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Today: 56 articles and 175 comments as of 14:31.
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Area: WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
Michigan Woman Dies In Syria, Fighting For Rebels
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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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 || 05/31/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Birthday Gam Shot

Sarah Murdoch [From the Land Down Under][Filmography](age 41)



Sturdy Design


Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 05/31/2013 1:06 Comments || Top||

#2  She's HAWT...
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/31/2013 9:26 Comments || Top||

#3  Land Down Under: The last lusty bastion of western civilization. She has a fine appearance and represents the Land Down Under well.
Posted by: Glomomp Mussolini7857 || 05/31/2013 12:13 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Tribal clashes kill 64 in Sudan's Darfur: police
[Al Ahram] Renewed fighting between two rival Arab tribes in Sudan's Darfur region over access to pasture has killed 64 people, police said in a statement late on Wednesday.

Dozens more were maimed in the fighting between the Beni Halba and Gemir tribes, South Darfur police said.

Abkar Altom of the Gemir said: "It's the fifth attack on our tribe by the Beni Halba since March." He said the attacks had killed 94 of his fellow rustics and seen 1,200 homes burned.

But a leader of the rival tribe said: "The Beni Halba are only defending their land." As drought has wracked the region, disputes between rival tribes over access to water and pasture have multiplied.

In April, the United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
said 50,000 people from southwestern Darfur had fled to neighbouring Chad because of fighting between two other feuding Arab tribes -- the Misseriya and the Salamat.

The United Nations estimates that in Darfur as a whole 300,000 people have fled fighting in the first five months of this year, more than the total number of people displaced in the past two years.

A total of 1.4 million people were already living in camps in Darfur after fleeing their homes during an uprising that broke out among the region's ethnic minorities against the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum in 2003.

While the worst of the violence has long passed, rebel-government battles continue, along with fighting between rival rebel factions, tribal disputes, kidnappings and carjackings.
Posted by: Fred || 05/31/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan


Africa Subsaharan
Nigeria Claims Discovery of Hizbullah Cell
[An Nahar] Nigeria's security services said Thursday they had discovered a home in the northern city of Kano where Lebanese nationals had stored weapons intended to attack Israeli and Western targets in Nigeria.

The Kano state director for Nigeria's main intelligence branch, the Department of State Security (DSS), told journalists the compound's owner had ties to Hizbullah and that the home had harbored a Hizbullah "cell".

But the official, Bassey Etang, offered no evidence to support this claim.

Journalists were brought to the home in the upmarket Bompai neighborhood of Kano and taken to a bunker dug beneath a bedroom where weapons had allegedly been stored.

The stash included some 30 grenades, Kalashnikov assault rifles, ammunition and various kabooms.
Bloomberg reports "14 AK-47 rifles, 11,000 rounds of ammunitions and scores of explosive devices."
Etang, the director of the DSS in Kano, said three Lebanese nationals had been locked away
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
in connection with the illegal arms cache, while a fourth suspect was on the lam.

"This is the handiwork of Hizbullah. What has just been discovered is the cell of Hizbullah and what you have seen here is a Hizbullah armory," Etang told news hounds.

"These weapons are meant to be used to target Israeli and Western interests in Nigeria."

Nigeria is confronting an insurgency waged by radical Islamist group Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
that has left thousands dead since 2009.

"Investigations are still ongoing to determine" if the Lebanese nationals "are really connected to Boko Haram," the intelligence chief said.

Analysts see Boko Haram primarily as a domestic group that has possibly sought closer ties to al-Qaeda's west Africa franchise.

The military statement said that one suspect, Mustafa Fawaz, was arrested on May 16, and his "confession unveiled other members of the foreign hard boyz network."

A second suspect, Abdullah Tahini, was arrested several days later while trying to board a flight to Beirut from the Kano airport, according to the military.

The third enjugged
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
Lebanese national, Talal Roda, was arrested at the Kano home on May 26 while Fauzi Fawad was identified as the suspect who is at-large.

Mustafa Fawaz, reportedly owns a leading supermarket as well as an amusement park in the capital Abuja called Wonderland.

An employee who answered a call to a number listed for Wonderland told AFP that Fawaz had not been in the office this week.

Nigeria is home to a sizeable Lebanese population, including in the mainly Moslem north.

In February, the DSS said it had discovered a bad boy cell receiving instructions from Iranian agents that had sought to attack Israeli and Western targets in Nigeria.

DSS National front man Marilyn Ogar said at the time the group also planned to assassinate Nigeria's former military ruler Ibrahim Babangida.

Reacting to the latest claims, a security official in Israel said Nigeria was a "destination state for Shiite terror and global Jihad groups, which are boosting their efforts in Africa as part of international terror efforts."

