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Qaeda in North Africa hit by plague
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 2: WoT Background
5 00:00 crosspatch [6] 
3 00:00 JosephMendiola [7] 
5 00:00 mhw8 [8] 
7 00:00 Mike N. [6] 
5 00:00 Iblis [1] 
3 00:00 Frozen Al [3] 
5 00:00 Thing From Snowy Mountain [3] 
17 00:00 Red Dawg [9] 
3 00:00 rabid whitetail [8] 
4 00:00 bigjim-ky [4] 
6 00:00 JosephMendiola [5] 
4 00:00 trailing wife [2] 
2 00:00 Old Patriot [6] 
4 00:00 GolfBravoUSMC [1] 
3 00:00 Frank G [5] 
1 00:00 tu3031 [6] 
1 00:00 mojo [3] 
4 00:00 Leroidavid [7] 
1 00:00 g(r)omgoru [3] 
14 00:00 DMFD [1] 
0 [7] 
31 00:00 Mike N. [9] 
3 00:00 john frum [6] 
2 00:00 Cyber Sarge [1] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
7 00:00 Rambler in Virginia [4]
5 00:00 JosephMendiola [2]
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3 00:00 aquedukzz [3]
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10 00:00 Harcourt Glusock2626 [6]
2 00:00 Rednek Jim [4]
1 00:00 Ulinetle Lumumba7981 []
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1 00:00 tu3031 [4]
10 00:00 Keystone [5]
1 00:00 tu3031 [4]
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2 00:00 Thing From Snowy Mountain []
Page 3: Non-WoT
3 00:00 crosspatch [5]
2 00:00 Old Patriot [1]
13 00:00 Jan [3]
21 00:00 Leroidavid [4]
8 00:00 swksvolFF [3]
17 00:00 Besoeker [3]
3 00:00 Cheaderhead [1]
14 00:00 Frank G [3]
13 00:00 JosephMendiola [5]
Page 4: Opinion
11 00:00 Nimble Spemble [4]
5 00:00 mhw [7]
Page 5: Russia-Former Soviet Union
3 00:00 DMFD [2]
2 00:00 tu3031 [5]
1 00:00 rabid whitetail [5]
Page 6: Politix
3 00:00 Besoeker [1]
5 00:00 JosephMendiola [1]
-Short Attention Span Theater-
The Dalai Lama understands terrorism
The difference between enlightenment and arrested infantile development masquerading as enlightenment.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/19/2009 10:19 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This will be on the front page of every newspaper and the lead item on the news tonight.

No?
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 01/19/2009 12:12 Comments || Top||

#2  Wow, he hasn't been this erudite since "Gunga galunga... gunga, gunga-galunga"
Posted by: Beavis || 01/19/2009 12:15 Comments || Top||

#3  "The head of the Tibetan government-in-exile left the audience stunned when he said "I love President George W Bush." He went on to add how he and the US President instantly struck a chord in their first meeting unlike politicians who take a while to develop close ties."

Could it be that the MSM has consistently misrepresented President Bush? Could it be that the MSM are lying sacks of sh*t?
Posted by: Frozen Al || 01/19/2009 13:19 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Afghan president claims defense deal with Russia
Russia is ready to cooperate on defense matters with Afghanistan, the Afghan president said Monday. The announcement coincides with increasingly public tensions between Afghan and Western officials, as well as Russia's heightened efforts to assert itself on the international stage.

In a letter, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said cooperation on defense issues would "be effective for both countries and also effective for maintaining security in the region," Afghan President Hamid Karzai's office said in a statement.

"As a friendly government to Afghanistan, Russia is ready to offer its cooperation to an independent and a democratic Afghanistan," the statement quoted Medvedev as saying.
Friendly? Was that before or after the Rooskies introduced the play-dolls with the kabooms inside for the Afghan kiddies?
The statement did not say how the two countries would cooperate, but historically they have been at odds.
One could say that ...
Russian soldiers were a really big part of the Soviet Army that occupied Afghanistan throughout the 1980s, before being forced to withdraw in 1989 following years of a U.S.-supported insurgency that drained Soviet resources and contributed to the country's collapse.

A spokesman at the Kremlin in Russia said he had no detail about the exchange between Medvedev and Karzai.
Posted by: ed || 01/19/2009 15:36 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ahhhh. Perhaps we should cut our losses and let them embrace?
Posted by: Frank G || 01/19/2009 15:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Still dreaming of a warm water port, aren't they.
Afghanistan would get them one step closer to having one. Why can't they just say what they'd like to do instead of being sneaky bastids all the time?
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 01/19/2009 16:54 Comments || Top||

#3  Maybe the Russians will do for Karzai what they did for Najibullah.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 01/19/2009 19:22 Comments || Top||

#4  WORLD MIL FORUM > WEEKLY STANDARD = US HAS THREATENED CHINA: US MUST BUILD A LARGER MORE POWERFUL NAVY TO CONTAIN CHINA.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/19/2009 21:43 Comments || Top||

#5  Sounds like they smell a new Carter administration coming into Washington.
Posted by: crosspatch || 01/19/2009 22:22 Comments || Top||


Afghan foreign minister unhappy with Clinton
U.S. Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton's use of the term "narco state" to describe Afghanistan in a recent Senate testimony has caught the attention of her Afghan counterpart.

Foreign Ministry Rangin Dadfar Spanta said Saturday that it is "absolutely wrong" to classify Afghanistan as such, though the minister readily admitted that Afghanistan is a major producer of drugs.

Afghanistan produces more than 90 percent of the world's opium, the main ingredient in heroin.

"Madame Clinton is a good friend of Afghanistan, a close friend of ours," Spanta told The Associated Press in an interview arranged to rebut Clinton's classification of Afghanistan.

"But if somebody believes that our government, the government of President (Hamid) Karzai is involved as a government entity in the production of drugs, this is absolutely wrong."
Posted by: Fred || 01/19/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It was a simple Freudian slip Foreign Minister Spanta. The "narco state" she was actually referring to was ARKANSAS!
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/19/2009 7:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Well lets see, they produce 90% of the worlds opium, and its their only export of substance I know of. So yeah, sounds like a Narco-State to me too.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 01/19/2009 9:57 Comments || Top||

#3  The Afghan FM would be advised to give generously to the Bill Clinton Presidential Library and Museum endowment fund if he wants to get favors from Hil.
Posted by: mhw8 || 01/19/2009 19:14 Comments || Top||

#4  "But if somebody believes that our government, the government of President (Hamid) Karzai is involved as a government entity in the production of drugs, this is absolutely wrong."

I am quite certain there is no government department for the production of opium. In that strictly legalistic sense the Foreign Minister is correct. However, I am equally certain that members of the government and/or their close friends and relations are involved, and that members of the government, perhaps including President Karzai, are indeed involved. Is Afghanistan a narco-state? Perhaps not, but Pashtunistan most certainly is.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/19/2009 19:44 Comments || Top||


NATO leader turns tables on Afghan govt
The elephant sitting on the end of that couch is the paragraph that mentions in passing that the north and west of the country are largely at peace. Coincidentally, those are the non-Pashtun areas of the country.

Pashtunistan, with its peculiar mores and traditions, is where the guns and turbans are, along with the opium trade. As a very first step, it would seem to make sense to impose some sort of internal controls to prevent the export Pakhtunkhwa to the rest of the country, and then a program to import the more Central Asian mores and traditions of the rest of the country to the South Asian south and east.
NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer on Sunday denounced Afghanistan's 'ineffective' government and said the authorities there were as much to blame for the country's plight as the Taliban.

