The crew of a UK military ship watched as a British couple were taken hostage by Somali pirates but were ordered not to open fire, it has emerged.
The RFA Wave Knight did not act for fear of endangering the couple's lives, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.
Paul and Rachel Chandler, aged 59 and 55, from Kent, were ordered off their yacht by gunmen in the Indian Ocean in the early hours of 23 October. The Chandlers had been travelling to Tanzania from the Seychelles.
Details of the Navy operation were leaked to the press by an anonymous crew member of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship. The crew member revealed that the RFA Wave Knight had come within just 50ft (15m) of the couple's yacht, the Lynn Rival, at one point.
A MoD spokesman said: "Every effort was made by the Royal Navy and the international maritime fleet to locate the Lynn Rival. We did everything we could possibly do without further endangering the lives of Paul and Rachel Chandler.
"We do not comment on operational detail but RFA Wave Knight did very well under the circumstances."
The replenishment tanker was carrying 75 merchant seamen and 25 Royal Navy sailors, as well as a helicopter, at the time of the incident.
An official account of the kidnap released last month said only that a Royal Navy vessel had found the couple's yacht empty, without disclosing that the couple were within sight at the time.
In a phone call on 29 October, the couple, from Tunbridge Wells, said they were initially moved from their yacht to a container ship, the Kota Wajar, which had also been seized by the pirates. It is thought they were then moved to another ship anchored off the eastern coast of Somalia before being taken to the mainland.
The pirates have issued a $7 million (£4.3 million) ransom demand but the British government has insisted it will not make any ransom payment.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2009 00:00 ||
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#7
Not surprising considering the Royal Navy's performance in Iran not so long ago. Seems like their typical response. Heck, if they shoot, then someone might get hurt! Bullets are really, really hard and fast. They could put someone's eye out with those things.
#8
It is not the Royal Navy per se that makes up the rules of engagement, it has a lot to do with the faggots back in Westminster, who do not actually do any fighting, but like to be seen to be treating the enemy with undeserved respect.
Posted by: Dave UK ||
11/14/2009 15:21 Comments ||
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#9
"We're all gentlemen here, eh? The lady will want her tea when she rises, so do see the maid is informed. And the bedroom will face west, as promised? Brilliant! Carry on, then."
[Al Arabiya Latest] Bahrain's al-Wefaq National Islamic Society stirred controversy after refusing to sign a statement expressing its solidarity with Saudi Arabia in its war against the Houthi rebels in Yemen, according to news reports late on Thursday.
The Shiite Wefaq party, which occupies 17 out of 40 seats in the Bahraini parliament, justified its decision by stating it is against any intervention in the internal affairs of neighboring states, a stance that was slammed by the party's critics.
The parliament of Bahrain issued a statement supporting Saudi's war against the Houthi insurgency in Yemen and considered any attack on Saudi Arabia an attack on Bahrain. The statement was endorsed by a majority of MPs.
Wefaq's stance is in line with the laws of the Bahrain's Foreign Ministry, which rejects any intervention in other countries affairs, said party MP Mohamed al-Mazaal.
"In addition, the party is in favor of looking for peaceful solutions to any conflict that takes place between Arab countries," he told Al Arabiya in a phone interview.
Although Mazaal asserted that the security of Saudi Arabia is of high importance to his party and to Bahrain as a whole, he explained that had reservations about the way the statement draft was circulated amongst MPs.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2009 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Detained former BNP state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar was sent to Dhaka central jail yesterday after 12 days' remand in the August 21 grenade attack case.
Investigation Officer of the case Abdul Kahar Akand produced Babar before the Metropolitan Magistrate's Court on expiry of the former minister's remand in the third phase.
Babar gave vital information about the grenade attack, sources of grenades, 10-truck arms haul in Chittagong and other militant attacks in the country, said Kahar, also senior assistant superintendent of police of Criminal Investigation Department.
"Information given by Babar is being verified and he should be kept in jail until the investigation is completed," he said.
He also said they might need to remand Babar, one of the patrons of the attackers, further.
The IO told the court that they arrested some militant leaders acting on information obtained from Babar.
Babar admitted that he exerted pressure on law enforcers not to arrest Harkatul Jihad al Islami chief Mufti Abdul Hannan, the main accused in the plot to assassinate Sheikh Hasina in 2000, CID said.
During interrogation, Huji founder Moulana Sheikh Abdus Salam and its leader Abdul Majid said Babar and grenade supplier Moulana Tajuddin, brother of former BNP deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu, had business relations, it said.
Babar also helped Tajuddin to leave the country, CID added.
The court sent Babar, shown arrested on October 26 in the case, to jail rejecting his bail prayer.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
No elephant jokes in deference to TW's tender sensibilities. (I'm trying to set a good example for Frank's kid)
The Iranian Supreme Leader's representative in Britain has told Muslim servicemen and women to quit the Armed Forces, saying that their involvement in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars is forbidden by Islam. While my heart says "Good idea, get the hell out!" the rational part of my mind recognizes that it's a bad idea. The very purpose of terrorism is to create two mutually opposed groups: "us" and "them." The Islamic "us" is being told not to link up with the infidel "them," and the infidel "us" wouldn't be at all unhappy to see the back of them. Terrorism, most of it controlled and incubated in Pakistain, has done its work in Britannia, with the thumb-fingered assistance of the Labour government and Political Correctitude. Now the Shiite Medes and Persians are trying to horn in on the divide and exploit it for their own purposes. But for the most part it's not Shiites who're the thorn in the British side. Given a regime other than the one currently in Terrorhan it's likely the Shiites would be the "good" Muslims we in the West would be allied with. Prior to 1979 they weren't generically wedded to ignorance and xenophobia the way Sunnis and particularly Wahhabs and Deobands are.
