Thirty-two soldiers took their own lives last month, the most Army suicides in a single month since the Vietnam era. Eleven of the soldiers were not on active duty. Of the 21 who were, seven were serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, the Department of Defense said.
Army officials say they don't have any answers to why more and more soldiers are resorting to suicide.
"There were no trends to any one unit, camp, post or station," Col. Chris Philbrick, head of the Army's suicide prevention task force, told CNN. "I have no silver bullet to answer the question why."
Someone needs to dig deeper into the numbers, to determine if this is statistical variability or a real trend. Also, it would be helpful to know how the rate of suicides per e.g. 10,000 population compares to peacetime and to a similar civilian population. We mourn every death is a tragedy, but we have enough to determine considerably more than "no trends to any one unit", etc. That information, while useful, is not nearly useful enough. The DoD already has information on age, sex, religion, deployments, education, family status, etc, ad infinitum, and plenty of people who know how to take masses of data and explore it until the statistically significant factors burst from the shadows with their hands over their heads in surrender.
Those factors and more have in fact been examined very carefully, including medical factors. This is not an issue of data analysis. It's an issue of how the Army is being used and abused by this country and leaders.
Thank you, lotp. That the situation is being exhaustively researched needs to be more effectively communicated. Based on the comment thread at the original article, my thoughts are not original. The other bit, I'm not sure how the Army can communicate publicly without being accused by the thin-skinned of insubordination.
Last year, a record-breaking 245 soldiers committed suicide. The Army seems on track to surpass that number this year, as 145 soldiers have taken their lives in the first half of 2010.
Tim Embree of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America testified Wednesday before the House Veterans Affairs Committee that many soldiers fear seeking help.
"The heavy stigma associated with mental health care stops many service members and veterans from seeking treatment," he said. "More than half of soldiers and Marines in Iraq who tested positive for a psychological injury reported concerns that they will be seen as weak by their fellow service members."
He pointed out that the statistics don't include the number of veterans who end their own lives. That figure surged 26 percent from 2005 to 2007, according to the Veterans Affairs Department.
The Army has a 24-hour suicide prevention hotline, and has videos and other resources on its website. The Army's new suicide prevention video features a soldier talking about his own failed suicide attempt after his wife said she wanted to divorce him. The rifle he used to try to kill himself didn't fire, he says, and he later found out his comrade had disabled it because he was worried about him. That has to be one of the most ill-phrased quotes this year.
What a butthead. He is the head of the prevention taskforce and has no answer as to why? Here is a why: why does he still pull a paycheck? I am writing someone to denounce this man Monday morning.
#10
Obviously, CB you've never been in the service. Having been at the tail end of the draftee period and staying long enough to rebuild from the nadir of the 70s, if you really want an Army, you want volunteers. I've been through the crap of high AWOL rates, drug abuse (you couldn't fire the kids you drafted because by drafting them you're responsible for their problem), high levels of Art 15s and courts martial, not to mention the occasional race riot. Today's screening keeps a lot of that out. That means you have time to train for your mission rather than be consumed operating an adult day care center. I guess people need to learn the hard way over and over again rather than learn from past mistakes others have already paid for.
#12
I respectfully disagree with P2k's assertion. Drug use, alcohol abuse, spousal abuse, former inmates, felons, AWOL, sexual abuse, theft, rape are all present in today's Army. The Army takes criminals into their ranks with waivers. And that is said as a former section NCO in the Army during the last decade. Counseling statements tell the true tale. I've been privy enough to be close enough to know that reality says otherwise, draft or no draft.
#13
Obviously, CB you've never been in the service.
All the things you claim are exacerbated by draft are rampant in the all volunteer force. Article 15's, rank reductions, extra duty, AWOL, cocaine, pot, booze and worse. Just like an adult daycare. I know plenty of people in the Army. The reports are gloomy. Im on trend with whats going on in the military, and running "an adult daycare" is what any NCO will contend with, with or without a draft. Taking care of soldiers is a small price to pay for someone who would lay down their life for the United States. And complaining about it is just trying to cash in on soldiers without giving anything back. Unbegruding, IMHO, if someone enlists, they are allowed to have some foible or another just like the rest of us are.
#14
Gentleman, I didn't say the standards were perfection. I stipulated that the remains of the draft in the 70s were horrid by comparison, a perception you lack. You say rampant, put up the numbers to prove your point that they're just as prevalent today as back then.
How about this? Put up the numbers to prove your point about the seventies. It seems only fitting since you call me out. I don't take orders, I make them. I am not IN the military anymore (which I was, and you assumed I was not) I did take orders many times per day before, but that was then and this is now. Come get the numbers, jerkwad.
[Maghrebia] Eleven terror suspects go on trial next week in Nouakchott for abducting Spanish aid workers in Mauritania last November, Journal Tahalil reported on Thursday (July 15th). Six alleged kidnappers will appear in court in July 21st and five will be tried in absentia. Two Algerians and two Mauritanians, including a woman, are among the defendants.
Alicia Gamez, 39, was released after three months, but hostages Albert Vilalta and Roque Pascual remain held in northern Mali. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has demanded a ransom payment and the liberation of Islamist prisoners for their release.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/17/2010 00:00 ||
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[Maghrebia] Othmane Touati and Samir Moussaab, two former leaders of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), on Thursday (July 15th) urged their ex-comrades to stop their "crimes" and promised reconciliation for those who renounce terrorism.
