One of the leading figures in Pakistan's Taliban insurgency was believed killed during a clash with the police in Afghanistan, the authorities in Nuristan Province said Thursday.
The figure was said to be Maulana Fazlullah, leader of the Taliban uprising in Pakistan's Swat Valley, who fled to Afghanistan after a Pakistani counteroffensive wrested the valley from Taliban control. The Pakistanis had offered a bounty of about $600,000 for his capture.
Gen. Zaman Mamozai, head of the Afghan Border Police in eastern Nuristan Province, said the authorities believed Mr. Fazlullah was one of seven Taliban militants killed in the Barg-e-Matal District in a clash with the border police, but they were awaiting forensic identification of his remains to be certain. Police officials recovered the seven bodies, he said.
General Mamozai said the fighting, which had still not ended late Thursday, began when a group of 400 to 500 fighters, composed largely of Pakistani Taliban militants, with some Arabs fighting for Al Qaeda and some Afghan insurgents, attacked the district center in Barg-e-Matal on Monday but were repulsed. One border police officer was killed and another wounded, he said.
The Taliban continued counterattacking in the remote and roadless district, which was abandoned by American ground forces last year as part of the military's plan to concentrate on more heavily populated areas. According to the Nuristan provincial police chief, Gen. Qasim, the militants' bodies were recovered after another counterattack that began late Wednesday night and ended at dawn, involving what he said were 500 attackers, including Pakistanis as well as Chechens and Arabs.
"We could not defeat them ourselves because we had fewer border police," said General Qasim, who like many Afghans uses only one name. The defenders consisted of a battalion of 200 officers from the border police and 250 from the national police. General Qasim said that local residents took up arms to support the police because they were enraged by reports that Mr. Fazlullah had called for all fighting-age men in the district to be killed and their women taken prisoner.
Mr. Fazlullah's death had previously been reported, last year in Afghanistan, but was later refuted. If confirmed this time, he would be the highest ranking Pakistani Taliban leader killed since last August.
"Serious fighting is still going on so we haven't been able to take their bodies for forensic identification," General Mamozai said. "The enemies are using rockets and mortars to shoot at us." He said the authorities had intercepted Taliban radio communications confirming Mr. Fazlullah's death.
General Mamozai said that Mr. Fazlullah's second in command from Swat, a man known only as Hakimullah, was also reported among the militants whose bodies were recovered.
Last August, a missile fired from a C.I.A. drone killed Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, when it destroyed a house in South Waziristan, also killing his wife and other family members, the authorities said at the time; the Taliban later confirmed the deaths.
His successor as the Pakistan Taliban leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, was also reported killed in a drone strike last January, but a videotaped message from him surfaced months later denying that.
Mr. Fazlullah, believed to be in his 20s, was a former ski lift operator and the son of a radical imam. Nicknamed "Radio Mullah," he is known for his jihadist oratory broadcast over clandestine radio stations, and his image as a brave fighter attracted thousands of recruits to the Taliban cause in Swat. At one time, 4,500 Taliban militants, taking advantage of a peace agreement with the Pakistani authorities, set up a parallel government in the rugged Swat Valley, imposing harsh Islamic law on the local residents.
#3
How hard could it be identify Mullah Radio's mug? Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their beards.
Posted by: ed ||
05/27/2010 15:29 Comments ||
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#4
I read a report a day or two ago about this attack where the Afghan villagers joined w/ police to defend against an attack. I can't remember the source. The report said that Mullah Radio's boyz were behind it. It just seems really dumb to concentrate that many forces in a sustained attack when the US can bomb them at will. Live stupid, die young.
Posted by: ed ||
05/27/2010 15:53 Comments ||
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#7
I read a report a day or two ago about this attack where the Afghan villagers joined w/ police to defend against an attack. I can't remember the source.
It was here, ed, the end of the next article down, if you mean this bit. The article links to Dawn.
In eastern Nuristan province, police have been battling hundreds of insurgents for four days, officials said.
