#1
good chronology and explanation of the battle space and geopolitics. Yon's a great reporter. I take heart from what he says we know/are doing to disrupt these dirtbags
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/16/2009 19:27 Comments ||
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Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell says the first of 30,000 additional troops being sent to Afghanistan have begun to arrive. In a Pentagon press briefing, Morrell told reporters that a Marine battalion ordered to deploy earlier this month already has "some boots on the ground," with the rest of them to be flown in before Christmas. Morrell says "the surge has begun in earnest." Officials say the goal is to have all 30,000 troops in place by the end of next summer.
Posted by: ed ||
12/16/2009 17:35 ||
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The Taliban have announced they will release a new video of a U.S. soldier captured in Afghanistan, a U.S.-based terrorism monitoring group said Wednesday.
SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S.-based terrorist tracking organization, said the media arm of the Afghan Taliban made the announcement Wednesday on their Web site.
The video is said to be titled, "One of Their People Testified." The Taliban did not name the American.
The only U.S. soldier known to be in captivity is Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl of Hailey, Idaho, who disappeared more than five months ago in Afghanistan.
Bergdahl, 23, was captured June 30 in the eastern province of Paktika province near the Pakistan border. His Taliban captors released a propaganda video of him about two weeks later. In the July 19 video, Bergdahl appeared downcast and frightened. No subsequent videos have been released.
Posted by: ed ||
12/16/2009 17:33 ||
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A suicide car bomber struck central Kabul on Tuesday, killing 8 and wounding 40 others, officials said. The mid-morning blast damaged a hotel in Kabul's Wazir Akbar Khan district, where a number of embassies and foreign offices are located. Most of the victims are civilians. The hotel, Heetal, is owned by the son of Burhanuddin Rabbani, who served as president of Afghanistan from 1992 until 1996.
In addition to the hotel, several homes were damaged and windows shattered in other buildings in the neighborhood. A car burned at the entrance of the hotel and a large cloud of dark gray smoke rose from the area.
Police and emergency vehicles rushed to the area and were seen taking injured persons to the hospital. Afghan security forces have cordoned off the area.
Blast in Gardez
At least five people were killed in a bomb explosion in the eastern Paktia province on Tuesday. A Nepalese citizen and a woman are among the dead, a spokesman for the provincial governor said. No groups, including the Taliban, have claimed responsibility for the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/16/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
I have nothing against muzzies blowing themselves up. In fact I approve of it. If there was such a place I would send them money to further their activities.
I only wish they would do so in an empty field someplace so other people would not be affected.
Posted by: Kelly ||
12/16/2009 12:08 Comments ||
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#2
Amen, Kelly. I especially hate them killing children under 10. There is nothing that sanctions that killing in any "holy book", and if it does, the entire religion needs to be wiped out to the last practitioner.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/16/2009 18:44 Comments ||
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[Maghrebia] Algerian security forces broke up an al-Qaeda extortion ring and arrested at least six men in Algiers last week, Tout sur l'Algerie reported on Monday (December 14th). The group allegedly helped finance the terrorist network by forcing merchants in the capital city to provide them with money. The suspects allegedly belong to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb's so-called "financial commission", led by Abou Abdellah Ahmed.
In a separate operation targeting terrorist-support networks in the Setif region, Algerian security forces on Monday arrested four suspected members of a support network for al-Qaeda's "Fifth Zone".
Posted by: Fred ||
12/16/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
"Extortion ring." Cute. That's just Western euphemism for Islamist tax policy. Zakat entails a 2.5 percent tax on merchants' articles of trade (among other things), and zakat can be used for jihad under Islamic law.
Posted by: American Delight ||
12/16/2009 22:30 Comments ||
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The US military continues its air raids on Yemen's northern beleaguered regions, which have already been the target of joint Saudi-Yemen offensive against the Houthi fighters.
The US warplanes have launched air-strikes on the northern Yemeni regions for the third day on Tuesday, Houthi fighters said in a statement on Tuesday.
