On this day in history: April 22nd
1836 A day after the Battle of San Jacinto forces under Texas General Sam Houston capture Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna.
1864 The U.S. Congress passes the Coinage Act which mandates that the inscription "In God We Trust" be placed on all coins minted as United States currency. (Seperation of Church and money)
1889 At high noon, thousands rush to claim land in the Land Run of 1889. Within hours the cities of Oklahoma City and Guthrie are formed with populations of at least 10,000.
1912 Pravda, the "voice" of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, begins publication in Saint Petersburg.
1944 Allied forces land in the Hollandia (currently known as Jayapura) area of New Guinea.
1945 - Fuehrerbunker: After learning that Soviet forces have taken Eberswalde without a fight, Adolf Hitler admits defeat in his underground bunker and states that suicide is his only recourse.
Fuehrerbunker: After learning that Soviet forces have taken Eberswalde without a fight, Adolf Hitler admits defeat in his underground bunker and states that suicide is his only recourse. (Global Warming Begins after Nuclear Winter disproved)
1972 Increased American bombing in Vietnam prompts antiwar protests in New York City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
1993 The web browser Mosaic version 1.0 is released.
2000 In a pre-dawn raid, federal agents seize six-year-old Elián González from his relatives' home in Miami, Florida.
Sercond, GBUSMC, Are all of those pics of Bettie, or are some from the movie about her. The first three pics look like they are from the movie "The Notorious Bettie Page."
Posted by: Scott R ||
04/22/2009 0:40 Comments ||
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Made it ma! Top of the world!!
A disabled man packed explosives into his artificial leg and detonated inside the compound of an Afghan provincial governor today but managed only to kill himself. Ah. Ye Olde Hollow Fake Leg Full of Explosives Trick...
The bomber hobbled into the heavily guarded compound of the governor in the western city of Herat and exploded his bombs after police fired at him, deputy provincial police chief, Delawar Shah Delawar, said. Foot don't fail me now...
"Today a suicide attacker, a disabled man who placed his bombs in his artificial leg, was able to enter the governor's compound. He exploded himself after our police fired at him," he said. "The only casualty was the bomber." No virgins for you!
Chief Delawar said intelligence reports tipped off authorities about a possible suicide attack on the compound, which houses the provincial governor and other government entities. Okay. Here comes Hoppy. Lock and load...
The blast took place about 500m from the governor's office. No handicapped spots closer I guess...
The explosion shattered windows and scattered body parts of the attacker, including shards of his artificial leg, an AFP reporter said. Damn, sarge. I'll never get this out of my uniform!
There was no immediate claim for the attack. Probably too embarrassed...
#6
Yep. I knowed some grannies that was meaner'n rattlers. Crazy as hell too.
Seriously, though, you're right. The usual suspects would do this in a New York minute if the opportunity was provided through excessive deference toward the elderly and infirm.
#10
do they have bomb dogs sniff out cast in the airports? I saw where one man made one from ccaine and was caught i would figure the same could be done with explosives
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Gen. David Petraeus warned Tuesday of tough months ahead as the U.S. steps up its presence in Afghanistan to help stabilize the country.
Petraeus, who heads U.S. Central Command, said the U.S. faces a reinvigorated Taliban insurgency and a rise in the trafficking of illegal narcotics, which he said helps fuel the insurgency.
The top goal, he said, is helping prevent Afghanistan from sliding to its pre-9/11 days that allowed the country to become a safe haven for al-Qaida leaders plotting attacks.
Getting there wont be easy, he said. We are going to make progress but its going to get worse before it gets better, Petraeus said. When you go into an enemys territory ... they are going to fight you for it.
President Barack Obama has ordered an additional 21,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan this summer to bolster the 38,000 already in the country.
Petraeus is credited for crafting the surge strategy that helped turn the tide and reduce violence in Iraq, a turnaround that he said hinged on a series of big ideas, the most important of which was a strategic shift that had U.S. troops spending more time living and working closely with Iraqi citizens.
Under the new strategy, the goal was not simply to clear an area of insurgents, but to try to bring some stability in the aftermath of any raid. You cant commute to the fight, he said. You cant clear and leave. You have to clear and hold, and then build.
