The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 32% of the nation's voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-seven percent (37%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of –5.
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An early look at the 2012 race for the Republican nomination shows Mitt Romney at 25%, Sarah Palin at 24%, and Mike Huckabee at 22%. Forty percent (40%) of GOP voters say that Palin hurt her chances of winning the nomination by resigning as AlaskaÂ’s Governor last week. Among all voters, Republicans now have a three-point edge on the Generic Congressional Ballot.
Just 27% of voters nationwide favor passage of a second economic stimulus package. Sixty percent (60%) are opposed.
Fifty-four percent (54%) say the average Democrat in Congress is more liberal than they are, while 36% believe the average Republican congressman is more conservative.
(AFNS) -- A new tactical directive for coalition forces serving in Afghanistan re-emphasizes the importance of preventing civilian casualties. Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, commander of NATO's International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces Afghanistan, released the directive July 2. It builds on previous tactics and is much clearer about use of close-air support, searching Afghan houses and protecting Afghan cultural and religious sensitivities. All coalition forces in Afghanistan must follow the directive.
Taliban fighters use a tactic of engaging coalition forces from positions that expose Afghan civilians to danger. Close-air support of coalition and Afghan personnel engaged in a May 4 firefight with the Taliban in Afghanistan's Farah province killed numerous civilians. The Taliban cite such incidents to lead people to believe the NATO-led forces do not care for Afghan civilians.
Having their cake and eating it too ...
McChrystal's tactical directive emphasizes that ISAF is in Afghanistan to protect the people from the insurgents. "Like any insurgency, there is a struggle for support and will of the population," he wrote. "Gaining and maintaining that support must be our overriding operational imperative, and the ultimate objective of every action we take."
Still, the directive does not prevent commanders from protecting the lives of their troops engaged in direct combat.
The directive is general because the nature of a counterinsurgency is complex and no one can foresee all eventualities, officials said. General McChrystal expects commanders at all levels to understand the directive and use it when planning and conducting operations.
"Following this intent requires a cultural shift within our forces, and complete understanding at every level," he wrote.
The tactical guidance takes the new strategy for Afghanistan as its base, recognizing that ISAF and Afghan forces may win tactical victories against the Taliban, but lose the war. "We must avoid the trap of winning tactical victories, but suffering strategic defeats, by causing civilian casualties or excessive damage and thus alienating the people," General McChrystal wrote.
Specifically, the directive calls on commanders "to scrutinize and limit the use of force like close-air support against residential compounds and other locations likely to produce civilian casualties."
Bombing residential compounds will be allowed only under very limited conditions, the directive says. For example, if a coalition force comes in contact with Taliban fighters and the enemy takes cover in a residential compound, the NATO force can break contact and wait out the enemy rather than calling for close-air support.
Another portion of the directive states that any search of Afghan homes will be done by Afghan security forces with the support of local authorities. "No ISAF forces will enter or fire upon, or fire into a mosque or any religious or historical site except in self-defense," General McChrystal wrote in the directive. "All searches and entries for any other reason will be conducted by the Afghan National Security Forces."
The directive is not a departure from past practices, officials said, noting that killing civilians never has been an International Security Assistance Force tactic.
"Working together with our Afghan partners, we can overcome the enemy's influence and give the Afghan people what they deserve: a country at peace for the first time in three decades, foundations of good governance and economic development," General McChrystal said. The next directive will probably limit the return of Small Arms Fire (SAF) by US Forces to pistols only.
I wonder if the Special Forces troops have the same ROE... I'm not sure if this is a sampling error thingy, but I don't recall ever reading so much about ROE all at once. Could this be a "look at my right hand, don't notice what the left hand is doing," situation, where the Marines are visible and constrained while the Special Forces do all sorts of interesting things unnoticed? General McChrystal is SF after all, and elites always have strong opinions on the purpose of non-elites in the grand scheme of things.
This is classic COIN and McChrystal is right to emphasize it. We want the civilians on our side. That, over the long run, is the surest way to rub out the Talibs. Now we need to follow this with the protection and the rebuilding. It's not glamorous work but it's the way to win in the end.
#2
Again, directives such as this have a disproportionate effect on troops in the field as the instruction is passed from higher to lower and amplified and safe-sided at each level. These directives come as welcomed news to the insurgents I assure you. General McChrystal's "cultural shift" rhetoric is quite revealing. Recent and future coalition casualty figures in the region may reflect, in my opinion, this feckless, politically motivated approach.
Do SOF forces operate under the same ROE? I suspect they do the memo says "all coalition forces." SOF FOBS have returned fire with organic 105mm Howitzers in the past. This will all be very interesting to follow.
I hope I am WRONG and we begin to see peace breaking out all over Afghanistan.
#3
Let's remember that one of the things Petreaus did when he lead the change in Iraq was to remove all the tacked on subordinate directives to the ROEs that constrained the troops from engaging the enemy. The command structure attitude became CYAWP because of the perceived modus operandi of the leadership. Unless McChrystal makes sure that kind of corporate behavior doesn't take hold in the next lower levels of command, he is indeed going to repeat the mistake that lead to situation that required the surge in Iraq.
#4
I assume SOF going after High Value Targets face a different benefit cost equation from Marines securing a district. If you need to blow up a compound and kill 50 civilians to secure a village, one has to ask if securing that village at that time is worth the cost. If you are going kill Baitullah Mehsud, OTOH .......
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
07/08/2009 11:17 Comments ||
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#5
If you need to blow up a compound and kill 50 civilians to secure a village, one has to ask if securing that village at that time is worth the cost.
One, you aren't going to know whether you're going to kill 50 civilians when attacking a compound, or end up killing 50 Marines if you don't.
