Ruh-roh.

U.S. Examines 'plan B' for supplying troops in Afghanistan

IMO, they'd be guilty of gross dereliction of duty if they weren't studying contingencies at this point...but it is sobering to think what could happen if we found our supply lines under attack.

The U.S. military is examining different contingencies for supplying American troops in Afghanistan if supplies can no longer be shipped through Pakistan, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said today. (Video)

Morrell hastened to add that the unrest in Pakistan following President Pervez Musharraf instituting a state of emergency has not impinged on U.S. supply lines through or over Pakistan.

Morrell said at a Pentagon news conference that the supply line issue “is a very real area of concern for our commanders in Afghanistan, because 75 percent of all of our supplies for our troops in Afghanistan flow either through or over Pakistan.” This includes about 40 percent of the fuel shipped to U.S. forces, which comes directly from Pakistani refineries. No ammunition goes through Pakistan, the press secretary said.

More at the link.

Italy: Hitting women is a 'Sicilian-Pakistani" tradition.

No God authorizes a man to hit a woman. Them's fighting words, pardner.

Italy's interior minister Giuliano Amato, a renowned jurist and experienced politician, stunned colleagues across the political spectrum on Wednesday after saying that violence against women is a "Sicilian-Pakistani tradition.""No God authorizes a man to hit a woman," Amato, a leading member of the centre-left government coalition, told a conference on 'Islam and integration' in Rome.

"It is rather a Sicilian-Pakistani tradition which wants us to believe otherwise."In his speech at the conference, the minister - a native of the northern city of Turin, which attracted economic migrant workers from the island of Sicily in the south throughout the last century - stressed that traditions rather than religions are to be blamed on many occasions

.Amato said that up until the 1970s Sicily had traditions that were not very different from the ones imported in Italy by some Muslim immigrants today. "We must avoid blaming on God - the God of Christians and Muslims, who in reality is the same - what should instead be blamed on men," Amato said.

His words however drew the ire of lawmakers, particularly members of the conservative opposition and Sicilian natives."Amato talks carelessly. He should immediately apologize to Sicilians or I will sue him," said ex equal opportunities minister Stefania Prestigiano, a member of the largest opposition party Forza Italia and a Sicilian.

The Pakistanis couldn't be reached. They were too busy building a car bomb with the Minister's name on it.

Pakistan: Temporary burial for Red Mosqueteer Ghazi. Mom takes 3 bullets.

Pakistani Supreme Court orders temporary burial for Lal Masjid deputy chief

I wonder why a "temporary burial"? For future enshrinement?

The Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered a temporary burial for Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi, deputy chief of the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, local Pakistani TV channel DAWN NEWS reported Wednesday. Arrangements will also made for Ghazi's close relatives at the burial, according to DAWN NEWS.

Spokesman of the Ministry of Interior Brig (R) Javed Iqbal Cheema on Wednesday said that the body of Ghazi would be transported to his ancestral village for burial.

There's this info about Moslem burials from About.com. It's a stag party of course and ick - "no coffins if permitted"???? No embalming???? How about joining the 21st Century, guys?

The deceased is then taken to the cemetery for burial (al-dafin). While all members of the community attend the funeral prayers, only the men of the community accompany the body to the gravesite.

It is preferred for a Muslim to be buried where he or she died, and not be transported to another location or country (which may cause delays or require embalming the body).

If available, a cemetery (or section of one) set aside for Muslims is preferred. The deceased is laid in the grave (without a coffin if permitted by local law) on his or her right side, facing Mecca. At the gravesite, it is discouraged for people to erect tombstones, elaborate markers, or put flowers or other momentos. Rather, one should humbly remember Allah and His mercy, and pray for the deceased.

It looks like Ghazi's Mom took three bullets and bought the farm with her son at the Red Mosque. Looks like she should have tried to sneak out with her other son instead of hanging around. Body of Ghazi’s mother not identified yet.

Update: Hoo boy. It looks like they are bickering over the body now.... Family demands Ghazi's burial in Jamia Faridiya.

And isn't it about time????

Pakistan: New banking unit to curb terror funding.


Pakistan's State Bank has introduced new checks on money transactions which may be used to monitor the funding of mosques and seminaries across the country. The bank said it had decided to establish a Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) to curb money laundering and terrorist financing.The move is considered significant as it came while the military operation against militants holed up in Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa was at its peak and showed the government’s concern over the flow of funds to seminaries.


Follow the money...don't make me show the bagman again!


Senior bankers said that people who provided funds to the Lal Masjid and other mosques and madrassas or Islamic seminaries through cheques could be traced.“An incident like Lal Masjid could put the donors into a difficult situation,” said a senior banker. The head of Lal Masjid, Maulana Abdul Aziz, has already disclosed names of some people who have been providing funds to his madrassas.