Another important lesson was sorting out insurgents who could be convinced to join the countys political process from those hardcore irreconcilables who were dedicated to their cause and couldnt be flipped. Failing to learn that lesson early on, and failing to invest more directly in the rebuilding of the country, helped allow the violence in the country to escalate dangerously before the surge, he said.
Petraeus made his comments during a forum held at Harvard Universitys Kennedy School of Government. AKA Camelot High School. Where hacks go when they can't find another government job. I'll bet Petraeus repulsed most of them...
#1
Most of the article discusses the process that Petraeus used in Iraq but was unclear (to me anyway) whether he is using different plans for Afghanistan or tweaking the old ones. Past tense is used a lot here.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Gunmen believed to be Taliban guerrillas have kidnapped the father of Afghanistan Education Minister Farooq Wardak, officials said Tuesday. Khoja Mir was snatched at gunpoint in Sayed Abad district in central Wardak province on Monday, Moheebullah, criminal investigation police chief of the district told AFP.
" We don't know who has kidnapped him but we think they might be from the Taliban groups "
Moheebullah, criminal investigation police chief
There was no claim of responsibility for the abduction.
"We don't know who has kidnapped him but we think they might be from the Taliban groups," Moheebullah, who goes by one name, said. Gunmen on motorbikes seized the elderly man near his home village in Sayed Abad, he said.
The 80-year-old was visiting relatives in the area when he was abducted, Moheebullah said. Security forces were deployed in the area to hunt the kidnappers, he added.
Wardak was not available for comment but an official in his ministry who spoke under condition of anonymity said the minister's family was in contact with the kidnappers to secure Mir's release.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/22/2009 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] The MSF says that the two aid workers kidnapped in Somalia's Bakool region are in good health, despite contradictory media reports.
The Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) website said Tuesday that the aid body had obtained 'reliable' reports from its own sources confirming the health of the aid workers who had been abducted Sunday.
Earlier reports quoted an unnamed UN official in the Somali capital as saying that one of the two kidnapped Belgian doctors had been beaten by his captors for refusing to eat since his kidnapping.
Somali gunmen who are holding the two Belgians have asked for a $1 million in ransom.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/22/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Bangladesh tightened security on Tuesday after an outlawed Islamist group threatened to kill local staff of United Nations agencies at a district town, officials and police said on Tuesday.
Identical letters, written in English and signed by the outlawed Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) command in Barisal coastal district, were sent on Monday to the local offices of UNICEF, the World Food Program and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
The letters ordered the agencies' local operations to be closed and their staff withdrawn within 24 hours, one officer with a U.N office told Reuters. "Otherwise, the JMB threatened to kill our local staff," the officer said.
" We have instructed our officials to remain alert and to cooperate with police in averting the threat "
Sharifa Sharmin, UNICEF spokesperson
A police officer quoted a senior UNICEF official, Towfique Ahmed, as saying they had received JMB's threatening letters.
Police swept all the three offices with metal detectors on Tuesday.
"We have instructed our officials to remain alert and to cooperate with police in averting the threat," Sharifa Sharmin, UNICEF spokesperson in Dhaka, told Reuters.
JMB, blamed for a series of deadly bombings in late 2005, wants to turn mostly Muslim, democratic Bangladesh into a sharia-based Islamic state.
The militants have been on the back foot since the top six JMB commanders were tried and executed in 2007, but intelligence officials have said they are regrouping and may strike again.
Security forces have seized explosives and detained nearly 100 suspected militants over the last month, including a top official of a British-based Islamic non-governmental organization for allegedly funding Islamist militancy in Bangladesh.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/22/2009 00:00 ||
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[RIA/Novosti] A member of an illegal armed gang that targeted law enforcement officers in Ingushetia has been shot dead in the North Caucasus republic's Nazran District, security services said Tuesday. "Law enforcers had information that militants involved in attacks... traveled in a black Lada Priora car without a license plate," a local Federal Security Service spokesman said.
He said that after the car was spotted officers ordered the driver to stop, but he opened fire and was killed in the ensuing shootout. "[BANG! BANG! BANGETY BANG! ZING! ZAP! KABOOM!] Stop or we'll shoot!"
