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Clashes follow Egypt church bombing
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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1 00:00 GolfBravoUSMC [4] 
1 00:00 Barbara Skolaut [4] 
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 3: Non-WoT
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 6: Politix
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Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 01/02/2011 11:47 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Birthday/Daily Gam Shot

Anna Lee aka Bronwyn, Ivor's wife in "How Green Was My Valley" aka Brooke Elliott in "Flying Tigers" aka Mascha Novotny in "Hangmen Also Die!" (Died in 2004 at age 91)


Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 01/02/2011 17:42 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Nato claims killing eight 'insurgents' in Afghan operations
[Dawn] Nato on Saturday said it has killed at least eight forces of Evil and captured a Taliban leader in several operations throughout Afghanistan.

The coalition said five of the forces of Evil were killed a day earlier in an operation targeting a Taliban leader in the northern Kunduz province. It was unclear whether the Taliban leader was among those killed or nabbed.

In the Taliban's traditional southern stronghold of Kandahar, Nato launched two Arclight airstrikes targeting a Taliban Islamic myrmidon allegedly involved in a December 12 suicide car booming that killed three beturbanned goons. It was unclear if the Islamic myrmidon was killed or beat feet.

In a third operation, Nato said it captured a Taliban leader in the central province of Wardak.
Posted by: Fred || 01/02/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  Forces of Evil. I like it.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 01/02/2011 7:40 Comments || Top||

#2  When the focus shifts from Strategic Objectives to Body Counts, it's a sure sign the war is going poorly.
Posted by: One Eyed Omease2378 || 01/02/2011 9:20 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Somali pirates seize Mozambican fishing boat
Somali pirates have hijacked a Mozambican-flagged fishing vessel about 200 nautical miles (370 km) southwest of Comoros in the Indian Ocean, the European Union's anti-piracy taskforce said on Saturday.

The capture of the 140-ton Vega 5 and its 14-strong crew of unknown nationalities is the second successful strike by pirates off the northern tip of Madagascar in a week.

A NATO counter-piracy website reported this week that the hijacked Taiwanese-owned fishing vessel FV Shiuh Fu No 1, seized on Dec. 25, was operating as a pirate "mothership" in the same area off Madagascar.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/02/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Statement by the President on the terrorist attacks in Egypt and Nigeria
I strongly condemn the separate and outrageous terrorist bombing attacks in Egypt and Nigeria. The attack on a church in Alexandria, Egypt caused 21 reported deaths and dozens of injured from both the Christian and Muslim communities.
[note the moral equivalence which is contradicted by the next sentence]

The perpetrators of this attack were clearly targeting Christian worshipers, and have no respect for human life and dignity. They must be brought to justice for this barbaric and heinous act. We are continuing to gather information regarding this terrible event,
Why are we doing it? Isn't that the job and concern of Egypt?
and are prepared to offer any necessary assistance to the Government of Egypt in responding to it.

The attack near an army barracks in Abuja also reportedly killed more than 20 people and wounded many more. Killing innocent civilians who were simply gathering -- like so many people around the world -- to celebrate the beginning of a New Year further demonstrates the bankrupt vision of those who carry out these attacks, and we are similarly prepared to offer assistance to the Government of Nigeria as it works to bring the perpetrators to justice.

The United States extends its deepest condolences to the families of those killed and to the wounded in both of these attacks, and we stand with the Nigerian and Egyptian people at this difficult time.
[notice the absence of the word 'Islam' or 'Jihad'}
Yes. The question is begged, what is the bankrupt vision of those who carry out these attacks?
Posted by: Lord Garth || 01/02/2011 11:13 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Statement by the President on the terrorist attacks in Egypt and Nigeria:

"We don't use the 'T' word, and you shouldn't either. It scares the ignorant rubes bigots peasants."
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 01/02/2011 13:04 Comments || Top||


Clashes follow Egypt church bombing
[Al Jazeera] Clashes have flared in the northern Egyptian city of Alexandria, following a car booming blamed outside a Coptic Christian church that killed at least 21 people.