"The cell exposed and arrested is part of a Shiite terror campaign against Western and Israeli targets around the world which has been taking place for a number of years," the official said.

"The possibility that members of the cell acted under Hizbullah's orders in other African states, such as Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Benin and Ghana is also being examined," he added on condition of anonymity.
Posted by: Fred || 05/31/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah

#1  I keep saying it, but no one's listening: a little napalm would put an end to this. Muslims are absolutely terrified of being consumed by fire. It kills their chances of being transported to Paradise. I personally can't understand that: they have zero chance to begin with, how could it get lower?
Posted by: Old Patriot || 05/31/2013 16:40 Comments || Top||


Europe
'Karachi Affair' Suspect Detained in France for 'Escape Bid'
[An Nahar] Police on Thursday nabbed
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
a Franco-Lebanese businessman who is being probed in a high-profile political financing scandal over suspicions he was trying to flee La Belle France, a source close to the case said.

Ziad Takieddine, who is banned from leaving La Belle France as investigations into the so-called Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
affair go on, allegedly paid 200,000 euros ($260,000) for a diplomatic passport from the Dominican Republic, the source said.

The businessman is embroiled in several scandals in La Belle France, some of which allegedly involve former President Nicolas Sarkozy
...23rd President of the French Republic. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit...
and other high-profile politicians.

He has claimed he has proof Sarkozy received illicit funding from Libya's ex-dictator Moamer Qadaffy for his successful 2007 presidential campaign, and an official probe into the allegation has been opened.

Takieddine is also being investigated for suspected money laundering after he was detained with 1.5 million euros in cash on a private flight out of Libya in March 2011, French judicial sources said late last year.

And he has been charged with corruption in a case centred on commissions he allegedly received in 1994 arms deals that could have been used illegally in ex-prime minister Edouard Balladur's presidential campaign the next year.

The so-called Karachi affair has also embroiled Sarkozy, who was Balladur's campaign front man and budget minister at the time.

Dominique Penin, one of Takieddine's lawyers, refused to comment when contacted by Agence La Belle France Presse.

This article starring:
Ziad Takieddine
Posted by: Fred || 05/31/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


The Grand Turk
Turkey Arrests Syrian Nusra Front Militants
[Jpost] Turkish authorities have tossed in the clink
Please don't kill me!
a group of Syria's al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front hard boyz who allegedly had been planning an attack inside Turkey and were in possession of the nerve agent sarin, local media reported on Thursday.

While they could not be immediately confirmed, the reports highlight the growing concerns that Syria's civil war is dragging in neighboring states.
So let the Turks handle it. They have a NATO-trained military. They may not be the absolute best but I'll wager they can handle the mighty Syrian army...
In the worst example of the spillover into Turkey, 52 people were killed when twin boom-mobiles destroyed the border town of Reyhanli on May 11. Turkey has accused Syria of involvement in the attacks, but Damascus has denied any role.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/31/2013 06:43 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra

#1  I'll wager they can handle the mighty Syrian army...

The question is whether the Turks are willing to take on the al-Nusra Front.
Posted by: Pappy || 05/31/2013 12:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Point taken, but they'll be swinging number 7 truncheons if they do...
Posted by: Steve White || 05/31/2013 19:45 Comments || Top||

#3  I'll wager they can handle the mighty Syrian army...

Given how many senior officers are sitting in Turkish jails, is that still a sure thing?
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/31/2013 21:23 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Iranian-American Gets 25 Years Prison in Saudi Plot
[An Nahar] Iranian-American citizen Manssor Arbabsiar was sentenced Thursday to the maximum 25 years prison by a U.S. judge who said his role in a bizarre plot against the Saudi ambassador to Washington could not be "tolerated."

Arbabsiar, 58, pleaded guilty last October to conspiring with Iranian military elements to hire assassins from the Mexican drug mafia to kill the Saudi envoy.

New York federal Judge John Keenan told the court that Arbabsiar "fully realized his act. He must learn the lesson."

"That cannot be tolerated," Keenan said of the plot.

Defense lawyers argued that Arbabsiar was not fully responsible because he suffered from bipolar disorder, but Keenan said he'd been found competent and he dismissed lawyers' request for a sentence of just 10 years.

Arbabsiar, wearing a blue prison outfit, read from a prepared statement in a quiet voice, saying: "What I did wrong I take responsibility. I can't change it. I never hurt anyone. My mind is sometimes not in a good place."

"I know you have to punish me for the things I did wrong," he added.

Top New York federal prosecutor Preet Bharara welcomed the result.

"Manssor Arbabsiar was an enemy among us -- the key conduit for, and controller of, a nefarious international plot concocted by members of the Iranian military to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to the United States and as many innocent bystanders as necessary to get the job done," he said in a statement.

The plot, if carried out, would have caused "unspeakable harm," Bharara said.