Ingushetia neighbors Chechnya, where a decade-long counter-terrorism operation officially ended last week. Although the active phase of the campaign ended in 2001, periodic bombings and clashes between militants and federal troops still disrupt Chechnya and nearby regions, particularly Ingushetia and Daghestan.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/22/2009 00:00 ||
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Two Muslim converts and two Turks go on trial in a bomb-proof courtroom in Düsseldorf today accused of plotting to blow up German civilians and US soldiers.
The world will burn! boasted an intercepted e-mail sent between the accused, who are alleged to have wanted to wage an Islamic holy war in the heart of Europe.
Three of the men Fritz Gelowicz, 29, Daniel Schneider, 23 and the Turkish national Adem Yilmaz, 30 are accused of attending a training camp on the Afghan-Pakistani frontier run by an Uzbek-based terror organisation known as the Islamic Jihad Union.
Intelligence services say that it has links with al-Qaeda. Using detonators supplied, the state prosecutor claims, by Attila Selek, 24, a German citizen of Turkish origin the gang prepared bombs with the explosive force of 410kg (904lb) of TNT, to be set off in and around the US Ramstein air base and other targets. The bombers in London on July 7, 2005, had 4kg of explosive.
It is alleged that the gang wanted the attacks to influence a parliamentary debate extending the mandate of the German Army in Afghanistan in the autumn of 2007.
The men were caught in an elaborate police sting operation in September that year. At the high point of the undercover surveillance, about 600 policemen were involved, fed with information from the German intelligence service and the CIA.
When the alleged plotters rented a remote holiday home and allegedly started to gather material for the bombing campaign the police encircled the region, disguising themselves as villagers, foresters and petrol station attendants.
As soon as the men left the cottage the police would change the vats of hydrogen peroxide for a diluted solution. They were following the example of Scotland Yard detectives, who while secretly monitoring terrorists planning a bomb attack on London five years ago switched a hoard of fertiliser for harmless cat litter.
The cottage was bugged by the undercover squads and transcripts of the conversations will form part of the prosecutor's indictment today.
Ramstein sounds fine, says Mr Gelowicz, according to the indictment in one of the eavesdropped cottage conversations. We should have something on top of that, a pub or a disco. If each [of the devices] kills 50, injures a few, then that should be 150 dead. At the time of the arrests Germans hunt 49 in Fritz the Taliban terror plot. Looks like the Germans were not successful.
Posted by: ed ||
04/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
WAFF > in the UK they were released and are about to face deportation.
ION BRITANNIA. FOX NEWS AM > IIHC BRITAIN SEEMINGLY HAS JUST FORMALLY RAISED THE INCOME TAX BRACKET TO 45% OF THOSE EARNING US$200,000-PLUS A YARN??? Or twas it 60%???
[Al Arabiya Latest] Turkish anti-terror police rounded up 37 people with suspected links to the al-Qaeda network in operations across southern Turkey Tuesday, Anatolia news agency reported.
In simultaneous raids early in the morning, the security forces targeted suspected al-Qaeda cell houses, detaining 17 people in five provinces, the agency said. Police also seized guns and computers from suspected al-Qaeda cell houses.
Public television TRT aired a video tape seized in the operation, said to be shot in Afghanistan, in which militants demonstrate the making of a bomb.
One of those detained was believed to have links with a suspected al-Qaeda cell in the southern province of Gaziantep, which engaged police in a deadly firefight last year. Six of those detained in Gaziantep province had received training in Afghanistan, Anatolian said.
A Turkish cell of al-Qaeda was held responsible for truck bombs against two synagogues, the British consulate and a British bank in Istanbul in 2003, which killed 63 people, including the British consul, and left hundreds injured. Seven men were jailed for life in 2007 over the bombings, among them a Syrian national who masterminded and financed the attacks.
In January, a suspected al-Qaeda militant was killed and three others captured in a shootout with the police in Istanbul after the group attempted to rob a post office.
A Turkish newspaper reported in March that Ankara had received U.S. intelligence that al-Qaeda militants could be plotting attacks on foreign targets in Turkey.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/22/2009 00:00 ||
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Seems the White House, also read that email circulating about the SEALS reporting on the pirate situation. This is a long article, well worth the read. And, what's the story on National Security Adviser James. L. Jones, former Marine General?
President Obama dispatched two separate teams of Navy commandos to carry out last week's rescue of a merchant ship captain held hostage by Somali pirates but left the operational details and rules of engagement to military commanders, National Security Adviser James. L. Jones said Tuesday.
