A US cargo ship's crew ferrying food to African refugees battled against Somali pirates yesterday, pleading for the return of their captive captain and holding out for military help.
The high-seas drama in the lawless shipping channel off war-torn Somalia erupted around 7.30am local time (2.30pm AEST Wednesday) when pirates seized the US-flagged Maersk Alabama, a 17,500-tonne container vessel whose home port is Norfolk, Virginia.
It was believed to be the first US merchant ship hijacked since the North African Barbary Wars in the early 19th century, underlining the anarchy raging off Somalia despite an international naval effort against piracy.
The 20 unarmed crew members fought back against the four hijackers and hours later regained control of their vessel, according to second mate Ken Quinn.
Mr Quinn, sounding harried in a terse mobile phone call to CNN, said the crew had released one of the pirates they had tied up for 12 hours. But the hijackers were refusing to return Captain Richard Phillips.
"Right now, they want to hold our captain for ransom and we're trying to get him back," Mr Quinn said.
"He's in the ship's lifeboat," he said, explaining the four pirates had taken the lifeboat off the Maersk Alabama and that Capt Phillips was in touch with his crew using the ship's radio.
"So now we're just trying to offer them whatever we can. Food. But it's not working too good."
Mr Quinn said: "We have a coalition (vessel) that will be here in three hours. So we're just trying to hold them off for three more hours and then we'll have a warship here to help us."
US officials said an American warship and a half dozen others are headed to the scene.
One official said the destroyer USS Bainbridge is headed there. Another official said there are six or seven ships on the way.
The 155-metre vessel had been due to dock in the Kenyan port of Mombasa on April 16 where the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) was to have taken possession of more than 5000 tonnes of relief food supplies.
It was the sixth ship to be hijacked off Somalia in the past five days, after a running battle at sea reportedly lasting at least five hours during which the US crew tried to evade the hijackers and then turned hoses on them.
The ship's chief officer, Shane Murphy, told his father Joseph Murphy that the crew used "brute force" to overpower the pirates, who were armed with AK-47 assault rifles, ABC News reported.
A multinational naval task force has been trying to stamp out the rampant piracy in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's most important shipping arteries.
As recently as yesterday, the task force warned merchant ships plying the waters off Somalia to increase their vigilance due to increased pirate attacks.
The White House said earlier it was "closely monitoring" the fate of the ship, as Pentagon officials scrambled for news of the crew.
The hijacked vessel is run out of the huge merchant and naval base of Norfolk by Maersk Line Ltd, a division of Denmark's A.P. Moller-Maersk Group.
"This is going to Africa to people in need. We're just bringing relief cargo," Maersk Line chief executive John Reinhart said in Norfolk.
He insisted that while the crew was trained in how to fend off pirates, "as merchant vessels, we do not carry arms".
Peter Smerdon, a WFP spokesman in Nairobi, said the cargo included 4097 tonnes of corn-soya blend which was destined for Somalia and Uganda and 990 tonnes of vegetable oil for refugees in Kenya.
Up to 3.25 million people - almost half of the population - are in need of humanitarian aid in war-wracked Somalia.
The country has had no effective central authority since the 1991 ouster of former president Mohamed Siad Barre touched off a bloody cycle of clashes between rival factions. Piracy has become an increasingly lucrative business.
#1
If the consequences of piracy continue to be negligible for the pirates, I suspect a lot of fishermen and coastal traders will be taking it up as a part-time occupation, at the very least. Monetarily rewarding careers with little risk involved do have a way of drawing new recruits. Fishermen and coastal traders will be first in line because they have a basic skill pirates need to have - seamanship.
#3
SPOCK > "Only Obama [Nixon] can go to Africa [China]".
IMO this is a MARITIME JIHAD which in time will likely entail more intensified and direct US mil involvement on the continent Beyond AFRICOM's advisory capacity. FOR NOW, 2009-2012/2016, RADICAL ISLAM'S PRIORITY = PRIM FOCII IS THE MILTERR-LED BREAKUP OF THE MAJOR COLD WAR NUCLEAR STATES OF ASIA, MAINLY RUSSIA + CHINA + INDIA, as coupled wid NUCTECH(S) ACQUISITION.
International navies will fail in their bid to eradicate Somali piracy if they do not commit more towards assisting the local authorities on the ground, the northern region of Puntland said Tuesday.
Puntland security minister Abdullahi Said Samatar, whose breakaway region is the main hub for piracy in the Gulf of Aden, made his appeal for help after pirates seized five foreign ships in 48 hours. "We can see that international allied forces operating off Somalia are not succeeding in their crackdown on the pirates, who despite their increased presence are still hijacking as many ships as they used to," he told AFP.
He's got a point, but why do I think he's just shaking us down for 'international aid' ...
Between Saturday and Monday, Somali pirates hijacked a British-owned cargo, a German container carrier, a Taiwanese tuna fishing vessel, a Yemeni tugboat and a small French yacht with a three-year-old boy on board. Close to 150 attacks by Somali pirates on foreign ships were reported in 2008, most of them in the Gulf of Aden, where 16,000 ships bottle-neck into the Red Sea each year on one of the world's busiest maritime trade routes. The European Union's months-old Atalanta anti-piracy naval mission is estimated to cost more than 300 million dollars annually.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Sounds more like throat-clearing prior to a request for tribute.
Or, less sarcastically, a prelude to the request for international recognition of Puntland - if the naval powers recognize it as a sovereign nation, then they'll close the piratical bazaar.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/08/2009 10:10 Comments ||
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#2
There's the money paid to the pirates to get the ships back and the money paid for help to eradicate piracy and then there is the money paid to rebuild Puntland for damages after eradication of the pirates. Triple-play shakedown. I'm in the wrong business.
