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Rashid Rauf dronezapped in Pakistain: officials
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
5 00:00 USN, Ret. [] 
2 00:00 Abu Uluque [] 
2 00:00 Anonymoose [] 
12 00:00 chris [1] 
10 00:00 Nimble Spemble [5] 
1 00:00 Alaska Paul [] 
11 00:00 JDB [] 
1 00:00 Richard of Oregon [] 
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1 00:00 g(r)omgoru [1] 
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1 00:00 3dc [] 
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9 00:00 Frank G [] 
Page 2: WoT Background
7 00:00 Thing From Snowy Mountain [1]
8 00:00 Alaska Paul [4]
2 00:00 Frank G [4]
8 00:00 Frank G []
7 00:00 PBMcL [1]
2 00:00 trailing wife []
9 00:00 .5MT []
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2 00:00 Nimble Spemble []
12 00:00 Alaska Paul []
1 00:00 .5MT []
2 00:00 g(r)omgoru []
2 00:00 g(r)omgoru []
8 00:00 RD []
1 00:00 Abu do you love [4]
1 00:00 Alaska Paul []
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Page 3: Non-WoT
6 00:00 Thing From Snowy Mountain [2]
4 00:00 Jeremiah Thaise1218 [1]
2 00:00 Milton Fandango [3]
7 00:00 Jeremiah Thaise1218 [1]
3 00:00 Bright Pebbles [1]
13 00:00 SteveS []
6 00:00 Alaska Paul []
1 00:00 M. Murcek []
4 00:00 CrazyFool [1]
9 00:00 Old Patriot []
11 00:00 KBK []
8 00:00 Besoeker []
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12 00:00 Hellfish []
Page 4: Opinion
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7 00:00 CrazyFool [1]
3 00:00 Steve White []
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1 00:00 bigjim-ky []
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5 00:00 DMFD []
5 00:00 Raj []
Page 5: Russia-Former Soviet Union
7 00:00 Deacon Blues []
2 00:00 Besoeker []
1 00:00 Rupert Slort1496 []
1 00:00 RD []
7 00:00 Hellfish []
7 00:00 KBK []
6 00:00 Barbara Skolaut []
8 00:00 Barbara Skolaut []
1 00:00 bigjim-ky [4]
Page 6: Politix
5 00:00 ed [1]
1 00:00 Frozen Al []
6 00:00 Abu Uluque []
13 00:00 Milton Fandango []
Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Gorgeous, and without a single apparent tattoo or piercing. Could today's young women take note of the example???
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 11/22/2008 0:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Could today's young women take note of the example???

Uh - prolly not...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/22/2008 1:36 Comments || Top||

#3  Is she bathe?
Posted by: .5MT || 11/22/2008 7:46 Comments || Top||

#4  Cause ifn she did, that would be loverly.
Posted by: .5MT || 11/22/2008 7:47 Comments || Top||

#5  I dunno. Sweaty is nice sometimes.
Posted by: gorb || 11/22/2008 10:01 Comments || Top||

#6  Looks like she might be trying to adjust something.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/22/2008 10:34 Comments || Top||

#7  In 1935, her parents divorced and her father, a Nazi sympathizer,[5] left the family.[6] (Both parents were members of the British Union of Fascists in the mid-1930s according to Unity Mitford, a friend of Ella van Heemstra and a follower of Adolf Hitler.)[7]

She later called her father's abandonment the most traumatic moment of her life. Years later, she located him in Dublin through the Red Cross. Although he remained emotionally detached, she stayed in contact with him and supported him financially until his death.[8]

In 1939, her mother moved her and her two half-brothers to their grandfather's home in Arnhem in the Netherlands. Ella believed the Netherlands would be safe from German attack. Hepburn attended the Arnhem Conservatory from 1939 to 1945, where she trained in ballet along with the standard school curriculum. In 1940, the Germans invaded the Netherlands. During the Nazi occupation, Hepburn adopted the pseudonym Edda van Heemstra, modifying her mother's documents because an 'English sounding' name was considered dangerous. This was never her legal name. The name Edda was a version of her mother's name Ella.[9]