At least seven militants and one police officer have died so far in the fighting in Nuristan's Barg-e-Matal district, the Interior Ministry said in statement.
The insurgents attacked the district government building on Sunday and a small police force has been trying to keep them at bay since then, said Gen. Mohammad Qasim Jangulbagh, the provincial police chief.
"There are many fewer police than attackers but we have the locals helping us," Jangulbagh said, explaining that villagers have grabbed their guns and joined the police in the fight. He said police have asked for reinforcements, but none has arrived yet.
#8
Mr. Fazlullah's death had previously been reported, last year in Afghanistan, but was later refuted. If confirmed this time, he would be the highest ranking Pakistani Taliban leader killed since last August....General Mamozai said the authorities had intercepted Taliban radio communications confirming Mr. Fazlullah's death.
Forty-eight Hour Rule. The gentleman has been reported dead before, only to rise like Lazarus, bringing death and destruction to those in his vicinity. Let's await confirmation before the ululating commences.
I realize you're speaking in gentlewoman-ese, tw, but could we call these sleazy clowns something slightly more accurate?
Such as, perhaps, MURDEROUS LOSER? You can spice it up as you like.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/27/2010 20:46 Comments ||
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#10
TW's pretty loose with that stuff: she's referred to me as a gentleman, once or twice, so....
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/27/2010 20:59 Comments ||
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#11
Dear, dear Frank G. You are a gentleman, my friend. That's the cake of you. The frosting is all the things that you think make you not one, but it's only frosting. I've baked enough cupcakes for schoolchildren to know that even layering the frosting extra thick doesn't obscure good cake underneath.
#12
but could we call these sleazy clowns something slightly more accurate?
Bsrbara, Mullah/Maulana Fazlullah is a gentleman courtesy of his title, just like all military officers are gentlemen by definition. I leave the accuracy to you -- you are so much better at it, my dear.
[Dawn] A car bomb exploded outside a small Nato military base in southern Afghanistan's largest city, wounding two Afghans and destroying several cars, police said.
It was the latest in a string of bold attacks on high-profile Nato targets in the past two weeks, following a Taliban announcement of a spring offensive against alliance and Afghan forces.
The announcement was their response to the Obama administration's vow to squeeze the militants out of Kandahar province strongholds.
The blast occurred around 11:30 a.m. in a parking lot used by Afghans visiting Camp Nathan Smith in Kandahar city, said Gen. Shafiq Fazli, the police commander for southern Afghanistan.
The base houses a few hundred Canadian soldiers, along with American military police and US and Canadian government employees working on development projects.
Fazli said no one was killed. A police officer said at least one security guard and one Afghan who works at the base were wounded. The officer gave only one name, Khalid.
Blast destroyed 11 cars that were parked in the lot, along with about 50 motorcycles and more than a dozen bicycles, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. The bomb was placed in a Toyota Corolla in the lot, it said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but Kandahar is a Taliban stronghold.
Nato has announced plans in the coming months for a major push to shore up government control of the city.
People reached by phone inside Camp Nathan Smith said they had been ordered into bunkers but that the area appeared quiet since the explosion. They spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the attack had not been released.
The string of attacks on Nato targets began on May 18, when a Taliban suicide bomber attacked a Nato convoy in the capital, killing 18 people including six Nato service members _ five Americans and a Canadian.
The next day, dozens of Taliban militants attacked the main US military base, Bagram Air Field, killing an American contractor in fighting that lasted more than eight hours.
Then on Saturday, insurgents firing rockets, mortars and automatic weapons tried to storm Kandahar Air Field, Nato's main base in the south.
Kandahar Air Field is about 20 kilometers outside of the city, while Camp Nathan Smith is in downtown Kandahar.
The chief Nato spokesman in Afghanistan, German Brig. Gen. Josef Blotz, said the recent attacks were to gain "worldwide public attention" and to show their own supporters "that they're still there and able to do something."
Blotz said the campaign to gain the initiative against the Taliban "is still bumpy" but was going better than "a couple of years and even a couple of months earlier."
