KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Police and villagers hunted on Friday for 13 mine-clearing workers kidnapped in a restive part of Afghanistan less than a week after Taliban militants vowed to step up an abduction campaign. The de-miners, all Afghans working for a U.N.-funded land mine-clearance agency, were kidnapped Thursday in eastern Paktia province on the border with Pakistan, said provincial deputy police chief Ghulam Dastager.
``We have nothing to do with politicians, the people of the area asked us to come,'' said Kefayatullah Eblagh, the head of Afghan Technical Consultants, the de-mining agency.
You think that makes a difference to the Talibunnies?
In the past, Taliban insurgents have abducted de-miners and occasionally killed them, but Dastager said it was too early to speculate on the identity or motives of the kidnappers, noting criminal gangs also frequently take hostages for ransom. Dastager and Eblagh said police and villagers were hunting for the crew, who were traveling in two vehicles.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/08/2007 00:00 ||
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(SomaliNet) Somalia government troops have clashed with the Islamist led insurgent groups in parts of Wardhigley district, south of the war ravaged capital of Mogadishu on Friday night, witnesses said as soldiers left their posts in north of the city today due to mounting insurgency attacks according to reliable sources. The latest clashes came when local militants threw grenade bombs and opened fire on the government troops stationed at Bar-Ubah and Idko intersections along the 30th Road known as Sodonka road around 7:10pm local time. As the news was sketchy there is no immediate casualty on the latest street gun battle.
The incident follows todays abandonment by the government troops in parts of Huriwa district in north of Mogadishu where the insurgents are actively moving and launch daily attacks on the government posts.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2007 00:00 ||
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(SomaliNet) Units of the Somalia government troops abandoned their posts in parts of Huriwa district, north of the capital Mogadishu on Friday afternoon amid increasing violence, according to the locals. Ismael Moalim, a local witness told Somalinet the troops moved from the positions near SOS mother and child hospital and Suuq Xoolaha village where the insurgents are intensifying. People are now moving freely on the roads had been cut off by the government solders, said Moalim adding that people were so happy to see the troops desert the area.
It is not yet clear why this time the government forces left the camps and the government did not comment on the latest change. The security officers declined to give details about the move in which the troops vacated their temporary posts. But confidential sources say the government forces left the positions in Huriwa district after mounting pressure from the local insurgents. The Ethiopian forces still remain in their military posts in Huriwa like the former past factory.
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09/08/2007 00:00 ||
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A booby-trapped car exploded at a barracks housing coast guard officials on Saturday, killing at least 28 people in Algeria's second terror attack this week, hospital officials said. The explosion ripped through the northern coastal town of Dellys, about 30 miles from Algiers, as the local coast guard was taking part in the morning flag-raising ceremony. All the victims were coast guard officials, who are part of Algeria's armed forces, hospital officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media. Dozens more were injured.
Recent bombings in Algeria have generated fears of a return to the mass-scale violence of the 1990s, when Algeria's Islamic insurgency peaked. The country, a U.S. ally against terrorism, has been trying to move past the 15-year insurgency that killed 200,000 people. Until recently, its efforts appeared mostly successful. The attack came just two days after another bombing killed at least 22 in a crowd of people in eastern Algeria who were waiting to see visiting President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has devoted his eight years in office to ending the insurgency. There was widespread speculation that Bouteflika was the intended target of that attack, though Algerian officials kept silent on the question. Police said the bomber was killed by security services after he dropped the explosives and tried to escape.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility in either attack. However, an al-Qaida affiliate calling itself al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa has been active in Algeria lately. On Friday, Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni warned terrorists that they have "one choice: turn themselves in, or die."
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09/08/2007 12:15 ||
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A tip-off from US intelligence helped to foil the terror bomb plot in Germany, it emerged yesterday. "The first piece of hard evidence on the bomb plot against American military and airbases in Germany was transmitted to the German authorities from American intelligence officials," Rolf Tophoven, director of the German institute for terrorist research and security policy, said.
Excellent! Just the sort of quiet cooperation we need between friends. Now shut up about it.
US satellite systems picked up on electronic contact between Pakistan and Germany more than 10 months ago, he said. "From then on, the operation progressed with the clandestine support of the US in the background."
Did we get a warrant from the FISA court?
According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the US officials gave the Germans internet IP addresses and parts of names. US intelligence officials in Washington said there had been a significant degree of co-operation over this matter, but would not confirm or deny that US intercepts had led investigators to the suspects.
And don't you dare confirm it one way or the other.
German police last night continued their hunt for overseas members of the Islamic Jihad Union - a shadowy Sunni group with roots in Uzbekistan and which may be connected to al-Qaida - who were instrumental in the plot, giving orders to the German cell, Mr Tophoven said. A key thread of the investigation, says Spiegel Online, is the search for one or two individuals, possibly based in Pakistan, who issued orders to the suspects.
As Fred notes, seems like every one of these plots has a Pak connection.
Local reports said that instead of sending emails, the suspects saved messages in the draft folder of an email account which both parties had access to, a trick also used by al-Qaida planner Khaled Sheikh Mohammed in the run up to 9/11.
More: loyal reader Besoeker provides this source which has more on the story.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/08/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Helloooo! This is probably thanks to the Patriot Act . . . . Any Dhimmis out there paying attention and want to give this one back to the terrorists? How 'bout in the future then?
#2
Either I did something wrong, or Besoeker's link is for military people only. Fair enough, there are plenty of things I don't actually need to know, despite being afflicted with 'satiable curiosity, like the Elephant Child.
#3
Besoeker's link was to a DOD-only site. But the info behind the site is from a public source (LA Times) so I'll post some of it here.
The communications detected last year referred to apparent terrorist activity, the German and U.S. officials said in interviews. The German officials characterized the communications as specific and alarming.
American authorities passed the lead to German police, who conducted a painstaking investigation that led to the arrests of the three suspects. Police here suspected that militants were communicating with Pakistan from an Internet cafe, a frequent strategy to avoid detection, but they did not know which one. So they deployed surveillance teams at several dozen Internet cafes around the city, officials said.
The stakeouts paid off when police spotted a 28-year-old convert who was already known as an associate of Islamic militants and has been identified as Fritz Gelowicz.
Arrested this week with the two other suspects, Gelowicz was described Thursday by anti-terrorism officials as the lead figure in a group that learned bomb-making at an Al Qaeda-linked training camp in Pakistan last year. The third man jailed is a Turk who has been living in Germany.
On Thursday, police pressed their investigation of at least seven other suspects, including several who are believed to have left the country.
About 300 investigators worked round-the-clock for nine months to monitor the alleged plotters. Using sophisticated eavesdropping equipment of their own, the Germans watched and listened as the suspected cell coalesced and amassed a stash of bomb-making materials.
German authorities said they had focused on Gelowicz after he was briefly detained in January on suspicion of scouting a U.S. military barracks. But in reality, Gelowicz and his associates already had been identified as an urgent threat, thanks to the American intercepts last year, according to officials in Germany and the U.S.
"The U.S. counter-terrorism community supported efforts to draw links, to do intercepts and to monitor communications between Pakistan and Germany," a U.S. counter-terrorism official said.
The counter-terrorism official described the initial intercepts as "a key factor" that "helped build the case."
"It led to a very long period of surveillance, and the arrests." The official said the intercepts continued throughout the investigation.
This year, U.S. intelligence agents intercepted a key communication in which militant handlers in Pakistan asked for an update on the plot and pushed the suspects to move faster, German officials said.
At the start of the investigation, American intelligence also helped German police focus on the second convert, Daniel Schneider, a German official said.
U.S. intercepts detected the 22-year-old convert's e-mail communications with Pakistan and guided German police to him through a wireless signal he was pirating, officials said.
The suspects were simultaneously stealthy, brazen and reckless, officials said. The three evidently became aware of the constant surveillance and tried to thwart it, changing trains and dodging tails.
But when police this year confronted Schneider, and warned him that they knew what he was up to, he brushed them off, a German anti-terrorism official said. The trio plunged zealously ahead, the official said, apparently eager to die.
The three were unemployed; the two German natives collected welfare. Authorities said the trio claimed allegiance to the Islamic Jihad Union, an Uzbek group that in 2002 broke off from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, an Al Qaeda ally. The IJU ran the Pakistani camp where they trained and oversaw their alleged mission, officials said.
Unlike cases such as the London transportation bombings of 2005, in which the bombers communicated frequently with masterminds in Pakistan during the final weeks, the cell here was largely "self-contained and self-directed," the law enforcement official said. "They seemed to be running their own show."
