#3
Fred, dunno if anybody's complemented you yet on that snazzy, new "R" for Rantburg icon you have in the address bar. I just noticed it for the first time yesterday. It is cool. Dunno what tools are available these days for creating the favicon.ico file but when I did it years ago for my site it was very complicated and time consuming for a mere cosmetic feature like that. But those kinds of things stand out in a list of browser bookmarks and therefore lead to more hits on your site. Sadly, it doesn't show up when I browse your site with IE 7 but that'll give me yet another opportunity to extol the virtues of Firefox.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/20/2010 12:27 Comments ||
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#4
Thank BP for that. He built it, emailed it to me, and all I had to do was turn it on.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2010 12:33 Comments ||
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#5
Things you might try if you are impatient about GB's next posting:
After a fierce gunfight, U.S. Marines seized a strongly defended compound Friday that appears to have been a Taliban headquarters - complete with photos of fighters posing with their weapons, dozens of Taliban-issued ID cards and graduation diplomas from a training camp in Pakistan.
Insurgents who had been using the field office just south of Marjah's town center abandoned it by the end of the day's fighting, as Marines converged on them from all sides, escalating operations to break resistance in this Taliban stronghold in southern Helmand province.
Marines from Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines fought their way south from the town center Friday after residents told them that several dozen insurgent fighters had regrouped in the area.
Throughout the day, small groups of Taliban marksmen tried to slow the advance with rifle fire as they slowly fell back in face of the Marine assault.
"They know that they are outnumbered ... and that in the end they don't have the firepower to compete with us conventionally," said Capt. Joshua Winfrey of Tulsa, Okla., commander of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines.
#2
Diplomas? Since when did terrs need diplomas? What's next? Permanent privileges at the Arab Afghan Fiends Exchange Service? Butt stickers for camels?
#4
WTW!? Graduation diplomas? Grades too I suppose, so they can apply to the Ivy's. Interest free, public service/no payback loans from POTUS for post graduate degree programs, courtesy ...........
12 to 1 ratio? Unacceptable. Get those afghans on their feet, on point, reverse those figures - NOW! Fix that.
#5
#5 WTW!? Graduation diplomas? Grades too I suppose, so they can apply to the Ivy's. Interest free, public service/no payback loans from POTUS for post graduate degree programs, courtesy ...........
In keeping with the high standards of White House privacy and ethics, no public disclosure of actual classes taken or grades please.
Because they aren't actually 'terrs'? Look up the Taliban's origins.
Somebody spent a lot of time setting up an organization geared for both recruiting people outside of the religious-fanatic mode, and self-promoting public relations. Othewr groups are doing so as well. Recall that Al Qaeda established a 'life insurance' compensation program for their members. Hamas hands out payments to surviving family members. Of course they still do the usual intimidation stuff with villagers, etc.
Think of them all as a cross between a corporation, organized crime, gangs, the Tammanys, and the marxist 'liberation' groups we saw in Vietnam and Africa.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Afghan civilians based in the south flee in droves from the US-led offensives that are reported to be taking their toll on the local population and their sources of livelihood. I wonder which grunt unit Iran Press TV's guy is embedded with?
The 'Operation Moshtarak' has enlisted 15 thousand troops against the Taliban militants in the Helmand province. The campaign is allegedly intended to purge the militant strongholds of Marjah and Nad-e-Ali and establish Afghan governance.
The offensives have rendered thousands homeless. Marjah villagers are currently heading on foot towards the neighboring city of Lashkar Gah, Reuters reported.
"There was fighting going on in our village, helicopters and planes were bombing our village, all our crops were destroyed whether it was wheat or poppy," said Jan Mohammad who has been forced to leave his home.
Nick Carter, the British commander of NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, meanwhile, said it could be some three months before one could say the US-led alliance has succeeded at all.
"The government is saying that the operation is to take 3 mouths. If this operation is going to continue for two more months people will not be able to go to their villages and our crops will be destroyed," the Afghan civilian added.
"...there was fighting every where, all the roads were closed, we have walked a long way," another displaced person, Haji Abdul Rahim, was quoted as saying.
Lieutenant Colonel, Martin Moore, however, claimed, "...The situation is great, we did our first combat logistic patrol today and it went very well, I was on the ground myself. I think the freedom is pretty apparent and actually the atmosphere has been very good, I think the patrol went very well, we were well protected, the locals there were very pleased to see us."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Civilians based? hmmmmmmm
I'd venture it's not the same unit as Michael Yon.
"rendered thousands homeless"? Holy mackerel, has Ronald Reagan risen from the dead? heh
[Maghrebia] Malian authorities reportedly remain optimistic about the fate of French hostage Pierre Camatte, even though the deadline set for his execution by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb expires on Saturday (February 20th). "We have not lost hope at all," AFP quoted a Malian official as saying on Thursday. Mali has refused to release four jailed AQIM terrorists in exchange for the life of the hostage. Al-Qaeda, which claimed responsibility for kidnapping Camatte in Mali and abducting three Spanish aid workers and an Italian couple in Mauritania, is holding the hostages in the northern Mali desert.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2010 00:00 ||
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ADEN - Separatists in south Yemen killed the director of a criminal investigations unit in an ambush on his vehicle on Friday, security sources said.