"I can tell you from a White House and presidential standpoint, there was no conflict, no gnashing of teeth, or excessive influence in trying to manage this thing," Mr. Jones, a retired Marine Corps four-star general, told The Washington Times in an interview.
He and other military officials gave the most detailed account to date of how Navy SEAL forces were dispatched - first from a base in Africa and later from the United States - to carry out the mission, and how Pentagon officials communicated with the White House. They sought to dispel Internet reports that the military was delayed from taking action by indecision inside the White House.
"I don't recognize" the information being circulated on the Internet, Mr. Jones said.
Pentagon officials said the owners of the merchant ship Maersk Alabama controlled the scene in the early hours after the hostage-taking on April 8. As soon as the Pentagon took charge on April 10 with its warship the USS Bainbridge on the scene, Mr. Obama first authorized a few Navy SEALs from a base in Africa to deploy to the Bainbridge and take necessary action. The team was flown by transport aircraft and parachuted to waters near the warship, officials said.
"It took awhile to get facts and then to get the military on scene," said one senior military official, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of discussing special forces operations. "As the picture got more clear and commanders' requests went back down the chain, the guidance was: 'We would like a peaceful resolution. However, if Captain Phillips' life is in danger you can take appropriate action.' "
The arrival of the first SEAL team gave the military an emergency capability if the pirates holding the ship's captain became violent. Mr. Jones said the Pentagon requested that a second, more complete SEAL team be dispatched from the United States and Mr. Obama approved that request as well.
"This was, from my perspective, a textbook operation," Mr. Jones said in the interview. "There were two things [the president] was asked to approve and he did. And the military executed flawlessly."
Among the reports disputed by Pentagon officials was a widely circulated Internet critique - purportedly from an anonymous source close to the SEAL community - saying Navy SEALs missed a chance to shoot the pirates on April 10 when Richard Phillips, the captain of the hijacked freighter, jumped out of a lifeboat where he was being held in a failed escape attempt. For more info, click on the above link
#1
Of course Bammo sent in the SEALs. That's SOP and if he failed to send them at all -- well, that kind of news tends to get out and make you look bad.
Still no word on how or when Bammo will be paying reparations to the families of the slain pirates.
At least five people were killed in a roadside bombing carried out by Muslim separatist militants in India-administered Kashmir, police said Wednesday. Eight were wounded in the blast that targeted a small bus Tuesday night in Bafliz village, about 45 kilometres east of the state's winter capital, Jammu, senior police official HD Jamwal said.
The victims included members of a village defence committee, an armed militia established by the state government to work in coordination with the security forces against militants. The death toll could rise because five of the wounded were in serious condition.
"Eyewitnesses said the explosion ripped apart the vehicle and the bodies were blown into pieces," Jamwal said. "A powerful improvised explosive device was used for the well-planned attack."
Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, a major militant outfit operating in the region, claimed responsibility for the bombing. The group has warned people against voting in the staggered general elections that began last week and continue through May 13 and threatened to conduct suicide attacks to disrupt polling. Local media reports said up to 150 heavily armed militants had infiltrated the state from Pakistan-administered Kashmir in recent days to carry out strikes.
After a peace deal with the NWFP government, the Swat Taliban are expanding their operations into nearby regions. Dozens have been streaming into the Buner district to take over mosques and government offices, BBC reported.
On Tuesday, local sources told Daily Times the Taliban were patrolling bazaars in some tehsils of the Buner district. They said armed Taliban were guarding the entry and exit points of Gadezai, Salarzai and Ghashezi tehsils and other areas of the district.
The Taliban have also set up 'checkposts' in Kanga Gul village on Malakand's border, at Naway Dhand village on the border of Mardan and Tutalai village on the border of Swabi district, they added. Policemen have stopped attending their duties in the district.
Also on Tuesday, Taliban kidnapped four men including servants of ANP leader Afzal Khan Lala from Drashkhela area of Matta tehsil of Swat.