#3
Well, hell, if we're gonna give money to Pakistan and Gaza we might as well give some to these guys too. I'm sure the results will be about the same.
[Beirut Daily Star: Region] Sudan's embattled president told a rally on Tuesday that his own officials would track down war criminals in Darfur, dismissing Western attempts to bring justice to the region.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir - who is himself wanted on charges of masterminding atrocities in Darfur - addressed a crowd of thousands in Zalingei, one of the most politically charged towns in Darfur.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Bashir to face charges of alleged war crimes carried out during almost six years of fighting in Sudan's violent west, but he has refused to deal with the court. "We know about justice between us and we know how to solve our problems. We have a committee for tribal reconciliation," he told the crowd.
"After the reconciliation we will investigate those who are criminals and those who committed crimes and those who were killed and those who were killers. This is all guaranteed. Compensation will be paid. Everyone will get their right. This is justice." Bashir again refused to reconsider his decision to expel 13 foreign aid groups, including Oxfam and Save the Children, which he accused of helping the global court.
The president also accused Darfur rebels of sabotaging efforts to develop the region and appealed to members of the crowd with links to insurgents to persuade them to lay down their arms.
Zalingei is the birthplace of some of Darfur's best-known rebels, including Sudan Liberation Army founder Abdel-Wahed Mohammad Ahmad al-Nur, and is a hotbed of anti-government sentiment.
But there was no obvious sign of opposition at the rally where Bashir arrived on the back of an open truck, as streams of white-robed Darfuris rode past him on horses and camels.
On the edges on the crowd, people climbed trees and stood on the raised scoop of an industrial digger to get a better view.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2009 00:00 ||
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Bashir and OJ should get together and make a reality show to search for the real killers.
Posted by: ed ||
04/08/2009 1:06 Comments ||
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#2
Looks like he picked up a Big Giant Hat to go with his Big Giant Epaulets...
#3
I got an idea. How about we give some money to the Sudanese while we're giving it to Pakistan, Gaza and Somalia? That's all Bashir needs to stop the trouble in Darfur, right?
[Bangla Daily Star] Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today said in the House that Opposition Leader Khaleda Zia's remarks on the February 25-26 Pilkhana carnage were provocative and motivated. In her speech right after the speech of Khaleda Zia, the leader of the House said the people wanted to know whether the former PM wanted to spread a civil war in the country on failure to grab power.
Hasina also raised question about the actual intention of the BNP chairperson behind such comments.
"We have brought down prices of essentials in three months. Probably, many could not like it and that was why they were trying to create an anarchic situation in the country through various plots," she added.
She said her government fulfilled its election pledges to restrain the skyrocketing prices of daily necessities.
"We come to power pledging to curb the prices of the daily essentials and we fulfilled it," she told the parliament.
The PM also thanked the opposition leader for not thanking former president Iajuddin Ahmed and her comments about Iajuddin were absolutely true.
[Bangla Daily Star] Criminal Investigation Department (CID) today recorded the statement of Joj Miah in the case filed against three former investigators of the August 21 grenade attack case. The statements of Joj's mother Jobeda Begum and brother Babul Hossain along with Joj Miah were recorded in Kashimpur Jail of Gazipur from 12:30pm to 2:30pm, CID Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Rownakul Huq Chowdhury, the investigation officer of the case confirmed to The Daily Star.
The CID also summoned Abul Hasem Rana and Shafiqul Islam to the CID Malibagh headquarters on April 12 for recording their statements.
Joj, Rana and Shafiqul were allegedly forced or lured into making false statements before magistrates in the case filed in connection with the August 21, 2004, grenade attack on an Awami League rally that claimed 24 lives. In the statement, Joy described how the three former CID investigators forced him to give false statements.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2009 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia today said the militancy spread in the country during the past Awami League but the then government blamed the opposition BNP without any evidence. The leader of the opposition added that the four-party alliance government did not follow their predecessor. It captured and punished the militant kingpins.
Khaleda slammed the immediate past caretaker government saying it halted the development process the BNP-government had left. She also alleged that the former caretaker government almost shut every door for the businessmen and hiked daily essentials' prices.
Views are gaining ground among politicians in Seoul that South Korea needs to extend the range of its ballistic missiles now that North Korea's launch of a long-range rocket has shown its own can fly thousands of miles.
South Korea is by agreement limited to missiles with a range of 300 km and a maximum payload of 500 kg.
Not for much longer. Here you go, China, another neighbor who's arming up because you won't curb your dog. Wonder what the Taiwanese (you know, the Republic of Taiwan) are planning?
Prime Minister Han Seung-soo on Monday hinted Seoul could seek a revision of the Korean-U.S. missile agreement, saying, "Now is the time to think seriously of this matter at bilateral defense ministers' talks." The current range does not even extend as far as the North's missile launch pad in Musudan-ri.
Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan in the National Assembly on Tuesday said, "At the moment, we're reviewing" a revision of the bilateral missile agreement. When Grand National Party lawmaker Gu Sang-chan asked if the aim of getting the North's missile capabilities under control, as set forth by South Korea when it acceded to the U.S.-led Missile Technology Control Regime in 2001, had been thwarted, Yu said yes.
Military experts say now is the right time to seek extension of the range of missiles. "I think that the U.S. now has a weaker justification for restricting the range of Korea's ballistic missiles, as the North's latest rocket launch proves," said former vice defense minister Park Yong-ok.