By 1944, Hepburn had become a proficient ballerina. She secretly danced for groups of people to collect money for the Dutch resistance. She later said, "the best audience I ever had made not a single sound at the end of my performance."[10] After the Allied landing on D-Day, living conditions grew worse, and Arnhem was subsequently devastated by Allied artillery fire that was part of Operation Market Garden. During the Dutch famine that followed, over the winter of 1944, the Germans confiscated the Dutch people's limited food and fuel supply for themselves. People starved and froze to death in the streets. Hepburn and many others resorted to making flour out of tulip bulbs to bake cakes and biscuits.[5][11]

Hepburn's uncle and her mother's cousin were shot in front of Hepburn for being part of the Resistance. Hepburn's half-brother Ian van Ufford spent time in a German labour camp. Suffering from malnutrition, Hepburn developed acute anemia, respiratory problems, and oedema.[12] In 1991, Hepburn said "I have memories. More than once I was at the station seeing trainloads of Jews being transported, seeing all these faces over the top of the wagon. I remember, very sharply, one little boy standing with his parents on the platform, very pale, very blond, wearing a coat that was much too big for him, and he stepped on to the train. I was a child observing a child."
Posted by: 3dc || 11/22/2008 11:00 Comments || Top||

#8  I just noticed that she has a really skinny neck. Just like me. Wonder if we're related?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon || 11/22/2008 11:56 Comments || Top||

#9  The Dutch called it The Hunger Winter, 3dc. Mama doesn't speak much about it. The edema is a common symptom of severe hunger; the body starts consuming itself. We've all seen pictures of starving African children with stick arms and legs and swollen bellies.

Miss Hepburn ha a swan-like neck, Richard dear. It's considered terribly elegant, so congratulation to you. ;-)

Abu Uluque, Miss Hepburn is putting on a coat with a dyed-to-match Persian lamb collar... unless the entire coat is Persian lamb, I can't tell from the picture.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/22/2008 16:57 Comments || Top||

#10  Eat something, Audrey.
Posted by: no mo uro || 11/22/2008 19:17 Comments || Top||

#11  I'd love to buy her Breakfast at Tiffany's!

(And Holland during WWII was no joke. Knew a family where the dad left for USA and wouldn't go back due to PTSD.)
Posted by: JDB || 11/22/2008 20:23 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
3 civilians killed in Afghanistan suicide bombing
Three civilians were killed and four Afghan soldiers wounded on Friday when a suicide car bomb exploded outside an army base in southern Afghanistan, officials said.

The bombing occurred in Shahjoy district of Zabul province, Vice Governor Gulab Shah Alikhil told AFP. "The driver of a vehicle blew himself up in front of the (Afghan army) base, killing three civilians who were employees queuing to enter. Four soldiers were also wounded in the explosion," he said. No group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Attacks regularly target Afghan and international forces. Civilians are often the victims.

Separately, four militants were killed in a shootout on Thursday by Afghan and international troops in northeastern Kapisa province during an operation targeting the Hizb-e-Islami Gulbuddin terrorist network, said a statement by coalition forces.
Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa Horn
ORBAT for 5th fleet including others
Posted by: 3dc || 11/22/2008 12:45 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  INS Mysore, a Delhi class destroyer, will replace the Tabar
Posted by: john frum || 11/22/2008 13:35 Comments || Top||

#2  The Captain and crew of the Tabar are going to be in for a major party at the Indian Admiralty. That Captain has become so "fast track" that they'll just skip Commodore and make him and Admiral.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 11/22/2008 21:09 Comments || Top||


Battles over booty loom as militias and rebels drawn to pirate gold
Armed men from different Somali factions are descending on the country's pirate coast, raising fears that a battle is looming over millions of pounds in ransom cash being demanded for the captured supertanker Sirius Star.

Tribal militiamen linked to the pirates, moderate Islamist rebels fighting against the Government and militants from the Taleban-style al-Shabaab movement were among those bearing down on the coastal town of Haradhere yesterday, drawn by the lure of political capital and pirate gold.