Authorities set up a meeting between the former terrorists and reporters from five newspapers in order to read the contents of a letter to the "remaining armed elements in mountains" dated May 31st.
The letter by Touati, a former member of Al-Qaeda's Council of Notables who is also known as Abou El-Abbes, demands that the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) stop its crimes, both planned and under way, against the Algerian people.
"I realize that the path that I was following was not the right path, based on respected ancient and modern scholars' fatwas on the illegality of jihad in our country", said Touati, a GSPC founder and long-time "right hand" to AQIM chief Abdelmalek Droukdel.
He said the terrorist organisation is facing some internal deteriorations.
AQIM has suffered a string of defections in recent months that includes terrorist Grig-Ahsine Abdelhalim, an Algiers native who joined the GSPC in 1994 after escaping from Batna's Tazoult prison. AQIM medical committee head Mokadem Lounis, aka Abou Naamane, surrendered in mid-April, as did former El-Farouk brigade emir Ahmed Mansouri Ahmed, aka Abdeldjebbar.
Those who still embrace jihad should review the approach of armed struggle, said Touati, who was once responsible for co-ordinating terrorist operations in Algeria's Boumerdes, Tizi-Ouzou and Bouira provinces.
Several armed elements who were active in AQIM are planning to issue a review that includes criticism of Al-Qaeda methods such as kidnapping and the killing of Muslims, said Touati.
"I urge my brothers to review their ways... and to think about the consequences of their behaviour", added the former terrorist, who surrendered to authorities on May 26th with the help of his wife and Moussaab.
Moussaab, who was believed to have died in a confrontation with the Algerian army in April 2007, surrendered after a hospital stay that followed the clash.
The former GSPC chief of staff promised reconciliation for those who leave the mountains, telling reporters: "Just as we were the reason for their ascent to the mountains, we will be the cause for them to come back down for reconciliation".
Moussaab appealed to religious scholars who once issued fatwas on the legitimacy of jihad, only to revise that opinion, to reach out to insurgents. He pointed to scholars such as Abdelkader Ben Abdel Aziz, the ideologue of al-Qaeda who recanted his fatwas on the legitimacy of jihad in the land of Islam.
Moussaab also called on Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) leaders and their scholars, such as Khudair Khodr and Nasser Fahd, to convince those still in the mountains to come back to the "right path".
These appeals build on religious reviews and previous appeals made by former leading terrorists, particularly the December 2009 calls by GSPC founding member Hassan Hattab.
Mohammed Mesloub, a researcher on Islamist movements, told Magharebia that disseminating "rational revisions for the jihad groups, as is the case with the [LIFG], would be more effective than visiting scholars and preachers, because the Algerian jihadists have common values with the other jihadists of the Maghreb region".
Hussein Boulahya, a media expert on Islamist groups, called the ideological revisions made by former GSPC leaders "only a prelude" to a series of revisions that ex-insurgents are preparing to release criticising "the approach of the GSPC and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb".
He said that such revisions by prominent former terrorist leaders "will have a positive effect in speeding up the repentance of armed elements who're reluctant to lay down their arms, not because of their belief in the legitimacy of jihad in Algeria, but because of fears of being exposed to violence".
"The fact that leaders of the organisation have not been subjected to any harm may remove some concerns," added Boulahya.
Local press reports quote Algerian officials as saying that for over 9 months, security forces have been pursuing a new initiative for reconciliation and the dismantling of terrorist cells.
Some active terrorists and prisoners who have credibility with their comrades have become part of communications taking place since last March, under a heavy veil of confidentiality, said the authorities. This led to an agreement that would grant the terrorist prisoners conveniences in their cells as a prelude to their release, in exchange for their participation in convincing their former comrades to repent and issuing intellectual and doctrinal reviews.
In recent months, under this scheme, authorities have brought the families of active terrorists to meet with them, including relatives of alleged terrorist Yahya Jouwadi, the commander of the desert Emirate.
The daily Algeria News on July 6th reported that prisoners connected to this aspect of the fight against terrorism will be released in the next few months under a "deal" to bring AQIM terrorists, including Amar Saifi and his comrade Gharika Noureddine, into the fold of national reconciliation.
The paper also reported that 50 terrorists who are entitled to presidential pardons have been chosen within the framework of recent months' behind-the-scenes negotiations, with the participation of former GSPC leader Hattab.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/17/2010 00:00 ||
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US President Barack Obama praised Yemen's 'determination' to fight terror during a phone call late on Thursday with his counterpart Ali Abdullah Saleh, the White House said.
But despite commitments by the Yemeni government to crack down on extremism, the two leaders noted that al Qaeda remained a 'continuing threat' in the country on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.
'President Obama applauded Yemen's determination to address the terrorist threat the Yemeni people face and recognised the sacrifices of Yemeni forces involved in this effort', according to a White House readout of the call. 'They also discussed the continuing threat of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and international assistance to Yemen to support its counterterrorism efforts'.
Obama and Saleh spoke just a day after some 20 suspected al Qaeda gunmen launched simultaneous attacks on the intelligence and security service headquarters in the south Yemen town of Zinjibar, killing three policemen and wounding 11. Two gunmen were also killed and one wounded in the clashes.
