Algeria: Israeli 'kidnapped by Al-Qaeda'

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The Algerian government believes an Israeli man has been kidnapped by Al-Qaeda after entering the country on a Spanish passport. According to a report in the Arab daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat, the man was abducted in a desert region of the country by an extremist Islamist group linked to the terror group.

It is not clear whether the man had dual citizenship or why he was travelling in Algeria, but there were reports in the Israeli media that he had contacted his family who had notified the Israeli foreign ministry.

Islamist militant organisations often only reveal the identity of their hostages days after their kidnappings take place.

via Algeria: Israeli ‘kidnapped by Al-Qaeda’ – Adnkronos Security.

(via)

Breaking: S.Korean ship sinking, North attack suspected

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A South Korean naval vessel with more than 100 aboard was sinking on Friday in waters near North Korea and Seoul was investigating whether it was hit in a torpedo attack by the North, South Korean media said.

Broadcaster SBS said many South Korean sailors on the stricken vessel were feared dead.

via Reuters AlertNet – S.Korean ship sinking, North attack suspected-media.

(via)

More here:

1,500-ton ship carrying 104 crew members went down around 9:45 p.m. near a South Korean island in the Yellow Sea, prompting an emergency meeting of security-related Cabinet ministers.

Seoul’s Navy officials refused to give details, but said a South Korean vessel fired at a ship toward the North later in the evening, indicating possibilities of a possible torpedo attack from the North. Local residents reported having heard gunfire for about 10 minutes from 11 p.m.

(via).

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CIA Expert: 'Headley plea revealed Qaeda's European links'

Well, at least some information Headley has given is, apparently, being useful:

Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley‘s plea bargain, under which he confessed to plotting the Mumbai terror attacks, throws light on close links between the Al Qaedaand the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, according to former Central Intelligence Agency expert Bruce Riedel.

Headley’s story showed in clear contours the close relationship between Al Qaeda and the Pakistani militant group LeT, Riedel, who led the review of the Obama administration’s Af-Pak strategy, was quoted as saying by The New York Times.

Revelations in Headley’s plea agreement around Al Qaeda’s European cell were particularly disturbing, said Riedel, who was also a member of the National Security Council in the Clinton administration and is now at the Brookings Institution.

They showed that “Al Qaeda still has a significant operational infrastructure somewhere in Europe,” he said.

The paper said the plea agreement released last week showed that Headley moved effortlessly between the US, Pakistan and India [ Images ] for nearly seven years, training at a militant camp in Pakistan on five occasions.

via ‘Headley plea revealed Qaeda’s European links’: Rediff.com India News.

More here:

The United States said the Mumbai attacks had shown that the Lashkar-e-Tayiba was out to “fill the gap” created by a “diminished Al-Qaeda” and a “decisive” action was needed from all countries of South Asia, including Pakistan, to defeat it.

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Saudi Arabia: AQ plot against oil facilities, uncovered

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The Saudi Interior Ministry announced yesterday that it had uncovered a plot to attack Saudi oil facilities and arrested 113 suspected members of al-Qaeda.  The 113 militants reportedly were organized into three cells and had been planning suicide attacks on oil and security facilities in Saudi Arabia’s oil-producing Eastern Province.  Fifty two of the suspects were from Yemen, which has become the primary base for Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula after many cells based in Saudi Arabia were uprooted in previous Saudi crackdowns.

via Al Qaeda Plot Against Saudi Oil Targets is Foiled | The Foundry: Conservative Policy News..

From Yemen? From this Yemen? Who would have thought that, eh?

Somalia: private security contractors repel pirate attack, kill one pirate

This happened two days ago:

Seven pirates armed with automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenades twice tried to board the Panamanian-flagged MV Almezaan 60 miles off the Somali coast.Private security contractors on the merchant ship, owned by a company in the United Arab Emirates, fired back, repelling both attacks, and the pirates fled. No-one on the cargo vessel was injured.

Soldiers from a Spanish navy warship (frigate Navarra) deployed as part of the EU naval force (NavFor) fighting piracy later boarded the pirates’ boats and found one of the men dead.

(via)

Good news.

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Bin Laden warns US not to kill alleged 9/11 chief Khalid Sheik Mohammed

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Or else:

Osama bin Laden threatened al-Qa’ida would kill any Americans it takes prisoner if accused September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is executed, according to an audiotape aired on al Jazeera today.

Senior US officials may recommend that Mohammed, who was being held at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, be prosecuted in a military trial, officials said in March.

