U.S. troops in Afghanistan could soon be awarded a medal for not doing something, a precedent-setting award that would be given for courageous restraint' for holding fire to save civilian lives.
The proposal is now circulating in the Kabul headquarters of the International Security Assistance Force, a command spokesman confirmed Tuesday.
The idea is consistent with our approach,' explained Air Force Lt. Col. Tadd Sholtis. Our young men and women display remarkable courage every day, including situations where they refrain from using lethal force, even at risk to themselves, in order to prevent possible harm to civilians. In some situations our forces face in Afghanistan, that restraint is an act of discipline and courage not much different than those seen in combat actions.'
Soldiers are often recognized for non-combat achievement with decorations such as their service's commendation medal. But most of the highest U.S. military decorations are for valor in combat. A medal to recognize a conscious effort to avoid a combat action would be unique.
Consideration of such an award, first reported by an Associated Press reporter in Afghanistan, doesn't mean that, if approved, troops would be pressured to prevent such casualties at risk to themselves, Sholtis said.
We absolutely support the right of our forces to defend themselves,' Sholtis said. Valuing restraint in a potentially dangerous situation is not the same thing as denying troops the right to employ lethal force when they determine that it is necessary.'
A spokesman for the 2.2 million-member Veterans of Foreign Wars, the nation's largest group of combat veterans, thinks the award would cause confusion among the ranks and send a bad signal.
The self-protections built into the rules of engagement are clear, and the decision to return fire must be made instantly based on training and the threat,' said Joe Davis, a spokesman for the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The enemy already hides among noncombatants, and targets them, too. The creation of such an award will only embolden their actions and put more American and noncombatant lives in jeopardy. Let's not rush to create something that no one wants to present posthumously.'
Giving a medal for restraint was proposed by British Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, ISAF's Regional Command South commander, during a recent visit to Kandahar by Army Command Sgt. Maj. Mike Hall, the top U.S. enlisted member in Afghanistan, Sholtis said.
U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the ISAF commander, has placed a premium on preventing civilian deaths, having last year tightened the rules of engagement for air strikes and other combat operations in an effort to prevent fatalities. Such deaths build resentment among a populace the U.S. is trying to win over as part of its counterinsurgency strategy to simultaneously drive out the Taliban and strengthen Afghan government.
According to the United Nations, more than 2,400 civilians were killed last year, although estimates vary widely. From March 21 to April 21, 173 civilians were killed in Afghanistan a 33 percent increase over the same period the previous year according to the Associated Press, citing Afghan Interior Ministry figures.
#2
Soldiers do not look highly on such crap, as any soldier stupid enough to sport such a "decoration" will quickly discover. While they may put it in their 201 file, they will neglect to wear it on their dress uniform.
Nor will they put it on their resumes. Officers will join in, and issue the citation as punishment for bad behavior, and that will kill it quickly. "You screw up one more time, and you won't get an Article 15. I'll issue you a "courageous restraint" award, in front of your unit."
KABUL (AP) -- Afghanistan's opium yield is likely to drop as much as 30 percent this year because blight is destroying fields full of poppies in the south -- driving up prices amid a countrywide push to grow legal crops, a U.N. official said Thursday.
Higher prices also could mean more money pouring in to the Taliban, which funds much of its insurgency with profits from the drug. Afghanistan supplies 90 percent of the world's opium, the main ingredient in heroin.
The blight, which turns the poppy plants black as they apparently rot from the inside, has hit about half of the poppy crop growing in the northern part of Helmand province -- the center of Afghanistan's poppy production, said Jean-Luc Lemahieu, the top official for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Afghanistan. It is also significantly affecting crops in southern Helmand and in neighboring Kandahar province, he said.
The lower yield on the surface seems to be a boost to reducing opium poppy cultivation, but it is leading to wild price speculation that instead could encourage farmers to plant more poppy next year.
The price of fresh opium has jumped 57 percent from last year to about $85 a kilogram in April, while dry opium prices are up 37 percent, according to U.N. data.
Prices spiked similarly in 2001 to 2003, peaking at just over $300 a kilogram and sparking a surge in opium poppy cultivation over the next few years. That followed the former Taliban regime's virtual eradication of opium growing during its last year in power before it was ousted in 2001.
"We are monitoring those prices with the utmost caution because the last thing we'd like to witness is another gold rush as during 2001-2003," Lemahieu said.
A spokesman for the Afghan Counter Narcotics Ministry said that higher prices mean interdiction efforts will get more difficult.
Zalmai Afzali said a team for the ministry working on poppy eradication was just attacked in eastern Nangarhar province a few weeks ago and more funds for the insurgents will likely mean more attacks.
