Saturday, May 31, 2008

UK: Christians preachers told to leave Moslem areas

or face arrest.

The evangelists say they were threatened with arrest for committing a "hate crime" and were told they risked being beaten up if they returned. The incident will fuel fears that "no-go areas" for Christians are emerging in British towns and cities, as the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, claimed in The Sunday Telegraph this year.

Arthur Cunningham, 48, and Joseph Abraham, 65, both full-time evangelical ministers, have launched legal action against West Midlands Police, claiming the officer infringed their right to profess their religion.


Mr Abraham said: "I couldn't believe this was happening in Britain. The Bishop of Rochester was criticised by the Church of England recently when he said there were no-go areas in Britain but he was right; there are certainly no-go areas for Christians who want to share the gospel."

Last night, Christian campaigners described the officer's behaviour as "deeply alarming". The preachers, both ministers in Birmingham, were handing out leaflets on Alum Rock Road in February when they started talking to four Asian youths. A police community support officer (PCSO) interrupted the conversation and began questioning the ministers about their beliefs.

They said when the officer realised they were American, although both have lived in Britain for many years, he launched a tirade against President Bush and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mr Cunningham said: "I told him that this had nothing to do with the gospel we were preaching but he became very aggressive.

"He said we were in a Muslim area and were not allowed to spread our Christian message. He said we were committing a hate crime by telling the youths to leave Islam and said that he was going to take us to the police station."

The preacher refused to give the PCSO his address because he felt the officer's manner was "threatening and intimidating".

The ministers claim he also advised them not to return to the area. As he walked away, the PCSO said: "You have been warned. If you come back here and get beaten up, well you have been warned".

West Midlands Police, who refused to apologise, said the incident had been "fully investigated" and the officer would be given training in understanding hate crime and communication.


Quick. Name the four most popular baby names in Milan Italy

If you guessed Mahmoud, Ahmad, Hamid and Omar, YOU guessed right.

(h/t Weasel Zippers).....

Turkey: Country's only gay rights group shut down

Oh, yeah, they'll fit right into the EU all right.

/not.

A Turkish court ruled today the closure of the only gay rights association in Turkey after the prosecutor had said it violated the family protection and public morality laws, Turkish agency Anadolu reported.

The agency added that the ruling was issued by a court in the Beyoglu district, in Istanbul's centre, against the Lambda Istanbul group set up in 1993. Three years ago, the deputy governor of Ankara asked for the closure of the 'Kaos' association in which gays and lesbians living in the Turkish capital had joined, calling for the application of a norm which bans associations "against the law and morality". However, the Ankara prosecutor rejected the request.

Unlike the other Muslim states, homosexuality has never been a crime in Turkey, but is surrounded by a widespread social criticism with the exception of Istanbul's European districts where there are various places of meeting reserved for homosexuals, without this sparking off scandal. Nevertheless, there are no laws for protecting the homosexuals from discrimination.


Go figure.

Police search Muslim centre after new arrest over Exeter nail bombing.

'Center trustees look forward to being back in business as soon as possible." Oh, I'm sure they do. So many infidels to blow up and there's so little time.

Police have searched a Muslim centre following the arrest of a third suspect in connection with a terror bombing in Exeter. The man was arrested at 5.30pm yesterday and the investigation team said it would not be releasing any details of the suspect or where he was arrested. The explosion took place in a busy shopping centre at lunchtime last Thursday in the Giraffe restaurant.

Following the blast, police arrested Muslim convert Nicky Reilly, from Plymouth, Devon. They have since searched a number of premises in Plymouth and on May 23 arrested one man at gunpoint in the city centre. A fourth man is helping officers with their inquiries.Devon and Cornwall Police Assistant Chief Constable Bob Spencer said officers were now searching the Muslim Community Centre in the St Jude's area of Plymouth.

He said: ‘This arrest is part of our wide-ranging and complex investigation into last week's incident, therefore we are unable to give any further details on it at this stage. ‘We can also confirm that the force has begun a search at the Muslim Community Centre. ‘This search, as well as another being carried out at a residential address in Plymouth today, are both linked to the arrest of the man made earlier in the day.

‘No arrests were planned or made at the community centre.’The search is one of a number at premises in Plymouth since the attack including an address in Connaught Avenue which was searched by specialist officers.

Since the explosion, officers have spent hours searching Reilly's first-floor flat in King Street with bags of items being taken away.The 22-year-old, who recently changed his name to Mohammed Rasheed, is understood to be the only one injured in the blast. He received eye and facial injuries when the device partially went off in the shopping centre restaurant at lunchtime. Police found two other devices nearby. Reilly, who had been under police guard in hospital, is now in custody in the Devon and Cornwall force area as is the second man arrested at gunpoint on Friday. The man who was helping police with their inquiries left the police station on Monday and was continuing to assist the force, a police spokesman said. The trustees of the Muslim Community Centre released a statement saying they were ‘shocked’ by the explosion.

The statement said: ‘We are as shocked as everyone by the recent events that have unfolded at Exeter and Plymouth. ‘We have been working in partnership with the police and community to build the centre and we are now committed to assisting the police with their inquiries. 'We are offering them any assistance they may require. ‘We look forward to the centre being returned to work as soon as possible.’

Another case of passing around the Moslem poo-poo platter

What is it with these Moslem guys and coprophagia?

Moslem convert forces three wives and kids to eat feces and vomit.

For weeks, the three wives of Mansa Musa Muhummed and most of their 19 children have been telling a jury countless stories of torture and starvation that they kept to themselves for years.

Muhummed sat in a desert courthouse with a hand over his face, shaking his head in denial as family members described being beaten, strung up by their feet and forced to eat vomit and feces.

"It is the worst case we've ever heard of," prosecutor Julie Baldwin said last week. The alleged atrocities went undetected by social service agencies, and police now have Muhummed, 55, facing up to seven life sentences if convicted of a raft of abuse charges.

Muhummed, whose given name was Richard Boddie, is on trial at Riverside County Superior Court after more than nine years of legal wrangling in which he changed lawyers four times and represented himself for more than two years. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of torturing seven of the children, abusing 12 of them and falsely imprisoning two wives.


The trial delays may have hurt his case because his children — once reluctant to talk to authorities — are now telling strangers of extreme deprivation, physical abuse and starvation.

Standing just 4-foot-6 and weighing about 98 pounds, Sharon Boddie, 27, told jurors last week that she had grown and gained weight since her father was arrested nine years ago and the children were sent to foster or group homes. But she still has scars from beatings and burns. She said she was taken out of school in second grade because she kept running away and teachers no longer wanted her there because she stole other children's lunches.

I'd go like a week without eating, not even water," she said in a flat, unemotional voice. She said she would be beaten when she tried to steal food from the refrigerator.

One son caught sneaking food testified that he was forced to eat what he took until he regurgitated. Then he was forced to eat his vomit. Another daughter said she was ordered to hand feed her father while she was denied food.
Doctors said the children were extremely malnourished. A 19-year-old daughter was 4-foot-1 and weighed 56 pounds.

After moving to rural Riverside County, they lived for about three years in a van at a Muslim campground, Sharon Boddie testified. The van had no running water or gas for cooking. Baldwin said Muhummed had no known occupation.
The now-adult children have testified that Muhummed forced them to beat each other when he wasn't doing the hitting.