Tribesmen in outlying villages prepared to defend the town from possible attack, raising the prospect of a clash with the hardline al-Shabaab, who claimed that they had arrived to stamp out the pirate menace.

Residents, however, said they feared that the influx was a prelude to a bloody fight over the ransom money. The pirates have reportedly demanded $25 million (£17 million) in cash from the Saudi owners of the ship in return for the release of 25 hostages on board, including the Britons Peter French and James Grady.

“There are many militiamen who have arrived in the town and they want to get a share from the pirates if the ransom is paid,” Ahmed Abdullahi, a local elder, said. “They believe this ship is huge and the owner will pay a lot of money.”

The rush to Haradhere underlines one of the biggest concerns in the current crisis: no one can be sure where the pirates' takings are going or what they are funding, only that they are certain to fuel the violence - and the piracy it has spawned - for even longer.

Fears that the booty could end up in the hands of Islamist extremists, despite their long opposition to piracy, have stoked fears that they could finance the export of their militant ideology from Somalia.

The Kenyan Government said yesterday that the Somali pirate trade had brought in $150 million in ransom money over the past year. “That is why they are becoming more and more audacious,” Moses Wetangula, the Foreign Minister, said. Britain and Saudi Arabia's foreign ministers called on shipping companies not to pay ransoms for fear of encouraging piracy but the companies and shipping unions hit back, saying that they had no choice given the international failure to prevent piracy in the first place.

“Mr [David] Miliband is correct to say that ransom payments encourage further hostage-taking but the answer is not to refuse to pay them - it is to prevent the attacks from occurring in the first place,” said Mark Dickinson, the assistant general secretary of Nautilus, the seamen's union.

Foreign navies are rushing warships to the Gulf of Aden - 14 currently patrol the coastline and the European Union plans to send up to ten more next month under a centralised British command.

Shipping analysts say that such action is merely a “sticking plaster” until a solution to end the conflict in Somalia is found.

Somalia, in the words of the International Crisis Group, is going through “the darkest period in its recent history, which is a lot to say of a country that has not known a functioning government in almost a generation”.

The most stability it had in recent years was under the Islamic Courts government ousted in 2006 by Ethiopian troops backed by the United States, which was nervous that the region could become a haven for Islamic terrorists.

That move is now almost universally deemed to have been a failure, plunging Somalia back into factional fighting under a collapsing Western-backed transitional Government headed by a President, Abdullahi Yusuf, whose own tribe is deeply involved in the pirate trade.

The collapse of the economy in his ancestral homeland, Puntland, is blamed in part for the surge in piracy.

Under the Islamic Courts government, piracy was curtailed, although a question mark hangs over the motivation for the crackdown, given the handy side-effect of denying profits to its enemies.

Of the different factions that made up the Islamist Government, two are regarded as internationally unacceptable because of their al-Qaeda links. Many believe that the best chance of stability would be to isolate them from their allies, who could then be included in government.

One of them, al-Shabaab, said that it had sent its fighters to Haradhere not to share in the spoils, but to halt the pirate trade. “The Islamists arrived searching for the pirates and the whereabouts of the Saudi ship,” a Haradhere elder said. “The Islamists say they will attack the pirates for hijacking a Muslim ship.”

While there is no evidence of al-Qaeda involvement, there are signs that it may be watching. Writing on a militant website, one Islamist supporter noted that the influx of Western navies to the Gulf of Aden presented a golden opportunity for the kind of attack launched on the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000. “The enemies of al-Qaeda ... will swallow the bait and come to the area in which al-Qaeda has woven its nets,” he wrote. “At that time, al-Qaeda will settle scores with America and its allies.”
Posted by: john frum || 11/22/2008 09:44 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  well, if they have a drawn-out fight, we could help settle it. With an Arclight run! Drink up, me hearty's!
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2008 10:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Oh, this is rich. Terrorists take out the pirates, and Indians with balls take out the terrorists. Should we bring out the popcorn machine?
Posted by: gorb || 11/22/2008 10:03 Comments || Top||

#3  Order the fine ale now!
Also, lots of predators with the cams fed into the web.... Pay per view!

