Before you jump all over my case: yes, I know that this is pointless. I know that a lot of people consider the topic an obsession of the fringe.
And Barry Soetoro is going to be President of the United States. He is The One, and nothing can stop him now, especially not some stupid little piece of paper like the U.S. Constitution. Get used to saying President Obama, because come January 20th, thats what well all be saying.
Except when we have to say The Dear Leader, of course.
But it looks like there really is an issue about where Obama was born, because his supporters apparently were already thinking strategically about the problem as early as 2006. According to a post at Patriot Brigade Talk Radio forum:
While digging my way through the Internet last night, I came across the following paper [pdf], written by SARAH P. HERLIHY. Its title
AMENDING THE NATURAL BORN CITIZEN REQUIREMENT: GLOBALIZATION AS THE IMPETUS AND THE OBSTACLE
caught my eye, and had to read it
I had to ask myself, what would drive any American to want to change a clause in a document that is the very foundation of our government?
So, I kept digging, and found that SARAH P. HERLIHY is employed by Kirkland & Ellis LLP
Noting that this law firm is based in Chicago, the light bulb was shining a little brighter. Upon looking at the firm, and the partners, I found that Bruce I. Ettelson, P.C., is Member of finance committees of U.S. Senators Barack Obama and Richard Durbin. (towards bottom of the page)
So it sure looks like Obamas people have looked into the matter of Natural born as far back as early 2006. What is even more disturbing is that it would appear that they are following the thought of :
If the facts do not support the theory, Destroy the facts!
Here is the introduction to the paper It looks like a road map for Obamas defense lawyers And a precursor to a Socialist world.
#2
heh - congrats to Zenster. Ace of Spades had their very own Zenster - Christoph, who made every post about him, dominated comments, and finally got the ban hammer. Neither were bad guys, nor dumb, by any means (perhaps one and the same - the M.O. was so similar) but their overbearing comment dominance got em the exit
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/29/2008 19:35
Comments ||
Top||
#1
In 2009, Washington will spend roughly $700 billion on the military. Adjusted for inflation, even the $515 billion for normal (non-Afghan/Iraq) operations is more than America spent annually during the cold war, Korean War, or Vietnam War. Yet then the United States faced the Soviet Union and, in the latter two cases, was fighting a very hot war. Today America faces no threats of comparable magnitude.
The writer is comparing apples and oranges. How so? Cause all the other wars and for an extensive time of the Cold War, it was a draft army paid minimal wages. Today the vast expense is personnel costs both in active duty force and the increased population of military retirees living longer like the rest of the population. That professional forces is expensive per head than any other time, it is also the finest military of its size seen in history in it's skill and conduct. You get what you pay for. Also the writer should check real close how much of the DoD budget was spent on retirees back in Korea and Vietnam and how much is spent today. DoD already projects that the majority of its medical costs are going to shift from active to retiree in a few years.
MUMBAI: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil on Saturday kicked off a row when he said "such small incidents happen" with reference to terror attacks in Mumbai.
"Such small incidents happen..", was what Patil, who also holds the Home portfolio, told reporters, little realising his faux pas.
What led to the controversy are his remarks " bade shahron mein aise ek adh hadse hote rahte hain. Woh 5,000 logon ko marne aye the lekin humne kitna kum nuksan hone diya . (Such small incidents happen in big cities. They (terrorists) came to kill 5,000 people but we ensured minimal damage)".
Patil was not available for comment but sources close to him said the senior NCP leader did not mean to downplay the terror attack and that the remarks were being quoted "out of context".
Posted by: john frum ||
11/29/2008
14:34 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
the remarks were being quoted "out of context"
So he's just like O'Bambi....?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
11/29/2008 14:41
Comments ||
Top||
#2
No different than the coastie literati who've been caught telling their fellow Americans to 'get over' 9/11.
Shades of the Columbine PD.
It is the photograph that has dominated the world's front pages, casting an astonishing light on the fresh-faced killers who brought terror to the heart of India's most vibrant city. Now it can be revealed how the astonishing picture came to be taken by a newspaper photographer who hid inside a train carriage as gunfire erupted all around him.
Sebastian D'Souza, a picture editor at the Mumbai Mirror, whose offices are just opposite the city's Chhatrapati Shivaji station, heard the gunfire erupt and ran towards the terminus. "I ran into the first carriage of one of the trains on the platform to try and get a shot but couldn't get a good angle, so I moved to the second carriage and waited for the gunmen to walk by," he said. "They were shooting from waist height and fired at anything that moved. I briefly had time to take a couple of frames using a telephoto lens. I think they saw me taking photographs but theydidn't seem to care."
The gunmen were terrifyingly professional, making sure at least one of them was able to fire their rifle while the other reloaded. By the time he managed to capture the killer on camera, Mr D'Souza had already seen two gunmen calmly stroll across the station concourse shooting both civilians and policemen, many of whom, he said, were armed but did not fire back. "I first saw the gunmen outside the station," Mr D'Souza said. "With their rucksacks and Western clothes they looked like backpackers, not terrorists, but they were very heavily armed and clearly knew how to use their rifles.
"Towards the station entrance, there are a number of bookshops and one of the bookstore owners was trying to close his shop," he recalled. "The gunmen opened fire and the shopkeeper fell down."
But what angered Mr D'Souza almost as much were the masses of armed police hiding in the area who simply refused to shoot back. "There were armed policemen hiding all around the station but none of them did anything," he said. "At one point, I ran up to them and told them to use their weapons. I said, 'Shoot them, they're sitting ducks!' but they just didn't shoot back."
As the gunmen fired at policemen taking cover across the street, Mr D'Souza realised a train was pulling into the station unaware of the horror within. "I couldn't believe it. We rushed to the platform and told everyone to head towards the back of the station. Those who were older and couldn't run, we told them to stay put."
The militants returned inside the station and headed towards a rear exit towards Chowpatty Beach. Mr D'Souza added: "I told some policemen the gunmen had moved towards the rear of the station but they refused to follow them. What is the point if having policemen with guns if they refuse to use them? I only wish I had a gun rather than a camera."
#1
Those railway policemen with Lee Enfield 303s receive almost no firearms training. Most can't shoot straight and many weapons are not even serviceable.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/29/2008 14:39
Comments ||
Top||
#2
If you'd thought your gun might work, that would have been a good opportunity for some target practice. Of course, that's assuming they were carrying any ammo at all.
#3
I don't know if Indians are allowed to carry arms, but: If only the authorities are permitted weapons then they assume full responsibility for the defense of the unarmed citizens, and May NOT stand by, hide or run when the population is threatened, even if the risk to themselves is substantial (and a typical police sidearm against an AK-47 is most assuredly a high-risk confrontation - except for the first shot.)
#4
"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest." -- Mahatma Gandhi.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/29/2008 15:01
Comments ||
Top||
#8
Any self respecting patriot would shoot him down....some reporters have blood in their veins, not water. As for the damn Mumbai police...they are cowards who can only beat innocents and poor people. Can I ask when the world knows that Dawood Ibrahim is behind this and lives either in Dubai or Karachi, why isn't he dead? How can he run smuggling operations in Mumbai...the effing police is complicit, thats how...The Chief Minister of that state and his lackeys should be shot for
treason. I wish the dead were 300 politicians rather than worthy
citizens.
#9
"What is the point if having policemen with guns if they refuse to use them?"
Exactly. The chief of police of Mumbai needs to be publicly humiliated, the police force culled with extreme prejudice, and a new training program started with those who remain ... tomorrow AM.
If I were in charge of those policemen, and I realize they are all extremely tired, they would all be recalled for re-training starting immediately.
Their primary reason for existence is to protect the citizens. They failed. They displayed cowardice. That must not be allowed to happen again.
But remember, while they had weapons, it is quite possible they had no ammunition or only a few rounds. Not enough for a protracted gun battle with well-supplied terrorists. Still, a few well-placed shots would have taken them out one-by-one.
I've been criticized for stating that the guards 'ran away'...I'd love some commentary from other RB-ers on the topic, since the original thread switched over. I don't appreciate being called names for my opinion.
By the way, Anti Piracy Maritime Security Solutions is 'non-lethal' & unarmed.
The American security company Blackwater is planning to cash in on the rising threat of piracy on the high seas by launching a flotilla of gunboats for hire by the shipping companies. The firm, which gained international notoriety when its staff killed civilians in Iraq, has already equipped one vessel, called The McArthur, which will carry up to 40 armed guards and have a landing pad for an attack helicopter.
The McArthur, a former survey ship, arrives in the Gulf of Aden, the scene of the recent high-profile hijackings and shootouts with Somali pirates, at the end of the year. It is to be joined by three or four similar vessels over next year to form the company's private navy.
Several security companies are rushing to the region despite the presence of British, American, Russian and Indian naval warships, among others, sent to protect ships. For fees ranging from £8,000 to £12,000 for transits of three and five days, companies are offering teams of unarmed guards, "non-lethal deck security personnel". With more than 60 ships attacked in the Gulf and ship-owners paying an estimated £75m in ransom for the return of crew and cargo, the security companies foresee a lucrative business.
One US company, Hollowpoint Protective Services, says it is offering a comprehensive service of hostage negotiations backed by armed rescue operations if the talks fail. Eos, a British concern, says it favours a "non-lethal" approach with the use of sophisticated laser, microwave and acoustical devices. But Blackwater plans to have the largest and most heavily armed presence among the security contractors. The company believes that the presence of escorting gunboats will have a deterrent effect, with criminal gangs being forced to switch to more vulnerable targets.
A Blackwater spokeswoman, Anne Tyrrell, said there have already been about 15 inquiries about its anti-piracy service. The company refused to reveal how much it will charge. Its executive vice-president, Bill Matthews, said the US Navy and the Royal Navy do not have the resources in the region to provide total security, opening up a role for companies such as his. He added: "While there are temporary needs that perhaps outpace the limited resources of the Department of Defence [Washington] and the Ministry of Defence [London], the private sector is available to fill those gaps.
"We have been contacted by ship-owners who say they need our help in making sure goods get to their destination. The McArthur can help us accomplish that. We have not sought to enter the space until recently. It was not part of our business plan. But as the world changes, so does our business plan."
Nick Davis, a former British Army pilot who runs a company in Poole called Anti-Piracy Maritime Security Solutions, said: "It frightens me that Blackwater is going down there. Their background is not in deterrence. Their background is in weapons. To me, the best people to be armed are the military. Pirates might approach McArthur without knowing it's a Blackwater boat and try to hijack it." Awww...wouldn't that just be the pits
Nick needs to get his testicles out of long-term storage ...
Chris Austen, chief executive of Maritime & Underwater Security Consultants, in London, said ship-owners should be cautious about armed guards. "There are some flags that prohibit the carriage of arms or the use of violence. There are some insurers that will not accept it, and your insurance will be void."
#2
So the primary purpose of the non-Blackwater security personnel is to collect urine samples for random drug tests to satisfy some insurance bureaucrat?
#3
"Eos, a British concern, says it favours a "non-lethal" approach with the use of sophisticated laser, microwave and acoustical devices."
Now that that's been proven not to work these guys should certainly be provided with lethal weapons where it's safe to employ them. Vessels carrying explosive cargoes should be escorted, no question.
You can't say the British guards on the vessel hijacked the other day didn't give it their best try if this is accurate:
"Mr Davis defended the actions of his team. He said they had been attacked by six pirates in a high-speed skiff armed with AK47s and rocket-propelled grenades.
He said the two former marines and a former paratroop held them off for about 40 minutes long enough for the crew to send out a distress call and seek safety below deck.
They fired water cannon at the pirates and zigzagged the vessel. They also used a long-range accoustic device that fires laser-like beams of excruciatingly painful sound at attackers. They beat off three or four attacks but the pirates then began firing RPGs at the laser operator. Mr Davis said the pirates continued to shoot at the security guards after boarding the ship and that the three had no choice but to abandon the vessel.
The pirates then fired on them while they were in the water, and tried to run them down in the hijacked vessel. They did what they felt they had to do to save their lives and the lives of the crew, said Mr Davis, 37."
After coming under RPG attack, shortly to be followed by small arms, do you think the wise option would have been to stay on board, unarmed? Most ships give up without a fight and it wouldn't be heroic to stand around waiting to see what sort of mood the pirates were in once on board. It would be plain stupid.
#4
I have a feeling that a lot of the navies present are going to see the Blackwater men in operation, and turn several shades of green with envy. Nobody appreciates being ordered to hold their fire when they see villains at work.
#5
This is folly! So the nice, non-lethal approach failed, then what? Abandon ship - speaks a lot for "you're a peon" defense mindset. You need the carrot and the stick - if you must, non-lethal to try and prevent a boarding (I think warning shots are non-lethal enough), but once aboard, or following the first shots, then it should be back to old school. Had they killed or wounded a few of these pirates, they could still have jumped overboard, and the pirates would still have shot at them and tried to run them down, so the non-lethal track had no effect whatsoever on the outcome - delayed their swim maybe - I'll bet the zig-zagging alone could have done that.
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.
One instance? Try this. That's score 3 Somali pirates to the Royal Navy. I haven't seen any kills to the USN yet, although the Faina has been shadowed by US ships for weeks now. So clearly the UK military aren't the only ones to be found embarrassingly without 'decent ROE'.
I could list a few of the British kills in Afghanistan but why should I? I suggest you educate yourself.
#7
I think Blackwater are on to something - private convoy protection.
The current naval forces are symbolic and largely impotent in preventing piracy, in part because international law is a serious impediment to real action. I'm sure Blackwater will feel less constrained.
#8
My 2c worth; Non-lethal anti-piracy measures have got an entirely undeserved reputation for being effective (Piracy declined in Asia for entirely unrelated reasons). We are now seeing they are useless, at least against determined pirates.
Nick Davies should be a very worried man. He is seeing his business (model) going down the gurgler, because it doesn't work.
#9
Pirates respect the strong use of force. They don't respect feelings. Therefore, the appropriate response to the pirate's attacks is the concentrated use of force, for example, India's recent response to being fired upon by a pirate mothership.
The frustrating thing is that this whole thing can be over with in a week with the appropriate response.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/29/2008 16:59
Comments ||
Top||
#10
That tells you how screwed up Intl Law is that a private concern is less constrained than a state.
#11
Huh? Aiming a speaker at pirates doesn't stop them?
Posted by: Mike N. ||
11/29/2008 17:24
Comments ||
Top||
#12
It's fascinating watching time after time humans erecting another Ptolemaic design of the universe to satisfy their inner needs rather than address the issue. We have thousands of years of history in how to deal with pirates, but we ignore the record and data because of the fundamental failure of human will. To paraphrase Napoleon, it is better to have a lion leading an army of deer than have a deer leading an army of lions.
#14
"There are some flags that prohibit the
carriage of arms or the use of violence. There are some insurers that
will not accept it, and your insurance will be void."
Only if the armed guards are aboard. There's very little they can do if there's an armed escort. That was proven in the Straits of Mallacca.
#15
BD, you're the one that took to name-calling reacting to my assertion that they 'ran away'. My 'title' in the last thread would have been the same if it were Blackwater.
You may have your opinion, but the tone of this thread vindicates my sarcasm.
The fact is these outfits are pacifist, and the ROE is to 'run away' if boarded (I doubt their phone is ringing much this week or next). Also, the overwhelming constraints put on British troops has done nothing to resolve the hugely embarrassing Iran episode (USN is guilty, too, as in the Gulf incidents with Iran). With the recent British commando success (which I somehow missed in the news), they're on track to regain face, and good for them. It was not my intent to slam them for being British, but my response fit the personal attack on me.
Your defense of your attack is lacking and, as such, a tacit acknowledgement of a knee-jerk response.
I presume you are British and I hit a nerve (primarily due to the original article title using 'British'). If so, more power to you being from a country farther down the self-destructive path than the US.
But I think we all pretty much agree that the Blackwater Navy will probably accomplish a helluva lot more than frustrated warship captains operating with maddeningly restrictive ROE.
I think we're all on the same side here, so have a tall one & a stogie and, cheers!
#16
NS, one of the differences between government and private business is governments tend to deal in absolutes regardless of costs, while business's deal in rewards versus costs and risks.