His lawyer has suggested some of the children abused each other and he is challenging testimony as exaggerations. Baldwin said she expects the defense to accuse the wives of being responsible for abuse.

Muhummed has told authorities he believed his Muslim religion allowed him to have multiple wives.

Marva Lewis Barfield, 53, the first of Muhummed's three wives and mother of 14 of his children, testified that she beat some of her children with a boat oar at his instructions because she feared he would kill her if she disobeyed.

Barfield said she married Boddie when she was 18 and that she was repeatedly beaten and threatened with death during 26 years of marriage. Barfield was jailed for 17 months in the case and pleaded guilty to one count of child endangerment as part of a plea bargain to testify against Muhummed.

Another wife, Laura Cowan, said that he took control of her bank accounts and finances. She and other members of the family also collected public assistance. It was Cowan who finally got the attention of authorities when Muhummed took her with him to a post office and she slipped a 13-page letter about the abuse to a postal clerk.

The letter was sent to the county social services agency and to sheriff's deputies, who found the family living in a filthy garage in a gated community. Cowan presented authorities with tapes she secretly recorded of some beatings.

Sharon Boddie said social workers had checked on their welfare before, but her father put food boxes in cupboards before they arrived and the children were taught to lie.

I told them everything was OK because my dad had coached us what to say," she recalled. "I'd say my dad treated us really good — that he was the best parent in the world."

When they were removed from his Muhummed's home, most of the children said they could not read or write and had not been to school.

The brothers and sisters have said they were denied use of a bathroom and could not bathe for weeks at a time or wash their clothes. Sometimes, Boddie took them in the yard and hosed them down.

Sharon Boddie said she was strung upside down by her feet and left in a dark basement for hours at a time.

Baldwin said many of the children were unwilling to talk to authorities when their father was first arrested in 1999. Even when her father was handcuffed to a car outside their home, Sharon Boddie wouldn't speak because she feared he wouldn't go to jail. She said he once waved a gun around and said, "I can kill all of you and nobody will ever know."

She said she decided to tell her story when her father was behind bars and she realized she was "finally going to have a life."

For your Saturday morning enjoyment

.....

Thursday, May 29, 2008

The Miami Militia?

Muslim Group to help keep peace in Miami's Overtown.

Seeking a balance between outreach and enforcement, Miami is launching a nearly $1 million crime-fighting initiative in Overtown that will mix police patrols, video cameras -- and suit-and-tie wearing Muslims.

The stepped-up policing seeks to deter would-be lawbreakers without making Overtown residents feel ''invaded,'' in the words of Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones.

Which is where the Muslims come in.


Yet questions remain on how exactly the partnership between police and Peacemakers will take shape.

Muhammad said his group would carry radios that can instantly connect with police.
Yet Miami Police Maj. Jorge Gomez, who supervises Overtown and surrounding areas, said: ``We really don't have anything to do with that program. They don't have any radios. . . . They've got to call 911 just like anybody else.''

In making his argument for city funding, Muhammad highlighted successful Nation of Islam-affiliated programs in other cities, such as Detroit.

However,

Not all ventures found success.

New Orleans police in 2005 rescinded a $15,000 police-sensitivity training contract with a longtime security director for Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan -- after facing widespread criticism from local religious leaders and officers over that group's reputation as anti-Semitic.
Though Miami's Peacemakers say they will not advocate any religion and are not officially aligned with the Nation of Islam, the Peacemakers' corporate offices are at the religious group's Miami mosque.

Rasul Muhammad is a prominent Nation of Islam member and the son of former leader Elijah Muhammad. Asked about the Peacemakers' planned role in Miami, the Anti-Defamation League raised concerns.

''While we appreciate the city of Miami's efforts to improve conditions in the Overtown area,'' wrote Andrew Rosenkranz, Florida regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, ``we are concerned that it did not fully understand the nature of the organization that it chose to provide these services.''

Muhammad responded, ``We are not anti-Jewish people. We are not anti-Catholic people. We are not anti-white people. The whole Peacemakers project is being based on being anti-crime, anti-immorality . . . . Are they saying that they don't want peace?''

Muhammad declined to have organizers pose for pictures for this article, saying he was reluctant to make a big media splash now.

Muhammad was also reluctant to discuss a minor lawsuit filed against the nonprofit Progressive Land Development International Inc., the group that would run Peacemakers. The suit alleged Progressive Land failed to return a $950 security deposit to a tenant in a Liberty City apartment building it owns.

Muhammad, who court records show was served in the lawsuit, denied his group even owns any apartments. County property records show multiple Liberty City apartment buildings owned by a Progressive Land Development Group Inc., that lists its business address as the Nation of Islam's Miami mosque.

''That has to be something else,'' Muhammad said. ``That's not us.''

When awarded the contract by city leaders, Muhammad said his group would have performed some outreach for free, but that the city's $150,000 commitment will allow a greater street presence. Muhammad thanked Spence-Jones, calling the expanded program her ``brainchild.''
Once a contract with the city is finalized, the Peacemakers would start on a three-month trial basis this summer.

Iranian Chapter of the He-Man Woman Haters Club has a meetin'.

The Meeting will now come to order as charter member Mullah Wifebeater calls upon "the government to intervene decisively against these whores..."


A top Iranian cleric from the northeast, Ayatollah Ahmad Elmalhoda, has reportedly called feminists "whores and foreign spies".

"These whores, clutching a piece of paper in their hands to gather signatures, are working for foreign powers and want to destabilise the Islamic Republic," said Elmalhoda.

He is the highly influential prayer leader in the northeastern holy Shia city of Mashad.

Elmalhoda has called on the government to "intervene decisively against these whores, because it is improper to leave them to act with impunity."

A few weeks ago, Elmalhoda said women who do not wear the Islamic veil as instructed "turned men into animals."

Verbal attacks against feminists in Iran are also being accompanied by a vast judicial offensive. Eight feminists involved in a campaign to gather "a million signatures in favour of equality" were recently given jail terms of various lengths and sentenced to public floggings. (ed. note: the sentences have since been suspended)

The Iranian authorities have in the last two weeks censured twelve websites close to the feminist movement.
.....

Monday, May 26, 2008

Nigeria: Take note Barack ------- Obama. This is what happens when you negotiate with terrorists

Militant Nigerian group claims attack on Shell pipeline.

What 'militant group' you wonder? It is the group known as MEND or the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, a militant indigenous people's movement dedicated to armed struggle against the exploitation and oppression of the people of Niger Delta and the degradation of the natural environment by foreign multinational corporations involved in the extraction of oil in the Niger Delta and the Federal Government of Nigeria. MEND has been linked to attacks on foreign owned petroleum companies in Nigeria in an attempt to create an artificial Hubbert peak. (per wikipedia)

Shell accounts for half of Nigeria's output of roughly 2 million barrels per day, but it has lost over 150,000 barrels per day in the first quarter of 2008 due to attacks.

President Umaru Yar'Adua and Vice President Jonathan Goodluck, who took office in May 2007, have promised to negotiate with the militants and address their grievances.

However, the militants said that the leaders had failed to keep their word.

'Today's attack is dedicated to the administration of Umaru Yar'Adua and Goodluck Jonathan who have failed after one year in office to ensure peace, security and reconciliation in the Niger Delta region,' MEND said in an e-mailed statement.

