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US withdraws its support for Syrian National Council
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 3: Non-WoT
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 6: Politix
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Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 11/02/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336098 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Birthday Gam Shot

Avy Scott [Performs in Selected Short Subjects](age 31)


Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 11/02/2012 2:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Bonnie Wee Lassie.
Posted by: Dale || 11/02/2012 7:37 Comments || Top||

#3  Don't look like short subjects to me!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 11/02/2012 14:31 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Somali forces sweep the port city of Marko
[Shabelle] An official in Somalia says government forces launched Thursday a massive crackdown in the port city of Marko, prior to several killing a senior army commander.

Abdi Salan, the official told Shabelle Media Network station by phone that the forces were in successful capturing many people in connection with the recent murder of General Gordan and in security activities during the sweep.

General Farah (Gordan) was killed along with four other soldiers in an ambush last Sunday in Elwaregow area near Marko city, 100 Kilometers (62 miles) northeast of Mogadishu.

Mr. Salan highlighted that Investigations are underway and authorities in Marko have not released a statement on the matter.
Posted by: Fred || 11/02/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336068 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab

#1  "Polo"

"shoot him"
Posted by: Frank G || 11/02/2012 8:47 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Pentagon: Secret U.S. military commandos deployed to Libya
Classified United States military units are operating in the region near Libya since the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, according to the director of operations for the Pentagon’s Joint Staff.

The disclosure that secret U.S. military forces were dispatched to Libya recently was revealed in a letter sent Wednesday to the House Armed Services Committee by Vice Adm. Kurt Tidd, director of operations for the Pentagon’s Joint Staff.

Tidd said that after the attack in Benghazi, the U.S. European Command sent a Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team (FAST) platoon to reinforce security at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli.

“Additional classified capabilities were deployed to the region,” Tidd said, in what other defense officials said was a reference to the deployment of special operations commandos.

Tidd was responding to a letter from Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R., Calif.) about whether the military recommended bolstering security in Libya prior to the Sept. 11 attack that killed U.S. ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

A U.S. official would not provide details on the classified unit in the region but said it includes elite U.S. special operations commandos trained for counterterrorism missions, like the Navy’s Seal Team Six, known formally as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group.

The CIA also is said to be secretly setting up covert armed aerial drone units in the country.
Posted by: Au Auric || 11/02/2012 10:14 || Comments || Link || [336073 views] Top|| File under:

#1  but shhhhh - it's a secret
Posted by: Frank G || 11/02/2012 13:31 Comments || Top||

#2  in a word ... GOOD! Hope they see some action :-)
Posted by: Raider || 11/02/2012 13:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Foy Eyes Only press release
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/02/2012 13:49 Comments || Top||

#4  The region near Libya. Is that like a quarter of a hemisphere or something?
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/02/2012 13:51 Comments || Top||

#5  A U.S. official would not provide details on the classified unit in the region but said it includes elite U.S. special operations commandos trained for counterterrorism missions, like the Navy's Seal Team Six, known formally as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group.

Good. Glad we're not revealing any details on this classified unit...
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/02/2012 13:51 Comments || Top||

#6  Can we get the Elmer Fudd "Shh, be vewy, vewy quiet' graphic for this?
Posted by: Glenmore || 11/02/2012 13:59 Comments || Top||

#7  C'mon, you guys. There's an election coming up and the Champ needs to look like he's doing something.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 11/02/2012 14:02 Comments || Top||

#8  Expect some bad boys coming up dead.... however, we won't know about it....
Posted by: Sherry || 11/02/2012 15:45 Comments || Top||

#9  That's OK, Sherry. I don't care if I don't hear about it, as long as the bad guys end up dead.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 11/02/2012 16:07 Comments || Top||

#10  If its THE bad boys we'll hear it on the 24 news cycle for weeks, as the peanut gallery gives a legacy to their chosen child. Ra-ra-ra. Secrecy, my eye. They'll have it carved in stone like Ramses II.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/02/2012 17:25 Comments || Top||

#11  C'mon, it WILL be the bad boys no matter who it is. Even if it's only a little girl, a goat and a toothless septugenarian it will BE the bad boys.

But, it will be vewey vewey secret.

Am I being too cynical?
Posted by: AlanC || 11/02/2012 18:09 Comments || Top||


Tunisia Says Foiled Plot To Kidnap Local Jews
[Ynet] Interior Ministry says security forces thwarted plan to abduct young Jews in Zarzis, hold them for ransom. Jewish leader: Intimidation campaign underway

Tunisian security forces tossed in the calaboose
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
four people for allegedly plotting to kidnap local Jews and hold them for ransom, an Interior Ministry official said on Thursday.

There are less than 2,000 Jews in Tunisia, mostly living in Zarzis and the nearby island of Djerba in the south of the country.

"The security forces aborted a plan to kidnap young Jews in Zarzis. Police tossed in the calaboose
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
four young men and seized two weapons," the official, Lofi Hidouri, told Rooters.

A Tunisian newspaper reported that security forces managed to stop a "dangerous terror network" that operated against Jews. According to the report, the man behind the activity was a security officer who was in charge of protecting Jews residing in southern Tunisia. He recruited numerous youngsters to the terror network, the newspaper said.

It was further reported that the security officer had already purchased a vehicle from Libya, as well as a weapon, which he planned to use in the attack.

Perez Trabelsi, head of the Jewish community in Djerba, also said a policeman was among the four tossed in the calaboose
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
"There is a big worry in Djerba and Zarzis. The government should provide us with more protection," Trablesi said.

An "intimidation campaign" was underway to force Jews to leave Tunisia, he said.

"This is our country, we will not leave it", he added.
This strikes me as unwise, as well as untenable.
Tunisia, whose authoritarian president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, was tossed in a street revolt in January 2011, now has an elected Islamist-led government.

Friction has grown between Islamists and secularists, with hardline Salafi Mohammedans clashing with police in street protests.

A few weeks after Ben Ali fled Tunisia, a synagogue in the city of Ghabes was set alight.

No one was hurt and the incident appeared to be isolated, but it revived memories of an al-Qaeda attack in 2002 that killed 21 tourists after an explosive-laden truck Blew up near a synagogue in Djerba.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/02/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336085 views] Top|| File under:


Benghazi: Benghazi Timeline
David Ignatius at WaPo reviews the timeline given to him by the CIA.

A companion article provides a longer time frame with both the events of the attack and the politics afterwards.

Ignatius says in his piece --

While there were multiple errors that led to the final tragedy, there's no evidence that the White House or CIA leadership deliberately delayed or impeded rescue efforts.

I don't know how he can say that when we don't have all the facts yet. It's clear that the CIA Global Response Staff moved smartly towards the sound of gunfire. That's all anyone can ask of them. But we don't know from this what the White House, State Department, or Langley did, what Africom did, and what our military in Europe had available.
Posted by: Steve White || 11/02/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336089 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Pretty much agrees with the official version except that the 2 agents were killed around 4 a.m:
They take up their positions. And somewhere around 5:45 in the morning – sorry, somewhere around 4 o'clock in the morning – I have my timeline wrong – somewhere around 4 o'clock in the morning the annex takes mortar fire. It is precise and some of the mortar fire lands on the roof of the annex. It immediately killed two security personnel that are there, severely wounds one of the agents that’s come from the compound.

At that point, a decision is made at the annex that they are going to have to evacuate the whole enterprise. And the next hours are spent, one, securing the annex, and then two, moving in a significant and large convoy of vehicles everybody to the airport, where they are evacuated on two flights.


And this version says around 5:15 a.m:

5:15 a.m.: A new Libyan assault begins, this time with mortars. Two rounds miss and the next three hit the roof. The rooftop defenders never “laser the mortars,” as has been reported. They don’t know the weapons are in place until the indirect fire begins, nor are the mortars observed by the drone overhead. The defenders have focused their laser sights earlier on several Libyan attackers, as warnings not to fire. At 5:26 the attack is over. Woods and Doherty are dead and two others are wounded.

