[Dawn] Two Taliban leaders were killed and two others were captured as part of the Nato coalition's stepped up campaign against the insurgency's mid-level command structure and its supply lines, the coalition said Monday.
Also on Monday, about 300 to 400 people protested the capture of nearly a dozen people in an overnight raid in Behsud district of Nangarhar province in the east, said Hazrat Mohammad, a front man for the provincial police chief.
The demonstrators claimed that those apprehended in the coalition raid were not bully boys.
A joint Afghan and Nato force killed Fared Gul, who set up roadside kabooms and orchestrated bomb attacks on coalition convoys and aircraft, during an overnight operation in Zurmat district of Paktia province, the coalition said.
Nato also reported that Hafiz Janan, a key Taliban leader involved in training imported muscle, was killed Saturday in the Bakwa district of Farah province in the west.
Another Taliban leader was captured in Baraki Barak district of Pashtun-infested Logar province, south of Kabul.
Afghan and coalition forces also captured a key Taliban leader of a bombing ring and several suspected gunnies in the Lashkar Gah district of Helmand province on Sunday.
The bully boy leader is based in the Dand district of neighbouring Kandahar province and is responsible for violent attacks on Afghan civilians and coalition forces. He also is suspected of planning a heavy machine gun ambush on coalition forces, intimidating civilians and training gunnies to execute bomb attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2010 00:00 ||
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[Tolo News] At least two civilians were hurt on Monday in Momand Dara, a district in eastern Nangarhar province, after a jacket wallah riding a cycle of violence detonated his boom jacket
Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, a front man for Nangarhar governor, told a TOLOnews news hound that a jacket wallah riding a cycle of violence blew himself up at 01:00 pm local time in Joi area in Momand Dara district.
The incident left two civilians maimed, he said.
It is said that the target of the jacket wallah is not clear yet.
Immediately the two maimed were taken to a nearby clinic in the district.
Local security officials said police forces have already started investigations about the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2010 00:00 ||
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(Itar-Tass) - Russia's tanker NS Spirit was attacked by pirates while staying at its anchorage at Nigeria's port of Lagos, the press service of Novoship, a shipping company that owns the vessel, said on Monday.
Ten armed people attacked the tanker and opened fire from automatic rifles at 01:49 Moscow time 30 miles off the coast. One crewmember was maimed and others managed to hide. Soon after the attack pirates left the tanker, no new attack attempts had been taken, the press service said.
According to the state maritime rescue coordination centre, the tanker' s captain had broken his hand during the attack.
NS Spirit with the deadweight of 47,000 tonnes was built in Croatia in 2006. The tanker's crew includes 22 Russian citizens. The tanker is flying the Liberian flag. It headed for the port of Lagos with 37,700 tonnes of petrol.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2010 00:00 ||
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Three armed suspects were killed and 11 others were arrested in gun fights between Mexican security forces and drug traffickers in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, over the weekend, according to Mexican news accounts.
Three armed suspects were killed Saturday night when the van they were aboard crashed into a butcher shop in Monterrey.
A Grupo de Operaciones Mixtas (BOM) detachment patrolling near the corner of calles Durango and Libertad in the Cerro de la Silla colony fired on a stolen SUV precipitating a pursuit.
The pursuit ended when the driver crashed his vehicle into Tio Lalo's butcher shop on Calle 2 de Abril (Jesús Dionisio González) near Avenida Junco de la Vega. The crash caused the vehicle to burst into flames, and despite the flames, one of the occupants continued firing on security elements until he was killed by return fire.
Three civilians, a mother and her two children unrelated to the pursuit managed to escape the fire, which included several detonations, and the firefight by hitting the ground. The children were hurt by smoke inhalation and were taken for medical treatment.
Security forces found two rifles, ammunition and grenades in the burnt out wreckage.
The following morning, Mexican Marines initiated an operation in Apodaca in the Arboledas de Virrey colony, a suburb of Monterrey, establishing a cordon on calles Cartajena, Cerezo, Del Chopo and Mango, isolating a residence on calle Durazno.
Two suspects were arrested, while three others attempting to escape the cordoned were detained as well.
Reports say five Apodaca municipal police officers were arrested as well.
During the operation, a van carrying armed suspects attempted to break into the cordon, initiating a firefight with marines. Four civilians were wounded in the exchange including a 13 year old girl.
The van apparently managed to escape the confrontation.
In a safe house marines found military clothing and foodstuffs.
Later that day several roadblocks were established by armed suspects in the municipalities (counties) of Monterrey, Apodaca, San Nicolas, Guadalupe and Escobedo in the Monterrey metropolitan area.
Roads blocked included Diego Diaz de Berlanga, Santo Domingo and Romulo Garza in Monterrey; in San Nicolas de Los Garza, boulevard Miguel de la Madrid, and in Guadalupe, Fidel Velazquez and Copan.