Arbabsiar was tossed in the clink
You have the right to remain silent...
in September 2011 at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, leading to a major legal and diplomatic drama between Washington and Tehran, amid already tense relations.

He was charged along with co-defendant Gholam Shakuri, a senior member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's elite Quds Force, who is on the lam.

Iran strongly denied
No, no! Certainly not!
any involvement in what the United States said was a plot originating with the Quds Force, Iran's covert external action unit, to kill the ambassador by hiring assassins from a Mexican narco mob for $1.5 million.

To set up the alleged hit, Arbabsiar allegedly arranged for $100,000 to be wired to the United States as a down payment, the indictment said.

Arbabsiar's lawyer, Sabrina Shroff, urged leniency, telling the court that he had never been in trouble before, "was a good father and a very good son."

However,
death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate...
prosecutor Glenn Kopp said Arbabsiar could not escape justice.

"He worked for over six months to assassinate a foreign ambassador on American soil," he said.

This article starring:
Manssor Arbabsiar
Posted by: Fred || 05/31/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  conspiring with Iranian military elements to hire assassins from the Mexican drug mafia to kill the Saudi envoy.

Very Kennedyesque
not fully responsible because he suffered from bipolar disorder
Can it be a disorder if it is culturalized?
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/31/2013 8:48 Comments || Top||

#2  A side note: Many Iranians who fled when Khomeini came to power settled in the Los Angeles area. It was far enough away from Iran; the exiles stayed low-key and have prospered.

If there is an Iranian-Mexican connection, one has to wonder if if L.A. is going to be a hot-spot for assassinations in the future.
Posted by: Pappy || 05/31/2013 12:12 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Landmine blast kills child, injures five in Dera Bugti
[BETA.DAWN] A child was killed and another five injured in a landmine kaboom in Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
's troubled Dera Bugti district on Thursday, an official said.

Abdul Hameed, a levies official told Dawn.com that a child was killed and five people including four children were maimed in a landmine kaboom in Loti area of Dera Bugti district.

"All victims belong to one family," said Hameed, adding the head of the family and his five children were maimed in the landmine blast. He said one of the children, who suffered serious wounds, succumbed to injuries on way to hospital.

The ill-fated family was going in a vehicle when it (vehicle) hit a landmine on the road side, said the levies official. The vehicle was also damaged in the blast.

Levies and frontier corps personnel reached the spot and started investigation into the incident, he added.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Landmine kabooms have claimed scores of lives of both civilians and security officials in the area.
Posted by: Fred || 05/31/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Woman suffers gunshot wounds in Karachi's Orangi Town
[Dawn] A woman sustained gunshot injuries near Iqbal Market area in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
's Orangi town on Thursday, police officials told Dawn.com.

Initially police officials had claimed that the injured woman was the principal of Al-Khayyam School in the locality.

Head Moharir of Iqbal Market cop shoppe, Safdar, said that the 35-year-old-woman, Rehana Rehman, was busy with household chores inside her residence when she got hit on her ankle by a stray bullet that pierced through the door of her house, adding that the only link between the lady and the Al-Khayyam school is that "her residence was situated opposite the school premises."

A resident of Iqbal Market in Chishti Nagar, Rehana's husband, Atta ur Rehman, is an Imam and works at Karachi Port Trust.

The police said that no eye-witness from the area had come forward adding that the incident was still being probed.
Posted by: Fred || 05/31/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Worker hurt as polio team pelted with stones
[Dawn] A woman health worker was injured when a polio
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
vaccination team was pelted with stones by local people in Thall tehsil of Hangu on Wednesday.

The incident occurred when polio team was visiting houses for vaccinating children.

People of Darwesh Nadan Baba first stopped the team from vaccination and then started pelting stones on it. As a result a worker, Zohra Khatoon, was injured. She was taken to hospital. Thall police said they registered case against nine people.

STABBED TO DEATH: A man was allegedly stabbed to death in Jarma area on Wednesday.

Shah Wali told the local police that his son, Zubair, was attacked with a dagger when he was going to fields. He nominated Saeed in the murder of his son. The police said they started making efforts to arrest the accused after registering case against him.

In another incident, an Afghan national was rubbed out by two men in cantonment area. The victim was identified as Ghulam Dastagair.

The accused Aslam and Nekey, residents of Afghan refugee camp number two, escaped the area. The cantonment police after registering
case started raids to arrest them.

Meanwhile,
...back at the wine tasting, Vince was about to start tasting his third quart...
the police on Wednesday seized eight vehicles load with cattle which were on way to Afghanistan without valid permits. The
police also placed in durance vile
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
the drivers of the vehicles.

The trucks had come from Punjab side. The police recovered 165 cattle heads from the trucks and impounded the vehicles.