Seoul and Washington agreed on the missile guidelines in January 2001. The same year, Seoul also acceded to the MTCR which strictly bans member states from transferring missile-related technologies.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/08/2009 00:00 ||
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OTOH, WORLD MILITARY FORUM > IIUC NORTH KOREA IS CHINA'S NATURAL NE STRATEGIC BUFFER ZONE. WORST CASE SCENARIO FOR CHINA IS KOREAN UNIFICATION WITH AN ANTI-CHIN, PRO-AMERICAN GOVT. LOSS OF DRPK MEANS NOT ONLY THE END OF CHIN'S NE STRATEGIC BUFFER ZONE BUT ALSO A "RIPPLE/DOMINO EFFECT" OF ANTI-CHINA REGIONAL GEOPOL CHAOSES THROUGHOUT EAST-SOUTH ASIA.
Also on WMF > REPORT: CHINA TO PROCEED WITH RAPID FULL-SCALE DEVELOPMENT OF MEDIUM-SIZED AIRCARFT CARRIERS.
#2
ION SAME > INDIA'S LARGEST OPPOSITION PARTY
[BJP] DEMANDS FULL DEVELOPMENT OF "NEW BERLIN WALL" IN NORTHEAST INDIA AND JIMMU-KASHMIR [LOC]TO STOP OR CURB CROSS-BORDER MILITANCY [despite costs].
North Korea on Tuesday released a video clip of leader Kim Jong-il looking frail but healthy. The official Korean Central Television broadcast no footage of Kim between last August, when he apparently had a stroke, and November, when he resumed duties.
Don't pull a Castro on us, Kimmie, die already ...
According to the South Korean government, Kim could barely move his left arm when he had just begun resuming his official duties, but this has improved. "It seems to corroborate the observation that the left side of Kim's body had been paralyzed but got better," said a government official. Footage does not show him walking very quickly, which leads to a speculation that the North Korean government is trying to hide the fact that his leg is still troubled.
"North Korean TV released the video clip right before they aired the launch of the satellite, for propaganda purposes of praising Kim's leadership," a government source here said. "It seems that the North Korean government wanted to air a preview before Kim shows up in the first general meeting of the Supreme People's Assembly on Wednesday."
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/08/2009 00:00 ||
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Many of Koreans are skeletal but wiry and strong at the same time. A female friend stationed there, weighing in at 117 pounds, was called "fat."
I hope he doesnt live to be a hundred so we are forced to bear a double dose of his pimping of north korea to Iran and other monstrous countries he has befriended.
TOKYO, April 8 KYODO: The House of Councillors adopted a resolution by a majority vote Wednesday, condemning North Korea's rocket launch Sunday and calling on the Japanese government to impose additional sanctions on Pyongyang. The resolution, which passed at an upper house plenary session, stresses the launch ''is an act which poses a threat to life and property'' in Japan. The move came after the House of Representatives endorsed a similar resolution during its plenary session Tuesday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/08/2009 00:00 ||
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Japan will massively increase its military spending after North Korea's abortive satellite launch Sunday. Much as the North's launch of a Taepodong-1 missile in 1998 gave Tokyo justification to build up its missile defense system, so Sunday's rocket launch is likely to cause Japan to boost its missile defense and reinforce its military.
Chinese have to taking the gas pipe on this news. But this is what happens when you don't curb your dog. China now has to consider a re-armed and unhappy Japan, along with a South Korea that is moving closer to the Japanese. How's the concrete holding up at the Three Gorges Dam?
The Japanese invested over 1 trillion yen (W13 trillion) thus far in the missile defense system. It sent two Aegis destroyers equipped with SM3 to the East Sea, and dispatched a surface-to-air Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missiles.
Tokyo apparently feels that North Korea's attempt to launch a satellite has quelled domestic opposition to boosting the missile defense system. The Yomiuri and Asahi Shimbun newspapers on Monday both pointed out that the scope for response of the PAC-3 falls short of effectively defending Japan.
Japan is likely to increase the system's efficiency and introduce more SM3 and PAC-3. The Japanese Defense Ministry is reviewing a plan to introduce an early warning satellite that detects impending missile launches. Tokyo currently relies on information provided by the United States. Already there is talk about increasing the defense budget, with press reports that North Korea's launch "bolstered the morale of the Self-defense Forces," as the Japanese military is called.
In a poll by the Yomiuri released Monday, 88 percent of respondents said they felt insecure because of North Korea's rocket launch, and 78 percent opted for strong sanctions.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/08/2009 00:00 ||
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Just in time then???
WORLD MIL FORUM > IIUC CHINA: THREE KINDS OF SINO-JAPANESE PRIMARY WAR CONTINGENCY SCENARIOS/MODELS SHOULD PLAN ON PREVENTING US MILITARY INTERVENTION ON THE SIDE OF JAPAN [ve pre-existing US-Nippon Treatises], OR IN THE ALTERNATE SCHEME FOR THE COMPLETE DESTRUCTION OF ALL OF JAPAN'S MAJOR CITIES BY NUCLEAR ATTACK [approxi 25 major Japanese cities] REGARDLESS OF US MILITARY INTERVENTION. China should immediately target the USA for nuclear attack after it successfully destroy's Japan's cities = wipes out Japanese civilization???
Their arming of rogue states like North Korea and Pakistan with missile and nuclear technology may have caused pain to regional rivals like Japan and India but have had the effect of causing those nations to engage in an arms buildup aimed at China itself.
In the late 1950s, India's Nehru was strongly anti-military. He resisted nuclear weapons and wanted to disband the Indian army
Soon after Independence the first commander-in-chief of the Indian armed forces, General Sir Robert Lockhart, presented a paper outlining a plan for the growth of the Indian Army to Prime Minister Nehru.
Nehru's reply: "We don't need a defence plan. Our policy is non-violence. We foresee no military threats. You can scrap the army. The police are good enough to meet our security needs."