The Afghan government has made progress in recent years in getting provinces declared "poppy-free" and by offering incentives to switch to legal crops.
However, the poppy crop in Helmand and Kandahar has proved stubbornly resilient despite falling prices and stepped-up interdiction efforts. The U.N. had previously forecast that this year's opium poppy yields would remain in line with last year.
It is still unclear what is causing the blight, including whether it is a disease or a small insect. U.N. workers have collected samples since it started showing up a month ago and sent them to labs in India for analysis.
Though there has been speculation that a poppy-killing blight could have been introduced in secret by NATO forces, Lemahieu said this was unlikely.
"My inclination is that this is natural," Lemahieu said. He noted that a blight that appears to be similar has hit Myanmar and India, and said there are some indications that it is also affecting other crops, including fruit trees like apricot and apple.
A spokesman for NATO and U.S. forces rejected outright the idea of a military plot by NATO's International Security Assistance Force.
"The idea that NATO or ISAF could be responsible is absolutely ludicrous," Col. Wayne Shanks said. "We are not in the eradication business. What we do is take action where we see the nexus between the insurgency and the drug trade." This means going after financing or interdiction of those smuggling the drugs.
Farmers' crop calculus could go many ways next year -- they could decide the higher price is worth the risk of planting an illegal crop, they could feel they have no other option but to plant high-price opium poppies if there other fields have been decimated, or worries about a return of blight could discourage poppy planting.
"The farmer might be scratching his head and saying 'I can earn a fortune but I can also lose it all," Lemahieu said.
The U.N. hopes that widespread efforts to step up interdiction and introduce alternative crops will hold, but the higher price could provide a hard-to-combat incentive.
"This short term gain could turn around with a vengeance if the licit crops are suffering, if the speculation is not tempered," he added.
The Russkies have a serious heroin problem. Which along with their muzzie problems is why they've grudgingly been participating by providing supply routes into the theater of operations. Google 'Russian heroin problem'
#4
I seem to recall the "Talib" opium traffickers had about a two-year supply in their warehouses. If so, short term (for two years) this isn't a real issue on the supply side, although I'm sure they'll happily accept panic-driven price rises... the better to finance jihad with, my dears.
[Al Arabiya Latest] U.S. President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai presented a united front on Wednesday in a bid to show they had patched over differences at a pivotal time in the nearly nine-year-old war.
The leaders met amid pomp at the White House after awkward public exchanges which strained their alliance and complicated Obama's gamble on a 30,000 strong troop surge designed to forge a U.S. exit from the Afghan battlefield.
Obama insisted that flared tensions between the U.S. and Afghan governments were "overstated."
"There are going to be tensions in such a complicated, difficult environment and in a situation in which, on the ground, both Afghans and Americans are making enormous sacrifices," Obama said.
"With respect to perceived tensions between the U.S. government and the Afghan government ... a lot of them were simply overstated."
The leaders met in the Oval Office then held a press conference, which was both a public bonding session and an effort by Obama to convince wary Americans that the grinding progress of a war now in its ninth year was genuine.
Karzai, who was once seen as a great hope for Afghanistan and is now viewed with mistrust by many in Washington, put on an assured political performance, at odds with his tirades just weeks ago against foreign interference.
His latest appearance in the White House came nearly nine years after the September 11 attacks, which prompted the United States to launch war in Afghanistan and Pakistan border areas against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
Karzai also shrugged off recent spats.
"We are in a campaign against terrorism together, there are days that we are happy. There are days that we are not happy," said Karzai wearing his trademark green cloak and sheepskin hat in the ornate East Room of the White House.
Only weeks ago, top Obama aides said Karzai's claims that foreigners plotted fraud in Afghan elections were cause for "genuine" concern, and said before the president was in Kabul in March that Karzai must do more to fight corruption.
But on Wednesday, Obama smoothed over that row, noting "progress" by Karzai on anti-corruption efforts, improving governance and working towards credible parliamentary elections later this year.
"Of course, President Karzai and I both acknowledge that much more work needs to be done," he said.
Karzai pointedly promised to husband billions of dollars of U.S. aid.
"I can reassure you that we will work with dedication and extreme care to have those resources spent well and in place for a better future for the Afghan people."
Obama said that he was confident that slow but steady progress would allow him to meet his goal of beginning to draw down U.S. troop numbers by July 2011, and was also "encouraged" by Pakistan's actions against extremists.
An extraordinary moment
In one extraordinary moment, Karzai and Obama stood face to face, a few feet apart, as the Afghan leader described his encounter with a wounded U.S. warrior at a military hospital on Tuesday.