STUDENTS CLASH: Seven students were maimed in a clash between two student groups of Kohat University of Science and Technology on Wednesday.

The fighting started between the members of Wazoo students' organization and Kohat students organization over shortage of chairs at a shop on the campus.

However,
corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds...
the matter was later resolved by the university administration.
Posted by: Fred || 05/31/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  in the 3rd world, never get in a rock fight.
Posted by: 746 || 05/31/2013 13:10 Comments || Top||

#2  When I read events like this, I stop and say, "Such an enlightened culture the Muslims". Don't you agree ?
Posted by: Harcourt Sinatra4379 || 05/31/2013 14:10 Comments || Top||

#3  Opponents of polio vaccination should be calling the Coast to Coast radio show instead of throwing rocks.
Posted by: Pappy || 05/31/2013 14:36 Comments || Top||


Another unit chief of MQM shot dead
[Dawn] Another unit chief of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement
...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead...
was bumped off in the city on Wednesday, police said.

They added that the 35-year-old activist, Sarfraz Ahmed, in Nazimabad No 6 was going to drop his child to a private school when he was rubbed out near a bus terminal.

The police said the attackers riding a cycle of violence sped away after the killing.

An official at the Nazimabad cop shoppe said that Sarfraz, father of three, sustained three gunshot wounds and was rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where doctors pronounced him dead
He's dead, Jim!
on arrival.

"The victim was MQM's unit in charge," said the Nazimabad SHO.

He added that the killers used 9mm pistol.

Following the killing, tension spread in Nazimabad with immediate closure of shops.

Two Rangers men attacked

Two Rangers personnel were shot at and maimed in the Pirabad area, police said.

Mohammad Saleem and Mohammad Fayaz were patrolling the area near Kunwari Colony on a cycle of violence when armed motorcyclists fired at them and fled, said the Pirabad SHO.

He said their condition was out of danger.

The incident prompted the Rangers to launch an 'operation' in the area during which some suspects were taken into custody, the police said.

Watchman killed

A factory watchman was rubbed out in Awami Colony, police said.

It seemed that the attackers were familiar with Mujeed Gul, 65, as they talked to him before killing him in Bengali Market.

The victim hailed from Orakzai Agency
... crawling with holy men, home to Darra Adam Khel, the world's largest illegal arms bazaar. 14 distinct tribes of beturbanned primitives inhabit Orakzai agency's 1500 or so square kilometers...
, the police said.

They quoted his relative, Charagh Gul, as saying that the murder might be the result of personal enmity.

Man bumped off

A man was rubbed out in the Sukhan area, the police said.

Niaz Mohammad, 65, had come from Batagram to meet his brother, Laiq Khan, in Lalabad where gunnies killed him outside his home, the police added.

The Sukhan SHO attributed the murder to personal enmity.
Posted by: Fred || 05/31/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Baghdad bombs kill 20 25 30 3550 in Sunni-Shi'te bloodletting
[REUTERS] A series of bombs battered Shi'ite and Sunni Musselmen neighborhoods across Storied Baghdad
...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
on Thursday, killing at least 25 people in the worst wave of sectarian violence since civil war five years ago.

The bloodletting reflects increasing conflict between Iraq's majority Shi'ite leadership and the Sunni minority, many of whom feel unfairly marginalized since the 2003 fall of strongman Saddam Hussein, a Sunni.

The latest surge in violence began in April when Iraqi forces raided a Sunni protest camp in the northern town of Hawija, angering Sunni leaders and triggering festivities that spread across the country.

Civil war in Syria between Sunni rebels and Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
The Scourge of Hama...
, whose Alawite sect derives from Shi'ite Islam, has aggravated the strife in Iraq. Sunni and Shi'ite Iraqis have been crossing the border to fight on opposing sides in Syria.

No group grabbed credit for Thursday's attacks, but Sunni Islamist snuffies and al Qaeda's Iraqi wing have increased their operations since the beginning of the year as part of a campaign to exacerbate inter-communal tensions.
Posted by: Fred || 05/31/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq

#1  Ahh, a generic check box. I see what you did there!
Posted by: Newc || 05/31/2013 0:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Yep, I thought Dave D. might be back in town when I saw the headline, he of mighty metering fame.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/31/2013 4:25 Comments || Top||

#3  No one told me there was going to be a quiz!
Posted by: Pappy || 05/31/2013 12:13 Comments || Top||

#4  I just checked all of them.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/31/2013 12:44 Comments || Top||


Evening bomb blasts kill 30 in Baghdad
Bomb blasts tore through two Baghdad neighborhoods Wednesday evening, killing at least 30 people including several members of a wedding party, and extending a relentless wave of bloodshed roiling Iraq.

