The NATO has intercepted a letter from Taliban supreme leader Mullah Muhammad Omar in which he called for any Afghan supporting the government, led by President Hamid Karzai, to be captured or killed, Brigadier Josef Blotz, a spokesman for the NATO, said on Sunday. Talking to reporters, he said that Omar had issued the directive in June. "The message was from Mullah Omar, who is hiding in Pakistan, to his subordinate commanders," he said, adding, the order was to fight coalition forces to death, and to capture and kill any civilian supporting or working for the government or the forces. The letter also said that women should also be killed if found to be helping or providing information to the coalition forces.
Which suggests that some women are helping or providing information to coalition forces. Good for them for showing such independence of spirit!
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
did it have a return addy on it?
Posted by: chris ||
07/19/2010 10:19 Comments ||
Top||
#2
General Delivery
Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan 7734
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/19/2010 11:03 Comments ||
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#3
So much for "peace talks" between the government and Taliban.
Taliban staged a series of raids in western Afghanistan on Sunday, blowing up the gate of a jail and freeing 23 insurgent prisoners, officials said.
I've seen this movie ...
Indeed you have. Farah was the site of the June, 2009 controversial bombing attack that precipitated the change in the ROEs in Afghanistan.
Insurgents attacked four police posts leading to the centre of Farah town early on Sunday, said Mohammad Younus Rasooli, the governor of western Farah province, bordering Iran.
"They kept the police preoccupied and the same time blew up the gate of Farah's jail, which resulted in the escape of 23 prisoners," Rasooli told Reuters over phone.
Four of the inmates were immediately arrested because they had suffered wounds in the escape, he said, adding seven more were captured.
Four plus seven take away twenty-three carry ninety-one... equals not as successful as planned.
A policeman was killed during the incident, which lasted several hours, he said.
A spokesman for the Taliban, Qari Mohammad Yousuf, confirmed that members of the movement were behind the attacks.
The Daily Times reporter has Mr. Yousuf on speed dial. I hear they're second cousins three times over on their mothers' sides... and four times something unnameable in English on their fathers'.
Meanwhile, a suicide bomber killed four civilians in an attack apparently aimed at a convoy of foreign forces in Kabul on Sunday, security sources said. The attack happened opposite a clinic on a road often used by foreign troops, one said, adding that four more civilians were wounded.
There was no immediate word on casualties among the foreign forces, he said. The site of the attack was cordoned off.
A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said they were aware of the incident, but had no details immediately.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2010 00:00 ||
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As befits a man who fears he has a US missile with his name on it, Ahmed Abdi Godane knows the importance of keeping a low profile. The leader of Somalia's al-Shebab militant movement, he prefers to be heard rather than seen, ranting away in radio broadcasts from his group's strongholds in northern Mogadishu. Thanks to his fatwahs against pop music, foreign films and even televised football, he already has a captive audience - as of last week, though, he made the rest of the world take notice too.
What happened in Kampala was just the beginning," he warned in his latest broadcast, gloating over Sunday's twin suicide bombings in the Ugandan capital, in which Shebab-backed "martyrs" slaughtered 76 people as they watched the World Cup final. "If Uganda and Burundi do not withdraw their troops from Somalia, there will be more bombings like these." Delivered with the same fiery rhetoric with which he recently declared himself "at Osama bin Laden's service", Godane's warning confirmed what many outside Somalia have long dreaded: that the Shebab, which has imposed a Taliban-style regime across much of the anarchic, war-torn land, would one day begin exporting its brand of Islamist violence to the wider world.
Last Sunday's attacks, designed to punish both Uganda and Burundi for providing troops to support Mogadishu's shaky Western-backed provisional government, marked the first time the group had struck outside its own borders. Now, having proved the Shebab's credentials as the world's newest international terrorist group, security officials fear it is only a matter of time before Godane, also known as Abu Zubayr, orders similar attacks against the West.
"This is a move into a different league altogether, and will put Godane and al Shebab on the world map," one Nairobi-based security official told The Sunday Telegraph. "He is very much of the international jihads mindset, and wants Islamic rule across the world, from Somalia to Alaska."
Just like the piracy crisis off Somalia's coastline, the Shebab's declaration of wider war is a sign of how Somalia's problems are becoming those of the wider region. The Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, whose security forces yesterday arrested 20 people in connection with the bombings, has called for more troops to be sent Somalia, this time not as bodyguards to the government, but to hunt down the Shebab. "We are going on the offensive and will get these people," he vowed, calling on other African nations to help beef up the force from its current 5,000 to at least 20,000.
But many fear that would play directly into Godane's hands, allowing him to raise the spectre of a foreign "invasion" against which more Somalis would flock to the Shebab. Such a scenario could ignite a region-wide conflict, pitting the mainly Christian nations of the rest of East Africa against the predominantly Muslim population of Somalia.
The Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, whose security forces yesterday arrested 20 people in connection with the bombings, has called for more troops to be sent Somalia[...]
But many fear that would play directly into Godane's hands, allowing him to raise the spectre of a foreign "invasion" against which more Somalis would flock to the Shebab. Such a scenario could ignite a region-wide conflict, pitting the mainly Christian nations of the rest of East Africa against the predominantly Muslim population of Somalia.
Not if we hand Ahmed his head.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
07/19/2010 7:09 Comments ||
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#2
When is the West going to realize that we can't just fight against jihadists in Afghanistan and Iraq, that we need to 'engage' them wherever they are? Why haven't we flattened a couple of dozen Somali villages, and told the rest that if they don't get rid of al-shitabaab, we'll flatten more? Have we become "too civilized" to fight back against these barbarians?
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/19/2010 12:28 Comments ||
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#3
1. Life in Africa is cheap.
2. Life in Somalia is really cheap.
3. Assuming that flattening "couple of dozen Somali villages" is going to have an effect is an exercise in fantasy.
Have we become "too civilized" to fight back against these barbarians?
No - you've become too 'civilized' in assuming that such actions would work.
#4
WORLDNEWS/TOPIX > ALL AFRICA > UGANDA: ONE DAY AL QAEDA, AL SHABAAB WILL SURELY RULE THE WORLD.
ARTIC = A number of Local Bloggers accuse the Govt of falsely blaming AL SHABAAB for the deadly KAMPALA TWIN SUICIDE BOMBINGS ["false flag"]in order to justify Govt-led crackdowns for purposes, agendums other than ANTI-TERROR SECURITY; + AL QAEDA + AL SHABAAB HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO WIN, LOCALLY OR GLOBALLY???
