Because of the Associated Press' current determination to render itself inconsequential, I'll be putting a Translate button on the Poster page. Click Ctrl-A to select the text (Mac users can use Cmd-A), then click the Translate button. Since it's a machine translation minor edited my be necessary.
Please use it when posting AP articles -- or any other that will benefit by translation from the original Chickladorian.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Translate button has never has worked for me. I'm running Firefox 3.0.12.
our troops trying to have a cook out in Afghanistan and the enemy decides to crash party....providing cover fire for the LT to move into position.
you got to love the troops no firefight is going to stop them from cooking out. hahaha give them hell men...
(CBS) U.S. forces are about to get some much-needed help as they fight the Taliban in Afghanistan, reports CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan in an exclusive report. The Colombian commandos are U.S. trained and battle-tested from having defeated terrorists in their own country.
Ten years ago, they didn't even exist. Today, elite Colombian Special Operations troops are preparing to fight alongside the U.S. in Afghanistan, reports CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan.
For Colombia, it's a way to give something back to the U.S., and the American Green Berets who've spent the last decade training them.
General Freddy Padilla de Leon, Colombia's top military man, chose an interview with Logan to make the surprise announcement his men would join the fight in Afghanistan. "Very soon ... Maybe in August or September. This will be our first opportunity in our history," Padilla said.
Colombia's recent history is written in blood. An insurgency waged by leftist guerillas known as the FARC. And funded with drug money brought Colombia to its knees.
Colombia today is a different world. The economy is thriving and order has been restored. U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield told Logan that kidnappings and terrorist attacks are down dramatically.
So what changed? Over $6 billion in U.S. aid, a committed Colombian government and a small team of Green Berets from 7th Group Special Forces. "We don't have secrets - we are a very open book," General Padilla said of the relationship between Colombia and U.S. Special Forces.
The relationship took years to build with the Green Berets working to turn Colombia's best soldiers into an organized special operations force. They helped train a police Special Operations unit known as the "Jungle Commandos." The Commandos hit targets deep in the jungle, destroying drug labs and taking out the top drug lords. With the help of America's best warriors, the Colombian Special Forces have become some of the finest soldiers in the world. And they've used their skills to devastating effect against their enemy in the jungle, breaking the back of a 45-year-old insurgency.
Colombia's military has cut the area where the F.A.R.C. Can operate from almost half the country ten years ago down to just five percent today. They've had less success in the drug war. Cocaine production was down 28 percent last year, according to the U.N. But Colombia remains the world's top cocaine producer. Its rivers are a super highway for drug and arms trafficking - and the next target in the Special Operations war.
Colombia's army enjoys soaring popularity among the people. Still critics point out the military has been implicated in the killing and disappearance of civilians.
Colonel Greg Wilson knows from experience how advanced Colombia's top units now are. He was the senior U.S. Special Operations commander there when three U.S. hostages were rescued by the Colombian Special Operations Forces last summer. "I would rank it as one of the top special operations in modern day history," Wilson said.
Ambassador Brownfield says Colombia is the best investment of U.S. taxpayer money this century. "It has been the most successful nation building exercise that the U.S.A. has associated itself with perhaps over the last 25-30 years," Brownfield said.
The U.S. is looking to Colombia as it struggles to make headway in Afghanistan. As one top U.S. official said: "The more Afghanistan can look like Colombia, the better." .
Heartiest congratulations, Columbia! Have fun applying your skills in Afghanistan.
#3
Personally, I would like to see Chile's Andean troops get a crack at the Talibuggers. Very tough hombres with a wealth of experience and knowledge in really high mountain operations. Politically it probably can't happen because media-left land cannot grasp that Pinochet and his gang have been gone for over 20 years now.
#4
Politically it probably can't happen because media-left land cannot grasp that Pinochet and his gang have been gone for over 20 years now.
They haven't gotten over nearly three generations beyond segregation in the US either, or the Vietnam war [ignoring their own bloody hands dipped in the results of Cambodia or the hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese boat people who didn't make it], or the fall of the Berlin Wall and their alternative society, or .....
