown away during American military operations. I think people need to get a sense of proportion, and pick their fights. We need to fight for the right to hack a captive like Zaccarias Moussaoui to pieces in order to prevent future 9/11's, not suppress merely embarrassing photographs from circulation.
Public relations with the Muslim world are moot. Don't take Muslims for children. The ones who want to hate Americans already hate Americans. A few S&M-style pictures from Abu Ghraib aren't going to sway them more than the pictures of Muslim holy warriors with chunks of their skulls missing or with their internal organs splattered all over the tarmac.
#12
ZF, I don't agree. The terrorist recruiters prey on young, easily influenced Muslim youth. At their early age, they are swayed by photos depicting brutish treatment. Hence, a release of these items plays right into the recruiters interests.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/12/2005 23:58 Comments ||
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COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, a hard-liner in dealing with the island's Tamil Tiger rebels, was assassinated late on Friday in an attack the police blamed on separatist rebels.
"The foreign minister passed away," Justice Minister John Senevirathne told reporters outside the National Hospital in Colombo. "He worked tirelessly for peace throughout his career. It is a great loss." Government officials declined to comment on who was to blame for the shooting, but Inspector General of Police Chandra Fernando blamed it on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. "It's the Tigers," he told reporters early on Saturday. The Tigers were not immediately available for comment.
The shooting comes amid escalating tensions between the government and the rebels, who have repeatedly threatened to resume a two-decade civil war because of a rash of violence in the island's restive east that each side blames on the other.
Kadirgamar, 73, was rushed to the National Hospital in Colombo after he was shot just before midnight on Friday. The hospital was sealed off amid tight security as ministers arrived in the early hours of Saturday to visit his bedside before leaving without comment. Officials declined to comment when asked who was suspected to be behind the shooting of Kadirgamar, an Oxford-educated lawyer.
Police cordoned off the roads around the residence of Kadirgamar, an ethnic Tamil and a top adviser of President Chandika Kumaratunga in Sri Lanka's protracted peace process with the Tigers. Heavily armed police officers fanned out into the plush central Colombo neighbourhood, searching the area. Helicopters circled overhead.
The incident came just a day after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) warned that the government's refusal to hunt down and disarm renegades fighting a silent war with their cadres in the east of the island could rekindle a war that has already killed more than 64,000 people. The Tigers accuse the military of helping a splinter faction led by a top former rebel commander called Karuna target and kill their political and military members and demands the government disarms them.
Dozens of rebel cadres, policemen and soldiers have been killed since a truce was agreed in 2002, and some diplomats and analysts fear the rash of violence could spiral back into an all-out war. The Tigers have repeatedly warned that their patience is at breaking point and the truce in danger of collapse, but cease-fire monitors, peace envoys and analysts say a return to full-blown war is unlikely.
An American accused in court papers of having ties to Osama bin Laden is now working for the Iraqi government's Foreign Ministry, US officials and a former CIA counterterror chief say.
Iraqi-born Tarik A. Hamdi was the "American contact" for one of bin Laden's front organizations and gave a satellite telephone battery to an aide to the Saudi-born al-Qaida leader in Afghanistan for a phone used by bin Laden, according to an affidavit from Customs agent David Kane.
The affidavit was unsealed this week in US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, near Washington, along with a federal indictment charging Hamdi with lying on immigration and mortgage loan applications.
Hamdi, who formerly lived in another Washington suburb in Virginia, is now working at Iraqi diplomatic offices in Turkey, said Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA official who has known Hamdi for years and remains in contact with him through e-mail.
Hamdi has been under federal investigation and surveillance for several years, stemming from his work at the International Institute of Islamic Thought in northern Virginia. The affidavit was filed in March 2002 to obtain a warrant to search Hamdi's home.
Prosecutors have contended at least since 2002 that Hamdi had "established links" to bin Laden and other members of al-Qaida, according to a court filing in the case against Zacarias Moussaoui.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/12/2005 14:04 ||
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oh cmon. The guy has been pals with Cannistraro for years, and been in email contact with him. Is it routine for ex-CIA agents to maintain contact with AQ guys. And then the guy shows up in the Iraqi Foreign Ministry?
You dont need to be Robert Novak or Judith Miller to put two and two together. Tariq Hamdi obviously has an employer whos NOT the Iraqi govt, OR AQ. But would love to have more info on either. Id have thought living in Northern Virginia is just too obvious, but I guess thats why we have Intelligence Professionals.
#5
And of COURSE they would publicize this relationship, right?
Pfeh.