The cleric, personally appointed by Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to be his special envoy to the UK, also urged Muslims to defeat the opposition to the Iranian regime and keep the 30-year-old Islamic Republic alive.
In his first interview with an English language newspaper, Ayatollah Abdolhossein Moezi, director of the Islamic Centre of England, said he regretted that protesters were killed by the Iranian security forces after the presidential election in June but that their deaths were "unavoidable". They're referred to in the trade as "mushrooms." Kept in the dark, fed bullshit, their function is limited to the production of gross national product to be skimmed by those who do count.
Ayatollah Moezi, the most senior Iranian spiritual leader in Britain with thousands of followers from the Shia sect, said that it was wrong for followers of Islam to serve in the Armed Forces, especially in Afghanistan and Iraq where Muslims were being killed. "Not only do I not accept it for Muslims to go there, I don't accept non-Muslims to go there as well," Ayatollah Moezi told The Times through an interpreter provided by him. "We say that Muslims are not allowed to go and kill Muslims. Do you think that Christians are allowed to go and kill Muslims?"
#2
Let those Muslims who believe such vicious nonsense be discharged -- dishonorably -- and let them be watched closely thereafter. Let the ones who remain be thoroughly checked out, than accepted as being as honourably committed as the rest of their comrades in arms. Had Major Dr. Hasan been discharged when he asked, he no doubt would currently be behind bars (or working like a dog to repay the U.S. Army for his education), while those at Ft. Hood would never have known what they missed.
#3
Political Correctitude Correcticide. Fixed that for you.
While my heart says "Good idea, get the hell out!" the rational part of my mind recognizes that it's a bad idea. The very purpose of terrorism is to create two mutually opposed groups: "us" and "them."
There is an "us" and "them". This has been pushed by the Muslims for ~ 40 years as they have waged war against America.
During WWII Americans of various extraction; Japanese, German, and Italian fought on our side as Americans. They did not have a loyalty to a religion that preached our downfall and destruction. They were loyal Americans. Our First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion; it doesn't allow for the destruction of our nation by a political-religious enemy--Muslims in this case.
Japanese state broadcaster NHK says South Korea's labor minister Yim Tae-hee and Kim Yang-gon, the director of the United Front Department under the North Korean Workers' Party met in Singapore on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss a possible inter-Korean summit.
Quoting South Korean government sources, NHK said the meeting ended without any progress as the two sides could not agree on a location for the summit.
The South Korean official reportedly proposed that Seoul host the next summit as the past two were held in Pyongyang. But the North Koreans refused.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/14/2009 00:00 ||
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by Paola Del Vecchio - The first Islamic party in Spain is getting ready to have representation in the key municipalities in the administrative elections in 2011. The Renaissance and Union of Spain Party, promoted by Mustafa Barrach, a former journalist and Arabic professor in Granada, is close to Rabat, according to a report today in the ABC conservative newspaper.
Member of the Al Hegira Muslim community and treasurer of the Spanish Islamic Council, Barrak aspires to gathering not only votes from the nearly 1,300,000 Muslim residents in Spain but also from immigrants who represent 10% of the Spanish population. Mustafa Bakkach, who has been living in Spain for 15 years, dedicates much of his time to supporting immigrants. The Islamic Council, an organisation inspired by the Sufi branch of Islam, is made up of a majority of Spanish converts belonging to the Yamaa Islamica-Liga Morisca.
Moriscos is what the 300,000 Muslims are called who stayed on the Iberian peninsula after the expulsion of the Catholic kings and were forced to convert to Christianity and then banished for good in 1609. In the internal gazette, the organisation expounds a clearly national vocation not only for consolidation in one area or autonomous region and considers Islam the base of its principals in political activities, a determining factor for the moral and ethical regeneration of Spanish society.
However, at the same time, it respects the Spanish constitution and refuses terrorism as an instrument of political struggle. The organisation does not realistically aspire to winning the municipalities but wants to obtain a discreet number of councillors in some key Spanish cities.
According to ABC, the government does not hide a certain worry, since there are currently 1,300,000 resident Muslims in the country including Spanish converts and immigrants from Islamic countries of which there are 700,000 from Morocco. But there could be more than two million if illegal immigrants are counted.
The politicians fears have to do with the new party eventually lead to the non-integration in urban area with high Muslim presence and that in cities where they already have a majority, the Muslims could attempt to impose their customs through municipal regulations.
[Al Arabiya Latest] France will issue recommendations against full face veils but not pass a law barring Muslim women from wearing them, a leading backer of a legal ban said on Friday.
Andre Gerin, chairman of a parliamentary inquiry into use of full face veils in France, reluctantly ruled out a ban one day after President Nicolas Sarkozy repeated his conviction that "France is a country that has no place for the burka."
France banned Muslim headscarves in state schools in 2004 following a similar inquiry and looked set to bring in an outright ban on veils coverings the whole face, such as burkas or niqabs, when it launched the panel last June at the request of Gerin, a Communist deputy from Lyon.
But at its weekly hearings, legal experts, local officials, Muslim leaders and even some militant secularists have told the deputies on the panel that a ban could be anti-constitutional, counterproductive and impossible to enforce.