Another person was killed and three injured in the shooting as they drove through a southern Yemen province, they said. Further details were not immediately available.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2010 00:00 ||
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I love it when they eat their own ... Tomorrow's headline: Mabhouh Suspects include Hamas men: Fatah No, no. That was yesterday's headline. Tomorrow's headline sez it was Amy Bishop what dunnit.
RAMALLAH -- Hamas claimed Friday that two ex-officers from the rival Fatah organization were involved in the assassination of a Hamas operative in Dubai, and Fatah shot back by insinuating Hamas members were the ones who collaborated with the killers.
The slaying of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a luxury Dubai hotel room last month has widely been blamed on Israels Mossad spy agency but it also has sparked bitter recriminations among the rival Palestinian factions, which have long competed for influence in the Palestinian territories.
Dubai police unveiled 11 suspects -- 10 men and one woman -- who apparently traveled to Dubai on European passports with real names and authentic data, but possibly altered photos.
A Hamas Web site, the Palestine Information Center, said those two men were former Fatah security officers and current employees of a senior Fatah official, who was not identified. Dubai authorities have not identified the two Palestinians and would not comment Friday. Hamas stopped short of accusing Fatah of collaborating with the Mossad, however. Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas leadership courageously hiding in Damascus, told The Associated Press on Friday that Hamas is "not accusing any party" other than Israel, though he said the agents might have used "small collaborators for logistic issues."
The Hamas Web site identifies the two men as Anwar Shheibar and Ahmad Hassanain. It says they served in Fatahs security services in Gaza, fled the territory in 2006, and currently work for a construction company owned by a high-ranking Fatah official, Mohammed Dahlan.
Dahlan denied any connection to the men or to the killing. "I dont have any companies in Dubai and I dont know these people," he told The Associated Press by telephone from Amman, Jordan.
"Only Hamas knew he (al-Mabhouh) was in Dubai, so its their fault, not the Palestinian Authoritys," he said. "For political reasons Hamas is blaming us for its own internal problems."
A Fatah spokesman also denied the charge. "Hamas is trying by these accusations to cover up the security flaws in the first lines of its leadership," said Adnan Damiri, a spokesman for Palestinian security forces in the Fatah-ruled West Bank. "Hamas is the only one to know the movement of Al-Mabhouh, and from there the information went to the Israelis."
Officials of the Fatah-affiliated Palestinian Authority in the West Bank city of Ramallah said the two men are former members of Fatah who later joined Hamas security forces in Gaza. They said the men were sent to Dubai on Hamas business last month but had no further details.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Perhaps the Mossad did a pretty good job of being obvious after all.
#2
Actual audio:
"I'm DOCTOR Amy Bishop! Gimme that booster seat, dammit!"
*choke*
*gasp*
"rosebud"
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2010 11:14 Comments ||
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#3
This killing wasn't the style of the Mossad. I'm beginning to think it might have been the Moscow Mafia, and someone wrote a bad check. It's been touted as a Mossad hit, probably with a little "help" in the form of green. The Mossad would have used a poison dart while Mahmoud was out walking. At most, use three people, and DON'T leave immediately. Either that, or it was someone else Mahmoud had crossed during his career as a weapons buyer.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/20/2010 13:43 Comments ||
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#4
Regardless of who was the perp for the al-Mabhouh hit, the world is a better place now, without him. Wonder what level of hell he is at now? Becha he never took the Dante's Inferno quiz.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/20/2010 15:57 Comments ||
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#5
Drudge has a link up saying credit cards used implicate the Mossad. Puhleeeez. Visa from "Bank of Joooos" assigned to Agent Avner?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2010 16:08 Comments ||
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#6
It's Reuters hyperventilating in the headline again, Frank. The article itself only says that the people on the videos used credit cards matching the names on their stolen-identity passports. They aren't even doing original reporting, but merely translating a story from an Arab-language newspaper. Reuters is based in London, and the Brits are happy to be convinced it was the juices wot dunnit, evidence to the contrary be damned.
So...Hamas did it? I'm sooooo confused...
PARIS Interpol has put 11 people suspected in the slaying of a Hamas militant leader in Dubai on its most-wanted list. The international police agency says it has issued red notices, its highest-level alert, to its member countries worldwide for 11 internationally wanted individuals who have been charged by UAE authorities with coordinating and committing the murder.'
Interpol says it was acting on the request of Dubai authorities and that it believes the suspects used false passports. Interpol issued the notices which include photographs to limit the ability of accused murderers from traveling freely using the same false passports.'
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Interpol issued the notices to limit the ability of accused murderers from traveling freely using the same false passports.
Sounds like Interpol also thinks Fatah is responsible.
#3
Actually, I think Interpol should find them and award each of them a $10,000 bonus for doing a good job. One more link in the Hamass criminal chain has been broken. What's not to like?