Extremists are known to be regrouping in Yemen, the ancestral homeland of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and the impoverished nation has witnessed repeated attacks claimed by the militants on foreign missions, tourist sites and oil facilities.
In May, AQAP claimed responsibility for an attack that prompted the British embassy in Sanaa to close for nearly two weeks. The government has intensified operations against the group since the attempted bombing of a US-bound airliner on December 25 by a Nigerian believed to have been trained and supplied by the group in Yemen.
Even before that failed attack over the US city of Detroit, Yemeni air strikes killed 34 suspected AQAP members on December 17 in an attack on an alleged training camp in Abyan. Another 34 militants were reportedly killed in an air strike on December 24. "They are cooperating," Obama said of Yemeni authorities, speaking in an NBC interview which aired Thursday. 'This is a tough part of the world, but we are building up capacity working with them to make sure that we don't take our eye off the ball even as we continue to put pressure (on al Qaeda) between Afghanistan and Pakistan'.
Obama warned on NBC that al Qaeda remained 'dangerous' in Yemen and had gained strength there in large part because the terror network was being squeezed elsewhere. "We have actually been pretty successful at forcing al Qaeda in the border regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan to hunker down," Obama told the network.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/17/2010 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Detained Jamaat leaders Motiur Rahman Nizami, Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojahid and Delwar Hossain Sayedee might soon be shown arrested in a case filed in connection with the recovery of nine grenades from a JMB den in the capital's Kadamtoli area on June 24.
A top official of the Detective Branch (DB) of police said they would seek a court order within a day or two to show the trio arrested in the case based on JMB chief Saidur Rahman's information.
According to the official, Saidur said Jamaat and JMB activists were collecting grenades and other explosives for subversive operations across the country to foil the trial process of war criminals.
"Saidur also said that Jamaat had provided financial support and other assistance for the destructive operations to keep the government and law enforcers busy with something else rather than the war crime trial," added the official.
Meanwhile, DB police yesterday brought detained acting JMB chief Bhagne Shahid from Bogra and the banned outfit's North Bengal chief Shafiqul Islam alias Jamai Rafiq from Gaibandha to the capital to interrogate them face-to-face with Saidur.
Sources said DB has already started interrogation to verify Jamaat's involvement in planning destructive operations.
The top DB official said, Saidur disclosed that Anwar Alam alias Bhagne Shahid had been coordinating the operations according to Jamaat's plan. Shahid escaped the arrest in Kadamtoli on June 24 exploding a grenade and injuring several policemen. He was caught from Bogra on July 12.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/17/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Two thirds of British people would support a ban on Muslim women wearing face-covering veils in public similar to the one approved by French lawmakers this week, a poll found Friday.
An online survey of 2,205 adults for Five News television found 67 percent of respondents agreed that the burqa -- the full-face veil -- should be banned. That figure rose to 80 percent among people aged over 55.
The YouGov poll was carried out between Wednesday and Friday, after France's lower house of parliament voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to ban full Islamic veils in public spaces.
Similar laws are pending in Belgium, Spain and some Italian municipalities, but the ban is particularly sensitive in France, whose rundown city suburbs are home to Europe's biggest Muslim minority.
A Harris poll for the Financial Times in March revealed Britons were among the most tolerant in Europe towards the Islamic veil, with just 57 percent backing a ban, compared to 70 percent in France and 65 percent in Spain.
According to the Muslim Council of Britain, about 2.5 million Muslims live in this country, and less than one percent wear a face veil.
On Tuesday France banned Muslim women from wearing the for wearing the burqa in public under a bill approved overwhelmingly by the lower house of parliament.
France is home to Western Europe's largest Muslim minority, with about 5 million Muslims, but it is thought that only about 2,000 women wear the full-face veil.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/17/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Oh my. Labor is going to have a hard time getting the public to swallow that one. Maybe they could come up with the novel idea of doing what their subjects want them to do.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Venezuela has denied Colombia's charge that it is sheltering Colombian guerrillas on its territory and has recalled its ambassador to Bogota in protest.
Caracas said the accusation is a move by outgoing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to undermine the potential normalization of relations between the two countries before next month's inauguration of Colombia's new head of state, Juan Manuel Santos.
"As these steps (for improved relations) are going ahead, Uribe's government has decided... to dynamite the rapprochement," Reuters quoted Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro as saying on Friday.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez described the charges as "an old broken record" and called Uribe a "Mafioso... full of hatred."
"We're not going to be provoked," Chavez said, adding that he would give Santos a chance to keep his promise to improve Colombia's relations with Venezuela.
Bogota says it has clear evidence to back its accusation that five leaders of leftist guerrilla groups are hiding in Venezuela.
The two neighbors froze diplomatic ties last year after Colombia and the United States signed a military cooperation agreement that allows US forces to use Colombian military bases for anti-drug operations.
However, Chavez says the military pact is a threat to Venezuela.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/17/2010 00:00 ||
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Rioters exchanged gunfire with police in the French city of Grenoble early Saturday, setting fire to shops and cars after police shot dead a man accused of robbing a casino.
Youths torched between 50 and 60 cars in the southeastern French city, as well as construction equipment and two shops, while police said they made five arrests.
Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux was to visit the city Saturday afternoon, his ministry said.