WednesdayÂ’s deadliest attack struck a commercial street in the mixed Sunni-Shia Jihad neighborhood, killing 18 and wounding 42, police said. Many of those slain were in a wedding party that was passing by when the blast went off, according to authorities.

The southwestern neighborhood was one of the earliest flashpoints in BaghdadÂ’s descent into sectarian bloodshed in the years following the 2003 US led invasion. It housed mainly Sunni civil servants and security officials under Saddam HusseinÂ’s regime, though many Shias now live there too.

Many of JihadÂ’s Sunni residents earlier this year received threatening leaflets from a Shia militant group warning them to leave. The group, the Mukhtar Army, is not known to have carried out car bombings in the past.

Another 12 people were killed and 31 were wounded when a roadside bomb and then a car bomb exploded near a market, killing 10 people and wounding 25, police said. Hospital officials confirmed the casualties. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/31/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Southeast Asia
Terrorist who killed police chief slain in southern Thailand
A suspected terrorist insurgent accused of killing former district police chief Pol Gen Sompian Eksomya three years ago was slain in a gunfight with security forces in Bannang Sata yesterday.

Two suspected terrorists rebels were killed in the clash as police and rangers raided their hideout yesterday morning. One of them was Yukeebuelee Jehdeemae, also wanted on other security-related charges.

Authorities said he was the bomber who planted the explosive device that killed Pol Gen Sompian, who was chief of Bannang Sata police station at the time, on March 12, 2010.

A unit of police and military rangers yesterday raided a house following a tip-off that armed terrorists militants were hiding inside. The two suspects shot at authorities as they tried to escape. After the clash, Yukeebuelee's body was found near a kubo (a Muslim cemetery). The body of another terror rebel suspect Reedawal Laeha, was also found in a ditch nearby.
Posted by: ryuge || 05/31/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Thai Insurgency


Sri Lanka
Manhunt for escaped Tamil Tiger prisoner
COLOMBO - The Sri Lankan police are on the hunt for a Tamil Tiger prisoner who escaped last Sunday. Balasubramaniam Jadisan, alias Wardhan, together with four other prisoners, gave jailers the slip early morning while working in the Wesak Zone at Matara, organised by the Prisons and Rehabilitation Ministry.

According to a prisons official, Jadisan had won over the hearts of prison officials with his impeccable conduct and engaging ways and was among the 100 prisoners picked to work in the celebratory grounds of the Buddhist Wesak festival in Southern Sri Lanka.

Having served one year out of his five-year sentence, Jadisan was convicted for engaging in terrorist activities after the end of the war with the Tamil Tigers in 2009.

The police said that teams from the police, army and the prisons department have been deployed to apprehend the escaped convicts. The public has been asked to alert the Terrorist Investigation Division regarding any information on the suspect.

Sri Lankan prisons have a history of jailbreaks by Tamil Tiger cadres before and after the war.

Last month a Tamil Tiger member, who was imprisoned for killing 10 people, escaped through a toilet in the Pottuvil court in Jaffna where he was taken from prison for a hearing. A few years ago, three Tamil Tiger rebels broke out of the Anuradhapura prison.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/31/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Michigan Woman Dies In Syria, Fighting For Rebels
Follow-up to our earlier post today.
[Jpost] American convert to Islam killed in Syria fighting

A 33-year-old Michigan woman and convert to Islam has been killed in Syria while fighting with opposition forces against the government of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Light of the Alawites...
in the country's civil war, her family said on Thursday.

The woman's aunt told Rooters that the FBI had informed her on Thursday afternoon of the death of her niece, Nicole Mansfield of Flint, but said she did not have the details of how she died.

"I'm just devastated," said the aunt, Monica Mansfield Speelman. "Evidently, she was fighting with opposition forces."

Speelman said Mansfield, a single mother of an 18-year-old daughter, had converted to Islam about five years ago but that she did not know when her niece had traveled to Syria.

"I didn't think she would stoop that low to go over there and try to harm anybody," Speelman said of her niece, who she said had worked at a group home.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/31/2013 09:45 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra

#1  She committed to Islam and you didn't think she'd hurt anyone? Why do you think she went into a warzone? Islam isn't known for its charity hospitals.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 05/31/2013 10:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Rob, perhaps she was a personal representative for the Widows Ammunition Fund. You know, just oversight to make sure the charity was performing as expected...
Posted by: Steve White || 05/31/2013 11:05 Comments || Top||

#3  So there was 9/11 and she converted to Islam?
Posted by: JFM || 05/31/2013 11:21 Comments || Top||

#4  Yeah? So?

Better there than here.
Posted by: mojo || 05/31/2013 12:13 Comments || Top||

#5  Mental illness is a prerequisite for converting to this vile cult.
Posted by: Glomomp Mussolini7857 || 05/31/2013 12:17 Comments || Top||

#6  I was at a pro ball game having a smoke when a couple whitebreads came up and asked a bum. After bs'n I left for the game and those cornflakes blurted ask tatonka salami (yes it was that bad, think jim carrey doing a jay-z impression).