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/20/2010 13:45 Comments ||
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#4
Hotel room..."locked from the inside. That can only mean one thiing. And I don't kmnow what it is."
[Dawn] Explosions in Russia's turbulent region of Ingushetia on Friday killed at least two people and injured 28 others including two top local law enforcement officials, Russian news agencies reported.
The blasts at a house in the region's main city, Nazran, killed one police officer and a civilian, Interfax cited the head of the province's Investigative Committee, Svetlana Gorbakova, as saying.
Nazran's police chief and the head of the Nazran branch of the Investigative Committee were among the 28 injured, the agency quoted Gorbakova as saying.
State-run RIA also cited the committee as saying two were killed and 28 injured.
Ingushetia, adjacent to war-scarred Chechnya in the violence-plagued North Caucasus, is beset by nearly daily attacks blamed on insurgents, mostly targeting law enforcement and government officials.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2010 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] South Korean police said Friday they had arrested a Pakistani man who claimed to be member of the Taliban on charges of using a fake passport.
The 31-year-old, who said he was a Muslim cleric, was detained Thursday at his home in the southeastern city of Daegu, where he lives with his family, they said.
He's definitely not from around there ...
"He allegedly told friends that he was a Taliban member but his claims have yet to be verified," an investigator told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Why verify them? He said it; jug him and give him ten to twenty years to recant ...
If he really is a Talib, they want to question him thoroughly; if he is merely a blowhard or nuts, they needn't waste the time of skilled interrogators.
The man had used the passport of another Pakistani to come into or leave South Korea 17 times since August 2003, the investigator said.
Jail him on that basis alone, then figure out what he is.
Yonhap news agency said the man told police he was asked by Taliban leaders to collect information about US military bases in South Korea. Some 28,500 US troops are stationed in the country.
South Korea plans to send 350 troops and 140 reconstruction workers to Afghanistan later this year. A purported Taliban spokesman has warned that South Koreans "should be prepared for the consequence of their action which they will certainly face", accusing Seoul of breaking a promise not to send troops back to Afghanistan.
South Korea, a close US ally, sent 210 engineering and medical troops to Afghanistan in 2002. It withdrew them in late 2007 after Taliban insurgents took 23 South Korean church volunteers hostage and murdered two of them. Seoul said the withdrawal was already planned and not part of any deal.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
He picked a very bad place to conduct this type of activity. Very, very bad.
#2
Cleric, schmerick, him and his family will soon be exploring the infinite wonders of an Alice in Wonderland blac ... uh, I mean pink eyed, fluffy white, cuddly, bunny hole.
This is what you get from to much Sun, not enough Water - not one of these stupefied tullybun morons thought to pick up a land line, give that lunatic nork, imk ginseng well a call for that HUMINT? sheesh. Suppose we can thank our lucky stars? ;~)
#3
SoKor got him on his seventeenth illegal entry? Good for them. The system is working. Or not.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
02/20/2010 7:51 Comments ||
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#4
That much travel back and forth would make me suspect he's some kind of courier. Wonder if he's part of the taliban weapons procurement process. If he is, the SKors will find out - they have VERY efficient information retrieval processes. Not quite torture, but very uncomfortable.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/20/2010 13:53 Comments ||
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#5
This could mean a new client vacancy at Kim's special haircut parlor.
Bill Roggio's LWJ: Nice that his funeral led to Haqqani's
The US killed a key al Qaeda military leader based in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan during an airstrike on Feb. 17.
Sheikh Mansoor was killed in a Predator attack that targeted a Taliban compound in the village of Tapi near Miramshah, the main town in North Waziristan. Two other "militants" were initially reported killed in the airstrike; it is not currently known if there were any other senior al Qaeda or Taliban operatives killed. Dawn News reported that the airstrike "left number of other important militants killed."
Both Geo News and Dawn reported that a funeral was held for Mansoor, and that Mohammed Haqqani, a mid-level Haqqani Network military commander and brother of the group's top military commander Siraj Haqqani, was killed by another drone strike while preparing to attend Mansoor's burial on Feb. 18. LOL
US intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal said they believe Sheikh Mansoor was killed in the attack on Feb. 17.
"We're pretty sure that Mohammed Haqqani was killed while going to Sheikh Mansoor's burial," an intelligence official said. "We were gunning for Siraj but got his little brother instead. It is still a good kill; the Haqqanis are dangerous and Mohammed was involved in the family business."
Sheikh Mansoor was a commander in al Qaeda's Lashkar al Zil, or the Shadow Army, US officials said. He was based in North Waziristan but carried out attacks against US and Afghan forces across the border in Afghanistan.
Mansoor's family has a pedigree in jihad. His father was Ahmed Said Al Khadr, an al Qaeda operative who was killed in October 2003. Khadr, who is also known as Abdul Rehman Khadr al Kanadi, was born in Cairo, Egypt, but was a Canadian national.