He didn't waste much time. On September 16, 1947, he directed that the army's then strength of 280,000 be brought down to 150,000. Even in fiscal 1950-51, when the Chinese threat had begun to loom large on the horizon, 50,000 army personnel were sent home as per his original plan to disband the armed forces.
After Independence, he once noticed a few men in uniform in a small office the army had in North Block, and angrily had them evicted.
Then the Chinese attacked.
Though India tested a nuclear device in 1974, it actually had no deployable weapons. It was only in the late 1980s that Rajiv Gandhi ordered weaponization, in response to Chinese help to the Pakistani nuclear program.
The Chinese supply of missiles to Pakistan and their testing triggered the Indian nuclear tests and massive increase in the development of missiles by India.
There are now nuclear missiles aimed at targets in China.
And now they provoke the Japanese
Posted by: john frum ||
04/08/2009 7:31 Comments ||
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Hmmm, you menace your neighbors and they take measures to protect themselves. Whoah, that's like some weird cause & effect thing!
#4
So if Kimmie goes nuclear it seems only logical that Japan will follow. Only thing is, the Japanese will have far greater technical expertise and resources to develop a truly effective deterrent, especially if they get the idea that Bambi is a soft headed moron without the will to help them. And then, of course, there is Taiwan. And what would be the chance that all of these people are talking to each other about the "China problem"? Maybe even considering some kind of a collective response? Good one, China. Did you think all these people would just lay down and die for you? But then, our own government for the past few decades has been appeasing them and sending them our money as fast as we could. Maybe somebody thought they'd be our friends if we did but I don't get a real friendly kind of a vibe from them.
#5
This all fits into the pattern of Japanese military rearmament of the past 2 decades : Clinton was seen as weak on the NKors so the Japanese started really pumping their close-in air defense, and building more capable frigates and destroyers. Under Bush, the Japanese were invited into Ballistic Missile Defense development and started deploying Patriot PAC3 batteries and upgrading ship defenses to Standard Mark 3. Now, with Obambi's limp response to the NKor launches, we can expect to see a lot more of the new "helo carrier" class of destroyers appearing in the Japanese Navy, and a BIG push for an all-Japanese BMD setup to protect Japan and its immediate 200 mile Nautical Zone. The Japanese tend to field really good equipment that is never exported, so the rest of the world tends to underestimate just capable the Japanese equipment is.
#6
The Japanese have the M5 SLV, a 2.5m diameter solid booster that can loft 1.8 tons into orbit.
A heavy ICBM of the MX class would not be difficult for them.
Japan has 50 tons of Plutonium. They have an advanced ICF program and are considered a virtual thermonuclear superpower.
If they made the decision, they could build a large arsenal (thousands) of high yield thermonuclear weapons and be able to deliver them anywhere.
The Chinese arsenal would pale in comparison.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/08/2009 18:23 Comments ||
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#7
Look at all the actions in the last couple of weeks with the Big O. He does all this limp wristed grovelling Marxist globalist tranzi actions that project weakness. And now the Norks have woke up the Japanese from their pacifist sleep. At least they have a collective survival instinct.
The Big O is playing T-ball in a hard ball world.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/08/2009 19:09 Comments ||
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Yonhap: A North Korean commercial vessel that set sail for the Pacific Ocean with a mission to locate a rocket that the North launched over the weekend turned back with mechanical trouble, Yonhap News Agency reported Tuesday.
''We don't clearly know the mechanical problem that appears to have prevented the ship from further sailing,'' an unidentified South Korean official was quoted as saying.
Made it tough to collect telemetry. Wonder if they told Kimmie?
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/08/2009 00:00 ||
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[Kyodo: Korea] North KoreaŽs state-run television station on Tuesday broadcast video footage of SundayŽs rocket launch by the country, which Pyongyang says put a satellite into orbit. In its news broadcast in the evening, Korean Central Television Station showed the white three-stage rocket blast off into the sky.
Said Namouh's computer held all sorts of videos, of American soldiers being blown up, the executions of "infidels" and a how-to guide on suicide attacks. But are these "jihadi" videos, and hundreds of online conversations drawn from the basement computer of the Moroccan native the underpinnings of terrorism, or were they simply the goings-on of a man practising his right to free expression? It's a central question to a case unfolding in a Montreal courtroom that is challenging the constitutionality of Canada's terror laws.
"This whole business of promoting and advocating jihad is the heart of the case," said Namouh's lawyer, René Duval, outside the courtroom yesterday. "They believe my client has advocated criminal acts through jihad by putting things on the Internet."
Duval contends that the terror laws, pushed through Parliament following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, contravene the constitutional rights to freedom of expression and religion. "They have the potential to catch both speech that is acceptable and that which is not," Duval said.
Namouh faces charges of conspiracy as well as participating in and facilitating the activities of a terrorist group, and extortion on behalf of a terrorist group. The Crown says Namouh, 36, was a key member of the Global Islamic Media Front, considered a major propaganda arm of such terrorist groups as Al Qaeda. It's alleged Namouh edited, subtitled and disseminated many of the videos himself.
A resident of Maskinongé, about 100 kilometres northeast of Montreal, Namouh was arrested on Sept. 13, 2007, for his alleged role in plotting terror attacks in Germany and Austria over their military role in Afghanistan.
Yesterday's court proceedings revolved heavily around whether actions targeted by the legislation are forms of expression protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms because they don't involve violence. Judge Claude Leblond asked Duval if speech that encourages people to be martyrs or jihadists "is speech that supports and does not undermine freedom of expression?"
"It's a genre of speech that is better controlled in the market of ideas than by legislation," Duval replied. Earlier, Duval told the judge, "when we criminalize propaganda, we criminalize a form of speech."
