UK broadcast and online media today ran the story that Prince Harry is on frontline duty with the British Army in Afghanistan, after the US news website the Drudge Report broke an unprecedented two-month news blackout on his deployment.
The surprise in media circles, where the deal brokered between media organisations and the Ministry of Defence not to report Prince Harry's frontline role in Afghanistan in return for access to the prince during his deployment has been known about since mid December, will be that the story did not leak out earlier.
And although UK media only ran with the story today after it appeared on the Drudge Report, Australian women's magazine New Idea actually broke the news on January 7. German newspaper Bild is also reported to have run the story.
The Ministry of Defence held a series of meetings with British media representatives in advance of the 23-year-old prince's departure to Afghanistan in December, reaching an agreement that his deployment would be kept secret. Under the news blackout deal media organisations that signed up were given access to a series of pooled interviews, pictures and footage of the prince in Afghanistan, on condition that nothing would run until his six-month tour ended in April.
Footage of Harry in action in Afghanistan and interviews with the prince about his deployment have run on outlets including BBC News 24, Sky News and the BBC1 Six O'Clock News. All the major UK news broadcasters, newspaper publishers and news agencies signed up for the MoD deal.
It is also understood that the first of a series of three "embeds" have taken place with Harry with TV news and press reporters getting footage and pictures of the prince, who has called in a number of air strikes in his role commanding a tactical air control unit.
Under the news blackout deal the plan was for Harry to return to the UK on a Friday to give daily and weekend national newspapers as well as broadcasters a fair crack at the story. Pooled material was planned to be released in "two or three waves" to give all media a chance to get in on the act.
Under the agreement, if the embargo was broken by British media Prince Harry was expected to leave the war-torn nation. In the case that the story was broken by foreign media first, as has happened today, British media were "implored to resist diving in" at least until he has been taken to safety.
#3
It was supposed to be a secret, according to the Sun, but Drudge leaked it thereby putting not just Harry but his entire unit at extra risk for the sake of a headline. If this is true I'm very disappointed with Drudge.
#4
Hah, I got it!
Those prisoners they take - get a makeup specialist and doll up and dress the telebunny to look like the Prince, superglue a fake weapon into his hands, and have them approach villages they say are safe or suspect IED placements or otherwise exposed position.
"The Prince, yeah we killed him twice yesterday."
"But we just saw him snooping around here! Aaa!"
#5
Yes, Drudge sure seems to be taking credit for leaking this--and quite gleefully boasting about it. Turns out Drudge is just as much a media whore as any other so-called journalist.
Posted by: Dar ||
02/28/2008 14:48 Comments ||
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#6
Always liked Drudge until this. This was pathetic. If the circumstances around all this remain as they are, then he has acted like a spoiled, self absorbed jerk.
#12
Drudge doesn't seem to understand the difference between scooping an affair involving a politician, and releasing information that could get people killed.
#13
Maybe this will cause Brit pols to grow a pair and support their troops with needed equipment.
Posted by: regular joe ||
02/28/2008 16:55 Comments ||
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#14
Disappoing that Drudge would leak it. But I wouldn't be at all surpised if Granny or Prince Tampon leaked it to Drudge to put an end to his adventure. Besides, if anyone in the media knew of it, he was probably in danger due to the fact that that too many of them are on the other side and would have gladly given him up.
I think it is ok that he leaves the front line now. He had a chance to see more combat than many and it appears he performed well. Good for him.
#15
British political and military reaction to Harry's deployment was unanimous in praise, as pre-prepared interviews with the prince revealed he joked about his nickname -- "bullet magnet" -- with Gurkha colleagues.
He also talked of life on the front line, including spending Christmas Day in a former Taliban madrassa peppered with bullet holes eating scrawny chickens slaughtered with the Gurkhas fearsome kukri knives instead of festive turkey.
If he's with the Ghurka's, he's probably safer there then in London.
#17
FOX NEWS [Guam TV] > UK MOD - PRINCE HARRY is set to leave Helamd Province in Afghani after ten weeks of duty there coordin air strikes agz the Taliban and other Xtremists. FOOTAGE > while depicting Harry on duty, also indics that COVERT SECURITY for Harry is about and around.
#1
The Red Mullah, huh? These guys like their theatrics. To be honest though, the report sounds odd. Being on the receiving end of an ambush usually doesn't leave the ambushers with ~25 KIA and the ambushees with one WIA. Maybe the ambushers were lying prostrate and naked in the middle of the road or something?
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
02/28/2008 17:00 Comments ||
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AFGHANISTAN - Two Polish soldiers died and one was wounded on Tuesday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb near their base in southeastern Afghanistan, the defence ministry said in a statement on its Web site.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
A world thanks you and your country for the sacrifice. God speed
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
02/28/2008 16:09 Comments ||
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An American woman aid worker and her local driver who were abducted in Afghanistan may have been killed, foreign groups said.
Cyd Mizell, 49, an employee of the Asian Rural Life Development Foundation (ARLDF), and her driver were kidnapped by unidentified gunmen last month while heading for work in a car in the southern city of Kandahar.