[Quqnoos] Incumbent Karzai's vice presidential running mate in election has survived a life attempt in northern Afghanistan on Sunday, officials said
Mohammad Qasim Fahim, a close ally of Mujahiddin leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, was ambushed on a road in northern Kunduz province while he was heading to Takhar province to campaign for Karzai's reelection bid, said Kunduz governor, Mohammad Omar. The prominent Afghan figure appeared on an Afghan television a few hours after the attack, said, a group of insurgents opened fire on his convoy and the firefight last about five minutes that left casualties. Hmmmmmmmm...guess ya won't be making a deal with him, huh, Hamid?
One of the Fahim's bodyguards has been wounded in the fighting erupted Sunday afternoon, added Governor Omar, who himself was injured in a roadside bomb blast a month ago on the same way.
Quqnoos' Basir Hamidi in Kunduz province said the militants attacked Fahim's convoy with rocket-propelled grenades and rifles. At least three insurgents were killed in the exchange fires.
A week earlier, another candidate, Mullah Salam Rocketi, a former Taliban commander, was also ambushed as he returned to Kabul after campaigning in northern Baghlan province. Hopeful Rocketi was unharmed in the attack.
"We killed four of Fahim's bodyguards," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location. ...the bar at the Peshawar Hilton.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2009 00:00 ||
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[Mail and Globe] Mortar attacks by Somali rebels disrupted a parliamentary session on Monday as heavy fighting between the militia and African Union-backed government forces killed seven civilians, officials said.
The Parliament was meeting for the first time since the hardline Islamist al-Shabaab and Hizb al-Islam militias launched an anti-government offensive in May. "Several mortar shells struck the compound where we were having a session but there were no casualties. The session was called off after the attack and will continue tomorrow," lawmaker Mohamed Adan told Agence France-Presse.
About 300 MPs were meeting in a building in the south of the capital Mogadishu when al-Shabaab militants began firing mortars. "We heard explosions of mortar as we started our session minutes after the president left the compound," said Hussein Ali, another lawmaker.
At least seven civilians were killed and 18 others wounded in fighting between the al-Shabaab and government forces backed by the AU troops, police in the capital said.
Police commander Mohamed Yusuf said the insurgents attacked their positions in the south of the war-riven city. "Seven civilians were killed in the crossfire and by stray mortars that struck civilian residential areas," Yusuf said.
Mogadishu has been ravaged by years of violence that worsened two months ago when the insurgents stepped up an offensive against the internationally backed government of President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
See also WAFF > THOUSANDS OF SOMALIS FLEE TO YEMEN [0,000's-and-counting have no more hope for local Govt, Peace, or Stability].
[Maghrebia] Algerian security services killed 4 terrorists in a clash that lasted more than an hour on Saturday (July 25th) in Tadmait, Tizi Ouzou province, local press reported. A fifth terrorist died in the hospital on Sunday. The operation followed information from local citizens about the appearance of an armed terrorist group in the town of Hidoussa.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2009 00:00 ||
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[Mail and Globe] Radical Islamists torched a police headquarters, a church and a customs office, residents said on Monday, as police put the death toll in weekend religious clashes in northern Nigeria at 65. "Five policemen have been killed, one police station burnt and 60 Talibans killed," police Inspector-General Ogbonna Onovo told reporters, referring to an Islamist sect styled on Afghanistan's Taliban.
The latest violence struck the town of Gamboru-Ngala in Borno state, bordering Cameroon, local residents said. One of the residents, Shafiu Mohammed, said a group belonging to a religious sect known as the Nigerian "Talibans" stormed the town at about midnight and went on a rampage.
He said the heavily armed militants set ablaze a customs office and slit the throat of an engineer working there. "The operation took them two hours. They left around 2am [01.00GMT] without facing any resistance. They were heavily armed and overpowered the police and customs officers," Mohammed told Agence France-Presse by telephone.
The police chief told reporters in the capital Abuja that 65 people had been killed in police clashes in two other states with members of the Islamist sect inspired by Afghanistan's Taliban.
The two sides had exchanged gunfire after a failed dawn attack on Sunday on a police station in Bauchi state, with the death toll there at 39. There were further clashes in Yobe state, Onovo told a news conference.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
About time we started funneling arms and funds to the African Christians. Where a whole nother war against the West has been ongoing for years.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal authorities have charged seven men in North Carolina with supporting terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder abroad, the Justice Department announced Monday.
