My friend died and went to heaven...

I'm the one going to Purgatory.

(I'll be fly fishing the Animas. Wish me luck!)

Pakistan: Tali-banned

Pakistan bans Taliban after suicide bomb attacks.

Oh yeah. That'll take care of them all right. /sarc

Pakistan banned the Taliban on Monday, toughening its stance after the Islamic militant group claimed responsibility for deadly suicide bombings against one of Pakistan's most sensitive military installations.

The ban imposed by the fragile governing coalition comes just a week after the ouster of Pervez Musharraf, a key U.S. ally whose departure has prompted concern that the nuclear-armed country is too unstable to beat back extremists.

Anyone caught aiding the Taliban in Pakistan — which will have its bank accounts and assets frozen — faces up to 10 years in prison.

The Taliban declared the ban "meaningless."

Increased security is the order of the day at the Denver Airport

in advance of the Democratic Coronat-Convention.

I was hoping to be able to go into Denver this week and give you an on the scene report, possums - but real life intervened. In lieu of that, and knowing how concerned all my possums are about security, I thought I'd give you a report from the airport.

As you drive into the Airport a portable billboard advises you that your vehicle could be stopped for a random security check. I've never seen that before. Two tow trucks were spotted at the entrance into the east terminal - no doubt to pick up those pesky vehicles left at curbside. No car bombs please in Denver, thank you very much. Usually there is one vehicle and two cops on the departure level directing traffic and moving people along. Today there were 6 vehicles and at least 8 policemen that I could see.

Increased security is visible inside the terminal, too. I saw policemen stationed throughout the ticketing area, both plain clothes and in uniform. For the first time ever, I saw a K9 unit patrolling the Concourse (made me think of the K9 Kafir brigade - see sidebar) and the locker area is marked with a sign saying "Closed for Security Purposes." It too, has a guard stationed outside.

The terminal looks pretty spiffed up, what with red, pale blue (cause nothing quite says USA like pale blue) and white banners. Speaking of spiffed up, all of the TSA people are now sporting royal blue uniform shirts - they look quite snappy.

I haven't seen anyone who is showing visible signs of being a delegate - you know the patriotic garb, political buttons, crazy hats, and their mandatory change you can believe in shirt, but all the employees at the McDonalds were wearing Obama O8 shirts. Which was kind of funny since the guy standing next to me in line was having a helluva time trying to get his server to give him the right change. I don't know if he was amused or not when I quipped: "There's some change you can believe in, my friend."

Well, that's it from the road. Just thought I'd post because I was lucky enough to find a seat by an outlet - always a bonus for the wired traveler.

A sudden trip has come up...

to attend funeral services for a friend that passed away this week.

I will be flying to South Carolina today and will be back on Tuesday. Blogging will no doubt be sporadic.

Keep fighting the good fight, possums!

Pakistan: Bhutto's husband chosen for president

Shoes of Pakistani suicide bomb victims laid out to assist in victim identification.

by Pakistan Peoples Party.

Denver: No BBQ w/ al Jazeera.

Community uproar. (the Denver Post spins it.)

Golden City Manager Mike Bestor has withdrawn his barbecue invitation to a news channel based in the Middle East after a community uproar that spilled over into the City Council Thursday night.

Bestor said he issued the invitation to Al Jazeera English, which is based in the Middle East, as a private citizen. The network planned to do interviews at the gathering as part of its Democratic National Convention next week.

The city issued a statement Thursday night in which Bestor said he realized his job indirectly linked the event to the city.

The city's statement said Bestor "believed that hosting such a discussion of the issues was an excellent way to illustrate democracy to the rest of the world and to show that neighbors can disagree politically and still work together toward the good of their community."

"The city of Golden doesn't have the right to restrict or prohibit Al Jazeera or any other news agency from broadcasting out of the city, whether we approve of their coverage or not, whether we share their perspectives or not, whether we find their coverage offensive or not," the city's statement concluded.

An more in depth, on scene account of the meeting from Ynet News: (there's a spin, but it's my kind of spin.)

On Thursday night I came to a Golden, Colorado City Council meeting to ask them to consider our request to place a menorah in downtown Golden this coming Hanukkah. But a much larger controversy was boiling.

Only 20 minutes drive from Democratic National Convention host city Denver, al-Jazeera had asked Golden City Manager, Mike Bestor, if he could help them meet and interview Golden residents. With the support of Golden Mayor Jacob Smith, a special barbeque celebration was arranged for al-Jazeera reporters at the home of Golden City Manager Mike Bestor.

This created an outcry from Golden residents who were opposed to the perceived preferential treatment given to al-Jazeera journalists. There was standing room only at the Council Meeting last night. Grown men who had served in the US armed forces choked with emotion as they described how al-Jazeera’s reporting had helped to embolden our enemies and serves as a propaganda machine for the likes of Osama Bin Laden, Hamas and other terrorists who kill American citizens.

United States army and navy veterans and others stood up one after another demanding that al-Jazeera not be given what they termed as “red carpet treatment” by the City of Golden.

Of course there were some who felt that it was a good idea to treat even those who blatantly help the enemy of the United States with more love than is offered to our allies.

After every one had finished talking the Golden City manager, Mike Bestor, had his turn to explain his position, amazingly he told the audience that he had made a mistake and would therefore be withdrawing his barbeque invitation to al-Jazeera. There was loud applause when he finished speaking. The people had spoken and the elected officials were forced to listen and back down.

It gets better.

Those at the meeting who supported the al-Jazeera barbeque invitation insinuated that their opponents were bigoted and intolerant of others different than themselves. One speaker even called the veterans and those who agreed with them xenophobes. But if that was the case one would have assumed that they would have opposed my request to place a menorah in Golden City Center. But instead, after I had finished my speech before the council asking them to consider placing the menorah in Golden, the loudest applause came for the United States army veterans. And after the meeting was over many who had spoken against the al-Jazeera barbeque approached me and voiced support for the menorah proposal.

Kudos to Mayor Bestor. Double Kudos to the patriots of Golden who spoke out against the enemy in our midst. And don't kid yourself - they are the enemy.
related post.

Mookie al Sadr: Turning tail and moving to Iran...

Aide: Iraq's al Sadr may stay in Iran for years.

(In reality he's been hiding out there since May 2007.)

(Here's hoping they have a dental plan.)

Denver: A Palace and Obama's Potluck Turkey Chili. What more can a girl ask for?

Look what I found in my mail? An extra special offer from the Brown Palace.

First we have the Political Palate:

Enjoy a taste of some favorite democratic dishes. The Political Palate Package includes:

Overnight stay
Three-course dinner in Ship Tavern featuring: Barack Obama's Potluck Turkey Chili, made from a recipe he has been perfecting since college
Pan Seared Colorado Bison Medallions with Whiskey-Tortilla Sauce, the dinner served on the final evening of the G8 Summit in Denver in 1997
A slice of Banana Cream Pie, one of Bill Clinton's favorite desserts
Democratic National Convention Gift Bag
Complimentary Valet

Starting at $369. Valid Aug. 21-24, 2008. Book online at BrownPalace.com (PROMO CODE: Propal) or call 303-297-3111 to book today!

After eating that meal you won't want mints on your pillow - you'll want some Pepcid AC.

Too rich for your blood-in more ways than one? Try this one on for size.

Presidential Pillows
Rest your head in a hotel that almost every U.S president has visited since 1905.
Package includes:
Overnight stay
Democratic National Convention Gift Bag
Complimentary valet

Starting at $199. Valid Aug. 21-24, 2008. Book online at BrownPalace.com (PROMO CODE: Propre) or call 303-297-3111 to book today!

Pakistan: US reporter not missing. Never was.

and his name isn't Nicholas Shamble, either.

Hoo-boy. I'm happy to hear this.

the happy and safe reporter
Nicholas Schmidle

The Pakistan embassy has confirmed that visiting freelance American journalist Nicholas Schmidle is not missing, as reported in a section of the press, including this newspaper, but safe and working on assignment in Sindh for a feature article on Sehwan Sharif.

Schmidle is in Pakistan for the Smithsonian, which is doing a feature in one of its forthcoming publications on the colourful celebrations witnessed during the “urs” of the popular 8th century saint of Sehwan, Lal Shahbaz Qalandar.

Schmidle who was deported from Pakistan last year for infringement of his visa, applied for a visa this summer, which the embassy strongly recommended and which the government of Pakistan authorised the embassy to issue. Schmidle also sent an email and a text message to this correspondent on Thursday, expressing surprise at the erroneous press report that he was “missing.” He said he was in Sindh with a Sindhi journalist colleague completing his assignment. He is returning to Washington, where he lives, later this month.

Saudi Arabia: I want my MTV...

not during Ramadan, oh faithful followers of the Moon God. Hulk Hogan's okay, though.

No Music Videos on MTV ARABIA during Ramadan.

Samer al-Marzouqi, the channel's manager, said they will mark the month by airing cultural news programmes and the latest reality shows only to allow viewers to engage in quiet contemplation.

'Ramadan is a time for introspection and we would like to offer our viewers a break from the ordinary fare. Though part of a global brand, MTV Arabia is conscious of regional sensitivities and we are keen to respond to the needs of viewers in the Middle East, the vast majority of whom will be fasting and focusing on their spiritual lives,' al-Marzouqi told reporters.

The channel will continue to play reality shows, celebrity news and pop culture documentaries. The newest programme during the month will be Hogan Knows Best, which follows wrestling superstar Hulk Hogan in his lesser-known roles as husband and father.

Saudi Arabia: Cheating on Kafir women is permitted

and then you must divorce her. More of those famed Muslim family values courtesy of Islam Watch.

A recent Saudi Islamic fatwa (permit) says: Saudis who study out of Saudi Arabia like America have the Islamic permit to married a western girl by intending to leave her after a short time for just intercourse and when he will come back to Saudi he must divorce her and all that without telling her the truth at all.

They mean that a Saudi student, who study abroad, can lie to a kafir girl that he loves her and want to marry her in order to have sexual relation with her. But when he has finished his studies, he must divorce her before he coming back to Saudi Arabia.

7 WTC collapse - the verdict's in

Aerial shot of 7 World Trade Center

on Dinah's old stomping ground.

A raging, long-burning fire caused the collapse of World Trade Center building number 7, which tumbled hours after hijacked jets hit the twin towers on September 11, 2001, investigators said Thursday.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) found that the 47-story building, which stood right next to towers 1 and 2, caught fire due to the debris that flew into it after the planes struck.

It eventually fell after seven hours due to instability caused by the fire, not by explosives as some conspiracy theorists have claimed.

I cried like a baby as I watched it fall. I remember it like it was yesterday.

Denver: Case closed on cyanide man.

Didn't I tell you sheeple to move along already?

As far as the Denver Police are concerned, the coroner's ruling puts an end to the investigation into Mr. Dirie's death. "We're done with the investigation now that we've got the coroner's results," said Denver Police Detective Sharon Hahn.

Not so fast there, Detective. White powder threats found in John McCain's DENVER HQ.

Update: Second white powder threat rec'd in McCain's Manchester NH office.

First, we had Billy Beer - now there's...

"Senator Keg" or Obama beer.

Long before he became a top candidate for the Democratic Presidential ticket, Senator Barack Obama was inspiring a particular brand of prideful Obama-mania in Kenya, the birthplace of his late father, Barack Obama Sr., and the current home of his paternal grandmother. If the senator wins the nomination and even the Presidency, many Kenyans will be clinking glasses filled with a beloved product here that has hitched itself to the coattails of his fame and success: "Obama" beer.

Known officially as Senator Keg but as "Obama" by drinkers, the barley-based beer is marketed specifically by its manufacturer—East African Breweries Limited, or EABL, a subsidiary of London-based Diageo—to low-income consumers who have few options for a safe, affordable, and legal beer.

Algeria: Second day of bombings.

The natives are restless.

from the Memri Blog:

Twelve civilians were killed and dozens were wounded in a double bombing yesterday in the city of Bouira, 120 km southeast of the capital Algiers.

The first explosion occurred when a car bomb crashed into a bus transporting Algerian workers to the facility of SNC-Lavalin, a Canadian engineering company, and the second explosion was in front of a military building.

This looks like Iraq, not Algeria.

General says bombs may be self-defeating...

try telling that to the 71 people killed in the last two days, General.

Pakistan: Missile strike kills "arabs and punjabs"

I'm glad to see that somebody is still at work fighting the bad guys. (Even though the Afghans think we're gold bricking when it comes to al Qaeda bases in Pakistan:

Missile strike in NW Pakistan near Wana.

Details emerge that Arabs and Punjabs were among the dead.

Local people said two missiles struck the compound of Yaqoob Mughalkhel Wazir near a Scouts camp at about 7pm. Spy planes had been seen over the area before the explosions.

Sources said bodies were found in the rubble and three wounded people were rescued. They said that Arab nationals and ‘Punjabis’ were among those who had been killed. Yaqoob Wazir was also injured.

Supporters of pro-government militant commander Maulvi Nazir rushed to the place and cordoned off the compound.

Tribal sources said Yaqoob Wazir, who lived near the local brigade headquarters, was an influential figure and had contacts with local and foreign militants. He had played an important role in a peace agreement between the government and militants of the region. The sources claimed that foreign militants, particularly Arabs, often visited his home.

Looks like these Arabs won't be down for breakfast in the morning.

Pakistan: Will the center hold?

Update: 1:27 Taliban claim responsibility. Arrests have been made.

Pakistan headed for a power vacuum? Suicide bombers hit weapons complex, the question is - is it a nuclear weapons complex? Death toll now at 70

The bombings hit one of Pakistan's most sensitive military installations and underlined the threat posed by Islamic militants to the Muslim world's only nuclear-armed nation as well as its war-ravaged neighbor, Afghanistan.

Workers were streaming through the gates of the tightly guarded factory in Wah, 20 miles west of Islamabad, during a shift change when the two bombs exploded. The force of the explosions knocked many people to the ground and sprayed others with shrapnel.

"I looked back and saw the limbs of my colleagues flying through the air," said Shahid Bhatti, 29, his clothes soaked in blood.

"It was like a doomsday," said Ghaffar Hussain, whose nephew was killed. "We are finished, we are ruined," he said, tears rolling down his face.

Prime Minister calls threat "unprecedented and appealed to lawmakers to come together to formulate a "national strategy on terror." But the Islamists are fighting amongst themselves and the coalition is "veering towards collapse".

The terrorists are belligerent and bellicose as usual.

Maulvi Umar, a spokesman for Pakistani Taliban groups, told The Associated Press that the arms factory attack was to avenge airstrikes on militants in Bajur, an extremist stronghold in the mountainous frontier region.

More bombings will be carried out in major cities, including the capital and the southern metropolis of Karachi, unless the offensives are halted, he said.

The markets are jittery.

Pakistan's stock market, which rose for six consecutive years to 2007, and was one of the best-performing markets in Asia in that period, has fallen about 27 percent this year.

More on the Gray Lady of al Qaeda, Aafia Siddiqui

Mark your calendars. Don't miss the show! Her next court date is September 3rd.

Did you know her family never lodged a missing person's complaint with the Pakistani police the whole time she was gone? Hmmm? That her colleagues describe her as a "tiny woman with big convictions" that "urged women to wear the hijab and refuse to shake hands with men"? When Bosnia occurred she "sprang to action:

"...giving slide shows and rousing speeches to collect donations for their cause. She also later established a non-profit organisation to spread Islamic teachings. According to the paper, as a student in the US Siddiqui raised funds for the Muslim victims of the Bosnian genocide to be sent to the Al-Kifah Refugee Centre in Brooklyn, which the Justice Department maintains diverted such funds to militants. Besides, she was also involved in the establishment of the Dawa Resource Centre, a programme run from a Boston mosque, distributing Qurans and offering Islamic advice to prison inmates.

Here's what wICKipedia has to say about Al-Kifah Refugee Center:

According to Cooperative Research the center had clandestine links to forces fighting in Afghanistan dating to the late 1980s, when the fighters enjoyed American support in their struggle against the occupiers. They assert that funds raised in the USA were covertly sent to Maktab al-Khidamat an organization they say Osama Bin Laden was later to transform into al Qaeda.