The blocks triggered 12 vehicle accidents, but no one was reported hurt. despite several vehicles used to block roads were hijacked at gunpoint.
The roadblocks were later confirmed to be released later that day.
In Sunday evening and night, and early Monday morning three separate military counternarcotics operations took place in Monterrey yielding a number of arrestees and the seizing of several contraband including munitions and drugs.
At 1600 hrs two suspects were arrested in Balcones de Santa Rosa colony in Apodaca with an amount of marijuana, 42 .308 caliber ammunition and two vehicles.
At 2100 hrs on calle Chihuahua in the Vivienda Popular colony in Guadalupe, Mexican soldiers seized an abandoned stolen truck with three 40 mm grenades, a fragmentation grenade and an amount of cartridges of different calibers.
Finally at 0130 hrs in La Espiga colony in the Cadereyta Jimenez municipality, four suspected drug traffickers were arrested with an amount of marijuana, a grenade launcher, a handgun and several firearm cartridges.
[An Nahar] Azerbaijan authorities have released two Hizbullah activists convicted of plotting an attack on the Israeli embassy in the capital, Baku in 2008, Kuwaiti Daily Al Rai reported on Monday.
Ali Hussein Najmeddin and Ali Muhammad Karaki were charged along with four Azeri citizens with attempting to bomb the Israeli embassy in retaliation for the liquidation of Hizbullah's military commander Imad Moughniyeh and sentenced in 2009 to 15 years in prison, Al Rai reported.
An Azerbaijani security source told Al Rai that Najmeddin and Karaki were deported to Leb.
The source said that Najmeddin and Karaki's release occurred after weeks of intense negotiations involving Iran, which ended in Hizbullah's commitment not to use Azeri territories as a field for its activities. Seriously? Sent home on an "I'll be good, cross my heart!"?
The source said that the Azeri authorities concerned succeeded in discovering the plan of Hizbullah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards through monitoring the group which was infiltrated by local intelligence agents.
*sigh* Even Soviet satellites are not what they used to be.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
I hope both of them have embedded GPS tracking chips. I would WISH that once we discover their routine, we nuke the hockey-stick out of each node. Of course, nothing serious will happen to them until the Israelis decide to take a hand. If that happens, they're toast.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/23/2010 13:14 Comments ||
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#4
TW: and yet Tokyo is full of gormless, underemployed NEET and hikkikomori. The demographic issue is long-term, not a short-term manpower issue. Admittedly, they will probably have to sweat the otaku a bit, but it'd probably be good for 'em.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
11/23/2010 14:02 Comments ||
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#5
the Japanese populace better wake up and realize that no matter how much abuse they heap on their military people China is still antagonistic towards them.
#6
Japan may not be able to staff a land war in Asia, but it would not take them long to develop their own capability to turn NK or the Middle Kingdom into radioactive glass.
#7
Any appropriate Japanese response will involve primarily submarines in order to make the maximum impression on the ChiComs. Those don't take a lot of manpower.
#8
A lot of itchy trigger fingers in the North during the South Korean fireworks exercises? or a planned response to the exercises to aid Jr in solidifying support amongst the brass or maybe an independent action by the brass to show daddy's boy who is in charge.
So many possibilities, whether this is done in concert with "leaked" nuclear info or in addendum to by independent actors is question at hand for analysts.
The Norks always threaten war and peril during planned SK'en military exercises and on cue claims the South shot first during said exercise.
UN will issue limp wristed condemnation. What will Obama and his war cabinet do? Likely nothing.
#10
...seems the Norks called the South before the attack.
"Our army was carrying out military training, and there was a telegram from North Korea with a protest and questioning whether this was an attack," a military spokesperson was quoted as saying by South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
#12
TW: and yet Tokyo is full of gormless, underemployed NEET and hikkikomori.
Mitch, the hikikomori aren't capable of soldiering, or anything else. I started reading up on the phenomenon recently, and it sounds like the behaviour is a modern answer to severe anxiety disorder, because it most certainly is not normal. And the percentages seem right to my ignorant eye. The modern version of the American poetess Emily Dickinson, only without the talent, or Beth in Little Women.
As for the NEETs, those who are not incapable (mentally/emotionally/physically handicapped) would certainly benefit from a course of soldiery, although the effort to effect the transformation would likely hinder rather than help the Japanese army do its mission.
Hikikomori hide away because people are nasty to them. I know people who do this in Australia, too. People are socially vicious when they can be without repercussion and when they do not have a kind heart to stop them.
The best thing is to stick them in the army where there are clearly defined regulations. If they follow the rules they have a role, a place and a social identity. They have respect of their peers - and if given protection from bullying then that is a great solution.
And they can defeat the NKors at the same time. sweet.
#17
Well,,,, The South Korean's have supported this view of the USA so....
perhaps its time for them to have some deep thinking...
