On Tuesday and Wednesday this week, armed militants carried cloth sacks through the streets of Mogadishu, Kismayo and Baidoa towns. They demanded money from traders. They insisted women hand over jewelry. They asked fuel dealers to donate gasoline. And in case anyone missed the message of mandatory donations, militants drove through the streets with electronic megaphones mounted on vehicles.
"We shall intensify the jihad against the apostates and the unbelievers," vowed an al Shabaab official in Baidoa, according to residents there who were reached by phone.
"They (rebels) came to us with sacks and told us to put in some money," said a man who gave his name only as Sabriye, who runs a grocery store in Mogadishu's Bakara market, the largest open-air trading center in the country. "They tax us, shake us down, and are still ordering us to pay money for fighting," said the shop owner, who handed over $50.
Nurto Abdi, who sells costume jewelry in Baidoa, an al Shabaab-controlled town west of Mogadishu that once housed the federal parliament before it was overrun by militants, said he was ordered to donate 20 grams of gold. "I have contributed for my security, because if I refuse, it will cause problems," said Mr. Abdi.
Once these towns have paid up, al Shabaab is expected to move on. Already, traders and residents in smaller towns have been told to prepare their donations by Saturday.
[Arab News] It's been almost two decades since U.S troops were forced out of Somalia after the "Black Hawk Down" battle. Troops from neighboring Ethiopia spent more than two years trying to restore order before withdrawing last year. Now, the US is backing a push by African states to add troops to combat Somali militants.
But Somalia experts who have watched violence spin in circles for nearly 20 years are warning that more troops will not bring peace, and will encounter fierce resistance from the dangerous militant group that claimed deadly twin bombings in Uganda last month. Boy howdy, what would we do without experts ...
Last week African heads of state who met in the Ugandan capital -- the site of the July 11 blasts that killed 76 people watching the World Cup final on TV -- pledged to add 4,000 new troops in Mogadishu. Those troops will add to the 6,000 peacekeepers from Uganda and Burundi now stationed in Somalia's capital to protect the transitional government there.
Somalia has been mired in chaos since warlords overthrew the country's autocratic president in 1991. While few good answers have been found to end near-continuous violence, analysts say the solution does not lie in sending foreign troops to battle the country's most dangerous militant group, Al-Shabab.
"African leaders are daydreaming. You can't solve Somalia's problems by sending in more troops," said Zakaria Mohamud Haji Abdi of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia, a group established to oppose Ethiopia's recent foray into Somalia. "With its devastating effects, the culture of using military might has been tried but failed. Now it is the time to nurture the culture of dialogue." Zakaria is the very model of an unbiased expert. Ask him ...
Violence in Somalia has raged for so long that the conflict rarely grabs the world's attention. Somalia's UN-backed transitional government has made little progress expanding its power or winning over the Somali people.
But the July bombings focused renewed attention on the Horn of Africa nation. The US pledged to financially support any newly deployed African Union troops. Uganda, angered by the attacks, sought an increased mandate for troops to hunt down terrorists.
"A guerrilla war is rarely won militarily. A political solution should be envisioned," said Roland Marchal, a Somalia expert at the Center for International Studies and Research in Paris.
"This does not mean by itself a cease-fire or the wish to get a power-sharing agreement with Al-Shabab. But one should move from the current context where progresses are measured by an increased number of trained soldiers and militants killed," he said.
Somalis, even those from different clans and ideological affiliations, are known to unite when foreign troops arrive. Al-Shabab recently vowed that new AU troops will be "annihilated." The militant group also urged Somalis to fight the peacekeepers.
The US sent troops to Somalia in the early 1990s but withdrew shortly after the military battle chronicled in the book and movie "Black Hawk Down." Ethiopia sent forces over the border in late 2006, but withdrew them in early 2009 claiming they had defeated Al-Shabab, a growing militant force that now counts militants from the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts among its ranks.
Today the Somali government is confined to a small slice of Mogadishu, and Al-Shabab attacks are encroaching in on the government's foothold. But Al-Shabab is unlikely to topple the thousands of well-armed AU troops there.
Analysts say the stalemate should be used to kick-start a locally driven reconciliation that allows Somalis to find peace, like administrations in two northern regions -- Somaliland and Puntland -- did in the 1990s.
Marchal recommends establishing a panel of senior Muslim politicians and Westerners who can try to coax the militants into a reconciliation conference. He says the current transitional government is not the right channel for reconciliation.
Kisiangani Emmanuel, a researcher at the South Africa-based Institute for Global Dialogue, said the international community needs to signal a willingness to accept any government that is acceptable to Somalis -- including insurgents -- regardless of the affiliations of its leaders.
"Military approaches have only helped to radicalize more youths and exacerbate fundamentalism in Somalia," he said.
"The international community needs to realize that its current and previous policies on Somalia have largely strengthened religious extremism and Somalis' distrust of the West."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2010 00:00 ||
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[6 views]
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#1
somalia is notrtn fighting over
Posted by: chris ||
08/05/2010 0:23 Comments ||
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#2
Gee... thanks "experts". How much money did that take. Here is a free analysis.
The people in Somalia will not stop fighting until THEY WANT to stop. As of right now, they show no signs of wanting to stop. So, troops may calm things locally, but will not fix things in the long run. Only the people wanting to violence to end will stop the cycle. Or several thermonuclear bombs can also stop the cycle. Either way.