There's more dirty Muslim business at Al Kifah (the struggle) than you can shake a stick at. Really want to make yourself sick? Read an interesting history of the organization here. I swear, it will make you want to holler.

But back to Aafia:

The neuroscience doctor was born on March 2, 1972, came to Texas in 1990, graduated from the MIT in 1995 and obtained a PhD from Brandeis University in cognitive neuroscience in 2001. Her three children are: Ahmed (12), Mariam (10) and Suleman (5 ). She left for Pakistan in 2002, returned in February 2003 and returned almost immediately. She disappeared in March of that year.

The US security and intelligence authorities believe that Dr Aafia was underground of her own will and accord, and that for her own reasons she went missing in 2003 from Karachi.

Besides, the US intelligence believes that the terror suspects three children were in the safe hands of those who were sheltering her. It is noteworthy that her family never lodged a missing person report with the Pakistani police even once during the five years it now claims Siddiqui was in US or/and Pakistani custody, say the US agencies.

It's important to note that pulling a disappearing act is not exactly a new trick for al Kifah members. Mysterious US Militant arrested on charges, disappears from view.

His name? Abu Ubaidah Yahya, formerly known as Karl Dexter Turner and the former security chief for the Al Kiyah Refugee Center.

The latest from Pakistan: Lahore Doctors are protesting her detention and her cause celebre is becoming a political football with the Senate, the Parliament and now, with Musharraf's departure - presidential politics. (And it's all a grand charade to whip up the Islamists and fuel their paranoia in order to consolidate their political power - IMO, of course.)

Philippines: Govt scraps peace deal with Islamists

after two weeks of deadly clashes. (deadly clashes - the Religion of Peace's idea of peace the world over.)

The pact signed last month between leaders of the mostly Christian nation and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) had called for a Muslim homeland to be established on the revolt-hit southern Mindanao island.

God bless the Christians who have been massacred by the Muslims.

Fajardo said President Gloria Arroyo was "sensitive" to the objections of local Christian leaders, who are opposed to the agreement and have taken to the streets branding it a "sell-out."

"The president is committed to peace," Fajardo told journalists. "The administration is sensitive to public sentiments and the president is also committed to upholding the constitution.

"In doing so she will seek a new agreement within the boundaries of the law set within the constitution.

"The president will not allow adventurism by MILF forces to pressure government to sign any agreement, even if it is for peace," she said.

On August 4 the Philippine Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order against the agreement following protests by serveral politicians who saw it as "unconstitutional."

"Adventurism" she calls it. I would call it something else entirely.

Two rebel MILF commanders have since taken up arms, in defiance of the group's leadership, and killed Christian civilians and looted and burned homes and farms. Over 100,000 people have been made homeless due to the fighting.

The rebel MILF commanders have linked their attacks to the Supreme Court's suspension, saying that the government had designed the agreement to fail.

It would have created a Sharia state within a state:

The pact had called for the establishment of what amounted to a state within a state with its own "basic law," police and internal security force. The region would have been allowed to run its own banking and finance system, civil service, education and legislative and electoral institutions.It would also have been given full authority to develop and dispose of minerals and other natural resources within its territory.

The proposed homeland would have been governed by the Bangsamoro (Muslim) Juridical Entity (BJE), with full authority to send trade missions to and strike economic cooperation agreements with other countries and send representatives to UN agencies and the Association of Southeast Nations.

Filipino Sharia.

Pakistan: American Journalist Missing?

US Editor of Smithsonian hasn't been heard from in two days.

One local and one American journalist have gone missing in Karachi, Daily Times learnt on Wednesday. United States journalist Nicholas Shamble, who edits US magazine Smithsonian, went missing two days ago. A source has claimed the journalist arrived at a hotel in Karachi on August 12 and left for Islamabad on Monday. He never arrived.

Shamble had undertaken frequent visits to Pakistan, covering the terrorist threat, and had been due to interview Pakistan People’s Party Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari.

Previous stories of his included an examination of the situation in Balochistan and the aftermath of the Lal Masjid operation in July of last year. The source also said Shamble was in touch with a Sindh journalist, who has also been missing for two days.

Sindh Home Secretary Arif Ahmed Khan confirmed both are missing and expressed hope law enforcement agencies will find them soon. Khan added it was possible the two were in interior Sindh, and confirmed that police there have been told the journalists are missing.

Shamble was deported from Pakistan two years ago.

China: 35 Pak Olympic Spectators detained as terror suspects.

Do you think they used "racial profiling"?

The Chinese government has reportedly detained 35 Pakistanis visiting China to watch Olympics after they were suspected of planning to attack proceedings of the Games.

China has asked the Pakistani government for details of the arrested in a letter that alleged 35 suspected Pakistani militants had arrived in China to attack proceedings at the Games, reported the Daily Times.

Denver: Cyanide man took his own life.

Nothing to see here, sheeples. Move along.

The Denver coroner says an Ottawa man who died from cyanide poisoning in a hotel room committed suicide.

The suicide ruling was released Wednesday, nine days after Saleman Abdirahman Dirie was found dead with a pound of highly toxic sodium cyanide in his room.

The coroner ruled last week that cyanide caused the 29-year-old man's death.

Police have said they don't suspect foul play and the FBI says there's no apparent connection to terrorism.

Authorities have not said why Dirie had the poison or why he was in Denver.

California State Fair: Why Islam indeed.

Cindy Cassidy of Cool, left, welcomes the chance to learn about Muslim practices from Salihah Bustamam, right, of Elk Grove at the "WhyIslam" booth at the California State Fair as Mohamed Elsayed of Sacramento listens. At top, the booth's displays on Islamic culture include an ornate tea setting.


The Islamic Circle of North America is the sponsor. And we know all about them, don't we?

Officially, it's called "WhyIslam." Unofficially, it could be called "Ask a Muslim." The booth, which has been set up in Exhibit Hall B, is sponsored by the Sacramento Chapter of Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), which focuses on outreach and education of the faith. Muslim volunteers are on hand to answer questions, pass out brochures and give away Qurans.

Since the fair opened Friday, fairgoers have asked about everything from terrorism to what Muslims believe about Jesus.

Riddle me this, possums. Do you think there's a WhyJesus booth at the King's Camel Races in Riyadh this year?

I don't think so, either.

Let's review (and this is just a 3o second google search):

Yemen: 9 Muslims detained for converting to Christianity.

Indonesia: Muslim mob storms church. Police refuse to intervene.

Iraq: Mosque used as torture chamber.

Phillippines: When Muslims attack - Christians.

UK: Did BBC charity bankroll 7/7 bombers?

Team Pudsey

Looks like Team Pudsey has stepped in it.

Thousands of pounds raised by Britons for the BBC’s Children in Need charity could have been used to recruit and train the homegrown terrorists involved in the 7/7 terror attacks on London.

The programme reported that £20,000 from Children in Need was handed over to the Leeds Community School, in Beeston, Yorkshire between 1999 and 2002.

The school, which also received large sums from other public bodies, was run from premises behind the Iqra Islamic bookshop which the gang used as a meeting place and an opportunity to radicalise others.

One former worker described those that attended the bookshop as a kind of “brotherhood.”

Both Mohammed Sidique Khan, the leader of the bombers, and Shehzad Tanweer, the Aldgate bomber, were trustees of the bookshop and Sidique Khan also worked for a Saturday club at the associated Leeds Community School.

It's ironic hearing that the BBC bankrolled the 7/7 attacks, seeing the pic of Pudsey with his bandaged face (above)and then seeing this pic from the bombings.

Shame on you, BBC.

Denver: Speaking of cyanide

Freaky. The lobby of Dinah's old stomping ground,
Triple Nickel California.

and since nobody else is talking about the dead Muslim schizophrenic found with a pound of it less than three miles away from the Pepsi Center - OR about the recent al Qaeda threats to poison the water supplies of Western cities, here's an account of a disaster contingency exercise conducted in San Fran's financial district this weekend. Let's hope Denver is up to speed with theirs.

Preparing for an Urban WMD Attack.

On Saturday, the San Francisco Fire Department, along with a group of other public and private agencies, ran a large-scale training exercise revolving around an urban weapons of mass destruction terrorist attack. Here, an emergency worker in a full hazmat suit examines the faux chemical that was supposedly found in the attack, which was said to be sodium cyanide, a poison that quickly affects peoples respiratory systems. On the ground behind, volunteers playing the role of dead victims lay prone.(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

The scenario was this: a terrorist with a backpack full of sodium cyanide (Ed. note: Say about a pound or so?)--a chemical used in gold mining operations that quickly attacks and shuts down the human respiratory system--unleashed it inside 555 California.

Because of the victims, the fire department is the first to arrive on the scene, and when the firefighters discover what's happened, they isolate the building's lobby and deny entry into the building by anyone else, and then quickly set up a mass decontamination system nearby. And then they call in the specialists...

(An interesting read with great pics. Check it out.)

Oh, and about that water supply poisoning? Not with just a pound of the stuff...

"It is very difficult to covertly poison a reservoir," the official said on the condition of anonymity. "It would take many truckloads of poison, which would make it difficult to do secretly. That is not really a viable threat."

"It's more feasible if they try to poison a specific building," the official said. "But even then, the volume of water already going through the system would dilute whatever was introduced. It would be very difficult to kill anyone. What would happen would be that people would get sick, which would cause panic."

Hmm. Poison a specific building. Pepsi Center per chance? It's not like they haven't tried it before or anything... Remember this old chestnut plot from 2002? Italian police explore al Qaeda links in poison plot.

"...the investigation into the case of the nine Moroccans continues. Five of them were found with slightly under 10 pounds of potassium-ferrocyanide, a cyanide compound used in agriculture, and maps of the water main located in underground utility tunnels around the American embassy in Rome.

Press leaks and the discovery of the hole in a tunnel containing a water main led to a wave of panic and speculation that the terrorists were trying to contaminate the water supply of central-northern Rome. Though US State Department officials downplayed the risk to the embassy, Cavallo says that the Moroccans had the capacity to create poisonous substances. Along with the cyanide compound, police found a gunpowder substance that could have created the heat needed to release the cyanide gas, he says.

And then there's as recently as 2008 in Iraq where a letter and document lifted from a dead terrorist has al Qaeda discussing the "psychological war" effect of poisoning the water supply on the dear sheeple:

The letter advises that a chemical offensive can inflict both physical and mental harm. Contaminating Iraqis' water can produce "killing and dangerous illness," and also convince the enemy "that we have a dangerous chemical weapon," Safyan wrote. "But in fact," he continues, "it's a psychological war that places fear in the enemy."

But back to Mr. Dirie. Since authorities are claiming that Mr. Dirie killed himself ingesting cyanide I wondered how much sodium cyanide you would have to eat to kill yourself. Thanks to Cyanide Q&A (who knew?) for enlightenment.

How much cyanide is harmful? The lethal dose of cyanide is approximately 0.5 - 1.0 mg/kg body weight or about 70 mg for an adult. The cyanide ion of soluble cyanide compounds is rapidly absorbed from all routes of entry, respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts, and less readily absorbed through the skin. However, accidental or intentional poisoning is more likely to involve ingestion of a cyanide salt, whereas occupational poisoning is more likely to involve inhalation of hydrogen cyanide.

70 mg. A smidge? Probably more. Mr. Dirie was a big man and has been described by neighbors as a "Fat Albert" kind of guy. Depends on the density of the sodium cyanide which is unknown to us at this point.

Newbury Park Mosque in Conejo Park opens doors to curious

Imam answers Islam questions...

The Islamic Center of the Conejo Valley opened its doors Sunday to welcome visitors and those interested in discovering more about the religion of Islam.

It's the fourth year in a row that the members of the mosque in Newbury Park have participated in a regional initiative called Open Mosque Day, which was established in 2002 by the Shura Council of Southern California.

"No question about Islam should be off-limits," Imam Ahmed Patel told about 25 people who gathered for one of his question-and-answer sessions about what Muslims believe. "If you have any concerns, or any questions, about our religion, please feel free to ask and God willing, we shall try our best to give you the correct answer."

Everything sounds hunky dory, doesn't it? Hah! Thanks to an astute and informed commenter, THE VERACIOUS 1, we are able to get the real low down. Veracious 1, I salute you!

Did anyone ask about Seyed Mahmoud Mousavi founder of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, http://www.shuracouncil.org/ the umbrella organization for The Islamic Center of the CONEJO VALLEY who is being held without bail awaiting sentencing in Federal Prison facing a statutory maximum sentence of 61 years in federal prison?

Seyed Mahmoud Mousavi is also founder of the Hejrat Foundation http://www.hejrat.info

Both serve as umbrella organizations that serve to connect Mosques and Muslim organizations throughout Southern California including the THE ISLAMIC CENTER OF THE CONEJO VALLEY!

Seyed Mahmoud Mousavi was ARRESTED on August 22, 2007. He has been CONVICTED and is scheduled to be sentenced mid-October.

Check out what the FBI has to say about Seyed Mahmoud Mousavi at
http://losangeles.fbi.gov/dojpressrel...

Followers have been actively soliciting money and signatures to free their LEADER
http://www.insight-info.com

Wonder what Rana Elgamiel's husband, a member of The Islamic Center of the Conejo Valley, and one of only two Muslim FBI agents on the West Coast, thinks about all this??

Of the 250 families who are part of this organization, the wife of an FBI agent was quoted, in what I see as a manipulative attempt to give this organization credibility so people will let their guard down.

About the Shura Council of Southern California...don't you find it strange that a "religious organization" would have these topics on the front page of their website?

US Customs new policy on search and seizure: This policy provides guidance to US Customs and Border Protection to conduct border searches on electronic devices.

and

Know Your Rights: An Article about how to protect yourself and your loved ones, if you are confronted by law enforcement agencies.

Checking out the events calendar we find this:

Addressing your concerns about Airport Security Event Date 8/21/2008
Time: 12/30/1899
Location: 19164 E. Walnut Dr. North, Rowland Heights 91748
Organization or Sponsors: Islamic Center of San Gabriel Valley
Speaker(s): Larry Fetters, Transportation Security Administration and Jenny Presswalla, DHLS Policy Advisor Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties

and this:

Addressing your concerns about Airport Security
Event Date: 8/22/2008
Time: 7:00pm
Location: 3194-B Airport Loop Dr.
Organization or Sponsors: Islamic Education Center of Orange County
Speaker(s): This event will be presented by the Director of TSA & U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Description: Time: 7:00 PM

The event will address two major community concerns: privacy related to new screening technology called millimeter wave technology and those who are stopped as a result of a government watch-list.

I question why a religious group would be so concerned with these issues - if they're all so innocent and not doing anything wrong.

More Muslim Family Values - this time in Pakistan

Five women buried alive - they wanted to choose their own husbands. (h/t LGF link thingy)

According to the information received, five women were Ms. Fatima, wife of Umeed Ali Umrani, Jannat Bibi, wife of Qaiser Khan, Fauzia, daughter of Ata Mohammad Umrani, and two other girls, aged between 16 to 18 years. They were at the house of Mr. Chandio at Baba Kot village and to leave for a civil court at Usta Mohammad, district Jafarabad, so that three of the girls could marry the men of their choice. Their decision to have marriage in court was the result of several days of discussions with the elders of the tribe who refused them permission to marry. The names of two younger girls were not ascertained because of strong control of tribal leaders in the area.

As the news of their plans leaked out, Mr. Abdul Sattar Umrani, a brother of the minister, came with more than six persons and abducted them at gun points. They were taken in a Land Cruiser jeep, bearing a registration number plate of the Balochistan government, to another remote area, Nau Abadi, in the vicinity of Baba Kot. After reaching the deserted area of Nau Abadi, Abdul Sattar Umrani and his six companions took the three younger women out of the jeep and beat them before allegedly opening fire with their guns. The girls were seriously injured but were still alive at that moment. Sattar Umrani and his accomplices hurled them into a wide ditch and covered them with earth and stones. The two older women were an aunt of Fauzia and the other, the mother of one minor. When they protested and tried to stop the burial of the minors that were plainly alive, the attackers were so angry that they also pushed them into the ditch and buried all alive. After completing the burial, they fired several shots into to the air so that no one would come close.