Imagine what the Saudi ship owners would pay to watch a live feed of the land shark feeding frenzy....
Posted by: 3dc || 11/22/2008 10:37 Comments || Top||

#4  Who says the poor won't work or that socialism is the only way out of poverty? /sarcasm off
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/22/2008 10:47 Comments || Top||

#5  The only sh*tty part is that the crew will be in the middle of all this and probably much the worse for wear. At some point you have to weigh the lives of all the hostages currently being held against the possibility of having to live with pirates for a long time. We've probably got some very tough decisions to make in the near future.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 11/22/2008 11:35 Comments || Top||

#6  I dunno, I'm just moping around because the Islamic Courts "government" is gone - yet another casualty of the arrogant cowboy war-mongering tendencies of CheneyMcBushHitlerBurton.

To borrow one (which I've always believed apocryphal) from Chou en Lai, as told to Kissinger, re what he thought of the French Revolution's impact: "it's too early to tell" whether knocking off Islamic Courts was a bad move. I'm still good with it.
Posted by: Verlaine || 11/22/2008 12:50 Comments || Top||

#7  Fears that the booty could end up in the hands of Islamist extremists, despite their long opposition to piracy

Is this The Onion? Someone pulling my leg?
Posted by: remoteman || 11/22/2008 13:30 Comments || Top||

#8  Somalia is becoming the MOAS. The Mother of All Sh*tholes. Any volunteers for nation building?
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 11/22/2008 14:20 Comments || Top||

#9  Well, AP, as I was saying yesterday, it has what appears to me anyway, a much more strategic location than Afghanistan. And with that long coastline on the Indian Ocean there must be some fairly decent surfing beaches.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/22/2008 15:55 Comments || Top||

#10  Unfortunately the coastline of Somalia has a really bad shark problem - much worse than that of Australia. Plus there are no functioning water systems and the type of parasites that are waterborne there are frightening.
Posted by: Shieldwolf || 11/22/2008 17:06 Comments || Top||

#11  And with that long coastline on the Indian Ocean there must be some fairly decent surfing beaches.

Abu don't surf!
Posted by: Col. Kilgore || 11/22/2008 17:40 Comments || Top||

#12  big jim they will just blame the crew being killed on the US . so don't worry about them
Posted by: chris || 11/22/2008 18:32 Comments || Top||


Somali Islamists 'hunt pirates'
Somali Islamist insurgents have begun searching for the pirates who hijacked a giant Saudi-owned oil tanker last Saturday, reports say. A spokesman for the al-Shabab group, Abdelghafar Musa, said hijacking a Muslim-owned ship was a major crime and they would pursue those responsible.
You infidels are on your own ...
The pirates are thought to be trying to obtain a multi-million dollar ransom. The ship, the Sirius Star, is believed to be be anchored off the Somali port of Haradheere. It has an international crew of 25 people and is carrying $100m (£67m) worth of crude oil.

"We are really sorry to hear that the Saudi ship has been held in Somalia," Mr Musa told the Associated Press.

Reports said Islamist fighters had descended on Haradheere in an apparent show of force, saying they were looking for the pirates. "The Islamists arrived searching for the pirates and the whereabouts of the Saudi ship," an unnamed elder in the port told Reuters news agency. "I saw four cars full of Islamists driving in the town from corner to corner. The Islamists say they will attack the pirates for hijacking a Muslim ship."

Another report suggested local militia and Shebab fighters had arrived in Harardhere in a move to position themselves for a share of any spoils. "There are many militiamen who have arrived in the town and they want to get a share from the pirates if the ransom is paid," Ahmed Abdullahi, a local elder, was quoted by AFP news agency as saying.
Any comment I might make would be superfluos.
Posted by: phil_b || 11/22/2008 02:14 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wonder what mercs the Saudis are paying to get their ship and cargo back. Negotiate with the pirates while getting an operation going. Hell, they paid Binny to stay away from SA, they DO have money.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 11/22/2008 14:24 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Terror plot mastermind killed by US missile in Pakistan: officials
The alleged mastermind of a 2006 transatlantic airplane bombing plot was killed in a US missile attack in northwest Pakistan early Saturday, officials said.