●6 a.m.: Libyan forces from the military intelligence service finally arrive, now with 50 vehicles. They escort the Americans to the airport. A first group of 18, including two wounded, depart at 7 a.m. A second group of 12, plus the four dead, leave at 10 a.m. for Tripoli and then the long flight back to America.
Posted by: tipper || 11/02/2012 1:11 Comments || Top||

#2  While it obviously does not discuss the planning cycle or decision making process, this (conveniently leaked) timeline is plausible, and likely quite accurate. It is now obvious that a NEO (Non-Combatant Evacuation) was not authorized by the White House and that an adhoc (hastilly planned and under-resourced) CIA effort involving a contract aircraft, a handful of operators, along with local national malitia, became the EXFIL plan.

The presence of a LTD (Laser Target Designator) in the hands of trained, former SOF personnel, could indicate protective fires or kinetic action was at least discussed or planned for.

It is now obvious that two EXFIL plans may have been presented to the White House as possible solutions:

Plan-A: A standard on-the-shelf NEO involving In-Extremis forces US Military perosnnel with kinetic capabilities.

Plan-B: A covert CIA EXFIL involving local agency, para-military personnel.

Had no one turned up dead, the Benghazi "Plan- B" would have likely become another "GM is alive and UBL is dead" campaign slogan with follow-on Hollywood movie rights. As it turned out, we are very lucky the entire mission was not lost.

Many unanswered questions remain.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/02/2012 2:33 Comments || Top||

#3  U.S. officials: CIA ran Benghazi consulate
Posted by: tipper || 11/02/2012 5:01 Comments || Top||

#4  there's no evidence that the White House or CIA leadership deliberately delayed or impeded rescue efforts

Sounds kind of defensive, no? Maybe he omitted the "despite what you may have read on the internet."
Posted by: Bobby || 11/02/2012 8:22 Comments || Top||

#5  It’s a story of individual bravery, but also of a CIA misjudgment in relying on Libyan militias and a newly formed Libyan intelligence organization to keep Americans safe in Benghazi.

That is not the whole story. There are too many unanswered questions. Benghazi is still the clusterMess it appears to be. This is being kicked down the road until after the election.

1. Why didn't State respond to requests for beefed up security before 911 since the situation on the ground had gone dangerous in the run-up to 911? Who made the decision to not respond to requests for enhanced security?

2. Why weren't the military assets called into play to take part in the rescue?

3. Where was the coordinating efforts and shared intel between agencies that supposedly had been set up by George W. Bush after the first 911 to respond to terrorism?

4. What were the decision-maker's (Obama, Biden, Panetta, Clinton, and Petraeus) responses to this emergency as it unfolded? Where were they any when the 3:00 a.m. (or 9:40 p.m. or whatever it was) call came? What did they do?

5. Let all the information come out. Enhanced timelines, people in the government involved, where they were to develop accountability for the failure. Still need answers to the who, what, where, when, why. These events cannot be reconstructed and used to prevent further such abortions without these kind of efforts.

Geraldo was on Fox this a.m. waving his arms and getting hysterical about this entire mess. It is so evident that he is an apologist for Obama. He acts like he knows everything while knowing nothing. He got quite steamed when asked about Bengahzigate. He is not a reporter but just adds noise to the investigative process.

There is a saying:

I have six honest men
They taught me all I know
Their names are who and what and when
And why and where and how.


Let's hear the answers instead of obfuscations and beating around the bush. This is owed to the dead heroes and their families, the American people, and the voters.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/02/2012 9:02 Comments || Top||

#6  Plan-B: A covert CIA EXFIL involving local agency, para-military personnel.

Almost appears as if it were an operation run 'on the cheap'; quick, dirty and temporary.

As discussed in other places, support and cooperation were likely set up ad hoc and not verified; same with contributing intel sources.
Posted by: Pappy || 11/02/2012 12:27 Comments || Top||

#7  Exactly Pappy. A low-level Walmart rescue mission gone bad.

I can almost hear someone saying, "Hey boss, our bad, but we've got your back on this one. Let's keep the Fort Bragg knuckledragger footprint low and the noise level down. We'll work with our on site host-nation sources. We're on it"!

Posted by: Besoeker || 11/02/2012 12:40 Comments || Top||

#8  By no means do I take 4 American deaths lightly. But absent increased security in the weeks prior, they were sitting ducks. Under those circumstances, with the deck stacked against them in multiple ways, I think "only" 4 friendly KIA is pretty decent for an ad hoc Wal-Mart rescue, facing resistance on two fronts (armed attackers, and up the chain). I'm sure you don't disagree - just stressing that the guys on the ground did good. Real good, if it's true that Woods and Doherty wiped out half the attacking force.
Posted by: RandomJD || 11/02/2012 13:27 Comments || Top||

#9  Unfortunately, this is most likely true. Instead of funneling all the money after green energy crappy projects that failed and created few to no jobs, and electric cars that caught fire when flooded over, why not make sure our embassies were secure?
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/02/2012 13:30 Comments || Top||

#10  JQC, I am wondering if the answer to that question is that "someone" was concerned that increased security would increase visibility. Seems that keeping the Benghazi villa casual and unofficial took priority over all else. Why?
Posted by: RandomJD || 11/02/2012 13:47 Comments || Top||

#11  @RandomJD - 2 reasons - to keep up the meme of OBL is dead and AQ is on the run and perhaps to cover the possible gun running that may have been going on.
Posted by: warthogswife || 11/02/2012 14:12 Comments || Top||

#12  Over at the Free Republic site (yeah, I know), they have a slightly different take on the events. They cite Nonie Darwish (Egyptian-American human rights activist and founder of Arabs for Israel) as saying that a snippet of a video from the beginning of the Benghazi attack shows the “terrorists” coming in through the conjectured unlocked front gate and the guards lowering their weapons at them, at which point one man says, “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot. Morsi sent us!”

Mrs. Darwish concluded that as President Morsi of Egypt has called for the release from US custody of Omar Abdel-Rahman, the so-called Blind Sheik, as a gesture of good will, sent the terrorist-affiliated attackers to capture Ambassador Stevens and hold him hostage for the release of the Blind Sheik.

Now she sees why Ansar al Sharia took responsibility only hours into the attack. The only mistake was that there were former active-duty Seals on hand and Stevens’ was injured worse that they had anticipated. Morsi approved a state abduction identical to what would have been accomplished in Pakistan if bin Laden had been captured rather than killed. And as it happened Stevens was killed rather than captured as well. But she states that this explains why those who pulled Stevens’ half-dead body out of the consulate were praising Allah that he was still alive: they were not 'friendlies', they were hostage takers, and a dead hostage is no hostage at all.

This is also supposedly why Libya President Mohamed El-Magariaf said that this was a “preplanned” attack conducted by foreigners that entered Libya weeks before from countries including Algeria and Mali. She questions how he could know this so quickly. One knew from the start that El-Magariaf’s description of the attack was, in some way, ultimately self-serving. It turns out, he was just explaining what was common knowledge within his circle.

Her view that it is why Obama called for US agents at the scene to stand down: it was all a charade; the objective was to only capture Stevens, not to kill him. That is why we haven’t gotten a real October surprise yet: Stevens was accidentally killed and so there is no hostage to have returned to victorious praise in the last weeks before the election. (The only course left for an 'October Surprise' is to attack Steven’s supposed murderers in the week before the election.)

This is supposedly also why the post-attack narrative was confused for a couple of days: the outcome was not the pre-scripted one. No one was supposed to be looking at the delay in sending military assistance to a murdered ambassador, they were all supposed to be watching breathlessly for the tense negotiations for the ambassador’s release.

Again supposedly this is why the film was cast as the cause: it was the preplanned flashpoint to remove blame from both Morsi and his Obama administration co-conspirators. This is also why the consulate's Libyan guard is being held in a US German Base hospital incommunicado: so that he cannot muddy the new narrative.

If Stevens had just lived long enough to be ransomed home, the sun would be shining today. Obama was just waiting for a call from Morsi to heroically mediate Stevens/Abdel-Rahman exchange. And it was just a matter of time before the abduction would be announced and all parties would stand down.