The minors were educated and were studying in classes from 10 to 12. They were punished for trying to decide about their marriages.

More Muslim family values

courtesy of Jammie Wearing Fool.

Joys of Islam: 16 y/o Saudi girl drinks bleach to avoid forced marriage to 75 yo.

Because her father wanted to marry a 13yo. It was a daughter swap.

Now there's some family values for ya.

Gray Lady of al Qaeda all lawyered up and ready to go

Jamaat-e-Islami multi tasks: Burns US flag, effigy of George Bush, protests Gray Lady detention and INFLATION.

What the Gray Lady has been up to:

Poor, innocent, oppressed terrorist, what with her first class education and doctor husband and all.

Elizabeth Fink, the attorney for Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman charged by the US authorities with trying to kill US soldiers in Afghanistan, says that Aafia was tortured but keeps quiet on the whereabouts her children. “The woman has been tortured,” Ms Fink said. “I believed she has been tortured based on my experience with people with post-traumatic stress disorder.” On the crucial question about the whereabouts of Ms Siddiqui’s three children whose custody is being sought by Pakistani authorities, Ms Fink refused to comment suggesting that some issues could not be shared with the press. (Ed. note: like the fact her oldest was with her when she was caught scoping out that government building.) When Pakistani consular officers met Ms Siddiqui last Saturday another defence attorney, Gideon Oliver, asked Ms Siddiqui not to speak about her children. Later talking to Dawn he confirmed that he had stopped Ms Siddiqui from revealing any information about her children to Pakistani authorities.

Pakistan’s Deputy Consul General Saqib Rauf also said that Ms Siddiqui wanted to speak about her children but was restrained under advice of her counsel. “She kept on asking after the welfare of her mother and wanted to know about the political conditions in the country”, he said.

Sister: Trying to have it both ways while firing up the Islamists with provocative rhetoric and half truths. She conveniently ignores the fact that her sister is the one who is not providing information about the kids to authorities and her sister is not doing that on advice of her lawyers. (Ed. note: I swear this whole thing reeks of being a setup)

KARACHI: Dr Fauzia Siddiqui, the sister of Pakistani scientist Dr Aafia Siddiqui who is in the US custody, said that the life of her sister was in danger and she was not being supplied proper medical treatment. Addressing a protest demonstration of Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA), here on Saturday, against Dr Aafia`s detention, she said that her sister had been inhumanly tortured. She said that the medical facilities, given to Dr Aafia on orders of American court were not only insufficient but also incompetent. She said that the US had not only illegally detained Dr Aafia without any evidence but they were also providing no information about her children, which was against the internationally accepted human rights.

US Lefties are starting to circle the wagons. Don't miss the comments, possums. Your heart will bleed. Your knee will jerk. Dissident Voice: It's women and children now.

Dear DV - talk to your al Qaeda Friends about that woman and children thing, babe. Oh, and mental defectives, don't forget them. Those noble al-Qaeda fighters you so sympathise with just love using them, too.

Suicide bomb kills 15, some of them women & kids in Baghdad.
Suicide bomber in women's robe kills 7.
al-Qaeda up next: Sexy bombers.
I hate to say I told you so...
Hospital director arrested in AQ Downs Syndrome bombing attacks.

Denver: Not a peep about Cyanide Man in the MSM

Is it case closed or what? It's like EVERYBODY from the feds on down wants Salieman Dirie and his pound of cyanide to disappear.

Don't want the sheeple to get spooked, I guess.

The Religion of Peace has a busy night.

Update: The Muslim on Muslim hits keep on keeping on. This just in.

Turkish car bomb kills one, injures nine.

While we were sleeping: More Muslims killing Muslims all in the name of their peaceful religion.

Pakistan: 20 dead in Pakistani HOSPITAL blast.
Afghanistan: Bombers attack US base - 13 killed. (No American casualties.)
Algeria: Suicide attack at Police academy kills 43 - number expected to rise.
Phillippines: 65 civilians held hostage by Islamic rebels are rescued.

Nigeria: Sex workers rounded up by Islamists

Using a Red Cross census document to ensure they didn't miss anyone.

Islamic authorities in the Nigerian city of Bauchi have reportedly launched a crackdown on sex workers identified by the Red Cross in a census. The BBC's Shehu Saulawa in Bauchi says that the local Sharia commission has begun rounding the women up. But a commissioner said no arrests had been made and authorities were merely "supervising" against illicit acts.

The Red Cross carried out the census amid efforts to tackle the spread of HIV in the north-eastern state. After the census had identified 320 women, the local Sharia commission ordered that they be rounded up, our correspondent reports from Bauchi.

He says the Sharia commission seems to have been prompted to act by the perception that it was unable to enforce a ban on commercial sex workers in the state.

The Sharia commission normally liaises with the police, he says, but this time they acted directly, using their own security force to raid hotels housing an unknown number of sex workers.

Mustapha Babe, (Heh. Nice name, Babe.) a member of the Sharia commission in Bauchi, denied that any women had been detained, saying the committee responsible for law and order was only supervising parts of the city.

"In every nook and corner and cranny, illegal acts were being committed contrary to Sharia law," he said.

"As a result of this, we sent them to supervise the areas where something has happened."

Between 75 and 100 of the 320 women have so far tested positive for HIV.

UK: School boy terrorist locked up.

Yorkshire school boy locked up on terror charges.

Royal family targeted?

(And in ANOTHER blow to the root causes crowd, this poor, oppressed Muslim yute is grandson of prominent Imam, Sheikh Yakub Munshi, president of the Islamic Research Institute of Great Britain at the Markazi Mosque in Dewsbury. He is also the founder of the Sharia Council.)

Britain's youngest terrorist - a teenager from Wesat (sic) Yorkshire - was behind bars today after a guide to death and explosives was found in the schoolboy's home.

Hammaad Munshi, just 16 and taking GCSEs when arrested, was part of a cell of cyber groomers that set out to brainwash the vulnerable to kill "non-believers".

He doesn't look that vulnerable to me.

Among Hammaad's "groomers" were "key player" Aabid Khan. Read about this bad actor and some of the things he had planned for the group.

Khan was returning from Pakistan - possibly after terror camp training - when detained. The "routine stop" at Manchester Airport on June 6 2006 yielded the largest cyber "encyclopaedia" of articles promoting terrorism seized by police.

It included personal information, including addresses, of various members of the Royal Family. Among them were the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, the Princess Royal, and the Earl and Countess of Wessex.

There was also a guide to killing non-Muslims, and discussions about setting up a secret Islamic state in a remote area of Scotland.

Also found were US and Canadian military training manuals, a Terrorist's Handbook, a Mujahideen Explosives Handbook, and a Mujahideen Poisons Handbook containing a recipe for ricin and encouragement for "brothers" to experiment on "kuffar" (non-believers).

Sketches of combat suits, which he dismissed as "ghetto clothing but with an Islamic theme", were in his Filofax. Bradford-born Khan - "Del Boy" to his contacts - ran At-Tibiyan Publications, an "online extremist support network".

Aabid has also been linked to a Canadian cell and has a Canadian wife. She was going to commit suicide to "facilitate a jailbreak of Muslim prisoners." What a gal.

Bonus: Read this tantrum from Munshi's grandpa about their treatment after Hammaad's 2006 arrest.

Dewsbury has been wary of journalists since the reports this summer linking the Jamaat Tabligh to al-Qaida. Mohammad Siddique Khan, the 7/7 bombing ringleader, lived here. But Abdul Hai Munshi’s family welcomed me into their home, where they were watching cricket on television; seven-year-old Ismael supported England “of course”. Abdul Hai’s father, Sheikh Yakub, joined us. He is a respected, and locally revered, Islamic scholar, a founder of the Merkez. The family was devastated by the arrest of the sheikh’s 16-year-old grandson on 7 June on a security-related charge: “The police burst in and treated us brutally. We didn’t know what was happening: we only had contact with the boy by email or cell phone. We feel like victims. To an extent we are.”

Cry me a river, Sheikh. Your boy is guilty.

Egypt: Want sexually harrassed? Veil your lollipop.

So much for all those claims that wearing the hijab "guards your chastity". The hijab is nothing but a political symbol like the hood of the ku klux klan. Wake up Muslimas, not only are you being used - you're getting harassed (and worse) for it.

Veil your lollipop.

In a Muslim country where the numbers of women wearing the veil are rising, and so -- by most accounts -- are incidents of groping and catcalls in the streets, the message in ads circulating anonymously in e-mails here in Egypt is clear:

"A veil to protect, or eyes will molest," one warns.

The words sit over two illustrations, one comparing a veiled woman, her hair and neck covered in the manner known to Muslims as hijab, to a wrapped candy, untouched and pure. The other picture shows an unveiled woman, hair flying wildly and hip jutting, next to a candy that has had its wrapper stripped off -- and is now covered in flies.

Survey says:

A new survey by the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights makes harassment on the streets appear not a risk, but a virtual certainty. According to the center, 98 percent of the foreign women and 83 percent of the Egyptian women surveyed said they had been sexually harassed in the country.

About half of the women, Egyptian and non-Egyptian, said they were harassed every day as they went about the streets. The survey polled 2,020 Egyptian men and women and 109 non-Egyptian women.

Among Egyptian women, 72 percent of those who described incidents of harassment said they were veiled at the time.

Female travelers consider Egypt one of the worst countries in the world for harassment on the streets -- second only to Afghanistan, where the Taliban forced all women behind the veil and into seclusion in their homes.

But Islam has nothing to do with it, of course. From Jannah.org, a muslim propaganda site based in Hoboken NJ.

The HIJAB IS A SORT OF "SCREEN" BETWEEN THE CHASTE MUSLIM WOMAN AND THE EVIL THAT EXISTS IN THE WORLD. When a woman wears a hijab she is less likely to be harassed by men with lusty motives; SHE IS LESS LIKELY TO BE EXPLOITED FOR HER BEAUTY AND FEMINITY.

Obama: Spending like a drunken sailor

That $51 million he raised last month? It still wasn't enough to cover the monthly expenses of his "large field operation".

The campaign said it ended the month with $65.8 million in cash, about $5 million less than it reported on hand June 30, excluding debt. That suggests the campaign's spending more than doubled month to month, to nearly $56 million in July from $25.7 million in June. Sen. McCain also spent more than he took in: He ended July with about $4 million less on hand. But his monthly spending remained steady in July at about $31 million.

And he's still losing ground in the polls.

The Pew poll, with a 2.5-percentage-point margin of error, found 46 percent of the voters surveyed favored or leaned toward Mr. Obama, while 43 percent supported his Republican opponent - a near tie. That was in sharp contrast to the same group's poll in June, which showed Mr. Obama with a comfortable eight-point lead over Mr. McCain, 48 percent to 40 percent.

The Gallup Poll's daily tracking survey also reported Friday that the race is a tie, 44 percent to 44 percent, with Mr. Obama slipping from his 47 percent average over the past week. Gallup said, "The closer margin seen in today's results is due more to movement away from Obama than toward McCain."

Pakistan: I sure hate to see him go.

From Condi Rice:

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pledged today to continue working with the Pakistan Government and thanked outgoing President Pervez Musharraf for aiding the fight against al-Qaeda. "We will continue to work with the Pakistani government and political leaders and urge them to redouble their focus on Pakistan's future and its most urgent needs, including stemming the growth of extremism," Dr Rice said in a statement. (Ed. note: I wouldn't be counting on them to work with us, Condoleezza.) She added that Mr Musharraf, who announced his resignation earlier today, "has been a friend to the United States and one of the world's most committed partners in the war against terrorism and extremism."

From Stephen Smith, Australia's Foreign Minister:

"It is important that the government of Pakistan now moves with purpose to tackle the security and economic challenges facing the country," Mr Smith said. "These challenges have regional and international implications."
Mr Smith said Australia - "as a friend of Pakistan" - would look to assist it in dealing with the challenges "especially in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan".

From David Miliband, Britain's Foreign Secretary:

The announcement by President Musharraf that he is standing down as President brings to a close a critical period in Pakistan’s history and its relations with the UK and other countries. Pakistan is a vital friend of the UK and it is essential for Britain’s security, never mind the personal ties that bind nearly one million British people to Pakistan, that it has a strong and democratic government with a clear mandate and programme for thoroughgoing reform of its social, political and economic structures.”

From Russia's Foreign Ministry: (Ed. note: And it seems all a bit rich given their recent actions in Georgia.)

"Russia hopes the departure of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf will not have negative consequences for the internal political stability of this major Asian nation," the foreign ministry said in a statement. "We hope the situation in Pakistan will not break out of constitutional limits and will remain within the framework of law and order," it said.

The International Herald Tribune is funny.

Headline: Shiite pilgrims head home after largely violence-free rites at Karbala.

Well, except for those three bombings, but I guess they think that's pretty darn good for the Islamonuts. About the attacks: (referenced earlier here.)

A suicide bomber killed 19 pilgrims near the town of Iskandariya on Thursday as they made their way to Karbala.

"This year, the pilgrimage was nice, except for the Iskandariya incident," said Yousif Mohammed Ali, a 41-year-old from the southern city of Basra, before heading home.

Pilgrims then began to pack into buses to leave Karbala, about 80 kilometers, or 50 miles, south of Baghdad, which was under the tight watch of about 40,000 Iraqi police and soldiers backed by snipers, helicopters and bomb-sniffing dogs.

In other attacks on pilgrims, nine were killed Friday at a bus station in Balad, north of Baghdad, and another six were killed in Baghdad on Saturday.

But there was no repeat of the Shiite factional fighting of last year, which turned the area around the shrine into a battle zone for days and prompted the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr to declare a cease-fire for his Mahdi army militia.

Iraqi security forces searched pilgrims entering the golden-domed Imam Hussein mosque, using 2,000 female police officers to search women. Suicide attacks by women have become more common this year in Iraq, where women can conceal explosives under voluminous black robes and often evade security searches.

The Religion of Peace's idea of a good time.

Muslim Brotherhood sticks up for fired Obama advisor

The swords are a nice touch, don't you think?

and plays "Islamophobia card" to explain "loose and old connections" away. Dinah says where there's smoke there's fire and Mr. Asbahi resigned at the first whiff of smoke - he didn't even try to stick up for himself. What's that tell you? I'm still curious about the meeting he attended with other "Muslim leaders" the weekend before he resigned and I'm wondering if there was "islamoconcern" that the WSJ and others investigating Mr. Asbahi's "old, loose connections" were going to blow their cover.

The English language website of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood has issued a rather extraordinary statement in connection with the recently-resigned Obama campaign Muslim outreach adviser. The statement opens repeating what has now become the standard accusations of “Islamaphobia”, a charge routinely leveled by the global Muslim Brotherhood against its critics:

“The ongoing controversy in the U.S. surrounding resignation of Mr. Mazen Asbahi, Muslim-outreach advisor to presumptive democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama, is quite intriguing. Mr. Asbahi is an Arab American corporate attorney who resigned last week amidst allegations of old loose ties with individuals associated with organizations thought to be linked to the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). Mr. Asbahi’s crime is that he also appeared as a guest speaker before such organizations allegedly linked to the MB. Islamic organizations in the U.S. described the campaign against Mr. Asbahi as ‘nationwide efforts by Islamophobes who seek to deny Muslims access to the political process.’ ”

It's all Hollywood fiction - honest. Pay no attention to the man behind the caliphate.

“The so called Global Network of the Muslim Brotherhood is merely a Hollywood fiction that only exists in the minds of those who created it as part of their scare tactics to insight fears among the public and instigate government hostilities. There is no “global network” for the Muslim Brotherhood, but rather coordination among the different MB chapters in various countries, in which the MB has formal presence or representation, which clearly does not apply to the U.S. This coordination among international MB chapters mainly revolves around political issues, sharing experiences in the field of public Islamic work and exchange new ideas. “

Bullshit.

Read it all here.

