This announcement was received via telephone from a high ranking Army officer of NIRU from Iran
Start of announcement
Saturday December 26th, 2009
In the name of God the Merciful & Forgiving
Praise be to God and peace on the His Messenger (PBUH) and his family I take refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan
The coordination center for National Iranian Armed Resistance Forces (NIRU) hereby declares its existence & accuses the current government and the leader of the Islamic Revolution, Mr. Sayyed Ali Khamenei of legal transgressions and high treason of nation and homeland.
We, a number of Officers, Soldiers and personnel of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran, hereby declare our readiness for rise to the armed defense of our nation against the forces of the criminal, illegitimate, transgressing and occupying current Government of Iran, and hereby inform our brothers and sisters serving with the armed security forces of Iran, invite them to join us, request their support and ask them to provide cover for us in this moral & national act. A special request for support & cooperation goes to our brothers of the Military Police.
Our action has no political or revolting aspects. Wed rather see our actions as the carrying out of the moral & national duties of all soldiers & Iranians. Our intention is the defense of the oppressed against oppressors, and avoidance of further crimes committed by the illegitimate Government, as well as the return of freedom, peace, order & justice to our land.
Now, after 6 months of crisis, oppression, crimes, repeated violent transgressions of our nations rights, as well as the trampling of Constitutional & moral laws, the Leader and other main agents of the Government have stripped themselves of their qualification and legitimacy by committing these acts or failing to carry out their legal & moral duties and therefore are considered an occupying and forced regime. In accordance with the regulations of the Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran, we are commissioned to protect the lives, properties and honor of our nation, and defend our sacred soil, as well as combat all occupying forces within the borders of the land. Any failure in carrying out this duty is considered a betrayal of nation and oath. According to the constitution, the defense of the rights of the nation of Iran, and avoidance of the collapse of the country takes precedence over protection of the ruling regime. Such (defensive) action is promotion of the good & rejection of wrong which one is of the two main principles of our constitution, the other being democracy.
In accordance with the decision of this command, and in carrying out our national & moral duties, we hereby announce the initiation of Operation Azadi (Freedom).
Name of Operation: Azadi (Freedom)
Start of Operation: December 27th, at noon
End of operation: Upon declaration of acceptance by trusted & esteemed high ranking regime officials & unconditional surrender of the occupying Government & leadership.
Operational Stages:
1. Immediate creation of command and coordination centers at tactical level for seizing your places of service (bases,etc ) with complete observance of rank & military regulations.
2. Disarming & arrest of Government supporting agents within your units & transfer to military detention facilities under strict observance of their rights.
3. Announcement of seizing of your station & recitation of the principles and aims of the operation through military & public communication facilities as well as other news media.
4. Establishment of communication with allied units & coordination of operations
5. Start of combat mission at regional level, and expanding. In order to better identify ourselves to allies and protesting people, green symbols and the Hosseinian (green) banner should be flown next to our national tricolor banner.
Rules of Engagement:
1. Use of firearms is only permitted in defense of lives, property & honor of our people and allied forces.
2. In case they face Government forces, NIRU officers are obliged to establish communication & negotiate with the commanders of the opposite force in order to avoid violence.
3. Disarming & temporary arrests of opposing forces is permitted.
4. In case of request for cease-fire, and announced willingness to surrender by opposing forces, NIRU commanders are to carefully consider the proposition and, whenever possible, agree with such, and proceed as in rule 3 of engagement.
5. Refrain from heavy fire exchanges in residential areas and in the presence of civilians.
6. Avoid destruction (damage) of public or private properties
7. The responsibility to uphold the rights, and the lives of prisoners lays with the commander of the arresting unit & thereafter with the command of the prison.
8. Avoid any violent confrontation with unarmed civilians.
9. The responsibility to uphold public peace and order in (re)conquered areas lays with NIRU in accordance with the Artesh regulations for (re)conquering occupied areas within the borders of Iran, and in cooperation with local police & security forces.
10. Martial Courts cant be held during the length of the operation.
Operational goals in combat theatre:
1. Defense of lives, properties, honor and rights of citizens within the borders of the land.
2. Downfall of the illegitimate & occupying rule of Mr. Sayyed Ali Khamenei, and the transgressing current Government.
3. Seizing & defense of the Parliament.
4. Seizing and defense of Government (Central & Provincial) buildings, Basij and other military bases & facilities nationwide.
5. Seizing & defense of Radio & TV stations across the nation.
6. Seizing & defense of prisons, supervising proper & legal treatment, freeing of political prisoners after appropriate due diligence & in coordination with responsible officials.
Cease-fire & end of operation conditions:
1. Establishment of a temporary Government in coordination and cooperation with members of parliament, members of the steering committee of the Expediency Council, Steering Committee of the Assembly of Experts for leadership, and other political & social elites & activists.
2. Carrying out a referendum within 3 months of formation of temporary Government, to determine whether people would want a new regime based on democracy & separation of 3 powers principles, observation of human rights, respect for all faiths & religions, legal equality of genders and religions.
3. Formation of an independent, impartial and just council to reform the constitution and other laws of the land, in order to avoid any future repetition of such deviations and oppression, this council should be in cooperation with all political parties & movements, as well as social, scientific and cultural groups.
4. Holding of free parliamentary, and presidential elections within 9 months of the referendum.
5. Dissolution of Basij forces, fusion of IRGC security forces, and police to a national police force.
6. Fusion of IRGC Combat Forces with the Artesh to form an apolitical, and national Army without interfering in economic, social or cultural affairs of the country.
End of announcement
Original Farsi :
http://dadiirandoust.mihanblog.com/post/14
Will add details as they come in
Several police vehicles and a police command unit have surrounded a plane at Detroit's Metro Airport, after the pilot of a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight requested emergency help.
Metro Airport spokesman John Witner said there was a report of suspicious activity on the Delta/Northwest flight 253 from Amsterdam Sunday. That is the same flight number as the flight that a Nigerian man was suspected of attempting to blow up over Detroit on Christmas Day.
All 257 passengers and 12 crew have deplaned safely, said Delta spokeswoman Susan Elliott. The flight landed safely in Detroit at 12:34 p.m. Sunday.
The flight crew requested that law enforcement meet the aircraft after a passenger on the plane became verbally disruptive, said Elliott.
The Associated Press reported that the incident lead to the arrest of a Nigerian man, who is now in custody. 2:00 CST update:
Two sources tell Fox News that the suspect boarded a plan in Lagos with no baggage, and said the FBI has already sent an email alert to other federal agencies notifying them of the incident. 2:21 CST update:
White House spokesman Bill Burton said President Obama was notified of the disturbance Sunday as federal officials began reviewing airline security measures.
"The President was notified shortly after 9:00 a.m. Hawaiian time of the incident regarding an unruly passenger on the flight arriving in Detroit by NSS chief of staff Denis McDonough," Burton said. "The President stressed the importance of maintaining heightened security measures for all air travel and gave instructions to set up another secure teleconference briefing as soon as possible." 2:52 CST update:
The official says the passenger was taken into custody after becoming verbally disruptive on landing. Subsequent interviews by investigators determined he was a businessman who became ill during the flight.
A source confirmed this report to Fox News, saying the passenger was indeed sick and that the incident appears to be "a non-event at this point."
A federal law enforcement official said the man, who was from Nigeria, was interviewed by authorities and the aircraft was swept. But the official said the incident was all an incredible coincidence.
A federal law enforcement official told Fox News that it "looks like a non-serious incident at this point. Early indications are that this person is not a threat."
#1
20-30 something male, boarded in Nigeria, locked himself in the head for an hour. Crew and passengers kicked the door in and he got a little testy at that point.
#2
The System Is Working. Pretty soon we'll have all the shaky jihadi Nigerian guys in jail here, at least, the unsuccessful ones. When will Janet resign?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/27/2009 14:50
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Was the President notified of this incident? Did he get the email?It might have made a difference, ya know.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/27/2009 15:10
Comments ||
Top||
#4
If this was "Plan B", obviously we are dealing with some inferior minds, to quote Daffy Duck.
#7
"The President was notified shortly after 9:00 a.m. Hawaiian...... "The President stressed the importance of maintaining heightened security measures...
....then returned to reading 'Dreams from My Father,' his Lucky Strikes and Aloha cake with Macadamia nut sauce take-away from Sam Choys.
#10
I'm a bit surprised the Admin hasn't tried to blame these on Bush yet. I guess they are waiting for the right meme.
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/27/2009 16:36
Comments ||
Top||
#11
Gimme a break--two incidents on the same flight from Amsterdam to Detroit over two days involving two Nigerians? Just pushing the envelope again to see what the new procedures are, and sow a little panic in the process.
Posted by: Dar ||
12/27/2009 16:49
Comments ||
Top||
#12
If nothing else, I bet Al Qaeda is testing the effectiveness of explosive diarrhea on these flights...
Posted by: Dar ||
12/27/2009 16:52
Comments ||
Top||
#13
But...but...he gave that speech in Cairo.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/27/2009 17:13
Comments ||
Top||
You may not have noticed because we've been covering for Barry most of the plots were foiled, but 2009, only Barry's first year, saw an unprecedented surge in terror "events" Got the quotes on the wrong word?
on U.S. soil. When analysts tally these events, thought so
they refer to anything from a disrupted plot to U.S. citizens traveling abroad to seek terror training or a lone gunman running amok in the U.S. And by the calculations of Rand Corporation expert Brian Jenkins, more terrorist threats were uncovered in the U.S. during 2009 than in any year since 2001.
"There appears to be an increase in [terrorist] activity in the U.S.," warns Jenkins, who calculates that there have been 32 terror-related "events" on these shores since 9/11, and that 12 of those occurred in 2009. Wonder if 9-11 made the top 10
This week Yitzhak Aharonowitz Captain of the Exodus passed away. As a tribute to this hero, below is real story of the the Famous Voyage (which is much different from the movie).
With the White Paper of 1939 the British caved into Arab pressure (that would never happen now--would it?) and severely limited the number of Jews that could enter what was then called Palestine.
During WW II it meant that they were causing the death of hundreds of thousands of Jews who could have escaped the Holocaust, had they a place that would take them in. After the Holocaust, many of Hitler's victims were trying to get in to the Holy Land. The British in their infinite wisdom threw these refugees back into camps this time on Cyprus.
Boris Agulnik was one of those refugees, he ended up on a ship called, The Exodus.
Boris Agulnik says that in 1947, after months of travel by train, foot and cart, his family made its way from the Russia-China border to Poking Pine City, the second largest German DP camp after Belsen. Their plan was to reach Palestine. "There, my sister Yudit was born and... I finally had my brit mila, at age three. There was no anesthetic and they said I screamed in Russian, 'Mommy, mommy it's painful.' Afterwards, I'm told, I used to proudly go around and boast, 'Now I am a Jew and I am going to Israel.'"
Few immigrants to Israel can claim that the story of how they arrived entailed a lengthy sea journey that was chronicled in daily newspapers around the world. How many have kept the El Al tickets from their aliya flight? But Agulnik proudly shows Metro his Exodus boarding pass.
While still in the camp, Agulnik senior was approached by the Hagana. Having been a battle-hardened colonel in the Soviet army, he was needed in Palestine. The family boarded a truck that was part of a convoy bound for Sete, a port near Marseilles. From there, they would be joined by other Holocaust survivors and displaced persons and would board the President Warfield, bound for Palestine.
"At the German-French border we were told to get out of the trucks and cross by foot. Scared that they would not allow us through with a three-month-old baby, my mother hid little Yudit in a box and left her on the truck. At the other side, after [the] nerve-wracking process at passport control, my anguished mother rummaged through the boxes until she found my sister, who was crying from hunger and fear," Agulnik recalls. "One of the French soldiers noticed the commotion, but when he saw [my mother] breastfeeding Yudit, he tactfully looked away."
"Looking away," however, was something the British refused to do. After setting sail on July 11, the President Warfield soon had company. The British Royal Navy began tailing the vessel, despite its Columbian flag. Soon, there was little point in pretense. The destination was Palestine, and the ship - under the command of young American Yitzhak Aharonowitz and his mainly American crew of Jewish ex-servicemen - was ready to convey a message to the world.
