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Today: 82 articles and 287 comments as of 15:46.
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Sadrists claim security pact 'illegal'
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Afghanistan
Taleban's ex-spokesman shot dead
Posted by: tipper || 11/29/2008 12:53 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  finalized the "ex" part, didn't they?
Posted by: Frank G || 11/29/2008 13:08 Comments || Top||

#2  Ex ex spokesman, now.
Posted by: Grunter || 11/29/2008 13:31 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Islamic Courts in Somalia: We are not Courting Saudi Arabia
Asharq Al-Awsat- Sheikh Abdul Raheem Isa Ado, the spokesman for the Islamic Courts' forces in Somalia has stated that the Courts have issued warnings to the pirates responsible for the hijacking of the Saudi Sirius Star oil tanker on November 17 at the port city of Haradheere, Puntland. The Courts demanded that the pirates end the operation, release the oil tanker and ensure that the crew is returned to safety.

In this exclusive interview, Abdul Raheem spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat by phone from the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

The interview proceeded as follows:

Q: Do you have any new information about the hijacked oil tanker?

A: No, I do not have any information.

Q: Are there any plans for military intervention to secure the release of the tanker?

A: There are ongoing attempts; we have already warned them [the hijackers]. After that, we will cut off supplies that reach them from the mainland and we will do everything in our capacity to have the boat released.

Q: Are your forces in the city [of Haradheere]?

A: Yes, the city is in under our control, we're there and our forces are there. Moreover, its surrounding villages are under the control of the [Islamic] Courts.

Q: So could you confirm that there will be military intervention taken against the pirates?

A: There have been attempts; firstly, we have issued warnings to them to release their hostages without any conditions. Secondly, we are stopping their supplies on land and after that we will spare no effort and do everything in our capacity [to ensure the tanker's release] but I cannot say that intervention will take place at a certain time or on a specific day. However, we will try our best, God willing, to set the boat free because it belongs to an Arab and Islamic country. It is not enough to sit by and watch and not to intervene.

Q: But pirates have hijacked Egyptian and Yemeni ships before, why didn't you intervene then?

A: We have always been thinking about putting an end to piracy against ships belonging to non-Muslims. We are against piracy and the horrific acts that pirates carry out but this ship [the Sirius Star] was close to the city that we are in; this is the first reason. We do not approve of piracy against Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Our forces are present in the city [of Haradheere] and there is security, as well as the [Islamic] Courts and that is why we announced our position before.

Q: Some consider your statement as a way of courting Saudi Arabia. What is your response to this?

A: No, Saudi Arabia is our sister, there is no courting. Egypt, Yemen and all Arab and Islamic countries are our sisters and it is the same for the rest of world. We do not condone the hijacking of ships and we have always thought about how we can try to intervene in cases of piracy but from now on we will intervene. Let me tell you that there are ships that enter Somali seas illegally and there are ships that come in and dump waste and there are pirates who are not Somalis.

Q: What is the number of your forces in the city?

A: I cannot state the size of our forces to the media but there are enough for us to work and intervene, but this will take place at the right time and place and this will be decisive.

Q: The Shabaab movement denied that it is going to confront pirates; are the disputes between you?

A: The movement is our sister and there are no problems between us.

Q: Has there been any personal communication between yourselves and the pirates?

A: Yes, our brothers in Haradheere have spoken to them and warned them and there is an office that contacts them.

Q: Thank you, is there anything you would like to add?

A: We are fighting our Ethiopian enemy that occupies our land and we say to all Arab and Islamic countries and their nations that they should know that we are defending our land, our religion and our nation and they must help our afflicted people.
Posted by: Fred || 11/29/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic Courts

#1  [Paul has been pooplisted.]
Posted by: Paul || 11/29/2008 10:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Saudis/iran fund all our enemies!!!!!
Posted by: Paul2 || 11/29/2008 10:23 Comments || Top||

#3  Did it hurt coming up with that insight?
Posted by: Pappy || 11/29/2008 11:16 Comments || Top||

#4  Must be a politician, he's well trained to "Speak much, but say little".
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 11/29/2008 12:46 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Hundreds dead in Nigerian clashes
HUNDREDS of people were killed in the central Nigerian city of Jos when Christians and Muslims clashed over the result of a local election. "Hundreds of people have been killed in the last two days since the riots started. Remains of burnt bodies litter some parts of the town; it is so terrible,'' Christian clergyman Yakumu Pam said.

Local Radio Plateau said the governor of Plateau State, Jonah Jang, had placed four districts of the city under a curfew and had ordered police to fire on anyone who broke it following the clashes on Friday.

Aminu Manu said incidents of violence were still being reported in the city today.

"So far over 10,000 people have been displaced from their homes and are now seeking refuge in churches, mosques and army and police barracks,'' a Nigerian Red Cross official in Jos said. "I can't give any figures but there are dead bodies on the streets that are yet to be evacuated. We are afraid of an outbreak of an epidemic if they are allowed to decompose,'' he said.
Posted by: tipper || 11/29/2008 11:07 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If Al doesn't win Minnesota is this what will happen?
Posted by: Glenmore || 11/29/2008 11:40 Comments || Top||

#2  The BBC would cover the story if they could find some way to blame Jews for the violence.
Posted by: Odysseus || 11/29/2008 12:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Just 50 people have been confirmed dead, not the "hundreds" been quoted by the great western media....and just so everybody knows it's political and not religious.....and as far as I know there are no jews involved!
Posted by: olusegun || 11/29/2008 14:14 Comments || Top||

#4  The BBC is saying hundreds now.

A Muslim charity in the town of Jos says it collected more than 300 bodies, and fatalities are also expected from other ethnic groups, mainly Christians.
Posted by: tipper || 11/29/2008 15:23 Comments || Top||

#5  Glenmore,
Hey! Which Al in Minnesota you talking about? The carpetbagger from New York will go back to being a "comedian". (Just like Rosie is so "funny")

Olusegun,
The riots started when a candidate backed by the Islamists was defeated in an election. Something about defying the will of God by voting for a kuffir. Sounds religiously motivated to me.

Posted by: Frozen Al || 11/29/2008 15:25 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Charge sheets in 2 cases likely tomorrow
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is likely to submit tomorrow the charge sheets of the two cases connected with the bomb attacks at Ramna Batamul accusing 14 leaders and activists of Harkatul Jihad (Huji).

CID Chief Additional Inspector General Jabed Patwari Thursday said, "All formalities have been completed and we are prepared to submit the charge sheets on Sunday."

The home ministry has given the CID green signal for submitting the charge sheets, he told The Daily Star in reply to a question. The ministry is aware of the progress of investigation as the cases are under the supervision of its monitoring cell, he added.

CID sources said on public prosecutor's suggestion the investigation officer collected video footage of the incident on April 14, 2001, which killed 10 persons and injured a number of others.

Investigation officer CID Inspector Abu Hena Mohammad Yusuf declined to make any comment. But the CID sources confirmed that two charge sheets have been readied: the charge sheet for the murder case contains over 650 pages and that for the case filed under the Explosives Act has about 550 pages.