Both Obama and Morsi would have been heroes to both the Western world and the Muslim world. But Stevens dying and the 'unexpected' Seals on scene blew it.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 11/02/2012 14:51 Comments || Top||

#13  I suspect my ranking as a cynic is fairly high Richard, (with regard to the US gov't... possibly among the top .05%) but I simply can't buy the kidnapping theory.

I'll grant you, I could be wrong... I could indeed be wrong. I thought I had most of this Benghazi disaster nailed... but certainly did not.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/02/2012 14:58 Comments || Top||

#14  Hate to say this but if Stevens was kidnapped or taken hostage it would just about be the end of Obama's chances for reelection. The media can forget a dead man but a live hostage is a little different. There might still be something to be done for him and the pressure to do it would have been on Obama.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 11/02/2012 15:27 Comments || Top||

#15  No problem here. Just transmitting another point of view (even if it is a freeperworld view). It is a little out there, but I do love a conspiracy.

Personally, I'm a little closer in belief to the 'helping a friend of a friend' gun running scenario.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 11/02/2012 16:38 Comments || Top||

#16  Right, I'm aware of (1) the kidnapping hypothesis, (2) the running-guns-to-Syria hypothesis, and (3) the "OBL is dead and AQ is on the run" hypothesis. All are consistent with the facts known so far, but that's not enough to convince me of any of them. Also, all point to BHO as a dangerous cretin, which we already knew, so filling in the big picture is mainly to establish the degree of how dangerous and how cretinous. If he's re-relected, I'd like to think that he's only won the right to be impeached.
Posted by: RandomJD || 11/02/2012 16:50 Comments || Top||

#17  If B-Hussein-O gets re-elected, he might get impeached by the House but never prosecuted by the Senate unless the Senate changes hands and there are enough Dems who go along with an impeachment. The best shot at removing "O" from office is voting him out on Tuesday.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/02/2012 17:14 Comments || Top||

#18  Unless he declares a State of Emergency. I would never have believed that until Benghazi.
Posted by: Charles || 11/02/2012 17:15 Comments || Top||

#19  Unless he declares a State of Emergency. I would never have believed that until Benghazi.

...or Sandy...
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 11/02/2012 17:43 Comments || Top||

#20  I wouldn't be spending the nightshift at any aspirin factories

/to semi-quote some other smartass a while ago...like tu
Posted by: Frank G || 11/02/2012 18:14 Comments || Top||

#21  While Ima wake and about it occurs to me I've never seen FG and TU in the same picture.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/02/2012 18:39 Comments || Top||

#22  And that's troubling... very troubling.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/02/2012 18:40 Comments || Top||

#23  Bwahahahahaha!
Posted by: Frank G || 11/02/2012 18:53 Comments || Top||


Benghazi: 'Troubling' Surveillance Before Benghazi Attack
Long piece from Foreign Policy magazine, so just the first bits here. Some overlap with the UAE TV report.
BENGHAZI, Libya -- More than six weeks after the shocking assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi -- and nearly a month after an FBI team arrived to collect evidence about the attack - the battle-scarred, fire-damaged compound where Ambassador Chris Stevens and another Foreign Service officer lost their lives on Sept. 11 still holds sensitive documents and other relics of that traumatic final day, including drafts of two letters worrying that the compound was under "troubling" surveillance and complaining that the Libyan government failed to fulfill requests for additional security.

When we visited on Oct. 26 to prepare a story for Dubai based Al Aan TV, we found not only Stevens's personal copy of the Aug. 6 New Yorker, lying on remnants of the bed in the safe room where Stevens spent his final hours, but several ash-strewn documents beneath rubble in the looted Tactical Operations Center, one of the four main buildings of the partially destroyed compound. Some of the documents -- such as an email from Stevens to his political officer in Benghazi and a flight itinerary sent to Sean Smith, a U.S. diplomat slain in the attack -- are clearly marked as State Department correspondence. Others are unsigned printouts of messages to local and national Libyan authorities. The two unsigned draft letters are both dated Sept. 11 and express strong fears about the security situation at the compound on what would turn out to be a tragic day. They also indicate that Stevens and his team had officially requested additional security at the Benghazi compound for his visit -- and that they apparently did not feel it was being provided.

One letter, written on Sept. 11 and addressed to Mohamed Obeidi, the head of the Libyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs' office in Benghazi, reads:

"Finally, early this morning at 0643, September 11, 2012, one of our diligent guards made a troubling report. Near our main gate, a member of the police force was seen in the upper level of a building across from our compound. It is reported that this person was photographing the inside of the U.S. special mission and furthermore that this person was part of the police unit sent to protect the mission. The police car stationed where this event occurred was number 322."

The account accords with a message written by Smith, the IT officer who was killed in the assault, on a gaming forum on Sept. 11. "Assuming we don't die tonight. We saw one of our 'police' that guard the compound taking pictures," he wrote hours before the assault.

The State Department declined to comment directly on the documents, citing an ongoing investigation. "An independent board is conducting a thorough review of the assault on our post in Benghazi," deputy spokesman Mark Toner said. "Once we have the board's comprehensive account of what happened, findings and recommendations, we can fully address these matters."

Obeidi, the Libyan official named on one of the printouts, said he had not received any such letter, adding, "I did not even know that the U.S. ambassador was visiting Benghazi." However, a spokesman for the Benghazi police confirmed that the ministry had notified the police of the ambassador's visit. "We did not receive that letter from the U.S. consulate. We received a letter from Ministry of Foreign Affairs Benghazi asking for additional security measures around consulate during visit of the ambassador. And the police provided all extra security which was asked for," the spokesman said.

It is not clear whether the U.S. letters were ever sent, and if so, what action was taken before the assault on the evening of Sept. 11. But they speak to a dangerous and uncertain security environment in Benghazi that clearly had many State Department officials worried for their safety.
Posted by: Steve White || 11/02/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336071 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Rick Masters in Live and Die in LA "You're livin' like an animal in the f*cking zoo..."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/02/2012 9:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Some of the MSM is beginning to awake from their four year slumber. They should have been asking questions when Benghazi first occurred but they were too busy providing cover for the ONE. Katherine Herridge, Jennifer Griffin have been taking the lead at Fox have been good at taking a look at this and asking many of the right questions. There are still many questions to answer.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/02/2012 9:59 Comments || Top||

#3  very painful to look back at see the warning signs of hostile surveillance. it's really regrettable that they didn't have enough security personnel assigned to handle this. the real solution for Benghazi was to react immediately to these early warning signs.
Posted by: Raider || 11/02/2012 11:41 Comments || Top||

#4  Well, see, normally, you'd ingratiate the locals by purchasing food, toilet paper and such. But they had none of that to sell. Instead, they had illiterate, unwashed young men toting assault rifles for hire, so that's what got bought...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/02/2012 13:55 Comments || Top||


Benghazi: Key task force not convened during Benghazi consulate attack
CBS News has learned that during the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi, the Obama Administration did not convene its top interagency counterterrorism resource: the Counterterrorism Security Group, (CSG).
So Champ's administration ignored requests to protect our people prior to the attack, and didn't respond in any effective way during the attack. And we all know how they handled things afterwards...
"The CSG is the one group that's supposed to know what resources every agency has. They know of multiple options and have the ability to coordinate counterterrorism assets across all the agencies," a high-ranking government official told CBS News. "They were not allowed to do their job. They were not called upon."

Counterterrorism sources and internal emails reviewed by CBS News express frustration that key responders were ready to deploy, but were not called upon to help in the attack. As to why the Counterterrorism Security Group was not convened, National Security Council Spokesman Tommy Vietor told CBS News "From the moment the President was briefed on the Benghazi attack, the response effort was handled by the most senior national security officials in governments. Members of the CSG were of course involved in these meetings and discussions to support their bosses."
Sure, they were briefed. But what did they do?
Absent coordination from Counterterrorism Security Group, a senior US counterterrorism official says the response to the crisis became more confused. The official says the FBI received a call during the attack representing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and requesting agents be deployed. But he and his colleagues agreed the agents "would not make any difference without security and other enablers to get them in the country and synch their efforts with military and diplomatic efforts to maximize their success."