Crown prosecutor Dominique Dudemaine, however, said the basic concept of jihad, which can be interpreted as "struggle," is not what the legislation is aimed at. It's the "incitement to blow something up." Dudemaine referred to judgments that have upheld Canada's terror laws, including last fall's conviction of Momin Khawaja, the first person charged under the Anti-Terrorism Act. Khawaja was found guilty of financing and facilitating terrorism and was sentenced last month to 10 1/2 years in prison. On balance, Dudemaine said, "the legislation is valid because it doesn't infringe on any rights."
Among the many videos the Crown attributes to Namouh is one of BBC journalist Alan Johnston, kidnapped in Gaza in 2007 by the Army of Islam, a group affiliated with GIMF. (Johnston has been since freed.)
ISLAMABAD - American policies are not of a friend but of a foe and Richard Holbrooke and Mike Mullen are in Pakistan to put a price on our loyalty to our religion and the Islamic State of Pakistan but we are not a saleable commodity. Federal Minister for Science & Technology Azam Khan Swati while commenting on the recent visit of the American military and political leadership to Pakistan said this on Tuesday.
According to a press release issued here, Swati said that NATOs presence in the region was a great threat to the very existence of Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and Iran as well. American policies aim to dismantle Pakistan, neutralise Iran and contain China to make India a regional superpower to achieve her objectives, he added.
He said Obamas administration was following the conspiracy hatched by George W Bush, Cheney and Rumsfield and would lead America towards destruction. He added the US policy aimed to destroy Pak Armed Forces, marginalise state-of-the-art security agency, ISI, and ruin Pakistan. Yeah. Sy Hersh told him...
To achieve its objectives, Americans are spreading hatred in the mind and heart of the people of world by portraying Islamists as cruel, inhuman and threat to humanity, and are trying to divide Pakistani nation on religious basis, the Minister said. He added that the people of Pakistan would foil their nefarious designs, as the people of NWFP and Fata were peace-loving and practical Muslims and would never succumb to the pressure of foreign force.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/08/2009 12:58 ||
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I don't want to "break up" Pakistan, I want to thoroughly eradicate it. Idiots like this one are part of the reason why.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/08/2009 18:03 Comments ||
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Taliban militants in Pakistan's tribal region have decided to shelve plans to kill Canadian hostage Beverly Giesbrecht, but her captors are apparently still holding out for a ransom before releasing her. "After broad-based consultations, the Shura [leadership council] has postponed indefinitely the plan to kill the woman," said Qari, a close associate of Taliban commander Gul Bahadur, who asked to be identified by his first name only.
The abduction of Ms. Giesbrecht, 53, has become a sensitive issue, and tribesmen of the embattled area are reluctant to speak on the matter openly. However, some locals said that while there is no hard information about her release, it could come at any time. In a video released last month, the West Vancouver resident said her captors warned that they would behead her if their demands for $375,000 (U.S.) weren't met by the end of March. That deadline was later extended to April 6.
She was seized at gunpoint in the Bannu region of northern Pakistan in November. The local government offered the captors a lower amount of money for her release, but it was rejected as "too little to be considered," according to both a Taliban source and a tribal elder negotiating her release. "For the time being, we failed to patch up the deal to secure her release," said a tribal elder who is part of the negotiation team and who did not want his name revealed. "But I am optimistic she will be freed."
Ms. Giesbrecht is a convert to Islam who also calls herself Khadija Abdul Qahaar. She publishes a pro-Islamic website, Jihad Unspun, and went to Pakistan last summer to conduct research as a freelance journalist.
When asked about reports of her deteriorating health, the tribal elder said: "I have not met or seen her, but we are told that she often feels weak and unwell."
Neither sources within the Taliban nor the tribal negotiator would reveal any information about her translator or driver, who were also abducted. Taliban officials have previously said their fate would be decided once Ms. Giesbrecht's situation is resolved.
The Canadian embassy in Islamabad has been working behind the scenes with Pakistani authorities to help secure her release. "We are in contact with all the concerned Pakistani authorities. And it is the prime responsibility of the host country to protect the lives and properties of guests," an official with the Canadian embassy said yesterday.
An official with the local government administration in North Waziristan, a rugged region along the Afghan border, said they were "making all-out efforts to get her out from their [Taliban] captivity at every cost."
#3
Perhaps the Taliban hostage takers have been able to collect a few thousand dollars and they figure maybe they can get the $375k a few thousand per month forever.
#4
go ahead, we double-dog-dare-ya, ya cowards with weak moustaches
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/08/2009 14:29 Comments ||
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Bummer. No ransom money and if you whack her it just gets lost in the undending stream of news stories of muslims killing muslims. Some days it just don't pay to get out of bed.
#6
Ms. Giesbrecht is a convert to Islam who also calls herself Khadija Abdul Qahaar. She publishes a pro-Islamic website, Jihad Unspun
I'd chip in to pay them to keep her.
[The News (Pak)] The Lahore High Court on Monday admitted for regular hearing a petition challenging the detention of the aeer of the banned Jamat-ud-Daawa, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, and three other leaders Col (retd) Nazeer Ahmad, Mufti Abdul Rehman and Ameer Hamza.
The court directed the provincial government to file its reply regarding the detention of these persons till April 16. The court has fixed April 20 for further proceedings on the petition. The court turned down the request of petitioner counsel A.K Dogar requesting for production of Hafiz Saeed before the court and hold proceedings in his presence.
On this point, the court sought reply from the provincial government. Punjab acting advocate general Hanif Khatana informed the court that due to security reasons Hafiz Saeed could not be produced. After the statement of Mr. Khatana, the court, if need be, will hear Hafiz Saeed in person.
