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Supply for Nato stops again after row with Afghans
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
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Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 09/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  CURTAINS.......why do they hate us??
Posted by: armyguy || 09/09/2009 8:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Women who wear drapes

Seven Come Eleven (Mary on the Left)



Myrna

Virginia

Ann

One Trick Pony

Rosebud (NSFW)

Daily Gam Shot(Mary)

Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 09/09/2009 14:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Ahhh...giant thighs, the age of butter!
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/09/2009 23:59 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
UK commando killed by Taliban in raid to rescue kidnapped British journalist
Posted by: tipper || 09/09/2009 03:14 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1 

It has prompted international criticism of Germany, whose generals ordered the strike that was carried out by American forces; and spurred an alcohol ban on troops in Afghanistan after the top U.S. commander in the area was unable to get an explanation for the strike because the necessary people were 'too hungover' to give him one.


That pretty much spells the end of Germany's participation. No beer, no Germans. Possible France, too ... it's a wine thing with them.

Posted by: crosspatch || 09/09/2009 3:26 Comments || Top||

#2  At the end of a wall, Mr Farrell said Mr Munadi went forward, shouting: 'Journalist! Journalist!

I don't think it was a good idea.

Posted by: Willy || 09/09/2009 11:17 Comments || Top||

#3  The Germans who called in the airstrike, hungover or not, deserve medals for pressing forward with an attack in spite of the certainty of ensuing heavy fire from the pro-Islamist inhuman rights brigade.
Posted by: Bulldog || 09/09/2009 12:30 Comments || Top||

#4  We are fighting a war. In war, sh$$ happens and civilians die. The Germans lost as many civilians as military during WWII. Japan lost hundreds of thousands in firebomb raids from B-29s. If you fight hard enough to win, you are going to sometimes kill civilians with collateral damage. Someone needs to break Mr. Karzai's kneecaps, so he learns this. I'm tired of the US military having to fight three or four wars simultaneously - with our enemies, with our "allies", with the locals, and with our own government.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 09/09/2009 14:20 Comments || Top||

#5  No doubt fame, fortune and a book deal await the New York Times reporter for his act of incredible stupidity. No such fortune awaits for the heroic Commando.
Posted by: ed || 09/09/2009 16:27 Comments || Top||

#6  A Taleban commander said that 48 of his men were killed in the raid, in which at least one civilian also died.

Heck of a firefight. Kudos to the rescue team. Condolences to the Commando. Condolences for the interpreter. Seemed a very decent man. Contempt for the reporter Farrell.
Posted by: ed || 09/09/2009 16:52 Comments || Top||

#7  The Afghan district chief of the province said that a Taliban commander and an Afghan woman were also killed during the raid on the house where the two men were being held.

"The men who kidnapped the journalists handed them over to a senior commander called Mullah Salaam," he said.

Hopefully the dead commander is this mullah Salaam:
Last month’s Operation Adler (Eagle), a one-week offensive launched by German troops into the Chahara Dara district, had little to no effect against the entrenched Taliban fighters led by Mullah Salaam and Mullah Shamsullah.
Posted by: ed || 09/09/2009 16:59 Comments || Top||

#8  a reporter vs a commando. Not an even life trade
Posted by: Frank G || 09/09/2009 17:38 Comments || Top||

#9  Unfortunately Farrell hid in a ditch during the firefight and survived. It's a pity they didn't leave him there.
Posted by: Apostate || 09/09/2009 18:14 Comments || Top||

#10  Brown is in trouble again
Negotiators shocked by special forces rescue raid on Taleban
Posted by: tipper || 09/09/2009 19:42 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Al-Qaeda Targeting Saudi Rehabilitation Program
[Asharq al-Aswat] Asharq Al-Awsat- The Saudi Interior Ministry has affirmed that the Al-Qaeda organization is striving to strike at the ideological programs that the authorities have adopted to rehabilitate the thinking of the repentant members of the organization.
The ministry pointed out that Al-Qaeda wanted to strike at these programs by exploiting them in an evil way, particularly the measures related to the voluntary surrender of Al-Qaeda elements.