"It was a very difficult moment for me, Mr. President ... a very, very young man, who had lost two arms and legs. It was heart-rending."
In another overt show of respect for U.S. "sacrifices," Karzai was Thursday due to visit Arlington Cemetery where many U.S. Afghan war dead are buried.
Obama also provided an emotionally charged moment, offering Karzai, who has complained repeatedly at Afghan civilian casualties, a glimpse of the burden of being commander-in-chief.
"Let me be very clear about what I told President Karzai. When there is a civilian casualty, that is not just a political problem for me.
"I am ultimately accountable ... that is something that I have to carry with me.... I don't want civilians killed," he said.
Many observers believe that the Afghan war and the troop surge counter-insurgency strategy unveiled last year will go a long way to deciding the fate of Obama's presidency.
Addressing Americans directly, Obama said he was "more convinced than ever that we have found a difficult, but appropriate, strategy for pursuing those goals."
But despite the show of unity between the leaders, nagging questions remain over whether Karzai is willing or able to follow through on his commitments.
It is also uncertain that after years of heavy fighting, that U.S. and allied troops will be able to prevent militants reinfiltrating captured territory, or if Afghan security forces and institutions will prove able to lock in gains.
Obama also voiced support for Karzai's efforts to woo wavering Taliban members back into Afghan society, but only if they renounced Al-Qaeda and violence.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2010 00:00 ||
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[Maghrebia] Nasser al-Bahri spent several years working as Osama bin Laden's bodyguard, fighting alongside the al-Qaeda leader in Afghanistan and helping him enlist and indoctrinate youth from Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Following a disagreement with bin Laden, al-Bahri left al-Qaeda and returned to Yemen in 2000, where he was imprisoned for 18 months and then released as a reformed jihadist.
Al-Bahri today is still reaching out to youth, albeit for a different reason: to dissuade them from choosing the path of violence.
In interviews with media outlets, al-Bahri acknowledges "ideological differences with the West", and speaks of "injustice" committed against Muslims. However, the man who started his jihadist career in Bosnia, and had short stints in Somalia and Tajikistan before joining bin Laden in Afghanistan, now says that dialogue, not violence, is the answer.
Al-Shorfa's correspondent in Sanaa, Faisal Darem, sat down with al-Bahri to ask about this transformation, and about a book on bin Laden the man formerly known as "Abu Jandal" co-authored with a French writer.
Al-Shorfa: Nasser al-Bahri -- what kind of person is he today, and what differentiates him from the young man who joined bin Laden in 1996?
Nasser al-Bahri: There is a huge difference between the Nasser al-Bahri of today and the jihadi Abu Jandal. Back then I was an immature youth who was ill-informed about events taking place around me. I was looking for a means to fulfil an ambition, which materialised by joining Sheikh Osama bin Laden.
I was involved in jihadi activities. Later on, I left al-Qaeda on my own volition. When I came back [to Yemen] I was imprisoned for one and a half years. I am able to face society and to re-integrate myself into it despite the fact that they know who Nasser al-Bahri is. I lead a normal life and I am engaged in training youth, educating and rehabilitating them.
Al-Shorfa: Why did you leave al-Qaeda?
Al-Bahri: The thought of leaving al-Qaeda came as a reaction to an incident that took place between Sheikh bin Laden and myself, after which I made the decision to leave. I must tell you that our decisions and stances within al-Qaeda were of a reactive nature. And I left because there was no bonding or perseverance and patience. Now, I live my life and enjoy it much more than when I fought and took up position in some hideout. I think Jihad takes many different forms, and calling people to Islam, reforming society and helping youth develop their capabilities are what I consider to be the most important forms of jihad.
Al-Shorfa: How did you get the idea of writing a book about bin Laden?
Al-Bahri: A French journalist who is an experienced biographer made the proposal. He published a book on Saddam Hussein. At first, I turned him down due to my commitments. I have children and a family, and I have to take care of them. The idea of writing this book originated three years ago, and we agreed to sit together and work intensively for 12 days, with an average of six hours per day.
Al-Shorfa: In your book, you urge youth to not be pulled away by al-Qaeda. What are the means of persuasion that you use today?
Al-Bahri: Al-Qaeda is one of the manifestations of violence, and I am against the use of violence in certain situations, and for the use of violence in others. Every time has its own circumstances and particularities surrounding it... I believe that dialogue is the most important means for intellectual persuasion, in addition to providing the right conditions for the Muslim youth, because through my experience of living with them in Afghanistan, I noticed that the harsh conditions of life had driven them to that situation, especially when they were deprived from earning a livelihood, so they would resort to jihad in order to restore some of their rights.