The rioting started after a memorial service for 27-year-old Karim Boudouda, who died 24 hours earlier in a shootout with police after allegedly holding up the Uriage-les-Bains casino near Grenoble. Shortly before midnight, a group of around 30 youths armed with baseball bats and iron bars attacked a tram in Boudouda's working class district of La Villeneuve and forced the passengers to get out.
French youts play baseball?
Police intervened to protect the passengers, and the youths began torching vehicles and attacking police who responded with tear gas.
At around 2:30 am (0030 GMT), a youth emerged at the front of the rioters and fired a shot at police, who returned fire four times, police spokeswoman Brigette Jullien told AFP. Nobody was injured in the riots, police said.
By Saturday morning order had been restored in La Villeneuve, and police could no longer be seen on the neighbourhood's streets.
According to police union SGP-FO, violence has been on the rise in recent months in Grenoble.
"Police are at breaking point," said regional union chief Daniel Chomette, who called for reinforcements.
The casino at Uriage-les-Bains was the third to be attacked in southeastern France and Switzerland since late March.
An alleged accomplice of Boudouda escaped during the shootout and is still on the run. Police found between 20,000 and 40,000 euros (25,000-50,000 dollars) in the back of the getaway car.
Prosecutor Jean Philippe said the police had acted in legitimate self-defence when they were fired on at least three times after a car chase which ended in La Villeneuve. The police fired back, hitting Boudouda in the head, he said.
An autopsy was to be carried out Saturday on Boudouda, who had three convictions for armed robbery.
Police said they had arrested two men aged 18 and 20 for setting fire to vehicles and three more for attempted looting of shops.
#1
only 5 arrests?!?! and they wonder why this crap continues over and over and over and over and over...
hose them down with UV dye, then go house to house with the black lights. deport any who light up. that would end the silliness.
or alternatively, order them to disperse, then after 5 minutes shoot to kill.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
07/17/2010 13:56 Comments ||
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#2
It is summer time. You can stay out all night in France without getting rained on or freezing your a$$ off. The riot wasn't because an armed robber was killed. The riot was because it is summer and there are a bunch of people spoiling for a riot. If the robber hadn't been killed, some other reason would be blamed.
Rioting on summer evenings is becoming a French national pastime.
#3
How long before troublemakers and leaders are displeased Latin American style? That is if bodies continue to provoke rioting. I'm sure France would never do such a thing but I'd 'enlist' the worst ones in the military and base them somewhere inhospitable (without the cost of military training of course).
Elba has proved useful in the past, Rjschwarz... Agreed about the summer hobby aspect of rioting, and I purely love the dye option. If the dye is carefully sprayed at knee level, there should be no legitimate complaints of blindness resulting therefrom. Could the dye be oil-based? It's so hard to get oily stains out of fabric, you see, and it tends to spread to the other clothes in the laundry hamper.
The New York Times has some very, very good reporters scattered among the fabulists. Sometimes their work gets past the editors unchanged.
The Turkish charity that led the flotilla involved in a deadly Israeli raid has extensive connections with Turkey's political elite, and the group's efforts to challenge Israel's blockade of Gaza received support at the top levels of the governing party, Turkish diplomats and government officials said.
The charity, the Humanitarian Relief Foundation, often called I.H.H., has come under attack in Israel and the West for offering financial support to groups accused of terrorism. But in Turkey the group has helped Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan shore up support from conservative Muslims ahead of critical elections next year and improve Turkey's standing and influence in the Arab world.
According to a senior Turkish official close to the government, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the political delicacy of the issue, as many as 10 Parliament members from Mr. Erdogan's governing Justice and Development Party were considering boarding the Mavi Marmara, the ship where the deadly raid occurred, but were warned off at the last minute by senior Foreign Ministry officials concerned that their presence might escalate tensions too much.
Continued on Page 49
The Mountie in charge of investigating terrorist threats says he's alarmed at the growing number of Canadians adopting violent jihad.
Assistant Commissioner Gilles Michaud said RCMP are aware of a number of Canadians who are currently training at Islamic terror camps. "We have some in Pakistan, we see some in Somalia, we see them in Afghanistan," he said.
RCMP believe that two-dozen Canadians have trained at camps in Somalia, Afghanistan and Pakistan (the same country where the Times Square bomber is believed to have sought instruction in terrorist tactics). They suspect that several Canadians hold leadership roles in al Qaeda-linked groups.
The Mounties are investigating at least six young Somali-Canadian men from the Toronto area who are believed to have left the country to join al Shabaab, the Somalia-based group responsible for last week's suicide bombings in Uganda that killed 76 people. But Michaud is also concerned about the threat of Islamic extremists unleashing terror on Canadian soil, particularly if those trained at terrorist camps overseas return to Canada.
There are those in Canada who are fundraising for terrorist groups "through charities, drug dealing and credit card fraud," he said. What's more, threats from "neo-jihadist groups" are no longer limited to major Canadian cities, he said -- they now affect smaller communities across the country.
Many of the suspected terrorists being investigated by RCMP are second or third generation Canadians who have been integrated into Canadian society before becoming radicalised, Michaud said. RCMP have even set up a national security tip line, at 1-800-420-5805, where concerned citizens can report suspicious behaviour 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
But some Islamic groups say the Mounties are exaggerating the threat.
Surprise!