Khadr was a close confidant of Osama bin Laden, who invited Kanadi to join the Shura Majlis, the top leadership council, after the US invasion of Afghanistan. Khadr was tasked with helping al Qaeda families escape into Pakistan. He was also close to South Waziristan Taliban leader Mullah Nazir, who shelters al Qaeda leaders in the Wazir tribal areas.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2010 20:30 ||
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#1
the Khadr family tree should be pulled out by the roots, burned, and sprayed with herbicide after
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2010 20:42 Comments ||
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#2
And their houses razed, the crops burned, stock killed and land plowed with salt.
PUNE: A Sudanese student and an Indian business executive injured in the Pune bombing a week ago succumbed to their injuries on Saturday, taking to 13 the death toll in the worst terror attack in the country since the Mumbai carnage.
Even as security agencies struggled to get solid leads into the bomb attack at the landmark German Bakery, 35 of the nearly 60 wounded people remained in hospitals. Three of them were in critical condition.
Pune police commissioner Satyapal Singh announced the deaths of Sudanese Suleiman Alfatah, a 21-year-old second year student of Wadia College, and Atul G Anar, 30, a resident of Navi Mumbai who worked for the Reliance group in Pune.
The first to die on Saturday was the Sudanese, who was among those who suffered multiple fractures and extensive burns in the Feb 13 bombing.
The Sudanese, who played for the college volleyball team, is the fourth foreign national to die in the deadly blast. A Nepali restaurant worker, an Iranian student and an Italian woman died Feb 13 itself.
Like all the dead and injured, Alfatah and Anar were in the popular German Bakery, in the leafy Koregaon area, when a powerful bomb concealed in a backpack went off with a deafening roar.
The devastating explosion destroyed the famed eatery, which was located close to the Osho ashram, the leading reason why Pune has become a hub for people from several countries.
A large number of foreigners also study in Pune's educational institutions or work in the city's foreign companies.
The police have struggled to find out who was responsible for the bombing, the worst terror strike in the country since 10 Pakistani terrorists sneaked into Mumbai by sea in November 2008 and went on a killing spree. That massacre, which lasted almost three days, left 166 Indians and foreigners dead and majorly soured relations between India and Pakistan.
Investigators believe two men carried the lethal backpack into German Bakery pretending to be customers and left it under a table. When a worker tried to open it after finding it abandoned, it exploded.
No group immediately claimed responsibility. But days later, a little known Pakistan group, Lashkar-e-Taiba Al Alami (LeT-international), called an Indian journalist in Islamabad and owned up to the attack.
Meanwhile, police have appealed to residents of Pune to stop wearing surgical masks and women to avoid the traditional scarves in the interests of security.
Surgical masks have become popular in Pune ever since swine flu broke out last year and claimed many lives in the city.
"We have appealed to people to stop wearing masks and women to avoid scarves," Police Commissioner Singh said.
Although the bomb attack has not triggered a panic run from Pune, many foreigners have become cautious vis-a-vis places they visit and strangers they meet.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/20/2010 11:05 ||
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Elsewhere in India
Indian Army soldiers stand near the scene of a gunbattle in Kuchwa Maqam village in Baramullah district north of Srinagar on February 17,2010. Two suspected militants were killed and one house destroyed in a fierce 11-hour gunbattle between the security forces and Muslim militants.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/20/2010 11:13 Comments ||
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#2
Actually Police (SOG) and Paramilitary (RR) counter-insurgency troops rather than regular army
Posted by: john frum ||
02/20/2010 11:16 Comments ||
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AT least 30 militants have been killed in an air strike by the Pakistani military on their hideout in a restive tribal area bordering Afghanistan, the military says.
The attack took place in South Waziristan district today where the military in October launched an air and ground offensive to flush out Taliban militants.
The "hideout in Shawal mountains was targeted after a tip off received that terrorists were hiding there," the military said in a statement.
The death toll could not be verified independently as the area is under military operations.
#2
That's 30 fewer enemy combatants that Obama's admin could potentially try in civilian courts in a U.S. city. I never thought I would say this but - Keep up the good work Pakistan!
#3
The cryptic, indiscernible posts from mexapu, soqalut, iwgmtgyvb are obviously heavenly messages from the deceased, thanking us for the hundreds of lovely virgins.
Even numbers, to the tens, is hard to come by from an airstrike. The most experienced pathologist would have difficulty reconciling body parts to a number like that. Unless they were imaginative, had a sense of humor, were independent. heh
Unbelievable! I thought the most dangerous place on Earth was Camden, NJ. Maybe that's another Washington?
#7
Because the comment spam doesn't stay gotten through, and then wfff -- the spam evaporates. But then, heavenly messages are meant to be ephemeral. ;-)
[Dawn] Four members of an international NGO are suspected to have been kidnapped in northern Balochistan, officials said on Friday.
A vehicle carrying four employees of the Mercy Corps organisation went missing in the Shankai area of the Qila Saifullah district. The charity workers went missing on Thursday and "may have been abducted," Abdul Majid, the local administrative chief in Qila Saifullah district.
