KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - U.S. and Afghan troops rescued five civilian contractors pinned down by insurgents in central Afghanistan after their helicopter made an emergency landing due to mechanical failure, a statement from the U.S.-led coalition said Friday. The helicopter made a distress call before it landed near the village of Oaleh-e Ghafur in Ghazni province on Thursday evening before troops, including U.S. special forces, came to the rescue, the statement said.
"The civilian contractors began receiving small arms fire from Taliban extremists, shortly after the helicopter landed," the statement said. A coalition aircraft attacked the militants, leaving three of them dead, it said.
The contractors were evacuated to a nearby coalition base, where they were treated for minor injuries, the statement said. The coalition did not identify the company or the nationalities of those rescued.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/13/2007 07:54 ||
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#2
I think the KOS Kids need to be drafted, along with all the idiots at DU, trained as Army grunts, and sent to Afghanistan - for the duration. Add any others that seem to be light-years away from a clue, such as Sean Penn, Rosie O'Dipstick, Nancy Peelooseli, and Edward ("the VIII") Kennedy. I'm sure that will expand their view of the situation quite significantly. I doubt Kennedy or Pelosi could make it through basic, but what the heck - you really don't need basic or AIT to be cannon fodder, now do you?
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/13/2007 15:13 Comments ||
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#3
Now OP why would you want to do that to our good officers and NCOs. If it is one thing we learned from the reforms that finally got into gear in the 80s, its far better to have fewer men [and women] who are motivated for the unit than stick in three or four malcontents who eat up the NCOs' time and effort better spent on training and people who want to be there. The only thing that works for those type of people is exactly what was done to the Crown loyalist who were encouraged to seek homesteads among the more friendlier parts of the Empire after American independence.
The bodies of hundreds of Afghan civilians killed during communist rule have been uncovered in a mass grave in northeastern Afghanistan, officials and witnesses said on Thursday. The grave is in desert just outside the town of Faizabad, provincial capital of Badakhshan province, bordering China, Tajikistan and Pakistan. Bone fragments were found when residents began building new houses in the area recently. So far, we have dug out some 400 bodies, Sibghatullah Khaksari, the head of a local government agency that searches for and exhumes the victims of decades of conflict, told Reuters at the site, adding authorities feared there could be more bodies.
Some of the victims have been identified by relatives. Among the victims discovered so far, were some women, but they were mostly men, including some elderly. Some were handcuffed and shackled. Several dozen were tied up in a chain, some had bullet holes in their skull. Broken spectacles, a few artificial golden teeth, pens and watches were also found among the remains. The victims were among the first killed by officials of the pro-communist government that came to power in 1978, a year before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Almost 2 million Afghans died during the 10-year Soviet occupation and subsequent factional fighting among the Islamic groups that drove the Red Army out.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I'm surprised - on reading the headline I thought it referred to Afghan assistants to "cutting edge" Italian Journalists
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2007 0:27 Comments ||
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The victims were among the first killed by officials of the pro-communist government that came to power in 1978
For all you complaining about Karzai and the current Afghan government, remember - this is one of the alternatives.
(SomaliNet) Heavy gun battle rages in the Somalia capital Mogadishu for the second day between the interim government troops backed by Ethiopian forces and Somali insurgents in breach of the recent ceasefire. The fighting began yesterday around the area between Ramadan and Kaah hotels in north of the capital where the rival sides exchanged heavy weapons killing at least four people and wounding 19 others as the local medical sources said.
The deputy defense minister Salad Ali Jelle speaking to the local media said that three of the government soldier have been wounded in yesterdays fighting. The local terrorists led by Aden Ayrow, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Somalia have attacked government positions but they repelled back and nad humilated them, said Jelle vowing they will crush down the remnants of the ousted Islamists.
There is no immediate casualty on todays gun battle but sources say that there are number of people killed or wounded in artillery shelling fired by the Ethiopian forces stationing in the presidential palace.
The fighting restarted around 6:30am local time this morning between the government forces and insurgents as the sounds of heavy artillery fires. The fighting continues as peace efforts are going on between Hawiye clan elders and the Ethiopian military officials.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2007 00:00 ||
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STOCKHOLM, Sweden - A Swedish teenager who was imprisoned for weeks with alleged terror suspects in Ethiopia said in an interview published Thursday that Americans in military uniform directed the Kenyan soldiers who took her into custody on the Somali-Kenyan border. The statements by 17-year-old Safia Benaouda were the first to describe a broader U.S. role in the detentions. Other detainees have said they were taken into custody by Kenyans and transferred to Ethiopia, a U.S. counterterrorism ally. Benaouda said three men in U.S. uniforms led the Kenyan troops who detained her and other women and children fleeing Somalia on Jan. 18.
"After the American soldiers had detained us they kept in the background, but it was very clear that they were the ones in charge," Benaouda, who was freed from an Ethiopian prison March 27, was quoted as saying by the Stockholm daily Svenska Dagbladet. Benaouda did not answer calls from The Associated Press on Thursday. But her mother, Helena Benaouda, told the AP her daughter believed they were U.S. soldiers because of insignia on their uniforms. "They were American soldiers," said Helena Benaouda, who heads the Swedish Muslim Council.
Ethiopian officials initially denied any suspects were in custody, but the government later confirmed an AP report that dozens of foreigners were detained as part of an effort to stem terrorism. U.S. officials, who agreed to discuss the detentions only if not quoted by name because of the sensitivity of the issue, have said Ethiopia had allowed access to U.S. agencies, including the CIA and FBI, but the agencies played no role in arrests, transport or deportation. Ethiopian and Somali officials acknowledge cooperating.
American, Kenyan and Ethiopian forces have long been allies in a U.S. counterterrorism effort in the region, whose lawlessness security experts fear al-Qaida and other groups could exploit to create a base. The cooperation appears to have been stepped up in the wake of the collapse of an Islamist regime in Somalia, amid fears al-Qaida suspects linked to the group would flee into Kenya.
Benaouda said she had traveled to Somalia with her fiance, Munir Awad, a Swedish citizen of Lebanese descent. The couple was separated when they tried to leave the country after the Ethiopian military intervention in December. Benaouda said she was captured along with a group of women and children as they tried to cross into Kenya. The soldiers shot a woman in the group, she told the paper, but didn't give details. They were brought to Nairobi and then returned to Somalia, blindfolded and handcuffed, before being transferred to a prison in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, she said. There, she said, she saw her fiance for the first time in weeks.
Awad was among eight terror suspects shown on Ethiopia's state-run television Tuesday as the country came under mounting pressure over the detention program. Awad and the others said they were being treated humanely. But Benaouda said she saw her fiance and two other Swedish citizens confined in what looked like "poultry cages with metal roofs" in Ethiopia, and that she was beaten by a prison guard with a stick at one point during her detention. In March, the guards started treating her better and on March 23, she said, she met an official from the Swedish Embassy. Four days later, Benaouda, who is pregnant, was put on a plane home.
It's not entirely made clear in this report how or why a pregnant teenager who happens to be the daughter of the head of the Swedish Muslim Council came to be hanging out on the Somali-Kenya border with her Lebanese fiancee in the middle of a shooting war. I s'pose we're not to ask that question.
The Ethiopian Foreign Affairs Ministry said 29 of the 41 suspects have been ordered released by the Ethiopian government, and that five have been freed. The ministry said only 12 foreign detainees would remain in custody after the next round of releases. Human rights groups say the detentions are illegal; Ethiopia has denied that.
#1
A Swedish teenager who was imprisoned for weeks with alleged terror suspects in Ethiopia said in an interview published Thursday that Americans in military uniform directed the Kenyan soldiers who took her into custody on the Somali-Kenyan border.
So. It's probably the only reason your bones are not buried in the mud after you were raped and disemboweled.
#2
Now how many of us could've swore that the "Swedish teenager" in question was named Inga or Magnus? Anybody?
Besides, she and her mama have to come up with a good story for why she was out traveling with a man she's not officially related and/or married to, and even worse, ended up in a family way. Not exactly good Muslimas, are they?
#3
My thoughts, exactly, Anymouse. Besides, if we were going to have some folks there, ya think they'd have big American flags on their uniforms?
Whadda stupid cow.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/13/2007 6:42 Comments ||
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was quoted as saying by the Stockholm daily Svenska Dagbladet...her mother, Helena Benaouda, told the AP... Helena Benaouda, who heads the Swedish Muslim Council
Looking at the article, it was written at AP headquarters based on dispatches from Nairobi... and reports in some Stockholm daily, who got their information from the head of the Swedish Muslim Council, mother of the Swedish teen, who no doubt was told what to say by an Al Qaeda flack. The US officials should have laughed while pointing this out, then gone on to raise Swamp Blondie's very interesting point. Also why the young woman in question was picked up with a group of fleeing Islamist and Al Qaeda spouses and offspring.