Another senior counter terrorism official says a hostage rescue team was alternately asked to get ready and then stand down throughout the night, as officials seemed unable to make up their minds.

A third potential responder from a counter-terror force stationed in Europe says components of AFICOM -- the military's Africa Command based in Stuttgart, Germany -- were working on course of action during the assault. But no plan was put to use.

"Forces were positioned after the fact but not much good to those that needed it," the military source told CBS News.

"The response process was isolated at the most senior level," says an official referring to top officials in the executive branch. "My fellow counterterrorism professionals and I (were) not consulted."

The official says a protocol set forth in a classified presidential directive calls for the Counterterrorism Security Group (CSG) to be convened in the event of a possible terrorist attack. According to a public military document, the directive was designed to "synchronize the efforts of all the government agencies that have a role to play in the Global War on Terrorism."

The Administration also didn't call on the only interagency, on-call, short notice team poised to respond to terrorist incidents worldwide: the Foreign Emergency Support Team (FEST). FEST's seasoned experts leave within four hours of notification and can provide "the fastest assistance possible."

FEST Teams deployed immediately after al Qaeda bombings of US embassies in East Africa in 1998, and the USS Cole in 2000, but were not used for Benghazi, to the chagrin of some insiders. It's likely that the CSG task force, if contacted, would have recommended FEST aid.

"First a tactical response was needed," says a senior U.S. counterterrorism official, "and while that was being implemented, the holistic response could have been developed and deployed within hours" which could have allowed the FBI investigate safely on site well ahead of the "24 days it took."

When asked why the FEST wasn't utilized, a State Department official said it was used previously in East Africa because of damage sustained to a US embassy "to help restore communications and other infrastructure support. In this case, that was unnecessary at Embassy Tripoli."
Of course it was unnecessary in Tripoli. The attack was in Benghazi.
A White House official told us that at the start of the attack, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Martin Dempsey and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta "looked at available options, and the ones we exercised had our military forces arrive in less than 24 hours, well ahead of timelines laid out in established policies." He also said a "small group of reinforcements" was sent from Tripoli to Benghazi, but declined to say how many or what time they arrived. The Pentagon moved a team of special operators from central Europe to Sigonella, Italy but gave no other details.

Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans died in a protracted battle over the course of eight hours. It's believed two of the victims, Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, died in a mortar attack some six or seven hours after the US Mission was first overrun by a terrorist mob that burned buildings and used AK-47 rifles, bombs, and mortars.
Posted by: Steve White || 11/02/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336070 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The big question. Hussein has Panetta, Hillary, Holder and almost half of Congress in his back pocket.

What do you say are the viable options to bring out the answers and hold people, even him accountable?
Posted by: Bugs Uleger6376 || 11/02/2012 2:10 Comments || Top||

#2  The key task force will be convened after Nov. 6th.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/02/2012 10:00 Comments || Top||

#3  A conscience decision was made early in the crisis to execute a CIA adhoc self-extraction vs classic off-the-shelf professional In-Extemis NEO evacuation.

A conscience decision was made to link a video of Allah to the event as a cause and cover for action.

A conscience decision has been made to systematically leak bits and pieces of information to the media over time to diffuse and wear down the issue.

A conscience decision will soon be made to site "National Security Concerns" and lower the cone of silence.

I am not hopefull anything will come of this.

Posted by: Besoeker || 11/02/2012 10:14 Comments || Top||

#4  I gather that 23 of the 30 people evacuated from the "consulate" in Benghazi were CIA folks working under dipomatic cover. Is it possible that there was confusion or conflict between State and CIA over whose turf it was - over which agency had primary responsibility to secure and respond?

Yet - CIA says they did everything possible, and Hillary took responsibility. But it's kinda like the Administration doesn't want anyone asking why two dozen CIA people and the US ambassdor himself set up shop in a nondescript villa in AQ territory in the first place. As more details drip out, I am increasingly curious what they were all doing there.

I am somewhat hopeful that we'll get to the bottom of this. Four US agents are dead and Ogabe has been a dick about it. Their colleagues, their families, and a number of senators are angry. The first group is, I presume, where all the leaked emails and cables are coming from, which I expect to continue so long as the Administration continues stonewalling.
Posted by: RandomJD || 11/02/2012 11:51 Comments || Top||

#5  A conscience decision has been made to systematically leak bits and pieces of information to the media over time to diffuse and wear down the issue.

They are certainly wearing me down. I think we all know by now that the response during the attack and the security that was in place before the attack were both inadequate.

But the lack of MFM coverage makes me feel like I'm some kind of isolated right wing whacko because I'm seething about it but nobody else seems to care. Benghazi should be the lead story in all of the media every day (OK, Sandy was a big story, but still). There should be a nationwide outrage and Champ's poll numbers should be plummeting but it's not happening. Nobody talks about it. Nobody cares. I get tired of feeling that way. I wanna be normal. But all I can do is vote next Tuesday.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 11/02/2012 12:20 Comments || Top||

#6  ^^^ This.
Posted by: RandomJD || 11/02/2012 12:22 Comments || Top||

#7  I am SO with you Ebbang.
Posted by: warthogswife || 11/02/2012 14:19 Comments || Top||


Tunisia Security Officers Protest against Salafist Attacks
[An Nahar] Hundreds of officers from several Tunisian security forces demonstrated on Thursday against attacks on them, particularly by Salafists
...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them...
, and protested at the lack of resources to protect themselves.

Police, national guard, civil defense and the presidential guard officers protested for an hour in front of the interior ministry, an Agence La Belle France Presse news hound said.

"We denounce the violence against the officers and urge the government to take steps quickly to protect them and their families who are at risk," Sami Gnaoui, an official at the General Union of the National Guard, told AFP.

The protesters were demanding they be given appropriate equipment and proper instructions to enable them to ensure their own safety when attacked.

The discontent was triggered after the head of the area's public security brigade was assaulted in Manouba by a Salafist.

A suspect was tossed in the slammer
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
, which sparked violence on Tuesday in which Islamists attacked two guard posts in the Tunis suburb of Manouba.

In the ensuing festivities an attacker was killed and two coppers maimed.

On Thursday, Imam Khaled Karaoui of Manouba's Ennour mosque, who was among those who attacked the national guard posts, died of wounds sustained that night, local national guard commander Nizar Badis said.

Demonstrators also criticized human rights
One man's rights are another man's existential threat.
activist Radhia Nasraoui, who has consistently denounced abuses in cop shoppes since the 2011 revolution that ousted former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and who attended the rally.

"She does not stop insulting us and she comes to a gathering of the security forces," said a police officer.

Since Ben Ali's ouster, radical Islamists have carried out a number of attacks, including against security forces and on cultural events.

The opposition accuses the government, led by Islamist party Ennahda, of failing to rein in violence by Salafists, a hardline branch of Sunni Islam.

The authorities have vowed to crack down on Islamist violence in the wake of a Salafist-led attack on the U.S. embassy in September in which four assailants were killed.

Tunisian security forces are poorly viewed by the people given the repression they carried out under the regime of Ben Ali, and no major reforms have been implemented so far by the present Islamist Ennahda party-led government.
Posted by: Fred || 11/02/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336080 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


India-Pakistan
Two more policemen shot dead
[Dawn] Two more coppers were rubbed out in the city on Wednesday, police said.

They said that armed riders targeted 42-year-old Assistant Sub-Inspector Rafiq Khaskheli when he was passing through the main market of the rural suburbs of the city.

Clad in shalwar-kameez, the ASI suffered a single bullet wound in the head and died while being shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC).

“According to witnesses, two men on a cycle of violence intercepted him in a service lane along the main market of the area,” said the station investigation officer, Haroon-ur-Rasheed.

“He was hit by a bullet in the head that proved fatal. He was associated with the investigation arm of the Murad Memon Goth cop shoppe. He was quite active in taking action against area criminals.”

He said he had little doubt that criminal gangs mainly involved in drug trafficking and extortion were responsible for the murder.

The victim was a resident of Jam Kando Goth in Malir and father of five.

Earlier in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, a constable of the CID police was killed while resisting a robbery bid.