Gerin, who denounces the head-to-toe veils as "walking coffins," told Europe 1 radio: "We'll end up with recommendations ... not a law in itself against the burka, maybe a symbolic law, a law of liberation (of women)."
Backing off from a complete ban, he said the panel might propose "radical measures" to ban full face veils in municipal hospitals and other public institutions, but gave no details.
France, whose five million Muslims make up Europe's largest Islamic minority, has been criticized in the Muslim world for considering a burka ban. French Islamic community leaders have warned against passing a law that would stigmatize Muslims.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
What's the French position on Sodomy?( Clue: Its called the French Position) They havent banned White Flags either.
#2
What's the British position on sodomy, Mr. Cheeseman Obama? Isn't that the public schoolboy avocation? And what about that one American photographer whose exhibits were so controversial in the early 1990s? Do please pose issues that are germane to the discussion.
The professional reporters have been doing their job on this one, exploring every aspect that can be thought of and writing about it... and the blogs are disseminating the result as fast as the professionals get it out. White House attempts to control the message are too slow to control the result. Anything they are hiding will not stay hidden long.
The ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee on Tuesday night accused the White House of withholding information on the Fort Hood attack.
Rep. Pete Hoekstra (Mich.) said administration officials delayed briefing members of Congress about the alleged gunman, raising "red flags" about what the White House was hiding.
"When they withhold information, you always start asking questions," Hoekstra told Fox News. "That's what raises red flags. What do they know that they don't want us to know?"
Hoekstra linked President Barack Obama's handling of Fort Hood to a chain of other GOP criticisms of the president, including the administration's treatment of detainees and an investigation into possible CIA abuse.
"It is a political correctness that is making it unable for us to identify the real threat of homegrown terrorism," he alleged.
Hoekstra warned that "we have similar Hasans" in the country. The Michigan Republican has called for his committee to investigate the incident. Chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) has so far declined, preferring to wait for the conclusion of the joint FBI-Army investigation.
Obama has ordered a review of all intelligence on Hasan.
Newt Gingrich, the former Republican House speaker and purveyor of the GOP "Contract With America'' that helped his party win control of the House after President Bill Clinton's election, says GOP chairman Michael Steele has started work on a new framework for 2010 that he is calling "First principles.''
"I've been talking with Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, '' Gingrich said today, speaking with students at C-SPAN's Cable Center Class.
"He is developing a first principles model that I think is a very exciting, positive step in the right direction,'' said Gingrich, who has said that he will decide by February about waging his own campaign for president. "By September, it might be very, very good for the Republicans in the House and Senate to have a common ground on which to campaign, whether they call it a Contract for America or some other device.
"Having a positive set of things that say, 'if you elect us, these are the positive steps we will take,'' Gingrich said, on a program that C-SPAN3 is airing at 5 pm EST. This "may well be the key building block to really become the alternative party, not the opposition party.''
"If the Democrats stay stuck over on a very left wing program and if they continue to have a job-killing record in Congress, I think by September and October you could suddenly have a very exciting election.''
The fabled Contract which Gingrich, Dick Armey, Tom Delay and others fashioned six weeks before the midterm congressional elections of 1994 led to a GOP takeover of the House that kept a newly elected Democratic president in check - a formula that the GOP would love to revive for the 2010 midterms.
A Gallup Poll this week found that Republicans are doing well in the "generic candidate'' race - with more people saying they are likely to support a Republican than those saying they are likely to support a Democrat. Gingrich suggests that his party needs to put more than names on those ballots, and add some principled promises as well.
"We didn't do the Contract until very late in the campaign,'' he noted. "You could begin to put together a set of firs principles around which 80 percent of the country would rally... and then come Labor Day, you could begin to look a what are the five or 10 biggest things that the Republicans could offer as their contract for America.''
He's got four ready to go:
"The No. 1 issue is jobs... The No. 2 issue is energy... The No. 3 challenge... replace the big government monstrosity that they passed on Saturday ( a reference to the Democratic-led House healthcare bill. "The No. 4 challenge is education.'' Don't forget the deficit, Newt. Don't forget the deficit. And illegal immigration. And turning up the heat on Afghanistan so we can actually finish and get out during our lifetime would be nice, too. Iran and North Korea need to go away, and they can take Venezuela with them. And getting Muslim countries to focus on good governance and citizenship would be a good long-term goal, too. Once they get off of everyone's back, especially Israel's, we can say they have succeeded.
Attorney Says Ft. Hood Suspect Is Coherent And May Be Able To Stand Trial, But Medical Condition Is 'Extremely Serious' Medical condition doesn't trump standing trial unless he dies...
Fort Hood, TX (CBS) The Army major charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder in last week's shooting rampage at Ft. Hood is paralyzed, according to his civilian counsel. You mean he can't hop up on any more tables and shoot up his fellows? How sad.
Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, who is recovering in an Army hospital's intensive care unit, is in "extremely serious" condition, retired Col. John Galligan said this morning. Pray for sepsis.
Galligan met with his client yesterday at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, after Hasan was charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder. Their meeting lasted about an hour. Galligan was joined by an unidentified member of Hasan's family. "He cannot get up and walk," Galligan told a group of reporters gathered at Ft. Hood's main entrance, adding that Hasan's paralysis is likely from the waist down. Galligan said that his client was also experiencing intense pain in his hands. Galligan also told reporters that Hasan's speech is garbled. There is a God, then.
