I rarely comment on these pictures, but this lady just takes my breath away. I have no idea why.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
08/14/2009 5:25 Comments ||
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#4
If the pictures take your breath away, be sure to have a respirator available if you go see her movies. After playing a hottie before the Hayes Code, she is perfect in the Thin Man series and then after WWII plays the perfect wife perfectly in films such as the Best Years of our Lives, Mr. Blandings builds his Dreamhouse, and a judge in The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer.
#5
...If you've never seen Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, by all means try and find it - the book is pretty funny as well. It was later remade as The Money Pit with Tom Hanks, and though that's a hysterical film for anyone who's ever tried to rehab a house, it doesn't have the class of the original.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/14/2009 9:10 Comments ||
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#6
"The Best Years of Our Lives" has to be one of the best films ever made. If you haven't seen it, run to the nearest video store and find it.
Very underrated and very spot on for all of the veterans out there coming home to civilian life. Especially the subplot of the sailor coming home a double amputee to a girl friend and a planned marriage.
Posted by: James Carville ||
08/14/2009 10:42 Comments ||
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#7
I've been in love with Nora Charles since the first time I saw The Thin Man, back in the Paleolithic.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/14/2009 14:47 Comments ||
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#8
"it doesn't have the class of the original"
When today's Hollyweird is involved, Mike, it never does. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/14/2009 14:50 Comments ||
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#9
Nick Charles: You see, when it comes to words like that, an illiterate person...
Polly Byrnes: Whaddaya mean "illiterate"? My father and mother were married right here in the city hall!
Nick Charles: [Leans toward Nora] Having a good time, Mrs. Charles?
Nora Charles: It couldn't be better.
-- "After the Thin Man"
#1
With these ROE's, every mission in Afghanistan is becoming like a hostage rescue, with a difference - the hostage-takers get to resupply or leave at the end of the day, often with the help of volunteer hostages. The surprise here isn't that GI's are taking more casualties, it's that casualties aren't higher than they currently are.
#2
StrategyPage had an interesting bit about the new rules of engagement. Lots more missiles are being fired, and lots more bad guys being killed, just mostly out in the open where they have nor targets, rather than surrounded in compounds with hostages and video cameras and satellite phones. The interesting thing thought I had about the loudly trumpeted ROEs is that nobody, either there or here, can blame our guys for the deaths of wimmins'n'chilluns'n'fluffy puppies, since everybody knows our guys are so disciplined they even rape and pillage because they were so ordered. In the meantime, the hellfires catch them in their uncounted numbers as they roam between villages they mean to terrorize. I'll see if I can find the link in a moment.
There were eight civilian deaths to air strikes (by U.S. and NATO aircraft) last month. In July 2008, there were 89 such deaths. Despite the drop, there were 40 percent more air strikes last month, compared to July 2008. But that was because there were more foreign and Afghan troops out there looking for the enemy (including drug gang operations.) The Taliban are making the most of the new ROE (Rules of Engagement), which basically forbid the use of smart bombs (and most other firepower) if there are civilians about. The Taliban now can use human shields more frequently to avoid a fight, or arrest. But the Taliban can still be hit if caught in the open, and they still are, although another aspect of the new ROE (no public announcements of how many enemy are killed) makes it difficult to track damage being done to the Taliban.
#4
I look at the ROE from the soldiers point of view. Boiled down, it says.
If you can get the bad guyz out in the open--exterminate them. Don't let them run away, and don't take prisoners.
If they make it to a town, or occupied compound, encircle them and wait them out. If they butcher the other occupants, sorry about that. Not our fault.
If you can get them to come to you, by all means do so.
[ADN Kronos] At least 14 people have been killed in three bomb attacks in southern Afghanistan, officials said. The troubled region has seen a surge in violence ahead of next Thursday's presidential and provincial council elections.
A suicide car bomber on Thursday rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into a police checkpoint near Zaranj, capital of the southwestern province of Nimroz, killing himself and injuring a police officer, Afghanistan's Pajhwok news agency reported.
It was the fourth suicide attack in Nimroz this year.
In the deadliest of three blasts, a roadside bomb struck a minivan in the Taliban heartland of Helmand province on Wednesday, killing 11 civilians, including women and children.
The sole survivor was a six-year-old girl, who was injured in the attack, according to government officials.
A provincial government spokesman blamed the Taliban for the attack, which took place in the Spin Jumaat area of Helmand's Greshk district.
Another roadside blast in neighbouring Kandahar province on Wednesday, killed three children aged six to 11 as they were playing in an area just outside Kandahar city, police said. The bomb went off in front of an orphanage, according to police.
Meanwhile, a US soldier was killed on Wednesday when the vehicle he was travelling in was hit by a roadside bomb, NATO said in a statement.
The Taliban did not immediately claim responsibility for any of the attacks.
Thousands of international troops are operating in several districts of Afghanistan in a bid to ensure security in next week's elections.
Civilians are bearing the brunt of Taliban-led insurgency, and the number killed rose by almost one-quarter from January to June, compared with the same period last year, according to the United Nations.
Nearly 60 percent of the deaths were caused by insurgent attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/14/2009 00:00 ||
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[Quqnoos] Six Afghans, including an army officer and a soldier, have been convicted of drug trading and sentenced to up to 16 years of imprisonment
The Afghan servicemen were arrested in Kabul's neighbouring southern province of Wardak, where they they facilitated a drug deal, according to a court statement.