Police and Christian men faced off late on Saturday afternoon, with reports of rubber-coated bullets and tear gas being fired at crowds of young men.

Enraged Christians emerging from the Qiddissine (The Saints) Church fought with police and stormed a nearby mosque, prompting fights and volleys of stone throwing with Mohammedans.

Authorities blamed the incident on a jacket wallah but provided no evidence to back up their claim.

Reporting for Al Jizz, Nadia Abou El-Meg, a journalist in Alexandria, said: "This scene [of festivities] has been [witnessed] several times today. The protesters started gathering and throwing stones ... the police responded with tear gas.

"Tension is running very high and people are very angry ... We saw a lot of people weeping and screaming and asking why are they being attacked.

"The church has issued a statement which was also very angry, demanding justice, and criticising the performance of the government.

"More and more people are gathering as the night is falling. Many people are not buying this idea of the jacket wallah."

The Copts are the biggest Christian community in the Middle East and account for up to 10 per cent of Egypt's 80m population.

No bombing claim
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Saturday's bombing, which came as nearly 1,000 faithful left the Qiddissine Church, located in Alexandria's Sidi Bechr district.

According to the Egyptian interior ministry, the car that went kaboom! was parked in front of the church.

Day of anger in Egypt
Al Jizz's Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from the Egyptian capital Cairo, said that the car boom probably involved sophisticated remote-control timer technology.

"Churches in Egypt are heavily guarded, so undoubtedly questions will arise about how a car was parked so close to the church and who was able to detonate it from a distance," he said.

While it was not known who was responsible for the blast, a group calling itself al-Qaeda in Iraq had threatened the country's Coptic Christian community.

Adel Labib, Alexandria's governor, has linked the attack to al-Qaeda, but our correspondent says the government has not made clear who they were blaming for the bombing.

Plea for protection
The attack in Egypt prompted Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican to call for Christians throughout the Middle East to be protected.

The bombing comes almost two months to the day after an October 31 attack by Mohammedan fighters on Our Lady of Salvation church in central Storied Baghdad, which left 44 worshippers, two priests and seven security forces members dead.

Al-Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate grabbed credit for that attack and made new threats against Christians.

The group threatened to attack Egyptian Copts if their church did not free two Christians it said had been "imprisoned in their monasteries" for having converted to Islam.

The two women were Camilia Chehata and Wafa Constantine, the wives of Coptic priests whose claimed conversion caused a stir in Egypt.

Protection around Copt places of worship was discreetly stepped up after the threats, as Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, said he was committed to protecting the Christians "faced with the forces of terrorism and extremism".

Egypt's Coptic Christians often complain of discrimination and have been the target of religious violence.

Repeated festivities
In 2006 a man attacked worshippers in three churches in Alexandria, killing one person and wounding others.

Authorities said at the time he had "psychiatric problems" but this was rejected by the Coptic community.

Clashes broke out between Copts and Mohammedans the following day at the funeral of the victim, with one person killed and several maimed.

In November festivities took place in a southwestern neighbourhood of Cairo between Coptic demonstrators and police after local authorities refused to allow a community centre to be transformed into a church.

Two Christians died and dozens were maimed.
Posted by: Fred || 01/02/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda

#1  I propose we start arming the Copts
Posted by: Frank G || 01/02/2011 0:12 Comments || Top||

#2  More like evacuating Copts to greener pastures - we have places in the US.
Posted by: newc || 01/02/2011 1:04 Comments || Top||

#3  How about deport some of the Islamics here and immigrate the Coptics?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/02/2011 1:16 Comments || Top||

#4  The mindset of the Islamist is that Christians are a Western religion and therefore the enemy.

I agree with a poster above that the West should make room for the Copts as long as we can expel the Muzzies who hate our way of life!
Posted by: Paul D || 01/02/2011 11:25 Comments || Top||

#5  I'd sign up for moving the Christians here if they wanted - and throw out the muzzies.

