Also a good article on how amateurish the Time Square bomber was.
The thought that occurs is that it's a good thing most wannabes have little to no technical background. Faisel the Fizzlebomber had an MBA, a degree designed to get the student away from hands-on work.
#1
Suppose, for supposin's sake, that the firecrackers had ruptured just one gas tank. Suppose it was one of the first firecrackers to go off.
Some gasoline would start burning. Let's presume it did not explode, or at least not then. What happens when the gasoline fire gets going and the propane tanks start heating up.
Are they strong enough to keep from rupturing?
Not saying this was the guy's plan, but it seems as if it might have worked, had the gasoline been ignited.
I think if he'd had M80s and tamped them, he might have had better luck. See, if you don't grow up as an American kid, you have all kinds of disadvantages.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
05/16/2010 20:21 Comments ||
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#2
"an MBA, a degree designed to get the student away from hands-on work"
Very accurate description of an MBA, tw!
Which is why, once I took all the courses that actually interested me, I quit night grad school (my company was paying the tuition).
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/16/2010 21:16 Comments ||
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#3
Barbara, Daddy was in the rapid exothermic reactions department of the Haganah until there was an earlier than expected reaction. After that they sent him to get a PhD.
[Dawn] Afghan and coalition forces conducted sweeps across Afghanistan that left at least 30 militants dead, officials said Saturday.
International and Afghan forces carried out an operation before dawn Friday in the Sangin district of Helmand province that killed 10 insurgents, according to Daud Ahmadi, a spokesman for the regional governor.
Mullah Mohammed Hassan, a ''prominent'' Taliban commander who was involved in many insurgent attacks in northern Helmand province, was captured in the Sangin village of Pirqadam Kariz during the raid, Ahmadi said.
No security forces or troops were injured, he added.
Nato said it had no information about the operation.
In southern Zabul province, a bridge was blown up on a highway linking it with neighbouring Kandahar province, according to Mohammad Jan Rasoolyar, spokesman for provincial governor of Zabul. Traffic was being diverted around the explosion site in Shahrasafa district. No one was injured.
Violence in southern Afghanistan has been on an upswing in recent weeks, following an operation in the town of Marjah, Helmand province and as Nato and Afghan forces ramp up security efforts in neighbouring Kandahar.
Eastern Afghanistan, along the Pakistani border, and parts of northern Afghanistan have also faced numerous attacks in recent weeks.
Also Friday, insurgents ambushed a convoy in eastern Ghazni province, killing five private security guards, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. Three oil tankers in the convoy caught fire in the attack.
The Defence Ministry said Afghan National Army troops and police tracked down the insurgents and killed six in the ensuing gunbattle.
Eight militants were killed and two others wounded in a joint raid by Afghan and coalition forces in Nangahar province Friday, the Defence Ministry said. A Taliban commander known as Shumsuddin was killed in the operation.
A day earlier, a coalition raid in the area left at least eight people dead. Afghan President Hamid Karzai and other government officials insisted those killed were civilians, and hundreds of people took to the streets to protest. Nato said only insurgents were killed.
Militants fired rockets Friday night toward a district government headquarters in Nangahar, provincial government spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai said. The rockets missed their target with one landing on a civilian home. Four women were injured, one hospitalized in serious condition.
The Defence Ministry also said during the last 24 hours, allied forces led joint operations in northern Baghlan, eastern Logar, and southern Kandahar provinces, in which a total of seven insurgents were killed. Soldiers detained five suspected militants armed with automatic rifles and hand grenades.
Nato said allied forces killed ''several'' militants during a gunfight in the Baghlan-i-Jadid district of Baghlan Friday. Two were injured, including a woman with an automatic rifle who allegedly tried to fire on soldiers.
Allied forces also recovered one helicopter and destroyed another in Kandahar after they sustained damage while landing during military operations Thursday and Friday, Nato said. ''Enemy forces'' were not responsible, it said.
However, a Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousaf, said insurgents shot down a helicopter in Kandahar's Arghandab district on Friday and all on board were killed. He didn't say how many.
Without specifying, Nato said several coalition and Afghan service members were injured during a helicopter's rough landing. They were evacuated to an alliance medical site.