"They were each convicted and sentenced to 5 years imprisonment by an Appeal Court of an Afghan Criminal Justice Task Force (CJTF)," the statement further noted.
A local farmer, a driver and two others were also found guilty by the court for smuggling heroin and opium into different parts of Afghanistan -- the largest drug producing country in the world.
The drug traffickers were sentenced to between 8 and 16 years imprisonment, according to the CJTF statement.
Experts have criticised the counter-narcotics efforts of the Afghan government and the international community over the past seven years, as Afghanistan still remains the top of the largest drug producing countries.
The Afghan court has sentenced at least 82 people for smuggling drugs and facilitating drug trade over the past four months.
That seems rather a lot, all of a sudden. Good luck, guys!
Posted by: Fred ||
08/14/2009 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Amid rising insurgency in Afghanistan, former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani has survived a Taliban attack in the troubled north of the war-ravaged country. Taliban insurgents attacked Rabbani's convoy with grenades and rocket-propelled Thursday in Kunduz Province. Sources said three fighters died in a clash with bodyguards and police during the exchange of fire. Local officials in the Ali Abad district said Rabbani and those in his convoy were unhurt.
A Taliban spokesman has reportedly claimed responsibility for the deadly attack.
Rabbani, now a member of parliament, is a key supporter of Abdullah Abdullah, the main challenger to incumbent President Hamid Karzai in the August 20 elections.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/14/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Officials in lawless northern Somalia traded accusations on Thursday a day after masked gunmen massacred seven Pakistani preachers at a mosque.
The sheikhs were killed in Galkayo, a town on the southern edge of the semi-autonomous northern Puntland region. Violence is increasing in the area, which had been relatively more peaceful than the rest of the failed Horn of Africa state.
Western security agencies say Somalia has become a haven for militant plotting attacks in the region and beyond.
" When the Pakistanis landed in Puntland their passports were taken by the authorities and they were settled in a mosque ... the Puntland president has imposed a night curfew in the north of Galkayo. His forces must have killed them "
Galmudug official Mohammed Warsame
The president of Puntland, Abdirahman Mohammed Farole, accused officials in Galmudug, which covers the southern part of the town, of ordering Wednesday's shooting. "The administration of southern Galkayo was behind the killing of the Pakistani preachers," Farole told reporters. "They are causing chaos in our region."
But a senior Galmudug official, Mohammed Warsame, denied it. "Puntland is definitely behind the killings," Warsame said. "When the Pakistanis landed in Puntland their passports were taken by the authorities and they were settled in a mosque ... the Puntland president has imposed a night curfew in the north of Galkayo. His forces must have killed them," he said.
"Tragic incident"
The group of about 25 sheikhs had arrived in Puntland on Tuesday. Local officials said they were mostly from Karachi.
Twenty-five? That's practically an invasion!
It remained far from clear why they were murdered. Some residents said they may have been suspected of al-Qaeda links, while others rejected that and said the clerics were from South Asia's apolitical Tablighi Jamaat religious movement. Ummm... They're al-Qaeda recruiters...
Apolitical in a jihadi sort of way, then? Not for any party, just the Caliphate, y'know.
The Pakistani government said Somali Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdullahi Omar expressed condolences over the "tragic incident" in a telephone call to Pakistani Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Malik Amad Khan. "He assured ... that the government of Somalia was doing its utmost to apprehend the culprits," the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said in a statement, referring to the Somali minister.
At least six people were killed in Mogadishu on Wednesday when two supposedly pro-government factions exchanged artillery and anti-aircraft fire across the city's strategic K4 junction.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/14/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
They are most likely radicals funded by the Saudis to spread their evil ideology!
#5
I think that one is gentle teasing, Paul2. I've noticed how restrained you've become on a subject that creates a great deal of passion, so I know Pappy has, too -- he's a much more noticing person than I.
[Maghrebia] Five members of the Al-Djabel Al Ahmar brigade of al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb surrendered to Algerian authorities Tuesday night in Batna, Tout sur l'Algerie reported on Wednesday (August 12th). The repentant terrorists, aged between 28 and 47, were transferred to the command of the 5th Military Region. Their identities have not been disclosed for security reasons. The surrender was attributed to former terrorist leader and GSPC founder Hassan Hattab's efforts to persuade terrorists to renounce armed struggle and benefit from national reconciliation.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/14/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
I've been away from the Burg awhile, missing the conversation, but the "mysterious" cargo onboard the disappearing Russian timber ship was bound for Algeria. Timber ships have open cargo holds, allowing for very long shipments, like missiles, that others won't accommodate.
[Maghrebia] The suicide bomber responsible for the August 8th attack near the French embassy in Nouakchott was a member of a new, independent al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb brigade known as "El Vourghane", Journal Tahalil quoted a security source as saying on Wednesday (August 12th). According to the same source, no information has emerged as to where suicide bomber Mohamed Ould Alioune, aka Abu Oubeid, obtained his explosive belt. Al-Qaeda has not claimed responsibility for the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/14/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
BHARAT RAKSHAK > KUWAIT FOILS AL QAEDA-LINKED BOMB PLOT. Ditto for JORDAN.
* PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > CIVIL WAR BREAKS OUT IN YEMEN [Saudi-backed Govt versus Iran-backed HOUTHI Rebels.
[Al Arabiya Latest] The Yemeni government set terms on Thursday for ending a deadly three-day-old offensive against Shiite rebels in the northern mountains, including word on the fate of six Europeans missing since June.
The conditions for a ceasefire in the mountainous Northern Province of Saada include a rebel withdrawal from all districts of Saada and the removal of all checkpoints hindering citizens' movement. The government also demanded information on the whereabouts of the five German and one British expatriates. They were seized along with three women--two Germans and a South Korean--who were later found dead and the government accuses the rebels of holding the six, something they deny.
Tanks and warplanes pounded rebel strongholds for a third day on Thursday while exchanges of fire on the outskirts of the provincial capital Saada left dozens of casualties, provincial officials said.
Shiite rebels in Yemen said on Wednesday heavy civilian casualties had resulted from two days of bombing by government forces which they accused of launching an all-out offensive on their strongholds.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/14/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
ION TOPIX > HILLARY: ISLAMISTS CAN GET A FOOTHOLD IN AFRICA THRU NIGERIA.
#2
#1: ION TOPIX > HILLARY: ISLAMISTS CAN GET A FOOTHOLD IN AFRICA THRU NIGERIA.
Posted by: JosephMendiola|
That's Hillary in a nutshell - She can't see that Islamists already hold sway in several areas of Africa, including Somalia, Nigeria, Algeria, Eritrea, and Sudan. They've been there for awhile, too.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/14/2009 14:26 Comments ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] An arms factory was unearthed with eight rifles and huge gun-making materials at Sukuriakata village in Maheshkhali upazila yesterday.
Acting on a tip-off, a team of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) launched the operation at about 4:00pm and discovered the illegal arms factory in the hilly area in close proximity of the Bay.
Raiding the arms-house, they seized eight rifles and huge materials used for making various types of arms and arrested three persons engaged in making guns at the factory.
"A hectic operation is being carried out in the hill area to track down those involved in gunrunning," says a report from the area.
Yet another demonstration that Bangladesh is not Pakistan-on-the-other-side. In Pakistan arms-making seems sometimes to be the occupation of a quarter of the country, cf. the Peshawar arms bazaars.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/14/2009 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Al Markajul Islami As-Salafi Madrasa at Nawdapara in the city was closed sine die by its authorities yesterday due to attempts of implanting extremism in students by Ahle Hadith Andolon Bangladesh (Ahab), a militant outfit led by Asadullah Al Galib.
Galib, arrested in 2005 on charges of militancy and now free on bail, has been sheltering outsiders, many of whom are students of Rajshahi University and Rajshahi College, in madrasa dormitories for last few months, said Principal of the madrasa Abdus Samad Salafi. These outsiders with assistance from some pro-Galib teachers used to assault students, sometimes the teachers who were not in Galib's favour, said Salafi, adding that they were also engaged in indoctrinating the students to defy madrasa rules and join Ahab. "Concerned about these men, we made the decision to close the madrasa indefinitely," said Salafi, former Nayeb-e-Amir who resigned from Ahab along with some 48 others in April for the outfit's anti-state activities.
Sources said just before the closure, the Ahab adherents prevented the students from attending a discussion on the life of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and a special prayer on the occasion of the national mourning day. Around noon, when the madrasa authorities were about to start the programme, Abdur Razzak Bin Yusuf, a madrasa teacher, kept the students from joining the function. The students said Razzak told them not to attend the function because Galib does not like Bangabandhu.
The madrasa premises is the property of Touhid Trust, an NGO from where Galib was ousted for financial anomalies, said Salafi, adding, Galib has been occupying a building on the campus that was meant for a medical centre.
This article starring:
Ahle Hadith Andolon Bangladesh
Touhid Trust
Asadullah Al Galib
Ahle Hadith Andolon Bangladesh
Posted by: Fred ||
08/14/2009 00:00 ||
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[Kyodo: Korea] North Korea on Thursday released a South Korean employee of the Hyundai Group who had been detained since March at a joint industrial park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong, South Korea's Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae Sung told reporters. The release of the Hyundai engineer identified by South Korean media as Yu Seong Jin came amid the visit to North Korea of Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jung Eun to seek his release. ''I am happy to be back,'' Yu told reporters at the South's border-crossing point shortly after 9 p.m. Yu also expressed gratitude for those who have helped him be freed. "And I ain't going back there!"
Meanwhile, presidential spokesman Lee Dong Kwan said, ''even if (the release) came belatedly, it is fortunate that Yu has returned to his family.''
Yu, an employee of Hyundai Asan Corp., the North Korea business arm of the Hyundai Group, was handed over to the South Korean side shortly after 5 p.m. North Korea had detained him on March 30 for allegedly having made critical remarks about the North and trying to induce a North Korean woman to defect to the South.