Posted by: Water Modem ||
11/23/2010 18:11 Comments ||
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#18
It will take Japan about 2 years to fashion war heads and a few more to fit them on the missiles they have developed for their spectacular "space program".
#20
there are certain benefits to being the military welfare state, BP
strategic defence benefits for the mighty US
the important thing is to NOT be a cash cow... don't be an aid money welfare state.
Unfortunately the US Government does that too, funding most of the UN budget and giving billion after billion to "poor" (read: corrupt) third world countries.
this money does NO good just props up broken systems and corrupt regimes
and robs the US taxpayers from whom it was taken by force by the IRS.
US taxes should be spent on US citizens. Fixing roads, collecting garbage, providing schools and universities and hospitals. Equipping your military with the best and latest tech. That is the purpose of your taxes. Not giving a few billion to Kenya or Ghana or the Somali TFG or any other bs project.
(Yonhap) -- South Korea is indefinitely postponing Red Thingy Cross talks with North Korea, an official said Tuesday, hours after the North killed at least two South Korean marines in an artillery attack.
"We decided it would be inappropriate to hold Red Thingy Cross talks under current circumstances in which the North has fired artillery shells on Yeonpyeong Island," said an official at the Unification Ministry.
The two sides were slated to hold the talks in the South Korean border town of Munsan on Thursday to discuss ways to regularize the reunions of families separated across the border by the Korean War. The sides held their first reunion event in a year from late October to early this month in the North.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/23/2010 08:02 ||
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(Yonhap) -- President Lee Myung-bak ordered his military Tuesday to strike North Korea's missile base around its coastline artillery positions if it shows signs of additional provocation, his spokeswoman said.
In a video conference with Gen. Han Min-koo, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the president ordered "multiple-fold retaliation" against the North for its artillery attack on a South Korean island, according to presidential spokeswoman Kim Hee-jung.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/23/2010 07:59 ||
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#1
"Leave a crater that can be seen from space. With the naked eye."
North Korea on Tuesday fired dozens of artillery shells at a South Korean island, killing two soldiers and setting houses ablaze, in one of the heaviest attacks on its neighbor since the Korean War ended in 1953.
The attack follows moves by iron leader Kim Jong-il to make his youngest son heir apparent to the family dynasty. Experts say that for decades the Korean leadership has played a carefully calibrated game of provocations to win concessions from the international community and impress his own military. The risk is that the leadership transition has upset this balance and that events spin out of control.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who has pursued a hard line with the reclusive North since taking office nearly three years ago, said a response had to be firm following the attack on Yeonpyeong island, just 120 km (75 miles) west of Seoul.
"Houses and mountains are on fire and people are evacuating. You can't see very well because of plumes of smoke," a witness on the island told YTN Television before the shelling ended after about an hour.
North Korea said its wealthy neighbor started the fight. "Despite our repeated warnings, South Korea fired dozens of shells from 1 p.m. ... and we've taken strong military action immediately," its KCNA news agency said in a brief statement.
South Korea has been conducting military exercises this week but it was not clear whether there had been any drills near the island that could have triggered the incident.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the latest rise in tension represented a "colossal danger."
China, the impoverished North's only powerful ally, was careful to avoid taking sides, calling on both Koreas to "do more to contribute to peace."
"China hopes that the relevant parties will do more to contribute to peace and stability in the region ... it is imperative now to resume the six-party talks," a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Hong Lei, told reporters.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/23/2010 07:56 ||
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North Korea fired artillery at South Korea's Yeonpyeong island in the Yellow Sea off the countries' west coast Tuesday afternoon, setting houses on fire. South Korea returned fire, according to residents on the island speaking on South Korea's YTN television network.
A spokesman for South Korea's joint chief of staff confirmed the exchange but didn't have details except to say "scores of rounds" were fired by the North.
The artillerymore than 50 rounds, according to island residents speaking on YTNwas fired from positions south of the North Korean city of Haeju.
The attack started at 2:34 p.m. local time, according to residents who were speaking on the TV network. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
About 1,200 people live on the island, which is 10 kilometers south of the tip of North Korea's south coast.
The attack is the second by North Korea this year against South Korea in the maritime border area of the Yellow Sea. In March, a North Korean submarine torpedoed and sank a South Korean warship near an island about 40 miles west of the island that was hit Tuesday.
A witness said residents of the island of Yeonpyeong, off the west coast of the peninsula near a disputed maritime border, had been evacuated.
Yonhap news agency said four South Korean soldiers had been wounded in the shelling, the biggest attack in years.
YTN television quoted a witness as saying 60 to 70 houses were on fire after the shelling and TV footage showed plumes of smoke coming from the island. It said a South Korean fighter jet had been deployed to the west coast after the shelling.
"Houses and mountains are on fire and people are evacuating. You can't see very well because of plumes of smoke," a witness on the island told YTN.
"People are frightened to death and shelling continues as we speak," the witness said.
News of the exchange of fire sent the won tumbling in offshore markets with the 1-month won down in NDF trading.