"I don't get the sense it is a huge problem within the Muslim community," said Khalid Elgazzar with the Council of American-Islamic Relations Canada. "I would say these are isolated incidents."
A federal judge on Friday sentenced the first man out of more than a dozen charged in a sweeping counterterrorism investigation that has spanned more than two years and several continents and focused a spotlight on the Twin Cities Somali community.
Abdow Munye Abdow, 26, was a relatively small player in a major drama involving the recruitment of 20 or more local men of Somali descent to aid and, in some cases, fight for the Somali terrorist group Al-Shabaab. U.S. District Judge James Rosenbaum sentenced Abdow to four months behind bars and four months of home confinement for lying to federal agents investigating the case. But Friday's sentencing marks a milestone in one of the nation's largest counterterrorism investigations since the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Abdow, who rented a car used by terror suspects to flee the country, is the first to have his case resolved by the courts.
A total of 14 men, most of whom lived in the Minneapolis area, have been charged or indicted in connection with an investigation that began more than two years ago, after young Somali men from Minnesota started secretly slipping away from their families. Five of the 14, including Abdow, have pleaded guilty in connection with the case. One local man awaits trial. Another sits in jail in the Netherlands, awaiting extradition. The rest are believed to have fled the country and remain at large.
#1
how about revoking their citizenship or Visa and shipping them back?
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/17/2010 9:34 Comments ||
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#2
Yeah, they don't want them in Minnesota, ship them back to Wisconsin!
Posted by: Things From Snowy Mountains ||
07/17/2010 9:47 Comments ||
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#3
The US policy of allowing the most primitive, jihadist leaning people to be the highest percentage recipients of Political Asylum into the US 2006-2007 is a man-made disaster.
The Department of Homeland Security has awarded New York state $294 million -- a 2.4 percent increase from 2009 funding levels for the state's homeland security programs. The New York City area will receive $151.5 million in Urban Areas Security Initiative funding, which is a 4.4 percent increase from 2009.
Dateline Thurs, July 15, 2010 - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday will order 224 California National Guard troops to the border with Mexico, fulfilling an earlier commitment to President Barack Obama. Schwarzeneggers order defines the state guards role as supportive, noting that forces, while armed, "will not be deployed in a direct law enforcement role."
In what role will they be deployed, then serving coffee?
Smokin' and jokin', a time honored military activity
Schwarzenegger limits the deployment to one year.
In May, Obama launched a plan to deploy 1,200 National Guard troops to the southwest border.
#1
Probably they will be handing out drivers licenses, directions to the welfare offices, useful information about sanctuary cities, and other needed things that every illegal immigrant needs.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/17/2010 2:49 Comments ||
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#2
As long as the NG personnel are not federalized, they are not subject to Posse Comitatus and can be used in accordance with state statutes governing law enforcement.
#3
As Dr. Krauthammer notes, calling out the NG to the border is a time-honored BS maneuver, a redirect favored by pols of both parties when the little folk get too uppity about asking why we're importing a second underclass from the failed state on our southern border.
Last week, the government unsealed a plea agreement in a terrorism case involving Najibullah Zazi, the Denver shuttle bus driver the FBI arrested last September. He allegedly conspired to target New York City subways at the direction of al-Qaida.
Attorney General Eric Holder has said that Zazi's plot was the most dangerous on American soil since Sept. 11. He's pleaded guilty to terrorism charges.
Though he pleaded guilty, Zazi still faces life in prison. The question has been: Why would he agree to that?
It turns out Zazi is cooperating with prosecutors -- which might win him and his family a so-called "snitch" visa.
The 'Snitch' Visa
The visa is a little-known bargaining chip that the government can dangle before terrorism suspects who agree to cooperate with investigators and plead guilty. It can sweeten the idea of decades behind bars.
"We always refer to the S visa as a snitch visa," says Patrick Rowan, who ran the national security division at the Justice Department during the Bush years. "It was always easy to remember because you would use the word snitch."
Rowan says the idea behind the visa program is simple.
"The essence of the S visa is there's people who are in the U.S. who you would want their cooperation in the context of a criminal case," Rowan says. "And you can gain them status in the U.S. so they can live here and work here and even have a path toward becoming a lawful permanent resident if they're granted an S visa."
So that's what the government can offer. Zazi's case helps explain what it might get in return.
Posted by: American Delight ||
07/17/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
As long as it doesn't go beyond life behind bars, that's fine with me. If he ends up in with the general population in a maximum security facility, even better.
This is beyond parody... Is it prison or is it a slumber party?
President Obama has not fulfilled his pledge to close the detainee prison at Guantanamo Bay, but he has brought Skype, Playstation3 and "life skills" classes to the detainees at the island facility.
While the 181 men being held in the prison wait to learn their fates after the administration fell through on its January 2010 deadline to move them out, 90 percent now live in a communal environment that includes Skype, the online video chat service, and access to a 17,000-book library. That's up from 40 percent of detainees a year ago.
The "Twilight" series, a hit among so-called "tweens," is also popular with detainees, the camp's "librarian" said.
Only "highly compliant" detainees can be a part of "communal living," which locks detainees in their cells for four hours a day and means they are "afforded more liberties" and "more freedom of movement," said Lt. Col. Andrew McManus, who oversees operations for the detention camps at Guantanamo Bay, as Fox News tagged along for a tour of the facilities there.
