The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which brands itself as a mainstream promoter of civil rights, has been named with two other prominent U.S. Islamic groups as an "unindicted co-conspirator" in a plot to fund the terrorist group Hamas. When the DOJ names "co-conspirators" without indictment, they are signalling that they are trying to make a case against the party named. CAIR has never been a civil rights group; members work to advance the Islamofascist agenda.
Federal prosecutors also cited the Islamic Society of North America and the North American Islamic Trust as participants in a plot with five officials of the defunct Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, who go on trial July 16 in Dallas, the New York Sun reported.
CAIR is a spinoff of the defunct Islamic Association for Palestine, launched by Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook and former university professor Sami al-Arian, who pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to provide services to Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Several CAIR staffers have been convicted on terrorism-related charges, and CAIR founder Omar Ahmad allegedly told a group of Muslims they are in America not to assimilate but to help assert Islam's rule over the country.
The officials on trial in Dallas include Ghassan Elashi, who founded CAIR's Texas chapter. The Holy Land Foundation also gave $5,000 in seed money to set up CAIR's Washington office, according to congressional testimony by counter-terrorism researcher Steven Emerson...
#2
Well maybe this will cause former Government officials, including those from the FBI and CIA, to cease their specious ($$$$) coddling with the Wahhabist funded groups such as CAIR,
#5
CAIR officials will get some tough questions at the grand jury stage, specifically about supporting Hamas, Hizballah, etc. They will be faced with admitting it or risking perjury.
A brother of a slain Taliban leader said al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was alive and well and that he had received a letter of condolence from him after his brother was killed in May.
"Dear Haji Mansur,
Hi! How are you?"
"He is alive, active and well," Haji Mansour Dadullah, a Taliban militant leader, said of bin Laden.
"I am fine. So are the kids. How're your little ones doing?"
"He sent me a letter of condolence after the martyrdom of my brother Mullah Dadullah," he told Al Jazeera television. It was not clear when the interview was taken.
"Sorry to hear about your brother getting shot to shreds. That musta really hurt, briefly."
Mullah Dadullah was killed by U.S.-led forces. His death was seen as the most serious blow to the Taliban insurgency since the militants' removal from power in 2001 by a U.S.-led coalition for harboring bin Laden and Qaeda militants. Bin Laden "told me to follow in the steps of my brother and urged Muslims to follow the steps of Mullah Dadullah because he was a mujahid", said Dadullah, who was described by Jazeera as a Taliban military leader.
"I really hope you follow in your brother's footsteps and get shot to shreds, too. All Muslims should, really."
Mullah Dadullah was the main architect behind rising attacks, including suicide raids, against Afghan and Western troops in southern Afghanistan, as well as kidnappings of foreigners and locals and a series of beheadings. Mullah Dadullah has been replaced by his relatively unknown brother, Mullah Bakht Mohammad.
"Has Mullah Bakht found his ass yet? He should use both hands. That always works better for me."
Dadullah told Jazeera that Saudi-born bin Laden was avoiding media exposure for safety. "These are just military tactics. He prefers not to appear because if he appeared in the media or met people he might face danger," he said.
"I am enjoying my stay here at Fazlur Rehman's guest house. I'll probably stay here for quite a while longer, since I'm too important to The Movement® to get shot to shreds."
"I urged him not to meet anyone and to stay in hiding and continue to give directives ... so that al Qaeda stays active in Afghanistan and the world," he said in an interview conducted in an open field in Afghanistan.
"Yours truly,
Binny"
Posted by: Fred ||
06/05/2007 10:01 ||
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#1
Actually, it should be "follow in your brother's footstep"...
(SomaliNet) Somalia transitional federal government announced on Monday that it had withdrawn its military forces from the capital as the police forces took the role of security control.
The deputy defense minister, Salad Ali Jele told the local media that his government has taken all troops out of Mogadishu to their original bases outside of the capital. I want to confirm that all military forces that remained in Mogadishu were pulled out around 3:00 pm local time after completing their push up tasks to the police, said Ali Jelle adding that the policemen are now capable of establishing security in the city.
The military forces he said were sent back to Bali-Dogle and Daynunay camps, southwest of the capital for additional training. From today on, anyone who is seen dressing in the uniform of the government soldiers will be punished and we will recognize them as bandits, said Jele.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/05/2007 00:00 ||
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A high-level Israeli delegation will meet with officials in Washington this week and demand that restrictions be clamped on the proposed US sale of state-of-the-art weaponry to Saudi Arabia, The Jerusalem Post has learned. Oh, frabulous joy
A detainee who apparently committed suicide at Guantanamo Bay on Wednesday was a Saudi army veteran who fought for the Taleban, US officials have said. The man, named as Abd al-Rahman al-Amiri, was found not breathing in his cell at the US detention facility, and guards could not revive him.