Speculation had been growing that North Korea would soon free the Hyundai worker in the wake of its pardoning of two detained American journalists during former U.S. President Bill Clinton's recent visit to Pyongyang. The news on the detainee's release came after Hyun extended her stay in the North by one day earlier Thursday amid speculation she was waiting for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
The joint industrial complex at Kaesong is a major symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation that combines the South's capital and technology and the North's cheap labor. More than 100 South Korean firms currently operate in the complex, making clothes, kitchenware, electronic equipment and other labor-intensive goods employing about 40,000 North Korean workers.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/14/2009 00:00 ||
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The terror suspects on trial for plotting attacks against American targets in Germany claim their actions were driven by hatred against a country they believe is waging war against Islam. The men say their targets were US soldiers -- and they wanted to kill many of them.
At the time al-Qaida attacked the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington on Sept. 11, 2001, Fritz Gelowicz was still opposed to the act of terror. But a little over a year later, the young man from southern Germany, who converted to Islam at the age of 16, was already determined to "someday take part in the jihad." He says he was motivated by the United States' "unconditional support" for Israel. Gelowicz felt there was "a war by the USA against Islam."
Gelowicz, 29, has been sitting in the dock since June as the main defendant in the so-called "Sauerland Cell" trial against four homegrown German jihadists who are accused of planning a series of bomb attacks in Germany in the fall of 2007. Authorities arrested the men in September 2007 in the town of Medebach-Oberschledorn in the Sauerland region of western German after uncovering the terror plot. At the time, prosecutors claim three of the defendants were trying to convert hydrogen peroxide into explosive material in a rented vacation home. Gelowicz has already hinted that the men were planning to carry out an attack at the start of October, around the time Germany's parliament was set to vote on an extension of the mandate of the military's deployment in Afghanistan.
The four accused -- Gelowicz, Daniel Schneider, Adem Yilmaz and Atilla Selek -- have already confessed. The testimony they gave to officials at the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) in June, July and August fills more than 1,100 pages. On Monday, the men began to testify publicly on the stand in their trial at a higher regional court in Düsseldorf. It's the first time that all the members of a terror cell have revealed their inner workings. Investigators have never before been given such comprehensive information about the creation of a terror plot, training in terror camps in Pakistan's Waziristan region or the obscure Islamic Jihad Union (IJU), the Uzbek terror group on whose behalf Gelowicz and his accomplices were apparently acting. That the suspects have been so open probably has to do with the fact that they have been given the prospect of lighter sentences if they cooperate. Generally, investigators have been astonished by their openness.
The confessions have also shed light on another aspect of the case: the suspects' unconditional hatred of the US. Although they wanted to strike in Europe, their main intended targets were American soldiers. "We didn't want to kill two or three soldiers, but rather many," Gelowicz told the court on Monday.
Gelowicz gave particularly vivid testimony to the BKA about how he quickly got the feeling after 9/11 that the US was waging a war against Islam -- and that this was happening in his own backyard. He told investigators he felt that the war on terror had come within just meters' reach of him in 2004. He described a man who used to sit with his children inside a Muslim prayer room that Gelowicz frequented in his hometown, the Bavarian city of Neu-Ulm, noting that one day the man vanished. Gelowicz later learned from a friend that the man had been kidnapped by the CIA. It turns out that the story was true. The man he spoke of was Khaled el-Masri, a German-Lebanese man who had been kidnapped by the US intelligence service in Macedonia in late December 2003 and taken to Afghanistan. There, he was detained and interrogated for five months before the case was found to be one of mistaken identity.
Adem Yilmaz also told the BKA that it had mainly been the excesses in the US "war against terror" that had pushed him to take the path to militancy. An attack against US soldiers in Germany, he said, would be "targeted retaliation." He added that the actions "would please detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and also at Guantanamo. That was the most important thing to me." The attacks were also intended as a protest against what "these pigs" were doing to innocent people in places like Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Yilmaz called it a "defensive jihad."
Interestingly, the four defendants didn't start out with the intention of committing terrorist attacks. On the contrary, Gelowicz and Yilmaz claimed they initially wanted to go to the front as fighters, preferably in Iraq. However, they were not successful in their attempt to make contact with the appropriate middlemen during a stay in the Syrian capital of Damascus. Then they considered going to Chechnya, where Islamist insurgents are active, but that plan also came to nothing. Finally they came into contact with an IJU member who was able to get them to Waziristan, where they received training near the town of Mir Ali. Even there, so they allegedly told the IJU, they wanted to take part in active fighting. But then the leaders of the terrorist group suggested that they return to Europe in order to carry out terror attacks. Yilmaz and Gelowicz both say, in mutually corroborating testimony, that they were initially reluctant. But then they agreed to the plan.
Gelowicz told the BKA that the IJU's argument that an attack in Europe would be of "more use to the jihad" convinced him. After all, the IJU told him, it was easier to fight US soldiers in Germany than in Pakistan. Finally persuaded by the argument, Gelowicz came to conclusion that one could wreak "great damage" in Germany with a relatively small operation. In Germany, he said, it was even possible to meet US soldiers "in their free time." He stressed that he didn't need to be "brainwashed" in order to accept the mission.
Gelowicz was able to experience at first hand just how difficult it was to fight the US Army in Afghanistan. Before his return to Germany, he spent about four weeks with the IJU on the Pakistani-Afghan border. Several times he crossed over the border to carry out reconnaissance of a US base in Afghanistan, but the IJU fighters were not able to lure the American soldiers out of their stronghold. Gelowicz told the court on Monday that for every successful attack on US soldiers, he estimated there were 10 failed ones -- and even then all that had been achieved was to "destroy one of the Americans' cars."