At Camp 6, a minimum security facility within sight of bright Caribbean waters, detainees can now watch flatscreen TVs suspended from above (and encased in protective plastic) or attend classes on personal finance -- all while their feet are chained to the floor. At first, detainees were offered four channels via satellite television, but now detainees can choose from among 18 channels, including Al Jazeera English, a sports channel, and broadcasts focusing on Tunisia, Libya or Kuwait, according to McManus, who said "nature shows are very popular. Introduction of television is the number one thing we've changed [in the year] since I've been here," McManus said.
Detainees were very interested in watching the World Cup, but Guantanamo Bay is "in a bad satellite area" so "we had a little problem," he said. To resolve the issue, detention facility officials began recording World Games and playing them the next morning. As a result, detainees began playing soccer more frequently, and the hospital at the Guantanamo Bay camps increasingly saw more injuries related to the game, one hospital official said.
With a landscape dominated by concrete and steel, Camp 6 mirrors U.S. prisons featured in "prison life" documentaries on cable TV. Detainees are able to enroll in classes, including English classes and the new "life skills" class, which begins with "basic building blocks of personal finance" and then moves into "business finance" and other "vocational" subjects, said McManus, calling the skills class "probably the biggest recent change."
At Camp 4, another minimum security facility, detainees live among barbed-wire fences and can play games on a Playstation3 console or enjoy a game of foosball, just feet away from a copy of President Obama's executive order, signed two days after taking office, to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camps by the end of January 2010.
McManus said detainees get a "sense of hope" from the U.S. government press releases often posted on boards inside the camps, announcing the transfer of detainees to their home countries. "I think a lot of them are realizing they're going to get released," McManus said. "They know some of their brothers are leaving, so they see hope because of that."
It's unclear whether detainees such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other alleged Sept. 11 conspirators are allowed to use Skype, the most popular form of communication. Access to Skype began within the past year, but detainees can use it for only one hour every three months, according to McManus.
Detainees who do not wish to use Skype are allowed one phone call every three months. "It allows them to see their family members," McManus said. "They can have their whole family -- they can have a dozen family members -- in that screen right now." But, McManus said, the Skype sessions are monitored "so they won't give away force protection information. Obviously we don't want them to say, 'I'm here at this camp. There's this many people here, and this is where the guards are,'" he said.
President Obama is now six months past his self-imposed deadline, and Guantanamo Bay is not expected to close anytime soon, but detainees' moods are "a little bit better" thanks to the changes brought under the Obama administration, according to McManus, the deputy commander for the Joint Detention Group.
In fact, he said, the new changes have made the detention camps more "quiet." And with a better environment for detainees comes a better environment for the guards overseeing them.
#1
The "Twilight" series, a hit among so-called "tweens,"
... that panders to mostly girls conflicted about soft fantasies of semi bestiality and semi necrophilia. So like the producers said, hey, lets put in both. Oooohh....Gag.
May have helped shape that infamous CIA assessment in 2007...
The Iranian scientist who American officials say defected to the United States, only to return to Tehran on Thursday, had been an informant for the Central Intelligence Agency inside Iran for several years, providing information about the country's nuclear program, according to United States officials.
The scientist, Shahram Amiri, described to American intelligence officers details of how a university in Tehran became the covert headquarters for the country's nuclear efforts, the officials confirmed. While still in Iran, he was also one of the sources for a much-disputed National Intelligence Estimate on Iran's suspected weapons program, published in 2007, the officials said. For several years, Mr. Amiri provided what one official described as "significant, original" information about secret aspects of his country's nuclear program, according to the Americans.
This account by the Americans, some of whom are apparently trying to discredit Mr. Amiri's tale of having been kidnapped by the C.I.A., provides the latest twist in one of strangest tales of the nuclear era. It also provides the first hint of how the United States acquired intelligence from Iranian scientists, besides its previously reported penetrations of Iranian computer systems.
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Viqaruddin Ahmed, the self-styled chief of the fundamentalist outfit Tehreek Galbee- Islam (TGI), built a sound network in Gujarat, where he spent nearly two years. Further, sources in the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Gujarat says that they have inputs to suggest that Viqar was in touch with most wanted Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative Rasool Khan Patty, who has been in Pakistan for the last several years after fleeing his home state of Gujarat.
Sources in the Gujarat police told Express that Viqar, during interrogation, had revealed that he stayed at different places in Gujarat, mostly in Ahmedabad for nearly two years. ``When he was not in Hyderabad, Karnataka or Madhya Pradesh, he was in Ahmedabad. For most part of the last two years, he was here, a senior official disclosed.
Officials said they have information to suggest that Viqar was in touch with Rasool Khan Patty, who is believed to be based in Karachi. ``Besides Patty, Viqar was in regular touch with the accused in the Haren Pandya (former Gujarat home minister) murder case, most of whom belong to Hyderabad and Nalgonda district. ``Once we get to interrogate him, all his links will come out. We know for sure that he was in touch with Muhammed Shahed alias Bilal (the self-styled commander of Harkat-ul-Jihad-al- Islami, believed to have been killed in a shootout in Karachi in August 2007), the officials said.
``We have the names of the localities where he stayed in Ahemdabad and we are probing all his contacts here. He had a sound network here. A few times, he stayed in a hotel but mostly he stayed in the houses of associates, officials said.