Serbia: Jewel of Medina offensive to Muslims. Publisher apologizes to Muslims.

pulled from store shelves.

A Belgrade publisher is to withdraw from bookstores a novel that the Islamic Community in Serbia has described as offensive to Muslims.

Aleksandar Jasic, the director of the Beobuk publishing house also apologised to Muslims for distributing the book entitled The Jewel of Medina by Sherry Jones, which details the life of Ajsa, “one of Prophet Mohammad’s wives,” who he married when she was 11.

The decision followed a strong protest by the leader of the Islamic Community in Serbia, Muarem Zukorlic who compared the book with the Mohammed cartoons controversy of 2006.

Read how US publisher Random House terminated the contract for the Jewel of Medina here.

Musharraf quits.

Pakistanis celebrate.

Some people have been firing automatic weapons into the sky in celebration of today's news in Pakistan.

President Pervez Musharraf has announced he's resigning, rather than face impeachment. The news came in a televised speech, where he defended his record and expressed his hope that the Pakistani people will "forgive" his mistakes.

Amid a crowd of people dancing and hugging in Peshawar, shopkeeper Mohammed Saeed declared, "It is very pleasing to know that Musharraf is no more."

Not to me. Who's got the nukes, I wonder?

India: 10 arrested in last month's Gujarat bombings

In another blow to the 'root causes of terror' crowd:

Poor, uneducated, oppressed SOFTWARE EMPLOYEE associated with the Students Islamic Movement India is charged as ringleader. He's still on the run. And there's a Mufti in the mix as well. Details of homegrown terror network and terror training camps seized thanks to cell phone records.

If you will recall, the Indian Mujahideen, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Students Islamic Movement India took credit for the blasts. The Students Islamic Movement India (SIMI) was declared a banned organization in 2001 for "unlawful and secessionist" activities. The ban was lifted by a government tribunal 10 days ago saying there was no evidence. The Home Ministry has appealed the ruling.

Indian police officials said Saturday that they have arrested 10 suspects in the series of bomb blasts that killed 56 people in the city of Ahmedabad last month.

Senior police officials in the western state of Gujarat, where Ahmedabad is located, said the accused are associated with a banned group, Students Islamic Movement of India.

"Arrests have been made under the charges of waging war against the state and also for murder, both unbailable offenses," said P.C. Pande, director general of police in Gujarat.

SIMI has links to Mufti Abu Bashir and Pakistan's Lashkar-e-Taiba. The Mufti was also taken into custody.

But ISLAM has nothing to do with it, of course.

For more details on the operation see here.

Iraq: Awakening Council leader arrested - for terrorism?

al-Qaeda infiltrator of US funded Sunni group arrested.

In Baghdad, Iraqi soldiers Saturday arrested the head of a U.S.-funded Sunni group who was accused of "supporting terrorism" in a series of raids in the western Baghdad district of Jihad.

An Iraqi officer, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media, identified the suspect as Tahir Abdullah al-Hamdani, the head of the so-called awakening council in Jihad.

The U.S. military confirmed that a leader of the group was arrested but declined to identify him or give more details.

American commanders have said the Sunni revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq was a key factor in a sharp decline in violence over the past year, but the movement has been troubled by friendly fire incidents and concerns about infiltration.

Iraq: Bombers attack religious pilgrimage three days in a row

Do I even have to say "guess who?" at this point?

Bombers struck Shiite pilgrims Saturday for a third consecutive day, killing six people in the latest in a series of attacks apparently aimed at stoking sectarian tension.

The attacks have targeted pilgrims headed for the Shiite city of Karbala, where hundreds of thousands of people have gathered for festivities that culminate Sunday morning.

No group has claimed responsibility, but assaults on Shiite civilians have been carried out for years by Sunni extremists such as al-Qaida in Iraq.

Malaysia: Legal forum causes riots. Official's home gets firebombed.

Guess who?

From Jihad Watch:

A civil court on Aug. 5 denied a woman’s appeal to renounce Islam in favor of Christianity, highlighting the jurisdictional disputes in Malaysia’s dual legal system. [...]

A public forum to discuss such jurisdictional disputes, in this case the dual court system’s effect on families of people who convert to Islam, was scheduled for Saturday (Aug. 9) but Muslim protestors succeeded in halting it after only one hour.

Sponsored by a body of legal practitioners called the Malaysian Bar Council, the public forum that began at 9 a.m. was scheduled to last until 1 p.m., but police advised organizers to end it at 10 a.m. as protestors outside the council headquarters shouting “Allahu Akbar [God is greater],” “Destroy Bar Council” and “Long Live Islam” became rowdy. A handful of protestors flanked by police officers marched into the building shouting for the meeting to end immediately.

The Religion of Peace's idea of leaving a calling card:

The morning of the forum, two unidentified men on motorcycles threw kerosene bombs into the compound of a residence formerly occupied by the president of the Bar Council, Ambiga Sreenevasan. Many believed the incident was linked to the Bar Council’s forum on conversion.[...]

Others have urged the government to take decisive and immediate steps to address the problems arising from the country’s dual legal system. In Malaysia, sharia laws are binding on Muslims in personal, religious and family matters while civil laws apply to all citizens.

Denver: Cyanide man - had family in town and "Make that a double."

Did he mix up a big old glass of cyanide and drink it before bedtime? That's the way it's being 'reported' but it's not passing Dinah's bitter almond sniff test.

An Ottawa man found dead of cyanide poisoning in a Denver hotel room on Monday was in contact with a female family member in the Colorado city during the days before his death, according to the director of a U.S.-based Somali activist group who is now assisting the man's family. (Ed. note: It is not known if he was traveling to Denver to see the relative.)

Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Center in St. Paul, Minn., said Saleman Abdirahman Dirie, 29, spoke with the relative before travelling to the city about four or five days prior to his death.

Dirie was buried in a Denver cemetery Friday amid news reports he committed suicide.

Citing unnamed federal officials, a report said it is believed Dirie mixed poisonous sodium cyanide with water and drank it. (Ed. note: Is this tidbit coming from Omar Jamal, I wonder? I say yes. Spin. Spin. Spin. No one in Law Enforcement or at the Coroner's will confirm it.)

Traces of cyanide were reportedly found in a glass next to his bed. Cyanide is found naturally in fruit and food such as apples and almonds, as well as in cigarette smoke.

Meanwhile, Omar Jamal is still all over the news, lamenting the "tragic loss of life".

Never mind the pound of cyanide this "Whatever-you-do-don't-call-him-a-terrorist" was lugging around.

"This is a tragic loss of life. His life was cut short." He said the family is upset because some reports had linked Dirie with possible terrorism. Dirie's family denies he had terrorist connections.

"We are dearly concerned with the use of terrorism. This is a tragic loss of life. His life was cut short," said Jamal, adding Dirie took a bus to Denver.

If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and has chemical weapons like a duck. It's a duck!

And another one's gone

Looks like Maulvi Faqir Muhammed won't be down for breakfast in the morning.

And another one's gone.

Another one bites the dust.

Gunship helicopters on Thursday targeted two vehicles in Inayat Kali, Bajaur Agency, killing eight to ten militants, including Deputy Chief of the Tehreek Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Maulvi Faqir Muhammad, a high-ranking official confirmed to The Nation.

In another report received from Parachinar, Kurram Agency, at least 18 persons were reportedly killed and score others injured as result of fierce fighting erupted among the different tribes. The tribes, which were at war with each others, included Bagzai, Sarokhel, Anzri, Balishkhel, Khwar Kaly, Sangeena, Kundizar, Karman and Paiwar.

Giving detail of the TTP leader’s killing, the official said that Taliban had received a great setback when Maulvi Faqir Muhammad, the TTP Deputy Chief in Bajaur Agency, was killed along with other ten to eight militants when gunship helicopters targeted their vehicles in Inayat Kali. However, Taliban sources could not be contacted for conformation (sic) the report.

They were too busy running and hiding. Heh.

Pakistan: Taliban cash crunch.

Zakat and Ushr collections fall short.

Taliban collecting taxes to raise funds for jihad.

The Taliban are financing their “jihad” against the United States and supporting the families of the militants killed in the war with private taxation, besides Zakat and Ushr.

Sources close to militants, tribal elders and government officials in various tribal regions where Taliban-linked militancy has paralysed business told Daily Times that the organisation has not made a uniform policy on Zakat so far.

Taliban vary the taxation from area to area and depending on the financial status of traders. Bajaur is the worst case, where reports say the Taliban have imposed fixed taxes on traders, ranging from Rs 30 to Rs 25,000 per month. (Ed. Note: That's what happens when 135, 000 citizens flee in advance of your brutal regime, Tali-wacks.)

Can't pay the cash? Gasoline, wheat and animal skins will do. Pay up or die, sucker.

Maulana Waheed, in charge of Zakat for Taliban in Bajaur, said the total collection was around Rs 175,000 so far – much lower than what Taliban need to spend. Waheed denied the Taliban were forcing Khar residents to pay Zakat to them, but accepted collecting 12,000 kilogrammes of wheat as Ushr from farmers.

Fuel stations give 120 litres of fuel each to the Taliban, who are frequently on the move to avoid United States spy planes. ( Ed. Note: Bwa-ha-ha!)

“That is true, we provide a certain quantity of fuel to the Taliban as per their desire and our contribution for jihad,” said a manager at one of the fuel stations in Khar.

In the neighbouring Mohmand tribal region, the Taliban are not collecting Zakat, but seek contributions from harvested crops and also collect skins of sacrificed animals.

What a bunch of thugs these guys really are. Not only do they extort money out of everyday folk, they supplement their revenue stream with kidnapping, bank robbery and shipping container theft. All in the name of Islam. Bunch of homicidal shysters.

The Maulvi Nazir-led Taliban in Ahmedzai Wazir areas of South Waziristan collect neither Zakat nor Ushr, but the heavy fines they impose on the residents are one of the main sources of revenue to run the “Movement for Return of Taliban rule in Afghanistan”.

Brig (r) Mehmood Shah, former FATA security chief, says the sum that they collect through Zakat or Ushr is too small. “They are collecting taxes which the political administration used to collect on transport of goods. The militants earn up to Rs 30 million a month from tax collection in Kurram tribal district alone,” he told Daily Times.

Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, leading the single largest militant group, is said to be spending around Rs 3 billion annually on militancy, and tribal sources say he was not heard emphasising too much on collection of Zakat.

Senior counter-terrorism officials say the militants abduct affluent people for random to generate funds. Militant groups raised special squads for bank robbery, high profile kidnapping and taking away Afghanistan-bound containers, said the officials, citing certain cases as examples.

Denver: Cyanide man "Humble, reclusive and psychotic"

Let the spin begin.

A Minnesota-based legal advocacy center for Somalis is assembling a troubling, curious background of a man found dead in a Denver luxury hotel Monday near a pound of deadly cyanide.

"He was psychotic; he was on medication," said Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, which has talked to dozens of people who knew Saleman Abdirahman Dirie, a 29-year-old Canadian citizen and former Somali refugee.

Dirie's journey to the U.S. and his stay in an expensive hotel does not fit the profile of his humble, somewhat reclusive life, Jamal said Thursday.

"People who knew him are shocked," Jamal said. "He was unemployed; he had no money. Whoever gave him the money for that hotel may have also given him the cyanide. We need to find that person."

There was a pretty good turn out at the funeral for a Canadian recluse. Professional mourners attend?

Dirie was buried Thursday at Hampden Cemetery after a service at the Colorado Muslim Society's Abu Baker mosque.

Mohamad Altaba of the society said about 150 people attended, including many sympathetic Muslims who traditionally attend funerals for other Muslims. He said he met Dirie's brothers and cousins but wasn't sure how many family members attended.

"The place of burial in the Islamic faith is where the person died," he said. "But we leave that decision to the family, and the family chose to have him buried here."

Omar Jamal continues to speak out against jumping to conclusions about terrorism then goes on to jump to a conclusion that makes no sense whatsoever.:

"That perception is out there," he said. "Al-Qaeda is very active in our country, and we cannot deny that some members of our community may be members of that community."

Invoking the context of terrorism causes people who may have information to remain silent in fear of terrorist groups, he said.

It is important to note that the story on how poor, psychotic Mr Dirie got to the US is changing. Now, according to Omar Jamal the story is that he drove to MONTREAL (not Toronto), boarded a bus and came to Denver.

World Food Program reveals how cheap oil producing nations are

What a bunch of cheap screws.

Three months after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon convened a task force on the global food crisis, the world’s richest oil-exporting nations remain among the biggest food-aid cheapskates.

Donor lists obtained from the World Food Program, the United Nations’ food aid arm, show that Iran, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela have contributed little or nothing to WFP's coffers, even after Ban's emergency appeal. At the same time, sky-high oil prices and imbalances exacerbated by swollen oil revenues have continued to worsen the food crisis.

While the oil exporters have kept their wallets closed, the United States, whose economy has been damaged by skyrocketing fuel prices, has nearly tripled its WFP donations to more than $1 billion from $363 million in early May.

During the same period, Canada has nearly doubled its contributions to $192 million from $103 million in the same period; the European Commission has hiked its total to $180 million from $32 million; Britain has leaped to $112 million from $36 million; and Italy has more than doubled its contributions to $99 million from $41.5 million.

In the meantime, the OPEC Fund has lifted its WFP contributions to $2.4 million, up slightly less than $2 million from its initial contributions last May but less than $1 million above the amount it had kicked in when FOX News’ original story was published.

Read the rest here.

UK: Being fat as big a threat as terrorism.

I've said it once, I'll say it again. They've all the lost the plot over in the UK.

Obesity poses as big a threat to our nation as terrorism, Government adviser warns

Egypt: Female director ordered flogged. 80 lashes.

For violating the dreaded HESBA.

One of the lawyers affiliated with the Egyptian National Democratic Party (NDP) who is a specialist in "Hesba" cases (which involve alleged insults to God, which are deemed harmful to Islamic society) against authors and artists has demanded the flogging of an Egyptian female movie director. He sent an official warning to the Sheikh of Azhar demanding the execution of his request, said ANHRI on 13 August 2008. The Hesba lawyer gave the Sheikh of Azhar eight days to execute the flogging of the prominent Egyptian female movie director, Enas El-Dighaidy, whom he said should receive eighty lashes because of a movie she directed, called "Diaries of a Teenager Girl", which he claims defames Egypt. It is worth mentioning that this same Hesba lawyer demanded, in one of his previous court cases, the punishment of an Egyptian actress because she refrained from wearing a veil.

Read more about Inas El-Dighaidy:

Inas El Degheidy is as unflinching as her camera work. The Egyptian director has been exploring women's rights and evoking Western-style bluntness in her films long before the first half-naked pop diva wriggled across the Arab consciousness.

She has been criticized as a sensationalist and praised as a fearless auteur, exposing the sins and lies gnawing beneath the facades. Her movies, such as "Teenager Diary," about a girl's sexual freedom, and "Cheap Flesh," about families prostituting their daughters to rich men in the Gulf, drew her threats of assassination from Islamic fundamentalists. El Degheidy and other Middle East artists, writers and actors recently spoke about the impact Western culture has had on their work.

"Western influence comes with pros and cons," El Degheidy said. "The Western media has brought freedom of thought and freedom of expression to the Muslim world. But the West has different perceptions of human relations that go against our traditions. The eastern society refuses to see sexual freedom as a right. So now we're seeing more Islamic fundamentalist TV shows trying to counter the West. But I'm not trying to imitate the West. I'm trying to change this closed society."

80 lashes. Anybody hearing anything out of Hollyweird about this? No, I didn't think so.

Bahrain: The King wants his Jews back

I wouldn't go if I were them. Just sayin'.

The king of Bahrain, King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa, called this week for the Jews who emigrated from the Gulf nation to return. Natan Aloof, one of the veteran immigrants to Israel from Bahrain, responds to the royal call.