Also a British soldier was killed in a firefight in Helmand province of southern Afghanistan, the British Ministry of Defense said.
In eastern Nuristan province, police have been battling hundreds of insurgents for four days, officials said.
At least seven militants and one police officer have died so far in the fighting in Nuristan's Barg-e-Matal district, the Interior Ministry said in statement.
The insurgents attacked the district government building on Sunday and a small police force has been trying to keep them at bay since then, said Gen. Mohammad Qasim Jangulbagh, the provincial police chief.
"There are many fewer police than attackers but we have the locals helping us," Jangulbagh said, explaining that villagers have grabbed their guns and joined the police in the fight. He said police have asked for reinforcements, but none has arrived yet.
Nuristan Gov. Jamaludin Badar said they also have asked Nato forces for help. He said the attackers were Taliban militants, including Pakistani Taliban under the leadership of Maulana Fazlullah, nicknamed the "Radio Mullah" for his hard-line anti-Western broadcasts on a militant radio station in northwestern Pakistan.
He led Pakistan Taliban forces in their takeover of the Swat Valley until the Pakistan military routed them from the area last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/27/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Taliban
[Al Arabiya Latest] The International Criminal Court will ask the UN Security Council to intervene given Sudan's "lack of cooperation" in pursuing two senior government allies for alleged war crimes, according to a court document seen Wednesday.
"After taking all possible measures to ensure cooperation", the court said, it has concluded that "the Republic of Sudan is failing to comply with its cooperation obligations ... in relation to the enforcement of warrants of arrest" issued in April 2007 for former government minister Ahmed Haroun and militia leader Ali Kosheib.
Signed by three judges, the court document instructed the registry to inform the U.N. about Sudan's lack of cooperation "in order for the Security Council to take any action it may deem appropriate".
Posted by: Fred ||
05/27/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan
#1
ION AFFRIQUE' TOPIX > AL-SHABBAB GROUP AKSKS KENYA TO BACK OFF [stop interfering in Somali Affairs]
AL SHABAAB Spokesman SHEIKH ALI DEERE > Warns of POSSIBLE OF JIHAD/ISLAMIST-LED EXPANSION INTO CHRISTIAN KENYA as consequence of Kenyan's suppor for anti-Shabaab-Islamist Groups along Kenya-Somalia border. Also repor says that MILITANTS ARE IN A JIHAD AGZ ANY AND ALL ANTI/NON-MUSLIMS EVERYWHERE IN REGION, AFRICA + WORLD. Once Region is successfuully suborned, JIHAD WILL EXPAND FROM SOMALIA + REGION, + WILL CONTINUE ON UNTIL ONLY ALLAH = ISLAM IS WORSHIPPED IN AFRICA + WORLD.
IOW, ABOVE = more Net evidencia that the ISLAMIST JIHAD = INSURGENCIES IS ULTIMATELY GLOBAL IN SCOPE + DESIGN, NOT MERELY LOCAL OR REGIONAL,besides also being a LT threat to JUDEOCHRISTIANITY + ANY OTHER WESTERN -ISM.
#2
OTOH SAME > {Armenia-Azeribaijan =NK] RUSSIA, THE USA, + FRANCE HAVE ALREADY RECOGNIZED THE RIGHT OF PEOPLE FOR SELF-DETERMINATION AS SUPERIOR/PREVAILING OVER [national]TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY.
* SAME > RUSSIA IS NO LONGER INTERESTED IN WAR + THE US HAS SEPARATED GEORGIA FROM RUSSIA, Russ hath destroyed the "Brand Name" of Georgia, + its ability to become accepted into NATO widout controversy, Russ got or achieved what it wanted in the RUSSO-GEORGIAN WAR.
* SAME > RUSSIA SATISFIED WID THE CURRENT STATUS QUO IN CAUCASUS, INCLUDING NAGORNO-KARABAKH
[Al Arabiya Latest] The U.S. military and spy agencies have stepped up intelligence gathering using surveillance aircraft, satellites and signals intercepts to track al-Qaeda targets in and around their base in Yemen, U.S. officials said on Tuesday.