Al-Shorfa: What would you say to the supporters of al-Qaeda today?
Al-Bahri: I would say that the bombings taking place today in Yemen, which are meant to disrupt public peace as part of a certain agenda of killing innocent people, are unacceptable. The problem of al-Qaeda outside of Afghanistan is that it does not have a clear strategy, and it is not part of an overall hierarchical structure, and it does not have legitimacy as a religious and legal entity, such as working under the leadership of scholars. The fact is that these organisations have two or three students who issue fatwas, and this is wrong. That is why I urge young people not to hasten to take up arms and engage in fighting in order to preserve lives, which Allah has forbidden to take except with proper justification. Killing committed out of emotional reactions or anger is not Jihad...
Al-Shorfa: What is the first task that you undertook for bin Laden?
Al-Bahri: There were many tasks, and I can't remember any specific one. There was the task of holding discussions with the youth in order to convince them to enlist for Jihad, especially the youths arriving from Saudi Arabia and Yemen. My task included ideological argumentation and convincing, particularly when differences arose between the various groups affiliated with al-Qaeda. I would mend differences and rally the forces, in addition to acting as the personal bodyguard of bin Laden. I was also involved in fighting and skirmishes in Afghanistan and sustained injuries.
Al-Shorfa: From your experience, what is the nature of the relationship between the leadership cadres of al-Qaeda and the subsidiary organisations such as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or Iraq, or the Maghreb, and what are the differing aspects between them?
Al-Bahri: We have never heard or received a statement from Osama bin Laden confirming the existence of a link between the organisation of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. However, these organisations attribute themselves to the parent al-Qaeda organisation, because one of the means of survival is to be affiliated to another group, and al-Qaeda is one of the most famous organisations in the Islamic World. This is why everyone wants to be affiliated to that organisation, despite the fact that there are other organisations such as the Egyptian Islamic Jihad...
This article starring:
Nasser al-Bahri
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
yes, boys wait till you're 18 and no longer a youth.
State authorities are warning local law enforcement agencies along the Texas-Mexico border to be vigilant this weekend for a possible outbreak of violence in Mexico.
An intelligence bulletin issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety refers to a Spanish-language flier placed on a vehicle in Brownsville last week, which states: May 15-17 would be one of the most violent weekends in all Mexico history,' as two rival gangs allegedly plan to battle. The bulletin was e-mailed to several Brownsville Herald reporters and was authenticated.
Brownsville Police Chief Carlos Garcia said DPS officials e-mailed him a copy of the bulletin over the weekend and that his department is taking it seriously. Claims such as the one in the bulletin are nothing new, Garcia said, but his department is taking necessary precautions in the event something occurs.
We have to take it seriously, but in turn we don't want to cause chaos and don't want people to get alarmed about this,' Garcia said. Most of these things are not going to happen on this side of the border.'
Although the Spanish-language flier urges the public to remain calm, it also states individuals should restrain from wearing dark-colored clothing since the gunmen will be wearing black during the weekend for identification purposes.' Authorities said there is no way to confirm the validity of the flier's message, but because of ongoing violence across the border, they are encouraging all law enforcement to exercise extreme caution both on and off duty.
A source with firsthand knowledge of recent violent events in Mexico said criminal organizations like the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas northeast Mexico's two dominant and once-allied drug cartels don't issue warnings before striking.
They'll place banners saying they are going after so-and-so, but they never give a date and a place,' he said. Currently those two organizations are engaged in the area of San Fernando, fighting over the highway, and in the (Miguel Alemán-Camargo area) They are not going to have any large fights in Matamoros in the near future. It doesn't make sense Matamoros is a stronghold of the Gulf Cartel and it's probably where they would make their stand if they were on the losing side. The information we have is that this is not the case.'
The four heavy crude upgraders at the Orinoco Oil Belt are producing approximately 450,000 barrels per day (bpd), which is 70 percent of their installed capacity, said on Wednesday a vice president of state-run oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa).
Incompetence, lack of maintenance, and a crazy man as a leader will do that ...
Oil production in the Orinoco Oil Belt declined amidst a number of scheduled or fortuitous stoppages in the upgrading plants, whose production capacity is about 620,000 bpd of heavy crude for transformation into a lighter product for export.
"Last month, between late April and early May, Petroanzoátegui's upgrader was shut down for about eight days," Eulogio del Pino, Pdvsa's Vice President of Exploration and Production, told Reuters.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/13/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
A minor terminology nit: I'm sure the 450,000 barrels a day are the new installed capacity.
