H/T Marcus Luttrell Facebook -- you know the story --- now know of his reward
Engaged in a frenzied firefight and outnumbered by the Taliban, Navy Lt. Michael Murphy made a desperate decision as he and three fellow SEALs fought for their lives on a rocky mountainside in Afghanistan's Kunar Province in 2005. Never tire of this story
In a last-ditch effort to save his team, Murphy pulled out his satellite phone, walked into a clearing to get reception and called for reinforcements as a fusillade of bullets ricocheted around him. One of the bullets hit him, but he finished the call and even signed off, "Thank you."
Then he continued the battle.
Dan Murphy, the sailor's father, said it didn't surprise him that his slain son nicknamed "The Protector" put himself in harm's way. Nor was he surprised that in the heat of combat his son was courteous.
"That was Michael. He was cool under fire. He had the ability to process information, even under the most difficult of circumstances. That's what made him such a good SEAL officer," Murphy said.
A warship bearing the name of the Medal of Honor recipient will be christened Saturday -- on what would have been Murphy's 35th birthday -- at Bath Iron Works, where the destroyer is being built.
Murphy, who was 29 when he died, graduated from Pennsylvania State University and was accepted to multiple law schools, but decided he could do more for his country as one of the Navy's elite SEALS -- special forces trained to fight on sea, air and land -- the same forces that killed Osama bin Laden this week in Pakistan.
Heightened security will be in effect as Murphy's mother, Maureen, christens the ship by smashing a bottle of champagne against the bow of the 510-foot-long warship as Murphy's father, brother and others watch.
Murphy, of Patchogue, N.Y., earned his nickname after getting suspended in elementary school for fighting with bullies who tried to stuff a special-needs child into a locker and for intervening when some youths were picking on a homeless man, said Dan Murphy, a lawyer, former prosecutor and Army veteran who served in Vietnam.
Maureen Murphy said he thought he was too young to take a desk job as a lawyer. Instead, he went to officer candidate school, the first step on his journey to become a SEAL officer. He was in training during the Sept. 11 attacks, which shaped his views.
His view was that there are "bullies in the world and people who're oppressed in the world. And he said, 'Sometimes they have to be taken care of,'" she said.
On June 28, 2005, the day he was killed, Murphy was leading a SEAL team in northeastern Afghanistan looking for the commander of a group of insurgents known as the Mountain Tigers.
The Operation Red Wings reconnaissance team rappelled down from a helicopter at night and climbed through rain to a spot 10,000 feet high overlooking a village to keep a lookout. But the mission was compromised the following morning when three local goat herders happened upon their hiding spot.
High in the Hindu Kush mountains, Murphy and Petty Officers Marcus Luttrell of Huntsville, Texas; Matthew Axelson of Cupertino, Calif.; and Danny Dietz of Littleton, Colo.; held a tense discussion of the rules of engagement and the fate of the three goat herders, who were being held at gunpoint.
If they were Taliban sympathizers, then letting the herders go would allow them to alert the Taliban forces lurking in the area; killing them might ensure the team's safety, but there were issues of possible military charges and a media backlash, according to Luttrell, the lone survivor.
Murphy, who favored letting the goat herders go, guided a discussion of military, political, safety and moral implications. A majority agreed with him.
An hour after the herders were released, more than 100 Taliban armed with AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades opened fire, attacking from higher elevation, and maneuvering to outflank the SEALs, said Gary Williams, author of "Seal of Honor," a biography of Murphy.
Dan Murphy said his son made the right call.
"It was exactly the right decision and what Michael had to do. I'm looking at it from Michael's perspective, that these were clearly civilians. One of them was 14 years old, which was about the age of his brother. Michael knew the rules of engagement and the risks associated with it," the father said.
As the only survivor, Luttrell has pangs of regret for voting to go along with Murphy, his best friend; he now believes the team could've survived if the goat herders were killed.
In his own book, "Lone Survivor," Luttrell wrote that Murphy was shot in the stomach early in the firefight, but ignored the wound and continued to lead the team, which killed dozens of Taliban attackers. The injuries continued to mount as the SEALs were forced to scramble, slide and tumble down the mountain in the face of the onslaught.
Three of the team members had been shot at least once when Murphy decided drastic action was needed to save the team, Luttrell wrote. With the team's radio out of commission, Murphy exposed himself to enemy gunfire by stepping into a clearing with a satellite phone to make a call to Bagram Airfield to relay the dire situation. He dropped the phone after being shot, then picked it up to complete the phone call with four words: "Roger that, thank you."
By the end of the two-hour firefight, Murphy, Dietz and Axelson were dead. The tragedy was compounded when 16 rescuers -- eight additional SEALs and eight members of the Army's elite "Night Stalkers" -- were killed when their MH-47 Chinook helicopter was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade.
It was the largest single-day loss in naval special warfare history. All told, 33 SEALS have been killed in action since the Sept. 11 attacks, officials say.
Luttrell, who was blown off the mountain by a rocket-propelled grenade and knocked unconscious, evaded capture until he was taken in by villagers who protected him until he was liberated five days later by special forces. He has since left the Navy, gotten married and launched a foundation; he's unable to attend Saturday's event because his wife is in the final days of pregnancy, a spokesman for Luttrell said.
Navy Cmdr. Chad Muse, commanding officer of SEAL Delivery Team 1 in Hawaii, noted one of Murphy's favorite books was Steven Pressfield's "Gates of Fire," an account of outnumbered Spartans and their epic battle against hundreds of thousands of invading Persians nearly 2,500 years ago at the Battle of Thermopylae.
Like the Spartans, who were ultimately slaughtered, Murphy had a spirit that didn't give up. "It's about sacrifice and the Spartan ideal -- and valor and heroism in battle," Muse said.
#1
I never tire of hearing the story of this SEAL team either. Nice honor for Lt. Michael Murphy. Had Marcus Luttrell not survived, there would have been no one to know the heroism of Murphy and of his team. Luttrell's book, Lone Survivor is well worth reading.
#2
A little point to remember here amid all the bleating about OBL's funeral service is that his boys left the three SEAL's lost in action on this mission just lying there. The Ranger had to hunt through the hills to find their bodies.
Posted by: Matt ||
05/06/2011 20:35 Comments ||
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#3
If you ever get to Cupertino, California. Stop in at Memorial Park on Stevens Creek not far from Highway 85.
The veterans memorial at the park memorializes the Red Wing operators, two of whom were from Cupertino.
http://cupertinoveteransmemorial.org/
If you are in the are, stop by and pay your respects. It's a friendly town.
Is this true, or is this just a bit of nastiness against a dead evil man unable to defend himself?
(Itar-Tass) ---- Apart from the terrorist activities the late Osama bin Laden ... who had a brief but splitting headache... was a criminal mastermind of the Afghan heroin production, the chief of the Russian drug watchdog Viktor Ivanov told news hounds on Thursday.
In reply to a question about Bin Laden, Ivanov said that the phrase, "The Moor has done his duty, the Moor can go" is quite suitable in this issue. "Osama launched the heroin drug trafficking," the Russian chief drug police officer said. Bin Laden was the first to purchase the equipment to turn raw opium into heroin, he noted. "He is gone, that is to say, he was killed. This is a major success of US partners," the director of the Russian drug watchdog said.
However, The didactic However... "the drug problem is not solved" with the destruction of the most notorious terrorist, Ivanov added.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2011 00:00 ||
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[Tolo News] Former head of Afghan spy agency, at a massive anti-Taliban gathering in Kabul on Thursday warned that the government should not make people rise and take to the streets against it.
Speaking with an emotion-filled voice, former head of National Directorate of Security (NDS) Amrullah Saleh strongly criticised the government's peace talks with the Taliban.