* SAME > UGANDA: WHY THE WITHDRAWAL OF TROOPS FROM SOMALIA IS REASONABLE FOR NOW; + UGANDAN GOVT. MAY ATTACK AL SHABAAB SOMALI MILITIA, espec Army Generals = Top Mil Leadership.
ARTIC = US, UN-led/dominated + $$$ funded AMISOM Mission is seriously limited + a FAILURE due to lack of resources to succeed, + claims of subordination to the larger Agendas of Non/Anti-African Foreign Power(s) = UN Major Members-States. ORDINARY OR MAINSTREAM UGANDANS IN FAVOR OF DEFEATING AL SHABAAB THREAT TO SOMALIA + REGION, + ALSO TO NOT HAVE ANY TYPE OF FOREIGN MILFORS [Non-African, Local]INSIDE NEIGHBORING SOMALIA ["African for Africans, Somalia for Somalis", etc].
[Maghrebia] Morocco on Friday (July 16th) upheld the life sentence for terror cell ringleader and admitted al-Qaeda associate Abdelkader Belliraj, MAP reported. The Sale appellate court also reduced the prison terms for several high-profile Belliraj Cell members, including al-Badil al-Hadari (Civilised Alternative) party leaders Mustapha Moatassim and Amine Regala, Hezbollah TV station Al Manar Rabat correspondent Abdelhafid Sriti and Mohamed Marouani, leader of the unrecognised Ummah (The Nation) party.
In February of 2008, Moroccan security services dismantled what they called a "major jihadist terrorist network" led by the 53-year-old Moroccan-Belgian. Belliraj and his 35 co-defendants were convicted last July for plotting terror attacks in Morocco, robberies in Europe and other crimes.
Thorough-going badmen, every single one.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
Four cases have been filed against the arrested leader of the Indian separatist group, United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), Ranjan Chowdhury and his associate Prodip Marak at Bhairab Police Station in Kishoreganj district.
Deputy assistant director of Bhairab camp of elite security force Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) Karim Ullah filed the cases under the weapons, explosives, illegal immigration and anti-terrorism acts on Saturday night.
Bhairab police sub-inspector Delwar Hossain confirmed filing of the cases on Sunday.
Ranjan and his associate were presented to Kishoreganj Judicial Court on Sunday.
Earlier on Saturday, the RAB arrested Ranjan and his assistant Prodip Marak from Lakkhmipur area of the sub-district.
The RAB recovered a foreign-made pistol, a revolver, four rounds of ammunitions and four hand grenades from their possession.
Ranjan Chowdhury is referred to as Major Ranjan as he specialises in military training and has been working for ULFA since 1990, commander Mohammad Sohael Ahmed, RAB legal and media wing's director, said in a press conference at their headquarters in Dhaka.
"Ranjan received special training to use firearms and grenades. He escaped to Bangladesh in 1995 after serving a year in prison at India. However, he maintained constant contact with ULFA leaders in Bhutan and Nepal including its military wing chief Paresh Barua."
Last December, Indian authorities arrested ULFA chief Arabinda Rajkhowa along with a number of members of the separatist group including his personal bodyguard Raja Bora, the deputy commander-in-chief of the ULFA's military wing Raju Barua.
Despite various media reports claiming that the ULFA chief was arrested by Bangladesh and handed over to his home country, authorities in both the countries declined to comment on the matter.
However, it was proved that Rajkhowa has long been staying in Bangladesh under the alias of Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury and even had a Bangladeshi passport identifying him to be a citizen of the country by birth.
ULFA general secretary Anup Chetia is currently in a Bangladeshi prison.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2010 00:00 ||
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Google Translate. See Map
Four rural police officers were shot to death in an apparent ambush in rural Guerrero, say Mexican press reports.
Porfirio Flores Juarez, 30, Miguel Angel Flores Juarez, 26, Pedro Ojendiz Carrillo, 28 and Jose Ignacio RamÃrez Piza, 19, all died in an ambush by armed suspects at about 1330 hrs, near the town of Joyas. All the victims were part of the Policia Preventiva Rural in Guerrero.
Two of the victims were in the cab of their official vehicle, one was found in the bed and the fourth was found on the ground. All had been shot with different weapons.
A Note: Foreign press are speculating that this attack was part of a wider war amongst drug cartels to control drug and human smuggling routes into the US.
That may be, however the Mexican Navy had just concluded countergang operations in northern Saltillo which sits astride a major highway to the border town of Piedras Negras, last Wednesday and it is more likely this attack was in response.
Armed suspects drove to a party held at a recreation hall at the Quinta Italia Inn near Torreon, Coahuila and shot more than 30 people, mostly in their 20s and 30s, killing at least 17, according to Mexican press reports.
The assault took place at about 0130 hrs Sunday morning. Reports say 18 people survived the attack.
Witnesses at the scene say a convoy of at least five vehicles stopped at the inn at the farm Plan de San Luis carrying gunman armed with AK-47 and AR-15 assault rifles. Reports say the gunman broke down a gate and entered the walled area where the party was being held. Someone shouted, "Kill them all" just before the suspects open fired on the party goers.
Investigators found more than 100 spent cartridge casings at the scene.
Google Translate. For a map click here
Elements of the Mexican Army fought a brief battle with armed suspects in Sinaloa capturing two armed suspects as well as military munitions Saturday, say Mexican news accounts.
A detachment of the 94th Infantry Battalion of the 9th Military Zone were conducting recon near Abuja Las Higueras in the Culican municipality when they detected a small convoy of at least two trucks.
The convoy attempted escape, but in the ensuing chase one of the vehicles failed to make a turn and blocked the road. Four armed suspects exited their vehicles and took cover in nearby brush firing on the soldiers of the detachment. After a brief exchange of gunfire the two suspects escaped and two surrendered.
Captured were: Andrus Morales Acosta, 37, and Salvador Robles Castro, 32.
Vehicles seized: a Humvee truck and a Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Munitions seized: four AKMS-47, one AK-47, one M79 grenade launcher, five 40mm grenades, 23 magazines and 650 rounds of ammunition.
Tactical materiel seized: Three Procuraduria General de la Republica (PGR) badges, two black colored military style pants and four Kenwood brand radios.