(other) suspects include a Lebanese man who arrived in Germany on Monday after being deported from Pakistan, where he allegedly was en route to a terrorist training camp, officials said. The suspect was released after questioning this week but remained under investigation. Another man at large is Zafer S. a Turk believed to be in Turkey or Iraq.
Even if the missing suspects are arrested, prosecuting them might be difficult. It is not a crime in Germany to attend a foreign terrorist training camp.
Also troubling to officials was the presence of several suspects from Germany's vast Turkish community. In the past, Germans of Turkish origin have been far less likely to turn up in Islamic extremist networks than Pakistani Britons or young North Africans in France and its neighbors to the south.
#5
Even if the missing suspects are arrested, prosecuting them might be difficult. It is not a crime in Germany to attend a foreign terrorist training camp.
For whatever reason, I trust the Germans to come up with something to hammer these fools. Even if they have to make up on the spot.
#7
Big hat tip and thanks to the men and women of the BKA and the "Border Guards" of GSG-9. A nine-month 24/7 surveillance is a huge op. I'm sure the GSG-9 were on a constant stand-by in case things went noisy. With close coordination, patience, and discipline we will beat these a$*holes.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
09/08/2007 9:32 Comments ||
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#8
I hope that my kraut relatives can stomp these vermin.
If it wasn't for the results I wish that an attack like this could take place so all of this "alleged" sh** could be done away with.
Maybe the solution would be to have the plot go completely through but the bombs go off like a wet fire-cracker.
#9
Besoeker, no apology needed. There are many things y'all need to know that we don't... and loose lips still sink ships. I'm comforted beyond words to know there is a deep, dark ocean of information in which the sea-sheepdogs swim while I float happily above in my little barquw, confident that the sharks are being kept at bay, and the giant squid at the bottom are being hunted by the killer whales.
/end seriously overstrained but heartfelt metaphor.
Thank you, lotp. Seriously good investigative work by all involved.
#10
Hooray for strong international cooperation. I could only wish that there was a similar concensus about taking the fight to Islam's home turf.
About 300 investigators worked round-the-clock for nine months to monitor the alleged plotters.
A simple question: Some 300 investigators works out to 100 security personnel per arresttee. How many million dollars were spent nailing this one cell? In case anyone didn't notice, this is not very cost-effective. Curriously enough, this number is also reflected around the world in how there are several hundred international security personnel for each terrorist. Again, not very cost efficient.
The several million dollars spent on this one operation would also have financed manyif not allof the critical two dozen hits against Islam's clerical, scholastic and financial aristocracy. Terrorism cannot be fought with a one-investigation-at-a-time method or a one-bullet-at-a-time strategy. We are in an ideological war and it is the programmers that must be brought down.
Wretchard's observations about Palestinian terrorists applies to Islam as a whole:
The Israeli strike against the terrorist top tier exploits the weakness inherent in terrorist organizations which are unstable alliances based on a delicate balance of internal intimidation. None of them, the Palestinian Authority included, are either transparent or accountable. They are exceptionally vulnerable to changes in their leadership. They can stand the loss of any number of teenage fighters or youthful suicide bombers without much damage but are rocked -- as Yassin's death illustrates -- by death at the top.
We are wasting time and squandering precious breathing room by not going after Islam's elite. They have an unlimited supply of easily programmed mass murdering cannon-fodder to point at us. In our daintiness, we have sent Emily Post to negotiate instead of Korbin Dallas.
How many more atrocities will it take before Islam, not "Islamism", "Islamofascism", not "radical Islam" or "fundamentalist Islam", but ISLAM is finally recognized as the problem? Disregarding the precious human lives being lost to Islam every single day, how much more treasure are we going to fritter away in our futile attempt to delicately separate the hopelessly conjoined twins of Islam and terrorism? There is nothing worth preserving about Islam. It is a drag upon this world and the source of more human suffering than all other creeds combinedeven exceeding that of communismwhich is no easy feat.
#11
It was a pretty good investment, Zenster. As a result, more Germans realize that they, too, are at war -- things are being said publicly that would have been unthinkable a few days before the story broke -- and we've got a hook into the Pakistani end, phone and email. You know far better than I what fun the merry pranksters at the alphabet agencies can have with that! It's visible movement on one of the three critical fronts, one whose apparent neglect Rantburg had been very concerned about. This strikes me as possibly a pretty big pebble tossed in the pond of the ISI/Pakistan's ambitions, and by implication the jihadi war effort overall.
Or I could have read too many spy novels. Y'all feel free to bring me back to reality.
I'll not argue the results, tw. Your other points remain salient, as well. It's just that intercepting this plot does not carry us forward with sufficient impetus. Yes, we have developed better leads in Pakistan butso long as the madrassas continue to churn out jihadisthe central problem still remains.
Pacifying Islam requires a top-down approach. As noted by Wretchard and myself, the virtually limitless supply of cannon-fodder insulates Islam's aristocracy from the consequences of its acts. This must change.
Afghanistan and Iraq are sterling examples of what to expect from a bottom-up approach. Endless lives and treasure expended with little to show for it. Do not think I am ungrateful for what has been accomplished. Yet, little has been done to give Islam sincere pause in its headlong assault against the West.
The high context nature of Muslim cultures literally demands that we summarily execute Islam's clerical, academic and financial elite. We do not break the mafia and la cosa nostra by bagging runners and hit men. You do it by taking down the dons and cappos.
We have yet to do much in the way of this against Islam up until now. Hambali, Zarqawi and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed represent some of our biggest coups even while bin Laden and mullah Omar remain alive. It was galling in the extreme to place Osama's name back atop my hit-list of top terrorist operatives.
A top-down approach is the only hope for avoiding a Muslim holocaust. All else is folly.
#13
I'm not sure we disagree, Zenster. But in a high context society, it sure helps to start tracing those connections. We know where President General Dr. Musharref is, but he's dancing on the edge of the volcano, not controlling it. In Pakistan we need to get to the ISI bosses, which has always directed and supplied the end product of the madrassas. Without the ISI, which are effectively Pakistan's military, and thus effectively the true rulers of Pakistan, the clerics can only scream into unplugged microphones, it seems to me.
Separately, Hot Air has a link to the Osama bin Laden video. Mr. bin Laden does not appear to be doing well. Enjoy! link
#15
Thank you, Zenster. You are ever gallant. The present one is my 46th, if I didn't switch signs somewhere in the equation. Thus far all have been filled with fascinating people and places and things to learn. I'm looking forward to discover what the next sixty or seventy birthdays bring to me, fully expecting that you and the rest of the wonderful, clever people at Rantburg will continue to have a disproportionate share. Thank you all so much!
(Xinhua) -- A U.S. federal court ruled on Friday that Iran must pay 2.65 billion dollars to the family members of the 241 U.S. servicemen killed in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. "The court hopes that this extremely sizable judgment will serve to aid in the healing process for these plaintiffs, and simultaneously sound an alarm to the defendants that their unlawful attacks on our citizens will not be tolerated," federal judge Royce Lamberth said in his ruling from a federal court in Washington D.C.
Family members of the victims, "whose hearts and souls were forever broken, waited patiently for nearly a quarter century for justice to be done," Lamberth said. In May 2003, Lamberth ruled that Iran was responsible for the 1983 suicide bombing of a U.S. marine barracks in Beirut. The suicide attack was carried out by Hezbollah with the approval and funding of Iran's government officials, Lamberth said at the time.
Hezbollah, or Party of God, is based in Lebanon and has waged a campaign for dozens of years against Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon as a self-declared security zone. Hezbollah is blamed for anti-western and anti Israel terrorist acts dating from 1980s and is on the U.S. State Department's official list of terrorist organizations.
I think you can put me down in the "strongly disagree" column on this. I feel for the family members, and yes, Iran is the puppet master behind Hezbollah - you need to have both your eyeballs on the floor to miss that. But Iran is going to ignore this. The court and the government have no means to enforce the decision except to sell Iranian property, which my guess is won't happen. The court and the U.S. judicial system are both going to end up looking frivolous. Once the regime has been changed in Iran the current government won't exist and the debt will be forgiven.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I support these court efforts, even if they are unenforceable. This judgement won't change Iran or Hizbollah, but it WILL change US government foreign relations. A little change can blossom into something major.