#3
One way to tame Somalia would involve the West and the Arab countries worried about Al-Q funding an expanded French Foreign Legion to be headquarter in Mogadishu -- bring the Legion back to 25,000 troops with its own air force again, and then tell them "Clean up your backyard". It would take probably 2 years for a revamped Legion to kill off enough of the hotheads to make the country stable.
The leader of al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Abdelmalek Droudkal, said he negotiated with Paris for the release of the French hostage Michel Germaneau before the operation that led to his execution according to a complete message broadcast Sunday by Islamist websites.
"Shame on France and its president, who launched their raids while negotiations were under way," said the head of AQIM in this audio message, of which excerpts had already been released July 25 by the Al- Jazeera Channel to announce the execution of the hostage.
The French authorities never reported negotiations to free the hostage. Thus, on July 26, the French Minister of Defense, Herve Morin, had indicated that Paris could not have "any discussion" with the kidnappers of Michel Germaneau.
" The death of Michael Germaneau is announced through an ultimatum (launched July 11) without any discussion", said Mr. Morin.
"We never had any specific demands. They even refused any discussion for the delivery of drugs that Michel Germaneau needed for his heart problems," added the French minister.
In the full version of the message, the leader of AQIM has also confirmed that six members of his group were killed during the operation launched by the Mauritanian army against AQIM's in the desert of Mali, with logistical support of France who wanted to try to free the hostage.
Michel Germaneau was held by a cell led by Algerian AQIM Abdelhamid Abu Zeid, described as "violent and brutal", which had already executed, 13 months ago, a British hostage, Edwin Dyer, who was kidnapped six months before.
London had refused to yield to the demands of AQIM, which demanded the British to work for the release of several members of the organization prisoners in the Sahel.
These same requirements were made by AQIM, which also holds two Spanish-hostages to guarantee the life of Michel Germaneau.
Following the announcement of his execution, French President Nicolas Sarkozy had promised that this "barbaric act" would not remain unpunished.
"They murdered in cold blood a person of 78, sick, to whom they refused to send the drugs he needed," he declared in a televised speech.
"I condemn this barbaric act, that heinous act that made an innocent victim who devoted his time helping local people," he had said following a meeting of a council of security and defense attended by ministry officials and intelligence.
The death of the French hostage has been the subject of numerous condemnations including those of Washington and the European Union who have denounced a "cowardly act".
Three French hostages are still abroad since the end of 2009: an intelligence officer in Somalia and two journalists in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2010 00:00 ||
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[7 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
Seven people on trial on suspicions of spying for Iran in Kuwait have denied the charges, saying their earlier confessions in Kuwaiti custody came under torture.
Kuwaiti and Saudi officials had confirmed discovering an Iranian spy cell, including a woman and six men.
But the suspects pleaded not guilty during a Tuesday hearing in a Kuwait and rejected the charges of spying for the Islamic Revolution Guardian Corps (IRGC), BBC reported.
The defendants, three of whom are Iranian nationals, said they had been forced to confess to the espionage charges under pressure and torture in Kuwaiti prisons.
Hassan al-Matruk, the defense lawyer for the defendants, called for an investigation by a medical team into his clients' torture claims.
The only woman in the alleged spy ring, an Iranian, was not present in the Tuesday court session. Unlike the six men, she is not detained as she had been released without bail pending trial.
The defendants, including a Kuwaiti and a Syrian national and two others who do not have a passport, are charged with passing on confidential military information to a foreign state, taking pictures of Kuwaiti military installations and spying for Iran.
On May 1, Kuwait's Al-Qabas daily claimed in a report that security agencies in Kuwait had busted a spy cell working for the IRGC.
Iran instantly dismissed the report as "baseless" and condemned it as a "ploy to cause regional phobia towards the IRGC and its efforts to promote security in the Middle East."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2010 00:00 ||
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[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
Hat tip to El Blog del terror for the additional information.
The Mexican Navy 6th Naval Zone seized 203 tons of chemical precursor in the port city of Manzanillo, Colima, Tuesday according to Mexican press reports.
The seizure is the largest in Mexican history and comes less than a week after the "King of Crystal" Sinaloa Cartel capo Ignacio Coronel was killed by Mexican Army troops in Jalisco.
No arrests have been reported so far in the case. The chemicals were aboard a ship and had been admitted illegally into the country.
The shipments were in 16 shipping containers aboard 13 vessels which came from China, Japan and Korea. Chemicals were in 970 drums of 200 pounds each and more than 300 bags of 300 kilograms each
1000.â0.45359237 pounds
2205 lb (to four significant digits)
98.42% of a long ton
One long ton (2,240 lb) is 101.605% of a tonne
110.23% of a short ton
One short ton (2,000 lb) is 90.72% of a tonne
#7
200 tons? The little box of generic decongestant that I had to give my name, address and show photo id to buy contained 720 milligrams of pseudoephedrine HCl. Yeah, less than a gram. Compared to that, 200 tons is, let's see... divide by...carry the one...it's a whole *bleep*ing *bleep*load.
#9
I live in Missouri and have noticed that there are MANY fewer events over the past year where some dingdong has brewed up some sort of crank in their bathtub and blown up their house.
