A military source close to Gen. David Petraeus told Fox News that one of the first things the general will do when he takes over in Afghanistan is to modify the rules of engagement to make it easier for U.S. troops to engage in combat with the enemy, though a Petraeus spokesman pushed back on the claim.
Troops on the ground and some military commanders have said the strict rules -- aimed at preventing civilian casualties -- have effectively forced the troops to fight with one hand tied behind their backs.
The military source who has talked with Petraeus said the general will make those changes. Other sources were not so sure, but said they wouldn't be surprised to see that happen once Petraeus takes command.
Petraeus spokesman Col. Erik Gunhus disputed the claim Friday, telling Fox News it's too soon to tell whether Petraeus would change the current rules. But he said it is one of many issues he'll take under consideration during his assessment after he's confirmed and after he takes over command in Afghanistan.
Any adjustment to the rules of engagement does not mean the counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan will change. President Obama stressed Wednesday -- after he accepted Gen. Stanley McChrystal's resignation in the wake of a magazine article in which he and his staff were critical of the administration -- that the change-up does not represent a shift in war policy.
At the same news conference at the Pentagon, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen said Petraeus will be able to make tactical changes. But he said that does not necessarily mean changes will be made and echoed the president's insistence that the strategy stays as he prepared for a visit to the war zone.
"My message will be clear: Nothing changes about our strategy, nothing changes about the mission," Mullen said.
The issue is likely to be front and center in Senate confirmation hearings for Petraeus next week.
#1
Thank God they put someone with some common sense in charge of that theater. McChrystal seemed too be more worried about "innocent civilians" than the troops he was supposed too be leading.
Posted by: chris ||
06/25/2010 15:32 Comments ||
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#2
What? No more medals for not shooting the enemy?
#6
Yes, Petraeus can change the ROE. And Obama can fire him too if he doesn't like them. However, it would stick Obama clearly with any failure and disaster that Afghanistan becomes. Given the popularity of the victor of Iraq over the Blamer-in-Chief, it will only tank further the ability of the Donks to hold on power. It frees the general to run in 2012.
#9
reasonable ROE might be closer to 'civilians' in the immediate area of legitimate targets making no effort to leave the area once hostile acts begin become legitimate combatants. this would include but not be limited to messengers, ammunition carriers, spotters, and cheerleaders.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
06/25/2010 19:41 Comments ||
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#10
Obambi is desperate. He needs a win that the US can actually get behind. He'll turn Petraeus loose and sulk in his closet as the General does what needs to be done. Is it too late? I'm not hopeful. In the long run, Obambi doesn't care. If we lose, he'll shrug and blame it on Bush and then go in to retirement following 2012 - the damage having already been done according to plan.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
06/25/2010 19:45 Comments ||
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#11
This was not a war Petraeus could have won under Bush. It's a stone age backwater not worth the blood of a single American. After the first victory we should have told them that if we had to come back to kill the Taliban we would simply use our death rays to kill every living thin in A-stan, and then left. Everything since then has been wasted effort.
#12
I'm hoping we have ROE that a) kill the enemy and any of their supporters (document same - publish the evidence); b) tell Karzai to STFU or join Najibulah; c) tell Pakland to get on teh program or the drones may stray to the ISI's Taliban supporters; d) reinforce our "strategic partnership" with India and allow that as circumstances play out - that may increase dramatically.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/25/2010 20:08 Comments ||
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#13
Word, Frank G.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
06/25/2010 20:25 Comments ||
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#14
Does it include an opium virus or fungus?
If not... forget the war...
The recent change in commanders in Afghanistan is proof the U.S and its allies have lost the war, statements posted on two Islamist websites said Thursday.
Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousif Ahmadi said in one statement President Barack Obama wanted to save face by firing Gen. Stanley McChrystal and bringing in Gen. David Petraeus. "History is evident of more powerful and experienced generals than General McChrystal and empires mightier than the United States of America being surrendered and bowed down before the Afghans," Ahmadi said, according to the website statement.
Ahmadi said McChrystal's strategy of increasing the number of troops in Afghanistan had been futile and led to the change in commanders. The Taliban spokesman said the change in command is useless because Petraeus, the new Afghan commander, is weak. "Indeed, he has got no (more) special qualities than General McChrystal had," Ahmadi said in his statement.
In another statement, a group calling itself the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan said Petraeus is mentally worn out because of the lengthy war, which began in October 2001. "Nine years of military actions, different strategies and back-breaking monetary and life damages at the hands of mujahedeen have left the crusaders totally in distress," the statement said.
Last week, when Petraeus briefly fainted at a Senate Armed Services Committee meeting, dehydration was cited as the cause. But the website said it was a sign that Petraeus knows the war in Afghanistan is lost. "General Petraeus, being witness to the incidents in Afghanistan is the only person who realizes the gravity of (the) situation and described this situation well by falling unconscious," the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan said. "Through this action he gave the answer to many questions to which the members of committee were eager to listen. They should learn from this answer by General Petraeus and start working for the well being of their masses."
Ahmadi, in his statement, said Petraeus has "left a big question mark on his physical and mental health."
#3
I've grown fond of the website 'Down for everyone or just me?'. While it won't say why whatever site is down, at least it is reassuring that the foul up isn't on your side.