Posted by: got my own spoon ||
08/12/2005 15:34 Comments ||
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you wouldnt think so. So is it that theyre trying to make it LOOK like Hamdis CIA, for some nefarious reason? Or is it that Cannistraro was actually turned by AQ? (that would explain a few things) Or perhaps Cannistraro and Hamdi have been in touch, but simply never reached "a meeting of the minds". Or maybe its perfectly innocent, and Cannistraro, being a pundit and all, just likes to keep in touch with Islamists with AQ ties, to chat about the state of the world, and didnt realize how deep he was getting.
Or maybe Cannistraro is playing some game of his own, that relates to internal CIA politics.
#10
Plots! Sinister plots! Deep laid, sinister plots! Wheels within wheels!
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/12/2005 16:24 Comments ||
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lib: that's why I was sponging brains off the ceiling tile - because it's so bloody fraught that it could be any of a dozen things, none of them particularly happy-making. It could be:
1)Cannistraro outing a CIA asset (abhorrent, but possible)
2)Cannistraro outing himself as an al Queda symp (highly unlikely, but god only knows with Cannistraro)
3)Cannistraro pretending to be the friend of somebody he's trying to burn (nasty but the sort of thing I've gotten used to expecting from the VIPers)
4)Cannistraro inventing somebody out of whole cloth to kick some mud around (who knows?)
5)Everybody confusing one Hamdi with somebody else of the same name
The only option that doesn't make Cannistraro a complete and total tool is the idea that he's defending some friend of his who's in a jam. I'm afraid my cynicism meter is too pegged to let him get away with that one without a good deal of backup.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
08/12/2005 17:49 Comments ||
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the real question: does Hamdi know Joe Wilson or Valerie Plame?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 17:55 Comments ||
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I'm not Flagg so don't quote me but this has The Mossad written all over it. If you see The Mossad tell him Native Dancer in the 4th at Belmont.
Posted by: Col Flagg ||
08/12/2005 18:48 Comments ||
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The July 23 bombings at Sharm al-Shaykh offered a harsh reminder that Egypt remains vulnerable to Islamists who see terrorism as their only viable means of affecting political change. The attacks, which left at least sixty-four dead and more than two hundred injured, were the deadliest to be carried out by Islamist extremists in the last two decades. And the participation of Sinai Bedouin youths in the attacks points to a dangerous development in terrorist activities in the region.
Three major Islamist political groups are active in Egypt:
⢠The Muslim Brotherhood (MB). The longest established of the three, the MB dissociates itself from any terrorist activity and is more or less tolerated by the regime.
⢠The Jamaa Islamiyya, or Islamic Group (IG). Starting in 1992, the IG backed a terror campaign in the Nile River Valley against Egyptian officials and tourists. The campaign was aimed at weakening the regime of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and responding to security forces' brutal treatment of Islamist militants. Local terrorists carried out the attacks in the Nile region, sparing Sinai from any serious incidents. In 1997, a desire to follow the MB's path to mainstream political legitimacy led the IG to halt the terror campaign with an unconditional ceasefire. Since then, IG leaders have published books preaching a nonviolent discourse, and Egypt saw a lull in terrorist attacks.
⢠Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ). In the late 1990s, EIJ leadership split over the issue of renouncing violence. The group's leaders inside Egypt preferred to follow the MB and IG on a nonviolent path, but the group's current leader and al-Qaeda's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, refused to give up violence.
The October 2004 bombings in Taba heralded the start of a new terror campaign in Egypt. The campaign has continued with apparently related attacks on tourists in Cairo in April and the bombings at Sharm al-Shaykh. The MB firmly condemned the attacks, while the IG and the EIJ did not claim responsibility for these acts. Instead, three previously unknown groups claimed responsibility for the Taba and Sharm al-Shaykh attacks: the Abdalla Azzam Brigades of al-Qaeda in the Levant and Egypt, the Holy Warriors of Egypt, and the Egyptian Tawheed Wal Jihad Movement. Little is known about these new groups, which may not even exist. Established groups often claim responsibility for attacks under different names to evade government crackdowns.
The timing of the recent bombings have symbolic significance in Egyptian politics.
July 23 is the Egyptian national holiday, the anniversary of Gamal Abdel Nasserâs 1952 coup that overthrew the monarchy; the current regime draws its legitimacy from the political order Nasser established. The Sharm al-Shaykh bombings were also timed to intrude on Mubarakâs campaign for a fifth term as president in elections scheduled for September 7. Just two days before the attacks, Mubarak delivered an address to the Military Academy touting the stability, security, democracy, and economic progress he provided Egyptians in the last two decades. And the attacks came two days before Mubarak officially declared his candidacy.