"Nobody has so far claimed responsibility. We have reports that they have been taken to the nearby tribal area," Majid added.
All four employees were Pakistani nationals, while three of them were residents of Islamabad, officials told DawnNews.
The provincial coordinator of the organisation was among those abducted, government official Akbar Durrani told a private TV channel.
"We are investigating who is behind this handiwork. We have alerted the police and security forces to recover them," Durrani said.
No one from Mercy Corps was immediately contactable.
Qila Saifullah is located 200 kilometres north of Quetta.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2010 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Security forces claim to have recovered Indian-made improvised explosive devices (IED) from South Waziristan on Friday.
The IEDs were recovered from a suspected militant base near the Razmak area of South Waziristan, where military forces are currently carrying out an offensive against militants.
Security officials recovered five sacks, each containing 20 kilograms of polypropylene with the text "Reliance Industries Ltd, Jamnagar, Gujrat, India" printed on them, DawnNews reported.
Officials said they plan on raising the issue with Indian diplomats in the upcoming talks between the two nations.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Polypropylene is ordinary plastic. Your garden or kitchen chairs are probably made from it. Nor AFAIK can explosives be made from it.
#2
If there is any truth to this, I would guess that it would be a 20kg mine, with a case made of polypropylene. Perhaps they are one of the latest generation of all-plastic mines? I don't know if polypropylene would make a good case for a mine or not.
#4
It's even worse. The sacks of food say on it "Donated by the people of the USA".
Posted by: ed ||
02/20/2010 1:42 Comments ||
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#5
Ahem - unlike the book of matches I requested, to go with the cigar I purchased/smoked Wednesday, Made In India, was NOT printed on any of the five sacks. So, to those officials, I say, you can't prove that.
Ah, the 10's of thousands of uses of petroleum products. Darn near as many as Salt! heh
Can we all say, misnomer, plastic explosive? heh Sure can at DawnNews, probably before they had their dawn coffee.
I'd kill my wife, she'd kill me BUT we gotta go to work, makin' polypropylene in the factory! heh
Reliance Industries Limited (NSE: RELIANCE) is India's largest private sector conglomerate (by market value) , with an annual turnover of US$ 35.9 billion and profit of US$ 4.85 billion for the fiscal year ending in March 2008 making it one of India's private sector Fortune Global 500 companies, being ranked at 206th position (2008).
Jamnagar Manufacturing Division located in Jamnagar, Gujarat, is spread over 7,400 acres. It comprises of a petroleum refinery and associated petrochemical plants. The refinery is equipped to refine various types of crude oil (sour crude, sweet crude or a mixture of both) and manufactures various grades of fuel from motor gasoline to Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF). The petrochemicals plants produces plastics and fibre intermediates.
The Polypropylene plant at Jamnagar has a huge capacity of 1030 KTA of Polypropylene producing a wide range of grades that cater to an equally diverse range of sectors which include Raffia, Films (BOPP/IPP), Injection Moulding, Extrusion, Fibre etc.
The new PP line in the SEZ facility at RIL is expected to be fully operational in FY 2009-10. This would result in additional capacity of 0.9 million tonnes of PP operative in the year.
The Jamnagar Refinery is a private sector crude oil refinery owned by Reliance Industries Limited in Jamnagar, India. The refinery was commissioned on 14 July 1999 with an installed capacity of 661,000 barrels per day (105,100 m3/d). It is the largest greenfield refinery in the world.
Reliance Petroleum Limited (RPL) on 25th December 2008 announced the commissioning of its refinery in a Special Economic Zone at Jamnagar, Gujarat in India. With the completion of the RPL refinery, Jamnagar has emerged as the Refining Hub of the World with the largest refining complex with an aggregate refining capacity of 1.24 million barrels of oil per day in any single location in the world.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/20/2010 6:43 Comments ||
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#7
Bags of plastic and photos of uncircumcised corpses.
I'm sure the Indian diplomats will be stunned by this evidence of their perfidy.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/20/2010 6:52 Comments ||
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#8
Whew! Much better john. Thanx. #6 was too ........ ;~)
[Dawn] A son of al-Qaeda-linked warlord Sirajuddin Haqqani, whose network is fighting in Afghanistan, has been killed in a US missile attack in Pakistan, officials said on Friday.
The death of Mohammed Haqqani, who was involved in the Afghan network, in an attack thought to have been targeting his father will be a symbolic blow to the Haqqani leadership and a further boost for the controversial US drone war.
He died when a US plane fired two missiles into a compound and vehicle on Thursday in the Dandey Darpa Khel area of North Waziristan, a Haqqani bastion in the lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border, a Pakistani official said.
His father Sirajuddin now commands the Haqqani network, which is affiliated to the Afghan Taliban and al-Qaeda, taking over from his elderly father, the well-known Soviet resistance commander Jalaluddin Haqqani.
"Mohammed Haqqani, son of Jalaluddin Haqqani, was killed in yesterday's attack along with two foreign operatives and a local tribesman," the senior Pakistani security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"Mohammed was not actively involved in the movement but his place was used as a hideout for Arab foreign militants," the official added.