This is the second time in recent days we're hearing from Mr. Saleh. Why d'you suppose that is?
Government opposition Thursday called in a huge call-for-justice gathering which was participated by thousands including some members of the parliament, politicians and Kabul citizens.
Many people were wearing green ribbons of the new movement and carried green flags.
Green is the colour of Islam, but if this group is anti-Taliban -- and the Taliban have ever cloaked themselves in their piety -- wouldn't their colour be green, too?
Reforms in the government system, real peace, opening of national assembly based on the constitution and the government's accountability were the main demands raised in the gathering.
"If the government fails to listen to our voice and refuses to set our conditions on top of its agenda, we will mobilise and take to the streets, we will not set any dates," Amrullah Saleh said.
Mr Saleh described the Afghan government as not fully legitimate.
Dr Abdullah Abdullah ... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun... , leader of Change and Hope Coalition, and Mr Saleh warned they wouldn't let the government to make a deal with terrorists.
"Al-Qaeda terrorists, the Taliban and gunnies are proxy groups of Pakistain in Afghanistan. And our issues with Pakistain haven't been resolved yet. Referring to the Taliban as "brothers" is a big betrayal to the Afghan nation," Mr Saleh said. (Afghanistan's Caped President Karzai often calls the Taliban as "brothers" when urging them to make peace with his government.)
Speaking emotionally Dr Abdullah said we should not "beg to people who have joined the side of the gunnies on the orders of foreign intelligence agencies to ruin the country".
"Our dignity and reputation do not allow us to beg for the slave Taliban," Abdullah said.
Abdullah also criticised the Afghanistan's Caped President for allowing Pakistain to interfere in Afghan domestic affairs, referring to the recent news that Pakistain had submitted a list of demands to Afghanistan.
"Look at this political weakness that Pakistain comes and asks the Afghanistan's Caped President to accept its demands.This means officially surrendering to Pakistain," he said.
Amrullah Saleh and Abdullah also criticised the recent cancellation of the celebration of Mujaheddin victory day. Celebration of Mujaheddin's victory day was called off by the government for what it called as high level security threats in Kabul.
The call-for-justice gathering was called to protest at the peace talks with the Taliban as President Karzai's government has persistently emphasised on reconciliation with the Taliban.
The gathering has been called the biggest opposition reaction and show of strength against Karzai's government.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2011 00:00 ||
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[Tolo News] Pakistain should hand over the remaining senior Taliban leaders to Afghanistan, some Afghan MPs said on Thursday.
They're getting feisty up in Afghanistan, now that they saw Pakistan can't stop a determined group of SEALs. (Nor could anyone else, but that doesn't seem to be the point...)
Lawmakers urged the international community and the government to apply more pressures on Pakistain so that the country starts acting honestly in the fight against terrorism and detention of senior Taliban leaders.
The death of the late Osama bin Laden ... who abandoned all hope when he entered there... , the terror face of the world, near Pak capital Islamabad is a proof that suicide kaboom plotters are living in Pakistain, Deputy Secretary of Parliament Farhad Azimi said.
"Considering the death of Osama bin Laden in Pakistain, it is the right and suitable situation apply pressure on Pakistain to give up supporting and fueling anti-Afghan Death Eaters," Mr Azimi said.
Mr Azimi said reaction of Pak and Afghan Taliban after the death of al-Qaeda leader is politically motivated.
By hosting Death Eater sanctuaries Pakistain wants to impose its double standard policies over neighbouring countries, politicians said.
Habiba Danesh, an Afghan MP representing northern Takhar province, said of no doubt Pakistain was aware of the fact Osama was living on its soil.
Following a flood of questions over the fact that Osama bin Laden was living near Islamabad, Pak officials have now begun to blame their own failures on other countries.
Pakistain's Prime Minister Yosuf Raza Gilani on Wednesday said that spy agencies around the world share the blame for his country's failure to capture al-Qaeda leader.
"Certainly, we have intelligence failure of the rest of the world including the United States," Gilani said during his La Belle France visit.
Pakistain's ambassador in the United States Hussain Haqqani has said presence of Osama bin Laden in Pakistain couldn't have been possible without supported of an organisation in Pakistain.
"All that is possible is that there are individuals within Pakistain who provided a support network for Osama bin Laden," Hussain Haqqani has said.
"Paks have to get worried about why he chose Pakistain as the place to live. Obviously he felt comfortable there, and that is something that we will deal with the question and find the answer."
Mr Haqqani has said if Pakistain allows cut-throats use its soil to carry out their activities it will no longer be part of international community. Presence of gunnies in Pakistain ruins our deserved rights and privileges.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2011 00:00 ||
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[Ennahar] The Algerian Salafist ...Salafists espouse an austere form of Sunni Islam that seeks a return to practices that were common in the 7th century. Rather than doing that themselves and letting other people alone they insist everybody do as they say and they try to kill everybody who doesn't... imam, Sheikh Mohamed Ali Ferkous, issued a new fatwa in which he disclaims the title of Shahid (martyr) to any persons died in demonstrations or protests.
In his fatwa, Sheikh Ferkous declares that "demonstrations, marches and sit-ins organized in the public squares, whether violent or peaceful, are not in our practices as Mohammedans. They are negative practices of democracy.
All revolts, demonstrations and marches throughout the Mohammedan world, according to the Sheikh are only practices inherited from the French Revolution. Our nation," he said, by these practices opens the door to the cultural invasion by adopting forms of rebellion that are strange to Islam, Fitna, and which generate only moral and material damage.
For Sheikh Ferkous, the Shahid (martyr) is the one who is killed while fighting the infidels and before the war ends. Whoever is killed for his religion, the drowned, the woman who dies in childbirth, the one who dies defending his religion, his honour or his family.
Apart from these, others can not be regarded as deaders.
So all those Muslims killed by the jihadis in the course of their war to recreate the Caliphate don't get Paradise after all? Then the members of the community have no reason to support the terror groups, nor even to keep silent about their presence.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2011 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] Anti-government protesters are to turn out on the streets of Soddy Arabia's Eastern Province, acknowledging a call for massive demonstrations by the kingdom's human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... campaigners.
The public are to stage rallies in seven cities before joining each other in a march towards the province's city of Qatif on Friday, a Press TV correspondent reported.
Saudi protesters have been holding rallies against the monarchy in Qatif and the village of Awamiyah -- also in the Eastern Province -- besides elsewhere across the kingdom over the past few months. The Eastern Province (which doesn't even rate a regular name) is mainly Shiite, coincidentally...
They mainly urge the implementation of political reforms, respect for human rights -- especially women's social entitlements -- and freedom of expression.
They have condemned Riyadh's continued imprisonment of people without charge. The unemployed also ask for job opportunities and their share of the country's oil income.
Such protests are usually suppressed by security forces. Last month, a Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... report said the authorities had tossed in the calaboose over 160 activists since February.
Soddy Arabia is the world's number one oil exporter and owns the biggest economy among the Arab nations. The kingdom is accused of allowing 7,000 Saudi princes to dominate its oil and business enterprises.
Anti-government group the Revolution against Al Saud has called for constitutional reforms, transparency and accountability, legislative elections as well as the establishment of a government that serves the people.
The group has urged people to demonstrate in other parts of the country as well as the Eastern Province.
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Undercover police infiltrated a circle of radical Muslims, which recruited young men to wage jihad in Afghanistan, a jury was told.
They used religious stalls, known as dawars, at Longsight market to distribute material aimed at converting young British men to Islam before grooming them for jihad to fight in Afghanistan, a jury was told.