In this case, governments say we can't do this because it will/may contravene international law. Whereas a business like Blackwater will look at the profits and then say how likely is a Somali pirate to take us to the International Court in the Hague and what will it costs us if they do?
#17
POTUS, Jefferson, sent the Dept of the Navy to quell America's initial brush with these islamofascist jihadis. The extortion was breaking the bank.
Amway/Quixtar North America know how to run a navy. heh
#18
Non-lethal force tends to work on ignorance and disorientation / confusion of the target. If the target is aware of what is going on, non-lethal means can often be "worked through".
Pakistan may relocate around 100,000 military personnel from its restive border area with Afghanistan if there is an escalation in tension with India,which has hinted at the involvement of Pakistani elements in the Mumbai carnage, a media report said today.
Private channel Geo News reported that Pakistan's military and intelligence sources told a select group of journalists today that NATO and American command had been told
that Islamabad [Images] would be forced to relocate its military from the borders with Afghanistan if there is escalation in tension with India, where nearly 200 people were killed in the multiple terror attacks on the Indian financial capital.
"These sources have said NATO and the US command have been told that Pakistan would not be able to concentrate on the war on terror and against militants around the Afghanistan border as defending its borders with India was far moreimportant," Geo News quoted senior Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir as saying.
He also said the sources had briefed the media that the decision not to send the ISI chief Lt Gen Shuja Pasha to India was taken after Indian foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee used a very aggressive tone with Pakistani officials on telephone after the Mumbai attacks.
"The decision to not send the ISI DG to India was taken because Mukherjee used strong words with Pakistani officials and warned of consequences," Mir quoted the military sources as saying.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/29/2008
12:40 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
ahhh so the ISI guy is insulted? F*ck him.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/29/2008 12:44
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Was the ISI guy insulted or just fearing becoming a very-deserving POW?
"Pakistan would not be able to concentrate on the war on terror and against militants around the Afghanistan border as defending its borders with India was far more important"
Absurd on many levels. What have the 100,000 military personnel accomplished so far? Who keeps starting and fanning the fires along the Indian border? Pakistan seems determined to get its butt whipped on both sides plus either self-destruct or vaporize in its middle.
#4
This is exactly out of the 2001 playbook. Terrorist Infantry assault on Indian Parliament, then Islamabad says "Due to increased tensions, we've got to move our troops away from NWFP to the Indian border."
#7
So the Afghan border is now a free firezone for more predators and spec-ops to fill in the vacuum?
Uh, yeah. That'd be my guess. Who's gonna protect bin Laden when they're gone?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
11/29/2008 16:42
Comments ||
Top||
#8
I do not believe this was an ISI sponsored operation though it may have been done with people who have had access to some ISI-sponsored resources in the past. I believe this was an al Qaeda operation using groups active in the Kashmir region.
I further believe that one of the PURPOSES of this operation would be to increase tensions with India and force a relocation of troops out of the tribal regions to the Indian border.
The attack on the Jewish center is one indication. I don't believe an ISI-planned attack would have wasted time/energy/resources on that target. The targeting of US and UK tourists is another indication to me that this was not ISI-planned. ISI would have gone after purely Indian targets and Hindu targets at that, not after foreigners and Jews. Attacking foreigners is an al Qaida trademark.
HUNDREDS of people were killed in the central Nigerian city of Jos when Christians and Muslims clashed over the result of a local election. "Hundreds of people have been killed in the last two days since the riots started. Remains of burnt bodies litter some parts of the town; it is so terrible,'' Christian clergyman Yakumu Pam said.
Local Radio Plateau said the governor of Plateau State, Jonah Jang, had placed four districts of the city under a curfew and had ordered police to fire on anyone who broke it following the clashes on Friday.
Aminu Manu said incidents of violence were still being reported in the city today.
"So far over 10,000 people have been displaced from their homes and are now seeking refuge in churches, mosques and army and police barracks,'' a Nigerian Red Cross official in Jos said. "I can't give any figures but there are dead bodies on the streets that are yet to be evacuated. We are afraid of an outbreak of an epidemic if they are allowed to decompose,'' he said.
#3
Just 50 people have been confirmed dead, not the "hundreds" been quoted by the great western media....and just so everybody knows it's political and not religious.....and as far as I know there are no jews involved!
A Muslim charity in the town of Jos says it collected more than 300 bodies, and fatalities are also expected from other ethnic groups, mainly Christians.
#5
Glenmore,
Hey! Which Al in Minnesota you talking about? The carpetbagger from New York will go back to being a "comedian". (Just like Rosie is so "funny")
Olusegun,
The riots started when a candidate backed by the Islamists was defeated in an election. Something about defying the will of God by voting for a kuffir. Sounds religiously motivated to me.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
11/29/2008 15:25
Comments ||
Top||
President Hugo Chavez is asking the military and his supporters to prepare for a showdown with his newly elected political opponents, telling his backers that they must be "prepared to die for the revolution."
Chavez says opposition leaders who captured five gubernatorial posts and the Caracas mayor's office in elections last Sunday "want a confrontation" and are falling back on "the scenario of 2002," when he was deposed by a brief coup.
Speaking to red-clad supporters Friday, he said events including the alleged burning of a state-owned health clinic this week were meant to weaken his government. Chavez called on Venezuela's military to "prepare to defend the revolution" and said "we won't show them mercy."
Posted by: ed ||
11/29/2008
09:15 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I don't understand why Hugo makes such big deal out of people plotting coups. He did time in the slammer for doing it himself. In Venezuela, it's just part of the process.
#4
including the alleged burning of a state-owned health clinic
Gotta be careful when Reichstags state-owned health clinics start burning.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/29/2008 19:30
Comments ||
Top||
#5
this will likely get ugly, quick. Hoogo has promised away much of the oil proceeds as proof of comradeship to his allies (Cuba, Bolivia, Kennedy Jr.), which was workable at best with $120+/bbl oil, especially since his oil is sludgey crap.
Now that the income stream is dropping like a brick, he's phucked in domestic economy, and can't deliver his foreign promises. Time for the bunker looms, hope he doesn't kill too many good Venezuelans before he gets the dirt nap
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/29/2008 19:40
Comments ||
Top||
#6
What's up? Is the CIA trying to kill him? Again?
The flyover outside the domestic airport in Mumbai and a taxi drivers unfamiliarity with the new slip route to the terminal perhaps went a long way in averting a major disaster that could have taken the toll into hundreds on Wednesday night itself.
Shortly before the terrorists moved into their targets in South Mumbai, a black and yellow taxi, with three passengers and enough ammunition to bring down a dome, sped in the direction of the airport. Instead of taking a slip road that would have taken the passengers straight to the airport, the driver took the flyover which bypassed the airport, only to get stuck at a red light.
At rush hour, the lights stayed red for long, at which the passengers berated the driver and asked him to cut the traffic lights. The driver moved on, but the wait turned out to be a minute or two too long. The car exploded. All that was found was a severed head and parts of three human legs. Had the terrorists' plans of coinciding a blast at the airport with the attacks on the Taj and Oberoi hotels succeeded, the death toll of 26/11 would have been much bigger than it already is.
#2
For the past 3 daze I've been switching back and forth between Fox and CNN to keep up with events. CNN (stop the presses!) is so loony and taqiyya-like, it's startling. Most of their reporters (like Christiane AmfourIslam&Poor) strongly suggesting that the lack of opportunity by Muslims in India was the motivation.
#3
I was channel surfing past CNN and heard one of their reporters blab that navigation pilots now have 'panic buttons' which they can push to indicate that something is wrong. And then some government offical confirmed it.
Somehow I don't think that little tidbit was something 'the public has a right to know.' and might get people killed when a pilot is disarmed of it by terrorist.
#6
Now you see why Americans complain about taxis who do not understand English instructions well? "No, no Sanji, I said take a right here, not 'take her right here!'" "Please go back, please run past the red light, please ... KABOOM!
They don't call it Black Friday for no reason.
PALM DESERT, Calif. -- The shooting occurred in a crowded toy store on the traditional start of the holiday shopping season, but authorities say it wasn't related to the bargain-hunting frenzy. Instead, two men pulled guns and killed each other after the women with them erupted into a bloody brawl, witnesses said.
Authorities released few details about the mayhem that broke out at the Toys "R" Us store around 11:30 a.m. Friday, sending scared shoppers fleeing. Riverside County sheriff's Sgt. Dennis Gutierrez said the fight was not over a toy and that handguns were found by the men's bodies. He refused to say whether the shooting was gang-related.
Because it was so obvious? ...
The victims were identified as Alejandro Moreno, 39, of Desert Hot Springs, and Juan Meza, 28, of Cathedral City. No one else was hurt.
Witnesses Scott and Joan Barrick said they were checking out of the store when the brawl began between two women, each with a man. The women were near the checkout area, but the Barricks did not think the women had purchases. One woman suddenly started punching the other woman, who fought back as blood flowed from her nose, said Scott Barrick, 41. The man who was with the woman being punched pulled a gun halfway out of his pocket, then shoved it back in, he said.
"He pulled his gun right next to me. I turned to look for my wife, and she was already hiding," Scott Barrick said. "I was scared," said Joan Barrick, 40. "I didn't want to die today. I really didn't want to die today, and I think that's what we were all thinking."
The other man pulled a gun and pointed it at the first man but forgot to cock it, Scott Barrick said. The first man tried to run but was blocked by the line of people, then ran back toward the store's electronics section as the other man fired his gun, he said.
The first man reached a dead-end in electronics, turned around and ran toward an exit, pulling his gun and firing back, Scott Barrick said. "He went up to the cash register, he went to put his hand on the thing and he just went phoomp," he said, indicating the man fell. He said he did not see what happened to the other man.
Palm Desert Councilman Jim Ferguson said police told him two men with handguns shot and killed each other. Saved the taxpayers a whole lot of money. Thanks for thinking of us in these trying economic times.
"I think the obvious question everyone has is who takes loaded weapons into a Toys "R" Us?" he said. "I doubt it was the casual holiday shopper." I believe term is Power Shopper
Ray Turner, 20, said he was two aisles away when two women began shouting and screaming at each other and he had a clear view of the fight until a crowd clustered around them. Both women had children Jeebus, he said.
Posted by: ed ||
11/29/2008
09:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Except the large number of small donations end up being non-traceable. Not that the study truly addresses that issue except in 'theory' and then only to the benefit of the (pre-established) study's finding.
Saudi Arabia's king says the price of oil should be $75 a barrel, much higher than it is now, but his oil minister indicated Saturday that no measures will likely be taken until OPEC meets again next month.
Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi said that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will "do what needs to be done" to shore up falling oil prices when the cartel meets Dec. 17 in Algeria.
Naimi did not entirely rule out the chance that the cartel would slash output at a hastily convened meeting of OPEC members in Cairo Saturday, but he said the bloc needs to wait until the Algeria meeting to assess the impact of earlier production cuts. ...
Posted by: ed ||
11/29/2008
08:56 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Hey King, I was thinking more like $20-$40 per barrel is reasonable--lower if possible. We don't want to support your friggin opulent life style.
#3
At $40 & below you'll pretty much stop further investment in deepwater (Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, West Africa), shale oil, and greatly slow gas liquefaction, oil sand, etc., which will increase dependency on KSA, and cause another, even sharper price spike in the near future.
#5
Between the Obama policy's and Green lawsuits I don't think we have to worry about low oil prices discouraging exploration. Three of the 5 years to develop a field is getting past the lawsuits and congressional blocking (NIMBY). And Obama will stop "local" development on federally controled lands as soon as he is sworn in.
#7
$75/barrel would be enough to balance the Saudi budget but would still be too low to save Iran from bankruptcy (they need something like $90/barrel).
#3
Fatah first aid in action? Not very impressive.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/29/2008 9:07
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Live by the RPG, die by the RPG. Can't get good help these days. Co-workers also suck. There is some kind of poetry involved here when the cosmic fickle finger of fate jams that large middle finger of your a$$ when you are up to no good.
#7
Holy Moley! What a goat rope! One guy sounded like Curley during a crisis of the Three Stooges. Nobody did the ABC's: Airway, Breathing, Circulation. Good camera footage, though. Should go to the Cannes Film Festival.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/29/2008 14:39
Comments ||
Top||
#8
Geez, sarge, are RPGs supposed to do that or was he just showing off?
NEW DELHI: Visiting Pakistan Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Friday said there were no terrorist training camps in Pakistan. The country was pursing a policy of cooperation to add a new chapter in bilateral relationship with India. Kashmir was an outstanding issue on which Pakistan preferred a peaceful, negotiated settlement.
Asked where terrorists were being trained if not in Pakistan, he said, It is not confined to Pakistan. There have been attacks and suicides in Afghanistan, Iraq. This is an international network and has to be dealt with at an international level. It is a global issue and has to be tackled on that basis.
Interacting with the media at the India Womens Press Corps here, Mr. Qureshi said he did not cut short his visit in the wake of the terror attacks so as to express solidarity and lend support. I have come here to build bridges. I am equally saddened by what has happened.
Asked about Indias assertion that initial information had shown the involvement of Pakistan elements in the Mumbai attacks, Mr. Qureshi said, How can you be so sure? You have to build trust. Without trust there can be no beginning. There are extreme and rogue elements in every society. In February the people of Pakistan spoke and rejected extreme fringe elements.
To a question, he said the Indian government should have pondered more before pointing a finger at Pakistan. The leadership must rise above politics and domestic compulsions.
Appealing for cooperation and not accusations, he stressed the need for strengthening the anti-terrorism mechanism that had been set up between India and Pakistan. Terrorists are barbaric and inhuman and we have to eliminate them collectively.
On what action the Pakistan government had taken against Lashkar-e-Taiba, he said, Pakistan had banned LeT. To give a value judgment during this moment is not proper. Experience shows that there should not be a knee-jerk reaction. When the Samjhauta Express bombing happened there were a lot of accusations, but today investigations have reversed that.
Claiming that the Pakistan government was going after terrorists, he said such incidents were happening to disrupt the India-Pakistan dialogue process. He said the present government in Pakistan did not subscribe to the values of the Taliban and was looking at the curricula of all madrasas to discourage teaching of militancy.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/29/2008
07:48 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Take FM Wormtongue to Mumbai and let the locals tear him to pieces.
Posted by: ed ||
11/29/2008 8:47
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Visiting Pakistan Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Friday said there were no terrorist training camps in Pakistan.
Makndoom (sounds like a character from a horror movie) should check out his own country first before becoming a Foreign Minister.
This is what Spiegel has to say, maybe Makndoom should check it out.
For years a kind of death industry has been taking hold in Pakistan's tribal areas. There are hundreds of Koranic schools which could better be described as cadet schools for Islamists. Boys as young as five are sent here by their impoverished parents. The state provides hardly any free education; the schools that exist are poorly equipped. Children learn the Koran by heart in Arabic, often without understanding a word. After all they speak Pashtun, not Arabic.
The idea is to condition or brainwash them. The goal is jihad. As young men these warriors are given military training which underscores their so-called spiritual training.
Anyone who doubts the existence of this death-machinery can visit the hundreds of schools just a few hours' drive from Quetta, near Afghanistan's border. To get there one has to pass checkpoints and roadblocks erected by the ISI, Pakistan's intelligence agency. The ISI carefully protects this region, which might be described as an extended barracks for jihad, interspersed with rural villages. Why? No one in Islamabad seems willing to answer that question.
#3
The thing to realize is that Qureshi does not speak for the Pakistani military, and certainly not the ISI.
3 days ago he announced that the ISI was disbanding its political wing. The next day the Pakistani Army announced the political wing would stay.
You can be sure no civilian government has oversight of the ISI, and if they wanted to build a mockup of the Taj Hotel, no cabinet member would be the wiser.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
11/29/2008 11:57
Comments ||
Top||
#4
No training camps in Pakistan? O.K. we can forget about Pakistan as the source of trouble.
Yeah, sure Grand Poopaw Makedoom Shaw Pureshibullshitski, we believe you (wink, wink).
#5
As many of those madrassas should be targeted and attacked on the same night. Thousands of furuture jihadis can be snuffed at once. And before you start blathering about "thal will only make more jihadis", know that they are always making more jihadis. Roaches are always breading too - does that mean you don't exterminate them in your home and yard?