I mena when the nutjob shot the abortion doctor, they wanted to linch the man. Here they seem to be trying to spin this for sympathy.
Why is it that the media falls all over themselves to whitewash moslem extremists and will bring out the torches and rope for a christian extremist (although by my years in church, if you are a religious extremist you are not a true christian).
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
11/14/2009 12:25 Comments ||
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#3
Pray for sepsis.
Pray the cops shot Hasan's privates off. Or the doctor's scalpel slipped. Either works.
Posted by: ed ||
11/14/2009 12:57 Comments ||
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ed, since he's paralyzed, it's possible his privates may not do him any good anyway.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/14/2009 13:08 Comments ||
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He's coherent? Getting shot made him coherent? Who would have guessed.
Rep. Jim Moron Moran (D-VA)has strong words for the Republicans opposing Attorney General Eric Holder's plan to bring five 9/11 suspects to New York City to face trial. "They see this as an opportunity to demagogue," he said. "They will seize on any opportunity to do that, and that means they'll even take a stand that's un-American." "Well, we ain't gonna stand fer it! We're gonna start us a House Un-American Activities Committee!" How exactly is it un-American to demand justice?
"It's un-American to hold anyone indefinitely without trial," Moran added. "It's against our principles as a nation."
"I question their patriotism."
It's certainly not against our principles as a nation. We interned enough German and Italiano PoWs in the Second World War. And we hung spies, saboteurs, and war criminals, as well. We don't want them detained indefinitely. Hanging will do just fine ...
Moran, who represents the Congressional district closest to D.C., was among the only members of Congress to advocate President Obama's plan to send prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to the U.S. so the military prison could be shut down.
Obama first proposed the idea shortly after being elected and most in Congress rejected the plan, saying that bringing terror suspects to this country would endanger American lives. Today, many politicians raised those same fears. Moran dismissed them.
"Right now, they're sitting in Guantanamo gaining sympathy," he said. "The sooner that we prosecute this guy, the sooner we can reduce the anti-American propaganda that surrounds his detention and inflames our enemies." Gaining sympathy from who, exactly ...
"Until we do that, it only strengthens the hand of people who recruit new terrorists with the clame claim we aren't true to our principles," he added. Saul Alinsky in action: force us to live up to our own beliefs, while the jihadis can live down to theirs. The terrorists do not have the same rights as American citizens. Perhaps a Pub-controlled Congress could make that clear.
#1
"It's un-American to hold anyone indefinitely without trial," Moran added. "It's against our principles as a nation."
Didn't stop us doing it to hundreds of thousands of Germans and Italians during a war. If you win the war, they can be dealt with. Most returned, but some, just like the Germans and Japanses, dealt with via tribunals, that met SCOTUS requirements of the time [before the judiciary set out to run everything].
#3
Jim Moran is John Kerry without the rich wives, a pompous sub-intelligent self-promoting asshole. His "unAmerican" is a badge I would wear with honor, as we clearly believe in different Americas. Mine would have him flogged
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/14/2009 14:14 Comments ||
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#4
During WWII an armed combatant found on the battlefield out of uniform could and would be shot. So is Rep. Moron saying that our troops in WWII were "unamerican"?
#5
Military tribunal shoot have had them shot them long ago. The Donks have to have their circus and it is going to be a circus. The CIA will be crippled if not destroyed. The current regime really don't know what they are doing! Amateur hour.
#6
In WWII, were these kinds of folks afforded all the amenities that they are signed up for this time around? I think not. Was the US government stupid enough to give up sources and methods in order to prosecute? I think not. Am I wrong? The Constitution is not a suicide pact. I believe our forefathers didn't think we'd be stupid enough to take it this far. This is an unusual situation, and needs to be treated as such. They are not American citizens, they are illegal combatants, POWs, spies, etc., and should be treated as such. They are lucky I'm not in charge or the only thing they'd necessary to take care of all these terrorists' needs would be a workbench with a 10" vice.
The youngest Guantanamo detainee, a Canadian held for allegedly killing a US soldier in Afghanistan, is not going to stand trial at a civil court in the United States, says the attorney general.
Reacting to the rumors on Friday about the possible appearance of the Canadian inmate in a US federal court Eric Holder said that the justice system was going to examine the matter, but for the time being, he added, Khadr would be facing a military tribunal.
"We'll look at that matter. At this point it's one of the cases designated for commission proceeding. We will as that case proceeds see how it should be ultimately treated," AFP quoted Holder as saying.
He was referring to the military commissions set up to try "war on terror" suspects at the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Earlier on Friday the US attorney general had announced that the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the US would appear before a New York civil court along with his four other cohorts.
Khadr's case has so far brought up at two separate military commissions.
The military judges allege that he has killed a US soldier by hurling a grenade.
Khadr has been held at Guantanamo since October 2002, when he was only fifteen years old.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2009 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] President Barack Obama's top lawyer has resigned, amid an unsuccessful struggle to close the Guantanamo Bay prison.
Greg Craig a veteran Washington hand, who led the embattled effort to shutter the controversial camp for terror suspects in Cuba, said in a letter to Obama that he would step down as White House counsel on January 3.
"Greg Craig is a close friend and trusted adviser who tackled many tough challenges as White House counsel," said Obama, who announced in a statement that his personal attorney, Bob Bauer, would take over the key post, AFP reported.
Obama praised Craig's role in winning Senate confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor as the first Latina US Supreme Court Justice and in overhauling controversial anti-terrorism strategies left over from George W. Bush's administration.