#5
the tinfoil wearing part of me is thinking the flakiness of YouTube lately is them trying to pander to Muslim sensibilities without it looking like they were doing it.
that or they were working with the 0bama admin to track down everyone who post/watches those tea-bagger vids.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
06/25/2010 19:26 Comments ||
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KABUL, Afghanistan - Seven Afghan construction workers have been killed in a roadside bomb attack in central Afghanistan, the government said Thursday.
The group of workers for Qaher Afghan Road Construction Company were traveling in Uruzgan province on Wednesday when their vehicle was hit by a remote-controlled bomb, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. All the passengers were killed.
Taliban militants regularly target civilians seen as allied with the government or international forces, along with troops themselves. However, no group immediately claimed responsibility for the Uruzgan bombing.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/25/2010 00:00 ||
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Al Shabaab spokesman, Sheikh Ali Mahamud Raage (Ali Dheere) called all Hizbul Isalm leaders to join Al Shabab after he ended his visit in southern Somali regions and he emphasized his call adding if Hizbul Islam refuses this call Al Shabab will consider Hizbul Isalm as enemy. Al Shabab seized the control of Beledweyne, the capital of Hiran region in central Somalia and it was good step, at this time we call all Hisbul Islam leaders To join Al Shabab', said Ali Dheere speaking in Mogadishu.
Sheikh Ali Mahamud Raage said Hisbul Islam diverted itself from the direct direction which the two groups have agreed before. He said that Hisbul Islam leadership, including Sheikh Hasan Dahir Aweys could not be trusted since more Hisbul Islam leaders with their weapons joined to Somali transitional federal government which Al Shabab wants to oust from the country.
Ali Dhere declared Al-Shabab will not force any group but he said this time is the only time in which the honest people who want jihad and others will be known. Al Shabab spokesman, Sheikh Ali Mahamud Raage said Al Shabab controls most of Somali regions and from now on there will be no name called Hizbul Islam' since Hizbul Islam failed the war they sided with Alshabab.
Meanwhile, Sheikh Ali Mahamud Raage attacked newly appointed especial UN envoy for Somalia Mr Mahiga and underlined the new envoy is another setback to UN. Ali Dhere said Al Shabab will not stop their fighting against AMISOM and Somali transitional federal government.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Yemen has detained a German, an Iraqi and two others it accuses of involvement in a failed suicide attack on the British ambassador's convoy in Sanaa in April, a Defense Ministry website said on Thursday.
Prosecutors were questioning the four over the attack that killed the bomber and wounded three people, the website said.
Al-Qaeda's Yemen-based regional wing claimed responsibility for the bombing, accusing the envoy of leading a war on Muslims in the Arabian Peninsula on Britain's behalf.
Yemen has identified the bomber as a 22-year-old Yemeni, whose father said had been released from prison earlier this year but disappeared weeks before the bombing.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2010 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] An operative of outlawed Gono Mukti Fouz was killed in a 'shootout' between his cohorts and Rab in Sadar upazila of the district yesterday. As our dear readers know, a "shootout" is when a "accused" bad guy catches a round during an arrest. When you pick him up first, question him over a cup of tea (and a pair of visegrips), then take him on a moonlit drive to look for his arms cache, that is a "crossfire".
The deceased was identified as Ehsan Kazi, 40, who hailed from Jhenidah. His mother will miss him.
Acting on a tip-off, a team of Rab-12 cordoned off the playground of Baliapara Government Primary School in the small hours of the morning where the outlaws were holding a secret meeting, said Major Zakir. Holding a midnight basketball game, no doubt.
Sensing presence of the elite force, the outlaws opened fire. "Hark, I sense an elite, heavily armed force of trigger-happy cops! Open fire!"
Retaliatory fire triggered a gunfight, the Rab official said. It's a classic Chicken - Egg question.
Zakir said the Fouz cadre was caught in the firing line while his accomplices managed to flee. Leaving no trace they were even there.
Rab recovered two guns, seven rounds of bullet and a Chinese axe from the scene.
Ehsan was accused in nine cases on twelve systems, including murder.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
How does one say in Urdu: "It's like taking a (Chinese) ax to a gunfight". And probably a Chinese Dollar Store one at that! Que barbaro! Are they running out of machetes in Mexico Lindo? How unpatriotic...
#2
Excuse me - my brain remnants fried by the Arizona sun - 107-109 everyday now. Please excuse the machete/Mexican comment...we're talking Pakistan and their Chinese Dollar Store axes...
Google Translate
Three Sinaloa state police agents were murdered in two separate crimes in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, according to Mexican news reports.
Mario Valdez Valencia and Arturo Dominguez Esquer were assigned to a warrant execution detail. They were shot to death on Morelos farm at about 1716 hrs. Two hours later another Sinaloa state police agent was shot to death at a filling station.
The two agents were found near the intersection of calle Damaso Castro y Francisco Villa near their official pickup truck near where they were to serve a warrant for fraud. Witnesses say the two agents had been under pursuit by armed suspects riding in a gold colored van. The suspects shot the two agents in the back with AK-47 assault rifles as they agents exited their vehicle to exchange fire with the suspects.
At about 1915 hrs, Rodolfo Osuna Ruiz, arrived at the El Crucero gas station on the north side of town in his Jeep Cherokee. He radioed dispatch his location when several armed suspects aboard several vehicles pulled up and started shooting at Ruiz with AK-47 assault rifles.