In the coming weeks, the defendants will undoubtedly have to tell the court in greater detail about the targets they had in mind. So far, it is clear that they were planning to attack nightclubs and bars frequented by US soldiers. They also discussed Ramstein air base as a possible target. In addition, the defendants wanted to send a signal both to the German population and to the Uzbek government, but Gelowicz made it sound as though there was no specific intention to kill German civilians. The alleged terror cell did, however, want to kill US soldiers. They were the main enemy -- regardless whether they were in Afghanistan or in Germany.
Posted by: ryuge ||
08/14/2009 08:10 ||
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#1
Your fatherland kills millions of Jews and others, the Jews don't feel quite at home there, they move to a tiny strip of land lacking natural resources, work hard, make the desert bloom, enrage the Islamic nations around them who rely on inshala 24/7 and live under dictatorships and you are angry with the U.S. Look in the Islamic mirror, asshole.
#4
"German terrorists describe hatred of U.S. as motivation"
Well, we don't like you assh*les much either, bubbe.
Or we wouldn't if we thought about you at all....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/14/2009 14:37 Comments ||
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#5
Maybe if the thread of rabid islamism weren't the connection to virtually all the murder and mayhem around the world, we wouldn't be attacking "islam". This POS can't look in a mirror and see that, though. That would destroy the main meaning in his life. People like this should have every bone in their hands broken, from the wrist down. Let them require 24/7 nursing care, and see how fast their "islamic friends" leave them. Let them learn how much they were used as tools, and equally as quickly abandoned. Maybe, just MAYBE they might have their eyes opened.
Probably not, though.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/14/2009 15:00 Comments ||
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*happy sight* It's a while since we've had a proper "Nuggets" Thank you, Gaz!
'Quran khwani' for Michael Jackson
Daily Nawa-e-Waqt reported that in 1989, pop singer Michael Jackson had embraced Islam, therefore it was incumbent to hold Quran Khwani (recitation) for him after his death. His brother had already done Quran Khwani at his house.
Wives divorced for 'kukkar'
According to Khabrain, a jirga in Lakhi Ghulam Shah heard a case of the killing of a number of kukkars (male chickens), after which it decided that the three men found guilty would have to divorce their wives. The three men quickly agreed. The roosters, killed through poisoning, are held in high honour by the people of the area; the wives are not.
Indian plot to avenge Mumbai
Writing in Jang, Irfan Siddiqi stated that Ahmad Quraishi wrote that Indians had sent 500 trained commandos into Afghanistan. They will come into Pakistan and attack installations and stage attacks into buildings the same way as the Mumbai attacks. After that, a nuclear device will be exploded in Afghanistan and Pakistan will be blamed.
Nothing happened in Swat
Columnist Major General (Retd) Shafiq Ahmad Awan wrote in Nawa-e-Waqt that no one spoke of rebellion in Malakand, no one talked of autonomy there either, no one demanded takeover of administration and no one suspected the Constitution of Pakistan and yet Malakand was attacked by the army. This was done on the basis of rumours spread by American CIA, its agents and short-sighted Pakistanis. Burning of girls' schools was not a serious matter.
America wants Pakistani uranium
Quoted in daily Jinnah, Jamaat-e-Islami leader Liaquat Baloch said that America was after South Punjab now because it was after the uranium being extracted in Dera Ghazi Khan in South Punjab. He said America was forcing Pakistan to start an operation in South Punjab and the Mian Channu incident of the teacher terrorist was a part of that plot. Freshly let off by the Court, Maulana Aziz of Lal Masjid Islamabad also said the same thing in Nawa-e-Waqt.
Police and 'kukri'
Chief Editor Khushnood Ali Khan wrote in Jinnah that the police manning barricades in Islamabad were not competent. He proposed a test: a kukri (hen) should be let off across the barricade and the police should be asked to catch it. He claimed that the police would not catch the kukri.
Describing liberal fascists
Describing liberal fascists in Jang, Hamid Mir wrote that they called themselves secularists but they were alienated from religion and hated the religious people. Their economic interests were bound with America, whose policies they defended although they didn't support them openly. They recommended military operations in the Tribal Areas and supported the drone attacks, and their general drift was to serve their American masters (aqa).
Posted by: Gaz ||
08/14/2009 08:07 ||
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[Dawn] Thirteen militants were killed and five others injured when helicopter gunships shelled their camp and hideouts in Upper Orakzai agency on Thursday. Militants' hideouts in Lower Orakzai were also shelled, but no casualty was reported.
Troops captured 16 militants during an operation in Bosti Khel, Shpalkiwal and Zor Kalay areas of Darra Adam Khel in the Frontier Region of Kohat.
According to officials, 13 militants were killed in the air attacks on a training camp and five hideouts in Shnawarai, Tora Warai and Kurt areas of Upper Orakzai.
(According to AP news agency, helicopters destroyed several bases and hideouts near the Kurram and Aurakzai tribal regions run by Taliban commander Hakimullah Mehsud and killed at least 12 insurgents, intelligence officials said.