MUMBAI: His swaggering image as he walked around Chhatrapati Shivaji terminus dispensing death was captured by Mumbai Mirror photo editor Sebastian D' souza, and was the first glimpse of the terrorists who have held Mumbai hostage over the last 48 hours.
Now we can also tell you who this man is and how he has become the vital link for investigating agencies to crack the terror plot.
His name is Azam Amir Kasav, he is 21 years old, speaks fluent English, hails from tehsil Gipalpura in Faridkot in Pakistan, and is the only terrorist from this audacious operation to have been captured alive.
An ATS spokesperson confirmed that the man captured was indeed the one photographed by us.
On the night of Wednesday-Thursday Azam and his colleague opened fire at CST before creating havoc at Metro and then moving on to Girgaum Chowpatty in a stolen Skoda, and where they were intercepted by a team from the Gamdevi police station . Azam shot dead assistant police inspector Tukaram Umbale.
But in that encounter Azam's colleague was killed and he himself was injured in the hand. He pretended to be dead giving rise to the news that two terrorists had been killed. However as the 'bodies' were being taken to Nair Hospital, the accompanying cops figured that one of the men was breathing.
According to sources, the casualty ward of Nair hospital was evacuated and the Anti-Terror Squad moved in to interrogate him. Azam who was tight-lipped initially, cracked upon seeing the mutilated body of his colleague and pleaded with the medical staff at Nair to save his life. "I do not want to die," he reportedly said. "Please put me on saline."
Ammunition, a satellite phone and a layout plan of CST was recovered from him. According to sources the young terrorist has given the investigators vital leads including how the chief planner of the Mumbai terror plot had come to the city a month ago, took picture and filmed strategic locations and trained their group and instructed them to "kill till the last breath." Every man was given six to seven magazines with fifty bullets each, eight hand grenades per terrorist with one AK-57 , an automaticloading revolver and a supply of dry fruits.
Azam reportedly disclosed that the group left Karachi in one boat and upon reaching Gujarat they hoisted a white flag on their boat and were intercepted by two officers of the coast guard near Porbandar and while they were being questioned one of the terrorists grappled with one of the officers slit his throat and threw the body in the boat. The other officer was told to help the group reach Mumbai. When they were four nautical miles away from Mumbai there were three speedboats waiting for them where the other coastguard officer was killed. All the ammo was then shifted into these three spedboats they reached Colaba jetty on Wednesday night and the ten men broke up into groups of two each. Four of these men went to the Taj Mahal hotel, two of them to the Trident hotel, two towards Nariman House at Colaba and two of which Azam was one moved to CST.
Azam, who was at Nair hospital for nearly four hours, was taken away by the intelligence agencies in the early hours of Thursday to an unknown location after the hospital authorities had removed the bullet from his hand and declared that his condition stable. But it seems the police grilling was so intense that before he left the hospital for an undisclosed location he pleaded with the police and the medical staff to kill him. "Now , I don't want to live," he said.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/29/2008
06:50 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Two British-born Pakistanis, along with another from Faridkot near Multan in Pakistan, have been arrested in connection with the Mumbai carnage. They are being interrogated. All three are injured, though not grievously, a top Mumbai police official said.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/29/2008 7:05
Comments ||
Top||
#2
"Now , I don't want to live," he said.
I don't think that is going to be a problem, Azam
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/29/2008 8:05
Comments ||
Top||
#3
wants to live.
Try him. Convict him. Put him on Death Row. For about 4,200 nights in a row, blindfold him, put him on a scaffold and put a rope around his neck, but leave the other end loose. Then spring the trsp. On night 4,201, secure both ends of the rope and hang him...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/29/2008 8:09
Comments ||
Top||
#4
[Paul has been pooplisted.]
Posted by: Paul ||
11/29/2008 10:39
Comments ||
Top||
#6
"But it seems the police grilling was so intense that before he left the hospital for an undisclosed location he pleaded with the police and the medical staff to kill him"
Looks like the Indian police can be quite effective during interrogations. Azam should have probably thought of this before signing up for this carnage.
#14
The total numbers of terrorists and the number in custody has decreased.
Either fog of war or Indian intelligence has plans for them that do not include court trials.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/29/2008 18:44
Comments ||
Top||
#15
Does not exist, bad translation,
he means a semi-auto pistol.
Well, it's not as if we've figured out what a shutter gun is.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has finally found a mission she can sink her teeth into. This week Israel's would-be prime minister declared that she will leave no stone unturned in her quest to commute the sentences of two Israeli drug dealers just condemned to death by a court in Thailand.
Yigal Mahluf and Vladimir Agronik were arrested in Bangkok last December while in possession of some 23,000 Ecstasy pills. Livni has promised that she will take their case all the way to the King of Thailand if she needs to. That's instead of thanking Tais for doing Israel a favor
Today's extreme stock market volatility is not just a symptom of fear -- fear cannot account for days of wild market swings upward -- but a reaction to meta-economic events: political decisions that have vast economic effects.
As economist Irwin Stelzer argues, we have gone from a market-driven economy to a politically driven economy. Consider seven days in November.
We may one day go back to a market economy. Meanwhile, we need to face the two most important implications of our newly politicized economy: the vastly increased importance of lobbying and the massive market inefficiencies that political directives will introduce.
Lobbying used to be about advantages at the margin -- a regulatory break here, a subsidy there. Now lobbying is about life and death. Your lending institution or industry gets a bailout -- or it dies.
You used to go to New York for capital. Now Wall Street, broke, is coming to Washington. With unimaginably large sums of money being given out by Washington, the Obama administration, through no fault of its own, will be subject to the most intense, most frenzied lobbying in American history.
That will introduce one kind of economic distortion. The other kind will come from the political directives issued by newly empowered politicians.
First, bank presidents are gravely warned by one senator after another about "hoarding" their bailout money. But hoarding is another word for recapitalizing to shore up your balance sheet to ensure solvency. Is that not the fiduciary responsibility of bank directors? And isn't pushing money out the window with too little capital precisely the lending laxity that produced this crisis in the first place? Never mind. The banks will knuckle under to the commissars of Capitol Hill. They control the purse. Prudence will yield to politics.
Even more egregious will be the directives to a nationalized Detroit. Sen. Charles Schumer, the noted automotive engineer, declared "unacceptable" last week "a business model based on gas." Instead, "We need a business model based on cars of the future, and we already know what that future is: the plug-in hybrid electric car."
#2
What gets me is... they're going to cut the achilles heel of entire industries (like the slow death of a thousand duck-nibbles the oilfield's been suffering the last twenty years, or the faster one it may face under Da Zero...) but it's not going to work, but after all the bankers have gotten their bailout and still have their working capital and their priveliged access to leverage... what are the rest of us in the crippled industries supposed to vote for? A free market where the looters get to keep their money and we don't have any (or a job?) A socialism run for the benefit of the rich connected people on the coasts?
#4
This issue was settled 80 years ago. Even Reagan couldn't get the decision reversed. It will be interesting to see what happens after this round of government aggrandizement.
#1
This is very bad. An analogy would be the effect on an automaker if people were paying full value for cars at auto dealers, but then the dealers refused to deliver the car.
Assuming, of course, there were only 17 auto dealers in the whole country.
Even if the buyers wanted a car that the automaker wanted to sell, they wouldn't dare buy, on the chance that the dealer would not deliver.
#2
I call bs. If there were really a problem in the repo market, it would affect Fed Funds almost immediately and offshore interbank lending as well. I'm not hearing about interbank lending issues these days, more banks unwilling to lend to credit worthy commercial and retail customers. lotp?
#5
Nimble, before you hoist the BS flag, consider that Treasuries have been oversold as a "flight to quality" ever since things turned really ugly in September. The index of them being oversold is the 30-day note and it's rate, now less than one-tenth of a percent. In normal times, it would probably be over four-tenths of a percent.
Another indicator is the Overnight LIBOR index. LIBOR is the Brit index on money loaned between banks. It works opposite to Treasuries, so as it rises, less money is being loaned. To have a free flow of interbank money, LIBOR needs to be down at two-tenths or below, and after the recent Central Bank interventions over there, it did drop to that level, but is now back up to over eight tenths.
The primary objective of all the trillions in central bank relief in all nations has been to unfreeze the credit markets, and by these indicators, it's easy to see that all such efforts to date have had only temporary results, and the markets are currently frozen again.
It's all a psychological game, and will continue so until the underlying problems of quality in borrowers are solved. Making those changes requires severe de-leveraging, and repeal of all of the ease-credit rules passed by the central governments. Some de-leveraging is happening as a by-product of equity loss, but not one single credit rule has been tightened, because all the liberal political philosophy of the last twenty five years has advocated loose credit, and unless and until that base philosophy changed back to status quo ante, there will be no solution, only feel-good temporary rises in equity value.
KABUL, Afghanistan U.S.-led coalition troops killed a Taliban commander dressed as a women during a raid in southern Afghanistan, officials said Saturday.
Soldiers killed four Taliban fighters in Friday's operation, including the Taliban commander named Haji Yakub who was dressed as a woman to evade capture, the U.S. military said in a statement.
Yakub directed roadside bomb and suicide attacks against Afghanistan's government and coalition forces in Ghazni province, according to the statement.
Meanwhile, Afghan and coalition forces killed 33 militants when their patrol came under attack in southern Helmand province, a military said. The troops responded to the attack with small-arms fire and air support, it said.
In the Ghazni raid, the U.S. said coalition forces discovered Yakub as they questioned a group of women and children inside a compound. The Taliban commander was dressed in a burqa, a traditional robe that covers the entire body. He was killed when he "attempted to engage the force," the statement said.
#1
U.S.-led coalition troops killed a Taliban commander dressed as a women during a raid in southern Afghanistan, officials said Saturday.
OMG!
"it" is a WMD in its own right.. LOL! So unsightly I hope that our men and women are collecting extra ugly Hazard pay on top of the additional risks they take every day, and usually without complaint!
Pout, sonny. Poke your eyes bottom lip out and lower your brows and pout.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Mahdi Army
#1
Ah!, but Sadr, you mourn from afar. Your tears are like water. Come home and mourn with your followers, in jail. Then your tears would have creditibility.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/29/2008 8:27
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Three days of mourning seems a bit of an overreaction to mullah Atari getting his ass kicked in Call of Duty. Suggest he restart at the kiddie level where he belongs.
Posted by: ed ||
11/29/2008 8:40
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Looks like Mr. Tooth Decay just got three years added to his Iranian vacation.
The Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM) has warned all non-Sindhi people to leave the province before February 20, 2009. This was said by JSMM Chairman Shafee Muhammad Barfat on Friday. According to a press release by JSMM Spokesman Imdad Shahani, Barfat further said that armed Afghans have harassed the Bheel community at Tando Ghulam Ali, which was condemnable act. Barfat said that Afghans and others have occupied most of the businesses of the Sindhi people from transport to hotels and were trying to impose their ownership over the soil. The JSMM chairman appealed to all the nationalist parties' leaders that they should also support him in this cause. According to the press release, the JSMM delegation will meet Muttahida Qaumi Movement leadership soon for their support in this regard as well.
That ain't a country. It's a fistfight.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
Zimbabwe's political rivals have agreed on a draft constitutional amendment to allow them to form a power-sharing government, but obstacles still remain to setting it up, the opposition said on Friday.
On-off talks between President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC have made little progress since they reached a deal in September seen as the best hope of pulling Zimbabwe back from economic collapse.
"We have reached an understanding, an agreement on the draft constitutional bill, pending consultations and endorsement by our different leadership organs," MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told Reuters.
Negotiators from ZANU-PF, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and a breakaway MDC faction have been meeting with mediator Thabo Mbeki in South Africa to discuss the amendment, under growing regional pressure to finalise their deal. Chamisa said the talks had ended.
"The draft constitutional amendment bill is just one of a number of issues that have been on the table. These issues, including the sharing of some cabinet posts, the appointment of provincial governors and other senior government positions, have not been resolved," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
...And the oppo is dumber than a bag of hammers if they think Bob is actually going to follow through on this.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/29/2008 9:54
Comments ||
Top||
Police on Thursday arrested a man named Ismail, an alleged Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorist, in connection with a series of attacks across Mumbai's busiest and most opulent areas over the last two days. Even as at least 20 heavily-armed terrorists are believed to be carrying out the attacks, the country's intelligence apparatus is exploring all possible leads into the case.
Armed with RDX, M6 guns and grenades, terrorists reportedly took the sea route to enter Mumbai. Home Ministry sources claimed that the terrorists reached the Indian waters just 12 nautical miles from Mumbai.
Interrogation of the four alleged terrorists, who were captured by the National Security Guards (NSG) and Marine Commandos on Thursday, revealed the same information as the Home Ministry sources.
Amir Raza Kamal -- one of the suspected terrorists -- allegedly disclosed that they clambered into smaller boats before touching Mumbai shores at Sassoon Docks, following which they spread across Southern Bombay in pairs.
"They (terrorists) came and docked. They set up control rooms at the Taj and the Trident hotel and managed the entire operation in this manner. So obviously it was planned over months. They have sophisticated weapons with them," Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal said.
Amongst various al-Qaeda affiliated terror groups, the LeT is the only one trained to carry out maritime terrorism.
This article starring:
Amir Raza Kamal
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert faced renewed pressure from his own party on Thursday to step down following a decision to indict him in one of several graft cases over which police questioned him. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni led the call for Olmert to quit. "The prime minister has to take a leave of absence; there's no other choice," said Livni.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
But, but, but, I only managed to sign half the country away so far!
Lebanon has decided for the first time to establish diplomatic relations with the "state of Palestine," and has approved the opening of an embassy in Beirut. "The cabinet has approved the establishment of diplomatic relations with the state of Palestine," Information Minister Tarek Mitri said following a cabinet meeting late on Thursday.
A Palestinian embassy would replace an office in Beirut representing the Palestine Liberation Organization, but Mitri said no date had yet been fixed to implement the move.
The PLO, which is headed by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and groups the main Palestinian political movements, is recognized by most country's as representing the Palestinian people. Abbas's predecessor the late Yasser Arafat symbolically proclaimed the state of Palestine in 1988 but the Palestinians have yet to win independence given the lack of a peace deal with Israel. Abbas was elected president of Palestine on Sunday by a key decision-making body of the PLO.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: PLO
(AKI) - Indian commandos ended the siege at a Jewish centre in Mumbai on Friday while fighting continued at one of the luxury hotels two days after the city came under attack from extremists. Reports citing an Israeli diplomat said that five hostages had been killed, among them former Brooklyn Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife Rivka.
I'm not in the least surprised. If you're a religious Nazi, rabbis are prime targets, aren't they?
The couple ran the ultra-orthodox Jewish centre, known as Chabad Lubavitch, located at Nariman House. An Israeli rescue service run by Orthodox Jews also said its staff sent to Mumbai to help at the siege believed that hostages in the Chabad centre had died.
Two workers and a young child had escaped from the Jewish centre on Thursday. The child was identified as the son of Rabbi Holtzberg.
A team of at least nine Indian commandos dropped onto the Jewish Centre's roof from helicopters and stormed the building on Friday.
Late on Friday, police in Mumbai said the death toll had reached 143 with the discovery of 24 bodies in the luxury Oberoi hotel, where guests were set free on Friday as security forces took control of the building.
Elsewhere in the city, gunfire and grenade blasts were reportedly still being heard at the Taj Mahal hotel.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Taiba
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan on Friday fired 'four artillery rounds' inside Pakistan to target Taliban who attacked its bases, an ISAF statement said. "ISAF countered three attempts by insurgent to attack ISAF bases in Bermel district in Paktika (Afghanistan)," an emailed ISAF statement from its Kabul headquarters said. The statement did not say where the Taliban were attacked. It said ISAF soldiers first saw "two insurgents positioning rockets in preparation for an attack. The ISAF troops fired six artillery rounds at the location". "Within an hour, eight rockets were fired at the ISAF base. In response, ISAF fired four artillery rounds at the insurgents inside Pakistan," the statement said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
Shouldn't that be "four rounds of artillery" fired from a shutter cannon?