Based on the report, the air-raids targeted two mosques.
Citing US officials, The Daily Telegraph reported earlier that Washington has deployed its special forces to "train Yemeni army forces."
Houthi fighters however reported of at least 28 attacks which launched by "US modern fighter jets" on the northwestern province of Sa'ada on Monday.
The US military intervention in Yemen comes as Saudi Arabia is also lending full support to the Yemeni government's crackdown on the Houthi fighters.
Saudi Arabia began its offensive more than two months after the Yemeni government launched its "Operation Scotched Earth" to crush the fighters in the mountainous north.
The offensive has so far killed scores of civilians and left thousands displaced from their homes.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/16/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
YJCMTSU. Well, actually you can if you are Iranian.
Posted by: ed ||
12/16/2009 0:13 Comments ||
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#2
1936 in Spain. There was a training ground in those days for bold men who could fly aircraft.
All but forgotten today...and young men who later went on to command squadrons in the US found in China that they could find work as well.
You practice your skills where you can find the opportunity.
Technicians of war dont have to follow an ideology. Skills are valuable. The ideas,an excuse. Its the ability they pay you for....the rest is for fools and parrots.
And a good mechanic is worth his weight in pure gold. Attitude and balls...that's what the pilot provides.
#3
I thought we agreed yesterday that PressTV-Iran was weaving from one short thread a fabric, that the jets were manufactured in America but purchased and flown by the Saudi Air Force.
#5
Any way the US can be blamed an Obama can go apologize is another propaganda win for Iran and the rest of their cronies. The houtis will be receiving a few million within days
Posted by: chris ||
12/16/2009 11:59 Comments ||
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#6
Now expect "Human Rights" NGOs (UN is one) to take an interest.
[Dawn] Two US citizens of Pakistani origin were sentenced Monday to 17 and 13 years in prison for conspiring to support terror groups by videoing American landmarks and sending the tapes abroad.
In the latest of a spate of cases that have raised fears that radicalization is gaining momentum in the United States, Judge Willam Duffey was scathing in his final remarks in the courtroom in Atlanta, Georgia. 'I'll say this, our Gods are very different,' Duffey told the first to be sentenced, Ehsanul Islam Sadequee. 'This is a day of reckoning for you, Mr. Sadequee. This is to deter you and to deter others from this conduct.'
Sadequee, 23, refused to stand when Duffey, a former US attorney, asked him several times to do so. The judge had allowed him almost 45 minutes to explain why a harsh sentence should not be imposed, but the convicted terror plotter instead used the time to explain his religious beliefs. 'I have not and I will not request any sentence,' said Sadequee. 'It does not matter to me. I submit to no one's authority but to the authority of God.'
Sadequee's friend and fellow Georgian Syed Haris Ahmed, a former student at Georgia Tech University, was sentenced to 13 years for conspiring to provide material support for terrorism in the US. Duffey admonished Ahmed in court for not taking responsibility for his actions and suggested that he could have received a lighter sentence if he had repented. 'You and others have distorted the values of your faith. You are a myopic, self-interested person,' the judge said.
Ahmed, 24, a thin man, slightly built, tried to interrupt Duffey during sentencing, but the judge scolded him and said, 'the time for speaking is over, the time of reckoning is now.'
Both Sadequee, who was born in Fairfax, Virigina and Ahmed, who moved to the US in the mid-1990s, were also sentenced to 30 years of supervised release following their jail time.
Ahmed and Sadequee were found guilty, in June and August respectively, of supporting terror groups by videotaping US landmarks, including the US Capitol and the headquarters of the World Bank, and sending the tapes overseas.
During the trial, prosecutors said the pair developed relationships over the Internet and maintained contact online, along with other 'supporters of violent jihad' in the United States, Canada, Britain, Pakistan, Bosnia and beyond.
If we know where they are, we probably have a good idea who they are... not to mention tracing down their contacts, too. Well done, O Invisible Good Guys!