In its efforts to correct the thinking of the Al-Qaeda elements, Saudi Arabia relies on three methods: The counseling program directed toward those who are in prison; the rehabilitation program for detainees prior to their final release; and the measures related to the voluntary surrender to senior officials of those that are wanted by the security organs. This is a purely ideological process since it depends basically on the policy of "containment" of the repentant members of Al-Qaeda. Questions are always raised regarding the futility of these methods adopted by the Saudi authorities to correct the thinking of the Al-Qaeda members after each case of regression by some that return to join the organization after having earlier changed their thinking.

However, Major General Mansour al-Turki, the security spokesman of the Saudi Interior Ministry, says that the cases of regression of some that profited from these programs that were begun as soon as the war on terror erupted "represent attempts by Al-Qaeda to undermine these programs that have demonstrated their success". In a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat, Al-Turki said that the counseling and rehabilitation programs succeeded in changing the thinking of a number of Al-Qaeda members and exposed the lies of this organization. He emphasized that these programs are a source of worry and concern for the organization. Othman Hadi al-Umari is a case in point. He is an Al-Qaeda member that renounced his earlier thinking but later rejoined the organization and was captured this year along with the cell of 11 terrorists. The figures show that Saudi Arabia has succeeded in changing the thinking of 80 percent of those that participated in the counseling programs inside Saudi jails. A study conducted by an Interior Ministry adviser, only 10 percent that repent and renounce their wayward ways rejoin the Al-Qaeda organization.

Since this program began operation, the counseling commissions have held more than 5,000 sessions for about 3,200 individuals suspecting of harboring takfiri thinking. According to statement by a member of the counseling commission, 1,500 persons that went through the counseling program were released after the commission became convinced that they have renounced the ideas that had led to their arrest. In the recent period, Al-Qaeda has tried to create a kind of confusion related to the methods adopted by the Saudi authorities to combat deviant thinking by luring penitents back to the organization. Al-Qaeda has managed to lure back about 11 returnees from Guantanamo that had benefited from the programs run by Mohammed Bin-Naif. The names of these have appeared on a list that consists of 85 fugitives abroad. The Interior Ministry security spokesperson affirms that Al-Qaeda tried to harm the ideological rehabilitation programs by exploiting them in a very bad manner. He pointed that Al-Qaeda's exploitation of the measures related to the voluntary surrender of the wanted was an attempt to reach the person that has exerted a lot of efforts to follow up the implementation of this program on the ground. He was referring to the failed attempt to assassinate Prince Mohammed Bin-Naif more than a week ago.
Posted by: Fred || 09/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia


Britain
Airline Bomb Plot Reveals Links to Pakistan
[Asharq al-Aswat] A plot to blow up at least seven transatlantic aircraft using liquid bombs was masterminded from Pakistan, intelligence services said as more details emerged Tuesday of the complex planned attacks.

British police were forced to go to extraordinary lengths to build their case against the men who prosecutors say were hoping to cause more deaths than the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The trial, which ended in the convictions of three British Muslims on Monday, was peppered with evidence that members of the London-based gang were frequently in communication with figures linked to Al-Qaeda in Pakistan.

"In terms of Al-Qaeda involvement, there is a large part of this plot that has been thought through or invented in Pakistan," one senior counter-terrorism source said after the trial.

The jury were shown intercepted emails in which Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 28, Tanvir Hussain, 28, and Assad Sarwar, 29, asked Pakistani contacts for advice on building bombs in drinks bottles to detonate on flights over the Atlantic.

Prosecutors believe the absence of evidence establishing these links had led to a jury in the men's first trial in 2008 failing to reach a verdict that they had plotted to blow up the planes, forcing a second trial to be held.

Ken MacDonald, the former head of the Crown Prosecution Service and Director of Public Prosecutions, said: "We felt that this was a strong case from the start, unfortunately the jury in the first trial could not agree.

"The additional evidence that we had (in the second trial) were the emails," he told BBC radio.

The emails were obtained by a court order in California requiring Yahoo! to disclose them.

Reports said the men's main point of contact was Rashid Rauf, a British-born Muslim who fled to the tribal areas of Pakistan in 2002 after the murder of his uncle and developed strong links with Al-Qaeda.

Intelligence services also reportedly believe he was a key contact of the gang in the 2005 bombings of the London transport system which killed 52 people.

The trial heard that Ali had already been identified as a dangerous radical when he was stopped at London's Heathrow Airport in June 2006 on his return from a trip to Pakistan.

Customs officials found a large quantity of batteries and a high-sugar powdered drink in his luggage. Both are ingredients for homemade bombs.