In another incident in Helmand on Friday, a roadside bomb targeting a vehicle in the capital Lashkar Gah wounded two civilians, the Interior Ministry said. Militants also attacked a police vehicle in neighbouring Marjah district it said, injuring four civilians.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/16/2010 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Sudanese authorities have arrested leading opposition figure Hassan al-Turabi, who is seen as one of the most outspoken critics of the Khartoum government.
The religious leader who is also the head of the Popular Congress Party was arrested at his home late on Saturday, according to his secretary Awad Babakir.
"At around midnight (2100 GMT), a group of security officers arriving in three cars, came and took Hassan al-Turabi from his home," he was quoted by AFP as saying.
The arrest comes a month after President Umar al-Bashir was declared the winner of the 11 April vote, which was seen as the country's first multiparty elections in more than two decades.
Turabi refused to recognize the results of last month's elections -- which were marred by an opposition boycott, logistical problems and allegations of fraud.
He denounced the vote as rigged and said his party would not join a future government.
Turabi was not a presidential candidate and his party was represented by Abdallah Deng Nial, a Muslim from the mainly Christian south.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/16/2010 00:00 ||
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ADEN - Several soldiers and militants were wounded in clashes in southern Yemen after gunmen ambushed a military convoy on Saturday, a Yemeni official told Reuters.
There were at least several injuries. We are trying to determine the extent of casualties,' the official said. He said the convoy was attacked on a remote road in the Lahej province in south Yemen, where the government has faced rising secessionist protests in recent months.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/16/2010 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Two outlaws were killed in separate incidents of "shootouts" between their cohorts and Rapid Action Battalion personnel in Pabna and Kushtia early yesterday.
The deceased were identified as Saidul Haq Sayeed, 40, a regional commander of outlawed group "Gono Bahini" of Kushtia and Abdul Malek alias Kata Malek, 35, an operative of "Bahini" of Pabna.
In Kushtia, a team of Rab, acting on information, raided a brick field at Atigram in Mirpur upazila shortly after midnight when members of "Gono Bahini" were holding a clandestine meeting there. Ah, the brick field. The Gono Bahini must be traditionalists. No schoolyards for them. They made an early night of it, too.
Sensing presence of the Rab personnel, the outlaws fired shots, prompting them to retaliate which triggered a gunfight, Major Zakir Hossain of Rab-12 told The Daily Star.
Sayeed got killed in the shootout while his accomplices managed to flee the scene. Later, the elite force members recovered two light guns, seven bullets, one explosive and a knife from the spot.
Sayeed was accused in at least eight cases, including two for murder and four for extortion, the Rab official said.
In Pabna, a team of Rab, acting on a tip-off, raided Faila village at about 2:30am where the operatives of the outlawed organisation, "Bahini" was holding a meeting, reports our correspondent.
Rab said the outlaws opened fire as they sensed their presence. Again? The RAB really need to work on reducing that 'presence' thing.
Abdul Malek was caught in the line of fire of the resulting battle, while his cohorts managed to flee. His body was later recovered from the spot.
Malek, son of Habibur Rahman of Shibpur village in Atghoria upazila was accused in 10 cases, including six for murder, added Rab.
Rab also retrieved a rifle of foreign manufacture and a shutter gun from the scene. So that's why there wasn't a shutter gun found at Mirpur upazila...
Posted by: Fred ||
05/16/2010 00:00 ||
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VANCOUVER Canadian fighter jets escorted a Cathay Pacific airliner incoming from Hong Kong to a safe landing in Vancouver International Airport on Saturday due to a potential unspecified security threat, a North American Aerospace Defense Command spokesperson said.
The Canadian Press news agency cited Canadian Defense department officials as saying there was a bomb threat aboard the plane, which originated in Hong Kong, but they could not provide details.
Local media reports said the plane was towed to a secure part of the tarmac with passengers still on board. Fire crews stood by as airport security officials assessed the situation.
Canadian F-18 Hornet fighter jets intercepted the plane and flew alongside it until it landed around 1:40 local time.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/16/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Update: Vancouver flight bomb threat was a 'false alarm'
[Dawn] A suspected US missile strike killed at least five people in the Khyber tribal region of northwest Pakistan on Saturday, it what would be one of the first such attacks in the area, intelligence and government officials said.
US missiles have regularly pounding al-Qaida and Taliban targets along the Afghan border for two years now.
