ISLAMABAD: Warning against the blame game amid the terror attacks in Mumbai, the Pakistani media on Friday said Islamabad should not be held responsible for the carnage in India's financial hub and the peace process should not be allowed to derail.
The looming danger while six South African commandos were having dinner at a restaurant when terrorists struck Taj Mahal hotel came as a sudden challenge and they handled it with aplomb saving scores of persons from possible threat.
The lives of 150 fellow guests were saved by the commandos through their presence of mind and skills to handle pressure situations.
The commandos accompanying the South African cricket team, who had come to participate the now-cancelled Champions League were at the hotel's top floor restaurant 'Souk' and quickly escorted all the 150 diners through the fire exit gate before any harms can befall on them.
"We were having dinner. When we heard the gunfire, we were told that two gangs were fighting in the lobby. We were particularly perturbed," a member of the South African commando team, Bob Nichols, said.
Nichols said on hearing of the sound of an explosion they sensed it was a terror attack and saw the terrorists were running around the hotel firing indiscriminately and exploding grenades.
"We realised that the area is not secured. We imagined that there is a good possibility that they (terrorists) may try to make their way to the top of the building where we are," he said.
Nichols said the team, after gathering information as much as they could from outside, decided to secure the area themselves.
"As there are a lots of glass (in the restaurant), it was difficult to secure. We found a conference room next door where there were lots of people. So we moved everybody from the restaurant to the conference room. We barricaded ourselves.
"We used whatever we could to block the doors, kept everybody away from the windows. We also told everybody who we were and explained them what we were doing." he said.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/28/2008
17:35 ||
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#1
training kicks in - good job boys
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/28/2008 17:59
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This was good, that they were there, recognized almost instantly what was happening. This was one of the good and reassuring stories about this awful day - that there were people present who stepped up and took charge.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Police say a Wal-Mart worker has died after being trampled by a throng of unruly shoppers shortly after the Long Island store opened Friday.
Nassau County police say the 34-year-old worker was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead at about 6 a.m., an hour after the store opened. The cause of death was not immediately known.
A police statement says a throng of shoppers "physically broke down the doors, knocking him to the ground." Police also say a 28-year-old pregnant woman was taken to a hospital for observation.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., in Bentonville, Ark., would not confirm the reports of a stampede during the day-after-Thanksgiving bargain hunting, but said a "medical emergency" caused them to close the store.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/28/2008
13:58 ||
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Posted by: MuhamedBkkKO is a dirty spammer ||
11/28/2008 14:16
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Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in Bentonville, Ark., closed the store in Valley Stream for several hours after the stampede. It reopened shortly after 1 p.m. -FOXNews.com
"The median income for a household in the village is $103,243, and the median income for a family is $110,585. Males have a median income of $80,094 versus $56,260 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $66,334. About 1.0% of families and 1.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 1.4% of those under age 18 and .4% of those age 65 or over." - Wikipedia
Well, them rustics may kill turkeys out in the public in Alaska, but it certainly wasn't your doublewide cousin chasers who didn't even pause to get those shiny thingys there Mr. NYTs.
#4
Must have been the Winter Holiday Spirit that carried them away. Couldn't have been the Christmas one. That one celebrates the birth of the Prince of Peace.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/28/2008 16:15
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Something doesn't compute between the pictures from ZF and the description from P2K.
#6
I was once caught in a crowd at a rock concert in the 70's, CaljamII. A frightening event where someone in back yelled to rush the gate and next thing we knew we were off our feet in the rush. Dozens were hurt. This crowd should never have been allowed to mass directly at the door. People should never act like this but the store promotes this panic crowd by offering unbelievable prices with only one or two of the advertised items on the shelf. Once a company attract a large crowd creating an event, they are responsible for crowd control and for everyones safety.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
11/28/2008 16:53
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I caught that, NS. Ima thinks the shoppers at Walmart thisn mornin wuznt teh ones with income above the average.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
11/28/2008 17:09
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Humans are herd animals. And yes, P2K's description of the areas primary inhabitants doesn't appear to reflect the particular demographic of the group that showed up.
#9
been there as well. Who (80's -The Ox was still alive and kicking) concert at San Diego Stadium, I got against the plywood wall at the stage on the grass. I had to push as hard as I could to get room to breathe, couldn't even guess what was happening to the poor people behind me. General Admission? Never again.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/28/2008 17:44
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reminder: my shirt was pressed so hard and long against the painted plywood, the paint ruined the shirt, couldn't be washed out. I hate large crowds
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/28/2008 17:48
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Posted by: ed ||
11/28/2008 18:04
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#12
:-) If I'd had a handful, I wouldn't know what or whose it was. I don't get afeared much, but I didn't like that it was totally out of my control. Not a good feeling at all
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/28/2008 18:11
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NS: Something doesn't compute between the pictures from ZF and the description from P2K.
Valley Stream is three or four miles away from Queens, and seven or eight miles away from Brooklyn.
#14
Guam's KMART + Agana Shopping Center were packed as heck the day after Thanksgiving - don't know iff it was same for HOME DEPOT OR GUAM PREMIUM OUTLETS.
British-born Pakistanis were among the Mumbai terrorists, Indian government sources claimed today, as the death toll rose to at least 150. As many as seven of the terrorists may have British connections and some could be from Leeds and Bradford where London's July 7 bombers lived, one source said.
Two Britons were among eight gunmen being held, according to Mumbai's chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. At least nine others are reportedly dead. The eight arrested were captured by commandos after they stormed two hotels and a Jewish centre to free hostages today. One security official said: 'There is growing concern about British involvement in the attacks.'
At the Oberoi Hotel, the siege ended when two militants were shot dead. Dozens of traumatised guests emerged unharmed but inside there were scenes of carnage and the bodies of another 24 victims. Mumbai officials say more than 150 people in total have now died in the attacks. Another 370 were wounded.
The bodies of another five hostages were found dead inside the Nariman House Jewish Centre this afternoon after commandos finally secured the building. Two militants were also killed. It is not known whether the Rabbi and his wife who were believed to be among the hostages are dead or alive.
Around 20 masked officers had raided the centre this morning, dropping from helicopters onto the roof, in an operation dubbed Operation Black Tornado. Hours of heavy fighting ensued as they moved from floor after floor. As dusk fell, there was a massive explosion and it appeared to be over.
However, at the five-star Taj Mahal Hotel across the city, officers were still battling up to six militants believed to be holed up in the ballroom. The Indian authorities thought they had ended the siege there last night after they shot dead three terrorists and released hundreds of hostages but it raged again today. In a major army operation, soldiers threw grenades at the walls in a bid to smoke out the militants. Four bystanders were reported wounded in the crossfire.
Across at the Oberoi Hotel, traumatised guests were struggling to absorb their ordeal. Many had been locked in their rooms, terrified, for 41 hours while the gunmen rampaged. Today, around 100 were rescued after two militants were shot dead. One man was clutching a tiny baby in his arms as he walked out.
British lawyer Mark Abell emerged with a beaming smile, saying: 'I'm going home, I'm going to see my wife. ' The 51-year-old told how he had spent the night listening to gunshots and explosions and communicating with the outside world on his phone and Blackberry. Describing the scene when he was eventually led to safety, he said it was 'carnage' with 'blood and guts everywhere'. 'I was supposed to be working in Delhi but I think I have had more than my fair share of my business trip so I am looking forward to going home to see my family,' he said.
A number of the hostages were airline staff still wearing their Lufthansa and Air France uniforms when they emerged from the building. As they came out some carried luggage with Canadian flags, and two women were dressed in black abayas, traditional Muslim women's garments.
Others were not so lucky. Reported dead tonight was an American and his 13-year-old daughter as well as the wife and two children of the Taj hotel's general manager. Foreigners from Japan, Australia, Italy and Germany and one Briton - tycoon Andreas Liveras - have already been confirmed as among the victims. There are fears the British toll could yet rise further as more and more buildings are made stable and searched.
Earlier, one commando revealed he had seen around 50 bodies littering the Taj hotel floor after special officers stormed the building and rescued hundreds of guests. Clad in black, with a mask covering his face, the unit chief said: 'There was blood all over the bodies. The bodies were strewn here and there and we had to be careful as we entered the building to avoid further bloodshed of innocent civilians.'
The terrorists had seemed like young, ordinary men but had clearly been very well trained, he said. 'They were wearing T-shirts, just ordinary looking, but they have definitely been trained to use weapons. There is no way they could handle such weapons without being taught how to.'
At least nine terrorists are thought to have been shot dead in gun battles across the city as police and special forces tried to regain control. Three arrested at the Taj Mahal have been officially identified as a Pakistani national and two Indians. Another is reported to be a Mauritian national. They arrived in the city by sea before fanning out to at least 10 locations. Dinghies were found moored at a jetty by the famous Gateway to India monument. Today, coast guard officials said they could have hijacked an Indian trawler to drop them off after finding an abandoned boat drifting near the shore. The captain's dead body was found inside the vessel, along with communications equipment.
Dressed in jeans and T-shirts and heavily armed, they then headed for the city - which is India's financial centre - and started firing indiscriminately. It is thought they gained entrance to the hotels by pretending to be staff and hotel guests, according to reports.
Indian authorities have not released any details about the two Britons and the Foreign Office has refused to confirm Indian television reports. Security services in Britain are now examining images of the gunmen in an effort to identify them. Gordon Brown said he would be speaking to the Indian Prime Minister again today but warned that it was 'too early' to reach any conclusions about British involvement.
India's High Commissioner Shiv Shankar Mukherjee added: 'I have seen nothing more than what is in the media and that is based on speculation. i will wait for the investigation to produce some hard facts.' A team of Scotland Yard anti-terrorist detectives and negotiators are now on their way to Mumbai to assist in the investigation.
Indian commandos have recovered credit cards and the militants' ID cards as well as seizing a vast arsenal of grenades, AK-47 magazines, shells and knives.
A previously unknown Islamic group, Deccan Mujahideen, has claimed responsibility for the attacks but terror experts believe is is linked to Al Qaeda. It is known that dozens of British-born Pakistanis have travelled to Pakistan to train in its camps in recent years. One security source said recently: 'The camps are full and many of the people inside are Brits.' Last night, there was speculation that a British Al Qaeda suspect reportedly killed by a U.S. missile strike in Pakistan last weekend may have helped plot the attacks. Rashid Rauf was among five killed in a missile attack in a tribal area in North Waziristan on Saturday. Security sources believe that at the time of his death Rauf had been planning a major attack on Western targets.
Met officers were also interviewing passengers returning from Mumbai as they stepped off planes at Heathrow. There was speculation last night that England cricketers could have been an intended target of the terrorists. It emerged that some of the team had been due to stay in Mumbai, most likely the Taj Mahal, on Wednesday evening before a late decision was made to switch training to Bangalore. Shocked player Michael Vaughan said: 'I don't know why it was switched but we could have been there in one of those hotels when they were attacked. 'All our white Test kit is in one of the rooms at the Taj Mahal hotel: All our pads and clothes for the Test series and our blazers and caps and ties. That's how close the danger is.' The England team will fly back to Britain today.
The bloody drama which began on Wednesday night has now lasted almost two days. The targets across the city were:
* The Oberoi Hotel, in the commercial district. Its restaurant was bustling with diners, many of them tourists;
* Also attacked was the Leopold restaurant, a haunt of the city's art crowd. As the fanatics sprayed the packed cafe, diners fled in terror;
* Some of the worst scenes were at the major railway station. As they entered the Gothic Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus, once named after Queen Victoria, the gunmen were smiling. With an astonishing air of casualness, the terrorists started to shoot. Within seconds the concourse was a bloodbath. People lay screaming on the floor;
* A further prestigious target was the 105-year-old Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel;
* More hostages were taken at the nearby Chabad House, headquarters for an ultra-orthodox Jewish group. A rabbi was among those held.
About 15 police officers were killed, including the head of Mumbai's anti-terrorism unit. India's prime minister Manmohan-Singh has blamed militant groups based outside the country - usually meaning Pakistan - raising fears of renewed tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals. Pakistan condemned the attacks.
The attack on the train station had echoes of previous terror outrages. In July 2006 more than 180 people were killed in seven bomb explosions at railway stations and on trains in Mumbai that were blamed on Islamist militants.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
11:53 ||
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What a horror... and the ironies just abound.
Today, I re-worked an old post of mine, long gone in an unreachable MT archive, posted here.
This truly seems to have been India's 9/11... I guess Obama the Chosen one has his crisis all set out for him, a bit sooner than he expected.
#3
How did the terrorists get so much stuff into the hotel? There are more chapters to this story. Stay tuned.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/28/2008 12:54
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These peoople are not british but unemployed scum/pakis whose ambition in life is to kill for Allah.We must look at where theit ideology/hate comes from-SAUDI ARABIA!!!!
#5
Appears they left cell phones and credit cards behind. Didn't bother going sterile, unless the left behind items were bogus pocket litter, which I doubt. Might be interesting to run credit card account checks and track cell phone numbers called and recieved, etc. Hope none of these lads were political campaign contributors.