One can imagine the outcry after the ship's real name was revealed in bold lettering: EXODUS. If any on board the British ship failed to understand the reference, they would have understood the unfolding drama when the Columbian flag was lowered and the Israeli one raised. The course of not only a ship, but a whole nation, was at stake.
"What was different about the Exodus," explains Agulnik, "was the massive number of passengers on board. Generally, the ships that had been bringing in illegal immigrants before were relatively small, carrying at the most a few hundred passengers. With over 4,500 on our vessel, the Hagana had upped the ante. The stakes were high!"
The British government, which wanted this evolving drama to reach a finale of its own choosing, ordered its Navy to hijack the ship.
Con't at link -- and continue reading about the reunion of Aharonowitz, at 84, with his First Officer.
Seyed Mousavi, the nephew of Mir Hossein Mousavi, former presidential candidate and one of the moral leader of the opposition was killed today in Tehran an opposition website said.
Seyed Mousavi was shot in the heart at Enqelab square, in the very centre of the Iranian capital. The BBC confirms his death and adds Mir Hossein Mousavi is at the hospital where his nephew was taken.
Opposition said at least 4 people were killed today in Iran in clashes between protesters and security forces.
The death of Seyed Mousavi, especially during the Ashura days is likely to ignite new demonstrations and violence across the country.
#8
the IRGC vs teh Army could be interesting. Legitimacy lost, it's just naked power and crushing boot now
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/27/2009 14:11
Comments ||
Top||
#9
Who gives a flying fukc, let them fight it out on the streets of Tehran, at least it is contained in Iran, at the moment.
Posted by: Dave UK ||
12/27/2009 14:52
Comments ||
Top||
#10
Legitimacy lost, it's just naked power and crushing boot now. Posted by: Frank G 2009-12-27 14:11
Kinda like Washington, DC, under the donks, eh Frank?
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/27/2009 15:59
Comments ||
Top||
#11
except we are armed
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/27/2009 16:17
Comments ||
Top||
#12
I like the Iranian people. I visited before the Shah fell; everyone seemed happy, content, generally everyone smiled everywhere. A decent standard of living prevailed. I know Iranians who had to flee after the Shah fell, some military, some civilian. The mullahs who took over, and their sycophants, seem alien, or like a cancer to the Iranian body.
I want to see Iranians free, but it is best if they free themselves. I hope they do. Guns would help. If they succeed, I hope they institute their own 2nd Amendment. So pray for them.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
12/27/2009 20:25
Comments ||
Top||
#13
I struggled in how to respond, but Whiskey Mike did it better and I'll only add that the Iranians I've met are educated, non jihadi-oriented, and a people we have common goals with. The Shah did good things in his time, encouraging a western education system. Not ethat Ahmadinejad is a leisure-suit-wearing doofus. He couldn't earn a living past cab-driver in the west
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/27/2009 21:02
Comments ||
Top||
Chinese archeologists have unearthed a large third-century tomb, which they say could be that of Cao Cao, the legendary politician and general famous throughout East Asia for his Machiavellian tactics.
The tomb, discovered in Xigaoxue village near the ancient Chinese city of Anyang, Henan Province, has an epitaph and inscription that appear to refer to Cao Cao, Central China Television said on Sunday.
A Chinese proverb, "speak of Cao Cao and he appears," is the equivalent of "speak of the devil" in English.
Cao Cao was the final chancellor of the Eastern Han dynasty, who went on to form his own state during the political turmoil of the Three Kingdoms period. He died in 220 AD in Luoyang, the capital of the Eastern Han dynasty, and was posthumously named Emperor of the Wei state that he founded.
In Chinese lore, a number of anecdotes tell of Cao Cao's ruthlessness, cunning, and military and political acumen.
The tomb contains the body of a man in his 60s, corresponding to Cao Cao's age at his death, and two women. Although often portrayed as a cruel and merciless tyrant, Cao has also been praised as a brilliant ruler and military genius who treated his subordinates like his family. He was also skilled in poetry and martial arts and authored many war journals.
DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said that the thwarting of the attempt to blow up the Amsterdam-Detroit flight this week demonstrated that "the system worked."
Asked by CNN's Candy Crowley on "State of the Union" how that could be possible when the young Nigerian who sought to set off the bomb was able to smuggle explosive liquid onto the flight, Napolitano responded: "We're asking the same questions."
Napolitano added that there was "no suggestion that [the bomber] was improperly screened."
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/27/2009 10:13
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Ditto. The TSA reaction was fairly moronic as well - under new rules, passengers must stay in their seat during the final hour of an international flight.
The bomber stayed in his seat. The guy who STOPPED HIM did not.
#7
This is perfectly in line with the Obamanation's creed of "First admit no wrong".
This is the typical response of a senior bureaucrat. This is the typical behavior of those without "skin in the game". This is what you can expect of Obamacare.
#8
More on this lad's father contacting the US Embassy in Lagos and issuing his warning please. An extra helping please....of what the embassy LEGAT (FBI representative) and US Intelligence (USI), ie, Chief of Station did after the contact.
Also a bit more on MI5/MI6 info and data and the UK's refusal to re-issue a visa.
Maybe some sort of 'special internal investigation' needs to be undertaken. Who can we get? No need contacting former FBI/CIA director William Webster however, he's currently busy with the Major Hasan damage control internal investigation.
#9
Besoeker, it sounds like the result of the father's tattling, the lad's name was put on a list of people to watch. Unfortunately, not enough information turned up in the past six months to move him to a higher risk list. Which seems fair enough, if he spent a good piece of that time incommunicado while he was being trained in a far corner of Yemen rather than swanning around contacting known terror group members. Unknown unknowns, and all that.
#10
Apparently "the system" includes taking responsibility for ourselves as passengers and jumping on anyone trying to kill us. Otherwise her comment is so breathtakingly stupid that the room should have erupted in uncontrollable laughter. If not, that tells us just how breathtakingly stupid "journalists" are as well.
#11
Unfortunately, not enough information turned up in the past six months to move him to a higher risk list. TW.
The logic somehow escapes me. Are we to assume that people placed on the "terrorist and potential terrorist watch list" as known or suspected terrorists ....are still eligible to fly on US air carriers?
SPIEGEL: Madame Secretary, in your first testimony to the US Congress as Homeland Security Secretary you never mentioned the word "terrorism." Does Islamist terrorism suddenly no longer pose a threat to your country?
Napolitano: Of course it does. I presume there is always a threat from terrorism. In my speech, although I did not use the word "terrorism," I referred to "man-caused" disasters. That is perhaps only a nuance, but it demonstrates that we want to move away from the politics of fear toward a policy of being prepared for all risks that can occur."
SPIEGEL: This sounds quite different from what we heard from the Bush administration. How will the new anti-terror policy differ from the previous one?
Napolitano: Our policies will be guided by authoritative information. We also have assets at our disposal now that we did not have prior to 9/11. For example, we are much better able to keep track of travellers coming into the US than we were before. The third thing is to work with our international partners and allies to make sure that we are getting information and sharing information in an appropriate and real-time fashion.
#14
Are we to assume that people placed on the "terrorist and potential terrorist watch list" as known or suspected terrorists ....are still eligible to fly on US air carriers?
Besoeker, I assume that what they got was something along the lines of the father saying to a clerk at the embassy, "Look, I've got a son who was a bit of a religious nutcase as a kid, may have gotten in with the wrong crowd at university in England, and has now disappeared. I'm afraid he might have gotten into jihadi circles." If the lad didn't show up on any lists of contacts, wasn't seen by spies or overhead electronically, how could our guys justify putting him on a No Fly list? At best he was a possible known, as Mr. Rumsfeld might have put it, nothing more.
And remember, the father was a Nigerian big-shot. This could have been a matter of an inappropriate response to a father-son spat -- the embassy clerk would have had no way of knowing until something confirmatory came across the wire. Much like all the false leads the police get when they ask for help in a case.
#15
The bomber stayed in his seat. The guy who STOPPED HIM did not.
A horrifying thought has occurred to me: What if the goal is to possibly end up with an airplane wreck full of dead people 'because someone tried to stop him'? And at that point we're told, "Don't resist, don't fight, look what happens when we do..."
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/27/2009 13:16
Comments ||
Top||
#16
Of course "the system" worked. She got the press release out in time, appeared on the Legacy Media (probably without saying "Muslim" or some other doubleplusungood word), and issued yet another stupid restriction that will do absolutely nothing to prevent another attack.
#17
And if the 'system' had NOT worked, we wouldn't know it - we would be trying to explain how a bare wire in a fuel tank or a lightning strike or such caused a Christmas tragedy. The very first words from authorities when the plane fell off radar would have been "This is not a terrorist incident. (We have no clue what it IS, but we know it isn't terrorism.)"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/27/2009 14:12
Comments ||
Top||
#22
"The system worked"
Translation:
"I still have my job"
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/27/2009 14:40
Comments ||
Top||
#23
The "system" worked so well, the terrorists tried it again! Reports are coming out, that it is now happening again. Same flight number, even -- Amsterdam to Detroit, etc, etc
#24
Correction: he People worked, the System still sucked.
However, we pushed the margin of error to the edge of the envelope. You cannot defend yourself against every binary chemical reaction that produces an explosion, toxic substance, or poison gas. You have to go after the potential perps.
Napolitano is surrounded by a human wall of TSA agents, so she is safe.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/27/2009 15:07
Comments ||
Top||
#25
Dumb luck and ineptitude by AQ and this spoiled splodadope dupe is what prevented this plane from being blasted out of the sky. The system did not work. DHS/TSA had nothing to do with preventing this. Doesn't give me a lot of confidence in flying or the abilities of our government to prevent aircraft bombings by terrorists. I'd probably feel better if we just armed the passengers to prevent these kinds of incidents [only meant about half facetiously].
So will this terrorist or man made disaster waiting to happen get treated as a common criminal or will he be taken him out and shot post haste as a terrorist enemy of the U.S.A. That will go a long way towards prevention of wannabe boombers in the future--at least this one.
#26
The system did not work. DHS/TSA had nothing to do with preventing this.
Sorry to point this out JohnQC but you obviously misunderstand that purpose of "the system".
Napaolitano and her ilk, all the way to Zero himself, view "secuity" as a first responder. Their job is not to prevent attacks but to provide political cover after the fact to all the members of the regime.
In that case the system is working. See Ms. Skolaut.
#27
Look, she probably views the plane flying all those unimportant people around and creating plant-food as the major man created problem, not the bomber.
#33
Being on the receiving end of DHS Intel and Analysis messages on this at the FOUO/LES level, suffice it to say they were utterly clueless and scrambling to find anything to say. System worked my ass.......
Three Muslim villagers and two militants have died in the latest violence in Thailand's insurgency-plagued southern provinces, police said on Sunday.
Suspected militants shot and killed a 39-year-old Muslim as he was standing in front of his house in Pattani province late Saturday, they said. After midnight, a group of insurgents also shot and killed two Muslim men, aged 25 and 20, while they were riding home by motorcycle in Yala province. A third man was wounded in the attack.
Early Sunday, army and police forces raided a house containing suspected rebels in Yala, and a 32-year-old militant was killed in an exchange of fire that lasted more than ten minutes, the police said. In a second raid on a house in Yala, combined forces killed another fighter.
An American Christian missionary slipped into isolated North Korea on Christmas Day, shouting that he brought God's love and carrying a letter urging leader Kim Jong Il to step down and free all political prisoners, an activist said.
Robert Park, 28, from Tucson, crossed a poorly guarded stretch of the frozen Tumen River that separates North Korea from China, according to a member of the Seoul-based group Pax Koreana, which promotes human rights in the North. The group plans to release footage of the crossing today, he said.
"I am an American citizen. I brought God's love. God loves you and God bless you," Park reportedly said in fluent Korean as he crossed over Friday near the northeastern city of Hoeryong, according to the activist, citing two people who watched Park cross and filmed it. The activist spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.
No information has emerged about what happened next to Park, who is of Korean descent. The communist country's state-run media was silent. The State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Beijing said they were aware of the incident but had no details.
"The U.S. government places the highest priority on the protection and welfare of American citizens," State Department spokesman Andrew Laine said.