French police have arrested four more protesters following riots which erupted in Grenoble in protest at the killing of a 27-year-old man who allegedly robbed a casino.
The overnight turbulence began on Friday in the poor suburban neighborhood of Villeneuve after local residents took to the streets in hearing that police shot the young man dead while fleeing.
The confrontation led to protesters setting between 50 and 60 cars ablaze and exchanging fire with security forces but no one was injured, AFP reported. At least seven, however, were reportedly detained on Friday.
On Sunday morning, after two nights of unrest, police arrested another four, charging the attempted murder over allegations that they opened fire on police.
Police have not released the identified and the ages of those arrested.
After visiting the scene on Saturday Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux vowed to return order to the city of La Villeneuve.
"There's no future for hoodlums and delinquents because in the end the public authority always wins," AFP quoted Hortefeux as saying.
Is that a direct quote from Louis XVI?
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Global Jihad
#1
See also WAFF > MUSLIM YOUTH SHOOTING AT POLICE IN FRANCE.
* TOPIX > ALGIERS: ONE IN FOUR UNDER AGE 15.
and
SAME > CHRISTIAN-MUSLIM TENSIONS RISE IN LIBERIA, + AFRICA NEEDS AUTHENTIC GOVTS, NOT OCUPATION + TANZANIA: [ATTACK [Kampala] A WAKE-UP CALL ON FANATICAL GROUPS.
ARTIC > Rise in EXTREMIST IDEOLOGIES OR FACTIONS WIDIN RADICAL-MILIT GROUPS may ironically induce or lead to their own downfall = defeat???
* AL SHABAAB/SHAHAB = Declared an [all-out] state of war agz US back in 2008, + warns that Any + All Foreign Forces in Somalia face Attack by their Militant Group + allied.
The Turkish Armed Forces is looking to see whether two of its ranking servicemen sought to protect the anti-Ankara militants, Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Domestic newspaper Bugun on Thursday said that the suspects, Lt. Firat C and Lt. Col. Selim Selcuk C, both pilots, could have tried to prevent attacks by military surveillance aircraft on the gunmen.
The PKK, which took up arms against Ankara in 1984 in a bid to establish an independent Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey, is responsible for hundreds of deaths and considered a terrorist organization by much of the international community.
According to Bugun daily, in October 2007, the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) intercepted a phone conversation in which Firat told Selcuk, "Our men (PKK members) gave many casualties. Either crash Herons or change their coordinates," referring to the drones. Selcuk responded by saying, "We will deal with it."
Following the MIT report, Chief of General Staff Gen. Ilker Basbug ordered military prosecutors to look into the allegations.
In June, the militants called off a unilateral ceasefire only to resume their armed assaults, with their spokesman Ahmed Denis warning that "we will take our operations to all Turkish cities."
PKK militants launch their operations against Turkey from Iraqi Kurdistan's Qandil Mountains, where Israel and Israeli firms operate.
The International Strategic Research Organization, a Turkish think tank, warned last month that the Israeli military's retirees as well as members of the Israeli spy agency, Mossad, had been sighted providing training to PKK gunmen in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Speaking to Press TV from Istanbul on Saturday, political analyst Yavuz Selim Kurt said Israel fosters the destabilizing acts of terror against Turkey as a means of silencing Ankara's opposition to the policies adopted by Tel Aviv.
According to Kurt, the militants intensified their operations five hours before the May 31 attack by Israeli commandos on the Gaza-bound aid convoy, Freedom Flotilla, which left nine Turkish activists dead.
"Israel is trying to destabilize Turkey and (is) backing this terrorist organization... Everywhere, they are supporting this terrorist organization in order to destabilize the country and to force them not to attack Israel's policies," Kurt said.
Those ebil juices get their tentacles into everything, trying to ruin the noble and righteous Turks. Their elders have these protocols, see...
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
HMMMM, HMMMM, NOT China + PLAAF???
To wit,
WMF > RUSSIA JOURNAL: CHINESE ARMS BEGIN TO ENTER[flood] THE MIDDLE EAST, ASIA, + LATIN AMERICA.
#2
I wonder when the PKK will Try assasinating Erdogan ? - if they do, maybe the secular Turkish army generals ( or what's left of them after Erdo "purified" the army) may find it as the proper moment for a coup and siezing power again.
The Turks are beginning to have visions of the empire again. We know O'bumble cant read geopolitical maps very well. I wonder whether Bambi's successor will see the writing on the wall.
Nature abhors vacuum. In every place where the US cant or wont project power, the Chinese,Russians, Arabs, Turks.... will rush in to fill the vacuum......
When Bambi's successor wakes up (assuming it isn't Nancy Pelosi or some other Jerk) it will cost an inordinate amount of work, time, money and perhaps American blood being shed to restore the situation to what it used to be. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
07/19/2010 5:40 Comments ||
Top||
Please be sure you have taken your blood pressure medicine before reading even a part of this.
The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work.
These are some of the findings of a two-year investigation by The Washington Post that discovered what amounts to an alternative geography of the United States, a Top Secret America hidden from public view and lacking in thorough oversight. After nine years of unprecedented spending and growth, the result is that the system put in place to keep the United States safe is so massive that its effectiveness is impossible to determine.
The investigation's other findings include:
* Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States.
* An estimated 854,000 people, nearly 1.5 times as many people as live in Washington, D.C., hold top-secret security clearances.
* In Washington and the surrounding area, 33 building complexes for top-secret intelligence work are under construction or have been built since September 2001. Together they occupy the equivalent of almost three Pentagons or 22 U.S. Capitol buildings - about 17 million square feet of space. more, if you can handle it
#2
Surprise! Surprise! Bureaucracy equals duplication and waste! Might be interesting if WaPo would expend this much energy investigating how $800 billion in stimulus money was spent. Do we spend that much money on "Top Secret America"? At least if we did we might get something useful out of it.
#3
Waah, waah, waah. WAPO is complaining about it because they can't get inside it, the people working in these facilities refuse to "leak", and they don't understand even one tenth of WHY these people work there and won't talk.
In truth, though, this is a back-door attack against those agencies that have been successful in keeping us from being attacked by the Democrap "leadership" in Washington. This "secret America" is not under their control, doesn't do their bidding, and costs money that can be used to buy votes. Screw the American people and their safety, they don't count. Only what's good for the Dummycritters is worth pursuing.