They travelled to Canada to meet other militants, including members of the 'Toronto 18' Al-Qaeda-inspired group, and Sadequee went to Bangladesh, where he sent an email in 2001 when he was only 15 seeking to join the Taliban to fight US and coalition forces in Afghanistan.
To Bangladesh? I s'pose someone is going to blame the American school system for that egregious error of geography.
Among the suspected terror operatives to whom they sent videos were Aabid Hussein Khan, a facilitator for the Pakistani militant groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad. Prosecutors also told the jury that Sadequee tried to get into a terrorist training camp and that he also tried to recruit a 17-year-old Californian for martyrdom.
'The radicalization of US citizens by jihadist recruiters abroad is a very real and growing concern that the FBI and the US government as a whole must deal with,' FBI Atlanta Special Agent Greg Jones said on Monday.
'The risk posed by men such as these defendants continues, both here and abroad,' Acting US Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia Sally Quillian Yates said, reacting to Monday's sentences for Ahmed and Sadequee. 'Hopefully, meaningful sentences such as these will make our citizens and our soldiers safer around the world as the message is sent that we will vigorously investigate and prosecute those who would ally themselves with terrorists.'
Let us hope for lots more of this in the near future.
This article starring:
Aabid Hussein Khan
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Posted by: Fred ||
12/16/2009 00:00 ||
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Maoists on Wednesday announced the seizure of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, declaring it an autonomous region, after storming into heavily-guarded Durbar Square, in a development that could trigger a new political confrontation.
Waving red flags, 5000 militant cadres forced their way into the Durbar Square city centre where their chief Prachanda declared Kathmandu valley as the Newa Autonomous State.
The Maoists, who have already announced formation of parallel governments in nine districts and paid little heed to warnings by the Nepali Congress, to desist from such tactics as it may lead to "biggest political and social confrontation".
Though the Maoist takeover was more of a symbolic nature, their choice of the capital city sent shockwaves in the ruling CPN-UML-led 22-party alliance.
Prachanda lit a traditional lamp to declare Kathmandu as Newa Autonomous State by flying a banner that read 'Newa Autonomous State' as hundreds of balloons were let off.
A gun salute was also given and the city declared an autonomous state amidst performance of traditional music.
"Our move is not intended to disrupt the peace process or block the constitution making task," Prachanda pro-claimed adding it was to "make people aware about federalism and strengthen the republican system."
Posted by: john frum ||
12/16/2009 16:20 ||
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#1
I would guess Nepal can say goodbye to a lot of tourist dollars. What's the Communist position on smoking hash? How about Mountain Climbing? I liked the place better as a kingdom....
Security forces killed 36 Taliban in separate attacks in Orakzai, Bajaur and Kurram agencies on Tuesday.
Orakzai: Sources told Daily Times that 25 Taliban were killed when gunship helicopters pounded their hideouts in the Khost Sturi Khel and Sultanzai areas of Orakzai Agency. They also said three hideouts and two vehicles were also destroyed in the attack. An important training centre at Sultankhel was also destroyed.
Bajaur: Separately, security forces killed two Taliban and injured another two in Charmang, Mamoond and Nawagai tehsils of Bajaur Agency. Eighteen Taliban surrendered to security forces in Inayat Killay and various parts of tehsil Mamoond. The arrested Taliban vowed that they would not take part in any terrorist activities in the future.
Kurram: Separately, Frontier Constabulary sources said security forces killed nine Taliban in Kurram Agency.
They also said 41 suspected Taliban had so far been killed and as many as 24 were injured in the ongoing operation in the agency. They also said five security personnel had also embraced shahadat in the last four days in Central Kurram.
Gunship helicopters also pounded suspected Taliban hideouts in Tarali, Sultani, Tari Tank, Dogar and Alwara Mela. As many as five Taliban were injured and several of their hideouts were destroyed. Orakzai is believed to be the base of Hakeemullah Mehsud, leader of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, and is part of Pakistan's tribal belt on the Afghan border.