Last week, King Al-Khalifa and Bahraini Prime Minister Shaikh Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa met in London with a group of expatriate Bahraini Jews who currently live in the United Kingdom. The meeting was highly unusual for an Arab monarch, although, in May of this year, King Al-Khalifa became the only Arab ruler to appoint a Jewish woman as an ambassador. Huda Azra Ibrahim Nunu, a member of the Bahraini parliament, was assigned to the island nation's embassy in the United States. The English-language Gulf Daily News reported that the Jewish delegation and Al-Khalifa discussed Bahrain's internal affairs and its efforts at modernization.

"This king loves Jews; therefore, he asked the Jews living in Bahrain to request Jews living in Israel to return. There are two reasons for it, one is lip service or to emphasize his love to the Jews there," Israeli immigration activist Natan Aloof commented in response to King Al-Khalifa's invitation.

"I want to tell you there are very few Jews in Bahrain. They all work as traders, they are obligated to the King, and in the parliament this wise king chose from every group representatives in the parliament, even the Jews, who are a small minority," Aloof explained.

For the most part, the Jews of Bahrain were treated well, Aloof said. But in 1948, "the Jews felt hostility. They were victims of looting - including my house. In Bahrain, the majority are Shia Muslims, which were behind most of the looting. That’s when I decided to come to Israel."

Aloof tried to promote immigration to Israel among four fellow Bahraini Jewish families, but "they refused. They have a lot of money, businesses. I gave up." The remaining Jewish community consists of 37 people, among them Ms. Nunu. "She is so loved, so educated," Aloof commented, "but I think that the people of the parliament don't like the idea that a Jew is there, and see her as a spy.... The king who loves the Jews promoted her to be an ambassador."

In an interview with the Jewish News newspaper Al-Khalifa said, "Bahrain has reached out for hundreds of years. We have got at least 30 churches in a very small country, and mosques next to churches, and synagogues next to churches. They are all living there, and I think this is the real Arab neighborhood."

Bahrain currently boasts one synagogue and a Jewish cemetery. The former, according to a Jewish Virtual Library entry by Ariel Scheib, remains a Jewish house of prayer thanks to the Bahraini government. Seeing that the synagogue now stands locked and empty, with only a few dozen Jews and most holidays marked in community homes, the local Jewish leadership sought to donate or convert the structure; however, the king insisted that it remain a synagogue.

Jews have lived in what became Bahrain since the times of the Talmud. The country is now a predominantly Shiite Muslim kingdom with approximately 700,000 subjects, although ruled by a Sunni dynasty.

Austria: State sponsors of al Qaeda

Austria agrees "in principle" to pay Al Qaeda kidnappers 5 million euros for the release of the Austrian couple kidnapped last February and it's still not good enough.

Algeria: Internal conflict stalls release of Austrian Tourists.

According to a report in the Algerian daily, Ech-Chourouk, negotiations are continuing between the militants and Vienna for the release of the couple believed to be held in the Sahara region, near the border of Algeria, Mali and Nigeria.

The terrorists are reported to have softened their stance in seeking a ransom in exchange for their release and Austria has reportedly accepted in principle the payment of a ransom in the order of five million euros.

However, negotiations have stalled because of confusion generated by the leader of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in the Algerian mountains, Abdel Malik Droukedel, who is apparently seeking a political victory.

Yahya Jawadi, also called Abu Omar, is the leader of the Tareq Bin Ziyad Brigade which also operates in the Algerian Sahara, is unlikely to agree to the deal.

Since the kidnapping, this group has been forced to cease its terrorist activities in the area due to lack of funds and is seeking a ransom in order to relaunch their role in the region.

Denver: Somali Group cautions linking cyanide to terror.

Hey, you can call me crazy but the thought of a pound of cyanide in the hands of a schizophrenic Muslim terrifies me.

From CBS Denver:
An advocacy group for Somali immigrants has cautioned against linking terrorism to a man found dead in a Denver hotel with a pound of highly toxic sodium cyanide in his room. U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Thursday terrorism couldn't be ruled out, but that it was not indicated in the investigation.

Saleman Abdirahman Dirie, 29, of Ottawa was found dead Monday, and police say a powder found in his room was cyanide.

The cause of death hasn't been established. Police say they don't suspect foul play and the FBI says there's no apparent connection to terrorism.

The Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul, Minn., said Thursday that connecting Dirie's death to terrorism "is a rush to judgment."

It looks like this Somali Justice Advocacy group's Ottawa branch has stepped in to help the family. They seem to be acting as a spokesman about the Dirie's funeral which is being held today. From the Denver Post.

The autopsy has been completed, the results of the toxicology screen are not yet complete.

Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in Ottawa, said Saleman Abdirahman Dirie's body has been released to his family and "they will have the funeral today."

Jamal did not say where in Denver the service will take place.

Jamal sounds like a real piece of work, too. Here he "sternly warns" East Africa of suicide bombs. He expresses concern when the US goes after Al Qaeda scumbags in Somalia and yes, he has been arrested and convicted on immigration violations. He is the man behind Minneapolis Muslim Target Cashiers refusing to ring up pork products. He advocates khat usage and is upset when a ring is broken up in the Somali community. Fun fact: He worked in Gov. Jesse Ventura's administration. Not so fun fact: He apologizes for and makes excuses for rapists.

Somalia: Pirates attack Thai Ship, MV Thor Star

From CNN:

Pirates have hijacked a Thai cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden off the Somali coast, the Kenya Seafarers Association said Thursday.

The ship, the MV Thor Star, was hijacked Tuesday with 28 Thai crew members on board, said Andrew Mwangura, a spokesman for the association, which acts on behalf of merchant vessels in the region.

The Thai-flagged ship is owned by Bangkok-based Thoresen Thai Agencies.

Iran: Mahmoud's Family drama...

In-law in trouble.

Could mean a frosty Eid ul Fitr this year at the Ahmadinejad's.

In a statement signed by some 200 members of the 290-seat assembly, Iranian lawmakers called on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to dismiss Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, the vice president for tourism, after he repeated on Sunday his earlier comment that "we are a friend of all people in the world, even Israelis and Americans." In his comments, Mashai, a political ally of Ahmadinejad and one of his in-laws, specified "for a thousandth time" that his country was against Israel, not Jews. But Parliament was not placated. "We do not recognize a country called Israel and so we cannot recognize a nation called Israel," the lawmakers said in their statement, according to Fars, the semiofficial Iranian news agency. "If Mr. Mashai does not have the political awareness that the Israeli people are the same people who have occupied the homes of millions of innocent and oppressed Palestinians and have created the army of the Zionist regime, he has no right to hold such a position," the statement added.

Mashai's daughter recently married Ahmadinejad's son. I pity the girl.

Lebanon: Bomb inquiry zeros in on...the Islamists.

Islamists of the Sunni persuasion, to be exact.

Individuals have been detained and are being questioned. Fatah al Islam cooperating with elements of al Qaeda? Why split hairs? Mohammedans.

It is important to note that no group has claimed responsibility. YET.


Ceremony for the 10 soldiers killed in the blast held.

Hundreds of people have gathered in a stadium in Tripoli to honor 10 soldiers who were killed in a roadside bombing in this northern Lebanese city.

The blast during Wednesday morning rush hour also left eight civilians dead and was Lebanon's worst bombing in more than three years. It cast a dark shadow on the country trying to put past crises behind it.

Denver: Cyanide Man not a terrorist says the family

but he was a diagnosed schizophrenic. He was also the "M" word and preliminary autopsy results show that cyanide - "the perfect terrorist weapon" was the cause of his death.

An Ottawa man whose mysterious death in a Denver hotel room is under investigation by the FBI was diagnosed with schizophrenia three years ago, his family revealed yesterday.

Preliminary autopsy results show Saleman Abdirahman Dirie, 29, may have died from exposure to cyanide, a rapidly acting chemical described by one expert as "the ideal terrorist weapon."

His sister is sticking up for him and not happy about the use of the "T" word. If you're going to get mad at anyone it should be the Islamic terrorists, dear. There's no need to get mad at us for just telling it like it is...and you think it hurts you? Hell, it's killing us!

In Ottawa, Mr. Dirie's sister told the Citizen that her brother suffered from mental illness, and she angrily rejected any suggestion that he was tied to terrorism or had any intention of harming Mr. Obama.

"He was not a terrorist," said the sister, who declined to give her name. "We don't want to hear that word, it hurts us. It is against our religion."

Ottawa holds no radical Islamist elements? I guess he forgot about this guy. (And in a striking coincidence we have his fiancee telling us "he's not that bright, but he's not a terrorist." Is this going to be the new excuses offered up by the so-called moderate Muslims about their homicidal brethren? They aren't that bright and they're nuts?) He must have also not heard about the teachers at the Ottawa Madrassa that praised the killing of Jews.

"It's a tragic story: this is a good family," said Abdirizak Karod, executive director of the Somali Centre for Family Services. He said the Somali community in Ottawa holds no radical Islamist elements. "It's not our culture," said Mr. Karod, who knows Mr. Dirie's brother, Hassan, and once met Saleman.

The police, he said, should reveal what quantity of poison was found in Mr. Dirie's room since a small amount would seem to pose little danger.

(Ed. note: Police report a POUND of the stuff was found.)

About the 'ideal terrorist weapon'

In a 2006 article published in the Journal of Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, Dr. Mark Keim, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned that "the characteristics of cyanide are those of the ideal terrorist weapon."

"Cyanide has a long history of use as a murder weapon, terrorist weapon and weapon of war as well as an agent of suicide and attempted genocide," he wrote.

Other moments in cyanide history include:

A number of prominent Nazis, including Hermann Goering and Heinrich Himmler, committed suicide using lethal pills which contained potassium cyanide. In 2001, four Moroccan men were arrested for their role in a plot to poison the U.S. embassy's water supply with sodium cyanide. In 1978, more than 900 people died after ingesting cyanide-laced Kool-Aid in Jonestown, Guyana, where the Rev. Jim Jones had established a commune. And cyanide is what Saddam Hussein is accused of using as a genocide agent against the Kurds during the Iran-Iraq war.

Let's review:

A Muslim schizophrenic with no visible means of economic support (i.e. job) decides to rent a car and drive from Canada to Denver (thus avoiding that nasty passport requirement). He tells his family he's feeling good and going on a vacation. He checks into a pricey $200/nite hotel with enough cyanide to kill a thousand people a week before the Democratic convention. (Ed. Note: anyone know how much a pound of cyanide goes for these days?)

Who was bankrolling this misadventure, I wonder?

Denver: It's official. One pound of cyanide found next to dead Canadian man

Police: Pound of Cyanide found in hotel room.

Police confirmed Wednesday that they found about a pound of sodium cyanide in a Denver hotel room where the body of a Canadian man was discovered earlier this week.

Police spokesman John White identified the white powder as sodium cyanide, the crystal form of cyanide. Fire officials say they found a bottle containing about a pound of the white powder, or between a pint and a quart by volume.

An expert told the Denver Post that the amount of cyanide is enough to kill hundreds of people.


The Burnsley Hotel is three miles from Invesco Field - the site of Obama's acceptance speech.

Denver: Cyanide mystery deepens - the almond smell gave it away.

From The Ottawa Sun:

The mystery deepens in the case of an Ottawa man found dead in an upscale Denver hotel room — a pound of highly toxic sodium cyanide in a jar beside him. More than a week ago, Saleman Abdirahman Dirie, 29, told his Somalian family out of the blue that he was leaving to vacation in Denver.

On Monday, he was found in a fourth-floor room at the ritzy Burnsley Hotel about four blocks from the Colorado state Capitol. He had been dead for several days.

Yesterday in Ottawa, a quiet west end family was struggling to understand what happened.

They said it’s a mystery to them and wondered how the large-framed, quiet, good, smart boy ended up where he did.

The Dirie family came to Ottawa as refugees in the early 1990s and first stayed at a shelter. Since then they have become Canadian citizens. The family once lived in Lowertown before moving to the Bayshore area. Dirie’s father died about two years ago of complications from diabetes.

Yesterday, a neighbour said Dirie was a good man who didn’t say much.

“No issues with the police or with neighbours. He was quiet,” said Jone Shakka, 49, a professional dancer with the Ottawa 67’s hockey club.

He smiled when he described Dirie’s frame as similar to the character Fat Albert.

A female family member said Dirie was smart and had attended university before dropping out because of diabetes and mental health concerns.

She said he kept to himself since leaving school. He spent most of his days reading inside his mother’s townhome.

“He was a very good boy,” said a family member, while Dirie’s mother sat a few feet away surrounded by friends and family. A neighbour said Dirie’s mother found out Tuesday of the untimely death of her son, one of three boys.

Time will tell what the real story is. Maybe.

Saudi Arabia: Speaking of Vice and Virtue Honchos...

Sick, sick, sick.

Saudi V&V honcho cuts out his daughter's tongue and then sets her on fire. Why? She converted to Christianity. But it has nothing to do with Islam. Hah!

A Saudi man, member of the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, has killed his daughter for converting to Christianity, the Gulf News daily reported, without providing details on the identity of the main characters in the case. Sources close to the victim said that the man had cut the tongue of his daughter and set her on fire following a heated debate on religion, the newspaper published in Dubai writes.

The brother of the victim found in the woman's computer some articles on Christianity she had written on various blogs and regional websites under a nickname and the symbol of the cross. That discovery made her family life unbearable, the woman wrote on the 'Al Ukdoud' website a few days before her death.

According to a testimony of a friend of the victim reported by the 'Free Copts' website, the father is arrested by the police and investigation has started against him for an "honour crime".

The honour crimes, perpetrated by a male member of the family against a woman of the same clan to "wipe out the shame of the dishonour" from her indecorous behaviour, are generally punished with mild sentences ranging between six months and three years in jail.

Yemen: New Vice and Virtue honcho

Sheikh Abdulmajid al Zindani is a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" and "Bin Laden Loyalist."

He wants to fight vice by tongue and his sidekick tells exactly how at their most recent meeting:

Al-Zindani added that the public role for fighting vice should be represented in fighting vice 'by tongue' through reporting and complaining to the authorities in charge about any violations of the Islamic rules.

During the same meeting Sheikh Hamoud al-Tharihi, one of the establishers of the vice and virtue organization, currently secretary general of the vice and virtue committee a leader in the Islah Islamic party in his paperwork that he read at the conference justified the establishment of the vice and virtue organization to the spread of vice in the country.

He illustrated a number of practices that contradict with the Islamic rules among them he said was the spread of the prostitution facilities, spread of places that sell wines, and drugs, spread of places that sell porno, singing and dancing CDs , hotels that facilitate watching scrambled satellite channels ,spread of the phenomenon of girls absenting from schools, spread of the tourism marriage and the Yemeni media and satellite channel for the sacristy of the holy month of Ramadhan "the Muslims' fasting month", in reference to broadcasting songs and women' on TV. in Ramadhan month '.

Can't think of Yemen without thinking of my friends over at Terrorism: Politicians and Victims.

Mauritania: New regime vows to take hardline with al Qaeda

After US cuts all non-humanitarian aid.

UK: Suicide bomber novel censored because of Islamic sensitivities

From the Telegraph:

Previous winner of Muslim Writers Award "Treated as second coming of Salman Rushdie" because subject matter was "unpalatable' to the "puritan mindset" of the you-know-who's. (and it's not the scientologists, kyros! LOL)

This year's awards attracted over 10,000 submissions and guests of honour at the ceremony included the singer Jermaine Jackson and Baroness Warsi, the shadow minister for community cohesion.

Imran Akram, chief executive of the 2008 awards, said: "Dr Malik's submission was certainly one of the best we received in 2008, and was rightly short-listed along with four other unpublished novelists.

"Following investigation, it is clear that his work was not submitted to the judges as it should have been." Saying he was still investigating the matter, Mr Akram stressed he had "great respect" for Dr Malik's writing. He said: "The Muslim Writers Awards project does not condone censorship, as we do not believe in stifling individuals' right to artistic self-expression."

Evidently somebody there does.

The Muslim Writers respond over at al-Guardian, of course. It was all a clerical error. it wasn't because of the child abusing mosque teacher, the rape of a Muslim girl and the suicide bomber. Really. (Fun fact: one of this year's judges is also a Guardian reporter.)

Everything was all hunky-dory before the glittering event. What happened?