…”This message is about our prisoners who you are holding,” bin Laden said in the tape, complaining that US President Barack Obama was still following “his predecessor’s steps” on many issues including on al-Qa’ida detainees such as Mohammed.

“The White House has expressed its desire to execute him. When America makes this decision, it will have made a decision to execute whoever of you is held prisoner by us,” bin Laden said in the recording.

There was no immediate comment from Washington.

via Bin Laden warns US not to kill alleged 9/11 chief Khalid Sheik Mohammed – Asia, World – The Independent.

Oh, well, is anyone surprised by this tape?

Me neither. I think Bin Laden is no longer alive (why no longer he records videos?), but AQ needs his presence to instill “terror on unbelievers”. Anyway, this proves (again) that AQ is no more than a Mob style organization: don’t do that or else. Dont do this or else.

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Burma: persecution on Karen people, another unmentioned subject on international press

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The Karen people of Burma have been fighting for independence for over 60 years. Far from gaining freedom, though, the Karen people have instead become the victims of massive genocide.

Many of the Karen people are Christians, and it has become apparent that the ethnic cleansing taking place at the hands of the Burmese government is a direct attack against Christians. Patrick Klein of Vision Beyond Borders says once the military has finished off the Christians, they will likely move on to Buddhists.

“We could see, in the next couple of months or a year, a huge genocide of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people slaughtered, because the government wants to present this image that everybody in Burma is supportive of the military government; that is not true,” says Klein. “The only ones that support it are the military.”

Klein says reports show that over 500,000 have already been killed either as a direct result of military violence or from lack of medical care afterward. 150,000 Burmese refugees wait anxiously in Thailand while another million are stuck at the border of Myanmar and Thailand.

…”UN employees reported that over 3,300 villages have been burned to the ground,” says Klein. “It’s surpassing what happened in Rwanda and Darfur, and yet nobody seems to notice.”

via Mission Network News.

I think these attacks are aimed at anyone who is not supporting the Military Junta. But whatever the cause (and it could very well be Christianity), it’s alarming this doesn’t get the UN to condemn Burma. It has proved absolutely unable to do anything sound there, but at least it would underline the problem there, wouldn’t it?

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Jihad Jane: nothing new under the sun

Autonomous Mind cites a precendent of the Jihad Jane case.

There is a difference somehow: Anne-Marie Murphy actually married a Jordanian Arab and didn’t know his husband was actually a terrorist. Jihad Jane knew perfectly well what she was doing. Difference that the author rightfully points out.

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China: Missing Rights Activist possibly tortured after family escaped to US

a demonstration in Hong Kong to demand information about Gao Zhisheng's whereabouts on 4 Feb 2010

Certain that Chinese authorities are torturing Christian human rights activist Gao Zhisheng following the escape of his family to the United States, advocacy group China Aid Association (CAA) today urged the international community to take action on his behalf.

Earlier this year Gao had authorized CAA to release his account of 50 days of torture by state-sponsored thugs in September and October of 2007. Gao had written the account in November 2007 while under house arrest in Beijing after prolonged beatings and electric shocks on his mouth and genitals.

“Every time when I was tortured,” Gao wrote, “I was always repeatedly threatened that if I spelled out later what had happened to me, I would be tortured again, but I was told, ‘This time it will happen in front of your wife and children.’”

via Compass Direct News.

There is a page demanding information about his whereabouts, where everyone can sign the petition demanding information to the Chinese authorities.

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Pakistan: burned Christian dies from his wounds

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This is an update on this story:

Arshad Masih was brutally killed by Muslims because he refused to renounce the Christian faith. He died from burns which covered 80 per cent of his body and it took three agonizing days before he finally passed away from being burnt alive by Muslims.

The Seoul Times.

Terrible…

Pakistan: Christian killed with an axe for refusing to convert to Islam

Rasheeh Masih, after his violent death

Six Muslims in Khanewal district, southern Punjab Province, killed a Christian with multiple axe blows for refusing to convert to Islam this month, according to family and police sources.

The six men had threatened to kill 36-year-old Rasheed Masih unless he converted to Islam when they grew resentful of his potato business succeeding beyond their own, according to Masih’s younger brother Munir Asi and a local clergyman. The rival merchants allegedly killed him after luring him to their farmhouse on March 9, leaving him on a roadside near Kothi Nand Singh village in the wee hours of the next day.

The Rev. Iqbal Masih of the Mian Channu Parish of the Church of Pakistan said Rasheed Masih was a devoted Christian, and that both he and his brother Asi had refused the Muslims’ pressure to convert to Islam.

via Compass Direct News.
Another one killed, and no Western MSM complains nor reports about this.