#6
The attacks have all the signs of being directed by Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency, a former head of India's Intelligence Bureau, Arun Bhagat, tells the BBC. He suggests it was a bid to sabotage rapprochement between the two governments
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
11/28/2008 13:33
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Going sterile is a basic action for an operation like this and it was not done. The ISI is really incompetent if they were involved and left a trail like this.
#11
Going sterile is a basic action for an operation like this and it was not done. The ISI is really incompetent if they were involved and left a trail like this.
Why?
I mean, what the ISI _wants_ may be different from what you or I want. Yes, going in sterile would be more professional, but when was the last time we sent thirty agents somewhere to kill as many civilians as possible in the process of getting themselves killed?
#12
I'm sure there are volumes written in answer to this question - but what is wrong with India, and I mean it in the sense of why are US relations seemingly balanced between India and Pakistan?
I realize the history following the end of the Raj and through the cold war, but what presently argues against extremely close US-Indian relations?
How is that disentangled from the question of Pakistan's ongoing existence as an independent nation?
#14
Phil. Do you remember how Islamist goy emboldened about Afghanistan in Soviet times? Withdraw from Afghanistan and they will eb emboldened ten times more. And they will go grow ten times more.
Also do you remember the unwinnable Iraki war?
Finally why are we tied with Pakistan. In part because there was a time when India flrted with Soviet Union.
#15
I understand the Pak-Afghan nexus, but I guess what I'm asking is that if Pakistan doesn't exist, what issues to we have with Afghanistan that we don't already have?
Can India and Afghanistan agree on a common border?
#17
I think that for the ISI to use British Pakistanis was brilliant. The notion that the Brits would attack India in order to blame Pakistan would actually carry some weight among the Muhammadans and some of the wackier leftists (and Indians!). That kind of nonsense plays very well. I'd guess that the attackers carried in exactly what they were told to carry in.
Posted by: James ||
11/28/2008 23:49
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As the grisly dance of death is played out by terrorists in Mumbai, the last of the militants holed up in Taj Mahal hotel kept crack commandos at bay engaging them in a fierce gunbattle tonight even two days after the attack that saw two luxury hotels bear the brunt.
Bodies of hapless victims--some of them hostages-- shrouded in white were being brought out from the Taj and Trident-Oberoi as the hotels became a mute witness to the unprecedented terror assault on their rich legacy by rampaging terrorists.
The heavily armed terrorist is reported to be holed up in the ballroom of Mumbai's iconomic landmark and remained elusive with police saying there was no let up in his aggressive stance with grenades being hurled at regular intervals setting off fire at different places.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
11:51 ||
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#2
It seems the Indians are a LOT more humanitarian that Janet Reno EVER was : they are going out of their way to avoid civilian casualties and to avoid burning anything important down. Plus, they seem to concerned about SAVING evidence, rather than disposing of it.
Indian police said on Friday that 93 guests had been evacuated so far from Oberoi Hotel. The announcement was made by a police officer over loudspeaker outside the hotel. The people from all age groups were taken out in batches and rushed to the Trauma Centre of Bombay Hospital in private buses for a precautionary medical check up. The hotel was one of the 10 prominent locations in Mumbai where terrorists struck Wednesday night. The attack that continued into Friday has claimed 125 lives and injured 327 people.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
11:50 ||
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#2
There's a lot of Monday-morning QB'ing coming. Look for the agenda first before accepting the analysis. Absof*ckinglutely NOBODY doesn't have a spin or agenda here.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/28/2008 18:41
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Where there less westerners there, because of the finacial slowdown? Did it save lives?
The unthinkable has begun to happen in India-Pakistan relations. And Mumbai 26/11 is responsible.
Reversing decades of policy, Pakistan agreed on Friday to send Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief, Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, to India to help with the investigations into WednesdayÂ’s terrorist strikes in Mumbai.
ItÂ’s a major change for India as well given that New Delhi over many decades has consistently blamed the ISI for spawning terrorism in the country.
“He (Pasha) will be travelling to India soon. The decision to send him was taken following a request made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to PM Yusuf Raza Gilani,” a Pakistani official said by telephone from Islamabad.
Zahid Bashir, Gilani’s spokesman, stressed, “This is a very positive development. My PM has directed me to make this statement to the press.”
A South Block official, who chose anonymity, concurred: “This is a very big development. Whether he is coming in response to an invitation or a summons is not important.”
In Mumbai, investigating agencies have extracted considerable information from one of the detained terrorists, Ajmad Mohammad, said to be a Pakistani national from Faridkot.
Singh informed Gilani that preliminary reports in the Mumbai probe “point towards Karachi” and called for “increased intelligence sharing and cooperation” in order to jointly counter terrorism.
“The Prime Minister also extended his government’s full support for jointly combating extremism and terrorism and also offered help in investigating this incident,” the statement added.
Earlier in the day, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, citing preliminary information, suggested that “some elements” in Pakistan were responsible for the terror strikes in Mumbai.
Speaking in Jodhpur, Mukherjee said that Pakistan had to live up to its promises made to India in 2004 and 2008 that it would not allow terrorists to use its soil for terrorist activities. “Jo vada kiya, us ko pura kijiye”.
The Minister also called on Pakistan to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
11:48 ||
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'Keep your friends close and your enemies closer'
#3
Per another post. Going sterile is a basic action for an operation like this and it was not done. The ISI is really incompetent if they were involved and left a trail like this.
#4
Dealing with Pakistan is like making deals with someone with multiple personality disorder. You can make a deal with Ahmed, but Omar sez over my dead body.
The problem is that Pakistan cannot control their vast network of Jihadi nutcases. They have nukes, so you just cannot deal with them in a normal kinetic basis.
I would recommend that India again reread Sun Tzu's The Art of War, and with good intelligence, formulate a plan to neutralize this POS country. Who knows? The Big O may want to joint venture this one. That's a long shot, though. Don't count on it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/28/2008 14:58
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I recall reading some discussions recently on the Indian Air Force joint training exercises - generally quite favorable (though not perfect): if true then I think the Pakistani AF would be in serious trouble in a war with India; if not, then we may have been doing some unusually competent propaganda work. Well, Pakistan, do you feel lucky?
#6
I'm sure the ISI is quite interested in Indian intelligence sources and methods, in their forensics etc... the better to plan the next terror operation
Posted by: john frum ||
11/28/2008 16:38
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Kinda like the ISI chief being in Washington DC to gauge reactions during the 911 attacks. That is, after wiring $100,000 to the attackers.
Posted by: ed ||
11/28/2008 17:50
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#8
sometimes aircraft just crash, ask Zia Ul-Haq. Oh wait, you can't
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/28/2008 17:56
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Pak to send representative instead of ISI chief to India
Pakistan on Friday did an about turn on sending the Inter-Services Intelligence chief to India in connection with the probe into the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, saying a representative of the spy agency would be sent instead of him.
The decision was made at a late night meeting between President Asif Ali Zardari and Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the chief of the powerful army. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani also joined the meeting, which was held at the presidency and continued past 130am (local time).
"A representative of the ISI will visit India, instead of its Director General Lt Gen Shuja Pasha, to help in investigating the Mumbai terrorism incident," a spokesman for the Prime Minister's House said.
In the immediate aftermath of 26/11, even before the post-mortems begin and the excuses are offered up, three points need to be made. These are preliminary reactions but I think they will remain valid even weeks from now.
First, it is utterly and completely bizarre that while we whine about the Home Ministry, the intelligence establishment gets off scot-free even as Indians are murdered on the streets.
It is impossible for the police to guard every building or check every passenger. All over the world, terrorism is fought through intelligence. A good security service penetrates terrorist cells, monitors radio traffic and picks up intelligence about terrorist activity.
The Bombay attacks prove that we have the worst intelligence service of any major power in the world. These attacks were meticulously planned, involved two dozen attackers, many more terrorists in back-up roles, vast quantities of arms and ammunition and, probably, crores in funding.
Yet, our intelligence services had no idea that such an attack was being planned. Clearly, intelligence is the last quality that we should associate with our spymasters.
These attacks also demonstrate the hollow nature of the many claims made by various police forces to have ‘broken the backs’ of terrorist cells and arrested various ‘terror masterminds’.
The terrorists are completely unaffected by the puny efforts of our security forces. They strike when and where they want to. And Indians die.
WeÂ’ve had enough excuses. Heads must roll. You would have thought that by now at least one of the countryÂ’s spymasters would have offered to resign.
No one has. And so, dismissals become imperative.
Second, we should recognise that there is a new dimension to these attacks that was missing from earlier terrorist strikes. The aim of the Bombay terrorists was to continue the global jihad on Indian soil. ThatÂ’s why they sought out American and British passport holders and thatÂ’s why Israelis and Jews were among the principal targets of the violence.
Combine that shift in emphasis with the sophistication of these attacks and some conclusions become inevitable. Clearly, these terrorists were funded and, probably, armed and trained by global jihadi forces. These were not angry students making homemade bombs. These were world-class terrorists.
That should tell us that India is now part of the global terrorist battleground. If the international jihadi network decides to treat us on par with Israel, England, America and other countries that are seen as enemies of its twisted version of Islam, then the Bombay attacks may only be a beginning. Worse may follow.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
11:43 ||
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India is now part of the global terrorist battleground
Welcome aboard. Sorry its under this circumstance, lets talk about your neighbors...
Gotta wonder if the terrs are really cognizant of the FACT that they are branding their "religion" as a cancerous, destructive and suicidal ideology on par with National Socialism and Communism? They are definitely not realizing that their every act hastens the day where the civilized world will be forced to be eradicate Muhammidism along with its centers of power and its most serious adherents...
And the less fighting-back "normal" Muslims do, the more they advance that day.
#2
"The Bombay attacks prove that we have the worst intelligence service of any major power in the world. These attacks were meticulously planned, involved two dozen attackers...
Yet, our intelligence services had no idea that such an attack was being planned. Clearly, intelligence is the last quality that we should associate with our spymasters.
These attacks also demonstrate the hollow nature of the many claims made by various police forces to have 'broken the backs' of terrorist cells and arrested various 'terror masterminds'.
...
We've had enough excuses. Heads must roll. You would have thought that by now at least one of the country's spymasters would have offered to resign.
The article's excessively negative. The USA failed to stop 9/11, the UK 7/7, Israel any number, yet all have successfully stopped many other attacks. We have to be lucky every time, the terrorists only have to get lucky once and suddenly our security forces are deemed worse than useless.
#3
Bulldog, there were a lot in the US asking the same thing on 9/12. And Bush followed it up in dimwitted fashion by giving DCI Tenet a medal instead of firing his ass on the spot.
1) Intelligence is always imperfect at best. Only in Tom Clancy novels do the spies know and see all.
2) It's too early to be yelling for heads to roll. See what happened and then apply the lessons learned. If there are reasons for heads to roll than go to it. But, scapegoating is not productive.
3) In a democracy the "good guys" are fighting with at least one hand tied behind their back by the political situation. (See Jamie Gorelick and "the Wall")
#5
I have always said a small arms attack was the next best chance at a mass casualty attack anywhere in the world except Euroland.
Weapons and recruit are both incredibly easy to obtain and the damage is nothing compared to the fear instilled in the populace, the whole reason to be for terrorism.
#6
Far too pessimestic, in my opinion. Just another skirmish on the front lines against terrorists. Indians are talking about this being a 911 type wakeup call for their nation. Set aside differences and recognize that terrorists threaten everyone, not just the nominal targets of the day. Pakistan's ISI chief has gone to India to help 'interview' the illegal combatents. These appear to be changing times. What will be next?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/28/2008 13:14
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"India is now part of the global terrorist battleground"
It has already have been. Check past terror attacks. Bush "Warmonger" in leftist parlance had to stop a serious almost quasi war between Pak and India in 2002. I wonder if it shouldn't have been better that Pakistan took a beating.
#9
small arms attack was the next best chance at a mass casualty attack anywhere in the world except Euroland
Bad, I don't think such an attack would work too well in US malls in 'flyover country' like Dallas or New Orleans. And it might be one of those Pyrrhic things in places like Boston or San Francisco.
#12
"The aim of the Bombay terrorists was to continue the global jihad on Indian soil" > IMB the posternal Asian Jihad focii, however imperfectly, IS THE GENER DESTABILIZATION AND BREAKUP OF ASIA'S STATUS QUO AND GEOPOL ORDER. INDIA IS JUST ONE STRATEGIC FRONT OF SEVERAL IN MAINLAND ASIA.
IIRC PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM PERT OP-ED > MUMBAI, INDIA = ASIA = ISLAMIST-DESIRED NEXUS OF EXTREMIST TERROR + NUCLEAR WEAPONS/TECHNOLOGIES.
According to a home department senior officer in Gujarat, the Narendra Modi government has completed its part of the investigation connected to the Mumbai terrorist attack.