Two undercover policemen, using the names Simon and Ray, infiltrated a group of four radical Muslims for a year until November 2009, a jury at Manchester Crown Court heard on Thursday. The officers recorded conversations with the men and posed as vulnerable, young men who were likely candidates for jihad, the court heard.
Opening the case for the crown, Andrew Edis QC told the jury the most influential member of the group was Munir Farooqi, a Pakistani-born British national from Longsight.
In 2001, Mr Farooqi went to Afghanistan to help the Taliban, the court was told.
When police searched Mr Farooqi's home, they found jihadi publications as well as DVD and CD copying equipment in the basement. Among the publications were two books described as "classic jihadi texts". One, called in English, The Absent Obligation, was authored by a man hanged in 1982 over the assassination of Anwar Sadat. The book compels Muslims to fight for an Islamic state, said Edis.
The other, called Defense of Muslim Lands, boasts an admiring dedication to the dead author from Bin Laden.
That would be to the dead author from the now-dead bin Laden. Their conversations in the unexpected depths of Hell must be considerably more interesting than planned.
Another defendant, Matthew Newton, a white convert to Islam, gave a DVD disc to undercover officer, Simon, which featured six hours promoting jihad, the jury was told. Edis described the series of lectures "as a kind of brainwashing".
In them, the writings of an imam, Yousuf Ul-Ayiri, are translated and explained by Anwar al-Awlaki.
Another part of the recruitment process was to create outrage by using powerful images of Muslim victims of Israel. Edis told the jury they would be shown these images during the course of the trial, saying: "They are unpleasant. They are designed to invoke outrage, anger and shock, the desire for retaliation, for revenge and for action."
Mr Farooqi, a married father of three, and the other defendants visited five mosques in and around Manchester in the effort to groom potential soldiers in Afghanistan, the jury heard.
Jihadis aren't really soldiers, although they fondly consider themselves members of that august group. They're more like gangsters with a religious gloss.
The defendants tried get possible candidates to meet inspirational imams, like Sheikh Khalid Yasin and Sheikh Farooqi (who is not related to any of the defendants).
Edis said: "Sheikh Farooqi, it appears, is an inspirational man. He was introduced to Ray and Simon by the defendants. Whatever his intention may have been, it appears that the defendants regarded him as a successful addition to their method of radicalisation."
Munir Farooqi, 54, his son, Harris Farooqi, 27, Matthew Newton, 29, and Israr Malik, 22, are charged with engaging in conduct in preparation for acts of terrorism by attempting to recruit others as terrorists to engage in violence abroad.
Munir Farooqi is also accused of three counts of soliciting to murder -- two of which relate to the the undercover officers - and a count of distributing terrorist literature.
Newton also faces two charges of distributing terrorist literature.
And Malik faces two counts of soliciting to murder.
The defendants deny all of the charges.
Good luck with that, guys. Really. Maybe it will get you into one of those prisons where the arrow actually points toward Mecca instead of somewhere else. Not all sign painters have a strong knowledge of compass points, you see.
To see a map, click here
A protest March for Peace and Justice began today in Cuernavaca, Morelos today and is scheduled to end Sunday evening in Zocalo, Mexico City, formerly known as Constitucion Square.
The march is being led by Mexican writer Javier Sicily who lost his son, Juan Francisco in a drug related shooting in Temixco, Morelos March 28th.
The event is to protest the war on the drug cartels. Sicily and others have called for the Mexican Army to be returned to the barracks, for the legalization of drugs and to end the presidency of Felipe Calderon, which ends in a year. To see a map and the itinery of the march, click here
#1
As NOKOR situation worsens or iff Kimmie + Regime don't get their way, there will likely be more + more serious mil incidents agz SOKOR, to include unilateral NOKOR milstrikes includ agz high-profile USFK, USFJ targets to induce US-CHINA CONFRONTATIONISM.
KIMMIE = IRAN'S "MAD MULLAHS" = BETTER TO DESTROY THEMSELVES + WORLD THAN TO NOT RULE.
* PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > NORTH KOREA'S SPECIAL DISTRICT [Rason] COULD OPEN UP COUNTRY TO CHINA.
* SAME > JAPAN'S NEWEST ADVANCED COAST GUARD PATROL BOAT ["NOBARU"-class]TO BE MOSTLY USED FOR DAOYU ISLANDS [Japan = Senkakus].
* SAME > SEOUL [finally] ABANDONS TAIWAN: SOUTH KOREA TO DEEPEN MILITARY RELATIONSHIP [coop, trade] WID MAINLAND CHINA, starting with per China-ROK Mil Academy student exchanges + Officer training.
#1
"The Navy SEALs did what they were told to do. Its President Obamas civilian messengers who cant tell a straight story and do right by our heroes who risked their lives. The White House Keystone Kops arent just squandering a public opinion bump. Theyre squandering the victory of our men in uniform, along with the intel-gatherers who made the mission possible. Milblogger Greyhawk reminds us of a past bungled narrative from this administration that undermined troop morale and national security. As Blackfive military blogger Froggy put it bluntly: Get your s**t together, Mr President!Michelle Malkin
#2
Being the eternal optimist that I am, let us say one advantage to all the noise on the channel is that it makes it hard to filter out sources and methods. Still, it would be nice if the WH could figure out a vaguely coherent story stick to it. Or just say "No comment". Is that so hard?
Usually when governments use misinformation, they use it to make themselves look good. The Obama Administration gets points for originality, insofar as itâs been using disinformation and misinformation to make itself look arbitrary, unlawful, helpless and stupid.
Hereâs jjâs great summary:
1) There was a firefight.
2) There was no firefight.
3) Bin Laden was âresisting.â
4) Bin Laden wasnât armed. (Makes the concept of âresistingâ interesting.)
[4.a) And the newest one: the SEALS thought bin Laden was reaching for a weapon.]
5) He used his wife as a shield.
6) His wife was killed too.
7) He didnât use his wife as a shield. She ran at a SEAL who shot her in the leg, but sheâs fine.
8 ) Some other woman â the maid? â was used as a shield. By somebody. Downstairs.
9) That other woman â downstairs â was killed.
10) Maybe not. She was killed unless she wasnât â and who was she, anyway?
11) Bin Ladenâs son was killed.
12) Unless it was some other guy.
13) Bin Ladenâs daughter saw him get killed. Sheâs undoubtedly traumatized, poor dear.
14) They were going to capture Bin Laden until the problem with the helicopter, which was:
A) It had mechanical trouble
B) It did a hard landing
C) It crashed
D) It clipped a wall with a tail rotor, effectively a crash
15.) They were never going to try to capture him; it was always a kill mission.
16.) No, it wasnât.
17) The chopper blew up.
18) The SEALs blew it up.
19.) Panetta said yesterday the world needed proof and the photo would be released.
20.) Obama said today in an interview he taped with Steve Kroft for â60 Minutesâ to be broadcast Sunday that it wonât be released. Itâs too gruesome, would offend Muslim sensibilities (something he worries about a lot â I personally do not give a warm fart on a wet Wednesday about Muslim sensibilities), and how would Americans feel if Muslims released pictures of dead Americans?
21.) Kroft â whoâs not a total idiot â pointed out that ever since âBlack Hawk Downâ days, Muslims have been doing precisely that, filming American bodies being dragged through the streets, filming Daniel Pearlâs head being cut off, filming any and everything.
22) Obama gets pissed at CBS, the tape gets cleaned up, that question disappears. (Inside info.)
23.) We got a âtreasure troveâ of stuff from hard drives, etc.
24.) There were no phone lines, and no internet access at the âmansion,â they didnât even have TV â what âtreasure trove?â
25.) There is obviously in the pictures of the place a large satellite dish. I guess they used it for making salads.