A source affiliated to the Haqqani network said only that: "yesterday the attack targeted the family of Jalaluddin Haqqani".
Haqqani was killed one day after Pakistan confirmed the arrest of Afghan Taliban second-in-command Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, which analysts said could signal a new phase in Islamabad's often-prickly relationship with the US.
The third son of Jalaluddin, Mohammad was a bearded young man in his late 20s, said an AFP reporter who met him earlier.
Another Pakistani intelligence official confirmed he was fatally wounded in Thursday's drone strike.
Two other Afghans attached to the Haqqani network were also killed in the same attack, a local intelligence official said.
"It is a big loss for the family and for the Taliban. We will take revenge for his death on US and Nato forces in Afghanistan," said a Taliban activist who gave his name as Nek Daraz in Miranshah, the capital of North Waziristan.
Officials in Washington have hailed the drone campaign for eliminating a number of high-value targets in terrain classified as an intelligence black hole and which Al-Qaeda has turned into its global headquarters.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Of late, the Haqqani family tree is resembling a stump.
Posted by: ed ||
02/20/2010 1:06 Comments ||
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#2
Yeah, of course BUT how many of the wedding party were killed? Foreign operatives? So that's how we're describing godparents these days? How insulting, describing the 'hood as a lawless tribal belt bastion!
Isn't Washington the global HQ of intelligence black holes?
[The News (Pak) Top Stories] At least 35 people, including a deputy chief of the banned Lashkar-e-Islam (LI), were killed and 85 others injured in an explosion caused by a suicide bomber in the remote Tirah Valley of Bara subdivision in Khyber Agency. There are, however, conflicting reports about the event itself.
According to one version quoting eyewitnesses and tribal sources, people of Orakzai and Khyber agencies had gathered at a 'Hashish fair' near a mosque when a suicide bomber struck at 12:05pm while embracing LI deputy chief Azam Khan Afridi as he got off a vehicle. Azam Afridi and his seven guards were among the 30 people killed on the spot while 90 others sustained injuries.
The injured were rushed to the district headquarters hospitals located far away in Kohat and Hangu. Five of the wounded persons died on way to the hospitals. Some of the injured identified as Shakeel, Paiyo Khan, Muhammad Saeed, Qutbuddin, Muhammad Ashraf, Agha Khan, Noor Badshah, Muhammad Arif and a 24-year-old young man whose identity could not be ascertained, were taken to the DHQ Hospital Kohat.
The sources said security forces stopped six other victims from being shifted to Peshawar through Jamrud tehsil at Lala checkpost and arrested 12 of their attendants. The forces allowed six attendants to go with the remaining victims to public hospitals in Peshawar in soldiers' custody.
Officials, however, claimed that explosion was triggered by devices planted by unidentified militants near the mosque. The security forces had been carrying out operation to hunt down militants of the banned LI and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Khyber Agency for the last few months. It was the first big blow to the LI since the start of the ongoing military operation.
According to another version of events belying the earlier given official version, tribal sources said the LI deputy chiefwas having lunch with his guards at a roadside hotel in Dars Jumaat at around 11am when a young boy aged 14 or 15 years entered the hotel and blew himself up near the militant commander.
LI sources said six killed belonged to the Akakhel and five from Zakhakhel Afridi sub-tribes. Besides Azam Afridi, some of the other militants, who were killed, were identified as Misri Khan, Khalid, Salamat and Amanat Khan. Except two, the identity of the civilians killed in the attack could not be ascertained. The two who were identified hailed from Orakzai Agency and had come to the local market for shopping.
Sources said the LI headquarters was located in the same area and a makeshift market of hashish, opium and arms is arranged every Thursday and Friday in the local bazaar near the hotel where the suicide bombing took place.
They added that Azam Afridi hailing from Akakhel tribe along with other commanders from different tribes used to visit the market and attend the Shura meeting in its headquarters every Thursday and Friday.
Another source said a meeting of the LI Shura headed by Mangal Bagh was also held prior to the incident. However, some other sources said no such meeting was held on Thursday. So far no individual or organisation has claimed responsibility for the attack. However, LI sources believed that the Ansurul Islam (AI), a Tirah-based militant organisation in Bara Subdivision, was behind the attack as it was their only rival in the area.
About two months ago, a suicide bomber attacked the AI headquarters in Maidan area of Tirah Valley where more than seven people were killed and as many were injured. The AI had blamed the Mangal Bagh-led LI for the attack while the latter had denied its involvement in the bombing.
Talking to this scribe from Maidan in the Tirah Valley, AI spokesman Qari Minhaj said they were not involved in the suicide attack, adding that the bomber was prepared by the LI for attack on AI, but he blew himself up and killed his own handlers.
Some sources close to Azam Afridi said he had differences with some local TTP commanders like Adnan Afridi and Nazir Afridi operating in Orakzai Agency due to their activities in Bara Subdivision. These sources held the two TTP commanders responsible for the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
What's nice is they do it themselves.