SWA: Separately, security forces seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition on Tuesday in South Waziristan. They also cleared Aqhzar, Tauda Uba, Jani Kot and apprehended 2 suspects. They also consolidated their positions in Shakai sector.
Security forces conducted search operation near Tara Tiza and destroyed 22 hideouts, including 2 tunnels (35 feet long) in Razmak sector. They successfully established link up at village Zawar near Ghariom. In Pash Ziarat, 15 hideouts were cleared and a huge cache of arms was seized. The Taliban fired several rockets at security forces in Spinkai Narai, which were effectively responded.
Meanwhile, during Operation Rah-e-Raast in Malakand Division, security forces seized a huge cache of arms from Lalkhu Gharai, Batku, Hatrang, Tangar, Darogzar and Bashkhela. Security forces also conducted a search operation in Tutaki near Matta, Manglaur, Charbagh, Harichand, Devolai, Imamdherai and Tighak-Galoch and apprehended 17 Taliban.
Four Taliban surrendered to security forces at Shahdand Banda and Bara Banda. As many as 23,973 cash cards have been issued to displaced families of Waziristan so far.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/16/2009 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Unknown assailants torched two Nato tankers on the periphery of Quetta city. The tankers were headed towards the border town of Chaman.
DSP Kharotabad, Jamil Kakar, told DawnNews that the tankers were set ablaze on the western bypass.
He said police found both the tankers without drivers and cleaners when they reached the spot. He added that the police were trying to locate the drivers.
The tankers were carrying fuel for Nato personnel in Afghanistan, he further said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/16/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Oh my goodness, think of the Carbon Dioxide these barbarians created! They should be hunted down and forced to breathe less.
A series of bomb attacks in close proximity to Baghdad's Green Zone has killed at least five Iraqi people and injured fifteen others including Press TV's cameraman.
The first bomb detonated at about 7:25 a.m. (0425 GMT) in a parking area near the Ministry of Immigration and Displaced Persons. The second bomb went off near the Iranian embassy, and a third exploded near the Iraqi foreign ministry, Press TV correspondent reported.
The Iranian ambassador to Baghdad, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, said that the blast did not cause any casualties or damage to the embassy, adding that the embassy 'was not the target of the blasts.'
The report added that all three bombings occurred within minutes of one another. The fourth explosion was caused by a mortar shell.
Iraqi security officials warn militants will probably continue high-profile attacks in an attempt to destabilize the Iraqi government in advance of the March 7 parliamentary elections.
The Baghdad government has frequently accused its neighbors of failing to prevent foreign fighters from crossing its borders, and of not doing enough to clamp down on funding for al-Qaeda and remnants of Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath party.
Most Sunni-run Iraqi neighbors used to enjoy warm relationships with former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
The blasts are the second in series of bombings to hit Baghdad over the past week. Last Tuesday, multiple coordinated bombings killed 127 people and wounded more than 500 others.
Al-Qaeda militants on Thursday claimed responsibility for the bombings and warned of more strikes to come against the Iraqi government.
Senior military officials in Iraq poined their fingers at Saudi Arabia over Iraq's multiple coordinated bombings on December 8, which killed 127 people and injured over 450 others.
The head of the ordnance department of Iraq's Interior Ministry said the terrorists behind the deadly attacks had used explosives that came from other countries like Saudi Arabia.
"The four bombings on Tuesday used explosives that originated abroad. They came from outside of Iraq, from Baathists and al-Qaeda, with the help of a neighboring country. That requires money and a large amount of support from Syria, Saudi Arabia or another country. Those states would not be unaware," Jihad al-Jabiri said
Posted by: Fred ||
12/16/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
injured fifteen others including Press TV's bomb mastermind cameraman.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/16/2009 9:50 Comments ||
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#2
Let the celebrations (Iran - Saudi proxy war) commence!
[Straits Times] MALAYSIAN police arrested three Thais who allegedly produced homemade explosives and are investigating whether they have links to a Muslim insurgency in southern Thailand, an official and a news report said on Tuesday.