They said 24 Huji men carried out the attacks but 14 have been named in the charge sheets as investigators could not collect details of the rest. They, however, identified one as Suman who died in the blast.

The accused Huji men are Mufti Hannan, Mufti Abdur Rouf, Hafez Maulana Abu Taher, Arif Hasan alias Suman, Shahadat Ullah alias Jewel, Sheikh Farid alias Rahmat Ullah alias Shawkat Osman, Mufti Shafiqur Rahman, Hafez Maulana Yiahia, Mufti Abdul Hai alias Abu Naim, Maulana Tajuddin, Jahangir Badar, Abdul Hannan, Hafez Abu Bakkar and Maulana Akbar Hossain.

CID sources said they so far arrested 25 suspects. Of them Mufti Hannan, Mamun-ur-Rashid, Mozahar Naim Hossain alias Mahmud, Habibullah Mizan, Badrul Alam Mizan, Hafiz Syed Nadim Sharif, Oliar Rahman, Mahmudur Rahman Babu, Arif Hasan Suman, Oli Ullah, Abdul Latif and Abdur Rouf are now in jail.

Twelve others--Rezaul Islam, Matiur Rahman, Mostafizur Rahman, Habibur Rahman, Abdul Awal, Enayet Ullah, Abdullah Al Mamun, Ibrahim Khalil, Maulana Akbar Hossain, Rafiqul Islam, Yasin and Oliar Rahman--are on bail while the other--Mizanur Rahman--has been absconding since obtaining bail.

The arrested also face charges of other bomb attacks, including the August 21 attack on an Awami League rally. Maulana Akbar Hossain, Mufti Hannan and Jewel confessed before the court their involvement in the attacks.

Investigation sources said detained former deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu's brother fugitive Maulana Tajuddin, who is an accused in the August 21 grenade attack case also, supplied the bombs for the attacks. Pintu is also an accused in the August 21 bomb attack case.
Posted by: Fred || 11/29/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: HUJI


Britain
British Hate Preacher Gloats Over Mumbai Attacks
HATE preacher Anjem Choudary last night praised the slaughter of 125 people in Mumbai. And in a vile rant he said any Brits killed had only themselves to blame for being on the "battlefield" in the war Muslims nuts are waging against the world.
Can't someone arrange for this man to fall down the stairs elebenteen times? Or to have an 'encounter' with the RAB?
Extremist Choudary, 41, the right-hand man of exiled cleric Omar Bakri, 50, and former leader of banned hate group al-Muhajiroun, said the attacks were revenge for the West's "crusades" against Islam.

Outspoken Choudary, whose family live on £25,000-a-year benefits in London, raged: "Any Britons or Americans who visit Muslim countries are entering a battlefield and risk being used as hostages by al-Qaida to publicise its cause."

He added: "The attacks bear all the hallmarks of a carefully planned al-Qaida operation as part of the global jihad against the crusades. I would not be surprised if they release a video very soon."
Posted by: Steve White || 11/29/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Someone needs to arrange a beatdown for this asshole.
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/29/2008 0:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Democracy as a suicide pact.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/29/2008 5:07 Comments || Top||

#3  So he thinks he's on the battlefield, eh ? Take him out now. Only very slowly.
Posted by: Woozle Elmeter 2700 || 11/29/2008 9:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Is this a$$hole in general population? If not, why not put him there and let some of Britain's "best" show him the error of his ways.
Posted by: WolfDog || 11/29/2008 10:53 Comments || Top||

#5  What no hate speech arrest?
Posted by: Hellfish || 11/29/2008 12:57 Comments || Top||

#6  What no hate speech arrest?

Of course not. The police here are too busy arresting politicians for publicising facts which make the Labour government look bad.
Posted by: Bulldog || 11/29/2008 14:24 Comments || Top||

#7  This guy should just "disappear" some day. Like Jimmy Hoffa...
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/29/2008 21:16 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Colombian rebels urged to free hostages
People have taken to the streets across the world in protest at kidnappings by Colombian rebels and their reluctance to release hostages.
And we know how well that works.
Posted by: Fred || 11/29/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Seems to me that they need a little stronger incentive than that. God willing, Uribe will provide that incentive.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon || 11/29/2008 8:54 Comments || Top||


Europe
Islamic banks in France from 2009
PARIS, NOVEMBER 27 - From next year Islamic banks conforming to sharia law, could be part of the panorama of the French banking system. Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said at the opening of the second French forum of Islamic finance that she had decided to "make a great welcome in Paris to this finance". Le Parisien reports that there are at least three banks requesting accreditation: the Qatar Islamic Bank which already has offices in London, the Kuwait Finance House, and the Al Baraka Islamic Bank, from Bahrain. Their target is the more than five million muslims resident in France, an attractive market: according to a survey last year by IFOP at least half a million muslims would be interested in loans which respect Sharia law (which forbids loans with interest). From this point of view, said President of the French-Arabic Chamber of Commerce Hervé de Charette, "the arrival of Islamic finance in France would be an integrating factor".

According to Elyes Jouini, a professor of economics at Paris-Dauphine, it is still a frightening prospect because it is against religious integralism and aimed at financing terrorism.

The global economic crisis is revolutionising the market though ad from New York to Hong Kong there is a rush for the billions of dollars of the rich oil producing countries of the Gulg. (ANSAmed).
Posted by: classer || 11/29/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I realize this is not a fashionable opinion around here, but in light of the current housing finance crisis Islamic banking may well provide a better model.

Essentially the bank buys the house on your behalf and you have a long term contract with the bank to lease the house until at the end of the lease you own the house.

The advantage is that the bank has the house on its books and pays much more attention to its real value, unlike the the conventional banking model which focuses on your capacity to repay the debt irrespective of the value of the house.
Posted by: phil_b || 11/29/2008 4:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Sharia Compliant Finance is part and parcel of the global Islamist movement. Advocates of Islamism define Islam as a complete sociopolitical system that should govern oneÂ’s personal and private life. This is a 20th-century phenomenon fueled internationally by oil profit in the Middle East. This totalitarian ideology has evolved into the separatist Salafi movement, which encourages segregating Muslims from non-Muslims through violent jihad and non-violent means.
Posted by: classer || 11/29/2008 7:23 Comments || Top||

#3  Reminds me of the Rule of 78s. Run as fast as you can from both.
Posted by: ed || 11/29/2008 8:52 Comments || Top||

#4  phil_b - wouldn't work. With 'mark to market' accounting rules the bank would still have to drastically write-down it's loan portfolio throwing it's financial ratios out of whack.
Posted by: DMFD || 11/29/2008 9:42 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Strike terrorism with iron hand, Hollywood Bollywood stars tell politicians
Posted by: tipper || 11/29/2008 17:15 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Spicoli would probably be down there trying to break through the police lines to get the "why do they hate us" angle interview for The Nation...
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/29/2008 21:36 Comments || Top||

#2  he's busy - "Milk" will bomb and he's got a "Valkyrie"-like dud to try and pump interest into
Posted by: Frank G || 11/29/2008 21:44 Comments || Top||


Qureshi: no training camps in Pakistan
NEW DELHI: Visiting Pakistan Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Friday said there were no terrorist training camps in Pakistan. The country was pursing a policy of cooperation to add a new chapter in bilateral relationship with India. Kashmir was an outstanding issue on which Pakistan preferred a “peaceful, negotiated settlement.”