Officials said one of the men, identified as North Carolina resident and U.S. native Daniel Patrick Boyd, had traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan, where he trained in terrorist camps to carry out "violent jihad."
Boyd, 39, who went by the name Saifullah, was charged along with two of his sons: Dylan Boyd, 22, also known as Mohammed, and Zakariya Boyd, 20.
The four others also are residents of North Carolina, and all seven are accused of engaging in weapons training and military tactics in their home state, the Justice Department said. "We consider this significant. We've been watching them for some time, and we think they were dangerous," said a federal law enforcement official who asked not to be identified.
The Boyd family and defendant Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan are identified as U.S.-born citizens. Defendant Hysen Sherifi is identified as a native of Kosovo who is a legal permanent resident of the United States, and Hiyad Yaghi and Anes Subasic are said to be naturalized U.S. citizens. Officials did not immediately identify their native countries. So...I wonder which one's the informant? Eenie .. meenie .. meinie .. ... ... Mo?
The indictment, made public by the Justice Department, says Daniel Boyd and others left the United States for Israel in June 2007 to "engage in violent jihad but ultimately returned to the United States after failing in their efforts." Find out the Joooos play for keeps, did ya?
The defendants, with a substantial cache of weapons, had "practiced military tactics and use of weapons on private property in Caswell County, North Carolina, in June and July 2009," the indictment says. The documents make no reference to a direct threat to individuals or property in the United States.
In a written statement, the Justice Department's top counterterrorism official, David Kris, said that Daniel Boyd, "a veteran of terrorist training camps" had conspired with others to recruit and help young men travel overseas in order to kill."
The U.S. attorney in Raleigh, George E. B. Holding, said, "These charges hammer home the point that terrorists and their supporters are not confined to the remote regions of some far-away land, but can grow and fester right here at home."
The defendants made an initial appearance in federal court in North Carolina. Officials said they are expected to return to court Thursday for detention hearings.
Officials said the group was led by Daniel Patrick Boyd, a married 39-year-old who lived in an unassuming lakeside home in a rural area south of Raleigh, where he and his family walked their dog and operated a drywall business. But two decades ago, Boyd, who is a U.S. citizen, trained in terrorist camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan and fought against the Soviets for three years before returning to the United States.
In 1991, Boyd and his brother were convicted of bank robbery in Pakistan — accused of carrying identification showing they belonged to the radical Afghan guerrilla group, Hezb-e-Islami, or Party of Islam. Each was sentenced to have a foot and a hand cut off for the robbery, but the decision was later overturned.
Their wives told The Associated Press in an interview at the time that the couples had U.S. roots but the United States was a country of "kafirs" — Arabic for heathens.
RALEIGH, N.C. - Federal authorities were searching Tuesday for a U.S. citizen charged with plotting "violent jihad" as part of a North Carolina group suspected of international terrorist aspirations.
U.S. Attorney George E.B. Holding declined to discuss the whereabouts of the person at large but said the public should not be worried.
"Federal authorities hope to have him apprehended shortly," Holding said without elaborating. Holding wouldn't identify the person, and the defendant's name is redacted from court papers.
#5
Boyd, 39, who went by the name Saifullah, was charged along with two of his sons: Dylan Boyd, 22, also known as Mohammed, and Zakariya Boyd, 20.
So dear Mr. Boyd was a precocious lad of sixteen or so when young Dylan-Mohammed was conceived. At what point did Mr. Boyd discover the True Religion, and why did the youngsters go along? Also, who owns the training grounds in Caswell County, North Carolina, where we can assume the experienced Mr. Boyd led the exercises? So many questions, so many cell phones and computers for the FBI's computer wallahs to play with...
The Muslim American Society-Freedom publicly condemned terrorism but urged caution in the case of a group of Johnston and Wake County Muslims. Spokeswoman Khalilah Sabra stressed that the case should be allowed to play out in court.
Sabra read a statement from Sabrina Boyd, the wife of alleged conspirator Daniel Boyd, to assembled reporters. In the statement, Sabrina Boyd urged that her family be allowed to respond to the charges against her husband, and asked the media and the public not to decide on the group's guilt or innocence so early on in the investigation.
Cuz he's a "patriot", ya see...
At the press conference, Sabra was asked about the time Daniel Boyd spent in Afghanistan in the late 1980s, during which the United States government supported Afghan fighters in a military campaign against the Soviet Union. Sabra said Boyd had believed it "his patriotic duty" to participate in that campaign.