"The transatlantic bombing plot alleged mastermind Rashid Rauf was killed along with an Egyptian Al-Qaeda operative in the US missile strike in North Waziristan early Saturday," a senior security official told AFP. The Al-Qaeda operative killed in the strike was identified as Abu Zubair al-Misri, the official added.

Rashid Rauf escaped in December 2007 from Pakistani police custody. He had been on the way to an extradition hearing. The British government had requested Pakistan extradite Rauf to London, where he was wanted by police in connection with the murder of his uncle in 2002.

He and the Egyptian Al-Qaeda operative were killed along with at least two other militants in a US drone attack on the house of a local tribesman in the village of Alikhel, part of a district known as a stronghold for Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, officials said.

The missile strike came days after another US drone attack which killed six rebels, including an Arab Al-Qaeda operative. That attack prompted Taliban militants based in the rugged tribal territory bordering Afghanistan to warn of reprisal attacks across Pakistan if there were more strikes by the US.
This article starring:
Abu Zubair al-Misri
Rashid Rauf
Posted by: tipper || 11/22/2008 04:52 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Heh, last licks, getting them in. Yes.
Make it count!
Posted by: .5MT || 11/22/2008 7:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Let's pray that when Hillary becomes Secretary of State, her department will take the same slow/measured response to these missile strikes as we are taking towards the piracy and Iran nuclear matters...convene a study panel for the next four-six years.
Posted by: Hammerhead || 11/22/2008 10:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Good Hunting!
Posted by: 3dc || 11/22/2008 10:55 Comments || Top||

#4  Was he killed in a mosque? The same one he "escaped" from?

BTW, Rauf is related to Jaish-e-Muhammad honcho Maulana Masood Azhar. It's all in the family in muzzieland and makes so much sense to prune the family tree with an axe.
Posted by: ed || 11/22/2008 11:13 Comments || Top||

#5  Update
Posted by: tipper || 11/22/2008 11:18 Comments || Top||

#6  WE DON'T LIKE FLIGHT DELAYS!
You might be smart to remember that next time.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 11/22/2008 11:27 Comments || Top||

#7  My daughter-in-law was flying someplace early that morning. Had to dump $40 worth of makeup and such.
Don't mess with makeup, bitches.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 11/22/2008 11:40 Comments || Top||

#8  Damn I like this s**t. My favorite combo: the US taking smart lethal unapologetic action, the "aggrieved" party mailing it in WRT outrage cuz they mostly love what's happening, and a relentless pace. As much as I hope the teen pop idol about to take the reins has the make-up to continue in this vein, I wouldn't bet a Chula Vista zero-down mortgage on it (local humor for Frank G, et al).
Posted by: Verlaine || 11/22/2008 12:40 Comments || Top||

#9  heh - my Mom still lives there
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2008 13:53 Comments || Top||

#10  Anybody got the feeling that now that Bush has lost, there's no reason not to zap as many as possible? If somebody doesn't like it, they can take it up with Bammy, who'll just shrug till 1/20/09.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 11/22/2008 22:20 Comments || Top||


Taliban commander Shah Khaled dies with his curly-toed slippers on in Bajaur
(AKI) - At least seven militants including a Taliban commander were killed by Pakistani security forces on Friday in the restive Bajaur tribal region. The Taliban commander, Shah Khaled, was killed in the Mamond tehsil area of Bajaur Agency, Pakistan's satellite channel ARY TV reported.

In a separate incident on Friday, a suspected sectarian bomb killed at least ten people and injured 25 at a funeral procession for a local Shia Muslim cleric in the northwestern Pakistani town of Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan's Geo News reported.

Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani strongly condemned the bomb attack on the funeral procession.