Although we have no confirmation of their deaths, we have received information over the past few days indicating that our two aid workers have been killed, ARLDF said on its Web site.No group has claimed responsibility for the abductions, and the Taliban insurgents behind many of the recent years kidnappings have denied involvement. Yes, we have this fear that they may have been killed, an official working for a Western security group told Reuters on condition of anonymity on Wednesday. He said there were no more details available such as who may have killed them and why. The Afghan government has yet to confirm the pairs death. Mizell had been living for years in Kandahar, where only a handful of Western aid workers operate and live due to security problems.
AUSTRALIAN troops have been forced to use some of their heaviest firepower to fight Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan during a series of recent skirmishes, the Department of Defence says. The soldiers have been using 81mm mortars, which can hit targets kilometres away but which have not been widely used by Australia since the Vietnam war. No Australian soldiers were killed or injured in the fighting and it was not clear if any Taliban had been hit.
The Taliban have launched multiple simultaneous attacks during the past fortnight. The raids have been aimed at a security post that soldiers from the Reconstruction Task Force (RTF) have been building about 15km from Tarin Kowt, in the Afghan province of Oruzgan. Chief of Defence Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston praised the work of the soldiers. "The immediate and aggressive response by RTF soldiers caused the enemy to break off their attack and abandon their weapons in hastily prepared caches. These (weapons) were recovered through aggressive follow-up patrolling, which was sustained for a number of days."
Defence edited video footage of the skirmishes shows a digger clawing his way through dirt to uncover a hessian bag filled with weapons and ammunition. The soldier counts eight rounds of ammunition in a waistbelt pulled from the bag. The video also shows diggers visiting nearby villages to ask locals if they have seen any Taliban soldiers.
Defence spokesman Andrew Nikolic said the Taliban had quickly stashed their weapons before fleeing. "They're riding motorbikes so they have quick transport," Brigadier Nikolic said.
Australia has about 1000 troops in Afghanistan, including Special Air Service soldiers, who are working at the front line of the war against the Taliban and criminal elements attempting to push western armies out of the central Asian nation. Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon has called on NATO, which is leading the operation in Afghanistan, to send more of its soldiers to the front line to support US, Canadian and Australian troops already there.
US-based private intelligence company Stratfor says the Taliban are fighting an "effective and intensive" insurgency that would be difficult to beat.
"The United States, its allies and the Kabul government are fighting a holding action strategically," it said today. "They do not have the force to destroy the Taliban and in counterinsurgency, the longer the insurgents maintain their operational capability, the more likely they are to win."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
"US-based private intelligence company Stratfor says the Taliban are fighting an "effective and intensive" insurgency that would be difficult to beat."
Humm... They wouldn't happen to know Alan Greenspan, by any chance, would they?
#2
Why would it be surprising if the Talibs were able to mount such an insurgency? We know that the salafist groups withdrew much of their manpower, money and arms from Iraq last year in response to the surge and to new opposition by Iraqi tribes.
Those assets didn't go home to Mama - they went looking for another place in which to defeat the kufir. And where better than in Afghan, where the Euros were doing their best to signal "take the money, take the country, just don't hurt me" ??
#3
It's hard to tell news.com.au and the dailytimes.com.pk apart.
Posted by: ed ||
02/28/2008 8:24 Comments ||
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#4
What a ridiculous hit-piece. The 81mm mortar is not a "big gun" by any reasonable standard. It is a man-portable infantry weapon. The Australian army has 155mm howitzers, which would reasonably be "big guns" in the current context. I initially thought this might be what the headline referred to.
The exaggeration of a particular weapon's significance is a familiar trope in the Oz-left media, as when they attached great significance to the replacement of B-52s with B-1s in a routine Iraq support rotation. Here, the obvious objective is to portray the allies as so hard-pressed that they are resorting to massive and unprecedented weapons in their desperation to hold the line.
Btw, the Taliban are known to use 120mm mortars and 122mm rockets, both significantly more powerful than the 81mm.
Afghanistan's interior minister Wednesday survived an attack on his convoy, while clashes killed several civilians and Taliban militants around the country, the interior ministry said. Interior Minister Zarar Ahmad Moqbel's armoured convoy was shot at about 50 kilometres (30 miles) outside of the relatively secure capital Kabul, his spokesman said, adding they had only learned of the incident afterwards. "We received reports there was some shooting from the mountain on one or two vehicles," spokesman Zemarai Bashary told AFP. Police were investigating if the attack had been aimed at the minister, he said.
Bashary, who was travelling with the convoy, said even the minister did not realise that firing took place and no one was hurt in the attack in which Afghan media reports said rocket- and gun-fire were used to ambush the delegation.
Meanwhile there were new fears for the fate of a US aid worker and her Afghan driver kidnapped in the southern city of Kandahar a month ago as their employer said it had unconfirmed information they had been killed.
In the eastern province of Khost, a bomb blamed on Taliban fighters blew up a civilian pick-up truck, wounding a dozen people -- including women and children, a district police chief said.
One of the wounded died in hospital and six others were in a critical condition, Yaqoobi district chief Lutfullah Babakarkhail told AFP. "This is the work of Taliban," he said.
A similar remote-controlled bomb in the same area killed five policemen -- all from the same family -- and a young boy on Tuesday.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which is helping Afghan troops confront the Taliban, meanwhile confirmed that two of its soldiers were killed in another bombing in the adjacent province of Paktika Tuesday.