The attacks have killed scores of people, most of them identified as militants by Pakistani officials. But they have caused anger in Pakistan, where many people see them as an unacceptable violation of the country's sovereignty.
The suspected strike in Khyber could fan fresh anger because it represented a widening of the covert program.
Officials gave differing death tolls in the strike, which one said involved two missiles hitting a house and two trucks loaded with militants. The death toll ranged from 5 to 15. Such discrepancies are common and are rarely reconciled.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/16/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
#1
The attacks have killed scores of people, most of them identified as militants by Pakistani officials. But they have caused anger in Pakistan, where many people see them as an unacceptable violation of the country's sovereignty.
Is it a copyright rule to have to include this paragraph verbatim in every dronezap story?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/16/2010 8:31 Comments ||
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#2
I meant the author, not you, Fred
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/16/2010 8:32 Comments ||
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#3
If you don't have that comment then it's not an official dronezap.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/16/2010 8:53 Comments ||
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#4
5 or 15 : too many body parts too really give a damn
Posted by: chris ||
05/16/2010 10:18 Comments ||
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#5
IT was a training accident. Some guy mixed part a with part b and forgot to leave a door open. The houka in the corner started it.
Too much diesel in the wedding punch?
Too much ammonium nitrate in the bunny food?
Maybe the kiddies were playing with Uncle Omar's magic exploding truck?
[Dawn] A number of schools, including at least two girls' schools, have closed down in Quetta after threatening letters were received by their managements.
Security was also beefed up in parts of the provincial capital and in Mastung.
Some of the letters threatened that if purdah was not observed in schools, then teachers and administrative heads will have to bear the consequences.
Similar letters threatening against wearing 'western' clothes were also sent to schools in Mastung.
The letters warned the school managements with the presence of informants among the students and the staffers and threatened severe consequences in case of non-compliance.
The letters, sent by Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan's Balochistan chapter, created a sense of fear and panic among the students and teachers.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/16/2010 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] US officials said here on Friday that three men, identified as Pakistanis, arrested in a series of raids across the northeast on Thursday, supplied funds to Faisal Shahzad detained for botched bombing attempt in New York.
Investigators said it was not yet clear whether the three men knew how the money was going to be used.
It is widely believed that Shahzad may have given their whereabouts to the FBI while being investigated.
Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, whose office is prosecuting Shahzad, said that the accused who had been providing information to agents and prosecutors since his arrest late on the night of May 3, had continued to do so.
"Faisal Shahzad is still cooperating and still being interviewed by agents," said Mr Bharara, who was conducting a news conference in White Plains on an unrelated case.
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said investigators believed there was evidence that the men were providing Shahzad with money, but they were yet to determine whether the men knew the funds might have been intended for a terrorist act.
A top Massachusetts law-enforcement official said investigators were not sure whether the two Boston-area men were willing accomplices or simply moving funds, as was common among people from the Middle East and Central Asia who lived in the United States.
"These people might be completely innocent and not know what they were providing money for," the official cautioned, "but it's clear there's a connection."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/16/2010 00:00 ||
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Al-Qaeda's front organisation in Iraq has announced new leaders to replace those killed in April in a US-Iraqi operation, an Internet monitoring service reported on Sunday. The US-based SITE Intelligence Group said that the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) made the announcement on May 15 in posts on jihadist forums.
The new leaders are "Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi al-Husseini al-Qurashi, the Emir of the Believers of the Islamic State of Iraq" and "Sheikh Abu Abdullah al-Hassani al-Qurashi is his prime minister and deputy," it quoted a statement from the group as saying. The ISI statement is likely to have used noms de guerre for the two new leaders.
"We ask Allah... to protect (the new leaders) and complete through their hands what the two martyred sheikhs began, in raising the banner of jihad, seeking to empower Allah's sharia, and building a strong Islamic state," ISI said, according to SITE.
"Jeeves, make sure to keep spare copies of the executive washroom keys this time. You remember what trouble it caused the time before last -- nobody could get in for a week, until the locksmith finally arrived. You'd think a team of bomb-makers and suicide trainers could pick a bloody lock, but nooooo! they know nothing outside their areas of expertise, that lot! Too much turnover of the Number Threes, that's what I say, and where's a Number Four to get the training he needs before he's promoted and killed? As soon as you've got those copies made, I'm off for Pakistan and the protection of the Inter-Services Intelligence."