#2
I have to agree with Mr. Pruitt on this one, despite being almost as unqualified to have an opinion on matters legal as on matters military. We complain rightfully when Belgium, having convicted them in absentia for the fuss du jour*, issues a warrant for the arrest of Israeli generals or American troops. Action outside our borders are rightfully the concern of Congress and the responsibility of the President and his agents in the Executive branch. U.S. courts at all levels are concerned with breaches of law within the boundary of their district, be it a village traffic court of the Supreme Court of the United States.
*Not proper French, I realize, which after all I don't speak.
#4
It cuts both way. As mentioned above, why shouldn't foreign courts apply claims against our government or individuals for actions taken IAW our Constitution and laws? It give those who want to see our soldiers in the dockets at the Hague [or elsewhere] more to play with. Unfortunately it goes along too with our judicial system's unquenched desire to stick it's fingers into every aspect of our existence. It's how you evolve a real aristocracy [whose entrance into the status is limited by artifice or by design to a specific class or strata] in which only a few rule the many.
Two Frontier Corps (FC) personnel were injured in a rocket attack late on Thursday in North Waziristan, officials said on Friday. The Taliban attacked Jalar checkpost at around 10pm in Mir Ali town, 25 kilometres east of Miranshah, they said, adding that the injured had been rushed to a Bannu military hospital. The attack is an apparent reaction to the killing of four suspected foreign militants by security forces. The security forces retaliated with artillery fire on suspected militants hideouts.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2007 00:00 ||
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(KUNA) -- The outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), largely active in India's Northeastern state of Assam, has suffered a major jolt with 14 of their key guerrilla leaders surrendering. An Assam government spokesperson told reporters Friday in Guwahati that the 14 ULFA guerrillas who surrendered before police Thursday in Assam's main city of Guwahati were from the rebel group's 28 and 709 battalions, news agency Indo Asian News Service reported. "The 28 battalion of the ULFA is very active in eastern Assam and most of the attacks were being carried out by them. Now with nine of the 14 of those who surrendered belonging to the 28th battalion, there will be some confusion among the cadres," the spokesperson said.
"All the 14 ULFA members who surrendered were involved in many of the recent subversive acts in the state. Their surrender is surely going to be a major setback for the outfit," Assam police intelligence chief Khagen Sarma told the news agency today. The surrendered rebels also laid down a huge amount of weapons and explosives, including AK 47 assault rifles, pistols, and grenades, the news agency said. "Those who surrendered actually executed plans plotted by ULFA leaders from bases abroad and hence the surrender assumes significance," Sarma said.
The attacks by ULFA have so far claimed 150 lives this year. The top ULFA leadership is reportedly based in Bangladesh . ULFA is waging an insurgency since 1979 to create "sovereign" Assam carved out of India . New Delhi has accused ULFA leadership of maintaining close links with Pakistan 's ISI to create disturbance in the country's Northeast. New Delhi has often raised with Dhaka the issue of the presence of Indian Insurgent Groups (IIGs) from Northeast including ULFA on Bangladeshi soil . However, Dhaka denies this charge.
During India-Bangladesh Home Secretary level talks here last month, New Delhi had asked Dhaka to act against the IIGs from India's Northeast who were using Bangladesh as a base for carrying out terror strikes on Indian soil. Dhaka is yet to respond to New Delhi's demand in concrete terms.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2007 00:00 ||
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(KUNA) -- Three members of the ruling Congress party in Andhra Pradesh were killed Friday morning and five others were injured in a Maoist landmine bomb that targeted an MP and his wife, a state minister, both of who escaped unscathed. Indo Asian News Agency said Indian MP and former chief minister of the southern Indian state, Janardhan Reddy, and his wife, Rajyalakshmi, who is a minister in the state cabinet, escaped a the blast this morning. However, three members of the ruling party were killed and five others were injured in the attack on the convoy near Kovada village in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh.
Janardhan Reddy and Rajyalakshmi, who is Minister for Women Development and Child Welfare in Andhra Pradesh, were going to Tirupati, a temple town. Andhra Pradesh police suspect the Communist Party of India (Maoist) of being behind the blast. Janardhan Reddy, who had imposed a ban on Maoists during his tenure as the chief minister (1990-1992), was on the hit list of the left wing extremists and the police had foiled an attempt to kill him in 2003.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2007 00:00 ||
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MINGORA: Suspected militants on Friday blew up 63 CD and shoe shops in the Mina Bazaar and Ali Plaza and partially damaged 21 nearby shops, but there were no casualties, witnesses said.
In Ali Plaza, the explosion destroyed 19 shops selling shoes and a mobile repairing shop in the basement, while 27 CD shops and a mobile repairing shop were destroyed in the first floor of the plaza.
In Mina Bazaar, the blast destroyed 15 CD shops and partially damaged nine nearby shops. Around 12 mobile repairing shops were partially damaged in Qadria Market. Offices of Daily Times, Aaj TV and Online news agency were also partially damaged due to the Mina Bazaar blasts, which also broke the windowpanes of Lalazaar Hotel, Bolan Hotel and Anwar Hotel.
A few days ago, unidentified people had threatened the owners of these video and CDs shops through letters, warning them to close their un-Islamic business or face bomb attacks. The owners of the video centres had started negotiating with the local administration to find alternative businesses. However, the militants bombed the CD shops after the deadline expired.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
CD and shoe shops? I'd like to see their marketing strategy...
#2
This is an important development. Merely causing people to have no fun at all barely works in a country where there isn't much fun to be had in the first place. Whereas, causing people to have no job at all is guaranteed to really piss them off in a big way. Bring on Islam's typical economic trainwreck. It's the sure way of increasing jihad's unpopularity.
#6
They probably weren't the traditional, but not terribly effective, curly toed slippers, tu3031. Just as they went after shops selling Western-style suits and such, when they should have been selling whatever was fashionable at the time of the Moghul conquest, with those silly little hats to match.
PESHAWAR: Suspected militants beheaded two women on Thursday for alleged prostitution in the Bannu Cantt Police precinct, police said. An investigator said a note was found with the bodies to that effect. A police officer told Daily Times that the two women were kidnapped on Thursday from Sokari Jaba and their bodies were later found in Domanzi. The women were identified as Maino and Malaki, both in their mid-40s.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Being over 40 were they beheaded because they were depreciated fully from the Mulah's stable (er 1/2 hour marriage ladies) ?
Adiala Jail authorities on Friday released British national Rangzeb Ahmed in accordance with the directives of the Supreme Court (SC). Ahmed was arrested in NWFP in 2006, having been suspected for militancy. He has been in jail since then. He was held under the Security of Pakistan Act 1952, which allows indefinite detention of those suspected to be a threat to national security. A jail official told Daily Times that Ahmed had flown to London after his release.
Agencies add: Ahmed was arrested by British police minutes after his plane touched down at Londons Heathrow Airport, AP reported. Greater Manchester Police, which made the arrest, said he was being held under Britains terrorism laws. Earlier, New York-based Human Rights Watch said Ahmed had never been charged with any crime during his year of imprisonment. Ahmed alleged that he was interrogated several times by US law enforcement personnel from unidentified agencies and interviewed by British security services during his incarceration, it said.
The Briton had denied any wrongdoing or involvement with Al Qaeda in an interview provided by intermediaries, the groups South Asia researcher Ali Dayan Hasan said in a statement. Rangzieb Ahmed should not be arrested or mistreated upon arrival in the UK, the rights group said. Ahmed maintains that he never confessed to any involvement with terrorism during the interrogation. In any case, a confession obtained under torture would have no basis in law, Hasan added. Pakistani agents carried out the torture, the rights group said. The British High Commission in Islamabad confirmed Ahmeds deportation. He has been deported and is flying back to Britain, spokesman Aidan Liddle told AFP. Pakistani authorities were not immediately available to comment. Ahmed had been involved with militant groups fighting Indian security forces in Kashmir and spent time in jail in India, the rights group said. British authorities had secured his release from India and he had returned to Britain before coming to Pakistan in 2006, it said. He denies any subsequent involvement in militancy or any connection with the Al Qaeda network, it added.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
nice to know HRW is so concerned and expending so much effort on this punk
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/08/2007 7:28 Comments ||
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#2
Ahmed had been involved with militant groups fighting Indian security forces in Kashmir and spent time in jail in India, the rights group said. British authorities had secured his release from India and he had returned to Britain before coming to Pakistan in 2006
Like a bad penny, Pakistan's name surfaces as usual.