Just poke 'em with a stick and stand back...
Moslems are perfect for this.
ONE: They EXPECT this from ONE ANOTHER.
TWO: You can keep it up all year and they wont even suspect its not Abdrool who they hate ANYWAY.
THREE:They will retaliate ad-infinitum against EACH OTHER.
FOUR: The cycle is so "islamic".
FIVE: All you have to do is make it a cottage industry, its cheap, bleed's 'em white,it can go on FOREVER.
SIX:You dont even have to do it yourself, and you can pay them to do it to themselves.
NINEWA / Aswat al-Iraq: Iraq's Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) forces in Talafr arrested on Friday a gunman of Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) network, believed to e an aide of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, during an operation in Mosul city, a security source said.
"SWAT forces in Talafar, (60 km) northwest of Mosul, have arrested an AQI gunman believed to be an aide of Abu Oman Omar, the leader of the AQI, based on accurate tip-offs," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. "The man, of the name Zawyan Farhan Flayhan, was captured in Nablus neighborhood, Mosul. He is wanted by the al-Anbar province's Haditha police department for suspected involvement in murders and kidnappings," he added.
"Flayhan is currently under investigative custody. The outcome of the investigations will be announced later," the source said, not giving further details.
This article starring:
Abu Oman Omar
Zawyan Farhan Flayhan
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Farhan Flayhan, eh? Sounds kinda IRA-ish.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
02/20/2010 7:53 Comments ||
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WASSIT / Aswat al-Iraq: Seven Katyusha rockets have been fired at the Delta base in Kut City, but no casualties have been reported thus far, a local security source said on Friday.
Late Thursday (Feb. 18), unknown gunmen fired seven Katyusha rockets at the MNF-run military Delta base (7 km west of Kut),' the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. Police patrol vehicles have headed to al-Shuhadaa area, the site where the rockets were launched from, in search of the attackers,' the source noted.
No official comment has been made by the Multi-National Force (MNF) on whether the incident has caused damage.
Kut, the capital city of Wassit province, lies 180 km southeast of Baghdad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2010 00:00 ||
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Gaza Ma'an The Israeli intelligence agency Mossad is entirely responsible for the assassination of Hamas Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh in Dubai last month, party officials announced Saturday. It's always Mossad! Well...almost always. Well...usually.
All right! We really don't know!
During a news conference in Gaza City, Hamas spokesman Salah Al-Bardawil said Israel must suffer the repercussions of the "crime," as news outlets around the world speculate over who was behind the espionage and assassination. Speculation of Fatah, Hamas, Iranian and Israeli involvement have already circulated. He was a..."popular guy". Al-Bardawil said that while members of the alleged Israeli hit-squad, traveling on European passports, were reportedly affiliated to Fatah, "the fact that members of the PA security services were involved, is not proof enough to directly accuse Fatah or the PA of complicity." Sure. That's why we're mentioning it...
Though he expressed doubts over PA complicity with the assassination ploy, Al-Bardawil called on Fatah officials to stop all trivialities in the media.'
The Hamas official was clear as to where the blame for the death of Al-Mabhouh lay, saying, Those who assassinated Arafat, Abu Jihad, and Ahmad Yasin murdered Al-Mabhouh.' Yeah...Arafat. We all know how he was "assassinated"...
Al-Bardawil said Al-Mabhouh's pursuers could have learned of his whereabouts from a telephone call he made to his family before leaving for Dubai, informing them of his hotel details and the online booking he made when purchasing airline tickets. Maybe his family set him up?
According to Al-Bardawil, Hamas is awaiting the results of investigations. He called on the United Arab Emirates to share the information they uncover, and to use the full weight of the law against the assassins. For European countries whose citizens' passports were used in the operation, he urged governments to call the Mossad to account.
As for Hamas, he said the movement followed two paths; the first is a legal path which is used to reveal the killers. The second path is retaliation. The penalty will be of the same nature as the foul,' he said.
#2
And God Forbid they should ever consider that these people giving them all these weapons below cost are really only giving them more rope with which to hang themselves.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip The Gaza Strips Hamas rulers say they have released 22 prisoners belonging to the rival Fatah movement as a goodwill gesture. Hamas Interior Ministry spokesman Ehab Ghussein says the prisoners were arrested for security issues and crimes. All right, you bums, limp on out to the bus. And remember how you got that limp...
Gaza-based Fatah leader Faisal Abu Shalah confirmed the release Thursday, but said the men were arrested for political reasons.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Glad to see that " goodwill " , is alive and well in the Middle East.
Posted by: Dave UK ||
02/20/2010 3:04 Comments ||
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[Ma'an] Explosion, believed to be Egyptian security forces imploding smuggling tunnels, were heard along the Rafah border on Friday evening.
The blasts were heard by residents of the Egyptian side of the As-Salam neighborhood of the city of Rafah, which straddles the sensitive border with the Gaza Strip.
Ma'an learned that Egyptian security forces detonated explosives in two such tunnels.
One week ago Egyptian forces destroyed several tunnels in the Yibna area of the border region.