According to the investigation from the Gujarat end, Vinu Masania of Porbander has told the Gujarat police that his fishing trawler, Kuber, had gone missing around November 14-15. He didn't lodge a complaint with the police since normally fishermen know that on the high seas if a boats loses its way it comes back within a week.
The Gujarat police got the primary information from the Mumbai police on the basis of the interrogation of the terrorist Ismail captured on Wednesday by the Mumbai police.
Ismail has told the Mumbai police that they had hijacked the Gujarat-registered trawler, and killed all the fishermen except the helmsman Amar Singh Tandel who took them up to Mumbai. On reaching Mumbai he too was killed, and . His dead body was found off the coast near Mumbai.
Masania has been in the custody of the Coast Guard since Thursday in Porbander.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
11:41 ||
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#1
I suspect that India is going to lose any tolerance for piracy... Perhaps the US should as well.
The arrest of three Pakistani nationals hailing from Multan in connection with Mumbai siege has once again revealed the role of Lashkar-e-Taiba in terror strikes in India after the Akshardham attack in 2002.
Police and central security personnel have arrested at least three Pakistanis, including Ajmal Amir Kamal, a resident of Faridkot near Multan in Pakistan's Punjab province. All the three belong to the suicide squad of Lashkar-e-Tayiba.
The terrorists told interrogators that 12 of them had left in a merchant vessel from the port city of Karachi, which was on its way to Vietnam, from which they got down and rowed 10 nautical miles into Indian waters up to Gateway of India.
The dozen people split into at least five groups that created havoc in five star hotels -- Taj and Trident (Oberoi). The terrorists were carrying dry fruits, suggesting they were prepared for a long-drawn battle.
The sources said the group was joined by some of the local contacts who provided them logistics like bags and dry fruits, the sources said, adding initial reports suggested that the terror group had come to the metropolis in the intervening night of Sunday and Monday.
However, new leads suggested that they had entered the Indian waters on early Wednesday morning, the sources said.
This major strike from the banned Lashkar comes six years after it had carried out an audacious attack on Akshardham temple [Images] in Ahmedabad [Images] in which 25 were killed on September 25, 2002.
Elite National Security Guards had to be airdropped into the complex to rescue 50 people.
The Lashkar-e-Tayiba had a mixed luck with attack on RSS headquarters in Nagpur and attack on Group Regimental Centre of the Central Reserve Police Force at Rampur (Uttar Pradesh [Images]) in 2007.
After being banned by the US for spreading terror in the world and being linked with Al-Qaeda [Images], Lashkar had mainly used its Indian contacts, which included Indian Mujahideeen, to indulge in terror network.
However, this time in Mumbai, the terror group decided to carry out the attack itself as they wanted to strike in a big way, the sources said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
10:16 ||
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#1
guess that blows the Pakistani repnose yesterday from pakiland out of the water about accusing them of comming from there territory
#3
Pak allows LeT founder to import bullet proof car
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan government has granted permission to the chief of the Pakistan-based terrorist group, Lashkar-e-Toiba, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, to import a duty free bullet-proof Land Cruiser, worth Rs 25 million.
According to the interior ministry sources in Islamabad, the LeT chief, who fears a possible attempt on his life by his “external enemies”, had sought the government permission to import a duty free bullet proof Land Cruiser in view of the rising number of terrorist acts across Pakistan.
The sources said that after some lengthy deliberations on the issue, the government has decided to give him a go ahead to import a fully armoured Land Cruiser for his use from Dubai. It was for the first time that the leader of a banned jehadi group had made such a request to the government and it is also for the first time that the government has acceded to such a request.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/28/2008 15:24
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#4
three Pakistani nationals hailing from Multan
For the geographically challenged (like myself), Multan is in Pakistan Southwest of Lahore. It is near the Indian border and part of the Punjabi sectiion of Pakistan.
My own suspision is that the local connection will turn out to be very minor and limited to providing safe-houses or prepositioning of supplies.
The training, recruiting and planning will all turn out to have been done overseas.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
11/28/2008 16:08
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#5
john frum---just out of curiousity...will that new ride for Saeed be hellfire missile resistant, too? Just askin'......
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/28/2008 20:37
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China's foreign exchange reserves currently exceed US $2 trillion, said Yao Jingyuan, chief economist at the National Bureau of Statistics of China, at the China Industry Investment Forum on November 27.
The foreign direct investment China absorbed over the past 30 years has greatly increased. China's foreign exchange reserves have jumped to No.1 in the world. Statistics show that between 1979 and 2007, China's foreign exchange reserves increased by US $1.5267 trillion in total, or an average of US $52.6 billion per year. The reserves grew, especially between 2000 and 2007, by US $1.3627 trillion, up by US $194.7 billion on average per year. Statistics from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange show that, by the end of September this year, foreign exchange reserves reached US $1.9056 trillion, up by 33% year-on-year.
At the forum, Yao also predicted that the growth rate of the consumer price index (CPI) in November and December this year will definitely be lower than 4%. The CPI in October rose by 4% compared with the same period last year, which is the lowest monthly growth rate this year. In addition, at a time when the country continues to launch policies to stimulate economic growth, Yao said "the individual income tax threshold should be raised."
I didn't even know it was on! Such a shame to have missed this fine piece of 'entertainment'.
If the TV variety format weren't already dead, the ghastly ego trip of NBC's Thanksgiving-eve turkey Rosie Live would surely have killed it. Like the pie Alec Baldwin predictably pushed into Conan O'Brien's face that fell to the floor without sticking, the entire hour landed with a sickening, sad, ill-conceived thud. It felt like an off night at America's Got Talent, bookended by wobbly appearances from Liza Minnelli and Gloria Estefan, each forced to perform with the caterwauling host, Rosie O'Donnell.
The low point? There were so many. I ran to the kitchen to see how our sweet-potato casserole was progressing so I could escape Jane Krakowski's career-low stripper-ish ode to product placement, warbling new lyrics to Gypsy's "You Gotta Get a Gimmick" that listed all the giveaways the live audience would get, everything from a Vudu player to White Castle hamburgers and Crest Whitestrips (probably not a bad idea after gorging on those stomach bombs). But even that was a treat compared to Clay Aiken, arriving in his Spamalot costume, engaging in who-loves-who-more banter with Rosie, coyly dancing around the gay issue. "We're both Gayyy-briel Byrne fans," Rosie sorta joked. I stopped reading right there, for obvious reasons.
Two British security guards have jumped overboard from a chemical tanker seized by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Arden, reports have said. The men, along with another crew member are then reported to have been picked up by a German naval helicopter. The Liberian registered vessel, which has at least 28 crew, is now thought to be in the control of pirates.
The International Maritime Bureau said the the Liberian-flagged tanker was hijacked early on Friday in the Gulf of Aden. The vessel was captured in the same waters where many of the recent hijackings have taken place, the narrow shipping lane between Somalia and Yemen.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
09:13 ||
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#1
I read this article just before rushing here to post it.
#2
Would you run away from this Pirate knowing he had been at sea a long time? He seems like a stand up kind of guy. Maybe the tights were too much for the security guards.
As he chased them off the ship you could hear the Benny Hill theme.
#3
That is too wrong for words. You are a bad, bad man, GB.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
11/28/2008 11:31
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#4
"British Crew RUN AWAY from Pirate Hijack"
...'Cos the sensible thing to do is let yourself get taken hostage and their either a) cost someone a lot of money to release you or b) have someone else risk their life rescuing you. Dumbass.
#8
These were SECURITY guards? Not Blackwater, I would guess. Were they unarmed? Why were they even there if it was not to defend the ship against pirates? They should know the layout of the ship far better than the pirates - and the pirates had to be quite exposed approaching and boarding; two good shooters with a good rifles & sights and good sight lines ought to be able to take out a big chunk of (if not all of) a boarding party of pirates. Or am I missing something?
#9
You don't jump overboard from a ship at sea without being pretty sure you will get rescued. They must have been in view of the German helicopter, which means the Germans watched the hijacking and did nothing.
Nicely illustrates how pointless the 'armada' of ships on anti-piracy patrol is.
#10
Hey, Bulldog, you POS, name me one scenario in the past 10 years were the British demonstrated something other than:
Getting caught with their pants down & captured by Iran.
Getting their asses kicked in Basra and turning tail & pulling out.
Having no balls to give their troops decent ROE in Afghanistan.
If they jumped ship and didn't even get off a shot, they RAN AWAY.
Minnesota's U.S. Senate showdown is veering down a path toward the courts and possibly the Senate itself after a panel's ruling on rejected absentee ballots dealt a blow to Democrat Al Franken's chances.
For the first time, his campaign on Wednesday openly discussed mounting challenges after the hand recount involving Franken and Republican Sen. Norm Coleman concludes. That includes the possibility of drawing the Senate into the fracas.
The state Canvassing Board denied Franken's request to factor absentee ballots rejected by poll workers into the recount. He sought to overturn the exclusions in cases where ballots were invalidated over signature problems or other voter errors. Coleman's campaign maintained the board lacked power to revisit those ballots.
Franken entered the recount trailing Coleman by 215 votes out of 2.9 million ballots. As of Wednesday night, Coleman was up 292 votes, including results from Nov. 4 and recounted ones. All told, 86 percent of the ballots have been recounted. However, about 4,740 ballots have been challenged by the two campaigns that could fall to the canvassing board to rule on.
The ruling wasn't a complete victory for Coleman. The board left open the possibility of examining ballots that were set aside for errors outside of the voter's control.
Secretary of State Mark Ritchie estimated that 12,000 absentee ballots were rejected for various reasons - some legitimate, some not. That represents between 4 percent and 5 percent of all the absentee ballots cast. Franken's campaign had made the push to factor in rejected absentee ballots key to its recount strategy, even going to court to force county officials to turn over data on voters whose ballots didn't count.
Marc Elias, the legal chief for Franken, said the campaign won't appeal the board's ruling but it could seek intervention of another kind once the recount wraps up. "Whether it is at the county level, before the Canvassing Board, before the courts or before the United States Senate, we don't know yet. But we remain confident these votes will be counted," Elias said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
09:09 ||
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#1
Maybe he can go back to SNL as self-help guru Stuart Smalley (Carpetbagger). Ah, the lure of easy money, job security, a steady paycheck, health insurance and other perks as a Senator.
#3
'Tis the season to be jolly. Salute a comedians efforts to get a real job. Lift your cup in a toast... No, wait a minute. Make that a stein, yes, a stein - a Franken Stein! I predict that, if necessary, he wil take his fight to the Senate. Then as I understand it, the Senate can decide who it will or will not seat. Scary thoughts for the new year.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/28/2008 11:15
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#4
How is this for an option, Franken.
Go drown yourself in booze and coke and make a further laughing stock of yourself.
#5
The scary thing is all the idiotic lemmings who voted for this twit...kind of like our pres elect.
Posted by: Clererong Oppressor of the Algonquins aka Broadhead6 ||
11/28/2008 12:31
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#6
Him winning the seat will be of really of no value to our troubled nation. To think Minnesota voters could even concider this dumb@$$ as a candidate is telling of the state or reality up there. Franklin's an idiot and Minnesota should not be allowed representation until they grow up.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
11/28/2008 12:33
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#7
Richard, Franken is a comedian? He's funny? Who knew?
#12
If this is what the superior Midwest edumacayshunul system produces (MN voters, Ohio vote fraud, and yeah, gonna toss in Murtha's district), I gotta get back down south of the snow line before the Tsarevich hits kindergarten.
(CBS) ― The world's economic fears were violently pushed aside on Wednesday by another global threat -- terrorism.
A massive coordinated attack was launched in Mumbai, India just hours after the FBI warned that Al Qaeda may be targeting New York's subways and railroads. If Al Qaeda terrorists have their way there will be chaos and mayhem here this holiday season, a mass transit bomb plot that would probably affect all the subway and train lines at Penn and Grand Central stations. "The threat is serious, the threat is significant, and it is plausible," said Congressman Peter King, R-Long Island, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee.
Uniformed officers, including this NYPD Counter Terrorism Squad members and Amtrak cops with M-16s, flooded Penn Station Wednesday after the FBI said it had received a "plausible but unsubstantiated" report that Al Qaeda operatives discussed a plan two months ago to bomb New York City's mass transit system.
The report said: "These discussions reportedly involved the use of suicide bombers or explosives placed on subway/passenger rail systems."
Sources told CBS 2 HD the plot involved the Long Island Rail Road. If the explosion went off in Penn Station, the source said, it would affect transportation of Amtrak's northeast corridor between Boston and Washington, LIRR service and New York City subway service.
"This is definitely linked to Al Qaeda and they had very significant details about exactly how they would carry out the attack, where they would carry it out -- that's what makes it sound so plausible," Rep. King said.
The NYPD and Metropolitan Transportation Authority said they were on high alert and adding extra manpower. Even before the threat became public Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said he was adding more cops. "We always have to be concerned when we have large gatherings like on Thanksgiving," Kelly said. "We always have to have sufficient deployment of police officers."
New Yorkers had this reaction to the new threats.