If pushed, a simple, "I'm sorry, I don't know anything about that," would do nicely, as I imagine the US officials were not privy to the details of that particular operation. Having heard over the water cooler that we had people in the area is not the same as knowing about a given operation, surely. Nor is it likely that a pregnant, Sweden-born Muslim teenaged girl is knowledgeable enough about American military uniforms and insignia to be able to differentiate such from other uniforms, paramilitary uniforms or fake uniforms on white men amongst Black Kenyan troops. Was she quite certain the white men weren't actually Kenyan from another service branch? I seem to remember a brouhaha about torture, where the torturee claimed to specifically remember the high shine on the torturers' boots... but American troops wear suede, nowadays. Rantburger's military contingent was quite exercised about that detail at the time.
#11
I knew quite a few guys, both during my Vietnam tour and afterwards, that worked "outside the mainstream". Most wore uniforms purchased outside the US procurement channels, or civilian clothes. Most received identification papers to use, and left their military ID, dogtags, and every other piece of identifiable US military equipment behind. The only time this wouldn't be so is if those particular military personnel were there at the specific request of the local government, and had permission to be there. I think little miss Safia is blowing smoke, but there COULD be some truth in her ramblings. The US military personnel could have pointed out that a particular group of women "didn't look like Somalis, and might be suspicious", at which time the Kenyans gleefully took them into custody. Her and her boyfriend need to be "repatriated" to Soddy Arabida, where they'd both be beheaded for being "bad" muslims.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/13/2007 15:25 Comments ||
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#12
wanna bet that lil bun in the oven grows up to be a Thugburg special?
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2007 15:58 Comments ||
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Moroccan police arrested a fifth member of a cell cornered by police in a Casablanca suburb earlier this week, said a government official and a local resident on Thursday. Both denied earlier reports that a bomb had exploded in Fida, a working-class neighbourhood of Casablanca.
Three suspected suicide bombers blew themselves up on Tuesday following a raid in which a fourth suspect was shot dead, said police sources. "There was no explosion," said the government official. "Police made an arrest. It was a fifth member of the cell who was still hiding in the area."
The cell was part of a bigger group that police have been looking for since March 11, when the suspected leader of a suicide squad detonated his explosives belt in an internet cafe to stop police arresting him, said authorities. Police found the man during a routine search and arrested him after he threatened to blow himself up, state news agency MAP cited police sources as saying. It turned out the man was not carrying any explosives and had apparently entered the house to ask for food, MAP added. "There was no explosion. The police seem to have arrested the last of the terrorists whose house they raided on Tuesday," a local resident said by telephone. "It was about one kilometre from their safe house."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
"It was about one kilometre from their safe house."
So they know where the safe house is, and hopefully they're examining phone records, bills, talking to neighbors... And it is Morocco, so no doubt the mustache wax and truncheons have been liberally applied as appropriate.
Police rolled out in force in Algeria's capital on Thursday, establishing highway checkpoints after suicide attacks claimed by al-Qaeda killed 24 people and injured 222 others. Wednesday's bombings lent credence to fears that al-Qaeda's new wing in North Africa is coalescing into a deadly threat. The reinforced surveillance was reminiscent of the height of Algeria's insurgency in the 1990s. Authorities said the death toll from the car bombings of the prime minister's office and a police station could rise. Western countries reduced embassy services and urged their citizens to avoid travelling on predictable routes.
The group that claimed responsibility, al-Qaeda in Islamic North Africa, was built on the foundations of a decade-old Algerian insurgency group fighting the nation's secular government. The new al-Qaeda wing has carried out a series of recent bombings jeopardising Algeria's tentative peace. The country, a staunch US ally in the war against terror, has been trying to recover from the 15-year insurgency, which killed 200 000 people. Algeria's neighbours have felt an increase in terror activity. Courts in Tunisia, to the east, in recent months convicted at least two dozen suspects on terrorism-related charges - many said to be linked to the Algeria-based network.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
WAFF > MEMRI.org > LIBYA'S QADDAFI DECLARES SECOND SHIA FATIMID STATE IN NORTH AFRICA. All of Nord Affrique, not just Libya or parts of region. Declares North Africa is Arab + Shia - impetus/focii of Shia universe has shifted to North Africa from Iran. Steretypes and precepts of Western "colomialism" + imperialism to be challenged, correctly or properly revised, or resisted in new Shia Fatimid State.
#2
Thanks, Joe. We haven't kicked Kaddafy Duck in a while. Maybe it's time to have a couple of low-level, high-speed fly-bys over his tent - 50 feet up, mach 1.8, in pairs. Just as a reminder, mind you - no bombs THIS trip.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/13/2007 15:28 Comments ||
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KANO, Nigeria (AP) - Unidentified gunmen killed a top Nigerian Muslim hard-liner as he led morning prayers Friday, police said.
Ah. Gosh. Darn.
Mahmud Adam, the Saudi-trained leader of Nigerian followers of the ascetic Wahabbi strain of Islam, was killed along with his second-in-command in the northern city of Kano, said police spokesman Baba Mohamed.
Double darn
It was unclear if the killings were related to elections that begin Saturday with voting for state legislators and governors, followed a week later with the presidential and federal parliament polls. Adam's sect had been squabbling with a rival Muslim group in recent weeks.
The assassination of a top Muslim leader inside a house of worship on Islam's holiest day of the week is without precedent in predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria.
Normally they get wacked in the parking lot
About half of Nigeria's 140 million people are Muslim, with the others practicing Christianity or animist beliefs.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/13/2007 07:44 ||
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Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/13/2007 15:29 Comments ||
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The assassination of a top Muslim leader inside a house of worship on Islam's holiest day of the week is without precedent in predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria.
That precedent needs to change, preferrably all around the entire world. Thailand springs to mind as the next stop on this global tour.
Yemen will launch a campaign to collect heavy and medium weapons from local markets through a buy-back programme in a bid to neutralize Shiite rebels battling army troops in the north of the country, a press report said on Thursday. The plan was approved by the National Defence Council at a session presided over by President Ali Abdullah Saleh earlier this week, the defence ministry's weekly newspaper, 26 September, said. Under the plan, an ad hoc committee would first conduct a survey to locate arms markets where the weapons were being sold. The weapons would then be purchased using state funding, the paper said.
The move stems from ongoing fighting between government forces and Shiite rebels in the northern province of Saada, in which rebels reportedly use heavy weapons. Authorities have accused the rebels, lead by local Shiite leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, of trying to topple the republican regime and establish an Islamic state, saying that 'foreign parties' have been supporting them. Local media recently quoted government officials accusing Iran and Libya of financing the rebels. Both states have denied this, however.
Officials have said the rebel weaponry originated from the biggest arms market, Souq al-Talh, located only 30 kilometres from the provincial city of Saada, 240 kilometres from the capital Sana'a. It is estimated that 12 arms markets and about 300 light weapon shops are spread across the impoverished Arab country situated on the south-western tip of the Arabian peninsula.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2007 00:00 ||
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I wonder what "medium" and "heavy" are? To our MSM, a single-shot rifle is an "assault weapon," so you can't trust them on anything.
Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) is on top of the law enforcers' list of suspected killers of Jhalakathi district court Public Prosecutor Hyder Hossain although investigators did not find any clue to the murder as of last evening. Meanwhile, the joint forces yesterday recovered a powerful live bomb--identical to the one used for killing the two Jhalakathi judges on November 14, 2005--around half a kilometre off the scene of Hyder's murder. "Hyder Hossain's conducting of the Jhalakathi judges killing case against the militant kingpins might have triggered the murder," said Lt Col Shamim in the district. "Possibility of any third party's involvement has also been taken into consideration and the investigation is being conducted carefully," he added.
Unknown assailants on Wednesday night shot dead Hyder who was the chief counsel of the case filed against JMB militants for killing two Jhalakathi judges.
Found in an abandoned bag, the bomb weighing 500 grams contained power gel, detonator, cycle and plastic balls. A knife, three cell phone chargers, a nail cutter and a razor were also found in the bag. The joint force members held one Manoranjan, 45, and his son Sukhranjan, 18, from the spot for interrogation. A team of explosives experts led by Rab-8 DAD Abul Hasan defused the bomb at 9:00am yesterday.
The police said the killers might have brought the bomb to clear their way out but left it in the face of the joint forces' extensive search operation following Hyder Hossain's killing. The police also recovered from the spot a cartridge believed to be of the bullet shot at Hyder's forehead.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I was looking for it and there in paragraph 3, the RAB makes an appearance; although now in a new role: that of EOD. And working late into their shift (9AM being normally RAB nighty night time for the next night's festivities)
No word however, on the fate of our friend Manoranjan and son following the (presumably RAB-led) interrogation......
The Federal Review Board (FRB) on Thursday sent three UK-born Pakistanis Rangzeb, Rashid Rauf and Khalid to Adiala prison for two months each. They are charged with alleged involvement in a plot to blow up transatlantic airliners. Rauf protested against the board decision, saying that he was sent to jail despite an anti-terrorism court having already acquitted him. The board directed the Interior Ministry to arrange a meeting of Rauf with his family within 15 days. The FRB also ordered his medical check up every fortnight.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
A two month sentence for plotting to blow up passenger airplanes over the Atlantic? Our cousins need more prisons, I think.
#2
Actually, TW, what they REALLY need is a large supply of rope and some spine-stiffener - especially the latter. Good rope can be reused quite a number of times. Without a spine, the British judicial system becomes a herd of jellyfish.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/13/2007 15:45 Comments ||
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I think the report is referring to the Pakistani judicial system.