#1
The only way to handle these Cretans is to hunt them down like rabid dogs and blow up their lairs. Do just like the Alexander did at Tyre and pulverize the remnants of their homes and throw salt on the earth.
#2
If the late great Mexican singer Lalo Elizalde were still alive he would be writing a whole lotta narco-corridos at this point. Lalo's son - Valentin - was also a top narco-corrido singer until he got on the wrong side of one of the the cartels. He was shot at close range 29 times - one bullet for each year of his life.
Google Translate
Elements of the Mexican Army 6th Area Command raided sites in Piedras Negras and Ocampo, Coahuila, and arrested four suspected drug traffickers and seized vehicles, drugs and a small arsenal, according to the Mexican daily El Diario de Coahuila.
Vehicles seized were: 2002 model Chevrolet Silverado, a 1999 model Pontiac Boneville and a 2000 model GMC Jimmy.
Weapons seized were: one each AR-15 .223 assault rifle, WASR AK-47 assault rifle, Century International AK-47 assault rifle, Herstal 5.7mm pistol, a Ruger 9mm pistol, a Jumenez .25 caliber pistol and a .38 Special derringer. Also taken were: 23 magazines and 781 cartridges for various armaments.
The army also seized 200 grams of heroin and 40,000 pesos.
In the June 22nd action two marijuana growing areas on La Rosita farm totalling 26,250 square meters were found. The marijuana was harvested and destroyed on location.
#1
3 cops now have fairly nice wheels. Methinks the seize and redistribute mentality covers the rest. I'm going to have to look up what a "25 caliber Jumenez" is. Sounds like a backup weapon...
Drug and gang related violence claimed the lives of 11 people in northern Mexican states; violence which included the murder of two Chihuahua state detectives and a raid by criminal elements on a remote central Chihuahua community.
An unidentified man was shot to death at a barber shop in Juarez, according to Mexican news reports.The shooter entered the Ramirez barber shop near the intersection of calles MarÃa Esther Ãlvarez and Los Aztecas in the Aztecas district and shot a 25 year old man. The shooter also fired over the heads of the employees an clients before leaving the scene.
Two Mexican state detectives were shot to death in an ambush in Chihuahua, Chihuahua Wednesday evening, according to Mexican news accounts.
Luis Carlos ManrÃquez Portillo and Jorge Alberto Sosa ChÃo were shot aboard their official Dodge Ram pickup truck near on calle Club de Leones de Chihuahua in the Praderas de León district. The two men were detectives in Chihuahua Secretaria de Seguridad Publica (SSPE), the main police organization for the state of Chihuahua.
Reports are armed suspects riding aboard a Volkswagen Jetta were involved in the shooting. Investigators at the scene found a number of spent cartridge casings from an AK-47, a .45 caliber and a 9mm weapon at the scene.
Two unidentified men were shot to death as they emerged from their vehicle in Juarez Wednesday evening, according to Mexican news reports. The victims were shot as they left their Nissan Altima near the intersection of calles Tomas Alba Edison and Simon Bolivar in the Americas district. The two were had apparently stopped at a restaurant when they died.
Several armed suspects riding in a multi-vehicle convoy raided a remote community in central Chihuahua Wednesday evening, say Mexican news reports. Gran Morelos was the site of the attack at about 1630 hrs. No one was reported hurt, and the only damage was a home that was burned by the suspects near the town public square.
A man in his 20s was shot to death near his home in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, say Mexican news reports. Gerardo Antonio de León Gonzälez, 20, was found dead near his home near the intersection of calles Privada Tabasco and Nueva Independencia in the Independencia district.
Witnesses say the victim was "hunted" by a group of armed suspects who shot him several times.
[Dawn] China has broken up a terrorist cell in the restive far western region of Xinjiang, an official said on Thursday, nearly a year after ethnic violence in the regional capital left around 200 dead.
Ministry of Public Security spokesman Wu Heping said more than 10 members of a terrorist group who were planning attacks across Xinjiang, had been detained and explosives, knives and other equipment seized.
"The breaking up of this large terrorist group once again proves that the East Turkestan Islamic Movement is the major terror threat facing China at present and henceforward," Wu said.
Exile groups and many Uighurs, a Muslim people native to the region, refer to Xinjiang as East Turkestan. Energy-rich Xinjiang is strategically located on China's borders of Afghanistan, Pakistan and several Central Asian states.
Wu identified the two ringleaders as Abdurixit Ablet, 42, and Imin Semaier, 33.
The group had planned attacks in the Xinjiang cities of Kashgar, Hotan and Aksu, but their plans were thwarted and some of them fled, Wu said, reading from a prepared statement.
But Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the exiled World Uyghur Congress, said the timing of the announcement was suspicious, coming so soon before the one-year anniversary of violent unrest in Xinjiang's regional capital, Urumqi.
"China has a political motive in choosing the period before the July 5 anniversary to publicise this. The purpose is to raise pressure on Uighurs," he said by telephone.
"The evidence given by the Chinese is all one-sided, with no independent verification and no credible proof."
At least three of the group had smuggled themselves out of China and were repatriated last December, Wu said.
Though he did not say where they had been repatriated from, Cambodia in December returned 20 Uighurs to China who they said had illegally entered the country.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang declined to name the country, but said the fight against terror needed international cooperation.
"These groups are a threat to the security of the region, and the peace and stability of some areas of China," he told a news briefing.