The local constraints on the sale of cold medicine have made buying cheap Mexican drugs more appealing to whacked out losers than making their own.
This has protected untold numbers of children, firefighters and policeman from exposure to hazardous situations.
I say this is great. Stopping whacked out losers from using drugs is a fools errand. Stopping whacked out losers from messing about with toxic chemicals and explosives is the work of angels.
The Islamist rebel leading the anti-Kremlin insurgency in the Russian region of Chechnya Wednesday withdrew an announcement that he was stepping down and vowed to carry on killing "enemies of Allah".
It was not clear what had prompted the about-turn by Doku Umarov, who days before had released a video in which he clearly stated he was stepping down and even named a successor. "Due to the situation in the Caucasus I consider that it is impossible for me to quit my duties," Umarov said in a video posted on rebel websites and Youtube. Like, the Russians want you dead regardless ...
Umarov, whose group claimed the attacks on the Moscow metro that killed 40 people this year, said earlier this week he had grown tired and was stepping down in favour of a younger militant successor named Aslambek Vadalov.
"The previous declaration is annulled. It is a falsification," said Umarov, also known by his nom-de-guerre of Abu Usman, leaning on an automatic weapon. "I declare that my health is good to serve Allah. And I will serve the word of Allah and work to kill the enemies of Allah in all the time that he gives me to live on this earth."
In the video in which he had announced his resignation, Umarov was shown seated on the ground in an unidentified forested area in khaki trousers and a dark blue sweater. He was sitting between two other militants, one of whom was identified as Vadalov.
In the new video posted by the same sources as the first Umarov is this time shown sitting alone in full military fatigues with short sleeves talking in a wooded area.
The Obama administration declined Thursday to put North Korea back on a blacklist of countries supporting terrorism despite pressure from lawmakers to do so.
In its report for 2009, the State Department kept the same countries on the list as it did in 2008 -- Iran, Sudan, Cuba and Syria -- with Iran again listed as the "most active state sponsor of terrorism."
Former US president George W. Bush de-listed North Korea in 2008 after it vowed to end its nuclear program, agreed to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and pledged to disable its nuclear plants. The Obama administration has kept it off the list again after citing narrow legal definition for what constitutes support for terrorism.
In June 2009, 16 US Republican Senators urged President Barack Obama's administration to place the communist regime back on the US blacklist. The North conducted its second nuclear test the previous month and defied international criticism by firing a volley of short-range missiles and threatening to attack the capitalist South.
Though the report does not cover events this year, Republican senators renewed their call for North Korea to be listed again after South Korea and the United States blamed it for sinking a South Korean warship in March.
The U.S. Army inspector general is investigating whether aides to former Afghanistan commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal were insubordinate when they made a series of derogatory comments about top civilian leaders to a Rolling Stone reporter, McClatchy has learned.
The investigation comes as the Pentagon grapples with how much access the reporter who wrote the piece, Michael Hastings, should have to troops. Hastings was banned from a scheduled embed this September in Afghanistan for being untrustworthy, Col. David Lapan, the director of the Pentagon press office, said Tuesday.
Last month, however, the Army granted Hastings an interview with forces he'd embedded with previously in Afghanistan, saying it saw no harm.
The IG investigators have finished questioning officials and are completing the investigation, Army officials told McClatchy. The officials confirmed the investigation but wouldn't say who asked for it or specify what its scope is. The investigation began shortly after McChrystal was relieved of his command in June.
Maj. Gen. William McCoy Jr. said the investigation "is in review," but declined other comment.
Among those who've been interviewed are staff members of Rolling Stone, one Defense Department official told McClatchy. He spoke only on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing and can't be discussed publicly. Hastings said he declined to be interviewed and did not cooperate with the probe.
The Army inspector general can investigate whether military personnel have violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the military standards of conduct or Army regulations.
Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice says that an officer can face court-martial for speaking ill of his civilian leadership: "Any commissioned officer who uses contemptuous words against the president, the vice president, Congress, the secretary of defense, the secretary of a military department, the secretary of transportation or the governor or legislature of any state, territory, commonwealth or possession in which he is on duty or present shall be punished as a court-martial may direct."
If the IG finds violations, he must inform whoever asked for the investigation, and the Army will be compelled to respond.
Shortly after the Rolling Stone article was published, McChrystal was summoned to the White House and relieved of command. He then retired from the Army. That retirement took effect Sunday. Several of McChrystal's aides, who weren't named in the story, remain in the Army, however.
In the article, "The Runaway General," one unnamed McChrystal aide ridicules Vice President Joe Biden _ who'd opposed the troop "surge" for Afghanistan _ and another describes Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, as a "wounded animal."
McChrystal is quoted as saying that the U.S. ambassador in Kabul, Karl Eikenberry, who wrote an e-mail opposing sending the additional troops, "covers his flank for the history books." A McChrystal aide calls National Security Adviser Jim Jones, a retired Marine general, a "clown."
McChrystal has never disputed the accuracy of the account.
The White House didn't respond Tuesday to e-mails seeking comment.
Any commissioned officer who uses contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Homeland Security, or the Governor or legislature of any State, Commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.
#4
So if they can find somebody that actually was insubordinate and was responsible for these actions, are they going to 'unretire' the General? Ask for a do-over, we were just playin' for funsies kind of thing?