242 jihadists, 31 attacks, 28 networks. After examining militant Islamism in Europe, researchers have found that self-recruitment is on the rise among terrorist leader Osama bin Laden's Eurofighters, and that there is no such thing as a standard terrorist.
Dutch researchers Edwin Bakker and Teije Hidde Donker had an ambitious goal in mind when they wrote: "We must find out who the jihadists are, where they come from and what they look like." Although they were not able to answer that question in its entirety, their study, "Jihadi Terrorists in Europe," does offer plenty of fascinating results.
They researched the stories of 242 people who, between 2001 and 2006, were organized in 28 networks, planned 31 attacks and, in some cases, executed or allegedly executed these attacks. (Some are still considered presumed terrorists because their cases are still pending.) The list includes little known plots, such as the attempt to attack the Spanish Supreme Court in 2004, as well as prominent terrorist attacks, including the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh in 2004 and the 2005 London bus and subway bombings.
One of the most important findings of the Dutch study is that there are no standard jihadists. According to the researchers, the 28 networks they identified differ considerably from one another. In some cases, authorities were dealing with individual attackers, whereas more than 30 people were involved in the 2004 bombings of trains in Madrid. The data also cover a wide range when it comes to the attackers' ages. The youngest was 16 and the oldest 59, which makes the average age of 27.3 years not especially meaningful.
Internally, however, the cells are surprisingly homogeneous. Pakistanis generally get together with Pakistanis, Moroccans with Moroccans and -- as in the case of -- Lebanese with Lebanese. Most jihadists are men. Only five women appear in the study.
There are also few differences when it comes to goals and methods. Transportation systems were by far the most common targets, and in many cases explosives were the weapons of choice. The choice of specific targets was consistently perfidious: the plans were directed exclusively against civilian facilities or civilians themselves. Of the 242 jihadists, 11 were suicide bombers -- and they were the ones who committed the most devastating attacks.
Great Britain and the Netherlands have proven to be at the greatest risk during the period studied, with 12 of the networks operating in Great Britain, seven in the Netherlands, four in France and three each in Spain and Belgium.
By far the most interesting aspect of Bakker's and Hidde Donker's study is their analysis of the origins and radicalization of the attackers and presumed terrorists. A total of 29 nationalities are represented, but there are clear clusters. The 55 Algerians in the study make up almost one-fourth of the entire sample. Together with other North Africans, they account for more than half of those studied. They were most likely to be active in those countries where many of their countrymen had settled: France, Spain and Belgium.
The second largest group consisted of 24 attackers of Pakistani ethnic origin whose attacks were planned primarily for Great Britain.
The Dutch data are even more meaningful when compared with a study by US researcher Marc Sagemann, who presented a similar analysis of international terrorists with ties to al-Qaida in 2004. The Dutch researchers also provided such a comparison, and it clearly points out that the European jihadists are already part of a different generation than those in Sagemann's sample.
His jihadists were mainly Arabs, especially Saudis and Egyptians, who went abroad. Seventy percent of them became radicalized outside the country in which they had previously lived. The situation is reversed among al-Qaida's Eurofighters: More than 80 percent of them found their way to armed jihad in the country in which they lived. These numbers indicate that the impact of Afghan training camps on radicalization has since been largely offset.
Bakker and Hidde Donker summarize the issue of radicalization as follows: Their group of jihadists differs "fundamentally from the global mujaheddin." This conclusion is also supported in other ways-- by the realization, for example, that the jihadists who became active in Europe "radicalized with little outside interference, ...often together with friends and family members."
What this boils down to is that these Euro-terrorists are recruiting themselves. The Internet plays an important role in this process. Many of the jihadists featured in the study obtained al-Qaida propaganda via the Internet, especially in the last few months leading up to their attacks. This reinforces a fear security officials have long had: The radicalization phase is becoming shorter and shorter.
Another difference between the Dutch study and Sagemann's results is also disconcerting: 58 jihadists were noticed by the police before their planned attacks -- almost one-fourth of the sample and far more than in Sagemann's study. Small-time criminals are apparently finding their way into al-Qaida in Europe more often today than in the past. A higher proportion of converts than in the Sagemann study (a total of 14, including 13 former Christians and one former Hindu) also confirms that there are more detours on the road to jihadism than there were in the past.
Despite all the interesting details, a profile cannot be derived from the data. The types of attackers are too diverse. Perhaps the most useful fact for the purpose of profiling is that so many terrorism suspects were minor criminals in the past.
The authors of the study believe that they have confirmed that "homegrown terrorism" is the new megatrend among Europe's jihadists. However, the debate among terrorism experts is currently moving away from this term again, now that investigations of the July 2005 London bombings revealed connections to Pakistan and possibly the central leadership of al-Qaida. These ties contradict the conclusion that the attackers acted entirely on their own.
But the real value of the study is likely to lie elsewhere: in the simple analysis of what has already happened. For example, the light the study sheds on the trends among active terrorists in selecting targets in Europe is helpful in prevention, as is the empirically backed conclusion that there is a correlation between propaganda on the Internet and rapid radicalization.
Most of all, what the study shows is that most attackers who commit acts of terror in Europe first developed into jihadists within European societies, and in most cases completely without any prior battlefield experience and without having attended terrorist training camps.
The "new generation" of jihadists in Europe is not the writing on the wall, but reality.
#1
So the profile is those males who seek out Islamofacist websites, their families and friends? Hack the sites, tag the visitors, and trace them down. (She says as if it were as easy as all that -- especially in Urdu and Arabic. But wouldn't the West Point students have fun figuring out how!)
#2
TW, it all comes down to bits. We certainly have the technology to monitor and track those sites and their visitors, and the only question is whether there is the will to do so.
Norwegian-Somalian Kadra, who became famous in Norway for exposing imam support of female circumcision, was beaten unconscious on Thursday. Kadra was attacked and beaten senseless by seven or eight persons of Somali origin, newspaper VG reports.
"I was terrified. While I lay on the pavement they kicked me and screamed that I had trampled on the Koran. Several shouted Allah-o-akbar (God is great) and also recited from the Koran," Kadra told VG. Kadra linked the attack to recent remarks in VG where she said that the Koran's views on women needed to be reinterpreted.
Kadra said that the gang of Somali men attacked her around 3 a.m. in downtown Oslo on Thursday. A medical examination found that she had several broken ribs, NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting) reports. Kadra filed charges and was due to speak with police on Friday.
The Islamic Council Norway (IRN) condemned the attack on Kadra and urged that she pursue the matter with police. "Behavior where one goes to physical attack on someone you disagree with violates Islamic teaching and the prophet Muhammad's sunnah (lifestyle). We strongly object to such behavior," the IRN said in a press release.
Kadra's role in a 2000 hidden camera TV documentary revealing the positive attitude of Muslim leaders to female circumcision had a massive impact on Norway, and sparked new legislation.
#4
"We strongly object to such behavior," the Islamic Council Norway said in a press release."
Wel,l woop-dee-doop. I'm SO impressed.
How about "We strongly object to such behavior," the Islamic Council Norway said in a press release, "and will do whatever is in our power to bring these criminals in. We stand by Kadra and we stand against the mutilation of female genitals. There is no excuse for such an immoral and abusive practice and it certainly has no place in our religion. Every such act should be punished to the full extent of the law. Even now we are taking up a collection to help with Kadra's medical needs and are preparing a statement which makes our views against violence toward women more clear. Islam is a tolerant religion, but intolerance of women's sexuality, women's education, and women's freedom is something we abhor and will NOT tolerate."
crickets chirping . . . wait--even the crickets have fallen asleep.
they also didn't put up reward money to catch the perps, Or ask the local muslim community to step forward with info about the perps, Or offer to protect her in the future, Or pay for her hospital bills and income lost recovering from the beating.
etc.
#6
Seems like Somalis are not integrating well into Nordic societies, either in Sweden or in Minnesota. Not one more Somali should be let into the US. If Sweden or Norway have any smarts, they should do the same thing.
#7
Two things that makes this article interesting are that:
1) The perps are identified by ethnicity. Scandinavian (and non-British European media in general) are loathe to identify criminals by race/creed/color/national origin. Aftenposten and VG did so within 24 hours. Incredible.
2) Not only were the thugs identified as Somalis, the media reported their Islamist epithets. I've not seen that before in any article.
Next thing you know, the Norsky government will release to the public the country's entire statistical crime database coverning the years 2000 through 2005.
#8
Moderate Muslims(TM) - They are there when you need them. Like the UN, issuing strongly worded statements, meeting to discuss the possible creation of a position paper, working for a dhimmer tomorrow.
#9
Things in Norway will continue going to hell until someone steps up to the plate and carves their initials into mullah Krekar's forehead. Norwegian politicians are drowning in Multicultural Kool-Aid. Patriotic Norwegians are going to have to begin putting a major hurt on their Muslim colonizers. They are being sold down the river for exactly no good reason. This is the most stunning thing of all. These Muslim immigrants bring absolutely NOTHING to the table save relieving some guilt for Norsk apologists and, instead, are the very worst social parasites.