"I've got to get on a train, but that's horrible," commuter Carolyn Tobin said. "I mean ... the memory ... but just like after 9/11, we just kept going on."
Added Ryan Barreiro: "I'm not too worried about it. That's exactly what they want. If they're gonna get you, they're gonna get you."
"I'm not afraid," Rick Hendrickson said. "I've lived here my whole life, in Manhattan, so has my wife and we just take life as it comes along."
Riders can expect a heightened law enforcement presence -- cops, federal agents, canine teams and inspectors.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
09:04 ||
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#1
Have we still not smote them down adequately? Oh well, back to the salt mines.
#2
Living out west, it's difficult for me to imagine that any significant volume of passengers ride Amtrak. They sure don't out here.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/28/2008 13:00
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#3
Rich,
Amtrak, NJ Transit, LIRR and others all share infrastructure - tracks and stations. An attach on one is an attack on all commuter rail into and out of NYC and the NE corridor. And there ain't much other ways of getting into or through NYC. buses and car traffic are already at their limit.
#5
Terrorists hit Japanese subway with poison gas some years back - limited effect. Then Islamic terrorists hit the London subways - limited effect. In general, Americans, even New Yorkers, are less pacified than either of those populations, so why should we think a terrorist hit on NY rails should be anything close to crippling?
#6
Those bastards! Joe Biden rides that train, lunchpail in hand
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/28/2008 16:03
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#7
"Joe Biden rides that train"
That's "The Honorable Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., Vice President Elect of The United States of America" to you, Frank.
#10
LOL, Darrell. As soon as motor mouth can say that without segueing to some lying anecdote, I'll adopt it. Until then, he's Joe "Plugz" Biden, champion of Iraqi Shiitestan
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/28/2008 17:41
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#11
Vulnerable you say? Phuech'em, they could have had McCain and Palin.
Just when I start thinking that you're not a dispschidt...
#12
why should we think a terrorist hit on NY rails should be anything close to crippling?
Because it will tank a major economic, transportation and communication hub for the country. You don't have to like the NYC metro area to realize what an effect a successful dual attack on the underground transfer centers at Penn and Grand Central would have. Billions of dollars of infrastructure damage, a huge economic hit and very high casualties from those stations alone. Add in several rail overpasses along the main Amtrak lines outside the port and the result would hit YOU in the wallet fast and hard.
#14
ZAWAHIRI has reportedly dared the US to send a new army into PAKISTAN to be defeated or destroyed by Islam. IMO ZAWAHIRI'S DARE INDIRECTLY PROVES MY CONTENTION THAT RADICAL ISLAM IS OUT TO DESTABILIZE AND BREAK UP IFF NOT DESTROY PAN-ASIAN ORDER AMAP ASAP, i.e. RUSSIA, CHINA, INDIA, + LARGE PARTS OF THE SMALLER OR LESSOR ASIAN NATIONS [e.g. PHILIPPINES, THAILAND, etc.].
* SAME/TOPIX > US: PAKISTAN [IMO read, EAST-SOUTH ASIA]HAS REPLACED IRAQ AS AL-QAEDA'S TARGET [primary War Front/Focii]/IRAQ IS NOW A "REAR-GUARD" ACTION.
#15
lotp, I usually yield to you, but as far as tanking GCT or Penn, it would take some serious boom stuff, not the kind of thing a team can hand-carry. An attack of the 'normal' terrorist type would be physically pretty minor (those old buildings are SOLID) - the impact would mainly be psychological. The London and Tokyo rail hubs are every bit as vital to those major cities as are the NYC hubs. For that matter, the junction under the WTC was an important one and it was destroyed, and the city adapted. Terrorist attacks are mostly about the head, not the infrastructure, and they are only as effective as the victims are vulnerable (weak, wussy, etc.) - I think New Yorkers would turn out to be pretty tough once they were forced to be (except for the useless twits who think they're all so wonderful and important, and in a crisis nobody would even notice them - silver lining to the dark cloud.)
#16
And then theres WORLD MIL FORUM [paraph = Google Chinglish translation] > MULTIPLE ISLAMIST AND ETHNIC REGIONAL TERROR GROUPS ARE INTENTIONALLY FOSTERING GEOPOLITICAL AND ETHNO-SECTARIAN CONFLICTS AND TENSIONS ALL OVER SOUTH ASIA. Despite noteworthy or selective successes and multilateral intensive efforts, INTER-NATION SOUTH ASIAN ANTI-TERROR COOPERATION HAS MOSTLY BEEN A FAILURE???
Also, INDIA: REGIONAL TERROR GROUPS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE CONFRONTATIONISMS WID STATES' MILITARIES, POLICE, AND GOVT FORCES.
* WAR OUTSIDE OF IRAQ > Again, the US is now engaged vee Radical Islam in a struggle for DE FACTO CONTROL = DOMINATION OF LARGE PARTS OF THE ASIAN MAINLAND + AFRICA [Eurasia in long-term, East-South Asia + Africa in near-term].
* ISLAMIC/MUSLIM MIL HISTORY > once nuclearized + weaponized, Radical islam will likely return to IRAQ, etc. TO REFIGHT THE BATTLE/WAR FOR IRAQ AND REGAIN MUSLIM-PERCEIVED "LOST HONOR".
#17
MIL FORUM POSTERS > INDIA CANOT HOPE TO BE A GREAT POWER IFF IT CANNOT EFFECTIVELY OR SUCCESSFULLY HANDLE AND RESOLVE THE MUMBAI CRISIS AND HINDU-MUSLIM SECTARIANISM.
Ditto CINA wid its UIGHURS ETC.; + TURKEY wid its KURDS [majority of World's Kurds live in Turkey].
E.g. MIL FORUMS > A PREVIEW OF WHAT THE FUTURE TO COME: THE KURDIZATION OF TURKEY, + THE IRANIAN MOUNTAINS ARE ALSO THE CAUCASIAN MOUNTAINS.
See PRAVDA > "KILL THE RUSSIANS/SLAVS" INTER-ETHNIC STUDENT VIOLENCE AT MAJOR RUSSIAN UNIVERSITIES-TRAINING SCHOOLS.
In a video posted recently on Islamist websites, the Somali jihad group Shabab Al-Mujahideen called on Muslims living in the U.S. and Europe to come to Somalia and join the jihad there. The video is in Arabic, Somali and English.
Following are excerpts from the English part (quoted verbatim):
"To those people still sitting at home, relaxing, having good food, good sleep… what you see of Chichan [i.e., Chechnya], Iraq and Afghanistan and such likes… too much watching… with no action – it leads to nifaq [i.e., hypocrisy]… Jihad becomes something of talk. But jihad is real. There is no way you can tell the sweetness of jihad until you come to jihad... If you don't come to jihad, Allah… will ask you why you didn't come to jihad...
"How can you sit at home when our brothers and sisters are being murdered in our land [Somalia]? How dare you sit at home, looking at the TV, seeing people being killed, Muslims getting killed?... Those who are in Europe and America: You should get out of those countries, you should make hijra [i.e., emigrate]!
"I'm telling the kuffar [i.e., infidels], the English People, the American peopleÂ… We're coming for you! We're going to exterminate you all!
"We are muhajirun [i.e., foreigners fighting in Somalia]. We have come to the land of jihad, and we're doing OK. You guys can also do the same way. You can make hijra [i.e., immigrate] to this land, and fight the kuffar...
"To the people who say that there are no muhajirun in Somalia, I'd like to say that there are muhajirun. We are muhajirunÂ… All I can say is, I invite you to come to this land of jihad."
It should be noted that, on November 25, 2008, ABC News aired a report about an American of Somali origin – Shirwa Ahmed of Minneapolis – who was allegedly involved in jihad in Somalia. According to the report, the FBI believes that Ahmed created a recruiting network in the Minneapolis area, and enlisted several young men who have since disappeared. U.S. officials suspect that most of them have departed for Somalia in order to fight there. They also suspect that Ahmed himself carried out a suicide bombing in Somalia a month ago. Reported here as well.
#7
Somehow, I envision a parody song about come to Somalia, to the tune of "If you are going to San Francisco, be sure to wear a flower in your hair." Mike from Ohio, help me out with this one. Heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/28/2008 15:04
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#8
No sign of Mike yet, so ...
If you're going to Mogadishu
Be sure to wear your rifle with a flair
If you're going to Mogadishu
You're gonna meet some lively people there
For those who come to Mogadishu
Summertime will be exciting there
In the streets of Mogadishu
Dogs gnaw on suspicious chunks with hair
All across the nation such a strange vibration
People in motion
There's a whole generation with no known explanation
People in motion people in motion
And those who go to Mogadishu
Waste their time with bullets through their hair
For its in Eyl, not Mogadishu
Jihad pays enough to make us care
You will come to Eyl, Somalia
Stay until your friends bring ransom there
Posted by: James ||
11/28/2008 21:39
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As far as illicit businesses with low risk and high rewards go, it doesn't get much better than piracy on the high seas. The profit margins can easily surpass those of the cocaine trade.
"There is no reason not to be a pirate," according to U.S. Vice Admiral William Gortney, who commands the U.S. navy's Fifth Fleet. "The vessel I'm trying to pirate, they won't shoot at me. I'm going to get my money." Even pirates who are intercepted have little to fear. "They won't arrest me because there's no place to try me."
Gortney's assessment of piracy's low risk came in a radio interview that focused on the Gulf of Aden, where Somali pirates have carried out a string of increasingly brazen hijackings. Last week they ventured as far as the high seas southeast of Kenya to seize a Saudi supertanker carrying $100 million (65 million pounds) worth of U.S.-bound crude.
But although attention is focused on the Horn of Africa, piracy is a global phenomenon, relative impunity applies in many places, and a thick legal fog hangs over effective action.
Among questions to keep lawyers busy: Can a naval vessel fire on a suspected pirate ship? It depends. Who would be held accountable for someone killed in an exchange of fire between pirates and private security personnel travelling aboard a merchant ship? Which country's jurisdiction applies, for example, to a Somali arrested on the high seas and taken aboard a Danish vessel?
"One of the challenges that we have ... in piracy clearly is if you are intervening and you capture pirates, is there a path to prosecute them?" Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, explained at a recent Pentagon briefing.
A rough back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that the operation to hijack the Saudi tanker, the Sirius Star, cost no more than $25,000, assuming that the pirates bought new equipment and weapons. That contrasts with an initial ransom demand to the tanker's owner, Saudi Aramco, of $25 million.
"Piracy is an excellent business model if you operate from an impoverished, lawless place like Somalia," says Patrick Cullen, a security expert at the London School of Economics who has been researching piracy. "The risk-reward ratio is just huge." Interesting read.
#7
As I remember the British used to hang pirates, cover their bodies in tar, and put the bodies in a cage. Then they would suspend the cages from a pole at the entrance to a harbor so everone could see it. If a bird could find a gap in the tar and start pecking away at it, so much the better.
This would probably cause pirates to consider another career.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
11/28/2008 15:41
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NEWSWEEK: The events on the ground are unfolding rapidly. But knowing the country as well as you do, what strikes you about the reports we've heard so far?
FAREED ZAKARIA: I think one of the misconceptions we're seeing so far is the assumption that these attacks were aimed primarily at foreigners. Look at their targets. The two hotels they attacked—the Taj and the Oberoi—are old, iconic Indian hotels. It used to be true that these places were affordable only by Westerners. But this is no longer true, and it's one of the big changes over the last ten years in India. The five-star hotels today are filled with Indians. Businessmen, wedding receptions, parties…these are real meeting places now, and even those who cannot afford to stay there often pass through the lobby.
So you think if the aim was to hit Americans, Brits or other Westerners, there would be more target-rich environments?
Absolutely. There's a Marriott, and a Hilton, a Four SeasonsÂ….The big American chains all have hotels there, and there are many more distinctly American targets. The Taj and the Oberoi are owned by Indians. My guess is that there will be a lot of Indians involved, and that this will generate a lot of domestic outrage.
#1
Zakaria, thanks for the taqiyya version...why then were the attackers asking for the nationalities of the guests and releasing non UK and US citizens and why attack the Jewish house?
They probably conducted surveillance of a number of potential targets and selected the most vulnerable.
#2
so why did the jilhadists ask for Brit and American passports
Zakaria is trying to avoid the obvious here
(and he has also been trying to avoid the obvious problem with Islam too - he was a big proponent of sending lots of aid to Pakistan after their earthquake - I'll bet a lot of this aid ended up in the hands of jihadists)
#3
My gut says its Muslims of all nationalities involved and local shock troops trained for this mission.
Did they want to send a message or were like Die Hard, trying to get into the Nakitomi building vault? Anything is possible? We don't clearly know who or what exactly they wanted at this time.
#6
Agree with several comments above. Only interesting thing about Zakaria is his wine collection. His commentary and "analysis" define the highly educated cluelessness that passes for sophistication in the Beltway/NYT/MSM axis these days. And don't forget - this sort mindset and smug incompetence just got handed the keys to the US (oh, that's not til January 20, but what with all the bizarre goings-on surrounding the P-E, I keep forgetting).