The Taba bombings took place on October 7, one day after the anniversary of the 1973 war between Egypt and Israel. Mubarak portrays himself as a hero of that war, and the Taba bombings struck a border town that is popular with Israeli tourists and a frequent site for Israeli-Arab peace talks.
The recent attacks were the first Islamist violence in the Sinai Peninsula and the first terrorist attacks in Sharm al-Shaykh, a city known as the most secure in Egypt. Indeed, Mubarak spends much of the year there, and the resort regularly hosts international conferences on the peace process and counterterrorism. Sharm al-Shaykh is also a tourist center, with about $6 billion in revenues last year, and one of Egypt's leading sources of foreign currency.
The sophistication of the attacks in Taba and Sharm al-Shaykh could point to foreign involvement. Further, the groups that claimed responsibility for the bombings linked the attacks to the larger global jihadist movement against the West and its allies.
The logistics of the attack suggest the involvement of Sinai Bedouins. This marks the first Bedouin involvement in violence against the Egyptian state. Though Sinai Bedouins are part of the Egyptian social fabric, they see themselves as a distinct ethnic group -- Arabs with nomadic roots in Arabia, Jordan, and Palestine different from Nile Valley Egyptians, whose ancestors were farmers and who mainly claim descent from ancient Egyptians. The development of tourism in southern Sinai since the 1980s brought prosperity to the southern Bedouin tribes while the northern tribes were left without any significant source of legal income. Poor economic conditions and political frustration created ideal circumstances for extremist organizations to recruit militants among northern Sinai Bedouin youths. Young men from northern Sinai took part as terrorists in both the Taba and Sharm al-Shaykh bombings.
After the Taba bombings, human rights organizations reported that Egyptian security forces arrested up to 2,400 Bedouins, including women and children, out of a population of around 100,000. The crackdown radicalized some Bedouins, who became willing to collaborate in a vengeance against the state. Similar security measures used in the Nile Valley during the 1980s and 1990s led to a spiral of violence between security forces and supporters and families of suspected terrorists. The same seems to be happening now in Sinai.
The Sinai Peninsula is at the crossroads of Gaza, Israel, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. The collaboration of Sinai Bedouins with terrorist organizations could have dangerous consequences for the region.
Assuming Mubarak starts a fifth term in office in September, he will have two options for addressing the new wave of terror.
First, Mubarak could use security imperatives and the war on terror to justify a continuing denial of genuine political reform. That was his pretext for the absence of democratic reform in the 1980s and 1990s -- indeed, Mubarak justified regressive steps, such as the Emergency Law, press restrictions, and barriers to political organization and public protest, as necessary measures to protect Egypt from religious extremism. These policies radicalized the Islamists and curtailed the democratic opposition's efforts to become a viable political alternative. Notably, the official Egyptian press has not used the latest attacks to justify the lack of democratic reform. Instead, it has focused on promoting the limited reforms Mubarak has allowed and countering opposition claims that these reforms are merely symbolic.
A much more viable solution to the problem of Egyptian political violence would be to offer genuine reform. Real political opening would provide an opportunity for the discontented to express their grievances within a democratic framework. Substantive reform would reduce the temptation to use violence to achieve political change. To be sure, tough security measures are necessary, but they are insufficient. If President Mubarak adopts them without real reform, Egypt risks the perpetual resurgence of violence.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/12/2005 13:51 ||
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A much more viable solution to the problem of Egyptian political violence would be to offer genuine reform. Real political opening would provide an opportunity for the discontented to express their grievances within a democratic framework.
#2
works fine if the winning party will continue with real elections. No Islamist power elected to the head has allowed fair, free elections, and relinquished power IIRC. See "President for as long as I friggin' want" Arafat
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 20:19 Comments ||
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Pakistani security agencies have detained two associates of Osama bin Yousaf, a suspected Islamic militant who was arrested last weekend for his alleged links with Al Qaeda, a news report said on Friday.
Rana Mohammad Tariq and Mohammad Azam were picked up from the eastern Faisalabad city, the daily Times said, quoting unnamed sources. The report did not say when the two were arrested.
Yousaf, an owner of a Public Call Office (PCO) in Faisalabad, was arrested on August 7 and taken to Islamabad for questioning where officials were yet to establish if he had any links with the terrorist network.
Intelligence officials also visited a seminary on Sargodha road, the locality from where Yousaf was rounded up, the report said.
Yousafâs arrest stirred concern in the Western capitals after media reports said he had maps of Britain, Germany and Italy in his laptop.