The comments by the NATO secretary general, in an opinion piece for The Washington Post newspaper, was an unusually strong expression of the alliance's dissatisfaction with the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
And just who do you have in mind for the job, Jaap?
De Hoop Scheffer did not mention Karzai by name, but his remarks came at a politically-sensitive time for the Afghan leader. Karzai is due for re-election this year, and observers believe an open rift with NATO could substantially weaken him ahead of the yet-to-be-scheduled polls.

Analysing the situation in the country seven years after the toppling of the Taliban regime, de Hoop Scheffer argued that Afghanistan and their Western allies "are not where we might have hoped them to be by now". While the country's North and West were largely at peace, the South and East were "driven by insurgency, drugs and ineffective government", he wrote.
Perhaps if the Germans, Spanish and Italian troops could bother themselves to fight in the south and east things would be a little better ...
The NATO leader went on to insist that "the basic problem in Afghanistan is not too much Taliban, it's too little good governance". "Afghans need a government that deserves their loyalty and trust; when they have it, the oxygen will be sucked away from the insurgency," he added.
Posted by: Fred || 01/19/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  Silk purses...
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/19/2009 8:09 Comments || Top||

#2  It was a bad mistake to keep even a vestige of the old political system. It never worked, and should have been first replaced with a military government while the civilians were being retrained in how to run a modern government.

Comparably, it is like trying to build on a telecommunications system based on drums. Why? What an utter waste of time.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 01/19/2009 8:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Funny Picture, R Rated
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 01/19/2009 9:41 Comments || Top||

#4  Taliban mechanized unit

Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 01/19/2009 9:47 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Deadliest weapon so far... the plague
ANTI-TERROR bosses last night hailed their latest ally in the war on terror -- the BLACK DEATH.

At least 40 al-Qaeda fanatics died horribly after being struck down with the disease that devastated Europe in the Middle Ages.

The killer bug, also known as the plague, swept through insurgents training at a forest camp in Algeria, North Africa. It came to light when security forces found a body by a roadside. The victim was a terrorist in AQLIM (al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb), the largest and most powerful al-Qaeda group outside the Middle East. It trains Muslim fighters to kill British and US troops.

Now al-Qaeda chiefs fear the plague has been passed to other terror cells -- or Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. One security source said: "This is the deadliest weapon yet in the war against terror. Most of the terrorists do not have the basic medical supplies needed to treat the disease. It spreads quickly and kills within hours. This will be really worrying al-Qaeda."

Black Death comes in various forms. Bubonic Plague is spread by bites from infected rat fleas. Symptoms include boils in the groin, neck and armpits. In Pneumonic Plague, airborn bacteria spread like flu. It can be in the body for more than a week -- highly contagious but not revealing tell-tale symptoms.

The al-Qaeda epidemic began in the cave hideouts of AQLIM in Tizi Ouzou province, 150km east of the capital Algiers. The group, led by wanted terror boss Abdelmalek Droudkal, was forced to turn its shelters in the Yakouren forest into mass graves and flee.

The extremists supporting madman Osama bin Laden went to Bejaia and Jijel provinces -- hoping the plague did not go with them. A source said: "The emirs (leaders) fear surviving terrorists will surrender to escape a horrible death."

AQLIM boss Droudkal claims to command around 1,000 insurgents. Training camps are also based in Morocco, Tunisia and Nigeria. AQLIM bombed the UN headquarters in Algiers in 2007, killing 41. Attacks across Algeria last year killed at least 70 people. In an interview last July, Droudkal boasted his cell was in constant contact with other al-Qaeda "brothers".
Posted by: Fred || 01/19/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa

#1  Someone making some home-brew bio-terror forget to wash their hands?
Posted by: SteveS || 01/19/2009 0:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Oh please oh please oh please . . . let The Sun be right on this one.
Posted by: gorb || 01/19/2009 1:59 Comments || Top||

#3  Ahaaa.. Our Traditional New-Year's Rat Dinners Finally Caught Up with the Young AQ Pledges...

Thank Gawd Us Olde Bastids are Mostly Immune Because Mamas Sweet-Meat Rat Ambrosia Delights Are Worth Every Slurpin Sloppy Lip Smack!
Posted by: Fat Ass Rag Head || 01/19/2009 2:37 Comments || Top||

#4  Grom?
Posted by: .5MT || 01/19/2009 4:25 Comments || Top||

#5  Not with Gawd and Bastids and Slurpin. Keith Giffen, maybe?
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 01/19/2009 4:34 Comments || Top||

#6  I've got to admit that news of the AQ plague outbreak has warmed the cockles of my terrorist hating heart.

Callous? Perhaps, but seven and a half years of watching the AQ rats and their media shills in action, sometimes in person, will do that.

Like H.G. Wells's Martians, the AQ vermin have fallen victim to the "littlest things that God in his wisdom had put on the Earth,"

In another way, though, it is we who are like the Martians:

"The immediate pressure of necessity has brightened their intellects, enlarged their powers, and hardened their hearts. ..."
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 01/19/2009 5:58 Comments || Top||

#7  I blame the gummit cheese and UN peanut butter.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/19/2009 7:54 Comments || Top||

#8  How can the skin of rat or mouse hold
Anything more than a harmless flea?. . .
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/19/2009 8:27 Comments || Top||

#9  Oh, the irony is so hard and dense that it can be polished until it glitters - a medieval ideology ... felled by a medieval disease!
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 01/19/2009 9:05 Comments || Top||

#10  Google Black Death and New Mexico. We get about a half a dozen cases a year [and more in the CDC counts as neighboring states ship their victims in their last 'too late' days to NM for treatment]. One unofficial state motto is 'land of the flea, home of the plague'. Wear long pants outside of the urban areas and stay away from dead animal carcasses and you're generally fine. Roaming pets are another problem, particularly cats. We have a modern medical infrastructure and personnel who recognize and can treat it in its earlier stages. Those who live in the 9th Century, not so blessed.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/19/2009 9:07 Comments || Top||

#11  It would be "simply awful" if a few more cases were to spring up in say AlQ camps in Pakland.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 01/19/2009 9:15 Comments || Top||

#12  Hey, Islamist nutballs, the Will of Allah is a bitch sometimes, eh?
Posted by: William Marcy Tweed || 01/19/2009 9:35 Comments || Top||

#13  Don't take the antidote, guys. It'll make your dinkys shrivel up and fall off.
Mo told me...
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/19/2009 9:38 Comments || Top||

#14  Not only that, tu, it was made by the Juice!!

(Or it's made outta pork products. I forget sometimes. But anyway, it's not halal. I'm sure of that, ask Al-Aska Paul.)
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie || 01/19/2009 9:48 Comments || Top||

#15  God is good.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon || 01/19/2009 10:26 Comments || Top||

#16  This is thwe first time in a long time I heard AQ news and smiled.... I hope they suffered.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 01/19/2009 10:29 Comments || Top||

#17  waiting for the MSM to declare that "disproportionate contagion" is bad and needs to be spread to coalition forces.
Posted by: HammerHead || 01/19/2009 10:31 Comments || Top||

#18  Plagues are torture. Our administration will not condone torture, famine, pestilence, HIV, rabbit ear TV, etc.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/19/2009 10:42 Comments || Top||

#19  Besides not bathing, cleaning your ass with your hand, no sanitation... why on earth would such a disease strike such a holy people?