Gillani on Thursday described as 'intolerable' the suspected US drone attack on a suspected militant hideout in Bannu district of North West Frontier Province, that killed at least four people. The Pakistani Parliament also condemned the attack.

Also on Thursday, at least ten people were killed and several others injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a mosque in the Mamond area.
Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP

#1  And a good time was had by all. Another funeral, please.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon || 11/22/2008 11:55 Comments || Top||


Deadly kaboom hits Shiite funeral in Dera Ismail Khan
(AKI) - A bomb killed at least five people and injured 40 on Friday at a funeral for a local Shia Muslim cleric in the northwest Pakistani town of Dera Ismail Khan, police said. Local news reports quoted unnamed sources as saying the death toll was as many as seven to ten people, however. Angry protestors opened fire on police after the bombing, prompting security forces to cordon off the area and put the town on high alert, according to news reports.

The attack sparked an outbreak of shooting around the hospital where the dead and wounded were brought, triggering a stampede, news reports said. Police fired tear gas in an attempt to restore order, the reports added.

The funeral was for a man killed on Thursday in what police said appeared to be sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shias. A Shia cleric was also killed early on Friday before the funeral, reports said.

Sectarian violence between Sunni Muslim and Shia groups has plagued Dera Ismail Khan, a district bordering the lawless South Waziristan tribal region, a Taliban and Al-Qaeda stronghold bordering Afghanistan.

Dera Ismail Khan was in August the scene of a suicide bombing that targeted a Shia protest over the killing of one of their local leaders. The blast killed 23 people.
Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: TTP

#1  A bomb killed at least five people and injured 40 on Friday at a funeral for a local Shia Muslim cleric [killed on Thursday in sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shias]

Do I detect a method?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2008 5:21 Comments || Top||


Talibs attack army convoy in Miranshah
Taliban attacked an army convoy in Miranshah in North Waziristan Agency on Friday with a remote-controlled bomb, injuring two security personnel.

The convoy was travelling from Bannu to Miranshah when the bomb exploded at Pir Kali, 20 kilometres east of Miranshah on Bannu-Miranshah road.

Meanwhile, security forces pounded suspected Taliban hideouts in Mamoond and Nawagai tehsils of Bajaur Agency. Thirteen Taliban were killed and five others were injured.

Sources said the security forces were backed by jet aircraft, which bombed Damadola, Tani Khwar, Suprey, Kharkay, Gatki, Charmang, Kotki, Zorband and Glokas Shinkot.

Attacks in the morning killed three Taliban in Mamoond, while late afternoon attacks by security forces and jet aircraft killed 10 Taliban in both Mamoond and Nawagai, the sources said. Several Taliban hideouts were destroyed.

Meanwhile, defunct Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Maulvi Umer denied the group had carried out Thursday's suicide attack at a mosque in Badan. He said the TTP did not believe in violence and wanted solution to problems through dialogue.

AFP quoted local government official Muhammad Jamil as saying "The airstrike killed 14 militants and wounded 10 others." NNI quoted a private television channel as saying that a local Taliban commander was killed in the operation in Mamoond.
Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: TTP


US drones seen flying over Bannu and Waziristan
Suspected US drones violated Pakistani airspace on Friday, as they were reportedly seen flying over various areas of North and South Waziristan agencies, a private TV channel reported. According to the channel, the US spy planes made low flights over Razmak, Makain and Ladha areas of the two tribal agencies. However, they returned to Afghanistan after tribesmen fired at them. According to another TV channel, US drones also made flights over Bannu Frontier Region, creating panic among the locals.
Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda

#1  Link
Taliban movement: AP reported two other intelligence officials based in Bannu as saying that the Taliban had begun moving away from the border, including districts and other settled areas, in an apparent bid to avoid the missile strikes. Pakistani officials say they are rarely warned of such attacks.
Posted by: 3dc || 11/22/2008 13:43 Comments || Top||


Pak army practises shooting drone
Pakistan's army on Friday carried out a training exercise in which pilotless aircraft drones were shot down by anti-craft guns and short range surface-to-air missiles, a military statement said.