The Polish military announced late Tuesday that two of its soldiers were killed in the blast and a third wounded.
ISAF also said Wednesday that eight Taliban fighters were killed in operations over the past three days in the southern province of Helmand.
The force, which includes soldiers from around 40 countries, rejected claims that it had killed civilians in the operation around the Kajaki Dam -- a vital water and power source.
However rocket fired by insurgents in the area had left five civilians dead on Monday, the separate US-led coalition said.
The Australian military reported separately that its soldiers in the southern province of Uruzgan had in the past days repelled a number of Taliban attacks on a project to build a base for Afghan soldiers.
And the Afghan army said two of its soldiers were killed in a clash with rebels on Tuesday in Kandahar province.
The Taliban were in government between 1996 and 2001, when they were removed for not handing over their allies in the Al-Qaeda network after the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
Last year was the deadliest of the insurgency, with around 6,000 people killed, and there are fears this year will shape up to be just as bad.
NATO civilian spokesman Mark Laity told reporters in Kabul however that he was confident of long-term success. "As long as we stay in the right direction we will win," he said.
International commitment "is enduring, it's not today, it's not for tomorrow it's enduring, it's to accomplish the mission which we came here to do in alliance with the government and the people of Afghanistan," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
You wouldn't think a policy of 'Back us or we will keep killing your wives and kids' would work very well against a nation of supposed warriors. Against Europe, or maybe the US, sure, but not Afghanistan.
#2
Seems to me that if you kill someone's wife or child, you automaticly gain between three and five new enemies, (Surviving family, inlaws and other relatives)
Soon you run out of "Friends".
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/28/2008 13:00 Comments ||
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Witnesses in Somalia say the brother of the country's deputy prime minister has been shot dead by government forces. The witnesses say the brother, Abukar Abdisalam, was talking on a mobile phone outside his home in the capital, Mogadishu, when government troops became suspicious, chased him and shot him. Abdisalam is a brother of Ahmed Abdisalam Adan, who is also the country's information minister. The motive for the shooting is unclear.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2008 00:00 ||
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Armed groups have shot dead the deputy commissioner of Shibis district in the capital on Wednesday night residents said. The official namely Abdulahi Haji Mohamed was shot dead Close to Global hotel of Shibis district in Mogadishu by a men armed with revolvers as Shibis commissioner Mohamed Abdi Filfil confirmed Shabelle. He also stated that the deceased man died for serious wounds from the bullets he was hit by the assailants.
Witnesses told Shabelle that the killers have soonly escaped from the scene after the assassination. The killing of this official comes as in excess of 10 district commissioners plus some of their deputies and army officials of the government were killed.
Elsewhere armed groups have thrown hand grenades into a house within Shibis district on Wednesday near the site the deputy commissioner was killed. Two civilians were confirmed wounded in the blast. As some residents confirmed Shabelle English service that some of the government officials used to reside in the assaulted residence but were no at that abode at the attacked time although some reports that they have previously vacated from there. The government troops have before long arrived at the scene.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2008 00:00 ||
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Swedish security service Säpo has arrested three men in Stockholm suspected of preparing terrorist acts and financing terrorism. All three men are Swedish citizens of Somali origin.
"The men were arrested at different addresses in the Stockholm region," Säpo spokesman Jakob Larsson told the TT news agency.
Säpo has not released details of the suspects' ages or said whether they have previous criminal records. "I want to underline the fact that there is no connection whatsoever to the threats against Lars Vilks or the Muhammad caricatures," said Larsson.
Norway's security service PTS also arrested three men in Oslo on Thursday morning on similar charges in a raid coordinated with their Swedish counterparts. The Oslo arrests followed a lengthy investigation carried out by Oslo police in cooperation with the police financial crimes unit.
The three men apprehended in Norway are suspected of financing acts of terrorism abroad. The arrests were described by police in Oslo as undramatic.
Terrorist financing is viewed as a growing problem in many European countries. The Nordic region in particular has been described as a sanctuary for terrorist groups, where they can plan acts of terrorism with little risk of detection.
Säpo has previously referred to Sweden as a base for "recruitment, logistical support and financing" of terrorism. At least 20 Swedes have been arrested globally on terror charges since 2001, many with suspected links to extreme Islamist organizations. Most recently, a 23-year-old Swedish national was arrested in France on February 1st suspected of fighting with Somalia's Islamic courts.
Four Swedes were also arrested and imprisoned in Ethiopia when Somalia's Islamist movement was driven back by government forces in 2006.
Only a few cases have led to convictions however. In 2005, two Iraqi Kurds were jailed and deported by Sweden's Court of Appeal for financing terrorism. The men, one of whom was an imam, had sent $148,000 to the Ansar al-Islam terrorist movement in northern Iraq.
Police were scouring an Internet café in downtown Oslo on Thursday, in a raid believed to be tied to the arrests earlier in the day of three persons charged with financing terrorist activities. As many as 10 investigators were inside the café early Thursday afternoon, reported Aftenposten.no. They carried out large quantities of computer equipment.
The three arrested for alleged terrorist financing are tied to the Somalian community in Oslo, reported Aftenposten.no.
Norway's national security police PST, the state crime unit Kripos, Norway's white-collar crime unit Økokrim and the tax authority for eastern Norway all took part in the arrests.