I rate quite a number of Repuglycons in the same boat. It doesn't matter what political party they belong to, as long as they can siphon off, steal, or misdirect every nickel they can for their own benefit.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/19/2010 12:45 Comments ||
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#4
Full disclosure: I worked in that "Top Secret America" for most of my Air Force career. There's a reason for those secrets, something the Democrats don't (can't?) understand.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/19/2010 12:47 Comments ||
Top||
#5
This article should result in a ton of ad views for WaPo and generate much needed revenue for their third quarter finances.
We should understand that there are secrets worth keeping. We need intelligence agencies that can keep our secrets, find out the secrets our adversaries are holding, and, on occasion, make things happen nice and quiet in nasty parts of the world.
We don't necessarily need a huge intelligence organization to do all that.
We certainly don't need a conglomeration of agencies, each of which is fully engaged in empire building. We don't need more office towers, federal employees, and papers shuffled about that no one ever reads.
Why DO we need 1,271 government organizations to be engaged in counterterrorism, homeland security and intel gathering in the first place? What, the first 1,270 of them weren't getting the job done?
I'm a big fan of national security. Let's just remember that the same government that engages in featherbedding and stupidity elsewhere can do the same when it comes to keeping secrets.
I'd personally rip it all out and start over.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/19/2010 13:06 Comments ||
Top||
#7
WAPO is complaining about it because they can't get inside it, the people working in these facilities refuse to "leak", and they don't understand even one tenth of WHY these people work there and won't talk
Bingo. Perusing the headline, I thought the WaPo "revelation" was going to expose how it worked, where the money went and did not go, and why or why not particular programs were working or not working-- y'know, all those newspaperman-style who-what-why etc basic q's.
Instead, WaPo has nothing but some data points and an all-but-outright admission of journalistic failure to answer any basic q's: "no one knows" the answer to these questions! So why should you, dear reader, expect us to deliver the goods? NOBODY knows! And hey, we're just bloggers with a salary (for now), so what do we know, huh? Jus' sayin... Noam Sayin', homie?
#8
I'm with Steve White. I very much want to know where teh $$$$$$$$$$$ is going, and would very much like to see defense pork cut as well as non-defense pork. But this requires our media betters to actually investigate ALL 11-figure and above gov't programs with the same degree of zeal. Beginning with the crap pseudo-stimulus program.
Case in point: I'd like some journalist to follow up on my experience last summer with the $6.7B California portion of the Education stimulus package, in which I learned that only one of more than 20 elected public officials and staff members contacted-- state assemblymen, congressmen, senators, governor's office, city officials, school board business managers-- one ONE person had even the faintest idea of how, at a high level, the $6.7B had been spent. And she couldn't account for about $400 million!
Andrew Breitbart would have enjoyed capturing my conversations with the others, which were a carnival of ignorance, incompetence, rudeness and outright hostility, buck-passing and low comedy.
Oh, and one more nugget that none of our intrepid media betters has bothered to unearth: Acc to Schwarzenegger's chief of staff for ARRA (the Stimulus bill), of the $6.7B for education, fully $1.9B was diverted, quietly, with no announcement to-- get this-- the PRISONS.
(When I revealed this to a punk staffer in Sen. Feinstein's office, he tried to be cute and said "then it must have gone to educational programs in the prisons." Tee hee!)
No joke. 30% of the billions in stimulus money for CA schools was divereted to purposes having nothing to do with education-- let alone purposes of actual stimulus, ie creating sustainable growth and employment. And another 6% simply disappeared-- not a single person of the >20 I spoke with, including mid-level bureaucrats in the CA Dept of Education and school officials around the Bay Area, could even guess where the remaining, unaccounted-for $400m went. Poof!
And not a peep-- not a single story on this-- from the media.
So yeah, I want to know about homeland security's thousands of organizations and contractors and hundreds of billions of dollars. Because as pitchman Bill Cosby used to recite, "it's MY MONEY." And my children's money, going down the rathole of god-knows-what political pet project. Or crony's offshore bank account.
#10
The 16 intelligence agencies, and to a lesser extent, the 40+ federal police agencies are out of control, and have been out of control since at least the 1960s. About the last even minor controls put on them were done just post-Watergate. They were less than effective, and have been neutralized.
By the 1980s, for example the NRO built a major satellite tracking center, with black budget funding, that was fully operational before congress even found out about it. Especially the senate intelligence committee, on both sides of the aisle, were livid, but the NRO just told them to "go fish".
With the death of J. Edgar Hoover, there was a frantic scramble to get and destroy the secret files he regularly used to blackmail congressmen, senators, and other officials and citizens.
W. Bush tried to get a handle on the chaos by trying to consolidate agencies under a single command and control, but CIA successfully thwarted his efforts, and forced his appointee out. And remember, H.W. Bush had been in charge of CIA not too long before.
The bottom line is much like a diesel semi-truck that has blown its governor, and its engine is running wild. Just because it is running fast does not mean that all is well, and sooner, rather than later, something very bad is going to happen.
Even running out of fuel won't help, because at a particular point, the air inside the engine is under such heat and pressure that it only needs a tiny amount of fuel to continue to run wild.
So the analogy holds. Even trying to slash the budget of some of these agencies may not work, because they have developed their own funding, and heaven only knows from where.
And any foreign or enemy entry point uses this situation to their advantage. Lack of oversight gives them full reign over America's most important secrets, with an excellent example being the two Cuban spies, the husband having access to all 16 agencies.
#11
I was cleared for weird when I served in the Air force, so here is my two cents. They were far too many agencies/organizations doing the same work. There were also far too many layers between the collector of intelligence and the end user. I doubt things had changed since I left a decade ago and if they did it was probably to add ANOTHER bureaucratic layer to the intelligence community. It needs to be cleaned or better yet start over and do it right with fewer agencies.
#12
Money is important -- but what upsets me and worries me for the safely of some we may know -- is why I posted the article, it's not all about the money -- This is a series -- an hour-long documentary film will run in October on PBS Frontline
Outside a gated subdivision of mansions in McLean, a line of cars idles every weekday morning as a new day in Top Secret America gets underway. The drivers wait patiently to turn left, then crawl up a hill and around a bend to a destination that is not on any public map and not announced by any street sign.
Liberty Crossing tries hard to hide from view. But in the winter, leafless trees can't conceal a mountain of cement and windows the size of five Wal-Mart stores stacked on top of one another rising behind a grassy berm. One step too close without the right badge, and men in black jump out of nowhere, guns at the ready.