Posted by: ed ||
11/29/2008 0:17
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Dang, it's the McCoy... not the Paris gun for once. Melted the last one at Aberdeen proving grounds in a fit of patriotic fervor back in '42.
At least seven people including a policeman were killed and 16 others including four policemen injured when a suicide bomber targeted a police patrol vehicle in Bannu district on Friday, police said.
Local sources told Daily Times that a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a police car patrolling the streets near Tarezi Chowk on the main Bannu-Kohat road. The blast destroyed the police vehicle and the injured were taken to Bannu District Headquarters Hospital (DHQ). The Bannu Township station house officer is also among the injured.
Bannu District Police Officer Alam Shinwari told Daily Times that the police opened fire on the bomber before he smashed into their vehicle. Police cordoned off the area after the attack and started investigation.
President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the blast in Bannu, APP reported. In his message, Zardari said the government was determined to deal with the scourge of terrorism and extremism with an iron hand.
Except when conducted by the ISI ...
Gilani said those carrying out acts of terrorism will never escape from the law.
ISPR: Separately, an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) statement said that the security forces recovered Afghan currency notes worth Rs 8 million hidden in three different locations during a search operation in Loyesam and Zor Bandar areas of Bajaur Agency. The statement said that a huge quantity of Indian-made medicines was also recovered from the compounds, which were being used by the Taliban.
Killed: Three militants were killed and several others injured in the ongoing military operation against the Taliban in the agency on Friday, local sources said.
Meanwhile, the Salarzai Qaumi Lashkar has started action against the Taliban in their areas and hundreds of lashkar volunteers have set up new checkposts and tightened security.
Separately, the Taliban attacked Mamadgut military camp in Mohmand Agency on Friday. A Taliban and a civilian were killed in crossfire by the security forces. Later in the day, a jet aircraft bombed suspected Taliban hideouts in various areas of Safi tehsil. No casualties were reported.
Taliban also attacked security forces' Lakrao checkpost. The Taliban and security forces exchanged fire, which continued until the filing of this report.
Separately, the Taliban damaged a Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited booster affecting 4,000 telephone connections in various areas of the agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
HATE preacher Anjem Choudary last night praised the slaughter of 125 people in Mumbai. And in a vile rant he said any Brits killed had only themselves to blame for being on the "battlefield" in the war Muslims nuts are waging against the world.
Can't someone arrange for this man to fall down the stairs elebenteen times? Or to have an 'encounter' with the RAB?
Extremist Choudary, 41, the right-hand man of exiled cleric Omar Bakri, 50, and former leader of banned hate group al-Muhajiroun, said the attacks were revenge for the West's "crusades" against Islam.
Outspoken Choudary, whose family live on £25,000-a-year benefits in London, raged: "Any Britons or Americans who visit Muslim countries are entering a battlefield and risk being used as hostages by al-Qaida to publicise its cause."
He added: "The attacks bear all the hallmarks of a carefully planned al-Qaida operation as part of the global jihad against the crusades. I would not be surprised if they release a video very soon."
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Someone needs to arrange a beatdown for this asshole.
(AKI) - A suicide car bomber has killed seven people in the northwestern Pakistani town of Bannu.
Police chief Mohammed Alam Shinwari said the attacker rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a police car patrolling the town's streets on Friday. Shinwari said four police officers and three civilians died and several other people were wounded in the attack.
Immediately after the incident police and security forces cordoned off the area around the site of the attack and launched an investigation.
President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani strongly condemned the blast in Bannu in which some policemen lost their lives. Zardari said that the government was determined to deal with the scourge of terrorism and extremism with an iron hand and that those responsible for acts of terrorism would not escape the law.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
A cargo train between North and South Korea and tours from the South to the communist state stopped on Friday under a border clampdown called for by Pyongyang in anger at the conservative government in Seoul.
But a large number of South Koreans who work at a joint industrial enclave in the North Korean border city of Kaesong were being allowed to keep permits to enter the factory park there, despite an earlier vow by Pyongyang to expel many of them by December 1, officials said.
"Today is the last day of Kaesong tours, and today is the last day of the train runs," Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyeon told a briefing in Seoul. While the border was being shut to trains and tours, as many as 1,700 people have been told they can keep their permits to enter the Kaesong factory zone, spokesman Kim said. But the first of the approximately 1,000 people, including government officials, began pulling out on Friday and some expressed disappointment that their role was cut short.
"I wish South-North ties would improve as early as possible so that we can return to do our jobs," Kim Chang-soo, with the joint management office, said as he crossed the border. The factory park has provided cash-starved North Korea with hundreds of millions of dollars and is expected to be operating near normally on Monday, despite the border clampdown.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#4
I guess these folks value unity more than liberty, given they are supporting an oppressive Stalinist regime that is starving its people to death while trying to create nuclear weapons and aid destabilizing regimes around the world.
(SomaliNet)Bangkok's two main airports remained occupied by anti-government protesters Friday but Thai authorities appeared to have backed down from earlier threats to end the siege by force. The airports have been closed since Tuesday, stranding thousands of passengers and dealing a severe blow to the crisis-stricken southeast Asian nation's economy at the height of the tourist season.
Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, whose resignation protesters are demanding, declared a state of emergency Thursday following a cabinet meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand's second city. But Thai government spokesman Nattawut Sai-Kau told reporters Friday that police would avoid using force and attempt to negotiate with the protesters of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD).
Police chief negotiator Suchart Muenkaew told reporters he had asked protesters at Bangkok's Don Muang airport to allow the airport to resume operations. "The prime minister has emphasized we avoid confrontation and damage. We will start with soft means, moving to the last measure — that is dispersing (protesters)," he said, according to The Associated Press.
Somchai rejected calls Wednesday to dissolve parliament, despite the country's army chief Anupong Paochinda suggesting that he do so. "This government has legitimacy," Somchai said. "The administration needs to protect Thai democracy and the Thai people, which is most important."
The People's Alliance for Democracy has said it will not end its occupation of the airports until Somchai resigns. They accuse his government of being a front for former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who they want to stand trial on corruption charges.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
THE terror group that ruthlessly struck at Mumbai's heart has demanded an end to persecution of Muslims and the release of militants from prison.
I didn't think anyone had that much gall in the world. They bombed the hotel, shot up bus stops and restaurants, killed in excess of 150 innocent people, and they're unhappy that people 'hate' them.
The previously unknown group that claimed responsibility for the attacks across Mumbai has added to the growing belief that India is confronting a home-grown Islamic militancy.
The vast majority of previous attacks on Indian soil have been squarely blamed on groups based in or directly supported by neighbouring Pakistan. But attacks over the last year have been claimed by groups with names stressing their local origins.
Deccan Mujahedeen, which said it was responsible for the Mumbai assault on Wednesday night, takes its title from the Deccan plateau that covers much of south India.
Just a head fake. Apparently they take their orders from the ISI just like all the other terrorist groups with new names that no one's ever heard of before they commit some atrocity.
The outfit sent emails to local media saying it carried out the attacks.
One of the gunmen holed up in the Trident hotel told the India TV channel by phone on Thursday that the little-known terror outfit wanted an end to the persecution of Indian Muslims and the release of all fellow Islamic militants detained in India. "Muslims in India should not be persecuted. We love this as our country but when our mothers and sisters were being killed, where was everybody?" he said from inside the hotel, which was surrounded by army commandos.
Remind me who's killing the Muslims of India? Right, no one in the last few years. In fact the last several governments have bent over backwards to treat Muslims well, to the point of preferential hiring programs for government jobs. This is their reward.
A similarly shadowy group calling itself the Indian Mujahedeen claimed responsibility for serial blasts in Delhi in September, which killed 20 people, and bombings in the western city of Ahmedabad in July when 45 died.
It is unclear whether the various groups are connected, but retired senior security official B Raman has said their chosen names were a "bid to Indianise" the Islamic militant movement.
The Indian Mujahedeen, which also calls itself "the militia of Islam", first came to public attention last November following serial blasts in Uttar Pradesh. The same group sent another email to the media after blasts in May in the city of Jaipur in which it said it would wage an "open war" against India for supporting the United States, and warned of more attacks against tourist sites.
Security services suspect the groups may be fronts for outfits that have been banned by the Indian government over the past few years such as the Students' Islamic Movement of India.
Gee, you think? Again, trace the money, the comm links and the command, and it all goes back to Rawalpindi ...
Others say they could be an undercover coalition of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed militant organisations.
Just minutes before the blasts in Ahmedabad, the main commercial city of Gujarat state, the Indian Mujahedeen sent emails to several television news stations warning that people would "feel the terror of death". It said the Ahmedabad blasts were revenge for riots which swept Gujarat in 2002 in which at least 2,000 people, mainly Muslims, were hacked, shot and burnt to death.
It has warned India's largest-circulation daily, The Times of India, and other media groups to halt their "propaganda war" against Muslims.
And it has told Mukesh Ambani, India's richest businessman, to "think twice" about his construction of a glass-and-steel 27-storey home on land in Mumbai where a Muslim orphanage once stood.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
A 27-storey home. Now thats what I call conspicuos consumption.
#2
And it has told Mukesh Ambani, India's richest businessman, to "think twice" about his construction of a glass-and-steel 27-storey home on land in Mumbai where a Muslim orphanage once stood
Because kufrs should always obey to their Muslim Masters... AND because that orphanage was islam's Holiest Place N°256897456421.
#4
Now they're dead they don't need to worry about being hated any more. It would be a win/win if only they hadn't engaged in so much hateful activity in their short, squalid, and malighant lives.
#5
As my daughter remarked, when I relayed to her some of the ghastly details about this which hadn't hit the broadcast TV channels last night -
"Eighty percent of all Muslims give a bad reputation to the rest of them..."
#6
The Indian government could exploit this in an interesting way by saying it "casts shame on all Indian Muslims", which would, of course, provoke shrieks of outrage and upset.
But then, for very practical reasons, they should very publicly bury the terrorists in a non-Muslim cemetery along with lots of rotting, dead pigs. Then broadcast video of the "Muslim funeral" around the world.
#7
I'm just having a lot of trouble developing any sympathy for these whining a$$holes. I don't care how you cut it, they sound like the murdering thugs of AQ whatever the hell they call themselves. George Bush has the right idea, root them out wherever they are and kill them. They are not fit to live in this world.
#8
And then roll'em in pig fat and coat them in poke rine krummz like a fish fry.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
11/29/2008 9:48
Comments ||
Top||
#9
What they should do is bury them the same way they bury their homeless, which is to say, no fanfare at all and then make damn sure the world knows that retaliation for this will not happen in a court of law.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
11/29/2008 9:53
Comments ||
Top||
#12
...bury the terrorists in a non-Muslim cemetery along with lots of rotting, dead pigs.
You don't find that many pigs in India, and the ones you do are someones livestock, and therefore valuable.
However, if Mumbai is anything like New Delhi and some of the other places I've been to in India, there are legions of stray dogs. I say leave the pigs alone, and use three stray dogs per grave.
MUMBAI: MV Alpha, a ship which is suspected to have carried the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks, was today found 112 km from here by the Coast Guard, officials said.
The other hijacked ship was the fishing boat Kuber, as noted in another story today.
A CG spokesman said that searches were being carried out on board the ship but declined to elaborate. The Coast Guard had launched two aircraft, choppers and its vessels after receiving information that the ship could have carried the terrorists from Gujarat to Mumbai.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
Israel on Thursday again prevented the delivery of humanitarian aid to the impoverished Gaza Strip in what the Jewish state said was a response to a rocket attack by Palestinian militants. The rocket hit an empty field in southern Israel and caused no injuries or damage, police said.
That's so sad. Those nice Paleostinians can't afford groceries. And all their grocery stores sell is rockets.
It's part of this nutritious breakfast!
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
Poor dears. Only 75% of Paleos are obese. Ima have a turkey sandwich in sympathy.
Posted by: ed ||
11/29/2008 0:14
Comments ||
Top||
#2
I say, shoot cans of pork and beans with artillery into Gaza from Sderot.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/29/2008 14:29
Comments ||
Top||
WASHINGTON: Unprecedented intelligence cooperation involving investigating agencies and spy outfits of India, United States, United Kingdom and Israel has got underway to crack the method and motive behind the Mumbai terrorist massacre, now widely blamed on Islamist radicals who appeared to have all four countries on their hit list when they arrived on the shores of India.
Investigators, forensic analysts, counter-terrorism experts and spymasters from agencies the four countries are converging in New Delhi and Mumbai to put their heads, resources, and skills together to understand the evolving nature of the beast. The spy chief of the Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence(ISI) is also being summoned to India to help with the investigations because of the widely-held view that the terrorists' footprints go back to Pakistan.
The Bush administration has taken the lead to forge cooperation, partly out of concern that charges by India that the terror plot has Pakistani fingerprints could setback fast-improving government-to-government and people-to-people ties between the two countries, officials said.
As it should. Demonstrate that the ISI was involved and it's very possible that another war will occur between the two countries.
But there is an implicit recognition both in New Delhi and Washington, and also other world capitals, that Pakistan's hard-line Army and its spy agency are spoilers of the honeymoon between the civilian governments and the people of India and Pakistan. Hence the summons to the country's chief spook, Ahmad Shuja Pasha, an acolyte of the new Army Chief Pervez Kiyani, himself a former ISI chief.
President Bush, who spent Thanksgiving Thursday at Camp David, monitored the developments in Mumbai along with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who joined him for dinner. Bush also spoke to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh offering all U.S help.
In fact, CNN reported that Washington suggested sending US Special Forces for on-the-ground operations in Mumbai but New Delhi declined the offer, saying its own forces could take care of the situation. The report could not be separately verified although officials acknowledged cooperation in investigations and intelligence sharing.
It was good of Bush to offer, and understandable that Singh declined.
The Bush administration is also keeping President-elect Barack Obama up-to-speed on the fast moving developments. Obama spoke with Secretary Rice by phone to get an update on the situation in Mumbai. Additionally, his transition office said, the President-elect received an intelligence briefing on the attacks.
The multi-nation intelligence cooperation has been precipitated in part by the death of Americans, Britons, and Israelis, in the carnage. Thousands of Indians have died in terror attacks in India in the previous two decades without the world getting exercised about it, but the manner in which the terrorists who attacked Mumbai are reported to have singled out Americans and Britons, besides pointedly occupying a Jewish center, has revealed that their agenda was wider than just domestic discontent or the Kashmir issue.
Some unconfirmed reports also speak of at least two of the terrorists being British nationals of Pakistani origin, of the kind who were involved in the London underground bombing. Their attire (cargo pants and t-shirts), their heavy weaponry, and the sophisticated nature of their attack, certainly goes far beyond anything local or indigenous terror groups have displayed so far.
More significantly, none of the local groups have targeted Americans, Britons, and Israelis with the kind of specific intent as the current set of terrorists did. While US officials are concerned about the possibility of the new warmth in ties between India and Pakistan dissipating because of the gravity of the charges from New Delhi, there is also a recognition and acknowledgment that India's anger is directed against the hard-line elements in the Pakistani Army and its surrogates in the ISI, and not the civilian government or the people of Pakistan.
In fact, Washington itself has been trying to get Pakistan's civilian government to get a grip on the ISI, which many believe is now infiltrated by rogue elements.
That joint effort by Washington and the civilian dispensation in Islamabad has been repeatedly thwarted by Pakistan's hard-line army which believes it is the custodian and guarantor of the Islamist ideology that keep Pakistan intact and differentiates it from India, and which the ISI as its fighting arm for a covert asymmetrical war against India. Pakistan's new President Asif Ali Zardari recently attracted the wrath of the hardliners by saying "there is a little bit of India inside every Pakistani" and presenting a no-first-use of nuclear weapons proposal to India.
The Bush administration has only lately begun to realise that the ISI is a different beast from the one which helped it defeat the Soviet Union in Afghanistan to end the Cold War. The first sign that the ISI had turned rogue came during 9/11 when Pakistan's spy chief who was tasked to go and ask the Taliban to surrender did exactly the opposite. India's mistrust of ISI has a longer history, with the nadir coming during the Kargil war.