Mr. Dogar moved the petition under Article 199(1)(b)(i) of the constitution seeking directions that the petitioners in custody within territorial jurisdiction of the court be brought before it so that the court might satisfy itself that they were being held in custody without lawful authority and in an unlawful manner.
He said that the detention of the petitioners issued on Jan-9 and March-9, 2009 by the Home Department were without lawful authority and of no legal effect. He submitted that Hafiz Saeed had earlier been detained by the government of Pervez Musharraf but was released by of the Lahore High Court observing that there was no allegation on the record against the petitioner or his organization.
The counsel said the LHC had also observed that JD had never been involved in any terrorist activities in Pakistan and no FIR had ever been registered against his organization or any of the persons under arrest. He said there was no finding of any blood-shed, terrorism or destruction of property anywhere in the country. He claimed that the JD was an independent organization and it had no connection with Lashkar-e-Tayyaba.
He said on January 9, 2009, the Punjab home secretary had passed another order of two-month detention against Hafiz Saeed, Col. Nazeer Ahmad, Ameer Hamza, Qazi Kashif, Mufti Abdul Rehman and Qari Yaseen Baloch.
He said for their release a representation was filed before the home department, Punjab, which remained pending for quite some time but no action was taken upon it. Later, a petition was filed before the LHC which was disposed of on the ground that the home department secretary would decide the matter within one week.
Since the period of two months came to an end, a review board comprising three judges of the Lahore High Court on March 9, held in camera proceedings during which even the counsel was not allowed to represent the petitioners.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Heat's off boyz. Back to Death to Hindus! with yuz.
Posted by: ed ||
04/08/2009 1:17 Comments ||
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[The News (Pak)] The Jamaat-e-Islami has expressed grave concern over a video clip showing alleged flogging of a girl being aired constantly by different TV channels despite that "it was seriously disliked and public protests were held to condemn it."
"It appears that the rigorous publicity campaign of the video aims at preventing president Asif Zardari from signing the Nizam-e-Adl Ordinance or to create hurdles in the way of Shariah enforcement in NWFP," says JI central Shoora in a resolution passed in its ongoing meeting at Mansoorah chaired by ameer Syed Munawwar Hasan.
The Shoora said the video looked a conspiracy instead of some humanitarian effort, which would neither benefit the people of Swat nor help in establishing supremacy of law and eliminating the prevailing anarchy in the area.
The resolution demanded immediate implementation of the Nizam-e-Adl Ordinance and the peace agreement already announced by the government. It expressed concern over the delay in implementation of Nizam-e-Adl and reminded that it had been a longstanding demand of the people of the area. These people have been suffering from lawlessness for the past few years, particularly during the military operation of the last year, but they witnessed peace after the peace agreement signed between government and Maulana Soofi Mohammad.
The Shoora also expressed concern over the increasing murder and looting incidents in Dir Paeen district, bordering district Swat, and cited an incident in which former district Nazim and JI leader Alam Zeb Khan, his brother, district Police officer and his companion were ruthlessly murdered in broad daylight. Their killers were not apprehended.
A six-member team of the United Nations (UN) arrived in Islamabad on Tuesday, to prepare the ground for an international fact-finding commission to look into the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
According to sources, the UN investigation team -- during its three-day stay in Pakistan -- would meet senior officials from various ministries. The team would also meet police and officials from law-enforcement agencies. An inspection of the site where Benazir was assassinated on December 27, 2007, is also on the agenda of the team -- which includes legal experts, field support, political experts and consultants.
The sources said the six-member team, headed by Mark Quarterman, would prepare a review report on technical and security assistance that would be handed over to the central commission on April 10. The government has provided the team with tight security.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2009 00:00 ||
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[7 views]
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#1
A year and a half later? Did they walk to Pakistan?
This must've been put on the UN "fast track".
US Senator Carl Levin, head of the Armed Services Committee, has said that the Obama administration should not link its efforts in Afghanistan too closely with Pakistan. "The evidence is mixed as to whether or not the government in Pakistan is going to take on the religious extremists," Levin told the National Public Radio on Monday. "The border is wide open now. Extremists are flowing across that border into Afghanistan; Pakistan has not done anything to stop them," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2009 00:00 ||
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[5 views]
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Baitullah Mehsud's claims of responsibility for a series of terrorist attacks in Pakistan may indicate jockeying for power among militant groups, analysts say.
"There is an internal power struggle going on now," a former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) station chief in Peshawar told MSNBC. "When [Mehsud] thinks that someone new is coming up and could overshadow him, he kills him."
Mehsud first gained attention by sending suicide bombers into Afghanistan to attack US and NATO forces. Then in 2007 he declared war on Pakistan, forming the Tehreek-e-Taliban to target the Pakistan Army for supporting the US in Afghanistan.
A former Mehsud lieutenant from another tribe first claimed responsibility for the attack. That seemed to have forced Mehsud to quickly call local reporters and take 'ownership'. The two commanders often argue, according to a Taliban leader. "The Lahore attack could have been his [Mehsud's] idea, but he could not have done it without some help from the Punjabis," said a Pakistani intelligence official. "What's more, all of these Punjabi groups have splintered and shifted in part out of the Punjab and into the Tribal Areas to band, but not always bond, with the Pakistani Taliban and Al Qaeda. ... Mehsud has become very powerful among the tribal militants, but he may be feeling the heat from the Punjabis. ... They are better trained .... and perhaps even more motivated than his men. While there is increasing coordination among the groups, all of them may not want to take orders from him."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2009 00:00 ||
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[4 views]
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#1
Because he feels secure his Paki intel buddies won't inform the Americans of his location.