Past the armed guards and the hydraulic steel barriers, at least 1,700 federal employees and 1,200 private contractors work at Liberty Crossing, the nickname for the two headquarters of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and its National Counterterrorism Center. The two share a police force, a canine unit and thousands of parking spaces.
Liberty Crossing is at the center of the collection of U.S. government agencies and corporate contractors that mushroomed after the 2001 attacks. But it is not nearly the biggest, the most costly or even the most secretive part of the 9/11 enterprise.
In an Arlington County office building, the lobby directory doesn't include the Air Force's mysteriously named XOIWS unit, but there's a big "Welcome!" sign in the hallway greeting visitors who know to step off the elevator on the third floor. That's more info than I want to know
In Elkridge, Md., a clandestine program hides in a tall concrete structure fitted with false windows to look like a normal office building.
In Arnold, Mo., the location is across the street from a Target and a Home Depot. In St. Petersburg, Fla., it's in a modest brick bungalow in a run-down business park.
And even more that this is revealed, and more like this is still to come -- this is not a one-article job.
An hour-long documentary film will run in October on PBS Frontline. Trailer is available at site and includes pictures of buildings, how many stories down one is buried, how stopped by "commandos," driving around with real estate agent, pointing out certain buildings... it gets worse.
Any terrorist now knows of locations, what floors, how many employees, security involved, etc. This is just from the trailer.
In one section they list the kinds of intelligence, click on IED research, you are given a list of:
Government Organization
HQ Location
Number of Locations
Number of Contracting Companies
Each Government Organization is linked -- click, you get maps of locations, types of work done, charts, and more links, that go deeper and deeper, giving all but where employees live!
This info puts out country in grave danger. It's not about the money. The money is just to grab attention.
These kind of details bothers me -- far more than the money part of the story.
However, the meat of the article is complaints about the Contractors who supposedly aren't supervised and are responsible for the duplication and waste in these programs.
This makes me believe that WaPo got its info from career civil servants who are madder than Hades at the contractors who make more money, follow their own dress code, and deal with less chickens**t than the perms. The fact that the contractors have 10 - 20 years experience and can do their job with their eyes closed is beside the point. That some management couldn't find a valid lead if it bit them on the a** is also irrelevent.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
07/19/2010 15:48 Comments ||
Top||
#14
WaPo got its info from career civil servants who are madder than Hades at the contractors who make more money....
Gov't workers, DoD Civilians, why do they hate us?
#15
Liberty Crossing tries hard to hide from view. But in the winter, leafless trees can't conceal a mountain of cement and windows the size of five Wal-Mart stores stacked on top of one another rising behind a grassy berm. One step too close without the right badge, and men in black jump out of nowhere, guns at the ready.
I stopped writing like this in Junior High-School.
#16
What the hell are you stupid fuckers bitching about? Are you American or not! If an American publication post about a carcinogenic consequence of the overgrowth DOD insane spending and most of all non regulated and non necessary. You scum bags screech liberal conspiracy? Go fuck yourself!!!!! We the people support your careers and expenses for long time Time to cut the budget out (the military) as not necessary and fuck you and your freedom crap one for all
#18
By the 1980s, for example the NRO built a major satellite tracking center, with black budget funding, that was fully operational before congress even found out about it. Especially the senate intelligence committee, on both sides of the aisle, were livid, but the NRO just told them to "go fish".
Um, not quite. Those people, in Congress and elsewhere, who had a need to know and clearance for the NRO's space based collection systems knew perfectly well what was being built, and why.
Lots of partial info got published re: NRO when the agency's existence was publicized by the WaPo.
I remember how the WaPo ran story after story about how NRO had 'wasted taxpayer dollars' with an 'expensive stone lobby' in their new building.
Most WaPo writers know less than zero about EMI. People who do know, know that that building was designed for TEMPEST, i.e. to keep electronic emissions inside and listeners outside, and that the stone was a very efficient way to do that.
#20
Hey Besoeker smoking crack at your age is not good is carcinogenic. Ho man you sound like a little girl screeching mommy mommy clean on isle 16 mommy mommy please...pretty please ...old fagott
#21
Old fagott am I? Well thank you Budget. Speaking of budgets, how about laying off the Mad Dog and getting back to sorting those food stamps. The first of the month is a ways off you know.
#24
Budget Well, you're equipped to be an American, but you're not much of one, are you? You're a phat phuck with an axe to grind, maybe some Obama flair, bumper stickers, or bobble head. You voted for Obama, and now that the war is still going on per CIC Obama's executive discretion, you want to kick your own ass. Instead, looking into calling others un- American is easier than admitting to yourself YOU VOTED FOR THIS PRESIDENT. YOU VOTED FRO TROOP BUILD UP. YOU VOTED FOR THIS EXTENSION IN AFGHANISTAN. YOU VOTED FOR EVERY LAST NICKEL. DIME, AND YOUNG PERSON KILLED IN ACTION. If you didn't know this was coming, you are the stupid, ignorant and naive for not knowing what product you bought when you voted. (if you actually took your ass out of your rectum long enough to go to the polls)
#27
There is a reason (but not necessarily a justification) for all this. We neglected out Intel agencies for a decade, and let it rot via political influence. SO now that we need on, the system we had was sclerotic, defective and ineffective (so we got 9/11, Tora Bora, etc). The growth is in reaction to that - tryign to grow capabilities that had withered due to bureaucratic bumbling on the part of politically connected civil service GS-OhMyGawd rates more concerned with protecting their job and empire than with the accomplishment of the mission of protecting the nation.
So you get this wild growth as the guys at the pointy end of the stick try to get the intel they need in a timely manner and in a format they can use - a demand which the big agencies have notably failed to respond to adequately. The one means they have for this is the speed and flexibility of experienced contractors, who can move more quickly and accurately than hide-bound ass-covering bureaucrats, to produce a system capable of accomplishing the mission goals for that organization (and through that, protecting the nation).
Is it wasteful and duplicative? Yes.
But ask yourself: would you rather have that, or the nice efficient, top-down controlled Intelligence appratus we had on 9/10/2001?
#28
Folks -- try this -- your family is at an identified Home Depot in the article (go to the site, the map shows the location)
A bomb explores and kills your family. Was unthinkable per 9-11. But now real.
The bombers are found. They admit -- we got the beginning of the intelligence for this operation from pics and maps from this Washington Post article.