The three suspects face a court hearing on remand custody either Friday or Saturday, said PST spokesman Martin Bernsen.
The PST also confirmed that it had coordinated its arrests in Oslo with Swedish police, who arrested three other men in Stockholm Thursday morning, also on charges of financing terrorism and planning terrorist activities. The three arrested in Stockholm are all Swedish citizens, but come from Somalia as well and are charged with having financed terrorist activities in their homeland.
A Spanish court on Wednesday convicted 20 Islamic radicals of belonging to a terrorist group, but acquitted them of planning to blow up the courthouse, judicial sources said. They said the sentences were to be announced later on Wednesday.
Ten others accused were acquitted of all charges, the sources said. All 30 were charged with belonging to an Al Qaeda-inspired cell and of planning attacks in Spain. They were arrested in 2004, several months after the Madrid train bombings of March 11 that killed 191 people and which were claimed in the name of Al Qaeda by an Islamic cell. The prosecutors at the anti-terrorist court charged that the 30 radicals were planning an attack either on the National Audience, the Supreme Court, a Madrid metro station or the headquarters of Spains opposition Popular Party.
The prosecutors said the plot against the National Audience anti-terrorist court was the most advanced. They said the accused had planned to ram a lorry loaded with 500 kilogrammes of explosives into the building. The court ruled that this charge could not be proved. But it convicted 20 of the 30 defendants of setting up a terrorist network by recruiting Muslims in prison for jihad, the sources said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
To be sentenced to 20 hours of community service, picking up litter (except beer cans, of course?)
A large explosion has blown the top off a shopping plaza in Waukegan, Ill. Police say at least six people have been taken to a hospital. The explosion struck around lunchtime Thursday. It blew the windows out of storefronts and collapsed the ceilings above stores.
Witness Candi Rixie was taking orders at a sandwich shop a block away. She said she felt a rumble, almost like somebody hit the building with a car. It wasn't immediately clear what caused the blast, but crews from People's Gas were on the scene to investigate. Fire crews from several towns have come to help in rescue efforts, and are searching to see if people are trapped inside.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2008 15:57 ||
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#1
Probably just a gas line/leak but i am sure we can count on the FBI to tell us it isn't terrorism before any of the facts are known.
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
02/28/2008 16:18 Comments ||
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#2
Beat me to it, Abu.
Couple of cynics, ain't we? ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/28/2008 16:55 Comments ||
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#3
I guess the FBI is on the side of not having Chimpy McBushitlerburton declare martial law.
The Pentagon on Tuesday approved war crimes charges against a Yemeni Guantanamo prisoner it says was a media director for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The charges against Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman al Bahlul, 39, were filed by military prosecutors this month and Tuesdays decision set the stage for his trial at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.
No trial date was given, but a Pentagon statement said that under the rules of the military tribunals created to try non-U.S. citizens held as part of the Bush administrations war against terrorism, the accused should be arraigned within 30 days of being notified of their charges.
Bahlul traveled to Afghanistan in February 1999 to join al Qaeda, the statement said. Once a member of al Qaeda, he allegedly served as the personal director and media director of Osama bin Laden, it said. The charges against Bahlul include conspiracy and solicitation to commit murder and providing material support for terrorism. The charge sheet alleges that he created a recruiting video glorifying the bombing of the USS Cole and other videotapes styled as wills for two of the Sept. 11 hijackers.
This article starring:
ALI HAMZA AHMED SULIMAN AL BAHLUL
al-Qaeda
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Good but I'm not holding my breath for the hanging.
At least 10 suspected militants were killed in a missile strike on a house in South Waziristan early on Thursday, residents and officials said.
The dead were believed to be of Pakistani and foreign origins, they said.
The attack happened at about 2am in Kaloosha Village, 10 kilometres west of Wana, headquarters of South Waziristan Agency.
Nine militants were killed instantly while a wounded Punjabi militant passed away hours later in a local hospital, the residents said. Security officials also put the toll at 10. However, local news agencies reported that 13 people were killed in the attack and several others injured.
It is the second such attack in the area after militant commander Nek Muhammad was killed in a missile attack in June 2004.
Resident Sharifullah said three missiles hit the house of Afghan national Sheroo.
Sheroo hailed from Zalikhel tribe, which was notorious for harbouring foreign and local militants, the residents added.
Afghans, Punjabis: They said the dead included Afghans and Punjabis whereas security officials pointed out the presence of Arab militants in the house.
There was no immediate information about the presence of any high-value target, an official told AFP.
Armed militants cordoned off the site after the missile strike, the residents said, adding that four unidentified guests had arrived late on Wednesday at the destroyed house, although their identities were not known.
The residents told Daily Times that local Taliban chief Maulvi Nazir did not visit the site of the attack or attended the dead militants funeral prayers. Later, the residents buried the militants. Punjabi militants helped Maulvi Nazir in ousting foreign militants, especially the Uzbeks, from the area last year.
Blast: Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told AFP that the deaths were caused by explosive material stored in the house, adding that 10 to 12 people were killed in the blast. As per our information it was an explosion caused by explosive material in the house.
All of their nationalities were not known, he said.
However, a security source, based in Peshawar, which adjoins the lawless tribal belt, said on the condition of anonymity that the missile was fired by a US drone at about 2am on Thursday.