New Crusades anyone? I could be talked into it.
Posted by: Hellfish || 01/02/2011 13:03 Comments || Top||

#6  Deus Vult!
Posted by: rob06 || 01/02/2011 17:22 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Swede among terrorist suspects held in Uganda
A Swedish national is among a group of three people arrested on Uganda's eastern border on suspicion of having ties to a terrorist group, according to a local media report.

The woman was among three people arrested last Wednesday aboard a bus from Nairobi in Kenya to Kamapal in Uganda on suspicion of links to the Somali terrorist group Islamist Al-Shabaab, according to a report in the Ugandan Monitor newspaper.

According to the newspaper's sources the police had received information that the suspects were on their way to Kampala to deploy bombs. Al-Shabaab has previously threatened terror attacks in Uganda and Burundi as the countries have refused to withdraw their forces from Somalia.

One of the three arrested, a woman, had two passports, one of which was Swedish.

The three suspects were arrested and taken to Kampala to be interrogated further.
Posted by: tipper || 01/02/2011 09:45 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Was this "Swede" named Helga? or Fatima?

Al
Posted by: Frozen Al || 01/02/2011 10:14 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
La Familia may be nearing its end
by Chris Covert

Just two weeks ago, Mexican president Felipe Calderon Hinojosa and his government were standing on what appeared to be a precipice of a lot of bad news.

La Familia de Michoacan, the drug cartel based in the west Mexican coast state of Michoacan, has just warned the federal government to leave Michoacan on pain of a guerrilla/terrorist war and Calderon's political rivals smelled blood in the water, heavily criticizing the federal government for such offenses as an uneven hand in dealing with drug crime amongst the various states.

A skinny man-child from Australia,
Ouch.
Julian Assange, released US state department secret cables which framed Calderon's government as lost and ineffective in its war against its own drug cartels, about 50 Central American illegal immigrants were kidnapped by Los Zetas in southern Mexico, and Guatemala was beginning its opening moves in dealing with Mexican drug criminals. Within Guatemala's borders a rather lightning speed declaration of a state of siege in its Alta Verapaz department was issued. Guatemala's move seemed to demonstrate how a strong government can quickly move to deal with its problems and achieve the kind of political consensus the Mexican government cannot or is unwilling to achieve.

What a difference three weeks, another bust and a new year can make.

Last Thursday one of the central figures in La Familia de Michoacan was arrested along with a number of associates, along with the usual amount of drug war contraband such as drugs and weapons.

Francisco Lopez Villanueva, alias El Bigotes, a former Los Zetas operative, was arrested along with four of his security team in the villages of La Mira and Guacamayas last Thursday. The operation, unlike the massive Policia Federal operation three weeks ago, had no shootouts. Mexican security forces used only a close cooperation among Policia Federal, the Mexican Army and Mexican Marines in surrounding the two villages where Lopez Villanueva was hiding.

The arrest was characterized as disruptive by Policia Federal spokesman, Luis Cardenas Palomino, who is head of the Division de Seguridad Regional for the Policia Federal, but subsequent information provided in the press conference and elsewhere could better describe the arrest as devastating to the drug cartel.

Three weeks ago a Policia Federal operation in Michoacan lasting more than 36 hours and spanning 5,000 square kilometers in Michoacan killed a leader of La Familia, Nazario Moreno Gonzolez, alias El Chayo. This killing forced a public reaction from the criminal gang that threatened a full scale guerrilla war if the Policia Federal and army troops did not leave Michoacan by December 24th. The warning was backed up by text aimed at ordinary citizens in Michoacan asking them to stay away from select public places and to cooperate with local drug criminals. The implication was that the guerrilla war could take on the form of terrorist attacks if Mexican Federal security forces did not leave Michoacan.

Yet, four days after the deadline the expected war failed to materialize. Reading from the Justicia section of the daily El Sol del Morelia, it was business as usual for the capital of Michoacan.

Instead came the federal response: the arrest of El Bigote and four of his security staff.