Worries over the security of Nigeria's oil supply have helped drive up global oil prices, which briefly broke the 135-dollar-per- barrel mark on May 22 before falling away again.

News of the attack helped push prices back up to over 133 dollars.


And guess what? Look who's standing ready, willing and senile to assist in negotiations between the government? Jimmah Carter! (Talk about squandering what little you have left of your reputation...) Former US President Jimmy Carter ready to mediate about Niger Delta.

The militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said Tuesday that former US President Jimmy Carter had indicated willingness to mediate in the region's crisis. It said it received the confirmation Tuesday from The Carter Center through its Vice-President, John Stremlau.

An interesting note about MEND - they are considered an "open source" terrorist group (also from wikipedia.)

"...analogous to the decentralized communal development process now prevalent in the software industry, making it extremely quick to innovate and move new technologies and tactics rapidly from cell to cell without the direction of a vulnerable leadership hierarchy. Former Air Force counter-terrorism officer, technology analyst, and software entrepreneur, John Robb, in a Wired Magazine interview about the emergence of "open source guerrillas" alleged that MEND "doesn’t even field its own guerillas. They hire their experts and fighters mostly from criminal gangs and tribal warrior cults to do their operations."

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Coming up for air


Sorry, possums. I know that posting has been erratic and rushed. I've been putting in 8-10 hour days at the rehab center and then getting caught up in a whirlwind of friends and family in the evenings. After all that, I'm usually pretty much empty upon my return. Sometimes even too exhausted to enjoy a refreshing adult beverage - now, that's exhausted! Hah - hah.

Right now I'm looking out over a neighbor's pretty green field dotted with white sheep and a baby llama. A dog is barking, the sun is shining, birds are singing and the air smells fresh washed. America the beautiful. "God shed his grace on thee."

One of the highlights of the week was getting together with a longtime friend for a drink at the local bar that is pure small town Americana with a redneck edge. Barack ------- Obama would no doubt say that the people who live there are bitter and cling to their guns and their God. Got the picture? The town is so small there's not even a stoplight to brag about. The bar, has a name but everyone just calls it 'The Bar' and it is probably a throwback to the pubs found in the country in the UK as it's located in a region that was populated by the English, Scots, Irish and Welsh. It reminds me of some of the pubs I have visited there, too.

It was a quiet night and I arrived earlier than my friend. Guys were playing pool and the bar area was comfortably full. A hush fell over the place when I walked in - clearly I was an interloper and was being checked out. Bellying up to the bar and ordering a Diet Coke didn't exactly improve my street cred, but I was left alone and even got to watch a little NBA action while waiting. Ellie arrived after too long with big hugs and the temperature in the room seemed to improve markedly. I was eyed with curiosity still, but it was a kinder kind of curious.

After Ellie ordered a Long Island Ice Tea, (yikes!) she introduced me to the barmaid as "Mitch's sister" and everything was cool after that. (My bro was the best friend of the bar's owner until he passed away from cancer. His son took it over and bro is still golden there.) Somebody bought a round and Ellie and I got caught up on each other's lives.

Later in the evening, we decided to come back to the house to get something to munch on and I flipped on Fox News. We sat and listened for a while with me cracking wise with the tv every now and then. The Dems and their talking heads present such easy targets. Barack ------- Obama was making a speech somewhere and FNC was broadcasting it in it's entirety. We listened for a bit before Ellie (more than a little drunk by this time) blurted out
,


"What are we going to do when all these people who hate our country get in?
When there's no more patriotism?"

True, she was a little drunk by then, but she was also pretty distressed at the thought of an Obama presidency. She has more of a stake in this than most of us - Ellie's daughter and son-in-law are both US Army. Her daughter is now stationed in Virginia after a tour of duty in Korea. Her son-in-law will go back to Iraq tomorrow morning. Please join me in sending prayers with him as we remember all of our brave soldiers this Memorial Day.

Hope you all have a great Memorial Day - Dinah.

......

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Abu Hamza's son arrested on burglary suspicion

What pillar of Islam covers breaking and entering, I wonder. And if Mustafa is found guilty will Sharia law apply? He was acting as a lookout - will that mean he just gets an eye poked out as opposed to just getting his hand cut off? It's a puzzle, possums.

The son of hate preacher Abu Hamza has been arrested over a suspected burglary attempt.
Mustafa Kamel, 18 - one of hook-handed extremist Hamza's seven children - was one of two youths arrested after a man caught someone breaking into his home. The householder saw the suspect climbing in through a window at the rear and managed to chase him off.
Police suspect Kamel was not the youth breaking in, but was acting as a look-out while another man perpetrated the crime.

.....

A tempest in a nuke pot...

Swedish police release men after nuclear scare.
Authorities sealed off a 300-metre (330-yard) area, called in explosives experts and worked with plant officials to determine any security risks through the day. Plant authorities have said investigators had not found evidence of additional explosive materials beyond what was discovered on Wednesday.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

al Qaeda's Nursery School for Suicide Bombers.

What do you want to bet that Barack would even "have a dialogue" with these animals?

Al-Qaeda-linked militants have transformed a government-run school in the restive tribal region of Pakistan into a nursery for suicide bombers, training children as young as nine-year-old.

"It was like factory that had been recruiting nine to 12-year-old boys and turning them into suicide bombers," Maj Gen Tariq Khan, the Commander of the Division that captured the area, was quoted in The Daily Telegraph today as saying.

The camp was located in a territory in south Waziristan where the notorious Pakistani Taliban Commander, Baitullah Mehsud, operates.

At another location, military investigators found film footage on a DVD that they believed depicts children at the school being trained in suicide bombing. The footage, shown to journalists, contained images of a masked teacher instructing rows of school children who wore white headbands inscribed with Quranic verses.

Maj Gen Athar Abbas, the army's chief spokesman, said that the school and a hospital had been taken over by militants "to prepare children for suicide attacks and for making improved explosive devices (IEDs)."

During operations in the area soldiers had rounded up over 50 boys who were undergoing suicide attack training, the report said. Many of the boys had been kidnapped.

The full Daily Telegraph article can be found here.

Since January last year Pakistan has witnessed over 80 suicide attacks that have killed more than 1,000 people. Many of the suicide attacks in neighbouring Afghanistan - some reported to have involved teenagers and even younger children - have also originated on the Pakistani side of the border.

.....

Oh, and about that so-called Pakistan-Taliban 15 point cease fire accord?

My guess is it's not worth the paper it's printed on.

The local Taliban have agreed to cooperate with the state machinery in the maintenance of peace and harmony in the region besides binding them to cooperate with the government in the maintenance of peace.

The senior minister while dilating upon others points of the accord told the media-men that measures would be taken for swapping the prisoners and there would be total ban on display of arms and ammunition. Similarly the Taliban will cooperate with the government health teams in campaigns against fatal diseases like polio etc.

Here are 10 counterpoints to help you decide how much this so-called peace accord is worth.

Point 1: Ten injured in bomb blast. Guess who?

Point 2: Rocket attacks on Government Official's residences in Peshawar. Hmm, who could have done such a thing?

Point 3: Militants launch offensive in Swat. I wonder which point of the cease fire accord this is covered under.

Point 4: Four relatives of two FATA MPs gunned down in Jamrud No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks. Gee, who could have done it?