A spokesman for the United States-led coalition force based in Afghanistan said it had no reports that either it or the separate North Atlantic Treaty Organisation-headed force were involved in the strike.
US drones have launched several strikes on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border targeting members of Osama Bin Ladens network, although Islamabad never confirms such attacks due to issues of national sovereignty.
The attack comes a month after Osama Bin Ladens operational number three, Abu Laith al-Libi, was killed in a missile strike in the neighbouring Tribal Area of North Waziristan.
Thousands of Al Qaeda and Taliban militants fled into Pakistans tribal belt after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
Witnesses in Pakistan say a missile struck a house in the South Waziristan tribal region, killing 13 people and injuring at least seven others. Residents in the area said a pilotless drone fired the missile early Thursday. A security official also said the missile was fired from a U.S. drone.
The Pakistani military has not confirmed the attack, but U.S. military drones have carried out previous strikes in the area on suspected militants. Pakistani officials do not confirm U.S. attacks on their territory because of sensitivities over sovereignty.
Last month, one of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants, Abu Laith al-Libi, was killed in Pakistan's tribal region. No officials would publicly confirm how he died, but published reports say he was killed in a missile strike by a U.S. drone.
Al Qaedas second-in-command Ayman Al-Zawahiri confirmed on Wednesday that Abu Laith Al-Libi was killed last month in a missile attack in North Waziristan. Vowing revenge for Al-Libis killing, Zawahiri, in a video posted on the Internet, said,
No chief of ours had died of a natural death."
No chief of ours had died of a natural death, nor has our blood been spilled without a response. The video went on to say that, If one of our chiefs passes, another arises in his place.
Libi, considered one of Osama Bin Ladens top lieutenants in Afghanistan, was killed in a suspected US missile strike that killed up to 13 foreign militants in the North Waziristan border area in late January. So seek help O Americans and agents of Americans ... from those seeking a way out ... They will be of no help to you, Zawahiri added, referring to Muslim clerics who have criticised jihadist militants.
The video was produced by Al Qaedas media arm As-Sahab and carried English subtitles. Earlier, AFP had reported As-Sahab as saying that Zawahiri would deliver a message containing a tribute to Al-Libi. It made the announcement on the Islamist website, Al-Ekhlaas, without stating when the message would be released. Zawahiri last made a public declaration in December, when he used an audiotape to lash out at a US-hosted Middle East peace conference, calling it a betrayal of the Palestinians. Libis prominence in Al Qaeda was highlighted last year by his appearance in a video with Zawahri. According to Reuters, he was the first spokesman to announce that Bin Laden had survived the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Joe to OSAMA + ZAWI + OMAR, etc. > All things + WOT aside, you have my personal condolences on your group's loss.
You also have it for ZARQHAWI, etal. once I 'm convinced he's truly actually dead.
#4
Note to Dr. Evil - Both Abu Zubaida and Khalid Sheikh Mohmammed are presently enjoying the amenities of Club Gitmo. You and your pals are cordially invited to join them.
Jhang Police said on Wednesday they arrested three terror suspects carrying two suicide jackets and chemicals in Shorkot on Tuesday night. The arrested were produced in an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Wednesday and placed on physical remand for six days in police custody, APP reported.
Online cited Jhang District Police Officer (DPO) Amjad Javed as saying the terrorists were arrested on Tuesday night from Mir Wala Bridge and were attempting to target prominent politicians.
He said the suspected terrorists were Ghulam Shabir, Muhammad Amin and Muhammad Ramazan and that they belonged to a banned outfit. The three men were suspected to be members of the outlawed Sunni Muslim militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, APP reported local police officer Pervez Tareen Sardar as having said. He said the three men were waiting at a bus stop in Pul Miran village when residents became suspicious and called the police. It was not clear what aroused the residents suspicions. They were carrying the suicide jackets and chemicals in shopping bags, he added.
Police officials told APP the terrorists were targeting former National Assembly speaker Syed Fakhar Imam, former federal minister Syeda Abida Hussain, Faisal Saleh Hayat, Waqas Akram and Sheikh Yaqoob. The three suspected terrorists appeared before the ATC and were placed under physical remand for six days by Justice Bashir Ahmad Bhatti. They will appear before the court again on March 4.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2008 00:00 ||
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Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan on Wednesday said a tribal militant commander and mastermind of two suicide attacks on former interior minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao and killer of a serving Intelligence Bureau (IB) official was killed in an encounter with security agencies on Tuesday.
Abdul Siar, head of Siar group in the Tribal Areas, was killed on Tuesday in an encounter between security agencies and his men between Charsada and Mohmand Agency, Hamid told reporters after attending a National Public Safety Commission meeting. Nawaz said almost 116 innocent people had died in various terrorist attacks by Siar and his men in various parts of the country. He said security agencies had also arrested two of Siars men during the encounter, who divulged important information after which the government had increased security of prominent politicians and important public buildings across Pakistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2008 00:00 ||
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MINGORA: Militants beheaded a watchman at the offices of a cellular company in the Kalakot area of Matta, Swat, and hurled hand grenades at the house of a female dancer, in separate incidents on Wednesday.