Maybe God does hate your asses.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/19/2009 10:58 Comments || Top||

#20  Inshallah pestilence.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 01/19/2009 11:07 Comments || Top||

#21  I hate to be cynical, but what if this variant was lab hatched??
Posted by: illeagle || 01/19/2009 11:21 Comments || Top||

#22  Rabbit Ear TeeVee? WTF? No one said anything about Rabbit Ear TeeVee. Reinstate the draft.
Posted by: .5MT || 01/19/2009 11:47 Comments || Top||

#23  No doubt to soon to spread through the NYT, CNN and MSNBC....hopefully.....

The image of Keith Olberman going "gaaaack" and falling over is way too pleasant. Maybe I should get help......
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 01/19/2009 11:50 Comments || Top||

#24  ahhh... dem AQ deaths warm my fuzzy cockles and carry me away!!

/so sorry Mods.. no harm ment..

:)
Posted by: Red Dawg || 01/19/2009 14:15 Comments || Top||

#25  Accident? Maybe - but there is the chance that this was an AQ weapon that got away from them. Also a chance that is was our weapon that we turned on them.

I'd like to see a reprise of this in the NWFP of Waki-land. The place could benefit from a good cull.
Posted by: Rob06 || 01/19/2009 14:43 Comments || Top||

#26  Look for the UN to send in Medical Relief.........
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 01/19/2009 15:13 Comments || Top||

#27  New Mexico. We get about

You live in the Land of Enchantment, P2K?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/19/2009 17:15 Comments || Top||

#28  Unfortunately, the Plague is still "the Plague" no matter whom is infected - AQ may be facing a situation = scenario where their Org [+ local Govts] could have to ask the UNO + US-West for medical help in isolating or stopping its spread????

Ironic.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/19/2009 18:46 Comments || Top||

#29  It's all caused by keeping your goat or sheep indoors too much. Ya just gotta make a sacrifice sometimes...
Posted by: Old Patriot || 01/19/2009 19:39 Comments || Top||

#30  You live in the Land of Enchantment, P2K?

Don't buy the PR [we really don't want to entice the fleeing Californistas], but I do reside within its borders.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/19/2009 21:22 Comments || Top||

#31  The Black Plague: Sometimes a feature, not a bug.
Posted by: Mike N. || 01/19/2009 21:37 Comments || Top||


Europe
Al Qaeda threatens German soldiers in web video
BERLIN (Reuters) - Al Qaeda issued an Internet threat against German soldiers at the weekend, which the government in Berlin said showed the risk of a Islamist attack on German soil had increased. Citing Germany's involvement in fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, the video message posted on the Internet was titled "The rescue package for Germany" and bore the logo of As-Sahab, which is al Qaeda's specialist media arm.

"Your soldiers are safe nowhere," said a masked man dressed in a black turban in the video posted online late on Saturday. A sign behind his man's head identified him as "Abu Talha the German" and he spoke in German with a slight foreign accent.

"If Germans ... naively believe they will get away with it, then the politicians are unfortunately out of their element."

Whoever tried to make a distinction between al Qaeda and the Taliban had not understood his enemy, he added.

Germany is part of NATO's peacekeeping force in Afghanistan and has a mandate to send 4,500 troops there. Taliban militants claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb which exploded near the German embassy in Kabul on Saturday. The German Interior Ministry said the attack in Kabul and the latest video made it clear the threat of a terrorist attack had taken on a new quality. "The explicit mention of the German involvement in Afghanistan is particularly worrying," said the ministry in a statement. "This shows Germany has become a special focus for al Qaeda."

The ministry said the man in the video came from Germany, and was believed to have left the country in the first half of 2007 to go to a militant training camp in the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Responding to the attack in Kabul, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said at the weekend Germany remained committed to its involvement in Afghanistan. "We will not be put off providing help for the Afghan people by terror and shock," he said.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/19/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  guess they will be going home soon
Posted by: rabid whitetail || 01/19/2009 10:14 Comments || Top||

#2  Gosh they have a website? lets retreat now before they post critical comments.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 01/19/2009 13:22 Comments || Top||


Great White North
William Ayers turned back at Canadian border
An American education professor, one of the founders of a radical 1960s group known as the Weather Underground, which was responsible for a number of bombings in the United States in the early 1970s, was turned back at the Canadian border last night.

I'm impressed. Well done, Canada.
Posted by: Mike || 01/19/2009 14:59 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "I see no toxic waste import paperwork. You'll have to turn around, sir"
Posted by: Frank G || 01/19/2009 15:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Hmmm being made a media martyr and being denied access to Canada in January -- a terrorist's win-win situation.
Posted by: regular joe || 01/19/2009 15:31 Comments || Top||

#3  Did we (the U.S.) have to take him back?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/19/2009 15:45 Comments || Top||

#4  The saddest part is he has no idea why they wouldn't let him in.
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/19/2009 17:17 Comments || Top||

#5  Maybe Canada just doesn't want dipwads coming into Canada.
Posted by: Snusomble Jones2789 || 01/19/2009 17:31 Comments || Top||

#6  A bit late,maybe in the 60s but now?
Posted by: Rednek Jim || 01/19/2009 18:08 Comments || Top||

#7  See ya, fucker!

/Canada
Posted by: Mike N. || 01/19/2009 22:20 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Pak Mujahideen should be allowed to fight in Palestine: Qazi
The armed forces should permit Pakistani Mujahideen to fight in the war torn-area of Palestine in order to help their Palestinian brethren in their hour of need, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Ameer Qazi Hussain Ahmed has demanded. He was speaking at the "Palestinian March" organised on Sunday by the JI. The march started from the Quaid-e-Azam's mausoleum and ended at Tibet Centre.
He does a lot of eye-rolling and face-making in this speech ...
Ahmed also demanded that the government supply arms and ammunition to the Palestinians as well as send armed forces to the area to fight against Israel.
He's much braver when he's two thousand miles away from the fight ...
The march was organized in connection with the ongoing protests against Israeli aggression on Palestine and to express solidarity with Palestinians. Thousands of people marched from the JI headquarters, Idara Noor-e-Haq to Tibet Centre amidst tight security all around the route of the rally.

Barricades were placed on main Shahrah-e-Quaideen, while tankers were cross-parked on the road leading to Governor House. Despite Sunday, heavy traffic congestion was witnessed on Sharea Faisal as traffic was diverted to connecting arteries.

The protestors carried placards and banners, and shouted slogans against Israel and the US. Children wore headbands inscribed with the first Kalma and Jihad. They carried placards inscribed with "I hate US and Israel" and banners depicting hatred for the US, Israel and Western countries.

The participants carried Hamas banners, expressing solidarity with Hamas and the Palestinians. They also torched US and Israel flags, as well as an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The emotionally-charged protestors also hurled shoes at portraits of Olmert and US president George Bush.

The JI Amir called for waging jihad against Israeli troops, saying that all the Muslims of the world should stand united against Israeli aggression. He demanded that the government part ways with the US and adopt pro-people policies to face external and internal challenges confronting the country.

He further said that Israel had accepted defeat by announcing a ceasefire. He vowed that the struggle of Muslims would continue till the independence of the first Qibla of Islam in Jerusalem. Ahmed also warned India against imposing war on Pakistan. It may be mentioned here that Israel declared its own unilateral ceasefire after three weeks of aggression that killed some 1,200 Palestinians, mostly women and children.

He also condemned the Organisation of Islamic Countries and the Arab League for remaining silent spectators on Israeli aggression against Palestine, and termed their silence as criminal negligence. "The entire world is protesting Israeli aggression but the Pakistan government has adopted a callous attitude while toeing the US policy," Ahmed said.
This article starring:
Ameer Qazi Hussain Ahmed
Posted by: john frum || 01/19/2009 15:27 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami

#1  Qazi should man up and lead em
Posted by: Frank G || 01/19/2009 15:35 Comments || Top||

#2  I'll cough up for Qazi's bus ticket.
Who's with me?
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/19/2009 17:19 Comments || Top||

#3  Just more evidencia that Radical Islam believes 2009-2012 [2016] = POTUS OBAMA ADMIN [alleged
"Carter II"?]will indeed "make or break" either the USA or their Jihad.