Asked where terrorists were being trained if not in Pakistan, he said, “It is not confined to Pakistan. There have been attacks and suicides in Afghanistan, Iraq. This is an international network and has to be dealt with at an international level. It is a global issue and has to be tackled on that basis.”

Interacting with the media at the India Women’s Press Corps here, Mr. Qureshi said he did not cut short his visit in the wake of the terror attacks so as to express “solidarity” and “lend support.” “I have come here to build bridges. I am equally saddened by what has happened.”

Asked about India’s assertion that initial information had shown the involvement of Pakistan elements in the Mumbai attacks, Mr. Qureshi said, “How can you be so sure? You have to build trust. Without trust there can be no beginning. There are extreme and rogue elements in every society. In February the people of Pakistan spoke and rejected extreme fringe elements.”

To a question, he said the Indian government should have pondered more before pointing a finger at Pakistan. “The leadership must rise above politics and domestic compulsions.”

Appealing for cooperation and not accusations, he stressed the need for strengthening the anti-terrorism mechanism that had been set up between India and Pakistan. “Terrorists are barbaric and inhuman and we have to eliminate them collectively.”

On what action the Pakistan government had taken against Lashkar-e-Taiba, he said, Pakistan had banned LeT. “To give a value judgment during this moment is not proper. Experience shows that there should not be a knee-jerk reaction. When the Samjhauta Express bombing happened there were a lot of accusations, but today investigations have reversed that.”

Claiming that the Pakistan government was going after terrorists, he said such incidents were happening to disrupt the India-Pakistan dialogue process. He said the present government in Pakistan did not subscribe to the values of the Taliban and was looking at the curricula of all madrasas to discourage teaching of militancy.
Posted by: john frum || 11/29/2008 07:48 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Take FM Wormtongue to Mumbai and let the locals tear him to pieces.
Posted by: ed || 11/29/2008 8:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Visiting Pakistan Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Friday said there were no terrorist training camps in Pakistan.

Makndoom (sounds like a character from a horror movie) should check out his own country first before becoming a Foreign Minister.
This is what Spiegel has to say, maybe Makndoom should check it out.

For years a kind of death industry has been taking hold in Pakistan's tribal areas. There are hundreds of Koranic schools which could better be described as cadet schools for Islamists. Boys as young as five are sent here by their impoverished parents. The state provides hardly any free education; the schools that exist are poorly equipped. Children learn the Koran by heart in Arabic, often without understanding a word. After all they speak Pashtun, not Arabic.

The idea is to condition or brainwash them. The goal is jihad. As young men these warriors are given military training which underscores their so-called spiritual training.

Anyone who doubts the existence of this death-machinery can visit the hundreds of schools just a few hours' drive from Quetta, near Afghanistan's border. To get there one has to pass checkpoints and roadblocks erected by the ISI, Pakistan's intelligence agency. The ISI carefully protects this region, which might be described as an extended barracks for jihad, interspersed with rural villages. Why? No one in Islamabad seems willing to answer that question.
Posted by: tipper || 11/29/2008 10:29 Comments || Top||

#3  The thing to realize is that Qureshi does not speak for the Pakistani military, and certainly not the ISI.

3 days ago he announced that the ISI was disbanding its political wing. The next day the Pakistani Army announced the political wing would stay.

You can be sure no civilian government has oversight of the ISI, and if they wanted to build a mockup of the Taj Hotel, no cabinet member would be the wiser.

Posted by: Frozen Al || 11/29/2008 11:57 Comments || Top||

#4  No training camps in Pakistan? O.K. we can forget about Pakistan as the source of trouble.

Yeah, sure Grand Poopaw Makedoom Shaw Pureshibullshitski, we believe you (wink, wink).
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/29/2008 13:37 Comments || Top||

#5  As many of those madrassas should be targeted and attacked on the same night. Thousands of furuture jihadis can be snuffed at once. And before you start blathering about "thal will only make more jihadis", know that they are always making more jihadis. Roaches are always breading too - does that mean you don't exterminate them in your home and yard?
Posted by: Rob06 || 11/29/2008 15:55 Comments || Top||

#6  Has the "this couldn't have been Muslim's cuz this is against the Koran" bullshit been used yet?
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/29/2008 21:40 Comments || Top||


Supercops, gentlemen
Short profiles of the three anti-terror cops murdered in Mumbai. Rest well, gentlemen. You will be missed.
Posted by: Seafarious || 11/29/2008 00:04 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Characteristics of Plot Suggest Attackers Were Trained Outside India, Analysts Say
Counterterrorism officials and experts said the scale, sophistication and targets involved in the Mumbai attacks were markedly different from previous terrorist plots in India and suggested the gunmen had received training from outside the country.
How could we ever get along without experts?
But they cautioned it was too soon to tell who may have masterminded the operation, despite an assertion from a previously unknown Islamist radical group.
[Important hair voice]
"Only time will tell!"
[/Important hair voice]
Officials in India, Europe and the United States said likely culprits included Islamist networks based in Pakistan that have received support in the past from Pakistan's intelligence agencies.
The usual chain seems to be SIMI to Lashkar-e-Taiba to ISI...
Meanwhile, British officials said they were investigating the possibility that two of its citizens were involved in the attacks.
"Oh, rilly. We're quite sure none of our lads were involved, though we're asking around, of course. Got the Yard on it, in fact!
In India, Vilasrao Deshmukh, the chief minister of the state of Maharashtra, which includes Mumbai, told reporters that two of the captured gunmen were British citizens of Pakistani origin. He gave no details.
They'll come out eventually...
The British government said it was investigating but unable to confirm the report. "I would not want to be drawn into early conclusions about this," Prime Minister Gordon Brown told reporters. "There is so much information still to be discovered and made available."
Posted by: Fred || 11/29/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Taiba

#1  I should think it would be easy to discover where the various mujis are *from*. Just watch where their remains are sent *to*.
Posted by: Seafarious || 11/29/2008 0:08 Comments || Top||

#2  Look for $100,000 wire transfers.
Posted by: ed || 11/29/2008 0:09 Comments || Top||

#3  "There is so much information still to be discovered and made available."