Two, the concern here is whether there is going to be 'additional insurance' padded on to an existing ROE. I've not heard one way or the other, but it is a valid concern.
This concern is neither formed in a vacuum, or a knee-jerk reaction LH. Troops have taken casualties because of it. An example of safe-siding an ROE is the attack on the Marine compound in Lebanon. There are many other instances (a couple of which I've experienced).
[Quqnoos] A powerful blast that shocked a town in eastern Afghanistan, Tuesday, left one dead and at least 34 wounded. The incident occurred at around 10.30 am in a vegetable market in the Afghan eastern city of Khost, near the Pakistani border.
The bomb, reportedly an improvised explosive device (IED) went off when a crew of policemen were shopping in the market, Afghan Interior Ministry noted in a statement. Four Afghan border police are among the wounded locals.
"Unknown men threw a hand grenade to a crowd of civilians in the bazaar," said, a spokesman for the provincial government, Kochi Naseri.
A doctor at the provincial health department confirmed that 28 wounded people including four policemen and a school teacher have been taken to a hospital that according to him, they are not in critical health condition.
The area is cordoned off by the police and primary investigations have begun on the incident.
No groups, including Taliban have yet claimed responsibility for the attack that mainly harmed ordinary Afghans.
Khost is known as the centre of a militant group, Haqqani, a close ally of the Taliban who fight against NATO-led international and Afghan troops.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2009 00:00 ||
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[Quqnoos] Two Canadian and a British soldier were killed Monday in a helicopter crash possibly caused by mechanical failure, officials said. Three other Canadians were hurt in the crash but their health status including the pilots is reportedly satisfied.
"It has been an extremely difficult week here in Kandahar," Canadian commander Brig Gen Jonathan Vance said early Tuesday.
Canadian military officials dismiss any insurgents' involvement in the crash, suggesting either mechanical failure or human error.
Meanwhile, a Taliban purported spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said the helicopter was shut down by Taliban militants in Zabul, a militants' Web Site quoted him. Taliban claims they have knocked down seven helicopters of the 'enemies', a phrase Taliban refers to International and Afghan troops, over the past four days.
"A flight-safety investigation is currently underway to determine the cause of the crash," Vance said.
Gen Vance expressed condolences over the deaths of the two Canadian soldiers what he termed them brave and will be remembered forever.
Zabul province is just outside Kandahar -- Canada's main sphere of operations, but the crew was apparently on a transport mission.
At least six Canadian soldiers have been killed over the past one month following a two-month period of relative calm that saw no deaths.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2009 00:00 ||
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July 6 (Bloomberg) — The leader of Somalias Islamist al- Shabaab movement which desires Full Hanbali as modified by Salafist Sharia
gave the government which has Sharia based on various schools including Hanifi, which is frequently the least restrictive
five days to surrender and hand over its weapons or face prosecution by Shariah courts.
The rebel group, which the U.S. accuses of having ties to al-Qaeda, is fighting to oust Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed who came to power in January and has called for peace talks between the countries Islamist factions.
"I call on the apostate government soldiers who are in the frontline of battle to surrender to the Islamists and to hand over all their weapons," Sheikh Muktar Abu-Subeyr, the highest ranking officer of al-Shabaab, said in an audio recording distributed to reporters in the capital, Mogadishu, yesterday.
Sheikh Yusuf Mohamed Siyad Indhaade, Somalias minister of state for ministry of defense, verified the authenticity of the recording and rejected the call for surrender.
"The government soldiers will not lay down their weapons," he told reporters late yesterday in Mogadishu.
Somalia is in its 18th year of civil war and hasnt had a functioning central administration since the ouster of Mohamed Siad Barre, the former dictator, in 1991. Islamists in the country are fighting to establish a caliphate, or Islamic government, in Somalia.
Posted by: Lord garth ||
07/08/2009 11:55 ||
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#2
I hope the US Navy has sufficient intelligence to stage a blanket hit-and-run raid on al-Shabaab, preferably late at night. Kill several hundred of them, hit them from Kismayo to Puntland, return to ship and sail far, far away before daylight. Claim it was the Hand of God that smote them, not the US Navy.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/08/2009 15:26 Comments ||
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#3
A TLAM will do a nice imitation of The Hand of God. Seems a shame to waste a perfectly good missile on a bunch of scurvy dogs like the Somalis, though. Better to catapault the plague-infested carcasses of dead cats over the parapets, methinks.
Sorry, nerdiness coming to the forefront again. TLAM would be your Tomahawk Land Attack Missile, a cruise missile that can be fired from submarines. Some of the Ohio class boats can carry about 150 of the little buggers.
#6
Hey, we're running a $2 trillion deficit here. 40mm Bofors and 105mm arty is much cheaper and a whole lot more satisfying. Plus rights for the video can bring in a large chunk of change.
Posted by: ed ||
07/08/2009 21:46 Comments ||
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Suburbs of Somalia's battle-scarred seaside capital are turning into ghost towns as more than 200,000 terrorized residents have fled intensified clashes between Islamist insurgents and government troops, the UN and a medical charity said Tuesday. Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) announced it had been forced to close a pediatric hospital and three health clinics in the north of the city - the first time it has done so for 17 years.
The organization is one of the few charities remaining in the war-ravaged country, but said Tuesday "MSF staff working in north Mogadishu have had to flee for their lives." The charity has struggled to deliver health care to hundreds of thousands of desperate Somalis, continuing to operate even after staff have been kidnapped or killed.
No one knows how many remain trapped between Mogadishu's ever-shifting front-lines since clashes intensified in May and no precise casualty figures for the latest fighting are available. The UN refugee agency says 204,000 Somalis have fled Mogadishu since May.