Again, despite potent international = geopol entrenchment under POTUS Dubya US-SPECIFIC DOMINATION OF ANY DESIRED OWG-NWO + AGENDUMS IS NOT YET ABSOLUTE - THE US CAN STILL LOSE THE WOT.

MORE SO NOW AS PER THIS US-GLOBAL RECESSION = so-called "GREAT DEPRESSION II".
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/19/2009 18:28 Comments || Top||


'US unconvinced Pakistan not a terrorist breeding ground'
Former national security adviser (NSA) Mehmood Ali Durani on Sunday said he could not convince the United States that Pakistan was not a breeding ground for terrorists.
No kidding. I'm not convinced either ...
He was talking to a private TV channel during an interview.

Responding to allegations that he had been too close a 'friend' of India and the US, Durrani said he had only forged stronger relations with the two to work in Pakistan's interest.

He said apart from the US and the United Kingdom, China and several other countries also played an important role in defusing the Pak-India tensions after the Mumbai attacks. Durani did not comment when asked if Pakistan had made preparations to counter US drone attacks in the Tribal Areas.
Yeah, good luck with that ...
He said former prime minister Benazir Bhutto told him during a meeting that he (Durrani) should be the national security adviser. "That is why President Asif Ali Zardari appointed me to the post, as it was Benazir's will."
The anointed one, no less ...
Durrani said he had not played any part in the promulgation of the National Reconciliation Ordinance. He revealed that the US had wished to see former president Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf as president and Benazir as prime minister of Pakistan simultaneously.

The former NSA said he had had good relations with the Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani but the decision of his removal was "impulsive and made in haste". He denied that he wanted to become a member of the Senate.

Responding to a question, Durrani said the prime minister was not isolated but he "may have reservations on some issues".
Posted by: Fred || 01/19/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  "Fish-eyed stare" pretty much describes it.
Posted by: mojo || 01/19/2009 2:55 Comments || Top||

#2  "Unable to not undo the non-misunderstanding of an unconvinced US that Pakistan is unlikely to not be a terrorist breeding ground."
Posted by: Anonymoose || 01/19/2009 8:53 Comments || Top||

#3  "US unconvinced that Earth doesn't revolve around the sun."
Posted by: Perfesser || 01/19/2009 9:08 Comments || Top||

#4  Nothing like a failed state with nukes to inspire confidence.
Posted by: William Marcy Tweed || 01/19/2009 9:34 Comments || Top||

#5  Five minutes with Khan and we'd have no doubt anymore.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 01/19/2009 9:55 Comments || Top||

#6  PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > UK SCHOLAR: BUSH HAD WARNED GILANI [Pakistan] OF US ATTACKS ON PAKISTAN [US military retaliation + attack on Pakistan iff another 9-11 took place agz US].

Mumbai-style event agz US = 9-11???

PROFESSOR ANATOL LIVEN - IHO PEBO OBAMA is perceived as very likely to follow the Bush lead and DEPLOY, NOT WITHDRAW, MORE US TROOPS INTO AFGHANISTAN, BUT IN THE END OBAMA = USA WILL FAIL AS US MILFORS SLOWLY BECOM "HOSTAGES" TO THE WAR-TORN COUNTRY [Vietnam II]???

* SAME > INDIAN ARMY WAS READY TO ATTACK PAKISTAN BUT LACKED AMMO. INDIA FEARED PAKISTAN COULD CAPTURE MORE LAND. INDIAN ARMED FORCES COULD NOT GUARANTEE LT OR AYSMMTERIC MILITARY SUCCESS OF SURGICAL STRIKES, MILOPS AGZ PAKISTAN.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/19/2009 20:21 Comments || Top||


Sharmilla condemns acid attack on health worker
Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister Sharmilla Faruqi has condemned the acid-attack on a lady health worker (LHW) in Shikarpur district, directing the officials concerned to launch an inquiry into the incident and ensure the immediate arrests of those involved. She asked the Shikarpur DPO to ensure maximum security for the family of the victim. Talking to the media during her visit to the Burns Ward of the Civil Hospital, Karachi, Faruqi stated that the only way to deter such incidents in the future was to hand out exemplary punishments.
Posted by: Fred || 01/19/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  Like public castrations?
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 01/19/2009 11:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Cut off the hand(s) that threw the acid. Wiping with a hook is its own "reward".
Posted by: Old Patriot || 01/19/2009 19:43 Comments || Top||


LT to support democratic struggle to liberate Indian-held Kashmir
The outlawed Laskhar-e-Tayyaba (LT) announced on Sunday it would support a peaceful and democratic struggle to liberate Kashmir.
Getting their butts kicked by the Indians, are they ...
In a statement issued in Srinagar, LT spokesman Dr Abdullah Gaznavi said his group took up arms when the world did not respond to the Kashmiris' peaceful struggle for more than four decades.

"If the world listens to our cries and plays its role in resolving the Kashmir issue, there is no point in continuing fighting," he said. The group also endorsed British Foreign Secretary David Milliband's comment that the LT's cause was in Kashmir. "Our struggle is only confined to Kashmir and we have no relations or association with armed groups operating at the international level. We have no global agenda. We just want the freedom of Kashmir and if it comes though peaceful means, we will welcome it," said the top commander.

He said the banned organisation did not believe that an armed struggle was the only way to achieve political objectives. "We had only responded to the cries of our Kashmiri brethren and had no choice but to call the world's attention to their suffering through arms," he said. "If the world listens to our appeals and the Kashmir issue is resolved, there will be no reason for us to fight."

Dr Gaznavi said Miliband's comments were 'a ray of hope', but added that they were not enough. He called for an active British role in the resolution of the Kashmir issue because "it has to take the major blame for the crisis". "Britain did not implement the agreed agenda of the partition in 1947. Due to a mistake they have committed, our nation is suffering. Lashkar-e-Tayyaba was compelled to take up weapons," he said.

The spokesman also denied the Lashkar's involvement in the November 26 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. He said the world had "jumped to conclusions under Indian pressure" before the investigations were complete. He also said it was 'unfortunate' that Milliband had blamed the LT for the attacks. "We don't have a global agenda. We have done nothing [in the UK], and we don't have any such plans. The British government should be careful in accusing someone," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 01/19/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Taiba

#1  I'm thinking "ISI sellout".
Posted by: Pappy || 01/19/2009 11:10 Comments || Top||

#2  LT to support democratic struggle to liberate Indian-held Kashmir

I was wondering what he'd do in the offseason.
Posted by: regular joe || 01/19/2009 15:34 Comments || Top||

#3  :-) I was thinkrn sumpthin similar
Posted by: Frank G || 01/19/2009 15:38 Comments || Top||


Girls' schools in Swat to reopen on March 1, says Sherry
The federal and NWFP government will use their powers to ensure that the girls' schools affected by the Taliban in Swat are reopened by March 1, Information Minister Sherry Rehman said on Sunday.