Point 5: Security forces, Taliban trade fire in Mohmand They must not have gotten the memo on that 15 point peace accord.

Point 6: Rockets fired at minister’s village in Jaffarabad 'Unidentified militants" are believed to be the culprits. Care to hazard a guess as to the identities of these 'unidentified militants'?

Point 7: Hundreds watch execution of kidnapped Tribal Elder by militant group Lashkar-i-Islam. His crime? Serving as a member of various peace committees.

Point 8: Remote control bomb injures four Pakistani soldiers. It was the second attack on soldiers in the three days.

Point 9: 50 man peace jirga arrested after failing to make peace. All righty then.

Point 10: US 'spy' killed in Pakistan. Three guesses who killed him and the first two don't count.

Interested in hearing more about that 15 point peace accord? The text of it can be found beneath the fold - oh, and it's really a 16 point peace accord. I have to admit that reading it made me laugh. Biggest laugh line? Point 3 - 'no one will attack other's religion.'

1: Taliban of Swat will accept the writ of the provincial and central governments of Pakistan and will remain in the ambit of that

2: Shariat-e-Muhammadi will be implemented in Malakand Division

3: No one will attack other’s religion

4: Prisoners will be released after reviewing the cases against them

5: Government machinery, law enforcement agencies, government officials, buildings and installations, police stations, policemen, police lines, army, Frontier Corps, Frontier Constabulary, bridges, roads, and electricity installations will not be attacked; there will be a complete ban on keeping private militias, there will be no suicide attacks, there will be no blasts in personal or governmental buildings, and there will be no remote-controlled bomb blasts

6: Army withdrawal will be gradual keeping in view the security situation in the area

7: Non-local militants will be immediately handed over to the government. Attacks on barber shops and markets visited by women should be stopped

8: Government will compensate the deserving people affected by the operation in Swat

9: There will be no ban on health teams administering vaccination or drops to children against diseases like polio. There will be no ban on girls’ education

10: There will be complete ban on display of arms and only arms having licence would be allowed

11: Kidnapping and car lifting should be condemned and eliminated. All centres used for training militants and use of explosives must be eliminated

12: Speeches will be allowed only on that FM radio having licence

13: Local Taliban will cooperate with government in investigations of cases against those involved in murders, dacoities and kidnapping

14: The government will take action against thieves, dacoits, kidnappers and others involved in such crimes

15: Imam Dheri will be converted into an Islamic university under the management of a committee comprising representatives of government and Taliban

16: Minister for Environment Wajid Ali Khan, Dr Shamsher Ali Khan, DIG of Malakand, and DPO of Swat from the government’s side and Muhammad Amin, Ali Bakht, Muslim Khan, Mehmood Khan and Nisar Khan from Taliban side are members of the committee to oversee implementation of the agreement.


I'm not holding my breath on this one.

Pakistan to nab Taliban chief. (And that will be when pigs fly.)

The United States asked Pakistan Tuesday to arrest and bring to justice a Taleban militant commander Islamabad was negotiating with to underline its commitment to the "war on terror." The commander, Baitullah Mehsud, who has been accused by the CIA of masterminding the assassination in December of ex-premier Benazir Bhutto, has been negotiating with the new Pakistan coalition government.

The government, led by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, has pledged to completely overhaul Islamabad's counter terrorism pursuit after defeating US-backed President Pervez Musharraf's political allies in February elections.

Completely overhaul or dismantle? My money is on dismantle. In the meantime, it is very comforting to know that Washington is "concerned". /sarc

US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte told a congressional hearing Tuesday that Washington was concerned over the negotiations with the Taleban, whom US and NATO troops are fighting in neighboring Afghanistan. He said Washington had repeatedly cautioned Islamabad about the talks despite a pledge from Gilani's government not to give "free space" to the extremist group using remote tribal areas as safe haven to attack Afghanistan.

Asked by a lawmaker how Washington would gauge any counter terrorism success notched by Pakistan, Negroponte said "one of the metrics" was...


...a lessening of cross border attacks into Afghanistan.

"Another would be if you saw the government operating effectively against some of these militant extremists, like for example bringing Baitullah Mehsud, the head of this extremist group in South Waziristan, capturing him and bringing him to justice, which is what should happen to him," Negroponte said.

The United States, he said, was concerned there were "elements" in the Pakistan government pushing for a negotiated settlement with the Taleban, ousted from power in Afghanistan by US-led forces after the September 11, 2001 attacks. "We hope that they proceed cautiously and not accept an outcome that will give extremist elements the ability to use the FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) area with impunity to carry out attacks on Pakistan, on Afghanistan or the United States or the rest of the world," he said.

"There is a lot at stake here and we have made that point repeatedly," Negroponte said.

Citing a previously failed deal with militants in the FATA region, he said: "We have some skepticism about their ability to enforce any such arrangement." Negroponte's concerns came despite an assurance by Pakistan Prime Minister Gilani, after talks with US President George W. Bush in Egypt at the weekend, that his government would not negotiate with militants unless they laid down their arms.


What a complete joke.

MORE al Qaeda linked terrorists arrested in Morocco

Round 'em up.

Eleven men arrested in Morocco on suspicion of terrorist activities were allegedly plotting an attack on an EU building and a hotel in Brussels, according to reports from the north African country yesterday.

One of the group, named in the Belgian media as Abdellatif Bekkali, is a Belgian citizen while others were alleged to have links to an al-Qaeda group that trained terrorists in Algeria and Mauritania for operations in Iraq.

Both the European Commission and the European Parliament said that they were unaware of a specific threat but there was speculation that the arrests were linked to the security alert that led to the cancellation of new year festivities in the centre of Brussels this year.

The group was said to be associated with Issam Goris, a suicide bomber killed in Baghdad. He was married to Muriel Degauque, the Belgian woman thought to be the first Western suicide bomber when she attacked a US convoy in 2005. The arrests were made in the towns of Fez and Nador in the north of Morocco.

About those targets?

European Union buildings and the Sheraton Hotel in the EU's capital, Brussels, were among the targets of an Islamist terrorist cell broken up in Morocco, Belgian media say.

The cell reportedly had been training jihadis to send to Iraq, too. It is interesting to note that these suspects ALL deny any al Qaeda involvement.

I'm happy to report that the Moroccan DA in charge of the trial for 27 terror suspects rounded up a few weeks ago is asking for mandatory jail sentences...(what were they going to do with them otherwise, I wonder. Have them do weed and seed duty along the highways?) Unfortunately, he's only asking for sentences of 10-20 years and not life in prison.

Although if you will recall, Moroccan prison life can be pretty darn good if you're a radical islamist terror scumbag.

.....

Mali official claims Austrian hostages are alive

and negotiations are proceeding.

(I sure hope these negotiators have better luck than the last negotiators. As you will recall, three of them were murdered during the course of negotiations.)

A high-level official in Mali, in whose remote desert north the two Austrians were originally reported held, rejected rumours circulating in neighbouring Algeria that the two might have been killed by their captors.

"I can tell you that it is not true," said the official, who is following the hostage case but asked not to be named.

"It's a pity to see that their detention is lasting so long, it's hard for them and their families. But I can assure you that the negotiations are advancing and advancing well," he said.

"We think that in the near future they will regain their freedom," the official added, without giving details.
.....

Sabotage attempt at Swedish Nuke Plant

Two suspects have been taken into custody after a 'temporary welder's bag' tested positive for explosives.