But under withering scrutiny from the international community, Pakistan, which is desperately broke and begging for international aid and loans, has agreed to send the ISI chief to New Delhi with promise of cooperation. That promise will be tested in the coming days and weeks.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
In fact, Washington itself has been trying to get Pakistan's civilian government to get a grip on the ISI, which many believe is now infiltrated by rogue elements.
Is this sentence serious, or does the definition of "now" cover decades?
An army corporal who was the personal interpreter to Britain's most senior officer in Afghanistan was jailed for 10 years on Friday for spying for Iran.
Daniel James, an Iranian-born flamboyant salsa-dancing fantasist who liked to be known as "General James", was caught passing information to an Iranian official in coded emails. His trial heard evidence that he believed he had been denied promotion because of racism and jealousy.
James, 45, worked for General David Richards, who will take over as chief of the British army in August, but at the time headed the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.
Sentencing James, judge Roderick Evans said: "The gravest part of your offending and what made this case unique was that you engaged in this activity when you were actually serving in a war zone."
The judge said James was a "ripe target" for the Iranians because of his nationality, disenchantment with the British army and "narcissistic" personality. It emerged during his trial that he was 25,000 pounds (30,000 euros, $38,000) in debt.
The judge agreed with defense lawyers that the army should never have appointed James to such a sensitive position.
James, who immigrated to Britain as a teenager, was found guilty earlier this month of communicating information useful to an enemy under the Official Secrets Act. The charge related to emails he sent to Colonel Mohammad Hossein Heydari, military attaché at the Iranian embassy in Kabul.
On Thursday prosecutors announced they would not proceed with a re-trial on two further charges that jurors in the trial were unable to agree a verdict on.
James was told that he would serve half the term in custody, minus the 709 days he has already been on remand, and the remainder on license. That means he could be out in just over three years.
This article starring:
Daniel James
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
flamboyant salsa-dancing fantasist
That's the last thing you want to be known as in prison.
Posted by: ed ||
11/29/2008 0:20
Comments ||
Top||
#2
"That means he could be out in just over three years."
Ooh, that's haaaarsh. Really sends the right messages re spying for the enemy and threatening the lives of our servisemen. /sarc
#5
That'll get him out in time to work for Foggy Bottom during during that last years push for Isaeli/Palestinian peace.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
11/29/2008 9:37
Comments ||
Top||
#6
No that there is a history of this type of behavior. Of course it all depends on 'who's ox is being gored', doesn't it. Or to say, better to do onto others before they do onto you.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is likely to submit tomorrow the charge sheets of the two cases connected with the bomb attacks at Ramna Batamul accusing 14 leaders and activists of Harkatul Jihad (Huji).
CID Chief Additional Inspector General Jabed Patwari Thursday said, "All formalities have been completed and we are prepared to submit the charge sheets on Sunday."
The home ministry has given the CID green signal for submitting the charge sheets, he told The Daily Star in reply to a question. The ministry is aware of the progress of investigation as the cases are under the supervision of its monitoring cell, he added.
CID sources said on public prosecutor's suggestion the investigation officer collected video footage of the incident on April 14, 2001, which killed 10 persons and injured a number of others.
Investigation officer CID Inspector Abu Hena Mohammad Yusuf declined to make any comment. But the CID sources confirmed that two charge sheets have been readied: the charge sheet for the murder case contains over 650 pages and that for the case filed under the Explosives Act has about 550 pages.
They said 24 Huji men carried out the attacks but 14 have been named in the charge sheets as investigators could not collect details of the rest. They, however, identified one as Suman who died in the blast.
The accused Huji men are Mufti Hannan, Mufti Abdur Rouf, Hafez Maulana Abu Taher, Arif Hasan alias Suman, Shahadat Ullah alias Jewel, Sheikh Farid alias Rahmat Ullah alias Shawkat Osman, Mufti Shafiqur Rahman, Hafez Maulana Yiahia, Mufti Abdul Hai alias Abu Naim, Maulana Tajuddin, Jahangir Badar, Abdul Hannan, Hafez Abu Bakkar and Maulana Akbar Hossain.
CID sources said they so far arrested 25 suspects. Of them Mufti Hannan, Mamun-ur-Rashid, Mozahar Naim Hossain alias Mahmud, Habibullah Mizan, Badrul Alam Mizan, Hafiz Syed Nadim Sharif, Oliar Rahman, Mahmudur Rahman Babu, Arif Hasan Suman, Oli Ullah, Abdul Latif and Abdur Rouf are now in jail.
Twelve others--Rezaul Islam, Matiur Rahman, Mostafizur Rahman, Habibur Rahman, Abdul Awal, Enayet Ullah, Abdullah Al Mamun, Ibrahim Khalil, Maulana Akbar Hossain, Rafiqul Islam, Yasin and Oliar Rahman--are on bail while the other--Mizanur Rahman--has been absconding since obtaining bail.
The arrested also face charges of other bomb attacks, including the August 21 attack on an Awami League rally. Maulana Akbar Hossain, Mufti Hannan and Jewel confessed before the court their involvement in the attacks.
Investigation sources said detained former deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu's brother fugitive Maulana Tajuddin, who is an accused in the August 21 grenade attack case also, supplied the bombs for the attacks. Pintu is also an accused in the August 21 bomb attack case.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: HUJI
UNCERTAINTY is a key weapon in the armoury of Islamic fundamentalist terror. As investigators, experts and analysts grope for the truth, someone somewhere is taking satisfaction from the horrified confusion the Mumbai attacks have caused.
Analysts are divided over whether the hand of al-Qaeda can be detected. The only claim of responsibility comes from a group that may not even exist: an e-mail message claiming responsibility and sent to Indian media on Wednesday night said the attackers were from a group called Deccan Mujahideen. Deccan is a neighborhood of the Indian city of Hyderabad. The word also describes the central and southern region of India, which is dominated by the Deccan Plateau. Mujahideen is the commonly used Arabic word for holy warriors.
But Sajjan Gohel, a security expert in London, called it a "front name" and said the group was "nonexistent."
Alex Neill, head of the Royal United Services Institute's Asia security programme, believes the attacks were probably carried out by local jihadists linked to the radical Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi), a banned Islamic fundamentalist organisation which advocates the "liberation of India" by converting it to an Islamic state.
One possible mastermind and Simi member is Abdul Subhan Qureshi, a 36-year-old computer engineer suspected of being behind multiple bombings in Delhi, Jaipur, Bangalore and Ahmedabad earlier this year. Qureshi, also known as Tauqeer, is from Mumbai and his expertise with internet security could have played a vital part in pulling off such an ambitious plot, said Mr Neill.
"He is an IT whizz-kid so it is quite possible he is the person investigators will be concentrating on. This is a great embarrassment to the Indian security services because it has been pulled off right under their noses."
Simi has declared jihad on India, the aim of which is to establish Dar-ul-Islam by forcefully converting everyone to Islam.
Mr Neill said Deccan Muhajideen would be a militant offshoot of Simi which has carried out attacks across India. He added: "The perpetrators have obviously been highly trained and would have been sent to al-Qaeda training camps to prepare. I would be astonished if any of them are from Britain -- they were probably recruited from the Mumbai region."
He reckons up to 100 terrorists would have been involved in the planning and execution of the attack and said it was surprising they had managed to keep it a secret.
Other analysts say that while it is not clear whether the Deccan Mujahideen claim is genuine, the attacks may have been carried out by a group called the Indian Mujahideen -- also an offshoot of Simi and blamed by police for almost every major bomb attack in India, including explosions on commuter trains in Mumbai two years ago that killed 187 people.
Police said the Indian Mujahideen may also include former members of Bangladeshi militant group, Harkat-ul-Jihad al Islami. In an e-mail in September, the group denounced Mumbai's police anti-terrorist squad (ATS), accusing them of harassing Muslims. "If this is the degree your arrogance has reached, and if you think that by these stunts you can scare us, then let the Indian Mujahideen warn all the people of Mumbai that whatever deadly attacks Mumbaikars will face in future, their responsibility would lie with the Mumbai ATS and their guardians," it said.
The Mumbai attacks appear to have been carefully coordinated, well-planned and involved a large number of attackers. A high level of sophistication has also been a hallmark of previous attacks by the Indian Mujahideen.
The Mumbai attacks also focused clearly on tourist targets, including two luxury hotels and a famous cafe.
In May, the Indian Mujahideen made a specific threat to attack tourist sites in India unless the government stopped supporting the United States in the international arena. The threat was made in an e-mail claiming responsibility for bomb attacks that killed 63 people in the tourist city of Jaipur. The e-mail declared "open war against India" and included the serial number of a bicycle used in one bombing.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has blamed a group with "external linkages" for the attacks. He said: "It is evident that the group which carried out these attacks, based outside the country, had come with single-minded determination to create havoc in the commercial capital of the country."
He could have been referring to either Pakistan or Bangladesh, which has also been accused by India of harbouring militant groups. Some security specialists believe there is likely to have been a degree of inspiration from, or link with, external groups allied to al-Qaeda, such as the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, which wants to see India expelled from Kashmir.
Eyewitnesses have reported hostage-takers speaking with a Kashmiri accent. However, Lashkar-e-Taiba yesterday denied any role in the Mumbai attacks.
Henry Wilkinson, a senior analyst with Janusian Security Risk Management, a London-based consultancy, said the tactics are different from the more common, post-9/11 attacks seen in Iraq and Afghanistan, but bear similar hallmarks. He said: "It's very interesting that they didn't go in using car bombs; it was more of a direct armed assault on a city. It's very reminiscent of the attacks in Saudi Arabia in 2003, when the gunmen were going around trying to find Westerners and kill them."
This article starring:
Abdul Subhan Qureshi
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: SIMI
#1
Simi has declared jihad on India, the aim of which is to establish Dar-ul-Islam by forcefully converting everyone to Islam.
Anyone that advocates this should be shot dead, on sight. pour encourager les autres
Seven people, including two policemen, were injured in clashes on Thursday between security forces and pro-opposition supporters protesting parliamentary polls next year, police and the opposition said. Police fired warning shots and beat up protesters, injuring five demonstrators and arresting 18, sources from the opposition said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
Aswat al-Iraq: Policemen on Friday arrested nine suspects in different areas of the city of al-Kut, a security source in Wassit said. "Security forces conducted on Friday a series of security operations in Kut, where they arrested nine suspects," the source told Aswat al-Iraq. "Two of the persons arrested were released for lack of sufficient evidence while seven others are under investigative custody," the source added.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
By documenting the lingerie culture of Syria, the book 'The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie: Intimacy and Design' reveals a previously unknown side of Arabic design, fashion and sexuality. The most outrageous and exuberant lingerie in the world comes from a place yoùd probably never expect: Syria. Adorned with everything from faux fur, artificial flowers, and feathered birds to plastic toy cell phones, these intimates flash lights, play music, even vibrate. In Damascus and Aleppo, approximately 200 lingerie companies vie for a highly competitive domestic market, where styles change from season to season.
#1
The most outrageous and exuberant lingerie in the world...Adorned with everything from faux fur, artificial flowers, and feathered birds to plastic toy cell phones, these intimates flash lights, play music, even vibrate
MUMBAI: The satellite phone and global positioning system (GPS) map recovered from a trawler abandoned in the high seas is now among the most crucial pieces of evidence connected to the terror attacks on Mumbai.
The vessel, Kuber, was found drifting 5-6 nautical miles off the Mumbai shore; the entire crew is missing except for the group leader, Amar Narayan, 38, whose body was found on board with limbs tied, blindfolded and neck slit open. Kuber is believed to be the mother boat used to launch the inflatable dinghies which carried the terrorists to the seafront at Colaba. Intelligence agencies are scanning the satellite phone's records to track the places from where calls were made to the vessel. The boat has been now handed over to the Mumbai police.
The trawler had last set out from Porbandar, 310 nautical miles from Mumbai, on November 13. Owned by a man named Vinod Masani, it had a five-member crew. Sources believe it was most likely hijacked near the maritime boundary, where incursions by vessels on both sides are frequent.
The terrorists are believed to have used the trawler for cover to make the journey to Mumbai without being detected by the Coast Guard. A nondescript, 25-metre-long fishing vessel bearing the name Kuber in the Gujarati script and a Gujarat registration number would have barely raised an eyebrow in a region dotted with numerous such boats. To complete the appearance, it carried nearly 50 kg of marinated fish, rice and lentils.
"Most of the time, we act on specific information. We rarely check such fishing trawlers with Indian flags,'' admitted a Coast Guard officer.
Four fishermen who were on the boat, Balwant Prabhu, 45, Mukesh Rathod, 20, and Natu Nanu, 20, of Navsari and Ramesh Nagji, 37, of Junagadh are still missing. The owner of Kuber - Vinod Masani and his brother - Hiralal have also been detained by the Gujarat police.
Kuldeep Singh Sheroan, commanding officer of Coast Guard ship Sankalp said the crew leader Amar Narayan was killed in a brutal manner by the terrorists. They tied his limbs and put a band around his eyes and then knifed his neck, he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
"'Most of the time, we act on specific information. We rarely check such fishing trawlers with Indian flags,' admitted a Coast Guard officer."
And why the hell should they have to? It's time the Indian navy spent its time and resrources effectively: shooting Pakistani vessels out of the water.
Hundreds of militants have attacked a large logistics convoy in Afghanistan's wetersn province of Badghis, killing 13 government troops. Regional officials confirmed that more than 300 militants launched an assault late Thursday on a convoy of 47 vehicles which was transporting winter supplies for their units at Bala Murghab district in Badghis.
Afghan forces and pro-Taliban insurgents were engaged in crossfire which lasted for several hours, the officials added. "In a several-hour battle, 13 Afghan soldiers and policemen were killed and 11 others were wounded. Seven Taliban fighters were also killed," the deputy provincial governor Abdul Ghani Sabri said.
Meanwhile, a border police official Naeem Khan said sixteen other Afghan troops were captured by the militants. Khan added that helicopters were dispatched to the area and fired at the insurgents following the clash.
Pro-Taliban militants regularly attack supply convoys, including those headed to US-led and NATO military bases.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/29/2008 9:23
Comments ||
Top||
#3
It's Der Tag yawz.....
Before there was Fred, there was Bill who lerned me about snarks, and deh proper use of the English Language. Sadly it is no take. Gater's still gaters, no cap for U!
And yes Fenner is in bounds....
You gonna listen to Ted Mosley of SEC or your lyin damn eyes?
#11
Maybe the semi-noles will be full Noles someday, but not today. Muh Auburn Tractor University Tiges are doin OK defense-wise but no offense. That bastid Sabincalled a time-out at the last second an a 40 yard field goal was negated and then blocked when tried again. Weinerhead.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
11/29/2008 17:33
Comments ||
Top||
NEW DELHI: The gang of terrorists who wreaked mayhem in Mumbai for three days were made to believe by their Lashkar bosses that they were not being sent on a suicide mission and that they would be coming back alive.
In a sensational disclosure made by Ajmal, the jihadi nabbed alive by Mumbai cops, the group had planned to sail out on Thursday. Their recruiters had even charted out the return route for them and stored it on the GPS device which they had used to navigate their way to the Mumbai shoreline.
This suggests that the terrorists were willing to undertake a mission which they knew would be very risky, but not necessarily suicidal.
Sources said that the bait of safe return must have been used by the recruiters to convince the wavering among the group to join the audacious plot against Mumbai.
Ajmal made another important disclosure: that all terrorists were trained in marine warfare along with the special course Daura-e-Shifa conducted by the Lashkar-e-Toiba in what at once transforms the nature of the planning from a routine terror strike and into a specialized raid by commandos.
Battle-hardened ATS officials are surprised by the details of the training the terrorists were put through before being despatched for the macabre mission. This was very different from a terrorist attack, and amounted to an offensive from the seam, said a source.
Ajmal has revealed the name of his fellow jihadis all Pakistani citizens as Abu Ali, Fahad, Omar, Shoaib, Umer, Abu Akasha, Ismail, Abdul Rahman (Bara) and Abdul Rahman (Chhota).
Ajmal has revealed the name of his fellow jihadis all Pakistani citizens as Abu Ali, Fahad, Omar, Shoaib, Umer, Abu Akasha, Ismail, Abdul Rahman (Bara) and Abdul Rahman (Chhota).