In the press conference Cardenas Palomino described a criminal organization reeling from the loss of one of its leaders, running out of cash and forced to do the things a common criminal gang would do to make the rent exclusive of the drug trade: extortion, kidnapping and armed robbery.

While details of the crimes committed since the death of Moreno Gonzalez to fund La Familia was not forthcoming what was revealed by Cardenas Palomino was the fact that the arrest of of Lopez Villanueva may well be a signature of the irreversible end of a criminal enterprise in Calderon's very home state.

As a practical matter, Cardenas Palomino said that only a few leaders are left to be arrested by Policia Federal. For example, its founder, and its main leader, Servando Gomez Martínez, alias La Tuta, is still at large.

Even so, the arrest of Lopez Villanueva is a significant break within the structure of the criminal organization that Cardenas Palomina called disjointed.

Elements of La Familia were having a hard time meeting payroll. López Villanueva was dangerous not just because of his alleged ties to Los Zetas and to Miguel Angel Treviño Morales alias Z40, a top Los Zetas operative who controls drug trade crossings in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas,. He also headed a group of 12 to 15 heavily armed associates which were used by Gomez Martinez as an enforcement arm of the cartel.

Lopez Villanueva allegedly also used the group for its other criminal enterprises in extortion and kidnapping.

According to information at the Policia Federal website, Lopez Villanueva's armed group was involving itself in crimes with the aim of paying its members, to include auto theft and armed robbery. While armed robbery is a time honored method of fund raising for leftist groups in Latin American, it is clearly no way for a drug cartel to make payroll. This group's activities go a long way to explaining why La Familia is not only unable to carry out its threat of terrorism, but also explains why the cartel is probably nearing its end.

Politically, the dissolution of La Familia has implications for upcoming state gubernatorial elections in 2011 in Mexico state, Guerrero, Michoacan, Nayarit and Baja California Sur, all west coast states, all near Michoacan and two bordering Michoacan.

The Partido Revolucionario Institutional (PRI) having won a tremendous string of state government elections in 2010 under the leadership of Beatriz Parades, is facing the 2011 elections with a new untested leader in Coahuila governor Ruben Moreria. Additionally with the probable dissolution of La Familia, PRI must now face up to the embarrassment of attacking Calderon's anti drug cartel strategy. It is hard to think Calderon and Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) won't turn that criticism against PRI should La Familia break up.

The same applies to the Partido Revolucion Democratica (PRD), especially with PRD national president Jesse Ortega's charge two weeks ago that Calderon used uneven methods in applying his forces against cartels in states other than Michoacan. The charge is arguably true, but the problem Ortega has is Michoacan operations have clear positive results for Mexico and Calderon.

Calderon has to move carefully in Michoacan, however. Michoacan is a PRD state, and elsewhere PAN is planning a number of alliances with PRD in 2011 elections. Michoacan's governorship may well be a bargaining chip, potentially for both sides with this victory in his war on the cartels.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: badanov || 01/02/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hey, this is the same group that wanted to work with the government about a month ago. Bandanov you had mentioned they were the weakest. That they were under attack from rival groups that were much stronger. So you cut off the cash flow and your help go to the highest bidder. You are much more informed on this subject. I believe the government is made to look like they pulled this off alone.
Posted by: Dale || 01/02/2011 10:40 Comments || Top||

#2  A very nice analysis, Chris. Hopefully Guatemala will handle their end with dispatch, as an example to others, as the Mexican military continues hammering bad guys at home.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/02/2011 13:38 Comments || Top||

#3  What you read was a posting in the O-club.

La Familia is the weakest, and their offer to the federal government either morphed into leaving them alone from protect us, or I misinterpreted news reports. Looking back at the archives, I don't think I reported that, because if I didn't, I didn't regard it as either an actual message, or it was a misinterpretation.

Either way, La Familia wanted the federal government out of Michoacan and what it got was two Policia Federal operations that appears to have cut off the head of the drug cartel.