The impact was felt internationally, with U.S. 10-year Treasury futures rising and the Japanese yen falling.
South Korea's military confirmed the exchange of firing, without providing more details.
#2
The revelation of the secret enrichment facility, and Japan's harsh reaction, could well have convinced the new North Korean leadership that patience with their stalling and evasion is about to run out, conciliatory words from the US not withstanding.
#4
IMHO this looks more serious than the usual two-year-old temper tantrum from the Norks - especially coming on the heels of their arrogant unveiling of their nuclear capabilities.
This smacks of Chinese proxy war to me
The middle kingdom is pretty cranky about pressure to float Yuan, improve human rights.
i bet it suspects the US is behind the Nobel Peace prize being given to that Chinese dissident too
that is a loss of face issue for the Yellow Peril. Asians don't like that - it goes with the shame-honour culture.
North Korea cannot eat without China. Cannot breathe without China. Cannot build nuke facilities without China. It is the beating stick of China.
they would not be so arrogant if not given the green light from Beijing.
Beijing might want to show the US just who is boss in the pacific now that the US is broke and its military stretched over Af-Pak // Iraq
If China is pushed too much in a direction it doesn't want to go, it might let NK set off a suitcase nuke in the West, just to get its point across
or let them start a war with SK so the US military would be stretched again to a third theatre of war
#6
Yes anon, I agree that this is part indirect retaliation from the PRC and also it is intended to show Chinese and Nork contempt for Obama and Hillery.
The suitcase nuke is, however, not a strong possibility. The technology required is pretty high.
A dirty bomb is more likely.
Posted by: lord garth ||
11/23/2010 7:52 Comments ||
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#7
If China is pushed too much in a direction it doesn't want to go, it might let NK set off a suitcase nuke in the West, just to get its point across
Obama or not, that would be total war, and I don't see China risking total war over floating the yuan. They view the 21st century as their century as long as they don't screw it up.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/23/2010 7:54 Comments ||
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#8
to the brink of a nuke war to establish your manhood, Kim? Pussy
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/23/2010 8:15 Comments ||
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#9
What the Chinese are blind to, as well the our own Beltway, is that the American people can act. The influence of the Tea Party in two short years provides a warning that a populists boycott could hammer a lot of planning by all the big players just as economics are at the edge.
#10
Chinese opinion is just like American opinion, all over the map. Ultimately the US and EUrope are the goose that has laid the golden egg of two decades of Chinese prosperity and entry to the highest levels of world power. Are they about to kill the goose that laid that golden egg? For what? The Chinese are not totally ignorant of 20th century history. China in a major war would not end well for anyone.
gorb has this right. But the SORKs should play tit for tat hardball. This BS gets out of hand fast. They under reacted to the sub attack and they should not make the same mistake twice.
#11
I agree with Steve White. The Chinese prefer a long term strategy,
My bet is on an internal power struggle in NK
Posted by: European Conservative ||
11/23/2010 9:07 Comments ||
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#12
If China is involved, then rather in the sense of "Look how important we are in keeping the region quiet."
NK will back down soon and I guess South Korea is smart enough to avoid escalation
Posted by: European Conservative ||
11/23/2010 9:10 Comments ||
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#13
The Sydney Morning Herald reported:
NORTH KOREA has burnished the leadership credentials of its 26-year-old dictator-in-waiting with a deadly artillery attack on South Korean territory, causing its neighbour to return fire and scramble F-16 fighters.
A North Korea expert at Beijings Central Party School, Zhang Liangui, told the Herald that Kim Jong-un was deliberately destabilising the environment in order to mobilise the military and consolidate his power.
#14
Hildebeast has done a wonderful job for our Nobel Peace Prize winning President. With the continued assist provided the Chinks by the Democracts (plunging America into debt and selling the debt to China-Obama and the Dem Congress, Mr Hildebeast selling advanced missile technology to the Chinese and equipment), with the new Military and Economic power, China can now do whatever the hell it wants.
#15
As someone said elsewhere, leave a crater that can be seen from space.
After all, Obama just signed NEW START with the Russians, so we suddenly have all these extra nukes that we have to get rid of one way or the other. Just sayin' ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/23/2010 9:40 Comments ||
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#17
It might be a good idea for Taiwan to have a practice security drill. Just sayin'. Someplace on the far side of the island. With its forces widely dispersed.
#18
I spoke with a guy who is from China, and he is of the opinion that China tolerates Korea because the sum of their antics so far has been in China's favor.
So I'm guessing the Norks are probably about two or three bad moves away from getting seriously spanked by the Chinese. Or one really bad move.
The attack on the Cheonan does not really work against China. This artillery attack does not really work against China. People might say that China is behind this, but they can't prove it, and will back down from the bluster in the end.
Sure the nuke thing is working against China a bit, but it works even more against the US. The existance of this nuke program costs us money, effort and reputation.