I'm guessing hammerhead's nailed it here - the two targets were the most vulnerable. Attacking iconic Indian establishments while asking who's American or British certainly is consistent with that.
If the Nov. 26 attacks in Mumbai were carried out by Islamist militants as it appears, the Indian government will have little choice, politically speaking, but to blame them on Pakistan. That will in turn spark a crisis between the two nuclear rivals that will draw the United States into the fray.
#2
Not to worry, folks. A young guy with far less experience in this or anything else than I have, who made his name mumbling nonsense about Iraq, is about to take over the US. I'm sure he and his crack team of Beltway mediocrities and Clinton leftovers will be able to handle things.
Only if we permit it! Keep our nose out of their bloody Hindi-Mooslim sectarian squabbling and mind the downwind drift. Geo-political ambulance chasing STRATFOR never saw a conflict unfit for US involvement. The worst that can happend to both of them is the best that can happen for us. Just my humble opinion.
#4
Some impressive arm-sweeping moral equivalence going on there, Besoeker. There's not much squabbling going on in Mumbai - it's mainly innocent people getting gunned down in hotels and train stations by Islamic mass-murderers armed to the teeth. Was 9/11 just a case of Christo-Mooslim squabbling?
Arab foreign ministers steered clear of taking sides between Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas on Thursday following a late-night meeting to review the state of Middle East peace talks since the U.S. presidential election and the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
00:00 ||
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A commander loyal to slain Taliban leader Abdullah Mehsud said on Thursday that Baitullah Mehsud -- chief of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) -- is "misusing Islam to prolong his terror reign", and branded the TTP chief's activities 'militancy'.
The commander -- Qari Zainuddin Mehsud -- is little known, and only a few have previously heard his name. According to pamphlets written in Urdu and distributed in Tank city on Thursday, Zainuddin Mehsud -- chief of the Abdullah Mehsud group -- has also charged Baitullah with the killings of 'jihadi leaders'.
Qari Zainuddin parted ways with Baitullah following Abdullah's killing in July 2007 in Balochistan's Zhob district, and both sides killed each other's men. The sources claimed the TTP was suffering from internal bickering that had been made public by the distribution of the pamphlets. "All that Baitullah is doing in the name of Islam is not Islamic ... this is militancy," the pamphlets read. The pamphlets also urge clerics to speak out against Baitullah.
This article starring:
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan
Abdullah Mehsud
TTP
Baitullah Mehsud
TTP
Qari Zainuddin Mehsud
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
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Bara-based banned militant organisation Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) again ventured into the provincial capital on Wednesday, acting against their word of not going for incursions into the city. Militants were on the way in their vehicle after giving threats to some gambling dens on the University Road on Wednesday. Police chased their Land Cruiser bearing registration number H-786, which collided with another vehicle on Ring Road. An exchange of fire took place between police and militants following which an LI activist Younas was killed, while another Naek Mohammad was arrested in injured condition. Other militants, said to be eight, managed to escape.
Younas was a proclaimed offender (PO) with the Pishtakhara police for a double murder which occurred on February 9, 2006.
Younas was a proclaimed offender (PO) with the Pishtakhara police for a double murder which occurred on February 9, 2006. Some media reports also said of his (alleged) involvement in recent kidnapping and murder of a Sikh hakeem in Khyber Agency. His criminal past and association with militant organisation reveals the intriguing nexus between militants and criminals during the ongoing wave of militancy.
Superintendent Police (SP) Cantonment Abdul Qadir told Daily Times that the police had information about the vehicle that it was used in three incidents of kidnapping from the city.
Government had launched an operation in Khyber Agency on June 28 against the LI for its increasing incursions in Peshawar after it (LI) kidnapped 16 Christians from Academy Town area of the University Town on June 21, who were later released on June 22. The police officials at that time were of the view that the LI and another militant outfit Amr Bil Maroof wa Nahi Anil Munkir were involved in kidnapping for social and religious reasons and these two groups had abducted dozens of people including those (allegedly) associated with black magic, charms and amulets, prostitution and others, and freed them after they guaranteed in written that they would not indulge in such activities in future.
The tribes in the agreed that LI will make no incursions into Peshawar and other settled areas adjacent to Bara subdivision.
Elders of Afridi tribes of Bara subdivision had signed a deal with the political authorities on July 9. The tribes in the 25-point deal agreed that LI will make no incursions into Peshawar district and other settled areas adjacent to Bara subdivision. Following the signing of the deal, the political authorities had lifted curfew in the subdivision and opened Bara Bazaar.
Sources from Khyber Agency told Daily Times that political authorities of the agency called the elders of Afridi tribes from Bara for a meeting on Thursday to discuss the Wednesday's incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
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Five people were killed and two others injured when a bomb ripped through a vehicle in South Waziristan, official sources said on Thursday. The sources said a jeep carrying seven people was blown up in the Khaisor area of Wana, the headquarters of South Waziristan Agency. The sources, however, said it was not clear if the victims were local or foreign militants, as the town is believed to be the hub of Al Qaeda terrorists and Taliban.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
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#1
Work accident? Touchy explosives meet Wazi pothole?
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) -- the largest Muslim rights group in the US and Canada -- while condemning the Mumbai terrorist attacks asked the Indian government to protect its citizens from the type of retaliatory attacks that have followed similar incidents in the past.
CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement, "We condemn these cowardly attacks, and demand that all hostages taken by the attackers be released immediately and unconditionally. We offer sincere condolences to the loved ones of those killed or injured in these senseless and inexcusable acts of violence against innocent civilians. American Muslims stand with our fellow citizens of all faiths in repudiating acts of terror wherever they take place and whomever they target."
This article starring:
Nihad Awad
CAIR
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
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#1
"...to protect its citizens from the type of retaliatory attacks that have followed similar incidents in the past." Incident? How about murderous act of war against humanity, Awad?
#10
Sounds exactly like the kind of rhetoric Yasser Arafat used after every single Paleo attack on Israel. STFU, Nihad.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
11/28/2008 13:51
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#11
CAIR is in deep doodoo in the United States, with countless reports of "improper" to downright illegal behavior. They don't have "standing" to "council" India on anything.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/28/2008 19:31
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#12
ION WAFF > DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY PARTY [DTP] PROPOSES KURDISH [only] STUDIES' DEPARTMENTS AT MAJOR TURKISH UNIVERSITIES.
POSTERS > TURKS per se may becom a de facto minority in Turkey come 2025, as vee the KURDS. MULTI-ETHNIC STRIFES AND SECTARIANISM IN TURKEY IS [allegedly]MANY TIMES WORSE THAN ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD SAVE FOR SOUTH AFRICA [Botha-Mandela/ANC Years].
Kalapara thana police arrested one fake RAB officer from Lalaua union in Kalapara upazila here on Thursday. He was identified as Arshadul, 20. Police said, fake RAB officer Arshadul, on Thursday, came to local UP member Ismail Talukder's village residence of Madhupara under Lalaua union of Kalapara upazila to meet him.
At one stage, he claimed himself as a RAB officer of Barisal RAB-8 unit. But the villagers, on suspicion, informed to Kalapara Police Station about the matter. Police rushed to the spot and arrested the Arshadul, hailed from Baloybunia village of neighbouring Golachipa upazila and son of one Shafiq Khan.
When contacted Md Sekander Ali Howlader, OC of Kalapara Police Station said police interrogated him and a case had been processing to file.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/28/2008
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#1
he claimed himself as a RAB officer of Barisal RAB-8 unit.
Wait till the real RAB carries him somewhere to locate the shutter gun and round of bullet.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/28/2008 5:21
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#2
Maybe he's just, you know, really _deep_ cover.
A grand jirga of the Salarzai tribes in Bajaur Agency on Thursday resolved that they would not allow outsiders on their land. Around 800 elders from different tribes attended the gathering, which discussed the recent attacks on tribal lashkars and a new strategy to meet the challenges.
The elders asked the government to deploy more troops in the area and establish more security posts to ensure the government's writ. Under the collective responsibility rule, Salarzai tribes would be responsible for the safety of the security forces in the area, they said.
Shelter: It was also decided that the houses of those who harbour Taliban would be burnt, they would be banished along with their family members and a fine of Rs 2 million would be imposed, APP reported.
The elders also decided that a lashkar of 20,000 volunteers would be re-organised to launch fresh efforts against the Taliban. The volunteers would man various checkposts in the area to keep a vigil on the Taliban, they said.
Meanwhile, three people including two Taliban were killed and 12 injured in an exchange of fire between Taliban and the law enforcement agencies in Mohmand Agency on Thursday.
Official sources said the Taliban started indiscriminate firing on Lakaro's security checkpost. The security forces, backed by helicopter gunships, pounded Taliban positions at Ghaziabad, Bagh, Gagizai, Girbaaz and Khanka and destroyed several hideouts and bunkers, APP reported. Two Taliban were killed and four injured.
Meanwhile, Taliban hideouts were also targeted in Pandali tehsil between Wednesday and Tuesday night.
Headquarters: Separately, a Taliban headquarters was taken over in a joint search operation by police and paramilitary forces in the 'disputed villages' of Peshawar district, locals and officials said. "The headquarters is manned by government forces now and Taliban have been flushed out," the officials told Daily Times.
Local residents in Mathra area told Daily Times that many Taliban had started to 'change their look' by trimming their beards and long hair. "They are changing their look to avoid being arrested by the government forces or face public wrath," they said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
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After about 22 months' imprisonment, former BNP state minister for labour and employment Amanullah Aman was released on High Court (HC) bail last night from the prison cell at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) Hospital while former MP Mufti Shahidul Islam was released from Kashimpur Jail.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
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The local police launched a search operation in the suburban areas of Peshawar late Wednesday night and arrested 13 people for their alleged involvement in rocket attacks on the provincial metropolis.
Sources in the police department told Daily Times that 13 suspected militants were arrested in the pre-dawn raids in the jurisdictions of Nasir Bagh, Mathra, Mattani, Machni, Sarband and Regi Police Station limits.
Police commandos and Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) personnel also took part in the raids. The suspected terrorists were shifted to an undisclosed location for interrogation.
Blast: Meanwhile, police said that militants on Thursday fired rockets at the containers carrying supplies to the US-led coalition forces stationed in Afghanistan.
The attack took place in Landi Akhundabad area. However, a police spokesman said that rockets were not fired at the containers.
Meanwhile, a gunship helicopter dropped a rocket in the limits of Mathra Police Station on Thursday. The rocket weighing around six kilogramme was dropped in a vacant plot near the British School and College.
However, there were no casualties. SHO Mathra Noor Elahi Khan confirmed the incident and said that the rocket had not exploded.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
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A special U.N. tribunal to try the suspected assassins of Lebanese former prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri is on track to start operations on March 1, according to a U.N. report issued on Wednesday. "On the basis of the progress so far reported ... it is envisaged that the Special Tribunal will commence functioning on 1 March 2009," Ban Ki-moon wrote in the report.
The 2005 assassination sparked a worldwide outcry that forced the withdrawal of Syrian troops that had been in Lebanon for nearly 30 years. A U.N. probe and the establishment of the tribunal remain sensitive issues in Lebanon, where tension between pro- and anti-Syrian camps runs high.
Preparations underway
Hariri and 22 other people died in a car bomb explosion in Beirut on Feb. 14, 2005. Some anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians said Syria was behind the suicide bombing, a charge Damascus vehemently denies. The attack was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since the 1975-1990 civil war, and led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops after a 29-year presence.
U.N. investigators have neither publicly identified suspects nor issued indictments. The U.N. Security Council voted in May 2007 to set up the tribunal in The Hague, in the Netherlands.
"It is my belief that the impending start of the special tribunal will send a strong signal that the government of Lebanon and the United Nations remain committed to ending impunity in Lebanon," he said.
The U.N report said the start-up phase of the tribunal was well under way, including recruitment and training of staff, preparation of premises for the court and the raising of sufficient funds to meet the budget.
United Nation weighs in
Ban said in the report he had selected both international and Lebanese judges in the case but would not announce their names until all necessary security measures were in place. "Practical arrangements for the prosecutor to arrive in The Hague on 1 March 2009 and to continue the investigation with the minimum of disruption to the investigation will soon be finalized," the report said.
"It is my belief that the impending start of the special tribunal will send a strong signal that the government of Lebanon and the United Nations remain committed to ending impunity in Lebanon," he said.
Prosecutors said a likely motive for the killing was the role of Hariri, who became a prominent critic of Syria, in support of a 2004 U.N. resolution demanding that Syrian and other foreign troops withdraw from Lebanon.
Canadian prosecutor Daniel Bellemare, who took charge of the U.N. investigation from Belgium's Serge Brammertz at the beginning of this year, said in March a network of individuals was responsible for the killing and it was linked to other political attacks.
Ban's report said the proposed budget for establishing the tribunal and for its first year of operations was $51 million, and there was sufficient money in hand to go ahead with it.