Armed Taliban are patrolling Kabal, Matta, Charbagh, Khawzakhela, Shamozo, GT Road and Qambar and have set up checkposts in many areas. They have also set up courts in Imamdheri Markaz in Swat which are deciding cases. They also presented four soldiers kidnapped from Khawazakhela tehsil of Swat. They were identified as Lieutenant Najam, Lieutenant Junaid, Naik Shahid Rehman and Lance Naik Shakeel.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
From Dawn.com
The militants, who had sneaked into Gokand valley of Buner on April 4, were reported to have been on a looting spree for the past five days.
They have robbed government and NGO offices of vehicles, computers, printers, generators, edible oil containers, and food and nutrition packets.
Sources said that leading political figures, businessmen, NGO officials and Khawaneen, who had played a role in setting up a Lashkar to stop the Taliban from entering Buner, had been forced to move to other areas.
The Taliban have extended their control to almost all tehsils of the district and law-enforcement personnel remained confined to police stations and camps.
Some peace! 100 miles from Islamabad. I got this gut feeling that shit is about to hit the fan.
#3
#2: I get the feeling the military ISI are behind this and another Coup is on its way!!!
Posted by: Paul2
There, fixed it for you, Paul2. I also agree that the current government's days are numbered - and running very short.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/22/2009 15:04 Comments ||
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#4
I smelled rats the size of elephants with this one, too. The Pak military has had the silence of the lambs for weeks now, and I suspect they have just moved into their barracks and are sitting on their thumbs.
All the city folk and lawyers who were beating the drum against Musharraf and the military are now going to get to enjoy life under Sharia and the rule of whim, until they get their royal fill of it, with a bunch of "country bumpkins" riding herd over them, beating and killing and raping at will. And stealing everything that isn't nailed down.
And, of course, Obambi and company don't have a clue as to what is going on, or what to do. Which is a great opportunity for massive clusterfark.
#5
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUMS > HILLARY: PAKISTAN GIVING UP TO MILITANTS. POSES A "MORTAL THREAT" TO THE ENTIRE WORLD. {fall of BUNER, PK to Talibs widouta fight directly threatens Islamabad]; + PAKISTAN ACCUSES INDIA OF MEDDLING IN AFGHANISTAN AND BALUCHISTAN [India uses AFGHANIS in covert conspiracy to attack, destabilize PAKIS]???
OTOH > NATION.PK = INDIA, RUSSIA BEHIND UNREST IN PAKISTAN???
Also on PDF > TALIBAN BEHEADING VIDEO [NSFW- very graphic/bloody]
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) warned Shangla district lawyers on Tuesday of serious consequences if they continued to appear in un-Islamic courts (civil and district courts) from today (Wednesday).
"Lawyers are warned through this notice not to appear before civil and district courts," a member of Shangla District Bar Association (SDBA) quoted the letter as saying. The lawyers have suspended a bar election scheduled for April 30 due to the letter, he said on condition of anonymity. He said the lawyers' association had informed the district police officer and the Shangla district and sessions judge of the warning.
On Tuesday, the Taliban allegedly kidnapped the Puran tehsil naib nazim and four others from Jambal area. Around 70 armed Taliban have also occupied the basic health unit in the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#3
This is a hoot. These same lawyers were bitterly opposed to Musharraf for breaking up their rackets, so now they get a great big steaming cup of STFU, or get their heads lopped off.
[The Hindu National] The prosecution on Monday submitted a draft of 312 charges it proposes to frame against Mohammad Ajmal Amir 'Kasab' and two Indians, Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed, in the Mumbai attacks case.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/22/2009 00:00 ||
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[The Hindu National] Ahead of the second phase of elections to the Lok Sabha, a Lashkar-e-Taiba commander, his female accomplice and three security personnel were among nine persons killed in separate militancy-related incidents in Jammu and Kashmir since Monday.
Police sources said that that on specific information Doda police and 10 Rashtriya Rifles men laid siege around Kastigarh area in Doda district. During the combing operation, the soldiers zeroed in on a house and asked the militants holed up there to surrender. They, however, refused and opened fire with sophisticated weapons. In the ensuing gunfight, the Lashkar commander, the woman, a soldier and a Special Police Officer (SPO) of the JK police were killed.
The slain militant commander was identified as Mukhtiar Ahmed, son of Abdul Hamid Lambardar of Kashtigarh Doda while his accomplice was identified as Dilshad, daughter of Ghulam Rasool Parray of Kurdar Manwas, Doda. A female militant accomplice had been killed in the area a day before.