I wonder if the Chinese feel that the Norks are sure to fail, or if they are factoring in Iran being a partner of the Norks. Maybe they are OK with Iran helping the Norks because Iran is sending China oil, and China figures they will just stomp the Norks flat when the day comes if they don't fail all by themselves before then. It seems that China doesn't care if Iran has nukes.
I won't be fun for China when their useful idiot suddenly shows up with fangs, but they will deal with it.
#19
It's only going to get hotter. The "new normal" with NK pounding SK with artillary, 20 minutes of US Government web traffic being diverted to China, and an "unexplained" ICBM plume rising up out of the ocean 35 miles off the coast of L.A. Heralds a new, deadly "new normal" for America.
#20
gorb: Don't underestimate the Cheonan factor. The South is still -1, and a big -1 as far as revenge goes. And the Koreans are big believers in revenge. This attack, even with a response, puts them down to -2.
At this point, the Skor are just looking for an excuse. If the Norks try it on one more time, there is likely going to be some major bloodshed.
Playground rules. When two small in stature boys want to fight, even a big boy can get nailed a good one if he tries to get in the way.
#21
Yeah, but it would be WW III for both of them if they go at it. Half of Seoul would be gone. All that would be left of Pyongyang would be just a memory. So they will avoid all-out war unless someone makes a mistake.
Psychologically speaking, withholding aid might give the South the needed feeling of revenge.
Thereby prolonging the conflict.
And throwing the ball back in China's court.
Then again, maybe the South would go for the decapitation strike ....
#22
This is the fruit of the policy of appeasement and weakness. Then Norks understand power. That is how you deal with them. Now they are again at the old playbook of causing mischief and threatening doom if you do not give them a handout. Playing catch-up is a pain.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/23/2010 13:19 Comments ||
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#23
very interesting. all. It is true NK is China's useful idiot
affording it plausible deniability while being a valued irritant to stick it to the West.
The China gets to ride in to save the day, reigning in their crazed neighbour.
"You need us to help you over Korea, so don't threaten us over our cheating trade policy of a low-ball Yuan, or Taiwan" they can say to the US.
Ignoring NK and cutting off the aid makes them even more dependent on China and inspiring even more of the devil-may-care attitude in this puppet of the Middle Kingdom.
Not that giving them any aid is the answer: no!
This does look like the start of something more serious.... yes maybe internal struggles are the cause but I still think the root cause is the green light from Beijing
Yes I think the suitcase nuke not the avenue
But I do think starting a border war with SK suits both China and the NKs.
With succession issues nothing unifies the population better than an external enemy anyway. The time seems right?
US dollar up, bonds up, flight to safety on international markets.
I suspect the best response would be public and very obvious restraint now from SK but lay the war plans well. Go onto a war footing immediately.
Wait for strike 3 - public and obvious aggression from NK then hit it with Thor's mighty war hammer, such a blow that they never will recover. So quickly that China has no chance to get involved. A 24-hour war that just obliterates all traces of the NK regime.
#24
I still think the root cause is the green light from Beijing
The guy I was talking to was of the opinion that the Norks do not consult that much with China before an "event".
So maybe it was more of the lack of a red light.
Maybe the Chinese and the Norks kind of just work this way to give the Chinese another level of deniability?
Personally, I think we could get away with pounding on the Norks a bit without raising many eyebrows. Maybe sink their subs or bomb the crap out of one of any artillery batteries that can hit Yeonpyeong island. The Chinese would pretend they don't like it, but it would be no skin off their nose. It might even push the Norks into line a bit so they consult with the Chinese more.
That said, if this is all about a successful power shift to Junior, I guess what we do could very well have influence on who assumes power after Kimmie dies. Do we want Junior in power? Do we want the military in power? Who else might assume power? Who would be more likely to play nice with the neighbors and not push Japan and the South into nuclearizing?
Is Kimmie the one calling the shots here and giving credit to Junior? Is it Junior? Is this just another incident set off by hypersensitivity, or did the Norks know this exercise was coming up and someone decided to take advantage of it?
POLICE have detained ten Islamists in Europe who are suspected of plotting an attack in Belgium, the prosecutor's office said.
Ten cell phones, ten laptops... who knows where that might lead. Well done, lads and lasses!
The arrests were part of "an inquiry into international jihadist terror," a spokesman for the federal prosecutor's office said. "In total ten people suspected of preparing an attack in Belgium were arrested in Belgium, Holland and Germany," he said.
The suspects are from Belgium, The Netherlands, Morocco and Chechnya, the prosecutor's office said in a statement. The group used the extremist website Ansar Al Mujahideen.
This probably isn't the Turkish group Germany was looking for, but possibly the one from Pakistan? Or were there, perhaps, more groups wandering the Western European landscape that we hadn't been informed of?
The target of the plot was unknown.