As for rival cartels, they poached (as in recruited) a former Los Zetas member years after La Familia convinced Los Zetas to attack another west coast cartel, in exchange for the right to use Michoacan highways to transport marijuana.

Understand the relationship: La Familia Michoacan convinced Los Zetas to attack Beltran-Leyva and Los Zetas were already at war with the Sinaloa group. That was two unnecessary wars they started, and a third with Los Zetas.

My thesis for saying in the post they were under the threat of attack was that the Sinaloa and Beltran-Leyva gangs were rearmed, reloading and preparing for war for the Tijuana crossing. That meant that inasmuch as some of Sinaloa's efforts would be concentrated in the north, they had other business to take care of, namely La Familia. As for west coast cartels La Familia was the largest after Sinaloa and Los Zetas, and my guess, to call it what it was, was that La Familia leadership was afraid of what would happen should either the Sinaloa or Beltran-Leyva group win in Tijuana.
Posted by: badanov || 01/02/2011 16:05 Comments || Top||

#4  Thanks, TW
Posted by: badanov || 01/02/2011 16:06 Comments || Top||

#5  Thank you Badanov. I jumped down the rabbit hole and saw a very complex intense organization. It will take some time to take it all in. Freefirezone-Digital Society. Well a person has got to start sometime because inquiring minds want to know. Well you get the idea.
Posted by: Dale || 01/02/2011 18:00 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraqi commander assassinated
[Al Jazeera] Assailants have killed Iraq's highest-ranking soldier in an attack in the country's capital.

An gang pulled up next to the car of Ihsan Sadek, a lieutenant-colonel, in eastern Storied Baghdad on Saturday and shot him using weapons equipped with silencers.

Sadek later died in hospital due to his injuries.

He had been the director of the Storied Baghdad Operations Centre, which oversees the city's checkpoints.

In a separate attack, a police commissioner was rubbed out in eastern Storied Baghdad on Saturday.

The deaths came three days after jacket wallahs attacked a police headquarters in the northern Iraqi city of djinn-infested Mosul, killing the commander and three other officers.

Assailants frequently target Iraq's security forces as US troops prepare to leave by the end of 2011.

These attacks are believed to be intended to undermine Iraqi law enforcement.
Posted by: Fred || 01/02/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq


Iraq attacks kill two policemen, mayor's wife
[Emirates 24/7] Storied Baghdad gunnies killed two coppers and a bomber killed a mayor's wife in northern Iraq on Saturday, security officials said.

Storied Baghdad police officer Lieutenant Colonel Ihssan Ali was shot twice in the head while driving his car near central Storied Baghdad, an interior ministry official said.

He said that another policeman driving a vehicle was killed by a gunman with a silencer in the Baladiyat district of Storied Baghdad.

In the city of Baquba north of Storied Baghdad, a bomb went kaboom! at dawn at the home of district mayor Karim Zuhair, wounding him and killing his 47-year-old wife as the couple slept, the city's security headquarters said.

Baquba is the capital of multi-ethnic and multi-faith Diyala province, which together with the provinces of Storied Baghdad and Nineveh in the north remain Iraq's most violent regions.

Political unrest has significantly declined since its peak in 2006-2007, but deadly attacks remain a part of daily life.

According to a preliminary report released on Thursday by the NGO Iraq Body Count, nearly 4,000 non-combatants were killed in 2010 in acts of violence in Iraq, the lowest annual count since the US-led invasion of 2003.
Posted by: Fred || 01/02/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq


Mortar shells fall close to two military camps east of Falluja
ANBAR / Aswat al-Iraq: Two Iraqi military camps have become target for two mortar shells east of Falluja, the largest city in west Iraq’s Anbar Province on Saturday, one of them felll on a police center east of the city, causing material damage only, a security source said.

“A mortar shell fell on Saturday morning on a headquarter of an emergency battalion in Garma village east of Falluja city, whilst another mortar shell fell on a police center in Albu-Jassim area, east of the city too,” he added.

He pointed out that the police had defined the position where the two shells were launched from, pointing out that the first attack had been the first of its kind over the last 7 months, an evidence that the terrorist groups have began to attack security bodies.