In a separate gunfight at Mandyari, Pattan in North Kashmir Baramulla district, a Hizbul Mujahideen militant and a paramilitary CRPF jawan Amit Kumar were killed.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/22/2009 00:00 ||
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[The News (Pak) Top Stories] The Islamabad Police late on Monday announced the arrest of two hard-core terrorists from the federal capital who were acting as planners and facilitators for carrying out acts of terror in the city. They'll be released soon for lack of evidence, as soon as the witnesses are all dead...
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Islamabad Tahir Alam Khan said Khairullah Mehsud, a resident of South Waziristan, who was living in Sector G-9/2 was arrested by the law enforcing agencies from F-9 Park. According to the official sources the intelligence agencies have traced Khairullah Mahsud's links with terrorist groups in South Waziristan, which he developed after the Lal Masjid incident. "He was in contact with Gul Bahadur in South Waziristan and Misal Khan in Akora Khattak. During the course of investigations Khairullah made certain revelations, which eventually led to the arrest of another terrorist identified as Khurram Shahzad son of Lal Afzal who had undergone terrorism training at the camp of a banned terrorist organization," the SSP said. He said Khurram Shahzad had visited the tribal areas as well as Hangu, Bara and Peshawar quite frequently and during those visits he had taken 'recruits' from Islamabad for training in camps established by the terrorist groups there.
The SSP said Khurram Shahzad and other 'recruits' who accompanied him on those visits, got training to handle explosive materials, especially making lethal 'oil canister' bombs. "These people were also engaged in reconnaissance of the target areas where they later carried out acts of terror, inflicting loss of life and property. Their links to the suicide attack at the entrance of Special Branch offices in Sector G-7 as well as with the bloody attack at the FC barracks in the 'Green Belt' between Sectors F-7/3 and E-7 have been established," SSP Tahir Alam Khan said.
He also said that Khurram Shahzad facilitated a suicide bomber, Ahmad Jawad to reach the capital from South Waziristan. "He himself brought an explosive-laden jacket from Mulla Sabir whom he met in Hangu a few days back. He then handed over it to another person at the Pirwadhai General Bus Stand," the SSP said.
He said that the culprits have confessed having planned to kidnap important personalities from Islamabad and carry them to the tribal areas. "This particular group had been enjoying strong backing from the terrorists based in Hangu, Bara, Peshawar, South Waziristan and different areas of Swat," SSP Tahir Alam claimed.
This article starring:
Ahmad Jawad
TTP
Gul Bahadur
TTP
Khairullah Mehsud
TTP
Khurram Shahzad
TTP
Misal Khan
TTP
Mulla Sabir
TTP
Posted by: Fred ||
04/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
nah they will be released when the new AID package from the US is signed over too em
Following yesterday's daring operation where elite SLA units plunged into the NFZ, the government is now in charge of over 130,000 Tamil civilians held hostage by the LTTE.
The details of yesterday's operation are coming to light. We will share some of these details with our readers. One magnificent attack was launched by a 12-man team of the Special Forces immediately after the Puthumathalang LTTE bund was breached. bund = earthen rampart
Their objective was to destroy a mortar and artillery launching pad positioned adjacent to a densely populated civilian settlement. This gun position had been a headache to the Army for quite sometime as its WLR systems could not engage the target for concerns of civilian safety.
The LTTE gun operators had detailed coordinates to the earth bund as was obvious in the first 1/2 hour of the operation. Military planners knew that the guns could destroy elite units attacking the earth bund in minutes. So the Special Forces were sent in. "Hokay, send in the Special Forces"
The 12-man team from 1 SF infiltrated the NFZ immediately after the first attack on the bund. Carrying GPS equipment and trained to locate the position based on satellite and UAV images, the unit had no problem locating the guns. "Look, there! Guns!"
The Tigers manning the position, totally unaware of their fate, had fired only 5 rounds when the SF stormed in. No one and no-thing was spared. The threat to the units attacking and securing the earth bund was completely neutralized. "I love it when a plan comes together."