26.) And now, just today: apparently the idea was to capture him, but only if he was naked. There was a suspicion he might be wearing a suicide bomber type explosive vest, or belt. So if heâs not naked and you canât see if he has a vest on or not â shoot him.
#7
In a combat box, there are no rules other than quick and dead. The lowest man with the weapon decides what and what not happens. The White House is intelligent to understand that if they were to 'make an example' of anyone who supposedly pulled the trigger against 'instructions', the trigger man would probably be elected the next President with a landslide.
#8
I see that post event news releases are being handled in the finest traditions of the Obama administration. Would it not have been much easier and far less painful to have established a prohibition against the release of any information concerning the raid? Malkin and Black Five are dead on.
#9
Trying to keep track of the many spins this story gets from the WH makes me think they took lessons from Foghorn Leghorn in the new GEICO commercial.
" Son, I say Son, these boys be as phuqued up as a soup sammich on Sunday in Central park."
About 3 a.m. on April 20, 2009, Aviles-Sánchez was riding in a Hummer, leading a four-vehicle caravan around Dallas. The friends had been partying at a rodeo and a nightclub, and went to the Oak Cliff restaurant for food and more drinks. The owner of the restaurant, Santos Lozano Sr., who was riding with Aviles-Sánchez, got out to unlock the parking lot gate and open the restaurant when two gunmen appeared.
Evidence showed that they strafed the Hummer with assault rifle fire. Aviles-Sánchez died at the scene. Several people in the caravan returned fire with handguns. Two of them were shot, including the restaurant owners son, but both recovered.
Rangel was also shot in the ankle, and smashed his head as he fled over a nearby fence and a rock wall to escape as police converged on the scene. Officers, guns drawn, followed a trail of his blood under a nearby bridge. There they found him hiding beside a pillar.
Along the trail they found a black hoodie and a black cap, which was linked to Rangel by DNA. Police also found an AK-47. It had no fingerprints on it because Rangel had been wearing gloves, which were found nearby. The weapon had 20 rounds still in the 40-round magazine.
An autopsy showed that Aviles-Sánchez, who was shot in the neck, arm and back, was killed by bullets from two different AK-47s. One came from Rangels seized rifle.
Police said they suspect the second triggerman was Ruben Galvan, who is currently in federal custody in Dallas. He pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing in a federal drug case linked to the La Familia cartel. He was not charged in Aviles-Sánchezs murder because no DNA linked him to the scene, a detective testified Wednesday.
The backlog of Pakistani Machine Readable Passports applied for in the UAE has been cleared.
I'm relieved, aren't you?
The clearance was made possible after 5,000 pending passports from Dubai and 3,500 passports from Abu Dhabi were processed in Pakistan and received in the UAE, Jamil Ahmed Khan, Pakistan Ambassador to the UAE, said on Thursday.
How many of them Qaeda minions looking to clear out now that the boss is dead?
He said that a community delegation headed by Haji Daraz Khan had informed him about the precarious situation of the community in obtaining Machine Readable Passports.
Are we to assume from this that Pakistan's powerful passport-forging industry is not yet up to speed on the new passport technology? Well, not to worry, they'll get there soon enough.
Taking a serious note, the ambassador approached the Prime Minister of Pakistan and wrote to the Ministry of Interior and Director General (Passports) to address the grave situation faced by the Pakistani community in the UAE.
The ambassador told the delegation that it was very painful to see the community wasting its time to collect the passports on time. He also noted that if the passports were not issued on time, some of the community members would lose their jobs due to non-renewal of their visas by the UAE authorities as per its policy.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/06/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Finally the politico-religious parties of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... have come out of hibernation, issuing statements that they have no proof to deny killing of the late Osama bin Laden ... he's rotten though not quite forgotten... but the US has also no evidence to show what it claims.
There's negative as well as positive proof, you ninnies. The negative proof is the lack of new pronouncements from the dear departed, other than the usual martyrdom video. The positive proof is the disappearance/arrest/death and dismemberment of those whose names might have been mentioned anywhere in the bin Laden trove. (We won't even address the claim of DNA results, because y'all believe Allah can do to DNA and tests what He wills.) But when the herd has been thinned enough, the remainder will believe their abstemious, mansion-housed hero is indeed dead.
The leaderships of Jamaat-i-Islami and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, inheritors of the political ideology of bin Laden, put their heads together here on Wednesday to discuss the post-Osama scenario.
That sounds like they actually do believe, despite claims otherwise.
With confused mind, the religious parties are still in a state of disbelief whether Al Qaeda chief had been killed in midnight operation by the US Navy Seals in Abbottabad on Monday. Religious parties in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa didn`t organise rallies and protest demonstrations and many remained tightlipped about the incident.
"Please don't hurt us."
An activist of a religious party said that those groups, which thrived largely on anti-American sentiments of people, swung into action only when they got green signal from "invisible forces."
"When the dust is settled then religious parties may get a go-ahead signal and will show reaction," he said.
Jamaat-i-Islami provincial chief Senator Ibrahim Khan said that US government claims regarding killing of Osama and his immediate burial in the sea required some credible evidences.
"Show the photos, Mr. President."
"We could not completely reject US claims but Washington should have to prove that Osama was killed in that specific compound," Senator Ibrahim told journalists after attending meeting at the party`s headquarters.
He said the question was why America didn`t show Osama`s body to the international media. Those questions needed satisfactory answers, he said, adding otherwise the news would find no takers.
He said that America had violated international law by sending its helicopters and forces into a sovereign country and carried out so-called operation in Abbottabad. He said that international law didn`t permit any foreign power to invade another country.
International law also doesn't allow a government to host forces which attack other countries, whether Afghanistan, India, or Denmark. Sauce for the gander/sauce for the goose, Senator Ibrahim.
Senator Ibrahim said that statement issued by the foreign office and other agencies in Islamabad had also created confusion. He termed President Zardari a major security risk for the country.
JUI-F, a staunch supporter of Taliban, has yet to come out of the confusion and doesn`t believe in the US claims. The party senior leader and former MNA Maulana Shujaul Mulk said that people didn`t accept that Americans would hunt down their enemy number one with so ease.
*Knock, knock* "Candy-gram."
"Nobody will buy the US claim. And how can people believe that Osama will stay in a large compound without guards and security," he said. The former parliamentarian from Mardan said that his party was evaluating the situation and would chalk out its future strategy.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
"Nobody will buy the US claim."
Fine by me.
Why don't you send a courier to get a message?
Or talk to his daughter, who survived?
Because it's just better to disbelieve and continue in your fantasyland, that's why.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/06/2011 5:50 Comments ||
Top||
[Dawn] CIA Director Leon Panetta has told the US Congress that either Pakistain was an accomplice in the late Osama bin Laden's ... who is no longer with us, and won't be again... presence in Abbottabad or was incompetent. Is there a place for both boxes to be checked?
In an in-camera testimony before a House panel, Mr Panetta said that he and other administration officials were trying to get to the bottom of the matter. "Either they were involved or incompetent. Neither place is a good place to be," CNN quoted Mr Panetta as telling a member of Congress who asked the first question of the hour-long classified briefing.
In a separate interview to CBS, he acknowledged the CIA did not have any intelligence indicating "that Pakistain was aware that Bin Laden was there or that this compound was a place where he was hiding".
But he noted that this was a location very close to a military academy and other sensitive military sites.
"It had been there since almost five years ago. It was very unusual as a compound. I just think they need to respond to the questions about why they did not know that that kind of compound existed," Mr Panetta added.
"The common sense would dictate that they had to have some idea," he was asked.
"Well those are, that's why there are questions here that I think the best people to respond to those questions are going to be the Paks," Mr Panetta said.