Posted by: ed ||
04/08/2009 1:23 Comments ||
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#3
but he may be feeling the heat from the Punjabis. ... They are better trained .... and perhaps even more motivated than his men. While there is increasing coordination among the groups, all of them may not want to take orders from him."
The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the government's petition seeking the cancellation of bail of the former chief cleric of the Lal Masjid.
A two-member bench comprising Justice Javed Iqbal and Justice Ijaz Ahmed also adjourned until April 9 the hearing of a petition of the cleric, Abdul Aziz for grant of bail in the Children's Library case.
In June 2008, a division bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) accepted Aziz's bail in four cases, including the murder of a paramilitary official, abduction of police personnel and Chinese citizens. The government had filed an appeal in the SC seeking cancellation of the bail granted by the IHC, which the court dismissed on April 7.
Another IHC division bench in July 2008 rejected a bail plea in the alleged forcible occupation of the Children's Library in Islamabad after which Aziz moved the SC. Aziz had been granted bail in 25 of a total of 27 cases against, while he was acquitted in one case.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2009 00:00 ||
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While stressing that it was an unlikely event, US Vice President Joe Biden issued a high-level admonishment to the new government, saying on Tuesday night that Israel would be "ill-advised" to carry out a military strike against Iran. Just get on the train, Juden!
#4
"You don't want a messianic apocalyptic cult controlling atomic bombs. When the wide-eyed believer gets hold of the reins of power and the weapons of mass death, then the entire world should start worrying, and that is what is happening...
Relax, Joe, he's talking about Iran, not your boss. Get ahold of yourself...
A day after US President Barack Obama reiterated his commitment to the Annapolis process and the road map peace plan, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Tuesday that the new government will formulate a diplomatic program compatible with the wishes of the electorate.
But the world "should not stand over us with a stopwatch," he added in an address at an Israel Beiteinu forum in Jerusalem.
Saying that after 16 years of a diplomatic "dead end" in the peace process, the world must be ready to listen to new ideas
Cheez, telling the truth isn't going to get him very far as a diplomat ...
[Jerusalem Post Front Page] Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas received guarantees of weapons and helicopters from Russia during his recent trip to Moscow, Israel Radio reported Tuesday.
According to the report, Russia vowed to supply the PA with 5,000 Kalashnikov machine guns, 300 rifles, 100 hand guns and two helicopters to shuttle Palestinian leaders from Ramallah to Amman.
Also Tuesday, the radio station quoted Abbas as saying that the 25 armored personnel carriers Israel had permitted the PA to receive from Russia would soon arrive in the West Bank.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told Abbas in Moscow on Monday that Russia would "support the Middle East settlement and, in particular, the creation of a Palestinian state."
[Straits Times] A SENIOR Philippines official on Tuesday warned the families of two Red Cross aid workers and the Swiss and Italian governments against paying ransoms to Islamic militants holding them hostage.
The group that kidnapped Swiss national Andreas Notter and Italian Eugenio Vagni has repeatedly said it is not seeking ransom money. But Filipino officials say they fear a Singaporean militant working with the kidnappers may be secretly negotiating by telephone with the relatives of the two Red Cross workers.
'Don't pay a ransom because that will only lead to more kidnappings in the future,' Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno said. 'We cannot be sure that they (the kidnappers) are not talking with certain parties from afar which they are not telling us about.'
Notter and Vagni were abducted while on a humanitarian mission on the southern island of Jolo on January 15 with a Filipina Red Cross aid worker, who was eventually released unharmed last week.
The Abu Sayyaf, the group behind the kidnappings, has threatened to behead one of its captives unless the military cedes Jolo. So far, the government has refused.
The group is blamed for many of the worst terrorist attacks in the Philippines, but Puno said the kidnappers only had two objectives in mind - ransom and escape.
'Of the two, the most important to them is their escape. So they cannot collect a ransom unless they are assured of their escape.' He said a number of local officials had been given leave to conduct negotiations, but that they had been told not to promise money in return for the hostages' release.
Puno said one of the authorised government negotiators, provincial vice governor Nur-Ana Sahidulla, is scheduled to resume contact with the gunmen on Wednesday.
Posted by: ||
04/08/2009 00:00 ||
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[The Hindu International] Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said on Monday "the mythical belief that the LTTE is unconquerable" was shattered.
Mr. Rajapaksa's declaration came a day after the military claimed it had captured the last stretch of LTTE-held land outside the government demarcated 20 sq. km. "No-Fire Zone" (NFZ).
Coinciding with the President's declaration on "defeat" of the Tigers, the military said it had launched the "largest humanitarian intervention by a conventional military force in modern time" to rescue civilians trapped in the NFZ. The forces believe that an estimated 500 leaders and cadre of the LTTE, including Velupillai Prabakaran, have fled into the NFZ and taken shelter among an estimated 50,000 to 1,00,000 stranded citizens.
Mr. Rajapaksa said many past leaders were suspicious of the strength of the military in defeating terrorism and believed a war with the Tigers was un-winnable.
In its first reaction to military claims on ouster of Tigers from the area outside the NFZ, pro-LTTE TamilNet contradicted the claims saying the main LTTE fighting formations were in a territory outside the NFZ.
The website further charged that the SLA has stepped up attacks on civilians inside the NFZ killing at least 71 civilians and leaving 143 injured.
The military separately claimed that 2,127 civilians, including 919 children, had fled from the LTTE and had sought protection with 58 Division troops at Ampalavanpokkanai, Mullaithivu.
Sri Lanka Navy said that the eighteenth batch of 497 patients and civilians was evacuated on April 4. The evacuation of patients and civilians trapped in the un-cleared areas in Mullathivu is being carried out under the ICRC flag.