Our terrorists don't care about the amount of money being spent... the number of agencies... how many contractors, how much bureaucracy.
Our enemy is getting closer everyday -- and now, they have a road map.
Visit the site or not --- doesn't matter. Our enemies are visiting the site. Would like to see the site-meter report from where the clicks come. I'm betting they come from other countries other than the USA.
So feel good about your boycott.
From this article, the documentary to be shown on PBS Frontline in October --- shows the Home Depot in which your family is spending time -- a Saturday, a Sunday, planning and shopping for some wanted changes to your home.
Unknown to you and your family, across the street is one of these "unnecessary," "money grabbing" agencies.
Go back in time, to the Washington snipers, picking off folks. Remember the fright? Even not living in DC, I remember that fear --- magnify that 10 times... and this is what we are now facing.
Now, we have folks boycotting WaPo ( no problem with that ) but folks may now begin to boycott that Home Depot -- just as the public began boycotting gas stations during the times of the Washington snipers.
Who's to blame for the boycott of that Home Depot? Three months from now, I would be hesitate to stake my family's live there. I now know, the terrorist know of this location.
As a terrorist, here's what I now know:
1)I know my location 'cause I got my map
2)I know how many Americans work there
3)I know when they come to work
4)I know when they leave
5)I know the security of my location.
And you want to talk "Bureaucracy?"
I pray that you or some one close to you, is not responsible for the security of me or my family that might happen to work in one of these exposed location, complete with which floor is the most vulnerable, where the security guards are located, etc.
We will ask -- where was the security? They resigned their jobs, always really to risk their lives -- but not with these odds.
#29
Want some real irony? I have a permit, but cannot carry onto the property, not even locked in the trunk of my car in the parking lot. The government disarms me not only at the SCIF, but on my way to and from.
So the Terrs know its a completely unarmed target excepting a few FPS guards.
I liked the good old days when we had armed Marines or MPs (in plainclothes) to guard certain facilities.
#30
Well, let's try to find some shred of a silver lining in the morass of chaos and redundancy in the US Security infrastructure: it makes it nearly impossible for the bad guys to figure out who and what to target.
The infrastructure is so big, that opposing spooks would have a tough time identifying where to "plug in" to obtain any significantly useful information.
Of course - the Wash Post is basically writing the intelligence summary overview reports FOR the foreign spooks. The best intelligence collector that the foreign agencies could ever hope to field could NEVER get an entire newspaper investigative staff to work almost full time for years, capturing and documenting the nature, scope, and locations of the US intelligence infrastructure. Some intelligence chief somewhere must be muttering into his vodka glass "it beggars belief....."
How can a seasoned and superb intelligence officer ever hope to compete with American left-wing journalists, for collecting valuable intelligence information?
So - the whole embroglio should demoralize some opposing intelligence professionals. Unless - they can figure out how to take credit for it.....
#31
RELATED > WORLD NEWS/TOPIX > TOP SECRET AMERICA: GROWING + BEYOND CONTROL, + [post-9-11] EFECTIVENESS OF US SPY AGENCIES IMPOSSIBLE TO DETERMINE?
* Too BIG.
* Too UNWELDY.
* Too COSTLY = EXPENSIVE.
* DON'T EVEN KNOW OR HAVE RELIABLE DATAS [Backgrounds, Wages-Salaries]ON HOW MANY EMPLOYEES = CASES, FIELD AGENTS-OPERATIVES THEY HAVE OR CONTROL???
* ION CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > {YouTube] THE US WILL COLLAPSE SOON | WELCOME TO THE "BALKANIZATION" OF AMERICA. Looming specter of Anarchy, Violent Sectarianism, + ultimately Regional-National DISINTEGRATION? NEW CIVIL WAR?
* BHARAT RAKSHAK [old] > EURASIA REVIEW: DEFEATING THE "ASSASSIN'S MACE": PENTAGON'S NEW AIR-SEA BATTLE CONCEPT [Land-Sea]+ THE STRATEGIC RELEVANCE OF INDIA.
SRINAGAR/BARAMULLA A shutdown called by separatists and restrictions imposed by authorities paralysed life in Srinagar on Sunday, a day after normalcy was restored following 12 days of turmoil.
In Baramulla residents alleged a Class 7 student, identified as Faizan Ahmad Buhroo, drowned in the Jhelum river after being chased by security forces. Security personnel had reportedly chased a stone-pelting mob at Azadgunj Bridge in the town Saturday evening. The teenager, who was among the mob, jumped into the river to escape security forces, reports said.
Darwin award nominee ...
Baramulla administration sought the help of army divers Sunday afternoon to fish out the body of the teenager. The divers conducted searches in the Jhelum river downstream from Azadgunj Bridge in the town, from where the boy had reportedly jumped into the water, reports said.
So far, we havent met any success, but the search is going on, said another official of the Baramulla district administration. Irate youth attacked police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) contingents deployed to enforce restrictions in the town following tension triggered in the town over the reported drowning of the youth.
District Magistrate (Baramulla) Bashir Ahmad Bhat told reporters: Circumstances leading to the boys drowning will be thoroughly probed once we recover his body.
In the neighbouring Sopore town, which is the hotbed of separatist violence, authorities on Sunday imposed restrictions to maintain law and order.
Life was paralysed as the hardline separatist Hurriyat group headed by Syed Ali Geelani called for a valley-wide shutdown on Sunday to protest alleged human rights violations by security forces in Kashmir.
Restrictions have been imposed in Srinagars Old City areas and uptown Maisuma, Batmaloo and Humhama localities to prevent violence, a police officer said here early this morning.
Police and CRPF contingents moved out early morning to enforce restrictions in the city. Traffic intersections were blocked with coils of razor-fitted wire in the Old City and in Maisuma and Batmaloo areas. Both vehicular and pedestrian movement has been disallowed by security forces.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/19/2010 00:00 ||
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Pakistan Air Force (PAF) fighter jets and helicopter gunships bombed various parts of Upper Orakzai Agency on Sunday, killing 25 terrorists and injuring 23 others.
According to security forces, the helicopter gunships bombed the Utmela, Sufaid Darra and Shakar Tangi areas of the Central Orakzai Agency at 8am killing 15 terrorists and injuring eight others. Three hideouts of terrorists were also destroyed in the bombardment. According to sources, fighter jets bombed the Dabori, Ali Khel, Mamoozai and Ghalju areas of Upper Orakzai Agency in the afternoon, killing 10 terrorists and injuring 15 others. Two hideouts of terrorists were also destroyed in the bombardment. Separately, 15 people who were killed due to firing at a passenger coach were laid to rest in Kurram Agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: TTP
#1
Guess their pilots can accomplish more now that they're no longer relying on Google Earth for recon imagery...