Asked if the Paks played any role in this operation, the CIA chief said: "This has been a long process, obviously, developing a lot of streams of intelligence. And some of those streams of intelligence were kind of in the normal process of working with the Paks. But they were never aware of our focus on this compound or in Bin Laden."
The US, he added, made the decision that it would not inform Pakistain and conduct this operation unilaterally.
Mr Panetta said that former president Bush and President B.O. had both made very clear to the Paks that "if we found a location where Osama bin Laden was located, we were going to go in and get him. And I think they understood that very clearly".
The CIA director, however, disagreed with author Salman Rushdie that Pakistain should be declared a terrorist state.
"Obviously, it remains a very complicated and difficult relationship. But I don't think we ought to break the relationship with the Paks," he said. "Look, we are virtually conducting a war in their country going after Al Qaeda. And at the same time, we're trying to get their help in trying to be able to confront terrorism in that part of the world."
Mr Panetta recalled that Pakistain had given the US "some help, and they have given us some cooperation."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Pakistan either accomplice or incompetent
How about part of the Pakistani government is an accomplice, and they're all incompetant under this system.
#2
The CIA director, however, disagreed with author Salman Rushdie that Pakistain should be declared a terrorist state because nuclear weapons convey a privilege.
#8
I'ma just wonderin' what an "in-camera interview" is?
Posted by: BA ||
05/06/2011 13:06 Comments ||
Top||
#9
re: "in-camera", the phrase literally means "in chambers" and refers to testimony given in private for national security or similar reasons to a committee of Congress.
re: 'Paks' - the actual Dawn (Pakistani news source) article uses the term 'Pakistanis'.
[Dawn] the late Osama bin Laden ... who is currently rooming with Hitler and Himmler... and his comrades offered no resistance when killed by US special forces in a Pak town, Pak security officials said on Thursday.
US accounts of what happened have changed throughout the week, and initial characterisations of a 40-minute shootout have given way to officials being quoted as saying only one of the five people who were killed had been armed.
The White House has cited the "fog of war" as a reason for initial misinformation on whether bin Laden -- who was shot in the head -- was armed when US Navy SEALs raided his compound in the Pak town of Abbottabad early on Monday.
Two senior Pak security officials, citing their investigation, said there was no firefight because the inhabitants never fired back.
"The people inside the house were unarmed. There was no resistance," one of the officials said.
"It was cold-blooded," said the second official when asked if there was any exchange of fire during the operation which, US officials said lasted nearly 40 minutes.
The officials declined to say how they got their information, but officials had earlier said maimed had been jugged.
Photographs acquired by Rooters and taken about an hour after the assault show three dead men -- not including bin Laden -- lying in pools of blood. No weapons could be seen in the closely cropped images.
The photos, taken by a Pak security official who was in the compound after the raid, show two men dressed in traditional Pak garb and one in a T-shirt, blood streaming from their ears, noses and mouths.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
UBL et. al. had plenty of time to put on their suicide vests. His earlier rhetoric doomed them, no matter what the actual situation.
#2
The Americans were not "cold blooded." In fact our blood was positively boiling (especially about the ISI).
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
05/06/2011 11:32 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Glad it was cold blooded , they deserved (at minimum) to feel the cold chill of being rolled .
This is the only credit note I have given 'O' in his Presidency . I just hope he's got the balls to follow up with the newly gleaned leads , and more to the point happy hunting if the green light is given
Posted by: Oscar ||
05/06/2011 14:44 Comments ||
Top||
#4
He had ten years to turn himself in anytime, anywhere. The people on the morning of 9/11 where massacred in 'cold blood'. Would these fools had wanted us to nuke the region in hot blood?
[Dawn] Pakistain Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir said on Thursday that any country that again seeks to raid its territory would face consequences from Pakistain's military.
"We feel that that sort of misadventure or miscalculation would result in a terrible catastrophe," he said. "There should be no doubt Pakistain has adequate capacity to ensure its own defence."
He was speaking three days after a US raid by special forces, without the knowledge of Pakistain officials, on a compound in Abbottabad, north of the capital, killed al Qaeda leader the late Osama bin Laden. ... who has left the building... "It's easy to say that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) or elements within the government were in cahoots with the Al Qaeda," Bashir said.
"This is a false hypothesis. This is a false charge. It cannot be validated on any account and it flies in the face of what Paks and in particular the Inter-Services Intelligence has been able to accomplish."
"If it was an intelligence failure ... then it was a global intelligence failure," Bashir said.
"That the ISI is incompetent is a value judgment," he added.
"And we believe that this is not the time for anybody to indulge in the luxury of passing value judgments."
Oh I don't know about that. I'm feeling rather judgemental these days on a number of issues.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
CHINA DAILY FORUM > {White House Press Secretary Jay Carney] US: MORE ATTACKS ON PAKISTAN IFF NEEDED.
#2
IMO the greater danger for the US-NATO here is that iff Islamabad's relations wid Washington, DC continues to worsen = deteriorate, that in addition to giving advanced Nuke-WMDS techs to Radical Islamist MilTerr Groups POST-OSAMA PAKISTAN = NORTH KOREA = WILL ATTACK INDIA + INDUCE US-CHINA CONFRONTATIONISM + REGIONAL WAR TO DIVERT FROM ITS TRUBLES.
Rising China could truly end up wid TWO NUCLEAR-POSSIBLE REGIONAL WARS AGZ THE US ON OPPOSITE FLANKS.
In not militarily opposing the US raid agz Osama at Abbottabad, Pakistan's fear of losing approxi US$3.0Bilyuhn a year in US aid was counterbalanced by its recognition that the US still needed Pakistan to help the US combat Radical Islam + conduct the US-led GWOT.
MORE,
> Iff Radical Islam took over the ME + North AFrica, e.g. Libyuh's + Egypt's, etc. Nucprogs, PAKISTAN WOULD BECOM JUST ONE SOURCE OF MANY FOR NUKE-HAPPY MILTERRS.
> Iff Iran + Hezbollah took over the above, SUNNI NUCLEAR PAKISTAN = SUNNI SAUDI ARABIA = WOULD HAVE A POTENT SHIA NUCLEAR COMPETITOR + POTENTIAL MILITARY OPPONENT TO CONTEND WITH.
* Sunni versus Shia NUC ARMS RACE BETWEEN STATES, Sunni versus Shia NUCLEAR ARMS RACE BETWEEN PRO-SUNNI, PRO-SHIA MILTERR GROUPS.
THE FIRST "CIVIL WAR" WIDIN THE FUTURE OWG CALIPAHTE WILL BE A NUCLEAR CIVIL WAR???
[Al Jazeera] Pakistain's military has launched an investigation into how the late Osama bin Laden ... who has left the building... was able to live in the country undetected - for up to five years, according to the al-Qaeda leader's wife.
Pakistain has denied any knowledge of bin Laden's whereabouts and the army said on Thursday it would conduct an investigation into failures by its intelligence to detect the world's most wanted man on its own soil.
"COAS made it clear that any similar action violating the illusory sovereignty of Pakistain will warrant a review on the level of military/intelligence cooperation with the United States," the army said in a statement, referring to the Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani. is the former Director General of ISI... Pakistain has been under international pressure to explain why the al-Qaeda chief was able to hide in a compound in a hill town near its capital.
One of bin Laden's wives has told intelligence officials that he'd been living in Pakistain for the past five years.
A Pentagon brasshat said later that the U.S. so far had no "definitive evidence" that Pakistain knew of bin Laden's hideout.
But Michele Flournoy, defense secretary Robert Gates' top policy aide, said Islamabad must now demonstrate, visibly and convincingly, their commitment to defeating al-Qaeda.