The raid followed a months-long investigation that was launched by authorities in the northern Belgian city of Antwerp in late 2009, the office said.
Hmm. Who was arrested in late 2009 in Antwerp who might have tattled -- or whose cell phone and laptop might have tattled?
The investigation focused on recruiters, would-be "jihadists" and the financing of a Chechen "terrorist organisation," it said.
Russia has fought two full-blown wars with separatists in Muslim-majority Chechnya since 1994, which left the region devastated.
Yes, yes. Although the logical response to such devastation would be to attack Russia, not Belgium. At least to those of us who studied geography instead of jihad.
[Arab News] Ten suspected Somali pirates captured during the hijacking of a German fat merchantman in April went on trial in Hamburg on Monday, in Germany's first modern-day piracy trial.
The suspects are accused of boarding the German-flagged MV Taipan at gunpoint in April with the aim of demanding a ransom.
"We think we have compiled enough evidence," said Wilhelm Moellers, front man for the Hamburg public prosecutor's office. "We presented the court with 22 witnesses and a mass of material evidence, including the weapons used by the accused."
He said the accused included seven adults and three young people who, once their exact age has been determined, could be tried under juvenile law and face lesser prison sentences of 10 years if convicted. The adults face 15-year sentences.
The defense argued that the poverty and hardship faced by people in Somalia had to be taken into account in the trial.
"Anyone who has read up a little on Somalia knows it is a very poor country where millions of people are starving and terrible hardship prevails," said defense lawyer Gabriele Heinecke.
"You can't really live there and that certainly has something to do with this trial," she told news hounds.
The pirates were captured by Dutch commandos on April 5 after a brief battle to free the MV Taipan off the Somali coast. They were taken to the Netherlands then extradited to Germany.
They are the first group of modern pirates to be prosecuted in Germany and one of the few to have gone on trial in Europe.
After their capture, the European Union's Naval Force Somalia, charged with defending shipping, said sending pirates for trial in the home country of the ship attacked was a new tactic.
Heavily-armed gangs have seized dozens of vessels in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden in recent years, but most of the pirates have been shipped to Kenya or the Seychelles for prosecution.
The trial comes 609 years after the famous German pirate Stoertebeker, who lived from 1360 to 1401 and plagued the Baltic, was tried in Hamburg.
Stoertebeker was sentenced to death along with his crew but legend has it that he asked the mayor to set as many members of his crew free as he could run past after being beheaded.
He managed to run past 11 men before he collapsed and died, but the entire crew was executed anyway.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
good story, Fred
the piracy situation in somalia is really quite ridiculous. For what it cost to free the Taipan, capture the pirates and bring them for trial in Germany - plus legal costs and holding costs, the international community could completely solve piracy in the GOA
All they have to do is give that money to Dr Farole, head of Puntland administration. He has locked up hundreds but lacks the resources to patrol and police his state effectively.
Annual state budget: $15 million - probably about what it cost to catch and try those 10 pirates.
#1
If we find a certain unusually tall Arab and his Z-man hanging out in Quetta, drone zap - or B-2 -them without Pak permission - since Pakistan says those guys aren't there we wouldn't really be killing them, right? Lower tier AQ - just follow them.
(KUNA) -- Police foiled a possible terrorist bid, jugged a woman and recovered 130 kilograms of explosives early on Monday.
A routine passenger van was travelling from northern Beautiful Downtown Peshawar city to Rawalpindi city, about a kilometer from Islamabad, when police intercepted it near entry toll plaza on I.J. Principal Road, said Deputy Superintendent Police (DSP) while talking to newsmen.
He said police on inspection recovered 130 kilograms of explosives from the van and jugged a female passenger.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... police sources told KUNA that the joint teams of police and law-enforcement agencies were conducting raids in several areas of the city to arrest the suspected terrorists.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2010 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Unidentified people killed two beturbanned goons including an Amr Bil Maroof commander in Khyber Agency on Monday, said local and security sources. Sources said two gunnies including a commander of Amr Bil Maroof were on their way in a vehicle to Shalobar area of Khyber Agency when unidentified gunnies opened fire on them, resulting in their death. Separately, bomb disposal squad defused a bomb planted in a house in Ghundi Sikandar Khel, Jamrod tehsil in Khyber Agency. The bomb was planted in Ashraf Khan's house where a marriage ceremony was held on Sunday night. However, The infamous However... the bomb did not explode on time. In another incident, security forces defused a roadside kaboom at Spin Qabar in Bara. Sources said a security convoy passing through the area was the target.
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11/23/2010 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] The capital police on Monday seized 130 kilograms of kaboom, which was concealed in seven cartons and being transported from Beautiful Downtown Peshawar to Rawalpindi and Islamabad for subversive activities.
During a special checking drive, Sabzi Mandi police jugged four accused, including a woman who were on board a Toyota Hiace van, near Toll Plaza on IJP Road and recovered the kaboom from their possession.