The illegal entry could complicate Washington's efforts to coax North Korea back to negotiations aimed at its nuclear disarmament. Park's crossing also comes just months after the country freed two U.S. journalists, who were arrested along the Tumen and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for trespassing and "hostile acts." They were released to former President Bill Clinton on a visit to the isolated country in August. North Korea and the United States do not have diplomatic relations.
Park carried a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, calling for major changes to his totalitarian regime, according to the activist from Pax Koreana.
"Please open your borders so that we may bring food, provisions, medicine, necessities, and assistance to those who are struggling to survive," said the letter, according to a copy posted on the conservative group's Web site. "Please close down all concentration camps and release all political prisoners today."
North Korea holds about 154,000 political prisoners in six large camps across the country, according South Korean government estimates. The North has long been regarded as having one of the world's worst human-rights records, but it denies the existence of prison camps.
The activist said Park, who he described as not belonging to Pax Koreana, also carried a separate written appeal calling for Kim to immediately step down, noting starvation, torture and deaths in North Korean political prison camps.
North Korea's criminal code punishes illegal entry with up to three years in prison. But that could be the least of the missionary's problems in a country where defectors say dissent is swiftly wiped out and the regime sees all trespassers as potential spies.
Kim wields absolute power in the communist state of 24 million people where he and his late father - the country's founder, Kim Il Sung - are the object of an intense personality cult.
Other activists said Park had become known over the past year in Seoul human-rights circles. They suggested that his passion for helping North Koreans may have blinded him to the consequences of his actions.
#1
This misguided fool is about to get a quick harsh lesson on real life and real terror.
Hes a long way from Tuscon - he had absolutely no clue what he was about to become involved in.
I pity him.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
12/27/2009 11:47
Comments ||
Top||
#2
I do not pity him. Gene pool maintenance, is all. Too stupid to live.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
12/27/2009 13:08
Comments ||
Top||
#3
He should have made a left turn at Albuquerque and he would have been ok.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/27/2009 15:00
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Abilene Paradox?
On a hot afternoon visiting in Coleman, Texas, the family is comfortably playing dominoes on a porch, until the father-in-law suggests that they take a trip to Abilene [53 miles north] for dinner. The wife says, "Sounds like a great idea." The husband, despite having reservations because the drive is long and hot, thinks that his preferences must be out-of-step with the group and says, "Sounds good to me. I just hope your mother wants to go." The mother-in-law then says, "Of course I want to go. I haven't been to Abilene in a long time."
The drive is hot, dusty, and long. When they arrive at the cafeteria, the food is as bad as the drive. They arrive back home four hours later, exhausted.
One of them dishonestly says, "It was a great trip, wasn't it?" The mother-in-law says that, actually, she would rather have stayed home, but went along since the other three were so enthusiastic. The husband says, "I wasn't delighted to be doing what we were doing. I only went to satisfy the rest of you." The wife says, "I just went along to keep you happy. I would have had to be crazy to want to go out in the heat like that." The father-in-law then says that he only suggested it because he thought the others might be bored.
The group sits back, perplexed that they together decided to take a trip which none of them wanted. They each would have preferred to sit comfortably, but did not admit to it when they still had time to enjoy the afternoon.
#2
The WH is referring to the attempt to explode an airplane in the US as a terrorist act because it was foiled (not by Security measures but by lack of competence by the the terrorist). Had he been successful; such as Fort Hood, no reference to terrorism would of been made. It would of been 'an isolated air incident under investigation'.
On September 11th 2001, the government's (1970s) security procedures all failed, and the only good news of the day came from self-reliant citizens (on Flight 93) using their own wits and a willingness to act.
On December 25th 2009, the government's (post-9/11) security procedures all failed, and the only good news came once again from alert individuals:
"Suddenly, we hear a bang. It sounded like a firecracker went off," said Jasper Schuringa, a film director who was traveling to the US to visit friends.
"When [it] went off, everybody panicked ... Then someone screamed, Fire! Fire!"
Schuringa, sitting in seat 20J, in the right-most section of the Airbus 330, looked to his left. "I saw smoke rising from a seat ... I didnt hesitate. I just jumped," he said.
Schuringa dove over four passengers to reach Abdul Mutallabs seat. The suspect had a blanket on his lap. "It was smoking and there were flames coming from beneath his legs."
"I searched on his body parts and he had his pants open. He had something strapped to his legs."
The unassuming hero ripped the flaming, molten object which resembled a small, white shampoo bottle off Abdul Mutallabs left leg, near his crotch. He said he put out the fire with his bare hands.
Schuringa yelled for water, and members of the flight crew soon appeared with fire extinguishers. Then, he said, he hauled the suspect out of the seat.
If the facts remain broadly as outlined, this incident has serious implications for airline travel: A man is on the no-fly list but is allowed to board the plane. Everyone flying on an inbound long-haul flight to the United States is forced to hand over excessively large amounts of liquids and gels and put the small amounts permitted into separate plastic bags, yet the no-fly guy's material for bomb-making sails through undetected.
This time the last line of defense worked. Next time, the paradise-seeking jihadist might get lucky and find himself sitting next to, say, Charlie Sheen, too immersed in a lengthy treatise on how 9/11 was an inside job to notice the smoldering socks in the next seat; or to the same kind of nothing-to-see-here crowd who thought Major Hasan's e-mails were "consistent with his research interests".
The young man, who yesterday night attempted to ignite an explosive device aboard a Delta Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan in the United States has been identified as Abdul Farouk Umar Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old son of Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, former First Bank chairman. Mutallab, a former minister and prominent banker recently retired from the banks board...
The family home of the Mutallabs in Central London, is currently being searched by men of the Metropolitan Police. THISDAY checks reveal that the suspect, Abdulfarouk Umar Muttalab who is an engineering student at the University College, London had been noted for his extreme views on religion since his secondary school days at the British International School, Lome, Togo.
So once again we see the foolishness of complaceniks who drone the fatuous cliches about how "in this struggle, scholarships will be far more important than smart bombs". The men eager to self-detonate on infidel airliners are not goatherds from the caves of Waziristan but educated middle-class Muslims who have had the most exposure to the western world and could be pulling down six-figure salaries almost anywhere on the planet. And don't look to "assimilation" to work its magic, either. We're witnessing a process of generational de-assimilation: In this family, yet again, the dad is an entirely assimilated member of the transnational elite. His son wants a global caliphate run on Wahhabist lines.
#1
This is not good. I would expect some excitement just after the Ambo's return to their posts.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
12/27/2009 1:52
Comments ||
Top||
#2
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, headed by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Liberman, will host a conference next week (27-31 December) for Israeli Heads of Missions.
Sounds like they're planning for a real blow out New Year's Eve.
#6
It could be psy-ops on the Iranians. It could be that they want to get potential targets out of the way based on some new intel. It could be that all the ambassadors need to be briefed on their new talking points.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2009 12:35
Comments ||
Top||
AN 84-year-old Indian politician has resigned after a sex tape was broadcast allegedly showing him in bed with three women. Way to go Gramps To be fair, by the time you're 84 less than three just won't do...
Narayan Dutt Tiwari, the Governor of Andhra Pradesh in south-east India, had maintained his innocence after the sex tape was aired a day ago on the news channel Andhra Jyothi.
He has now has bowed to pressure and resigned, the Indian Express reports.
A statement about his resignation was released today, barely a day after the Governor's office dismissed the sex tape allegedly featuring him having sex in the company of three women as a "tissue of lies".
A one-sentence statement said that Mr Tiwari -- who took charge as Governor on August 19, 2007 -- had submitted his resignation to President Pratibha Patil on "health grounds".
The Indian Congress had called for "verification" of the sex tape the day before but as the chorus of outrage grew louder, with the entire Opposition asking for his recall and a probe into the allegations, the party's options were limited.
It is understood that Indian National Congress president Sonia Gandhi spoke to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this morning. A senior Congress leader was asked to contact Mr Tiwari who claimed he was innocent but had to finally give in.
The TV channel which aired the tape said the broadcast was a sting operation facilitated by a "woman broker" who claimed she "supplied women" to the Governor, according to the Indian Express.
She claimed she had been promised a mining lease and when Mr Tiwari reneged on that promise, she decided to "expose" him. "Hell hath no fury...."
At least 15, mostly civilians have been killed and over 30 others injured in heavy clashes that erupted between Somali militants and government forces backed by African Union troops in the restive capital Mogadishu, witnesses.
The clashes started on late Wednesday in the capital's KM4 and Dabka intersections and Shaqalaha road, where fighters loyal to Somalia's Hizbul Islam carried out surprise attacks on government positions, leading to heavy gun battle.
Eyewitnesses said the fighting killed at least 15 people, mostly civilians and caused the injuries of several other civilians.
Eyewitnesses said the fighting killed at least 15 people, mostly civilians and caused the injuries of several other civilians.
Mohammed Osman Arus, Hizbul Islam spokesman confirmed that his forces carried out attacks on government and AU troops, killing several soldiers. "We carried out attacks on their positions. I saw dead bodies of three AU soldiers with my on eyes," he claimed.
AU troops' spokesman Barigye Bahoku, however, refuted those claims when reached for comments.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
LAHORE: Former president Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf has denied writing off loans of any affluent or influential individual.
However, answering questions on Facebook on Saturday, he said he had written off loans of those affected by natural disasters in Balochistan and Sindh in 2000, victims of the 2005 earthquake and the 2006 floods, and as part of an agriculture reforms package for the poor.
And those weren't bribes, those were gratuities ...
Musharraf also denied charges of handing over Pakistanis to the US or any other country for interrogation. He said those taken into custody by the US were captured in Afghanistan. "Our policy was clear: Pakistanis will be tried in Pakistan whereas foreigners will be handed over to their own countries first and in case of refusal (which was invariably the case), will be handed over to the US."
To a question on his return to Pakistan, Musharraf said he would surely come back. "The timing, however, is of the essence," he remarked.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
Apparently it's not in jeopardy when Paleos rocket the Israelis, but then, this is the Guardian and you already knew that.
Israeli troops yesterday shot dead six Palestinians in two separate incidents, as evidence emerged that an increasingly fragile ceasefire between armed groups loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement and Israel appeared to be in danger of breaking down.
The shootings, the most serious violence in months, came a day before today's first anniversary of the outbreak of Israel's war against Gaza in which almost 1,400 Palestinians died and as allegations have emerged from Israeli human rights campaigners who opposed the war that they are facing concerted attempts to silence them.
Three of the Palestinians were killed in an airstrike just inside the Gaza border. According to Israeli officials they had been scouting the area for a possible infiltration operation, but according to Hamas officials and medics they had been searching for scrap metal to salvage.
More serious in its implications, however, was the shooting dead of three members of Fatah's armed wing the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in a raid on the northern West Bank city of Nablus, apparently in retaliation for the shooting of an Israeli driving near the settlement at Shavei Shomron. Relatives who witnessed the Nablus shootings said soldiers fired at two of the men without warning. An Israeli army spokesman, Major Peter Lerner, said troops fired after the three men failed to respond to calls to surrender.
It also follows the discovery of an improvised explosive device on a busy road leading to the huge Israeli settlement at Modi'in with a letter from an al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades unit claiming responsibility. The two incidents have followed recent warnings from both Israelis and Palestinians that frustration among a younger generation of al-Aqsa members which signed an amnesty deal with Israel in 2007 over the lack of progress in the almost moribund peace process was in danger of boiling over.
An aide to Abbas described the killings as a "grave Israeli escalation" which showed "Israel is not interested in peace and is trying to explode the situation".
The article goes on to wring its collective hands about the treatment of human rights groups in Israel that bravely expose all the evilness of the Israeli government. Apparently most of the public ignore them, and the government harasses them by requiring them to state publicly their sources of funding. Oh the perfidy!
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
There are only a few people authorised by custom to contract to dig Graves in several mountain Counties here in the North Georgia mountains. Maybe one could vacation in Israel and find work in Gaza. I hear the climate is sunny and the area is historic and full of tourist attractions he could visit. Most are older men who have been digging Graves for years. You bring your own tools, pack a Lunch. The Funeral Homes and the local Churches with the Graveyards for the community employ a local man who does the work. You get about $475 per grave. The work is year round and regular. Cash money and low overhead.