Craig, whose resignation letter was released by the White House, made no mention of the administration's struggles to meet Obama's self-imposed timeframe for closing the Guantanamo Bay prison by January 22.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Just another casual Friday at the Obama White House.
A statement from former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani concerning today's news that Guantanamo Bay detainees will face trial here in New York:
Returning some of the Guantanamo detainees to New York City for trial, specifically Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, has now brought us full circle -- we have regressed to a pre-9/11 mentality with respect to Islamic extremist terrorism. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed should be treated like the war criminal he is and tried in a military court. He is not just another murderer, or even a mass murderer. He murdered as part of a declared war against us -- America.
This is the same mistake we made with the 1993 terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center. We treated them like domestic criminals, when in fact they were terrorists. In the dangerous world we live in today, a nation unable to identify and properly define its enemies is a nation in danger.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2009 00:00 ||
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It is "inconceivable" that the U.S. would bring the alleged terrorist masterminds of the Sept. 11 attacks to New York for trial, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Friday. B.O. & Co. have apparently conceived it.
Lieberman, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said that the terror detainees, including alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, should be tried in military tribunals outside the U.S. "The terrorists who planned, participated in and aided the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks are war criminals, not common criminals," Lieberman said in a statement. "The individuals accused of committing these heinous, cowardly acts of intentionally targeting unsuspecting, defenseless civilians should therefore be tried by military commission rather than in civilian courts in the United States." Even better would have been to just quietly dispose of them once they'd been drained of useful information. But we're too squeamish for that. Lieberman, an Independent who caucuses with Democrats but maintains a hawkish streak on national security issues, said that the terrorist suspects are not entitled to the same rights as U.S. citizens in court. "I share the views of more than 140 family members of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks who recently wrote to the Senate urging that the individuals charged with responsibility for those attacks should be tried by military commission rather than in civilian courts in the United States," Lieberman said. "It is inconceivable that we would bring these alleged terrorists back to New York for trial, to the scene of the carnage they created eight years ago, and give them a platform to mock the suffering of their victims and the victims' families, and rally their followers to continue waging jihad against America." "I do not think that word means what you think it means."
Lieberman voted with Republicans last week on a losing vote seeking to bar U.S. courts from trying terrorist detainees.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
I think Joe is one of the few Dems left with any honor, thus it seemed just as whacky to him, as the rest of us, that anyone, let along the Pseudo-POTUS would conceive of ANYTHING so whacky.
#2
Nothing wacky about it. It's an indirect means to attack the Bush Administration and people who took the war to the enemy. Guess who'll be interrogated by defense lawyers. This is the alternative to Senate hearings that the Donks wanted to crush their real enemies.
#3
You are correct Procopius2k. Nothing good will come from this and the terrorists are very likely to be acquitted in the very city to which they brought carnage.
Potentially unlawful (by US civil law standards) enhanced interrogation techniques and a jury of their mooslim peers? It is so rediculous. We'd be better off if they simply just let these buggers go.
What I find most disturbing is the NYT editorial praising 0bama/H0older's decision here. Then when I read some of the comments for the editorial, I threw up in my mouth not a little but a lot. The people who support this seem to do so primarily as a means for bringing Bush/Cheney to task for "crimes" against humanity and the Constitution (which evidently they seem to think is some sort of mass suicide pact). In other words, it's entirely and solely motivated by political payback.
Can you imagine what would happen if one of these guys walked free because of some legal technicality? I shudder to think.
#6
Can you imagine what would happen if one of these guys walked free because of some legal technicality? I shudder to think.
Yes. And it would destroy the judiciary and respect the vast majority of Americans have held for the institutions of law. They'll view it rightfully as degenerated by a self selected group of elites who 'know better'. The legal caste has forgotten Jefferson's admonition that government, thus the law, derives it power from the consent of the governed.
The ministry of industries was jolted into action on Friday and it finally closed the explosives factory, three days after the seizure of 58,500 kg of high explosives in DG Khan, which were being driven across the country in a criminally casual and unguarded manner with the devastating load, an easy picking for terrorists.
To give an idea, this load was much larger than the total amount of explosives used in suicide attacks in the last four to five years, including the Marriott bombing. The minister for industries Mian Manzoor Wattoo told The News that he has ordered the immediate suspension of the licence of the explosives manufacturer, BIAFO, the sealing of the factory, and has also ordered an inquiry into the matter.
Wattoo, however, was not updated on yet another seizure on Thursday of a truckload containing 30,000 detonators in the tribal area adjoining DG Khan. These detonators were manufactured by another factory.
The department of explosives is trying to get the information about this case but according to its chief inspector Haroon Rehman, his department is not getting any cooperation from the tribal administration. The first case, according to the minister and the chief inspector, involves all kinds of violations that include unauthorised and illegal transportation of high explosives; carriage of the quantity that was more than seven times the prescribed upper limit - 8000 kg, apparently destined for Saindak project that the authorities insist neither have licensed storage capacity for such material nor does it have the licence to receive such explosives; there was no intimation to any of the provincial government and district authorities from where the two trailers carrying explosives had passed through; both the trucks were without any security cover; the two trailers seized are not specially designed vans that are licenced to carry explosives; and most interestingly the drivers of the trailers told the authorities that they never knew what they were carrying.
The journey of the explosive material started from Hattar, Haripur. The two trucks passed through parts of the Frontier province, crossed more than half of Punjab, successfully passed through perhaps dozens of police check points but were caught only in D G Khan.