There is probably much more information that Gordon and his ilk are going to do their damnedest to make sure it is distorted and suppressed instead. Cant have the masses making decisions based on their own.
Posted by: Abu do you love || 11/29/2008 14:40 Comments || Top||

#4  "Characteristics of Plot Suggest Attackers Were Trained Outside India"

Yeah - in Pakistan. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 11/29/2008 14:42 Comments || Top||

#5  The Cancer that is Pakistan.
Posted by: WilliamMarcyTweed || 11/29/2008 17:32 Comments || Top||


UN condemns 'reprehensible' terrorists attacks in Mumbai
Yeah, yeah. They're always "reprehensible." But nobody ever seems to reprehend the perps.
Posted by: Fred || 11/29/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Taiba

#1  They will get a sternly worded letter in several months time.
Posted by: classer || 11/29/2008 0:41 Comments || Top||

#2  They will threaten them with a letter. But alas, the UN won't know where to send it, so nothing will come of it.
Posted by: Mike N. || 11/29/2008 0:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Turtle Bay could just walk it down the hall to the OIC's smoking lounge...
Posted by: Seafarious || 11/29/2008 1:40 Comments || Top||

#4  Well, 'reprehensible' is probably an improvement over Ban Ki-Moon's 'unacceptable'.
Posted by: KBK || 11/29/2008 15:20 Comments || Top||

#5  Reprehensible, as in: "Waiter! This pate foie gras is reprehensible!"
Posted by: Perfesser || 11/29/2008 15:37 Comments || Top||

#6  Well, bet they're glad that's over with.
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/29/2008 21:11 Comments || Top||


Mumbai attackers had 'no remorse', says commando
(AKI) - An Indian commando who fought militants inside a luxury hotel in the Indian city of Mumbai said on Friday the guerrillas fired at anyone who moved and showed no remorse.

"They were the kind of people with no remorse - anybody and whomsoever came in front of them they fired," the masked commando, from India's crack Marine Commando Force known as MARCOS, told reporters. "We don't know how many have been killed. There are bodies lying strewn everywhere."

He said the commandos were trying to prevent the injury or death of any civilians. "We had to be that much more careful," he said.

The heavily clad commando was speaking amid reports that militants had regained control of the Oberoi hotel but explosions were still being heard outside the nearby Taj Mahal Palace hotel in the heart of the city.

Gun battles were also continuing with militants inside a Jewish centre with about half a dozen foreign hostages.

At least 121 people have been killed and 300 others injured in two days of grenade and gunfire attacks conducted by militants from the so-called Deccan Mujahadeen. Media reports said 24 bodies were discovered by Indian authorities inside the Oberoi hotel and they freed 90 guests and staff members on Friday.

India's foreign minister, Pranab Mukherjee, said "elements with links to Pakistan" were involved.
Posted by: Fred || 11/29/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Taiba


Mumbai attacks: Was computer expert aged 36 the mastermind?
UNCERTAINTY is a key weapon in the armoury of Islamic fundamentalist terror. As investigators, experts and analysts grope for the truth, someone somewhere is taking satisfaction from the horrified confusion the Mumbai attacks have caused.

Analysts are divided over whether the hand of al-Qaeda can be detected. The only claim of responsibility comes from a group that may not even exist: an e-mail message claiming responsibility and sent to Indian media on Wednesday night said the attackers were from a group called Deccan Mujahideen. Deccan is a neighborhood of the Indian city of Hyderabad. The word also describes the central and southern region of India, which is dominated by the Deccan Plateau. Mujahideen is the commonly used Arabic word for holy warriors.

But Sajjan Gohel, a security expert in London, called it a "front name" and said the group was "nonexistent."

Alex Neill, head of the Royal United Services Institute's Asia security programme, believes the attacks were probably carried out by local jihadists linked to the radical Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi), a banned Islamic fundamentalist organisation which advocates the "liberation of India" by converting it to an Islamic state.

One possible mastermind and Simi member is Abdul Subhan Qureshi, a 36-year-old computer engineer suspected of being behind multiple bombings in Delhi, Jaipur, Bangalore and Ahmedabad earlier this year. Qureshi, also known as Tauqeer, is from Mumbai and his expertise with internet security could have played a vital part in pulling off such an ambitious plot, said Mr Neill.

"He is an IT whizz-kid so it is quite possible he is the person investigators will be concentrating on. This is a great embarrassment to the Indian security services because it has been pulled off right under their noses."

Simi has declared jihad on India, the aim of which is to establish Dar-ul-Islam by forcefully converting everyone to Islam.

Mr Neill said Deccan Muhajideen would be a militant offshoot of Simi which has carried out attacks across India. He added: "The perpetrators have obviously been highly trained and would have been sent to al-Qaeda training camps to prepare. I would be astonished if any of them are from Britain -- they were probably recruited from the Mumbai region."

He reckons up to 100 terrorists would have been involved in the planning and execution of the attack and said it was surprising they had managed to keep it a secret.

Other analysts say that while it is not clear whether the Deccan Mujahideen claim is genuine, the attacks may have been carried out by a group called the Indian Mujahideen -- also an offshoot of Simi and blamed by police for almost every major bomb attack in India, including explosions on commuter trains in Mumbai two years ago that killed 187 people.

Police said the Indian Mujahideen may also include former members of Bangladeshi militant group, Harkat-ul-Jihad al Islami. In an e-mail in September, the group denounced Mumbai's police anti-terrorist squad (ATS), accusing them of harassing Muslims. "If this is the degree your arrogance has reached, and if you think that by these stunts you can scare us, then let the Indian Mujahideen warn all the people of Mumbai that whatever deadly attacks Mumbaikars will face in future, their responsibility would lie with the Mumbai ATS and their guardians," it said.

The Mumbai attacks appear to have been carefully coordinated, well-planned and involved a large number of attackers. A high level of sophistication has also been a hallmark of previous attacks by the Indian Mujahideen.

The Mumbai attacks also focused clearly on tourist targets, including two luxury hotels and a famous cafe.

In May, the Indian Mujahideen made a specific threat to attack tourist sites in India unless the government stopped supporting the United States in the international arena. The threat was made in an e-mail claiming responsibility for bomb attacks that killed 63 people in the tourist city of Jaipur. The e-mail declared "open war against India" and included the serial number of a bicycle used in one bombing.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has blamed a group with "external linkages" for the attacks. He said: "It is evident that the group which carried out these attacks, based outside the country, had come with single-minded determination to create havoc in the commercial capital of the country."

He could have been referring to either Pakistan or Bangladesh, which has also been accused by India of harbouring militant groups. Some security specialists believe there is likely to have been a degree of inspiration from, or link with, external groups allied to al-Qaeda, such as the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, which wants to see India expelled from Kashmir.

Eyewitnesses have reported hostage-takers speaking with a Kashmiri accent. However, Lashkar-e-Taiba yesterday denied any role in the Mumbai attacks.

Henry Wilkinson, a senior analyst with Janusian Security Risk Management, a London-based consultancy, said the tactics are different from the more common, post-9/11 attacks seen in Iraq and Afghanistan, but bear similar hallmarks. He said: "It's very interesting that they didn't go in using car bombs; it was more of a direct armed assault on a city. It's very reminiscent of the attacks in Saudi Arabia in 2003, when the gunmen were going around trying to find Westerners and kill them."
This article starring:
Abdul Subhan Qureshi
Posted by: Fred || 11/29/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: SIMI

#1  Simi has declared jihad on India, the aim of which is to establish Dar-ul-Islam by forcefully converting everyone to Islam.