The East Turkestan Islamic Movement is listed by the United Nations as a terrorist organisation with links to al Qaeda.
Beijing often blames what it calls violent separatist groups in Xinjiang for attacks on police or other government targets, saying they work with al Qaeda or Central Asian militants to bring about an independent state called East Turkestan.
Uighur exiles accuse China of whipping up the threat posed by armed separatists to justify harsh crackdowns in the region.
Next month marks the first anniversary of unrest in Urumqi, in which Uighurs attacked Han Chinese who sought revenge days later. The unrest left around 200 dead, mostly Hans.
Many Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking ethnic group, chafe under Chinese rule and resent an influx of Han Chinese workers from eastern and central China.
When the Olympic Games were held in Beijing in 2008, there were at least three attacks against police and paramilitary troops near Xinjiang's southern frontier city of Kashgar, which China attributed to Uighur separatists.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Message to Dilxat Raxit,
"The evidence given by the Chinese is all one-sided, with no independent verification and no credible proof." - they dont care !!
Posted by: Oscar ||
06/25/2010 9:00 Comments ||
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The author of a damning study about the failure of Spain's "green jobs" program a story broken here at PJM received the threatening package on Tuesday from solar energy company Thermotechnic.
Spain's Dr. Gabriel Calzada the author of a damning study concluding that Spain's green jobs' energy program has been a catastrophic economic failure was mailed a dismantled bomb on Tuesday by solar energy company Thermotechnic.
Says Calzada:
Before opening it, I called [Thermotechnic] to know what was inside they answered, it was their answer to my energy pieces.
Dr. Calzada contacted a terrorism expert to handle the package. The expert first performed a scan of the package, then opened it in front of a journalist, Dr. Calzada, and a private security expert.
The terrorism consultant said he had seen this before:
This time you receive unconnected pieces. Next time it can explode in your hands.
Dr. Calzada added:
[The terrorism expert] told me that this was a warning.
The bomb threat is just the latest intimidation Dr. Calzada has faced since releasing his report and following up with articles in Expansion (a Spanish paper similar to the Financial Times). A minister from Spain's Socialist government called the rector of King Juan Carlos University Dr. Calzada's employer seeking Calzada's ouster. Calzada was not fired, but he was stripped of half of his classes at the university. The school then dropped its accreditation of a summer university program with which Calzada's think tank Instituto Juan de Mariana was associated.
Additionally, the head of Spain's renewable energy association and the head of its communist trade union wrote opinion pieces in top Spanish newspapers accusing Calzada of being unpatriotic' they did not charge him with being incorrect, but of undermining Spain by daring to write the report.
Their reasoning? If the skepticism that Calzada's revelations prompted were to prevail in the U.S., Spanish industry would face collapse should U.S. subsidies and mandates dry up.
As I have previously reported at PJM (here and here), Spain's green jobs' program was repeatedly referenced by President Obama as a model for what he would like to implement in the United States. Following the release of Calzada's report, Spain's Socialist government has since acknowledged the debacle both privately and publicly. This month, Spain's government instituted massive reductions in subsidies to renewable' energy sources.
Dr. Calzada is a friend of mine, kindly writing a blurb for the jacket of my latest book: Power Grab: How Obama's Green Policies Will Steal Your Freedom and Bankrupt America. My book details the Spanish green jobs' disaster uncovered by Dr. Calzada, plus similar green' economic calamities occurring in Germany and Denmark also programs Obama has praised as well as in Italy and elsewhere.
As I detail in Power Grab, they felt Spain would be in a dire position without the U.S. playing the role of sucker. With today's revelation, now we know just how far the green energy' lobby will go to keep the money flowing.
#1
The Spanish text in the Expansion says it was a a gas-oil filter and another part with a thread who fitted on the gasoil filter. My remark: The green company was smart enough not to include explosives in the parcel.
More significative than the contents of the parcel was the answer of the green company employee. The Spanish text says: "the female employee immediately knew what the parcel was about and answered without a second of hesitation: this is our answer to Mr Calzada's articles in 'Expansion' "
BTW: The company's siege is in Hernani that is in the heartland of terrorist movement ETA's supporters. It is also zone whose raise originates from companies who got significant funding from Franco's government.
#5
There should be a criminal investigation. I doubt it will happen but the company should be shut down and people arrested if they determine this was some kind of corporate decision.
At age 6, Mohamed Alessa declared to his parents that he would someday become the first Muslim president of the United States "President Mohamed," he would be called. Today, a 20-year-old Alessa sits in a cell at a New York detention center, charged with conspiring with his best friend, Carlos Almonte, 24, of Elmwood Park, to wage violent jihad on Americans overseas. But even at a young age, his parents said their son suffered from the uncontrollable rages that would plague him throughout his teens and fuel run-ins with school officials and law enforcement.
In their first interview together, Mahmood and Nadia Alessa, of North Bergen, detailed their son's psychological problems, his troubled teen years and their belief that the FBI pushed two innocent young men into a terrorist mold. "It's like they're against these two kids, they want them to be terrorists," Nadia Alessa said of federal authorities. "These kids [don't] know what's going on, they don't know anything."
They also said many of the government's claims against their son are dead wrong and that authorities have mistaken his anger problems and grandiosity for something much more serious. They said a 2007 trip to Jordan, which the FBI believes was a failed attempt to join the insurgency in Iraq, was a chance for Mohamed Alessa to study abroad. The Alessas also said he was traveling to Egypt on June 5 to meet a 19-year-old Swedish Muslim he planned to marry, not as a way station to jihad in Somalia, as the government alleges.