Some of the intelligence is being shared with Yemeni security forces to facilitate their strikes against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), but could also underpin covert U.S. operations against the group and its leaders, the officials said on condition of anonymity.
"There is a tremendous amount of focus on that country," a U.S. intelligence official said.
An air strike in Yemen on Tuesday has fueled speculation that the U.S. military or CIA has started using unmanned aerial drones to carry out attacks in Yemen. A Yemeni provincial official said the air strike targeted al-Qaeda but killed a mediator instead.
Asked about the strike, U.S. officials said Washington continues to play a supporting role by helping Yemeni forces track and pinpoint targets -- suggesting Tuesday's strike was not carried out by a U.S.-controlled drone.
"We continue to support the Yemenis as they go after this threat inside their border," a U.S. military official said.
But another U.S. official acknowledged there was an increasingly "fine line" between playing a supportive role and taking the lead.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/27/2010 00:00 ||
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[6 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia
[Bangla Daily Star] The banned Islamist militant group Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh has been hoping to attract new recruits by signalling its re-emergence through a series of explosions in the capital, said intelligence sources yesterday.
"Due to the arrest of the group's current chief, their reorganising efforts will fail," Inspector General of Police (IGP) Nur Mohammad told The Daily Star.
"The execution of their former chief Abdur Rahman basically destroyed their network. Recently they were trying to reorganise from the capital." the IGP added.
Current JMB chief Maulana Saidur Rahman alias Zafar, who was arrested by law enforcers on Tuesday, told detectives that his detained third wife Naima Akhter, and two other women who managed to escape Sunday's police raid on their Dania hideout, are well trained in use of grenades and other firearms.
During a preliminary interrogation, he admitted to his earlier affiliation with Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.
The intelligence sources said JMB operatives have been storing handmade grenades in different hideouts in the capital. The grenades were not manufactured in the capital, they added.
Law enforcers so far raided three JMB dens, two in the city's Dania and the other at Painadi of Narayanganj; but they could not ascertain how many more such hideouts are there in the city, and on its outskirts.
JMB operative Abu Bakkar Siddique alias Shiblu, who had been injured during his arrest on Sunday, told detectives that the group had recently trained some of its female operatives in using grenades, and they have been taking preparations to carry out a series of grenade attacks in the capital on a limited scale.
Shiblu also said the aim of the planned attacks is to signal the group's re-emergence, and to attract prospective new recruits.
An intelligence official said Shiblu was the chief of the planned operation.
The official added that the top brass of JMB used codes in documents outlining the attack plans. The law enforces have such a document in their possession, and have been able to decode it, he said.
The document says the group would carry out small scale attacks in the capital first, to assert its re-emergence.
It also reveals that the group has plans to assassinate some people in the judiciary, and some "traitors", the definition of which are yet to be known by the sleuths.
Meanwhile, arrested Saidur Rahman, Naima Akhter, and full-time JMB member Abdullah-hel-Kafi were sent on six-day remand each yesterday.
Special Branch Sub-inspector Saiful Islam filed a case with Kodomtoli police against the three in connection with terrorist activities.
The group's military wing coordinator Amir Hossain alias Sharif, and another full-time member Nur Hossain alias Sabuj, both of whom had been arrested from Narayanganj on Sunday, were sent to 7-day remand each yesterday.
Two cases were filed against the two on Monday, in connection with possession of bomb making materials, firearms, ammunition, and jihadi books.
Three cases were filed against Shiblu on Sunday, in connection with possession of firearms and explosives, and assault on law enforcers.
Shiblu is undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital as he was wounded in a bomb explosion that he himself carried out trying to escape arrest, wounding eight law enforcers as well.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/27/2010 00:00 ||
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[2 views]
Top|| File under: Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh
#1
Depleted JMBis that when you separate out the more explosive kind?
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
05/27/2010 8:36 Comments ||
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#2
No girls can go to schools. Er, unless it's to learn to use grenades.