#2
The Sri Lankan Army has reduced the area held by the LTTE to about half its former size. I'd say the LTTE is getting their a$$es kicked, hard. The Sri Lanka battle map appears to have been updated Monday, and shows the Army, with five divisions and four task forces, pushing the Tamils into a tighter and tighter cordon. The current troop strength for the Sri Lankan Army is one division and three task forces smaller than it was last week. A decrease in troop strength that significant suggests they really do have the Tamils on the ropes. Another three weeks and the "longest civil war in South Asian history" will be over, one way or another.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/22/2009 15:30 Comments ||
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OP - I suspect the army would begin overrunning itself if some units didn't redeploy.
Does the SLA have a Marine force? Seems like a landing may be in the works if only to avoid the chokepoints on the peninsula they're besieging.
[Jerusalem Post Middle East] Sheikh Hamed Bitawi, one of the prominent leaders of Hamas in the West Bank, was lightly wounded on Sunday when a Palestinian Authority security officer opened fire at him in Nablus.
Hamas strongly condemned the attack as a failed assassination attempt, while the PA said that it was an "isolated" incident and that the assailant had been arrested. The attack took place only a day after the PA accused Hamas militiamen in the Gaza Strip of shooting three Fatah members in the legs.
The shooter was identified as Nu'man Amer, an officer with the PA's much-feared Preventative Security Service.
Bitawi, who represents Hamas's Change and Reform List in the Palestinian Legislative Council, was hit in the legs by shrapnel, eyewitnesses said. He was taken to Rafidyah Hospital, where doctors said he had been lightly wounded.
Bitawi said the attack occurred as he and his son, Nasr, walked out of the Anbiya Mosque in the eastern sector of the city. "The man who shot me cursed me and Allah before opening fire from his pistol," he said in a phone interview from his hospital bed. "When my son asked him why he was shouting and cursing, the man, who is known as a security officer working for the Palestinian Authority, started cursing him too."
According to Bitawi, 65, the assailant also threatened to shoot him if he ever saw him in the same area again.
"Then my son told him, 'Why don't you go ahead and shoot?,'" he recalled. "His response was to draw his pistol and open fire toward my feet legs."
Bitawi added that this was the second time in less than a year that he had been targeted by PA security personnel. In the previous incident, he said, PA policemen fired about 15 bullets at him and other worshipers in the same mosque. No one was hurt in that attack. Bitawi said that he filed a complaint with the PA back then, but no one was punished.
"This is the security anarchy in the West Bank," he said. "What are [PA President Mahmoud] Abbas's security forces doing? They are responsible for the chaos."
Hamas spokesmen said the attack was a "dangerous development" that would have a negative impact on efforts to end the Hamas-Fatah rift.
Hamas also pledged Dire Revenge to retaliate against those responsible, but did not say what kind of action it was contemplating.
"This is a very dangerous incident that would have grave repercussions on the dialogue [between Hamas and Fatah]," said Hamas legislator Fathi Hammad. "We are planning a series of protests because Sheikh Bitawi is also the chairman of the Palestinian Religious Scholars Council."
Another Hamas legislator, Mushir al-Masri, held Abbas personally responsible for the "assassination attempt." He said that Abbas's security forces have been "running wild" in the West Bank, torching the offices of Hamas legislators, beating them and arresting them for no reason.
Col. Adnan Damiri, spokesman for the PA security forces in the West Bank, said the attack was "personally motivated" and had no political background. He said that the assailant acted "on his own" and not on behalf of the security force where he serves. He said the officer would be formally charged with assault.
The spokesman claimed that, contrary to Bitawi's claim, the officer opened fire into the air and not toward his legs.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
PA cop shoots Hamas lawmaker in Nablus
...and if you've ever banged your nablus on the dresser in the middle of the night, you know just how painful that can be.
#2
one of the prominent leaders of Hamas in the West Bank, was lightly wounded on Sunday when a Palestinian Authority security officer opened fire at him in Nablus.
#5
Just a friendly warning, that's all. Nothing to get excited about. Nobody killed, nobody seriously hurt, just a "message" being sent. I'm sure there will be a "next time", and Shaikh Hamed Bitawi won't be so lucky then.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/22/2009 15:17 Comments ||
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[Straits Times] AN INDONESIAN court jailed four Al-Qaeda inspired Islamic extemists convicted of terrorism on Tuesday. Abdul Rahman Taib and Ki Agus Mohammad Tony received 12 years each for preparing bombs to attack a cafe frequented by Western backpackers in Sumatra and for killing Christian teacher Dago Simamora in 2007.