The account of Ajmal also strengthens the doubt of the complicity of powerful elements in the Pakistani establishment. According to him, the group set off on November 21 from an isolated creek near Karachi without the deadly cargo of arms and ammunition they were to use against the innocents in Mumbai. The group received arms and ammunition on board a large Pakistani vessel which picked them up the following day. The vessel, whose ownership is now the subject of an international probe, had four Pakistanis apart from the crew.
A day later, they came across an Indian-owned trawler, Kuber, which was promptly commandeered on the seas. Four of the fishermen who were on the trawler were killed, but its skipper, or tandel in fishermen lingo, Amarjit Singh, was forced to proceed towards India. Amarjit was killed the next day, and Ismail the terrorist who was killed at Girgaum Chowpaty took the wheel.
A trained sailor, Ismail used the GPS to reach Mumbai coast on November 26. The group, however, slowed down its advance as they had reached during the day time while the landing was planned after dusk. The group shifted to inflatable boats, before disembarking at Badhwar Park in Cuffe Parade.
From there, they mandated to kill indiscriminately, particularly white foreign tourists, and spare Muslims split up into five batches. Two of them Ismail and Ajmal took a taxi to Victoria Terminus. Three other batches of two each headed for Oberoi Hotel, Cafe Leopold and Nariman House. The remaining four went to Taj Hotel.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
"Ajmal made another important disclosure: that all terrorists were trained in marine warfare..."
Because being able to slit the throats of Gujarati fishermen makes you a warrior in Pakistan. Maybe these brave marines should get statues in Karachi, perhaps immortalised in the process of throwing limp fishermen off the side of a boat.
India pointed a finger on Friday at "elements" linked with Pakistan for the attacks in Mumbai, raising the prospect of a breakdown in the nuclear-armed rivals' peace efforts. After Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Thursday statement laying responsibility on groups based in India's neighbours, usually an allusion to Pakistan, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee was more explicit in implicating the neighbouring country on Friday. "Preliminary evidence, prima facie evidence, indicates elements with links to Pakistan are involved," Mukherjee told a news conference. However, "Proof cannot be disclosed at this time," he stressed. He urged Pakistan to dismantle the infrastructure that supports militants.
Indian Home Minister Jaiprakash Jaiswal said a captured gunman had been identified as a Pakistani. However, he did not present any evidence to support the claim.
Indian Home Minister Jaiprakash Jaiswal said a captured gunman had been identified as a Pakistani. However, he did not present any evidence to support the claim. APP reported Mukherjee as saying the Mumbai attacks made it impossible to leap forward in bilateral relations. An official statement said, "Pranab Mukherjee spoke this evening to the Foreign Minister of Pakistan Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi to convey the hope that the government of Pakistan will take immediate action with regard to the terrorist attacks on Mumbai. "He conveyed that while the government of Pakistan has said that it wants a leap forward in our bilateral relations, outrages like the attack on our embassy in Kabul and now the attack on Mumbai is intended to make this impossible.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Who would have known? Doesn't most of the current festering trouble in the world bubble over from Whackiland?
Wednesday's attack by suspected Pakistanis on the city was enabled by the Dawood Ibrahim gang, police sources said. It would not have been possible to carry out a terror operation on this scale without a collaborative local network and this was provided by the D Gang. As the terrorists had entered via the sea, the needle of suspicion is clearly pointing at Mohammed Ali, the new pointsman of Dawood.
Ali is known to be the king of the docks who runs a massive smuggling racket and has a grip over all coastal operations in the metropolis. He is known to indulge in smuggling of diesel, petroleum, naptha, drugs and arms with impunity and it appears that the terrorists had used his network to enter the city by the sea route. The Times Of India was the first to report (July 2, 2008) about the emergence of Ali as the key person looking after Dawood's operations in Mumbai. Despite having a detailed dossier on him, the authorities have not taken any action against him. What is more worrying is that Ali is believed to have also penetrated naval intelligence.
Dawood is holed up in Karachi and has been declared a global terrorist by the US administration. He is known to have links with the Al Qaeda and had used its network for narcotics smuggling operations out of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The fidayeens appeared to have been very clear about their targets. They targeted places frequented by foreigners in south Mumbai and knew the exact route to be taken from the coast. This was made possible by inputs provided by the D Gang, said sources.
Sources in security agencies said Dawood has made a few thousand crores in real estate transactions and is diverting a part of the funds for terror operations. The Dawood Bhai realty group has a top politician and a big-time builder as its partners. A close lieutenant of Dawood fronts for this company to get its projects cleared in Mantralaya and BMC. Currently, it is building a huge mall and a massive residential complex in the western suburbs. This frontman recently transferred Rs 120 crore in one go through hawala to Dawood, sources said.
This article starring:
Dawood Ibrahim
Mohammed Ali
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
Clashes between rival ethnic and religious groups in the central Nigerian city of Jos killed at least 20 people on Friday, injured hundreds more and forces thousands from their homes, the Red Cross said.
Authorities imposed a night-time curfew on the capital of the central Plateau state and soldiers deployed on the streets after rival gangs burned churches, mosques and homes in a dispute triggered by a local election.
The unrest is the most serious of its kind in Africa's most populous nation, roughly equally split between Christians and Muslims, since President Umaru Yar'Adua took power in May 2007.
"Over 20 people died. Churches and mosques and 100 houses were burned down," a senior Red Cross official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters. He said more than 300 people were injured.
Youths with machetes hacked to death a policeman and burned tires in one part of the city, sending plumes of thick black smoke into the air, witnesses said.
"All law-abiding citizens are assured that government is on top of the situation and should go about their normal lives," Jonah Jang, governor of Plateau state of which Jos is the capital, said in a broadcast.
"Government is imposing a curfew in Jos ... and the environs from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. (1700-0500 GMT). Government wishes to advise against any further attempt to test its will to maintain peace on the Plateau," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"The election result has not been officially announced but the protests turned violent after a rumour spread that the opposition candidate (All Nigeria People's Party ) to lead the local council had been defeated."
A local journalist told the BBC that Muslim opposition supporters had gone on the rampage when they heard their candidate to head the council had lost.
Local journalist Senan Murray told the BBC's Hausa Service that Muslims in the city tend to support the ANPP and Christians the PDP.
Aswat al-Iraq: A nine-year-old boy child was killed when a rocket fell on the house of his family in northern al-Kut city on Friday, a security source in Wassit said. "A Katyusha rocket fell on a man's house in al-Khajiya, northern Kut, on Friday evening, leaving a child killed and two other family members wounded," the source told Aswat al-Iraq.
The source did not say where the rocket was fired or any other details about the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
TEHRAN, Nov 27 (Reuters) - A man who blinded a woman with acid after she spurned his marriage proposals will also be blinded with acid under Iran's Islamic law, a newspaper said on Thursday. An Iranian court made the ruling on Wednesday based on the system of "qisas" or fair retribution, Etemad-e Melli reported.
The man identified as Majid proposed several times but was spurned by the woman, identified as Ameneh, the daily reported. In revenge, he threw acid in her face as she left her work in 2004, it added.
She travelled to Spain for surgery to reconstruct her face but efforts to restore her sight failed. On return from Spain, she asked the court for retribution, the newspaper said. "Ever since I was subject to acid being thrown on my face, I have a constant feeling of being in danger," she said, adding that Majid had also threatened to kill her in the past.
The newspaper published pictures of Ameneh's face before the attack and, still disfigured, after reconstructive surgery.
Majid was quoted as saying he did not regret his action but added: "I threw acid on her face so that she would be mine forever ... I did not know that acid could have such an effect on her face."
At the end of the court session, the judges "unanimously decided to sentence the accused to 'qisas' of his body part, blinding by acid" and to pay compensation, the report said. Judiciary officials could not be reached for comment.
The concept of "qisas" also holds in other cases in Iran, such as murder. A victim's family can demand the death of a convicted murderer or commute the sentence in return for financial compensation from the culprit.
The newspaper did not give details about how or when the sentence would be carried out. Court rulings can be appealed.
PARIS, NOVEMBER 27 - From next year Islamic banks conforming to sharia law, could be part of the panorama of the French banking system. Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said at the opening of the second French forum of Islamic finance that she had decided to "make a great welcome in Paris to this finance". Le Parisien reports that there are at least three banks requesting accreditation: the Qatar Islamic Bank which already has offices in London, the Kuwait Finance House, and the Al Baraka Islamic Bank, from Bahrain. Their target is the more than five million muslims resident in France, an attractive market: according to a survey last year by IFOP at least half a million muslims would be interested in loans which respect Sharia law (which forbids loans with interest). From this point of view, said President of the French-Arabic Chamber of Commerce Hervé de Charette, "the arrival of Islamic finance in France would be an integrating factor".
According to Elyes Jouini, a professor of economics at Paris-Dauphine, it is still a frightening prospect because it is against religious integralism and aimed at financing terrorism.
The global economic crisis is revolutionising the market though ad from New York to Hong Kong there is a rush for the billions of dollars of the rich oil producing countries of the Gulg. (ANSAmed).
#1
I realize this is not a fashionable opinion around here, but in light of the current housing finance crisis Islamic banking may well provide a better model.
Essentially the bank buys the house on your behalf and you have a long term contract with the bank to lease the house until at the end of the lease you own the house.
The advantage is that the bank has the house on its books and pays much more attention to its real value, unlike the the conventional banking model which focuses on your capacity to repay the debt irrespective of the value of the house.
#2
Sharia Compliant Finance is part and parcel of the global Islamist movement. Advocates of Islamism define Islam as a complete sociopolitical system that should govern ones personal and private life. This is a 20th-century phenomenon fueled internationally by oil profit in the Middle East. This totalitarian ideology has evolved into the separatist Salafi movement, which encourages segregating Muslims from non-Muslims through violent jihad and non-violent means.
#3
Reminds me of the Rule of 78s. Run as fast as you can from both.
Posted by: ed ||
11/29/2008 8:52
Comments ||
Top||
#4
phil_b - wouldn't work. With 'mark to market' accounting rules the bank would still have to drastically write-down it's loan portfolio throwing it's financial ratios out of whack.
Counterterrorism officials and experts said the scale, sophistication and targets involved in the Mumbai attacks were markedly different from previous terrorist plots in India and suggested the gunmen had received training from outside the country.
How could we ever get along without experts?
But they cautioned it was too soon to tell who may have masterminded the operation, despite an assertion from a previously unknown Islamist radical group.
[Important hair voice]
"Only time will tell!"
[/Important hair voice]
Officials in India, Europe and the United States said likely culprits included Islamist networks based in Pakistan that have received support in the past from Pakistan's intelligence agencies.
The usual chain seems to be SIMI to Lashkar-e-Taiba to ISI...
Meanwhile, British officials said they were investigating the possibility that two of its citizens were involved in the attacks.
"Oh, rilly. We're quite sure none of our lads were involved, though we're asking around, of course. Got the Yard on it, in fact!
In India, Vilasrao Deshmukh, the chief minister of the state of Maharashtra, which includes Mumbai, told reporters that two of the captured gunmen were British citizens of Pakistani origin. He gave no details.
They'll come out eventually...
The British government said it was investigating but unable to confirm the report. "I would not want to be drawn into early conclusions about this," Prime Minister Gordon Brown told reporters. "There is so much information still to be discovered and made available."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Taiba
#1
I should think it would be easy to discover where the various mujis are *from*. Just watch where their remains are sent *to*.
Posted by: ed ||
11/29/2008 0:09
Comments ||
Top||
#3
"There is so much information still to be discovered and made available."
There is probably much more information that Gordon and his ilk are going to do their damnedest to make sure it is distorted and suppressed instead. Cant have the masses making decisions based on their own.
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
11/29/2008 14:40
Comments ||
Top||
#4
"Characteristics of Plot Suggest Attackers Were Trained Outside India"
Yeah - in Pakistan. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
11/29/2008 14:42
Comments ||
Top||
BEKASI: Bekasi Police said Thursday they suspected the headless body found inside a suitcase was a businessman from a well-off family from outside Muara Gembong, Bekasi. On Wednesday morning, local fisherman at Muara Bendera Beach in Muara Gembong found a suitcase containing the body of a man. The body had no head, hands or feet.
"Possibly, he was a businessman from out of town, and he was not a Muslim because he was not circumcised," a police officer was quoted as saying by kompas.com.
Police moved the body to Muara Gembong Police on Wednesday afternoon. Bekasi Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Herry Wibowo said they would need to conduct an autopsy to get more clues.
From the police examination, it is likely the victim was discarded two or three days before it was found. The victim was estimated to be between 30 to 40 years old with a height of 165 centimeters. is that with or without head and feet?
(AKI) - An MP from the Sadrist block on Friday called 'illegal' the security pact passed by the Iraqi Parliament to keep US forces in Iraq for another three years.
Anything that involves Tater not getting his way is "illegal."
"The voting process is not legitimate," said Ahmad al-Massoudi, spokesman for lawmakers loyal to radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI).
"It wasn't restricted to just our side..."
"The massive deployment of security elements in the parliament, reveals the existence of pressure and a form terrorism exerted against against some MPs to pressure them to hastily approve the pact," said al-Massoudi.
The pact was approved by 144 members of the 198 who attended the session of the 275-member assembly.
Massoudi also said the agreement "violates Iraq's sovereignty and gives the occupier (US) the right to manage its military presence for a long time, and guaranteeing it the legitimacy to carry out violations against the Iraqi populace."
Sheikh Muhanad al-Gharawi known to be close to al-Sadr, said that the radical leader called on his supporters to raise black flags, organise mourning ceremonies across the country and hold peaceful demonstrations in rejection of the pact. "For now, there will only be peaceful protests, said al-Gharawi. We are at the orders of Moqtada al-Sadr: If he asks us to resist using weapons, we will resist."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Mahdi Army
#1
Sadr, please come home so we can all work this issue out together, as friends. Ok?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/29/2008 8:22
Comments ||
Top||
#2
What does the Iraqi legal system have to say about armed insurrection and urging (from the rear) thousands of fools to a pointless death?
Posted by: ed ||
11/29/2008 8:43
Comments ||
Top||
The death of British terror plot suspect Rashid Rauf in a US missile strike in North Waziristan area on Friday, along with four other al-Qaeda men, has confirmed Western fears that the trouble-stricken Waziristan region was the new battlefield for Kashmiri militants who are joining forces with the anti-US and pro-Taliban elements there.
Rashid Rauf, a close relative of Maulana Masood Azhar, the chief of Pakistan-based Kashmiri militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), was killed along with al-Qaeda leaders Abu Nasr Al-Misri and Abu Zubair Al-Masri after their rented hideout was spotted due to their frequent use of a mobile phone.
Pakistani agencies have found fighters belonging to at least four Kashmiri militant groups in Waziristan. They are the Harkatul Jehadul Islami (HuJI) led by Maulana Ilyas Kashmiri, the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) led by Maulana Masood Azhar, the Harkatul Mujahideen (HuM) led by Pir Syed Salahuddin and the Jamaatul Furqaan (JuF) led by Maulana Abdul Jabbar.
HuJI chief Maulana Ilyas Kashmiri happens to be a veteran of jihad in Kashmir and spent several years in an Indian jail. Pakistan arrested Kashmiri after the December 2003 twin suicide attacks on Musharraf's cavalcade in Rawalpindi. But he was released shortly, prompting him to shift base to North Waziristan and join hands with Baitullah Mehsud.
Kashmiri also established a training camp in Razmak area of Waziristan, shifting also most of his warriors from the Kotli training camp, 20 km from Kotli in Pakistan occupied Kashmir.
The Hizbul Mujahideen, meanwhile, is considered the mother of the ongoing militancy in Jammu and Kashmir. The Hizb leadership had established contact with many Afghan Mujahideen groups such as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hizb-e-Islami, under which some of its cadre received arms training at camps in Afghanistan.
On September 11 this year, Afghanistan-based American forces fired a missile at an alleged al-Badar training camp. The al-Badar, a Kashmiri militant group, was being aided by the Hizb. American Predator aircraft launched several missiles at a target in the village of Tol Khel on the outskirts of Miramshah, the administrative seat of North Waziristan. Twelve al-Badar members were killed.