DIG (Operations) Bani Ameen and SSP Tahir Alam Khan had issued special directives to the Islamabad police to ensure thorough checking of all the suspected vehicles entering the capital.
The police started the paperwork but haven't done much else and took two-day physical remand of the accused after producing them in the court. The DIG and SSP acknowledging the good performance of the police team announced cash prizes and appreciation certificates for the team members.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... DIG (Operations) Bani Ameen on Monday directed district and Islamabad traffic police to launch a joint operation against one-wheeling and arrest those involved in such activities. SHOs, traffic beat-in charges will face disciplinary action in case of one-wheeling found happening in their areas.
The DIG taking strict notice of these activates, have warned SHOs and traffic beat in charges of strict disciplinary action in case such road stunts where reported in their areas. He also directed crackdown against those who prepare cycle of violences for such activities.
IGP Islamabad Syed Kaleem Imam has also appealed to parents to abstain their children for getting involved in such life threatening games, which also put other peoples' life at risk.
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11/23/2010 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] A local Taliban capo and two foreign forces of Evil were among nine people killed by a suspected US missile strike near the Afghan border, Pak officials said Monday.
Sunday's strike against a house in the North Wazoo tribal area was part of the B.O. regime's campaign to use drones to target forces of Evil who regularly stage cross-border attacks against foreign troops in Afghanistan.
Pak intelligence officials initially said the attack in Khaddi village killed six people but raised that number to nine on Monday.
The slain krazed killer leader was identified only as Mustafa. The officials said he was linked to Sadiq Noor, a key Taliban figure in North Wazoo.
The nationalities of the imported muscle were unclear.
Pakistain's border region is considered a magnet for forces of Evil seeking to fight Nato forces in Afghanistan or train for terrorist attacks.
Three local rustics sheltering the forces of Evil were identified Sunday as among the dead.
Unmanned American drones have launched more than 100 missile strikes this year on targets in Pakistain, roughly double the number in all of 2009. The US refuses publicly to acknowledge the covert CIA attacks, but officials have said privately that they have killed several senior al Qaeda and Taliban capos over the years.
Almost all of this year's strikes have occurred in North Wazoo, an area in which the US has repeatedly requested Pakistain conduct a military offensive to neutralise the strongholds of hard boyz threatening the war effort in Afghanistan. The Pak government has resisted, saying its military is already stretched thin by operations being conducted elsewhere.
Many analysts suspect, however, that Pakistain doesn't want to cross Talibs with whom it has historical ties and could be useful allies in Afghanistan after foreign troops withdraw.
The US recently sought to expand the areas in which the drones can target Taliban and al Qaeda operatives, but Pakistain refused the request because of domestic opposition to the missile strikes, a Pak official said over the weekend.
He was responding to a Washington Post report that the US had sought permission to use the drones -- now limited to the northwestern border region -- in areas around Quetta, the capital of the southwestern province of Balochistan.
Pak officials often criticise the US dronezaps, calling them a violation of the country's illusory sovereignty.
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11/23/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
#1
The slain krazed killer leader was identified only as Mustafa
That was all that was left of his name after the Hellfire was through with him.
[Emirates 24/7] Intelligence officials say a suspected US drone fired two missiles at a car and a cycle of violence in northwestern Pakistain, killing five people.
The officials say Monday's attack occurred in the Khushali area of the North Wazoo tribal region.
It was the fourth such dronezap in North Wazoo this week part of a rising campaign by the B.O. regime to target snuffies who regularly launch cross-border attacks against US troops in Afghanistan.
The US refuses to acknowledge the attacks publicly, but officials have said privately that they have killed several senior Taliban and al-Qaeda snuffies over the years.
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11/23/2010 00:00 ||
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[Arab News] Lawyers for Tariq Aziz, the longtime international face of Saddam Hussein's regime, said Monday they will seek a presidential pardon to spare him from execution.
Attorney Giovanni Di Stefano said Aziz's defense team would ask for the pardon instead of appealing his death sentence, handed down last month for the Saddam-era persecution of Shiites political parties.
It's a risky legal move, considering Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has granted few, if any, pardons in his more than five-year tenure and could be prevented from doing so in this case. But it comes amid pleas from the Vatican and several anti-death penalty nations in Europe for amnesty for Aziz, the only Christian in Saddam's inner circle.
"This could be the diplomatic solution people have been waiting for," Di Stefano said on Monday.
Aziz "does not want special treatment because he is a Christian," Di Stefano said. "He seeks the pardon as a step toward reconciliation of Iraq. Enough people have been killed, enough people have been executed." A Talabani front man could not immediately be reached Monday evening for comment.
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11/23/2010 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] A Lebanese military intelligence operative was killed in a drive-by shooting near the Syrian border on Monday, a security official said, as the country celebrated its 67th Independence Day.
"Corporal Youssef Youssef was rubbed out by person or persons unknown in a car with no license plate near the Masnaa border crossing this morning," he told Agence France Presse, requesting anonymity as he is not authorized to speak to the media.