A few more tidbits bout the Muslim Writer's Awards "when the world brings you to your knees, you're in the perfect position to pray." They're based in Birmingham and while they may have a quote from Prince Charle's stupefyingly dhimmi speech on Islam, oddly enough they have not updated their website with the latest winners. In fact their most current website is nothing but an advert for next years contest.

Gray Lady of al Qaeda wanted to poison Jimmy Carter

Go figure. Jimmy Carter. You'd think with his record she'd be giving him a medal.

Long before Aafia Siddique was arrested in Afghanistan last month, allegedly in possession of a list of New York targets and chem-bio weapons information, she had allegedly developed a plot, however improbable or amateurish, to kill Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush and to attack the White House. Siddique plotted to use weapons that included biological agents to contaminate former president Carter's water, according to multiple federal sources.

Her lawyer, Elizabeth Fink is a William Kunstler acolyte, who flashes back to the good old days of the Black Panthers and calls it all a big, fat lie. Of course.

They used the same stuff 40 years ago...against the Black Panthers, against the Attica Brothers...a list of targets in their possession...why would anyone be in Ghanzi, Afghanistan walking around with a list of landmarks of New York?," Fink asked. "These people are nuts and don't even know how to lie."

Oh and her client may have lost a kidney and have brain damage. Nobody knows for sure.
Judge orders doctor for Brooklyn inmate.

Funny. You'd think the Pakistani officials that visited her this weekend would be saying something about the missing kidney and damaged brain, wouldn't you? Not a peep.

Two diplomats visited Siddiqui over the weekend at a detention facility in New York, ministry spokesman Mohammed Sadiq said. Pakistani state media reported that the 36-year-old had requested a copy of the Quran, religiously appropriate food and assurances of a fair trial.

In a move to remain relevant, Hillary puts in her 2 cents. She not only thinks it's for real, it also means more pork for her adopted state. Atta girl, Hil.

"Today's revelation that suspected terrorist Aafia Siddique was apprehended carrying a list of potential attack sites including a number of New York landmarks is a sobering reminder that New York remains a top target for terrorist attack," said Clinton.

"Federal agencies and law enforcement officials must continue to be on alert and work together to keep our nation safe. It is critical that we remain vigilant in confronting these threats here at home and abroad. It further underscores the need for the Department of Homeland Security to allocate the necessary funds to protect New York and its residents. I will continue fight to ensure that New York has the tools and resources needed to continue the fight against terrorism,"

Mayor Mike steps up and puts his hand out, too.

...(he) called New York City "target one" and said the list found on the Pakistani neuroscientist provides more support that the city needs the lion's share in anti-terrorism federal funding.

"Every time we have talked about homeland security monies and where they should go I have pointed out repeatedly -- you catch a terrorist anyplace in the world with a map, it's a map of New York City, not a map of some cornfield in the Midwest," Bloomberg said.

On the credibility of the threat, Bloomberg said, "We view all threats as credible threats and I don't know that we have enough information to determine in this case. There's a lot of evidence that it is credible and I'll leave that to the professionals. But we take every single case and assume it is credible until proven otherwise."

More to come, I'm sure.

Nigeria: Mob kills man for blasphemy

Ah, yes! The Religion of Peace.

Witnesses told Daily Trust that the man, though a Muslim, made a statement residents considered as blasphemous against the Holy Prophet after his relatives denied him his share of the estate left by their deceased father.

He was beaten and left unconscious before the police intervened and dispersed the crowd.

But for the quick intervention of the police and Hisbah officials, a full-scale crisis would have erupted, residents said.

No arrests have yet been made in connection with his murder.

Lebanon: Suitcase bomb full of nuts and bolts goes off in Tripoli. 18 dead.

Who on earth could be responsible?

One guess.

A bomb ripped through a bus during Wednesday morning rush hour in a northern Lebanese city, killing 18 soldiers and civilians, security officials said, raising fears that an al-Qaida-inspired militant group is stepping up revenge attacks against the military.

Netherlands: Bigamy, polygamy - it's all good in Eurabia.

From NIS News

Registrars in the major cities, in particular, record dozens of bigamous or polygamous marriages per year. These marriages are prohibited and an offence in the Netherlands. However, polygamous marriages that take place in countries where more than one wife is permitted, such as Morocco, are accepted, newspaper NRC Handelsblad reports.

If immigrants with several wives settle in the Netherlands, the local authorities register all the marriages. However, the Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS), where all marriages are registered nationally, removes these bigamous or polygamous marriages from its files, on the assumption that administrative errors have occurred. As a result, it is not known how common the phenomenon is in the Netherlands.

Amsterdam city council has informed the CBS that the marriages are not a mistake. "We will now investigate whether this can be regarded as a trend that was previously not recognised. If this is the case, it is out task to report this," CBS researcher Jan Latten explained in NRC Handelsblad.

"At present, it is not included in our statistics," Latten pointed out. "In the same way, we delete marriages involving fourteen-year-olds. A man with two wives just cannot exist by law."

Spokesman T. Verhoeven of the Rotterdam city council disclosed that polygamous marriages are registered almost every week. "They are simply acknowledged. It is important for us to check that the documents are authentic and that the husband does not have Dutch nationality." Otherwise the construction is illegal, Verhoeven explained.

In Amsterdam, local government employees must inform the Public Prosecutors' Office (OM) if there is any suspicion of marriages of convenience or exploitation of women. But this has never happened, a spokeswoman revealed. In Rotterdam, too, the registration of bigamous or polygamous marriages is "practically never" refused, Verhoeven observed.

Sick, sick, sick.

Denver: Al Jazeera has big plans for Obama's coronation

I mean nomination... looks like they're planning on a big howdy. (damn - and I'm going to be out of town fly fishing in Durango)

Al Jazeera's slice of the west to feature Golden at Bar and BBQ.

No pork products will be served out of deference to the millions of Muslim viewers watching. That's right, folks. Our muslim friends can't even watch pork being bbq'd. Dhimmi, dhimmi, dhimmi. Makes me want a hot dog right now.

...120 million households in 80 countries will get a selective snapshot of the West when al-Jazeera English pays a visit to Golden for two days during the Democratic National Convention. With its small-town atmosphere, Golden attracts mostly well-educated people with diverse opinions, many employed by Coors, the Colorado School of Mines and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

"Our objective is to present a slice of mainstream America," said Julian Ingle, political program editor for al-Jazeera's Washington, D.C., bureau.

The international news organization will broadcast Aug. 27 from the Buffalo Rose saloon, where, since 1858, more beer has been spilled than most bars have sold. The next night, when Barack Obama gives his acceptance speech, al-Jazeera will grill pre-chosen attendees at the city's manager's backyard barbecue.

Golden is loaded with moonbats - are you surprised? And their lib city government is all too eager to play the dhimmi.

"It's a terrific opportunity to let parts of the world that watch al-Jazeera see what democracy is like in a small town," Mayor Jacob Smith said. Golden officials believe the city can gain national and international attention although it probably won't become as well-known as the city's biggest industry, Coors brewery. (which was just bought out by Miller and moved it's HQ to Chicago)

Listen to the city's spokespeople try to explain away the fact they are kowtowing to the network of al Qaeda. And don't miss the views of the carefully picked participants.

"Al-Jazeera is always going to evoke some raised eyebrows from folks who aren't real familiar with their work since it isn't seen here," city spokeswoman Sabrina D'Agosta said. But, she said, "al-Jazeera is a legitimate news organization, and we want those 120 million viewers to see that regular folks in the United States are great people and we have a lot of diversity in our population and our views."

While al-Jazeera has been controversial, "I don't have a problem with them being here," said Gary Wink, president of the Golden Chamber of Commerce. "Everybody in the world is going to be watching this convention, so why not show Golden?"

Georgette Haddad, a 12-year resident who said she once lived in Saudi Arabia, is glad the broadcaster chose Golden.

Haddad called al-Jazeera "a window on the Middle East." She wants its viewers to know that she's worried about America's future. But she probably won't be interviewed on the Buffalo Rose's patio with South Table Mountain in the background.

Previously selected townspeople will discuss the economy and the war at the bar, while health and environment will be topics at City Manager Mike Bestor's barbecue.

Bestor arranged the event when Ingle suggested it as a way to give the broadcast a true American flavor. Wink said the interviewees are "very upbeat people who believe in Golden. The clientele at the Buffalo Rose gets a little different."

The bar, known to regulars as "The Buff," caters to locals in biker wear, the lunch crowd and flocks of tourists.

Jimmy Jurkulak, informal mayor of The Buff, quaffed a beer as he complained that his rights "are being taken away day by day."

The 67-year-old retired carpenter added, "What I want is to be left alone."

Nearby, Natalie Marino, a single mom, said she doesn't plan to vote: "None of the candidates is anyone I'd pick anyway."

Marino worries about services for the homeless and is ambivalent about the Iraq war — although "if my 17-year-old son were drafted, I'd be against it."

The night of Obama's speech, city manager Bestor will flip burgers and hot dogs — though they'll contain no pork out of respect for the diet of al-Jazeera's many Muslim viewers — at the guest-list get-together.

Firefighter Tom Young, paralyzed from the neck down 20 years ago while rescuing a hang glider, will be among those talking about health care.

Mayor Smith and members of the committee on sustainability, a major city effort, will discuss the environment.

"This is an international broadcast, and we're trying to show the world that we're decent, happy people," Bestor said. "So we welcome them. They (viewers) can see what life in Golden is all about and maybe they can decide not to hate us."

It's like 9/11 never happened to these people.

UK: New Muslim marriage contract to be introduced

Backdoor Sharia. Civil marriage isn't good enough for the Muslims apparently.

EXPERTS are divided about the impact of a proposed new Muslim marriage contract being launched today in London with the backing of Ann Cryer MP, that would, claims one, give recognition to shariah law. The new contract, drafted by the Muslim Institute, launching at the City Circle, would provide women with written proof of their marriage under Islamic law.

But discrimination barrister Neil Addison says it would mean shariah law by the 'back door.'

‘With government members approving it, it gives pseudo-legitimacy to Islamic marriage and to shariah by the back door, without giving any real reason why this contract is necessary and what’s wrong with civil marriage.’

Up to now, Muslims, alone among all religious groups, do not register their religious buildings in order to perform marriages that conform to English law. The new contract encourages registration.

Read it all if you can stomach it.

Pakistan demands Aafia's custody from US

Dinah says, "Go pound sand, Ambassador Haqqani."

From GEO TV

Pakistan has officially demanded U.S that Pakistani detainee Dr. Aafia Siddiqui be provided under Pakistan’s custody here on late Tuesday, sources said.

Pakistan ambassador to United States Hussain Haqqani has forwarded a letter to U.S. State Department demanding sue motto custody of Aafia Siddiqui to Pakistan, it added.

Letter reveals Pakistan’s demand to U.S. to immediately entrust Dr. Aafia and her three children to Pakistan custody, Pakistan embassy sources said.

Dr. Aafia Siddiqui matter has been politicized in Pakistan and the people want her immediate release, it further added.

Gray Lady of al Qaeda ...

is the "most significant intelligence capture in 5 years". A virtual treasure trove of information... linked to plot to kill all living US Presidents. (Ed. Note: It's kind of hard to kill the dead ones, Aafia...)

Source: ABC News

When she was arrested in Afghanistan last month, Aafia Siddique allegedly had in her possession maps of New York, a list of potential targets that included the Statue of Liberty, Times Square, the subway system and the animal disease center on Plum Island, detailed chemical, biological and radiological weapon information that has been seen only in a handful of terrorist cases, as well as a thumb drive packed with emails, ABC News has learned.

That haul of information has led multiple government sources to describe Siddique, a 36 year-old MIT graduate, as a potential “treasure trove” of information on terrorist supporters, sympathizers or ’sleepers’ in the United States and overseas.

“She is the most significant capture in five years,” said former CIA officer John Kiriakou, who said she lives up to her reputation as an alleged terrorist ‘Mata Hari.’

Read it all here.

Related posts can be found here.

More Creepy Obama stuff

The eye of the beholder I guess.

Coalition forces capture 9 Hezbollah operatives - in Baghdad!

Looks like Mahmoud is still getting jiggy with it in Iraq - smuggling weapons, fronting IRAM production and jihadi websites. Three Raids. Task Force 88. God bless our troops.

From Long War Journal.

Coalition forces, likely the special operations hunter-killer teams of Task Force 88, have captured nine Hezbollah Brigades operatives during three raids in the Adhamiyah district in Baghdad over the past 24 hours.

The first intelligence-driven raid netted a Hezbollah Brigades cell leader who operated in Basrah. "According to information from suspects already in custody, he is believed to be involved in smuggling weapons and fighters across the Iraq-Iran border," Multinational Forces Iraq reported in a press release. Three other suspected Hezbollah Brigades associates were captured.

The second raid resulted in...

Read it all here.

Pakistan: Musharraf to step down?

Musharraf to announce his decision to quit "in principle"?

Or not?

The US Envoy is negotiating safe passage for he and his wife?

Pakistan is slipping away.

Denver: Man with cyanide stash found dead in hotel

<-The Burnsley Hotel.

Update - and continuing with today's "Threaten a Kafir Day" theme: Kill them, kill them, kill them, that is my massage!

Tip of the bitter almond massage oil bottle to LGF. Is this blog comment threatening Somali Christians from the dead guy?

"Please don’t talk shit , that man deserves what happened to him , simply because having the bible in one hand , and a bread in the other hand , is not a correct thing ,! Kill Them , Kill them , Kill them , that is my massage,!"

Dead Man found in Denver hotel with possible cyanide stash: H/T LGF.

Make that "apparent" cyanide. The tests are still out.

His name? "Saleman Abdirahman Dirie, 29", and he "appears to be from outside the U.S. No passport was found on Dirie, who is believed to have entered the country from Canada."

Hmmm.

Of course, the authorities are quick to reassure us all that:

"that nothing so far has been found to link the case to terrorism"

He is apparently from Ottawa, Canada. And was a black male, according to this report.

About the Burnsley Hotel:

Gracious and inviting, the Burnsley Hotel offers the charming intimacy of a European-style inn - uniquely set in the heart of downtown Denver, Colorado. Rich in history and luxury, each suite of this distinct hotel in downtown Denver offers an environment of comfortable elegance.

Bet John Edwards wishes he had met up with his Baby Mama at the Burnsley and not the Bev Hills Hilton...

Jason Ford, general manager of the 17-story Burnsley hotel, said Tuesday he had no comment on Dirie or how long he had stayed at the hotel.

"We always protect the privacy of all our guests," he said.

A Saudi cleric's view of the Olympics...

And he isn't thinking Empowerment, ladies.

No, more like "Exposure of women's private parts on a global scale."

(Ed. Note: If that was true the ratings would be better.)

Muhammad Al-Munajid: how come modern sports – especially women’s sports – inv More..olve the exposure of private parts? It is well known that the Olympics – both in the past and the upcoming games... the world’s worst display of women’s clothing is the women’s Olympics. No exposure of women’s private parts on a global scale could make Satan happier than Olympic games that include women’s sports.

Interviewer: And in a scandalous manner...

Muhammad Al-Munajid: Yes. It is an enormous Satanic issue.

What the Democrats were doing while gas prices were rising.

You can't make this stuff up...

From Family Security Matters:

On Capitol Hill, the House Republican Whip's office has been distributing a chart titled "What was the Democrat Congress Voting on as Gas Prices Skyrocketed?" The chart shows that while the Democrat Leadership in both houses has done everything possible to block Congress from voting on expanded drilling for oil, it has had plenty of time to spend on feel-good resolutions and trivial measures that do nothing to alleviate the hardships caused by soaring energy prices.

For example, on January 29, 2007, when gas was $2.22 per gallon, Congress voted on "Congratulating the U.C. Santa Barbara Soccer Team." On September 5, 2007, when the price had risen to $2.84, "it was "National Passport Month." By February 6, 2008, ($3.03), Congress was voting on "Commending the Houston Dynamo Soccer Team." On May 14th, the issue was "National Train Day," ($3.77) and on May 20th it was "Great Cats and Rare Canids Act" ($3.84). By June 10th, with the price at $4.09, Congress was considering the "International Year of Sanitation" and by June 17th, having pushed the price up to $4.14, the great change agents on Capitol Hill were discussing the "Monkey Safety Act."