Falluja, 60 kms to the west Ramadi, the center of Anbar Province, 110 kms to the west of Baghdad.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/02/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Officer assassinated in Central Baghdad
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: An officer of Baghdad's Rusafa Police has been killed with his driver by a group of unknown gunmen, using silencer guns in central Baghdad on Saturday, according to a security source.

"A group of armed men, using silencer guns, have killed Colonel Ihsan Ali from Baghdad's Rusafa Police and his driver on Mohammed al-Qassim highway, close to the Iraqi Finance Ministry in central Baghdad," he told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, giving no further details.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/02/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israeli warplanes hit Gaza Strip
Israeli warplanes made two air strikes in the Gaza Strip early Sunday in which two Palestinians were wounded.

The first strike targeted a training area in Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza which belongs to the Al-Qassam Brigades. One Palestinian was wounded in this attack and heavy damage was done to the training camp and the surrounding area.

In the second attack, Israeli jets fired missiles at an open area west of the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. Israel said the strikes targeted a Hamas terror center in northern Gaza and a facility for manufacturing weapons in central Gaza.

The strikes came in response to a homemade rocket fired toward Sha'ar Hanegev on Saturday.
Posted by: ryuge || 01/02/2011 13:55 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Israel hits Gaza: international community condemns aggression, urges restraint
Hamas fires rockets into Israel: * crickets *
Posted by: CincinnatusChili || 01/02/2011 14:16 Comments || Top||


Israeli troops use bullet to stop deaf Palestinian approaching with bottle in hand.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/02/2011 08:04 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Looong barrel for a checkpoint.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/02/2011 10:00 Comments || Top||

#2  There's nothing in the article about the man being deaf. Is the link to the right article - or has the article been changed?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/02/2011 10:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Hi all!. What a way to start off the new year with my favorite picture of McSwine. Well CF you are correct,no mention of the fellow being deaf. Sounds like a touch up job.
Posted by: Dale || 01/02/2011 10:31 Comments || Top||

#4  Maybe if his culture didn't commit homocide bombings in using the same MO this guy would have been spared. This one is on the paelos - not the Israelis.
Posted by: Hellfish || 01/02/2011 13:02 Comments || Top||


Byzantine Plots on the West Bank #3: PA Arrests Sr. Dahlan Aide
Further murkiness: Is there really a plot, or has de facto PA President Abbas become overly paranoid at his advanced age? Is America behind it all, or only Arafat's Disease? Or is it just that the Abbas phenome must not be mocked?
01/01/2011: Sources say Mu'taz Khdeir, who has been working with former Fatah security commander for past few years, arrested for "security reasons."

The arrest is part of a massive crackdown on Dahlan loyalists in the West Bank. Dozens of Palestinians suspected of being affiliated with Dahlan have been arrested by PA security forces in recent weeks.

Palestinians said that the Dahlan affair marked the biggest challenge to Abbas's authority since Hamas drove the PA out of the Gaza Strip in 2007.

Khdeir is the most senior Dahlan aide to be arrested by the PA. His arrest came as Dahlan, who has been in Egypt in the past few weeks, was scheduled to return to Ramallah to answer questions by a commission of inquiry.

"This is a very serious case," a PA official in Ramallah said on Saturday. "Dahlan apparently tried to form an armed militia in the West Bank with the goal of staging a coup against President Abbas."

The official claimed that Dahlan was also suspected of trying to establish a "new political leadership" in the West Bank. According to the official, Dahlan succeeded in recent months to win the backing of a number of top Fatah officials.

"Dahlan is not alone," the official said. "We know that others members of the Fatah Central Committee have joined forces with him to undermine the Palestinian Authority. We believe that they received a lot of money from outside sources."

Another PA official told The Jerusalem Post that Dahlan's alleged scheme envisaged the establishment of a new Palestinian Authority. "Dahlan tried to form an alternative government, apparently with the backing of some Americans and Europeans," the official charged. "We are determined to destroy Dahlan's empire in the West Bank."