A vivid demonstration of the kind of "high alert" enforced by the two provinces to check terrorists. Wattoo even revealed and an interior ministry document confirmed that en route one of the drivers had even spent a night at his home after parking the explosive laden vehicle outside his house.
Chief inspector (Explosives), ministry of industries, Haroon Rehman said that the Chinese company running the Saindak project neither has the storage capacity to handle such quantity of explosives nor the licence to receive or use such material. He said that the company has been asked to provide details of such material received in the past.
The interior ministry did not rule out the possibility of pilferage of explosives under such circumstances. However, background interviews and documentary evidence show the government's criminal negligence and a possible collaboration of certain government elements in the undocumented excessive production of high explosive and its smuggling.
"Such a situation is extremely conducive for terrorists to get high explosives and then to use it for terrorism," an official source in the ministry of industries said, adding that the past record shows that barring a few exception most of the high explosive used in bomb blasts, suicide bombing and other terrorist activities was all locally manufactured.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2009 00:00 ||
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#2
I am. I figured they'd stay in business, routinely sending truckloads of explosives careening across the country, occasionally devastating this or that insignificant township or neighborhood.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2009 10:13 Comments ||
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#3
If you have ever seen how those people drive over there, the idea of truck loads of explosives zooming around the highways is frightening.
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
11/14/2009 12:27 Comments ||
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[The News (Pak) Top Stories] Pakistan's army once ran training camps for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LT) militant group with the apparent knowledge of the CIA, an example of complicity that raises questions about the current state of the nuclear-armed nation. So says former French investigating magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere, author of a new book that provides rare insight both into alleged past army support for the defunct Lashkar-e-Taiba and to the group's connections to a global network linked to al-Qaeda.
The question of Pakistani military support for Islamist militants is crucial for the United States as it tries to work out how to stabilise the country and neighbouring Afghanistan.Bruguiere bases the information in his book on international terrorism, "Ce que je n'ai pas pu dire" ("What I could not say") on testimony given by jailed Frenchman Willy Brigitte, who spent 2-1/2 months in a Lashkar-e-Taiba training camp in 2001-02.
In an interview, Bruguiere said he was convinced Lashkar-e-Taiba, first set up to fight India in its part of the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir, had become part of an international network tied to al-Qaeda. "Lashkar-e-Taiba is no longer a Pakistani movement with only a Kashmir political or military agenda. Lashkar-e-Taiba is a member of al-Qaeda. Lashkar-e-Taiba has decided to expand violence worldwide," he told Reuters. That's pretty much a given, isn't it? They provide training facilities and cadres for al-Qaeda. Three of them were arrested in Bangla in today's news plotting and kaboom the U.S. embassy in Dhaka in an expression of the Bangla people's outrage at our existence...
He was "very, very anxious about the situation" in Pakistan, where militants are staging a series of bloody urban attacks to avenge a government offensive against their strongholds. "The problem right now is to know if the Pakistanis have sufficient power to control the situation," he said. They don't. If they change their ways they might in the future, but they're not really changing their ways. They're trying to go after the Pak Taliban but not the al-Qaeda infrastructure or the Afghan Taliban infrastructure in Balochistan and North Wazoo.
The problem was also "to know if all the members of the military forces and the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence agency) are playing the same game. I am not sure," he added. I'm sure they're not, and I'm also sure that the ones who aren't are not "rogue."
Pakistan has long been accused of giving covert support to Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was blamed for last year's attack on Mumbai in which 166 people were killed. It denies the allegation and has banned the organisation. But Hafiz Saeed isn't in jug, the charges against him were dropped and he never did more than house arrest. Pak military trainers provided training and logistical assistance the the Mumbai killers. And LeT is about as "defunct" as I am, maybe less so. New form of terrorism: Bruguiere said he became aware of the changing nature of international terrorism while investigating attacks in Paris in the mid-1990s by the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA). These included an attempt to hijack a plane from Algiers to Paris in 1994 and crash it into the Eiffel Tower -- a forerunner of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks. The plane was diverted to Marseilles and stormed by French security forces.
This new style of international terrorism was quite unlike militant groups he had investigated in the past, with their pyramidal structures and political objectives. "After 1994/1995, like viruses, all the groups have been spreading on a very large scale all over the world, in a horizontal way and even a random way," he said. It doesn't cost much to be a terrorist. The November 14th-Red Brigades-Baader Meinhof model works perfectly well for small-scale operations, and even big blow-outs like killing Aldo Moro, if you're willing to take the casualties. Note that Jemaah Islamiyah, for instance, was effectively wiped out after the Bali bombings.
An early encounter with Lashkar-e-Taiba came while he was investigating shoe-bomber Richard Reid, who tried to set off explosives on a transatlantic flight from Paris in 2001. This investigation led to a man, who Bruguiere said was the Lashkar-e-Taiba's representative in Paris, and who was suspected of helping Reid -- an accusation he denied. Bruguiere said the link to Reid was not proved in court.
"Willie Brigitte quickly understood that Sajid Mir belonged to the regular Pakistan army. The Toyota pick-up which took them to the training camp passed through four army checkpoints without being stopped."