Posted by: American Delight ||
05/27/2010 18:42 Comments ||
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#3
Depleted JMB is like Depleted Uranium: dense, inert
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/27/2010 19:42 Comments ||
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Nine Die in northern Mexican Drug and Gang Violence
Nine people died in organized crime violence that included two Juarez CIPOL agents shot to death and two drug dealers shot to death in Sonora.
Two Juarez CIPOL agents were shot to death Wednesday morning in Juarez, according to Mexican press reports. The two agents were later identified as Javier Villalobos and Fabiola Sosa Galindo, both 23.
CIPOL is a Mexican acronym for the city detective bureau.
The agents were killed as they sat in their official vehicles near the corner of Mirador and Ortiz Mena streets, next to a movie theater at a commercial establishment called Soriana Mirador. Witnesses at the scene say they were shot by armed suspects aboard a late model Volkswagen Golf.
Another unidentified street car cleaner, known in Mexican as "franelero", was found murdered in a vacant in in the Arroyos district of northern Juarez, according to Mexican news reports. The execution represents the third time in a week a franelero was killed. As with the other two reported yesterday, the victim was shot in the head and the body dumped.
An unidentified Juarez transit police officer was shot to death late Tuesday night, according to Mexican press accounts. Saul Gerardo Barrón was found a few meters from his patrol car on Yepómera street near Libramiento Aeropuerto. Investigators speculate that Barrón attempted to flee an attack before being gunned down.
An unidentified man in his 20s was found shot to death near a farm south of Chihuahuhua, late Tuesdayn night, accotriding to Mexicn newspaper reports. Investigators said the victim, found neear the la Esperanza farm sported a military style haircut and a single gunshout wound to the head.
Two unidentified men were shot to death Wednesday afternoon near the same location a Juarez police officer was murdered attempting to stop a bank robbery, Mexican news accounts say. Witnesses at the scene reported that two men were shot as soon as they emerged from their vehicle at the Plaza Las Torres shopping center near De las Torres and Palacio de Mitla avenues. About a dozen shots were fired in total.
An woman was critically wounded Wednesday afternoon in Juarez when attackers shot her in her luxury SUV, say Mexican newspaper reports. MarÃa Elizabet RodrÃguez Chaparro, 25, was shot in her Lincoln Navigator near the intersection of Avenida Tecnológico and Barranco Azul street near the airport.
Two men were discovered dead aboard an SUV after local police in Hermosillo, Sonora, stopped the vehicle, according to Mexican news reports. Also on board was a four year old girl and 68 kilograms of marijuana.
Devastated after his dreams of pursuing university-level computer science came to a crashing halt, accused terrorist Asad Ansari found a darker new purpose in life, the Crown alleged yesterday at his trial in Superior Court. "You had become dedicated to jihad," Crown attorney Jason Wakely suggested.
"That is not true," responded Mr. Ansari, who has told the court he fell into a deep depression upon learning his parents could not afford to send him to his program of choice at the Unversity of Waterloo. But he maintains he never contemplated turning to terrorism, and was unaware his close friends were developing a homegrown terror cell during the relevant time period in 2005 and 2006.
Mr. Ansari, 25, is one of two remaining accused to be tried in the "Toronto 18" case, which involved an alleged plot to detonate bombs in the city's core and to attack senior politicians in Ottawa. Ringleader Fahim Ahmad pleaded guilty to terrorism charges last month.
The jury yesterday watched a video from a CD labelled "Good stuff: Islamic videos," which police found in Mr. Ansari's bedroom after his arrest. In it, al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri heaps scorn on the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan-- a mission Mr. Ansari has testified he supported--and urges the Muslim population to seek reform through jihad. As this would have countered the views Mr. Ansari purported to have at the time, Mr. Wakely noted, "why is it that you saved this video?"
Mr. Ansari said he often sought out controversial material for his own edification. "If I have that, it doesn't mean I agree with it," he said, calling al-Qaeda's standpoint "completely retarded as an ideology."