The US military said Mr Amiri, who served in the Saudi army for nine years, was being held at Guantanamo as an "enemy combatant" for fighting US-led forces north of the Afghan capital, Kabul, and in Tora Bora in 2001. He also became a mid-level al-Qaeda operative and had met its leader, Osama Bin Laden, it said. According to records previously released by the US, Mr Amiri acknowledged some of the accusations against him to a personal representative appointed by the military. He said he went to Afghanistan in 2000 and fought for the Taleban because it was his duty as a Muslim and not because he wanted to attack the US. "Detainee said had his desire been to fight and kill Americans, he could have done that while he was side by side with them in Saudi Arabia," the transcript said. "His intent [in travelling to Afghanistan] was to go and fight for a cause that he believed in as a Muslim toward Jihad, not to go and fight against the Americans." Mr Amiri also told his representative he had attended a "school for jihad" before the invasion and seen Osama Bin Laden "from a distance". He was captured in Pakistan and transported to Guantanamo in February 2002.
#1
Lying sacks of BBC shit. Guantánamo captive called himself jihadist A native of Taif, Saudi Arabia, he said he joined the movement after the 9/11 attacks, six months after his discharge from the Saudi military.
Just who does the BBC reporter think Amiri was going to fight?
Posted by: ed ||
06/05/2007 0:52 Comments ||
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#3
Just how did he commit his suicide? Did he 'will' himself dead? Did he inhale a pretzel? Did his lawyer smuggle him some drugs? I am kind of surprised, absent information on how he died, that the guards or interrogators have not been accused of murdering him. Of course, since they 'forced' him to commit suicide over his horrible treatment, I guess it is pretty much the same as murdering him.
Russia will build a new aircraft carrier, Rosbalt reported. Its specification has been the highlight of recent meeting of high-ranked officers of Russias Navy and shipbuilding leaders, which was chaired by the RF Navy Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Masorin. Having an aircraft carrier in Russias Navy would be quite reasonable, the meeting participants specified, according to Navys briefer Igor Dygalo. Experience of using them in foreign fleets is also to the credit of this undertaking, the briefer pointed out.
Russias Defense Ministry and Navy have often emphasized the need of having from three to four aircraft carriers.
Severodvinsk is the most probable place, where new aircraft carriers will finally emerge. There, a dock is being constructed that would allow to build surface ships of over 100,000-ton displacement.
#1
I doubt this will happen and am nearly possitive a 100k ton carrier will not be. The Russians only use for a carrier would be assualt on the US or power projection past thier borders which roll from Europe to N Middle East, Central & N Asia.
Not to mention unless things change (which is possible) it looks very likely Russia is going to lose thier Black Sea Ports in both the Ukraine and Cuacas region short a 4th teir choice on what is left of Russian territory (that is barely broke in on).
#5
Baltic, to impress the neighbors [Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania]. Putin knows the western Euros will support the Baltic States just like France and Britain supported Czechoslovakia in '38.
#13
I'm wondering if this will effect their moon landing schedule.
A single carrier is a target. You need a couple of carrier groups and supporting ships. Even the Soviet Union couldn't justify full supercarriers and opted for smaller VTOL ones.
#14
Won't happen. They already have enough trouble with the maintence of their fleet, adding on a Aircraft Carrier (USSR Stalin?) is impossible I would think. More likely it's bluster to get China/India to order one built too
Posted by: Charles ||
06/05/2007 19:41 Comments ||
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#15
Wouldn't be surprising if they tried an upgrade of Project Habakkuk, but still not of much use without the integrating systems support and coordinated air/sea/land capabilities.
#16
I think we should put a stop to this right now. Just think of the loss of life and the environmental damage that will be caused when that heap of shit catches fire and sinks in it's berth.
(KCNA) -- The book "Great Man and His Friends" (Vols.1 and 2) has been recently brought out by the Kum Song Youth Publishing House. President Kim Il Sung granted audiences to more than 70,000 foreigners in his lifetime, thus fully showing his admirable disposition as a peerlessly great man. The book contains some data on the external activities conducted by the President among heads of party and state and public figures of many foreign countries, anecdotes related with them and personal details.
It impressively tells about the great trait of the President who possessed the veteran and seasoned leadership art, noble revolutionary obligation and matchlessly broad magnanimity on the basis of graphic data. Given in the book is the fact that charmed by his noble character, famous figures of various countries had visited Pyongyang one after another. The book Vol.1 consists of "1. Peerless Political Veteran", "2. Great Man with Versatile Talents" and "3. All-Around Nice Guy Great Human Being" and Vol. 2 "1. The Sun of All People", "2. The Leader of the People" and "3. Great Sage for the Century".