Brigitte, a Frenchman originally from France's Caribbean department of Guadeloupe, had gone to Pakistan shortly after Sept 11 to try to reach Afghanistan. Unable to make it, he had been sent to a Lashkar centre outside Lahore. A man named Sajid Mir became his handler. "He quickly understood that Sajid belonged to the regular Pakistan army," wrote Bruguiere. After 1-1/2 months, he was taken with four other trainees, two British and two Americans, to a Lashkar camp in the hills in Punjab province. The Toyota pick-up which took them there passed through four army checkpoints without being stopped.
During his 2-1/2 months stay at the camp, Bruguiere says, Brigitte realised the instructors were soldiers on detachment. Military supplies were dropped by army helicopters. Brigitte said he and other foreigners were forced four times to leave the camp and move further up into the hills to avoid being caught by CIA officers. They were believed to be checking if Pakistan had kept to a deal under which the Americans turned a blind eye to Lashkar camps in Punjab provided no foreigners were trained there. In return, Bruguiere said, Pakistan under then president Pervez Musharraf helped track down leaders of al-Qaeda.
Double standards: Western countries were at the time accused by India of double standards in tolerating Pakistani support for Kashmir-focused organisations while pushing it to crack down on militant groups which threatened Western interests. Diplomats say that attitude has since changed, particularly after bombings in London in 2005 highlighted the risks of "home-grown terrorism" in Britain linked to militant groups based in Pakistan's Punjab province.
After leaving the camp accompanied by Sajid, Brigitte was sent back to France. Sajid then ordered him to fly to Australia where he joined a cell later accused of plotting attacks there. Tipped off by French police, Brigitte was deported from Australia in 2003 and convicted by a French court of links to terrorism.
Bruguiere said he had personally questioned Brigitte in the presence of his lawyer to check his testimony. Information provided by Brigitte was also crosschecked by French police based on mobile phone and e-mail traffic. Bruguiere went to Pakistan himself in 2006 as part of his investigations into the deaths of 11 Frenchmen in a bombing outside a hotel in Karachi in 2002. He stepped down as France's best-known counter-terrorism expert in 2007 and now represents the EU on the Terrorist Finance Tracking Programme in Washington.
This article starring:
RICHARD REID
Lashkar-e-Taiba
SAJID MIR
Lashkar-e-Taiba
WILLY BRIGITTE
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2009 00:00 ||
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The night before the burial of her husband's body, Katherine Cathey refused to leave the casket, asking to sleep next to his body for the last time. The Marines made a bed for her, tucking in the sheets below the flag.
#1
Christ. Those Marines understood. What could be worse, being it or understanding it? There are some things you have to just let it roll over you and there is nothing you can do to stop it.
Putting the Nail in and then later drawing the Nail out. Both have a price.
Its dark and its raining and you have to get the Nail . And there isnt any easy way to do it.
#4
check out "Taking Chance" DVD if you have the chance
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/14/2009 17:22 Comments ||
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#5
Taking Chance is an excellent movie. rather respectfully done, and it doesn't dip into the political as so much of the drivel put out lately does. it will move you so be prepared
Posted by: abu do you love ||
11/14/2009 20:21 Comments ||
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Israel does not quite respond, "Here's a sharp stick to poke yourself in the eye."
[Ma'an] Israel's offer to reign in some settlement building in the occupied West Bank is a step forward, but not in keeping with its obligations, a senior US State Department official said on Friday.
Speaking at the Middle East Institute in Washington, Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns reiterated Barack Obama's insistence that the US does not "accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements."
"We consider the Israeli offer to restrain settlement activity to be a potentially important step, but it obviously falls short of the continuing Road Map obligation for a full settlement freeze," Burns added, according to the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz.
His comments came a week after President Mahmoud Abbas announced he would not seek a second term in office, saying he made up his mind when it became clear the US would not alter its position in favor of Israel and the settlement enterprise. The announcement came days after Palestinians were left stunned when US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised as unprecedented Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's offer to limit construction in West Bank settlements to some 3,000 additional housing units.
Meanwhile on Friday, The Jerusalem Post, an English-language Israeli newspaper, reported that construction was moving forward throughout parts of East Jerusalem, despite an Israeli minister's insistence that no new projects had been approved in the occupied city or West Bank since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office at the end of March.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Bibi has already seen that people who say "FU" to the Zero get treated better than allies
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/14/2009 14:39 Comments ||
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#2
. . . US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised as unprecedented Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's offer to limit construction in West Bank settlements to some 3,000 additional housing units.
JERUSALEM, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Hamas has suspended its rocket launches against Israel since the Gaza Strip war and is similarly curbing other armed Palestinian factions in the territory, Israel's military chief said on Friday.
The rare Israeli recognition of Hamas restraint came as both sides pursue Egyptian- and German-mediated prisoner-swap talks. Egypt is also trying to mend a rift between Hamas and U.S.-backed ineffectual Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas who has often accused the Islamist group, which rules Gaza, of jeopardising their people's national aspirations by provoking the Jewish state.
"For now, at least, I can say that the Hamas movement is holding back, and is holding back the others," Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi said in a speech in the southern Israeli town of Beersheba. "Now and then, here and there, there is firing, but overall the situation is quiet."
Hamas, which refuses to recognise Israel, says there is no formal truce. But its officials privately allow that Hamas, and smaller Gazan armed groups, are holding fire to allow efforts to repair the territory's ravaged infrastructure.
The truest measure of how badly the Israelis hurt them ...
Islamic Jihad, and other Palestinian factions with links to al Qaeda, have also accused Hamas of arresting their rocketeers.