The northern suburbs are virtually deserted apart from fighters who have taken over buildings that include medical facilities, the charity said. Mogadishu was believed to have 2 million residents in 2007, but up to half that number have since fled.
Some Somalis have moved several times. Families face an agonizing choice: stay in streets where men fire machine-guns that have killed children asleep in their beds, or head out of town, where camps for the displaced are severely overstretched.
MSF said half a million people are already camping along the main road that links Mogadishu to the nearby town of Afgoye. Most are sleeping outside under plastic strung over twigs. It is freezing at night and sweltering by day. There is very little food or water. Attacks are common. Insurgents have been battling the government since an Islamist administration was overthrown in 2006. The latest round of fighting began when an exiled Islamist leader returned to the country to challenge the new president, a former ally elected by Parliament in January.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Fleeing and returning to Mogadishu happens as regularly as the tides.
[Iran Press TV Latest] The Iranian Navy has successfully finished its first patrol mission in the piracy-infested waters off Somali and the Gulf of Aden. In line with the international efforts against piracy, Tehran deployed two warships in the troubled region in May to confront pirates to safeguard the maritime trade in particular ships and oil tankers owned or leased by Iran.
What an opportunity to transfer excess Al Qaeda staff from Iran to Somalia via the pirate underground railroad. I imagine President Ahmadenijad is tired of Osama bin Laden's favourite son moaning about being a hostage and missing all the jihadi fun.
"Into the rubber boat wit yez, sonny!"
"But I don't wanna ..."
[THUMP] "Git in dat boat and don't come back!"
Navy commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said on Tuesday that the Iranian warships successfully warped up mission on Tuesday after being deployed in the troubled region for 60 days. According to the commander, during the two-month mission, the stationed warships kept a watchful eye on 366 merchant ships, 36 of which were owned or leased by Iran.
The commander said pirates in the Gulf of Aden had planned to hijack an Iranian oil tanker named Hadi but Iranian warships arrived in the scene on time to rescue it to prevent a $140 million loss.
On Monday, Iran's Deputy Naval Commander, Gholam-Reza Khadem, said Iran dispatched two other warships to replace aging vessels.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2009 00:00 ||
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[Mail and Globe] Mali President Amadou Toumani Toure has announced "a total struggle against al-Qaeda" after recent deadly clashes and the execution of a British hostage, urging regional cooperation on the fight. "This is a total struggle against al-Qaeda we're engaged in. I mean total," Toure told Agence France-Presse in a brief interview late on Monday. "On the terrain, in the Sahel and Saharan strip, the Salafists and their accomplices in various traffics are our enemies."
"Our troops have high morale," Toure said. "But to win, we're compelled to work together with our neighbours."
Toure said that a summit of regional heads of state, which has been delayed several times, would send "a very strong signal" to all the armed bands in the Sahel, an arid territory stretching from Mauritania in the west to include southern Algeria, northern Niger and Mali. "Our troops have high morale," Toure said. "But to win, we're compelled to work together with our neighbours."
The retired general gave no further details of a summit or of military plans, but a senior official in the security forces said on Tuesday that "with countries like Algeria, and others, we're preparing a large-scale operation in the Sahel-Saharan zone". Algeria has provided Mali with military equipment, army sources said.
This is going to be exciting Happy hunting, y'all! We won't see any public reports from our guys wandering through the neighborhood, I shouldn't think.
On Monday, Mali's Defence Ministry announced that soldiers were caught up in deadly clashes with fighters from al-Qaeda's North African branch in the north-west of the country. Both sides recorded losses during clashes, which took place on Friday and Saturday, said the ministry statement, without giving precise figures. "There were more killed in the enemy ranks than among our men," Captain Ali Diakite of the army command at Gao, in the north, said. That's always encouraging. Usually you need to kill about ten of them for every one of your own, but the important thing is to kill the head cheeses.
On June 17, the army said it had killed 26 "Islamist fighters" in an attack on a base belonging to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim), near the border with Algeria, near Garn-Akassa. The operation came after Aqim's May 31 announcement that it had executed Briton Edwin Dyer, one of six Western hostages kidnapped in the Sahel region in December and January.
The execution marked the first time that al-Qaeda's north African branch had killed a Western hostage, observers said.
Dyer had been captured in January over the border in Niger along with three other tourists. While two other hostages have been freed, a Swiss national, Werner Greiner, is being held prisoner.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2009 00:00 ||
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[Haaretz Defense] Members of an international Al-Qaida cell based in the northern Sinai Penninsula are suspected of planning to attack the gas lines running between Israel and Egypt, the Egyptian daily al-Masry al-Youm reported Sunday.
The cell was also planning to strike Israeli ships passing through the Suez Canal, according to the report.
The militants under investigation were allegedly behind a February bomb attack at Cairo's famous Khan el-Khalili market that killed one French tourist and wounded 20 other people.
According to the report, an investigation into the 10 suspected cell members uncovered an arms cache in the northern Sinai town of Abu Fakim that included anti-tank rockets, car bombs, explosive devices and explosive belts.
Two Palestinians, five Egyptians, a Belgian, a Briton and a French citizen were among the suspected cell members being investigated, according to the al-Masry al-Youm report.
The investigation reportedly found that the three European cell members initially entered the Gaza Strip through underground tunnels near Rafah, where they underwent training and received funds to carry out terrorist attacks.
The cell members later moved back to Egypt through the tunnels, where they carried out the Cairo attack and planned to carry out further attacks against Israeli targets, the report said.
Khaled Mohammed Ahmed, the commander of al-Qaida offshoot the Global Islamic Front, is in charge of the cell, the report said. He has lived in the Gaza Strip since fleeing from Egypt three years ago.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2009 00:00 ||
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[Jerusalem Post Middle East] Tunisian authorities have reportedly arrested nine nationals for allegedly planning attacks on visiting military officers from the United States.