Anyone that advocates this should be shot dead, on sight. pour encourager les autres
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/29/2008 0:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Yet another a-hole that declared jihad on a country without said country doing anything in response.
Posted by: Mike N. || 11/29/2008 0:42 Comments || Top||

#3  Countries have to learn to accept the declaration of war on them by individuals.

They must then prosecute them using war protocols rather than the normal rules of war.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/29/2008 2:52 Comments || Top||

#4  Gosh, BP, can't we just get medieval on their asses?
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/29/2008 17:23 Comments || Top||


LeT terrorists trained to carry out marine terror ops
Police on Thursday arrested a man named Ismail, an alleged Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorist, in connection with a series of attacks across Mumbai's busiest and most opulent areas over the last two days. Even as at least 20 heavily-armed terrorists are believed to be carrying out the attacks, the country's intelligence apparatus is exploring all possible leads into the case.

Armed with RDX, M6 guns and grenades, terrorists reportedly took the sea route to enter Mumbai. Home Ministry sources claimed that the terrorists reached the Indian waters just 12 nautical miles from Mumbai.

Interrogation of the four alleged terrorists, who were captured by the National Security Guards (NSG) and Marine Commandos on Thursday, revealed the same information as the Home Ministry sources.

Amir Raza Kamal -- one of the suspected terrorists -- allegedly disclosed that they clambered into smaller boats before touching Mumbai shores at Sassoon Docks, following which they spread across Southern Bombay in pairs.

"They (terrorists) came and docked. They set up control rooms at the Taj and the Trident hotel and managed the entire operation in this manner. So obviously it was planned over months. They have sophisticated weapons with them," Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal said.

Amongst various al-Qaeda affiliated terror groups, the LeT is the only one trained to carry out maritime terrorism.
This article starring:
Amir Raza Kamal
Posted by: Fred || 11/29/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Attack enabled by D gang: Cops
Wednesday's attack by suspected Pakistanis on the city was enabled by the Dawood Ibrahim gang, police sources said. It would not have been possible to carry out a terror operation on this scale without a collaborative local network and this was provided by the D Gang. As the terrorists had entered via the sea, the needle of suspicion is clearly pointing at Mohammed Ali, the new pointsman of Dawood.

Ali is known to be the king of the docks who runs a massive smuggling racket and has a grip over all coastal operations in the metropolis. He is known to indulge in smuggling of diesel, petroleum, naptha, drugs and arms with impunity and it appears that the terrorists had used his network to enter the city by the sea route. The Times Of India was the first to report (July 2, 2008) about the emergence of Ali as the key person looking after Dawood's operations in Mumbai. Despite having a detailed dossier on him, the authorities have not taken any action against him. What is more worrying is that Ali is believed to have also penetrated naval intelligence.

Dawood is holed up in Karachi and has been declared a global terrorist by the US administration. He is known to have links with the Al Qaeda and had used its network for narcotics smuggling operations out of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The fidayeens appeared to have been very clear about their targets. They targeted places frequented by foreigners in south Mumbai and knew the exact route to be taken from the coast. This was made possible by inputs provided by the D Gang, said sources.

Sources in security agencies said Dawood has made a few thousand crores in real estate transactions and is diverting a part of the funds for terror operations. The Dawood Bhai realty group has a top politician and a big-time builder as its partners. A close lieutenant of Dawood fronts for this company to get its projects cleared in Mantralaya and BMC. Currently, it is building a huge mall and a massive residential complex in the western suburbs. This frontman recently transferred Rs 120 crore in one go through hawala to Dawood, sources said.
This article starring:
Dawood Ibrahim
Mohammed Ali
Posted by: Fred || 11/29/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda

#1  Damn, Pablo Escobar's back?
Posted by: Beavis || 11/29/2008 8:39 Comments || Top||


JSMM warns non-Sindhis to leave province by February 20
The Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM) has warned all non-Sindhi people to leave the province before February 20, 2009. This was said by JSMM Chairman Shafee Muhammad Barfat on Friday. According to a press release by JSMM Spokesman Imdad Shahani, Barfat further said that armed Afghans have harassed the Bheel community at Tando Ghulam Ali, which was condemnable act. Barfat said that Afghans and others have occupied most of the businesses of the Sindhi people from transport to hotels and were trying to impose their ownership over the soil. The JSMM chairman appealed to all the nationalist parties' leaders that they should also support him in this cause. According to the press release, the JSMM delegation will meet Muttahida Qaumi Movement leadership soon for their support in this regard as well.
That ain't a country. It's a fistfight.
Posted by: Fred || 11/29/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


US, UK, Israel ramp up intelligence aid to India
WASHINGTON: Unprecedented intelligence cooperation involving investigating agencies and spy outfits of India, United States, United Kingdom and Israel has got underway to crack the method and motive behind the Mumbai terrorist massacre, now widely blamed on Islamist radicals who appeared to have all four countries on their hit list when they arrived on the shores of India.

Investigators, forensic analysts, counter-terrorism experts and spymasters from agencies the four countries are converging in New Delhi and Mumbai to put their heads, resources, and skills together to understand the evolving nature of the beast. The spy chief of the Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence(ISI) is also being summoned to India to help with the investigations because of the widely-held view that the terrorists' footprints go back to Pakistan.

The Bush administration has taken the lead to forge cooperation, partly out of concern that charges by India that the terror plot has Pakistani fingerprints could setback fast-improving government-to-government and people-to-people ties between the two countries, officials said.
As it should. Demonstrate that the ISI was involved and it's very possible that another war will occur between the two countries.
But there is an implicit recognition both in New Delhi and Washington, and also other world capitals, that Pakistan's hard-line Army and its spy agency are spoilers of the honeymoon between the civilian governments and the people of India and Pakistan. Hence the summons to the country's chief spook, Ahmad Shuja Pasha, an acolyte of the new Army Chief Pervez Kiyani, himself a former ISI chief.

President Bush, who spent Thanksgiving Thursday at Camp David, monitored the developments in Mumbai along with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who joined him for dinner. Bush also spoke to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh offering all U.S help.

In fact, CNN reported that Washington suggested sending US Special Forces for on-the-ground operations in Mumbai but New Delhi declined the offer, saying its own forces could take care of the situation. The report could not be separately verified although officials acknowledged cooperation in investigations and intelligence sharing.
It was good of Bush to offer, and understandable that Singh declined.
The Bush administration is also keeping President-elect Barack Obama up-to-speed on the fast moving developments. Obama spoke with Secretary Rice by phone to get an update on the situation in Mumbai. Additionally, his transition office said, the President-elect received an intelligence briefing on the attacks.