Everybody in the Community knows who the grave diggers are. A few shovels or a specialized back hoe. A pickup truck and some canvas drapes and a pocket tape measure...you dont need much. It takes an honest hard working experienced man to dig a proper grave.
Not a whole lot of Jews or A-rabs up here really (absolutely no Synagogues or Mosques a-tall for some reason...not even one ), but digging Graves in Gaza cant be all that different from digging Graves anywhere, surely.
#2
Angleton9, please bury me on a steep grade between the Toccoa and the tracks of the Blue RR. Near some gentle rapids please. Mrs. Besoeker will send you the check.
BARA: At least five people were killed and two others injured in a clash between two banned militants groups Ansarul Islam and Lashkar-e-Islam in the Tirrah Valley of Khyber Agency, officials said on Saturday.
Political administration officials told Daily Times that armed supporters of the two groups were using heavy weaponry to target rival hideouts in the valley.
Destroyed: The officials said security forces fired at hideouts of Lashkar-e-Islam, destroying two of them. Hundreds of people have been killed in bloody clashes between the two groups in the past five years. Scores of people have reportedly relocated to other parts of the tribal agency and Peshawar in a bid to escape the increasing violence.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
Hezbollah Secretary-General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah has described American leaders as anti-human and brutal, saying US citizens are the first victims of such leaders.
"US authorities are anti-human," the 49-year-old Nasrallah said, adding the country is governed by the most brutal and greedy individuals.
The Hezbollah chief made the remark during a televised speech marking the eighth day of Muharram on Friday night.
In a reference to the US invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks Nasrallah said that "The American democracy has victimized the Iraqi and Afghan people."
Years after the US-led invasion of the two Muslim countries, daily violence is calming the lives of people in the two war-ravaged states.
The Hezbollah Secretary General also urged his country's politicians to "observe a one-year truce" in an attempt to avoid new conflicts.
Nasrallah also called for giving the unity government an opportunity to function.
"Let those who don't want to tackle the people's priorities resign from the cabinet," he noted.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#1
Most people who work for the US govt. are not Moslems and they are usually just plain anti-human Evil. Everybody knows that.
How hard can it be just to ding this guy, Nasrallah? You could always just contract the work. Cant be a shortage of takers out there...what ever happened to the Jackal? That part of the world must be absolutely floating in folks who can be hired for a job in that basic line.
Get somebody for Nasrallah. Hire someone competent. Tell him to make it messy ( deep fried in Krisco ). I mean, they got Mugadniyeh ( did I spell that right?)
Blew him to wet confetti in a parking lot. Yeah.
Nasrallah has to cross the street somewhere every day. Yay, brutal and greedy, its for a good cause.
Put one on the payroll.
#2
Most people who work for the US govt. are not Moslems and they are usually just plain anti-human Evil.
Pooh. Most people who work for the U.S. government work hard and mean well, just like anywhere else. The question is what they are assigned to do and the tools they are given to do it. The answer is to reduce the scope of their responsibilities and the number of people doing whatever it is, to the point of wiping out entire departments and setting those people free to make their way in the private sector. Contrariwise, anyone working for government health insurance will sooner or later do something that causes pain, suffering, and death -- it's the nature of the situation, not of the people involved.
My understanding is that Nasrallah has only appeared in public a handful of times the 2006 conflict. The Hezbollah system of security around him is layered. He is rumored to spend most of his time in various bunkers and to move from bunker to bunker fairly often. Not an easy get.
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/27/2009 11:16
Comments ||
Top||
#4
"US authorities are anti-human,"
"The American democracy has victimized the Iraqi and Afghan people."
Years after the US-led invasion of the two Muslim countries, daily violence is calming the lives of people in the two war-ravaged states.
He's making strong statements, and yet he is not acting as if he really believed in their truth.
If he did he would be staying quiet and desperately be trying not to draw attention to himself and his little country.
He would reasonably fear that even a provocative statement on his part could bring "victimization" to himself and his part of the world, courtesy of the "inhuman US".
The inside story of the privileged student who embraced al-Qa'ida and tried to blow a transatlantic jet out of the sky - and the lessons for us all
He was a quiet man ...
With his wealth, privilege and education at one of Britain's leading universities, Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab had the world at his feet -- able to choose from a range of futures in which to make his mark on the world.
Instead, the son of one of Nigeria's most important figures opted to make his impact in a very different way -- by detonating 80g of explosives sewn into his underpants, and trying to destroy a passenger jet as it came in to land at Detroit Airport on Christmas Day.
As he was charged by US authorities last night with attempting to blow up an airliner, a surprising picture emerged of the would-be bomber. Abdulmutallab, 23, had lived a gilded life, and, for the three years he studied in London, he stayed in a £2m flat. He was from a very different background to many of the other al-Qa'ida recruits who opt for martyrdom.
The charges were read out to him by US District Judge Paul Borman in a conference room at the medical centre where he is receiving treatment for burns. Agents brought Abdulmutallab, who had a blanket over his lap and was wearing a green hospital robe, into the room in a wheelchair.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Clearly a desperate young man, driven to extremism by a mixture of anguish, hopelessness, poverty and anger at President Bush.
#2
interestingly,the election of Barack Obama is a factor in that, because, whatever you think of him as a president, the fact of him shows young people that there is an alternative to killing yourself
Sure. You can kill infidels. Especially those who worship false idols like The One.
#4
"He was shaking. He didn't resist anything. It's just hard to believe that he was trying to blow up this plane. He was in a trance. He was very afraid."
Wrong conclusion. It was OBVIOUS that he was contemplating a horrific act involving his own death.
This is why the Israelis use trained psychological screeners to interview everyone about to board an Israel-bound plane. It's very easy to suss out a terrorist with just a few simple questions - whereareyougoingtoday, whatareyoudoingthere, whydoyouhaveasyringestickingoutofyourlowerpantslegsir?
It works, has done so for decades. The cost would be a billion or two. A bargain.
#5
Israeli style screening would, in addition to costing lots of $$$, also result in increasing wait times.
The solution is a combo of technology, behavioral screening and profiling. Unfortunately, the latter two go against PC.
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/27/2009 10:49
Comments ||
Top||
#6
"Abdulmutallab's background has confounded terror experts. Dr Magnus Ranstorp of the Center for Asymmetric Threat Studies at the Swedish National Defence College..."
The headline should have been:
"Experts Confounded" (In the USA it would have been "Experts Surprised")
#7
Getting really tired of the media and Govt citing that he was "self-radicalized" as if it happens in a vacuum...the common denominators never mentioned are:
1) Wahhabi Mosque
2) Wahhabi Imam
3) Wahhabi Propaganda
Posted by: Jack Salami ||
12/27/2009 12:09
Comments ||
Top||
Staff at the Great Yarmouth Sea Life Centre in Norfolk give turtles a seasonal treat of brussel sprouts at Christmas which provide a healthy dose of vitamins, minerals and fibre.
However, the turtles, like humans, are prone to heavy bouts of flatulence after eating the vegetables.
Last year a turtle at a Sealife Centre triggered overflow alarms in the middle of the night after the splashes from gassy bubbles hit overflow sensors.
Continued on Page 49
Actually, the sulfurous veggies are okay once in a while as part of a Bones & Raw Foods diet but shouldn't be a daily thing.
BTW: B&RF diets mimic what a dog would eat in the wild. Feeding this way eliminates bad dog breath, dry coats, tartared teeth etc. I haven't had any of those problems, or paid for a vet to clean teeth under anesthesia, for any of the two dozen or so dogs that have lived with me during the last 15 years - including for show champions who have to be in top condition. Check out the book Give Your Dog a Bone by aussie veterinarian Ian Billinhurst for info.
If you don't do a full B&RF diet, then the next best thing is a kibble like the Wellness brand or Nutro Natural Lamb & Rice, supplemented each day with a (raw only) chicken wing or back, or an egg or (occasional but not daily) a tablespoon of low-salt cottage cheese. Include a nutritional supplement like Fresh Factors (available online) or The Missing Link. Feeding a diet like this repays itself in lower vet bills, a healthier pet and, yes .... better dog breath and fewer dog farts.
No promises about the breath or flatulance of the owners however. ;-)
This message brought to you by your friendly responsible dog breedier / fancier
#4
Lest we fergit, 1980's + POTUS BUSH 1 + BROCCOLI/VEGGIE-GATE.
D *** NG IT, MORIARITY, "HERBIE" BUSH 1 WAS POTUS OF THESE UNITED STATES, AND NO ONE - MOM, FIRST LADY, OR THE SOVIETS - HAD THE POWER TO MAKE HIM EAT HIS BROCCOLI!
versus
AL BUNDY > D *** NG IT, PEG, DON'T THREATEN ME WID SEX!
[Ma'an] The splinter faction that claimed responsibility for shooting an Israeli settler on Thursday vowed on Saturday to retaliate for Israel's assassination of three Palestinians in Nablus the same morning.
"The Imad Mughniya Group," a militant organization proclaiming affiliation to Fatah's military wing, the Al-Aqsa Brigades, told Ma'an late Saturday evening that "retribution for the Israeli massacres in Gaza and Nablus will be equal in size to the crime."
"We shall have Dire Revenge!!"
"This massacre exposes the true face of the occupation," the group said in a new statement. "There is no option but resistance."
Israeli forces stormed the Old City of Nablus in the early hours of Saturday morning, raiding several homes and killing three men affiliated with the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
On Thursday, the Mughniya faction said its members killed an Israeli settler near Nablus. In an emailed message, the organization also warned of "a series of attacks to come."
The self-proclaimed militant group is named after the late military chief of the Lebanese movement Hizbullah, who was killed in a car bombing in Syria in 2008 for which Israel was widely blamed.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: al-Aqsa Martyrs
Police are searching a number of properties in central London as a man is charged with trying to blow up a US airliner flying to Detroit.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, from Nigeria, is alleged to have had an explosive device hidden in his clothes. He is said to have been an engineering student at University College London.
The Metropolitan Police have been searching a flat at an apartment block in Mansfield Street, central London, and other properties in the capital. Police have cordoned off Mansfield Street in front of the apartment block.
Nigerian former banker Alhaji Umaru Mutallab said he believed the man was his son. Mr Mutallab said his son Umar had studied in London before going travelling. His son had not lived in London for some time and he was not sure of his whereabouts, he added.
He said: "I believe he might have been to Yemen, but we are investigating to determine that."
A spokesperson for University College London (UCL) said a student called Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was enrolled on a mechanical engineering course between September 2005 and June 2008. It added: "It must be stressed that the university has no evidence that this is the same person currently being referred to in the media."
BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera said the British authorities were informed of a possible connection to the UK on Friday evening. It is understood one of their key priorities will be to check whether the arrested man has cropped up in the course of any other investigations.
BBC News correspondent Richard Slee said there was fairly low-key police activity at the last known London address of Mr Abdulmutallab, a basement flat in the block near Harley Street. Reporting from the scene, he said police forensic officers had been seen going into the building.
A blue English Heritage plaque states that philanthropist Sir Robert Mayer once lived in the block where properties have recently sold for between £1.5m and £2.5m.
The Metropolitan Police said its officers were liaising with the US authorities.
A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said: "Searches are being carried out at addresses in central London."
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
We must do something about the poverty that drives people to terrorism.
#5
there are alot of ppl who are poor that are not terrorist
Posted by: chris ||
12/27/2009 12:37
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Give them money, ya say? All we have are O-Bucks, and people are getting hesitant to take them these days. How about some gold? Would they like us then?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/27/2009 12:54
Comments ||
Top||
[Al Arabiya Latest] Saudi Arabia claimed victory in a conflict with Yemen's Houthi rebels, saying the kingdom's army was successful in driving away the last infiltrators from its territory, press reports said on Saturday.
King Abdullah told the Arabic language daily Kuwaiti newspaper al-Seyassah that his instructions to Saudi forces were "clear," demanding operations were confined to Saudi territory without entering Yemen.
Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday the conflict was nearing an end, with at least 73 of its troops killed in fighting against Yemeni rebels since November.