The exercise was carried out as public pressure on the government in Islamabad is increasing to use force to halt air raids by US drones that target suspected militant hideouts in Pakistan's tribal region.

"The elements of army air defence demonstrated their shooting skills by targeting the drones flying at different altitudes," said the statement.

The indigenously built man-portable surface-to-air missile Anza II, the anti-aircraft Oerlikan and an unnamed 57 mm radar-controlled gun were used in the exercises that were conducted in a semi-desert area near Muzaffargarh in central Pakistan.

US spy planes have carried out around two dozen airstrikes in Pakistan's tribal districts, which are believed to have safe havens of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters launching cross-border attacks on international forces in Afghanistan. Pakistan says the actions violate its sovereignty and undermine its efforts against terrorism.
Posted by: john frum || 11/22/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If the drone didn't shoot back its not an accurate test.
Posted by: 3dc || 11/22/2008 0:14 Comments || Top||

#2  Did the stupid Pakistanis were ever told clearly that they face inhalation if they never learned to talk and act straight. The more we kiss their ass the more we end up paying them to harm us. It is horribly stupidity on our part to pay the Pakistanis only to spit on our face. The stupid Pakistanis has to be told very clearly that they face inhalation at any moment US desires to do so and there will be no power in the world to come to their help at the expense of a nuclear holocaust because they lost to cheat the world powers with the end of the cold war. Pakistan is nothing more than a failed state. Unfortunately, Pakistan will be the first target to be annihilated for the sake of the world peace just because this stupid failed nation has the nuclear bombs. I hope, they know it and behave civilized.
Posted by: annon || 11/22/2008 5:07 Comments || Top||

#3  I for one will never snort Pak.
Posted by: .5MT || 11/22/2008 7:51 Comments || Top||

#4  "We are Nasal Borg. You will be inhalated."
Posted by: Milton Fandango || 11/22/2008 11:24 Comments || Top||

#5  Who is this exercise designed to impress? designed for internal consumption is my guess.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon || 11/22/2008 11:52 Comments || Top||

#6  (Laughs out loud.)

Thanks, MF.
.
Posted by: OregonGuy || 11/22/2008 15:05 Comments || Top||

#7  Now I know I was in the intel business too long - I not only recognize the weapon (ZU-23/4), but the location - Finsterwalde Airfield, 20 miles east of Berlin. Probably taken in the late 1960's/early 1970s. Was a pretty good weapon for something only modestly radar-guided (information fed by radio, input by hand). Mid-1940s technology.

Thanks, Fred/John, for the reminder!

IF the Paks had this weapon, they still wouldn't be capable of shooting down a Predator with it. Not to mention that if they have the updated version (ZSU-23, chassis-mounted, with integrated fire control radar, late 1950's, early 1960s technology), they probably STILL couldn't be guaranteed to hit a Predator. Too small, flies too low, too slow.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 11/22/2008 15:31 Comments || Top||

#8  Did the stupid Pakistanis were ever told clearly

Of course they have been, annon, and by some of their own people, too. But Pakistan is, after all, the Land of the Pure, so even though they have lost every war they've ever fought -- each of which they started -- they somehow still think they have a fearsome military.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/22/2008 17:45 Comments || Top||

#9  they parade something awesome!
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2008 17:50 Comments || Top||


Iraq
(VIDEO) Air Strike On insurgent Sniper Hiding In Mosque Minaret In Iraq
Posted by: 3dc || 11/22/2008 14:26 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Happy VI day. Interesting no protests.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 11/22/2008 16:20 Comments || Top||

#2  can't you see this dipshit at hell's door:
"then what happened?"
"someone dropped a mosque on me"
"no, really...what happened?"
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2008 16:25 Comments || Top||

#3  ahhhh...
luvs thatr warm and fuzzy feeling all over...