Opponents of Kyrgyzstan's interim rulers stormed several regional government headquarters Thursday, threatening the delicate peace that has reigned since the violent overthrow of the president last month.
Posted by: ed ||
05/13/2010 15:55 ||
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MOSCOW (Reuters) Security services killed three people involved in the suicide attacks on the Moscow metro in March after they refused to surrender, Russia's security chief said on Thursday. "To our great regret, we did not manage to seize them alive," Russian channels showed Bortnikov, head of the FSB domestic security service, reporting to President Dmitry Medvedev. "They put on stiff armed resistance and were destroyed." A stern-looking Medvedev replied: "Identify those involved in committing this heinous crime. Destroy the ones trying to resist. Show no mercy!" This reads like a dime novel.
The threat of North Korea's special forces has recently become much more real to many people. And while that is good, a considerable portion of what has recently made headlines was published in the 2008 defense white paper. The white paper said North Korea boosted the number of special forces troops from 120,000 to 180,000 and deployed them in the frontline divisions, and reinforced special warfare capabilities by conducting night-time, mountain and street-fighting exercises.
But at the time the news was overshadowed by the North's nuclear weapons, or the seriousness of the threat these special forces could pose was overlooked.
At the time, I asked a former senior North Korean military officer who is now involved with a security agency here what the sharp increase in the number of North Korean special forces means. Most of all, I wanted to know why the troops were deployed at the front, whereas their usual mission is to infiltrate into the rear.
His answer was simple. The North's special forces have three missions -- first, to damage our forces' war capability by infiltrating into the rear and carrying out subversive activities; second, to explore a route for maneuver along with combat engineers; and last, to occupy key tactical and strategic points. But those missions are confined to wartime.
They also have shooting brigades and reconnaissance units that work with the Army, Navy and Air Force, and they have been engaged in provocations against the South during peacetime as well. For instance they dug tunnels to infiltrate the South on the ground and operate a large number of AN-2 transport planes and 70-odd submarines and mini-subs fit for infiltration by sea.
Pyongyang makes great efforts to study and train in ways of infiltrating the South. A Korean Peninsula military specialist at the RAND Corporation in the U.S. warned over a decade ago that a combination of portable weapons of mass destruction and over 100,000-strong special forces constitutes the biggest North Korean threat to Seoul's security. It would be a great calamity if North Korean special forces infiltrated downtown Seoul equipped with small biological and chemical weapons. The troops that would be mobilized if Pyongyang decided to launch a local provocation like occupying the five South Korean islets off the west coast would also be special forces.
These men are told to ready themselves for suicide missions. If they attack determined to blow themselves up, they could threaten even the top-notch weapons system of the South Korean and U.S. forces. How to deal with that threat? It is all the more worrying since there are plans to reduce the strength of the U.S. Forces Korea's Apache helicopter unit, which is tasked with keeping the North's special forces in check.
Seoul must first clearly understand the missions of the North Korean special forces and work out measures to respond to each of them. We have to reinforce our intelligence gathering about the scale, moves and training of these troops. And operational plans must be developed that would neutralize them before they can move.
The surest way of blocking any so-called "asymmetrical" provocation, be it by special forces or other means, is to extinguish the will to provocation itself. There is no other way but to demonstrate that we are ready and willing to inflict enormous damage on whoever provokes us. We need to change the way we build up our own military strength to prepare for this. But a more important principle is to consolidate our superiority in terms of the military, government and society and stifle the North's desire to provoke from the outset. The build-up of North Korea's special forces is an urgent challenge to our security and defense capabilities.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Wednesday accused North Korea of creating a world-threatening "axis of evil" with Iran and Syria by supplying them with weapons technology.
The firebrand politician also warned that Iran's suspected quest for nuclear weapons could spark a Middle East atomic arms race with potential consequences of the likes "we have seen only in the horror movies in Hollywood."
Lieberman had relayed similar warnings to Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Tuesday during his visit to Tokyo, accusing nuclear power North Korea of supplying Syria with weapons of mass destruction.
"This axis of evil that includes North Korea, Syria and Iran is the biggest threat not only to Israel but to the entire world," Lieberman said at a press conference in Tokyo.
He referred to the seizure in Bangkok last December of an arms shipment from North Korea "with huge numbers of different weapons with the intention of smuggling these weapons to Hamas and to Hezbollah".
U.S. intelligence said the plane was bound for an unnamed Middle East country.
Israel is widely regarded as the only nuclear armed nation in the Middle East with an estimated arsenal of 200 warheads but it has a policy of neither confirmation nor denial.