There's more work to be done - as usual the legislators are the caboose bringing up the rear of the train.


“The scope of FMU will be further enhanced once the legislation on anti-money laundering is passed."

Pakistan: Red Mosqueteers are at it again.

Mosque Students, security forces exchange fire. At least two people were injured and dozens of girls enrolled in a madrassa religious school fainted as security forces and militant students exchanged fire at a besieged mosque in Pakistan's capital Islamabad on Tuesday. Clerics of the Red Mosques also asked the students to take up their positions and prepare to carry out suicide attacks, local reports said.
Soldier killed, five wounded. Jihadettes faint. Muslims seethe. Dog bites man.

Get the Rangers in a circle, Pilgrim. Pakistan had on Monday deployed more forces near the mosque to tighten security around it, Dawn newspaper reported on Tuesday. The move has brought the total number of Rangers deployed around the mosque to 1,500, with 500 police commandos in support. The newspaper quoting informed sources said the authorities of the mosque have also reinforced security of its brigade, which is equipped with advanced weapons and wireless systems, and threatened to raid more massage centres in the city.

Dare I say it? Sure I will. Musharraf is a pussy. President Pervez Musharraf said on Friday that the potential loss of human lives was preventing him from taking any action against the Lal Masjid, while adding that suicide bombers from Jaish-e-Mohammad were also hiding in the mosque.

“We are afraid of the baton-wielding madrassas who will stand by Lal Masjid if we launch action,” he said, while addressing the concluding ceremony of the National Media Workshop organised by the National Defence University. He said the female students of the Lal Masjid’s adjoining madrassa were “prepared for suicide attacks” and up to 500 children “were being used as human shields” to stop the government from contemplating any operation.

He said members of Jaish-e-Mohammad, the banned militant group linked to Al Qaeda, were also hiding in the mosque, adding that they were all capable of suicide attacks. “How can I take action?” he said. “Action is ready but will be taken at a right time.”

He goes on to add: that the government would take action against the Lal Masjid if the media guaranteed that it would not show any of the bodies of those killed during the operation.

Jihadis from all over the region are reported to be riding to the rescue. Contacts in jihadist circles told Asia Times Online that there will be a reaction all over the country, including in Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar. They claimed that more than 1,000 jihadis were already on their way to the capital.

And all 'peace agreements' are off. The jihadi contacts also said any peace agreements with the government in Bajur agency and the Waziristan tribal areas would be terminated. After a series of disastrous military offensives to try to contain militancy and Taliban activities in the tribal areas, the government made several deals under which it withdrew its troops and made peace deals.

Not only are the Red Mosqueteers against vice and modern life, at issue is a fatwa (again with the fatwas!) that provoked the reaction against the Pakistani military. The decree mandated that people were not allowed to say funeral prayers or bury soldiers in Muslim graveyards if they were killed fighting against the Taliban.

Father of Taliban denied British Visa

Jesus. I should hope so.

The British High Commission in Islamabad has denied visa to the hardline Muslim senator and chief of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, Maulana Samiul-Haq.

Dubbed "the father of the Taliban" because many Taliban, including Mullah Omar, were schooled in a madrassa he ran, Haq had applied for the visa to attend the multi-party conference scheduled to be held in London this month. A press release issued in Peshawar on Sunday said the High Commission had given Maulana Haq a charge sheet and even barred him from filing an appeal against the decision. The party has requisitioned a meeting of the Standing Committee of the house to discuss the issue.

(So pretty, isn't he? He also advocates the killing of Salman Rushdie and is one of the dirty nutbags calling for the knighting of OBL.)

New 'do for the Islamic Rage Boy...

He's shaved his head...wanted to look extra good for the cameras.

A Kashmiri supporter of a hardliner faction of the All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference (APHC) shouts slogans against the Indian security forces during a protest in Srinagar June 29, 2007. The hardliner faction of the APHC

Pakistan: Red Mosque de-recognized by clerical board

According to Qari Mohammed Hanif Jalandhry, a member of the central council of Ittehad Tanzeemat Madaris Deenia and a group of Muslim clerics has travelled to Washington DC this week to brief US lawmakers, officials, academics and other members of the American society on the state of religious schools in Pakistan.

The Red Mosque has evidently been a hot topic - although I've yet to find anything in the US press about the delegation or the individuals they have been "briefing." Why am I thinking of the Muslim delegation that went round the world inciting the Mo-toon riots when I read about this delegation???

I say BFD. Especially when they are peddling this kind of malarkey:

"While we sympathise with several of their demands, we strongly disagree with their method of achieving those objectives. Islam does not condone coercive measures..."