Viqar and his associates shot dead a Gujarat police constable when he prevented them from looting a bank in the Maninagar area in 2008. ``Yet, he had been visiting Ahmedabad by changing his appearance each time, sources said.
Viqars grilling by the Gujarat ATS is likely to lead to a few more arrests. After the Hyderabad police is through with the investigation of their cases, Viqar will be taken to Gujarat. The city police are anticipating a severe backlash from Saidabad-based fundamentalist groups, particularly Tehreek Tahfooz Sharia- e-Islam (TTSI), whose chief Moulana Naseeruddin spent several years in the Sabarmati jail in Gujarat for his alleged role in the killing of Haren Pandya.
In October 2004, when the Gujarat police team arrived in Hyderabad to arrest the Moulana, a mob protested against it outside the DGPs office which led the police to open fire. One youngster Mujahid Saleem was killed in the firing.
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: President of Iraqs Kurdistan region said that the Kurdistan nation should have its own state like the Turkish, Persian and Arab nations, according to the Hürriyet Daily News.
Oh boy. Try to keep this quiet a while longer, huh guys ...
As it works to deepen its relationship with northern Iraq, the Turkish Foreign Ministry has said its approach toward Iraqs territorial integrity remains unchanged despite the Iraqi Kurdish leaders reported desire to found a Kurdish state.
I am against the use of violence, but the Kurdish nation, as its legitimate right, should have its own state like the Turkish, Persian and Arab nations, Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani told an Egyptian television broadcaster, daily Milliyet reported Thursday. We are not claiming we are stronger than them, but we have nothing less than those nations.
I havent heard the statements made by Mr. Barzani, but there has been no change in Ankaras views or attitude toward Iraqs territorial integrity, Özügergin told the Daily News on Thursday.
Turkey has repeatedly stressed its commitment to Iraqs territorial integrity and political unity while at the same time working to improve its relationship with the Iraqi Kurdish leadership in the north in recent years. Ankara, however, continues to criticize Barzani for not doing enough to help Turkey fight the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.
Despite the disagreements over the fight against the PKK, the status of the oil-rich northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk and the sharing of oil revenues, Barzanis visit to Turkey last month was deemed an important development for regional balance, especially amid the Obama administrations plans to pull out troops from Iraq.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/17/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Call me insensitive but maybe we should take a piece of Washington, Oregon, and Utah and combine them into Potatostan. And maybe have an East Potatostan in Maine.
It serves no practical purpose for Kurds to continue to agitate for a separate country any more than it would be for Quebec to do so. All it does is keeps the country divided and continues to cause friction with neighbors.
Yes, they are Kurds. But they are also Iraqis. I only hope that Barzani's comments were meant for internal consumption and were feeding on the emotions of the Kurds but this is not really productive (except for politicians who want that emotional appeal for votes, what is best be damned) for the long term interests of the Kurds.
It sends a message of "we really don't ever intend to integrate fully with the rest of Iraq and will always consider ourselves separate".
#4
I think it's more of the, "we are this tribe and you are that." No national identity and more of the same, "if you're not us, then you are an enemy," which relates back to the tribal, competition thing.
Evidence continues to mount showing that the developer of the proposed mega-mosque at Ground Zero, Abdul Faisal Rauf, is untrustworthy at best, and possibly downright dangerous. The project would be called Cordoba House, named for a Spanish city conquered by the Moors which Muslims regard as a model for other communities.
Raufs political/religious vision is intimately connected with Malaysia, where he lived for ten years as a youngster and where he now owns a home and bases his policy-making organization, the Cordoba Initiative, which also has an office in Manhattan. Malaysian officials have come out with statements that are virulently anti-American and anti-Semitic, including explicit calls for jihad and suicide bombing. Rauf claims that he intends to build bridges between the West and Muslims, yet he has never made any public statement objecting to such incitement.
One has to wonder if our State Department is aware of rising levels of anti-American sentiment in Malaysia. Certainly Israel has had to wake up to that with the May 21, 2009 [sic, should be 2010], flotilla of thugs posing as humanitarians who tried to force their way into Gaza. The largest backer of that convoy was a Malaysian NGO called the Perdana Global Peace Organization (aka Perdana4Peace), an organization that purports to call for an end to all wars.
In a country where the government runs the Department of Religion, and has state-run television and radio stations (RTM TV1), it is hard to conceive of a true NGO meaning a non-governmental organization. The Perdana Leadership Foundation is a state-run organization founded by a former prime minister. It was started in 2003, presumably when Mahathir left office. The name Perdana is taken from Mahathirs official residence, Sri Perdana, where he lived from August 1983 to October 1999. The residence was later turned into a museum, also bearing his brand, Galeria Sri Perdana. Mahathir has been the honorary president of the Perdana Leadership Foundation since the organizations inception.
Mahathirs presence in Malaysia is inescapable, and with his larger-than-life personality, he made himself a notable figure on the world stage. In 2005, he founded the Perdana Global Peace Organization, dedicated to criminalizing war. Mahathir is the first signatory, followed immediately by Imam Abdul Faisal Rauf.
The Philippine government is aiming to return home within two months 25,000 people who were displaced due to a decades-long rebellion in the south, an aide said Friday.