The explosive? TATP - the explosive of choice for the Shoe Bomber, Richard Reid.

Two people have been taken into custody on suspicions of preparing acts of sabotage at the Oskarshamn nuclear plant on Wednesday morning, according to police and plant operators, reports the Kvällsposten newspaper.
A Swedish contractor was arrested on Wednesday when traces of highly explosive material were found on him as he was about to enter a nuclear power plant in southern Sweden, police and the plant said.

"At 8am we received a call from the nuclear plant at Oskarshamn. They told us one worker was stopped in the control. He had explosive material in his bags," Sven-Erik Karlsson of the Kalmar county police told AFP.The company that operates the Oskarshamn plant, OKG, meanwhile said the man's bags contained "no visible illegal substances" but routine tests at the entrance to the plant "detected traces of explosives.""We can see that our security routines functioned properly," the managing director of OKG, Lars Thuring, said in a statement, adding that the plant was collaborating with police.

Karlsson said the man, who was being interrogated by police, was a welder hired for temporary purposes, but could provide no further details on his age nor his background.

Anyone care to hazard a guess?

.....

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Checking in from down on the farm...

Well, first I'd like to thank the Lord and Master for donating his air card in support of my jihad fighting effort and secondly, I'd like to thank everyone for their good wishes for my mother. She was transferred to the rehab unit last evening and I'm happy to report that she is doing better than expected. It's still going to be a long hard slog, but she is making good progress and getting stronger every day.

Me? Well, I'm exhausted. Hah-hah. But not so exhausted that I can't fight the jihad! So let's get right to it.


When shit flinging monkeys attack. I see that another case of Poo-Poo Platter Jihad has been reported in the UK. This will be the third such biological attack by Moslems that I know of. First, there was the doo-doo sprinkled chocolate cake and who can forget the ca-ca covered pastries? The phrase 'disgusting animals" doesn't even begin to describe these Moslem idiots. Although, I'm starting to wonder who is the bigger idiot - especially when you hear the authorities saying things like:


"Ms Thomas said a possible motive had yet to be established"
and
"Attorneys in the case were unclear about a motive in the case"
or
"We cannot say for definite what kind of faecal matter it is, although it is very likely it was human. It would have to go through a DNA test for us to know for absolutely sure."

More details regarding this particular attack:

42 year old, Sahnoun Daifallah, appeared in front of a magistrate on charges he squirted a "foul-smelling" substance, later determined to be a mixture of feces and urine, over frozen chips and wine bottles at a Tesco in Gloucester - he then went on to shower and ruin 706 children’s books at Waterstones in Cirencester, Gloucs. Not quite satisified with showering his human liquid waste concoction over just two stores, Mr Daifallah proceeded to the Air Balloon pub where, after making offensive comments to the barmaid, he proceeded to sprinkle more feces and urine all over the pub food.

You've heard about the 'gang that couldn't shoot straight'? Well, how about the 'gang that couldn't pray straight'? Mosque worshippers pray in wrong direction. They were praying towards Africa - not Mecca. Not only that - it seems that praying in the wrong direction is a common problem and it's not all that unusual among our directionally challenged worshippers of the pedophile prophet, Mo. Why am I not surprised?

A mosque in Blackburn has undergone a refurbishment after discovering that worshippers were praying in the wrong direction. Experts using modern satellite technology discovered that prayers at the mosque, which should have been in the direction of Mecca, were over 30 degrees out. The location of the Qiblah, which is what worshippers pray towards as a guide to the direction of Mecca, has now been changed at the Masjid-e-Sajideen mosque in Plane Tree Road, Little Harwood.

And just when you thought you had seen and heard everything, we have this from out Moslem friends (tip of the camel teat to the guys over at Jawa):



.....

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Kidnapped Pakistani ambassador released

as part of prisoner swap and Pakistani surrender/appeasement/cave-in to the Taliban.

Tariq Azizuddin as last seen in kidnap vid

Taliban militants freed a kidnapped Pakistani envoy on Saturday, in what appeared to be part of a prisoner swap involving the release of more than 40 Taliban, according to senior Pakistani security official.

Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan, Tariq Azizuddin, was abducted on Feb.11 as he was travelling from the northwestern city of Peshawar to the Afghan border on his way back to Kabul.

He was released in the Pakistani tribal area of South Waziristan, where he had been held by fighters loyal to Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, the official said.

The government has yet to give an official account of the circumstances surrounding the envoy's release.

.....
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Thursday, May 15, 2008

Mondo craziness in the land of Lord

Oh possums, I was just so happy being back at el Rancho Lordo and fighting the jihad with you.

Silly me. I should have known better.

Just got a call that my mother is in the hospital with a broken hip. She is being operated on tomorrow and is expected to be in the hospital for three days. After that it will be on to rehab.


I will fly back to the farm on Saturday and will stay as long as needed. (Or until they get tired of me and beg me to leave.)

It's kind of pathetic how much I will miss you all.

;^D



Let Go, Let God

With God guiding me, right and perfect outcomes emerge.


The decision is mine: How will I respond to the challenging situation at hand? When faced with a potentially uncomfortable situation -- perhaps a disagreement with a co-worker or a frank discussion with a friend -- I may have several responses to choose from.

One response might be to avoid the situation entirely!

Thankfully, however, I also have the choice to pray.

Prayer brings me peace and clarity. What a joy it is to know I have nothing to fear as I trust in God to be my guide. As I let go of worries, I am free to receive divine direction and insight. I let God guide my words and actions, allowing the right and perfect outcome to emerge. What might have before seemed like a conflict has now been transformed into an experience of growth.

"In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I am not afraid." -- Psalm 56:10-11

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Turkey: 5 Moslem suspects deny killing three Christians

Despite being arrested at the scene.

And confessing.

And being as guilty as hell.

Now they are recanting and attempting to finger each other. Going so far as to name Turkish political figures as the masterminds. And if that weren't enough - they are complaining that solitary confinement constitutes inhumane treatment. Wahhhhh! They are playing the Turkish judicial system like a fiddle.

The three victims, Christian employees at publishing company Zirve Bible Press were tied up, stabbed, and tortured for several hours before having their throats slit. Victim angered the killers "by slandering Islam and its prophet Muhammad, and by insisting that Jesus was God."

All five culprits arrested last spring for the savage murder of three Christians in eastern Turkey have proclaimed their innocence, declaring they did not personally kill any of the victims. In their court testimonies completed Monday (May 12) at the sixth hearing before Malatya’s Third Criminal Court, the five young Turkish men have defended themselves by blaming each other for the killings.

All have insisted that they had not planned to murder anyone and that no individuals or group instigated their raid on the Zirve Publishing Co. office in Malatya on April 18, 2007.

Turkish Christians Necati Aydin and Ugur Yuksel and German Christian Tilmann Geske were tied up, stabbed and tortured for several hours before their throats were slit. The five suspects were all caught by police at the crime scene.

“Our purpose was just to gather information and give it to the press,” alleged ringleader Emre Gunaydin said in a nine-page handwritten statement he read to the court on Monday.

He claimed they took along knives “only to protect ourselves,” insisting, “If we had wanted to kill them, we would have brought a real gun along with us.” The suspects had three guns, each equipped only to shoot blanks.