The Alessas also said they did not provide the FBI with the October 2006 tip that started the government's investigation. They said their son, an animal lover who once kept 13 cats, In some stories, having 13 cats might be considered an omen.
is a misguided young man who had been monitored by the FBI since age 16 and was encouraged by an undercover agent to act like a terrorist.
This claim, which others in North Jersey's Muslim community have repeated, irks FBI officials. Michael Ward, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Newark division, said agents often consult the Muslim community and ask for help in turning young lives around. But Ward said that when troubled teens get into their 20s and go from "aspirational to operational," there is only so much that outreach can accomplish. He stressed that he was not specifically addressing the investigation into Almonte and Alessa. "They evolved, they went deeper into the radicalization process, and I don't believe that, here at these last stages, there's anything we could've done," Ward said of the two young men.
Nadia Alessa, a Palestinian from the West Bank, gave birth to her only child in July 1989 while visiting friends in North Bergen. She and her husband, an ethnic Palestinian from Jordan, then returned to Kuwait, where he owned a billboard advertising business. After Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August 1990, the family was evacuated by American officials to the United States because Mohamed was a citizen. "The United States saved my life," Mahmood Alessa said.
As a child, their son displayed "anger management" problems that a battery of psychologists and psychiatrists tried to treat. Still, he bounced in and out of almost a dozen different Catholic, Muslim, local and boarding schools, they said. In February 2005, North Bergen High School officials placed him on home instruction because he presented safety concerns for other students and staff, district spokesman Paul Swibinski said.
In August 2005, his mother said he was arrested in Jersey City for defacing a Coptic Christian church with the words "allahu akbar," which means "God is great" in Arabic. He was released without charges, she said. He moved to the alternative school KAS Prep in September 2005 and became even more belligerent. He allegedly threatened to blow up the school, a claim Nadia Alessa said was a lie told by another student. Mahmood Alessa said his son came home and cried after fellow student told him, "you look like [al-Qaida leader Osama] bin Laden." Officials at KAS Prep reported Mohamed Alessa's threats to the New Jersey Department of Homeland Security.
In January 2006, police officers the Alessas weren't clear on what agency came to the modest second-floor apartment, arrested their son and put him in the Hudson County Juvenile Detention Center in Secaucus for one month for his threats. A judge dismissed him as "a stupid kid," Nadia Alessa said, and released him.
Mohamed Alessa claimed he had exclusively read the Quran while in juvenile detention and emerged a self-professed pious Muslim. He asked his mother, who does not wear traditional garb or head coverings, why she didn't cover herself. "My son is not that religious," she said. "He like to talk, he like to show. What I think, both of them, they're having a problem. They want to be famous."
His brand of piety seemed to preclude regular attendance at mosque, and he resisted efforts by local Muslim elders to help him. Walid Bejdough, a former spokesman for the Islamic Center of Passaic County, said Mahmood Alessa asked him several years ago to counsel his son to come to mosque and stay out of trouble. Bejdough arranged to meet the young man, but Mohamed Alessa never showed up.
Mohammad Abbasi, a spokesman for the North Hudson Islamic Educational Center, said he met Mohamed Alessa for the first time at a Teaneck mosque just before he was arrested. He said he didn't come across as pious or observant but noted, "It's almost like a fad for kids his age." Abbasi also questioned whether the FBI should have followed the young pair. Agents had come to him before about problem kids, he asked, why not with these two?
Mohamed Alessa met Carlos Almonte at the Garden State Plaza mall in 2004 or 2005, Nadia Alessa said. The younger man approached Almonte, asked for a cigarette and they became fast friends, she said. Over time, Almonte learned Arabic from Nadia Alessa's nieces, she said, but he became interested in Islam on his own. Mohamed Alessa insisted that Almonte accompany him on a trip to Jordan in February 2007 to study at the Oxford School, an English-language institution in Amman. Almonte later told an undercover officer that the men tried to become mujahedeen in Jordan but were denied, according to court documents.
Mahmood Alessa said the claim is false. His brother rented an apartment for them, took away their passports and provided food for them. The Alessas provided a report card to back their claim, but school officials could not be reached. Mohamed Alessa trusted his friends too much and was "very susceptible to outside influences," said Mahmood Alessa's lawyer, Frank Lucianna.
Nadia Alessa said she treated Almonte like a son, but said she was leery of a series of men she believed to be undercover agents. The FBI had been aware of Mohamed Alessa since at least October 2006, and neighbors said agents had asked about him then, court documents show. One such friend was a quiet Egyptian named Basem, who started coming around the house in January, Nadia Alessa said. She said Basem would wait at the house for hours while her son showered, which she considered suspicious.
Comments by Almonte and Mohamed Alessa to Basem, an undercover New York City police officer whose real name is unknown, figure prominently in the federal criminal complaint against them. "We'll start doing killing here, if I can't do it over there," Mohamed Alessa allegedly said in November 2009. Nadia Alessa said that if her son uttered threats against Americans, it was with Basem's encouragement.
But Ward said that the FBI looks for suspects to back up their claims with actions before making an arrest. "If we're looking at an investigation and all we have is rhetoric, it's just strong language. We're not going to take a case to fruition just on that," he said.