Pakistain's foreign ministry said earlier on Thursday that the raid by US commandoes was an "unauthorised unilateral action", conducted without the Pak government's knowledge.
Salman Bashir, Pakistain's foreign minister, warned the US and other countries against future raids in the country on suspected fighters, warning that such actions would have "disastrous consequences".
"We feel that that sort of misadventure or miscalculation would result in a terrible catastrophe," he said on Thursday in Islamabad, the Pak capital. "There should be no doubt Pakistain has adequate capacity to ensure its own defence."
The CIA said it kept Pakistain out of the loop because it feared bin Laden would be tipped off, highlighting the depth of mistrust between the two supposed allies.
Hillary Clinton, ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another William H. Seward ... the US secretary of state, said it would stand by Pakistain despite the strain put on the relationship by the discovery of bin Laden so close to the Pak capital.
"It is not always an easy relationship, you know that," she said in Rome, the Italian capital, on Thursday.
"But, on the other hand, it is a productive one for both our countries and we are going to continue to cooperate between our governments, our militaries, our law-enforcement agencies, but most importantly between the American and Pak people."
She also said the US and its allies must continue working with Pakistain to fight al-Qaeda in that country and Afghanistan.
US special forces launched the Monday morning raid with helicopter-borne soldiers attacking a compound in Abbottabad, north of Islamabad. Four other people were also killed in the raid.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Dawn] Pakistain's most influential Islamist party urged its followers to hold mass protests on Friday to demand their government withdraw its support of the US war on militancy after US commandos killed the late Osama bin Laden ... he's rotten though not quite forgotten... near Islamabad.
Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), one of the country's biggest religious political parties, said the United States had violated the illusory sovereignty of key ally Pakistain by sending its own forces into the garrison town of Abbottabad to kill the al Qaeda leader.
Pakistain's support is key to US efforts to combat Islamist bad turbans, and also to fighting against the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan.
"Even if there was any sympathy for the Americans that would dissipate after the way they crushed and violated our illusory sovereignty and our independence," JI chief Syed Munawar Hasan told Rooters on Thursday.
"We have appealed to everyone to hold peaceful demonstrations on Friday on a very large scale," he said. "Our first demand is Pakistain ... should withdraw from the war on terror."
Anti-American sentiment runs high in Pakistain, despite billions of dollars in aid for the nuclear-armed, impoverished country. Pakistain's religious parties have not traditionally done well at the ballot box, but they wield considerable influence in a country where Islam is becoming more radicalised.
The United States war on militancy is unpopular in Pakistain, because of the perception of high civilian deaths from drone attacks against suspected gunnies along the Afghan border.
But many people are also critical of al-Qaeda's radical interpretation of Islam and the suicide kabooms its followers carry out, and analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi said any protests are likely to be more anti-US than pro-bin Laden.
"I don't think they (religious parties) will attract big crowds in these rallies. These protests will unlikely put any big pressure on the government to change its course," he said.
There have so far been few public protests in Pakistain against bin Laden's killing early on Monday at Abbottabad, 50 km (31 miles) northeast of Islamabad. One of Pakistain's most violent bad turban groups, Lashkar-e-Taiba, held special prayers for the al Qaeda leader and called his death "martyrdom."
The fact that bin Laden was killed in Pakistain, after having appeared to have lived there for several years, has also embarrassed many people in the government and the country's powerful spy agency.
"Pakistain and its security apparatus have become something of a laughing stock, with the media around the world highlighting the discovery of the world's most wanted man at walking distance from a leading military academy," The News wrote in an editorial on Thursday.
Some Paks said they were too preoccupied with the hardships of living in a country with a troubled economy and chronic power shortages to join in any kind of protests.
"There is no electricity, no petrol, with rising inflation, making ends meet is becoming challenging every single day."
"If our country wasn't mired with economic hardships at this point, perhaps we would demand more answers from the government or the United States, but as of now, I have bigger problems," said Sara Ahmed, a government employee in the port city of Bloody Karachi.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > [AQ-linked]INDONESIAN MUSLIM GROUP TO HOLD MASS FUNERAL PRAYER FOR BIN LADEN. Islamic Defender's Front.
Ditto as per the Pol GEELANI back in AFPAK, during Friday Prayers.
versus
* WORLD NEWS > TALIBAN CREATE "SPECIAL UNIT" [in Afghanistan] TO AVENGE OSAMA KILLING.
[Dawn] Pakistain's military on Thursday admitted to intelligence "shortcomings" on pinpointing Al-Qaeda chief the late Osama bin Laden's ... who was potted in Pakistain... location and ordered an investigation.
The acknowledgement came after army chief of staff General Ashfaq Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... convened a meeting of corps commanders on the fourth day after US commandos tracked down and killed bin Laden in the Pak town of Abbottabad.
"While admitting own shortcomings" in developing intelligence on bin Laden's whereabouts, the meeting said "achievements" by military intelligence against Al-Qaeda and other terror groups were without parallel.
In the bin Laden case, the military said the CIA developed intelligence based on initial information provided by Pakistain's Inter-Services Intelligence agency but did not share further developments with the Paks.
It said an investigation had been ordered into the circumstances that led to the intelligence breakdown.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
>It said an investigation had been ordered into the circumstances that led to the intelligence breakdown
Translation: How the heck did you let those damn 'merkins find out where we had hidden Binny?!?!?
[Tolo News] The US ambassador to Afghanistan on Thursday said terrorist leaders, including al-Qaeda, Haqqani network and the Taliban are in Pakistain.
Drug traffickers and those operating against the government within Afghanistan are the main threats to the government, US Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry told news hounds at a conference.
Mr Eikenberry said the death of the late Osama bin Laden ... who has left the building... in Pakistain is controversial and talks have begun between Washington and Islamabad.
"The senior leadership of the organisations ... al-Qaeda, Taliban, Haqqani, they do not live in your country," he said. "They have sanctuary outside of Afghanistan and now that we assume that their significant leaders that are found that are in Pakistain."
He said the United States is determined to kill and detain anyone that threatens the US national security anywhere in the world.
"We will continue to work with the government of Afghanistan, cooperate with the government of Afghanistan to neutralise that leadership," he said.
With the long-term commitment between the US and Afghanistan if the Taliban think "they can wait us out, they are absolutely wrong", he said.
The top US diplomat, who is expected to be replaced this year as part of President B.O.'s shuffle, said long-term strategic agreement between Afghanistan and the United States would be beneficial to both nations.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
New images obtained by Rooters show bodies of three dead men in Bin Laden compound with no arms on them suggesting they were unarmed when shot.
Or that the arms had been collected...
The photos show dead bodies of the men with their heads in pools of blood, but none of them look like Bin Laden.
The photos were taken by a Pak security official an hour after the al-Qaeda leader was killed by US special forces.
Plenty of time to remove the guns from the room, whether the SEALS did so or the Pak security official did so...
Rooters has bought the images from the Pak security official who has asked for anonymity.
The images are released a day after the US department acknowledged that the late Osama bin Laden ... who is no longer with us, and won't be again... was unarmed when he was rubbed out.
The issue raised international concerns amongst the usual fools and rubes that the US might have violated international law. But Washington has said the the raid against Osama was justified.
The identities of the three men in the images have yet to be known.
Meanwhile, ...back at the precinct house, Sergeant Maloney wasn't buying it. It was just too pat. It smelled phony... US President Barack B.O. Obama has ruled out releasing photos of Bin Laden's body to avoid them being used by al-Qaeda supporters as a propaganda tool.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2011 00:00 ||
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#2
Some PAKI BLOGGERS are upset that PAK Army-Mil Officers allegedly sold these photos for personal profit, proclaiming the action to be corrupt + unprofessional.