SITE reported on Friday that ISI had announced a new war minister, naming him as Al-Nasser Lideen Illah Abu Suleiman.
The monitoring service also said that Abu Suleiman had announced a military campaign dubbed "The Attack of the Monotheists in Revenge for Honours in the Prisons of Apostates," Funny, that's the name of my favorite medieval theological treatise.
and vowed that the ISI will continue to wage jihad.
NINEWA / Aswat al-Iraq: Unknown gunmen killed the Muezzin of a mosque in western Mosul city on Saturday.
"The Muezzin was killed when he left the mosque after he finished sunset prayers," a local police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
"We told him to stop whining but did he listen? NO-O-O-O-O-O-O ..."
That's not whining, silly, that's the call to prayer. NPR reported the other day that there were so many complaints about the muezzins in Cairo or Morocco or someplace that the government forced the worst of them to take voice lessons until they could chant in tune. It appears Iraq's music critics take a more direct approach.
He noted that the Muezzin died instantly, while his assassins were able to escape to an unknown place after they opened fire on him.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/16/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
A halt to minarets in Switzerland was major news. Imagine if the Swiss had killed a muezzin!
But it happens in Iraq, yawn. Inter-Muslim violence is expected & ignored. Violence against Muslims by non-Muslims automatically makes CNN.
Posted by: American Delight ||
05/16/2010 18:53 Comments ||
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[Asharq al-Aswat] ndonesian police may have foiled a massive attack against the president and made progress in its fight against terrorists, but at least two powerful militants who are still a threat to the country remain at large, officials and analysts said Saturday.
Police have arrested 58 suspected Islamic militants and killed 13 in a series of raids since February, when authorities broke up a training camp in the country's west run by a previously unknown terror group calling itself Al Qaeda in Aceh.
Police announced Friday that intelligence gleaned from the detained suspects and evidence seized from their hide-outs revealed an elaborate plot to assassinate President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, conduct Mumbai-style raids on hotels and foreigners, and establish an Islamic state.
Authorities believe they have incapacitated the group but National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri acknowledged they are still hunting at least two key suspects, Abdullah Sunata and Umar Patek. Sunata is suspected of leading the Aceh group after its chief was killed in March, while Patek is accused of helping to mastermind the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people.
"The ones still at large are big fish and big threats to our community," said Noorhuda Ismail, a terrorism analyst and head of the Institute for International Peace Building. Sunata is the country's most-wanted fugitive, Danuri said. "Sunata is a man of capable anything. Sunata is our top priority," Danuri said.
In 2006, Sunata was sentenced to seven years in jail for possession of weapons and for hiding the late Noordin Top, a Malaysian wanted in connection with five major bombings in Indonesia who was killed by police in September. He was released in April 2009 on good behavior but returned to the terror network.
Ismail said both Sunata and Patek are a threat because of their ability to persuade supporters to join the militant cause.
"Both of these men have a strong network both overseas and in Indonesia," he said. "Their ability to get new recruits is strong, and they are protected by their network who see them as mujahid (freedom fighters)."
When arrested, Sunata told interrogators he first met Patek and the late Dulmatin, who was shot dead by police in March, in 1999 in Indonesia's Ambon region, where the two were prominent insurgent leaders in the fight against Christians.
Al Chaidar, another analyst from Aceh, agreed that Patek and Sunata are currently the most dangerous men in the region's terror network.
"Patek and Sunata are the biggest threats for us now as they are the main terrorists in the game," Chaidar said. "In fact, Patek is a great general in this terror war."
Indonesia has battled Islamist militants with links to Al Qaeda since 2002, when extremists bombed a nightclub district on Bali island killing 202 people, most of them foreigners. Since then, a much-praised regional security crackdown has seen hundreds of militants killed or captured and convicted, but they have proved to be a resilient foe. The last major attack was in July 2009 when suicide bombers targeted luxury hotels in the capital Jakarta.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/16/2010 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Bangla Daily Star] Two outlaws were killed in separate incidents of "shootouts" between their cohorts and Rapid Action Battalion personnel in Pabna and Kushtia early yesterday. 
Al-Qaeda's front organisation in Iraq has announced new leaders to replace those killed in April in a US-Iraqi operation, an Internet monitoring service reported on Sunday. The US-based SITE Intelligence Group said that the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) made the announcement on May 15 in posts on jihadist forums.