Posted by: Fred ||
06/05/2007 14:15 ||
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#1
I believe that painting is of Kimmie when he was the host of "North Korean Let's Make a Deal" which was where the Great Leader thing all began...
AUSTRALIAN Muslim university students eager to become jihadis are regularly seeking advice from Islamic spiritual leaders in the hope of winning religious approval to travel overseas and fight. Leaders have warned that the obsession among some young Muslims to become holy warriors was also driving them to "shop around" for fatwas - religious rulings - should their initial request be turned down.
Moderate Sydney-based Islamic cleric Khalil Shami said young Muslims, "predominantly university students", frequently asked his advice on travelling to war-torn countries to fight in the name of Islam. This comes two years after hardline Islamic university students were involved in the London bombings that killed 52 people and injured 700 others.
It also follows The Australian's revelations in January that a 25-year-old Somali Australian, Ahmed Ali, died fighting alongside Islamists in his country of birth in December last year.
Sheik Shami said he always warned aspiring Islamists against fighting because he believed Muslim countries were being run by corrupt leaders who were more interested in making money and advancing their political profiles than liberating their people. "There are some people who would like to go and perform jihad," he told The Australian in an Arabic and English interview. "I say don't go. Because those fighting aren't truly fighting in the path of God. I've been asked numerous times and I've advised against going," added Sheik Shami, an imam at Penshurst Mosque in Sydney's southwest.
He said young Muslims interested in jihad either called him anonymously to ask his advice or approached him at the mosque. Sheik Shami, who is also an Australian Federal Police chaplain, said he had not notified authorities about Muslims interested in jihad because he did not want to betray the trust of people making the inquiries.
"If you come to me and tell me about something, it's not nice for me to go and tell the authorities about you because you trust me and I have to just keep your secret," he said. "I know I have enough faith in myself. I'm not going to hurt the person or hurt the authorities."
The federal Attorney-General's department last night said clerics were not obligated under common law to pass on national security information. "A Muslim cleric would have the same obligations as any other member of the community," a department spokesman said. "The Government would expect that any person in receipt of such information, whatever their religious beliefs, would have a duty to prevent terrorist activity and pass the information on."
Sheik Shami's comments follow revelations in The Australian last week that Muslims were refusing to give national security authorities counter-terrorism tip-offs, fearing they might implicate themselves or be labelled traitors by fellow community members.
Sheik Shami said young men often became more enthused about seeking advice on jihad after seeing horrific images of fellow Muslims caught up in conflict. Islamic Friendship Association of Australia president Keysar Trad admitted hearing young Muslims asking their cleric for advice on going to fight jihad overseas. He said some even went to more than one imam in the hope of getting a green light for joining the battle. "Some people will shop around, what you might term as fatwa shopping, and I am yet to meet an imam who would say yes, go," Mr Trad said. "My personal assessment of these kind of people is they want the imam to reassure them that staying here in luxury and comfort is OK, that's all they're doing. But then they go (and say), 'I would've gone only if the imam let me'."
Melbourne cleric Isse Musse said aspiring jihadis do not usually ask for fatwas from their imams to approve their departure for battle. And while the Somalian imam had never been approached by young Muslims wanting to join overseas terror outfits, he said in most cases people would only seek advice about such issues from their clerics.
#1
Blows apart the theory that all jihadis are impoverished undeucated desperados.They go to war out of choice usually aided by their local community!!!!!
Posted by: Paul ||
06/05/2007 6:29 Comments ||
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#2
Silly Orcs. Their Holy Scrolls make all this as plain as day. No need to bother the Orc clerics over something fundamental to the Temple of Elemental Evil.
#3
"If you come to me and tell me about something, it's not nice for me to go and tell the authorities about you because you trust me and I have to just keep your secret," he said.
#4
My advice to all you wanna-be jihadists is to seek martydom by throwing yourself off a high cliff or blowing yourself up in the local city dump. You will get the 72 raisins.
#5
He said young Muslims interested in jihad either called him anonymously to ask his advice or approached him at the mosque. Sheik Shami, who is also an Australian Federal Police chaplain, said he had not notified authorities about Muslims interested in jihad because he did not want to betray the trust of people making the inquiries.
As a government employee, this asshole has a legal obligation to inform authorities about potential terrorist operatives.
"If you come to me and tell me about something, it's not nice for me to go and tell the authorities about you because you trust me and I have to just keep your secret," he said. "I know I have enough faith in myself. I'm not going to hurt the person or hurt the authorities."
It's one or the other, fuckwit. You cannot protect your country by concealing jihadists. Unless, of course, duty to your religion overrides your patriotism.
The federal Attorney-General's department last night said clerics were not obligated under common law to pass on national security information. "A Muslim cleric would have the same obligations as any other member of the community," a department spokesman said. "The Government would expect that any person in receipt of such information, whatever their religious beliefs, would have a duty to prevent terrorist activity and pass the information on."