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11/28/2008
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Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh blamed the Mumbai attacks on terrorist groups based in India's 'neighbours' -- an indirect reference to Pakistan -- and warned it would have to pay 'a cost' if it did not stop the use of its territory for terrorism. "We will take up strongly with our neighbours that the use of their territory for launching attacks on us will not be tolerated, and that there would be a cost if suitable measures are not taken by them," Dr Manmohan Singh said in a televised address.
Meanwhile, elite Indian commandos fought room-to-room battles with terrorists inside two luxury hotels to save scores of people trapped or taken hostage. Mumbai police chief Hassan Gafoor said more than 125 people had died in the series of gun and grenade attacks that began on Wednesday and continued into Thursday. At least 315 people have been injured. "The situation is very fluid and the toll could rise further," he told AFP.
According to hospital sources quoted by the Press Trust of India, nine foreign nationals were among the dead -- including a Japanese businessman, an Australian, a Briton, a German and an Italian. Americans, French, Israelis and Canadians were said to be among those held or trapped.
Helicopters buzzed overhead and crowds cheered as the commandos moved into the Trident-Oberoi.
Helicopters buzzed overhead and crowds cheered as the commandos, their faces blackened, moved into the Trident-Oberoi, where 20 to 30 people are thought to have been taken hostage and more than 100 others trapped in their rooms. Huge flames billowed from an upper floor.
Earlier, explosions rattled the nearby Taj Hotel as the troops flushed out the last of the terrorists there. Fire and smoke plumed from an open window.
Commandos had also gathered outside a Jewish centre where a rabbi is thought to have been taken hostage, but later apparently decided to hold off from an assault.
External linkages: "The well-planned and well-orchestrated attacks, probably with external linkages, were intended to create a sense of terror by choosing high-profile targets," Singh said in his address, in a second reference to Pakistan.
In a third reference, Singh gave another warning: "We are not prepared to countenance a situation in which the safety and security of our citizens can be violated with impunity by terrorists. It is evident that the group which carried out these attacks, based outside the country, had come with single-minded determination to create havoc."
Lashkar-e-Taiba: Lashkar-e-Taiba denied any involvement in the attacks. "We have nothing to do with Mumbai attacks," Abdullah Ghaznavi, a Lashkar-e-Taiba spokesman told AFP from the Indian-held Kashmir summer capital Srinagar.
Indian police said they had shot seven gunmen and arrested nine suspects. They said 12 policemen were killed.
Strategic expert Uday Bhaskar said the attacks could inflame tensions between Hindus and Muslims. Schools were closed and a curfew was imposed around the Gateway of India, a colonial-era monument. But train services were running. The main Bombay Stock Exchange was closed until further notice.
Indian cabinet: The Indian prime minister chaired a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security Thursday morning, and later --when Home Minister Shivraj Patil returned from Mumbai -- called a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, which also vetted his address. In a full cabinet meeting later on Thursday, ministers lashed out at Patil and Indian intelligence agencies.
This article starring:
Abdullah Ghaznavi
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Hassan Gafoor
Home Minister Shivraj Patil
Strategic expert Uday Bhaskar
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
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#1
Last throw of the dice by the ISI now their 'polictical' wing has been disbanded!!!!
#4
The attacks have all the signs of being directed by Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency, a former head of India's Intelligence Bureau, Arun Bhagat, tells the BBC. He suggests it was a bid to sabotage rapprochement between the two governments
One of the prime culprits of Malegaon bomb blast, Dayanand Pandey alias Sudhakar Dwivedi, used to secretly film those who visited his ashram, including policemen, top intelligence officials, businessmen and bureaucrats, investigations revealed on Thursday. Police sources said Pandey's laptop computer and a flash drive were seized and had been sent for analysis to the Forensic Science laboratory in Bangalore.
Police found Pandey had been filming all his visitors in Kanpur and the Indian-held Kashmir through a camera and stored the recordings in his laptop computer, that he had owned since 2005. The computer also has photographs of Pandey with several religious leaders, politicians and bureaucrats. After his arrest, public prosecutor Ajay Nisar had told the court that Pandey had directed Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Prasad Purohit -- the arrested Indian army officer -- to arrange explosives for the Malegaon explosion. Pandey had also arranged a meeting between Purohit and Ramji, another accused who is wanted in the case.
Pandey is believed to have told the ATS that he had joined the Air Force wing of NDA in 1989 but had dropped out in 1990. Police claimed to have recovered a boarding pass of Kingfisher Airlines, a cheque book, a pass book, an ATM card, a debit card, a passport and a pen drive from Pandey. Police said that Pandey was in constant touch with Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur while Ajay Rahirkar, treasurer of Abhinav Bharat, provided a 'huge sum' of money to Pandey.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
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(SomaliNet) As many as 2,000 bodies have been discovered in eastern Congo in two mass graves, government officials said on Wednesday. The graves were found on Saturday in the town of Bukavu in a plot of land formerly owned by a member of the Congolese Rally for Democracy, or RCD, a Rwandan-backed rebel group, Congo's Justice Minister Luzolo Bambi told reporters.
The RCD at one point, controlled much of eastern Congo, but it became a political party in 2003. Many of its top leaders were integrated into the government, taking jobs as vice-presidents and army chiefs.
Constantin Charhondangwa, the head of civil society in the Bukavu region, said the parcel of land owned by the ex-rebel was sold to a resident. The new landowner discovered the remains when he dug up the land put in a septic tank, Charhondangwa said. Bambi and state-run TV said as many as 2,000 people are buried in the twin graves.
UN officials visited the site and confirmed the presence of the mass graves but did not offer an estimate of the number of dead. Madnodje Mounoubai, a spokesperson for the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, said the world body is calling for authorities to undertake "a serious investigation."
The discovery comes as eastern Congo has once again come to the brink of war, with a different rebel group fighting government forces.
Bukavu has not been touched by the latest round of violence, but has been a frequent theatre of war. It is located 100 kilometres south-east of Goma, the epicentre of the latest fighting.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
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#1
Nobody does genocide like the Congolese. They just have a flair for it I guess.
Even though the Indian government has refrained from dragging Islamabad directly into the Mumbai terror attacks, insinuations suggest that diplomatic relations between the two countries may suffer in the aftermath of the attacks.
It is believed that the terrorists identified and then killed two senior US intelligence officers staying at the Taj Mahal Hotel.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in his address to the nation, pricked Pakistan thrice without naming it. The security agencies in New Delhi told reporters they suspected the role of Al Qaeda in the attacks. The agencies believed their suspicion arose from the way the terrorists captured Taj hotel and successfully identified two senior US intelligence officials by checking the passports of the foreigners who were staying there, sources said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
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#1
I kind of think -- the ISI guys should find themselves coming down with a plague...
Falling down stair wells.
Tripping in front of trains...
drowning in toilets
Eaten by crocs
....
#3
So MT, yousa like saying we should send every wife, girl friend and mistress of the ISI a free DVD player and, with subtitles, a copy of Basic Instinct?
#6
Well, the ISA housed, training funded and resourced
the Sikh militancy for two decades, so why wouldn't they do the same for the Kashmiri Islamic terrorist groups.
The leader of the Tamil Tigers Thursday said Sri Lanka is "living in a dreamland of military victory," moments after government jets for a second year running destroyed a rebel radio station broadcasting his annual address.
Even with a Sri Lankan military offensive besieging the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's (LTTE) self-declared capital, leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran remained defiant in his yearly rallying cry. "The Sinhala state has, as never before, placed its trust on its military strength," he said, referring to Sri Lanka's government. "It is living in a dreamland of military victory. It is a dream from which it will awake. That is certain."
Prabhakaran's speech, usually recorded beforehand at one of his jungle hideouts, went out worldwide via a Voice of the Tigers radio station broadcast on the Internet despite the air raid. Air force spokesman Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara said the strike completely destroyed a radio station close to Kilinochchi, the northern town the LTTE has declared as capital of the separate state it wants to create and calls Tamil Eelam. Troops are fighting on its outskirts and the military on Wednesday said its fall was imminent, but Thursday said torrential monsoon rains had slowed combat operations.
Prabhakaran reiterated longstanding accusations that President Mahinda Rajapaksa's war was meant to wipe out Tamils. Rajapaksa has repeatedly said military operations are aimed at the LTTE, and not Tamil citizens in the northern war zone. Rajapaksa is from the Sinhalese ethnic majority, which has led all governments since independence from Britain in 1948. Many Tamils complain of marginalization since then. "No political transformation has taken place during the last 60 years in the Sinhala nation. Therefore, hoping it will happen in the future is futile," he said.
'INDIA IS OUR FRIEND'
The war, one of Asia's longest modern insurgencies, began in earnest in 1983 when anti-Tamil riots broke out after the LTTE fatally ambushed 13 soldiers on the northern Jaffna Peninsula. Rajapaksa's government has made the most military progress of any in the 25-year war, capturing most of the turf held by the LTTE in August 2006, when a 2002 truce began unraveling.
Prabhakaran's speech is usually aimed at galvanizing supporters, especially those in the global Tamil diaspora who for years have funded the LTTE but increasingly cannot because it is on a host of international lists of banned terrorist groups. "Cordially I invite those countries that have banned us... to remove their ban on us and to recognize our just struggle," he said.
The LTTE has carried out hundreds of assassinations and suicide bombings against politicians including moderate Tamils and former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
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Sylhet Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal yesterday framed charges against outlawed Harkatul Jihad al Islami (Huji) operative Abu Zandal in connection with the grenade attack on the British high commissioner at the shrine of Hazrat Shahjalal (RA) on May 21, 2004.
This article starring:
Harkatul Jihad al Islami
Abu Zandal
Harkatul Jihad al Islami
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
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The FBI says a tip from a homeless man led them to a bandit who held up an armored car in Monroe and escaped down a river on an inner tube.
Anthony Curcio of Lake Stevens was arrested and charged in U.S. District Court on Tuesday with one count of interfering with commerce. Investigators say he sprayed an armored car guard in the face with pepper spray on Sept. 30, made off with $400,000, then hopped on a yellow inner tube and escaped down Woods Creek.
The FBI says it cracked the case when agents learned that about two weeks before the robbery, a homeless man called 911 to report that he found a can of Mace, a wig and a two-way radio behind a trash bin nearby. When a man came to retrieve the items, the homeless man wrote down the license plate number of his car.
#3
The homeless man, may he have a year at Holiday Inn on the armored car company, knew about the details of the robbery.
He seems to have been paying attention to the world around him, including details with no conceivable connection to his plight.
?????
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
11/28/2008 10:25
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#4
I would have thought that $400K would have sunk the inner tube and robber. Must have been a big inner tube.
An Egyptian man has been admitted to a mental hospital after he killed his father with repeated blows to the head to cure his headache, Egyptian state news agency MENA said on Wednesday.
Mustafa Said Khalil Ibrahim, 37, clubbed his elderly father over the head 25 times to "change the blood in his head and cure him of a chronic headache," MENA said, adding the man said his father had requested the radical treatment.
The man had initially been charged with manslaughter by a prosecutor in the Nile Delta province of Sharqiya, but a doctor later declared him insane.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
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#1
Death has shown remarkable success in ending various aliments and diseases. Given that the enlightened 'univeral health care' systems of the Europeans withhold medical services from the elderly, the average European bureaucrat isn't much off from this approach to resolving such problems as well.
A big spam-spewing botnet shut down two weeks ago has been resurrected, security researchers said today, and is again under the control of criminals.
The "Srizbi" botnet returned from the dead late Tuesday, said Fengmin Gong, chief security content officer at FireEye Inc., when the infected PCs were able to successfully reconnect with new command-and-control servers, which are now based in Estonia.
Srizbi was knocked out more than two weeks ago when McColo Corp., a hosting company that had been accused of harboring a wide range of criminal activities, was yanked off the Internet by its upstream service providers. With McColo down, PCs infected with Srizbi and other bot Trojan horses were unable to communicate with their command servers, which had been hosted by McColo. As a result, spam levels dropped precipitously.
But as other researchers noted last week, Srizbi had a fallback strategy. In the end, that strategy paid off for the criminals who control the botnet.
According to Gong, when Srizbi bots were unable to connect with the command-and-control servers hosted by McColo, they tried to connect with new servers via domains that were generated on the fly by an internal algorithm. FireEye reverse-engineered Srizbi, rooted out that algorithm and used it to predict, then preemptively register, several hundred of the possible routing domains.
The domain names, said Gong, were generated on a three-day cycle, and for a while, FireEye was able to keep up -- and effectively block Srizbi's handlers from regaining control.
"We have registered a couple hundred domains," Gong said, "but we made the decision that we cannot afford to spend so much money to keep registering so many [domain] names."
Once FireEye stopped preempting Srizbi's makers, the latter swooped in and registered the five domains in the next cycle. Those domains, in turn, pointed Srizbi bots to the new command-and-control servers, which then immediately updated the infected machines to a new version of the malware.
"Once each bot was updated, the next command was to send spam," said Gong, who noted that the first campaign used a template targeting Russian speakers.