The militants beheaded watchman Zareen Gul, threw his body on a roadside, and fled brandishing their weapons. In the Bunter area of Mingora, the militants hurled grenades at the house of Shabana, a dancer and stage artist, partially damaging the house. Separately, security forces arrested four militants from the Charbagh, Madyan and Imam Dheri areas and took them to an undisclosed location for investigation. The security forces also released 53 suspects arrested during a military operation in Swat because of lack of evidence. The operation was carried out three months ago.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
To scared of a women to finish the job. How typically Islamic.
Militants Muslimes beheaded a watchman ed- clarity-
#2
...security forces arrested four militants from the Charbagh, Madyan and Imam Dheri areas and took them to an undisclosed location for investigation.
That sounds...ominous.
The security forces also released 53 suspects arrested during a military operation in Swat because of lack of evidence.
#3
The IDF depends heavily on intel from Palestinians to find out where targets are.
Sometimes they get the intel quickly, sometimes not. Also, the IDF frequently gives the Egypt and Jordan intel services a heads up just before a big op. This helps these two services position their assets to monitor MBro-hood/Hamas/AlQ activity.
The IDF struck back against Gaza's Hamas leadership late Wednesday night, after an estimated 50 Kassam rockets and at least four Grad-style Katyusha missiles pummeled the western Negev and Ashkelon over the course of a few hours in the afternoon, killing a student at Sderot's Sapir Academic College and sending dozens into shock.
The IAF fired a series of missiles at the Palestinian Interior Ministry in Gaza, near where Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh maintains an office. Haniyeh, who also holds the Interior Ministry portfolio in the Strip, was not in the office at the time, but Palestinians said that 25 people - many of them passersby - were wounded in the attack.
As of press time, the IDF would only say that the air force had struck a number of targets within the Gaza Strip, but would not confirm that Haniyeh's ministry was among the sites targeted.
As the air strikes were under way, Defense Minister Ehud Barak was visiting the college in Sderot, where Roni Yihye, 47, a father of four and a student at the school, was killed by shrapnel from a Kassam rocket that struck meters away from where he stood in a parking lot. Barak met with local leaders and police commanders to coordinate a plan of action for emergency responders and civil authorities. The shrapnel lodged in Yihye's chest, and despite the aid of passersby, including a Magen David Adom paramedic who studies at the school, an MDA team was unable to resuscitate him.
Another student in the school's parking lot was wounded in the leg by shrapnel, a victim of a second volley of Kassams that hit the Sderot area in less than 90 minutes.
Yihye lived in Moshav Bit'ha, near Ofakim, and was a career soldier studying logistics at the college.
The largest barrage in recent months began in the early afternoon, when Hamas fired 11 rockets at Sderot, in response, the group said, to the IDF's killing of five Hamas gunmen in the morning. The five, according to security establishment assessments, had recently received training overseas to carry out a major attack against an Israeli target.
The Abu Rish Brigades, a branch of Fatah representing a powerful Gaza clan and believed to be allied with Hamas, issued a statement Wednesday afternoon claiming responsibility for the first attacks of the afternoon. But immediately afterward, Hamas issued its own statement claiming responsibility for the rocket that hit Sapir. Both groups said the attacks were a response to IAF strikes in the Gaza Strip.
The IAF launched a strike targeting what they said was the Kassam cell responsible for the barrage that killed Yihye. Palestinians claimed that three children were killed and 12 civilians were wounded in that strike.
A video released Wednesday showed footage of Kassams fired from residential areas in Gaza, a scenario that makes it difficult to strike back against rocket-launching cells without harming civilians.
"The firing of rockets by Hamas at Israeli civilians from within populated Palestinian areas is a war crime that harms both Israelis and Palestinians," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"The firing of rockets by Hamas at Israeli civilians from within populated Palestinian areas is a war crime that harms both Israelis and Palestinians," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "Hamas's terrorism not only endangers the lives of Israeli and Palestinian civilians, it also endangers peace and stability in the region as a whole."
Later, in the early evening, four Grad-style missiles, Soviet-made devices similar to the Katyushas used by Hizbullah against communities in the North, and with greater range than Kassam rockets, hit Ashkelon, causing major power outages. One missile struck 150 meters from Barzilai Hospital, where victims of the earlier attacks on Sderot were being treated. Barzilai officials said that other than the windows, the hospital was not reinforced against rocket attacks.
In the first barrage of the day, which was unusually large and well-aimed, a rocket slammed through the roof of the Of Kor factory, located less than a kilometer from Sapir in Sderot's industrial zone. It caused massive damage to the workers' dining hall.
The dining hall, in which some 150 employees ate lunch less than two hours before the strike, was not reinforced against rocket attacks. One woman, who was cleaning up the remains of the midday meal, was treated for shock. Three other people in Sderot were also treated for shock following the first barrage.
The factory's owner, Meir Cohen, said the building had been constructed in the 1960s and had no fortified rooms. Cohen said he had asked the relevant authorities to install protective reinforcement, but that his requests had gone unanswered.
In 2006, Of Kor employee Yaacov Yaakobov was killed when a Kassam - one of almost a dozen to hit the factory in the last seven years - crashed through the ceiling and landed meters away, sending shrapnel into his head.