The chief of the countryâs crisis management cell, Javed Iqbal Cheema, rejected these reports as âtotally rubbishâ, while Information Minister Shaikh Rahisd also described Yousaf as an âinsignificant, low ranking memberâ of an outlawed militant outfit called Lashkare Jhangvi.
Yousaf, whose actual name is said to be Faisal, had set up his PCO after apparently renouncing militancy two years ago and also had a computer, which he was using as an internet cafe, according to officials quizzing the suspect.
He was arrested after the American Cellular Call Tracking System (CCTS) installed at several locations countrywide traced his phone call to Peshawar.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has installed the CCTS as part of intelligence sharing efforts in the ongoing war on terror in Afghanistan. They system monitors phone calls within Pakistan.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/12/2005 13:37 ||
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Yousaf, whose actual name is said to be Faisal, had set up his PCO after apparently renouncing militancy two years ago and also had a computer,
I've been having some trouble with the blogroll. I'm working on it, and I've got a minimalist version up now. Sorry if we're missing any of your favorites -- they will be back.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2005 11:36 ||
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Thank God.... I was already having Lipades(sp) withdrawalls
A Taliban commander was shot dead and an American soldier died in a training accident as violence continued ahead of Afghanistan's parliamentary elections scheduled for next month, officials said on Friday. A homemade bomb also exploded on Friday in a busy market in the southern city of Kandahar, wounding four people including a woman and child.
A U.S. military statement said Taliban commander Qari Amadullah was killed near Wazikhwa in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday. "Amadullah was believed to have commanded up to 50 Taliban fighters in the region and was thought to be in possession of a number of weapon systems to include rockets and rocket propelled grenades," it said. Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi confirmed the incident. Amadullah was killed during a clash with Afghan soldiers and U.S. paratroopers in which five other militants died and three U.S. servicemen were wounded. "Killing this individual will significantly disrupt Taliban operations in the region," said U.S. Brigadier-General James G. Champion.
Presumably this isn't the same Qari who was the Talibs' intel chief. Either that, or this is the second time he's been killed.
Seven lives to go ...
The U.S. military also said one American soldier died in a training accident involving explosives near Tarin Kot in the southern province of Kandahar. The death brought to six the number of U.S. military personnel killed this month in Afghanistan, three of whom died in combat. Forty-one U.S. servicemen have died combat in Afghanistan this year -- the bloodiest period for Washington since it sent troops to help overthrow the Taliban in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001. Hundreds of Afghan soldiers, police and civilians have also been killed in fighting led by remnants of the Taliban in the run-up to September 18 parliamentary polls, the next big step in Afghanistan's difficult path to stability. This week alone, Afghan and U.S. officials have reported the deaths of more than 40 insurgents.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2005 10:30 ||
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41 U.S. servicemen have died tying to help those assholes, I hope history shows them to be worth it. I think the Taliban must really have nothing better to do with their time than get killed 5 or 6 at a time, is there a running total of dead taliban since the invasion?
I think "Taliban" is a misnomer, though. I've started thinking of the whole bunch just as Pashtuns, and I might refine that further to just Wazirs.
I think right now we're at war with Waziristan (north and south and possibly west) in Afghanistan. Paul Maloney and Dan D. might have different opinions, but the evidence seems to say that's the case.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2005 12:28 Comments ||
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#3
Just that there's also a sizeable base that the bad guys have the Baluchistan as well. Most of the attacks against Shi'ites in the NWFP and that area aren't quite as senseless as they seem - they're designed to intimidate the Shi'ite minority against working with the US.
Also, keep in mind that for all practical purposes al-Qaeda and its local offspring are basically running these areas with the MMA serving as their legitimate cover. If the Pakistanis were willing to admit that they'd lost control of their own territory (which they have by any reasonable standard) then we could forego the niceties and launch a conventional military campaign to destroy the enemy infrastructure there.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/12/2005 13:20 Comments ||
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#4
Qari Amadullah should have taken his cue from mullah Omar..."Stay in the deepest side of the hole"!
#5
I think the ISI is playing the same game in Waziristan that they have played in Afghanistan for the previous 20 years, and in Kashmir for the previous 15 years.
I would expect that the location of the entire Taliban leadership is known to the ISI, and the Jihadi training camps that were recently reopened in Mansehra are only a fraction of the training camps operating in other even more isolated locations.
I think Mullah Diesel probably revealed the scope of the support when he accused the Pak government of arranging trouble free infriltration of Jihadis from Waziristan into Afghanistan. Before he claimed he was 'misquoted' of course.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
08/12/2005 20:02 Comments ||
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The lads at the mosque are watching their favorite snuff movies, duh!