They exist.

Its the converts which make the better warriors of iSlim - they have something to prove and haven't been dumbed by several centuries of inbreeding. Probably for the best; could have Rambo'd 400 bad guys and brought home assad's heart but would never have been pure enough for the fam.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/31/2013 12:32 Comments || Top||

#7  I'm looking for my femto-violin.

No, really, I am.

I did find my don't-give-a-shit violin, however ....
Posted by: Barbara || 05/31/2013 13:19 Comments || Top||

#8  Look at the bright side. She will meet up with 99 virgins, which is not possible in MI
Posted by: regular joe || 05/31/2013 13:20 Comments || Top||

#9  From AP --
Relatives of a 33-year-old Michigan woman killed in fighting in Syria say they didn't even know she was in the Middle East but that she always wanted to be a peacemaker.

Monica Mansfield-Speelman said Friday that her niece, Nicole Lynn Mansfield, became interested in the region after converting to Islam and marrying an Arab immigrant several years ago. The marriage ended but Mansfield-Speelman says Mansfield remained Muslim and visited Dubai about three years ago.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 05/31/2013 13:23 Comments || Top||

#10  "after converting to Islam and marrying an Arab immigrant several years ago. The marriage ended but Mansfield-Speelman says Mansfield remained Muslim and visited Dubai about three years ago"

Soooo, she died of stupidity?
Posted by: Barbara || 05/31/2013 13:29 Comments || Top||

#11  Sniper?
Posted by: Pappy || 05/31/2013 14:44 Comments || Top||

#12  Lay down with dogs....
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/31/2013 15:11 Comments || Top||

#13 
Relatives of a 33-year-old Michigan woman killed in fighting in Syria say they didn't even know she was in the Middle East but that she always wanted to be a peacemaker.


I wonder how many pieces she made...
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 05/31/2013 15:12 Comments || Top||

#14  She remained a muslim? Of course, my understanding is that leaving the RoP is not looked upon favorably by the ummah
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 05/31/2013 15:19 Comments || Top||

#15  More please....

Posted by: Uncle Phester || 05/31/2013 19:46 Comments || Top||

#16  According to thr Daily Mail

Nicole's father Gregory also revealed today that he told the FBI about his daughter several years ago when she left the U.S. and told them to take away her passport.

When asked why he thought his daughter going abroad was disturbing enough to warrant notifying the FBI, Gregory refused to explain and would only say his worries concerned 'Israel'.

'I just knew in my heart that something wasn't right. They need not let her go on that way. But my feelings and intuition was right,' he said.

'I know [the FBI] did follow up because they were following her for a while. But they needed to revoke her passport and this would not be going on.'
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/31/2013 21:48 Comments || Top||

#17  I am sympathetic to the families. But that's just one less islamo-scum that the West will have to end up taking out.
Posted by: anymouse || 05/31/2013 22:46 Comments || Top||


American woman killed in Syria
Syrian state-run television reported Thursday that forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad killed three Westerners, including an American woman and a British citizen, who it claims were fighting with the rebels and were found with weapons.

Syrian TV identified the woman, releasing what it claimed were images of her Michigan driver's license and U.S. passport. It also released what is said was the name and passport of a British citizen. It did not identify a third person who it claimed was a Westerner.

The report said the three were ambushed in their car in the flashpoint province of Idlib in northwestern Syria, where government forces have been battling rebels for control.
TV footage showed a bullet-riddled car and three bodies laid out. It also showed weapons, a computer, a hand-drawn map of a government military facility and a flag belonging to the al Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front.

The United States is aware of the claim that an American woman was killed and is working through the Czech Republic mission in Syria to obtain more information, [said] a State Department official. Citing privacy concerns, "we are unable to comment further," the official said.

A family member of the American woman told CNN on Thursday she was informed by the FBI about the death. The family member said the FBI did not provide any details about how the woman died.
Per Gateway Pundit, her name has been released: Nicole Lynn Mansfield of Michigan.
If the Syrian state TV report is true, it will not be the first time an American has been accused of fighting with rebel groups to overthrow al-Assad. In March, a former U.S. soldier was arrested and charged by the U.S. government with illegally using a weapon on behalf of the al-Nusra Front.

Eric Harroun, 30, of Phoenix, was arrested by the FBI after returning to the United States from Syria, where authorities allege he fought with the militant group. He was charged with the alleged use of a rocket-propelled grenade. The organization he allegedly fought with, al-Nusra Front, is linked to al Qaeda in Iraq. An FBI affidavit says Harroun crossed into Syria in January 2013 and fought against al-Assad's forces. He posted photos and videos of himself on the Internet handling RPGs and other weapons, it said.
This article starring:
Eric Harroun
Posted by: Steve White || 05/31/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  According to the Jerusalem Post,

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a British man that might have been fighting with the rebels was killed in Syria, the BBC reported on Friday.