#10
Behavior where one goes to physical attack on someone you disagree with violates Islamic teaching and the prophet Muhammad's sunnah (lifestyle). We strongly object to such behavior.
Madrid, 13 April (AKI) - Spanish authorities are hunting for two Moroccans, both alleged al-Qaeda members believed to have attended an al-Qaeda training camp in Mali and to have recently fled from Morocco to Spain, daily ABC reported on Friday. Police believed the two militants know how to make an explosives belt and that at least one of them is hiding in the southern Andalusia region, the paper said. One entered Spain via a people trafficking network operating in northern Morocco, where security has been steppped up in the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla - both with significant Muslim populations - said ABC.
Spain's interior minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba on Thursday decided to boost security in the provinces where the highest number of ililegal immigrants arrive from North Africa and where the authorities fear Islamist extremists could infiltrate - Cadiz, Malaga, Almeria and Alicante - as well as in Ceuta and Melilla.
Despite this week's bombings in Algeria and in Morocco, Spain's authorities have decided not to raise the alert level from 'moderate' currently to 'high'. Twin bombings in the Algerian capital on Wednesday that killed 33 and injured over 200 came a day after a police raid in the Moroccan city of Casablanca in which three suspected Islamist militants blew themselves up after a police raid in which a fourth was shot dead.
The Moroccan authorities on Thursday announced they had arrested two suspects at least one which is believed to belong to an alleged Islamist terror cell cornered by police in Tuesday's raid on the al-Fida district of Casablanca. Morocco's interior minister Chakib Benmoussa said late on Wednesday he suspected three to four members of the suspected Casablanca cell might still be on the run. A team of police and civil guard officers has gone to Morocco to assist their counterparts' investigation of an alleged plot to carry out suicide attacks in the country, ABC reported on Thursday.
The al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb claimed the Algiers attacks in a message sent to Arabic satellite TV network Al Jazeera. Morocco's interior minister Chakib Benmoussa has stated there was no link between Tuesday's raid in Casablanca and Wednesday's attacks in Algiers. Nontheless, the bombings are stoking fears of a widening conflict that could spread from North Africa to Europe, analysts say.
Spain raised its alert level to moderate in February when the trial of 29 people for the deadly 11 March 2004 train bombings opened in Madrid. Many of the defendants are of Moroccan and most of North African origins. The Madrid attacks - the deadliest in Western Europe since the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland - killed 191 people and injured over 1,000.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/13/2007 07:37 ||
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Thanks for sharing, Zbiggy.
NEW YORK, April 13 The man who served as national security adviser under President Jimmy Carter says he has a two-point plan for ending United States involvement in Iraq. 1. Run
2. Hide
Zbigniew Brzezinski has told the Christian Science Monitor he believes whoever succeeds President Bush should sit down with Iraqi leaders and come up with a jointly defined date for departure. ..and then let Congress know so they can broadcast in on the CBS Evening News the same day.
As the next step, Brzezinski says he would set in motion a process of "really consulting" all of Iraq's neighbors about arrangements for security in the country after United States military forces depart. ...and you can trust them. They're not like the others.
Brzezinski has just published a book called "Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower." In it, the former Carter administration official, grades the three most recent presidents on their foreign policy performance. Makes a great Christmas gift for the suicidal...
He gives the first President Bush a "B," President Clinton is given a "C," and the current President Bush is awarded an "F." Convienietly ignore your ex boss, Zbiggy? Cause there ain't a grade low enough...
#1
That guy has always been an arrogant internationalist. He believes the very worst arguments from the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderberg Group, and any other assortment of billionaires who think that having money confers on them intellectual brilliance and the elite status to rule over others as unelected hereditary lords.
Whereas the sad reality is that most of them are the intellectual peers of Paris Hilton and are dependent on others to even maintain their basic hygiene.
They tend to cluster together to scheme, because no one else seriously considers such people as anything other than "rich and useless".
#2
Wasn't it Brzezinski's idea to abandon the Shah and allow the Ayatollahs to take over in the first place? Isn't that the same strategy he offered to Carter for Nicaragua as well? Isn't he the guy that argued we do NOTHING in response to the Russian invasion of Afghanistan? The last person on Earth I am going to listen to in defense matters is anyone from the Carter Administration.
That administration is the REASON all of this is going on. If we had not abandoned the Shah and instead pushed for a more gradual democratization, there would have been no Iran/Iraq war, no Russian invasion of Afghanistan, no al Qaeda, no Hezbollah in Lebanon ... we can pretty much lay all of our problems and the problem if Islamist militancy right in the lap of Jimmy Carter and his little buddy Zbiggy.
Why is this guy even in the news? Who cares what he thinks?
#3
Two weeks after the landing at Normandy this asshole would have had us leaving France after "really consulting" Germany & Italy about the security of the country.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/13/2007 17:06 Comments ||
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#8
Well, Earthnews took it from the Christian Science Monitor so I wouldn't exactly say the guy's "in the news". Kinda like saying Ramsey Clark's "in the law"...
#9
Interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski
Le Nouvel Observateur, Paris, 15-21 January 1998
Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic fundamentalism, having given arms and advice to future terrorists?
B: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?
Q: Some stirred-up Moslems? But it has been said and repeated Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today.
B: Nonsense! It is said that the West had a global policy in regard to Islam. That is stupid. There isn't a global Islam. Look at Islam in a rational manner and without demagoguery or emotion. It is the leading religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what is there in common among Saudi Arabian fundamentalism, moderate Morocco, Pakistan militarism, Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian secularism? Nothing more than what unites the Christian countries.
Posted by: John Frum ||
04/13/2007 17:32 Comments ||
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#10
An idiot. And a member of the Carter administration.
#11
An excellant example of someone who is totaly irrelevant but wishes he was. Bugwit.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/13/2007 18:29 Comments ||
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#12
John Frum quoting Zibg: " [sic Islam]....It is the leading religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what is there in common among Saudi Arabian fundamentalism, moderate Morocco, Pakistan militarism, Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian secularism? Nothing more than what unites the Christian countries. "
curious side bar,
How is it that Libs use the 'Lib Constant' that Islam makes up the largest religion @ 1.5 billion [World Wide], when I read from several sources that Catholics alone have over 1 billion adherents.
Are Libs entitled to their own facts as well as their own opinions?
#13
But he speaks with such gravitas, and has such a nice accent, he must be right.
Posted by: john ||
04/13/2007 19:41 Comments ||
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#14
he was cute, when the Soviets used his head as an ashtray....
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2007 19:50 Comments ||
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#15
in spite of the real facts, since forever I've heard/read the same "Islam is the chiefest factoid" from the nomenklatura at my father's University and the force fed poly si tracts during my edumacation..
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2007 20:31 Comments ||
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#18
What is it with all these washed up has-been democrat weasles suddenly thinking their worthless policies have taken on new luster? No matter how hard you try, you just can't shine a turd.
#19
I suppose it is all sour grapes since the American people presented him with our departure plan for him and his pals back in 1980.
Jimmy Carter carried exactly 4 states. In that election to Ronald Reagan's 46 states. I think that was a pretty clear "departure plan" and the only one Zbiggy needs to concern himself with.
FLORENCE, Colo. (AP) -- John Walker Lindh, serving a 20-year sentence after fighting for the Taliban in Afghanistan, has been transferred to Supermax, the federal government's most secure prison, authorities said Thursday.
Bye bye
Lindh was moved to the facility about 90 miles south of Denver in February for security reasons, said Isidro Garcia, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Prisons. Garcia said he had no other information.
"I can say no more"
Lindh's transfer was first reported on Newsweek.com. He had been held at a medium-security federal penitentiary in Victorville, Calif.
Lindh was captured in November 2001 by American forces sent to topple the Taliban after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He was charged with conspiring to kill Americans and support terrorists but pleaded guilty to lesser charges, including carrying explosives for the Taliban government. Lindh has served 4 1/2 years. His attorneys have applied to President Bush to commute his sentence after Australian David Hicks was sentenced to less than a year in prison last month for aiding terrorism.
I guess this means the answer is "No".
Supermax houses some of the nation's most notorious inmates, including Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski, Oklahoma City bombing coconspirator Terry Nichols and Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/13/2007 08:02 ||
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#6
If I was that dumbass, I'd be happy just to be alive. I'd be thanking God America's slipping into nambypamby moral vacuum feelgoodism kept me from dancing at the end of a rope.
He's a douchebag, and that goes for his grubby hippy parents as well.
#10
Mr. Lindh didn't strike me as terribly strong, mentally. Even if released in a few years, what odds he won't then be very useful to anyone for anything?
#11
I will bet that Jihad Johnny loved to regal the other prisoners of his exploits but found out a little late that even among prisoners there are still patriots. And given that these guys are in medium security they wouldn't kill him just make his life (and probably butt) miserable.
#12
Hey! Gromky just gave me an idear.....make the two Johnny boys roomies! (Ok. It's probably illegal to do that under some bullshit "international law statute", but admit it....it would make a lot of people happy here on the 'Burg.)
#13
Maybe he was moved to the new facility because he complained of being made raw as a consequence of the Pasthun Two Step practiced at the old facility.
LOL.
Hey Johnny: the Aussie Taliban will be out in a matter of months. Bet you wish your family had had the foresight to retain him to represent you, don't you?