He was not arrested, but police broke into his flat one night and installed hidden cameras and microphones.

Over the next few months, they watched as Ali and his colleagues experimented with injecting drinks bottles with a mixture of the explosive liquid hydrogen peroxide which they planned to carry on to flights and detonate with a bulb filament.

But the biggest counter-terrorism operation ever mounted in Britain, costing 35 million pounds (57 million dollars, 40 million euros), was reportedly almost thrown into jeopardy by US intervention.

Fearful that the gang were close to carrying out the plane bombings, the US authorities put pressure on Pakistan to arrest Rauf in 2006.

Andy Hayman, a senior police commander who worked on the case, said in the Times newspaper that his detention "hampered our evidence-gathering and placed us in Britain under intolerable pressure."

British police were confident that they had the gang completely under surveillance, but Rauf's arrest forced them to bring forward the arrests in Britain when they would have preferred to wait longer.

Rauf escaped from police custody in Pakistan in mysterious circumstances in 2007.

US officials said they believed they killed him in an attack with an unmanned drone but his death has never been confirmed.

The discovery of the plot in 2006 sparked chaos at airports, as authorities worldwide immediately introduced draconian regulations limiting the amount of liquids that passengers can carry on to flights.

Many of the rules remain in place.
Posted by: Fred || 09/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda

#1  suprise-o-meter?
Posted by: Oscar || 09/09/2009 8:44 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
'Israel link' in Arctic Sea case
Israel was linked to the interception of the missing cargo ship Arctic Sea last month, a senior figure close to Israeli intelligence has told the BBC.

Israeli media are linking the Arctic Sea incident to reports in the Hebrew language daily Yediot Aharonot of a clandestine visit by Mr Netanyahu to Moscow on Monday.

The prime minister's office insisted that he had been visiting a "security installation inside Israel".

The Kremlin press service said "nothing is known" about the reports, AP news agency reported. Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, added that he had no information about any visit by Mr Netanyahu, Russia's Interfax news agency said.
Posted by: 3dc || 09/09/2009 18:51 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


China-Japan-Koreas
U.S. Sanctions Two More Nork Entities
The United States Tuesday imposed sanctions against two North Korean entities said to be involved in that country's missile and nuclear programs. A State Department announcement said a North Korean company, the Korea Tangun Trading Corporation, and the communist country's General Bureau of Atomic Energy were being added to a list of North Korean entities facing U.S. economic sanctions.
So we're finally getting around to sanctioning their Bureau of Atomic Energy? Maybe someday we could sanction their Center for Long-Distance Missiles?
The two were sanctioned by the United Nations in July. Under Tuesday's action, any assets they might have in the United States would be frozen and U.S. citizens barred from dealing with them.

The U.S. administration is been pursuing a two-track strategy of economic pressure and diplomacy to try to revive the Chinese-sponsored six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear program, which broke down last year.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'd tell the Chinese "Iake them over, we'll say nothing as long as the Kimmie dynasty does NOT survive".
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 09/09/2009 22:31 Comments || Top||


Europe
Serbia: Four radical Muslims jailed for terror plot
A special Serbian court has sentenced four radical Muslims from a the volatile Sandzak region of the country to up to eight years in prison each for planning terrorist attacks on targets in the Balkans. The four men were sentenced on charges of terrorism, illegal possession of weapons and alleged links with unidentified foreign terrorist groups, following an eight-month trial.

Adis Muric and Bajram Aslani were sentenced to eight years each, Nedzad Bulic to seven and Enes Mujanovic was given a four year jail term. Bulic and Aslani's sentenced were delivered in absentia as they earlier escaped from police and are on the run.

The four men were arrested in police raids in 2007 in the Sandzak region, which borders Kosovo. They are from predominantly Muslim town of Novi Pazar and adhere to the fundamentalist Wahabi interpretation of Islam followed by Osama bin Laden and many Al-Qaida members.

The group formed a cell in 2007 that planned to carry out terrorist acts in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia, judge Milan Ranic stated, explaining the court's verdict. The group's objective was to spread fear among citizens and to gain religious power.

The prosecution claimed the group planned to plant explosives at Novi Pazar football stadium and to kill policemen deployed there.

The group was in close contact with other Wahabis from Bosnia, Albania and Syria and had in their posession a large quantity of terrorism prosyletising materials, according to the court indictment .