They were also convicted of conspiring to attack other Christians and foreigners in the name of jihad or 'holy war' against the West.
'Ki Agus Mohammad Tony was the one who shot dead Dago Simamora when he was on a motorcyle with his little children,' chief judge Syamsuddin told South Jakarta district court.
'Both defendants were involved in acquiring and assembling five tupperware bombs and 15 PVC bombs to launch an attack on a cafe in Bukittinggi,' he said, referring to the foiled attack in West Sumatra.
The plot to bomb the cafe on Sumatra island in 2006 was aborted due to fears it would cause Muslim casualties, according to the militants.
In a separate trial, Islamic extremists Anis Sugandi and Sukarso were convicted and jailed for five and four years respectively for hiding information about a fugitive terror suspect.
The four men were arrested last year in Palembang, South Sumatra, with six other militants including Singaporean national Mohammad Hasan bin Saynudin, who is on trial separately.
The Singaporean has publicly confessed to forming and leading a terrorist cell with the intention of killing non-Muslims. He claims he was inspired to jihad after meeting Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in 2000.
The court is expected to announce a verdict in his case next week. Three other members of the cell, linked to the regional Jemaah Islamiyah terror movement, were sentenced to 12 years in prison by the same court last week.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/22/2009 00:00 ||
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[Mail and Globe] The Sri Lankan army on Tuesday seized more territory from the Tamil Tigers as the rebels ignored a government deadline to surrender, the Defence Ministry said.
The attack saw government forces effectively slice the last small strip of jungle held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in two, and came as tens of thousands of civilians fled the fighting. "The LTTE has not responded to the government's call to surrender, so we are keeping up our offensive to rescue the civilians," military spokesperson Udaya Nanayakkara said as the 06:30GMT Tuesday deadline passed.
The government says its troops are now poised to totally defeat the LTTE, a hardened guerrilla group that has been fighting for an independent Tamil homeland on the ethnic Sinhalese-majority island since the 1970s. The defence ministry said more than 39 000 men, women and children managed to escape after troops punctured rebel defences at Puttumatalan, inside the rebel-held area, on Monday. It also said 17 civilians who tried to escape from rebel-held territory on Monday had been killed by the guerrillas while another 373 had been wounded.
The pro-rebel Tamilnet website, however, reported the area was littered with hundreds of bodies of civilians it said were killed in government shelling. Journalists are barred from working in the north, making it impossible to verify the rival claims independently.
Government estimates show another 30 000 civilians could be still held by the Tigers, but the United Nations says the number could be twice as much and warned Tuesday that an all-out assault risked producing a bloodbath.
The bureaucrats naturally ignore the principle of "pay me now, pay me later." The all-out assault risks a bloodbath, while letting up against the Tigers with victory in sight ensures the return of the meat grinder. Under the meat grinder scenario there are more jobs for relatives with NGOs, of course.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/22/2009 00:00 ||
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I know times are tight, and I always hate to bleg. I try and keep it down to every three or four months. We don't get the advertising we used to -- that goes to the big sites, and I don't make the big bucks I used to, to carry things myself. So thanks very much.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/22/2009 08:15 ||
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#1
Thank YOU! Sure beats NYT, LAT, WSJ, etc., etc. The news here is what they should be reporting. And they wonder why no one will support THEIR content.
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.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Bangladesh tightened security on Tuesday after an outlawed Islamist group threatened to kill local staff of United Nations agencies at a district town, officials and police said on Tuesday.
[RIA/Novosti] A member of an illegal armed gang that targeted law enforcement officers in Ingushetia has been shot dead in the North Caucasus republic's Nazran District, security services said Tuesday. "Law enforcers had information that militants involved in attacks... traveled in a black Lada Priora car without a license plate," a local Federal Security Service spokesman said.
[The News (Pak) Top Stories] The Islamabad Police late on Monday announced the arrest of two hard-core terrorists from the federal capital who were acting as planners and facilitators for carrying out acts of terror in the city.
[Jerusalem Post Middle East] Sheikh Hamed Bitawi, one of the prominent leaders of Hamas in the West Bank, was lightly wounded on Sunday when a Palestinian Authority security officer opened fire at him in Nablus.