"Other issues that US lawmakers showed keen interest in included the concept of jihad in Islam, particularly the difference between jihad and terrorism, suicide attacks, and the Taliban movement in Afghanistan." (editor's note: they don't freaking know this already????)
“It is wrong to blame a nation or a religion for the crimes committed by a few individuals,”

It isn't wrong to blame or nation or a religion for the crimes committed by a few individuals if their nation or religion does nothing to STOP IT!!!!

Those Beyotches from the Red Mosque are back.

The things you see when you don't have a gun.

Women Pledge to army of Islamic Vigilantes.

A 6,000-strong army of young women wielding bamboo sticks and covered from head to toe in black is vowing to enforce the Islamist moral vision of their teacher, Abdul Rashid Ghazi. For now, they are content to kidnap prostitutes — releasing them hours later after stern lectures on Islamic morality — and attack music video stalls and other targets. But Mr. Ghazi, who runs a madrassa, or Muslim seminary, attached to Islamabad's Red Mosque, warns that his female students will send suicide bombers into the fray if authorities lay a hand on them.

A Mighty Heart Farce...

Youssef Ibrahim on A Mighty Heart.

If I were a Muslim who had just watched "A Mighty Heart" in a theater in Dearborn, Mich., Karachi, or Cairo, the only impressions that I would probably be left with is that the man got what he deserved and that Karachi is really one hell of a messy place. Beyond that, I would not have a clue that my Muslim compatriots had anything to do with it.

Paki appeasers cave into Red Mosque demands

Pakistan appeases Red Mosqueteers. Will close down all mixed sex massage parlors. No lady on man acupuncture either.

A top cleric at the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) said they were freed after the authorities gave assurances they would shut down mixed-sex massage parlours.

"After the administration assured us they would close down the massage parlours in Islamabad, and in view of the Pakistan-China friendship, we are releasing all nine men and women," said Abdul Rashid Ghazi, deputy head of the Red Mosque.

He said the massage of men by women was "not allowed according to the values of Islam".
The Interior Ministry said the abduction was a "shocking and unlawful act".

The mosque has been openly defying the government for months, resulting in a tense stand-off.
Officials have tried to appease the mosque and its students with talks and concessions, saying they do not want to use force against the women and in a holy place.

But critics have attacked the government for failing to enforce its authority in the capital.

Pakistan: Radicals Kidnap Chinese Workers.

More Red Mosque Shenanigans. Students, including 10 burka clad, baton wielding Muslimas storm acupuncture clinic. Or brothel according to the Red Mosqueteers.

Students from a radical mosque raided an acupuncture clinic allegedly being used as a brothel in the Pakistani capital and kidnapped five people, including three Chinese women, a security official said. The abductors, including 10 burqa-clad women students, were armed with batons when they broke into the clinic in Islamabad's affluent F-8 neighbourhood at around 1am, the official said.

The incident is another embarrassment for Pakistan's embattled military leader President Pervez Musharraf, and comes amid angry protests by hardliners against Britain's award of a knighthood to author Salman Rushdie.

A member of the pro-Taliban Red Mosque said that the raid by some 30 people was part of an anti-vice campaign.

"This place was used as a brothel house and despite our warnings the administration failed to take any action, so we decided to take action on our own,'' the Red Mosque representative, who spoke by telephone, said.

The senior security official said the students arrived at the clinic in three cars before entering the premises. They fled, taking their captives to their mosque in central Islamabad.

"The local administration is negotiating with the mosque to secure the release of the abducted people,'' the security said.

Police officer Mohammad Naeem confirmed the incident.

"We have registered a case against the mosque administration for the kidnapping,'' he said.

The Red Mosque has a history of kidnappings and raids. Read it all.

The Red Mosque: Their business is jihad.

Jihad can be hazardous to your health

"Militants" have work accident in Waziristan.

An unspecified number of militants were killed Tuesday in North Waziristan when explosives they had stored for terrorist activities was blown in an accident, a Defense Ministry spokesman said. Spokesman Maj. Gen. Wahid Arshad told private GEO TV that an explosion had occurred in explosives stored by militants at the village of Zakhekhel in North Waziristan near Pakistan-Afghan border. He denied reports that the explosion was caused by a missile fired from Afghanistan on the militants hideout.

"The militants were apparently making some explosive devices which blew accidentally killing an unspecified number of people," he said.

Pakistan: "Millitants" threaten music shops

No ring tones or hash for you!

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Pro-Taliban militants have warned music and video shops as well as clandestine hashish and alcohol outlets in a northwest Pakistan town to close down, local residents said Saturday.

The threat came in pamphlets distributed in Darra Adam Khel town, some 25 kilometers (15 miles) from Peshawar, the main town in North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan.

At least 10 music shops in the region have suffered grenade attacks by militants over the past eight months. The latest threats also warned shopkeepers to stop downloading songs as mobile telephone ringtones.