Posted by: American Delight ||
07/19/2010 5:56 Comments ||
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#2
Actually, AD, Google Earth is quite good enough for targeting. It's not worth a darn for Bomb Damage Assessment, and it doesn't change often enough for surveillance, but the image quality is pretty good. I worked with poorer imagery in Southeast Asia 40 years ago. We still did all right.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/19/2010 12:54 Comments ||
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#3
Fair enough. But remember Google Earth can be dated. Image quality is different from having current imagery...
Posted by: American Delight ||
07/19/2010 13:08 Comments ||
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#4
AD - I worked 26 years in the photo intel business, at every level from tactical to national. I know ALL the pros and cons from the business, and I've even managed to keep up-to-date on a few things the military has added - from drones to additional imaging capabilities. Yeah, Google Earth can be dated, and they don't update very often, but in that part of the world houses don't move very often. All you really need is HUMINT to let you know where the Bad Guys are bedding down for the night. They'll move tomorrow, but if you can get 'em before they start, you've done a good job.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/19/2010 13:33 Comments ||
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#5
HUMINT? But that's inferior to shiny technology tools! And it costs less! And so... last century.
A bomber has struck a Shia Muslim gathering in the Pakistani Province of Punjab as pro-Taliban militants intensify their attacks against members of the community.
According to Pakistani officials, the bombing took place during evening prayers in the city of Sargodha when the mosque was packed with hundreds of worshippers.
Initial reports said that at least three worshippers had been killed and dozens of others had been injured in the explosion, a Press TV correspondent reported.
"We are gathering details about casualties," a senior police official said, adding that several of the wounded were in critical condition.
There has been a surge in bombings and shootings across Pakistan in recent weeks. On Saturday, sixteen Shia Muslims were killed and four others were wounded in an ambush in the remote tribal Kurram Agency.
Shia Muslims in Pakistan's Kurram Agency have been facing a humanitarian crisis since November 2007 when pro-Taliban militants cut off the area from the rest of the country.
According to local sources, more than 2,000 Shia Muslims have been killed in the region since the start of the campaign by pro-Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked militants.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
How hard is it to pick up a cell phone and start naming hellfire targets?
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
07/19/2010 8:00 Comments ||
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#2
Hey Mullahs,
Why don't you invade Pakistan and protect your Shia brethren.
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/19/2010 10:35 Comments ||
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#3
Sarcasm in the above remark aside, the Iranians have taken a deep interest in the attacks on Pakistani Shiites and have made their displeasure known to the Pakistani government.
However, between the race to complete their 'peaceful' nuclear program, the sanctions and their economic impact and Afghanistan, the Pakistani Shiites have taken a very low position on the Iranian list of concerns.
#5
The Shiite infidels must be destroyed! Er, I mean the Shia infidels. Or is it the other way around? I guess between the Crusaders, Jews, the wrong flavor of Muslim and the occasional odd Zoroastrian, we are all infidels on this bus.
Good thing they don't call it the Religion of Blowing Stuff Up or you would find things exploding in every country where Muslims are found.
#6
Why would Pakistan be concerned about the opinion of Iranian johnnie-come-latelies, when Pakistan has had nuclear bombs for a couple of decades?
Because at this point, it's the 'Sunni World' that has nuclear weapons. The Iranians obtaining them would dramatically change the power structure, in essence become the 'Shiite voice' as well as both recreating a Persian empire and, for some, hastening the return of the Mahdi.
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: An act of sabotage targeted two high-voltage power lines in al-Anbar on Sunday, causing four power pylons to fall down and weakening power feeding in the province, according to the electricity ministry in a press release.
The 400-kilovolt Haditha line and the 132-kilovolt Falluja-East Ramadi line came under acts of sabotage today (July 18), causing pylons 143, 144, 145 and 57 to fall down, Musaab Serri, the ministrys information office director, was quoted as saying in the release received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
The ministrys technicians have embarked today on maintenance works on the two lines to re-operate them, Serri added.
Ramadi, the capital city of the predominantly Sunni province of al-Anbar, lies 110 km west of Baghdad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/19/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
I think Iran is beginning to shape the battlefield.
I think Iran is beginning to shape the battlefield.
Well, two can play at that. Gasoline pipelines anyone?
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
07/19/2010 7:16 Comments ||
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#3
Not necessarily Iran.
The target of any insurgency is the government in power. Especially a Shiite-dominated government that's providing the power lines within a predominantly Sunni province.
#4
See RELATED > WORLD NEWS > VARIOUS > [Govt-Coalition's]FAILURE TO DELIVER ELECTRICITY [regular] HIGHLIGHTS SETBACKS IN EFFORTS TO REPAIR WAR-RAVAGED AFGHANISTAN.
[Al Arabiya Latest] The lawyer of Iraq's jailed former deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz said on Sunday his client has gone on trial on new charges related to "wasting public funds."
"I have been contacted by the Iraqi justice ministry, which informed me that Aziz and around 15 other people were taken to court yesterday (Saturday) to face trial on new charges related to wasting public funds," Amman-based Badie Aref told AFP.
"I don't know what they are talking about. They told me I can't go now to Iraq to visit Aziz and they will get in touch with me later."
Aref said on Saturday he had secured Baghdad's permission to visit his client in prison and was scheduled to leave for Iraq on Monday.
He added he had requested permission for the visit from the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, as well as guarantees of safe passage.
Aziz was among 26 convicts, several of them prominent members of Saddam Hussein's ousted regime, who were moved to the Iraqi-run Kadhimiyah jail in north Baghdad ahead of Washington's handover on Thursday of its Camp Cropper detention facility at the airport.
"The Americans handed Aziz over to his enemies, and they will come up with all sorts of accusations and charge him with anything, which might lead to his execution," Aref said.
"The international community should understand what's happening to Aziz."
Aziz, 73, turned himself in to U.S. forces in April 2003 and is one of Saddam's few surviving top cohorts.
He was appointed deputy premier in 1991, having previously served as foreign minister. In 2009, he was jailed for 15 years for murder and given a seven-year term in August 2009 for his role in expelling Kurds from Iraq's north.