The arrests were made under the Tunisian anti-terrorism law, lawyers said.
The detainees, two of whom are officers in the Tunisian Air Force, planned to assassinate American military officers who visit the country periodically for military training and joint exercises with the Tunisian army, the German Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA) reported.
Dr. Jack Kalpakian, a political expert at Morocco's Al-Akhawayn University in Ifrane, said he was not surprised to hear news of the terror sweep. "Tunisia's government has followed a very secularist policy and has not been very sympathetic towards any kind of political religious expression," he told The Media Line. "While in other countries in North Africa expressions of Islamism are tolerated to some extent, Tunisia represses these voices," he said.
Lawyer Samir Bin 'Amar told DPA that a court charged the nine detainees with incitement to carry out terror attacks, attempting to acquire weapons and explosives for a terror organization and using Tunisian soil to recruit people for a terror organization.
The two officers, both aged 32, are stationed at an air force and naval base in Benzart, 60 kilometers north of the capital, Tunis. They were charged with trying to embezzle weapons and explosives from the base to use in an attack against the American officers.
The involvement of army officers in the alleged plot is rare but not surprising, Kalpakian said. "Ultimately, it's a Muslim country, and the army will always reflect all aspects of society because it's very large. Armies are a sample of the whole population, so unless they're being restrictive to hiring people only from a specific background, they'll have this problem," he said.
Bin 'Amar said there was no evidence to back up the case and that the defendants were pleading not guilty to the charges against them. "They say the police procured confessions from them under duress," he told DPA.
A court will be issuing a verdict within the next few days.
The US views Tunisia as a partner in its fight against terrorism. Terror attacks in North Africa have been a common occurrence over the past few years with the emergence of Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, a reincarnation of a terror group that is affiliated, at least in its ideology, to the international Al-Qaida network. However, few such attacks, if at all, took place in Tunisia.
Tunisia and the US conduct joint military drills on a routine basis and the US army provides its Tunisian counterpart with logistic and military assistance.
The US Embassy in Tunis was not available to comment on the reports until time of publication.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2009 00:00 ||
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[Maghrebia] Dozens of Malian troops and al-Qaeda fighters are dead after weekend clashes in northern Mali, near the southwestern border of Algeria, local and international press reported on Monday (July 5th). In a statement published Sunday on an Islamist website, al Qaeda fighters in the Sahara region claimed to have been warned that the Malian army was preparing to attack at dawn on Saturday, El Khabar reported, The terrorists said they initiated the fighting to surprise the soldiers. They also claimed to have killed the senior Malian officer who led the attack.
"This is a total struggle against Al-Qaeda we're engaged in. I mean total," Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure was quoted by AFP as saying late Monday.
The Malian army recently killed 26 armed fighters at an al-Qaeda camp near the Algerian border - the first such assault ever mounted in Mali. Mali began its major counter-terrorism operation June 10th in the "Sahel-Sahara band" of Northern Mali and the border region with Algeria, Niger and Mauritania.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2009 00:00 ||
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SPECIAL security courts in Saudi Arabia have convicted a number of militants of plotting attacks inside the country with al-Qaeda, the state news agency SPA has reported.
The militants were convicted today on charges of conspiring with al-Qaeda, plotting to disrupt national security and financing terrorism, the Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution said.
Altogether 330 people were convicted in the secret security tribunals, with one sentenced to death, according to Al-Arabiya television which has close links to the Saudi Government.
The Bureau of Investigation gave no details on any individuals, but they are believed to be among 991 suspected militants arrested during an al-Qaeda campaign of attacks and assassinations of both Saudis and foreigners around the country between 2003 and 2006.
Well over 100 people were killed in the attacks before they were halted by an intense Saudi crackdown.
The trials of the militants are believed to have begun in early 2009 but were never officially confirmed.
Human rights activists have criticised them for being held in secret based on poorly defined charges, and said the suspects were denied fundamental rights including legal help in their defence.
However, last month Bandar al-Aiban, president of the official Saudi Human Rights Commission, said his group was monitoring the trials and that the defendants had received access to legal representation.
#2
That's an understatement. Among countless divisions, something has got to give. Hopefully the Sauds will wise up and replace the Wahabbis with some saner sect, before the whole country implodes.
#3
The Bureau of Investigation gave no details on any individuals, but they are believed to be among 991 suspected militants arrested during an al-Qaeda campaign of attacks and assassinations of both Saudis and foreigners around the country between 2003 and 2006.
The miscreants have been in Saudi prisons for 3-6 years before being brought to trial? It seems the arrest was functionally the conviction, the trial merely necessary to complete the paperwork.
Y'all will note the miscreants were convicted of plotting attacks inside the country with Al Qaeda. The House of Saud has no problem with them going off to cause trouble elsewhere, it's just when they shoot up foreigner compounds which also house connected Saudis that there's a problem. Those caught causing trouble abroad get sent through rehab, no doubt a vary different experience than this lot has been having.
[Beirut Daily Star: Region] One protester was killed and five others were injured when police opened fire on a rally in the port city of Aden and detained dozens, opposition members and a local doctor said on Tuesday. Thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets starting Monday throughout Yemen's south to commemorate the quashing of a 1994 uprising that sought the region's independence.
Southerners complain of discrimination by the northern-dominated government. Security forces deployed heavily in Aden Tuesday to prevent protesters from taking to the streets. Still, protesters went out, shouting: "Revolution, revolution, O south." Some protesters pelted the soldiers with stones, according to witnesses who spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared government retribution.