#3
I like the gun shots better than the missile because you can see the hot projectile tearing at teh ground. Probably nothing but little bad guy parts laying around after that.
A former official responsible for security at the Shrines of the Askari Imams in Samarra has been arrested for affiliation with the group that bombed the holy site in February of last year, which led to the eruption of sectarian violence in the country.
Director of Mosul's National Command Center, Major General Abdulkareem Khalaf, told KUNA that security forces arrested the official, Aws Tareq Fareed, in Mosul Wednesday evening, adding that the arrest was based on "intelligence information" that the man in question was back from Syria, where he had been in hiding.
The arrest warrant for Fareed was issued last year, and he is now being interrogated in Baghdad, he said. The bombing of the two shrines early last year led to a wave of sectarian violence that ripped through the country and took great effort to control. The shrines were again targeted in June of this year.
Coalition Forces killed three terrorists and detained 18 suspected terrorists during operations Thursday and Friday to disrupt the senior leadership of al-Qaeda in Iraq in central and northern parts of the country.
Coalition forces conducted two operations in Diyala province Friday targeting the senior leadership of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Based on intelligence from an operation Sep. 4, the ground forces raided several buildings associated with the al-Qaeda in Iraq emir of the northern belts around Baghdad, who oversees bombing, kidnapping and illegal court operations. When Coalition forces called to the target buildings occupants to come out, they refused to comply with the interpreters instructions. After repeated requests, the men inside the building sent the women and children out to safety but refused to come out themselves. Coalition forces escalated their level of force against the hostile threat and engaged the men, killing two. As they entered the building to secure it, another man lunged toward the assault force. Responding to the hostile threat, Coalition forces engaged the man, killing him. Four suspected terrorists were detained on the site, and the ground forces destroyed four vehicles used to facilitate the movement of terrorists.
In the other raid, intelligence gained during an operation Aug. 30 led Coalition forces to Baqubah, where they targeted the al-Qaeda in Iraq leader of the city. The ground forces detained two suspected terrorists in the operation.
Coalition forces also targeted an al-Qaeda in Iraq senior leader in Baghdad, who oversees one of the car-bombing networks there. The ground forces detained four suspected terrorists for their alleged ties to the network, and discovered bomb-making materials, which they safely destroyed on site.
Two coordinated raids Thursday and Friday targeted al-Qaeda in Iraq operational cells in Mosul. Coalition forces detained eight suspected terrorists, including a suspected cell member who led the ground forces to the alleged cell leader, who was also detained. Were continuously assaulting al-Qaeda in Iraq to bring down not only their senior leaders, but also the networks that conduct vicious attacks against the Iraqi people, said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, MNF-I spokesperson.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2007 00:00 ||
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Scouts from the 6th Iraqi Army Division detained an alleged extremist militant brigade commander and one other suspected terrorist Sept. 6 in Rahmaniyah, near Baghdad.
The alleged brigade commander operates out of Karkh and leads a group of more than 750 insurgents to conduct improvised explosive device and sniper attacks against Coalition Forces and civilian contractors in the Aamel area. Both detainees are believed to be linked to a brutal attack in May that targeted Sunni residents in the Saddam Place apartments, which resulted in the deaths of 13 innocent civilians. The suspects are also alleged to have ties to an execution committee that is responsible for assassinating innocent civilians fighting for a safe and secure Iraq.
Intelligence reports indicate the suspects are cooperating with foreign fighters and assisting other insurgents in acquiring sniper training in Iran. In addition, one of the detainees has been facilitating meetings at a local mosque to hold clandestine meetings and to collect information on Coalition Forces.
In an earlier operation, Iraqi Special Operations Forces detained four Shia extremist militants during an intelligence driven raid Sept. 6 in Baghdad. One of the targeted individuals is accused of murdering a member of ISOF and is further suspected of distributing Shia extremist propaganda in Hay al Amel. A second detainee is reportedly to be physician who works in a public clinic in Hay Al Jameyat where he allegedly killed four other doctors. Forces detained two additional suspicious individuals during the mission.
U.S. Special Forces served as advisers during these operations. No Iraqi or Coalition Forces were injured during these raids.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2007 00:00 ||
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Iraqi Special Operations Forces, with U.S. Special Forces acting as advisers, detained two al Qaeda in Iraq cell leaders during an operation Sept. 6 in Adahmiyah, Iraq.
The Sunni extremists are responsible for conducting improvised explosive device and mortar attacks against civilians and Coalition Forces in the area. One of the detained cell leaders is allegedly an assistant al Qaeda in Iraq financier. The second suspect directs and carries out IED attacks against Coalition Forces. A third suspicious individual was also detained for further questioning during the operation.
Intelligence indicates that on July 11, the cell detonated an IED on a U.S. convoy securing the Adhahmiyah area, and that on Aug. 2 the cell members again detonated an IED on another U.S. convoy in the Ras Al Hush area.
During an earlier operation Sept. 5, Iraqi Special Operations Forces detained one suspected al Qaeda in Iraq terrorist during a helicopter raid in Fallujah. The insurgent is linked to an al Qaeda in Iraq cell responsible for mortar and improvised explosive device attacks against Coalition Forces and local citizens.
During the raid, a Military Working Dog identified a truck outside the main targeted building as testing positive for explosives. After forces cleared the area, F-16 Fighting Falcons were called in, destroying the vehicle-borne IED with two precision guided bombs. There was no collateral damage to the area and no civilians, Iraqi or U.S. Forces were injured during the destruction of the truck.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2007 00:00 ||
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(KUNA) -- Three Iraqi civilians were killed and five others were wounded Thursday evening in an attack on a group of people performing evening prayers at a Kirkuk mosque. A source at the joint Iraqi coordination center told KUNA unknown militants opened fire at a group of people who were praying at Abdulqader Al-Kilani Mosque in Hajja district, adding that the wounded were rushed to hospital for treatment. Moreover, the source said a doctor was kidnapped from his clinic in central Kirkuk today.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2007 00:00 ||
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Terrorists Insurgents shot dead an assistant village headman at a rubber plantation in Songkhla province early Saturday. The 46-year-old man was killed when he was assisting his wife in the plantation at around 1am.
In Yala province, terrorists insurgents shot dead a 30-year-old woman when she was riding a motorcycle to a market in Bannang Sata district on Saturday.
Meanwhile, more than 20 security forces arrested 11 suspected terrorists insurgents in Narathiwat's Sungai Padi district. They were believed to have made explosives which have been used in attacking authorities.
If true, Bashir and his Iranian puppetmasters need to think very carefully about their next move.
If not true, I hope Bashir and the stringpullers are still worried ....
Exactly the rumor I'd be spreading if I was running the IAF, true or not ...
DEBKAfiles military experts conclude from the way Damascus described the episode Wednesday, Sept. 6, that the Pantsyr-S1E missiles, purchased from Russia to repel air assailants, failed to down the Israeli jets accused of penetrating northern Syrian airspace from the Mediterranean the night before. The new Pantsyr missiles therefore leave Syrian and Iranian airspace vulnerable to hostile intrusion.
You don't think they flew that mission to test that system do you?... Naw. They wouldn't do that. Forget I said anything.
The Israeli plane or planes were described by a Syrian military spokesman as forced to leave by Syrian air defense fire after dropping ammunition over deserted areas without causing casualties. He warned the Israeli enemy against repeating its aggressive action and said his government reserved the right to respond in an appropriate manner.
Western intelligence circles stress that information on Russian missile consignments to Syria or Iran is vital to any US calculation of whether to attack Iran over its nuclear program. They assume that the absolute jamming immunity which the Russian manufactures promised for the improved Pantsyr missiles was immobilized by superior electronic capabilities exercised by the jets before they were forced to leave.
Syria took delivery in mid-August of 10 batteries of sophisticated Russian Pantsyr-S1E Air Defense Missile fire control systems with advanced radar, those sources report. They have just been installed in Syria.
Understanding that the Pantsyr-S1E had failed in its mission to bring down trespassing aircraft, Moscow hastened Thursday, Sept 6, to officially deny selling these systems to Syria or Iran and called on Israel to respect international law. This was diplomatic-speak for a warning against attacking the Russian-made missiles batteries stations where Soviet Russian instructors are working alongside Syrian teams.
Western intelligence circles maintain that it is vital for the US and Israel to establish the location and gauge the effectiveness of Pantsyr-S1E air defenses in Syrian and Iranian hands, as well as discovering how many each received. They estimate that at least three or four batteries of the first batch of ten were shipped to Iran to boost its air defense arsenal; another 50 are thought to be on the way, of which Syria will keep 36.