Mohamed Alessa told his parents that he wanted to fly to Europe to marry Siham Abedar, the young Swedish woman. They would not allow it, but he later told them that she had gone to Egypt to study and he would join her there and stay with Basem. Nadia Alessa said that on the last night before her son and Almonte left for Egypt, Basem ate at her house and reassured them in familiar terms. "I told him, 'I hope, Basem, you're going to be good caring for these two kids.' He said, 'Don't worry, Aunt.' "
Almonte and Mohammed Alessa were arrested on June 5 at John F. Kennedy International Airport and charged with conspiring to kill, maim and kidnap outside the United States. Mahmood Alessa said he can't sleep and has lost weight because he has been unable to contact his son since the arrest. He and his wife have received only one communication from jail, a handwritten letter from Almonte, whom they regard as a second son. In it, he writes, "All I want is for me and Mohamed to have a decent life. I know we don't deserve this."
#4
"She said Basem would wait at the house for hours while her son showered"
What the hell size is their hot water tank? I can't even spend a half hour in the shower before running out of hot water.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/25/2010 12:44 Comments ||
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#5
No sympathy. Stay in school and help all others if you want a decent life. Sounds to me they are just lazy punks who were taught to be the victims of society, perfect terrorist material.
#6
In their first interview together, Mahmood and Nadia Alessa, of North Bergen, detailed their son's psychological problems
Wonder if Nadia while she was pregnant with Mohamed, fasted during Ramadan?
Could explain the mental retardation that is normally associated with Islam.
A new study by scientists in the United States has revealed that pregnant Muslim women who fast during Ramadan are likely to have smaller babies who will be more prone to learning disabilities in adulthood.
The resignation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal as commander of Afghanistan's International Security Assistance Force has emboldened Pakistan's military to step up its efforts to broker a peace between key elements of the Taliban and the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The general's departure has heightened uncertainty throughout the 38-member ISAF alliance over how to proceed in a war slipping dangerously close to failure. Only days earlier, Britain's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, took an extended leave of absence following reports of rifts between him and senior U.S. officials over Afghan strategy.
The apparent dissension with the U.S.'s most important NATO ally comes at a time when virtually every country in the coalition is preparing to wind down its mission, threatening to turn what was supposed to be an aggressive push to end the conflict in 2010 into a year of chaos and collapse. Yet for other players, ISAF's troubles present a moment of opportunity. Pakistan is pushing into Kabul with offers of ending the conflict through a negotiated power-sharing deal with the Haqqani network, considered the most powerful insurgent network operating in Afghanistan. Pakistan's military and intelligence services maintain strong ties to the Haqqanis, despite U.S. demands that they crack down on the group.
According to a New York Times report, the Pakistanis have been waiting for a moment like the one offered by McChrystal's exit to activate that trump card. Karzai has lost faith in the U.S. administration and is looking for a partner that can bring peace to his war-torn nation. Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, head of the Pakistani army, has offered that possibility for peace, telling Karzai he can guarantee a deal with militants.
But what would a Pakistan-negotiated peace deal look like? McChrystal's amicable relationship with Kayani provided leverage for the U.S. administration in the murky world of the Pakistani military. McChrystal's successor, Gen. David Petraeus, does not enjoy the same level of influence. Pakistani army officers, speaking to AOL News on condition of anonymity, say Kayani, a military man to the core, sees Petraeus as a lesser general than McChrystal. "He doesn't have the same kind of respect for Petraeus as he did for McChrystal," says one colonel. "General McChrystal is loyal to his military roots. In a way, he is a lot like General Kayani -- mistrustful of politicians and so completely focused on military strategy that he often comes into conflict with the political class. Petraeus is more of a politician, and this annoys General Kayani."
The growing rapprochement between Kabul and Islamabad, led by Kayani himself and Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, the head of Pakistan's Interservices Intelligence, the spy agency accused of supporting the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network, presents a host of problems for the U.S. At the forefront is Pakistan's historic reliance on jihad ideology as a tool of foreign policy. If the Pakistanis have their way in Afghanistan, it would prove that policy successful. For the U.S. administration, the Haqqani network's ties to al-Qaida make any dealings with the group suspect.
"Haqqani will have to cut its ties to al-Qaida before the U.S. will accept any negotiated peace," says Rasul Bakhsh Rais, an expert on Pakistan's security and politics at the Lahore University of Management Sciences. "Kabul's growing relationship with Pakistan's military establishment is a concern for the U.S. because it is deviating from that strategic line."
Inside Pakistan, militant groups like the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) have been encouraged by McChrystal's departure. Speaking to AOL News by phone, one commander says the move is evidence that the Taliban are winning the war. "Now the American people can finally see what their media has been hiding from them," says Assadullah Haq, a senior commander with the Hakimullah Mehsud faction of the TTP, speaking from an undisclosed location in North Waziristan. "The Taliban have broken the backs of the U.S. and NATO. This is the beginning of the end."
For the Taliban, this is the moment they have been waiting for, he adds, with dissension among senior U.S. officials auguring "a repeat of the Soviet experience." That bold statement comes at a time when the TTP is supposed to be on the run, wedged into North Waziristan in Pakistan's war-torn tribal areas by a series of Pakistani army offensives over the past year. But Haq adds that the future of his group is assured by the victory of its counterpart across the border. "Their victory is our victory," he says. "There is no difference between us."