Palestinians fired a rocket from north Gaza into Israel on Friday, causing no damage, an Israeli military spokeswoman said. There was no claim of responsibility for the launch, which followed the army's killing of a Palestinian suspected of trying to plant a bomb near the border. Hamas police said the dead man, and two other Palestinians hurt in the incident, were hunters.
Elk season already?
Israel, which called its December-January offensive in Gaza an effort to stem Hamas rocket salvoes, says the Islamists have since replenished and improved their arsenal with Iranian help.
"We are not deceiving ourselves," Ashkenazi said. "We are preparing for the possibility that this (Gaza calm) will change, and if we are required, if this is the decision, the Israel Defence Force has the ability and everything that is necessary to end the firing, should the firing resume."
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/14/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
But...but...the Gaza War was "illegal" ( call a Cop). BOTH sides were at fault, yeah? Wars never solve anything, yeah?
[Al Arabiya Latest] Syria's President Bashar al-Assad said Friday that he had no "Israeli partner" ready to push forward the Middle East peace process, rebuffing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's offer of talks.
Accusing Netanyahu of not being serious about peace, Assad told reporters he was not willing to hold face-to-face negotiations with the Israeli leader and called instead for lower-level dialogue under Turkish mediation.
"If Mr Netanyahu is serious, he can send a team of experts, and we'll send a team of experts to Turkey. Then we can really talk, if they're interested," he said in Paris, after talks with France's President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Netanyahu visited Sarkozy on Wednesday, after which an Israeli official said the premier was "willing to meet the Syrian President at anytime and anywhere to move on the peace negotiations on the basis of no pre-conditions."
Syria, however, has long had one main pre-condition for talks with Israel -- the return of the strategic Golan Heights, a plateau which Israeli captured in the countries' 1967 war and unilaterally annexed in 1981.
"Today, Syria wants peace. There is a mediator, Turkey, which is ready to resume its mediation. There is also French and European support for this process," Assad told reporters at Sarkozy's Elysee Palace.
"What we lack is an Israeli partner who is ready to go forward and ready to come to a result," he declared.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
So, the Israeli's don't want to give Syria back the old gun platform they used for artillery target practice into the interior of Israel? Can't think of a reason why not. /s
#2
Forget" Peace ". Think Victory. Do you know when you 'negotiate"...when you ARENT winning.
You admit you arent winning when you "negotiate".
You admit you CANT win when you negotiate.
Poison the wells. Kill the Cattle. Shoot his dog. Cripple his mother. If he doesnt like it, listen to him squeal. His squealing is what you want. WhatEVER he wants DONT give it to him. Even if you dont need it, dont let him have it.
Double that. Do it again. Keep doing it until he gets down on his knees and polishes your boots with the oil on his nose.
Somebody wins and somebody loses. That's why you dont have a war until its gets that bad and you cant share air with the bastid.
There is NO future in sharing air with a blood enemy. You dont play at war. There is no half-war.
Life or Death means precisely that. NEVER negotiate with Amalek.
You go in like a man already dead. That's how you win. Train your men to fight like the Dead.
Once you go in, you are never coming out again.
Every time you kill.... you kill yourself. You are never coming back. The Mark of Cain isnt a Mark...its once you go in you have to live with it. That's the price of winning a war.
Somebody wins and somebody loses is YOU. There is no half-way War. You dont just touch it with your little pinky. You will drink it and eat it. This is my Body and Soul, given for you.
That's what declaring War means. You are never going back...you will never come back. Put the uniform on..you put on your own death. You choose the Mark. Its your own flesh...all of you. The weapon fits your hand exactly.
You want to beat the Hassans and the Abdullahs? You go straight into it and take the bullet and you keep firing even if you go down. You shoot him and keep shooting even if you go down. You GET the bastard.
You bite death and chew.
#3
This whole M.E. peace thing would be so much simpler if the Juice would just throw themselves into the Mediterranean. Then the Arabs could go back to squabbling amongst themselves and throwing the Paleostinians out of whatever country they are destined to get thrown out of next.
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.
The crew of a UK military ship watched as a British couple were taken hostage by Somali pirates but were ordered not to open fire, it has emerged.
[Bangla Daily Star] Detained former BNP state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar was sent to Dhaka central jail yesterday after 12 days' remand in the August 21 grenade attack case.
by Paola Del Vecchio - The first Islamic party in Spain is getting ready to have representation in the key municipalities in the administrative elections in 2011. The Renaissance and Union of Spain Party, promoted by Mustafa Barrach, a former journalist and Arabic professor in Granada, is close to Rabat, according to a report today in the ABC conservative newspaper. 
Attorney Says Ft. Hood Suspect Is Coherent And May Be Able To Stand Trial, But Medical Condition Is 'Extremely Serious'
A statement from former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani concerning today's news that Guantanamo Bay detainees will face trial here in New York:
It is "inconceivable" that the U.S. would bring the alleged terrorist masterminds of the Sept. 11 attacks to New York for trial, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Friday.
Lieberman, an Independent who caucuses with Democrats but maintains a hawkish streak on national security issues, said that the terrorist suspects are not entitled to the same rights as U.S. citizens in court. "I share the views of more than 140 family members of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks who recently wrote to the Senate urging that the individuals charged with responsibility for those attacks should be tried by military commission rather than in civilian courts in the United States," Lieberman said. "It is inconceivable that we would bring these alleged terrorists back to New York for trial, to the scene of the carnage they created eight years ago, and give them a platform to mock the suffering of their victims and the victims' families, and rally their followers to continue waging jihad against America."