[Geo News] Three more persons have been killed during targeted killing incidents here in Baldia Town locality on Monday, Geo news reported.
The killed persons were said to be hailing from Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), sources claimed.
Incident took place near UC 5 office located in Saeedabad area wherein unknown armed militants opened fire on Yaqoob (38), Shahid Khatri (28) and Hareesh Kumar (25) while Yaqoob died on the spot, leaving two others critically injured who later succumbed to brutal injuries on way to hospital, sources added.
According to police officials, three were activists of MQM adding that they are conducting probe into target killings.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2009 00:00 ||
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[Geo News] Security forces have succeeded in recovering 200 children who were being trained for carrying out suicide bombing from Swat. According to sources, the children's age ranges between 6 to 13 years.
The security forces have kept the recovered children in Mardan where they are being mentally rehabilitated to become common citizens.
You gotta be at least 18 to go boom ...
Steps are being taken to get the children through a treatment from psychiatrist.
Senior NWFP, aka Terrorism Central Minister Bashir Bilour talking to Geo News, said the children were completely brainwashed who now consider all others as infidels. "These children have brainwashed in a way that now they even want to kill their own parents," he said, adding, however that they were not administered any drugs in the process.
Bashir Bilour said some children were pleased when they were handed over to their parents. But, a few days later, the parents came back with complaints that the boys are now threatening to kill them which, they (parents) said, is a worrisome thing for them.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Again, Islam is corrupting the youth to continue the mohamedian caldron of hate in the name of the arab moon god. Soooo corrupted, it has corrupted upon itself.
#2
the boys are now threatening to kill them which, they (parents) said, is a worrisome thing
Merely an extreme version of what the lads had been taught in the state schools, using the government mandated curriculum. I really don't understand what the parents are fussing about. Still, one must admire the dry, English-style understatement in the passage quoted above.
[Geo News] Special Court of Anti-Terorrism has sent former MNA Shah Abdul Aziz and accused Ataullah to Adyala jail on judicial remand. They were arrested on charges of Polish engineer's murder.
The accused were presented before the Court number 2 of the Anti-Terrorism and the court after a brief proceeding sent two accused to jail while accused Zafar Iqbal, Zahid Iqbal and Saleem Iqbal were handed over to police for physical remand.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2009 00:00 ||
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Helicopter gunships struck four hard boy hideouts in the Khyber Pass region on Monday, killing 20 turbans, a spokesman for the Frontier Corps said.
The attacks in Tirah valley follow a number of hard boy attacks in recent months on convoys transporting military equipment, fuel and food to Afghanistan.
Monday's attacks targeted Lashkar-e-Islam turbans. The group, headed by Mangal Bagh, has no links with the Taliban, according to government and security officials, Reuters reported. "We got credible information that Mangal Bagh's men were assembled there and were probably planning some attacks, so we attacked them," the spokesman said.
Security forces have been conducting sporadic assaults in the region in a bid to secure the vital transport link for foreign troops in Afghanistan.
Making ground: Also on Monday, security forces said 11 Taliban had been killed in Dir and Swat in the ongoing search and clearance operations in the region. "Local lashkars killed 10 terrorists during search operations in Karodara, Shakoh and Chopra Kandao," ISPR said, adding that another terrorist had been killed at Langar village near Khawzakhela, APP reported.
Security forces apprehended four suspects and recovered arms and ammunition during search operations at Chur Banda. Six suspects were also held in operations at Awishah.
Change of heart: According to the ISPR, security forces conducted a search operation at Pashmal near Kalam and apprehended wanted terrorist commander Kabir. Also, two terrorists voluntarily surrendered to security forces at Fizaghat.
Separately, seven terrorists belonging to the Safi group turned themselves in to the civil administration.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
"Local lashkars killed 10 terrorists during search operations..."