Hijab "empowers" Olympic athletes. (Not really)

Veiled athletes challenge stereotypes in Beijing.

Egyptian fencer Shaimaa El Gammal, a third-timer at the Olympics, will don Islamic headgear in Beijing for the first time. She says it is a sign she is come of age and she feels more empowered than ever.
She now feels empowered? For the first time? She needs her head examined. The hijab is a political symbol of Islam just as much as the Klansmen's hoods were and should be banned.

This year's Games will see a sizable sprinkling of veiled athletes who are determined to avoid offending devout Muslims back home while showing skimpily dressed rivals there is nothing constricting about wearing "hijab".
Except for the mental constriction of the Muslimas thought processes... to say nothing of the thought of running around wearing a sleeping bag. Not constricting at all, nope.

"People see us wearing the scarf and think we ride camels. But Muslim women can do anything they want," said El Gammal, a bubbly 28-year-old whose sister will compete in the same event, also wearing Islamic headgear.
Right. They can do anything except drive. Or get an education. Or even attend a mosque while you are at the Olympics! Now that's what I call liberty, all right.

Beijing's athletes' village has laid on halal food for the hundreds of Muslims staying there, but it only has a mosque for men, despite scores of Muslim women, mostly bare-headed, from countries such as Tunisia, Iran and Pakistan.

Too bad that El Gammal's Muslim sisters from Saudi Arabia and Bahrain can't even play organized sports, much less COMPETE.

UK issues first Sharia compliant Mastercard

But Sharia law isn't the law of the land in the UK or anything...really.

The UK's first sharia-compliant prepaid MasterCard has been launched.

The Cordoba Gold MasterCard does not charge or receive interest as this is in direct conflict with sharia Law. The company also donates at least 10% of its profits to registered charities in the UK and abroad. (Ed. note: aka zakat for terrorists)

A company spokesman said: "Because this is a prepaid card, the customer pays no interest on their balance. The difference with this card is that Cordoba Financial Group does not earn any interest on the balance either.

"This card is the first sharia product that has been specifically developed to address the real needs of millions of Muslims in Britain, rather than wholesale Islamic funds geared for governments, institutions and other investors."

And we do want to meet the 'real needs of millions of Muslims in Britain'.

Cordoba Financial Group states that 10 % of their profits go to charity - so they do make a profit. They claim the customer pays no interest and that they don't earn interest, either. So riddle me this, Batman. How do they make their profit? Are they charging interest just calling it something else? That's my guess.

al- Qaeda: The hits just keep coming!

Senior al Qaeda leader believed killed in Pakistan.

Oh dear. Buh-bye. Abu Saeed al Masri.

Fun facts: Abu Saeed al Masri shared a cell with Ayman al-Zawahiri in Egypt after the assassination of Anwar Sadat and became "al Qaeda's Number Three" after the five previous occupants of the number three spot were eliminated or captured. Heh. It appears that the number three spot on the al Qaeda org chart is not necessarily a resume enhancer.

Yemen: al Qaeda's Number two man threatens "huge operation"

back on August 6.

Today he was killed along with 4 other 'militants' according to NewsYemen.

How sweet it is.

About Al-Qaeeti:

He "escaped" from a Yemeni prison in February 2005 along with other 22 al-Qaeda scumbags. He is believed to have been the mastermind behind the string of recent terror attacks in Yemen.

Adios, m-f'er.

Aussies capture Taliban leader

Way to go, Diggers!

Afghan "Shadow Governor" in charge of bomb-making caught by surprise. Hah-hah. Now, he's cooling his heels in a Dutch detention facility where hopefully, they have thrown away the key.

The Defence Department announced yesterday that Australian troops from the Special Operations Task Group had captured senior Taliban militant Mullah Bari Ghul in an operation last week.

Bari Ghul was known as the shadow governor of Oruzgan province, a reference used by the Taliban to describe his status as the head of its underground operations in the southern province of Afghanistan.

Defence spokesman Brian Dawson said Bari Ghul was responsible for a "campaign of intimidation and violence" against the province's population. Bari Ghul is alleged to have co-ordinated numerous attacks on both Afghan and international troops and facilitated the flow of money, equipment and foreign fighters into Afghanistan.

In particular, he is said to have green-lighted most of the improvised explosive device attacks across Oruzgan, such as those that killed Diggers Sean McCarthy and David Pearce.

"Mullah Bari Ghul was directly responsible for the importation of componentry, the provision of specialists in the construction of IEDs and authorising their emplacement across the province," the brigadier said.

After McCarthy's death, Chief of the Defence Force Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said Australian forces would target the bomb-makers.

"We need to go to the facilities where these devices are constructed -- you could call them IED factories -- and we need to go after the people who are putting them together, and that's precisely what we've been doing," Air Chief Marshal Houston said.

God bless our best ally, Australia!

China: 3 Security guards killed at checkpoint.

Uighurs.

Three security staff were stabbed to death in an attack Tuesday in northwest China's Xinjiang region, state media reported, the third deadly assault reported there in just over a week.

Assailants jumped off a vehicle passing through a checkpoint about 9 am (0100 GMT), attacking the security officers, the Xinhua news agency reported. It added one other security officer was injured.

Xinhua said the attack happened near Kashgar, a border city where 16 police officers were killed in an attack last week branded by China as a terrorist assault carried out by people wishing independence for Xinjiang.

Related posts can be found here.

Another round of house guests

arrive today.

And as Miss J so succinctly put it - "What you got going there? A Bed and Breakfast?"

Hah-hah.

Light posting for the duration, possums.

China: About that Olympic smog seeding..

In case you thought this picture was merely firework practice or something - here's one of a cloud seeder, hard at work.

A Look at Cloud Seeding.

In the weeks and months leading up to today's opening ceremony China has been firing rockets and cannons into the sky in preparation.

But it's not because there's any threat.

They're trying to manipulate the weather and hoping they can do a good enough job to make sure they have a rain-free Olympics.

The Mist problem is not mentioned in the report.

Geez. Hamdan only gets 5 1/2 years?

66 months.

What a slap on the wrist!

The prosecution wanted 30 years to life.

His wife spoke about him via videotape and details of the non-apology apology he presented to the jury can be found here.

I guess they bought it.

(I don't)

China: Muslim group issues threat against Games.

Uighurs.

An Islamic group that has threatened to attack the Summer Games released a new video claiming the communist regime's alleged mistreatment of Muslims justifies holy war, a U.S. group that monitors militant communications said Thursday.

In the video, a representative of the Turkistan Islamic Party accused of forcing Muslims into atheism and destroying Islamic schools, according to the SITE Institute. SITE says the group issued the video on Wednesday.The representative says China's birth control program has forced abortions upon Muslim women. He also reiterated threats against the Olympics made in a previous video last month and urged Muslims to stay away from the games.

Karachi Kids: No Compromises interviews producer, Imran Raza

Tracy over at No Compromises Blog Talk Radio
Thursday, August 7 @ Noon PDT
with guests
Karachi Kids producer Imran Raza
and
Chris Simcox of the Minutemen Civil Defense

Click here to listen

THE CALL IN NUMBER IS 646.200.4641

Can't make it? Download the show for later at the above link.

Iranians suspend death by stoning.

For now.

It was also suspended back in 2002. According to the BBC, 3 people have been stoned since then.

..."authorities have been reluctant to completely abolish a penalty they say is endorsed by Islamic law.

Although stoning is not prescribed in the Koran, some Muslim scholars say it is in the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad."

And there you have it.

So sari! Exposed tummies rile Nigerians

Saris with tummies exposed too sexy for Nigeria. (h/t Religion of Peace.)

Indian women in their traditional saris with midriffs showing may find themselves falling foul of Nigerian law if a bill currently under discussion in that country is passed.

Tourists in towelling wraps and Nigerian women in traditional dress with their stomachs exposed could also find themselves behind bars for three months or subjected to fines of $100, according to the Media24 News Service here.

While women's rights groups have come out strongly against the proposed law, Muslim leaders are supporting the bill, proposed by Senator Eme Ufot Ekaette, who felt that nudity was driving men to engage in corruption and steal from the state in Nigeria.

"Nudity leads to corruption," Ishaq Akintola of the Muslim Rights Watch, a strong supporter of Akaette's proposal, told Media 24.

"Nigerians are fighting corruption, through which many of our leaders, mostly men, have stolen fortunes for their personal use. They build colossal homes in London, Rome and New York because they have to spend money on women and have to hide them in these big homes."

It's always the woman's fault with these guys, isn't it?

Resignation of Obama's Muslim Outreach director yields predictable responses from usual suspects.

"It seems like the Obama folks don't get it," said Imad Hamad, of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. "Muslims are an integral part of this great nation, and Obama and McCain cannot undo that." (Integral part? Yeah, right.)

"This is an outrage," said Dawud Walid, of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). "If Mazen Ashabi cannot serve a presidential campaign, no one can." (Glad to see YOU'RE finally getting it, Dawud.)

Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told Al Jazeera the resignation was "symptomatic of the efforts of a vocal minority to exclude Muslims from the political process". "They use smear tactics to attack Muslims who want to take part in the political process," he said. Hooper said that Muslims were becoming better organised politically and that that may be the reason for the increase in attacks on them.They use smear tactics to attack Muslims who want to take part in the political process," he said.

Hooper said that Muslims were becoming better organised politically and that that may be the reason for the increase in attacks on them. (Yeah, you're sticking up for terrorists all the time has nothing to do with it, does it Ibby?)

Salam Al-Marayati, the executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, where Asbahi had previously worked, told Al Jazeera that the resignation was symptomatic of a deeper problem in US political culture.

"People have to be exposed to the truth. They don't believe us when we talk about Islamophobia. They say we're whining or into self-victimisation. Things like this prove that's not true." (What? A guy resigning because HE wouldn't stand up for himself? I mean, if it was all so innocent - why the rush to resign? Could there be more here than meets the eye, Salam?)

I thought this was interesting. Asbahi tendered his resignation on Monday after meeting with a group of local Muslim leaders in Detroit over the weekend. Wonder what they talked about? Do you think this was a topic of discussion?

Related posts.

USA: You can't write about Mohammed here, folks!

This is just pathetic. Random House publishing are a bunch of pantywaist sissies like their little Muslim friends. The book was about the Pedophile Prophet's 9 year old wife, Aisha, a historical romance entitled "The Jewel of Medina" by Sherry Jones. The contract for it's publication has been terminated. And it wasn't due to interference by Muslim groups - no, - well, not at first anyways. It was an American academic who got the ball rolling.

You still can't write about Mohammed.

In April, looking for endorsements, Random House sent galleys to writers and scholars, including Denise Spellberg, an associate professor of Islamic history at the University of Texas in Austin. Ms. Jones put her on the list because she read Ms. Spellberg's book, "Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: The Legacy of 'A'isha Bint Abi Bakr."

But Ms. Spellberg wasn't a fan of Ms. Jones's book. On April 30, Shahed Amanullah, a guest lecturer in Ms. Spellberg's classes and the editor of a popular Muslim Web site, got a frantic call from her. "She was upset," Mr. Amanullah recalls. He says Ms. Spellberg told him the novel "made fun of Muslims and their history," and asked him to warn Muslims.

The Mohammedan internet intifada took it from there.

The next day, a blogger known as Shahid Pradhan posted Mr. Amanullah's email on a Web site for Shiite Muslims -- "Hussaini Youth" -- under a headline, "upcoming book, 'Jewel of Medina': A new attempt to slander the Prophet of Islam." Two hours and 28 minutes after that, another person by the name of Ali Hemani proposed a seven-point strategy to ensure "the writer withdraws this book from the stores and apologise all the muslims across the world."

Random House took the following actions:

After consulting security experts and Islam scholars, Mr. Perry said the company decided "to postpone publication for the safety of the author, employees of Random House, booksellers and anyone else who would be involved in distribution and sale of the novel."

Dhimmification, anyone?

China: US Cyclists apologize for wearing masks?

WTF?

John Edwards baby drama - The pics are out. And there is a baby in them.

Over at Gawker. (and yes, I'm feeling like one.)

Norway: Mullah Krekar sues the government.

You remember this assclown.

Now, he wants to make sure he's "getting everything he has a right to." I can think of a few things I'd like to give him, all right.

"I'm taking Norway to court to see that I’m getting everything I have a right to," says the 52 year-old Iraqi Kurd. He has been served an expulsion order which cannot be put into effect because he could face the death penalty if he returns home.

"He has no ID-papers, he cannot come and go as he pleases, he has no economic or social rights in this country. Instead he is in virtual house arrest without the means to support himself or his family," says his attorney, Brynjar Melling.

Waah!

There's no word as to whether or not the European Court of Human Rights will be hearing the case.

The Gray Lady of Bagram: Body armor and Gitmo buddies.

Too bad she wasn't wearing it when she pulled that gun on those American GI's...

In 2002, she and her husband were questioned by the FBI after Ms Siddiqui's husband allegedly purchased night-vision goggles and body armour on the internet.

Do you wonder what an anesthesiologist and a neuroscientist would need with night vision goggles and body armor?

Or why she has links to some of the brothers at Gitmo?

Officials allege Ms Siddiqui has links to at least two of the 14 high-level al-Qa'ida suspects moved to the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in September 2006. Prosecutors said she opened a post office box in Maryland for Majid Khan, a former Baltimore resident now in Guantanamo.

All innocent happenstance, I'm sure...
Related posts.

Terrorists: Need a job? Apply to be a teacher in California

Commies are okay, too.

Majority Democrats in the California Assembly have rejected two amendments that would have allowed schools to fire any employee discovered to be part of an extremist terror network and require users of school facilities to affirm they are not terrorists.

OBL's Driver - GUILTY.

PER FNC: Just crossing the wires - he's facing life in prison on some charges and was acquitted on some others ...there are no mandatory minimums in this case.

Hamdan held his head in his hands and wept when the verdict was announced.

Link to follow.

Obama's new Muslim outreach director resigns

Another past association comes back to bite him on the butt as more Sharia Finance hinkiness comes to light.

The Muslim-outreach coordinator to the presidential campaign of Barack Obama has resigned amid questions about his involvement in an Islamic investment fund and various Islamic groups.

Mr. Asbahi

Chicago lawyer Mazen Asbahi, who was appointed volunteer national coordinator for Muslim American affairs by the Obama campaign on July 26, stepped down Monday after an Internet newsletter wrote about his brief stint on the fund's board, which also included a fundamentalist imam.

"Mr. Asbahi has informed the campaign that he no longer wishes to serve in his volunteer position, and we are in the process of searching for a new national Arab American and Muslim American outreach coordinator," spokesman Ben LaBolt said in a statement.

A corporate lawyer at the firm of Schiff Hardin LLP, Mr. Asbahi tendered his resignation after he and the Obama campaign received emailed inquiries about his background from The Wall Street Journal. He did not respond to the email or a message left at his law office; the campaign released a letter in which Mr. Asbahi said he did not want to be a distraction...

The eight-year-old connection between Mr. Asbahi and Mr. Said was raised last week by the Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report, which is published by a Washington think tank and chronicles the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood, a world-wide fundamentalist group based in Egypt. Other Web sites, some pro-Republican and others critical of fundamentalist Islam, also have reported on the background of Mr. Asbahi. He is a frequent speaker before several groups in the U.S. that scholars have associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Justice Department named Mr. Said an unindicted co-conspirator in the racketeering trial last year of several alleged Hamas fund-raisers, which ended in a mistrial. He has also been identified as a leading member of the group in news reports going back to 1993.

Mr. Said is the imam at the Bridgeview Mosque in Bridge-view, Ill., outside Chicago. He left the board of the Islamic fund in 2005, Securities and Exchange Commission filings state. A message left for Mr. Said at the mosque was not returned.