Talking to reporters in Karachi, she said the government would also ensure protection of all female students in Swat and all other restive areas. "We will try our best to reopen the girls' schools and we will try to give the girls confidence. We have to show them a ray of hope," the minister said, AP reported. "Along with our ally in the NWFP, the Awami National Party, we will get the girls schools reopened. No 'non-state actor' will be allowed to burn female educational institutions," Sherry told reporters.
Posted by: Fred || 01/19/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  ...that the girls' schools affected by the Taliban in Swat

I'll translate: BOOM!
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/19/2009 9:41 Comments || Top||


'We may demand Samjhota train bombing suspects'
Pakistan will be forced to demand the suspects of the Samjhota train bombing, if India persists with its demand that Pakistan hand over the Mumbai attacks' accused, Interior Adviser Rehman Malik said on Sunday. The interior adviser said the investigation into the Mumbai terror attacks was being continued in accordance with Pakistani laws and Pakistan would not accept any foreign pressure in this regard. Malik said no help would be sought from foreign countries, however, Indian investigators would be more than welcome to assist their Pakistani counterparts. Calling Pakistani investigators 'best among the best', he added the record showed that they were competent to conduct the inquiry.
Posted by: Fred || 01/19/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  "We've got top men working on it."
"Yeah? Who?"
"TOP men."
Posted by: mojo || 01/19/2009 2:58 Comments || Top||


Three districts, two agencies excluded as anti-polio drive starts
Nearly one million children below the age of five are likely to miss the anti-polio drive as health authorities declared the launch of the province-wide campaign on Sunday.

Polio vaccination teams will not visit Hangu, Chitral and Swat districts of the NWFP, as well as Kurram and Orakzai agencies, during the three-day drive that begins on Monday.

While polio teams have been prohibited from visiting Hangu and Swat and the two agencies for security reasons, Chitral has been excluded from the current drive due to unfavourable weather conditions.

Vaccination: The health officials said around one million children in the restive districts and agencies would not receive anti-polio drops/vaccine during the current campaign, which was being conducted after fears that the disease was re-emerging, following encouraging signs of its elimination in 2005.

An alarming 118 polio cases were registered in the previous year, compared to only five in 2005. The officials said a total of 53 polio cases, the largest in the past four years, were found in the NWFP in 2008.

Kicking off the three-day campaign, Health Executive District Officer Dr Mohammad Ali Chauhan said 2008 was the worst with regard to their polio eradication drives, both for the province and Peshawar.

He said security concerns, the presence of Afghan refugees and the increasing number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) were the main reasons behind the rise in polio cases in Peshawar.

Dr Chauhan said the areas of Mattani and Adezai had also been excluded from the current drive for security reasons. He said about 1,000 children in these areas would not receive polio drops during the drive.

The doctor said nearly 800,000 children would be administered polio drops in Peshawar during the current campaign by 1,800 teams under 301 area supervisors.

He said the refusal cases, which were earlier nearly 7,000, had now been restricted to 1,000 only. Chauhan admitted that P-3 type polio cases had increased in Peshawar during the previous year.
Posted by: Fred || 01/19/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Iraq
Iraqi shoe thrower to seek Swiss asylum
Heh heh heh...
GENEVA (AP) — A Swiss lawyer working on behalf of the Iraqi journalist who threw shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush said Monday his client will seek political asylum in Switzerland. Geneva-based lawyer Mauro Poggia said Muntadhar al-Zeidi's life is in danger if he stays in Iraq.
Geez, I thought he was a big Arab hero?
Al-Zeidi has been detained in an Iraqi jail awaiting trial since he was seized by guards after his Dec. 14 outburst at a joint news conference in Baghdad by Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. "He is in danger over there," Poggia told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Monday. "He's also in danger in other Muslim countries because people who support his action could try to make him a martyr."
Yeah, that makes sense. Over there, anyways. "He's our hero! Kill him!"
Al-Zeidi's gesture of anger at Bush turned the employee of a minor TV station into a national hero to many Iraqis fed up with America's six-year presence in the country. But concern has been raised about his safety after allegations that he had been severely beaten and tortured in detention. Poggia said any harm caused to al-Zeidi could trigger violent protests in Iraq. "I think it's in the interest of the current Iraqi government that nothing happens to Mr. al-Zeidi," he said.
Didn't get the money up front, eh, counselor?
The lawyer said he was contacted earlier this month by al-Zeidi's relatives because of Switzerland's reputation as a safe, neutral country. Geneva is the seat of the Red Cross movement and the European headquarters of the United Nations.
...and it's also not an Islamic shithole.
"My client needs to make his request at the Swiss embassy in Baghdad when he is released," said Poggia. "But we don't know when he will be able to do that because he still hasn't gone to trial."
GET ME OUTTA HERE!
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/19/2009 11:20 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...and it's also not an Islamic shithole.

Are you sure? Cia Factbook: Muslim 4.3%.
For comparision, the UK: Muslim 2.7%
Posted by: ed || 01/19/2009 12:27 Comments || Top||

#2  yeah, Al-Zeii was tortured and beaten: ribs broken, arm broken, yadda yadda. Now, it turns out he's OK. Guess he's a fast healer, huh? Or could it possibly be that the scumbag's family and lawyer are lying sacks of shit, and the Booosh-hating MSM ate that up like sea kittens?
Posted by: Frank G || 01/19/2009 13:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Worse than idiots, they actively seek stupid.
Posted by: .5MT || 01/19/2009 13:39 Comments || Top||

#4  Defense Attorney Antics, Chapter 523...
Posted by: Pappy || 01/19/2009 14:08 Comments || Top||

#5  He won't be happy in Switzerland. He'll never get citizenship. He'll forever be treated as third world trash. He'll have a menial job and live with 20 others (probably Sri Lankans) in the same flat. And the Swiss are not part of the EU, so no open borders for this idiot either.

Ironically, he probably would have been much happier in Iraq if he hadn't made such an ass of himself that he's no longer welcome.
Posted by: Iblis || 01/19/2009 15:35 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Obama welcomes Gaza truce, says committed to Mideast peace
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama welcomed Israel's unilateral cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and said he is committed to helping Israelis and Palestinians work toward peace, a spokesman said on Sunday. Obama will say more on the situation in Gaza after he is inaugurated on Tuesday, spokeswoman Brooke Anderson said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred || 01/19/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Euroscum.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/19/2009 8:10 Comments || Top||

#2  why don't we start small.
Get Hamas to acknowledge Israel's right to exist first.
Then we'll go on from there.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 01/19/2009 10:48 Comments || Top||

#3  People in the Obama side say he understands the problem of moral equivalency.

We'll see.
Posted by: mhw || 01/19/2009 14:58 Comments || Top||

#4  And what is this "problem of moral equivalency", if I may ask ?
Posted by: Leroidavid || 01/19/2009 23:23 Comments || Top||


Haniyeh: Hamas won Gaza war, but was wise to declare truce
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said on Sunday that Israel's three-week offensive in the Gaza Strip was a failure and had not cowed the Palestinians, but praised his movement for deciding to declare a cease-fire. "The enemy has failed to achieve its goals," Ismail Haniyeh, the top Hamas leader in the territory, said in a speech broadcast on Hamas television.
Wanna do it again, asshole?
Though he called the war, in which more than 1,300 Gazans and 13 Israelis died, a "popular victory" for Palestinians, Haniyeh said Hamas's decision to declare a truce on Sunday was "wise and responsible".

Hamas announced an immediate cease-fire by its militants and allied groups in Gaza on Sunday, giving Israel a week to pull out its troops from the coastal territory. "We the Palestinian resistance factions declare a cease-fire from our side in Gaza and we confirm our stance that the enemy's troops must withdraw from Gaza within a week," said Damascus-based Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk.

Ayman Taha, a Hamas official in Cairo for talks with Egypt on a truce deal, demanded that Israel open all of Gaza'sw border crossings to allow in food and other goods to meet the "basic needs for our people."