“I didn’t kill anyone. I just hit them,” Gunaydin said. “And I didn’t order anyone to kill them.”

But according to the other four suspects – Hamit Ceker, Cuma Ozdemir, Abuzer Yildirim and Salih Gurler – it was Gunaydin who planned the whole attack, without telling them he had any intentions to kill the victims.


In separate court testimonies over the past four months, the four either blamed Gunaydin directly for all three murders or claimed they did not see who had killed certain of the victims.
But as the final suspect to testify, Gunaydin fingered Salih Gurler for leading the violence, saying he saw him stab Yuksel.


“I remember very clearly Salih slanting his knife, stabbing and twisting it into Ugur’s back,” Gunaydin claimed.

He also said Yildirim hit Aydin so hard he blacked out, and that then Gurler tried unsuccessfully to choke the 35-year-old pastor with a rope around his neck.


At that point Gunaydin claimed he became sick to his stomach and went and washed his face in the sink. When he came back, he said, Gurler and Ozdemir were standing at Geske’s head.
“Salih was hitting him, and I suppose slashed him some,” Gunaydin said.


Gunaydin repeated previous claims that the violence exploded when Aydin angered them all by slandering Islam and its prophet Muhammad, and by insisting that Jesus was God.

But he pointedly denied a number of claims made against him by his fellow suspects, including his alleged boasts of the powerful mafia links of his older brother and uncles with known criminals like Sedat Peker.

“I am not a member of the Ulku Ocaklari (Ideal Hearth),” he said, referring to an ultranationalist youth group linked with the Nationalist Movement Party.

Gunaydin also rejected an admission in his initial police statement that after the Malatya raid, he planned to go to Kocaeli province and kill Aydin’s brother-in-law, also a Protestant pastor.
He said that doctors had told him he needed six months to recover from his injuries, incurred when he fell from a third-floor balcony to the street trying to escape from the scene. He complained that, just a month later, right after his release from the hospital, he was subjected to four days of intense interrogations by police and prosecutors.

For this reason, Gunaydin said, he was rejecting all his previous, signed statements and presenting the court with his own written, “true” statement. But under questioning from the presiding judge and prosecutor, Gunaydin appeared unsure when asked about details in his new statement.

“I don’t remember,” he said repeatedly. “I have gone through trauma.”

“I am doubtful he actually wrote this himself,” one plaintiff lawyer told Compass after the hearing. “More likely, he just copied something that was prepared for him to write.”
When the court then invited plaintiff lawyers to begin their cross-examination of the witness, Gunaydin declared that he was claiming his legal right to remain silent for the remainder of the trial.

During cross-examination of Gurler during the morning court session, the suspect was quizzed in detail about his claims that once he and the others realized Gunaydin planned to kill the three Christians, they wanted to escape from the scene.

Gunaydin had locked the door and put the key in his pocket to prevent them leaving, he said. According to Gurler’s testimony, though, he opened the door when police arrived and demanded entrance. Gurler said he did not know how or when the key was put back in the lock.

In the afternoon session, Gunaydin declared he had left the key in the door when he locked it.
Judge Eray Gurtekin reminded both Gurler and Gunaydin of the repentance clause in the fourth article of Turkey’s penal code No. 221, under which their sentences would be reduced if they turned state’s evidence and informed the court about any individuals or organization behind this attack.

“There is no one behind this incident,” Gunaydin responded, echoing all four of the other suspects. “I will not wrongly accuse anyone.”

Results of Gunaydin’s bone testing, requested by defense attorneys at the April 14 hearing to prove he was under 18 years of age at the time of the murders, were rejected by the court as inconclusive.

Solitary Confinement ‘Inhumane’

Noting that all five suspects had now completed their court testimony, Gunaydin’s
defense lawyer, Niyazi Tokmak, requested that the court remove the suspect from the heavy security measures of solitary confinement, under which he has been jailed for the past year.

“This treatment of my client is not humane,” Tokmak stated, complaining that Gunaydin’s cell was lighted 24 hours a day and remained under constant camera surveillance.

Unable to restrain herself, Ugur Yuksel’s elderly mother, sitting on the front bench of observers next to widow Suzanne Geske, cried out, “So is what they did humane?”

Several Turkish newspapers reported that Tokmak retorted, “Shut up. Don’t argue with me. Be quiet.”

To date, each suspect’s courtroom testimony and cross-examination has been conducted individually, to prevent fellow suspects from hearing the others’ statements.

But because of major contradictions between the five testimonies, the judge announced that all five will be summoned to be cross-examined together at the next hearing, set for June 9.
Representatives from several human rights groups joined an official observer from the German Embassy in Ankara and members of the Turkish and foreign press attending the May 12 hearing.

Turkish widow Semse Aydin again boycotted the trial proceedings, protesting the partiality of the judges hearing the case against her husband’s murderers.

With the panel of three judges hearing the case effectively blocking plaintiff attempts to procure evidence against both the murderers and the alleged instigators behind them, head plaintiff lawyer Orhan Kemal Cengiz said, “We can’t go anywhere with this. I am really frustrated.”

Informant’s Letter Names Alleged Masterminds
Near the close of Monday’s (May 12) hearing on the April 18, 2007 murders in Malatya, the state prosecutor asked Gunaydin if he knew a person named Metin Dogan.

Now jailed in Malatya’s Elbistan Prison for killing a man who had murdered his older brother, Dogan wrote a letter to the chief prosecutor of the Malatya Third Criminal Court dated February 5, 2008.

In the letter, made available to plaintiff lawyers just this week and obtained by Compass, Dogan claimed he had been offered $300,000 in 2005 to kill anyone he found in the Zirve Publishing Co. office in Malatya.

Since childhood, Dogan said, he had been an active Malatya member of the ultranationalist Ulku Ocaklari youth organization, linked unofficially with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

“One day in 2005 Ulku Ocaklari President Burhan Coskun called me and told me to come immediately to MHP’s provincial office,” Dogan wrote. “I went immediately.”

Dogan said he found three men with Coskun, all waiting for him. He identified them as the provincial MHP president, Mehmet Ekici; a former MHP member of parliament identified only by his first name, Namik; and a retired major general.

“You are to telephone Zirve Publishing and threaten them,” Dogan said Namik told him. After he made the phone call, he said Namik told him, “We have put an end to them. This job fits you, my lion. You will do this. Whoever you find at the Zirve Publishing office, you will kill.”

Namik reportedly told him, “Don’t worry at all,” promising the major general would rescue him if necessary. He then proceeded to outline where and how he was to do the murders, promising to tell him later when to act.

“But before two months had passed,” Dogan wrote, “I went to prison for killing the man who had murdered my older brother. So then Emre Gunaydin, who I know, was given this job.”
Dogan said he was ready to back up his claims with “powerful proofs” to the court, and lawyers said they likely will call him to testify.

In today’s Taraf newspaper, the former MHP parliamentarian identified as Namik Durhan flatly denied Dogan’s allegations, calling them a “plot.” Insisting that he did not know Dogan and had never met him, he described Coskun as “a trustworthy person.”

According to a report today on the CNNTURK.com website, both Durhan and Ekici have denied the allegations in official statements requested by the prosecutor. There has been no response to date from military authorities regarding the general named in the letter.