They said troops saw the bodies from the air but did not retrieve them. Several militants were also wounded, and the casualties could rise because some people were believed to be still buried under the rubble of their hide-outs, the officials said.)
According to local people, militants from Waziristan and Afghanistan have set up camps and seminaries in the areas and are involved in kidnapping and killing of people on the Kohat-Parachinar highway. They are also involved in sectarian violence in Kurram and Hangu.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/14/2009 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Security forces arrested eight militants, including a local terrorist militant commander, during search and clearance operations in Malakand, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on Thursday.
Two militants surrendered to security forces at Bagh Dheri and Shalpalam, while another militant was killed in Luluani.
Four suspects were also arrested from other parts of Malakand, the ISPR said.
Security forces also defused an improvised explosive device near Timergara during a routine search operation.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/14/2009 00:00 ||
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[The News (Pak) Top Stories] It seems target killing has once again started in the violence-hit South Waziristan as four persons, including a prominent pro-government tribal chieftain, were killed and three others injured in a bomb blast in Wana on Thursday.
Also, fighting between the pro-government militant commander, Turkistan Bhittani and Baitullah Mehsud-led Taliban continued for the second consecutive day on Thursday at Sur Ghar area near Srarogha in South Waziristan in which, officials said, 10 more people were killed.
Tribal sources told The News from Wana, headquarters of South Waziristan, that unidentified persons had planted an explosive-device with a motorcycle and parked it with the car of the tribal elder, Malik Khadeen. The explosive device went off as soon as Khadeen and his son approached their car, killing him and his three security guards on the spot.
The sources said Malik Khadeen was presumed to be the target of unknown terrorists as he had already survived two similar attempts on his life. Three other persons, including his son, sustained serious injuries in the blast and were shifted to the nearby hospital in Wana.
According to sources, Malik Khadeen being a pro-government tribal elder, was instrumental in eviction of Uzbekistani militants from Wana and Shakai areas of South Waziristan in 2007. Meanwhile, fierce fighting between Turkistan Bhittani and his rival group affiliated with Baitullah Mehsud continued for the second day in parts of South Waziristan.
A government official based in Tank said 10 persons from both sides were killed on Thursday. Pleading anonymity, he said 30 houses owned by the Bhittani tribesmen had been burnt by the invading Taliban militants in Sur Ghar village - located on the boundary between FR Jandola and South Waziristan. There were also reports of shelling by the military helicopter gunships on suspected positions of the Baitullah Mehsud-led Taliban in which the sources said 15 militants were killed.
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08/14/2009 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] At least 18 people, most of them members of the ancient Yazidi religious sect, were killed when two suicide bombers blew themselves up on Thursday in a packed cafe in northern Iraq, a local government official said.
At least 31 people were also wounded after the bombers detonated suicide belts packed with explosives in the cafe in Kalaa town, in the district of Sanjar, local district chief Dakheel Qassem Hasoon, told AFP. 'Two suicide bombers entered the Cafe Barbaroz at 4:30 pm and blew themselves up, killing 18 civilians and wounding 31. Most of the victims were Yazidis,' Hasoon said.
Kalaa, northwest of the insurgent stronghold of Mosul in northern Nineveh province, is predominantly populated by the minority Yazidi religious sect, as well as Arabs and Kurds.
The attack is the deadliest since Monday, when 51 people were killed across Iraq, including 28 members of the tiny Shabak sect cut down when two truck bombs detonated in the village of Khaznah outside of Mosul.
In August 2007, more than 400 Yazidis were slaughtered when four suicide truck bombs targeted members of the sect, in the deadliest attack since the US-led invasion of 2003.
Yazidis -- who number several hundred thousand -- mostly live in northern Iraq and speak a dialect of Kurdish but follow a pre-Islamic religion and have their own cultural traditions.
They believe in God the creator and respect the Biblical and Koranic prophets, especially Abraham, but their main focus of worship is Malak Taus, the chief of the archangels, often represented by a peacock.
Followers of other religions know this angel as Lucifer or Satan, leading to popular prejudice that the secretive Yazidis are devil-worshippers.
Despite an overall drop in violence in recent months, attacks on security forces and civilians remain common in the disputed oil-rich city of Kirkuk, as well as Mosul and the capital Baghdad.
The number of violent deaths fell by a third last month to 275 from 437 in June, following a pullback by US forces from urban areas.
The figure for May was 155, the lowest of any month since the US-led invasion of 2003.
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08/14/2009 00:00 ||
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After massive traffic jams throughout central Israel and Jerusalem on Thursday due to roadblocks set up in search for a missing soldier, the IDF says that all soldiers are accounted for and has returned to normal operations.
Traffic was particularly heavy on Highway 443, at the entrance to Petach Tikva, near Maaleh Adumim, and between the cities of Jerusalem and Modiin.
The backup was caused by temporary checkpoints throughout the area. Drivers reported seeing an unusually large number of police vehicles throughout the afternoon.
It was later revealed that police feared a soldier was kidnapped in the Tel Aviv area. A soldier reported that she witnessed a male soldier being beaten and forced into a car.
Police stopped traffic from the Central District into Samaria, while simultaneously investigating the initial report.
The IDF enacted its emergency roll call procedure, in order to account for all soldiers and active reservists.