Pakistan: Reports of Christian Girl Burnt Alive After Rape

After Shazia Bazir’s murder, it happens again (that we know of):

— “A Christian girl working as housemaid was raped by son her Muslim employer and on her threats to report police was burnt by rapist and his sister in city of Sheikhupura in Punjab province of Pakistan.”

— “Kiran George  (pictured) was 80% burnt when Mohammad Ahmad Raza and his sister threw petrol on her and set her on fire to keep her mouth shut to report rape.”

— “Kiran George was brought to Mayo Hospital Lahore from Sheikhupura on March 9, 2010, where she recorded her statement to police that Mohammad Ahmed Raza raped her in his home during work.”

— “She died here in Mayo Hospital Lahore today and her dead body was taken back to her home in Jahangirabad colony in Sheipkupura.”

via Pakistan: Reports of Christian Girl Burnt Alive After Rape :: Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.).

Spain: Amnesty International's campaign for Judeophobia in schools

Remember I wrote some days ago about a campaign in Spanish schools in which some individuals were making children send letters to the Israeli embassy to tell Israelis “stop killing women and children” or “you’re killing because of money”. In that moment, everyone asked who was the instigator of the campaign. It results that this dubious honor belongs to NGO Amnesty International:

The school El Castell is a member of the net of schools created by AI, and whose purpose, according to the organization in its own web, consists in making “some (or all!!) mobilization proposals” that AI sends to its associates. So, this scandal has unconvered the existence of a net, created by AI, for the indoctrination and political proselytism in some schools and high schools throughout Spain, where it organises activities and distributes material. But that’s not all: according to the website, the school enters this net if only one school’s teacher wants it. AI offers this possibility of taking part in this net of political activism without any knowledge from the parents or the school board, not being mandatory in the application form,that neither of them give their consentment or even are notified about it.

Now, after the scandal, we know that AI organizes visits and campaigns in schools, where its activists give speeches and distribute their material among the children.

Freedom: middle classes living in dictatorships aren't very anxious to end them

“These new middle classes in developing countries are still fragile and fear unstability. They are ready to accept authoritarian regimes which offer some kind of order, in exchange of those regimes not slowing, with corruption or patronage their ambition of social progress, their aspiration to compete under equal conditions and their desire for giving their sons and daughters a better future”, says the British historian Lawrence James, author of  The Middle Class: a history.

(via).

The article refers to people living under dictatorships such as Chinese citizens. It’s a particularly interesting analysis, specially when it says that maybe that lack of interest in democracy has its basis in the inexistence of a history of democracy or, at least, of fighting for it throughout an important period of time. So, the citizens get used to live with no individual freedoms, as servants of the State. That produces fear, so they are not going to denounce something if they consider they can be hurt in any form by that State. The latter of course, knows this so it reinforces the fear through subtle means (censorship of new ideas or of ideas not liked by the regime, for example) or less subtle and more brutal means (such as the imprisonment of dissidents).

We’ll see what are the consequences for average Chinese people, now that both Google and GoDaddy have announced they are not operating in China anymore.

Somalia: Al-Shabab Destroys Grave of Well-Known Somali Cleric in Mogadishu

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The Islamist fighters of Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen have destroyed the grave of Sheik Mohudin Eli, a well-known Somali cleric buried in Karan district in north of the Somalia capital Mogadishu, official said on Tuesday.

Fighters of Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen with high representatives of Banadir region of Al-shabab had reached at the sites of Sheik Mohidin Eli's grave and Sheik Ahmed Haji in north Mogadishu on Tuesday morning where they lastly wiped out the two burial grounds.

“These people were worshipping these graves. For the first time we achieved to demolish them. We shall continue our operations to devastate the groves in Mogadishu. There are other towers buried we destroyed, because they were buried Africans and other foreign,” said the governor.

via Aid News.org.

Must be the cleric didn’t voice his support for Al-Shebaab terrorists. It’s understandable: he was dead . So they destroyed his grave.

For once, I would like a ghost to appear.

Before: Islamists destroy derelict church.

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Generation Jihad Episode 2

Episode 1 is here.

Pakistan: Jordan's ambassador targeted by plot

Jordan‘s ambassador to Pakistan was the target of a Taliban kidnap attempt foiled by authorities in Islamabad and is now safe, the Jordanian information minister said Tuesday.