One of Dahlan's aides told the Post that the dispute began when someone reported to Abbas that Dahlan had been bad-mouthing him and his sons. Dahlan was apparently secretly recorded as telling Fatah supporters in Jenin that all what Abbas cared about were the businesses of his sons, Yasser and Tareq.

"Abbas travels around the world to seek new opportunities for the businesses of his sons," Dahlan was reportedly quoted as saying in the meeting.

In another meeting with Fatah supporters, Dahlan is believed to have mocked at Abbas, saying he was unfit to lead the Palestinian people. Dahlan is also believed to have boasted: "I'm the one who made Mahmoud Abbas. Without me he would have never been president."

Dahlan served as Security Minister in the government that was headed by Abbas in 2003 and the two men were considered for some time close allies.

Last week the Fatah Central Committee decided to suspend Dahlan's membership and remove him from his post as the faction's "Minister of Information." Earlier, the PA decided to remove policemen who had been assigned to guard Dahlan's private residence in Ramallah.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/02/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Byzantine Plots on the West Bank #1: Fatah launches investigation into Mohammed Dahlan
In which our murky tale begins.
12/28/2010: PA security forces arrest scores of Dahlan loyalists in West Bank; government institutions instructed not to cooperate with him.

The Fatah Central Committee on Tuesday suspended the membership of Muhammad Dahlan, a former security commander in the Gaza Strip.

The decision followed allegations that Dahlan plotted to overthrow Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Dahlan founded and headed the PA's Preventive Security Service in the Gaza Strip after the signing of the Oslo Accords.

The Fatah Central Committee, during a meeting in Ramallah, decided Dahlan could no longer attend committee meetings. The committee also decided to remove Dahlan from Fatah's Information and Culture Commission. The committee, which met under the chairmanship of Abbas, announced that Nabil Abu Rudaineh, long-time spokesman of the PA presidency, would become Fatah's chief spokesman.

Dahlan, 49, has been mentioned as a potential successor to Abbas, 75.
Probably not anymore...
The new measures against Dahlan came after Abbas appointed a commission of inquiry to look into allegations that the former security chief had planned to topple the PA president.

The commission, headed by Abu Maher Ghnaim, a senior Fatah official living in Jordan, has also launched an investigation into the sources of Dahlan's personal fortune. Before the Oslo Accords, Muhammad Dahlan did not have any money," a Fatah official in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post. "Today, he's considered one of the wealthiest Palestinians."

In recent weeks, the PA security forces arrested scores of Dahlan loyalists in various parts of the West Bank. They also closed down a TV station in Ramallah that he owned.

Last month, the PA security forces stopped guarding Dahlan's private residence in Ramallah and government institutions were instructed not to cooperate with him or any of his aides.

A source close to Abbas said that Dahlan had tried in recent years to establish "bases of power" in the West Bank by supplying many Fatah members with money and weapons. Dahlan also tried to "bribe" a large number of security officers in the West Bank, prompting Abbas to remove many of them from their posts, the source added.

Raids on the homes of many Dahlan loyalists in the West Bank led to the seizure of large caches of weapons, another source in Ramallah told the Post. "We have good reason to believe that Dahlan was preparing for a coup [against the PA president]."

Dahlan has denied the charges against him, arguing that he was the victim of a smear campaign launched by top Fatah officials closely associated with Abbas.

A source close to Dahlan said that the dispute between him and Abbas had been "blown out of proportion."

The source said that Abbas turned against Dahlan after being told that the former security commander had been bad-mouthing his sons. Dahlan, according to the source, accused Abbas's sons of exploiting their father's position to accumulate a fortune. The sons, Tareq and Yasser, are wealthy businessmen.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/02/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Byzantine Plots on the West Bank #2: Dahlan returning to West Bank to answer coup charges
Our murky tale continues. Did he do it? Why would he suddenly do such a thing, instead of remaining comfortably ensconced in the bosom of his adoring family?
12/29/2010

Former Fatah security commander Muhammad Dahlan announced on Wednesday he plans to return to the West Bank this week to answer allegations that he plotted a coup against the Palestinian Authority leadership.