:)

watch the masonry minaret split asunder...
Posted by: RD || 11/22/2008 17:59 Comments || Top||

#4  Beautiful.
Posted by: ed || 11/22/2008 18:51 Comments || Top||

#5  But, I thought it wasn't OK to blast places of worship up. Why didn't we start doing this a few years back?
Way cool the way the lower part just opened up and the top came down on itself sorta like...
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 11/22/2008 19:26 Comments || Top||


Victory in Iraq Day


The U.S. Military and our allies have won a tremendous victory by persevering and winning the war in Iraq. We declare today to be Victory in Iraq Day!

Posted by: DanNY || 11/22/2008 13:12 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Music... we need it.
Posted by: .5MT || 11/22/2008 14:16 Comments || Top||

#2  If they wanted to parade some of the guys from Camp Pendleton down Pacific Coast Highway in Oceanside I'd be happy to stand there and throw confetti at them. Dunno how many others would but Oceanside's a little more conservative than the rest of Kaliphornia.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/22/2008 16:03 Comments || Top||


Twin kabooms in Baghdad 'kill at least three'
(AKI) - At least three people were killed and 19 others were injured in two separate explosions in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Friday, an unnamed police source told the Voices of Iraq news agency. Another bomb exploded in the al-Mansour district of western Baghdad injuring four soldiers, VOI said. "An improvised explosive device went off near a police checkpoint in the Steen street in al-Doura region in southern Baghdad, killing three people and injuring 15, including three policemen," an unnamed police source told VOI.
Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency


Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline explosion
An explosion at the Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which links the Iraqi city of Kirkuk with the Turkish port of Ceyhan, has halted oil exports. CNN-Turk reported that the strong explosion took place in the southeast Turkish province of Mardin, but did not provide further details including how the explosion occurred.

Meanwhile sources from the Turkish energy ministry and pipeline company Botas told Reuters that Kurdish guerrillas launched the bomb attack on the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, which carries Iraqi oil to Turkey and has a yearly capacity of 70 million tons of crude oil. They said the attack, which triggered a large fire, occurred at 8:30 pm (1830 GMT) on Friday evening. Local officials in Mardin declined to comment.

Separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants have claimed responsibility in the past for similar attacks on pipelines in the eastern Kurdish provinces of Turkey.

The Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline has also been attached in the past. It was also attacked on several occasions by Iraqi insurgents following the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency


8 arrested, cache detonated in Diyala
Aswat al-Iraq: Policemen detained eight wanted men and detonated a weapons cache in an operation conducted south of the city of Baaquba on Friday, a security source in Diala said.

"Policemen on Friday captured eight members of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) in an operation in Buhrez district, (5 km) south of Baaquba, on charges of killing and force-displacing a number of local residents," Diala police chief, Maj. General Abdulhussein al-Shimari, told Aswat al-Iraq. "The security forces also detonated an arms cache of several improvised explosive devices and explosive belts in the same place," he said.

Earlier in the day, Shimari had said policemen in Diala disrupted an AQI cell of three persons and arrested an amir (leader) of al-Qaeda.
Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency



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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2008-11-22
  Rashid Rauf dronezapped in Pakistain: officials
Fri 2008-11-21
  US strikes inside Pakistain 'intolerable', says Gilani
Thu 2008-11-20
  U.S. Dronezap Kills 6 Terrs in Pakistain
Wed 2008-11-19
  Indian Navy destroys Somali pirate mothership
Tue 2008-11-18
  B.O. vows to exit Iraq, shut down Gitmo
Mon 2008-11-17
  Pirates take Saudi supertanker off Mombasa
Sun 2008-11-16
  Lankan Army seizes entire west coast from LTTE
Sat 2008-11-15
  Al-Shabaab closes in on Mog
Fri 2008-11-14
  U.S. missiles hit Pak Talibs, 12 dead
Thu 2008-11-13
  Somali pirates open fire on Brit marines. Hilarity ensues.
Wed 2008-11-12
  Philippines ship, 23 crew seized near Somalia
Tue 2008-11-11
  EU launches anti-piracy mission off Somalia
Mon 2008-11-10
  Somali gunnies kidnap two Italian nuns
Sun 2008-11-09
  Boomerette hits emergency room west of Baghdad
Sat 2008-11-08
  Mukhlas, Amrozi and Samudra executed


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