The updated Srizbi includes hard-coded references to the Estonian command-and-control servers, but Gong was unaware of any current attempt to convince the firm now hosting those servers to yank them off the Web.
In the meantime, FireEye is working with several other companies -- including VeriSign Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Network Solutions Inc., a domain registrar -- on ways to reach the more than 100,000 users whose PCs FireEye has identified as infected with Srizbi.
Discussions about how to best handle any future McColo-Srizbi situation are also ongoing, Gong said. "We're trying to find a solution, and talking about ideas of how they can help fund efforts for some period of time to [preemptively] register domains," he said.
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11/28/2008
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The Taliban have earned up to $470 million from the Afghan opium trade this year alone, money that is being used to finance the insurgency against US and Afghan forces, the United Nations (UN) said on Thursday. The Taliban earned $50-70 million from imposing a 10 percent charge, called ushr, on economic activities such as opium farming this year, and $200-400 million from levies on opium processing and heroin trafficking, the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in its 2008 Afghan opium survey. The income does not include money the Taliban are believed to be making from exports of cannabis, another widely produced Afghan crop. The report said opium poppy production - the raw material for heroin that is exported to Europe, the Middle East and the United States - had actually fallen substantially in 2008 following a US and Afghan government crackdown. The report emphasised that the strategy of tackling opium production and encouraging farmers to grow alternative crops was the right one and should be reinforced.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
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#1
I hope we are going full Patriot Act on heroin importers. The DEA should be working on nothing else.
Late this afternoon, Al-Qaida's official As-Sahab Media Wing released a new Q&A-style video interview with Al-Qaida Deputy Commander Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri titled "Al-Azhar: The Lion's Den." There does not appear to be any reference to Mumbai, India, or even the Kashmiri conflict in the video. Al-Zawahiri gives no indication of foreknowledge or having played a role in the Mumbai attacks.
During his interview, al-Zawahiri addresses several different subjects. He calls upon Muslims in the Palestinian territories and Egypt to stop sitting around, and to take up arms against "apostate" regimes which are oppressing them. He also identifies a number of Muslim scholars who he deeply respects, including a lengthy diatribe on the blind Shaykh Omar Abdel Rahman, who is currently being held in a U.S. prison cell. Dr. al-Zawahiri also cautions Al-Qaida operatives to avoid deliberately causing harm to innocent Muslims, either through their own action or by inviting public retaliations by secular governments in the Muslim world.
One other small note of interest -- Al-Qaida seems to have done a rather sloppy job of marketing this video. Bin Laden's propagandists went through the trouble of creating custom, animated, English-language advertisements for al-Zawahiri's interview -- but very prominently misspelled the word "Lion." For an organization like Al-Qaida, which typically prides itself on its professionalism and a fastidious attention to detail, this was a pretty glaring error.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/28/2008 16:41
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#8
"He called on Muslims in the Palestinian territories and Egypt to stop sitting around" > PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM - 20,000 MUSLIMS ATTACK CHRISTIAN CHURCH [Coptic] IN CAIRO, wid a large number of Church attendees/believers + Clergy holed up and unable to leave.
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – A U.S. soldier who deserted his unit to avoid returning to Iraq has applied for asylum in Germany, saying the Iraq war was illegal and that he could not support the "heinous acts" taking place. Andre Shepherd, 31, who served in Iraq between September 2004 and February 2005 as an Apache helicopter mechanic in the 412th Aviation Support Battalion, has been living in Germany since deserting last year.
"When I read and heard about people being ripped to shreds from machine guns or being blown to bits by the Hellfire missiles I began to feel ashamed about what I was doing," Shepherd told a Frankfurt news conference Thursday. "I could not in good conscience continue to serve."
What did you think a military did? And did you consider that you serve in the one military that makes agonizing efforts to spare innocents?
Shepherd, originally from Cleveland, Ohio and ranked as an army specialist, applied for asylum in Germany Wednesday, said Tim Huber from the Military Counseling Network, a non-military group which is assisting him.
According to U.S. law, soldiers who desert during a time of war can face the death penalty.
Not a chance of that happening under either Bush or Bambi.
The soldier said he was particularly hopeful he would be granted asylum in Germany, a staunch opponent of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, due to the legacy of the post-war trials of Nazi officials, notably in Nuremberg in 1945-1949. "Here in Germany it was established that everyone, even a soldier, must take responsibility for his or her actions, no matter how many superiors are giving orders," he said.
Shepherd, who enlisted in January 2004, is only the second U.S. soldier to have applied to Germany for asylum "in a similar situation," said Claudia Moebus from the government's department for migration. The earlier application was later withdrawn. The specialist was posted to Germany in 2005 where he undertook desk jobs, but he gradually began questioning the justification for the Iraq war and began worrying he would be sent back to serve there, said Huber. "That's when he went AWOL," he added.
Earlier this year, Jeremy Hinzman, an American who applied for refugee status in Canada after deserting the U.S. Army when he received orders to go to Iraq, said he would appeal a deportation order returning him to the United States. Another U.S. deserter, Robin Long, was deported from Canada in July and sent to jail in Colorado.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/28/2008
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#1
OK, this guy got his 5 seconds of fame, so the hell with him. Asshole doesn't give a damn about his word and there's no backbone to the U.S. Government to do anything about it. Just don't let him back into the U.S., we are inundated by cowards who are still here.
#4
...due to the legacy of the post-war trials of Nazi officials, notably in Nuremberg in 1945-1949.
Except, the Nazis were tried for acting outside the framework of law. That UN authorization paperwork kicks the legs out of any rational 'illegal' war arguement, but that will never shut down the whining. The conduct of the war, regardless of slander of the MSM, has been exemplary compared to all other such historical events [not to be confused with Fantasyland they inhabit] to include an unprecedented number of investigations and courts martial proceedings done within the military establishments own auspices. The problem for the rest of the world, is that the American effort will become the bench mark by which all other will ineffectively be held to.
#6
I would almost bet that there's a "Fraulein" involved here
More likely a "Hinzman"
Posted by: regular joe ||
11/28/2008 9:29
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#7
...Bright Pebbles is on the right track: Have the MPs pick him up (ABSOLUTELY LEGAL under the SOFA)and bring him back to the base. Discharge him on the spot and march him to the gate with nothing more than whatever personal effects he can carry and toss him out the gate with the warning that if he returns to the US he will be arrested on sight.
And then walk away. No press conferences, no long speeches, no nothing.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/28/2008 10:13
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#8
A bit of parsing...
When I read and heard about terrorists people being ripped to shreds from machine guns or being blown to bits by the Hellfire missiles I began to feel ashamed about what I was doing
READ and HEARD? WTF?
Never actually faced the enemy and now is blubbering over combat that he did NOT engage in? Fricken gutless REMF. There are supply who did more and they aren't whinging like some little lefty bitch.
I;d liek to drill him: *which* people were we doing this to?
Idiot - the BAD GUYS were the ones being shredded, and we do go to great lengths to insure that its just the bad guys.
This douchebag doesn't realize some people just need killin. Like AQI.
Protecting the good people in Iraq from the jackals (by killing said jackals) is something to feel GOOD about, not ashamed. Its what WON the war there.
This guy is a human turd. Try him, toss him in the stockade in Germany for a few months at hard labor. Then give him the Big Chicken Dinner over there, and kick him out the gate with his prison stripes on and nothing else, and bar him from EVER entering the USA.
#9
"Congratulations! You've just won an all expense paid trip to Hotel Taj Mahal! Yes you are leaving right now. Yes she can come if she wants to; ma'am?"
#10
y'all are far too kind...desertion in a time of war calls for a short rope & a high tree - problem solved. My $.02 anyhow.
Posted by: Clererong Oppressor of the Algonquins aka Broadhead6 ||
11/28/2008 12:43
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#11
I suspect that the amount to sympathy he is about to receive is a whole lot less than he expects.
Reasons?
1) We won in Iraq
2) The SOFA agreement has been approved
3) Mumbai has reminded everyone (including Germans) that some people deserve to be ripped to shreds.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
11/28/2008 13:11
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(AKI) - Al-Qaeda websites on Thursday were swamped with messages from people who were celebrating the devastating Mumbai attacks which have left over 100 people dead and 281 injured. "Oh Allah, destroy the Hindus and do it in the worst of ways," was one of the comments that appeared on Islamist forums on the Internet immediately after the attacks.
"The battle that is underway in Mumbai is a battle for Allah between its servants and the infidels," said another message published on the al-Falluja forum.
Several Al-Qaeda sites also posted several pictures of the victims in Mumbai and provocative statements.
Some media reports are saying that a group calling itself Deccan Mujahideen has claimed responsibility for the coordinated attacks, but this has not yet been confirmed.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
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#1
Scumbags!!!!
Saudi,Iran and Pakistan must be celebrating as they are the TRUE Axis of Evil!!!!
#3
it would be interesting to know what the average Abdul in the Pakistan street thinks of this; he's probably overjoyed about the deaths of infidels and the damage to the Indian economy but worried that somehow, this will hurt muslims somewhere
Indian security forces have arrested three militants, including a Pakistani national, inside Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai, which was attacked by a group of gunmen, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported early today.
Meanwhile, seven hostages were rescued from a Mumbai residential-business complex, also housing a Jewish centre, which was attacked by Islamist gunmen, Indian security officials said late last night, reports AFP.
The PTI report identified the Pakistani national as Ajmal Amir Kamal, a resident of Faridkot, Multan, in Pakistan.
The PTI report identified the Pakistani national as Ajmal Amir Kamal, a resident of Faridkot, Multan, in Pakistan.
#11
There are new reports of a massive explosion at the Jewish Center.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
11/28/2008 9:05
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Telegraph (UK) reports that two of the terrorists are British born, ethnic Pakistanis.
If true... like the Saudis, UK's way of dealing with its terrorists will be to export them as a way to pacify their increasingly boisterous "Asian street."
Posted by: regular joe ||
11/28/2008 9:26
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Link As many as seven of the terrorists may have British connections and some could be from Leeds and Bradford where London's July 7 bombers lived, one source said.
Two Britons were among eight gunmen being held, according to Mumbai's chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. At least nine others are reportedly dead.
Pakistan has played no role in terrorist attacks in Mumbai, Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar said on Thursday. Mukhtar was responding to an assertion by India's military that the terrorists who conducted the attacks in Mumbai had come from Pakistan.
"In previous cases they have acted like this, but later it all proved wrong," Mukhtar told AFP, referring to previous Indian claims of Pakistani involvement in terrorist attacks. "We are very positive that Pakistan is not involved in this," the defence minister said, adding that he would wait to see if accusations of Pakistani involvement also came from India's government. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who is in India for peace talks, also told a private television channel that nobody should be blamed until investigations were complete. "Our experience in the past tells us that we should not jump to conclusions," Qureshi said. "We should not go for a knee-jerk reaction."
India's Major General RK Hooda, who is leading the military operation to flush out the terrorists from Mumbai, told reporters that Pakistanis were conducting the attacks and pretending to be from within India.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
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#1
I don't believe that Pakistan is totally innocent from this!
#2
Just the opposite. ISI prints all over it-trying to make it look al-Qaedish, but not buying.
What's the goal? Taking the focus off Kasmir for final push? Not sure. But ISI is playing with fire. Very hot fire, potentially... a brick-melting fire.
#4
On Tuesday, home affairs ministers from the two countries met in Islamabad, and Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mahmoud Qureshi is by chance currently visiting India.
Proxy attacks
Such contacts are opposed by significant parts of the Pakistani army and particularly its intelligence service, the ISI, who have in the past inspired terrorist attacks in India to stop just such an improvement in relations between the two countries.
Indian papers said the government had failed to protect its citizens
Feeling encircled - with India to their east allied with Afghanistan to their west - analysts believe they have taken the option of encouraging attacks by proxies, Islamists inspired to wage unconventional war.
An armed assault by militants on the Indian parliament in 2001 led to a significant worsening in relations that escalated into troops on both sides being sent to confront each other across their shared border.
It has been decided in principle to establish a cantonment in Swat, NWFP Governor Owais Ghani said on Thursday. The NWFP governor said this during a meeting with army officials at the Saidu Sharif Circuit House, a press release said. The army officials briefed Ghani on the security situation in the area. The governor said an elite force consisting of 1,000 personnel would be provided in Swat to help ensure the government's writ in the valley.
He also said that traditional village defence committees were being revived to ensure the law and order situation in the area, adding an ordinance would be issued shortly to give legal cover to the initiative.
Ghani also said that reconciliatory councils (musalhati jirgas) were also being formed at the police station level to resolve disputes and provide speedy justice to ordinary citizens. The councils will consist of prominent people, elders and religious leaders, he added.
Later, the governor left for Dassu, the district headquarters of Kohistan, where he addressed a gathering of notables, religious leaders and elders.
Meanwhile, unidentified armed men gunned down a senior police officer in Mingora. Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Abdul Wadood was shot dead at the city's Green Square. He had been recently transferred to Swat from Buner district but had not taken charge of the office. The officer was a resident of Matta tehsil of Swat.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
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There are growing fears in Pakistan that the war against Taliban is widening, the BBC reported. It said Pakistan's army was opening up new fronts against Taliban, who were responding by spreading the conflict, destabilising even NWFP's Peshawar city.