The group was based in Novi Pazar and in Kosovska Mitrovica, where weapons and explosives were found.

Twelve Wahabis were sentenced in July to a total 60 years in jail for terrorism, conspiracy and planning terrorist attacks in Serbia, including a plot to assassinate local mufti Muamer Zukorlic, who the group considered to be an American spy and betrayer of Islam.

Most of those convicted were arrested in 2007 during a raid at a Wahabi training camp on Ninaj mountain in Sandzak, where police found a large weapons cache in a cave.

The group's leader Ismail Prentic was killed as security forces tried to arrest him in Donja Trnava village a month later.

The radical Islamist movement was brought to the Balkans by fighters from Muslim countries during the 1990s Bosnian war. Many have remained and are believed to operate camps and recruit young people in a bid to gain influence in Serbia, Bosnia and elsewhere in the region.

Wahabis preaches religious intolerance towards other religious groups, including moderate Muslims. Although still a small group, Wahabis are increasingly seen by officials and observers as a growing threat in the Balkans.
Posted by: Fred || 09/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Europe

#1  What? Did you think they would settle for just Kosovo?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 09/09/2009 11:37 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Five soldiers die in SWA blast
[The News (Pak) Top Stories] Five soldiers were killed and four others sustained injuries when a roadside remote-controlled bomb planted by militants went off in the Zariban Kot area in Tiarza Tehsil of South Waziristan Agency on Monday.

Tribal sources told The News that a convoy of security forces was on way to Wana, the headquarters of South Waziristan, from Tiarza Tehsil. They said as the convoy was passing through the Zariban Kot area, one of its vehicles hit by a remote-controlled device, killing five Army soldiers on the spot and injuring four others critically.

The injured were rushed to the FC Hospital in Wana from where they were airlifted through helicopters to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Peshawar because of their precarious condition. The sources added that the vehicle was completely destroyed in the blast.

Soon after the incident, the forces raided a house near the site and arrested four suspected persons. However, their identity could not be established. Zariban Kot is located in the boundary area between Shakai and Tiarza Tehsils, where the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) slain chief Baitullah Mehsud used to stay.
Posted by: Fred || 09/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Gunship helicopters kill 6 extremists in Orakzai Agency
[Geo News] Six extremists were killed in the shelling by gunship helicopters in various areas of Orakzai Agency. According to the sources, gunship helicopters pounded extremists' hideouts in Atmankhel, Satorikhel and Firozkhel areas of Orakzai Agency. In the shelling, six extremists were killed and three of their major hideouts destroyed, sources said.
Posted by: Fred || 09/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP

#1  No video? Shucks!
Posted by: gorb || 09/09/2009 0:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Hard to have video of a fictitious attack, gorb. This is just to convince the US that Pakistan is really doing something.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 09/09/2009 14:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Did they use fictitious depleted uranium rounds I hope?
Posted by: gorb || 09/09/2009 16:31 Comments || Top||


Four wounded in Khyber explosion
[Dawn] At least four security officials have been injured in a remotely controlled explosion in Khyber agency's Bara tehsil, DawnNews reported on Tuesday.

According to official sources the death toll from eight days of fighting in the tribal region has risen to 107 with over 50 injured.

Some 110 militants have also been arrested and 60 militant hideouts have been destroyed. The house of Lashkar-i-Islam chief Mangal Bagh Afridi has also been destroyed.

A security official was killed while seven others have been injured since the start of the operation in the region's Bara tehsil.
Posted by: Fred || 09/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar-e-Islami


Greek national kidnapped from Chitral
[Dawn] Unidentified masked men kidnapped a Greek national from Chitral. He was working with the Kalash Development Project, sources told DawnNews.

According to the police, the Greek national was kidnapped on Monday night from the Bumburate valley of Chitral. His security guard who was with him at the time of the attack, was killed.

Sources say he had been living in Chitral for the past 12 year and was an employee of the Kalash Development Project.
Posted by: Fred || 09/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda


Supply for Nato stops again after row with Afghans
[Dawn] Fuel and other supplies to Nato forces in Afghanistan came to a halt as traffic on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghan border remained suspended on Tuesday because of a row over search of goods coming from Afghanistan. This is the second time in less than two weeks that the Pak-Afghan border has been closed over disputes on the checking process.