The court has heard that during a winter training camp in Washago, Ont., in 2005, Ahmad likened the Toronto 18 to al-Qaeda; Mr. Ansari, who says he was unaware the camp was intended as a terrorist training ground when he attended, denies having heard such a statement, and yesterday called it a humourous concept.
Mr. Wakely challenged Mr. Ansari on the title of the CD --- "Good stuff: Islamic videos" -- containing the al-Zawahiri video and other scenes of violent jihad, including explosions and masked militants firing rocket-propelled grenades. "This depicts warfare, killing, hatred," Mr. Wakely said. "What's good about this stuff?"
"There's nothing good about this stuff," Mr. Ansari acknowledged, noting he frequently and indiscriminately labelled CDs in that fashion: "It was not an assessment in any way."
The Crown also referred to a document called the "Terrorist Handbook" found in Mr. Ansari's possession at the time of his arrest in June 2006. But defence lawyer John Norris contended this was merely an informational document, "not for actual use."
With the defence case for Mr. Ansari now concluded, lawyer Michael Moon will open his case today for 29-year-old Steven Chand, who stands charged with participation in a terrorist group and counselling to commit fraud over $5,000 in association with that group.
#1
He'll fold. The Crown (prosecution) will just wear him down until he folds just like his buddies did. Then he can look forward to some years inside the Federal prison system, enjoying the company and attentions of Canadian Native (Indian - no, not the Ravi Shankar type Indian) gangs complete with 24 hour a day Country and Western music.
[Dawn] A Jordanian man accused of trying to blow up a downtown Dallas skyscraper has agreed to enter a guilty plea in return for no more than 30 years in prison, according to federal court documents filed.
Hosam Smadi, 19, agreed to plead guilty in a deal with prosecutors to attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, which is punishable by up to life in prison. But US District Judge Barbara Lynn wouldn't be allowed to sentence Smadi to more than 30 years if she accepts the deal.
Lynn scheduled a new arraignment for Smadi on Wednesday and is expected to rule on whether to accept the plea. The agreement was signed by Smadi on Thursday and filed in federal court in Dallas.
Defense attorneys, the FBI and the US Attorney's Office declined comment.
Smadi has admitted leaving what he thought was a truck bomb in a garage beneath the 60-story Fountain Place building in downtown Dallas in September. The device was a decoy provided by FBI agents posing as Al-Qaeda operatives.
Smadi acknowledged in a written statement that he parked the truck in the garage beneath the skyscraper, activated a timer connected to the decoy, then rode with an undercover agent and waited to watch the explosion.
Smadi also admitted using a cell phone to detonate what he thought was the bomb, according to his signed statement. Instead, the phone rang an FBI number and Smadi was arrested.
"Smadi believed this was an active weapon of mass destruction," according to the statement. "Smadi believed the bomb would explode and cause extensive damage."
The FBI said it had been monitoring Smadi after discovering him on an extremist website last year. Investigators said he acted alone and was not affiliated with any terrorist organizations.
In court papers, Smadi's federal public defenders have argued that their client exhibited signs of depression and mental illness when his parents separated and that he "completely fell apart" when his mother died of brain cancer.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have said that Smadi came to the US on a tourist visa in 2007, but overstayed the time he was allowed to be in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/27/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
ION TEHAS = TEXARKANA?, TOPIX > MEMBER OF SOMALI-BASED TERROR GROUP HEADED TO TEXAS, via MEXICO???
* SAME > CNN: NUMBER OF ATTACKS IN US RISING/ALL-TIME HIGH. DHS Report.
[Dawn] Pakistan unblocked popular video sharing website YouTube late Wednesday after banning it in the wake of public outrage over "blasphemous" content.
"YouTube has been unblocked, but the links to sacrilegious content would remain inaccessible in Pakistan," Khurram Mehran, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) told AFP.
Earlier interior minister Rehman Malik said Pakistan was to lift a ban on Facebook and YouTube in the next few days.