Welcome to the split allegiances of Muslims. Time to give Mister "Moderate" Muslim his damned walking papers.
The Basque terrorist separatist group Eta says its ceasefire with the Spanish government will end on Wednesday. In a message printed by the Basque newspaper Berria, the banned group says "minimum conditions for continuing a process of negotiations do not exist".
Eta declared a "permanent" ceasefire in March 2006, and had insisted it still held despite a bomb that killed two people at Madrid airport in December.
'Permanent' must sound different in the Basque language.
After the attack Spain's Socialist government broke off peace talks.
Has Zappie done anything positive for Spain?
In its latest statement, Eta said that from Wednesday it would defend the Basque country "with weapons and on all fronts".
The announcement suggests that another big attack could be imminent, observers say. The group has killed more than 800 people in its four-decade campaign to set up an independent state in northern Spain and south-western France. Despite last December's attack, Eta's activities have been waning, with the number of bombings falling in recent years.
Wait.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/05/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Yeah, 'cause shooting and bombing innocent civilians is so much more effective in getting your message out, right?
#3
The ETA should be pushing for Basque membership in the EU. The only way the EU will stay together is to dissolve the larger states and national pride that goes with them and replace them with something smaller and more dependant upon the EU government.
#4
I ran across a Basque website the other day while trying to find some info on a sailboat(frickin google). They talk like they are already a separate country, safe and prosperous, made me chuckle. You'd never know it was part of Spain the way the website read.
France set tough new quotas for the number of illegal immigrants authorities should arrest and expel each month, the new immigration minister said Monday.
Brice Hortefeux, who heads the newly created Ministry of Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Co-Development, said a monthly quota also would be set for ferreting out those employed in France illegally. In a meeting with security officials, Hortefeux reiterated President Nicolas Sarkozys goal of 25,000 expulsions by the end of 2007 - compared with 24,000 in 2006 - and set a year-end goal of 125,000 arrests for alleged illegal entry or illegal residence, a ministry statement said. The number of those already arrested was not immediately clear. Hortefeux said the new measures were aimed at "dismantling networks that exploit the misery of illegal immigrants," the statement said.
Sarkozy, who was elected May 6, pledged during his campaign to create a ministry of immigration and national identity to rein in the flow of migrants and ensure they are integrated into French society. Riots in French housing projects in 2005 were largely driven by anger among children of immigrants at persistent discrimination and a feeling of alienation from mainstream society.
His orders came after he and Prime Minister Francois Fillon visited a holding center for illegal immigrants Monday _ and three days after the bodies of 18 illegal immigrants were fished from the Mediterranean by the crew of a French frigate. The dead — 12 men, two adolescent boys and four women — were believed to be seeking new lives in Europe, though it was not clear what country they were coming from. They will be buried in France.
"The French Republic will be extremely firm. It will ensure laws are applied," Fillon said, adding: "Naturally, these laws must be applied with the greatest humanity."
Many saw Sarkozys proposal as a nod to the electorate on the extreme right, which long has made fighting immigration one of its main causes. "Generosity is not opening wide the borders without thought for how people will integrate, how they will live, how they will subsist," Fillon said.
Hortefeux, in his meeting with security officials, also insisted on the need to develop a system of paying illegal immigrants to voluntarily return home, setting the number of paid departures at 2,500 for this year — a 25 percent increase from 2006. Those volunteering to leave, as part of a program started in late 2005, are given a fixed sum of money, normally $4,700 per couple, with $1,350 each for the first three children. JFM, A5089, here's your chance to get paid to come to the US (via Mexico).
Posted by: Gary and the Samoyeds ||
06/05/2007 00:00 ||
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ANNAPOLIS -- Homeland security officials across the state say they have become concerned about emergency preparedness in Maryland since Gov. Martin O'Malley has taken office. Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat, has been slow to fill vacancies in the Governor's Office of Homeland Security, and local homeland security coordinators say the O'Malley administration has not contacted them since taking office. "What's a little bit disturbing is we have put together strategic homeland security goals for Charles County, and I don't know whether they have seen them," said Donald McGuire, Charles County director of emergency preparedness.
I'm less enthalled by the O'Malley Ascendancy each day, although much of this article seems like petty whining from former insiders. I would be most interested to hear against what or whom Mr. O'Malley thinks the state of Mayland ought to be made secure.
Mr. O'Malley has filled two of the office's eight slots since taking office but also has become more directly engaged with homeland security, said administration spokesman Rick Abbruzzese. "It's not about bureaucracy, it's about planning and execution," Mr. Abbruzzese said. "I would argue that we are doing much more with much less." Mr. Abbruzzese said the governor's style follows his work as mayor of Baltimore, relying on a few close advisers to work with such groups as the state police, the state's transportation department and emergency management agency and the National Guard, which all have staff dedicated to homeland security.