The army is on the offensive, pushing into the Bajaur and Mohmand agencies, fighting a slow, hard battle against Taliban, it said. With tanks, artillery and airstrikes, the army is trying to clear villages, towns and roads of Taliban, attempting to drive Taliban from their sanctuaries.
Across the Tribal Areas that border Afghanistan, unmanned US aircraft have also stepped up their activity in recent weeks, launching missile strikes every few days against suspected Al Qaeda targets. The war against Taliban has come to Pakistan's tribal districts and the consequences are being felt across NWFP, it said.
Standing among the ruins of the Loyesam town, army spokesman Maj-Gen Athar Abbas told the BBC last month that its capture had put Taliban "at a great disadvantage and had broken their back". Battered Taliban may be, but they are retaliating, the report said, adding: "Under pressure from the Pakistani offensives and the American missile strikes they are being forced further inland, resulting in the conflict ballooning and spreading to new areas."
Deeper: The BBC report said US airstrikes and Pakistan's military operation in the Tribal Areas were pushing Taliban deeper into Pakistan. So Peshawar is now on edge. Westerners have fled from the city. It said almost 75 percent of all supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan came through Pakistan, the majority through Peshawar. That means that NATO's most important supply route is under threat. First Taliban have struck back near the Khyber Pass, hijacking and burning trucks driving towards the Afghan border, it said, adding the vehicles they had been targeting were trucks carrying supplies meant for NATO forces in Afghanistan and the Afghan army.
In the most brazen attack a fortnight ago, Humvee armoured cars destined for Afghanistan were seized. Taliban filmed themselves triumphantly driving off with their booty of NATO vehicles.
Better equipment: According to the report, the police have stepped up security in Peshawar. There are new checkpoints, more armed patrols but the police say they are outgunned and ill-equipped for the fight on their hands, it added. "The militants I think have far better equipment, they have rocket-propelled guns and we have none," NWFP police chief Malik Naveed Khan told the BBC. "We have no helicopters, no aerial mobility, in transport we are 50 percent down on peacetime requirements and presently we are at war," he said.
As for Taliban's tactics, Naveed said they were clear. "They would like to destabilise the city centres so they can put pressure on the government to get concessions in the Tribal Areas," he said. "And they want to open up more fronts for us to dilute the effect of the law enforcement agencies. Their agenda is to cause problems for the government to check its commitment and resolve in the war against terror."
Pakistan's army is fighting in Mohmand, closer to Peshawar. The war will probably spread much further too. But just as NATO has found in Afghanistan, the Pakistani security forces are now discovering too that Taliban is a foe that is hard to corner, even harder to defeat.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
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#1
Pak Army's ability to carry out a surge? Not so good.
Better approach is to tell the tribal leaders that if Karachi fails, it can no longer claim sovereignty of the area and to be prepared to receive many outside visitors who can impose sovereignty. The 'good old days' won't be coming back.
#3
let the Indians go postal. more good would come from it I think. LIKe india wiping the whole cesspool from the face of the earth. that would do away with most of the taliban the madrassas, pakis in general and a good amount of al q including bin laden and al zwahiri
#4
Getting to the point where they need to dust the place and sterilize it for 50 years. Cobalt-60 and some crop dusters at high altitude ought to do the trick.
A terrorist holed up in a Jewish centre in Mumbai phoned an Indian television channel on Thursday to offer talks with the government for the release of hostages, but also to complain about abuses in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK). "Ask the government to talk to us and we will release the hostages," the man, identified by the India TV channel as Imran, said, speaking in Urdu. "Are you aware how many people have been killed in Kashmir? Are you aware how your army has killed Muslims. Are you aware how many of them have been killed in Kashmir this week?"
Spokesman Moni Ender in Israel said there were eight Israelis inside the house, including Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
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Iraq's parliament on Thursday approved a landmark security pact with the United States that would pave the way for the US forces to withdraw by the end of 2011, taking the country a big step closer to full sovereignty.
Iraq has full sovereignty today. This is a defense pact.
The deal, which parliament linked after days of fractious negotiations to a series of promised political reforms and a public referendum next year, brings in sight an end to the US military presence that began with the 2003 invasion.
It will make Iraqi police and soldiers increasingly responsible for security after years of bloodshed between majority Shia and Sunni Arabs. "The wishes of different sections of the Iraqi nation have been executed, and this achievement will turn a new page of Iraq's history and will consecrate its sovereignty," said parliament's first deputy speaker Khalid al-Attiya. Lawmakers in Iraq's 275-seat parliament passed the deal with a majority of 149 out of 198 present, Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani said. It was not immediately clear if the vote constituted enough of a consensus to satisfy the demands of Iraq's influential top Shia cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who had called for it to be supported by all of the country's communities.
But the deal linking the security pact to other issues, such as the referendum, was agreed between the country's ruling Shia-led coalition, its Kurdish partners and two Sunni Arab factions that had been holding up the vote. The other issues agreed on related to speeding up the release of mainly Sunni detainees captured by the United States at the height of the sectarian violence, and working on a balance between the powers of government and security forces. The agreement was opposed to the last by lawmakers loyal to Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. "The referendum is a lie to satisfy some parties with reservations," said one member of the Sadr movement, deputy Aqeel Abdul-Hussein. Under the deal agreed with the outgoing administration of President George W Bush, the US troops will have to pull out of Iraqi cities by the middle of next year and leave the country by the end of 2011.
It replaces an expiring UN mandate. The deal gives Iraq authority over about 150,000 US troops in the country, makes US soldiers liable for some crimes committed when they are off duty, and reins in private security firms. It is expected to boost Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's prestige and stature, by allowing him to continue to call on the US forces to fight violence while at the same time taking credit for arranging their eventual withdrawal.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2008
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Chesapeake Energy Corp., the nation's largest producer of natural gas, seeks to raise up to $1.8 billion through common stock sales in an effort to fund its drilling and exploration activities and mitigate the impact of lower natural gas prices on cash flow.
In two filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission late Wednesday, the company said it will issue shares worth as much as $1 billion before fees and also registered 50 million shares worth at most $791 million for potential sale.
Oklahoma City, Okla.-based Chesapeake said it will use proceeds from the $1 billion offering for general corporate purposes, including fund exploration, development and other capital expenditures.
The move would dilute holdings of shareholders, who already suffered through a substantial decline in Chesapeake's stock price this year. Shares closed at $20.24 on Wednesday, off 73 percent from the stock's $74 52-week high set this summer.
But the company said cash flow, borrowings and cash on hand have not been enough to pay for capital expenditures.
Chesapeake has used up the remaining financing available under its $3.5 billion bank credit facility and only $251 million is left of another $460 million credit line. Credit markets remain tight with financial institutions under duress.
#1
This might be a decent move for them. The market has probably already bottomed and this offering, by the time it hits the market, will bring in big money.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
11/28/2008 0:43
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#2
I think there's a way to go on debt-deflation/demand destruction and thus rises in commodity affordability.
#5
as high as natural gas has risen in the last few years i don't see how they could lose money. A couple years ago i got my first gas bill followed by my first heartattack
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.
Two British security guards have jumped overboard from a chemical tanker seized by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Arden, reports have said. The men, along with another crew member are then reported to have been picked up by a German naval helicopter. The Liberian registered vessel, which has at least 28 crew, is now thought to be in the control of pirates.
Would you run away from this Pirate knowing he had been at sea a long time? He seems like a stand up kind of guy. Maybe the tights were too much for the security guards.
Minnesota's U.S. Senate showdown is veering down a path toward the courts and possibly the Senate itself after a panel's ruling on rejected absentee ballots dealt a blow to Democrat Al Franken's chances.
In a video posted recently on Islamist websites, the Somali jihad group Shabab Al-Mujahideen called on Muslims living in the U.S. and Europe to come to Somalia and join the jihad there. The video is in Arabic, Somali and English.
A commander loyal to slain Taliban leader 
Bara-based banned militant organisation Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) again ventured into the provincial capital on Wednesday, acting against their word of not going for incursions into the city. Militants were on the way in their vehicle after giving threats to some gambling dens on the University Road on Wednesday. Police chased their Land Cruiser bearing registration number H-786, which collided with another vehicle on Ring Road. An exchange of fire took place between police and militants following which an LI activist Younas was killed, while another Naek Mohammad was arrested in injured condition. Other militants, said to be eight, managed to escape. 
Five people were killed and two others injured when a bomb ripped through a vehicle in South Waziristan, official sources said on Thursday. The sources said a jeep carrying seven people was blown up in the Khaisor area of Wana, the headquarters of South Waziristan Agency. The sources, however, said it was not clear if the victims were local or foreign militants, as the town is believed to be the hub of Al Qaeda terrorists and Taliban.
A grand jirga of the Salarzai tribes in Bajaur Agency on Thursday resolved that they would not allow outsiders on their land. Around 800 elders from different tribes attended the gathering, which discussed the recent attacks on tribal lashkars and a new strategy to meet the challenges. 
After about 22 months' imprisonment, former BNP state minister for labour and employment Amanullah Aman was released on High Court (HC) bail last night from the prison cell at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) Hospital while former MP Mufti Shahidul Islam was released from Kashimpur Jail.
The local police launched a search operation in the suburban areas of Peshawar late Wednesday night and arrested 13 people for their alleged involvement in rocket attacks on the provincial metropolis.
A special U.N. tribunal to try the suspected assassins of Lebanese former prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri is on track to start operations on March 1, according to a U.N. report issued on Wednesday. "On the basis of the progress so far reported ... it is envisaged that the Special Tribunal will commence functioning on 1 March 2009," Ban Ki-moon wrote in the report. 
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh blamed the Mumbai attacks on terrorist groups based in India's 'neighbours' -- an indirect reference to Pakistan -- and warned it would have to pay 'a cost' if it did not stop the use of its territory for terrorism. "We will take up strongly with our neighbours that the use of their territory for launching attacks on us will not be tolerated, and that there would be a cost if suitable measures are not taken by them," Dr Manmohan Singh said in a televised address.
Alleged Wash. inner tube bandit charged federally 
An Egyptian man has been admitted to a mental hospital after he killed his father with repeated blows to the head to cure his headache, Egyptian state news agency MENA said on Wednesday. 
A big spam-spewing botnet shut down two weeks ago has been resurrected, security researchers said today, and is again under the control of criminals.
But as other researchers noted last week, Srizbi had a fallback strategy. In the end, that strategy paid off for the criminals who control the botnet. 
The Taliban have earned up to $470 million from the Afghan opium trade this year alone, money that is being used to finance the insurgency against US and Afghan forces, the United Nations (UN) said on Thursday. The Taliban earned $50-70 million from imposing a 10 percent charge, called ushr, on economic activities such as opium farming this year, and $200-400 million from levies on opium processing and heroin trafficking, the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in its 2008 Afghan opium survey. The income does not include money the Taliban are believed to be making from exports of cannabis, another widely produced Afghan crop. The report said opium poppy production - the raw material for heroin that is exported to Europe, the Middle East and the United States - had actually fallen substantially in 2008 following a US and Afghan government crackdown. The report emphasised that the strategy of tackling opium production and encouraging farmers to grow alternative crops was the right one and should be reinforced.
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – A U.S. soldier who deserted his unit to avoid returning to Iraq has applied for asylum in Germany, saying the Iraq war was illegal and that he could not support the "heinous acts" taking place. Andre Shepherd, 31, who served in Iraq between September 2004 and February 2005 as an Apache helicopter mechanic in the 412th Aviation Support Battalion, has been living in Germany since deserting last year.
(AKI) - Al-Qaeda websites on Thursday were swamped with messages from people who were celebrating the devastating Mumbai attacks which have left over 100 people dead and 281 injured. "Oh Allah, destroy the Hindus and do it in the worst of ways," was one of the comments that appeared on Islamist forums on the Internet immediately after the attacks.
Indian security forces have arrested three militants, including a Pakistani national, inside Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai, which was attacked by a group of gunmen, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported early today.
Pakistan has played no role in terrorist attacks in Mumbai, Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar said on Thursday. Mukhtar was responding to an assertion by India's military that the terrorists who conducted the attacks in Mumbai had come from Pakistan. 
There are growing fears in Pakistan that the war against Taliban is widening, the BBC reported. It said Pakistan's army was opening up new fronts against Taliban, who were responding by spreading the conflict, destabilising even NWFP's Peshawar city. 
A terrorist holed up in a Jewish centre in Mumbai phoned an Indian television channel on Thursday to offer talks with the government for the release of hostages, but also to complain about abuses in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK). "Ask the government to talk to us and we will release the hostages," the man, identified by the India TV channel as Imran, said, speaking in Urdu. "Are you aware how many people have been killed in Kashmir? Are you aware how your army has killed Muslims. Are you aware how many of them have been killed in Kashmir this week?" 