Posted by: Mark Z ||
04/13/2007 11:58 Comments ||
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#14
Being solitary, his soap-dropping days are probably limited, if not over. gee, that's too bad. if Supermax is as bad as alleged, he should go stark raving nuts in a short time.
#17
Yeah, Zacky's there. Among Johnny Boy's other new neighbors...
Already there is a veritable "bombers' row" Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center blast; Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski; Terry L. Nichols, an accomplice in the Oklahoma City bombing; Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber who Moussaoui testified was to join him in another Al Qaeda hijacking; and Eric Rudolph, who bombed abortion clinics and the Atlanta Olympics.
What he's got to look forward to...
Prison expert James E. Aiken looked straight at jurors and told them what Zacarias Moussaoui could expect if they sent him away for the rest of his life. "I have seen them rot," he said. "They rot."
In his trial testimony, Aiken said the whole point of Supermax was not just punishment, but "incapacitation." There is no pretense that the prison is preparing the inmate for a return to society. Like the cellmate of the count of Monte Cristo who died an old, tired convict, Aiken said, "Moussaoui will deteriorate."
The inmate "is constantly monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week," he said. "He will never get lost in a crowd because he would never be in a crowd."
Christopher Boyce, a convicted spy who was incarcerated at Supermax, left the prison about 100 miles south of Denver with no regret. "You're slowly hung," he once told The Times. "You're ground down. You can barely keep your sanity."
Bernard Kleinman, a New York lawyer who represented Yousef, called it "extraordinarily draconian punishment." Moussaoui might be a household name today, "but 20 years from now, people will forget him," Kleinman said. "He will sit there all alone, and all forgotten."
#18
Woody Harrelson's father was there too, but he died of a heart attack last month.
Yes, and by his own accounting in letters to friends and family, he treasured the silence and isolation. In fact, it seems he thrived. Just sayin'!
Posted by: Natural Law ||
04/13/2007 15:32 Comments ||
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#19
three two hots and a cot for the Taliban life.
IIRC, the furniture is either concrete (bed, seat, toilet) or flat polished steel (mirror on wall). There's absolutely nuthin fun. He deserves it. TaliBitch
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2007 15:56 Comments ||
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#20
"Warmed the cockles of even my cold heart..."
That brought tears to my eyes too, tu3031; thanks for sharing that.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/13/2007 16:06 Comments ||
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#21
They exist alone in soundproof cells as small as 7 feet by 12 feet, with a concrete-poured desk, bed and stool, a small shower and sink, and a TV that offers religious and anger-management programs. They are locked down 23 hours a day.
Larry Homenick, a former U.S. marshal who has taken prisoners to Supermax, said that there was a small triangular recreation area, known as "the dog run," where solitary Supermax prisoners could occasionally get a glimpse of sky. He said it was chilling to walk down the cellblocks and glance through the plexiglass "sally port" chambers into the cells and see the faces inside.
Life there is harsh. Food is delivered through a slit in the cell door. Prisoners don't leave their cells to see a lawyer, a doctor or a prison official; those visitors must go to the cell.
#22
Supermax is about five miles south of Florence, CO. I drive by there two or three times a year, on my way to one of my favorite fishing spots. The only windows to the outside are tiny things. Florence is NOT the vacation capital of Colorado, by any means. Johnny boy is really gonna like the summers those two times he'll be able to experience it each year - they'll remind him of Afghanistan.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/13/2007 16:24 Comments ||
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#23
Yes, and by his own accounting in letters to friends and family, he treasured the silence and isolation. In fact, it seems he thrived. Just sayin'!
Maybe he was lying through his teeth in order to make everyone think that he wasn't wasting away in prison? Criminals do have this habit of lying, you know. Us monkeys are curious, inquisitive creatures. We don't like being locked up in a small box with nothing to explore and nowhere to go.
#24
Yes, and by his own accounting in letters to friends and family, he treasured the silence and isolation. In fact, it seems he thrived. Just sayin'!
Good. I'm for sending them all there. So they can "thrive"...
#26
Maybe he was lying through his teeth in order to make everyone think that he wasn't wasting away in prison? Criminals do have this habit of lying, you know. Us monkeys are curious, inquisitive creatures. We don't like being locked up in a small box with nothing to explore and nowhere to go.
Maybe he was lying, but I do not get that impression. Sure, some inmates are going to wither and rot, but some might actually prefer the environment in a Supermax over a regular prison.
Don't take my word though, you can READ about it here. Also, follow RD's link in comment #5 for lots of interesting links.
Posted by: Natural Law ||
04/13/2007 19:41 Comments ||
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#27
Even if released in a few years, what odds he won't then be very useful to anyone for anything?
#28
Why not just put prisoners like that into an artificial coma with an IV drip and keep them in temperature controlled bins for the rest of their life? If they aren't awake, they aren't a security risk. If someone has no possibility of parole, what's the point of exercise? Just keep them under until they die from natural causes.
Might be a sick thought, but it is no sicker than boxing someone up for maybe 50 years. Best thing is, should something go wrong and they wake up for some reason, they probably won't be able to walk.
#29
Why not just put prisoners like that into an artificial coma with an IV drip and keep them in temperature controlled bins for the rest of their life?
hmmm.....Ima thinkrn of a script, I think I'll call it The Hive, no, wait... The Matrix...yeah... that's the ticket!
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2007 22:11 Comments ||
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#30
I know ... but I meant seriously. If someone is never ever going to be released for any reason, what purpose does keeping them conscious serve? If it is to "punish" then I would submit that in this case "punishment" is more for some mollification of the punisher than to teach any lesson to the punished. A point of punishment is to modify behavior. If a person is never going to be given another chance, then punishment has no point and at that point is only administered to make the community meeting out the punishment feel better. So basically it is torturing someone out of vengeance, it is no longer punishment.
It is more humane to execute the condemned at that point than to give a sentence of "life without possibility of parole" if you keep them awake through the entire process of execution though feeding them to death.
#31
I would also suggest that life without possibility of parole is not a deterrent to crime either because if a person is alive, there is always hope. They can hope that some time in the next 50 years attitudes change or the jihadis win or something and they might eventually be released.
I would also put forth that life without parole IS execution, albeit very slow. It is "cruel and unusual". It is less humane than the death penalty. Life without parole is also potentially reversible. Death isn't. If there is NO WAY someone is ever going to be released, then there is no point to keeping them alive.
#32
One final point before I head out for the weekend ... keeping these terrorists alive in prison might eventually cause more terrorism where some group might want to have them freed through taking of hostages or engaging in terrorist actions. If they are never to be released, executing them prevents anyone from ever trying to free them though future terrorist actions, either real or threatened.
#33
Supermax is not something that would encourage Jihadi, in fact, they die slowly, and in noticeable stages. I would be all for taking Johnny out and stoning him to death today, but I fear in advocating that, I might lose my cable TV simulcast show and radio forum...whoops, mixed threads...kinda
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2007 23:02 Comments ||
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#34
If someone is never ever going to be released for any reason, what purpose does keeping them conscious serve?
In most cases, that's why we have the death penalty. As to why we keep people alive, just ask someone who's been released after spending decades in prison on false or trumped-up charges just how glad they are to be alive.
#35
*ahem* with current DNA technology, more innocent prisoners are freed, and at a faster pace than at any time in human history. I would like to see those proven guilty executed at a similar pace. Is that so wrong? Didn't think so
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2007 23:09 Comments ||
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#36
crosspatch, there's more than just punishment going on.
There's also the deterrent angle, as in, "No houris for you, no glory to your family for producing a martyr, you don't even get a comfy cell in a nice climate. Your visitors, if you are allowed any, will slowly diminish over time. You don't get to talk to the outside world, you gradually are forgotten about, and it won't be over any time soon."
Now, to your average sexually frustrated jihadi wannabe, this definitely does not sound like Paradise. We can argue for hours if it works in a deterrent sense. Maybe it does, maybe not. But it sure isn't quite what the local imam promised would be their reward for striking out at the Great Satan.....
Clashes between militants and villagers in the Dhoda-Shah Hasankhel area called the San Fransisco of the NWFP on Thursday morning left two people injured. About a dozen people were taken hostage by the militants.
Sources said a group of Taliban militants had beaten up some transvestite dancers, shaved their heads and broken their musical instruments near Abdulkhel as they were going to the Dhoda village to perform at a wedding on Wednesday night. Villagers at first thought it was a performance by The Who
Villagers decided to take revenge by raising a Lashkar against the Taliban, the sources said. Cue the drums!
Light and heavy weapons were used and the Taliban also fired rockets during the clash which lasted for several hours.
The Taliban took 12 villagers hostage. Five of them were later freed while the others were in the custody of the Taliban till late evening, according to the administrator of a seminary, Hafiz Amanullah Khan. A heavy contingent of police and Frontier Constabulary personnel reached the area. A ceasefire was brokered by some local ulema who held talks with village elders and the Taliban. No Joooooooooos around, so I suppose the Ceasefire can last forever.
The sources said the situation was tense and additional contingents of the FC had been summoned.