Mr. O'Malley also brought Andrew Lauland, his Baltimore homeland security director, to run the state office.
But former members of the office think the work they put into building relationships with local officials was wasted when Mr. O'Malley's team arrived. "It's disappointing to say the least," said Kevin Reigrut, former program and policy development manager in the homeland security office under former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a Republican. "I wish I could tell you how [Mr. O'Malley's] model was supposed to work." Mr. Reigrut said he and his colleagues were not consulted during Mr. O'Malley's transition into office in January and that important work was likely being left undone.
Mr. O'Malley carved a national image as big-city mayor who was strong on homeland security issues, frequently criticizing the Bush administration for not spending enough money to protect U.S. cities. Mr. O'Malley criticized the administration's homeland security policies in a 2003 Democratic radio rebuttal, at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston and in a 2005 speech to the National Press Club. "In Washington today, the traditional strong defense values of the party of Abraham Lincoln are found only in the words carved on the cold walls of his memorial," he said at the press club speech.
Mr. McGuire said the state needs to support its 23 counties and Baltimore City, and it must communicate. "I don't know whether they are doing stuff on their own up there, but at some point everything starts down here or ends down here" in local government, he said. Other county directors said they weren't as concerned with the communication break and are giving O'Malley officials time to adjust. "I think [Mr. Lauland's] style is different than the previous homeland security adviser, and with that we probably hear less from" him, said Bryan Ebling, Caroline County emergency management director. "We've been given the opportunity several times by the governor's office. They've given us an open-door policy. Personally, we have not had any issues rise to that level."
State Republican leaders also said they were concerned about Mr. O'Malley's priorities. "This office needs to be staffed and brought to full complement immediately," said Delegate Anthony J. O'Donnell, Southern Maryland Republican, who represents the district including the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant and the Cove Point LNG. "Maybe more attention is being paid to the rhetoric of homeland security than is being paid to making our state safe."
#1
Mr. O'Malley also brought Andrew Lauland, his Baltimore homeland security director, to run the state office. There you have it - heroincrackholand security...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/05/2007 14:33 Comments ||
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Reading the indictment against the four would-be JFK airport bombers, Russell Defreitas, Abdul Nur, Kareem Ibrihim and Abdul Kadir, I was struck by the phrase together with others which frequently followed their names. It is on page 1, page 2, page 3, twice on page 4. In the course of the document we are introduced to these others, known only as Individuals A-G. There must be some legal rationale why we cant know their identities. It surely cant be to conceal from the Individuals that we know what they were up to; they must have figured out who is which letter by now. But until we know who Messrs. A-G are, we cant know the extent of the network, or the magnitude of the threat.
Of the six, the most interesting are A and E. A is one of the ringleaders of the plan, playing a key role in conceptualizing and promoting it. Yet for some reason, he was not indicted. E is even more important a businessman in Georgetown Guyana, who funds jihadists on their missions and comes across in the indictment as extremely knowledgeable in matters of terrorism. It seems as though he has done this many times before. He served as a mentor for the prospective attackers, but eventually pulled out of the plan when he thought it might be compromised. Good instincts.
E is also a friend and associate of Yasin Abu Bakr, leader of the Trinidad and Tobago extremist group Jamaat al-Muslimeen (JAM). He is referred to as the JAM leader throughout the indictment, though his identity is well known in the Caribbean. Abu Bakr had fomented a coup against the government in 1990, which failed quickly. Since then he had been in intermittent trouble with the law. The plotters seem fixated on meeting with Abu Bakr, perhaps to obtain funding from him or his sources. Abdul Nur, the only named conspirator still at large, who had previous ties to Abu Bakr, met with him in May and discussed the plan in general terms. Abu Bakr liked the idea and wanted another meeting, but first wanted to do checks on some of the others involved.
But Trinidadian conspirator Kareem Ibrihim counseled against another meeting. Abu Bakr had been arrested the previous fall, charged with incitement, sedition, extortion, and terrorism. He was due to go on trial June 1, and was no doubt under constant surveillance. The conspirators planned to launder whatever support they received through Abdul Kadirs Islamic Information Centre in Linden. Kadir is a Shiite, and tied closely to the International Islamic College for Advanced Studies, which is underwritten by Iran. The colleges former Director, Mohammad Hassan Ebrahimi, was kidnapped and murdered in 2004. Kadir took over as interim head. But just as Kareem was sending his emissary (who for some reason is not identified as Individual H) to brief the plan to the contacts abroad, arrest warrants were issued and three of the four named conspirators were taken into custody.