Police said that 40-year-old CID constable Saeed Mansoori was also associated with a private school in Gulistan-e-Jauhar Block 15 as a physical trainer. He was about to leave the school when he saw two armed motorcyclists attempting to rob a woman on the road.

“The constable along with a school watchman, Mumtaz Ali, challenged the armed bandidos,” said DSP Shakil Awan.

“After a brief scuffle, one of the two bandidos fired shots and the constable and watchman suffered bullet wounds. They were shifted to a nearby private hospital where the constable died.”

He said that the victim was a resident of North Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
’s Sector-3 and had been associated with the anti-extremist cell of the CID police since 2009.

A total of 80 coppers have been killed in the city this year. Nineteen of them were targeted in October 2012.

Woman killed in attack on house

An elderly woman was killed and her daughter and two grandsons were maimed in an armed attack on her house in Ittehad Town on Wednesday, police said.

They said that two neighbouring families had developed a dispute last week near Jhangwi Chowk in Ittehad Town that turned ugly on Wednesday evening when members of one of the families fired shots at the other one.

“The two families belong to the Mehsud and Afridi tribes,” said Inspector Imtiaz Mir Jatt, the SHO of the Mockho cop shoppe.

“The male members of the Mehsud family with some of their aides stormed Allah Khan Afridi’s home and fired shots indiscriminately. There were only women and kiddies and the firing killed Allah Khan’s 65-year-old mother Zul Farosh and left her daughter Asna Bibi and her two sons eight-year-old Ashfaq and 10-year-old Shahid maimed. The attackers bravely ran away after the firing.”

He said that the police after initial investigations raided multiple places and locked away
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
two suspects — Khalid and Abdullah.

“The nature of dispute is not yet clear but we have identified the attackers and will arrest them very soon,” added the area SHO.

Young man rubbed out

A young man was rubbed out under mysterious circumstances in North Nazimabad on Wednesday, police said.

They said that 37-year-old Shabbir Saifuddin was riding a motorbike as a pillion rider with his friend Ali Asghar, who found the former maimed when they reached near Five Star Chowrangi.

“The victim was coming from UP Mor with his friend sitting on the rear seat of the motorbike,” said North Nazimabad SP Latif Siddiqi. “When they reached near Five Star Chowrangi, Ali Asghar found his friend falling on him unconsciously. He stopped the bike and found his head oozing blood.”

Saifuddin was brought to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
He's dead, Jim!
Doctors said a single bullet hit the victim in the head.

The killing sounded suspicious to the police Sherlocks, who remained clueless about the incident.

“We don’t know exactly what had really happened. His friend is the only eyewitness to the incident who said he did not see any attacker neither did he hear a gunshot. The victim was a resident of North Nazimabad’s Bock C. We are still in the process of collect information before reaching any conclusion,” added the area SP.

Boy found strangulated

The body of an unidentified boy, aged between 10 and 12 years, was found in the bushes in Gulistan-e-Jauhar on Wednesday, officials said.

They said that a police patrol was informed about the body.

“The boy was dressed in shalwar-kameez,” said an official at the Sharea Faisal cop shoppe. “There were visible wounds on the body, which was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.”

He said that apparently the boy was strangulated, but the exact cause of death could only be known in a couple of days in the final report of the post-mortem examination.

“The body was moved to the Edhi morgue in Sohrab Goth for a want of identification. We are tracing the family links of the victim before lodging an FIR,” added the official.
Posted by: Fred || 11/02/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336083 views] Top|| File under:


Three ANP men killed in attack on party office
[Dawn] Three workers of the Awami National Party (ANP) were killed and four activists were maimed in a gun attack carried out by some half a dozen gunnies riding cycle of violences on its party office in Landhi on Wednesday, police and party sources said.

The officials said that about six men riding three motorbikes pulled up outside the ANP ward office in UC-3 of Landhi's Sherpao Colony within the remit of the Quaidabad cop shoppe. Three of them got off the two-wheelers, pulled out 9mm pistols and fired multiple shots at the ANP workers sitting in and outside the office.

"The firing was so intense that it terrorised area people and caused panic in the thickly-populated neighbourhood," said an official at the Quaidabad cop shoppe. "The main victims were those activists who were sitting in chairs outside the office as a matter of routine. The attackers sped away in a flash after firing multiple rounds."

As the guns fell silent, residents and the party workers who escaped the attack rescued the maimed and put them into cars and ambulances to race them to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC). Out of the total seven maimed victims, three workers, including the party's area leader, died one after another at the hospital.

"The dear departed have been identified as activist in charge of ANP ward Saleem Khan, Abid Hazarwai and Mohammad Sajid," said the official. "The maimed included Fahim Bangash, Niaz Khan Yousufzai, Arif Khan and Abdul Razzaq. The maimed activist, Niaz Khan, is also coordinator to the ANP politician in the Sindh Assembly Amanullah Mehsood," the police said.

The police authorities suspected 'political reasons' for the deadly attack that also attracted serious criticism from the leadership of the ANP, which parted ways with the Pakistain People's Party-led coalition government only last month while keeping the ruling partnership intact at the centre and in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
"It was definitely a targeted attack," said DIG (east) Shahid Hayat. "Initially it seems politically motivated but investigations are at their early stage. We are collecting information. Police patrol and deployment in the affected area and other volatile localities have been increased to prevent violence."

Losing workers and area leaders consistently in random attacks in different parts of the city, the ANP sounded worried and angry while blaming the 'security administration' and the 'coalition government' for failing to protect lives of political workers.

"Political activism in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
is being targeted months before general elections," said an ANP front man commenting on the attack on the Landhi office. "It's sheer terrorism, which puts a question mark over the performance of the democratic set-up and the law-enforcement agencies. The party condemns every form of terrorism," he added.
Posted by: Fred || 11/02/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336080 views] Top|| File under:


Peace body chief held in Khyber for 'illegal activities'
[Dawn] The authorities on Tuesday locked away
You have the right to remain silent...
head of a pro-government peace committee in Khyber Agency for his alleged involvement in kidnapping cases.

Officials said that Essa Khan, the head of peace committee, kidnapped a resident of Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central
...Smallest of the agencies in FATA. The Agency administration is located in Khar. Bajaur is inhabited almost exclusively by Tarkani Pashtuns, which are divided into multiple bickering subtribes. Its 52 km border border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistain's strategic depth...
some time ago and kept him in habeas corpus. They said that Essa Khan was lodged at Jamrud lockup where he would be interrogated for his involvement in illegal activities.

Essa Khan formed a peace committee with the assistance of local administration in Chora after security forces destroyed a hideout of faceless myrmidons in the area and killed a number of orcs, who had taken refuge there after fleeing upper Orakzai Agency
... crawling with holy men, home to Darra Adam Khel, the world's largest illegal arms bazaar. 14 distinct tribes of beturbanned primitives inhabit Orakzai agency's 1500 or so square kilometers...
Meanwhile,
...back at the desert island, Bert was realizing to his horror that he'd had only one bottle for one message, and he'd forgotten to include a return address...
a nine-year-old student was injured critically when he was hit by a stray bullet during a wedding party in Mirdadkhel area of Landi Kotal on Tuesday.

The injured boy identified as Shehzad was shifted to Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
after doctors at the local hospital declared his condition critical. The local administration claims to have imposed a ban on firing in the air in Landi Kotal.

However,
a hangover is the wrath of grapes...
the ban was flouted by local residents as Landi Kotal and its surrounding areas reverberated with frequent bursts of Kalashnikovs and other weapons during wedding ceremonies on Eid days.

Local officials, when contacted, insisted that no one had so far lodged any complaint with them about firing in the air.

Also, curfew remained imposed in most parts of Malikdinkhel, Sipah and Shalobar areas in Bara on Wednesday as security forces continued search and cordon operation there for the fourth consecutive day.

Officials said that about 250 rustics from Sipah tribe were locked away
You have the right to remain silent...
during the operation from different areas. They said that all the locked away
You have the right to remain silent...
rustics were shifted to Fort Salop for questioning.