King Abdullah told al-Seyassah that his orders to the army were to "only drive away infiltrators and preserve the security and borders" of the kingdom.
"We are not a nation that interferes in other countries' affairs and do not accept other countries to interfere in ours," the king said.
"We are not a nation that interferes in other countries' affairs and do not accept other countries to interfere in ours," he said.
In November, Saudi Arabia launched a military offensive against Yemen's Shiite rebels, known as Houthis after their leader's clan name, after a rebel cross-border incursion.
There are international fears that al-Qaeda is trying to use Yemen, where the Houthis are fighting government forces, as a launch pad for attacks in the region.
The Houthis belong to the minority Shiite Zaidis, and complain of social, economic and religious marginalization, but both rebels and the Yemeni government deny their aims are sectarian.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[16 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Yup, mission accomplished. Peace is restored in Arabia. Nobody should have any more problems from that neck of the woods.
/sarc off//
Posted by: American Delight ||
12/27/2009 20:44
Comments ||
Top||
[Geo News] The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan Swat chapter has expressed its confidence on the mediation of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan in restoring peace in Malakand Division. The TTP Malakand has announced this in an audio message delivered to senior journalist and analyst Rahimullah Yousufzai. The message has been recorded in the voice of a TTP commander Nooruddin Muhammad. In his message, he described Imran Khan as a patriot, sincere Pakistani, good person and Muslim-friendly politicians. We announce to accept his (Imran) mediation for restoration of peace in Malakand, it said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
#1
Why is Imran Kahn the wealthy well travelled ex cricketer a fan of the Taliban?
SEOUL, Dec. 26 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il conducted about 200 field guidance tours of local farms and military camps this year, the communist nation's state media said Saturday, marking the highest number of public appearances he has made since coming to power.
Kim "conducted field guidance at as many as 200 places across the country," reported the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
It's a wonder anyone ever gets any work done ...
"It was a hard work unprecedented in the history and a partisan long march," the KCNA said, adding that the increased appearances indicated that Kim strove to solve issues pertaining to the people's livelihoods.
The South Korean Unification Ministry said earlier in the month that the North Korean leader made 156 such trips as of Dec. 18, based on the North's media reports. The figure is the highest since Kim took over leadership in 1998 from his late father, Kim Il-sung, and almost double his 90 public activities of last year, the ministry said.
The communist leader usually gibbers gives field guidance at factories, farms and military camps to highlight his leadership and policies.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
[The News (Pak) Top Stories] Maulana Shah Dauran, deputy leader of the Swat chapter of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), died after a protracted illness and has been buried in the Damadola area in Bajaur Agency.
Official and tribal sources were sure that one of the most wanted Swat militants and the closest aide of Swat Taliban chief Maulana Fazlullah was dead.
Military authorities and government ministers had in the past made claims that Shah Dauran had died in the Army action. But
The sources said Shah Dauran, who was reportedly hiding somewhere in Bajaur, was suffering from kidney disease and injuries suffered by him during the fighting in Swat had become gangrenous.
all those claims lacked evidence.
The sources said Shah Dauran, who was reportedly hiding somewhere in Bajaur, was suffering from kidney disease and injuries suffered by him during the fighting in Swat had become gangrenous. The sources also said he was probably suffering from cancer for sometime. His condition deteriorated due to lack of proper medication in the remote tribal region.
According to the sources, Shah Dauran died somewhere in the Mohmand Agency on December 17. He was reportedly being shifted by the militants to the Khyber Agency through unfrequented routes for better medical treatment but he expired on the way and his body was taken to the Taliban-infested Mamond area in Bajaur. His funeral prayers and burial took place in Damadola on December 18.
It was learnt that Taliban commanders and militants from Swat and Bajaur attended the funeral.
Sources in the intelligence agencies said they were sure that Shah Dauran was dead as it was confirmed by those who were personally aware of the funeral and his burial in Bajaur.
Shah Dauran hailed from Qambar village in Swat where he ran a Madrassa. He joined the Taliban group in 2007 and soon became an important member of its Shura. He was a hardliner and was known for his hawkish views.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
#1
"we had to bury 'im. He smelled horrible. We're pretty sure he was dead. A bit"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/27/2009 8:27
Comments ||
Top||
#2
#1: "we had to bury 'im. He smelled horrible. We're pretty sure he was dead. A bit"
Posted by: Frank G|| 2009-12-27 08:27
Part of him was dead, Frank, or there would have been no gangrene. After they buried him, I'd suspect he's ALL dead.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/27/2009 15:45
Comments ||
Top||
[Asharq al-Aswat] There is news that Abdul Malik al Houthi, the commander of the Huthi rebels, has been transferred from Yemen to Eritrea to receive medical treatment after being wounded by shelling. Some say he died, some say he is receiving treatment whilst others deny the entire issue altogether.
The death of the most prominent field commander Abdul Malik al Huthi would not represent the end of the issue as he would be replaced by another. Despite the importance of such a blow to the Huthi rebel group, it is still an inadequate strike if not followed by a comprehensive solution whereby the military aspect only serves as part of the solution and not the whole of it.
What should catch our attention and what's more important than the demise of Abdul Malik al Huthi, I believe, is the destination where al Huthi was reportedly moved to, i.e. Eritrea. If this turns out to be true then this will further consolidate accusations against Eritrea placing it at the heart of an inexplicable alliance with Iran and the fundamentalist Salafist group Harakat al-Shabaab Mujahideen (Movement of Warrior Youth) in Somalia, not to mention Eritrea's long-standing friendly ties with Israel, which are currently experiencing a period of clear tension. Further inexplicable still is the position of Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki, the revolutionist "progressive" man who was an enemy of the Eritrean Mujahideen or fundamentalists as they were called. On top of this, the man professes to be a Christian whilst being a well-known secularist.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
Home Minister Sahara Khatun yesterday denied the allegation of killings in crossfire and termed it a self-defence method for the law enforcers.
Much easier to defend yourself if you just plug the miscreant behind each ear before the truck leaves the coppe-shoppe ...
If you look up the definition of crossfire there is no crossfire in the country. It has never happened. What is happening is that the members of my law enforcement agencies are being compelled to shoot miscreants to defend themselves when the miscreants open fire on them, Sahara said while talking to reporters at a function in the city.
Do you want the law enforcers to be hit by bullets when criminals open fire on them to evade arrest? the home minister questioned, reports the private television channel ATN Bangla.
Sahara made the remarks on a query regarding the High Court's verdict that asked the government to stop extra-judicial killings. Sahara was speaking at an orientation and annual prise-giving ceremony at Milestone School & College in Uttara in the afternoon. The home minister also affirmed that no one, including members of law enforcement agencies, would be spared if they were involved in any kind of criminal acts and corruption.
Earlier, on November 17 the home minister claimed that no incidents of 'crossfire' had taken place in the country since the Awami League government took over.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
[Kyodo: Korea] A top Korean People's Army officer on Wednesday criticized U.S.-South Korea joint military drills as North Korea celebrated the 18th anniversary Thursday of leader Kim Jong Il's assuming the KPA supreme commandership, the official Korean Central News Agency said. ""Acute confrontation is prevailing on the Korean Peninsula due to the moves of the U.S. and its followers to ignite a new war,"" KCNA quoted Ri Yong Ho, chief of the General Staff of the KPA, as saying in a report delivered at a national meeting in Pyongyang celebrating the anniversary of Kim"s assumption of the KPA supreme commandership on Dec. 24, 1991.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Commies
Uzbekistan is holding parliamentary elections, but some people do not even seem to have noticed.
Nevertheless the streets of the Uzbek capital Tashkent are lined with banners, posters and flags to remind people that 27 December is election day, when up to 16 million eligible voters are being asked to choose members of the Oliy Majlis - the lower house of parliament.
President Karimov seems keen to use these elections to showcase what he sees as his country's democratic credentials. "Freedom of speech and freedom of choice indeed exist in our lives. This process means that a multi-party system is gaining strength," he said in a national address in early December.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
Tens of thousands of Iraqi security personnel have been deployed in the holy shrine city of Kerbala ahead of the climax of the Shia Ashura commemorations. More than one million pilgrims are expected to pour into the city on Sunday, where authorities will also check on the 60,000-odd foreign worshippers expected to attend the ceremonies to ensure they do not have swine flu.
General Ali Jassim Mohammed, Karbala police chief, said that around 25,000 policemen and soldiers had been deployed to secure the commemoration ceremonies.
About 20,000 soldiers have formed eight cordons around the city, according to Amal al-Hir, the provincial governor of the city.
A thousand snipers are positioned on roof-tops and dog sniffers are to be employed to help find any explosives. About 600 female staff have been placed on three roads entering the city to counter women suicide bombers, who have struck in the past. CCTV cameras are also being used to follow any incidents in the city.
Baghdad has also seen a rise in security personnel during the commemorations. Some pilgrims will visit a Shia shrine in the Kadhimiya district of the capital.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
KAILUA, Hawaii, Dec 26 (Reuters) - The U.S. government created a record on Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in November 2009 in the intelligence community's central repository of information on known and suspected international terrorists, but there was not enough negative information to put him on a no-fly list, a U.S. administration official said on Saturday.
There are 550,000 individuals contained in the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment repository, where a record of Abdulmutallab was created.
There was not enough negative information to include his name in a subset of that group, the Terrorist Screening Data Base (TSDB) that has more than 400,000 individuals and is the main identities database within the U.S. government for international terrorism, the official said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Bureaucratic bungling or the fog of war?
Cause and effect need not be mutually exclusive and frequently aren't.
#2
Strange, very strange. There WAS enough derog to put him on the "known and suspected interntional terrorist list" but there WAS NOT enough derog to keep him from flying on US air carriers? One must assume then, that "known or suspected terrorists" are still welcome to travel on US air carriers.
#5
Those who put the original firewalls in place were never held accountable or publicly rebuked. Instead they were provided cover by their sponsors in Congress. So, why shouldn't they be back in place if just only in practice rather than on paper. Fort Hood and this are just the warning signs that something big is going to happen. The usual suspects will gamble that hopey changey thingy will make it go away. Hope is not a plan.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/27/2009 8:25
Comments ||
Top||
#7
An anti-terrorism strategy that relies on accurately maintaining multiple databases will always be full of holes.
Long past time we moved to the Israeli solution: hire hundreds, maybe thousands, of well-trained psychology (or social work or drama) grads as full-time psychological screeners. Have them ask EVERYONE preparing to go through security on any US-bound flight, from any port, a few simple questions, a la:
Where are you flying today? What's the purpose of your trip? Why are you not taking any bags for a one-way trip, Mr Atta? You say you're an architect, sir-- so tell me, in what city is Brunelleschi's dome?
A good interrogator can instantly spot nervousness, a liar whose story is inconsistent, evidence of coordinated group activity. The Israelis have done this successfully with not a single sky terror incident in almost four decades.
Cost? Maybe 20,000 FTE screeners, max, at an annual fully-loaded cost of maybe $100k each = $2B per year. How many billions are pissed away by DHS every year on Beltway Bandits' software and systems integration? This would be a bargain.
#12
It's a good point, lex. You could always sell it to the Dhimmicrats as part of a 'stimulus' package.
And it would provide jobs for graduates with degrees in gender studies.
Only problem is that the SEIU would be all over those jobs like flies on ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2009 11:34
Comments ||
Top||
#13
UK had enough data to deny a VISA even though his daddy is a millionaire diplo attache. Yet US won't even assign double-secret probation.
Did the UK intelligence agencies share that data with their American counterparts? Separately, I really would like to know what religious ceremony young Mr. Abdulmutallab was headed for in Detroit, and who was running it. How he knew about it and obtained an invitation would be nice, too.
#14
likely the Catholic Holy day of Obligation: Mary, Mother of God?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/27/2009 11:50
Comments ||
Top||
#15
You are probably right about nothing being done.
After all the Visa Express program (no checks, no interviews necessary for Muslims...) continued even after 9/11. Most of the terrorists came over via Visa Express. Only very public exposure and outcry caused the State Department to reluctantly cancel the program.
They even gave the idiot who came up with the program a Big Bonus and Promotion for it.