#3
If I were a citizen of the Land of the Corrupt and Unprofessional, I would worry that selling pix for pin money was the least of the on-going military malfeasance.
#7
AS I recall, his victims weren't exactly armed either.
Odd how the media and U.N. get all bend-out-of-shape if a 3,000 times premedited murderer might not have been 'armed' at the time but don't give rat shit about his victims - who were innocent.
Besides, as the article stated, plenty of time for any weapons to be removed either by the SEALs (who I presume would not want to leave any weapons behind ) or the other 'civilians'....
#8
It's possible that bin Laden was in a wheel chair or otherwise pretty much an invalid due to his very long dependence on dialysis. That doesn't make him less dangerous as a leader/inspiration but if it was true it would have made the visuals .... unhelpful.
#9
I can't help but think that Bambi relied on RAB Crossfire episodes for this raid;
Time: 0230 About right for the:
Place: Some Upazila:
Miscreants: Shot or fled, as if they were never there, and
Amazingly, no Good Guys were hit by any randomly aimed weapons, which then:
were meticulously retrieved, only to be cleaned and replaced in their velvet lined cases for NextTime.
[Bangla Daily Star] The Mighty Pak Army, in its first comment since Monday's raid that killed the late Osama bin Laden ... who had a brief but splitting headache... , threatened to halt cooperation with its military sponsor if it repeated what it called a violation of illusory sovereignty.
Pakistain's Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... , issued a statement saying any new US raids would mean a possible end to cooperation with the Pentagon on security and intelligence.
"Any similar action violating the illusory sovereignty of Pakistain will warrant a review on the level of military/intelligence cooperation with the United States," the army said.
And in a further sign of fractious relations between the allies, senior Pak security officials told Rooters that US accounts had been misleading in describing a long shootout at the compound in Abbottabad where bin Laden and four others were killed by an elite squad of US Navy SEALs.
"It was cold-blooded," said one Pak official when asked if there was any exchange of fire. After an initial account of a 40-minute firefight, US officials have now been quoted saying only one person fired at the raiding party, and that only briefly as the helicopter-borne assault team arrived.
Also yesterday, photographs acquired by Rooters and taken about an hour after the US assault on bin Laden's compound show three dead men lying in pools of blood, but no weapons.
The photos, taken by a Pak security official who entered the compound after early Monday, show two men dressed in traditional Pak garb and one in a t-shirt, with blood streaming from their ears, noses and mouths.
The official, who wished to remain anonymous, sold the pictures to Rooters. None of the men looked like bin Laden.
'FOG OF WAR'
The White House has blamed the "fog of war" for its changing stories. Citing US officials, NBC television said four of the five people killed, including bin Laden himself, were unarmed.
The New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... quoted officials in the administration of President Barack B.O. Obama saying bin Laden's courier fired the only shots against the Americans, in the early stages of the raid, from a guesthouse in the sprawling, high-walled compound.
"I know for a fact that shots were exchanged during this operation," said one Pentagon official.
Another senior Pak security official said no shots were fired inside the building where bin Laden was found.
"The people inside the house were unarmed. There was no resistance," the official said.
The two Pak officials declined to describe the sources of their information but confirmed several people from the compound were jugged.
Pakistain's GEO TV quoted military sources saying bin Laden's Yemeni-born wife told them the Saudi-born al-Qaeda leader had lived in Abbottabad for five years but had never ventured out.
Photographs taken by a Pak security official about an hour after the assault show three dead men -- not including bin Laden -- lying in pools of blood. No weapons could be seen in the closely cropped images obtained by Rooters.
Based on the time-stamps on the pictures, the earliest one was dated May 2, 2:30am, approximately an hour after the completion of the raid in which bin Laden was killed.
Rooters is confident of the authenticity of the purchased images because details in the photos appear to show a wrecked helicopter from the assault, matching details from photos taken independently on Monday.
US forces lost a helicopter in the raid due to a mechanical problem and later destroyed it.
The pictures are also taken in sequence and are all the same size in pixels, indicating they have not been tampered with. The time and date in the photos as recorded in the digital file's metadata match lighting conditions for the area as well as the time and date imprinted on the image itself.
The close-cropped pictures do not show any weapons on the dead men, but the photos are taken in medium close-up and often crop out the men's hands and arms.
One photo shows a computer cable and what looks like a child's plastic green and orange water pistol lying under the right shoulder of one of the dead men. A large pool of blood has formed under his head.
A second shows another man with a streak of blood running from his nose across his right cheek and a large band of blood across his chest.
A third man, in a T-shirt, is on his back in a large pool of blood which appears to be from a head wound.
US acknowledgment that bin Laden was unarmed when rubbed out had raised accusations Washington had violated international law.
The exact circumstances of his death remained unclear and could yet fuel controversy, especially in the Mohammedan world.
Pakistain faced national embarrassment, a leading Islamabad newspaper said, in explaining how the world's most-wanted man was able to live for years in the military garrison town of Abbottabad, just north of the capital.
'38 INTENSE MINUTES'
Washington has repeatedly defended its decision to kill bin Laden, though in fact foreign criticism of its failure to take him alive has not been heard in public from the leaders of its key allies in the battle against hard boy Islam.
In Rome for talks on aiding Libya's rebels, Clinton reminded her international audience that bin Laden had been a clear target for the United States since 2001 and that his death did not end the battle against al-Qaeda.
She refused to comment on details of the operation, which she had watched unfolding on a live video transmission.
"Those were 38 of the most intense minutes," she said, referring to a photograph that caught her looking anxious during the raid. She put her gesture down to suppressing a cough.
Aside from defending its forces from criticism from abroad -- Attorney-General Eric Inaction Jackson Holder has called the shooting of bin Laden "an act of national self-defence" -- the United States has also had to counter those who question the death altogether.
Obama resisted pressure from aides to release photographs of bin Laden's body, saying the images could incite violence and be used by gunnies as a propaganda tool.
"Given the graphic nature of these photos, it would create some national security risk," Obama told CBS television.
"There's no doubt that Laden is dead," he added. "There are going be some folks who deny it. The fact of the matter is, you will not see bin Laden walking on this earth again."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Let's hope the Pakis force the Americans to do what they should have done years ago.
Their intelligence became more precise in 2007 when they believed he was hiding in Manshera, a town a short distance from Abbottabad where the NDS had identified two al-Qaida safe houses.
But the former spy chief said that Pervez Musharraf, then president of Pakistan, was outraged at the suggestion that Bin Laden was hiding in such a prominent part of the country.
In a meeting with Musharraf and Hamid Karzai the Pakistani president became furious and smashed his fist down on the table. "He said, 'Am I the president of the Republic of Banana?'" Saleh recalled. "Then he turned to President Karzai and said, 'Why have you have brought this Panjshiri guy to teach me intelligence?'"
He said Karzai had to intervene as Musharraf got increasingly angry and began to physically threaten Saleh.
Afghanistan's former top spy -- who has long been a hate figure in Islamabad among officials who believed he was implacably anti-Pakistani -- also said he had no doubts that Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban movement, was hiding in a safe house owned by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Pakistani spy agency, in the city of Karachi.
Posted by: john frum ||
05/06/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
"He said, 'Am I the president of the Republic of Banana?'"
A different word than "Banana" came to mind, but I'll refrain.
#3
Mush's original line was probably "Am I the president of a banana republic?" which got mangled being translated two or more times from the original.
#4
Actually, having dealt with lots of people from Pakistan and India, and, being married to an Indian it is far more likely that he said "...Republic of Banana."
In Hindi, Urdu and many of the languages spoken in that part of the world, the verb comes last. And while both Republic and banana are nouns, word ordering can be difficult for non native English speakers.