Once the case goes to trial one name that may pop up is Adnan Gulshair Muhammad El Shukrijumah alias Abu Arif, or Jafar Al-Tayar. He is a computer engineer, born in Saudi Arabia, son of a Wahabbist missionary who moved to Guyana when Adnan was three. He later spent many years in Trinidad where he was associated with the Darul-Uloom Insitute, another of the ubiquitous Islamic study centers. He also stayed for a time in south Florida. He has been closely involved with al Qaeda, and it is said he was hand picked by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to maintain the terror network in the Americas. In 2002 he was in Canada looking for dirty bomb components, and in 2003 a warrant was issued for his arrest. In 2004 he was named as a prime suspect in a planned attack on the United States, and Attorney General John Ashcroft described Shukrijumah "as the most dangerous of seven Al-Qa'ida operatives suspected of planning strikes in the US."
Shukrijumah has not been spotted recently, though there was a report that he had holed up with wealthy Guyanese businessman Farouk Razac. Razac had been in and out of trouble with the law for years, on weapons and drug charges mostly. It would be interesting if Razac turned out to be individual E, especially since he was murdered in his home on May 8. His wife, Carolan Lynch, has been charged with the crime, and is also the reigning Mrs. South America.
Given the international flavor of this planned attack it struck me as odd that it is being described regularly as home grown terrorism. To me that expression implies Americans of long-established families, growing up in the American milieu, turning to political violence as a form of protest. The Symbionese Liberation Army, for example, or the Unabomber. Yes, Russell Defreitas is a U.S. citizen, but naturalized, and clearly not someone who grew up here or bought into the American dream or way of life. Of the other three who were arrested, two were from Guyana and one from Trinidad. The unnamed conspirators are mostly Guyanan, and none are American. Most of the people involved were foreign, the planning took place overseas, the funding came from abroad, and they sought to obtain the explosives from outside the U.S. So this is not home grown but definitely international terrorism.
From the indictment one gets the impression of a certain amateurishness among the plotters. The length of the planning cycle worked in our favor, as it did in other plots recently broken up, here and in Britain. The age of the terrorists is noteworthy attack cells are rarely set up by guys in their 50s.
#1
So home-grown or international jet-setters, at least these boys did not swim across the Rio Grande.
Ummmm....Maybe that's not good news...
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/05/2007 6:19 Comments ||
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#2
These were not "home-grown" in any sense of the phrase, not were the Ft. Dix cell. We need to get away from using phrases that the media would like to push so they can generate pressure to enact legislation that would impinge on the rights of other groups that oppose them. A rule of thumb is that if Chucky Schumer says it it can't be true.
They are terrorists, pure and simple.
Posted by: DanNY ||
06/05/2007 10:19 Comments ||
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#3
Muslim terrorists, you forgot Muslim, a key link in international terrorism, death and destruction.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - A military panel has recommended a general discharge for an Iraq war veteran who wore his uniform during a war protest and later responded with an obscenity to a superior who told him he might have violated military rules. Marine Cpl. Adam Kokesh participated in the protest in March, clad in a uniform that had his name tag and other insignia removed. After he was identified in a photo caption in The Washington Post, a superior officer sent him a letter saying he might have violated a rule prohibiting troops from wearing uniforms without authorization.
After a hearing Monday before an administrative separation board at the Marine Corps Mobilization Command, the panel decided not to recommend a less-than-honorable discharge, choosing instead the general discharge. "This is a nonpunitive discharge," said Col. Patrick McCarthy, chief of staff for the mobilization command. "The most stringent discharge that could have been received is other than honorable, and the board chose to raise that up to a general discharge."
If the recommendation is approved, Kokesh would not lose any military benefits, McCarthy said. Brig. Gen. Darrell L. Moore, one of several officers who received an e-mail from Kokesh that contained an obscenity, likely will decide whether to go along with the board's recommendation.
Kokesh is a member of the Individual Ready Reserve, which consists mainly of those who have left active duty but still have time remaining on their eight-year military obligations. His service is due to end June 18, but the Marine Corps is seeking to let him go two weeks early with a less-than-honorable discharge. That could cut some of his health benefits and force him to repay about $10,800 he received to obtain his undergraduate degree on the GI Bill.
His attorneys said Kokesh was not subject to military rules during the protest because he was not on active duty. They said the protest was a theatrical performance, which meant wearing a uniform was a not a violation of military rules. The military considered it a political event, at which personnel are not allowed to wear their uniforms without authorization.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/05/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
His attorneys said Kokesh was not subject to military rules during the protest because he was not on active duty.
Since this was before a military panel under the rules of Title 10, you're point doesn't stand. Take it up with the appeals court. Should have done the same thing to Kerry when while holding a reserve commission he treated with the enemy in Paris.