#17
This is still 9-10 in mentality. Even under W's administration, there was no shakeup of the system after 9-11, though people tried. A human wall of people was created in the form of DHS.
Under the new Administration, we are on the defensive now as a matter of policy, so our enemies will keep probing, and if they get any brains, will create mini 9-11s. And rather than take the fight to the enemy, our govt will go after the law abiding citizens.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/27/2009 13:04
Comments ||
Top||
#18
And lex has it right. The Israeli model is definitely worth considering. It HAS worked for them. They target the potential terrorist, not the person carrying the nail clippers.
Posted by: Alaska Paul at home in the basement ||
12/27/2009 13:06
Comments ||
Top||
[Al Arabiya Latest] A reformist website said Iranian riot police fired tear gas to disperse opposition supporters who used a Shiite religious mourning ceremony on Saturday to try to revive anti-government protests in the Islamic Republic.
"Police are firing tear gas to disperse a huge crowd in Imam Hossein square ... but people are resisting and chanting slogans against the government," the Jaras website reported.
The same website earlier on Saturday said security forces "fiercely" confronted opposition backers in different parts of the capital.
"Police sought to disperse about 200 to 300 people who wanted to gather in Enghelab square. They beat up some and detained several people," an AFP correspondent said, adding that demonstrators were shouting "death to the dictator."
Small groups of people also gathered around the nearby Tehran university -- a hotbed of anti-government protests -- with some shouting slogans and at least two people were seen arrested.
"Riot police are fiercely confronting the opposition supporters in different parts of Tehran ... they (the police) are also breaking windows of cars passing the area," Jaras said.
Iran police chief Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam issued a fresh warning Saturday against attempts to use Shiite processions marking the Ashura rituals as a means to stage fresh protests against the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"Police will severely crack down on rioters. We will identify and arrest riot leaders," he was quoted as saying by the official ISNA news agency.
Six months after a disputed election plunged Iran into political turmoil, tension has again mounted in the major oil producer after death a week ago of leading dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri at the age of 87.
Montazeri's death occurred in the tense run-up to Ashura on Dec. 27, an important Shiite religious commemoration that offers the opposition another opportunity to show its strength. That day coincides with the seventh day of mourning for Montazeri, when more memorial services are usually held.
On Ashura, Shiite Muslims commemorate the 7th century death of Imam Hossein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammad.
Religious ceremonies are also traditionally held across Iran on the day before Ashura, called Tasoua.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
"Arasradio, a self-identified Iranian protester in Tehran, has left a couple comments on the TNOYF You-Tube page concerning the situation in Iran:
We are going to bring Ahmadinejad down and once again our nations can unite in their battle against fundamentalists. We are about to free Iran. Pray for us..."
[Dawn] US special forces have stepped up counterterrorism missions against some of the most lethal groups in Afghanistan and plan an even bigger expansion next year, The New York Times reported late Saturday.
Citing unnamed US military commanders, the newspaper said the commandos from the Army's Delta Force and the Navy's classified Seals units have had success weakening the network of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the strongest Taliban fighter in eastern Afghanistan.
Haqqani's group has used its bases in neighboring Pakistan to carry out deadly strikes in and around Kabul, the Afghan capital, according to the report.
Guided by intercepted cellphone communications, the US commandos have also killed some important Taliban operatives in Marja, a Taliban stronghold in Helmand Province in the south, the paper noted.
Marine commanders say they believe that there are some 1,000 fighters holed up in the town, according to the report.
Although US President Barack Obama and his aides have not publicly discussed these highly classified missions as part of the administration's new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, the counterterrorism operations are expected to increase along with the deployment of 30,000 more US troops next year, The Times said.
The increased counterterrorism operations over the past three or four months reflect growth in every part of the Afghanistan campaign, including conventional forces securing the population, other troops training and partnering with Afghan security forces, and more civilians to complement and capitalize on security gains, the paper noted.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
commandos from the Army's Delta Force
Mission creep? I hope we've got enough JSOC resources within the stockade to react to extremis requirements both domestic and overseas. The original intent, etc.
#2
This article obliquely refers to an advantage we have in Afghanistan versus Vietnam. The Phoenix program was villified for conducting a similarly effective assassination program (despite it being less wide-scale, long-lasting, and brutal than Viet Cong tactics), but there is barely a peep about us doing it now. I think there are two main factors. First, the Communists had a worldwide propaganda machine including reporters imbedded in the West. The Islamicists lack that and get only weaker echos of support from the former Communist network. Second, deaths in Viet Nam were localized, so the public could feel withdrawal would stop the killing and turn an apathetic blind eye to what would happen to South Vietnamese after we left. But even a lethargic public is aware that Islamacists are targeting us and will continue to target us on our own soil. Therefore, there is very little ruckus about us using tough and effective tactics.
#3
Lest we forget, democrats are sometimes a good fulcrum for national defense as they are not challenged in their methods as harshly as Republicans are in such matters.
Saudi warplanes reportedly mount a dozen air attacks on the Yemeni side of the common border, as Riyadh continues to reinforce Sana'a's anti-Shia campaign.
Yemen's Shia fighters on Saturday said Saudi aircraft fired more than 700 missiles overnight on the northern villages along the border with Saudi Arabia.
They also said that Yemen's northern areas had come under Saudi artillery bombardment, tank raids and mortar attacks. The Houthi fighters added on their website that Saudi forces had targeted villages over night with hundreds of surface-to-surface missiles.
Saudi Arabia joined the Yemeni government's months-long fierce armed campaign against the Shia fighters in November.
The Houthis are accused by the central government of breaking the terms of a ceasefire agreement by taking foreign visitors hostage. The Saudis, on their part, claimed that the fighters had attacked one of their border checkpoints.
Houthis, however, reject the allegations, accusing the Sunni-dominated Kingdom and the central governments of joining forces to uproot the Shia faith in the territory.
The Saudis are as well blamed by the fighters for using banned weapons against the areas resided by the Shia civilians.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under:
KABUL (AP) -- A heavily armed Taliban commander was killed Saturday during an pre-dawn shootout at a mosque in eastern Afghanistan, NATO said as it reported an American service member was killed in a separate attack.
A joint Afghan-international force went to a compound in Wardak province to look for an insurgent believed responsible for planning attacks and buying weapons and parts for making bombs, the international coalition said. When the joint force approached the compound, the Taliban commander, who was armed with grenades and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, ran to a nearby mosque.
Where else would he go for more guns and ammo?
Afghan security forces surrounded the mosque outside the town of Pirdad in the Nirkh district and called for him to surrender. When he didn't, they went inside.
[Straits Times] SHE wears a helmet and drives her scooter slowly through the capital of Indonesia's Aceh province, but Yuli is still stopped by the sharia police. Her crime: wearing tight jeans and a blouse deemed 'un-Islamic'.
The 20-year-old lowers her eyes and doesn't argue with the khaki-clad male officers who summon her to the side of the road. 'I promise to buy a more Muslim outfit,' she says, showing enough contrition for the police to wave her on her way.
In one hour, 18 women are pulled over because the guardians of morality decide their slacks are too tight or their shirts reveal too much of their feminine curves. Only three men receive the same treatment, for wearing shorts. 'We have to respect sharia (Islamic) law, which has been adopted by the provincial government and which stipulates that women can only show their faces and their hands,' sharia police commander Hali Marzuki told AFP.
Perched at the end of Sumatra island about 1,000 kilometres northwest of the Indonesian capital Jakarta, Aceh is one of the most conservative regions in the mainly Muslim archipelago. Most Muslims in the country of 234 million people are modern and moderate, and Indonesia's constitution recognises five official religions including Buddhism and Christianity.
But Aceh has special autonomy, and one of the ways it has defined itself as different from the rest of the country is through the implementation of sharia law and the advent of the religious police. The force has more than 1,500 officers, including 60 women, but unlike their fearsome counterparts in Saudi Arabia the local sharia police do not seem to cause too much concern among citizens.
Officers are relatively cheerful, they carry no weapons and they almost always let wrongdoers off with a warning. 'Punishment is not the objective of the law. We must convince and explain,' says Iskander, the sharia police chief in Banda Aceh, who goes by only one name. He has the power to order floggings but has found no need to do so since he was promoted to his current position a year ago. Less than a dozen people have been publicly caned since 2005, for drinking alcohol, gambling or having illicit sexual relations.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
[The News (Pak) Top Stories] Police are trying to determine whether five Americans detained in Sargodha had planned to attack a complex that houses nuclear power facilities, authorities said on Saturday.
The young Muslims were picked up earlier this month in a case that has spurred fears that Westerners are traveling to Pakistan to join the militant groups.
Police and government officials have made a series of escalating and, at times, seemingly contradictory allegations about the men's intentions, while the US officials have been far more cautious, though they, too, are looking at charging the men.
A Pakistani government official said on Saturday that the men had established contact with the Taliban commanders and planned to attack sites in Pakistan. Earlier, however, the local police accused the men of intending to fight in Afghanistan after meeting militant leaders.
The men had a map of the Chashma Barrage, a complex that, along with nuclear power facilities, houses a water reservoir and other structures, said Javed Islam, a senior police official in Sargodha.
He stressed that the men were not carrying a specific map of any nuclear power plant, but rather the whole of the Chashma Barrage. The detained men also had exchanged e-mails about the area, Islam said. "We are also working to retrieve some of the deleted material in their computers," he said. Police plan to recommend that courts charge the five men with collecting and attempting to collect material to carry out terrorist activities in Pakistan, police official Nazir Ahmad told The Associated Press. The punishments for those charges range from seven years to life in prison, he said.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said the men had established contact with the Taliban commanders.
He said they had planned to meet Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud and his deputy Qari Hussain before attacking sites inside Pakistan. The nuclear power plant might have been one of the targets, Sanaullah said.
Police have also alleged that the men met representatives from the al-Qaeda-linked Jaish-e-Mohammed group in Hyderabad and from the Jamaat-ud-Dawa in Lahore, but the groups turned the men away because they did not trust them.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[16 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
VARIOUS MUIL FORUMS > Artics allege that so-called "US JIHADIST" DAVID HEADLEY [aka DAEWOOD GILANI, etal.] took photos of INDIAN NUCFACS including Facilis capable or involved in PLUTONIUM PROCESSING, as part of terror conspiracy-plot to strike at India's nuc assets???
[Ma'an] The military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, the Jihad Jibreel Brigades, said a group of fighters launched an RPG at Israel near Beit Lahiya on Saturday morning.
A statement from the group said the attack occurred at 1am, with fighters clashing with Israeli troops attempting to enter the Strip through its northern border.
They said no fighters were injured in the clash.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said officials in the army were not aware of the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: PFLP-GC
BRUSSELS - Airports and airlines across Europe moved rapidly to tighten security on U.S.-bound flights on Saturday after a man tried to set off explosives on a plane flying from Amsterdam to Detroit. Authorities in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands either increased passenger checks or reinforced security measures already stepped up ahead of the busy Christmas and New Year travel period, officials said.
The measures follow a formal request from the U.S. Department of Transportation to airports worldwide to ratchet up security following the failed Christmas Day attack on a Delta Air Lines flight by a Nigerian suspect, officials said.
German authorities said they were considering increasing airport security but hadnt done so yet.
British airports group BAA, which manages two of the 10 busiest airports in Europe Heathrow and Gatwick said airlines had strengthened security and travellers should expect delays during one of the busiest travel periods of the year. Passengers travelling to the United States should expect their airline to carry out additional security checks prior to boarding, the company said in a statement.
A spokesman for Aeroports de Paris said the U.S. transport authority had specifically asked airports to search passenger luggage more thoroughly and to carry out extra pat-down searches of passengers before they board U.S.-bound flights.
We received instructions from the U.S. Federal Transit Administration last night and its up to the individual airlines to put them in place, the spokesman said, referring to a unit of the U.S. Department of Transportation. The instructions were sent to all the countries in the world and apply to all airlines travelling to the U.S.
The vice-president of the European Commission, Jacques Barrot, said European authorities were in touch with the United States and would do everything to keep airline security tight. This incident shows once again that vigilance is necessary at all times in the fight against terror, he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
[Al Arabiya Latest] Hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims descended on the holy shrine city of Karbala on Saturday for the climax of Ashura commemorations, despite fears of violent attacks by Sunni extremists.