Youssef was on his way to his duty post at the Masnaa crossing in eastern Leb when he was ambushed by the gunnies, the official said.
Investigations were underway but the shooting was likely a personal vendetta rather than politically motivated, he added.
An army statement released later the same day said two cars had been involved in the shooting and a passer-by lightly maimed. "Military units are currently tracking the gunnies who remain on the lam," it added.
Eastern Leb is notorious for harboring runaways and thugs, and the army has repeatedly come under fire in the area.
A Lebanese major and his adjutant were killed last month when their vehicle came under gunfire during a raid aimed at tracking down an army deserter in the eastern Bekaa Valley.
In April, three soldiers were killed in an ambush on a patrol in the Bekaa when a prominent clan sought Dire Revenge™ for the killing of one of its members, a drug baron who refused to stop at an army checkpoint.
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11/23/2010 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] A months-long investigation conducted by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. -- relying on interviews with multiple sources from inside the UN inquiry into ex-PM Rafik Hariri's liquidation and some of the commission's own records -- found examples of timidity, bureaucratic inertia and incompetence bordering on gross negligence.
Which side of the border?
CBC's report uncovered an internal U.N. document indicating that head of the Lebanese police intelligence bureau Col. Wissam al-Hasan was considered by some U.N. secret Sherlocks as a "potential suspect," pointing out that Hasan oversaw security for Hariri at the time of the murder but had taken the day off to take an examination at a university.
That continuing ed. requirement is a bitch.
The Washington Post said a confidential internal U.N. memo, dated March 10, 2008, prepared for the commission's top investigator, Garry Loeppky, said Hasan's "alibi is weak and inconsistent" and recommended that he be "investigated quietly" to determine whether he played a role in Hariri's killing.
Check his exam score. If it's more than 82%, it wasn't he writing his name on the cover of the exam book.
The CBC report, however, states that the commission's management "ignored the recommendation" to investigate Hasan and that Hasan declined a request to speak with the Canadian corporation.
"Non!"
It said those suspicions, laid out in an extensive internal memo, were not pursued, basically for diplomatic reasons.
"Chaps like us just don't do things like that."
According to CBC investigation, a Lebanese police officer and U.N. Sherlocks uncovered extensive circumstantial evidence implicating Hizbullah in the February 2005 liquidation of Hariri.
The U.N. International Independent Investigation Commission's findings are based on an elaborate examination of Lebanese phone records which suggest Hizbullah officials communicated with the owners of cell phones allegedly used to coordinate the detonation that killed Hariri and 22 others as they traveled through downtown Beirut in an armed convoy, according to Lebanese and U.N. phone analysis obtained by CBC and shared with The Washington Post.
It said the revelations are likely to add to speculation that a U.N. prosecutor plans to indict members of Hizbullah by the end of the year.
Not something I'd bet money on.
A front man for the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society, Farhan Haq, declined to comment to The Washington Post on the substance of the allegations, referring questions to the tribunal. But he said the U.N. has made it clear to CBC that the U.N. documents cited in its report "are United Nations documents enjoying inviolability under Article II of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations. Inviolability entails that United Nations documents cannot be disclosed to a third party, copied or used without the consent of the United Nations. Beyond that, I have no further comment on the documents at this stage."
CBC News said Special Tribunal for Leb Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare also declined a request to comment, and others in his office did not respond to phone calls.
The Washington Post said the CBC report also faults the U.N. for misplacing a vital piece of evidence - a complex analysis of Lebanese phone records that allegedly pinpointed the phones used by Hariri's killers - in the early months of the investigation. It also criticizes the U.N. commission for failing to provide sufficient security for a key Lebanese officer, Col. Wissam Eid, who was killed after helping the U.N. unravel the crime mystery.
It said Eid, a former student of computer engineering, had conducted a review of the call records of all cellphones that had been used in the vicinity of the Hotel St. George, where Hariri's convoy was bombed. He quickly established a network of "red" phones that had been used by the hit squad. He then established links with other small phone networks he suspected of being involved in planning the operation. He traced all the networks back to a landline at Hizbullah's Great Prophet Hospital in South Beirut, and a handful of government-issued cell phones set aside for Hizbullah.
"The Eid report was entered into the U.N.'s database by someone who either didn't understand it or didn't care enough to bring it forward. It disappeared," CBC reported.
It would be another year and a half before a team of British Sherlocks, working for the U.N., discovered Eid's paper and contacted him, The Washington Post wrote.
Eight days later, Eid was killed in a car boom.
"Leb gave Eid a televised funeral and at the U.N. inquiry there was outrage as well," CBC said. "But mixed with shame."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2010 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.
[Arab News] Ten suspected Somali pirates captured during the hijacking of a German 
Intelligence officials say a suspected US drone fired two missiles at a car and a 