Lieberman also referred to "the missile programs of Iran and Syria with crucial assistance from the North Korean side."
"All this cooperation between North Korea and Syria cannot improve the economic situations in their countries but only (serve) to develop the weapons of mass destruction," he said.
He also warned that Iran, which the West suspects seeking to build a nuclear bomb despite repeated denials, is the biggest threat to world peace and called for tough U.N. sanctions against Tehran.
"Iran is not Israel's problem. It's the biggest threat to the entire world. You must understand, if Iran obtains nuclear weapons capability, we will see a crazy nuclear arms race in our entire region," he said.
"Our role regarding the Iranian issue is to give a signal (to) the world that today it is the biggest threat, like in the 1930s the Nazi regime was the biggest threat for the entire world."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
ION NEWS KERALA > seems SOUTH KOREA is formally denying the North's claim as per NUC FUSION BREAKTHROUGH, referring to the NORK claim as a "BLUFF"???
#2
George Bush said the same thing a few years ago; I think they're both right. Unfortunately, with the loons at the helm world leadership is in Pre WWII appeasement mode. They remain in denial, and will only open their eyes after someone gets nuked.
The website of artist Lars Vilks was hacked on Wednesday, just a day after the 53-year-old was attacked as he gave a lecture at Uppsala University. Instead of gaining access to the artist's controversial drawing of the Muslim prophet Muhammad as a dog, which sparked outrage in parts of the Islamic world after its publication in Swedish newspapers in 2007, visitors to Vilks.net were greeted by a message from a hacker with the signature Al Qatari.
An aggressive greeting charging the artist with still talking about the Prophet Muhammad', is followed by a warning that the site will remain a target. We really never stop hacking your site and I will show you how can I hacking your computer.'
Lars Vilks was seemingly unperturbed by the cyber attack. I'm in touch with my webmaster, so I hope it will be fixed soon. But in any case, this is better than starting fights at academic lectures,' Vilks told news agency TT.
Vilks was assaulted on Tuesday while giving a talk at Uppsala University in eastern Sweden. An already heated atmosphere turned violent when Vilks showed a film of gay men wearing masks intended to depict the Muslim prophet Muhammad. A man in the front row stormed onto the stage and attacked Vilks, head-butting him in the chest. Police quickly intervened and Vilks left the lecture theatre without suffering serious injury.
The incident was followed by tumultuous scenes as sections of the audience stood up, with some shouting Allahu Akbar' while police used pepper spray to keep demonstrators at bay. Two police officers received minor injuries. Three people, two men and a woman, were arrested before being released a few hours later. A further person was also detained and later released, according to police in the university city.
'One guy is suspected of attempted assault and the other of assaulting a public servant. The girl is suspected of crimes that include: assaulting a public servant, and harassment for spitting in the face of a police officer,' said police inspector Fredrik Selberg.
A new group on social networking site Facebook entitled Mörda horungen (Lars vilks)!!!' (Murder the son of a bitch (Lars vilks)!!!') had attracted hundreds of followers by Wednesday before becoming a private group and removing the word murder'.
The Virginia mosque of the radical Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, credited as the key link behind the Fort Hood shootings, the Christmas Day underwear bomber, and the Times Square bomber, has been receiving $23,000 a month from the U.S. Census Bureau for rent of an office building the mosque owns in the Washington suburbs.
I wonder do we actually even have a Department of Homeland Security,' says Congressman John Carter (R-TX), who represents the Fort Hood area in the House. The purpose for creating this cabinet-level agency in 2002 was to coordinate all agencies of the federal government to prevent any more radical Islamic attacks like 9-11. Eight years later and they can't even tell a federal agency they're renting office space from the very mosque involved with the 9-11 attacks, and that has seeded this past year's assaults through the likes of Al-Awlaki.'
The former Texas judge says the mosque's terrorist links could have been easily detected through a DHS background check by the General Services Administration (GSA), which leased the space for the Census Bureau.
We missed multiple warnings that the 9-11 attacks were coming because federal agencies were not communicating and coordinating with each other concerning intelligence on terrorist activity,' says Carter. DHS was supposed to correct that, yet they have failed us three times in a row in less than a year, are refusing to admit their failures, and are taking no corrective action.'
Carter says the President should immediately take responsibility for the failures and announce definitive steps to remediate the gross incompetence.
#1
Back in 2001 we knew the mosque under Awlaki played in 911. Now we are paying them??? WFT???
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/13/2010 18:09 Comments ||
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been receiving $23,000 a month from the U.S. Census Bureau for rent of an office building the mosque owns in the Washington suburbs.