#1
first they came for the drag queens
and I didn't speak up, because I rarely dressed up, and only when I felt "pretty"...
then they came for the engineers wearing hawaiian shirts, jeans and boots
and I learned to dress up..
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2007 19:40 Comments ||
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#2
but in a manly way....
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2007 19:42 Comments ||
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#3
The Taliban just can't resist offending their hosts.
MIRANSHAH: One person was killed and three others including a girl were injured when unidentifed militants fired nine mortar shells at an area 50 kilometres west of Miranshah on Thursday. Bala Khan died while Ali Marjan, Zafar Khan and Marjans daughter were injured when two mortars hit their house in Dadam village.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2007 00:00 ||
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Peshawar Judicial Magistrate Ashraf Ali set fire to nearly 3,000 pornographic CDs confiscated the police, at the Judicial Complex on Thursday. Court officials said that Faqirabad police had seized the CDs in a crack down on CD shops in Faqirabad three days ago. Police sources told Daily Times that they had started conducting raids on CD shops after receiving directives from the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA)-led NWFP government in this regard. Maulana Yusuf Qureshi, prayer leader at Masjid Mahabat Khan and president of the Muttahida Shariat Mahaz, warned the provincial government last Friday to crack down on vulgar activities and brothels in the city, otherwise the Mahaz would start a jihad towards this end.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Yup, that's every single last one of them. We can be sure of that. You betcha!
CD shop owners in the provincial metropolis have been asked to close their businesses. Three boys claiming to be Lal Masjid representatives came to the Nishtarabad CDs market and asked us to shut our businesses as it was forbidden in Islam, Nishtarabad Video Centres Union President Sher Dil told Daily Times. Sher Dil said the boys told him, Maulana Abdul Aziz says all obscene material is coming from Nishtarabad as well as Karkhano Market on Jamrud Road.
We told them that if they want us to give up this business, then they should provide us with another source of income, Sher Dil said, We also asked them to give us Rs 1 million in exchange for wasting Rs 2 million worth of CDs.
He said the boys demanded a commitment in written towards this end. On Wednesday morning, Maulana Abdul Aziz, over the phone, invited us to meet him, he added. He said the union later met city police chief Abdul Majeed Marwat, who assured them of police support. Marwat told Daily Times security had been tightened around the market. The Nishtarabad video market is the biggest in Peshawar and around 1,200 people are engaged in the business. We dont produce any kind of obscene material here, Sher Dil said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
We dont produce any kind of obscene material here
#2
We told them that if they want us to give up this business, then they should provide us with another source of income, Sher Dil said, We also asked them to give us Rs 1 million in exchange for wasting Rs 2 million worth of CDs.
Coming up next: Nishtarabad Video Centre burns to ground in mysterious blaze...
#4
JFM: but they won't, so until they figger it out, we should just sit back and wait. let the moonbats do the tv ads for the poor oppressed wretches....
Taliban extremists shaved the heads and moustaches of a troupe of singers, then clashed with a marriage party and took six hostages, officials and witnesses said on Thursday, AFP reported. The Islamists intercepted the musicians overnight in the Doda area of Shah Hasan Khel, 20 kilometres from Lakki Marwat, where the group was due to perform at three weddings, local police said. After beating the troupe and smashing up their instruments, the militants then shaved the performers heads and moustaches, a witness said. Early on Thursday the angry hosts of one wedding went after the Taliban and a clash erupted in which two local residents were wounded, police said. The militants then took some six people hostage. Online reported that the Taliban tortured a UC nazim Abdul Khalil Ishaq and also shaved his moustache. Ishaq later convened a jirga in Darkhaiz and Jang Khel, which decided to form a lashkar (tribal force). Online said that the lashkar attacked the Taliban in Shah Hassan Khel and clashes were continuing in the area. The local administration has summoned the Frontier Constabulary and police to control the situation.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
That figures. The Taliban shows up at a wedding and, for once, nobody's got any firepower?
#3
AFP missed the rest of the story, as related by (a href=http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2007/04/pakistani-villagers-attack-taliban.html>Gateway Pundit (Hattip Instapundit):
Villagers decided to take revenge by raising a Lashkar against the Taliban, the sources said.
Light and heavy weapons were used and the Taliban also fired rockets during the clash which lasted for several hours.
The Taliban took 12 villagers hostage. Five of them were later freed while the others were in the custody of the Taliban till late evening, according to the administrator of a seminary, Hafiz Amanullah Khan.
And a good time was had by all. No doubt the Taliban will decide to take their judgemental attitude elsewhere next time.
The latest travel advisory by the US State Department, issued on April 12 and valid until October 9, continues to warn Americans against non-essential travel to Pakistan due to the threat of terrorist activity. Family members of American officials assigned to the embassy in Islamabad and to the three consulates, who were ordered to leave the country in March 2002, have not been allowed to return.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
...issued on April 12 and valid until October 9,...
#6
Hey, I'm all FOR Americans entering Pakistan. I just want the ones entering to be five or six divisions of US Army and Marine troops, backed up by heavy firepower, and accompanied by 20 divisions of Indian and Afghani troops. They can start out tomorrow, as far as I'm concerned. I just wish we had five or six spare divisions to COMMIT to such an undertaking, but until the dummycritters are kicked out of the House and Senate, there's not much chance of that.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/13/2007 16:32 Comments ||
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A ceasefire was finally brokered between Sunni and Shia Muslims seven days after sectarian clashes began in Kurram Agency bordering Afghanistan, a senior security official said on Thursday. A ceasefire was reached in Kurram Agency today as guns have fallen silent, FATA security chief Arbab Arif told Daily Times, as residents of the area were still under curfew.
The official death toll from the clashes is at 49, but unofficial sources put the toll as high as 100 since the fighting began on April 6 in Parachinar and spread to other parts of Kurram Agency. Arif said 114 people had been injured. The security chief said that a tribal jirga and the political administration and heavy army presence had helped broker the ceasefire. Army helicopters fired warning shots in areas where the government call for calm was ignored and army and Frontier Corps soldiers were deployed to bring law and order under control.
Meanwhile, the governor of NWFP said that the involvement of foreign hands in the sectarian violence could not be ruled out. The residents of Kurram Agency have expressed apprehensions about involvement of certain elements from across the border, Governor Ali Jan Orakzai told a tribal jirga on Thursday, according to a press statement. We cannot rule it out ... since the clashes started all of a sudden and at an inappropriate time, he said. The press release said both sides used heavy weapons which were brought to the area during the Afghan jihad in the 1980s.
Agencies add: Suspected Sunni tribesmen raided a Shia village, Chardiwar, on the outskirts of Parachinar, killing five people. A government official, who declined to be identified, said six villagers were wounded and several houses burnt. There was also fighting in nearby Jalime village. Residents said at least 40 houses were torched in the two villages, and women and children fled to the nearby town of Alizai.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2007 00:00 ||
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Baghdad, 13 April (AKI) - Iraqi police have detained three workers at a canteen situated in the country's parliament buildings were eight people were killed in a bomb blast on Thursday. Iraqi parliamentarian Hasan al Senaid in an interview with the local broadcaster Radio Sawa said investigators suspect canteen workers and MP bodyguards may be involved in the attack which took place in the high security Green Zone of the Iraqi capital.
Parliament held a special session on Friday afternoon to discuss the attack and the apparent security breach which allowed it to happen. The rare emergency session of parliament on what on what is normally a rest day, was called by Iraq's parliament speaker, Mahmoud Mashhadani to "defy terrorism".
Posted by: Steve ||
04/13/2007 07:35 ||
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#1
wonder if they discussed loosening security again
#2
From Fox News:
In a statement Friday morning, the U.S. military said "after further research and consultation with government of Iraq officials" it had determined that only one "civilian" had been killed in the attack and 22 were wounded...
It looks like only one person was killed, not eight as was reported earlier.
A Coalition spokesman told reporters in Baghdad April 6 that over the past month in the Iraqi capital, Iraqi security and Coalition Forces (CF) seized more than 300 weapons caches, found and cleared more than 300 improvised explosive devices and detained more than 1,400 suspects. In addition, more than 5,000 tips from Iraqi citizens last month contributed to Iraq security and Coalition forces ability to conduct these operations, said U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Mark I. Fox, Communications Division Chief for Strategic Effects, Multi-National Force-Iraq.
Despite the signs of progress, Fox stressed the importance of maintaining a realistic view of Baghdad security, adding that the current levels of violence are unacceptable.
Improvised Explosive Device Factory Found:
Iraqi Army (IA) and CF conducted a joint operation April 5 that resulted in the capture of 27 suspected insurgents and bomb-making materials. Troops also found and secured several explosively-formed projectiles in different stages of production and four that were fully assembled. Three insurgents were killed and six wounded during the operation. Two IA troops and one Coalition soldier were wounded.
Iraqi Prime Minister Rejects Timetable for U.S. Withdrawal:
On April 10, Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki rejected demands by the U.S. Congress for a timetable to pull out American troops, saying that withdrawal should be based on the reality on the ground. Maliki also said his government was working to improve security in order to make it possible for U.S. and other foreign troops to leave.