Allied Asset Advisors is a subsidiary of the North American Islamic Trust. The trust, which is supported financially by the government of Saudi Arabia, holds title to many mosques in the U.S. and promotes a conservative brand of Islam compatible with the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood and also akin to the fundamentalist style predominant in Saudi Arabia. Allied executives did not respond to inquiries.

Somalia: Italian hostages freed.

No word as to whether or not a ransom was paid.

Yolanda Occhipinti and Giuliano Paganini were being flown to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

The pair were seized by armed gunmen during an attack on the offices of Italian aid agency Cooperazione Italiana Nord Sud in southern Somalia.

It was not clear if a ransom was paid to secure their release.

A Somali man, who was the head of the agency, was abducted at the same time but there was no immediate word on his fate.

Putting the BS in Bio-Solar One.

Update 12:11 am - This just keeps getting better and better. Here is a snap of the BS -1's dockside power hook ups.

"The boat is a custom-built Fantasy Yacht built specifically for Gore by Bill Austin of Sparta, Tennessee. (www.billaustinaircraft-yacht.com) According to Austin, the engines are bio-diesel fueled and Gore can expect to use about two gallons an hour to cruise Center Hill Lake. With a 500 gallon capacity Austin says Gore won’t need a refill for “two or three years” though he admits having “no clue” about where Gore could get bio-diesel at the lake. The Hurricane Marina dock doesn’t sell it."

courtesy of Steve Gill over at the Gill Report.

Update: 11:54 pm. An even better pic of the BS-1.
Hell's Bells - it looks like the Staten Island Ferry!

Big green hypocrite Al Gore's new boat.
It doesn't have solar panels yet.
The Bio-Solar One.

Gray Lady of Bagram: Aafia Siddique

Moonbats all over the world are up in arms about the arraignment of the Gray Lady of Bagram. And the useful idiots in the US are only happy to join in...get ready for Abu Ghraib 2: The Sequel.

The Telegraph of India: Independent rights group The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in a statement also termed the US claims as lies. "To say that she had been taken into custody only on July 17, 2008 is a blatant lie," it said. "The insinuation, that she had been hiding herself since 2003, is a travesty of truth."

The LA Times is all too quick to jump on the bandwagon with this...Siddiqui arrest brings attention to the 'disappeared' issue in Pakistan. "Possibly at US behest!" I swear to God they actually used that phrase! (Ed. Note: The only thing that seems to be 'disappeared' around the LA Times these days is earnings per share. AND that's at the subsciber's BEHEST. Hah!)

The Pakistani Daily Times is calling today's arraignment a "confirmation of her arrest and arraignment" and showing a puny picture of the poor Gray thing. (Elaine Whitfield Sharp sure is earning her retainer. I am reminded of the recent 'staging' of the Gitmo detainees upon their release. Just saying you should keep that in mind...we know it is a time honored technique of the Muslim warrior. )

Freaking WaPo blows up the puny picture and knee jerks all over the place. Yikes! They also give us this poignant Allah Ackbar-Kodak moment: "In the struggle, Siddiqui was heard shouting "God is great!" in Arabic and "Get the [expletive] out of here!" in English. They also let us know that she was a busy little zakat beaver, founding the Institute of Islamic Research and Teaching while living in Boston. She also donated her 'MUSLIM DOLLARS' to Islamic charities that served as front groups for extremists. What a coincidence!

From the AFP - Paging Dr. Mustafa. Our girl sounds like a candidate for a stint on the Islamic Dr. Phil show. She divorced her first husband - poor schmoe Mohammed Khan (the one she lived with in Boston) ran off with Khalid Sheik Mohammed's nephew and then 'disappeared'. She doesn't even know where her children are. Kind of tough to take them along when you're on the run, eh. Aafi? Coincidence? I think not.

Hold up on that no knowing where her children are. You know that teen jihadi found with her when she was arrested with suspicious chemicals and anarchist materials? It was her son....according to Arab News and they've got pictures. This isn't passing the sniff test to me, possums.

The UK Independent is reporting: Anger in Pakistan as 'missing' scientist resurfaces in US court on terror charges. They claim she shouted phrases like: "My blood be directly on your head."

Dawn provides the most complete detail to the Pakistanis regarding her actual arrest and arraignment.

The Pakistani Govt is already seeking consular access and attempting to smear the Musharraf govt with charges of colluding with the US Govt. And Zardari and Nawaz are teeing up impeachment proceedings. How very Dennis Kucinich of them...

No surprise there.

(I hope to God we have our ducks in a row on this one. What am I saying? It doesn't matter. The conspiracy nuts and hate America crowd don't need no stinking evidence - we're already guilty...panties be upon them.)

Bonus: Elizabeth Fink is now also representing Aafia. and if this is the Elizabeth Fink now named as Aafia's attorney we got us another candidate for Shaken Attorney Syndrome. She was one of the attorneys that represented America's favorite terrorist sympathizer and AQ attorney....Lynne Stewart. Wham! Bam! No thank you ma'am.

China: Olympic Smog

Yesterday in Bejing.

Olympic Smog Mask

Olympic Smog Pellets?

China fires anti-smog pellets into the sky over Beijing ... as earthquake hits province

375 al Qaeda dirtbags nabbed in Diyala.

It's called "Operation Omens of Prosperity." How rich.

Fascinating report over at Bill Roggio's Long War Journal.

Some tidbits:

Six senior al Qaeda in Iraqi leaders have been captured during the province-wide operation including five members of al Qaeda's provincial shura, or executive council and a woman who recruited female suicide bombers. (Ed. Note: Dear Aafia Siddiqui's ambulance chasing attorney, please be advised of this development and check here for some other Jihadettes of note. Do these homicidal hussies pass your sniff test?)

Operation Omens of Prosperity consists of 3 smaller ops: Sabre Pursuit, Iron Pursuit, Bastogne Pursuit comprised of 30,000 to 50,000 Iraqis bolstered by about 3000 US troops.

Woot!

More on Aafia Siddiqui

Looks like more information on the so-called Gray Lady of al Qaeda is starting to trickle out.

As is the proof that Amnesty International and all the rest of the moonbat crybabies were blowing smoke all these years when it came to her status. It is also interesting to note that she was with a teenage boy when caught. Teen jihadi?

A U.S. military source in Afghanistan said Siddiqui was brought to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan for medical care after she was shot.

Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said she had not been in the detention facility at Bagram. Siddiqui was being processed through law enforcement channels, he said, and was not sent to the Guantanamo prison facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, because she was not picked up on the battlefield.


Her lawyer is busy earning her fee, getting out in front of the press - and merrily poisoning the jury pool as she goes along.

Elaine Whitfield Sharp, a Massachusetts attorney representing Siddiqui, told CNN she found a lot of the allegations against her client "implausible" and said the charges "don't pass the sniff test."

"This is a very intelligent woman. What is she doing outside of the governor's residence?" Sharp said. "The woman is a Ph.D. Is a woman like this really that stupid? There is an incongruity, and I have trouble accepting the government's claims.

"If she was carrying fluids and was considered dangerous, then why was she left unattended in a room behind a curtain? And this dangerous, hardened criminal picks up a gun and misses?"

Note to Elaine: She's a Muslim terrorist and a WOMAN who needed to spend more time at the shooting range.

A copy of the full criminal complaint against Siddiqui can be found here. She will face 20 years on each count of murder and assault.

Related posts can be found here.

Spain: Police find al Qaeda manual on internet

Internet Jihad.

Looks like al Q has figured out that killing innocent civilians doesn't pay. Now they are "targeting military command structures - without using suicide bombs."

Spanish police have found an Al Qaeda manual on the Internet that describes how to operate booby-trapped cars and drones by remote control against international forces in Lebanon and Afghanistan, Spanish radio said on Monday. The eight-page training manual for Al Qaeda cells in Europe was put together in June, private radio Cadena Ser said, quoting police sources. Police and interior ministry spokesmen said they were unable to either confirm or deny the report. Cadena Ser said the manual described how to target the “military command structures of the enemies of Islam” without resorting to suicide attacks.

It's official: China blames Muslims for blast

Uighurs.

Officials have suggested that the attack was part of a “holy war” orchestrated by theEast Turkestan Islamic Movement, or ETIM. (To which I say, no kidding.)

This despite the steady stream of so-called western terror analysts who "cast doubt on whether the group is strong enough to pose a serious threat" and "say such claims are highly inflated."

The Human Rights groups all have their theories too - needless to say it is accusing the Chinese government of "using such cases as a pretext for increased repression of China’s eight million Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking people who have long bridled under rule from Beijing."

"Gray Lady of al Qaeda" to appear in court today.

Another hat tip to commenter AJ for this timely tip.

She sounds like a real peach. And she ain't no lady.

A US trained scientist wanted for questioning in connection with terrorism cases has been shipped to New York and charged with attempted murder after a shootout with her would-be questioners following her arrest in Afghanistan last month, the US Attorney in New York said Monday. According to the FBI and the US Attorney, the woman, Aafia Siddiqui, is scheduled to be arraigned before a federal magistrate in Manhattan Tuesday. The FBI had sought her for questioning in connection with assisting key al Qaeda operatives now detained at Guantanamo Bay.

The day after her arrest by Afghani authorities on July 17th, Siddiqui was shot twice in the torso, US officials said, when she grabbed a US soldier's M-4 carbine and attempted to shoot another officer as a team of US soldiers and FBI agents prepared to question her. A US interpreter threw off her aim when he pushed the gun. She then was shot twice with a .9 millimeter handgun, authorities said. According to the US Government, despite her wounds, she shouted that she "wanted to kill Americans," and struggled with her captors before they subdued her.

According to a joint press release issued together with the New York City Police Department, Siddiqui was arrested outside the Ghazni governor's compound by Ghazni Province Afghanistan National Police.

The ANP officers "questioned Siddiqui, regarded her as suspicious, and searched her handbag. In it, they found numerous documents describing the creation of explosives, as well as excerpts from the Anarchist's Arsenal."

About her takedown:
According to the FBI and US Attorney, on July 18, "a party of United States personnel, including two FBI special agents, a United States Army Warrant Officer, a United States Army Captain, and United States military interpreters, arrived at the Afghan facility where Siddiqui was being held. The personnel entered a second floor meeting room -- unaware that Siddiqui was being held there, unsecured, behind a curtain."

"The Warrant Officer took a seat and placed his United States Army M-4 rifle on the floor next to the curtain. Shortly after the meeting began, the Captain heard a woman yell from the curtain and, when he turned, saw Siddiqui holding the Warrant Officer's rifle and pointing it directly at the Captain."

Siddiqui said, "May the blood of [unintelligible] be directly on your [unintelligible, possibly head or hands]." The interpreter seated closest to Siddiqui lunged at her and pushed the rifle away as Siddiqui pulled the trigger. Siddiqui fired at least two shots but no one was hit. The Warrant Officer returned fire with a 9 mm service pistol and fired approximately two rounds at Siddiqui's torso, hitting her at least once."

About the Gray Lady bit:
An MIT trained neuroscientist who was born in Pakistan, Siddiqui went missing in 2003 and of course, the US was blamed for keeping her in custody in Bagram. Human Rights Activists then created the myth of the "Gray Lady of Bagram" to explain her absence. They made up all kind of outrageous stories about her supposed detention , including rape and torture.

Meanwhile, she was evidently free as a bird, going about her duties as an al-Qaeda fixer.

Al Jazeera is reporting that when arrested on July 17 she was found to have "chemical substances in gel and liquid form that were sealed in bottles and glass jars".

Her family is already lawyered up and they are proclaiming her innocence to the skies:

Elaine Whitfield Sharp, a lawyer for Siddiqui's family, called the charges "a tall story" and disputed the US government's earlier claims that Siddiqui had gone underground for several years before her capture.

The family suspects that after she vanished with her three children while in Pakistan in 2003, she was secretly held and possibly tortured before US authorities finally brought charges to justify her detention.

"I believe she's become a terrible embarrassment to them, but she's not a terrorist," Sharp said. "When the truth comes out, people will see she did nothing wrong."

About Elaine Whitfield Sharp - The "mother of shaken baby syndrome" she worked on Nanny Louise Woodward's case and specializes in Brain Injury, Slip and Fall cases and POLICE MISCONDUCT cases. A real ambulance chaser, looks like she's got a big one with this case.

Kenya: US Embassy bomber escapes raid

Bummer. At least they think they got his laptop.

A man accused of masterminding the bombings of two American embassies in East Africa ten years ago escaped a police raid early Sunday, a senior Kenyan policeman said.

The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he could lose his job for making unauthorized statements to the press.

Fazul Abdullah Mohammed has a US$5 million bounty on his head for allegedly planning the 1998 attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 225 people and injured more than 5,000. Police say they discovered two of his passports and have arrested two men accused of aiding him in the Kenyan coastal town of Malindi.

Fazul was apparently in Kenya to seek treatment for a kidney complaint, the officer said.

A second police officer, who also would not allow his name to be used for fear of losing his job, said officers were analyzing a laptop computer recovered in the raid.
Kenyan police spokesman Eric Kiraithe confirmed that the anti-terrorist unit had been conducting operations along the Kenyan coast but declined to comment further.

The 32-year-old suspected member of al-Qaida is originally from the Comoros Islands, in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Africa. He is also suspected of planning the nearly simultaneous car bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel, which claimed 13 lives, and a failed attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner in Kenya in 2002.

Fazul joined al-Qaida in Afghanistan and trained there with Osama bin Laden before becoming a teacher at a religious school in northern Kenya in the mid-1990s. He was captured by Kenyan police in 2002 for credit card fraud, but escaped after a day and fled to war-ravaged Somalia where authorities believe he has been hiding ever since.

More on the arrest of his accomplices can be found here.

More Muslim family values

Last week a beheading, this week, in-law immolation.

Man set on fire for marrying Muslim girl.

Close on the heels of the beheading of a man for marrying a girl outside his religion at a village in Murshidabad district, another man was set on fire by his in-laws on Friday at Anarpur village under Baduria PS in North 24-Parganas district for the same reason.

Early Friday, when Arka tried to enter his in-laws' house to get his wife and baby back, he was severely beaten up. Later Rehana's brother Monirul allegedly took out a tin of kerosene, poured it on him and set him on fire.

Somalia: Bomb kills at least 20 in Somali capital

Most of them women.

The Religion of Peace strikes again.

A bomb hidden under a pile of garbage killed at least 20 people, half of them women who were sweeping the street in Somalia's capital, witnesses and doctors said Sunday.

The explosion and overnight attacks on military bases ended a brief period of relative calm that followed the signing of a peace deal between the government and the Islamic insurgency it is fighting. The agreement was already in jeopardy after the moderate cleric who signed it on behalf of the Islamic opposition movement was replaced by a hard-liner.

Tyson Foods chicken out to Muslims

Dumb Clucks.

Workers at the Tyson Foods poultry processing plant in Shelbyville will no longer have a paid day off on Labor Day but will instead be given the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr as a holiday.

According to a news release from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, a new five-year contract at the plant included the change to accommodate the hundreds of Somali Muslims who work at the plant . Eid al-Fitr — which falls on Oct. 1 this year — marks the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.

Union leaders say implementing the holiday was important for the nearly 700 Muslims, many of them Somalis, who work at the plant that employs a total of 1,200 people.

The Shelbyville Times-Gazette newspaper quotes union spokesman Randy Hadley as saying the negotiating team felt this change was "extremely crucial, since this holiday is as important to Muslims as Christmas is to Christians."

The newspaper also quotes the union as saying two prayer rooms have been created at the Shelbyville Tyson Foods' plant " to allow Muslim workers to pray twice a day and return to work without leaving the plant."

No word on where the wudu stations are located.

China: Muslims warming up for the Olympic Games

Where they will be participating in the Truck Bomb event.

Attackers kill 16 police at Chinese border.

Two men rammed a dump truck into a group of jogging policemen and then tossed explosives into their barracks today, killing 16 officers at a restive Chinese province bordering Central Asia, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.

The attack at Xinjiang province came just four days before the start of the Beijing Olympics — an event that has put security forces nationwide on alert and that at least one militant Muslim group has vowed to disrupt. Xinhua, citing local police, called it a "suspected terrorist attack."

Uighurs.