There's got to be someone else who is not trying to tear down America that could provide space...but maybe I'm missing something here. Maybe we have a bad case of islamophilia in our government!
From Reuters (more news about us than we get from us) H/T The Corner
Update: 11:30 CST
"Two search warrants are being executed in the Boston area in relation to the Times Square bomb. They are looking for evidence related to the investigation," spokesman Richard Kolko said in New York, downplaying the significance of the immigration arrests.
He declined to comment on any link between the arrests and the investigation.
A separate FBI statement issued in Boston stressed that there was no known immediate threat to the public nor any known active plot against the United States.
Two locations being searched are a home in the suburb of Watertown and a gasoline station in the affluent suburb of Brookline.
"It is a federal investigation and we are assisting," a spokesman for the Brookline police department said.
Vincent Lacerra, who lives across the street from the searched home in Watertown, told the Boston Globe he was watching television at about 6 a.m. (1000 GMT) when he heard a commotion outside and the words, "FBI, don't move, put your hands up!"
He looked outside to see about 20 agents with guns drawn, the Globe reported on its website. "They all had their guns drawn, pointed at the house," he said.
Soon afterward, a man whose age he estimated at 25 to 40 was taken from the house and put into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement van.
"I'd never seen him before," Lacerra told the Globe. "It was quite amazing. I've never seen anything like it before. It seemed so real, so overwhelming."
They must not be tea party types or it would be being shouted form the rooftops.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
05/13/2010 15:10 Comments ||
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#2
3 arrested now Two Pakistani men suspected of providing money to Times Square car bomb suspect Faisal Shahzad were arrested by the FBI in a string of Thursday morning raids across the Northeast, law enforcement officials said. Three people were arrested on suspected immigration violations: the two Pakistani men in the Boston area and one person in Maine.
The two Boston-area men had a "direct connection" to Shahzad, a Pakistan-born U.S. citizen, said a top Massachusetts law enforcement official. They are believed to have provided money to him, but investigators weren't sure whether they were witting accomplices or simply moving funds, as is common among people from the Middle East and Central Asia who live in the U.S., said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.
Posted by: ed ||
05/13/2010 15:19 Comments ||
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#3
Now 4: A Pakistani man detained by that country's government has told interrogators he is an accomplice of the Pakistani-American who planted a bomb in New York's Times Square, according to The Washington Post.
Have Eric Holder, Mayor Bloomberg and Contessa Brewer committed seppuku yet? It would be the honorable thing to do.
Posted by: ed ||
05/13/2010 21:53 Comments ||
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#4
Have Eric Holder, Mayor Bloomberg and Contessa Brewer committed seppuku yet? It would be the honorable thing to do.
those a$$clowns have no honor...
Posted by: abu do you love ||
05/13/2010 21:56 Comments ||
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#5
Shame, embarrassment, and logical rebuke are congenitally unavailable to Democrats
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/13/2010 22:19 Comments ||
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#6
Did they ask them how they felt about the healthcare bill?
Posted by: Michael Bloomberg ||
05/13/2010 22:57 Comments ||
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Despite what you might have read, the Pakistani government did not arrest Taliban leader Mullah Omar, a senior Pakistani government official confirms to The Cable.
"Neither the U.S. government nor the Pakistani government are saying this is true and it is not true," the official said, adding that he was never captured by the Pakistani military or intelligence services and is not in Pakistani custody.
"It just doesnt make sense that we would arrest a man and keep it a secret," the official went on, saying the reports by online sites including Big Government and The Jawa Report are totally off the mark. ModNote to gorb: --- my apolgies about removing your comment. This was a double post -- and each had a comment. I chose the one posted first. We do need your comment posted again! Good Rantburg snark that is was.
[Geo News] Jamaat-e-Islami Amir Syed Munawar Hasan has said that the threatening remarks made by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have given Pakistan a good opportunity to party ways with the ongoing terror war. Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, he urged the government to reconsider its foreign and defence strategies. "It is beyond one understanding that Shah Mahmood Qureshi is Pakistan's Foreign Minister or Indian," he said. Terming the May 12 mayhem the tragic incident of Karachi's history, the JI chief called for a judicial inquiry into the incident. "On one hand, ANP makes a lot of fuss about the arrests of May 12 perpetrators while on the other hand it is sharing power with the same group," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami
#4
It sounds like the bullet can't be redirected, but can be programmed to explode at a certain range. Seems to me it is based on programming how many revolutions the bullet makes before it detonates. Cool. Don't we have stuff like this on humvee-mounted chain guns or 40mm launchers or something? So it's just been miniaturized.