The PTA banned access to Facebook and YouTube and other links, and restricted access to Wikipedia, last week over what it called "growing sacrilegious content".
Malik said Wednesday pages containing blasphemous material would remain blocked but the ban on popular sites including Facebook and YouTube would be lifted in the next few days.
"We discussed this matter in the cabinet meeting today. I told my colleagues that blocking the websites was not the right thing," Malik told AFP.
"I said that only particular pages that contain blasphemous material should be blocked, not the entire website," said Malik, adding that in next few days both Facebook and YouTube would be unblocked.
A government statement later said the federal cabinet "strongly condemned" the sketches of Prophet Mohammed and ordered that such material should not be accessible in Pakistan over the Internet.
"The cabinet strongly condemned the blasphemous caricatures on a specific website and directed the Ministry of IT (Information Technology) to ensure that such blasphemous material is not allowed to appear on the Internet in Pakistan."
When a Facebook user decided to organise an "Everyone Draw Mohammed Day" competition to promote "freedom of expression", it sparked a major backlash
among Islamic activists in the South Asian country of 170 million.
Islam strictly prohibits the depiction of any prophet as blasphemous and the row sparked comparison with protests across the Muslim world over the publication of satirical cartoons of Mohammed in European newspapers in 2006.
Several thousand Pakistanis took to the streets at the behest of religious groups to protest.
In the wake of the Prophet Mohammed controversy, Pakistan blocked hundreds of web pages to limit access to "blasphemous" material, banning access to US-based Facebook and YouTube -- the two most popular websites in the country.
A court in the eastern city of Lahore ordered the block on Facebook until at least May 31, when it is scheduled to hear a petition from Islamic lawyers.
Although none of the protests has mobilised the masses, sporadic demonstrators have continued to vent anger in Karachi and other cities.
Pakistan also briefly banned YouTube in February 2008 in a similar protest against "blasphemous" cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/27/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
What just happened? I'm sure all the confusion is because I don't speak Swedish.
Fifteen people were wounded in separate bomb explosions in Baghdad on Thursday morning, an Interior Ministry source said.
Six people were wounded in a roadside bomb explosion at the bustling central Baghdad district of Aalawi, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. In a separate incident, four people were wounded in a roadside bomb explosion near the main road that passes through Iskan neighborhood in western Baghdad, the source said.
Also in the day, three people were wounded in a makeshift bomb blast in Baghdad southwestern district of Jihad, the source added. Two people were also wounded in a bomb explosion in Harthiyah neighborhood in western the capital, he said.
DIALA / Aswat al-Iraq: Army forces waged on Wednesday a military operation in north of Baaquba, according to a security source.
"The forces launched the security operation in Khales district, north of Baaquba, in light of the car bomb explosion that rattled the district five days ago, during which scores were killed or wounded," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
"The forces have imposed a curfew and a vehicle ban in Khales since this morning until 3:00pm," he noted.
Baaquba, the capital of Diala, lies 57 km northeast of Baghdad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/27/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Fifteen people were wounded in overnight Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian hospital officials said early Wednesday.
The airstrikes came after the Israeli military reported that Palestinian fighters on Tuesday had blown up a donkey cart filled with dynamite near the concrete wall that separates Gaza from Israel and fired several mortar rounds into Israel. No Israelis were injured.
Officials at the hospital in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza say 15 people, mostly civilians, were injured when Israeli warplanes targeted a Hamas training camp in the area.
An Israeli defense spokesman confirmed the raids.
Palestinian sources say Israeli F-16's carried out another airstrike against the inoperative Yasser Arafat International Airport in Rafah. No injuries were reported in this attack.
There have been an increasing number of incidents in the past few months along the Gaza-Israel border, where Israel has imposed a crippling blockage following the Strip's takeover by the radical Hamas movement in 2007.
Israel launched a devastating assault on Gaza in December 2008 aimed at halting rocket fire. Some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed in the 22-day Operation Cast Lead. Since then, the number of rockets fired into Israel from Gaza has fallen significantly.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/27/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
Officials at the hospital in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza say 15 people, mostly civilians, were injured
MOSTLY?