Security forces made announcements through loudspeakers, asking residents of Shalobar, Sipah and Malikdinkhel to remain indoors and avoid coming out of their homes.

Forces also plugged all the entry and exit routes to the areas where curfew was imposed. The imposition of curfew caused acute shortage of food and other daily use items in the region.

Local sources said that hundreds of families had gone to Bara to celebrate Eid with their relatives but they were stranded there owing to imposition of curfew and launching of search operation.

Meanwhile,
...back at the desert island, Bert was realizing to his horror that he'd had only one bottle for one message, and he'd forgotten to include a return address...
Al-Khidmat Foundation distributed meat of sacrificial animals among 4,000 displaced families from Bara, presently living at Jalozai camp, on the second and third days of Eidul Azha.

A blurb issued by Al-Khidmat Foundation said that a total of 733 animals including 578 sheep, 71 goats and 85 buffaloes were slaughtered at Jalozai camp on the second day of Eid.

The Foundation selected 4,000 deserving and needy families and distributed the meat among them through its workers.
Posted by: Fred || 11/02/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336081 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Fake ISI officer held in Peshawar
[Dawn] Local police on Wednesday enjugged
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
a man for pretending to be a colonel of Inter-Services Intelligence.

ASP (cantonment) Ali Akbar Khan told news hounds here that imposter Amir Murad wanted to acquire 10 kanals of land in Kaghan Valley on lease from the government to open an ISI office and was enjugged
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
on inquiry.

He said the enjugged
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
man, a resident of Rawalpindi, was a habitual criminal and worked as human resource manger in Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority, vice president in a telephone company, regional manager in a private bank and consultant in some nongovernmental organizations on fake documents.

Mr Ali said the imposter was also involved in extorting money and providing people with fake documents for US and UK visas.
Posted by: Fred || 11/02/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336081 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  ...habitual criminal and worked as human resource manger (sic)

Department of Redundancy Department.
Posted by: PBMcL || 11/02/2012 12:25 Comments || Top||


Ten militants killed as jets pound Tirah Valley
[Dawn] Ten gunnies were killed and six injured Thursday as gunship helicopters and jet fighters pounded bad boy hideouts in the remote Tirah Valley in Khyber Agency’s Bara Tehsil, security officials said.

The officials said that security forces had also destroyed the house of a bad boy commander while a mortar shell hitting a house injured eight civilians also in Bara.

Sources added that gunship helicopters struck myrmidons in Sairi village of Tirah, destroying four of their bases and killing ten bad boys. Six were also said to be injured.

The security forces claims, however, could not be verified form an independent source, the area being inaccessible to news hounds because of a lack of telecommunication links

Meanwhile,
...back at the pool hall, Peoria Slim had found another sucker...
security forces also blew up the house of a bad boy commander known as Javed belonging to the outlawed Lashkar-e-Islam in the Nala Kajori area of Bara.

In another incident a mortar shell hit a house in Malakdin Khel area of Bara, injuring eight members of a family. It was unclear whether the shell was fired by gunnies or security forces.

Khyber is one of Pakistain’s seven tribal districts near the Afghan border which are rife with homegrown forces of Evil and are alleged to be strongholds of Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives.
Posted by: Fred || 11/02/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336085 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Iron Merchant Caught Transferring Money To Hamas
[Ynet] Shin Bet, police trace Gazook iron merchant that used his Israeli visa to transfer millions of dollars and iron to Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, military wing

Gazoo resident Maher Abu Ghaba, 41, has been abusing his Israeli visa to transfer money to Hamas, apparently for years. Reportedly, Abu Ghaba has also been transferring iron to the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, which was using the iron in the construction of tunnels and bunkers.

On Thursday, it was cleared for publication that Abu Ghaba was locked away
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
in a joint operation of the Shin Bet and the Lachish District Police.

Abu Ghaba, who has been importing and marketing iron in the Gazoo Strip, was locked away
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
at the Erez crossing on September 6, carrying NIS 114,000 (roughly $29, 400). When questioned by the Shin Bet, he confessed to transferring money and iron to Hamas. The accumulated amount of money is estimated to have reached some $3 million.

Abu Ghaba utilized many methods in his schemes, one of which was taking money that Hamas wired to his family in Egypt for his iron business and handing it over in cash to Gazook Hamas representatives.

Ever since Morsi assumed power in Egypt, Abu Ghaba confessed, money transfer has become easier, as Hamas officials would leave to Egypt through Rafah and carry the money in suitcases back to the Strip.

3,000 tons of iron found on a ship arriving from turkey

The Shin Bet, the police, customs, and the State Prosecutor ran a joint operation last month, thwarting an attempt to smuggle some 3,000 tons of iron into the Gazoo Strip. The iron, imported by Abu Ghaba, was used by Hamas to build bunkers under mosques.

The South District Attorney's Office filed an indictment in September, charging Abu Ghaba with conspiracy, support of a terror organization and funding terror. According to the indictment, Abu Ghaba imported the iron from different countries into the Ashdod Port, stored the iron in sheds in Israel and gradually transported it in trucks to the Gazoo Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing.

Senior NCO Motti Asor, of the Southern District Police, said that "Intelligence information led us to arrest the man carrying NIS 114,000 in cash. He claimed it was payment for iron, but later confessed under questioning to have transferred $3-4 million through his brother in Egypt and another middleman."

"By purchasing iron," Asor added, "Hamas would in fact launder money. Hamas would later use the iron to build shelters and posts to prepare for war or conflict with the IDF." According to Asor, police forces unloaded 3,000 tons of iron from a ship arriving from Turkey in October, amounting to some 42 tons of iron that police intercepted and which will be confiscated.

The Shin Bet and police expressed their concern that goods, such as iron for construction, imported through Israeli ports, may make their way to the Hamas military wing.

"Abu Ghaba's arrest," an official said, "indicates that Hamas has been abusing Israel's policy of granting visas to merchants, by which traders would go into Israel on a daily basis," pointing out that Hamas can in fact smuggle goods and money into the Strip for military purposes.

According to the official, Hamas builds bunkers under mosques, presumably assuming that Israel will avoid attacking places of worship in case of war.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/02/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336067 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Take some of his iron mongery and let him use it as a wet-suit to investigate the bottom of the Red Sea.......small oxygen tank optional.
Posted by: AlanC || 11/02/2012 8:37 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Indonesia suspects new terrorist links to al Qaeda
A group of 11 suspected terrorists arrested in Indonesia in the past week for allegedly planning to attack the U.S. Embassy and other American targets is likely connected to remnants of Jemaah Islamiyah, according to Indonesia's counterterrorism head.

Ansyaad Mbai said interrogation of the group would probably show they are linked with Jemaah Islamiyah, which was al Qaeda's chief franchise in Southeast Asia and the group that carried out the Bali bombings 10 years ago. He said the group "looked new at first, but we've found that they're connected to the previous terrorist networks."

The arrests came as government forces stepped up operations on the northern island of Sulawesi. Police on Wednesday killed one suspect and arrested two others in a shootout in the Sulawesi town of Poso.

Mbai said Poso is the new front in Indonesia's fight against Islamism. Officials say militants are fomenting sectarian unrest between Muslims and Christians in Poso to destabilize the country and advance their ultimate goal of creating an Islamic nation.

Mbai said, "The center of gravity for terrorism in Indonesia is Solo [in Central Java], but Poso is used as the training grounds now. The situation is already critical. People are scared."

He said it was possible that some of the men apprehended during the past week in the plot against the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta received training in Poso. The 11 suspects were all arrested in cities on Java: Bogor, Solo and Madiun.

Indonesian police said the suspects were planning attacks on the embassy, the U.S. Consulate in Surabaya and an office of the Indonesian arm of a U.S. mining company.

Indonesian police identified the suspects as being from a little-known group called Haraqah Sunni for Indonesian Society, or Hasmi. The group targeted American interests in part for revenge following the anti-Islam video clip, that triggered protests around the Muslim world.