The incident followed calls for attacks on the Jordanian government by an al-Qaida double agent who killed seven CIA operatives and a Jordanian agent in Afghanistan last December (NOTE: a CIA drone has killed one of the key figures in the preparation of this bombing).

… Pakistani police spokesman Naeem Iqbal says investigators were questioning the two Taliban militants in custody about their plans to kidnap the Jordanian ambassador and attack a five star hotel and a club frequented by Westerners.

via The Associated Press: Jordan’s ambassador to Pakistan targeted by plot.

It’s possible that Jordanian position gets more radizalised in several issues after these attacks, specially towards Israel.

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• in Other Words, They Aren’t an Ally: (brothersjuddblog.com)

Iran is training the Taliban, The Times reports

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The attack was a training exercise overseen by Iranian security officials in plain clothes. The Taliban do not know whether they were police officers, soldiers or secret service agents. What they can say is that in camps along the border between Afghanistan and Iran, Taliban recruits are being taught how to ambush British, American and other Nato troops using guns and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

They are learning to attack checkpoints as well as mountain bases. Iranian instructors are also giving them target practice on desert ranges with Kalashnikov assault rifles.

… A Taliban (Sunni) commander who has been trained in Iran (Shia) said last week: “Our religions and our histories are different, but our target is the same — we both want to kill Americans.”

(via).

Meanwhile, the Taliban leader Hetmayar has “offered” a peace proposal (via), something shocking specially because he is the leader of one of the three most important Taliban groups. It would be quite stupid to make peace with one of those groups, while the others continue attacking.

The plan calls for a full withdrawal of NATO and allied troops by the end of 2010, a withdrawal of those forces from cities to remote bases in the interim, and a full turnover of security to the Afghan Army and police. “Foreign troops will have no rights to carry out military operations, house search and arrests on their own anywhere in Afghanistan,” the statement read.

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Turkish constitutional reform plans anger judges

Considering the influence of the Fethullah Gulen movement in Turkish politics, this comes as no surprise.

Turkey’s Islamic-based government fired the opening salvo in a brewing confrontation with the country’s secular judiciary today by unveiling a radical constitutional reform package that would give politicians greater power to appoint judges and make it harder to shut political parties.

Ministers in the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) justified the planned changes as essential to meet the conditions of EU membership. But in a sign of the rancour to come, senior judges condemned the reforms as unconstitutional and said they were designed to strip the judiciary of its independence.

“We sense that the constitutional package is aimed at decreasing the power of the judiciary. We are definitely objecting to this,” Judge Hasan Gerceker, chief of the supreme court, told the Turkish television channel NTV.

The attacks came as the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) vowed to oppose the package in a parliamentary vote. Other opposition parties have indicated they will also reject the changes, meaning the government will probably lack the two-thirds majority needed to force them through.

In that case, the government, led by prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has said it will call a referendum, likely be held in June. A referendum campaign is bound to be bitter and would provide a fresh forum for the AKP’s critics to accuse it of pursuing an Islamist agenda in breach of Turkey’s secular constitution, a charge the party vehemently denies.

via Turkish constitutional reform plans anger judges | World news | guardian.co.uk.

(For comments go to T&P 2.0).

Baroness Deech (UK): Risks of cousin marriage not discussed for fear of offending Muslims

it is estimated that 55 per cent of British Pakistanis are married to first cousins, and a third of children with recessive genetic disorders are born to that community.

Lady Deech says the number of cousin marriages among immigrants is likely to increase, as it helps families leave their home countries and join an existing support network in Britain.

“Thus widespread consanguineous marriage might be said to be a barrier to integration within the new broader democratic society in which the minority community has settled, and arguably to democracy as we know it abroad.”

Despite the dangers, however, Lady Deech will claim that there is a general aversion to discussing marriage between cousins in Britain, and that Ann Cryer, the Labour MP for Keighley, faced protests when she drew attention to Bradford’s high number of disabled babies called for the practice to be stopped.

“Forced marriage and polygamy are theoretically very much disapproved of in the UK, and yet there is some indication that the police and welfare workers are tending to play down the evils of these practices on cultural or religious grounds out of fear of offending a religious or ethnic minority in our multicultural society.

“In general, arguments about reproductive freedom and fear of being critical of minority practices are preventing society at large from facing up to certain problems.”

via Baroness Deech: Risks of cousin marriage not discussed for fear of offending Muslims – Telegraph.

It’s not discussed for fear of offending Muslims, and so more sons and daughters are born with recessive genetic disorders. Magnificent strategy.

For comments go to T&P 2.0.