Aziz's family has repeatedly called for his release on health grounds.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Iraqi Baath Party
#1
Charging Aziz with being a "weener" would be double jeopardy. Hopefully the sentence will require him to never appear in public unless he is wearing makeup and a clown costume.
#4
Tariq Aziz knows far too much about the prior regime that still needs to be dragged into the light of day for him to be summarily executed. I'm sure he's dribbling that information out a little at a time, to prolong his life as much as possible.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/19/2010 13:01 Comments ||
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#5
client has gone on trial on new charges related to "wasting public funds."
Now there's an idea I hope catches on. If it does we will be hanging politicians all day long. I'll have to look into getting the TV rights, should make a fortune.
[Al Arabiya Latest] A suicide bomber killed 43 people and wounded at least 41 at an army office west of Baghdad on Sunday, as anti-Qaeda fighters gathered to receive their salaries, defense and interior ministry officials said.
The bomber struck in Al-Balassim, part of Radwaniyah, a Sunni Arab former insurgent hotspot, 25 kilometers (16 miles) from the Iraqi capital, an interior ministry official said.
In Sunday's blast, the suicide bomber blew himself up among "Sahwa" militiamen, Sunni fighters who once allied with al-Qaeda but turned on the militant group in 2006/07, helping U.S. forces turn the tide in the war.
The force, recruited from among tribesmen and former insurgents, is credited with turning the tide in the war against al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Control of the Sahwa passed to Iraq in October 2008, and their wages -- said to have been cut from $300 under U.S. leadership to $100 -- have been paid, often late, by the Shiite-led government.
Baghdad has promised to incorporate 20 percent of the Sahwa into the police and military and find civil service jobs for many of the rest, but the process has been slow and is fraught with risks.
In the past six months many Sahwa fighters and members of their families have been killed in revenge attacks.
The former rebels and tribesmen fret that they are not only in the firing line for al-Qaeda but also viewed with suspicion by the Shiite-led central government.
U.S. and Iraqi officials have warned of the dangers of an upsurge of violence if negotiations on forming a new governing coalition continue to drag on, giving insurgent groups an opportunity to further destabilize the country.
More than four months after a March 7 general election which gave no single bloc an overall parliamentary majority, the two lists which won most seats are still bickering over who should be the next prime minister.
Both former premier Iyad Allawi and incumbent Nouri al-Maliki insist that they are best placed to tackle the war-torn country's insecurity and shaky public services.
The U.S. military has increasingly taken a backseat role since pulling out of Iraqi urban centers in June last year and U.S. troops will end combat operations on Aug. 31 ahead of a full withdrawal next year.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
WORLD NEWS > IRAQ: AL QAEDA TARGETS THE MILITIAMEN RECRUITED TO FIGHT THEM, KILLING 45.
* ION SAME > ALLIES MAY FRET, BUT OBAMA KNOWS AMERICA'S ROLE WELL.
The Islamic Jihad's military wing, the Al-Quds Brigades, said its fighters fired five mortar shells toward an Israeli force east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip overnight Sunday.
A statement issued by the brigades said fighters aimed the mortars at an Israeli force near the As-Sureij Gate east of Al-Qarara along the border with Israel. "The Palestinian resistance has the right to defy any Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people," the Al-Quds Brigades wrote.
Meanwhile, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine's military wing, Jihad Jibril brigades, issued a statement saying its fighters fired four mortar shells toward an Israeli force east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip overnight Sunday.
An Israeli military spokesman said four mortar shells were fired toward Israel, two of which landed in Israeli territory. The remaining shells, he said, landed in Gaza.
Terrorists Suspected Islamic separatists shot dead three people, including one Malaysian, in the latest violence in Thailand's insurgency-plagued southern provinces, police said Monday.
The 57-year-old Malaysian was gunned down early Sunday at his karaoke business in the border town of Sungai Kolok in Narathiwat province. The same day in neighbouring Pattani province, a 50-year-old Buddhist teacher was shot dead at his home by suspected militants, while a 54-year-old Muslim man was killed in a drive-by shooting in front of a mosque, police said.
Thailand last week extended emergency rule in three troubled southern provinces until October as it struggles to quell unrest that has left more than 4,100 people dead in six years.
Yala provincial governor Krisada Boonrach vowed a crackdown on terrorists militants after two people were killed by landmines in an apparent new tactic by the suspected militants, who often use guns or roadside bombs. A police officer died in hospital over the weekend after a landmine blast Friday, when a Buddhist rubber tapper was killed by the same type of device.
Iranian MPs on Sunday passed a bill obligating Tehran to continue 20-percent uranium enrichment, defying mounting Western pressure to halt such work, Fars news agency reported.
"The outlines of the bill were adopted by 171 MPs out of 200 present," Fars said about the legislation, which still needs to be rubber-stamped by the hard-line Guardians Council watchdog before becoming law.
The bill titled "Combating U.S. and British plots to protect nuclear achievements" stipulates that Iran also "retaliate" against inspection of its ships and refusal to give fuel to Iranian planes at international airports, Fars said.
"If the bill is finally passed the Atomic Energy Organization will be required to make provisions for the production and supply of 20-percent enriched fuel to meet the needs of research reactors for medical uses," Fars said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/19/2010 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.
As befits a man who fears he has a US missile with his name on it, Ahmed Abdi Godane knows the importance of keeping a low profile. The leader of Somalia's al-Shebab militant movement, he prefers to be heard rather than seen, ranting away in radio broadcasts from his group's strongholds in northern Mogadishu. Thanks to his fatwahs against pop music, foreign films and even televised football, he already has a captive audience - as of last week, though, he made the rest of the world take notice too. 
[Maghrebia] Morocco on Friday (July 16th) upheld the life sentence for terror cell ringleader and admitted al-Qaeda associate Abdelkader Belliraj, MAP reported. The Sale appellate court also reduced the prison terms for several high-profile Belliraj Cell members, including al-Badil al-Hadari (Civilised Alternative) party leaders Mustapha Moatassim and Amine Regala, Hezbollah TV station Al Manar Rabat correspondent Abdelhafid Sriti and Mohamed Marouani, leader of the unrecognised Ummah (The Nation) party.
The Islamic Jihad's military wing, the Al-Quds Brigades, said its fighters fired five mortar shells toward an Israeli force east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip overnight Sunday. 