Shoulda gotten this in gear before he 'retired.'
#5
I'd make a real good bet that McChrystal was Regular Army [generally mandatory at O4]. When you sign that little piece of paper you'd better read it very carefully for the phrase something like "may be recalled back to active duty by the Secretary of the Army at anytime".
Too late ... Wikipedia's lawyers clearly had fun with the request [pdf], particularly because the bureau, in citing federal law, conveniently omitted the words "badge" and "identification card," apparently to make it seem like the law simply governed images as opposed to fake credentials. "While we appreciate your desire to revise the statute to reflect your expansive vision of it," the site's lawyers wrote, "the fact is that we must work with the actual language of the statute, not the aspirational version ... that you forwarded to us." The site went on to politely decline the request and indicate it would gladly see the feds in court: "Badges and identification cards are physical manifestations that may be used by a possessor to invoke the authority of the federal government. An encyclopedia article is not."
#2
I received a FBI cover letter under Director Robert S. Mueller, III signature. It was a solicitation for money under some phishing scheme. I sent it on to the IC3 white-collar crime complaint site. I don't know whether anything was ever done about it. You've got to wonder if the FBI is used in internet white collar crime via phony emails if they can protect their seal.
Drip ... drip ... drip ...
This trickle of disclosures about the true capabilities of body scanners--and how they're being used in practice--is probably what alarms privacy advocates more than anything else. And that's how you take away one's liberties. Just stick the knife in a millimeter at a time.
#2
Any data government acquires will be used for it's own purposes.
Posted by: Formerly Dan ||
08/05/2010 11:58 Comments ||
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#3
The feds going to tie this into ObamaCare to reduce costs? You need an MRI or CAT scan? Not now. If you've had a recent airport scan it will replace any requests by doctors for MRIs, PET scans, or CATs.
Marking the latest in a growing number of terrorism cases involving an Al Qaeda-linked group in Somalia, several Somali-Americans have been arrested in at least two U.S. cities for allegedly supporting and in some cases fund-raising for the group. Many others, believed to be overseas, were also charged.
In addition, federal authorities unsealed a years-old indictment against one the group's most prominent figures, Alabama-born Omar Hamammi, who has become a star of propaganda and recruitment videos produced by Al Shabab.
In the United States, arrests were made overnight near Minneapolis and Los Angeles. Two of those arrested were Amina Farah Ali and Hawo Mohamed Hassan of Rochester, Minn., naturalized U.S. citizens now indicted by a grand jury on charges of providing material support to a terrorist group.
Prosecutors allege they raised funds "by soliciting door-to-door" in Minnesota's Somali communities, telling potential donors that "the funds were for the poor and needy." Some of that money, prosecutors say, would then be funneled to the group Al Shabab, which has been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government.
In an indictment unsealed Thursday morning, prosecutors also allege that seven others, including unidentified individuals in Minneapolis and Columbus, Ohio, helped Ali and Hallan "collect and forward funds to Al Shabab." Some of the alleged aides appear to be in Somalia, including one individual described as "the al-Shabab administrative governor" in parts of the war-torn country.
For more than two years, the FBI has been investigating how dozens of Americans from Minneapolis and elswhere were recruited to train and fight alongside the Somalia-based group, known as Al Shabab. Most recently, Al Shabab claimed responsibility for the deadly attacks in Uganda and pledged its allegiance to Usama bin Laden.
Federal authorities have long worried that Al Shabab could try to launch attacks inside the United States. In fact, in a May 21 intelligence bulletin, federal authorities noted that "Hammami has appeared in [Al Shabab] media productions urging individuals to travel to Somalia to take part in terrorist training."
"We cannot exclude the possibility that U.S. persons aligned with [Al Shabab] in the Horn of Africa may return to the U.S., possibly to carry out acts of violence," the bulletin said.
Fox News was the first news organization to uncover Hammami's identity and report that a grand jury had indicted him on charges of providing material support to a terrorist group. In a motion to unseal the case against him, prosecutors said Thursday that "widespread public and press discussion of the case and indictment" helped diminish a need to keep the case sealed.
The Justice Department is expected to provide more details about the cases unsealed Thursday during an afternoon press conference in Washington.
A group of human rights lawyers want to stop the Obama administration from authorizing the military and the C.I.A. to kill the radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen believed to be hiding in Yemen.
But the group has found itself in a Catch-22-like bind: because the government has designated Mr. Awlaki a terrorist, it would be a crime for the lawyers to file a lawsuit challenging the governments attempts to kill him.
On Tuesday, the lawyers waded into that thicket. After they filed a lawsuit challenging a Treasury Department regulation that requires them to obtain permission to provide uncompensated legal services benefiting Mr. Awlaki, who has been accused of terrorism ties but has received no trial, the government suggested it was inclined to approve their application for a license. It had been pending for 11 days.
The same government that is seeking to kill Anwar al-Awlaki has prohibited attorneys from contesting the legality of the governments decision to use lethal force against him, says the complaint, filed jointly by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Should the lawyers overcome that hurdle, they would be in a position to seek court resolution of some of the most central legal disputes in the war against Al Qaeda including whether the whole world is a battlefield subject to combat rules, or whether Qaeda suspects far from the armed conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq must, in the absence of an imminent threat, be treated as criminals entitled to trials.