I'm so confused, I thought the jihadists were a mere reaction to the wrongdoings of the West... Video (.wmv) at link, didn't watch it, my blood pressure is high enough already, and for example I've seen enough pics of thoses nice kosovars urinating in desacrated churches.
By Sherrie Gossett
(CNSNews.com) -- A violent video showing the desecration of a church and the murder of a Serbian soldier is one of many "jihad" videos currently making the rounds in Western countries to raise funds for Muslim terrorists, according to counter-terrorism experts interviewed by Cybercast News Service.
The graphic footage, stamped Sept. 16, 1995, was videotaped approximately two months before the Dayton Peace Accords, which brought an end to the civil war in Bosnia.
Darko Trifunovic, deputy director of the Center for Security and Investigation of Terrorism at the Belgrade Institute for Political Studies, provided Cybercast News Service with a copy of the video during his recent visit to Washington, D.C. Cybercast News Service has edited the video to remove portions dealing with the killing of the Serbian soldier and other grisly images of copses.
Trifunovic, an attorney, previously served as first secretary in the Bosnia-Herzegovina Mission to the United Nations in New York City and conducted war crimes research for The Hague's International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. In the latter capacity, Trifunovic interrogated mujahedeen who were involved in the fighting in Bosnia.
"The video was shot in western Bosnia," said Trifunovic. "It has been shown in Germany, Austria, Norway, Sweden and North America for fund-raising purposes."
Evan F. Kohlmann, a Washington D.C.-based terrorism consultant and author, confirmed that videos of Bosnian battles and church desecrations were currently being circulated as inspiration and as a fund-raising tool for jihad-minded terrorists. Kohlmann has previously testified before Congress on terrorism issues.
The video opens with mujahedeen interrogating a Serbian soldier. The soldier was recognized by a relative as 32-year old Rade Rogic, said Trifunovic.
According to a translator consulted by Cybercast News Service, the lead captor asks Rogic, "Do you know who we are?"
"You're the mujahedeen," Rogic replies on the video.
"That's right, we're the mujahadeen." When questioned about his duties, Rogic insists he serves in the "workers' battalion" and only digs ditches. After repeatedly striking the soldier in the face, the interrogator then pressures him to say "Allah is great," before telling the videographer to turn off the camera.
Subsequent footage shows one of the mujahedeen armed with a machine gun and then preparing the weapon for what appears to be a planned execution. Rogic is then shown bloodied and lying face-down on some rocks, apparently having been killed by his captors.
In June of this year the Belgrade newspaper Vecernje Novosti identified Rogic as part of the Radnicki Battalion. The newspaper published a still photograph of his corpse and reported he was born in 1957 in Sanski Most. He apparently was captured after becoming lost in the surrounding forest.
The video footage also depicts mujahedeen forces entering an Orthodox Christian church. One combatant throws down what appears to be a vial of incense before others mock sacred items, break up the altar and vandalize Byzantine-style icons while smiling and singing. One combatant raises his rifle and fires at the cross atop the altar.
The scene is followed by images of an elderly civilian dead by the roadside and a tractor dragging the body of what appears to be a civilian through the village.
Knowledge of the video has spread among citizens in the Balkans, said Trifunovic. "Approximately 10,000 people have now viewed it at the Sava Center in Belgrade."
The popularity of videos like the one from western Bosnia can be traced to "The Martyrs of Bosnia," which told the story of Arab mujahedeen fighting in the civil war, said Kohlmann. "That first video is considered an al-Qaeda 'classic,'" he added. "Footage of the desecration of the church in Guca Gora was featured in the video." It also includes footage of al Qaeda leaders and a cousin of Osama bin Laden.
"The Martyrs of Bosnia" was distributed by Azzam Publications, whose London-based leader, Babar Ahmad, is currently facing extradition to the U.S. related to charges that he materially supported terrorism and conspired to kill persons in a foreign country.
When that tape was released, said Kohlmann, law enforcement wiretaps recorded Islamists praising the participants in the videotape, calling for the killing of Serbs and fighting for the honor of Islam. "It inspired many terror cells," said Kohlmann.
The "Martyrs of Bosnia" was followed by two other compilations: "Operation Black Lion" and "Operation Badr." The latter featured "suicidal" waves of mujahedeen rushing Serbian soldiers. "It terrified everybody who watched it," said Kohlmann.