Even after the first two barrages sent nearly 20 rockets at the western Negev, the hail of Kassams continued, with around 30 more rockets fired at Sderot and nearby kibbutzim and moshavim.
Starting on Thursday, some bomb shelters in Sderot that had been repaired - and then locked to prevent damage or theft - will be unlocked and made available for use. One such bomb shelter stood only a few meters from where 10-year-old Yossi Haimov was wounded by a Kassam on Monday afternoon.
This article starring:
Ehud Barak
ISMAIL HANIYEH
Hamas
Roni Yihye
Abu Rish Brigades
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2008 00:00 ||
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Link ||
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#1
We must engage the Gazan Oppressed Peoples (GOP) in meaningful dialogue, without reservations or preconditions to effect significant, meaningful change in the status quo, as I have been saying for years and years.
Posted by: Obama Bobby ||
02/28/2008 6:42 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Israel doesn't have counter-battery radar? From now on they should respond to every detected launch with at least ten counterrounds of comparable size, with no regard for collateral damage, and not even any particular concern with accuracy - match the Paleo requirement of 'just get it over the fence.'
A rocket launched from the Hamas-run Gaza Strip killed a man in Israel on Wednesday, the first such death in nine months, and Israeli air strikes killed six Palestinian militants and five civilians in the territory.
The rocket, one of 40 Hamas said it fired in response to an air strike, seemed certain to increase public pressure on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to order tougher Israeli military action in the Gaza Strip that might include a widescale ground operation.
As well as targeting armed men on the ground, Israel's air force bombed the Hamas-run Interior Ministry, witnesses said. The blast damaged nearby buildings, killing a 6-month-old baby and wounding at least 14 other people, hospital officials said.
The mounting violence could complicate peace talks between Israel and President Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority which Washington hopes can lead to a deal on statehood this year. "The Hamas terror endangers not only the lives of Israeli and Palestinian civilians, but also the peace and stability of the entire region," Israel's Foreign Ministry said in a statement which called rocket salvoes a "war crime".
Earlier, five senior members of Hamas were killed when the van in which they were traveling was attacked from the air near the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, medical officials said.
Local residents who knew the men said some had undergone training in Syria or Iran and returned home after Hamas breached Gaza's border with Egypt last month in defiance of an Israeli blockade of the territory. Hamas denied they had left Gaza.
Hamas, which seized Gaza in June after defeating Abbas's forces, hit back. They were the first Hamas rockets fired in two weeks, although allied militants had maintained daily salvoes. Four Palestinian civilians -- two men and two youths, medics said -- died in air strikes near launch sites in northern Gaza.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2008 00:00 ||
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An explosion at a hall in a south Lebanon village late Wednesday injured four people, security officials and residents said. The explosion ripped through a hall attached to a Shiite Muslim mosque in the village of Shehabiyeh, causing the casualties. One person was taken to an area hospital with severe injuries, they said.
The nature of the explosion was not immediately clear, with one official saying it was caused by a hand grenade that went off accidentally. A resident said a group was training on a rocket that accidentally exploded. Another resident of the village said there were four injured in the explosion. Those who commented on the matter asked not to be identified because of the security nature of the issue and its sensitivity.
The village is in an area of southern Lebanon dominated by the Hizbullah terrorist Shiite organization and its allied Amal faction. Hizbullah fought Israel in the 2006 summer war. The area is part of a zone near the Israeli border that is controlled by U.N. peacekeepers. UN peacekeeping officials said they were checking reports of an incident in the village.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#1
A resident said a group was training on a rocket that accidentally exploded.
Even before the 2001 terrorist attacks, American-born imam Anwar al-Aulaqi drew the attention of federal authorities because of his possible connections to al-Qaeda. Their interest grew after 9/11, when it turned out that three of the hijackers had spent time at his mosques in California and Falls Church, but he was allowed to leave the country in 2002.
New information later surfaced about his contacts with extremists while in the United States. Now, U.S. officials are saying for the first time that they believe that Aulaqi worked with al-Qaeda networks in the Persian Gulf after leaving Northern Virginia. In mid-2006, Aulaqi was detained in Yemen at the request of the United States. To the dismay of U.S. authorities, Aulaqi was released in December. "There is good reason to believe Anwar Aulaqi has been involved in very serious terrorist activities since leaving the United States, including plotting attacks against America and our allies," said a U.S. counterterrorism official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Which is why it's better to just say nothing and send somebody to put a few bullets through his turban. Or at least mine his car.
U.S. authorities were limited in how far they could push Yemen to hold Aulaqi, officials said, because they have no pending legal case against him. The officials said ongoing intelligence-gathering efforts here and abroad prevented them from providing details about Aulaqi's suspected activities.
Aulaqi, 36, was the spiritual leader in 2001 and 2002 of the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, one of the largest in the country. In a taped interview posted this New Year's Eve on a British Web site, Aulaqi said that while in prison in Yemen, he had undergone multiple interrogations by the FBI that included questions about his dealings with the Sept. 11 hijackers. "I don't know if I was held because of that, or because of the other issues they presented," Aulaqi said without elaborating. He said he would like to travel outside Yemen but would not do so "until the U.S. drops whatever unknown charges it has against me." Aulaqi did not respond to requests for an interview.