The Jamaatul Furqan is a splinter group of the Jaish-e-Mohammad, led by Maulana Abdul Jabbar, involved in the Kashmiri jihad as a Jaish commander. Post-9/11, Pakistani authorities have arrested him many times but he was set free each time.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
(AKI) - An Indian commando who fought militants inside a luxury hotel in the Indian city of Mumbai said on Friday the guerrillas fired at anyone who moved and showed no remorse.
"They were the kind of people with no remorse - anybody and whomsoever came in front of them they fired," the masked commando, from India's crack Marine Commando Force known as MARCOS, told reporters. "We don't know how many have been killed. There are bodies lying strewn everywhere."
He said the commandos were trying to prevent the injury or death of any civilians. "We had to be that much more careful," he said.
The heavily clad commando was speaking amid reports that militants had regained control of the Oberoi hotel but explosions were still being heard outside the nearby Taj Mahal Palace hotel in the heart of the city.
Gun battles were also continuing with militants inside a Jewish centre with about half a dozen foreign hostages.
At least 121 people have been killed and 300 others injured in two days of grenade and gunfire attacks conducted by militants from the so-called Deccan Mujahadeen. Media reports said 24 bodies were discovered by Indian authorities inside the Oberoi hotel and they freed 90 guests and staff members on Friday.
India's foreign minister, Pranab Mukherjee, said "elements with links to Pakistan" were involved.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Taiba
Asharq Al-Awsat- Sheikh Abdul Raheem Isa Ado, the spokesman for the Islamic Courts' forces in Somalia has stated that the Courts have issued warnings to the pirates responsible for the hijacking of the Saudi Sirius Star oil tanker on November 17 at the port city of Haradheere, Puntland. The Courts demanded that the pirates end the operation, release the oil tanker and ensure that the crew is returned to safety.
In this exclusive interview, Abdul Raheem spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat by phone from the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
The interview proceeded as follows:
Q: Do you have any new information about the hijacked oil tanker?
A: No, I do not have any information.
Q: Are there any plans for military intervention to secure the release of the tanker?
A: There are ongoing attempts; we have already warned them [the hijackers]. After that, we will cut off supplies that reach them from the mainland and we will do everything in our capacity to have the boat released.
Q: Are your forces in the city [of Haradheere]?
A: Yes, the city is in under our control, we're there and our forces are there. Moreover, its surrounding villages are under the control of the [Islamic] Courts.
Q: So could you confirm that there will be military intervention taken against the pirates?
A: There have been attempts; firstly, we have issued warnings to them to release their hostages without any conditions. Secondly, we are stopping their supplies on land and after that we will spare no effort and do everything in our capacity [to ensure the tanker's release] but I cannot say that intervention will take place at a certain time or on a specific day. However, we will try our best, God willing, to set the boat free because it belongs to an Arab and Islamic country. It is not enough to sit by and watch and not to intervene.
Q: But pirates have hijacked Egyptian and Yemeni ships before, why didn't you intervene then?
A: We have always been thinking about putting an end to piracy against ships belonging to non-Muslims. We are against piracy and the horrific acts that pirates carry out but this ship [the Sirius Star] was close to the city that we are in; this is the first reason. We do not approve of piracy against Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Our forces are present in the city [of Haradheere] and there is security, as well as the [Islamic] Courts and that is why we announced our position before.
Q: Some consider your statement as a way of courting Saudi Arabia. What is your response to this?
A: No, Saudi Arabia is our sister, there is no courting. Egypt, Yemen and all Arab and Islamic countries are our sisters and it is the same for the rest of world. We do not condone the hijacking of ships and we have always thought about how we can try to intervene in cases of piracy but from now on we will intervene. Let me tell you that there are ships that enter Somali seas illegally and there are ships that come in and dump waste and there are pirates who are not Somalis.
Q: What is the number of your forces in the city?
A: I cannot state the size of our forces to the media but there are enough for us to work and intervene, but this will take place at the right time and place and this will be decisive.
Q: The Shabaab movement denied that it is going to confront pirates; are the disputes between you?
A: The movement is our sister and there are no problems between us.
Q: Has there been any personal communication between yourselves and the pirates?
A: Yes, our brothers in Haradheere have spoken to them and warned them and there is an office that contacts them.
Q: Thank you, is there anything you would like to add?
A: We are fighting our Ethiopian enemy that occupies our land and we say to all Arab and Islamic countries and their nations that they should know that we are defending our land, our religion and our nation and they must help our afflicted people.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic Courts
#1
[Paul has been pooplisted.]
Posted by: Paul ||
11/29/2008 10:22
Comments ||
Top||
On Friday, the entire nation saw dramatic visuals of masked commandos descending from helicopters and dropping down on the roof of Nariman House just one frame of an Indian fascination for 24/7 news that the terrorists had banked on.
Create mayhem, make it last. And leave the rest to the power of television news.
Vikram Sood, former chief of Indias Research and Analysis Wing, said lots needed to be self-censored. It was horrific, he said. The terrorists would have got to know exactly what was happening.
The visuals were shown despite a Thursday night advisory from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting asking news channels not to report on operational details. The advisory was issued after Home Ministry officials complained that channels were indirectly helping militants keep tabs on the security forces operation.
Government officials said that the militants in the Taj and Oberoi hotels were getting details of the movement of security forces around the hotels on Wednesday night from Pakistan through satellite phones and laptops, even though cable television lines were snapped in hotels on Wednesday night itself.
The satellite phone intercepts indicated that television was being used to provide information to militants inside the hotels till Thursday evening when the government issued an advisory, said and I&B ministry official. Added an official: The militants knew from where the security forces were zeroing in. That could have slowed down the operation.
News channels were also advised not to show the bodies of victims till the operation was over as it could give a boost to the morale of the militants inside the hotels. We also asked the channels not to show the burning hotel rooms repeatedly. If they were shown, then the logo of repeat telecast should be clearly mentioned, an official said.
Though senior ministry officials described the TV coverage overall as restrained and much better than in earlier times, there were lapses.
A channel actually broadcast a live interview with an alleged terrorist. Said Star Network CEO Uday Shankar, who has in the past run the 24-hour Star News channel, There has to be a consensus that you dont give that kind of platform to such terrorists. Even if a channel does get such an interview, it should be recorded and gone over carefully before airing, if at all.
On Friday, many news channels also put out unconfirmed news that there had been firing at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, creating panic and fear among Mumbais citizens. Later the news turned out to be inaccurate. Soon after, cable channels went off the air in Mumbai, though they were restored after a while.
Terrorists want to create fear. Anything that generates fear is in their interest. News channels must guard against that, added Sood.
But the former RAW chief was in favour of media briefings by the authorities in question. Thats important so that theres no panic. Every impression should be given that the authorities are in control, even if that may not be a hundred per cent true.
Shankar says anchors play a critical role in maintaining balance in the midst of live coverage. Unfortunately, many channels have people of poor intellectual calibre and maturity as anchors. And this is across English and Hindi news channels, he said. We also need to find more dignified ways of approaching victims whove just emerged from a traumatic experience rather than thrusting mikes in their faces as if they have just come out of a matinee show.
Not surprisingly, the television rating points (TRP) of news channels increased four to five times in the last two days as against normal news days, Audience Measurement and Analytics (aMAP), a company measuring television viewing, said on Friday. The increase was witnessed more for Hindi news channels than English news channels.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
And the BBC was more than happy to air convertations it had recorded with hotel guests trapped in their rooms and other parts of the hotel, which clearly identified them, where they were and how they were trying to defend themselves - one of whom was shot shortly thereafter. Utterly irresponsible.
#3
And I believe that news organizations should be held accountable like any other business or enterprise that acts without regard to consequences. They should be subject to civil suits by surviving family members in the grand 'deep pockets' venue of tort. With a couple a really good hammerings in the courts, producers will soon be shackled like our commanders with lawyers second guessing the implementation of ROEs.
Mr Green, who is the shadow immigration minister, was arrested at his home in Kent by counter-terrorism police officers.
The arrest follows a series of leaks to the Conservatives about Government policy, including a sensitive memorandum from the Home Office's most senior official on crime figures earlier this month. David Cameron, the Conservative leader, is said to be "extremely angry" about the arrest and has privately accused the Government of "Stalinesque" behaviour.
Mr Green is understood to have been arrested at lunchtime today and is still in custody. He has not been charged. Green has been arrested after obtaining leaked Whitehall documents. Police searched his family home and his office in the House of Commons. He was arrested for "aiding and abetting misconduct in public office".
It is claimed that nine counter-terrorism officers were involved in the arrest.
Mr Cameron has pledged his full support for the shadow immigration minister. In a statement he said: "Disclosure of this information was manifestly in the public interest. Mr Green denies any wrongdoing and stands by his action."
In February this year, Mr Green criticised the Government over leaked documents at the Home Office. He said: "Ministers like to talk tough about cracking down on employers but it is clear that the system is failing in our most sensitive buildings. What makes this even worse is that ministers' first instinct was to cover it up."
An alleged "whistleblower", thought to be a male Home Office official was arrested 10 days ago.
It is understood that the inquiry is focusing on four Home Office documents allegedly obtained by the Conservatives. Last November, documents from the private office of Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, were leaked to the opposition. They showed that ministers had known for four months that thousands of illegal immigrants had been cleared to work as security guards but had not told Parliament.
Other documents included information about an illegal immigrant working at House of Commons and a list of Labour MPs preparing to vote against the Government's anti-terrorism measures.
Tory sources angrily pointed out that the police move came after Parliament rose for a five-day holiday. Had the Commons been sitting, they said, MPs could have immediately raised the matter with the Speaker.
The police search of Mr Green's office had to be authorised by the Serjeant at Arms, who answers to the Speaker. Mr Green's constituency office was also searched.
#2
I'm hoping it was just Ian Blair's last vengeful swipe at the Tories who had been amongst the most outspoken in pointing out his gross incompetence over the years. The self same Ian Blair who complained that his position had been undermined by politics and yet who had been the most politicising Met chief, AFAIK, in memory. Seems Blair would have made a great Beria to Brown's Stalin. Hey, maybe he'll come back from the political dead, like Mandelson, to resume his arrests
#3
Isn't the British PM an elected dictator? That is to say the British constitution is not one of limited delegated powers from a sovereign people with checks and balances from independently accountable branches of government.
The Taj Mahal hotel, with its combination of Moorish and Florentine architecture, is a wonderful place to hang out in, sipping coffee in the Sea Lounge or having a relaxed drink in the Apollo Bar on a nice clear November day. But the same inviting structure became a nightmarish catacomb when it turned into a war zone on November 26.
The art of urban warfare itself is new and fighting inside a large skyscraper is newer still, says Captain Raghu Raman, a former army man and now an intelligence consultant. Conventional battles are normally fought in plains, jungles or hills. Over time, thumb rules have evolved on how many people it would take to defeat an entrenched enemy in such terrains. Typically, in the plains or a jungle you would need three men for every enemy person already entrenched there. On the hills, the ratio changes and you need five men to take out one person from the enemy side, says a Major in the Indian Army on the condition of anonymity. He has seen commando action in Kashmir.
In a high-rise like the Oberoi Trident hotel or the Taj Mahal Tower, these calculations go out of the window. A small group of people can engage a force that may be ten times larger than them, says the Major. A hotel with 27 floors like the Oberoi or as many rooms as Taj565 in alloffers the enemy immense space to manoeuvre, says a Lieutenant Colonel in the Indian Army who has served in Africa and in North East India. This poses huge challenges for the Indian Army to take on the terrorists who are holed up in the Taj or the Oberoi. To understand this, consider a situation from Kashmir that has a minor resemblance to what has unfolded in Mumbai.
In Kashmir, we would get a tip off in a place like, say Kupwara, that militants were holed up in a house. We would just go and surround a wider area. Then we would make announcements to get the civilians out of the area. Since the houses there are maximum two or three floors, we would then lay a siege and then we would exchange firepower. In due course, we would enter the house from the top through a helicopter lift to get the militants. Because the houses were of a smaller area it was easier to do this than in Taj or Oberoi, says the Major. In a large hotel, the terrorists can move from room to room and from floor to floor. Typically, the National Security Guard (NSG) uses a team of four members as a basic unit in such operations. So two members attack, while the other two provide cover. In a hotel like the Taj, with hundreds of rooms, you will need at least four people per room to hold the rooms to ensure that terrorists dont retake the rooms that have been cleaned, says the Major.
The irony of the situation is to be appreciated. While the terrorist has enormous space to operate in, the Army has constraints. The first constraint is clearly the large number of personnel required. The tactics too get affected.
Technically, there is a three-step sequence in conventional warfare. Step one is to use the artillery to pound the enemy and destroy the buildings. In step two, tanks and missiles are used to shock the enemy. The last step is to cordon off the area and lay siege so that the enemy is not able to replenish food and ammunition supplies. This leads to a drop in morale and eventual surrender. In a high-rise, none of these tactics work.
Even cordoning or surrounding the enemy doesnt work because the enemy inside Taj or Oberoi has no fixed defenses, so how do you attack him, says the Major. So in the Oberoi for instance, the terrorists kept moving between the 16th and the 18th floor, through staircases and elevator shafts. It is very draining for commandos to secure a floor, move up and then to hear gun fire again from a lower floor, says the Major.
The short answer to this problem? Stealth and technology. Most operations against an enemy inside a building need an entry from the top of the building, simply because the lower reaches are usually well defended. You cant have a situation where you have the ground forces cordoning off the building moving back or the fire engines moving away because that just gives away the motive, says the Lieutenant Colonel.
If stealth is achieved then at least three pieces of technology are a must: a sniper rifle, a thermal imaging device and finally a stun gun or gas gun. The sniper rifle is for precision shots because if there are hostages involved then machine gun would just end up killing even the hostages. Indian army uses Dragunov sniper rifles that are incredibly accurate, says an army source.
Then, of course, there is the use of thermal imaging equipment. This device can use the heat generated from the human body to see through walls. So this equipment can be used from outside the hotel to estimate the number of terrorists. Indian armed forces have both types of equipment: fixed and portable. Fixed thermal imagers have a range of 5 kilometres in open ground. The portable ones are like binoculars and have a range of 500 metres. Even inside a hotel, they can see through at least four-five rooms quite easily, says the Major.
There is also the option of using a gas that can slow down the reflexes of the terrorists. The problem is that old people may not be able to handle the effect of this gas in case they are hostage.
But this form of warfare is relatively new for India. It is the job of a specialised unit like the NSG. The NSG has four units, two of which are anti-hijack and anti-hostage and they are the ones ideally positioned to take on such an assignment in India. In the Oberoi and Taj event, there was a delay in bringing the NSG for sure and there were far too many agencies trying to tackle the situation. Only NSG has the expertise to do this, says the Major. India would do well to swell its rank if the events in Mumbai are anything to go by.
Shishir Prasad is Deputy Editor with the new business magazine to be launched by Network18 in alliance with Forbes, USA
Posted by: john frum ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Indian army uses Dragunov sniper rifles that are incredibly accurate,
Umm, no. The SNIPER is accurate (or not). The rifle is only a tool.
#3
Dragunov rifles are acceptably accurate, not incredibly accurate. Civilian AR-10 or .308 AR-15 clones are just as accurate as the standard Dragunov which is a long barrelled AK action chambered for the Russian 7.62x54mm rimmed round.
#4
The portable ones (thermal imagers) are like binoculars and have a range of 500 metres. Even inside a hotel, they can see through at least four-five rooms quite easily,
I didn't know that. In fact, I doubt its possible for thermal imaging. Sounds likes some secret Israeli or US radar tech.
#7
Ain't it funny how everyone says the AK-47 works SO well but when push came to shove the Russians went ahead and invented their own analogue to the M-14?