“This man Dogan may be referring to a generally correct framework about these murders,” head plaintiff lawyer Orhan Kemal Cengiz told Compass. “But I am suspicious if he actually has any concrete evidence or not.”

I don't know how the Democrats rigged this thing...

Red State Update on Hillary's West Virginia victory.



Clinton leads in popular vote if Florida and Michigan are counted. Honest.

Turkey: Law Banning Cigarettes and Alcohol goes into effect.

Just another example of the creeping Islamist influence in secular Turkey and the blind denial of local dhimmis. The Turkish Tourism director is quoted that he "doesn't want to believe that the law will be enacted."

A new law to overhaul tobacco and alcoholic beverages usage drew fierce criticism from sector representatives, and is seen as another negative factor in Islamist-rooted AKP's record of conservative arrangements.

Law No. 5752, which will take effect tomorrow, bans the sale of alcoholic beverages and cigarettes "by breaking its packaging or dividing them." Sector representatives say if implemented, it would mean that the sale of alcoholic beverages by the glass at establishments like restaurants and bars would not be allowed.

(hat tipsy to The Religion of Peace...and a big stack of dead bodies)
The government passed the law to ban smoking in public areas and the sale of single cigarettes in small markets, a practice commonly used. The representatives of sector organizations say this law makes it virtually impossible to consume alcohol anywhere but in the home.
-snip-
Turkish alcohol producers have already been under pressure since the AKP government took the helm. Winemakers had complained of a heavy tax burden and a government which they feel is unsympathetic to the wine industry due to its Islamist roots, however many Turks drink alcohol.

Turkey's Islamist-rooted AKP, who faces a closure case on the charge of becoming the focal point of anti-secular activities, denies the charges but has so far not taken any steps to soothe concerns caused mostly by the implementations of local administrations.

Under the law no cocktails will be made by mixing different kinds of alcohol, and giving alcoholic beverages as a gift is also banned. The chairman of the Tourism, Restaurants, Clubs Investors and Operators said he does "not want to believe" such ban will take effect. "I don't think this will be a problem as long as you have a license to sell open bottle alcohol," Baris Tansever added.

Good news....It looks like Mullah Obaidullah won't be

down for breakfast in the morning. (thank you, Hot Air for this GREAT news.)

Remember that drone attack in northwestern Pakistan?

Bingo! He dead now, Fred.

Obaidullah served as Defense Minister during the Taliban’s reign of terror in Afghanistan. Known better as Mullah Obaidullah, he won his release from Pakistan along with other senior Taliban figures last November. Pakistan traded him for hundreds of their soldiers that the Taliban had captured in the frontier regions. The US considered him one of the closest Taliban associates to Osama bin Laden and badly wanted him dead or alive.

The demise of Obaidullah will create many ripples, especially for the Pakistan government. The Taliban didn’t trade for Obaidullah just to see him decorate the countryside, courtesy of an American missile attack. This will affect the ongoing negotiations between native Taliban elements and the new Pakistani government, although precisely in the manner desired by the US.

Strategically and tactically, the Taliban will have a huge setback with Obaidullah’s loss. This isn’t a field commander with a few dozen terrorists under his control; Obaidullah sat at the top of the food chain. The attack suggests that American intel has improved considerably, which may make the rest of the top level of the Taliban nervous enough to start pulling a few Crazy Ivans to ensure that they haven’t suddenly appeared on the radar screen as well. That will create confusion and a need to revamp their communications, which could open more opportunities for American drones.
.....

Speaking of surrender...

Lebanon waves the white flag. Lebanon cancels anti-Hezbollah measures. Unbelievable.

Lebanon's government cancelled measures on Wednesday that angered the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement and triggered the worst internal conflict since the country's 1975-90 civil war.

The U.S.-backed government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said in a statement after a meeting that it was taking the step in line with a request by the Lebanese army to preserve civil peace and promote an Arab League mediation effort to end Lebanon's 18-month-old political crisis.
.....

Obama loses his bearings on Afghanistan and Iraq

Bumbling and stumbling but wearing a bright, shiny, new American flag pin on his lapel. And by godless, he's even getting religion. Must be working because it also looks like he's going to get John Edward's endorsement tonight. Whee-doggies.

(Do me a favor and pay attention to Barack as he speaks sometime. He always uses two teleprompters and never, ever faces the camera to speak. He looks left, he looks right but never looks straight into the camera. Do you think it's because of his dumbo-like ears or what? It's beginning to bug the heck out of me.)


Bonus: The abortion ladies like Obama too!

Surrender: Pakistani style

The Parties agree to sign a peace agreement that the government will not put in writing.

The government finally started withdrawal of Army troops from the Mahsud-inhabited areas of South Waziristan Agency (SWA) and agreed to swap prisoners on Tuesday. Also, both the sides within few days would sign yet another peace agreement, which the government suggested should not be in written form.

Army starts clearing out of S. Waziristan. There will be a phased "prisoner release" and the Army withdrawal from Mehsud dominated areas is to be completed by May 19. (full details beneath the fold.)

Here's my idea. Once the Pakistani Army is well out of the way, the US forces can move in and conduct more ops like the one that happened in northwestern Pakistan today. Dozen militants killed in suspected US strike in Pakistan: security official.

At least a dozen militants including foreign fighters were killed Wednesday in a suspected US missile strike on two houses in northwestern Pakistan, a senior security official said.

Two missiles apparently fired by a US drone aircraft demolished a house and a compound used by suspected Al-Qaeda militants in Bajaur tribal region near the border with Afghanistan, the official, who declined to be identified, told AFP.

"We have reports that the missile strike killed at least 12 militants including some foreigners," the official said. The houses targetted belonged to Maulvi Taj Mohammad and Maulvi Hassan, the official said, though it was unclear if they had been killed in the strikes.

It looks like we got a couple of "foreign fighters in the process. Excellent. Good thing too, because NATO is seeing a sharp increase in attacks in eastern Afghanistan and are blaming "ineffective peace pacts made by the Pakistani govt." (I sure hope someone brings this to the Dems attention before they turn tail and run from Iraq.)

The government finally started withdrawal of Army troops from the Mahsud-inhabited areas of South Waziristan Agency (SWA) and agreed to swap prisoners on Tuesday. Also, both the sides within few days would sign yet another peace agreement, which the government suggested should not be in written form. The weeks-long talks between the two sides finally paved the way for the peace agreement after Baitullah Mahsud-led Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), umbrella organisation of all militant groups operating in the seven tribal regions and 24 settled districts of the NWFP, quit their erstwhile demand of the release of Mulla Obaidullah Akhund, a former Afghan Taliban defence minister, reportedly captured by the Pakistani law enforcement agencies in March 2007from Quetta in Balochistan.

However, top military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas, who is also the DG ISPR, when reached by telephone said the troops would be readjusted in the region. Abbas said pulling out of the troops from the SWA would be decided by the government, depending upon the outcome of its negotiations with Mahsud tribal elders.

He said that in a bid to facilitate the return of thousands of Mahsud tribespeople, displaced by the military operations launched in January, the army had decided to readjust their present positions and open different roads linking various villages and towns in the area. The sources told this correspondent that both sides had formally agreed to swap prisoners. According to the draft of the peace agreement prepared by the jirga members after consulting the government and militants, the government started troop withdrawal from hilltops in the Mahsuds-inhabited areas on Tuesday and these would assemble in Spinkai Raghzai area near Jandola. The sources said the troops would begin leaving Spinkai Raghzai town on May 16. The process of a complete withdrawal from the Mahsud-dominated areas would be complete by May 19. And once the troops are withdrawn from these areas, the jirga member said the government would pull out troops from the gun-manufacturing Darra Adamkhel town and then picturesque Swat valley.