Hundreds of trailers carrying fuel and other supplies, including food, military equipment and vehicles, were stuck up in the border town of Chaman causing a severe traffic jam along both sides of Pak-Afghan border.

The sources said that the row broke out after Pakistani border officials asked Afghan truck drivers carrying fruits to unload their goods for search. The drivers refused to do so saying the unloading would spoil the fruit.

The officials said they would not allow entry of trucks without checking because weapons are being smuggled from Afghanistan to Pakistan to be used by terrorists.

The Afghan drivers alleged that the border officials demanded money for clearing the trucks. Pakistani officials denied the allegations.

Meanwhile, Afghan security forces stopped entry of trucks and other vehicles carrying Nato supplies into Afghanistan in protest against the Pakistan government's decision. The Chaman Chamber of Commerce expressed concern over the issue and said that traders would suffer huge losses if the dispute remains unresolved.

Keeping in view the attacks on trailers carrying fuel and other supplies, including food, military equipment and vehicles, the Frontier Constabulary took control of the Nato supplies. Frontier Corps shifted hundreds of oil tankers and containers parked along the border to a FC fort near Chaman city under strict security.

Talks between Pakistan and Afghan security authorities were underway for the opening of border.
Posted by: Fred || 09/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  "The officials said they would not allow entry of trucks without checking because weapons are being smuggled from Afghanistan to Pakistan to be used by terrorists." --- Oooh the irony Mr.ISI

"The Afghan drivers alleged that the border officials demanded money for clearing the trucks. Pakistani officials denied the allegations." --- Baksheesh , the way of the world out there



Posted by: Oscar || 09/09/2009 5:40 Comments || Top||

#2  officials asked Afghan truck drivers carrying fruits to unload their goods for search. The drivers refused to

Spoilage was not likely the reason for the refusal. More likely weapons or drugs were hidden in the load. Drivers were probably prepared to pay the standard bribe to pass but the officials demanded more.

All those westbound trucks full of fuel and supplies gathered together, not moving, just begging to be a Tali-target. Perhaps the stoppage had nothing to do with the eastbound traffic at all - that may have just been an excuse to set us up for a bombing. Hope not, but ....
Posted by: Glenmore || 09/09/2009 7:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Need a separate crossing for military and civilian goods.
Posted by: 3dc || 09/09/2009 10:01 Comments || Top||

#4  PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > PAKISTAN REPEATS CALL FOR AFGHANISTAN FENCING [isolate Militants]; + US:IRAN IS ARMING THE TALIBAN [2007 = 2009 Artic].
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 09/09/2009 21:21 Comments || Top||


Pak Taliban kill four schoolchildren: official
Taliban militants on Tuesday shot dead four schoolchildren and wounded six others in an apparent sectarian attack in a remote tribal town in northwest Pakistan, officials and residents said. The students were going to school in Atmankhel town of Orakzai district when the militants opened fire, killing four boys and wounding six others, local administration official Asmatullah Khan told AFP. "It appears to be a sectarian attack as the slain students belonged to the minority Shiite sect of Islam," he said. "The attackers were Taliban."

Residents said the dead students were all younger than 16, but were not able to give the exact ages of the victims. "I heard gunfire and came out of my home," local resident Samiullah Khan told AFP by telephone. "I saw people armed with Kalashnikov rifles fleeing in two jeeps, while several students were bleeding."

Orakzai borders Khyber district, where the military launched a fresh offensive against Islamist extremists about a week ago, sending thousands of residents fleeing and killing more than 130 rebels, according to army figures.

Taliban fighters frequently attack and burn schools in the northwest, while tensions are also rife in the area between the majority Sunnis and the Shiites.
Posted by: Fred || 09/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


8 die in Pakistan dronezap
A US drone has fired missiles into Pakistan's troubled tribal Waziristan region, killing at least eight people and injuring several others. The missile strike took place in the same region where five people were killed on Monday.

Local TV channels reported Tuesday the unmanned aircraft fired two missiles to hit a compound, some five kilometers northwest of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan. A local intelligence source confirmed the causalities. The death toll is expected to rise as some of the wounded are said to be in serious condition.
Posted by: Fred || 09/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan


Security forces kill 24 militants in Khyber Agency
[Dawn] Pakistani troops on Tuesday killed at least 24 alleged militants in the lawless northwest Khyber district near the Afghan border, the military said.