(AKI) - At least 12 people were killed and 18 others injured in a suicide bomb attack outside a mosque south of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, on Friday. A suicide bomber wearing an explosives belt attacked the mosque just before Friday prayers in al-Musayab, a district in the mainly Shia province of Babel, 60 kilometres south of Baghdad. The mosque is used mainly by Shia Muslim worshippers who follow radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Al-Sadr is reported to be strongly opposed to the new security pact passed by the Iraqi Parliament this week.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
Ethiopian troops will have fully withdrawn from Somalia by the end of 2008, bringing an end to a two-year military intervention, a foreign ministry spokesman told said Friday. Wahide Belay said that the deadline for the pullout was announced in a letter sent on Tuesday to U.N. Secretary General.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic Courts
Researchers have discovered the world's oldest stash of marijuana, in a tomb near the desert city of Turpan in northwestern China.
Dewd! It is, like, well-aged by now!
According to a research paper published in the Journal of Experimental Botany, the 2,700-year-old cannabis cache was 'cultivated for psychoactive purposes'.
The dried cannabis was buried with a 45-year-old, light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man, who seems to be a shaman of the Gushi culture, The Canadian Press reported.
The dry weather and alkaline soil have preserved the stash, which despite having lost its distinctive odor, still looks green. The cache was found in a leather basket in a wooden bowl, giving rise to the assumption that it was intended for the shaman to use in the afterlife. "It was common practice in burials to provide materials needed for the afterlife. No hemp or seeds were provided for fabric or food. Rather, cannabis as medicine or for visionary purposes was supplied," said American neurologist and head of the research team Dr. Ethan B. Russo.
Some 18 researchers most of them based in China, conducted carbon dating tests and applied genetic analysis to the cannabis. Studies showed that the marijuana had a relatively high THC content, the main active ingredient in cannabis.
The team also tried to germinate 100 of the seeds found in the cache, but failed. Since no pipes were found in the shaman's tomb, scientists could not determine whether the cannabis was smoked or ingested.
Two of the 500 Gushi tombs in northwestern China have yielded cannabis so far, which indicates that the substance was either used by a few individuals or was administered as medicine by shamans, Russo said. The Xinjiang region of China, where the tomb is located, is known as an original source of numerous types of cannabis.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Great pic Fred. "... it was intended for the shaman to use in the afterlife" The shaman dewd must have had some experience with the weed in the fore life. Must have been good some $hit to want to light it up in the after life.
Six Israed Defense Froces soldiers were wounded Friday evening after mortars fired by Gaza Strip militants hit a military base near Kibbutz Nahal Oz in the western Negev. There was no immediate claim of responsibility from Palestinian militants in Gaza.
According to the IDF, militants have fired 11 mortars at southern Israel on Friday. The mortar barrage came after earlier on Friday an IDF patrol clashed with Palestinian militants in the southeastern Gaza Strip near the border with Israel, injuring at least two.
The violence is further marring a 5-month-old truce between Israel and Gaza militants that began breaking down in early November. Israel has responded to mortar and rocket attacks from Gaza by tightening its blockade of the coast stripal. Only small shipments of aid and fuel are currently allowed into Gaza, deepening the hardship there. Israel says cargo crossings won't open until militants halt rocket fire at Israeli towns.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
Four suspected Abu Sayyaf rebels snatched a nine-year-old girl from her mother in Lamitan, Basilan Wednesday night, authorities said. This developed as the Western Mindanao police command was laying out its strategy to stem the series of kidnappings in the region. The abduction also came as a sour note to the celebration of the Week of Peace here, the 11th since 1997, participated in by nearly 20,000 people. That's working well, isn't it?
Authorities said four armed men on board two motorcycles grabbed the girl from her mother in front of their house in Barangay Malakas, Lamitan town at around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. Nick Castro, security chief of Lamitan Mayor Roderick Furigay, said the girl's mother resisted but the kidnappers pointed a gun at her. Maj. Eugene Batara, spokesman of the Western Mindanao Command, said pursuing policemen and Marines found the two motorcycles abandoned in Barangay Colonia.
Authorities said there was still no ransom demand from the kidnappers, suspected to be men of Abu Sayyaf leader Puruji Indama. Indama's group was also suspected to be holding captive Joed Anthony Pilanga, a nursing student of Ateneo de Zamboanga University who was snatched here and brought to Basilan last month. A P20-million ransom was demanded for his release.
This city's police chief, Senior Superintendent Lurimer Detran, was earlier relieved from his post due to the spate of kidnappings.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Abu Sayyaf
#1
"The Pick Up Artist", muzzie style. Watch it Friday nights on Al Jazeera TV.
Posted by: ed ||
11/29/2008 0:08
Comments ||
Top||
Egypt will reopen the Rafah border with the Gaza Strip for three days from Saturday to allow Palestinians to leave the blockaded territory for the Muslim hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
If Prabhakaran's gonna go back to humping mortars through the jungle he'll have to lose about 60 of those pounds hanging around his middle. But I suspect those natty tiger-striped jungle fatigues have never been drenched in sweat. While the hoi polloi are dragging their tired backsides through the bush or exploding in Colombo, he'll be in Dubhai or Cannes or Stockholm meeting with money men and plotting his comeback.
A pledge by Sri Lanka's Tamil rebel leader to fight on despite a military onslaught raised fears on Friday of a return to a hit-and-run guerrilla war as his mini-state faced potential collapse.
Separatist chief Super Mario Velupillai Prabhakaran vowed Thursday the rebels would "continue with our struggle until the alien Sinhala occupation of our land is evicted," referring to Sri Lanka's majority Sinhalese population, and appealed to Tamils abroad for support to shore up his military machine. Government forces have surrounded Prabhakaran in his political capital of Kilinochchi in the biggest-ever military campaign in the history of Sri Lanka's armed separatist struggle, which dates back to 1972.
Prabhakaran's speech delivered over Voice of Tigers radio contained veiled threats against civilians and suggestions the rebels would revert to hit-and-run attacks as their territory shrank, observers said. "Prabhakaran acknowledges there's fighting all around him and that he's under siege," said retired army brigadier general Vipul Boteju. "When he says he will fight on, it means he will return to his classic guerrilla tactics."
State radio warned Friday that Tiger rebels could resort to "desperate attacks" and called for public vigilance as heavy fighting raged in the island's northern regions where Tamils predominate. Security across the country had been stepped up, officials said, after a spate of bombings in Colombo and elsewhere targeting key political and military figures as well as government installations. Recent bombings against public transport were seen as retaliation for similar strikes by security forces inside rebel-held territory where the Tigers have maintained a mini-state since 1990, including their own police, courts and banks in Kilinochchi. "No sane voice is being raised either to abandon war or to seek peaceful resolution to the conflict," Prabhakaran said in his broadcast, adding the Sinhalese community across the board supported the war.
Rebel-turned-politician Dharmalingam Sithadthan said Prabhakaran had accused all members of the majority Sinhalese community of supporting the government's war effort. "This suggests he's preparing the ground to justify indiscriminate attacks against civilians," Sithadthan said. "When the LTTE is militarily weakened, they will resort to high-profile guerrilla attacks." He said he saw the guerrillas going back to the hit-and-run tactics they had adopted in the early 1980s.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Looks like it is back to the basics for the Tigers.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/29/2008 8:46
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Do sedan chairs come in tiger stripe?
Posted by: ed ||
11/29/2008 8:48
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Actually, if the Sri Lankan military pushes the LTTE terrorists out of their stronghold in the north, it will be back to banditry for the majority of LTTE survivors. The Tamils have "enjoyed" several years of LTTE rule in the north, and now are as popular with the civilians as Al-Q is with most civilian populations.
#4
Woah, looks like Mario hasn't chased any flying barrels around in quite awhile. Have another coupla dozen doughnuts why doncha. Stock up on those carbs for that guerrilla warfare...
(AKI) - In an apparent change of strategy Al-Qaeda has called on Egyptian Muslims to pressure their government to re-open the key Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip via industrial action rather than holy war. The terror network's second-in-command, Egyptian-born Ayman Al-Zawahiri, launched the appeal in a new video posted by Al-Qaeda's media arm Al-Sahab to jihadist websites .
"What problem could there be if students and workers went on strike to end the embargo against Gaza? Why can't they all go on strike together?" said al-Zawahiri. "All that is needed is for workers and students not to go to work or attend school for a week, or two or three, until the embargo against Gaza ends," he said, urging Islamist and jihadist websites to spread his message.
The 90-minute video titled 'The Lion's Den' appears to have been made in October and makes no reference to this week's deadly terrorist attacks in the Indian financial capital Mumbai. The video shows al-Zawahiri answering questions put to him by an interviewer who is off-camera.
"This embargo will only be broken by exerting pressure, and doing so is the task of the entire Islamic Nation and especially of Egyptians. Egyptians must organise violent protests and put pressure on governments like Egypt's to force them to break off their relations with the Jews.
"If the Egyptians began an uprising (intifada) using their tongues, their pens and their hands, this would be able to break a thousand embargoes," al-Zawahiri stressed.
He urged students and workers to elect their own union leaders and reject those "imposed on them by institutions".
The Egyptian-controlled Rafah crossing and all other entry points into the besieged Gaza Strip, have been closed since since 4 November. Israeli forces and Palestinian militants have since then been engaged in almost daily tit-for-tat attacks. The aid dependent territory is completely sealed off with only the occasional humanitarian supplies being allowed in.
Besides the situation in Gaza, al-Zawahiri also discussed the current situation in Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan, where he said: "The Crusader campaign has failed."
"The head of British forces in Afghanistan has confirmed they cannot win against the Taliban, and Afghanistan's Defence Minister has told the Americans the country's problems cannot be resolved through force," al-Zawahiri concluded.
This article starring:
Ayman Al-Zawahiri
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
He's referring to the Egyptian embargo of Gaza.
Aswat al-Iraq: Four Iraqi policemen were wounded on Friday when an improvised explosive device went off northeast of the city of Baaquba, an official security source in Diala said. “The IED targeted a police patrol inside al-Saadiya area, Khanaqin district, (155 km) northeast of Baaquba, leaving four policemen injured,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/29/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
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.
KABUL, Afghanistan U.S.-led coalition troops killed a Taliban commander dressed as a women during a raid in southern Afghanistan, officials said Saturday.
Zimbabwe's political rivals have agreed on a draft constitutional amendment to allow them to form a power-sharing government, but obstacles still remain to setting it up, the opposition said on Friday. 
Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert faced renewed pressure from his own party on Thursday to step down following a decision to indict him in one of several graft cases over which police questioned him. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni led the call for Olmert to quit. "The prime minister has to take a leave of absence; there's no other choice," said Livni.
(AKI) - Indian commandos ended the siege at a Jewish centre in Mumbai on Friday while fighting continued at one of the luxury hotels two days after the city came under attack from extremists. Reports citing an Israeli diplomat said that five hostages had been killed, among them former Brooklyn Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife Rivka.
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan on Friday fired 'four artillery rounds' inside Pakistan to target Taliban who attacked its bases, an ISAF statement said. "ISAF countered three attempts by insurgent to attack ISAF bases in Bermel district in Paktika (Afghanistan)," an emailed ISAF statement from its Kabul headquarters said. The statement did not say where the Taliban were attacked. It said ISAF soldiers first saw "two insurgents positioning rockets in preparation for an attack. The ISAF troops fired six artillery rounds at the location". "Within an hour, eight rockets were fired at the ISAF base. In response, ISAF fired four artillery rounds at the insurgents inside Pakistan," the statement said.
HATE preacher 
(AKI) - A suicide car bomber has killed seven people in the northwestern Pakistani town of Bannu. 
(SomaliNet)Bangkok's two main airports remained occupied by anti-government protesters Friday but Thai authorities appeared to have backed down from earlier threats to end the siege by force. The airports have been closed since Tuesday, stranding thousands of passengers and dealing a severe blow to the crisis-stricken southeast Asian nation's economy at the height of the tourist season. 
THE terror group that ruthlessly struck at Mumbai's heart has demanded an end to persecution of Muslims and the release of militants from prison.
An army corporal who was the personal interpreter to Britain's most senior officer in Afghanistan was jailed for 10 years on Friday for spying for Iran. 
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is likely to submit tomorrow the charge sheets of the two cases connected with the bomb attacks at Ramna Batamul accusing 14 leaders and activists of Harkatul Jihad (Huji).
Seven people, including two policemen, were injured in clashes on Thursday between security forces and pro-opposition supporters protesting parliamentary polls next year, police and the opposition said. Police fired warning shots and beat up protesters, injuring five demonstrators and arresting 18, sources from the opposition said.
By documenting the lingerie culture of Syria, the book 'The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie: Intimacy and Design' reveals a previously unknown side of Arabic design, fashion and sexuality. The most outrageous and exuberant lingerie in the world comes from a place yoùd probably never expect: Syria. Adorned with everything from faux fur, artificial flowers, and feathered birds to plastic toy cell phones, these intimates flash lights, play music, even vibrate. In Damascus and Aleppo, approximately 200 lingerie companies vie for a highly competitive domestic market, where styles change from season to season.
Hundreds of militants have attacked a large logistics convoy in Afghanistan's wetersn province of Badghis, killing 13 government troops. Regional officials confirmed that more than 300 militants launched an assault late Thursday on a convoy of 47 vehicles which was transporting winter supplies for their units at Bala Murghab district in Badghis. 
Back to the Future 
NEW DELHI: The gang of terrorists who wreaked mayhem in Mumbai for three days were made to believe by their Lashkar bosses that they were not being sent on a suicide mission and that they would be coming back alive.
India pointed a finger on Friday at "elements" linked with Pakistan for the attacks in Mumbai, raising the prospect of a breakdown in the nuclear-armed rivals' peace efforts. After Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Thursday statement laying responsibility on groups based in India's neighbours, usually an allusion to Pakistan, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee was more explicit in implicating the neighbouring country on Friday. "Preliminary evidence, prima facie evidence, indicates elements with links to Pakistan are involved," Mukherjee told a news conference. However, "Proof cannot be disclosed at this time," he stressed. He urged Pakistan to dismantle the infrastructure that supports militants. 
Wednesday's attack by suspected Pakistanis on the city was enabled by the 
TEHRAN, Nov 27 (Reuters) - A man who blinded a woman with acid after she spurned his marriage proposals will also be blinded with acid under Iran's Islamic law, a newspaper said on Thursday. An Iranian court made the ruling on Wednesday based on the system of "qisas" or fair retribution, Etemad-e Melli reported.
Counterterrorism officials and experts said the scale, sophistication and targets involved in the Mumbai attacks were markedly different from previous terrorist plots in India and suggested the gunmen had received training from outside the country. 
(AKI) - An MP from the Sadrist block on Friday called 'illegal' the security pact passed by the Iraqi Parliament to keep US forces in Iraq for another three years. 
(AKI) - An Indian commando who fought militants inside a luxury hotel in the Indian city of Mumbai said on Friday the guerrillas fired at anyone who moved and showed no remorse. 
(AKI) - At least 12 people were killed and 18 others injured in a suicide bomb attack outside a mosque south of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, on Friday. A suicide bomber wearing an explosives belt attacked the mosque just before Friday prayers in al-Musayab, a district in the mainly Shia province of Babel, 60 kilometres south of Baghdad. The mosque is used mainly by Shia Muslim worshippers who follow radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Al-Sadr is reported to be strongly opposed to the new security pact passed by the Iraqi Parliament this week.
Researchers have discovered the world's oldest stash of marijuana, in a tomb near the desert city of Turpan in northwestern China. 
Six Israed Defense Froces soldiers were wounded Friday evening after mortars fired by Gaza Strip militants hit a military base near Kibbutz Nahal Oz in the western Negev. There was no immediate claim of responsibility from Palestinian militants in Gaza. 
Four suspected Abu Sayyaf rebels snatched a nine-year-old girl from her mother in Lamitan, Basilan Wednesday night, authorities said. This developed as the Western Mindanao police command was laying out its strategy to stem the series of kidnappings in the region. The abduction also came as a sour note to the celebration of the Week of Peace here, the 11th since 1997, participated in by nearly 20,000 people.
Egypt will reopen the Rafah border with the Gaza Strip for three days from Saturday to allow Palestinians to leave the blockaded territory for the Muslim hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca.
(AKI) - In an apparent change of strategy Al-Qaeda has called on Egyptian Muslims to pressure their government to re-open the key Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip via industrial action rather than holy war. The terror network's second-in-command, Egyptian-born 