The purported Israeli air force flights over the Pantsyr-S1E site established that the new Russian missiles, activated for the first time in the Middle East, are effective and dangerous but can be disarmed. Western military sources attribute to those Israeli or other air force planes superior electronics for jamming the Russian missile systems, but stress nonetheless that they were extremely lucky to get away unharmed, or at worst, with damage minor enough for a safe return to base.
The courage, daring and operational skills of the air crews must have been exceptional. They would have needed to spend enough time in hostile Syrian air space to execute several passes at varying altitudes under fire in order to test the Pantsyr-S1E responses. Their success demonstrated to Damascus and Tehran that their expensive new Russian anti-air system leaves them vulnerable.
"This has been a test of the anti-Pantsyr jamming system. Had this been a real Zionist air raid, Damascus would be burning. I repeat, this was only a test. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming"
And oh, by the way - thanks for activating those systems. I think we got all the signatures we need but if not, we'll be back.
We may be back in any case. Sleep tight!
And how much did you pay Putin for that stuff, anyway?
Dunno, ask the Iranians ...
Washington like Jerusalem withheld comment in the immediate aftermath of the episode. After its original disclosure, Damascus too is holding silent. Western intelligence sources believe the Syrians in consultation with the Russians and Tehran are weighing action to gain further media mileage from the incident. They may decide to exhibit some of the ammunition dropped by the Israeli aircraft as proof of Israels contempt for international law. A military response may come next.
Pantsir-S1 or Panzir (Shell" in English) is a short-range, mobile air defense system, combining two 30mm anti-aircraft guns and 12 surface-to-air missiles which can fire on the move. It can simultaneously engage two separate targets at 12 targets per minute, ranging from fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, ballistic and cruise missiles, precision-guided munitions and unmanned air vehicles. It can also engage light-armored ground targets.
The Pantsyr S1 short-range air defense system is designed to provide point defense of key military and industrial facilities and air defense support for military units during air and ground operations. The integrated missile and gun armament creates an uninterrupted engagement zone of 18 to 20 km in range and of up to 10 km in altitude. Immunity to jamming is promised via a common multimode and multi-spectral radar and optical control system. The combined missile and artillery capability makes the Russian system the most advanced air defense system in the world. Syria and Iran believe it provides the best possible protection against American or Israeli air and missile attack. Stationed in al Hamma, at the meeting point of the Syrian-Jordanian and Israeli borders, the missiles detection range of 30 km takes in all of Israels northern air force bases.
Lebanon's security forces have decided to repeat the DNA test of Shaker al-Absi, slain leader of Fatah al-Islam and took samples from all his five children. The first DNA test did not match Absi's which created a controversy since his wife, relatives and Militants that knew him all identified his corpse at the government owned Hospital in Tripoli. The person who was most upset about the DNA results was the spokesman of the Islamic scholars Sheikh Haithem el Saeed " I knew Shaker al Absi extremely well and I am absolutely sure the corpse I saw was that of Absi regardless of what the DNA test results say."
Which leads to the conclusion that the guy you knew extremely well wasn't really Shaker al-Absi, doesn't it? The real Shaker al-Absi was a nice enough fellow, kind to children and dogs, treated his Mom and wife like queens, and was kidnapped by efrits and djinns. They snacked on his soul, then sucked all the juices out of his mortal shell, which is now a dried, transparent husk blowing across the Arabian desert. His place in society was taken by a djinn named Eduardo. That's who (more precisely, what) was bumped off.
This article starring:
SHAKER AL ABSI
Fatah al-Islam
Sheikh Haithem el Saeed
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Shouldn't they ask his wife if his children are related to him?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
09/08/2007 0:10 Comments ||
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#2
"We can definitely confirm that whoever this poor shlub is is definitely still stone cold, doorknob dead. Getting a little bit stinky, even."
(Xinhua) -- Lebanese security forces on Friday arrested two Syrian citizens in north Lebanon for allegedly belonging to the Fatah al-Islam group, local Naharnet news website reported. The two were identified as Mohammed Sheik Othman and Ahmad Hassan Labj, said the report.
The arrests were made in line with a manhunt launched by the Lebanese army and police for Fatah al-Islam members who had escaped the army crackdown on Nahr al-Bared camp since May 20, it added. Earlier on Thursday, the Lebanese army killed two Fatah al-Islam members in separate clashes in the northern Akkar province.
On Sept. 2, the Lebanese army launched its final assault on the camp, which is located some 12 km north of the Lebanese city of Tripoli, and took full control of the camp. At least 224 Fatah al-Islam members have been killed since the confrontation with the army broke out. The army lost 163 soldiers in the 106-day confrontation that ended. The Lebanese government lists Fatah al-Islam as a terrorist network aimed at destabilizing Lebanon.
This article starring:
AHMED HASAN LABJ
Fatah al-Islam
MOHAMED SHEIK OTHMAN
Fatah al-Islam
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2007 00:00 ||
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Residents of the Lebanese village of Muniyah in coordination with army intelligence have arrested a wounded Syrian militant who belongs to the Fatah alIslam terrorist organization. The name of the arrested militant is Ahmad al-Labbash The militant confessed that he only recently came from Syria to join Fatah al-Islam ranks in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared. The Lebanese army is currently hunting down 12 Fatah al-Islam militants near the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared. They all escaped on September 2 , the day the army took control of the camp and declared victory
Update : 2:00 PM Beirut time
The Lebanese army has arrested today another Syrian militant that belongs to Fatah al Islam organization . The name of the arrested militant is Mohammad Bin Hamzah el Sheikh Othman . He was able to escape from the camp by swimming to the el Abdeh area in north Lebanon.
This article starring:
AHMED AL LABASH
Fatah alIslam
MOHAMAD BIN HAMZAH EL SHEIKH OTHMAN
Fatah alIslam
Fatah alIslam
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2007 00:00 ||
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Osama bin Laden has used his first videotape message in nearly three years to threaten to escalate the violence in Iraq and attack the US government. The video, which was released just days before the sixth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks, urges Americans to turn to Islam if they want the Iraq war to end. The tape, released on Friday, ends with bin Laden telling US citizens that they should "embrace Islam" if they want the war in Iraq to end.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2007 16:39 ||
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#1
"And the penis of all Muslim men is larger than the Jew Ron Jeremy! And nobody has the right to make me wear a helmet when I ride a bicycle! Cheese! Margaret! I want a cookie! Purple!"
It really must gall him [OBL] that President Bush can fly into al-Anbar Province in Iraq, the former al Qaeda stronghold, while the only thing Osama can fly into is a rage.
Osama bin Laden appeared for the first time in three years in a new videotape Friday released ahead of the 6th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, telling Americans they should convert to Islam if they want the war in Iraq to end, according to a transcript of the video by ABC News.
The videotape, which ABC said was 30 minutes long, appeared to have been recently made, since bin Laden refers to the Democratic victory in Congress and to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was elected in May. Bin Laden made no overt threats and did not directly call for attacks, according to a transcript posted by ABC News on its Web site. Instead, he addresses Americans, giving them a lecture on the failures of their leaders to stop the war in Iraq despite growing opposition to it in the US public.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2007 00:00 ||
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#2
IMO Osama's new video can be taken as evidencia/indicia that a US-IRAN CONFLICT will occur before Jan 2009, not after Dubya leaves office. *ASIA-PACIFIC > for Radical islam, is where the WOT = WAR AGZ AMERICA may ultimately be won or lost, vv USA vz CHINA or USA vz RUSSIA-CHINA, NOT somuch in the ME. Iran + Radical islam is clearly intent on exploiting foreign interventionism and milpol confrontation among the major powers to offset US entrenchment and to save its agenda.
#4
Hmm -- Bush is stupid, taxes are lower in Islam. Next week, OBL will probably appear with Jay Leno to announce he is running for President as an Independent.
#8
Thanks for posting the transcript. I wasn't paying attention to the video because the whole time I was wondering if dying one's beard is an unislamic western influence.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/08/2007 11:12 Comments ||
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#14
telling Americans they should convert to Islam if they want the war in Iraq to end
Memo to Osama bin Laden:
Fuck off and die. We will find you and kill you along with every single one of your evil minions. Congratulations on singlehandedly bringing about the death of Islam. Your vile creed has worn out its welcome on earth and will die for your sins.