The author of six books published in eight countries, Kola Boof is not only Sudan's top selling novelist, but in 1996, was the mistress of Osama Bin Laden.....a fact that jeopardized her American citizenship four years ago, until Morocco's Prince Fabrizzio Ruspolli confirmed Boof's claim that she had been held against her will by Bin Laden at Ruspoli's estate for sexual purposes.
In her memoir, Diary of a Lost Girl, coming Feb. 1st in hardcover (0-9712019-8-6), Boof reveals a side of the terror chief that's never been explored before. In a telephone interview, I learned a few things that I never expected to find out...such as where he's been hiding.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/08/2009 17:45 ||
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#1
Morocco's Prince Fabrizzio Ruspolli
This is a historical figure from the Battle of Lepanto. Of course, the article is from blacknews.com, which is a site I've never heard of.
The restaurant was closed on my next visit and now, some 20 years later, it has been beautifully renovated by Fabrizio Ruspoli. Fabrizio is an Italian prince - or if he isn't, he could be. In the hotel hall there hangs a portrait of his grandfather, Edmondo, outdoing any mere Gainsborough boy in the elegance of his ruffs and lace.
Ruspoli is, in any case, part of the expatriate landscape: his grandmother was a redoubtable figure in Tangier's highly competitive society, his aunt kept wolfhounds on her farm in the Ourika valley, and all the great restaurants nearby, such as Charles de Poso's Villa Rosa, seem to be run by his devoted friends.
La Maison Arabe has just 11 rooms and serves no meals, aside from breakfast and tea. It has no pool but instead boasts a succession of elegant, well- connected guests.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/08/2009 20:25 Comments ||
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#3
And she is apparently
Probably born on March 3 (exact date unknown)...definitely born as Naima Bint Harith,
At a restaurant she meets Osama Bin Laden. He decides that he wants to have her as one of his "pets". He has his men bring her over to his table at the restaurant--he does not care that Naima is with a date already. He can make her life hell in Marrakech if she does not comply. He goes to visit her at her hotel. He takes her against her will. He continues to visit her. He goes back and forth to Sudan but he moves Naima to a suite at the La Maison Arabe and comes whenever he likes for four months. Naima is not allowed to go anywhere but to shop. Sometimes, he beats her, because she is not easily penetrated by him and doesn't want to have sex because of pain. When the police arrive they only tell him to beat her "more quietly". After four months of sexual experience with Bin Laden....Naima doesn't see him for two months straight. He informs her by phone that their fling is over. She is to move out of the suite--he wants to install another girl.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/08/2009 20:28 Comments ||
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The Washoe County School District in the Reno area will give Egyptian former student Jana Elhifny $350,000 and her non-Muslim friend and supporter Stephanie Hart $50,000 as part of the civil settlement.
Elhifny and her family came to Reno from Egypt in 2003, and the girl enrolled as a freshman at North Valleys High School. She didn't finish the year after she told teachers and administrators that someone had threatened to kill her in the stairwell because of her Muslim hijab or head scarf, the district's independent attorney in the case, Robert Cox, told FOXNews.com.
Shortly afterwards, Cox said, Elhifny filed the lawsuit and returned to Egypt, where she married her fiancé.
The lawsuit, handled by U.S. District Court in Reno, alleges that Elhifny faced death threats and harassment and school administrators did nothing to stop the abuse.
Cox said that wasn't true, and the teen was unable to give any description of her tormenter -- including his or her gender, size and tone of voice.
Maybe he was veiled?
He said the high school tried to investigate her claims but was unsuccessful because of the lack of information. "The district did an incredibly thorough investigation," Cox told FOXNews.com in a phone interview. "They could never identify the person who perpetrated these acts. ... The district did everything it could do to try to help this young woman who is an Egyptian and of the Islam faith."
"Ms. Elhifny and Ms. Hart had the courage to stand up for themselves and defend their right to a safe education," said Peter Obstler, a San Francisco attorney who handled the young women's lawsuits with the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada.
Apparently so did the district. In what way did they fail? Sounds like more legal 'extortion' ...
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.
International navies will fail in their bid to eradicate Somali piracy if they do not commit more towards assisting the local authorities on the ground, the northern region of Puntland said Tuesday.
[Beirut Daily Star: Region] Sudan's embattled president told a rally on Tuesday that his own officials would track down war criminals in Darfur, dismissing Western attempts to bring justice to the region.
[Bangla Daily Star] Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today said in the House that Opposition Leader Khaleda Zia's remarks on the February 25-26 Pilkhana carnage were provocative and motivated. In her speech right after the speech of Khaleda Zia, the leader of the House said the people wanted to know whether the former PM wanted to spread a civil war in the country on failure to grab power.
Views are gaining ground among politicians in Seoul that South Korea needs to extend the range of its ballistic missiles now that North Korea's launch of a long-range rocket has shown its own can fly thousands of miles.
North Korea on Tuesday released a video clip of leader Kim Jong-il looking frail but healthy. The official Korean Central Television broadcast no footage of Kim between last August, when he apparently had a stroke, and November, when he resumed duties.
[The News (Pak)] The Lahore High Court on Monday admitted for regular hearing a petition challenging the detention of the aeer of the banned Jamat-ud-Daawa, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, and three other leaders Col (retd) Nazeer Ahmad, Mufti Abdul Rehman and Ameer Hamza. 
Baitullah Mehsud's claims of responsibility for a series of terrorist attacks in Pakistan may indicate jockeying for power among militant groups, analysts say.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the government's petition seeking the cancellation of bail of the former chief cleric of the Lal Masjid.