Local opposition leader and Parliament member Nasser al-Khabagi in Aden said police opened fire to disperse the crowd, and fired on Walid al-Sunidi, a movement leader in his 20s, as he resisted arrest outside a local hotel.
Sunidi died from head wounds, a doctor at Aden's al-Mansoura hospital said, on condition his name not be used because of the tension in the city. No official comment was immediately available on the incident.
Khabagi said that the arrest campaign brings the number of people detained since July 1 to around 250.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2009 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] A joint team of Rab and BDR yesterday arrested Selim alias Saifullah, second-in-command and military affairs commander of JMB's new offshoot Islam O Muslim, at Belpara in Chapainawabganj. Selim was arrested after an exchange of gunshots with the forces and he sustained a bullet wound in his leg, said Rab sources. "Feets, don't fail me..BANG!...Ouch!"
They also recovered a pistol, nine bullets, three bullet shells and two empty magazines from the scene and his possession. No shutter gun, that'll show up around 4 AM when they take him for a "ride".
Immediately after the arrest of Islam O Muslim chief Abdur Rahman alias Shahadat, Selim fled to India. An intelligence agency finding out that he was back in Bangladesh informed Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) that he was hiding at his father-in-law's in Belpara, Shibganj.
Rab and Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) team surrounded the house of Selim's in-laws around 1:00pm. Selim fired three shots at the team in a bid to avoid arrest and the team retaliated with five shots. Guess they're better shots.
In a press conference last night, Director of Rab-5 Lt Col Israt Hossain said, "Selim, expert in light weaponry, used to collect arms for JMB."
He said Rab tracked Selim down based on Boma Mizan's confessional statement. Arrested Islam O Muslim chief Abdur Rahim alias Shahadat and two of his associates also confirmed Selim's position in the new offshoot, said Lt Col Israt. Pliers and truncheons will do that.
While describing the arrest, Rab officials said Selim used to go to India frequently. He used to provide Rajshahi and Chapainawabganj JMB and its new offshoot with arms. Ah, I sense a late night trip looking for arms caches in his short future.
After the execution of JMB top leaders Shaekh Abdur Rahman and Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai, JMB leaders were divided over ideological, economical and different other issues. The Rajshahi Rab chief said, "The divided leaders later formed new outfits and were engaged in recruiting fresh members across the country." Shahadat and Selim were trying to reorganise the inactive JMB members across the country under the new banner of Islam O Muslim, sources said. "Join our team, plenty of spots available for advancement due to unexpected vacancies"
Meanwhile, police yesterday arrested Nazmul Haque Tuhin, a convicted JMB member as he came out of Rajshahi Central Jail on a High Court bail. "Naz, nice to see you again. Youse coming with us."
Tuhin, 34, of Harail in Joypurhat Sadar, was sent to jail after he surrendered before a court on October 12, 2005. He was later convicted in a case filed in connection with the August 17, 2005 serial blasts and sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment by a Rajshahi court. Talking to the press, Tuhin protested his innocence and said he was framed by a businessman who had strong ties with some rogue policemen.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2009 00:00 ||
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SEOUL, South Korea – South Korean intelligence officials believe North Korea or pro-Pyongyang forces committed cyber attacks that paralyzed major South Korean and U.S. government Web sites, aides to two lawmakers said Wednesday.
Just another day at the office ...
The sites of 11 South Korean organizations, including the presidential Blue House and the Defense Ministry, went down or had access problems since late Tuesday, according to the state-run Korea Information Security Agency. Agency spokeswoman Ahn Jeong-eun said 11 U.S. sites suffered similar problems. She said the agency is investigating the case with police and prosecutors.
In the U.S., the Treasury Department, Secret Service, Federal Trade Commission and Transportation Department Web sites were all down at varying points over the July 4 holiday weekend and into this week, according to American officials inside and outside the government.
Just as we begin to tighten the financial screws again, the Norks attack Treasury and the Secret Service. What a coincidence ...
Others familiar with the U.S. outage, which is called a denial of service attack, said that the fact that the government Web sites were still being affected three days after it began signaled an unusually lengthy and sophisticated attack.
So Treasury and SS aren't secure from DoS attacks? Fred, Badanov, 3dc, we have a job for you ...
The Korea Information Security Agency also attributed the attacks to denial of service.
Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies, said he doubts whether the impoverished North has the capability to knock down the Web sites.
Because impoverished countries wouldn't spend their precious capital on computers. Why, that's as crazy as an impoverished country building a nuke!
But Hong Hyun-ik, an analyst at the Sejong Institute think tank, said the attack could have been done by either North Korea or China, saying he "heard North Korea has been working hard to hack into" South Korean networks.
On Wednesday, the National Intelligence Service told a group of South Korean lawmakers it believes that North Korea or North Korean sympathizers "were behind" the attacks, according to an aide to one of lawmakers who was briefed on the information. An aide to another lawmaker who was briefed also said the NIS suspects North Korea or its followers were responsible.
The National Intelligence Service — South Korea's main spy agency — declined to confirm the information.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency said military intelligence officers were looking at the possibility that the attack may have been committed by North Korean hackers and pro-North Korea forces in South Korea. South Korea's Defense Ministry said it could not confirm the report.
Earlier Wednesday, the NIS said in a statement that 12,000 computers in South Korea and 8,000 computers overseas had been infected and used for the cyber attack. The agency said it believed the attack was "thoroughly" prepared and committed by hackers "at the level of a certain organization or state." It said it was cooperating with the American investigators to examine the case.
South Korean media reported in May that North Korea was running a cyber warfare unit that tries to hack into U.S. and South Korean military networks to gather confidential information and disrupt service.