The multi-nation intelligence cooperation has been precipitated in part by the death of Americans, Britons, and Israelis, in the carnage. Thousands of Indians have died in terror attacks in India in the previous two decades without the world getting exercised about it, but the manner in which the terrorists who attacked Mumbai are reported to have singled out Americans and Britons, besides pointedly occupying a Jewish center, has revealed that their agenda was wider than just domestic discontent or the Kashmir issue.

Some unconfirmed reports also speak of at least two of the terrorists being British nationals of Pakistani origin, of the kind who were involved in the London underground bombing. Their attire (cargo pants and t-shirts), their heavy weaponry, and the sophisticated nature of their attack, certainly goes far beyond anything local or indigenous terror groups have displayed so far.

More significantly, none of the local groups have targeted Americans, Britons, and Israelis with the kind of specific intent as the current set of terrorists did. While US officials are concerned about the possibility of the new warmth in ties between India and Pakistan dissipating because of the gravity of the charges from New Delhi, there is also a recognition and acknowledgment that India's anger is directed against the hard-line elements in the Pakistani Army and its surrogates in the ISI, and not the civilian government or the people of Pakistan.

In fact, Washington itself has been trying to get Pakistan's civilian government to get a grip on the ISI, which many believe is now infiltrated by rogue elements.

That joint effort by Washington and the civilian dispensation in Islamabad has been repeatedly thwarted by Pakistan's hard-line army which believes it is the custodian and guarantor of the Islamist ideology that keep Pakistan intact and differentiates it from India, and which the ISI as its fighting arm for a covert asymmetrical war against India. Pakistan's new President Asif Ali Zardari recently attracted the wrath of the hardliners by saying "there is a little bit of India inside every Pakistani" and presenting a no-first-use of nuclear weapons proposal to India.

The Bush administration has only lately begun to realise that the ISI is a different beast from the one which helped it defeat the Soviet Union in Afghanistan to end the Cold War. The first sign that the ISI had turned rogue came during 9/11 when Pakistan's spy chief who was tasked to go and ask the Taliban to surrender did exactly the opposite. India's mistrust of ISI has a longer history, with the nadir coming during the Kargil war.

But under withering scrutiny from the international community, Pakistan, which is desperately broke and begging for international aid and loans, has agreed to send the ISI chief to New Delhi with promise of cooperation. That promise will be tested in the coming days and weeks.
Posted by: Steve White || 11/29/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In fact, Washington itself has been trying to get Pakistan's civilian government to get a grip on the ISI, which many believe is now infiltrated by rogue elements.

Is this sentence serious, or does the definition of "now" cover decades?
Posted by: Halliburton - Mysterious Conspiracy Division || 11/29/2008 10:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Somalia and Pakistan; bookends of the Arabian Sea.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 11/29/2008 10:55 Comments || Top||


Did 24X7 channels give away commando plans?
On Friday, the entire nation saw dramatic visuals of masked commandos descending from helicopters and dropping down on the roof of Nariman House — just one frame of an Indian fascination for 24/7 news that the terrorists had banked on.

Create mayhem, make it last. And leave the rest to the power of television news.

Vikram Sood, former chief of India’s Research and Analysis Wing, said lots needed to be self-censored. “It was horrific,” he said. “The terrorists would have got to know exactly what was happening.”

The visuals were shown despite a Thursday night advisory from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting asking news channels not to report on operational details. The advisory was issued after Home Ministry officials complained that channels were indirectly helping militants keep tabs on the security forcesÂ’ operation.

Government officials said that the militants in the Taj and Oberoi hotels were getting details of the movement of security forces around the hotels on Wednesday night from Pakistan through satellite phones and laptops, even though cable television lines were snapped in hotels on Wednesday night itself.

“The satellite phone intercepts indicated that television was being used to provide information to militants inside the hotels till Thursday evening when the government issued an advisory,” said and I&B ministry official. Added an official: “The militants knew from where the security forces were zeroing in.” That could have slowed down the operation.

News channels were also advised not to show the bodies of victims till the operation was over as it could give a boost to the morale of the militants inside the hotels. “We also asked the channels not to show the burning hotel rooms repeatedly. If they were shown, then the logo of repeat telecast should be clearly mentioned,” an official said.

Though senior ministry officials described the TV coverage overall as restrained and much better than in earlier times, there were lapses.

A channel actually broadcast a live interview with an alleged terrorist. Said Star Network CEO Uday Shankar, who has in the past run the 24-hour Star News channel, “There has to be a consensus that you don’t give that kind of platform to such terrorists. Even if a channel does get such an interview, it should be recorded and gone over carefully before airing, if at all.”

On Friday, many news channels also put out unconfirmed ‘news’ that there had been firing at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, creating panic and fear among Mumbai’s citizens. Later the ‘news’ turned out to be inaccurate. Soon after, cable channels went off the air in Mumbai, though they were restored after a while.

“Terrorists want to create fear. Anything that generates fear is in their interest. News channels must guard against that,” added Sood.

But the former RAW chief was in favour of media briefings by the authorities in question. “That’s important so that there’s no panic. Every impression should be given that the authorities are in control, even if that may not be a hundred per cent true.”

Shankar says anchors play a critical role in maintaining balance in the midst of live coverage. “Unfortunately, many channels have people of poor intellectual calibre and maturity as anchors. And this is across English and Hindi news channels,” he said. “We also need to find more dignified ways of approaching victims who’ve just emerged from a traumatic experience rather than thrusting mikes in their faces as if they have just come out of a matinee show.”

Not surprisingly, the television rating points (TRP) of news channels increased four to five times in the last two days as against normal news days, Audience Measurement and Analytics (aMAP), a company measuring television viewing, said on Friday. The increase was witnessed more for Hindi news channels than English news channels.
Posted by: john frum || 11/29/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And the BBC was more than happy to air convertations it had recorded with hotel guests trapped in their rooms and other parts of the hotel, which clearly identified them, where they were and how they were trying to defend themselves - one of whom was shot shortly thereafter. Utterly irresponsible.
Posted by: Bulldog || 11/29/2008 5:20 Comments || Top||

#2  I believe in freedom of speech. I also believe actions should have commensurate consequences.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 11/29/2008 5:26 Comments || Top||

#3  And I believe that news organizations should be held accountable like any other business or enterprise that acts without regard to consequences. They should be subject to civil suits by surviving family members in the grand 'deep pockets' venue of tort. With a couple a really good hammerings in the courts, producers will soon be shackled like our commanders with lawyers second guessing the implementation of ROEs.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/29/2008 6:12 Comments || Top||

#4  Shoot ANYONE with a camera during such an operation. And I mean ANYONE.
Posted by: Ho Chi Gromonter6866 || 11/29/2008 12:42 Comments || Top||

#5  money quote:

many channels have people of poor intellectual calibre and maturity as anchors

has a more true statement of the media been spoken?
Posted by: Abu do you love || 11/29/2008 14:52 Comments || Top||

#6  And by a media CEO

-Star Network CEO Uday Shankar
Posted by: john frum || 11/29/2008 15:06 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
Saudi king says oil should be $75 per barrel
Saudi Arabia's king says the price of oil should be $75 a barrel, much higher than it is now, but his oil minister indicated Saturday that no measures will likely be taken until OPEC meets again next month.

Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi said that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will "do what needs to be done" to shore up falling oil prices when the cartel meets Dec. 17 in Algeria.

Naimi did not entirely rule out the chance that the cartel would slash output at a hastily convened meeting of OPEC members in Cairo Saturday, but he said the bloc needs to wait until the Algeria meeting to assess the impact of earlier production cuts. ...
Posted by: ed || 11/29/2008 08:56 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hey King, I was thinking more like $20-$40 per barrel is reasonable--lower if possible. We don't want to support your friggin opulent life style.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/29/2008 9:46 Comments || Top||

#2  hell, i guess you think it should be $200 a baral so you could line your pockets some more
Posted by: rabid whitetail || 11/29/2008 11:09 Comments || Top||

#3  At $40 & below you'll pretty much stop further investment in deepwater (Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, West Africa), shale oil, and greatly slow gas liquefaction, oil sand, etc., which will increase dependency on KSA, and cause another, even sharper price spike in the near future.
Posted by: Glenmore || 11/29/2008 11:36 Comments || Top||

#4  The charity bomb the infidels! fund must be getting low. Such a pity.
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie || 11/29/2008 12:16 Comments || Top||

#5  Between the Obama policy's and Green lawsuits I don't think we have to worry about low oil prices discouraging exploration. Three of the 5 years to develop a field is getting past the lawsuits and congressional blocking (NIMBY). And Obama will stop "local" development on federally controled lands as soon as he is sworn in.
Posted by: tipover || 11/29/2008 12:31 Comments || Top||

#6  Hey King, I was thinking more like $20-$40 per barrel is reasonable--lower if possible. We don't want to support your friggin opulent life style.

Unfortunately the King would still be making money at that price.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 11/29/2008 12:38 Comments || Top||

#7  $75/barrel would be enough to balance the Saudi budget but would still be too low to save Iran from bankruptcy (they need something like $90/barrel).

That might be the thinking.
Posted by: mhw || 11/29/2008 20:38 Comments || Top||

#8  Drink it, bitches.
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/29/2008 21:20 Comments || Top||

#9  This would be a great time for us to tighten up and further consolidate trips, carpool, minimize idling, etc.
Posted by: Darrell || 11/29/2008 21:39 Comments || Top||

#10  Receive $130 Paid to You Immediately

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Posted by: Greentitan || 11/29/2008 23:00 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Tater calls for three days of mourning
Pout, sonny. Poke your eyes bottom lip out and lower your brows and pout.
Posted by: Fred || 11/29/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Mahdi Army

#1  Ah!, but Sadr, you mourn from afar. Your tears are like water. Come home and mourn with your followers, in jail. Then your tears would have creditibility.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon || 11/29/2008 8:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Three days of mourning seems a bit of an overreaction to mullah Atari getting his ass kicked in Call of Duty. Suggest he restart at the kiddie level where he belongs.
Posted by: ed || 11/29/2008 8:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Looks like Mr. Tooth Decay just got three years added to his Iranian vacation.
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/29/2008 21:22 Comments || Top||


Sadrists claim security pact 'illegal'
(AKI) - An MP from the Sadrist block on Friday called 'illegal' the security pact passed by the Iraqi Parliament to keep US forces in Iraq for another three years.
Anything that involves Tater not getting his way is "illegal."
"The voting process is not legitimate," said Ahmad al-Massoudi, spokesman for lawmakers loyal to radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI).
"It wasn't restricted to just our side..."
"The massive deployment of security elements in the parliament, reveals the existence of pressure and a form terrorism exerted against against some MPs to pressure them to hastily approve the pact," said al-Massoudi.

The pact was approved by 144 members of the 198 who attended the session of the 275-member assembly.

Massoudi also said the agreement "violates Iraq's sovereignty and gives the occupier (US) the right to manage its military presence for a long time, and guaranteeing it the legitimacy to carry out violations against the Iraqi populace."

Sheikh Muhanad al-Gharawi known to be close to al-Sadr, said that the radical leader called on his supporters to raise black flags, organise mourning ceremonies across the country and hold peaceful demonstrations in rejection of the pact. "For now, there will only be peaceful protests, said al-Gharawi. We are at the orders of Moqtada al-Sadr: If he asks us to resist using weapons, we will resist."
Posted by: Fred || 11/29/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Mahdi Army

#1  Sadr, please come home so we can all work this issue out together, as friends. Ok?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon || 11/29/2008 8:22 Comments || Top||

#2  What does the Iraqi legal system have to say about armed insurrection and urging (from the rear) thousands of fools to a pointless death?
Posted by: ed || 11/29/2008 8:43 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Caught on Video: Fatah 'Work Accident' Death
Posted by: tipper || 11/29/2008 07:58 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Allah Akbar indeed. Video was 1000 times more entertaining than the Rosie O'Donnell show. I think NBC should put it on the fall schedule.
Posted by: ed || 11/29/2008 8:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Couldn't have happened to a nicer group of assholes.
Posted by: DarthVader || 11/29/2008 8:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Fatah first aid in action? Not very impressive.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon || 11/29/2008 9:07 Comments || Top||

#4  Live by the RPG, die by the RPG. Can't get good help these days. Co-workers also suck. There is some kind of poetry involved here when the cosmic fickle finger of fate jams that large middle finger of your a$$ when you are up to no good.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/29/2008 9:52 Comments || Top||

#5  jeebus. All that jabbering. Sounded like The View in Arabic
Posted by: Frank G || 11/29/2008 12:13 Comments || Top||

#6  If the RPG didn't kill him the way they handled him afterward probably did. No first aid, lugged him around like a sack of spuds. Oh well.
Posted by: tipover || 11/29/2008 12:39 Comments || Top||

#7  Holy Moley! What a goat rope! One guy sounded like Curley during a crisis of the Three Stooges. Nobody did the ABC's: Airway, Breathing, Circulation. Good camera footage, though. Should go to the Cannes Film Festival.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 11/29/2008 14:39 Comments || Top||

#8  Geez, sarge, are RPGs supposed to do that or was he just showing off?
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/29/2008 21:44 Comments || Top||

#9  Yeah, they all sounded rather cocky until the mishap, then the frantic crying game began..boo, hoo, hoo.
Posted by: Hammerhead || 11/29/2008 21:45 Comments || Top||


Ayman urges Egyptian strike action over Gaza blockade
(AKI) - In an apparent change of strategy Al-Qaeda has called on Egyptian Muslims to pressure their government to re-open the key Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip via industrial action rather than holy war. The terror network's second-in-command, Egyptian-born Ayman Al-Zawahiri, launched the appeal in a new video posted by Al-Qaeda's media arm Al-Sahab to jihadist websites .