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - Military judges dismissed charges Monday against a Guantanamo detainee accused of chauffeuring Osama bin Laden and another who allegedly killed a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan, throwing up roadblocks to the Bush administration's attempt to try terror suspects in military courts.
In back-to-back arraignments for Salim Ahmed Hamdan of Yemen and Canadian Omar Khadr the U.S. military's cases against the alleged al-Qaida figures dissolved because, the two judges said, the government had failed to establish jurisdiction. They were the only two of the roughly 380 prisoners at Guantanamo charged with crimes, and the rulings stand to complicate efforts by the United States to try other suspected al-Qaida and Taliban figures in military courts.
Hamdan's military judge, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, said the detainee is "not subject to this commission" under legislation passed by Congress and signed by President Bush last year. Hamdan is accused of chauffeuring bin Laden's and being the al-Qaida chief's bodyguard.
The new Military Commissions Act was written to establish military trials after the U.S. Supreme Court last year - ruling in a case brought by Hamdan - rejected the previous system. The judges agreed that there was one problem they could not resolve - the new legislation says only "unlawful enemy combatants" can be tried by the military trials, known as commissions. But Khadr and Hamdan had previously been identified by military panels only as enemy combatants, lacking the critical "unlawful" designation.
This is a minor error, which they did us a service by catching now before the trial started. They'll go back to their word processors and insert "unlawful".
The surprise decisions do not spell freedom for the detainees, who are imprisoned here along with the others suspected of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban.
Legal experts said Brownback apparently left open the door for a retrial for Khadr, and that the Defense Department can possibly fix the jurisdictional problem by holding new "combat status review tribunals" for any detainee headed to trial.
The Military Commissions Act specifically says that only those classified as "unlawful" enemy combatants can face war trials here, Brownback noted. The distinction is important because if they were "lawful," they would be entitled to prisoner of war status, which under the Geneva Conventions would entitle them to the same treatment under established military law that U.S. soldiers would get.
A Pentagon spokesman said the issue was little more than semantics. Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon told The Associated Press said the entire Guantanamo system was set up to deal with people who act as "unlawful enemy combatants," operating outside any internationally recognized military, without uniforms, military ranks or other things that make them party to the Geneva Conventions. "It is our belief that the concept was implicit that all the Guantanamo detainees who were designated as 'enemy combatants' ... were in fact unlawful," Gordon said.
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06/05/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
The dismissals of charges were based only on technicalities. Leave was given to re-enter charges, once procedural errors are corrected. Omar Khadr murdered an American soldier in a shoot-out. He isn't going anywhere, except the electric chair.
#2
I don't know McZoid. President Hillary would probably consider pardoning him as a gesture to her neo-Stalinist supporters to get back into good graces for her constant spinning on the WOT. Nothing personal mind you, it's just business.
President General Pervez Musharraf has directed the four provincial chief ministers and bosses of law enforcement agencies to fully enforce the ban on public display of weapons. The president also directed the NWFP government and authorities concerned to locate and block illegal FM radio stations in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
He gave these instructions while chairing the 10th meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) here on Monday at the NSC Headquarters in the Cabinet Division building. Gen Musharraf also expressed concern over the recent surge in suicide attacks, extremism and militancy and un-hindered movement of militants to settled areas. He said that the militants must be taken head on, security of vital places be beefed up and activities of suspected elements be strictly monitored.
Gen Musharaf assured the Frontier government that the size of the provincial police force would be increased and provided with transport and equipment facilities to deal with growing militancy in the province, particularly in its southern districts. He stressed that those behind suicide attacks, harassment and threats were enemies of Pakistan and its people. He warned that the government would not allow such elements to take the law into their hands. He vowed that with the support and cooperation of the people, these anti-social and anti-state elements would be eliminated. The NSC agreed with the president that moderate forces and elected representatives should cooperate to curb extremism and terrorism. The council also discussed the current political situation in reference to the judicial crisis. The president complained that certain elements were trying to politicise constitutional and legal issues and the people of Pakistan will not pay any heed to their propaganda.
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06/05/2007 00:00 ||
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SRINAGAR, India - The Indian army said Monday it had registered an increase in militant activity along the heavily-militarised Line of Control in Kashmir, despite a pledge by Pakistan to block cross-border insurgents. The comments came after Indian troops on Monday killed four suspected Islamic militants along the de facto border with Pakistan, in what police said was the sixth infiltration attempt in less than 10 days.
There has been no let-up in infiltration by militants into our side from across the Line of Control, army spokesman A.K. Mathur told AFP, asserting that militant training camps were still intact across the border in Pakistan. The infiltration this time of the year is bit higher than last year, he said, after troops reported killing a group of four heavily-armed fighters in a fierce gunbattle on Monday.