Egypt says it is cracking down on the vast network of tunnels in Rafah, which smugglers use to import goods made scarce by an Israeli-led blockade of Gaza.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Is that "Great Escape" DVD making the rounds over there again? Well, hopefully the subliminals it's been embedded with are convincing egyptian security to wait until the vast network is vastly full of as-salamies before implosion procedures commence.
[Straits Times] PHILIPPINE troops arrested a suspected Muslim militant accused in the high-profile kidnappings of three Americans, two of whom were later killed, and dozens of Filipinos nine years ago, the military reported on Friday.
It said Jumadali Arad was captured at Manila harbour on Thursday as he was about to board a ship bound for the southern Philippines, where the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group has planted bombs and carried out kidnappings despite US-backed military offensives against the militants.
Arad had been in hiding since 2001, when Abu Sayyaf abducted three American and 17 Filipino tourists from the Dos Palmas resort in south-western Palawan province at the start of a year-long kidnapping spree, said marine commandant Major General Juancho Sabban.
American missionary Gracia Burnham survived the jungle captivity, but husband Martin was killed in the military rescue in 2002. The third American, Guillermo Sobero, was beheaded by the militants on Basilan Island.
Arad, who allegedly drove a speedboat loaded with the hostages during the kidnappings, was reportedly on a mission to buy ammunition for Abu Sayyaf commander Isnilon Hapilon when he was arrested on Thursday, the military said in a statement.
Hapilon has been indicted in the US on kidnapping and murder charges, and Washington offered a US$5 million (S$7.07 million) reward for his capture.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2010 00:00 ||
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A Lebanese court on Thursday sentenced two men to death on charges of espionage and involvement in the killing of senior members of Lebanese and Palestinian resistance groups.
A military tribunal convicted the former member of Lebanon's security force Mahmoud Qassem Rafeh, 63, of "collaboration and espionage on behalf of the Israeli enemy."
The retired police officer who was arrested in 2006 admitted last year to providing intelligence for Israeli spying agents over a 13-year period.
He was also charged with involvement in a 2006 car bomb attack in the southern coastal town of Sidon which killed brothers Mahmoud and Nidal Mazjoub of the Islamic Jihad movement.
The death sentence handed to Rafeh came as he awaits trial for the murder of Hezbollah officials Ali Hassan Dib in 1998 and Ali Hussein Saleh in 2003, as well as the 2002 murder of Jihad Jibril, the son of Ahmad Jibril, the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.
The other defendant, Palestinian Hussein Khattab, was convicted -- in absentia -- of being involved in the murders of members of Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.
Under the Lebanese law, the convicts have the right to appeal while any death sentence needs the endorsement of both the prime minister and the president for implementation.
More than 70 people have been arrested on suspicions of links with Israeli intelligence services during a 2009 operation to track down and eradicate Tel Aviv's espionage rings in Lebanon.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Amazing how a little bit of cash will get folks busy, busy, busy.
Wonder where Khattab was absent to? I mean, ya know, geographically speaking. heh ;~)
#2
Since it was the Russians that provided the means by which the Israeli spy ring was discovered, if their spies are executed, Israel owes Russia some payback.
#3
We are grateful to men such as this, who wager all to help protect civilization from the evil men who would destroy it. May that knowledge bring comfort to those who loved them.
#4
[On working for the CIA]
Vince Ricardo: Are you interested in joining? The benefits are terrific. The trick is not to get killed. That's really the key to the benefit program.
An international fiscal watchdog group says Iran is failing to take steps to block terrorist financing and money laundering.
The 34-nation Financial Action Task Force advises investors and businesses dealing with Iran to closely watch their assets for possible links to "money laundering and financing of terrorism." The report Thursday did not cite any specific Iranian banks or networks.
But Iran is a main sponsor of Lebanon's Hezbollah and the Palestinian faction Hamas and is unlikely to end its aid.
The advisory group, wrapping up a meeting in Abu Dhabi, calls on seven other countries to bolster controls, ranging from Pakistan to the African island nation of Sao Tome and Principe.
The others are Ecuador, Ethiopia, Turkmenistan and North Korea.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2010 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.
After a fierce gunfight, U.S. Marines seized a strongly defended compound Friday that appears to have been a Taliban headquarters - complete with photos of fighters posing with their weapons, dozens of Taliban-issued ID cards and graduation diplomas from a training camp in Pakistan.
AT least 30 militants have been killed in an air strike by the Pakistani military on their hideout in a restive tribal area bordering Afghanistan, the military says.
[Dawn] Two people were killed and two other were injured in a blast in suburb of Peshawar on Friday.
[Dawn] A son of al-Qaeda-linked warlord Sirajuddin Haqqani, whose network is fighting in Afghanistan, has been killed in a US missile attack in Pakistan, officials said on Friday.
NINEWA / Aswat al-Iraq: Iraq's Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) forces in Talafr arrested on Friday a gunman of Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) network, believed to e an aide of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, during an operation in Mosul city, a security source said.