I wonder how much of that is actually killing terrorists, and how much is satisfying old grudges. I guess in some cases it could be both.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/28/2009 15:17 Comments ||
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Suspected Taliban bombed a CD shop in Mansehra, killing one person and wounding two bystanders on Monday. Senior police officer Abdul Sattar Khan said a time bomb planted outside the Al-Khurram CD shop and Internet cafe exploded at about 6am, killing Fakhar Zeb, and injuring Aurangzeb and another unidentified man. The injured were shifted to district headquarters hospital where the condition of one of them was critical. The blast also damaged two adjacent CD shops. Police cordoned off the area soon after the blast and started investigating.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2009 00:00 ||
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AP story sez gunnies killed eight security guards, escaped with almost $7 million from a central Baghdad bank today. Cops say it's the work of turbans attempting to finance their operations. This is the second robbery this week in Baghdad's Karradah district, which would imply it's the same group both times.
Gunnies hit the Rafidain Bank at 4 a.m., killed three on-duty guards, then five others who were either on break or asleep, using silencer-equipped weapons. No word on how many bad guys were involved.
Five people were killed Sunday when gunnies raided the al-Nibal money exchange around noon. Three employees and two customers were killed and 12 people were wounded.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2009 10:13 ||
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#1
Well, I suppose they're running out of money, this would come from Saudi usually.
[Haaretz Defense] At least seven Palestinians were killed overnight when fuel exploded in a smuggling tunnel beneath the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials in Gaza said on Monday. The accident was one of the worst on record in the Gaza tunnel network. Confined spaces, poor ventilation, leaking drums of fuel, what could possibly go wrong? Relax! Here, have a cigar!
Officials said the explosion and fire were caused by an electrical spark. Oh, right. Mutual of Gaza will be pissed.
More dead may be buried at the scene, the officials added. Pre-interred, as it were ...
But they gave no figure. Officials say 107 Palestinians have been killed in the tunnels since the beginning of the year, prompting one Gaza leader to call for an end to the deaths.
Jamil Majdalawi of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine PFLP urged Hamas to supervise the tunnel business. "We are in need of some of what comes through these tunnels and we have repeatedly asked for a rationalization of this operation, organizing it so that it answers to the necessities of the people, not a beast that swallows their souls and their money for the sake of some greedy people."
Monday's accident coincided with Israel's first permitted shipment of fuel for private use into Gaza for 10 months -- 100,000 liters of diesel and 40,000 liters of gasoline.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2009 00:00 ||
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#4
The big question is whatever happened to the "deep digger" penetrator? A weapon with eight or so cannon in its nose, to go far deeper than other weapons of that sort. There was one test, and it worked perfectly, drilling through I think 60 feet of reinforced concrete.
Terrorists Suspected separatist insurgents in Thailand's troubled south shot dead four civilians while a remote-controlled bomb wounded five other people, police said on Tuesday.
Terrorists Militants gunned down a Buddhist man and his wife in an ambush early on Tuesday while they were travelling by motorbike to tap rubber in restive Pattani province, police said. As police investigated the shooting, terrorists militants detonated a bomb hidden beneath the bodies of the couple, wounding three policemen and two villagers, they added.
Also in Pattani a terrorist gunman posing as a wedding guest shot dead a Muslim man at a marriage ceremony on Monday evening, police said. Earlier on Monday, a painter was shot dead in a drive-by shooting as he rode a motorbike to a local teashop, also in Pattani.
AP reports 140 people jugged in post-election demos have been released during the visit of a parliamentary committee investigating prisoner conditions. Fearless Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ordered the prison closed and the evidence destroyed after allegations of abuses. Black turbans appear to be nervous since the death in custody of the son of a prominent conservative.
Last official word was there were around 500 people in stir, with arrests still continuing.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2009 11:39 ||
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#1
Khamenei: "I won."
Posted by: ed ||
07/28/2009 14:50 Comments ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Iranian police forces have reportedly thwarted a bomb plot in the holy city of Mashhad in the northeastern province of Khorasan Razavi.
The bomb, planted in a drug store, was defused by local law enforcement officers on Sunday just before it was to go off, Mehr News Agency reported.
The drug store was located at a health clinic operated by the Iranian Basij -- a voluntary paramilitary force. At the time the bomb was set to explode a ceremony to hail exemplary war veterans was being held.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attempted bombing.
The latest incident is the second bomb attack countered in the country over the last two weeks.
On July 15, police defused another bomb planted at Babol University of Medical Sciences in the northern Iranian province of Mazandaran.
The bomb had been placed at a building where the administrative board of the university was scheduled to hold a meeting.
Two politically active students were arrested in connection with the plot.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2009 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
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.