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| India-Pakistan | |
| Hakimullah threatens, jibbers at US | |
| 2010-05-03 | |
| ISLAMABAD (AFP) – Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud has vowed to attack major US cities in two purported new videos released months after his reported killing in a US missile strike. Mehsud threatened to retaliate against the United States for the killing of Islamist militant leaders, appearing in a nine-minute video allegedly made on April 4, after his supposed death in January. The videos emerged after an attempted car bombing in New York City, for which his faction claimed responsibility in a third video, and provided the most substantial evidence so far that he survived a US attempt on his life. The videos spotlight the Islamist militant threat in nuclear-armed Pakistan, which the United States has put on the front line of the war on Al-Qaeda and where Pakistani troops have waged multiple offensives against the Taliban. "The time is very near when our fedayeen will attack the American states in the major cities," said Mehsud, who was seen flanked by two armed and masked men in the video released by the SITE and IntelCenter monitoring groups. The video is the first showing Mehsud since January and was issued on the heels of a claim by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan that it was behind the attempted bombing in New York's Time Square on Saturday.
The Islamist leader, who took over leadership of the TTP last August, rubbished reports of his death as an "open lie and propaganda". "Inshaallah (God willing) very soon in some days or a month's time, the Muslim ummah (world) will see the fruits of most successful attacks of our fedayeen in USA," Mehsud said. He made similar remarks in an audio message in another TTP video that was apparently recorded on April 19 and features Mehsud's face next to a map of the United States showing multiple explosions across the country. IntelCenter, a US-based group that monitors Islamist websites, said it believed all the TTP videos issued since the New York bomb scare were credible and said there was a "high threat of further attack" in days and weeks ahead. But the authorities in New York discounted an Al-Qaeda link and police said they were hunting a white man seen near the bomb in Times Square. The TTP claim of responsibility also met with scepticism in Pakistan, where the military has claimed the faction's capability was dented following an offensive against its South Waziristan nerve centre last year. If the allegation -- made by the TTP's master trainer of suicide bombers Qari Hussain and broadcast in a video on YouTube -- was authenticated, it would be the first attack by the TTP against a target in the United States. Mehsud, believed to be aged about 31, also warned members of NATO and other allies to abandon the United States, telling them: "You will face even worse humiliation, destruction and defeat than America itself." | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #4 Translating Joe M's comment to Dylanesque speech: You know some thing is happening But you don't know what it is Do you, Mr. Jones? |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2010-05-03 22:10 |
| #3 Several Guam locals I've talked to opine that the instigator(s) of this NYC Car Bomb is ONLY "TOYING/PLAYING" WID POTUS BAMMER, FED-STATE GOVT = PUBLIC AUTHORITIES; + THAT SOMETHING BIGGER + BADDER IS GOING TO OCCUR IN NYC OR ELSEWHERE IN THE USA IN THE NEAR FUTURE??? WHERE COMMIES-SOCS + GOVTISTS GO, ISLAMISTS + MILTERRS FOLLOW??? STAY ARMED. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-05-03 19:04 |
| #2 What an apt comparison ... |
| Posted by: Steve White 2010-05-03 17:24 |
| #1 this SOB is harder too kill than a cockroach |
| Posted by: chris 2010-05-03 14:39 |