Malikis comments came during a news conference in Tokyo, where the Prime Minister was visiting. He said that We see no need for a withdrawal timetable because we are working as fast as we can, adding that, We feel what will govern the departure of the multinational forces are the achievements and victories we manage to obtain on the ground and not a timetable. Perhaps Pelosi could go over there and help him do it faster?
Taking a lesson from their Sunni brothers from three years ago - Sadr Ministers Threaten Withdrawal:
On April 11, Iraqi cabinet ministers allied to Muqtada al-Sadr threatened to quit the government to protest the Prime Ministers lack of support for a timetable for U.S. withdrawal. The threat comes two months into a U.S. effort to pacify Baghdad in order to give Malikis government room to function. Sadrs political committee issued the statement a day after Maliki rejected an immediate U.S. troop withdrawal.
Iraq Rally Calls for U.S. Withdrawal:
Tens of thousands of demonstrators responded to a call from Muqtada al-Sadr to commemorate the martyrdom of Ayatollah al-Sadr and to call for the end of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. The protest was centered in the Shia holy city of Najaf and was peaceful. However, Sadr was not in attendance. He's hiding in the well, waiting for Aminadjhad's call.
Relocation of Arabs from Kirkuk Could Trigger Violence: Sounds like an AP headline
The Iraqi government will soon begin relocating Arabs who were moved to Kirkuk under an edict by Saddam Hussein to force Kurds out of the disputed northern city. Those who choose to move will receive about $15,000 and a plot of land in their home towns. Kurdish officials will soon accept applications to determine eligibility.
Turkey Threatens Sanctions in Iraq:
Turkish leaders raised the threat of political and economic sanctions against Iraq April 10 unless that country curbs ethnic Kurd separatists staging attacks across the border. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Iraqi Kurds against interfering in southeastern Turkey April 9, where the Kurdish majority is fighting Turkish security forces, saying the price for them will be very high.
Erdogan was responding to Massud Barzani, leader of the Kurdish autonomous region in Iraq, who said Iraqi Kurds would retaliate for any Turkish interference in northern Iraq by stirring up trouble in southeastern Turkey.
CCCI Convicts 41:
The Central Court of Iraq (CCCI) convicted 41 individuals March 18-21 for violations of the Iraqi Terrorist Law, Penal Code and Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) Orders enforced by the Iraqi judiciary.
The trial court sentenced one individual to death March 27 after being found guilty of violation of Iraqs Terrorist Law. After receiving information that the Iraqi man was the leader of an al-Qaida linked cell, Multi-National Forces (MNF) searched the individuals home and found a decapitated head and Improvised Explosive Device components.
CCCI sentenced two individuals to life imprisonment March 28 after being found guilty of violation of Article 194 of the Iraqi Penal Code. The individuals were apprehended in Mosul September 3, 2004 after MNF spotted them firing mortars towards Camp Freedom.
Since its establishment under an amendment to CPA Order 13, in April 2004, the Central Criminal Court has held 1,993 trials for suspected criminals apprehended by Coalition forces. The Iraqi Court proceedings have resulted in the conviction of 1,747 individuals with sentences ranging from imprisonment to death.
Japan Lends $850 Million to Restore Iraqs Oil Sector:
Japan has agreed to lend $850 million to Iraq in order to help increase oil output, as well as build an oil facility connecting pipelines in Basrah, fund fertilizer and oil refinery plants, and help improve electricity distribution.
UK Will Continue Operations in the Persian Gulf:
A senior British government official said April 9 that his country would resume boarding cargo vessels in the Persian Gulf to check for smuggled goods, despite the recent standoff with Iran that saw a Royal Navy team held captive for 13 days.
Egypt Plans Regional Conference on Iraq:
The Iraqi government has agreed that Egypt, not Turkey, will host an expanded Iraq Neighbors Ministerial meeting in Sharm el-Shaikh May 4. The Neighbors meeting will follow a May 3 Compact launching ceremony, also in Sharm el-Shaikh. The core Neighbors forum includes Iraqs six neighbors Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey, and Bahrain and Egypt. The expanded forum includes representatives from the UN, Arab League, P5, Organization of Islamic Conference, and G8.
Iraqi Prime Minister Visits South Korea:
Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki began a visit to South Korea April 11 and said he wants to learn from the countrys fast rise as an economic power. Maliki is scheduled to hold a summit with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun April 12. Their meeting is expected to center on expanding cooperation in various sectors, including natural resources, electricity and construction.
Sadr Makes Statement Calling on Iraqis to End Cooperation with the U.S.:
Muqtada al-Sadr released a statement April 8, urging the Iraqi army and police to stop cooperating with the U.S. and telling his fighters to concentrate on pushing American forces out of Iraq. The statement, which was stamped with his official seal, was distributed in Najaf where along with Baghdad hundreds of thousands of protestors demonstrated the following day to mark the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad. Tens of thousands of protestors, according to the earlier item, above. This report does draw from numerous sources.
The demonstration in Najaf was ordered by Sadr, who was not present and is believed to currently be residing in Iran; though his followers still maintain he is inside Iraq.
Wanted Member of Saddam Regime Appears on Television:
A wanted member of Saddam Husseins regime, Republican Guards chief Saif al-Din Fulayh Hassan Taha al-Rawi, was shown on al-Jazeera television in a video recording broadcast April 8. He was shown accusing U.S. forces of using neutron and phosphorous bombs during their assault on Baghdad airport ahead of the capture of the Iraqi capital. How else could we infidels have captured the airport so quickly? On the other hand, if we were using neutron bombs, why bother with phosphorous?
Rawi, who was number 14 on the U.S. most wanted list, carries a one million dollar U.S. bounty on his head.
Iraqi Journalist Killed:
A senior Iraqi journalist was killed April 5 when a suicide truck bomb exploded outside the Baghdad TV headquarters. Deputy Bureau Chief Thair Ahmad Jabr was killed, while another 12 employees were wounded.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/13/2007 06:19 ||
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#1
Turkey Threatens Sanctions in Iraq
Is there much legal trade between Iraq and Turkey? I'm sure there is a great deal of smuggling...
#2
Excellent article. I now feel for the British what I feel for the French military; they're good men who are led by traitors and cowards. What a suck feeling that must be, to realize that before you can actually fight the enemy you have to beat your own side first!
Palestinian prisoner Alaa Addin Ahmad Bazian, from Jerusalem, who was arrested by the Israeli forces on 20 April 1986, has described to his lawyer his mistreatment at the hands of the Israelis before and during his various stages of imprisonment in Israeli jails. Oh, good, there's a form. That makes things easier. Do I just check off what they did to me?
During a visit by a lawyer from the Palestinian Prisoners' Society (PPS) to Jalbo'a jail, Bazian described how he was born in 1958 and raised in Jerusalem. He studied in schools in Jerusalem. In 1975 he started to think differently regarding the Israeli occupation. He told the PPS lawyer that he began to think about "the revolutionary concept." That is why he joined the Fatah movement, he said. Not the best move you ever made, eh, Alaa? In 1979, he said that he was planning with another man to kill a collaborator but for some reason an error occurred during the manufacture of a bombing device during which he lost his sight. As a result, he was left blind and suffered injuries in the chest, head and his right foot. His comrade was killed instantly. Yeah, "for some reason"? Maybe because you're a fuckin idiot?
Bazian then described to his lawyer how he was tortured by Israeli intelligence men in Hadassa Hospital in Jerusalem, just hours after he was admitted to the hospital for treatment. He said that he complained to the doctor about this abuse. As a result, he said he was taken, just one day later, to the Moskobiya (Russian Compound) Israeli police station where he was held in a cell for 18 days. Running with scissors? Sorry, kid, we ain't buyin it...
Bazian recounted how he told the Israeli interrogators that he had been injured while walking in the area. Yeah...I was...walking down the street and...all of a sudden I was blind and full of shrapnel. I don't know what the hell happened.
After 18 days, Bazian was transported to Ramla jail where he spent two years imprisoned, he told his lawyer. When he was released, he went to Jordan and then to Lebanon for medical treatment. Since then, he has been in direct contact with Fatah leaders, he informed his PPS lawyer. Have you been injured in a work accident? Perhaps from defective components or incompetent manufacture of your homemade bomb? Received no satisfaction from Fatah or Mutual of Gaza? Then call us, PPS Lawyers, at 1-800-KABLOOIE. Se habla espanol...
When he returned to the Palestinian territories, he was arrested and sentenced to 20 years. However, he was then released in 1985 in a prisoners' swap at the time. In April 1986, however, he was arrested again and sentenced to life imprisonment. Jeez, everything happens to Alla. Poor kid just can't get a break. And I'll bet he was "turning his life aroud" too.
At the end of his story, Bazian said that he hoped that all Palestinian prisoners will be freed in the anticipated swap with the captured Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. I wouldn't bet on it.
#4
In unrelated news, Palestinians susected not of spying for Israel but of such horrendous crimes like selling property to Israelis have had a flaming tire bond to their neck.
#5
If he's blind, how does he know they were Israeli's? Could of been gay Saudi's for all he knows, that were torturing him. Either way. I like whoever it was.