Not Buddhists, then. I'm shocked.
Authorities detained the three suspects and seized devices believed to be homemade explosives from a house in northern Kelantan state, which borders Thailand's southernmost provinces, a police official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to make public statements.
He declined to elaborate, saying the matter was under investigation. It was not immediately clear how authorities found the men.
The Star newspaper, quoting unidentified security officials, said the devices and material, including chemical fertiliser, may have been meant for use in a Muslim insurgency that has been raging in southern Thailand since 2004.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/16/2009 00:00 ||
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[Straits Times] A CAR exploded on Tuesday in an upscale district of the Philippine capital Manila, killing one person, police said.
'We have a report that one person was killed in the car blast,' police spokesman Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina said, adding the cause of the explosion near a high-end shopping mall was not immediately clear.
The car had just entered the basement car park of a plush high-rise apartment in Taguig district when it blew up, police and witnesses said.
'There was one man in the driver seat of the car... He was struggling to get out, the fire was in the front of the car,' said 29-year-old Diana Luna, who was at a coffee bar across the street when the explosion occurred.
Mr Espina said police investigators have been dispatched to the area to determine the cause of the explosion. He said initial investigations revealed the victim was a businessman who owned one of the shops at the mall opposite the building.
The victim 'does not appear to be a suicide bomber,' Mr Espina said, adding investigators were checking all angles.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/16/2009 00:00 ||
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[Straits Times] NINE communist rebels and one soldier were killed after the military raided a guerrilla camp in the southern Philippines on Tuesday, the army said, adding fighting was ongoing.
Soldiers backed by two helicopter gunships clashed with gunmen from the communist New People's Army (NPA) around Valencia town on the violence-wracked southern island of Mindanao, spokesman Major Michelle Anayron told reporters.
The military was tipped off about the presence of the NPA camp near Valencia, prompting commanders to send five teams of soldiers to converge on the site where they found about 60 guerrillas hiding, Anayron said.
So far, the bodies of nine rebels, along with their rifles, have been recovered by the military, according to Anayron. The farming town of Valencia is in Bukidnon province and about 80 kilometres south of Cagayan de Oro, a major port city.
The military said in September that the communist rebellion had claimed more than 3,000 lives since 2001. This included over 500 civilians killed in crossfire during battles. In one of the deadliest reported clashes in recent years, 23 people died near a logging camp in another province on Mindanao last month. Eleven of the dead were communists, while the others were soldiers and security guards, the military said then.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/16/2009 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A suicide car bomber struck central Kabul on Tuesday, killing 8 and wounding 40 others, officials said. The mid-morning blast damaged a hotel in Kabul's Wazir Akbar Khan district, where a number of embassies and foreign offices are located. Most of the victims are civilians. The hotel, Heetal, is owned by the son of Burhanuddin Rabbani, who served as president of Afghanistan from 1992 until 1996. 
The US military continues its air raids on Yemen's northern beleaguered regions, which have already been the target of joint Saudi-Yemen offensive against the Houthi fighters. 
[Dawn] Two US citizens of Pakistani origin were sentenced Monday to 17 and 13 years in prison for conspiring to support terror groups by videoing American landmarks and sending the tapes abroad.
Security forces killed 36 Taliban in separate attacks in Orakzai, Bajaur and Kurram agencies on Tuesday. 
[Dawn] Unknown assailants torched two Nato tankers on the periphery of Quetta city. The tankers were headed towards the border town of Chaman. 
A series of bomb attacks in close proximity to Baghdad's Green Zone has killed at least five Iraqi people and injured fifteen others including Press TV's cameraman. 
[Straits Times] MALAYSIAN police arrested three Thais who allegedly produced homemade explosives and are investigating whether they have links to a Muslim insurgency in southern Thailand, an official and a news report said on Tuesday.
[Straits Times] NINE communist rebels and one soldier were killed after the military raided a guerrilla camp in the southern Philippines on Tuesday, the army said, adding fighting was ongoing. 