Does that mean you couldn't get all the AK-47s gathered up in time?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/27/2010 15:40 Comments ||
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#2
Does that mean you couldn't get all the AK-47s gathered up in time?
That, and it's real hard to put a "I'm a Civilian" T-shirt on a body that's writhing in pain.
A member of a municipal council was wounded by a motorcycle bomb that exploded in Sisakhon district of Narathiwat on Thursday morning. Pol Lt Sirak Boonyak, duty officer at Sisakhon district police station, said the attack occurred about 10am in front of a grocery shop about 80 metres from the district office.
Chaichana Kongchamnan, 40, the shop owner, told police he saw a young man park a motorcycle in front of his shop and walk away. A bomb hidden in the motorcycle exploded after six soldiers of Narathiwat Task Force 37 arrived on three motorcycles and walked into the shop to buy newspapers. He believed the bomb was remotely detonated.
The explosion seriously injured Abdul Suko, a member of the municipal council from tambon Sisakhon, who was eating in another shop on the other side of the road. The six soldiers, the likely targets, were not hurt in the explosion.
There are more questions than answers in the case of a suspected international arms dealer caught in Washington state with a stockpile of sniper rifles.
Oliver King is an Iranian citizen who, in the past, has been a licensed gun dealer. King appeared in court in Seattle on Wednesday, accused of keeping a stash of guns and ammunition hidden in a storage unit near the U.S.-Canada border.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, King lied to enter the U.S. near Blaine last week. Agents with U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement became suspicious of King when he showed up at the border with a brand new passport, and a story about picking up his wife at Bellis Fair Shopping Mall in Bellingham.
Upon searching his car, agents found King's original passport, which has three visas for Iran and lists King's name as Hamid Malekpour.
Agents let King go, but followed him as he drove past the shopping mall and crossed the border into Oregon. King was seen entering an office building in McMinnville, which turned out to be a gun shop. Agents then watched as he loaded boxes into his car, and head back north on Interstate 5 to Ferndale.
At King's storage locker in Ferndale, agents found $30,000 worth of police-grade sniper rifles, handguns and ammunition. King told investigators he is a hunter, but the U.S. Attorney's Office said the kind and number of weapons stockpiled don't support that claim.
King has been charged with making false statements to a government agent, and being an alien in possession of firearms.
He remains in federal custody until his next court date in a week. Sounds like a serious assassin.
#1
I am thinking that he is al-Quds, specifically sent to the US for one or more targets. This dude needs to be carefully evaluated by intelligence interrogators, not treated as a punk criminal.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/27/2010 18:35 Comments ||
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#3
milk him dry. DON'T trade him for the stoopid hippie tourists
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/27/2010 19:02 Comments ||
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#4
I don't think he is the assassin. I think his was a logistical position to stash arms for a cell of assassins. I would expect there are more people involved ... sleepers, if you will, who would have been supplied their arms/ammunition from that cache.
#7
do you all remember the panic and commotion over the John (Islam is not a factor) Muhammad's stint as the DC "sniper"? I thought at the time that the enemy was fools for not duplicating that panic and fear in 20-30 cities. want terror? that is how to do it. and a state actor that could 'make it go away' would have serious leverage on a weak-kneed administration.
that is what i think was happening here
Posted by: abu do you love ||
05/27/2010 20:03 Comments ||
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#9
Amir Zarandi, who owns the Oregon gun shop, McMinnville Hunting and Police Supplies, said King is a consultant and has bought weapons there for years.
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Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
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One of the leading figures in Pakistan's Taliban insurgency was believed killed during a clash with the police in Afghanistan, the authorities in Nuristan Province said Thursday.
Devastated after his dreams of pursuing university-level computer science came to a crashing halt, accused terrorist Asad Ansari found a darker new purpose in life, the Crown alleged yesterday at his trial in Superior Court. "You had become dedicated to jihad," Crown attorney Jason Wakely suggested.