Amar said, "From the investigation so far, we know that one of the reasons why they will launch the act of terrorism is this movie, which they view is a blasphemy against Islam.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, in a speech on Tuesday, called on Indonesia's citizens to fight terrorism but added that the rest of the world needs to be careful about angering extremist elements. He said, "I am also calling on to the world, to countries to uphold mutual respect and be sensitive to [values] in other communities, in other nations, in other religions. Stop blasphemies."

Southeast Asia's terror situation is not confined to Indonesia. Lebanese officials last week arrested two Malaysians in Beirut on suspicion of having links with al Qaeda. Marwan Sinno, the lawyer representing the two Malaysians, said they had been accused of working for al Qaeda and planning a terrorist act in Syria.
Posted by: ryuge || 11/02/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336068 views] Top|| File under: Abu Sayyaf


Two killed, four injured in shooting attack in southern Thailand
Two people were killed and four others wounded in a shooting at the Hari Raya fair in Pattani province on Wednesday night.

Police received a report late last night of a shooting at the fair site on Vasukree Beach. Chief of Sai Buri police station Pol Col Arsis Umayee led a joint police and military force, together with a bomb disposal unit, to investigate the scene. Police found spent 9mm cartridge shells and bomb debris in front of a shop.

Witnesses said that six people were seriously wounded in the shooting and were taken to the hospital, where two of them were later pronounced dead.

Witnesses said the victims were working at the bingo shop and nearby gambling shops when two people dressed like Muslim women approached them and then opened fire with handguns. The attackers then placed a metal box containing a 3 kg home-made bomb on the ground in front of the bingo shop and fled.

The bomb was meant to kill police who arrived after the attack, but fortunately it went off too early. No one was hurt in the blast.

Police believed it was the work of separatist terrorists militants who had earlier warned that fairs where gambling is permitted should not be held in the deep South.
Posted by: ryuge || 11/02/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336072 views] Top|| File under: Thai Insurgency


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
UN: Syrian rebels may have committed war crime
Posted by: ryuge || 11/02/2012 07:50 || Comments || Link || [336073 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No sh*t?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/02/2012 8:41 Comments || Top||

#2  As opposed to Assad's forces distribution of rainbows and glitter?
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 11/02/2012 8:47 Comments || Top||

#3  When you 'lead from behind' and have no cohesive influence, once one side starts with the crap, there's nothing to inhibit the other side from matching the level of the game as established by their opponents.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/02/2012 9:07 Comments || Top||

#4  The UN, itself, is a crime against humanity. Humanity does a spectacular ongoing job of committing crimes against itself.
Time to rip off the Band-Aid (UN) and accept that pain is the norm...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/02/2012 9:23 Comments || Top||

#5  As opposed to Assad's forces distribution of rainbows and glitter?

Assad's fighting this war by WWII rules. He tells the civilian population to get out and then he pounds the area. The opposition isn't "liberating" cities like Aleppo and Damascus - it's bringing the war to those areas by occupying them instead of sticking to attacks on military outposts and looting civilian homes if the inhabitants abandon these war zones. This is probably why support for the rebels has been limited and grudging - these people are like locusts who destroy everything they touch.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 11/02/2012 9:34 Comments || Top||

#6  The whole idea of "war crime" is an oxymoron. There are no rules to war that aren't purely pragmatic.

Don't use poison gas cause your enemy will double down on it, mutually assured destruction.

The original Star Trek had a good episode where the horror of war was reintroduced to a culture where it had become a clinical bit of background noise.

War SHOULD be horrible so people will think twice about engaging in it AND so that if you do go, you go all out to win.
Posted by: AlanC || 11/02/2012 10:42 Comments || Top||

#7  What was your first clue, Sherlock?
Posted by: mojo || 11/02/2012 10:47 Comments || Top||

#8  sheesh. What happened, martini bar lose power?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 11/02/2012 11:48 Comments || Top||

#9  Hey! That looks like another war crime!
Mahmoud, could you turn up the volume and bring me and the rapporteur another gin and tonic?
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/02/2012 13:54 Comments || Top||

#10  AlanC - that Star Trek eposode was A Taste of Armageddon.

Commander Scott: The best diplomat I know is a fully activated phaser bank.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 11/02/2012 14:12 Comments || Top||

#11  CF, in lieu of phaser banks how about a full spread of cruise missles? With or without an accompaniement of MoABs?
Posted by: AlanC || 11/02/2012 14:18 Comments || Top||


Fatah big shot by unknown gunmen in Ain-Al Hellhole
A member of the Fatah movement was severely injured Thursday when unidentified gunmen shot him in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, sources said.

The Palestinian sources identified the victim as Imad al-Saidi, who was transferred from the Ain al-Hilweh camp to a nearby hospital for treatment, DPA reported.
Pray for sepsis...
Fatah has accused the al-Qaeda-inspired group Jund al-Sham, which is based in the camp, of involvement in the shooting, raising tensions between the two groups, the sources said.

The camp's security committee said an investigation would be launched into the incident, the National News Agency reported.
"Legume! Fetch my cape, the game is afoot. And bring me my saxophone!"
The Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp, situated in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon, is home to around 70,000 Palestinian refugees. Some 367,000 Palestinian refugees live in brotherly Arabic love miserable conditions in 12 camps across Lebanon.
Posted by: Steve White || 11/02/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336063 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fatah has never been the same since they lost Arafat. They need to climb a mountain, do some Zen, and contemplate their bellybuttons. This thing just isn't working for them :-)
Posted by: Raider || 11/02/2012 12:58 Comments || Top||

#2  Aaaah! Where is Abu Nidal when we need him?
Nobody, but nobody fuck a muslim so good as another muslim...the fond memories of Abu Nidal...Abu used to bury his followers alive in a casket, then fill the casket with battery acid...shoot bullets down the pipe and other fun things
Damn you, Saddam, why kill him? we'd have had so much fun with Abu!!!


http://www.plus.es/recorte/?id=20020821elpepuint_3.Ies&r=LCO413&t=se
Posted by: Jack Glons4384 || 11/02/2012 14:47 Comments || Top||


US withdraws its support for Syrian National Council
The US has called for a major overhaul of Syria's beleaguered opposition, saying it was time to move beyond the Syrian National Council (SNC).
Do the Syrian people get a vote in this?
"We've made it clear that the SNC can no longer be viewed as the visible leader of the opposition. They can be part of a larger opposition, but that opposition must include people from inside Syria and others who have a legitimate voice that needs to be heard," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at a news conference during a visit to Croatia.
Until those people get killed by Pencilneck ... or by the Islamicists...
Mrs Clinton added that Syrian opposition talks in Qatar next week should lead to a broader coalition that would speak out strongly against "efforts by extremists to hijack the Syrian revolution."

Western patience has been wearing thin with the SNC, a group of largely expatriate Syrian activists who so far have failed to gain much traction with groups inside the country.
Posted by: Steve White || 11/02/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336122 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In other words, "PencilNeck and NutJob gave us secret campaign donations."
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 11/02/2012 8:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Are events in Benghazi not bad enough? Why can they simply not just stay the hell out of it?
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/02/2012 8:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Whats the matter, weapons unpack and check clear, now they don't play ball? ClusterF's.

The peace of islam at its borders was the demi-glas of the Obama doctrine of unclenched smart diplomacy, the new appreciation of America. It has been asked, why suddenly so serious about Benghazi when the Rules of Engagement in Afghanistan are killing people too? It is because in the back of everyone's minds, who have a mind for such things no matter their particular affiliation, it call into question every top-down decision. This is not the abstract ROE theory, not so abstract to those killed by Greens. To me, at least, it settles the question of whether he is a D!k or a P@ssy. Now every bad guy and opportunist in the world knows it. Every good guy and Voltairist in the world knows they will be persecuted for any and every agenda pushing measure from a Barry administration. This president can no longer issue an Executive Order and say its for your own good, knowing that when it comes down to getting dirt underneath your nails he won't even bring you cup of water.

Here is what it has done to me. I have advocated Drone Theory, but to picture this particular soul sittting down to poached eggs and a menu of targets should be shuttering to everyone; even if there was good reason to not go his explanation was shut up and don't talk about it. Commodus is not a moral man.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 11/02/2012 11:37 Comments || Top||

#4  Western patience has been wearing thin with the SNC, a group of largely expatriate Syrian activists

Might help if the elites didn't gravitate toward the dilletantes in the first place.
Posted by: Pappy || 11/02/2012 12:37 Comments || Top||

#5  Commodus is not a moral man.