The army launched an offensive in the tribal district, home to the fabled Khyber Pass into neighbouring Afghanistan, eight days ago after a suicide bomber targeted a border post killing 22 policemen. 'Security forces killed at least 24 militants and destroyed two militant headquarters and two hideouts in Bara town of Khyber,' a statement from the paramilitary Frontier Corps said.

The current offensive is against fighters with the Lashkar-e-Islam (Army of Islam), a militant group battling the government in Khyber that has some ties to the Pakistan Taliban.

On Monday, the military had claimed killing 10 militants in Khyber but such tolls are impossible to confirm independently.
Posted by: Fred || 09/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar-e-Islami


Iraq
Bomb in Northern Iraqi Shiite Town Kills 5
A roadside bomb targeting the police chief of a northern Iraqi town that is home to a large Shiite population killed 5 people on Tuesday, including the chief and four of his bodyguards, a police official said.

The 8 a.m attack in the town of Armili targeted a convoy carrying the town's police chief, Maj. Zaid Hussein Khalaf, said Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qader of the police in Kirkuk, a city further north.

Armili, about 100 miles (165 kilometers) north of Baghdad, is a town with a population of 26,000, mostly Shiites from Iraq's Turkoman ethnic minority. More than 100 people were killed in 2007 when a suicide truck bomber targeted a town market there.

Meanwhile, a Health Ministry official escaped an assassination attempt when a roadside bomb hit his convoy in the eastern part of Baghdad, but one ministry employee died in the blast, Iraqi police and health officials said.

Eight bystanders and four people in the convoy were also wounded in the attack that appeared directed at Dr. Ali Bustan al-Fartosi, who is in charge of eastern Baghdad's medical facilities. The doctor escaped unharmed, the officials said.

The police official said it was not known why the doctor was targeted.

Also in Baghdad, two roadside bombs targeted two separate police patrols, injuring ten people including four policemen, police and health officials said.

All the police and health officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.
Posted by: Fred || 09/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency


Four American Soldiers Killed in Iraq
The U.S. military says four American soldiers have been killed in roadside bombings in Iraq.

A military statement says three of the soldiers died in an attack in northern Iraq Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, another soldier was killed when a bomb hit a U.S. patrol in southern Baghdad.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
'Hezbollah's Madoff' brings serious financial losses to top members
More on the story posted here yesterday. Hamas may have to accept a smaller budget for terror operations going forward as a result.

edit: My apologies -- I meant Hizb'allah, of course.
[Haaretz] At least four senior members of Hezbollah suffered serious financial losses as the result of embezzlement by the Lebanese Shi'ite businessman Salah Ezzedine, according to the London-based newspaper Asharq Al Awsat. Ezzedine, who has been dubbed "Hezbollah's Madoff," is suspected of embezzling more than one billion dollars.

The four were identified as Mohammad Raad, head of the Hezbollah faction in the Lebanese parliament, Hezbollah MPs Amin Shari and Hussein al-Hajj, and Wafiq Safa, head of the organization's coordinating committee.

Safa was the person who handed over the bodies of missing Israeli soldiers Eldad Regev and Udi Goldwasser, to the United Nations, during a 2008 prisoner swap between Hezbollah and Israel. At the time, he stood in front of the Al-Manar television cameras and declared: "You will know immediately what their fate was," as he pointed to the coffins containing the remains.

According to assessments in the Arab media and the news agencies, Ezzedine succeeded in defrauding hundreds of investors out of sums totaling between $600 million and $1.3 billion. He was arrested at the beginning of last week after persuading a large number of investors - including businessmen from Qatar and the Gulf states and thousands of villagers from southern Lebanon - to transfer sums of money to him, which he promised to invest with returns of 25-55 percent. After he declared bankruptcy, Ezzedine turned himself over to the Lebanese authorities.

Ezzedine, who was well known as an investor mainly among Lebanon's Shi'ite community, is suspected of having used the money as part of a "Ponzi scheme" in which he transferred the sums invested by new investors to the accounts of more veteran investors, in much the same way as Bernard Madoff did in the United States. It is believed that Ezzedine's family has escaped from Lebanon.

Lebanese reports say that Ezzedine and his associates are being interrogated at present but that no formal charges have yet been brought against them. The Kuwaiti newspaper Al Watan reported last week that Hezbollah's losses in the affair are estimated at some $680 million, a gigantic sum for the organization, most of whose budget comes from Iran.