Earlier this year, Dragomir Adnan, police chief for the Republic of Srpska (RS), showed the video of Rade Rogic's killing and the church desecration in western Bosnia to an undisclosed group of people. Subsequently, the European Union Police Mission sought to downplay the video by issuing a statement on June 22 criticizing Adnan for his role in the civil war and stating that the video footage had been in the Republic of Srpska Office for Cooperation with the Hague for "a few years and it's nothing new."
The Mission's press release stated that the RS had been asked to forward the video material to The Hague and that "the transfer is on course."
According to a June 15 BBC report, the Belgrade newspaper Vecernje Novosti stated that its journalists were able to view the footage, which was said to be of the 505th Buzim Brigade of the Bosnian government. According to the report, the video originally featured other footage before the scene involving Rogic. That footage, the Belgrade newspaper reported, allegedly showed "heaps of mutilated bodies" and "torched villages."
The BBC reported that the Vecernje Novosti concluded the tape was not fit for broadcasting.
In the same report, the BBC noted that the publication of the Belgrade newspaper occurred a week after Serbian television showed video of Serb paramilitaries executing Muslims in Srebrenica ten years ago.
#2
Ethnic tensions go back over 500 years, each element citing some slight in 1492, or atrocity in 1066, or the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 - whatever. This is just one more slight to rememeber forever, so there will never, EVER, be peace......
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/12/2005 9:35 Comments ||
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#3
I wouldn't say never, you just have to get rid of one side once and for all. Too bad we stopped the Serbians last time.
#5
Good Lord, people, the Serbs were practicing genocide on innocents. I'm glad they were stopped, and it's one of the few things Bill Clinton did that had me singing in his choir.
The Serbs were ruthless, genocidal bastards, and I'll never praise what they did. The Bosnian Muslims were not and are not our enemy in any way.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/12/2005 11:31 Comments ||
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#6
Given the credibility of the MSM, I'll never believe anyone in the Balkans is any better than or different from anyone else there. They're all savages, equally capable of the same atrocities on eachother. There's a reason Bismark said the Balkans were not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian Grenadier. It won't stop till they're all dead. And the stakes are so low.
Getting involved was a terrible mistake. The Europeans should have been left to clean up their own mess. They certainly didn't return the favor in Iraq.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
08/12/2005 12:10 Comments ||
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#7
Good Lord, people, the Serbs were practicing genocide on innocents
Context: The president of teh Bosnian Muslims was a former member of the SS Division Hanschar (yes, there were SS units formed with non-Germans and even with non-Aryans) whose atrocities revolted the SS themselves.
The president of the Croats Franjo Tudjman was busy rehabilitating Ante Pavelic the founder of the Ustashi.
And the "international community" was telling the Bosnian and Croatian Serbs that they should accept to be ruled by such people. Don't you think they had some motives of fear and good reasons to seceed, specially when in many cases it was an arbitrary decision of Tito who had placed them out of Serbia? That was foir the causes of the war, had the recognition of Bosnia and Croatia having been given only agsisnt guarantees for the Serb minorities there would have been no war.
And for the atrocities both sides perpetrated them but the MSM silenced them when they were perpetrated against the Serbds.
EFL...more good news you'll never hear on this side of the pond.....
"I have lots of experience in these mountains fighting the Russians," said Commander Rahim Khan, one of the former mujahideen fighters, who handed in his weapons earlier this year. "Now I can use this for peaceful reasons."
For centuries, Afghanistan's Hindu Kush mountains have served mainly to keep out would-be invaders - from the British to the Russians. The hope is the peaks could now work the other way - attracting climbers, trekkers and other visitors, amid tentative efforts to exploit the country's potential as a tourist destination.
Afghanistan has some of the highest mountains in the world. That's why the Rome-based organisation, Mountain Wilderness, has started training people as guides, "ready for when they start arriving," explains the group's energetic leader Professor Carlo Pinelli. Twenty-two would be mountain guides - including 2 women - were signed up for the first course. Nine of the trainees are former mujahideen fighters, selected by the nationwide UN-backed DDR (disarmament, demobilisation and re-integration) programme responsible for disbanding militia groups. The plan is also getting support from the Aga Khan foundation and the US Agency for International Development.
Three decades ago, Afghanistan was becoming something of a new mountaineering Mecca, as climbers sought out new, un-scaled summits. But war closed that all down. "We want to open again the door of the Afghan Hindu Kush to mountaineering," says Mr Pinelli, who first climbed here in the 1960s. He began that effort two years ago, organising an expedition to climb Nowshak, the country's highest peak at almost 7,500 metres - the first time it had been scaled in more than two decades.
They were taught essential techniques like crossing snow fields and glaciers, abseiling and the basics of rock climbing.