Rais reads the TTP's stance as opportunistic. "If there is a means, then they will shift their focus and align themselves with the Afghan Taliban," he says, adding that the beating the TTP has taken at the hands of the Pakistani military has left them searching for a new purpose. "But I don't think the Pakistani military will accept it, and the Afghan Taliban don't need them."
Nonetheless, over the past year, the TTP -- and the Mehsud faction in particular -- has demonstrated its desire to step up a few rungs on the militant ladder, orchestrating the failed bomb attack in New York's Times Square in May, the first operation it has carried out on foreign soil. The rhetoric coming from the group has shifted away from declarations of war against the Pakistani state and focused instead on the broader global jihad, primarily against the U.S.
#2
Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, head of the Pakistani army, has offered that possibility for peace, telling Karzai he can guarantee a deal with militants.
[Dawn] A team of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) on Thursday arrested three suspected members of the banned organisation Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) and recovered arms from them during an operation in Laiquatabad and Orangi Town.
The suspects included Hafiz Mohammad Ali, Taha and Zahid. Ali was wanted in six cases of sectarian killings by the police, said SSP, CID Fayaz Khan.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2010 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] A senior Kashmiri separatist known for his hardline anti-India stance has been charged with being a threat to public order following a string of public protests, police said Thursday.
Syed Ali Geelani, 80, was arrested on Sunday after making a speech against India's rule in the flashpoint Himalayan region, which is jointly administered by India and Pakistan.
"We have booked him under the PSA (Public Safety Act)," said Mehraj Kakroo, district magistrate of Srinagar, referring to the tough public order law that could see Geelani jailed without trial for two years.
Muslim-majority Kashmir valley has been hit by regular protests over the past two weeks after the deaths of three Kashmiri protesters allegedly at the hands of Indian security forces.
In response to the killings, Geelani and other separatists have been calling for demonstrations and general strikes that have crippled Srinagar and other areas in the Muslim-majority region.
Other separatists were also detained in overnight raids.
"We have taken these measures to stem protests," a senior police officer said, asking not to be named.
Geelani has been in and out of jail since Muslim militants launched an insurgency against Indian rule in Kashmir in 1989.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2010 00:00 ||
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BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi security forces captured three suspected aides of a wanted fighter of Iraqi Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militias during a combined security operation in northwestern Baghdad on Thursday, according to a U.S. army statement.
The apprehension took place in an operation based on a warrant issued by an Iraqi judge,' read the statement as received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Iraqi security forces, aided by U.S. army advisors, searched two buildings for a leading fighter of the Mahdi Army, believed to be involved in improvised explosive device attacks on Iraqi security forces and the American military,' it added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/25/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Where is Charlton Heston Chinese Gordon when you really need him?
[Al Arabiya Latest] A spate of attacks targeting Iraqi security forces and their allies killed at least 10 people on Thursday, half in suicide bombings in the northern city of Mosul, officials said.
The noontime suicide attacks targeted a police checkpoint and an Iraqi army camp on opposite sides of Mosul, a city long considered al-Qaida's last stronghold in Iraq.
A third attack west of the city was thwarted when police opened fire on a suicide car bomb speeding toward a cattle market in the nearby town of Tal Afar, blowing it up, according to a Mosul police officer
Iraq's security forces are frequently targeted as the American military prepares to end its combat mission in Iraq this summer, even as overall violence around the country has dropped sharply from when Iraq teetered on the brink of civil war in 2005-07.
The worst of Thursday's attacks came at a police checkpoint in the western al-Shefah neighborhood in Mosul, about 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad.
Police said a suicide bomber with explosives strapped around his body blew himself up near the checkpoint around 12:30 p.m., killing four policemen and wounding four others. The casualties were confirmed by Saad Abdul-Moneim, a Mosul morgue official.
A half-hour earlier, two men detonated their explosives belts outside the main gate of an Iraqi army camp in eastern Mosul's Kokjali neighborhood. The police official and Abdul-Moneim said one soldier was killed and five more wounded in the blast. It was not known if the attacks were coordinated.
Mosul has long been known as an al-Qaida recruiting ground for Sunni insurgents and suicide bombers. It sits on one of Iraq's political and ethnic fault lines, being home to Sunni Arab, Christian and Kurdish communities.
The ability of insurgents to target Iraqi security forces with relative ease raises worries about their ability to defend themselves and protect the country as all but 50,000 American troops leave by Aug. 31 -- the first step toward a full American military withdrawal by the end of next year.
Meanwhile, a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad killed two policemen on a late morning patrol and wounded four others, said a police official and a medic at the nearby Kindi hospital. Four bystanders also were injured, the officials said.
Another roadside bomb targeted the convoy of Karar Hassan, a director-general in the Industry Ministry in Baghdad, wounding him, three bodyguards and a bystander, officials said.
Gunmen wearing military uniforms also stormed a house in the Sulaybi village near Duluiyah, north of Baghdad, killing two brothers who were members of government-backed Sunni militias that fight al-Qaida in Iraq along with one of their wives, police and hospital officials said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2010 00:00 ||
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[Ma'an] Palestinians launched 12 projectiles toward Israeli territory over the course of Thursday, Israel's military said. Seven mortar shells landed in the Sha'ar regional council and the rest landed inside the Gaza Strip, an Israeli army spokeswoman said. Missed an entire country 5 out of 12 shots.