The army says militant attempts to cross the ceasefire line into Indian Kashmir increase in the summer as snow melts on mountain passes. The level of militant activity this season will be closely watched as a barometer for the state of the slow moving India-Pakistan peace process launched in 2004.
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06/05/2007 00:00 ||
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I sure hope the Indian soldiers stay alert to this, and keep their heads. Alertness and good aim is the key to a secure border (are you listening, W?)
CAIRO - Egypt is pushing for the formation of a hudna truce monitoring body with the participation of the rival Palestinian factions to shore up a nearly three-week-old truce in Gaza, a top official said on Monday.
Egypt has drafted a memorandum listing the principles and the mechanisms to consolidate the ceasefire, the official told the state MENA news agency. A monitoring commission will be set up, under the auspices of Egypt, to ensure the application of the accord.
Anything, anything to keep people from throwing up their hands and giving the whole mess back to Egypt.
"Surely, effendi, we will work to make sure they are happy. Secure, and happy. Please to have some cash now?"
Egypt has been holding a series of separate meetings with the rival factions in a bid to consolidate the ceasefire which went into effect on May 16 after more than 50 people were killed in internal fighting in Gaza. The official said that Egypt hopes to bring the factions together for direct talks in the second half of June.
A Palestinian source close to the talks said Egypt was also seeking agreement on restictions on the bearing of arms in Gaza, where mounting lawlessness has seen a spate of abductions of Westerners, most recently BBC correspondent Alan Johnston.
The memorandum proposes a ban on the carrying of arms in residential areas, school buildings and hospitals, and on military-style demonstrations, the source said.
But not mosques. Never mosques.
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DAMASCUS: Syria has jailed four more dissidents, one for 12 years, matching the heaviest sentence handed down since President Bashar 'Pencilneck' Assad took power seven years ago, a human rights group said Monday. "The state security court in Damascus sentenced Abdel-Jabbar Allawi to death, commuted to 12 years' imprisonment, for membership in the Muslim Brotherhood," said Ammar Qorabi, head of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria.
Syria's regime has long regarded the Muslim Brotherhood as its most serious threat and membership of the group has been outlawed on pain of death since 1980, although in recent years the penalty has always been commuted to prison terms.
Qorabi said two other dissidents - Ahmad Sheikho and Faisal Ballani - were jailed for five years, while Kurdish activist Ziad Ismail was jailed for three. The three were convicted of "belonging to organizations seeking to change the economic and social basis of the regime," he said.
For the better, it should be noted.
Sheikho and Ballani were also found guilty of "weakening national sentiment." The court adjourned the case of a fifth dissident - Ali Zein al-Abidine - accused of "actions forbidden by the state" until September 23. It remanded two more - Mohammad al-Albi and Rami Saeed - in custody for further questioning, Qorabi added.
He said all the judgments came from the state security court - a tribunal of exception under the state of emergency in force ever since Assad's Baath party seized power in 1963.
That's a long state of emergency. Sucks to live in a dictatorship, huh.
The new jail terms came despite mounting international criticism of Syria's human-rights record following a spate of tough sentences handed down against dissidents in recent months.
Last month, Kamal Labwani was jailed for 12 years in what was then the longest sentence leveled against an opposition activist since Assad took power. He was convicted of having "contacts with a foreign country aimed at encouraging it to attack Syria," after being arrested on his return to Damascus from talks with White House officials in November 2005.
I'm guessing he wasn't talking to Nancy Pelosi.
Also in May, prominent opposition activists Michel Kilo and Mahmoud Issa were sentenced to three years behind bars, while the previous month human-rights lawyer Anwar Bunni was jailed for five years.
Washington said the earlier jail terms were "evidence of the Syrian regime's continued contempt for human rights." "We call on President Assad to unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience," State Department spokesman Tom Casey said in May.
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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.
A brother of a slain Taliban leader said al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was alive and well and that he had received a letter of condolence from him after his brother was killed in May.
(SomaliNet) Somalia transitional federal government announced on Monday that it had withdrawn its military forces from the capital as the police forces took the role of security control. 
(KCNA) -- The book "Great Man and His Friends" (Vols.1 and 2) has been recently brought out by the Kum Song Youth Publishing House. President Kim Il Sung granted audiences to more than 70,000 foreigners in his lifetime, thus fully showing his admirable disposition as a peerlessly great man. The book contains some data on the external activities conducted by the President among heads of party and state and public figures of many foreign countries, anecdotes related with them and personal details. 
The Basque 
President General Pervez Musharraf has directed the four provincial chief ministers and bosses of law enforcement agencies to fully enforce the ban on public display of weapons. The president also directed the NWFP government and authorities concerned to locate and block illegal FM radio stations in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
DAMASCUS: Syria has jailed four more dissidents, one for 12 years, matching the heaviest sentence handed down since President Bashar 