"What problem could there be if students and workers went on strike to end the embargo against Gaza? Why can't they all go on strike together?" said al-Zawahiri. "All that is needed is for workers and students not to go to work or attend school for a week, or two or three, until the embargo against Gaza ends," he said, urging Islamist and jihadist websites to spread his message.

The 90-minute video titled 'The Lion's Den' appears to have been made in October and makes no reference to this week's deadly terrorist attacks in the Indian financial capital Mumbai. The video shows al-Zawahiri answering questions put to him by an interviewer who is off-camera.

"This embargo will only be broken by exerting pressure, and doing so is the task of the entire Islamic Nation and especially of Egyptians. Egyptians must organise violent protests and put pressure on governments like Egypt's to force them to break off their relations with the Jews.

"If the Egyptians began an uprising (intifada) using their tongues, their pens and their hands, this would be able to break a thousand embargoes," al-Zawahiri stressed.

He urged students and workers to elect their own union leaders and reject those "imposed on them by institutions".

The Egyptian-controlled Rafah crossing and all other entry points into the besieged Gaza Strip, have been closed since since 4 November. Israeli forces and Palestinian militants have since then been engaged in almost daily tit-for-tat attacks. The aid dependent territory is completely sealed off with only the occasional humanitarian supplies being allowed in.

Besides the situation in Gaza, al-Zawahiri also discussed the current situation in Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan, where he said: "The Crusader campaign has failed."

"The head of British forces in Afghanistan has confirmed they cannot win against the Taliban, and Afghanistan's Defence Minister has told the Americans the country's problems cannot be resolved through force," al-Zawahiri concluded.
This article starring:
Ayman Al-Zawahiri
Posted by: Fred || 11/29/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda

#1  He's referring to the Egyptian embargo of Gaza.
Posted by: phil_b || 11/29/2008 4:27 Comments || Top||


Egypt to reopen Rafah for Paleo Hajj pilgrims
Egypt will reopen the Rafah border with the Gaza Strip for three days from Saturday to allow Palestinians to leave the blockaded territory for the Muslim hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca.
Posted by: Fred || 11/29/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Sri Lanka
Besieged and belittled, Tigers may return to guerrilla warfare

If Prabhakaran's gonna go back to humping mortars through the jungle he'll have to lose about 60 of those pounds hanging around his middle. But I suspect those natty tiger-striped jungle fatigues have never been drenched in sweat. While the hoi polloi are dragging their tired backsides through the bush or exploding in Colombo, he'll be in Dubhai or Cannes or Stockholm meeting with money men and plotting his comeback.
A pledge by Sri Lanka's Tamil rebel leader to fight on despite a military onslaught raised fears on Friday of a return to a hit-and-run guerrilla war as his mini-state faced potential collapse.

Separatist chief Super Mario Velupillai Prabhakaran vowed Thursday the rebels would "continue with our struggle until the alien Sinhala occupation of our land is evicted," referring to Sri Lanka's majority Sinhalese population, and appealed to Tamils abroad for support to shore up his military machine. Government forces have surrounded Prabhakaran in his political capital of Kilinochchi in the biggest-ever military campaign in the history of Sri Lanka's armed separatist struggle, which dates back to 1972.

Prabhakaran's speech delivered over Voice of Tigers radio contained veiled threats against civilians and suggestions the rebels would revert to hit-and-run attacks as their territory shrank, observers said. "Prabhakaran acknowledges there's fighting all around him and that he's under siege," said retired army brigadier general Vipul Boteju. "When he says he will fight on, it means he will return to his classic guerrilla tactics."

State radio warned Friday that Tiger rebels could resort to "desperate attacks" and called for public vigilance as heavy fighting raged in the island's northern regions where Tamils predominate. Security across the country had been stepped up, officials said, after a spate of bombings in Colombo and elsewhere targeting key political and military figures as well as government installations. Recent bombings against public transport were seen as retaliation for similar strikes by security forces inside rebel-held territory where the Tigers have maintained a mini-state since 1990, including their own police, courts and banks in Kilinochchi. "No sane voice is being raised either to abandon war or to seek peaceful resolution to the conflict," Prabhakaran said in his broadcast, adding the Sinhalese community across the board supported the war.

Rebel-turned-politician Dharmalingam Sithadthan said Prabhakaran had accused all members of the majority Sinhalese community of supporting the government's war effort. "This suggests he's preparing the ground to justify indiscriminate attacks against civilians," Sithadthan said. "When the LTTE is militarily weakened, they will resort to high-profile guerrilla attacks." He said he saw the guerrillas going back to the hit-and-run tactics they had adopted in the early 1980s.
Posted by: Fred || 11/29/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Looks like it is back to the basics for the Tigers.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon || 11/29/2008 8:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Do sedan chairs come in tiger stripe?
Posted by: ed || 11/29/2008 8:48 Comments || Top||

#3  Actually, if the Sri Lankan military pushes the LTTE terrorists out of their stronghold in the north, it will be back to banditry for the majority of LTTE survivors. The Tamils have "enjoyed" several years of LTTE rule in the north, and now are as popular with the civilians as Al-Q is with most civilian populations.
Posted by: Shieldwolf || 11/29/2008 17:25 Comments || Top||

#4  Woah, looks like Mario hasn't chased any flying barrels around in quite awhile. Have another coupla dozen doughnuts why doncha. Stock up on those carbs for that guerrilla warfare...
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/29/2008 21:29 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Lebanon to establish ties with 'Palestine'
Lebanon has decided for the first time to establish diplomatic relations with the "state of Palestine," and has approved the opening of an embassy in Beirut. "The cabinet has approved the establishment of diplomatic relations with the state of Palestine," Information Minister Tarek Mitri said following a cabinet meeting late on Thursday.

A Palestinian embassy would replace an office in Beirut representing the Palestine Liberation Organization, but Mitri said no date had yet been fixed to implement the move.

The PLO, which is headed by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and groups the main Palestinian political movements, is recognized by most country's as representing the Palestinian people. Abbas's predecessor the late Yasser Arafat symbolically proclaimed the state of Palestine in 1988 but the Palestinians have yet to win independence given the lack of a peace deal with Israel. Abbas was elected president of Palestine on Sunday by a key decision-making body of the PLO.
Posted by: Fred || 11/29/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: PLO



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Sat 2008-11-29
  Sadrists claim security pact 'illegal'
Fri 2008-11-28
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Thu 2008-11-27
  Indo security forces engage ''Deccan Mujaheddin''
Wed 2008-11-26
  80 killed, 900 injured, 100 taken hostage in attacks on Hotels in Mumbai
Tue 2008-11-25
  Somali pirates jack Yemeni ship
Mon 2008-11-24
  Holy Land Foundation members found guilty of supporting terrorism
Sun 2008-11-23
  Iraqi forces bang AQI Mister Big in Diyala
Sat 2008-11-22
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Fri 2008-11-21
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Thu 2008-11-20
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Wed 2008-11-19
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Tue 2008-11-18
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Mon 2008-11-17
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Sun 2008-11-16
  Lankan Army seizes entire west coast from LTTE
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