#1
If these lawyers should be successful, then lawyers would be in a position to dictate how wars are fought and with whom. I just don't see how the suit could come out in their favor. This completely ridiculous and ought to be thrown out of the courts.
#2
This would mean that essentially some terrorist group such as AQ could obtain a lawyer, bring a suit and win the war in our court system. I think this highly unlikely but then again one never knows these days.
[Dawn] Pakistan People's Party's Information Secretary Fouzia Wahab on Wednesday said it was useless to blame any single party for the recent killings in Karachi as everybody knew this was terrorism and that the terrorists were responsible for these killing.
Talking to a private television channel, she said the people behind these killings wanted to destabilise Pakistan and they were attacking innocent civilians in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Karachi.
"We should not blame each other as it will not help in fighting this threat head on. I want to quote yesterday's statements by Altaf Hussain who has asked the people to remain calm but even then we saw that 47 people have been killed," she added.
Replying to a question relating to President Zardari's visit to the UK at this critical juncture, she said: You cannot link the two issues as the visit was decided months earlier.
President Zardari has played an important role in the past in bringing all the political parties together and he will continue to play that role, she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2010 00:00 ||
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[4 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
The organisers of an aid flottilla to Gaza said in Stockholm on Wednesday they would make a new attempt to reach the Palestinian territory before the end of 2010.
"We are going to send a flotilla if the siege is not lifted," Ship to Gaza Sweden spokesman Dror Feiler told AFP after the group's meeting in Stockholm.
A six-ship fleet first attempted to reach the Palestinian territory on May 31 but it was halted by an Israeli raid that left nine Turkish activists dead.
"We will go (again) before the end of this year and we are quite sure that this flotilla will be more boats, bigger boats, it will be several passenger boats," said Feiler, who took part in the flotilla's first trip.
"And as determined before, we will not accept Israeli control, we will not accept Israeli inspections and we will go to Gaza," the Israeli-born Swedish artist and longtime activist said.
"We hope that Israel and the international community will realise it is not possible to stop this and that it is not acceptable to continue with the siege," he added.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition said in a statement it planned to enlarge the coalition "to include the various groups around the world that want to join us, as well as intensify our efforts to mobilise a new flotilla."
"We are buying boats, we are getting a lot of funds to get more boats," Feiler said, adding the "Ship to Gaza" movement had spread to France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Norway, Australia, United States and Canada.
Wednesday's meeting was "coordination of our efforts, discussion with the new groups," Feiler said.
He said an exact date had not been set for the future attempt because of boat purchasing and licensing issues, and the weather.
Israel sparked international outrage when its commandos attacked the fleet early on May 31. Israeli troops then forced the six ships in the convoy to dock at an Israeli port, before detaining those on board.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday announced the formation of a four-member panel to probe the deadly raid. Israel has backed the investigation.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition said Wednesday it had "fundamental concerns" with the panel, and that the easing of the Gaza blockade announced by Israel on June 21, was "purely cosmetic."
Israel imposed the siege on the Gaza strip in June 2006 after its soldier, Gilad Shalit, was captured by Gaza militants, tightening it a year later when Hamas seized power in the coastal strip.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2010 00:00 ||
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[7 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
wellby the loks of the SK ship being sunk by torpedpe you evidentlly can''t prove it. sink away
Posted by: chris ||
08/05/2010 0:22 Comments ||
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#2
Might be a bit mean, but I hope the bastards sink at sea before Israel has to intervene. I think it would be better for the world to remove fools like these and leave Israel alone for once. Instead they'll just keep pushing for terrorism in the Middle East until they force a war.
#3
Israel sparked international outrage support when its commandos attacked the fleet early on May 31
Posted by: Spearong Prince of the Bunions9034 ||
08/05/2010 0:59 Comments ||
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#4
Time to lay down a smart-mine field and make sure everyone knows exactly where it is.
If someone chooses to sail into a mine field, bad luck for them.
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
08/05/2010 3:08 Comments ||
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#5
Shoot holes in the sails.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/05/2010 7:36 Comments ||
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#6
Is Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf (NYC 911 mosque) backing this one?
[Al Arabiya Latest] Egyptian security said on Wednesday that Gaza fighters may be behind rockets that hit Israel and Jordan on Monday, Egypt's official news agency MENA reported.
"The preliminary information that the security has received indicates that Palestinian factions from the Gaza Strip are behind that operation," the state news agency quoted an unnamed security source as saying.
The rockets supposedly came from Egypt's Sinai, where Islamist armed groups have operated in the past, hit Israel's and Jordan's Red Sea ports on Monday, killing a Jordanian civilian and injuring three others, Jordanian and Israeli police said.
The violence came hours after Lebanese and Israeli troops exchanged fire in a fierce battle on their border that killed a senior Israeli officer, two Lebanese soldiers and a journalist.
It also followed days of Israeli strikes carried out in retaliation for rocket attacks from the Palestinian territory on Israeli communities.
A top Jordanian government official said that Jordan did not believe it was the target of the rocket attack.
Also, an Egyptian intelligence official said that police backed by 100 Bedouin trackers combed the area where the rocket supposedly came from and said there was nothing.
He added that the region close to the border was also covered by surveillance cameras which saw nothing.