In the past decade, Hezbollah has succeeded in developing economic systems, including drug and real estate deals that brought in good returns.

Ezzedine is the owner of the Dar Al-Hadi publishing company, one of Lebanon's leading publishers of Shi'ite religious texts. It also publishes the writings of Hezbollah officials and has shares in the children's "Al-Hadi" television channel.

A Lebanese court on Thursday ordered the closure of the publishing house and all 250 workers lost their jobs suddenly. Ezzedine was also involved in arranging trips to Mecca. Ezzedine's money was invested in iron and energy companies and he lost a fortune when the price of oil plummeted.

"Everyone invested with him, everyone," said the owner of a grocery store, Muhammed Shur, in an interview with Al-Jazeera Television. "He was supposed to be a religious man and gave a lot of money to charity." He said he had placed his family's entire savings, $45,000, in Ezzedine's hands. "You can go through this village one by one," he added. "Some of the people even mortgaged their homes to invest with him."
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/09/2009 10:40 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ezzedine's jailer better get some ear plugs.
Posted by: gorb || 09/09/2009 12:52 Comments || Top||

#2  WHY didn't the CIA think of this?

(Hell, why didn't *I* think of this? The options are limitless.)
Posted by: Free Radical || 09/09/2009 14:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Life is good!
Posted by: 3dc || 09/09/2009 18:09 Comments || Top||

#4  Awwwwwwwwww - my heart just bleeds for them.

No, wait - that's just the chili.


"edit: My apologies -- I meant Hizb'allah, of course."

A distinction without a difference, Ms. Periwinkle. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 09/09/2009 21:34 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Five injured in food stand bombing in southern Thailand
Five people were injured, including one seriously, Wednesday morning in a bomb attack at a roadside food shop in Pattani’s provincial seat. Among those injured are four women, including the shopkeeper and a civil servant, and one man. One of victims sustained serious bomb fragment wounds to the head and torso, said Pol Col Manus Siksamus, superintendent of Pattani Police Station.

An initial investigation found that two men on a motorcycle threw a homemade bomb, contained in a PVC pipe, into the roadside food shop where 10 people were having breakfast. Fortunately, the explosive device hit an electric power pole and caused a 30-centimetre wide hole with pieces of the bomb scattering across the scene, according to a local bomb disposal and forensic science unit.

In a related development, security authorities arrested Abdulmutolib Ding, 39, a leading member of the Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) operation team at his house in Pattani province. The court in Songkhla’s Na Thawi district had issued an arrest warrant for Mr Abdulmutolib, on charge of gathering forces and firearms to instigate unrest, particularly in Pattani province and four districts of Songkhla province.

The RKK leading member was previously arrested with equipment for making an explosive device and other bomb-related materials, but was later acquitted on all charges.

According to a police investigation, Mr Abdulmutolib continued his involvement in the insurgent RKK ring’s operation during the unholy month of Ramadan that led to his arrest.
Posted by: ryuge || 09/09/2009 07:03 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Because eating breakfast is just to modern for Mo worshipers?
Posted by: 3dc || 09/09/2009 9:49 Comments || Top||



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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.
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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2009-09-09
  Supply for Nato stops again after row with Afghans
Tue 2009-09-08
  Two foreigners among seven dead in NWA drone strikes
Mon 2009-09-07
  33 militants killed in Khyber Agency
Sun 2009-09-06
  'Taliban' kidnap NYT reporter in Afghanistan
Sat 2009-09-05
  Yemen suspends offensive on northern rebels
Fri 2009-09-04
  Andhra Pradesh CM killed in chopper crash
Thu 2009-09-03
  Iraq: 4 get death sentence in bank heist case
Wed 2009-09-02
  Suicide boomer kills Afghan deputy intel boss
Tue 2009-09-01
  Qaeda coordinator killed in N Caucasus: Russia
Mon 2009-08-31
  Ethiopian troops seize Somali town
Sun 2009-08-30
  Swat suicide kaboom kills a dozen
Sat 2009-08-29
  Suicide kaboom in Chechnya kills two, wounds six
Fri 2009-08-28
  'Surrendering' Qaeda boy tries to boom Prince Nayef, Jr.
Thu 2009-08-27
  Baghdad demands Damascus hands over boom masterminds
Wed 2009-08-26
  'Prince of Jihad' arrested in Indonesia

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