Rohina, one of the two female students, was enthusiastic. "Three years ago, I couldn't even leave my house," she said. "Now I have climbed a mountain."
All 22 students passed the course, but it has only given them basic guiding skills. Despite their knowledge of the mountains, making the transition may be particularly difficult for Rahim Khan and his fellow mujahideen fighters. None of them speak English, crucial for dealing with foreign visitors. "This is a first step," Mr Pinelli acknowledges. He is hoping his trainees will build on their skills by guiding trekking and walking groups. But he admits "it will be some time before there are regular clients to guide".
Next year, he plans to run a more advanced course in the Wakhan corridor, where the country's highest peaks are found. A new era of Afghan mountaineering may be about to begin.
Taliban fighters killed a US soldier and wounded another during an ambush in Afghanistan on Thursday, after the insurgents lost 10 men over the past two days in clashes elsewhere in the troubled southeast. The latest American casualties belonged to a road-working detail led by US engineers in Paktika province, where two days earlier a joint US-Afghan patrol encountered a band of Taliban fighters close to the border with Pakistan.
Conveniently close to the border with Pakland, we'd guess...
... the better to fleerun away withdraw after an encounter with the Americans ...
A US military statement said the enemy fighters took cover in caves. Six insurgents were killed and three US soldiers and an Afghan interpreter wounded in ensuing firefights. âAfghan and US forces pursued the enemy combatants toward the cave complex killing one,â it said, adding that several hours later the same forces came into contact with additional militants and killed five more. Four more Taliban fighters had been killed and seven captured in an assault by Afghan and US forces in neighbouring Zabul province since Wednesday, Bashir Ahmad, a provincial official said. There was no immediate comment on the incidents by the Taliban, but spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said the guerrillas had killed two Afghans in the central province of Uruzgan for âspyingâ for the Americans.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2005 00:00 ||
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MULTAN: Two bomb blast suspects were arrested after a shootout in Jampur in Rajanpur district on Thursday, but five of their accomplices fled, police said. "We have arrested Allah Bakhsh Khetran and Yasin Sherani of the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and seized two kalashnikovs, and a car from them while their accomplices, Mir Hamdan Khetran, Sadiq Wado, Bilal Barra, Qalandar Chang and Khan Mir escaped during a shootout near Jampur," Jam Saifullah, a senior police official in Jampur, told reporters on Thursday.
He said Khetran and Sherani told the police that they were given Rs 30,000 to burn an electricity pylon in Raknee in Balochistan, adding that Lal Muhammad, Umer Din, Abdul Ghafoor and Gul Muhammad Khetran were with them when they planted the bombs. The police official said the arrested were likely to be involved in Fort Munro bomb blast case.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2005 00:00 ||
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2 down, the rest of the ISI to go?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 0:03 Comments ||
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#2
Nothin' says legitimate military target like an electricity pylon...
Pakistan ruled out sealing its border with Afghanistan has said that only strict vigilance will be maintained at the border to control infiltration of terrorists from the neighbouring country. "No decision has been taken to close our border with Afghanistan next month and we have no intentions," said military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan. Some newspapers quoting unnamed sources claimed that Pakistan was planning to seal the Torkham and Chaman border crossings with Afghanistan from next month. In a chat with Pajhwok Afghan News, Gen Sultan said they were keeping a vigilant eye on terrorists and illegal migrants, but there was no question of closing the border for common Afghans.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2005 00:00 ||
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. In a chat with Pajhwok Afghan News, Gen Sultan said they were keeping a vigilant eye on terrorists and illegal migrants, but there was no question of closing the border for common Afghans.
So they're keeping a vigilant eye on all those terrorists that aren't really there?
Posted by: Phil ||
08/12/2005 17:06 Comments ||
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Salva Kiir was sworn in as Sudanâs first vice president yesterday after the death of his predecessor John Garang and pledged to follow his legacy and work for unity despite past calls for independence for the mainly Christian or animist south. âWe really want our country to remain united,â Kiir said at a low-key ceremony in Khartoum where security was tight after several days of deadly rioting that greeted Garangâs death.