#15
After seeing the text of this latest screed I will no longer refer to bin Laden as a terrorist mastermind and bankroller.
I will henceforth refer to him as a liberal extremist, and one separated only by a matter of degree from the membership of the Daily Kos or the Democratic Underground.
(Xinhua) -- Osama bin Laden "suggested" two ways to end the war in Iraq in a new video statement made to mark the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, according to the transcript ABC News released on Friday. The video is still under analysis. It is believed recently-made, containing references to current events in the United States and other countries including election of Nicolas Sarkozy as the French president in May, the government officials said.
According to the transcript ABC News obtained before it goes public, bin Laden says there are two ways to end the war. "The first is from our side, and it is to continue to escalate the killing and fighting against you," he said.
The second one, as he added, is to do away with the American democratic system of government. "It has now become clear to you and the entire world the impotence of the democratic system and how it plays with the interests of the peoples and their blood by sacrificing soldiers and populations to achieve the interests of the major corporations," he said.
In the 30-minute video statement, bin Laden again advocated his "law of retaliation" by saying "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and the killer is killed."
The head of the al-Qaida terrorist group, throughout the video, slammed the White House's war policy in Iraq and American people's decision to vote for George W. Bush to be the president. "You made one of your greatest mistakes, in that you neither brought to account nor punished those who waged this war, not even the most violent of its murderers ..."
On current events concerning the United States, bin Laden mentioned "the burden of interest-related debts, insane taxes and real estate mortgages, global warming and its woes ..."
The intelligence officials believe that the video was made as recently as this summer. Bin Laden, who tops the U.S. wanted list, has disappeared from video since October 2004 when he was last seen in a video statement before the 2004 U.S. presidential election. His last audiotape was released in July 2006, in which he vowed to fight the United States across the world. He returned to the screen on Thursday when U.S. officials found on militant websites an Arabic ad for the new video that was set to be released to mark anniversary of the Sept.11 attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2007 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
At least we now know one of the other disguises the UTube snowman uses. Anyone in Justice interested on how abc got a pdf file of this BS?
#2
"..how it plays with the interests of the peoples and their blood by sacrificing soldiers and populations to achieve the interests of the major corporations."
Looks like Binny has been ready Chomsky. Now if we could just get him to recommend one of the Chumpter's comics like Chavez did.
#6
unfortunately its looking more and more likely every day.
Yup. Islam simply will not have it any other way. Eventually, we will have no other choice but to oblige their collective death wish.
The West cannot possibly impose reformation upon Islam. Both taqiyya and shari'a law make it futile. Islam continues to show no glimmer of reform save that towards an even more violent and puritanical doctrine. All of this points in only one direction and that is towards the extermination of Islam. While I try to retain some hope that an alternative might arise I no longer have any illusions nor do I continue any longer to oppose calls by others for Islam's destruction. The farce is over.
This will be bin Laden's ultimate gift to Islam: Its complete and total destruction.
#7
Blah, blah, blah. We have taxes and credit card debt. We have greedy corporations that give evil muslims money for their oil which has allowed them to live in unprecedented prosperity. After all, they are nothing but ignorant goat herders who wiped their asses with sand before we sold them toilet paper. Never in ten thousand years would they have figured out what to do with the oil if we hadn't showed them. We are not perfect.
But we are free to worship God as we please or to not worship Him if we don't please. God gave us free will so it's between us and Him. We don't need the self-appointed likes of bin Laden to be the middle men or the enforcers. What kind of god would want people to bow to him out of fear that they will have their throats cut if they don't? I'd just as soon go to hell because to me that sounds like hell on earth.
Some of us believe in Jesus Christ who told us to love our enemies. That's a pretty tall order when it comes to muslims. Theirs is the religion of war and death. Jesus talked about a God who loves us so much that it hurts him when we kill each other even when there are those who seem to need killing. But we are exercising some restraint. Our enemies use our restraint against us but we still hesitate because we don't want to lose our souls. We have the power to kill them in the billions and yet we don't. It's hard for those of us who have strong survival instincts because we know they would not show us the same mercy.
Instead of killing them we are trying to teach them democracy. It might work and it might not. I have to believe that most human beings would chose democracy over the kind of totalitarian theocracy that bin Laden has in mind. Sometimes I think George Bush is a complete idiot and sometimes I think he's just a human being doing the best he can. Given the limited understanding of our people and theirs, I think we're giving them the best chance we can and the rest is up to them. It could be that none of us are sufficiently evolved for this challenge. But at least we tried.
Posted by: Abu Uluque6305 ||
09/08/2007 15:13 Comments ||
Top||
#8
It's good he understands what "an eye for an eye" means..... pigf*quer.
#10
Some of us believe in Jesus Christ who told us to love our enemies. That's a pretty tall order when it comes to muslims. ... Jesus talked about a God who loves us so much that it hurts him when we kill each other even when there are those who seem to need killing. But we are exercising some restraint. Our enemies use our restraint against us but we still hesitate because we don't want to lose our souls. We have the power to kill them in the billions and yet we don't. It's hard for those of us who have strong survival instincts because we know they would not show us the same mercy.
Time to connect the dots. First, there are many of us who do not follow all of Jesus' frequently-wise recommendations. We have no such compulsion to "love our enemies". It represents far too tall of an order for a rational being. Furthermore, when one's own survival is at stake, self-preservation takes precedence over concern for one's deadly foe. I do believe that even Jesus would approve of that, especially so for his followers so they might continue to be fruitful and multiply.
An enemy who punishes you for showing restraint is the most unworthy sort. Unless you are willing to surrender or commit suicide the only other choice is killing the majority of that enemy with all due haste. Any forebearance guarantees more of you and less of them dead. The equation has no other result.
Finally, there is the simple fact that Muslimsif they possessed a significant nuclear arsenalwould have no compunctions about destroying the West the very next minute. This speaks volumes about the course we face. Confronted with an implaccable enemy that absolutely refuses to temper their intolerance for all other beliefs and cultures, neither restraint nor mercy represent the same beneficial qualities they usually do amongst our own kind.
I have to believe that most human beings would chose democracy over the kind of totalitarian theocracy that bin Laden has in mind.
Disabuse yourself of that glaring error in judgement, Abu. A huge percentage of Muslims view democracy as a complete affront to Islam. How dare the West consider man-made laws as superior to those God-given laws handed down by Allah through his messanger, Mohammed.
That's it. In sum total, why Muslims think that theocratic rule is the ne plus ultra in governance. They want nothing less. And they want it applied to our entireworld. We, as rational concious living beings must learn to accept the fact that retaining our civilization and its centuries of progress is worth more than the life of every single Muslim on the face of this earth. We will soon have to realize that ridding earth of Islam is the only path to survival. How many ex-Muslims make it through that historic choke-point is strictly up to them and none of our concern.
#11
I hear you, Zenster. But it's just not in the majority of civilized people to go out and murder billions of people. Not yet, anyway. I know that I am one of the strongest advocates here of bombing Iran to destroy their nuclear program. I'd also like to see their holy city of Qom leveled. Further, I would be amused to see Mecca wiped out. I believe that every time muslims push, Western Civilization needs to push back harder. But in the long run I believe we are in a war for the hearts and minds of people and we are in a war for our own souls. We simply cannot kill them all without losing our own humanity. We must offer them a viable alternative to the suicidal course that bin Laden is offering them. Somehow we must convince the average muslim in the average muslim street that Islam is nothing more than a suicide pact. We must convince them that we are not evil even if we are not perfect because the future of mankind is very bleak if we can't. You know what happened in World War II. What could happen in the future could be a hell of a lot worse. Nobody in their right mind wants that. This will involve the media. We need people with the wisdom and the courage to speak out so muslims can hear them. That's why I'm so disappointed when Bush speaks or when the Pope speaks. They just don't seem to get it. We need to call a spade a spade. We need voices that are more forceful and more direct that do not attempt to whitewash the problem by pretending that there are moderate muslims when there is nothing moderate about the Koran. We need Theo van Goghs and Satanic Verses and Danish cartoons. We need Rantburg. But still we need compassion. We are just as guilty as them if we go about gleefully killing them without at least trying to find a better way.
Posted by: Abu Uluque6305 ||
09/08/2007 18:43 Comments ||
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#12
Abu, please know that I understand your personal reservations. At one time I shared a majority of them. Now I do not.
We simply cannot kill them all without losing our own humanity.