A police helicopter circled over the Tel Aviv area throughout the day. In the afternoon, police confirmed that security-related operations were taking place in the Central District, but did not give details.
Police occasionally set up makeshift checkpoints along major Israeli roads in response to terrorist alerts or other security threats. However, checkpoints are usually set up to check vehicles traveling from Samaria to the Tel Aviv area, and not those moving in the opposite direction.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Israeli authorities said on Thursday they were investigating the possible abduction of a soldier in the center of the country, where police put up roadblocks.
"It's under investigation," a military spokeswoman said when asked about media reports a soldier may have been abducted near Ben Gurion International Airport.
The army later issued a statement that said: "A female soldier said she saw a soldier who was hitch-hiking being forced into a car by two people. We are verifying this rumor."
A Palestinian news agency quoted a little-known fighting group, al-Quds Army, claiming it had captured a soldier. But the military insisted however that none of its soldiers were listed as missing.
However, police set up dozens of checkpoints on all roads leading to the West Bank, stopping and searching cars, causing long traffic jams across central Israel.
The massive security operation launched after the soldier's report highlights Israel's fears of having soldiers kidnapped.
Palestinian fighters have in the past abducted soldiers at hitch-hiking stations.
From the West Bank city of Bethlehem, the Maan news agency reported it received a statement from al-Quds Army in which the group said it was holding a soldier seized near the airport, Israel's main international gateway.
A Palestinian security official said the al-Quds army, while fairly obscure, was believed to have links to the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, a foe of the Jewish state. The Palestinian security official could not immediately confirm that such a claim of responsibility had been made.
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08/14/2009 00:00 ||
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Ma'an - The media office of the Palestinian police department said on Thursday that Israeli soldiers arrested a girl from the West Bank city of Bethlehem at the Container military checkpoint north of the city.
She was identified as 24-year-old A'ysha Mohammad Ahmad E'beiyat.
At 24 she is not only no longer a girl, but a bit long in the tooth, if still unmarried.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army invaded the town of A'zzun near the West Bank city of Qalqiliya and detained two residents after breaking into several homes. The detainees were identified as Adnan Kayed, Mohammad Suweidan and Ahmad Sukar. They were taken to an undisclosed location.
In their report, the Palestinian police department said the Israeli army had invaded Fasayel village in the Jordan Valley, surrounded a home belonging to Mohammad Mahmoud An-Nawawreh, and handed him an order to stop construction on a project.
Adding on to his house without the proper permits, no doubt.
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A group of assailants opened fire into a tea shop in the southern border province of Songkhla Thursday morning, killing two persons and injuring four others.
One victim who died at the scene -- a latex buyer who purchased the commodity from local rubber planters -- was not immediately identified. The second victim was Jebahame Huiloh, a subdistrict chief of Tung Por, who succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds and died later in hospital. Meanwhile, four others were hospitalised at Songklanagarind and Saba Yoi hospitals.
A preliminary investigation found that at least five gunmen stopped their vehicle in front of the tea shop in Saba Yoi district, and then opened fire indiscriminately at customers with semi-automatic AK and M-16 assault rifles.
In another incident, two soldiers were wounded in a roadside bomb explosion in Mae Lan district of Pattani. Investigator found that a remote-controlled five kg bomb hidden by the roadside was triggered by presumed insurgents when six soldiers on three motorcycles passed through the scene as they protected teachers going to school. A combined force of police and soldiers sealed off the area to search for the gunmen.
[ADN Kronos] At least 43 people have been killed in clashes between Muslim separatist militants and government forces on a remote island in the southern Philippines, an army commander said on Thursday. Maj Gen Benjamin Dolorfino said 400 troops had launched attacks on a camp belonging to Abu Sayyaf rebels on the southern island of Basilan. He said soldiers recovered home made bombs and 13 weapons.
At least 30 guerillas were killed in the military assault and troops were scouring the area to see if two targeted Abu Sayyaf leaders had been killed.
The troops launched "a decisive law enforcement operation" targeting the Abu Sayyaf's main training camp in the province, the military said. The army suffered heavy losses in the conflict and some analysts have already suggested the military offensive will do little to neutralise the strength of the rebel group in the predominantly Muslim south of the Philippines.
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08/14/2009 00:00 ||
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[Straits Times] INDONESIAN police said they have unearthed a new cache of bomb-making chemicals as part of investigations into the July 17 suicide attacks on two luxury hotels in Jakarta. Police spokesman Sulistyo Ishak said on Thursday the chemicals were found in a rented warehouse in Bogor, West Java, and could be linked to the terror network of Malaysian extremist Noordin Top.
'The materials are being investigated by Detachment 88 counter-terrorism police to find out whether they're similar to those used by Noordin Top's network,' he said. 'We can't tell you now what they were going to use this for, such as where and which target.'
Police launched a massive raid on a suspected Noordin hideout last Friday but failed to locate the fugitive Malaysian, killing instead one of his alleged accomplices in the hotel attacks after a 17-hour siege.
The dead man was identified by police on Wednesday as Ibrohim, who worked at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels as a florist and was said to have played a crucial role in the planning and execution of the suicide bombings. The blasts at the two hotels killed seven people, mainly foreigners, and have been blamed on the Noordin network.