Zamboanga City, 13 April (AKI) - Military forces pursuing the al-Qaeda linked Abu Sayyaf group in the jungles of the Muslim-dominated Filipino town of Sulu, are blaming local Muslim groups of helping the terrorists. In an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI), Army Colonel Antonio Supnet said they received reports that point to a faction within the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) a former Muslim rebel group, which signed a peace deal with Manila in 1996 - as the group supporting the Abu Sayyaf. "We have reports that a certain MNLF Commander is coddling this group," Colonel Supnet, who leads the Armys 104th Brigade in Sulu, told AKI. He added that this group has helped the Abu Sayyaf in their areas and supplied them with food. He said there are even instances where this group is hiding the rebels in the MNLF peace zone community, and the military cannot enter."
Colonel Supnet said that "this" MNLF Commander, which he refused to name, is identified as a relative of the new leader of the Abu Sayyaf, Radullan Sahiron.
"We learned that this group is even joining Abu Sayyaf in the actual combat fight," he said. Sahiron was once an MNLF leader before he joined the Abu Sayyaf decades back.
Professor Octavio Dinampo, an expert on the Sulu rebellion and himself a former MNLF member, said it is rather normal that Sahiron is gaining supports among the locals. "He knows how to deal with them. He had a good leadership style even when he was an MNLF member before," he said. Supnet is nonetheless optimistic that the military can defeat the Abu Sayyaf in the province. We have established connections with the people in Patikul and Indanan and they are giving us reports of the presence of these lawless groups, he said.
A military operation has been going on since last August in the towns of Patikul and Indanan. Members of Abu Sayyaf are reported to be hiding in the jungles of close to these towns. The Filipino armed forces in Manila said some 7,000 troops are being deployed in the province in their fight against terrorism. In an encounter last Wednesday, Supnet said two Filipino soldiers were killed and another 10 were reportedly wounded. We received reports of more casualties from the Abu Sayyaf group, he told AKI.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/13/2007 07:39 ||
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Sri Lankan forces have captured a strategic highway in the islands restive eastern province which was under Tamil Tiger control for 15 years, the defence ministry said Thursday.
Troops took control Wednesday of the A-5 road linking the town of Chenkaladi and Badulla in the central part of the island, defence ministry spokesman Prasad Samarasinghe said. Only about 140 square kilometres of jungle land in the Thoppigala area still remain under LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) control and we believe around 300 to 350 rebels are in the jungles, Samarasinghe said.
The latest military advance, which began late February, has left nine soldiers and 184 Tiger rebels dead, he said. He said there were no civilian casualties during the fighting. Military action to wrestle the eastern region from the Tigers began last July when the rebels shut an irrigation canal and blocked water to around 15,000 residents in a farming village.
The Tigers have lost 1,175 cadres, we lost 98 security forces personnel, while two other government soldiers still remain missing (since July), he said adding around 138,000 people had been displaced since. Elsewhere in the north, fighting between security forces and Tiger rebels continued for a third straight day across a front line at Omanthai, the main crossing point between government and Tiger-held territory, officials said.
Rebel satellite: Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka have been illegally using a satellite of US giant Intelsat to beam their radio and television broadcasts overseas, the company said Wednesday. We have been actively pursuing avenues to terminate the illegal usage of our satellite, Nick Mitsis, the spokesman for Intelsat, the worlds largest provider of fixed satellite services, told AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2007 00:00 ||
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Iran has arrested 90 members of a shadowy Sunni militant group known as Jundullah accused of attacks in a volatile area on the border with Pakistan and Afghanistan, a press report said on Thursday. We have arrested 90 members of this group and a large quantity of weapons and explosives were also confiscated, Intelligence Minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejeie was quoted as saying in Kayhan newspaper.
He said four militants who were preparing for armed action were also arrested. However, he did not say whether they were among the 90 or reveal when the arrests took place. Jundullah has been blamed for a string of attacks in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan and has a substantial Baloch community, a minority Sunni Muslim group.
In February, 11 members of Irans elite Revolutionary Guards were killed and 31 wounded when a car bomb ripped through a bus carrying them to a base in an attack claimed by Jundullah. Mohseni Ejeie said his ministrys agents were also closely monitoring the activities of militant groups in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, which borders Iraq and is home to a substantial Arab minority. Ten days ago, we arrested a group of seven people who wanted to carry out several bomb attacks (in Khuzestan), he added. In the past two years, Khuzestan has been rocked by a string of blasts blamed on Arab separatist groups which Iran charges are backed by Britain.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2007 00:00 ||
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Iran's thugs are getting a taste of what they have been dishing out to our troops in Iraq.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
04/13/2007 8:54 Comments ||
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Photos like this are what drives the turbans to distraction.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/13/2007 6:47 Comments ||
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Not just the turbans, Bobby.
Posted by: Scott R. ||
04/13/2007 7:32 Comments ||
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La Cavalieri made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1906, with Caruso. Gina Lollabrigida played her in the 1955 movie "The World's Most Beautiful Woman."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2007 10:54 Comments ||
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Photos like this are what drives the turbans to distraction.
I'm not driven, Bobby - I go willingly!
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/13/2007 15:09 Comments ||
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Nice dress. (of course I know ya'll aren't really concentrating on the dress--but it's still a nice dress).
The turbans can't handle REAL women, such as the lovely Line Cavalieri--that's why they forceably mutilate the genitals of their girls and women into non-funcationality and cover them up with ugly clothes. They are worthy of nothing but total disrespect. In other words--blow 'em all to hell.
Thanks for the daily posts of the "Best of the West."
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.
Moroccan police arrested a fifth member of a cell cornered by police in a Casablanca suburb earlier this week, said a government official and a local resident on Thursday. Both denied earlier reports that a bomb had exploded in Fida, a working-class neighbourhood of Casablanca. 
Police rolled out in force in Algeria's capital on Thursday, establishing highway checkpoints after suicide attacks claimed by al-Qaeda killed 24 people and injured 222 others. Wednesday's bombings lent credence to fears that al-Qaeda's new wing in North Africa is coalescing into a deadly threat. The reinforced surveillance was reminiscent of the height of Algeria's insurgency in the 1990s. Authorities said the death toll from the car bombings of the prime minister's office and a police station could rise. Western countries reduced embassy services and urged their citizens to avoid travelling on predictable routes. 
Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) is on top of the law enforcers' list of suspected killers of Jhalakathi district court Public Prosecutor Hyder Hossain although investigators did not find any clue to the murder as of last evening. Meanwhile, the joint forces yesterday recovered a powerful live bomb--identical to the one used for killing the two Jhalakathi judges on November 14, 2005--around half a kilometre off the scene of Hyder's murder. "Hyder Hossain's conducting of the Jhalakathi judges killing case against the militant kingpins might have triggered the murder," said Lt Col Shamim in the district. "Possibility of any third party's involvement has also been taken into consideration and the investigation is being conducted carefully," he added.
FLORENCE, Colo. (AP) -- John Walker Lindh, serving a 20-year sentence after fighting for the Taliban in Afghanistan, has been transferred to Supermax, the federal government's most secure prison, authorities said Thursday. 
Peshawar Judicial Magistrate Ashraf Ali set fire to nearly 3,000 pornographic CDs confiscated the police, at the Judicial Complex on Thursday. Court officials said that Faqirabad police had seized the CDs in a crack down on CD shops in Faqirabad three days ago. Police sources told Daily Times that they had started conducting raids on CD shops after receiving directives from the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA)-led NWFP government in this regard. Maulana Yusuf Qureshi, prayer leader at Masjid Mahabat Khan and president of the Muttahida Shariat Mahaz, warned the provincial government last Friday to crack down on vulgar activities and brothels in the city, otherwise the Mahaz would start a jihad towards this end.
CD shop owners in the provincial metropolis have been asked to close their businesses. Three boys claiming to be Lal Masjid representatives came to the Nishtarabad CDs market and asked us to shut our businesses as it was forbidden in Islam, Nishtarabad Video Centres Union President Sher Dil told Daily Times. Sher Dil said the boys told him, Maulana Abdul Aziz says all obscene material is coming from Nishtarabad as well as Karkhano Market on Jamrud Road. 
The latest travel advisory by the US State Department, issued on April 12 and valid until October 9, continues to warn Americans against non-essential travel to Pakistan due to the threat of terrorist activity. Family members of American officials assigned to the embassy in Islamabad and to the three consulates, who were ordered to leave the country in March 2002, have not been allowed to return.
A ceasefire was finally brokered between Sunni and Shia Muslims seven days after sectarian clashes began in Kurram Agency bordering Afghanistan, a senior security official said on Thursday. A ceasefire was reached in Kurram Agency today as guns have fallen silent, FATA security chief Arbab Arif told Daily Times, as residents of the area were still under curfew. 
Palestinian prisoner Alaa Addin Ahmad Bazian, from Jerusalem, who was arrested by the Israeli forces on 20 April 1986, has described to his lawyer his mistreatment at the hands of the Israelis before and during his various stages of imprisonment in Israeli jails. 
Iran has arrested 90 members of a shadowy Sunni militant group known as Jundullah accused of attacks in a volatile area on the border with Pakistan and Afghanistan, a press report said on Thursday. We have arrested 90 members of this group and a large quantity of weapons and explosives were also confiscated, Intelligence Minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejeie was quoted as saying in Kayhan newspaper. 