Dahlan's announcement came one day after the Fatah Central Committee, in an unprecedented move, voted unanimously to suspend his membership in the committee pending the end of the inquiry.

The decision means that Dahlan, who is currently residing in Cairo, will not be able to attend meetings of the Fatah committee.

He said he had reservations about the way the committee chose to publish its measures against him, and that he was prepared to answer all questions presented to him by members of the inquiry commission.

Dahlan said that to date, the Fatah Central Committee had not notified him of the measures against him.

He added that it was "inappropriate" for Fatah to discuss its internal affairs in the media.

He also hinted that the dispute between him and Abbas was personal.

"Some in Fatah have been trying for the past two months to make this look as if it's a political crisis related to the divisions [with Hamas] and the conflict with the Israeli government," he said without elaborating.

Dahlan said he did not want to be responsible for weakening Fatah and therefore agreed to cooperate with the first commission of inquiry Abbas had established to look into the charges against him.

"I went to the first commission of inquiry and answered all their questions," he said. "But President Mahmoud Abbas did not like the findings of that commission and decided to establish a new one."

Dahlan, who founded and headed the PA's Preventive Security Force in the Gaza Strip after the signing of the Oslo Accords, strongly denied allegations that he and his supporters had been stockpiling weapons and ammunition in preparation for toppling the PA leadership in the West Bank.

"These false claims and fabrications are aimed at defaming Fatah," Dahlan said. "I only have a few guards and light weapons.

The guards were taken away before the commission of inquiry began its work."
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/02/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


Southeast Asia
Two bomb squad officers killed in southern Thailand
More New Year's carnage from the R.O.P. Welcome to 2011.
Two bomb-squad officers were killed when terrorists insurgents blew up a homemade bomb in Narathiwat province, local news media reported on Saturday.

The bombing occurred on a road in a business area at 7:45 a.m. on Saturday. The two bomb-squad policemen rushed to the scene along with other security personnel after a local man alerted police that a teenager left a suspicious object in front of a shop.

While the two bomb-squad officers were checking it out, the bomb was detonated by a mobile phone. Police blamed separatist terrorists militants.
Nine other people were injured in this incident.
Also, three rangers were injured when terrorists insurgents blew up a homemade bomb in an ambush on New Year Eve in Songkhla province.

The explosion occurred at 9:00 p.m. on Friday near a noodle stand.

The rangers were on their way to check out some rubber tires that had been set on fire when the bomb exploded.
Posted by: ryuge || 01/02/2011 10:58 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:



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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2011-01-02
  Clashes follow Egypt church bombing
Sat 2011-01-01
  Islamic New Years Greetings to Copts in Egypt, 21 dead
Fri 2010-12-31
  US missiles kill 8 in northwest Pakistan
Thu 2010-12-30
  Cartel threatens Guatemala with 'war'
Wed 2010-12-29
  Denmark Arrests 5 Suspected of Planning Terror Attack
Tue 2010-12-28
  15 More Drone-zapped in North Wazoo
Mon 2010-12-27
  Pakistan drone attack 'kills 18 militants'
Sun 2010-12-26
  Burqa-clad suicide bomber kills 42 in Bajaur Agency
Sat 2010-12-25
  Pakistan suicide bombing kills dozens at food aid center
Fri 2010-12-24
  Iraq arrests 93 al-Qaeda suspects
Thu 2010-12-23
  Clashes between Houthis and Tribesmen in Sa'ada Province
Wed 2010-12-22
  Kenya bus explosion kills 3, injures 30
Tue 2010-12-21
  Adam Gadahn jugged in Karachi?
Mon 2010-12-20
  Police arrest 12 people 'plotting Christmas terror attack'
Sun 2010-12-19
  Iraq: 6 dead, 12 wounded during Ashuraa pilgrimage


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