Besides this, the sources said the government decided to release 55 suspected militants in the first phase, detained from Swat, Bajaur, Mohmand, Darra Adamkhel and South Waziristan during the past few months, while the militants would set free only 10 government officials, including security personnel.

In the second phase, the government would release 20 suspected militants while Baitullah would hand over 100 government people. The government has already taken 55 suspected militants in military choppers to tribal South Waziristan Agency, expected to be exchanged today (Wednesday). TTP spokesman Maulvi Omar said they had already sent a list of 245 detainees to the government, taken into custody from South Waziristan, Darra Adamkhel, Mohmand, Bajaur and Swat. He said the government sent them a list of 85 names but there were 100 government people in their custody as some other were later captured from Mohmand Agency.

On request of the jirga, Baitullah and his commanders had ordered their fellow fighters not to target security forces and government installations during the process of withdrawal of the troops from the troubled regions.

Jaipur bombing: 'We did it' brags little-known group.

Video found that links the Jaipur bombing to an earlier bombing in Uttar Pradesh and contains info that gives the claim of responsibility credence. HuJI still in the mix...

From the Times of India:

A little-known outfit, Indian Mujahideen, has claimed responsibility for carrying out the fatal blasts in Jaipur on Tuesday. And to buttress its claim, it sent video clips to the media of a cycle strapped with a bag that it claimed held the bomb.

As cops groped for clues to crack the serial blasts in Jaipur, the mysterious video of a brand new cycle added a new twist to the investigations.

While such claims in the aftermath of a major terror attack are not uncommon and have even been used by the real culprits to throw the investigators off the trail, what lends credence to the claim in this instance is that terrorist groups used an identical email ID to announce the blasts in Uttar Pradesh in November 2006.

The video was sent to the media in the capital by Indian Mujahideen late on Wednesday evening. It mentioned the number — 129489 — etched on the frame of the cycle shown in the clip. The Mujahideen claimed that the cycle was the one that was used for the explosion at Kotwali near Choti Chaupad.


In the case of the UP blasts, the email was sent from an internet cafe in New Delhi’s Shakarpur locality half an hour before the explosives went off in Varanasi, Faizabad and Lucknow.

The ID used this time is marginally different.

While the ID used for claiming the UP blasts was "guru_alhindi@yahoo.fr", this time the ID is "guru_alhindi_jaipur@yahoo.co.uk". Tuesday’s mail came with three attachments of videos showing the cycles strapped with bags that apparently had the bombs.

The sensational development is sure to get the investigators focus more closely on the involvement of HuJI (Harkat-ul-Jehad-Al-Islami), a Deobandi outfit which has grown beyond its base in Bangaldesh to strike Indian cities at will. The UP blasts were engineered to punish lawyers who had thrashed the HuJI suspects arrested for earlier blasts in the state, and had vowed not to represent them during the trial.

The choice of the tag Indian Mujahideen also ties in with efforts to camouflage the foreign roots of jihadi terror and present it as a homegrown phenomenon.

Like in the earlier instance, Indian Mujahideen threatened an "open war against India" unless the country stopped supporting the US and UK on international issues.

The Religion of Blowing up children

Update: Sky News is reporting that the bomber is now believed to be around 16 years old - not 8. Still a child to my way of thinking.... Teenager kills soldier in suicide attack.

8 year old suicide bomber kills Iraqi Army officer.

A young girl was loaded with explosives and detonated by remote control, killing her and an Iraq soldier and wounding four others, it was claimed on Wednesday.

The Iraqi army said that an officer had been killed when the girl approached soldiers near Youssifiyah, south of the capital Baghdad.

Read how the Telegraph tries to spin it...they're sickening.

Terrorists in Iraq have deployed children as unwitting bombers before, but rarely as young as eight years old.

They have also used psychiatric patients and people in wheelchairs on suicide missions.

However, most bombers are ideologically committed Islamists determined to rid Iraq of foreign forces and their allies in the new Iraqi government.

Well, I guess that makes it all okay then, right????

This just tears it...Queen dons headscarf for mosque visit

What did I say about the Queen going tiara in hand to Turkey? Batten down your wighats, possums - it gets worse.

Queen dons headscarf for mosque visit. The article goes on to imply that the Queen's wearing of a headscarf is "a gesture that will be appreciated by many Turks trying to persuade it's western neighbors that Islam and the EU can co-exist."

It just reeks of dhimmitude to me.

The Queen made a rare visit to a mosque today, donning a headscarf alongside the devout wife of Turkey’s president to tour the crypt and caverns of an historic Islamic shrine.

It was the first formal solo outing for Mrs Hayrunnisa Gul, the country’s controversial First Lady, who accompanied the monarch around the Green Mosque and tomb of Sultan Mehmet I on day-two of the Queen’s state visit to Turkey.

Both women covered their hair: Mrs Gul, as always, wore the full Turkish headscarf, while the royal hairline was safely hidden away by a piece of chocolate chiffon.

-snip-

Today, at the Mosque entrance, an aide in an embroidered robe knelt deftly to assist the Queen as she struggled briefly to remove a royal shoe, in deference to Muslim sensibilities. Thus helped, the monarch donned slippers before entering the place of worship.

Once inside Iman Ayhan Polat showed the royal guest around the 15th century complex, built while Bursa was still capital of the Ottoman Empire, taking time to point out the ornate coloured tiles which give the Green Mosque its name.



As he chanted verses from the Koran, Mrs Gul and the Queen took their seats while the rest of the party kneeled around them in prayer.

-snip-

Her Majesty re-emerged from the Mosque with her hat firmly back in place and the chiffon having served its regal duty it was off to another engagement to admire more ceramics. The royal party then departed for Istanbul, deaf to the sounds of a beautiful call to prayer.

"DEAF TO THE SOUNDS OF A BEAUTIFUL CALL TO PRAYER. "

Do you think the author, Lucy Bannerman, of the UK Times Online is a dhimmi? Or has she just been reading Obama's memoirs?
.....


What's going down in Padua?

First, I read about the group of Muslim immigrants forming their own security patrol in Padua. Then I discovered that there is a similar Moslem group in Bagnoli which was started because of attacks after Friday prayers. Attacks that the local priest suggested were conducted by "...the same people who do not participate in their [own] church's celebrations". Finally, I stumble across this... Muslims feel under siege as Italian Right sets up town vigilante groups.

Things are sounding a little tense over there, folks.



Bonus: Berlusconi testifies in Abu Omar rendition trial. (The trial that establishes the Saddam al-Qaeda linkage that everyone is hoping we'll ignore. Good thing Michelle Malkin is all over it!)

UK Booze Nazis on patrol

Tesco ban parent's buying booze if accompanied by minor children.

Parents shopping with their own children are being refused alcohol by over-zealous supermarket staff - for fear they are supplying drink to minors. Workers have been told not to serve adults accompanied by children in the latest crack-down on underage drinking. However diligent shop staff are applying the letter of the law and refusing to serve parents who are on weekly shopping trips with their children.

.....