An initial investigation in South Korea found that many personal computers were infected with a virus program ordering them to visit major official Web sites in South Korea and the U.S. at the same time, Korean information agency official Shin Hwa-su said. There has been no immediate reports of similar cyber attack in other Asian countries.
Yonhap said that prosecutors have found some of the cyber attacks on the South Korean sites were accessed from overseas. Yonhap, citing an unnamed prosecution official, said the cyber attack used a method common to Chinese hackers.
Shin, the Information Security Agency official, said the initial probe had not yet uncovered evidence about where the cyber outages originated. Police also said they had not discovered where the outages originated. Police officer Jeong Seok-hwa said that could take several days.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/08/2009 12:18 ||
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#1
This should be taken seriously, it's a preparation for war, paralyze the enemy's communications is basic invasion planning.
For some reason the "Sandwich" test is NOT working
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/08/2009 15:56 Comments ||
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#2
Two possibilities, one, Kimmie is close to croaking and to ensure the transition of power to Son #3 they have to ratchet up the tensions to keep the military in line and the slaves frightened and accepting of even more hardship, or:
Chinese have decided to use them as a front for their ongoing cyber war with the US and are using proxies to deflect the coming criticism.
#3
Whoa, so KIMMIE SSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHH fired his Missles at GUAM, hacked SEOUL + WASHINGTON DC, + perhaps was responsible for CNN + FOX NEWS going magn0-ditzy on the TV Screen.
AND THRU IT ALL, THE USA = POTUS BAMMER NOR VEEP JOE, ETC DIDN'T OR FAILED TO STOP 'IM!?
[Al Arabiya Latest] Police on Tuesday fired tear gas to disperse thousands of Han Chinese protesters armed with makeshift weapons and vowing revenge as chaos gripped this flashpoint city riven by ethnic tensions amid calls from a United Nations' human rights official for calm.
Chinese authorities said they had arrested 1,434 suspects, accusing them of murder, assault, looting and burning during attacks by Muslim Uighurs against the Han, China's dominant ethnic group who are seen in Xinjiang as oppressors.
Tensions spiked dramatically following weekend clashes that claimed at least 156 lives.
But despite the security clampdown involving police with submachine guns, shotguns and batons, mobs of Han Chinese marched through Urumqi -- many wielding bricks, chains and poles and bent on reprisals against Uighurs. "The Uighurs came to our area to smash things, now we are going to their area to beat them," one protester, who was carrying a metal pipe, told AFP.
Dong Sun, a 19-year-old leader of one mob, expressed similar fury. "There are more of us," he said in reference to the number of Han Chinese versus Uighurs. "It is time we looked after ourselves instead of waiting for the government."
Police repeatedly fired volleys of tear gas, but many of the demonstrators refused to yield ground despite their eyes streaming and their throats welling with pain, an AFP reporter witnessed.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
The Chinese revenge mob reminds me of some kung fu movie.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/08/2009 9:19 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Looks like early afternoon. Don't these guys have someplace to be? Like jobs?
They don't?
That explains a lot.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
07/08/2009 15:25 Comments ||
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#6
Looks like early afternoon. Don't these guys have someplace to be? Like jobs?
They don't?
That explains a lot.
I expect a lot of businesses are closed while waiting for the unrest to die down. Better to miss a day of production than risk getting looted and miss a month's worth.
#7
See also WAFF > UIGHUR AND TURKISH PROTESTERS ATTACK CHINESE TOURISTS IN MUNICH + JIHADIS CLAIM HAN MOBS LYNCHED AS MANY AS 800 UIHGURS + CHINESE GOVT: SEPARATIST GROUP WORLD UIGHUR CONGRESS [WUC] PLOTTED DEADLY CLASHES + CHINA ASKS PAKISTAN, SEVERAL OTHER COUNTRIES [Aghanistan, Kazakhistan, Turkey, Germany, + USA] TO UNEARTH LINKS [espec WUC]WITH URUMQI VIOLENCE.
VARI POSTERS > opines NOT to be surprised iff MUSLIM MILTERRS-FIGHTERS begin entering CHINA to assist = liberate their fellow Uighur Muslims, etc. from Beijing; + that Uighurs are allegedly linked and trained by the Taliban, and that CHINA WILL LIKELY BEGIN SENDING PLA TROOPS INTO AFPAK = AFGHANIS NEXT YEAR TO HELP THE US-ALLIES QUELL THE MILITANTS???
Nice score...
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan -- Suspected U.S. drones launched two missile attacks on Taliban targets in the South Waziristan tribal region on Wednesday, killing at least 45 militants in the latest in a barrage of strikes close to the Afghan border, intelligence officials said.
The army said the top Taliban commander in another area of the northwest, the scenic Swat Valley, was wounded in a Pakistani airstrike. It gave no more details.
Pakistan's military is also bombing and firing mortars at insurgent targets in the region, saying it is chipping away at Mehsud's resistance before launching a ground offensive there to eliminate him. Mehsud is blamed for many of the bloodiest terrorist attacks in nuclear-armed Pakistan in recent years.
The first strike took place before dawn. A suspected U.S. drone fired six missiles at a mountaintop training camp in the Karwan Manza area of South Waziristan, killing 10 militants, the intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media. The nationalities and the identities of the slain men were not immediately known.
Hours later, 12 miles (20 kilometers) to the east, missiles believed fired from a U.S. drone hit four vehicles carrying Taliban militants, killing at least 35, including a key Taliban commander, one intelligence official said. He did not disclose the commander's identity. Other intelligence officials put the death toll as high as 50.
Independent verification of the casualties and the target was not possible because the region is remote, dangerous and largely inaccessible to journalists. U.S. officials do not publicly comment on the strikes.