The Observatory said the man was Muslim with a British passport, but that it could not verify the passport's authenticity.

The man was reportedly killed along with an American woman and another man.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/31/2013 9:46 Comments || Top||

#2  The family member said the FBI did not provide any details about how the woman died.

"Details"... not an FBI strong suit of late.



Posted by: Besoeker || 05/31/2013 9:54 Comments || Top||

#3  See, it was just a matter of time before assad started targeting Americans!

/interventionist snark I think
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/31/2013 12:47 Comments || Top||


Turkey returns fire after troops shot at from Syria
[Al Ahram] Turkish troops fired into Syria after one of its armoured vehicles patrolling the border came under fire from unidentified gunnies, the Turkish military said on Thursday.

The troops returned fire after three to five gunnies shot between 15 and 20 rounds at the vehicle patrolling a stretch of the shared border in Turkey's southern Hatay province on Wednesday afternoon, it said. There were no Turkish troop casualties.
Posted by: Fred || 05/31/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Syrian rebels plead for help as army bombards strategic Qusair
[Al Ahram] Syrian rebels pleaded for military and medical aid in the embattled border town of Qusair Thursday, saying they were unable to evacuate hundreds of maimed under an onslaught from government forces backed by Lebanese Hizbullah fighters.

Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...
launched an offensive to capture Qusair two weeks ago in what many see as a bid to cement hold on territory from the capital Damascus up to his Alawite community heartland on the Mediterranean coast.

"We have 700 people maimed in Qusair and 100 of them are being given oxygen. The town is surrounded and there's no way to bring in medical aid," said Malek Ammar, an opposition activist in the besieged town.

Rebels in Qusair sent out an appeal for support using social media outlets, saying the town near the Syrian-Lebanese border -- straddling supply lines critical to both sides in Syria's civil war -- could be devastated.

"If all rebel fronts do not move to stop this crime being led by Hizbullah and Assad's traitorous army of dogs ... we will soon be saying that there was once a city called Qusair," the statement said.

Syria's two-year-old conflict began as a peaceful protest movement but evolved into an armed insurrection after a violent security crackdown on demonstrators. More than 80,000 people have been killed and the violence is now stoking political and sectarian tensions in neighbouring countries.

Shia Moslem Hizbullah is believed to have committed hundreds of guerrilla fighters, many of them with battle experience from a 2006 war with Israel, to help its ally Al-Assad secure Qusair.

Fighters in Qusair said they were hearing at least 50 shells crashing every hour. Hizbullah and Syrian government forces appeared to be advancing more quickly after seizing nearby Dabaa Air Base Wednesday.

The Qusair fighting has intensified already simmering sectarian tensions. The rebels are mostly from Syria's Sunni Moslem majority, while minorities have largely backed Al-Assad, himself from the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam.

Rebel units from different parts of Syria have said for days that they have sent fighters to support the opposition in Qusair, but rebels inside say none have made it into the town.

YouTube videos published by several units suggest some brigades have arrived around the outskirts of Qusair, a town of 30,000, but not advanced further.

Ahmad Bakar, a doctor in a hospital near Qusair, posted on appeal on Facebook for rebels to rush to help.

"We need immediate intervention from outside battalions. I swear to God, no supplies have gotten through to us and we need a route to be opened to evacuate the maimed and civilians."

Thousands of civilians are believed to have fled Qusair before the offensive began. Al-Assad's forces distributed leaflets by plane saying they would be attacking the town.

Some activists estimate Qusair's civilian population was about 20,000 when the offensive began.

"What we need them to do is come to the outskirts of the city and attack the checkpoints so we can get routes in and out of the city. Most of Qusair is surrounded," said activist Ammar, speaking by Skype from the town.

Among those who have come to try to help Qusair are fighters from radical Sunni Islamist groups such as Ahrar Al-Sham and Jabhat Al-Nusra, which is linked to Al-Qaeda.

Sunni rebel groups have threatened to commit sectarian Dire Revenge™ massacres in Shia and Alawite towns both in Leb and Syria in retaliation for Hizbullah's participation in the Qusair attack. They see war-hardened Hizbullah as critical to Al-Assad's battlefield strength.
Posted by: Fred || 05/31/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Malek + Ahmad have a lot of Fer'ners to deal with ... ...

To wit,

* WAFF > HEZBOLLAH FIGHTERS [7000+] "INVADING" SYRIA: REBEL CHIEF.

* SAME > [Voice of Russia = Liveleak Video] UKRAINIAN COLONEL CALLS FOR VOLUNTEERS TO FIGHT IN SYRIA [for Assad].