Even my highly educated wife says the most amazing things when she is speaking English.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
05/06/2011 19:08 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Whoa.
The Artic = former Spy El Hefe infers that PAKISTAN = ISLAMABAD GOVT + espec its ISI AGENCY controlled BOTH OSAMA = AL-QAEDA, + MULLAH OMAR = TALIBAN.
Lest we fergit, MSM-NET > OSAMA'S ["core"]AL-QAEDA + OMAR'S TALIBS were repor FEUDING OR OTHERWISE NOT GETTING ALONG???
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: The Baghdad Arab Summit has been postponed until March, 2012, according to an agreement between Iraqs Foreign Minister, Hoshiar Zibary and the Arab Leagues Secretary-General, Amro Moussa, the semi-official al-Iraqiya TV Channel has reported on Thursday.
No Jerry Lewis for you!
Hoshiar Zibary and Amro Moussa have agreed on the postponement of the Arab Summit, that was scheduled to convene in Baghdad next May to March 2012, according to a demand by the Iraqi side, the Channel said.
Iraqs Permanent Respresentative to the Arab League, Qais al-Azzawi, announced March 2, 2011 that the Arab Foreign Ministers have decided in their meeting in Cairo to postpone the Arab Summit, scheduled to convene in Baghdad from its scheduled time at the end of March, 2011 to May 15 next.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/06/2011 00:00 ||
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BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Calls by the Iraqi Chief of Military Staff to establish a Regional Defense System, that will include Iran, to protect the region's security will send a passive message, the The Legislature for Iraqs Center Alliance, Mohammed Iqbal, said on Thursday.
Iqbal continued that a Regional Defense System will not prevent foreign interference, but instead will hinder political relations.
No kidding. Establishing a defensive alliance with Iran is inviting the fox into your henhouse.
Any call for the establishment of defense systems with Iran shall give passive and not positive messages, Iqbal said. The establishment of joint defense systems, not only with Iran but with any other state, shall create sensitivity when dealing with it, because of Iraq's involvement in political and military confrontations. Hence joining such defense systems is an undesired issue.
Iraqs Chief of Military Staff, Babakir Zibary, had called during a recent meeting with the Iranian Ambassador to Baghdad, Hassan Danae, for the establishment of a Regional Defense System, to include Iran, in order to protect the security of the Region. He pointed out that the Region is important and vital, and requires the unification of efforts to achieve stability.
Iraq does not have the political potential to interact within open security frameworks with the neighboring states; hence the linking of the Iraqi security with Irans security needs a delicate study.
The issue does not enter in the authorities of the Chief of Military Staff, but needs a political decision, enjoying support of political blocs, he noted.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/06/2011 00:00 ||
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Close allies of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have been accused of using supernatural powers to help institute his policies amid a bitter power struggle between him and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Several people said to be close to the president and his chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, have been nabbed in recent days and accused of being "magicians" and invoking djinns.
An Iranian news website, Ayandeh, described Abbas Ghaffari, one of the arrested men, as "a man with special skills in metaphysics and connections with the unknown worlds".
#4
Ahmadinejad is openly obsessed with what he believes / hopes will be the imminent return of the Hidden Imam. I'm guessing the recent movie about the Hidden Imam and current events set off a lot of alarms among the Mullahs, especially when combined with events in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria...
Apocalyptic sects tend to emerge at times of geopolitical upheaval and to clash with established clerics in many religions, as medieval Europe amply illustrates. Apart from challenging the current Turbans in Charge for immediate control of policy, Short-Round is really threatening the broader power structures with the potential to unleash end-of-times mob hysteria.
#9
Hitler and his close personnel were big believers in the occult. The Ba'ath political party was modeled after the Hitler model. I believe the occult would be part n parcel.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
05/06/2011 23:29 Comments ||
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#11
IOn Iran today arrested the Hidden Imam-Madhi for displaying divine powers not approved by the Supreme Cleric-Author the Ayatollah Khamenei + the Tehran Govt.
Persian language publication Javan Online is saying that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may soon be stepping down from power at the behest of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The cause of Ahmadinejad's reported dismissal is his history of forcing the resignations of cabinet ministers. In April, he forced out Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi after the two disputed who would head the intelligence ministry's bureau of planning and budget.
To the surprise of many in Iran, Khamenei flexed his political muscle. He not only reinstated Moslehi to his job but castigated Ahmadinejad, claiming that "expediency is being ignored."
The reprimand is not sitting well with Ahmadinejad, who on Wednesday cancelled a trip to the holy city of Qum, possibly an act of defiance aimed at the Ayatollah. He also refused to sit in on a government meeting where the newly reinstated Moslehi was present.
#5
Interesting point of view, lotp. I've been looking at this as a personal power struggle between the Big Cheese Ayatollah and Almondinejihad. Does Mahmoud have an actual faction (with forces & money) behind him?
[An Nahar] Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... stated that the efforts to form a new government in Leb "have reached a dead end."
He told al-Liwa newspaper in remarks published on Thursday: "The dead end has been caused by the futile demands made by some members of the new majority."
"Ending the current crisis requires some of sides of the opposition and new majority to commit serious mass suicide," he said. You go first, Wally...
He explained that the suicide would be "the sacrifice of the self for the sake of the masses."
The central principles of government in Leb that should be kept away from political disputes include maintaining and protecting the Resistance's That'd be the Hezbullies, natch... arms in the confrontation with Israel, the MP stressed.
The arms should not be used on the internal scene, he added.
Jumblat emphasized the importance of dialogue in ending disputes in Leb, saying: "The formation of a new government and return to dialogue are a priority because all sides have reached a dead end."
Furthermore, he warned the "new and old majorities" of the dangerousness of maintaining the current situation in Leb.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2011 00:00 ||
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[Emirates 24/7] Fidel Castro has criticised the United States for the manner in which its forces killed Al Qaeda criminal mastermindthe late Osama bin Laden ... he's rotten though not quite forgotten... , saying it executed him in front of his family.
Castro says in an opinion piece published Thursday in Cuban media that the raid inside Pakistain by a team of US Navy Seals also violated that country's laws and offended its dignity. ...and the dignity of the Paki nation is oh so important.
The former Cuban leader says he abhors all forms of terrorism. He notes that he expressed solidarity with the United States despite decades of political differences following the September 11, 2001, attacks.
But the 84-year-old revolutionary says the decision to kill bin Laden and bury him at sea "has turned him into a much more dangerous man."
Khaled Meshaal, head of the Paleostinian Islamist movement Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, also criticised on Thursday the way in which Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was killed by US commandos and then buried at sea. ...because the depraved sub-human savages of Hamas never met a bloody-handed terrorist they didn't celebrate as a kindred spirit.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
"Castro says in an opinion piece published Thursday in Cuban media that the raid inside Pakistan by a team of US Navy Seals also violated that country's laws and offended its dignity."
What dignity? What law, for that matter? If they had any laws or dignity, they wouldn't have been harboring bin Laden.
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.
Undercover police infiltrated a circle of radical Muslims, which recruited young men to wage jihad in Afghanistan, a jury was told.
Pakistain's military has launched an investigation into how 
Hillary Clinton,
[Dawn] Pakistain's most influential Islamist party urged its followers to hold mass protests on Friday to demand their government withdraw its support of the US war on militancy after US commandos killed 
Pakistain's military on Thursday admitted to intelligence "shortcomings" on pinpointing Al-Qaeda chief 
[Bangla Daily Star] 
Close allies of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have been accused of using supernatural powers to help institute his policies amid a bitter power struggle between him and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Persian language publication Javan Online is saying that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may soon be stepping down from power at the behest of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Walid 