Israel said earlier on Sunday that it will not consider a timetable for withdrawing all of its forces from the Gaza Strip until Hamas and other militants cease their fire.

A leader of the militant Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip on Sunday said his group had also agreed to stop attacks on Israelis for a period of one week, following Israel's declaration of the unilateral cease-fire. Daoud Shihab, the Islamic Jihad official, said other smaller militant groups have also agreed to join the truce. There has been no immediate response from Israel.

Shihab told The Associated Press that the factions will jointly make a formal announcement later on Sunday. Shihab also said a longer cease-fire would be conditional on Israel withdrawing from Gaza the troops it sent into the Strip two weeks ago.

The Hamas announcement came after Gaza militants on Sunday fired at least 17 rockets into Israel, lightly wounding one man. One of Israel's stated goals in the campaign, code-named Operation Cast Lead, was the cessation of cross-border rocket fire.
Posted by: Fred || 01/19/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Hamas won Gaza war, but was wise to declare truce

Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 01/19/2009 2:08 Comments || Top||

#2  All Hail the Hindmost.
Posted by: mojo || 01/19/2009 2:59 Comments || Top||

#3  They ARE undomitable!... In that sense that when any real pressure is applied to them, they crimple and shrink down and wane away, whining and complaining in an actually very feminized fashion... but as soon as pressure stops, they refill with hot air and get all bloated and boasty again, with their over-the-top affectation of virility and manhood. Real funny cross-national behavioral meme, from the muddle east Hard Boyz to the euro-Youths...

Frankly, I thought they were the human equivalent of teeth cavities, but I was wrong, they're sponges.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 01/19/2009 4:42 Comments || Top||

#4  They ARE undomitable!...

It works.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/19/2009 8:13 Comments || Top||

#5  No, it doesn't.
It's just the "international community" (IE their accomplices/proppers & the intoxicated West) pretend to take them seriously.
In a rational world, without the compleasing fellow travellers that the msm, the transational ngos, the transnational bodies,... are, then, the emperor would appear naked, such as he stands in reality.
They're not strong, they're not smart, they just get a free ride and a free pass.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 01/19/2009 8:31 Comments || Top||

#6  It works, look that they've achieved in the last 1400 years.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/19/2009 8:32 Comments || Top||

#7  Well... islam as a whole has wiped entire areas clean of any native civilization and culture, replacing them with dysfunctional entities that never could qualify as actual Nation, and in passing has killed tens of millions upon tens of millions of men and wimmen, enslaved as many, and reduced the actual owners of those lands into oppressed minorities (see egypt, where the school children are taught the ACTUAL egyptians, the copts, are traitors converted by furriners, whereas egypt is an "arab country").

So, yeah, it has been a terrifying force of entropy and decay, BUT, it had been contained and outpaced; colonization was a first step at reversing the forward drive of imperialism it imposed on its neighbors, too bad the free-mason 19th century would not have anything to do with any effort to evangelize the "natives" of north africa, for example.

Current problem is not that "islam" is strong, it has some real assets, all byproducts of the West's success story, but it's just a force of entropy, nothing more. all its "power" comes from our own weakness (including Israel's). For example, the "non-muslim world" has been swallowed in a mental trap... instead of seeing the normal state of life as peace and wars being exceptions to be concluded before resuming peace, it has entered a dhimmi mindset where the islamic worldview of constant war (of aggression) broken up by "convenient pauses" is the norm.
Should the West, and I include the Zionist Entity in it, ever come out of this (commie) mental trap, it could revert to the western way of war...
One funny thing about the arabs I think is they've never been "beaten"; reminds me of those bombastic muslim boasts of the "Conquest of London" after the july bombings... I mean, in the country that faced down the Blitz? They have no reference point, and I only hope FOR THEIR SAKE, that they will ultimately endure say a WWII level of collective asskicking, to make them understand what the pecking order is... before they push the LIVING WORLD into doing something we'll be apologizing over for the next 50 years+ (hopefully, something in the way of genetically-targeted racial groups-wiping plague, one can dream...).
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 01/19/2009 8:48 Comments || Top||

#8  They lost something like 1/10 of 1% of their population to the 'war', a number which was likely replaced by births during the same time period. And in the 'eyes of the world' all they had to do was survive to be declared the winner. I guess that makes them the winner. 0.1% is something like 1/3 of the US losses in WW II, and they achieved it much more quickly - they are really proving their ability to achieve their goal (of dying for Allan.)
Faster, please.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/19/2009 9:22 Comments || Top||

#9  Israel:1300-Hamas:13
Maybe he thinks he beat the spread?
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/19/2009 10:16 Comments || Top||

#10  I wish sometimes that the US would have tried and succeeded to prolong the Iran-Iraq war. That conflict probably resulted in at least 500,000 dead. If it had continued another five years, the mullahs might have been overthrown and Saddam might never have invaded Kuwait.
Posted by: mhw || 01/19/2009 10:32 Comments || Top||

#11  That's the way I've always looked at the Iraq insurgency. As a thing of beauty.
It drew out an enemy that could not be engaged and got them to travel half way around the world, abandoning their own squalid little terror cells, to be killed by American Marines in an appropriate setting and a convenient place. We lost a lot of soldiers doing it, but all those lunatics could have killed 20 times that many Americans if they attacked on their own terms, in their own countries, at the time and place of their choosing.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 01/19/2009 10:42 Comments || Top||

#12  But the Baghdad International Exhibition for Mil Production back in 1989 went swimingly! My Project Babylon Sugergun was a huge hit. Saddam loved it and we were moving on to multi-stage rocket designs as well! But then 1990 was a very bad year. I blame Bush and the juice.
Posted by: Gerald Bull || 01/19/2009 10:53 Comments || Top||

#13  The magic number is 3. Arab populations it's likely likely less, in Japan more, Russia much more, but usually 3%.
Posted by: .5MT || 01/19/2009 11:53 Comments || Top||

#14 
Posted by: DMFD || 01/19/2009 19:35 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
$3.2 billion spent combating terrorism in southern Thailand
The five-year-old conflict in Thailand's deep South has cost the state an estimated 109 billion baht (3.1 billion dollars) and lost 3,287 lives, an independent study revealed Monday.

Deep South Watch, an independent research group that monitors the conflict, has put the southern death toll over the last five years of violence at 3,287 lives, of whom 1,788 were Thai Muslims and 1,348 Thai Buddhists, with another 5,405 people wounded, The Nation newspaper reported. With an average of 1,956 incidents of violence reported yearly, the group estimated the government spends 88 million baht (2.5 million dollars) per incident, or a total budget of 109 billion baht over the last five years.

Although the number of violent incidents dropped 50 per cent last year, the severity increased, leading observers to conclude that the conflict has reached a stalemate requiring new government initiatives. Of the 300,000 Thai Buddhists who used to inhabit the region, some 70,000 have left since 2004, said the study.

Newly appointed Thai Prime Minister Abhist Vejjajiva has made the southern problem one of his government's priorities. Over the weekend, Abhist led an official visit to the region and vowed to investigate claims of torture and abuses of power. He has launched a review of the effectiveness of the emergency decree in solving the long-festering conflict.
Posted by: ryuge || 01/19/2009 05:28 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Does anyone know of a world map of violence superimposed on a religous one? Words don't describe the close connection between violence and Islam as a good graphic.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon || 01/19/2009 10:39 Comments || Top||

#2  There are a few non-Muslim countries embroiled in violence. Colombia, Sri Lanka, Congo for starters.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/19/2009 13:11 Comments || Top||

#3  Damned few, I'd say, Steve. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 01/19/2009 13:53 Comments || Top||

#4  Well okay: Peru, Rwanda, Uganda, Nigerian delta, East Timor.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/19/2009 16:01 Comments || Top||

#5  Steve, the Nigerian Delta bit involves a formerly rebellious non-Moslem region in a partly-Moslem country.