"They (Jordanians and Israelis) said that the rocket was fired from the Pharaoh hotel. We searched and we found nothing," he said.
"If the rocket was fired from near the hotel, it is impossible to reach Eilat or Aqaba because of the distance. Rockets can't fly 25 kilometers (15 miles)," he said speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
Soviet-style Grad rockets of the type used by fighters in Lebanon and Gaza, however, are known to have ranges of at least 25 miles (40 kilometers).
He said he believed the rockets were fired from a mountain in Israel by Palestinian armed groups.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
TOPIX > {Netanyahu] ISRAEL THREATENS TO RETALIATE AGZ ATTACKS ON THREE FRONTS.
versus
* SAME > AHMADINEJAD CALLS FOR [firm] INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE TO ISRAELI ATTACK ON LEBANON.
* SAME > TERRORISM UNDER THE GUISE OF A [AMerican] UNIVERSITY? Islamic American University.
***cough *** cough ****......D *** NGED SOLAR CME = AURORAS!
Just hours before reports emerged that hackers were for the first time attempting to take over specific infrastructure plants, a former CIA director told ABC News that weaknesses in critical infrastructure systems in the U.S. were among the country's greatest threats to national security.
Just hours before reports emerged that hackers were for the first time attempting to take over specific infrastructure plants, a former CIA director told ABC News that weaknesses in critical infrastructure systems in the U.S. were among the country's greatest threats to national security.
"One of [the greatest threats] is the vulnerability of our electricity grid to hacking and to physical attack on things like transformers," former CIA Director John Woolsey said Tuesday. "We have 18 critical infrastructures in the United States: water, food, sewage, etc. All of the 17 others depend on the electrical grid.
"So the vulnerability of that grid to things like hacking is a very serious problem," he said.
The same day, officials at the Department of Homeland Security confirmed a report by The Associated Press that last month hackers targeted critical infrastructure systems with malicious computer code. While it is hardly the first time hackers have attempted to gain access to infrastructure systems, experts said it was first time they employed a certain type of "worm," called Stuxnet, that was created to seize complete control of a specific critical infrastructure location.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran is working on a three-stage rocket to carry a satellite 1,000 kilometres (more than 600 miles) into space, Fars news agency reported on Thursday.
"The country's scientists are working on a three-stage rocket that will take us to 1,000 kilometres," Ahmadinejad, quoted by Fars, told a local television in the western city of Hamedan.
He said the rocket's engines would have a thrust of between 120 and 140 tonnes, four times greater than the rocket thrust used to launch Iran's first satellite into space in February 2009.
"Last time, we sent a satellite to 250 kilometres ... Next year it will be sent to 700 kilometres, and the year after that to 1,000 kilometres," he said.
The launch of Iran's first satellite, named Wipe Israel Off The Map Omid, stirred a wave of criticism from Western countries which fear the potential uses of the Islamic republic's ambitious space programme. Quick, NASA, partner up with those guys and help them with their metallurgy self-esteem!
An obscure al-Qaida-linked group said Wednesday one of its suicide bombers attacked a Japanese oil tanker in the Persian Gulf last week a claim that, if true, would be the first time the terror network has attacked the Japanese.
There have been conflicting reports about what happened to the M. Star supertanker, which was damaged July 28 in the Strait of Hormuz a transit point for about 40 percent of tanker-shipped oil worldwide. An investigation into the cause of the damage is ongoing.
The Brigades of Abdullah Azzam posted a statement on the Internet claiming responsibility for attacking the vessel. The statement's authenticity could not be independently verified but it appeared on websites that usually carry militant groups' messages.
The ship's owner, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, said it was aware of the militant posting and was investigating the claim.
A crew member was injured and the tanker sustained a square-shaped dent on the rear side of the hull during an incident that occurred as the Marshall Islands-flagged vessel entered the strait shortly after midnight. At the time, the ship, loaded with 270,000 tons of oil, was heading from the petroleum port of Das Island in the United Arab Emirates to the Japanese port of Chiba outside Tokyo.
The militant statement identified the purported bomber as Ayyub al-Tishan and carried his picture, showing him dressed in a white Arab robe and head-cover and pointing to a photograph of a tanker on a laptop. It said the bomber was a "martyr" meaning he had died in the attack. It also said it had delayed the announcement until several group members who were involved in the operation "returned safely to base."
The statement claimed the attack meant to "weaken the international blasphemous system that plundered the wealth of the Muslims" and mocked officials who had said the tanker may have been damaged from an earthquake, describing those remarks as an effort by authorities to conceal the nature of the attack because of the effect it could have on oil prices and world economy.
Originally, Mitsui said the tanker damage was caused by "an attack from external sources" while the vessel was passing through the strategically vital waterway between Iran and an enclave of Oman surrounded by the United Arab Emirates.
#5
The tanker was struck at a point where there is nothing important and the hull is at its strongest (in front of the oil tanks) , the hull is obviously double hulled , and would help in absorbtion of any 'wave' damage caused by a small blast
To me it looks like a small boat with an inadequate amount of explosives for the intended purpose rammed the tanker .. Notice the damage is deeper lower down the hull , would be nice to see images of below the water line
Eye witness reports needed really , i.e. what colour smoke was given off , weather conditions , analysis of chemical components scrapped off the hull (postblast residue) and a myriad of other things
All in all looks like an amateur job with weak explosives hitting the harded part of the hull and the blst wave not focused in one direction
But I aint no expert - disclaimer :)
Posted by: Black Charlie ||
08/05/2010 12:03 Comments ||
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#6
Good stuff. Missed Saturday's 'class', so sorry to re-hash.