The latest strike brings to six the number of suspected American missile attacks in South Waziristan in just over two weeks, an uptick that suggests Washington is also trying to kill or weaken Mehsud and his followers in the run-up to the Pakistani campaign.
Despite the apparent convergence of interests, Pakistan's army insists it is not coordinating with the U.S. It says the American missile attacks are hurting its attempts to kill or capture Mehsud because they alienate local tribesman they are trying to enlist in their campaign against him. The United States is believed to have launched more than 40 missile strikes against targets in the border area since last August that have killed several hundred people, according to a count by The Associated Press based on figures given by intelligence officials.
The Pakistani government routinely protests the strikes as violation of the country's sovereignty and has publicly asked the United States to give them the technology to launch their own attacks. But many analysts suspect the government -- which has received billions of dollars a year from the United States in aid since 2001 -- secretly cooperates with them.
Pakistan launched the Swat Valley offensive more than two months ago after militants led by Maulana Fazlullah violated the terms of a peace deal. It claims to have nearly cleared the valley of militants, killing more than 1,500.
Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said Wednesday that according to "credible information" Fazlullah was wounded in a recent airstrike. Fazlullah's capture or killing would be a major symbolic victory for the army and give a psychological boost to local residents fearful that the Taliban could re-emerge in Swat. Abbas gave no more information about the circumstances involving Fazlullah's wounding. A militant spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.
#1
Sounds like the Reaper.
Six missiles here, hit four vehicles there. Quite a payload.
Wretchard once referred to the terrs as if they were birds, crouched in bushes, looking fearfully at the sky. He was being, iirc, metaphorical, the difficulties the terrs faced coming from a number of directions.
But the sky is good.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
07/08/2009 15:23 Comments ||
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[Associated Press of Pakistan] The security forces have killed four terrorists including two terrorist commanders identified as Muhammad Rasol, the brother of Ibn-e-Amin and Akram while 34 others were apprehended from Swat and Bunnu.According to an update issued by ISPR here on Tuesday, security forces carried out search and sweep operation in selected houses at Shukdara. On a tip off terrorist commander Muhammad Rasol brother of Ibn-e-Amin and Commander Akram were killed while 13 suspected terrorists were apprehended alongwith 8 small machine guns, 2 pistols, 4 seven MM rifles including 50 rounds.
*ring, ring*
Human Resources? Send us up four candidates, quickly! We'll need two who are capable of being trained for management. Yes, I know the learning curve is steep, but we'll need to get them up and running as fast as can be -- before we lose even more mentors.
Criminy boss, do you know how long it takes to train a number three?
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2009 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] A recently released video shows that notorious Taliban Chief Baitullah Mehsud has been increasingly buying and selling children for suicide bombings across Pakistan. In the name of "freedom." When they talk about "freedom" they're not talking about freedom for the kiddies.
The video released by military shows that Mehsud had trained several children at training camps in Waziristan and other northwestern region. Comes as a surprise, dunnit?
A military spokesman accused Mehsud of using children and teenagers for suicide attacks on major cities in Pakistan. "He has been admitting he holds a training center for young boys, for preparing them for suicide bombing. So he is on record saying all this, accepting these crimes."
Military officials said some of the children are as young as 11. Sources said Mehsud had been selling trained children to other Taliban officials for $6,000 to $12,000. This is while scores of teenagers have been forcibly taken awaud group for suicide training in South Waziristan in recent weeks. Their parents had demanded release of their sons while Mehsud is reported to have refused to free them.
Mehsud, a warlord in his late 30s, has claimed responsibility for dozens of devastating attacks on both civilians and security forces.
The Pakistani military has mounted an all-out assault on pro-Taliban militants in the Waziristan tribal region along the Afghan border where Tehrik-e-Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, and thousands of his men are hiding in the area.
This article starring:
Baitullah Mehsud
Taliban
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2009 00:00 ||
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[Jerusalem Post Middle East] Hamas is accusing the Palestinian Authority of kidnapping the wife of a Hamas member to pressure him into turning himself in.
Have they wrapped her in explosives and pushed her into a market square?
PA forces in Nablus kidnapped Alaa Jarrar, the wife of Omar Al-Hanbalim, on Sunday, a day before Al-Hanbali was released from an Israeli prison, Hamas said on the Omama Web site. The report said this was done so that Al-Hanbali would be put under pressure to turn himself in to the PA security forces, that are mostly loyal to Fatah.
"This is not the first time that security agencies in the West Bank are arresting relatives of wanted Hamas people to pressure them to give themselves in," Ihab Al-Ghu'sein, spokesman of the Hamas Interior Ministry in Gaza, told The Media Line.
The incident underlines the escalating tension between Fatah and Hamas.
Al-Ghu'sein said Al-Hanbali is being pursued solely for political reasons, because he is a Hamas member. "They are trying to arrest relatives, especially women and old people," he said. "They have no ethics, no moral values and we ask all human rights organizations to pressure the security agencies to stop arresting Hamas people."
"They just don't want the Hamas in the West Bank," he said.
Suggestions have been made that the kidnapped woman is not only a hostage of the Fatah-Hamas rivalry, but is also being used as a pawn in the competition between competing Palestinian security agencies.
Muna Mansour, a Nablus-based member of the Palestinian Legislative Council on behalf of the Hamas list, said this case is also indicative of an inner power struggle between two branches of the Fatah security forces.
"The PA submitted a request that [Al-Hanbali] turn himself in the moment he is released from an Israeli prison," she told The Media Line. "But there's a struggle between the intelligence and the preventative security branches over who he services," she said, explaining that both branches wanted to take credit for his arrest.
The preventative security branch kidnapped Jarrar so that Al-Hanbali would turn himself in to them and not to one of the other branches, which is what eventually transpired, she said.