I guess to balance it out you could include Nepal.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 01/19/2009 16:32 Comments || Top||


Indonesian cleric calls for jihad in Gaza
One of Indonesia's best-known clerics on Sunday urged Muslims from the world's fourth most populous Muslim country to fight in the Gaza Strip following Israeli attacks which have killed more than 1,200 Palestinians. Abu Bakar Bashir, who was alleged to have once headed the Southeast Asian militant network, Jemaah Islamiah (JI), preached to about 500 people at a mosque in Bekasi, east of Jakarta, urging them to join a jihad in the Gaza Strip. "The war in Palestine isn't a war between one country and another, it is a religious war. The Jews try to destroy Islam, and so Muslims must join, to fight in their own capacity," he said. "Their suffering is our suffering, their blood is our blood, their trouble is our trouble. Thus, we must defend and protect them."President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has urged Israel to put an end to the three weeks of violence, and has sent humanitarian aid for the victims in Palestine. The government has tried to discourage calls from more militant groups to send civilian fighters, and has offered to dispatch a peacekeeping mission to the Gaza Strip. "We have sent material aid and, of course, our prayers. Jihad is not yet possible because the access remains closed. Nonetheless, we are preparing ourselves as it is our obligation," Bashir said.
Posted by: Fred || 01/19/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Jemaah Islamiyah

#1  Didn't they just do jihad in Gaza? It doesn't seem to work out too well for the Gazans. But I guess that isn't a problem if you live in Indonesia.
Posted by: Glolusing Barnsmell3409 || 01/19/2009 4:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Probably just trying to bump up his credibility by hopping on the Islamic bandwagon.
Posted by: gorb || 01/19/2009 4:24 Comments || Top||

#3  "We have sent material aid and, of course, our prayers. Jihad is not yet possible because the access remains closed. Nonetheless, we are preparing ourselves as it is our obligation," Bashir said.

I'll translate: "Good luck, boys! I'll try to think up some inspiring Muslim shit to cheer you on as you shed that "last drop of blood" from back here in Indonesia..."
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/19/2009 9:15 Comments || Top||

#4  He's a little late, isn't he?
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 01/19/2009 9:57 Comments || Top||


Sri Lanka
India's Tamil Leaders Demand End to War in Sri Lanka
Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Tamil political leaders in India say the government in New Delhi must press Sri Lanka to end its military offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels to save civilians caught in the conflict. Thol Thirumavalavan, a regional leader in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, is on a hunger strike demanding an "immediate cease-fire," Ravi Kumar, a spokesman for his Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi party, said in a telephone interview from Chennai, the state capital. Tamil Nadu has a population of 62.4 million people.

"Our party will not stop our protests until demands are met," Kumar said. Tamil lawmakers threatened to resign from India's national Parliament last October over the Sri Lankan conflict. Their support is crucial to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's coalition government.

Sri Lanka's army is attacking the last strongholds of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the northeast after capturing the group's political headquarters earlier this month as it tries to end the 26-year civil war. Tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced by the latest fighting and are in danger in the conflict zones, the International Committee of the Red Cross said yesterday.

Tamil Nadu's ruling Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam party has "impressed" on the federal government that it should step in and stop the war, spokesman T.K.S. Illangovan said in a telephone interview from Chennai. The party wants Pranab Mukherjee, India's foreign minister, to hold talks with the Sri Lankan government to "stop the genocide," he said.

"Civilian Tamils are affected in large numbers," Illangovan said. "This has to be stopped."
Only way to do that is to send Indian troops. The Lankan army isn't going to be impressed otherwise. And the Indian army, in case you haven't noticed, has been busy lately ...

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White || 01/19/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  India sending troops? Not gonna happen. They'll probably press for better treatment of the Tamil civilians, but that's about it.

They haven't forgotten what the LTTE did to Rajiv Gandhi.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/19/2009 11:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Looks like you're losing, huh, boys?
Big time.
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/19/2009 14:01 Comments || Top||

#3  Sonia Gandhi isn't going to forgive the LTTE for making her a widow. Indian troops are more likely to intervene in Iceland then in Lanka.
Posted by: john frum || 01/19/2009 14:54 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Ahmadinejad Claims Victory in Gaza
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Hamas leader in Syria Khaled Mashaal and congratulated him on the "great victory" the Palestinians had achieved over the IDF in the Gaza Strip, the Iranian ISNA news agency reported on Monday morning.
Posted by: mhw || 01/19/2009 04:43 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  May Ahmadinejad partake himself in such victories in the future.
Posted by: Perfesser || 01/19/2009 9:08 Comments || Top||

#2  I love the smell of Gaza corpses in the morning! Smells like...victory!
Posted by: Ahmadinejad || 01/19/2009 9:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Another such victory and I am undone.
Posted by: Pyrrhus || 01/19/2009 9:38 Comments || Top||

#4  A few more 'victories' like that and there wont be a single building standing in Gaza.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 01/19/2009 9:51 Comments || Top||

#5  It is a victory for Ahmadinejad and the MMs. Their cash outlay to support all the Hamas individuals has probably gone down considerably. In these tough times 'cost cutting', by whatever means, would probably be appreciated by them.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 01/19/2009 10:20 Comments || Top||

#6  Does anyone really need more to realize that these people are from another world?...not sure what hinders these people more, their good book or the saving face crap. The UN needs to start a "Reality Check 101" class in the Middle East.
Posted by: HammerHead || 01/19/2009 10:28 Comments || Top||

#7  Why doesn't Israel invite him to a victory parade? I'm sure it would be safe.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon || 01/19/2009 10:34 Comments || Top||

#8  Given that Ahmedinejad always internded to fight to the last Palestinian, it is a "victory" that there are still some left.
Posted by: Frozen Al || 01/19/2009 13:13 Comments || Top||

#9  "A few more 'victories' like that and there wont be a single building standing in Gaza."

What's the downside, bigjom?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 01/19/2009 13:54 Comments || Top||

#10  What's the downside, bigjom?

A tax on popcorn sales to help pay for new buildings.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/19/2009 19:34 Comments || Top||

#11  MOUD = IRAN only needs 1-2 of NOKOR's alleged PLUTONIUM BOMBS [NYT].

* WAFF.com > IRAN: ASIA'S OTHER RISING POWER
[Pro-Iran/Islamist Middle East + Central Asia].

* ISRAELI MILITARY FORUM > US INTEL CHIEF [Mcconnell] SAYS IRAN NUCLEAR WEAPON COULD START A [major? Nuclear?]REGIONAL WAR, + ARAB STATES FEAR MUSLIM MILITANCY MORE THAN ISRAEL.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/19/2009 20:05 Comments || Top||

#12  #9: "A few more 'victories' like that and there wont be a single building standing in Gaza."

What's the downside, bigjim?


The Palestinians will have more rocks to throw at the Israelis. It's gonna take a lot of D-9s to push all that rubble into the Med. Most of the ground will be contaminated for four or five years before it can be cultivated or settled upon. Other than that, I think it's a MARVELOUS idea.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 01/19/2009 20:10 Comments || Top||

#13  #9: "A few more 'victories' like that and there wont be a single building standing in Gaza."

What's the downside, bigjim?