I'll stay tuned.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
08/05/2010 12:28 Comments ||
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#8
Looks like it might have been poked with a really big finger? Can we check it for really big fingerprints, I'm thinking maybe the magic finger of the 12th Imam, who was coaxed out of the well in Qom to frighten the infidels? Or maybe SHort Round has unleased the secret Iranian Jin special operative?
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran has obtained four S-300 surface-to-air missiles despite Russia's refusal to deliver them to Tehran under a valid contract, a semiofficial Iranian news agency claimed Wednesday.
The Fars news agency, which has ties to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard, Iran's most powerful military force, said Iran received two missiles from Belarus and two others from another unspecified source.
Fars didn't elaborate, and there was no immediate official confirmation of the report.
Russia signed a contract in 2007 to sell S-300 missiles to Iran, a move that would have substantially boosted the country's defense capacities. Israel fears that supplying S-300s to Iran would change the military balance in the Middle East.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2010 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[8 views]
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#1
ION NORTH KOREA has repor also deployed SAMS [SA-10's] to near its border wid South Korea.
* JOONGANGDAILY > DMZ MOSQUITOES SPREADING MALARIA, to nearby SK Towns + Areas. The DPRK had stopped spraying due to nasty Post-CHEONAN chill in relations wid the ROK.
#4
Russia - which has sold other air-defense missiles, aircraft and other weapons to Iran - is in a difficult position in the international standoff with Iran, in part because it does not want to jeopardize decades of political and trade ties with the Islamic republic.
Still, Moscow has lately shown increasing frustration with Iran, and last month backed the new sanctions.
#7
The scuttlebut is this is a bluff. Could be the Persians are looking to secure their ratlines. However, the silence on the rogue Belarus connection should give pause.
#8
At the risk of being yet another pedantic nerd, there's missiles and there's launchers. Sure, four S-300 SAMs will look really really cool in the Mohammed Day Parade, but without the whole radar/launcher/fire control mess all you got is a cool parade float and a scary press release.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Hezbollah has advised Tel Aviv to think twice before committing another act of aggression against Lebanon, saying the resistance movement is capable of striking the heart of Israel.
One day after deadly clashes between Israeli and Lebanese troops, Hezbollah's deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem said on Wednesday that the Shia group is ready to deliver a harsh response to Israel if Tel Aviv attempts to wage another war on the country.
"Israel must understand that any aggression on Lebanon, no matter how small, gives us the complete right to retaliate when and how we find appropriate and in line with Lebanon's political interests," Sheikh Naim Qassem told AFP in an exclusive interview.
"When Israel threatens to destroy Lebanon, it knows Hezbollah is capable of making Israel suffer properly. Israel's territory will be completely exposed and they will have to bear responsibility for that aggression and pay the price," he added.
Qassem's remarks came after a deadly clash on the Lebanese-Israeli border left three Lebanese soldiers, one journalist and a senior Israeli officer dead. Several soldiers from both sides were also injured.
Lebanese forces say the border clash erupted after Israeli troops violated the UN Security Council Resolution 1701 and entered the Lebanese territory. Israel, however, claims that its troops were trying to uproot a tree whose branches were tripping anti-infiltration devices, on the Israeli side of the border.
The Israeli army returned to the conflict zone on Wednesday and removed the tree.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
ION TOPIX > {Examiner.com] ISRAEL ATTACKED IN NORTH AND SOUTH, by Iran??? POTENTIAL IRAN CONNECTION to recent Israel, Jordan, + Egypt rocket attacks + deadly "Tree Incident" between Israeli IDF + Lebanon Armed Forces [LAF].
versus
* IIRC BHARAT RAKSHAK [old] > ISRAEL'S SOUTH IS [relatively] UNDEFENDED AND WIDE OPEN TO ATTACK.
#2
The Israeli army returned to the conflict zone on Wednesday and removed the tree.
And we can remove Hezbollah too.
Posted by: Spearong Prince of the Bunions9034 ||
08/05/2010 1:39 Comments ||
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#3
Usually when they bluster and threaten this much they're up to no good.
Me thinks they got rearmed to the teeth with a sh!tload of new weapons.
Tons of it, and the UN Inspectors didn't see a thing. Of Course.
Not Good.
Stay vigil, Israel!
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
08/05/2010 3:13 Comments ||
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Hezbollah promises action against Israel's potential acts of aggression on Lebanon's Army, responding to the Israeli invaders' recent killing of four Lebanese.
"The Israeli hand that targets the Lebanese Army will be cut off," the Lebanese resistance movement's Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Tuesday.
"...in any place where the Lebanese Army will be assaulted and there is a presence for the resistance, and it is capable, the resistance will not stand silent, or quiet or restrained," Nasrallah said in a speech transmitted via video link in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, Israeli troops entered Lebanese soil, exchanging fire with Lebanon's Army.
The offensive, joined by the Israel Defense Forces and the regime's Air Force, saw the military launching rocket and suspected phosphorous bomb attacks on southern Lebanon.