Security forces have beefed up their presence in the central city and authorities are also checking on the 60,000-odd foreign worshippers also expected to attend the ceremonies to ensure they do not have swine flu.
Black flags, representing the sadness of Shiites during Ashura, were to be seen all over the city, 110 kilometers (70 miles) south of Baghdad, along with pictures of Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas, who are both buried there.
"I came to show my belief in Imam Hussein -- this event has nothing to do with personal motivations or politics," said 40-year-old Mohammed Abdul Hussein, who came from neighboring Babil province.
Karbala police chief General Ali Jassim Mohammed said that around 25,000 policemen and soldiers had been deployed to secure the commemoration ceremonies, which climax on Saturday and Sunday, and mark the death of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, in 680 AD.
Security perimeters have also been formed throughout the city, while helicopters are providing extra surveillance and bomb-sniffing dogs are being used at checkpoints.
To counter women suicide attackers who have struck Karbala before, security forces have deployed 600 female personnel on three roads into the city.
During Ashura in March 2004, near-simultaneous bombings at a Shiite mosque in Baghdad and in Karbala killed more than 170 people.
Authorities are also concerned about the spread of swine flu from foreign worshippers, the majority of whom are arriving from Iran, Pakistan and Arab Gulf countries.
"We expect more than 60,000 foreign pilgrims to come, and we have ordered them to visit health centers to be sure they do not have any diseases," said provincial governor Amal Adin al-Her.
He estimates that around one million pilgrims will visit Karbala on Saturday and Sunday.
Ashura, which means tenth in Arabic, falls on the 10th day of the Muslim month of Muharram.
Tradition holds that Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, was decapitated and his body mutilated by the armies of the Sunni caliph Yazid.
To express remorse and guilt for not saving Hussein, some Shiite volunteers flay themselves with chains or slice their scalps during processions to the Karbala shrines.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
It won't be long before more Shiite pilgrims are going to Iraq than to Iran. Iran will lose its grip as the center of Shiite theology.
[Iran Press TV Latest] A US fighter jet has carried out multiple airstrikes on the home of a senior official in Yemen's northern rugged province of Sa'ada, Houthi fighters say.
The Yemen-based Houthi fighters say the warplane struck the home owned by the governor of Sa'ada province, Hassan Mohammad Manna in five blitzes. There were no reports on possible casualties in the attacks.
The conflict in northern Yemen began in 2004 between Sana'a and Houthi fighters. The conflict intensified in August 2009 when the Yemeni army launched Operation Scorched Earth in an attempt to crush the fighters in the northern province of Sa'ada.
The Houthis accuse the Yemeni government of violation of their civil rights, political, economic and religious marginalization as well as large-scale corruption.
This is while in addition to the Yemeni government, Saudi Arabia also pounds the Houthis. The Houthis say that Saudi forces strike Yemeni villages and indiscriminately target civilians. According to the fighters, Saudis use toxic materials, including white phosphorous bombs, against civilians in northern Yemen.
The US military is also said to raid Yemen's northern rugged regions of Amran, Hajjah and Sa'ada which have already been the target of joint Saudi-Yemen offensives.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
took "five blitzes" by US Fighter Jets to bomb a house, huh? The liars haven't heard of JDAM accuracy
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/27/2009 8:22
Comments ||
Top||
[Ma'an] A Hamas member was hurt in an explosion south of Beirut late Saturday night, security sources told Reuters. Other reports were conflicting. The Qatari satellite network Al-Jazeera said one person was killed, while the Dubai-based Al-Arabiyya reported that two people were hurt. It was not clear what caused the blast, which reportedly occurred in a Hizbullah stronghold.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
26 December 2009 BAGHDAD - An Iraqi police official says a roadside bomb has killed three Shiite pilgrims in eastern Baghdad in the latest round of violence to strike worshippers during a revered Shiite observance.
The official says Saturdays bomb was planted near a tent that offered drinks and food to pilgrims. He says 16 people were injured. A medical official confirmed the casualty figures.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
KHAR: Terrorists assassinated an anti-Taliban tribal elder and dumped his beheaded body by the roadside in Bajaur Agency, officials said on Saturday. According to a local official, Gul Muhammad, 42, an elder of the Salarzai tribe, had been actively participating in raising a village militia to battle the Taliban in the region.
The body of Gul Muhammad was found this morning in Mamund village, Faramosh Khan, the official, said. A note found on the beheaded body said that anyone who would join the militia against the Taliban would be killed in the same manner, he said.
A local security official confirmed the incident, saying that Taliban militants wanted to scare the local population away from supporting army operations.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
Actually they do, it's the parable about killing the goose that lays the golden egg. However, we being a modern advanced civilization choose to ignore the unaltered observation of basic human behavior from some 2,000+ years ago. We're too smart and sophisticated to pay attention to quaint fundamentals.
#3
The part about the unfunded liabilities is chilling. No one here aside from WaPo's Robert Samuelson even pays any attention to the fact that most of this country's tens of trillions in public pension obligations are way under water.
#7
Lest we fergit, ISLAM/ISLAMISM > can be ascribed as GOD-FAITH BASED SOCIALISM-GOVTISM;
versus
COMMUNISM > SECULAR, SCIENTIFIC SOCIALISM-GOVTISM
HENCE, WOT > PRE-, POST 9-11 MSM-NET - RADICAL ISLAMIST MILITANT GROUPS repor collude extensively wid COMMUNIST-MAOIST-SOC MILITANT GROUPS. WOT = PRO-US versus ANTI-US OWG-SOCIALIST WORLD ORDER [among other].
Many Netters believe that POTUS Bammer is ANTI-AMERICAN > by that scope, DOES AMERICA = USA STILL WIN OR SURVIVES, ETC. WHEN ANTI-AMERICAN AMERICAN WAGES WAR AGZ AN ANTI-AMERICAN NON/ANTI-AMERICAN???
* "POPCORN" MOMENT > will "THERE IS NO -ISM BUT ISLAM" RADIC ISLAM still be in love wid SECULARISM-HAPPY COMMIE-MAOIST-SOCIALISM once the USA, the mighty USSA = weak USRoA + America = Amerika, goes down for the count???
Eight Turkish soldiers have been detained over an alleged plot to assassinate Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc, the army has said. It said the soldiers were taken to the army headquarters in Ankara after being interrogated by a prosecutor on Friday.
The arrests follow an inquiry which was launched last week after Mr Arinc said a car with two officers had been spotted several times near his house.
The Turkish military denied being part of any plot. It said the officers were investigating a military official living nearby.
The detentions come amid renewed speculation that there is mounting tension between the governing AK Party, which has its roots in political Islam, and the powerful armed forces. The Turkish army sees itself as the guardian of the country's secularism.
Earlier this year, dozens of people, including two retired generals, journalists and academics, went on trial in Turkey accused of plotting to overthrow the government. Prosecutors argue that they were members of a shadowy ultranationalist network - dubbed Ergenekon - which allegedly aimed to provoke a military coup.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
NINEWA / Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi army forces on Saturday arrested an al-Qaeda-in-Iraq (AQI) leader in Mosul City, a local source said.
On Saturday, a force from the 3rd Brigade, Quick Intervention Corps (QIC) arrested a leader of al-Qaeda-West Coast, Jassem Mohammed al-Jabouri, in al-Saddeeq neighborhood, northern Mosul, the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Jabouri is wanted for his involvement in several crimes and bombings in Mosul and Kirkuk , the source pointed out.
Mosul, the capital city of Ninewa province, lies 405 km north of Baghdad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
a leader of al-Qaeda-West Coast
West Coast?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/27/2009 9:00
Comments ||
Top||
#2
San Diego branch. Makers of incendiary coffee-cup bombs.
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Two lawmakers from two different blocs severely criticized the Iraqi governments decision to move Camp Ashraf of the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) to the Iraqi capital Baghdad while a third termed anti-Iran group as undesirable.
Taha al-Leheibi, the leader of the Iraqi Democratic Grouping, called in statements to Aswat al-Iraq news agency on the Iraqi government to deal with the PMOI members as humans and in accordance with the principles of human rights and relevant international covenants.
The governments official spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, had said that the government would move the Camp Ashraf, which houses the PMO refugees, from the province of Diala, 57 km northeast of Baghdad, to the Iraqi capital on December 15.
Leheibi noted that the step aims to keep the PMOI members from the Iranian territories as the Iraqi government believes they pose a threat to Iran.
He noted that the Iraqi government has even started to block entry of pharmaceuticals and medical doctors into the camp.
Iraqi security forces had entered Camp Ashraf in Diala on July 28, 2009 in order to wield control over it. Clashes occurred between the Iraqi troops and the camp residents, leaving seven killed and 400 others wounded while two Iraqi soldiers were killed.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
WASSIT / Aswat al-Iraq: Three Katyusha rockets have been fired at the Delta base in Kut City, but no casualties have been reported thus far, a local security source said on Saturday.
On Saturday evening, unknown gunmen fired three Katyusha rockets at the MNF-run military Delta base (7 km west of Kut), the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. Police patrol vehicles have headed to al-Tashash area, the site where the rockets were launched from, in search of the attackers.
No official comment has been made by the Multi-National Force (MNF) on whether the incident has caused damage.
Kut, the capital city of Wassit province, lies 180 km southeast of Baghdad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif on Saturday he was ready for a meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari, Nawaz but it should be result-oriented and have a clear agenda. Talking to reporters after a meeting of the PML-N, Nawaz ruled out any serious threat to the current democratic system.
There is no threat to the system. If there is any threat, it will be from undemocratic moves. We will support the democratic process and the constitution, he said.
Nawaz reassured his partys conditional support to the Pakistan Peoples Party-led government provided it implemented the Charter of Democracy (CoD), abolished the 17th Amendment, followed the Supreme Courts verdict on the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) in letter and spirit and ensured good governance.
Nawaz complained about what he saw as the governments lack of will to do away with the 17th Amendment and reneging on promises. On the issue of resignations of NRO beneficiary ministers, he said, The government itself should have secluded the beneficiary ministers until they cleared themselves of all charges. We want to support the democratic system but that does not mean we exonerate those who committed corruption.
We will not compromise on anything which is extra-constitutional. This is our principled stance and we wont deviate from it, he added.
The PML-N chief reiterated his partys demand for scrapping the 17th Amendment and said the government had complicated the matter by linking it with a comprehensive constitutional package being formulated by the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms.
It was an easy matter. The government complicated it by bringing other things under this ambit Now there are issues of the provinces demands, he said referring to impediments being faced by the reforms committee in completing the task of coming up with a consensus package.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
[Kyodo: Korea] Twelve North Korean men fled to South Korea from Russia"s Amur Province in September, the first defections of a group of North Korean workers from the Russian Far East to a third country, Russian security authority officials and other sources said Wednesday. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees helped the North Koreans, who were in Amur as migrant workers, defect and is currently dealing with applications of four other North Koreans who want to go to South Korea.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under: Commies
#1
ION WMF > [Report]SOKOR KOREA INSTITUTE FOR DEFENSE ANALYSIS: NORTH KOREA WILL EVENTUALLY DEV THE CAPABILITY TO INSTALL SMALL NUCLEAR WARHEADS ON ITS BALLISTIC MISSLES.
#2
MARIANAS VARIETY GUAM [MVGUAM.com]: FULL MOVE TO GUAM NIXED [USMC Reloc to Guam]. IIUC JAPAN = "DETERRENCE EFFECT" of keeping some or certain USMC forces in Japan + East Asia Region outweighs any desire by many Nipponese for full/total withdrawal of USMC forces from Okinawa-Japan.
IMO Read,
* CHINA > 2010-2020/2025+ at least until such time JAPAN is allowed to have Strategic nukes of its own, +
* INCREASINGLY ECON WEAKER RUSSIA?, +
* NORTH KOREA > Kimmie's Nukes + possible CHINA takeover of NOKOR iff DPRK-Pyongyang Regime collapses due to famine, +
* GROWING PAN-ASIAN ISLAMIST, COMMIE, Other MILITANT THREAT [Sub-Read, Post-2012 NUCLEAR IRAN = NUCLEAR MILITANCY-TERRORISM due to covert or "black market" proliferation, etc. of NUCTECHS, NBC-CBRN MILTECHS.