Amid concerns about the continuing presence of US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Iranian president advises the White House to withdraw its troops from the region.
Addressing a large crowd in Iran's southwestern city of Yasuj on Wednesday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the era of occupation and plundering other nation's national resources is over.
"You'd better listen to the Iranian nations' advice: Abandon your stubbornness; live with other nations based on justice and friendship, like human beings; leave the region; leave Afghanistan; leave Iraq; withdraw to your borders and mind your own business," the president said.
Ahmadinejad also offered to help the United States and its allies get out of the "quagmire" they have created in the region.
Tehran blames Washington for the instability that has gripped the Middle East amid the presence of US-led forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in the US, was launched with the official objectives of curbing militancy and bringing peace and stability to the country.
Nine years on, however, the US is criticized for its inability to accomplish any of the objectives while Afghan civilians continue to pay the price.
The White House now plans to dispatch 30,000 extra troops to the country in the summer to counter the increasing militancy in Afghanistan.
President Ahmadinejad, meanwhile, warned his American counterpart that should he fail to bring an end to the occupation of Afghanistan, the US administration will be ridiculed, and the Iranian nation will teach him a lesson.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Ahmadinejad also offered to help the United States and its allies get out of the "quagmire" they have created in the region.
So, Nutjob, how do we get out of there? And whatever shall we do with all these tanks and artillery pieces?
#8
Chaque Stalin6841, lighten up; it's just a song. So what if I said I was 5'3"? Would I be a small or large a$$hole? Get off the PC crap. My father-in-law was maybe a dime taller than 5' but he was a very large man. A great guy. It is about how one deals with life's challenges. Everyone has challenges of one sort or another.
#10
Mr. Wife sings that song to me at irregular intervals, but always with great gusto and semi-tunefulness (he's tone dyslexic). Because he loves me, he says.
#11
Chaque Stalin6841. Please attach a photo of yourself, so that we can make fun of one of the many 'inferior' physical attributes you surely possess, a$$hole!
No photograph. Mrs. JohnQC would probably agree with you that at times I have a proclivity towards being an a$$hole. I have the following attributes and probably more: aging, over-the-hill, cantankerous, balding, paunchy, half-blind, freedom-loving, funny lookin ol geezer, at times mentally-challenged. I don't view those attributes as inferior any more than I view someone who might be short or tall as 'inferior."
If I hit a nerve, I apologize. How about you do something for me if I agree to do the same? How about we both back up a little and make an attitude check.
I have it on good authority that he's so tall his feet go all the way to the ground. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/13/2010 17:56 Comments ||
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#15
I guess the thread got sidetracked or hijacked away from the fact that one of Iran's resident pyschopaths is trying to throw his weight around. His little sideshows are distractions and a buying of time until Iran develops a nuclear weapon. He is making the world more dangerous with each minute. If he is ignored, it will be at our own peril. Iran should understand very clearly and unequivocally that if it uses such a weapon or a proxy uses such a weapon it will cease to exist. Now if we just had leadership who could deliver this message.
#16
I think Iran understands this, hence all the games. I think they also understand that their best shot at a nuke will be to have one in-hand by the next election cycle. That's how much confidence they seem to have in our current president. Let's see whether it's justified or not . . . .
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.
U.S. troops in Afghanistan could soon be awarded a medal for not doing something, a precedent-setting award that would be given for courageous restraint' for holding fire to save civilian lives.
KABUL (AP) -- Afghanistan's opium yield is likely to drop as much as 30 percent this year because blight is destroying fields full of poppies in the south -- driving up prices amid a countrywide push to grow legal crops, a U.N. official said Thursday.
[Al Arabiya Latest] U.S. President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai presented a united front on Wednesday in a bid to show they had patched over differences at a pivotal time in the nearly nine-year-old war.
[Geo News] Jamaat-e-Islami Amir Syed Munawar Hasan has said that the threatening remarks made by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have given Pakistan a good opportunity to party ways with the ongoing terror war. Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, he urged the government to reconsider its foreign and defence strategies. "It is beyond one understanding that Shah Mahmood Qureshi is Pakistan's Foreign Minister or Indian," he said. Terming the May 12 mayhem the tragic incident of Karachi's history, the JI chief called for a judicial inquiry into the incident. "On one hand, ANP makes a lot of fuss about the arrests of May 12 perpetrators while on the other hand it is sharing power with the same group," he added.
Amid concerns about the continuing presence of US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Iranian president advises the White House to withdraw its troops from the region. 