Police also said they were investigating an e-mail purportedly written by Noordin which appeared on a little-known Indonesian news website on Thursday claiming the fugitive had escaped the security cordon around his suspected hideout last Friday. The missive gave no information that is not already in the public domain and repeated Al-Qaeda-style rationales for waging 'holy war' against Westerners.
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08/14/2009 00:00 ||
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A Syrian national has been killed and two others have sustained injures after a cluster bomb exploded outside their home in eastern Lebanon. The three were Syrians, aged between 20 and 30, lived in the Rashaya district in the village of Yanta in Lebanon near the Syrian border, a security official said.
The incident took place a day after two young Lebanese brothers were injured by another cluster bomb, on the 60th anniversary of the Geneva conventions. The 1949 Geneva conventions formally outlined international law on the protection of civilians, detainees, the wounded and humanitarian workers in conflicts.
In May, Israel gave UN peacekeepers in Lebanon maps showing the location of over one million cluster munitions it had dropped during its devastating air war on Lebanon three summers ago. About 300 Lebanese civilians have since been killed or maimed by cluster bombs, according to the UN Mine Action Coordination Center.
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08/14/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
ION CHINESE MIL FORUM > SYRIAN GOVERNMENT SAYS: US BEHIND XINJIANG RIOTS.
* Also, WAFF [old 02/09] > KUWAITI PROFESSOR SUGGESTS KILLING 300,000-PLUS AMERICANS IN A TERROR ATTACK [BIOWAR Attacks agz USA e.g. FOUR POUNDS OF ANTHRAX]; + LEBANESE ISLAMISTS FAVOR "OFFENSIVE JIHAD" TO CONQUER THE WORLD, INSPIRE ISLAM [Hizb Al-Tahrir]
[ADN Kronos] Three people, including a boy, were injured in a bomb explosion in the northern Lebanese port city of Tripoli on Thursday. Local media reported the bomb exploded in the area of Jabal Mohsen, home to the predominantly Sunni Muslim city's Alawite minority.
The small explosive device went off near the home of Rifat Ali Eid, a leading Alawite politician.
More than 20 people were killed in Tripoli last year in sectarian fighting between Alawites in Jabal Mohsen and the neighbouring Sunni district of Bab Tibbaneh.
The conflict, which lasted four months, was halted by a reconciliation agreement signed in September.
There are an estimated 100,000 Alawis in Lebanon, where they are recognised as one of the 18 official Lebanese sects.
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08/14/2009 00:00 ||
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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.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Amid rising insurgency in Afghanistan, former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani has survived a Taliban attack in the troubled north of the war-ravaged country. Taliban insurgents attacked Rabbani's convoy with grenades and rocket-propelled Thursday in Kunduz Province. Sources said three fighters died in a clash with bodyguards and police during the exchange of fire. Local officials in the Ali Abad district said Rabbani and those in his convoy were unhurt. 
[Maghrebia] Five members of the Al-Djabel Al Ahmar brigade of al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb surrendered to Algerian authorities Tuesday night in Batna, Tout sur l'Algerie reported on Wednesday (August 12th). The repentant terrorists, aged between 28 and 47, were transferred to the command of the 5th Military Region. Their identities have not been disclosed for security reasons. The surrender was attributed to former terrorist leader and GSPC founder Hassan Hattab's efforts to persuade terrorists to renounce armed struggle and benefit from national reconciliation.
[Bangla Daily Star] Al Markajul Islami As-Salafi Madrasa at Nawdapara in the city was closed sine die by its authorities yesterday due to attempts of implanting extremism in students by 
[Kyodo: Korea] North Korea on Thursday released a South Korean employee of the Hyundai Group who had been detained since March at a joint industrial park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong, South Korea's Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae Sung told reporters. The release of the Hyundai engineer identified by South Korean media as Yu Seong Jin came amid the visit to North Korea of Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jung Eun to seek his release. ''I am happy to be back,'' Yu told reporters at the South's border-crossing point shortly after 9 p.m. Yu also expressed gratitude for those who have helped him be freed.
The terror suspects on trial for plotting attacks against American targets in Germany claim their actions were driven by hatred against a country they believe is waging war against Islam. The men say their targets were US soldiers -- and they wanted to kill many of them.
A group of assailants opened fire into a tea shop in the southern border province of Songkhla Thursday morning, killing two persons and injuring four others. 
[ADN Kronos] At least 43 people have been killed in clashes between Muslim separatist militants and government forces on a remote island in the southern Philippines, an army commander said on Thursday. Maj Gen Benjamin Dolorfino said 400 troops had launched attacks on a camp belonging to Abu Sayyaf rebels on the southern island of Basilan. He said soldiers recovered home made bombs and 13 weapons.
[Straits Times] INDONESIAN police said they have unearthed a new cache of bomb-making chemicals as part of investigations into the July 17 suicide attacks on two luxury hotels in Jakarta. Police spokesman Sulistyo Ishak said on Thursday the chemicals were found in a rented warehouse in Bogor, West Java, and could be linked to the terror network of Malaysian extremist Noordin Top. 
A Syrian national has been killed and two others have sustained injures after a cluster bomb exploded outside their home in eastern Lebanon. The three were Syrians, aged between 20 and 30, lived in the Rashaya district in the village of Yanta in Lebanon near the Syrian border, a security official said. 