IRAN was braced for more violent clashes today as opposition demonstrators planned further mass rallies, which are expected to lead to fresh confrontations between protesters and security forces.
Tension was running high at rallies yesterday in which soldiers of the elite Revolutionary Guard and the paramilitary Basiji used tear gas and pepper spray and fired warning shots into the air to disperse demonstrators chanting anti-government slogans in three areas of central Tehran. They also smashed the windows of cars that were hooting in protest.
The reports by opposition websites could not be independently verified because foreign journalists are banned from covering opposition rallies. But one eyewitness said opposition supporters had gathered in groups along one of the capitals main streets, with the police out in force to keep them apart.
The opposition Jaras website claimed security forces had attacked a building housing Isna, an Iranian news agency, where it said some demonstrators had sought shelter during the clashes. An eyewitness said at least two people were injured when police chased after protesters into the building.
They fractured the skull of one Isna person and badly beat up another employee, the witness said. Isnas news service appeared to be working normally and it later issued a report on the incident, saying one of its reporters had been injured without specifying who was to blame.
Iran has been marking the first 10 days of the Islamic month of Muharram, a time of mourning for the 7th-century martyrdom of the grandson of the prophet Muhammad. The opposition has used this religious commemoration to revive anti-government protests which have flared sporadically since Junes disputed presidential elections.
Yesterday the opposition urged people to gather again today to mark Ashura, the tense climax of the commemoration which also coincides with the seventh day since the death of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, Irans most senior dissident cleric. The death at 87 of this fierce critic of Irans hardline clerical establishment has given new impetus to the protests. Montazeri was an architect of the 1979 Islamic revolution and was named as successor to the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as supreme leader. He fell from grace after criticising the mass execution of prisoners in the late 1980s.
Significantly, the memorials last week for Montazeri attracted not only young urban activists, who filled the ranks of the earlier protests, but also older, more religious Iranians who revered Montazeri on grounds of faith as much as politics. He was the spiritual patron of the movement supporting Mir Hossein Mousavi, the opposition candidate, in the June election.
Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam, Irans police chief, has threatened to take tough action against protesters.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
KARACHI: A roadside bomb wounded at least 26 people soon after a procession of mourners passed the Khalifat Chowk in Paposh Nagar police precincts in Karachis North Nazimabad Town on Saturday.
Karachi Capital City Police Officer Waseem Ahmed told Daily Times that it seemed that a remote controlled device was used to detonate the bomb, that weighed around half a kilogramme.
Twenty-six people, including two rangers personnel and two policemen were wounded and taken to hospital. Six of them have been discharged while others may be released soon, the police chief said.
Ahmed added the bomb was placed close to a car parked on the road, adding that from now on, all procession routes would be checked by the Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) beforehand.
What a good idea ...
We cannot say who is behind the attack, he said, denying reports regarding the arrest of two suspects from the spot.
BDS Assistant Sub-Inspector Abdul Rauf confirmed that around half a kilogramme of explosives was used along with ball bearings, nuts and bolts, which also caused cracks in the ground around the blast site.
Sindh Police CID SSP Fayyaz Khan told Daily Times that it was likely that the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) outfit and other anti-Shia elements might have carried out the attack. He said the CID had informed the authorities about possible terrorist activities, including suicide bombings, roadside bombings and target killings by the LJ in Orangi Town, Nazimabad, Paposh Nagar, Golimar, Gulbahar and others areas of the city.
However, a senior investigation officer told Daily Times that the area where the explosion occurred was dominated by the LJ.
LJ chief Ataur Rehman alias Naeem Bukhari who is now imprisoned in Sukkur jail after being arrested by the intelligence agencies in 2002 also used to live in the area where this explosion took place, the officer explained.
He said a group led by Qari Abid Mehsud, chief commander of the LJ, and also affiliated with Taliban, could be behind the bombing. Qari Abid has been involved in various terrorist activities in the city, including the Nishtar Park suicide bombing, suicide bombing on Shia scholar Allama Hassan Turabi, abductions and the killing of noted transporter Shaukat Afridi, he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
27 December 2009: Three bombs planted under a car exploded south of Beirut, killing one person and wounding several others in an attack that apparently targeted an official from the Hamas.
The official National News Agency said the explosion was caused by three bombs tied to each other that were placed under the car of an official believed to be from Hamas.
It did not identify the targeted official or the victims. One of the wounded was in serious condition, the report said.
Lebanese security officials told The Associated Press they could not independently confirm what caused the blasts or who the explosions targeted.
Gas leak ...
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which controls the area, sealed off the streets in the southern suburb of Haret Hreik and prevented journalists from getting close to the scene.
One senior police official said the blast occurred in a neighborhood that houses an office belonging to Hamas.
Hezbollahs Al-Manar TV only briefly mentioned the blast Saturday, quoting Lebanese security officials as saying an explosion in Haret Hreik targeted an office belonging to Hamas, causing a number of casualties. The broadcast offered did not elaborate, and a Hezbollah official contacted by The Associated Press said he had no information.
Osama Hamdan, the Hamas representative in Lebanon, was not available for comment Saturday and had no information, according to a person who answered his mobile phone. Other Hamas officials in Beirut and neighboring Syria, which shelters the exiled leadership of Hamas, did not answer repeated calls.
Explosions in the area, which is almost completely controlled by the Shia Hezbollah, are rare. Hezbollah has its own arsenal with tens of thousands of rockets and missiles, which it says it needs to fight off any threat from Israel.
So maybe it was a rocket warhead. Could happen ...
The area was bombed out by Israel during the monthlong 2006 war with Hezbollah.
Hezbollah leader Shaik Hassan Nasrallah is expected to address tens of thousands of supporters commemorating the Ashoura holiday by video link on Sunday.
Since His Enormity can't be seen in public ...
The explosion Saturday night occurred about 700 meters (2,300 feet) from a complex where hundreds of Shia Hezbollah supporters were holding a ceremony commemorating Ashoura and listening to a live televised speech by Nasrallah.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
hamas confirms that 2 of it spear catchers are dead and Lebanese sources say 3 Hezbollah grunts are dead also
based on the exactitude of the description of the explosive system and the other reports, it seems to me it was a Hezbollah operation that ended with a work accident
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/27/2009 7:23
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Might be that someone deep inside Hezbollah is on Angleton9's payroll. Heh ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2009 12:39
Comments ||
Top||
26 December 2009 MIRANSHAH, Pakistan - At least five people were killed Saturday when missiles from an unmanned US aircraft hit a suspected militant compound in Pakistans northwest tribal belt, security officials said.
The missiles struck a house in Saidgi village of North Waziristan tribal district, which borders Afghanistan, officials said. Two missiles hit a house, five militants were killed, an intelligence official told AFP.
Another security official confirmed the drone attack and the toll, adding that the house belonged to a local tribesman named Asmatullah, who, he said, had links with Taliban militants.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under:
The United States has followed the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) in refusing to recognize the legtimacy of President Mamadou Tandja of Niger, who has extended his term of office for three years by unconstitutional means. Tandja claims his mandate from a referendum and an election he organized after dissolving parliament and the Constitutional Court.
Earlier this year, Tanja dissolved the National Assembly and the Constitutional Court after the court had ruled that he could not run for a third term in office when his second term expired on December 22.
On Tuesday, Ecowas released a statement saying it "takes note of the fact that December 22, 2009, marks the legal end of the mandate of President Mamadou Tandja." Ecowas had suspended Niger's membership in October.
On Wednesday, the U.S. State Department announced that the country was suspending non-humanitarian assistance to the government of Niger and had imposed travel restrictions on members and supporters of Tandja's regime.
On the same day, the White House announced that Niger would be one of three African countries - the others being Guinea and Madagascar - which would lose their preferential trading status with the U.S. in 2010.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
Doug Ross provides pics from Twitter that show anti-government protesters saving two men from being hanged in Tehran. Marked 'opinion' because the images are unconfirmed.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Somebody got away
Somebody didn't get too far yeah
They didn't get too far -- Toby Keith
Iran Human Rights, December 23: The two men, who were rescued by the people from the gallows yesterday morning, were hanged last night December 22 according to the official Iranian news agencies.
Quoting Farajollah Karegar, general prosecutor of Sirjan, the state run news agency ISNA reported that the two men who were convicted of armed robbery were hanged late yesterday evening and 14 others have been arrested in connection with their escape.
Farajollah Karegar admitted that due to clashes with people the authorities second attempt to hang the men in public failed and they were transferred to the prison. He also said that two people were killed under the clashes and several cars belonging to the security forces were damaged. The report didnt mention the location where the two men were hanged. But according to unverified reports they were hanged inside the prison.
"Esmaeil Fathizadeh" and "Mohammad Esfandiarpour" were sentenced to death charged with armed robbery and were scheduled to be hanged in public in Sirjan yesterday morning. But few moments after being hanged they were rescued by the people who threw stones at the security forces and shouted slogans against the Iranian regime. Few hours later both men were arrested by the security forces and their hanging was rescheduled to early evening. But due to heavy clashes between the people and the security forces they were transferred to the prison where it is believed they were hanged.
According to our sources at least 3 people were killed and more than 30 wounded, some of them seriously.
Many people have been arrested in connection to this public uprising and Iran Human Rights is concerned about the well being.
Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson of Iran Human Rights, said: "People of Sirjan turned a public hanging into a scene of battle against the authorities. The Iranian regime can not any longer feel safe from public protests, even at the events meant for demonstration of power".
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.
This week Yitzhak Aharonowitz Captain of the Exodus passed away. As a tribute to this hero, below is real story of the the Famous Voyage (which is much different from the movie).
At least 15, mostly civilians have been killed and over 30 others injured in heavy clashes that erupted between Somali militants and government forces backed by African Union troops in the restive capital Mogadishu, witnesses.
LAHORE: Former president Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf has denied writing off loans of any affluent or influential individual.
BARA: At least five people were killed and two others injured in a clash between two banned militants groups Ansarul Islam and Lashkar-e-Islam in the Tirrah Valley of Khyber Agency, officials said on Saturday. 
The inside story of the privileged student who embraced al-Qa'ida and tried to blow a transatlantic jet out of the sky - and the lessons for us all
Staff at the Great Yarmouth Sea Life Centre in Norfolk give turtles a seasonal treat of brussel sprouts at Christmas which provide a healthy dose of vitamins, minerals and fibre.
Police are searching a number of properties in central London as a man is charged with trying to blow up a US airliner flying to Detroit.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Saudi Arabia claimed victory in a conflict with Yemen's Houthi rebels, saying the kingdom's army was successful in driving away the last infiltrators from its territory, press reports said on Saturday.
SEOUL, Dec. 26 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il conducted about 200 field guidance tours of local farms and military camps this year, the communist nation's state media said Saturday, marking the highest number of public appearances he has made since coming to power.
[The News (Pak) Top Stories] Maulana Shah Dauran, deputy leader of the Swat chapter of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), died after a protracted illness and has been buried in the Damadola area in Bajaur Agency.
[Iran Press TV Latest] A US fighter jet has carried out multiple airstrikes on the home of a senior official in Yemen's northern rugged province of Sa'ada, Houthi fighters say. 
KHAR: Terrorists assassinated an anti-Taliban tribal elder and dumped his beheaded body by the roadside in Bajaur Agency, officials said on Saturday. According to a local official, Gul Muhammad, 42, an elder of the Salarzai tribe, had been actively participating in raising a village militia to battle the Taliban in the region. 
Eight Turkish soldiers have been detained over an alleged plot to assassinate Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc, the army has said. It said the soldiers were taken to the army headquarters in Ankara after being interrogated by a prosecutor on Friday.
NINEWA / Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi army forces on Saturday arrested an al-Qaeda-in-Iraq (AQI) leader in Mosul City, a local source said.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif on Saturday he was ready for a meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari, Nawaz but it should be result-oriented and have a clear agenda. Talking to reporters after a meeting of the PML-N, Nawaz ruled out any serious threat to the current democratic system.