* SAME > IRAN VOLUNTEERS SIGN UP TO FIGHT IN SYRIA.

Versus???

* SAME > [Conservative Videos] VIDEO: BELGIAN MUSLIMS: WE BELIEVE SHARIA [+ Islam] WILL DOMINATE WORLDWIDE.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/31/2013 1:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Whatever happened to "we love death"?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/31/2013 21:42 Comments || Top||

#3  That would be al Nusra.
Posted by: Pappy || 05/31/2013 22:04 Comments || Top||


Palestinian Refugees Burn Aid Provided by Hizbullah in Ain el-Hilweh
[An Nahar] A number of Paleostinian refugees who fled the war in Syria on Thursday set ablaze aid offered to them by Hizbullah in protest at the party's military intervention in the neighboring country, state-run-National News Agency reported.

The refugees at the Paleostinian Ein el-Hellhole camp in Sidon called on Hizbullah to withdraw its fighters from Syria and not to interfere in Syrian affairs, NNA said.

The military support of Hizbullah has helped Syrian regime forces gain the upper hand in the battle for control of Qusayr, a key town for both the regime and the hard boys, where a fierce army assault began 12 days ago.

Hizbullah chief His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...
had previously justified the group's involvement in Syria by saying they were defending Lebanese-inhabited border villages inside Syria and Shiite holy sites.

But the offensive on the mostly-Sunni town of Qusayr forced the movement to change its argument.

"Syria is the rear guard of the resistance (Hizbullah's fight with Israel), its backbone, and the resistance cannot stay with its arms folded when its rear guard is exposed," Nasrallah said on Saturday in a speech for the 13th anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from Leb.

Nasrallah stressed that Hizbullah will win the battle against the "United States, Israel and the Takfiri
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed...
s just like it emerged victorious in previous wars."

Hundreds of Paleostinian refugees have fled to Leb after fierce festivities at the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus.
Posted by: Fred || 05/31/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah


Bahraini Killed in Syria Fight, Govt Warns Citizens
[An Nahar] Bahrain has urged its citizens not to travel to Syria to fight alongside rebels ranged against government forces after a Bahraini youth was killed there in battle, local press reported Thursday.

"Supporting the right of the Syrian people to self defense should be done through the efforts of the international community... in a way that benefits our Syrian brothers," said interior minister Rashid bin Abdullah al-Khalifa, according to press reports.

He warned against "being misled by violent and bad turban groups."

The regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...
claims that thousands of foreign Islamist bully boyz have infiltrated into Syria joining the ranks of the rebels.

Bahraini Sunni holy man Adel al-Hamad had announced in a video posted recently online that his 19-year-old son, Abdulrahman, was killed while fighting in Syria.

He said his son "hoped to fall as a martyr," but he did not specify when or where in Syria he died.

"He visited Syria once, then he returned to Bahrain where he prepared for his fighting gear and returned to Syria," added Hamad, who uses his sermons to mobilize for jihad, holy war, against the Damascus regime.

He has previously called on Bahrainis to use the summer break to join the fight in Syria.

Abdulrahman Hamad is the first Bahraini to be pronounced killed in Syria.

Damascus accuses Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
and Qatar of funding Islamist fighters in Syria, where groups like Al-Nusra Front play a leading role in the battle against government troops.
Posted by: Fred || 05/31/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra



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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2013-05-31
  Michigan Woman Dies In Syria, Fighting For Rebels
Thu 2013-05-30
  Pakistan: Wali ur-Rehman killed by US drone strike
Wed 2013-05-29
  French Police Arrest Suspect in Stabbing Attack on Soldier
Tue 2013-05-28
  NGO: At least 79 Hizbullah Fighters Killed in Qusayr
Mon 2013-05-27
  Rockets hit Hezbollah Beirut heartland
Sun 2013-05-26
  Female Suicide Bomber Injures 12 in Russia's Dagestan
Sat 2013-05-25
  French soldier stabbed with Stanley knife in Paris
Fri 2013-05-24
  Two Stockholm schools attacked as Sweden riots continue
Thu 2013-05-23
  Niger suicide bombers target Areva mine and barracks
Wed 2013-05-22
  'Soldier beheaded' in 'Islamist terror attack' oustide barracks in Woolwich
Tue 2013-05-21
  Nigeria Says It Has Retaken Five Islamist Strongholds
Mon 2013-05-20
  Syria: 20 Hezbollah Fighters Killed In Qusair
Sun 2013-05-19
  Syria army 'storms' rebel town Qusair
Sat 2013-05-18
  Moroccan Jailed For Milan Synagogue Bomb Plot
Fri 2013-05-17
   Syrian troops flush out rebels from prison

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