President Benigno Aquino, who took office on June 30, wants the process completed during his first 100 days in office, Teresita Deles, the presidential adviser on the peace process, told a news conference. "What we do want is to address that as quick as possible, bringing home those who can be brought back to their places," Deles said.
The effort is part of a broader strategy to push forward peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which has been fighting for an independent Muslim homeland in the southern Philippines since 1971. "We need to bridge that gap between the negotiating table and the lives of communities," Deles said. The evacuees are scattered over a string of tent cities on the southern island of Mindanao, where they scrape by on food rations from the social welfare department and foreign aid organisations including the United Nations.
To ensure their safety as they return home, the government will ask the 12,000-member MILF to maintain a ceasefire that had been negotiated with the previous government, Deles said.
"Pretty please with sugar on top?" is what she was heard practicing under her breath, afterward.
Many of the evacuees fled their homes in 2008 when MILF commanders launched a series of attacks on mostly Christian communities.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/17/2010 00:00 ||
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Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah says the main purpose of Israeli spy networks in Lebanon is to create discord among the Lebanese.
Calling Israel a "Zionist entity deeply dependant on creating rifts and instabilities," the Hezbollah leader said on Friday that Israeli spies had "inflicted major damages on Lebanon and therefore deserve capital punishment."
Nasrallah criticized Lebanon's judiciary system for taking the issue lightly and urged authorities to show more seriousness. He said that the death penalty should be carried out in the case of these spies without any hesitation.
The popular Shia leader made the remarks after Lebanese security forces arrested a third employee of state-owned mobile telecom firm Alfa on suspicion of espionage for Israel.
Nasrallah said that the resistance movement has been the target of Israeli spy networks for many years, adding that Israeli spies had tried to create a rift between the Hezbollah and Amal movements, which holds 13 parliamentary seats.
Lebanon launched a crackdown on Israeli spy cells across the country in April 2009 and has arrested dozens of people on suspicions of cooperating with Israel's notorious intelligence service, Mossad.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/17/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
*sssshhhhhh*
hope he doesn't find out about the Jooooo spies in his inner circle.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/17/2010 9:39 Comments ||
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#2
Hell, at his level they're all Jooooo spies. It's just the order of things.
[Al Arabiya Latest] n a move that looked like an attempt to blunt the impact of financial sanctions soon to be adopted by the European Union, the International Oil Daily industry newsletter said that Iran is considering switching payments for its crude oil exports to Europe to the UAE dirham currency instead of the euro.
It quoted industry sources as saying the state National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) had sounded out European term customers about the possible change, but had yet to make a firm decision.
"There's something happening -- the Iranians are testing solutions," it quoted one industry executive as saying. "They've put out feelers very recently about taking payment for oil in dirhams."
It quoted another industry source as saying the move was prompted by concerns in Tehran that euro transactions were no longer safe and could be blocked by EU member states.
"Basically, they'd be happy to get paid in any currency as long as it's not the dollar or the euro," the source said.
Although Iran's crude oil exports are priced in dollars and are likely to remain so for some time, all of its customers pay in other currencies, it said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/17/2010 00:00 ||
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An industrial wing of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards said on Friday it was pulling out of two development phases related to the giant South Pars gas field in the Gulf.
"Recently, in an oppressive move by the West, Khatam al-Anbiya has been slapped with sanctions," the industrial group said on its website Khatam.com.
"Given the current circumstances, continuing of our work in phases 15 and 16 may endanger the nation's resources. So we and our affiliate companies are pulling out of the consortiums (developing) phases 15 and 16."
It did not offer other details.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/17/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Man, that oppressive shit is deh suck ain't it? Still you got them whirly things going for ya. That's something.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah has expressed condolences to the people and government of Iran over the deadly explosions in the southeastern city of Zahedan.
Nasrallah said in a statement, "We extend the deepest condolences to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution and to the government and people of the Islamic Republic as well as to the relatives of the victims."
Nasrallah condemned the twin suicide bombings and said that US-backed intelligence agencies were behind the attack, IRNA reported.
On Thursday July 15, two bombs were detonated in quick succession in front of the Zahedan Grand Mosque.
At least 27 people lost their lives and at least 300 others were injured in the terrorist attack.
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#1
ION TOPIX > CASTRO WARNS OF NUCLEAR WAR [again]. UNCLE FIDEL says the US can NEITHER STAY NOR LEAVE THE MIDDLE EAST.
and
SAME > REPORT:SOUTH KOREA DEVS CUISE MISSLE, capable of striking both conventional + nuclear targets ala NORTH KOREA???
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 Mountie in charge of investigating terrorist threats says he's alarmed at the growing number of Canadians adopting violent jihad. 
Last week, the government unsealed a plea agreement in a terrorism case involving Najibullah Zazi, the Denver shuttle bus driver the FBI arrested last September. He allegedly conspired to target New York City subways at the direction of al-Qaida. 
Viqaruddin Ahmed, the self-styled chief of the fundamentalist outfit Tehreek Galbee- Islam (TGI), built a sound network in Gujarat, where he spent nearly two years. Further, sources in the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Gujarat says that they have inputs to suggest that Viqar was in touch with most wanted Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative Rasool Khan Patty, who has been in Pakistan for the last several years after fleeing his home state of Gujarat.