The Palestinians will have more rocks to throw at the Israelis. It's gonna take a lot of D-9s to push all that rubble into the Med. Most of the ground will be contaminated for four or five years before it can be cultivated or settled upon. Other than that, I think it's a MARVELOUS idea.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 01/19/2009 20:10 Comments || Top||

#14  #9: "A few more 'victories' like that and there wont be a single building standing in Gaza."

What's the downside, bigjim?


The Palestinians will have more rocks to throw at the Israelis. It's gonna take a lot of D-9s to push all that rubble into the Med. Most of the ground will be contaminated for four or five years before it can be cultivated or settled upon. Other than that, I think it's a MARVELOUS idea.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 01/19/2009 20:10 Comments || Top||

#15  what the???

Mods, please clean up #13 and 14. I only hit "Send" once, so I don't know why this happened.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 01/19/2009 20:12 Comments || Top||

#16  Well, it'll be the first 1.5 mile-deep riprap shoreline protection. Should be adequate for 3,000 or 5,000 years?
Posted by: Frank G || 01/19/2009 21:23 Comments || Top||

#17  LOL!

Yes!

Lovingly Manufactured PALEO RUBBLE makes for High-Grade FILL & BACK-FILL Stocks On Hand for any number of great Israeli Bizneth ventures.

Unlimited Rip-Rap uses Like Frank alluded to for AQUA-CULTURE Foundations, PORT Expansions, and Tons of rock to Grade and Expand Beaches, Dunes, Restaurants etc.

Ahhh... Lets Break Paleo-Rock and Buildings With BIG HUGE Bombs!
Posted by: Red Dawg || 01/19/2009 22:26 Comments || Top||


Hezbollah behind Lebanon rocket strikes in north
Hezbollah is behind the two Katyusha rocket attacks that struck northern Israel in the last two weeks.
In both cases, the organization used proxy Palestinian militant groups to launch the rockets from southern Lebanon.
In both cases, the organization used proxy Palestinian militant groups to launch the rockets from southern Lebanon.

Security forces in the north are in a state of heightened alert, for fear that Hezbollah will fire more rockets into Israel or try to avenge the February 2008 assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, the organization's No. 2, in Damascus. Hezbollah has since tried to carry out at least five attacks against Israeli or Jewish targets in various countries.

The second Katyusha attack, which occurred last week, was aimed at the northern Galilee. The rockets landed in open territory, resulting in neither casualties nor property damage.

The organization that physically fired the rockets was the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command, founded by Ahmed Jibril, a former military officer in the Syrian Army and one of the PFLP's early leaders. Over the past few years, PFLP has become a close Hezbollah ally.

In coordinating the rocket strikes, Hezbollah went against several ministers in the Lebanese government who specifically asked the organization to refrain from perpetrating attacks on Israel, which risked igniting a conflagration of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel.

Posted by: Fred || 01/19/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah

#1  Really? next thing you are going to tell me is there is gambling at Ricks and bears actually do shit in the woods
Posted by: Abu do you love || 01/19/2009 0:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Hezbollah is behind the two Katyusha rocket attacks that struck northern Israel in the last two weeks.

Hezbollah you say?
Hmm.
No shit Sherlock.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 01/19/2009 9:52 Comments || Top||

#3  now guys, reuter or the AP have too act surprised even though they prob had cameras there too cover the event
Posted by: rabid whitetail || 01/19/2009 10:03 Comments || Top||


Israel hopes Iran and Hezbollah get message of Gaza offensive
In declaring a cease-fire Saturday in Gaza, Israel asserted that it had achieved its goals: hurting Hamas' military wing, discouraging rocket fire into Israel and cutting the flow of smuggled arms into Gaza. But Israel had a broader goal: sending a tough message to its arch-enemies Iran and Hezbollah.

Israeli leaders say the pounding of Hamas dealt a blow to Iran, which Israel accuses of backing the Palestinian group, and to Hezbollah, the Shiite militia in Lebanon that fought Israel to a stalemate in 2006.

"The operation proved again the power of Israel and improved its deterrence against those who threaten it," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said.

Nonetheless, as Gaza quiets down, Israeli security officials acknowledge that the wider conflict could escalate, as it plays out in secret skirmishes in the Middle East and beyond.

For months, Israeli intelligence services have girded for a possible attack overseas intended to avenge the assassination last year of Imad Mughniyah, a Hezbollah warlord who was close to Iran. Israeli security officials say the threat has intensified as the Gaza bloodshed converges with the anniversary next month of Mughniyah's death, for which Hezbollah blames Israel. . .
Posted by: Fred || 01/19/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah

#1  Now, do not let the Chosen one spoil it.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/19/2009 8:11 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
Guests Lose Their Tempers During Al-Jazeera TV Discussion on Whether Bush Is a War Criminal
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 01/19/2009 15:03 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A very enjoyable read -- Arab lawyer threatening bodily harm. Pity no one said anything about shitting on their opponent's mustache...
Posted by: regular joe || 01/19/2009 15:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Interviewer: "Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic killed several thousand people – or rather, was accused of doing so – and was dragged to the International Criminal Court [ICC], where he was killed, and no one knows how. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was also accused of some killings, and his head was chopped off.

"Now, the Sudanese president is wanted by the international justice system to stand trial on unsubstantiated accusations. A few people killed Rafiq Al-Hariri, and the whole world is up in arms over one Lebanese MP. Libya paid billions of dollars in compensation for a few American heads.

"So why not place on trial the man labeled by the German justice minister 'the Hitler of our times,' who killed millions of people and children in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Palestine, and Lebanon?"


was this Olbermann?
Posted by: Frank G || 01/19/2009 15:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Arabs doing what they do best. Making a lotta noise...
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/19/2009 17:24 Comments || Top||

#4  These people are beyond belief. This would be absolutely hilarious if it weren't for all the lives at stake.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 01/19/2009 20:17 Comments || Top||

#5  I think guests on Al Jazeera lose their temper discussing their least favorite salad dressing
Posted by: mhw8 || 01/19/2009 22:31 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
33[untagged]
6Hamas
4Taliban
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3Hezbollah
1Iraqi Insurgency
1Jaish-e-Mohammad
1Jamaat-e-Islami
1Jemaah Islamiyah
1Lashkar e-Taiba
1Muslim Brotherhood
1al-Qaeda in Yemen
1al-Qaeda in North Africa

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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2009-01-19
  Qaeda in North Africa hit by plague
Sun 2009-01-18
  Olmert: Israel's goals in Cast Lead have been attained
Sat 2009-01-17
  Israel Unilateral Cease Fire in Effect
Fri 2009-01-16
  Elite Hamas ''Iran'' Battalion Wiped Out
Thu 2009-01-15
  Senior Hamas figure Said Siam killed in airstrike
Wed 2009-01-14
  Hamas accepts Egyptian proposal for Gaza cease-fire
Tue 2009-01-13
  Israelis Push to Edge of Gaza City
Mon 2009-01-12
  Israeli reservists swarm into Gaza
Sun 2009-01-11
  Hamas rejects international observers in Gaza
Sat 2009-01-10
  Israel to continue offensive despite UN resolution
Fri 2009-01-09
  New Year's Missile Strike Killed Top Al-Qaeda Operatives
Thu 2009-01-08
  Katyusha rockets falling in Israel's North on the town of Nahariya
Wed 2009-01-07
  Screech urges Muslims to attack Israeli and Western targets over Gaza op
Tue 2009-01-06
  First major Israel-Hamas fighting in Gaza City
Mon 2009-01-05
  Battles begin in N Gaza; many hamas operatives captured


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