The situation rapidly is turning into one of "it's us or them". We extinguished Imperial Japan using firestorms and nuclear weapons, yet did not become like them. We largely eradicated Nazism and did not lose our soul in doing so. There is absolutely nothing to indicate that eliminating even one billion Muslims will endanger our well-preserved sense of humanity.
We must offer them a viable alternative to the suicidal course that bin Laden is offering them.
We have. They DO NOT want it. Look at Afghanistan and Iraq. Both countries were liberated from the most dispicable Islamic tyrannies and yet BOTH of them immediately installed shari'a law, the most tyrannous form of theocracy.
Somehow we must convince the average muslim in the average muslim street that Islam is nothing more than a suicide pact.
They know it is a suicide pact. Why do you think so many of them blow themselves up? How do you steer a collective culture away from death when they revere and reward it?
We must convince them that we are not evil even if we are not perfect because the future of mankind is very bleak if we can't.
The future of mankind is far more bleak iffor fear of losing our humanitywe allow one of this world's most profound evils to exist without penalty. There is literally NOTHING you can do to make the West NOT seem evil to most Muslims. While they are fascinated by what they see, they also know it is an absolute threat to their way of life.
Forgetfor the noncehow offensive Christianity is to Muslims. Try men and women holding hands or kissing in public. Try men and women frolicking in revealing swimsuits at the beach, dancing together, attending CHURCH together. Our movies show people KISSING and MAKING LOVE! Our women go about uncovered! Women are even allowed to DRIVE! Young people live together! Women choose who they want to marry! The Jews live among us and pay no poll tax!
ALL of these are deathly affronts to Islam. However minor they may seem to you, most of them are punished by lashes or a death sentence in Muslim majority nations. Our very freedoms are what make us evil. Without abandoning these essential liberties, how in hell are you going to convince the average Muslim that we in the West are not evil? It cannot be done.
You know what happened in World War II.
Yes. As I recall, we won. And for all the right reasons.
What could happen in the future could be a hell of a lot worse.
It probably will be in light of how many people have forgotten the lessons of World Wars I & II. Even worse if we do not find the resolve to eliminate the threat of Islam. It cannot be tolerated in a free world.
Nobody in their right mind wants that.
"[W]ants"? Perhaps not. "Foresees", definitely. Islam's own path assures a Muslim holocaust. The only other alternative is a Global Cultural Holocaust, otherwise known as the global caliphate. Nobody in their right mind can possibly tolerate the creation of a global caliphate. Half this world's population would perish.
Islam has every intention of killing numbers far in excess of its own membership.
THAT IS A TIPPING POINT ALL BY ITSELF.
Let a billion live so that BILLIONS may die? Face the question squarely.
And, Zenster, you may very well be right. I hope you're not but I too can see situations where people in countries like France and the UK could take matters into their own hands if their governments don't wise up.
I would like it if our leaders and our so-called "media elite" would be more forceful, more blunt and tell the world that Binny is a product of a twisted culture that must change if it is to co-exist with ours. Over and over again, every time somebody like Binny or Achmadinutjob or any of the wacky clerics anywhere says anything they need to pounce on it, call bullshit and expose the Koran for the pack of lies that it is. Ridicule them, polarize them, confuse them, make them doubt themselves. Isolate the preachers of jihad. Lock them up or even liquidate them. Do not allow Korans in prisons.
Ok, take Iraq, for instance. Bush is waging a limited war there and attempting to introduce democracy. It is proving to be a long, tedious and painful process. Their culture is incompatible with it. Have we failed? Harry Reid thinks so. I myself think we should have been far more ruthless in destroying mosques and liquidating people like Tater Tot. Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind. I'm just not to the point yet where I believe we have to kill them all.
I'm no genius. I'm not even George Bush. But there may be more subtle, more effective ways to do this.
Posted by: Abu Uluque6305 ||
09/08/2007 20:52 Comments ||
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#14
Abu, please understand that I truly respect the position your are seeking to maintain.
I would like it if our leaders and our so-called "media elite" would be more forceful, more blunt
Some really bad news. Our "media elite" are being "more forceful, more blunt". It's just that they are on the wrong side. I full well realize what you are saying and agree totally. We need a domestic propaganda campaign that makes America aware of just how dire this threat to our freedom actually is. Due to some unique and incomprehensible failing in the Bush administration, there has been littleif anythingin the way of a concerted effort to use America's superior media facilities to rally support against and exposure of Islam.
and tell the world that Binny is a product of a twisted culture that must change if it is to co-exist with ours.
Again, the MainStream Media (MSM) seeks the exact opposite. Its multiculturalist, anti-West, anti-Christian agenda all militates directly AGAINST such a desirable message.
Over and over again, every time somebody like Binny or Achmadinutjob or any of the wacky clerics anywhere says anything they need to pounce on it, call bullshit and expose the Koran for the pack of lies that it is.
Yes, they do. Sadly, this vital job has been neglectedif not overtly underminedfor so long that only far more direct and physical measures will suffice.
Ridicule them, polarize them, confuse them, make them doubt themselves.
The cartoons only produced riots and more Muslim deaths than Western ones. What would you have? As to making them "doubt themselves", I give you Bertrand Russell's immortal words:
The fundamental cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
Somehow, I doubt he'd agree with my contextual placement of his quote but he's dead so screw him.
Isolate the preachers of jihad. Lock them up or even liquidate them. Do not allow Korans in prisons.
Bravo, we are on the exact same page. Welcome to the club. The West must summon forth the courage to kill a few thousand of Islam's elite or face the inevitability of a Muslim holocaust.
Bushby spouting the Religion of Peace [spit] nonsenseactually encourages the prospect of a Muslim holocaust. You yourself recognize the importance of calling a spade a spade. This is not happening and all of it leads to the charnelhouse.
I have simply run out of patience with trying to save Islam from itself. If one billion people want to declare war upon five billion people who possess massive quantities of nuclear weapons, who am I to argue? If one billion people prize death over that of life itself, why should I continue to argue, especially after 9-11, Bali, Madrid, Beslan, Bali, London and thousands of smaller Islamic atrocities?
#15
I have faith that if, in the end, we must erase Islam to save humanity, we will do so, sacrificing our own souls if that's what it takes to save the soul of mankind, as others have willingly done in the past for us. But like Abraham bargaining with God for Sodom and Gemorrah, we must first give the people of the Ummah the chance to make reject evil teachings and save themselves from destruction.
Willy nilly or with deliberate wisdom, or more likely both, we are yet in the experimental phase, waiting to see what the Ummah will choose.
Or, you can just read Dave D's Options. He lays it out as clearly as ever an engineer can do, with no poetry to stand between words and meaning.
I really should resist the impulse to wax philosophical when I'm tired.
Zenster sees the endgame and sees no reason for more innocents to suffer by prolonging the interim stage. After all, had Hitler been stopped, the holocausts of Europe would not have occurred. I see that innocents will suffer regardless, and hope that we can help the Muslim world choose not to be erased. But regardless, it is they who will have made the choice.
We've been arguing this at Rantburg from almost the beginning. There is strong merit on both sides, I think. But for the nonce those on the ground think they can make it work, and it is not our discussions that will change their minds.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Happy Birthday, chief. Since you're the man who has everything, we decided to get you this lovely screed, wrapped up in a ratty turban and an overdyed beard. Hope it fits; we lost the receipt.
#6
"Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write. Let every order and degree among the people rouse their attention and animate their resolution."
- John Adams
Thank you Fred for your pursuance of John Adam's call to action and for giving us all something to cherish. Happy birthday to you and trailing wife.
#8
Happy, happy, happy... enjoy the day. Now, just stop for a moment. Stand really really still. Shut your eyes tight. And listen. Cock your head to the right a little, leaning your head down, in a way of trying to hear better.
Hear us? Keep listening..... that roar you are beginning to hear? Well, it's all of us here at Rantburg U, jumping up and down, clapping our hands, and yelling as loud as we can, "Happy birthday, Fred."
The crowd repeats the words, over and over.
And oh yea, the BEST Rantburg Defnder-Scimitar ever.
Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
09/08/2007 2:33 Comments ||
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#11
Happy birthday, Fred, and a hope for many more to come.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/08/2007 2:47 Comments ||
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#12
Many happy returns of the day, Fred. May you and the charming Mrs. Pruitt have a day filled with pleasures large and small, including a heaping serving of your favourite celebratory food and drink.
Thank you, dear Seafarious. The things you remember! And you, ryuge dear, who've so often informed and brought pleasure to us all. :-)
#21
Fred,
Many happy returns, sir. My day doesn't start until I've had my Rantburg fix.