"The Taliban have set July 1 as a deadline to abandon all un-Islamic business in the area," local resident Murtza Khan said. "All the music shops in this area are closing now," shopkeeper Jan Alam said.

Pakistani officer shoots 2 US GIs dead - make that 1

Update: The story is changing and reports are conflicting, but now only one American soldier is dead. Another has been reported wounded. Miscreants, they are calling the perps. I think bastards might be more appropriate.

Militants opened fire Monday on a convoy carrying U.S. and Pakistani military officials near the Afghan frontier, killing one American and one Pakistani soldier, the Pakistani army spokesman said. At least two Americans and two Pakistani soldiers and were wounded.

Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said “miscreants” — usually a byword used by Pakistani officials to describe Islamic militants — fired at the convoy carrying military officials who attended a meeting in the northwestern town of Teri Mangal.


The earlier story: WTF?

KABUL, Afghanistan - A Pakistani officer shot dead two U.S. soldiers Monday during a meeting over a border clash between Pakistani troops and Afghans, an Afghan government spokesman said. A spokesman for the Pakistan military denied that its soldiers had shot anyone.

Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi told Reuters: "At the meeting, a Pakistani officer rose up and fired at U.S. soldiers, resulting in the deaths of two soldiers and wounding of two others."

He said U.S. soldiers had returned fire, killing several Pakistani troops. An Afghan officer present at the meeting in Pakistan's Kurram tribal agency was also wounded, he said.
This is a developing story and details will be added as they become available.

Pakistan: Gov't caves into Lal Masjid Demands

Students at the Red Mosque

Sharia anyone? In what can only be described as APPEASEMENT and CONCESSION the Pakistan government has agreed to accept all demands of the 'management' of the Lal Masjid or Red Mosque. Details are to be released to the Parliament today. What does that mean to the average Mo on the Pakistani street? It means the enforcement of sharia law.

The Pakistani Muslim League leader denied the presence of illegal activists (read jihadis) and ammunition in the mosque. This despite the report of massive amounts of arms and ammunition spotted by two security guards taken hostage by the group. This also runs counter to the frequent assertions made by President Musharraf that the mosque provided aid and comfort to SUICIDE BOMBERS. The Mosque denies this, of course.

And in what can only be described as Moslem paranoia run amok the Mosqueteers are complaining about aerial surveillance and being sprayed with gas by helicopters. (were they black I wonder?)

This does not bode well for President Musharraf and it appears that nuclear Pakistan is moving ever closer to having a radical muslim finger on the red button of the nuclear bomb.

Faster, faster on the nuclear shield please. Russia and China better get with the program, too. Although, given the state of institutionalized paranoia to be found in their governments this is highly unlikely. This ain't good, folks.

Islam: Mercy, Forgiveness, Freedom - uhh, not so much

Doesn't this sunny yellow Ramadan greeting give you a warm and fuzzy feeling?

How about the feeling of being raped, mutilated and burnt to death?

Militants kill Missionary Couple's Children Who Refused to Convert To Islam

In an horrific incident of Christian persecution on September 1, some unidentified militants slew two children of a missionary couple who is working with At Any Cost Jesus Mission, a underground ministry evangelizing to the Muslim nations.

A press release sent via e-mail to ANS by Any Cost Jesus Mission said that the assailants torched the dead bodies of teenaged children Shalom, 15 and Sharon 14 after murdering them brutally in the northern district of Pakistan. The teenaged victims according to the press release were secondary school students.

“Shalom and Sharon were kidnapped along with their missionary parents and two other younger sisters 10 days before the murder. The militants asked them to convert to Islam but they refused,” said the press release.

“So the militants killed Shalom first. Then they raped the girl and cut one of her breasts in front of her parents. She too died”, the press release quoted another underground missionary, Habel who it said broke the news to Any Cost Jesus Mission from a hidden place.

Police and the military forces are backing the militants. Habel and his family was also attacked and their house was burnt but the Lord enabled them to escape to a hidden place. They (militants) also demolished a church and some houses were set on fire too”, the evangelization ministry claimed in the press release.

According to the press release the militants set the motorbike on fire by spraying petrol on it and left the dead bodies in a ditch along with a motorbike.

“The police declared a false statement that it was an accident and the petrol tank of the bike was open when they fell into the ditch and burnt by a spark”, alleged Any Cost Jesus Mission.

The press release said that the believers are living in a grip of fear and trouble following the killing of Shalom and Sharon.

The ministry further claimed in the press release that the militants are not allowing believers to pray.

“They are not even allowed to speak a single word about Christ or Christianity or Christians”, the press release quoted Habel as saying.

The tribal people and their leaders are also being murdered by the terrorists in the Neelum Valley, it said.

Mercy? No. Forgiveness? No. Fire? Yes.

Sickening? Truly.

Where. Is. The. Outrage.