It is unclear whether Jarrar is still being held by the preventative security forces.
The capture is also a sign of the existing strain between Hamas and Fatah, despite ongoing reconciliation talks in Cairo. Fatah is accusing Hamas of thwarting ongoing Egyptian-mediated reconciliation talks in Cairo.
Hamas and Fatah are embroiled in a standoff over who holds sway in the Palestinian territories. More recently, the Fatah-dominated PA and Hamas have exchanged accusations of arrests and plots to undermine each others' leaderships and security forces.
Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Monday said his security forces had broken up a spy network in Gaza that was serving Israel via Ramallah. The cells were channeling information to the office of PA President Mahmoud Abbas and from there it was passed onto Israel, Haniyeh said. He alleged that most of those seized were PA employees.
"They are members of the past security agencies and take orders from their leaders in the West Bank," Al-Ghu'sein said. He said around 90 suspects have been rounded up in the Gaza Strip over the past 40 days.
Hamas says there is documented proof that the detained cell members were tasked with orchestrating the assassination of senior Hamas members.
On the other hand, Hamas members arrested by the PA admitted last week to tracking the movements of Abbas and collecting information on his security arrangements.
PA officials say Hamas was planning to assassinate Abbas and attack PA institutions. The PA is concerned that Hamas is setting the stage to take over the West Bank, in a similar way to its coup in the Gaza Strip in June 2007.
In a televised interview on July 1, Abbas said Hamas was plotting to overthrow his regime and was stockpiling weapons and building a bank of targets.
A new round of talks between Fatah and Hamas is expected to begin on July 25.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
smells like Unity
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/08/2009 14:30 Comments ||
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Terrorists Suspected separatist militants shot dead three people in Thailand's troubled Muslim-majority south, while a bomb blast wounded five soldiers, police said Wednesday.
Police said a 40-year-old Buddhist man was killed in a drive-by shooting while shopping at a grocery store in Pattani province on Tuesday. Gunmen later Tuesday shot dead two 17-year-old Muslim boys riding a motorbike in Narathiwat province, they said, blaming the violence on fighting between separatist groups.
Five soldiers were injured, two of them seriously, in a bomb blast late Tuesday in Yala, the capital town of the province of the same name, police added.
[Straits Times] AT LEAST six people were killed and more than 40 others wounded by twin bomb blasts in the southern Philippines on Tuesday, in what officials described as coordinated attacks by Al Qaeda-linked militants.
The first bomb exploded in a commercial area on Jolo island, killing six people and wounding around 30 others, police said. It was followed around two hours later by a blast next to a parked military patrol jeep in Iligan city.
The second blast wounded at least 10 people, including three soldiers, the military said.
Jolo is a stronghold of Abu Sayyaf Muslim rebels and local anti-terror task force chief Major General Juancho Sabban was quick to point the finger at the militant group. 'This is a signature bomb attack of the Abu Sayyaf,' General Sabban said, speaking on local radio. He said that the bomb was hidden beneath the saddle of a motorcycle that was parked outside a downtown hardware store.
Regional police spokesman Superintendent Bayani Gucela said six civilians were killed in the Jolo blast, while at least 30 others were wounded. Police in Iligan said at least 10 people were wounded there.
'The (Jolo) commercial district area was packed with people when the explosion happened,' Gen Sabban said on local radio. 'All our doctors and nurses are already there in the area taking care of the victims.'
Police disarmed another bomb near Jolo's Mount Carmel Catholic cathedral while a third suspicious package was also found and safely detonated.
Tuesday's bombings came just two days after a bomb exploded outside a Roman Catholic cathedral in Cotabato city, also in the south, on Sunday.
The number of deaths in that attack, which was blamed on the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), another Islamic rebel group, rose to six on Tuesday, when one of the more than 50 people wounded died of his injuries, officials said.
Gen Sabban said it was not clear whether the Abu Sayyaf attack on Jolo was linked with the MILF attack, although both groups were known to have helped each other in the past.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2009 00:00 ||
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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.
Suburbs of Somalia's battle-scarred seaside capital are turning into ghost towns as more than 200,000 terrorized residents have fled intensified clashes between Islamist insurgents and government troops, the UN and a medical charity said Tuesday. Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) announced it had been forced to close a pediatric hospital and three health clinics in the north of the city - the first time it has done so for 17 years.
[Iran Press TV Latest] The Iranian Navy has successfully finished its first patrol mission in the piracy-infested waters off Somali and the Gulf of Aden. In line with the international efforts against piracy, Tehran deployed two warships in the troubled region in May to confront pirates to safeguard the maritime trade in particular ships and oil tankers owned or leased by Iran. 
[Maghrebia] Dozens of Malian troops and al-Qaeda fighters are dead after weekend clashes in northern Mali, near the southwestern border of Algeria, local and international press reported on Monday (July 5th). In a statement published Sunday on an Islamist website, al Qaeda fighters in the Sahara region claimed to have been warned that the Malian army was preparing to attack at dawn on Saturday, El Khabar reported, The terrorists said they initiated the fighting to surprise the soldiers. They also claimed to have killed the senior Malian officer who led the attack.
SEOUL, South Korea – South Korean intelligence officials believe North Korea or pro-Pyongyang forces committed cyber attacks that paralyzed major South Korean and U.S. government Web sites, aides to two lawmakers said Wednesday.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Police on Tuesday fired tear gas to disperse thousands of Han Chinese protesters armed with makeshift weapons and vowing revenge as chaos gripped this flashpoint city riven by ethnic tensions amid calls from a United Nations' human rights official for calm.
[Iran Press TV Latest] A recently released video shows that notorious Taliban Chief 
Five soldiers injured in bombing