And BTW, your comments today in the D-S are worthy of Mr. Henry's words. I think he'd approve.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/08/2007 9:14 Comments ||
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#22
Happy birthday, Fred!
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
09/08/2007 10:00 Comments ||
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#23
Happy birthday Fred and TW. May the road ever rise to meet you. Now have yourself some adult beverages and relax! (Didja get anything cool? Didja didja?
Posted by: Jonathan ||
09/08/2007 10:38 Comments ||
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#24
TW, Fred,
Happy birthday! Please sit back, enjoy the day, and take stock of all the good thingd in your life.
Of all the ladies on the cover of the Rantburg this lady is the best.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/08/2007 11:19 Comments ||
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#25
It's my birthday again.
What, again?;)
Happy B-day Fred! Time flies when yer fightin' islamonuts.
#29
In honor of Fred's birthday, in gratitude for being able to rant about idiots like Binny and his prophet, and in appreciation of all the Rantburgers I left a little birthday present in the tip jar.
Posted by: Abu Uluque6305 ||
09/08/2007 13:18 Comments ||
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#30
Happy Birthday Fred, I prefer the words of Patton myself.
"I don't want you to die for your country, I want you to make the other poor bastard die for HIS country."
Hear, Hear.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/08/2007 14:26 Comments ||
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#31
Happy Birthday, Fred. Mine was last Saturday. May the day bring you joy and happiness, and may all your friends share its blessings.
September is "birthday month" for our family. We have birthdays on the 1st, 10th, 13th, and 25th. It's a blessing I can't eat sweets, or I'd gain 40 pounds!
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/08/2007 15:14 Comments ||
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#32
my family too - 4 birthdays in Sept.
Lotta December bonking going on...
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/08/2007 15:22 Comments ||
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#33
Could this be the Year of the Fred?
Posted by: Whomock the Full Bosomed2761 ||
09/08/2007 15:37 Comments ||
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#34
Happy birthday Fred. Thanks for all you do. And a great slap at Binny the Idiot.
Happy birthday to you as well TW. The site is far more genteel with your thoughful influence.
There's a saying that goes "Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country".
You, sir, are truly an aid to your country and your countrymen.
There's also one that goes "Evil prospers only when good men fail to act" Again, this fits as you are acting and doing something about the evil abroad in the world today.
I'll stand post on the wall with you anytime, anywhere.
#36
Happy Birthday to you both Fred and TW!
I too feel that sense of pride to be an American with this lady.
We're soon expecting lots of births around the Denver area. Remember about 9 months ago was our big blizzard, heh. "Lotta December bonking going on..." ;)
Posted by: jan from lockdown ||
09/08/2007 18:53 Comments ||
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September is a good month for birthdays, along with the other eleven. If I recall correctly, March-April and September are the twin peaks of baby births, although oddly enough scattered across the years, the reasons for which I leave as an exercise to the student. ;-) I feel lucky to share the same day and month and years with you all, for whom I have so much respect.
At Passover the Jews toast, "Next year in Jerusalem." May I suggest
#45
TW -- somewhere in this mix of the last two days, I was most unobservant of your birthday! Guessing this is then, a belated Happy Birthday to you!
I do have to agree, September brings some good birthdays, including the day yesterday, when I tipped the glass to a certain Marine, doing what Marines do, forever guarding the street corner that is closest to wherever the best steaks and bourbon are located!
#46
It's also Dvorak's birthday, so be sure to listen to at least one of his symphonies. I prefer his 6th and his 8th to his overplayed 9th.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2007 23:01 Comments ||
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#47
"The Priests fear me, and they are right to do so; For I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal enmity towards every form of tyranny over the mind of Man."
-- Thomas Jefferson
This is a film I made in 2006 when we where on our holidays in Normandy (France). We visited a lot of things that are connected to the second worldwar. D-day (6th june 1944) is a very important day for the whole population of Europe during those days and still now. We mst be thankfull for the help our forefathers had in those days from the allied forces. The music you here in this film is Ffrom Antonin Dvorak titled "Symphony No.9 in E"
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.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Police and villagers hunted on Friday for 13 mine-clearing workers kidnapped in a restive part of Afghanistan less than a week after Taliban militants vowed to step up an abduction campaign. The de-miners, all Afghans working for a U.N.-funded land mine-clearance agency, were kidnapped Thursday in eastern Paktia province on the border with Pakistan, said provincial deputy police chief Ghulam Dastager.
A booby-trapped car exploded at a barracks housing coast guard officials on Saturday, killing at least 28 people in Algeria's second terror attack this week, hospital officials said. The explosion ripped through the northern coastal town of Dellys, about 30 miles from Algiers, as the local coast guard was taking part in the morning flag-raising ceremony. All the victims were coast guard officials, who are part of Algeria's armed forces, hospital officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media. Dozens more were injured.
A tip-off from US intelligence helped to foil the terror bomb plot in Germany, it emerged yesterday. "The first piece of hard evidence on the bomb plot against American military and airbases in Germany was transmitted to the German authorities from American intelligence officials," Rolf Tophoven, director of the German institute for terrorist research and security policy, said.
(Xinhua) -- A U.S. federal court ruled on Friday that Iran must pay 2.65 billion dollars to the family members of the 241 U.S. servicemen killed in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. "The court hopes that this extremely sizable judgment will serve to aid in the healing process for these plaintiffs, and simultaneously sound an alarm to the defendants that their unlawful attacks on our citizens will not be tolerated," federal judge Royce Lamberth said in his ruling from a federal court in Washington D.C. 
(KUNA) -- The outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), largely active in India's Northeastern state of Assam, has suffered a major jolt with 14 of their key guerrilla leaders surrendering. An Assam government spokesperson told reporters Friday in Guwahati that the 14 ULFA guerrillas who surrendered before police Thursday in Assam's main city of Guwahati were from the rebel group's 28 and 709 battalions, news agency Indo Asian News Service reported. "The 28 battalion of the ULFA is very active in eastern Assam and most of the attacks were being carried out by them. Now with nine of the 14 of those who surrendered belonging to the 28th battalion, there will be some confusion among the cadres," the spokesperson said.
(KUNA) -- Three members of the ruling Congress party in Andhra Pradesh were killed Friday morning and five others were injured in a Maoist landmine bomb that targeted an MP and his wife, a state minister, both of who escaped unscathed. Indo Asian News Agency said Indian MP and former chief minister of the southern Indian state, Janardhan Reddy, and his wife, Rajyalakshmi, who is a minister in the state cabinet, escaped a the blast this morning. However, three members of the ruling party were killed and five others were injured in the attack on the convoy near Kovada village in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh.
MINGORA: Suspected militants on Friday blew up 63 CD and shoe shops in the Mina Bazaar and Ali Plaza and partially damaged 21 nearby shops, but there were no casualties, witnesses said.
Adiala Jail authorities on Friday released British national Rangzeb Ahmed in accordance with the directives of the Supreme Court (SC). Ahmed was arrested in NWFP in 2006, having been suspected for militancy. He has been in jail since then. He was held under the Security of Pakistan Act 1952, which allows indefinite detention of those suspected to be a threat to national security. A jail official told Daily Times that Ahmed had flown to London after his release. 
A former official responsible for security at the Shrines of the Askari Imams in Samarra has been arrested for affiliation with the group that bombed the holy site in February of last year, which led to the eruption of sectarian violence in the country.
Scouts from the 6th Iraqi Army Division detained an alleged extremist militant brigade commander and one other suspected terrorist Sept. 6 in Rahmaniyah, near Baghdad.
Iraqi Special Operations Forces, with U.S. Special Forces acting as advisers, detained two al Qaeda in Iraq cell leaders during an operation Sept. 6 in Adahmiyah, Iraq.
Lebanon's security forces have decided to repeat the DNA test of 
(Xinhua) -- Lebanese security forces on Friday arrested two Syrian citizens in north Lebanon for allegedly belonging to the Fatah al-Islam group, local Naharnet news website reported. The two were identified as 
Residents of the Lebanese village of Muniyah in coordination with army intelligence have arrested a wounded Syrian militant who belongs to the 
(Xinhua) -- Osama bin Laden "suggested" two ways to end the war in Iraq in a new video statement made to mark the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, according to the transcript ABC News released on Friday. The video is still under analysis. It is believed recently-made, containing references to current events in the United States and other countries including election of Nicolas Sarkozy as the French president in May, the government officials said. 