The military official told Ma'an that there were no reports of injury or damage in the area, which is in the Negev desert northeast of Gaza.
Earlier Thursday, witnesses said 12 Israeli military vehicles entered Gaza in the north and destroyed agricultural land.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2010 00:00 ||
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Cause (firing rockets into Israel) meet effect (destruction of launch sites). Meet follow on effects: IAF strikes in Gaza Strip IAF aircraft struck in the Gaza Strip overnight Thursday, targeting a weapons cache in the north and two smuggling tunnels in the south, the army said. A spokesman for the military said the strikes were in response to yesterdays rocket attacks from the Strip.
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Why do they report this stuff? Obviously, it doesn't count unless it hits someone. /sarc
[Straits Times] ABOUT 30 hooded attackers, believed to be Abu Sayyaf militants, shot and hacked horrified victims as they ran for their lives in the southern Philippines, police said on Thursday. Four people died and six were wounded in the ambush on a village road.
The suspected al-Qaeda-linked militants apparently were trying to divert government troops from a weekslong offensive in a nearby town, said Antonio Mendoza, police chief for the island province of Basilan.
Most of the victims were commuters in a passenger jeep going home from Basilan's capital of Isabela City. The attackers were positioned on a hill and opened fire with rifles. Two passengers died instantly and others jumped from the jeep to flee, Mr Mendoza said.
'They were fired upon as they ran. One of the attackers hacked a 10-year-old boy, who survived,' Mr Mendoza told The Associated Press.
The attackers fled toward a mountainous jungle, where troops were hunting for them, regional military commander Lt Gen Benjamin Dolorfino said.
The mid-afternoon attack in a sparsely populated village in Maluso town is the latest violence blamed on the Abu Sayyaf and its allied armed groups on Basilan, a predominantly Muslim island about 550 miles (880 kilometers) south of Manila.
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06/25/2010 00:00 ||
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[Straits Times] THE father-in-law of slain Malaysian terror leader Noordin Mohammed Top went on trial in Indonesia on Thursday, facing up to 15 years in prison for helping the fugitive evade capture.
Baharudin Latif alias Baridin, 55, was arrested five months after suicide bomb attacks on two luxury hotels in Jakarta in July last year that killed seven people.
'The defendant deliberately provided assistance and facilities to the perpertrator of terrorism by hiding from police the most-wanted terror mastermind Noordin Mohammed Top,' prosecutor Firmansyah told the court.
Noordin was killed in a police raid in September, ending one of Southeast Asia's biggest manhunts.
He led a group he called Al-Qaeda in the Malay Archipelago and was responsible for multiple deadly attacks in the mainly Muslim country, including the hotel bombings and a truck-bomb blast at the Australian embassy in 2004.
Firmansyah said Latif had been a member of regional terror network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) since 1995 and led a local branch in East Java province in 2000. .
Noordin visited Latif's house three times and married his daughter, Arina Rahmah, in 2006.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2010 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.
KABUL, Afghanistan - Seven Afghan construction workers have been killed in a roadside bomb attack in central Afghanistan, the government said Thursday.
Al Shabaab spokesman, Sheikh Ali Mahamud Raage (Ali Dheere) called all Hizbul Isalm leaders to join Al Shabab after he ended his visit in southern Somali regions and he emphasized his call adding if Hizbul Islam refuses this call Al Shabab will consider Hizbul Isalm as enemy. Al Shabab seized the control of Beledweyne, the capital of Hiran region in central Somalia and it was good step, at this time we call all Hisbul Islam leaders To join Al Shabab', said Ali Dheere speaking in Mogadishu.
[Bangla Daily Star] An operative of outlawed Gono Mukti Fouz was killed in a 'shootout' between his cohorts and Rab in Sadar upazila of the district yesterday.
The author of a damning study about the failure of Spain's "green jobs" program a story broken here at PJM received the threatening package on Tuesday from solar energy company Thermotechnic.
At age 6, Mohamed Alessa declared to his parents that he would someday become the first Muslim president of the United States "President Mohamed," he would be called. Today, a 20-year-old Alessa sits in a cell at a New York detention center, charged with conspiring with his best friend, Carlos Almonte, 24, of Elmwood Park, to wage violent jihad on Americans overseas. But even at a young age, his parents said their son suffered from the uncontrollable rages that would plague him throughout his teens and fuel run-ins with school officials and law enforcement.
The resignation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal as commander of Afghanistan's International Security Assistance Force has emboldened Pakistan's military to step up its efforts to broker a peace between key elements of the Taliban and the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The general's departure has heightened uncertainty throughout the 38-member ISAF alliance over how to proceed in a war slipping dangerously close to failure. Only days earlier, Britain's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, took an extended leave of absence following reports of rifts between him and senior U.S. officials over Afghan strategy. 
[Dawn] A senior Kashmiri separatist known for his hardline anti-India stance has been charged with being a threat to public order following a string of public protests, police said Thursday.
[Al Arabiya Latest] A spate of attacks targeting Iraqi security forces and their allies killed at least 10 people on Thursday, half in suicide bombings in the northern city of Mosul, officials said.
[Ma'an] Palestinians launched 12 projectiles toward Israeli territory over the course of Thursday, Israel's military said. Seven mortar shells landed in the Sha'ar regional council and the rest landed inside the Gaza Strip, an Israeli army spokeswoman said. 