And neither is Mrs. Clinton (although it might be argued that she is more of a man than Commodus, she is certainly no more moral).

As to the SNC, would it not be realistic to assume that the guys who are actually fighting and bleeding are the legitimate representatives of the rebellion while the "gentlemen" who are sipping tea and dining in Qatar should be ignored? I mean, what's going to happen if Assad is ever defeated? Will the US recognize the rebels who control Damascus by force of arms or the weenies who are staying in some nice hotel hundreds of miles away?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 11/02/2012 12:41 Comments || Top||

#6  Perhaps Mrs Clinton wants more representation for AlQaeda and Hamas since they are on the ground and fighting?
Posted by: tipover || 11/02/2012 13:19 Comments || Top||

#7  How about a government of national unity? It's got to work. It just has to.......
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 11/02/2012 20:10 Comments || Top||

#8  Now the kids are in bed...Furthermore:

This is the second time this administration has attempted to curb our rights as US Citizens, that it is our freedom which makes Barry's job too difficult. I find this abhorrant. Bad guys in Mexico get arms, it is blamed on our Bill of Rights and Calderon is invited to Congress to scold us. Good guys get killed in a bad land and it is blamed on our Bill of Rights and Barry goes in front of the UN and scolds us.

For example, say I find the works of Frank Lloyd Wright offensive. Say I find the concept of blending house into environment as primitive and sub-human, anti-progress. It is the right of others to emulate his work and my right to disagree with it. I could find the works of Tom Hanks offensive or blasphemous, but will not chastice those who think the master of our times was upstaged by a volleyball or his freedom to make a twilight years romantic comedy.

What Barry did was subtle and yet offensive. He says he needs more flexibility not only for a non-electorate defined second term yet from the constraints of the Bill of Rights, and Constitution in general. Forcing people to work for the benefit of others is immoral, and Holder should be ashamed of both commenting on how he marched for rights yet actively or passively works to errode rights of others. I used to think Hillary! as a professional politician who would do what needed to be done to further her agenda yet the comment about prosecuting the maker of the film should hammered in, as it implicitely states than everyone is guilty of something if they do something out of the comfort level of who is in charge.

And anyone who believes that the USA is a lighthouse in stormy weather should take heed to what was conducted. It is here that existentialism can be best achieved; what to do with freedom? By using our freedom we either innovate ourselves or set the bar for others. Yes, there is the bull which comes out, but it is in and of itself a challenge to others to evaluate how they feel. That is their free will, so as they choose. Humans choosing whether to be animals or beings.

We are a beacon. Choose how you may.

For any culture which believes they are more than what they are told to be, more than mere beasts of burdon, this administration is against those concepts.

Barry says that ATMs cost jobs. Technology frees us to become more, same as the printing press, same as the cotton gin. Republicans may not be the best thing ever, but the b&lls!tters are the international collectivists who by order must enforce a lowest common denomenator policy...or else. Authoritarianism, by any other name smells as stink.

-break-
Posted by: swksvolFF || 11/02/2012 22:27 Comments || Top||


ISF Foils Prison Break by Fatah al-Islam Inmate
[An Nahar] Internal Security Forces thwarted a jail break attempt by a Fatah al-Islam
A Syrian-incubated al-Qaeda work-alike that they think can be turned off if no longer needed to keep the Leb pot stirred.
inmate from Roumieh prison, the oldest and largest of Leb's overcrowded prisons, the National News Agency reported on Thursday.

According to the news agency, the ISF revealed the scheme on Wednesday by one of the prisoners, who was planning to wear a black chador and climb down using a rope from the bloc that the Islamist inmates are held in.

The ISF found the Islamic veil and the rope that the prisoner was planning to use in his escape attempt, NNA said.

Security sources told Voice of Leb radio (100.5) that three Fatah al-Islam inmates, a Paleostinian, a Syrian and an Algerian, who fled the prison at least a month before security guards found out in October, might have used the same technique.

At least thirteen security personnel were set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
over suspicions of being involved in helping the 3 detainees flee the prison complex.
Posted by: Fred || 11/02/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336083 views] Top|| File under: Fatah al-Islam


Rebel Attacks Kill 28 Soldiers as Regime Renews Aerial Bombardments
[An Nahar] Syrian rebels killed 28 soldiers in attacks on three army checkpoints on the main road from Damascus
...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world...
to the embattled city of Aleppo
...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins...
Thursday, a watchdog said, as a warplane bombed the outskirts of the rebel-held town of Harasta, east of Damascus.

Five rebels were also killed in the attacks near the city of Saraqeb in Syria's northwest, the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The rebels did not capture the checkpoints, where they would be exposed to regime air strikes, but did seize several armored vehicles, said the Observatory.

Syria's northwestern Idlib province has become a key battleground in the country's conflict, especially after rebel forces seized the town of Maaret al-Numan on the Damascus-Aleppo road early last month.

Fighting has since raged at the Wadi Deif army base near Maaret al-Numan, where rebel forces have laid siege to regime troops.

The air force also bombarded towns in the northwestern province of Idlib, much of which is under rebel control, said observatory.

The violence came a day after at least 152 people were killed across Syria -- 58 civilians, 48 rebels and 46 soldiers, said the Observatory.

"Warplanes dropped three bombs on the outskirts of Harasta" in the Eastern Ghuta area home to some of the rebel Free Syrian Army's best organized and fiercest fighters, it said.

Monday saw the regime carry out its heaviest air strikes since air power was first deployed in mid-summer, and intensive aerial attacks have continued, says the Observatory.

The surge in air raids -- often with the crudest kind of explosives -- is a desperate attempt by the regime to reverse rebel gains and turn populations against them, analysts and rebels say.

On Thursday, fighter jets struck the towns of Talmanas and Maar Shamarin in Idlib province, said the Observatory.

The jihadist al-Nusra Front joined the rebels in festivities near the province's biggest army base at Wadi Daif, a barracks and storehouse for arms and fuel that they have laid siege to since early October.

Meanwhile,
...back at the cheese factory, all the pieces finally fell together in Fluffy's mind...
several people were maimed when helicopters pounded the district of al-Hajar al-Aswad in southern Damascus, said the Observatory.

"One of the shells on al-Hajar al-Aswad... fell into the neighborhood's sports center," it said.

The contested neighborhood of al-Hajar al-Aswad was scene of intense mid-summer fighting between rebels and the army.

Elsewhere, festivities broke out in the northern city of Aleppo as the army shelled the rebel-held district of Sukari during the night, the Observatory said, without providing details on casualties.
Posted by: Fred || 11/02/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336069 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria



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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2012-11-02
  US withdraws its support for Syrian National Council
Thu 2012-11-01
  Armed Islamists on Tunis streets after clashes
Wed 2012-10-31
  18 militants killed in Khyber, Orakzai
Tue 2012-10-30
  Israel Hit by 18 Rockets as Hamas Seeks Revenge
Mon 2012-10-29
  52 Dead in Syria Clashes, Air Raids after Eid Truce Collapses
Sun 2012-10-28
  Almost 150 Killed on First Day of Syria Truce
Sat 2012-10-27
  Indonesia foils plot to attack US missions
Fri 2012-10-26
  Afghanistan mosque suicide bomb attack kills at least 41
Thu 2012-10-25
  Israel says 79 rockets fired at it from Gaza
Wed 2012-10-24
  Libya fighters seize Bani Walid
Tue 2012-10-23
  Foreign jihadists pour into northern Mali
Mon 2012-10-22
  Men 'planned mass suicide attack'
Sun 2012-10-21
  Nigeria military nabs Bokoboy at senator's home
Sat 2012-10-20
  Leb: Wissam al-Hasan Assassinated in Beirut Bomb Blast
Fri 2012-10-19
  144 Dead as Syria Jets Blast Maaret al-Numan and Suicide Bomber Hits near Interior Ministry

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