Three Lebanese soldiers, a Lebanese journalist from the Beirut-based al-Akhbar newspaper and one senior Israeli Army officer were killed in the crossfire. It also resulted in injuries on both sides.
Lebanon's President Michel Sleiman, Prime Minister Saad Hariri as well as Iranian and Jordanian officials have also voiced their condemnation of the invasion.
The Hezbollah leader furthermore praised the Lebanese Army's bravery against the incursion, which he denounced as violation of Lebanon's sovereignty.
He said Tel Aviv has repeatedly breached the United Nations Resolution 1701, which ended Israel's 2006 war on Lebanon, regretting the international bodies' refusal to probe the incidents.
About 1,200 Lebanese, most of them civilians, were killed during the 33-Day War. The Israeli military, however, was met with Hezbollah's resistance and was eventually forced to withdraw without having achieved any of its objectives.
Nasrallah also held Israel responsible for the assassination of the country's former leader Rafik Hariri, who was killed alongside 22 other people in a massive car bombing in the capital on February 14, 2005.
"I accuse the Israeli enemy of the assassination of (former) Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and... I will prove this by unveiling sensitive information at a press conference on Monday."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2010 00:00 ||
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[8 views]
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#1
"You cutta offa my hand, I cutta offa you pr@*k!"
Posted by: Spearong Prince of the Bunions9034 ||
08/05/2010 1:10 Comments ||
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#2
HAARETZ > NASRALLAH: HEZBOLLAH WILL RESPOND IFF ISRAEL ATTACKS LEBANON'S ARMY.
* SAME > [Syria's] ASSAD: WE WILL SUPPORT LEBANON [+ Hezbollah] IN FACE OF CRIMINAL ISRAELI AGGRESSION.
* ISRAEL NN > LEBANESE ARMY ADMITS: WE FIRED FIRST. But-t-t, the LAF was protectng Lebanese sovereignty.
#3
Nasrallah is in my list of people in this world that need to be hit in the face, full force, with an aluminum baseball bat.
no threat intended or implied [sarc]
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
08/05/2010 3:16 Comments ||
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#4
Last night we were watching "The Bourne Identity" and my grandson (21) aked me if the CIA really had Assassins.
I answered "I'm afraid Not".
He asked
"Why do you think not?
and I replied
"There are too many assholes living today who should be dead, if CIA Assassins existed, they wouldn't".
Too bad.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/05/2010 13:10 Comments ||
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Commander of the Iranian Army's Ground Forces has downplayed the US threat to attack Iran, saying the Islamic Republic will give a crushing response to any strike.
"If any threat strikes against Iran, the Islamic Republic armed forces are fully prepared to counter them on the ground, sea and air," IRNA quoted the Brig. Gen. Ahmad-Reza Pourdastan as saying on Tuesday.
Pointing to Sunday's remarks made by the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, concerning the possibility of a US attack against Iran, General Pourdastan explained that the US does not possess the military potential to attack Iran.
"Military threats of US officials against the Islamic Republic are nothing new, we're certain that the US military forces are in an appalling condition," he added.
"The increasing number of deaths and suicide among American forces attest to the failure of the US in Iraq and Afghanistan," he further explained.
General Pourdastan highlighted that the Iranian army's ground forces have profound defensive military capabilities and will give a crushing response to any threat against the Islamic Republic.
"Iran is keeping a watchful eye on the Islamic Republic's enemies," he said, adding that the country has launched various drills to remain prepared.
On Sunday, Mullen said that the US military plans to attack Iran, although he expressed concern over the repercussions of such a strike.
In a quick response, Iran called the remarks imprudent saying, they grow out of US frustration for their failure in the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
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[7 views]
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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.
On Tuesday and Wednesday this week, armed militants carried cloth sacks through the streets of Mogadishu, Kismayo and Baidoa towns. They demanded money from traders. They insisted women hand over jewelry. They asked fuel dealers to donate gasoline. And in case anyone missed the message of mandatory donations, militants drove through the streets with electronic megaphones mounted on vehicles.
The leader of al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Abdelmalek Droudkal, said he negotiated with Paris for the release of the French hostage Michel Germaneau before the operation that led to his execution according to a complete message broadcast Sunday by Islamist websites.
The Islamist rebel leading the anti-Kremlin insurgency in the Russian region of Chechnya Wednesday withdrew an announcement that he was stepping down and vowed to carry on killing "enemies of Allah".
The Obama administration declined Thursday to put North Korea back on a blacklist of countries supporting terrorism despite pressure from lawmakers to do so.
Wikipedia's lawyers clearly had fun with the request [pdf], particularly because the bureau, in citing federal law, conveniently omitted the words "badge" and "identification card," apparently to make it seem like the law simply governed images as opposed to fake credentials. "While we appreciate your desire to revise the statute to reflect your expansive vision of it," the site's lawyers wrote, "the fact is that we must work with the actual language of the statute, not the aspirational version ... that you forwarded to us." The site went on to politely decline the request and indicate it would gladly see the feds in court: "Badges and identification cards are physical manifestations that may be used by a possessor to invoke the authority of the federal government. An encyclopedia article is not."
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran is working on a three-stage rocket to carry a satellite 1,000 kilometres (more than 600 miles) into space, Fars news agency reported on Thursday.