Kiir, 54, took office less than two weeks after Garang was killed in a helicopter crash that raised fears for the future of a January peace deal that ended 21 years of war between southern rebels and the government in Khartoum. âI shall protect the sovereignty of the country,â said Kiir, a known separatist who led the military wing of Garangâs Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement Army (SPLM A) âI shall protect the countryâs decentralized system... and preserve unity... as God is my witness,â he said. âI wish to call on all Sudanese to engage in a process of national healing.â
One of his primary challenges will be to form a national unity government with former archfoe President Omar Bashir, a process interrupted by Garangâs death just three weeks after he became vice president under the Jan. 9 accord. Kiir, who replaced Garang as SPLM A head, will also have to help solve disputes surrounding oil-rich areas on the north-south border. He is also to continue talks with several Khartoum-backed southern militia chiefs with a view to rallying them to the peace agreement that ended Africaâs longest-running conflict. âThe Comprehensive Peace Agreement is not a bed of roses, and even a bed of roses has thorns. Letâs join hands to see that full participation in the process is ensured,â he said.
Good luck, Salva. And be careful when you ride helis...
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2005 00:00 ||
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The brother of a militant suspected of links to the murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl has asked a court to ensure his brotherâs safety.
"I'm afraid somebody's gonna bump him off, yer honor! He knows too much!"
A petition calling for the protection of suspect Mohammad Hashim Qadir had been filed with the Sindh High Court. Qadirâs lawyer Rai Bashir Ahmad said two of seven suspects wanted in connection with the kidnapping and murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter had been killed in encounters with security men. âWe fear they might also kill Qadir,â Ahmad told reporters.
"One o' these days, in the dead of night, they're gonna make him lead them to his arms cache in the old abandoned warehouse! You know what happens then!"
Pearl, 38, was kidnapped in Karachi in January 2002 while researching a story on Islamist militants. He was later killed. Ahmad said Qadirâs brother, Mohammad Khalid Imran, had expressed fears that Qadir might be killed as police had no evidence to prosecute him in the Pearl case. Investigators say Qadir had admitted taking instructions from Omar Sheikh and another militant, Amjad Hussain Farooqi, who is also believed to have played a prominent role in Pearlâs murder. Police believe Qadir set up a meeting between Pearl and the militants who kidnapped and killed him. A civil court in Karachi on Tuesday allowed police to hold Qadir until August 13 for investigation of a separate murder case, but police said he would also be charged in the Pearl case.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2005 00:00 ||
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it must be rough, knowing you're just a shutter gun away from the Crossfire(tm).
Posted by: N guard ||
08/12/2005 13:29 Comments ||
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#2
It's not quite that bad -- this is Pakistan. Crossfires are the province of the Bengladeshi Rapid Action Battalion.
FAISALABAD: Law enforcement agencies have arrested two people believed to be aides to Osama Bin Yousaf, an alleged Al Qaeda activist who was arrested several days ago from Sargodha Road, sources told Daily Times on Thursday. The arrested were identified as Rana Mohammad Tariq and Mohammad Azam and were taken to an undisclosed location for interrogation. Sources said intelligence personnel also visited a seminary on Sargodha Road for information on Osama Bin Yousaf. Sources also said Osama Bin Yousaf had been taken to Islamabad where a foreign investigation team would see him.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2005 00:00 ||
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"Yous guys got me confused with Mohammad Mohammad Mohammad" one was overheard to say.
Slowly but surely these guys get rolled up but is it helping things overall?
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.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The controversial Muslim cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed was last night held in a Beirut prison after he was arrested by Lebanon's general security department less than a week after he fled from the UK.
A Taliban commander was shot dead and an American soldier died in a training accident as violence continued ahead of Afghanistan's parliamentary elections scheduled for next month, officials said on Friday. A homemade bomb also exploded on Friday in a busy market in the southern city of Kandahar, wounding four people including a woman and child.
MULTAN: Two bomb blast suspects were arrested after a shootout in Jampur in Rajanpur district on Thursday, but five of their accomplices fled, police said. "We have arrested Allah Bakhsh Khetran and Yasin Sherani of the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and seized two kalashnikovs, and a car from them while their accomplices, Mir Hamdan Khetran, Sadiq Wado, Bilal Barra, Qalandar Chang and Khan Mir escaped during a shootout near Jampur," Jam Saifullah, a senior police official in Jampur, told reporters on Thursday.
Pakistan ruled out sealing its border with Afghanistan has said that only strict vigilance will be maintained at the border to control infiltration of terrorists from the neighbouring country. "No decision has been taken to close our border with Afghanistan next month and we have no intentions," said military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan. Some newspapers quoting unnamed sources claimed that Pakistan was planning to seal the Torkham and Chaman border crossings with Afghanistan from next month. In a chat with Pajhwok Afghan News, Gen Sultan said they were keeping a vigilant eye on terrorists and illegal migrants, but there was no question of closing the border for common Afghans.
The brother of a militant suspected of links to the murder of US reporter 
FAISALABAD: Law enforcement agencies have arrested two people believed to be aides to 