In several terrorism cases in Britain and Canada over the past 18 months, investigators found in the private computer files of some suspects transcripts and audio files of lectures by Aulaqi promoting the strategies of a key al-Qaeda military commander, the late Yusef al-Ayeri, a Saudi known as "Swift Sword."
Federal prosecutors in New York alleged in a 2004 terrorism-related trial that a U.S. branch of a Yemeni charity for which Aulaqi served as vice president was a front that sent money to al-Qaeda. Documents filed around the same time in federal court in Alexandria assert that a year after 9/11, Aulaqi returned briefly to Northern Virginia, where he visited a radical Islamic cleric and asked him about recruiting young Muslims for "violent jihad." That cleric, Ali al-Timimi, is now serving a life sentence for inciting followers to fight with the Taliban against Americans.
After leaving the United States in 2002, Aulaqi spent time in Britain, where he developed a following among ultraconservative young Muslims through his lectures and audiotapes. He moved to Yemen, his family's ancestral home, in 2004.
State Department officials said they are barred by privacy law from discussing Aulaqi's detention because he is a U.S. citizen. A senior official of Yemen's embassy in Washington said Aulaqi was arrested over family and tribal matters -- "kidnapping, stuff like that" rather than terrorism. "Nothing has led them to believe he's part of al-Qaeda," he said.
Before his arrest, Aulaqi lectured at an Islamist university in Sanaa run by Sheik Abd-al-Majid al-Zindani, who fought with Osama bin Laden in the Soviet-Afghan war and was designated a terrorist in 2004 by the United States and the United Nations. U.S. and U.N. authorities accuse Zindani of recruiting for al-Qaeda camps and raising money for weapons for terrorist groups. Students at his university, the United States said, are suspected in terrorist attacks and assassinations; among its attendees before he joined the Taliban was American John Walker Lindh.
#3
Icerigger,
It's open all right. It's quite large -- on a major artery running through the Virginia sub-burbs of Washington DC. There's so many muslims crossing this major street at some hours that police are needed to stop/direct traffic. Falls Church is bad -- maybe Bush will just recognize its independence?
Posted by: Captain Lewis ||
02/28/2008 15:40 Comments ||
Top||
#4
He's wearin the al-Qaeda smirk. Would like to wipe it off his rat-like face.
Posted by: regular joe ||
02/28/2008 16:58 Comments ||
Top||
#1
A missile struck a house in a Pakistani region known as being a safe haven for al Qaeda early on Thursday, killing 10 suspected militants including foreigners, intelligence officials and residents said.
The attack took place near Kaloosha village in the South Waziristan tribal region on the Afghan border.
"The blast shook the entire area," said resident Behlool Khan.
A security official said he believed the missile was fired by U.S. forces who are operating in neighboring Afghanistan, and the house that was hit belonged to a Pashtun tribesman, Sher Mohammad Malikkheil, also known as Sheroo, who was known to have links with militants.
"Ten people, most of them believed to be of Arab origin, were killed and seven wounded," said an intelligence official, who declined to be identified.
He said it was not known if any top militant leaders were among the dead.
Military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas said he was not aware of any such attack.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/28/2008 7:36 Comments ||
Top||
#2
seven wounded
Sounds like a need for a follow up shot.
Posted by: ed ||
02/28/2008 8:06 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Anyone heard from Adam lately? I didn't think so.
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.
AFGHANISTAN - Two Polish soldiers died and one was wounded on Tuesday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb near their base in southeastern Afghanistan, the defence ministry said in a statement on its Web site.
AUSTRALIAN troops have been forced to use some of their heaviest firepower to fight Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan during a series of recent skirmishes, the Department of Defence says. The soldiers have been using 81mm mortars, which can hit targets kilometres away but which have not been widely used by Australia since the Vietnam war. No Australian soldiers were killed or injured in the fighting and it was not clear if any Taliban had been hit.
Swedish security service Säpo has arrested three men in Stockholm suspected of preparing terrorist acts and financing terrorism. All three men are Swedish citizens of Somali origin.
The Pentagon on Tuesday approved war crimes charges against a Yemeni Guantanamo prisoner it says was a media director for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The charges against 
Al Qaedas second-in-command Ayman Al-Zawahiri confirmed on Wednesday that Abu Laith Al-Libi was killed last month in a missile attack in North Waziristan. Vowing revenge for Al-Libis killing, Zawahiri, in a video posted on the Internet, said, 
Jhang Police said on Wednesday they arrested three terror suspects carrying two suicide jackets and chemicals in Shorkot on Tuesday night. The arrested were produced in an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Wednesday and placed on physical remand for six days in police custody, APP reported.
Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan on Wednesday said a tribal militant commander and mastermind of two suicide attacks on former interior minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao and killer of a serving Intelligence Bureau (IB) official was killed in an encounter with security agencies on Tuesday.
MINGORA: Militants beheaded a watchman at the offices of a cellular company in the Kalakot area of Matta, Swat, and hurled hand grenades at the house of a female dancer, in separate incidents on Wednesday.
An explosion at a hall in a south Lebanon village late Wednesday injured four people, security officials and residents said. The explosion ripped through a hall attached to a Shiite Muslim mosque in the village of Shehabiyeh, causing the casualties. One person was taken to an area hospital with severe injuries, they said. 
Even before the 2001 terrorist attacks, American-born imam 
