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Posted on 01/02/2007 7:23:18 PM PST by nwctwx
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Pakistan's government will close four refugee camps near its border with Afghanistan to help prevent Afghan insurgents from gunrunning and seeking safe haven in the country, Islamabad's ambassador to the United States said yesterday.
Mahmud Ali Durrani said the residents of two of the camps will soon be sent back to Afghanistan as part of a new program to better control the 1,550-mile shared border.
Agreement on the plan was reached Sunday with national and local leaders in what Pakistan calls the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and the Baluchistan section of the country, Mr. Durrani said at a meeting with editors and reporters at The Washington Times.
Excerpted
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20070115-115352-6990r.htm
Does CAIR Support Censorship?
January 16, 2007
“I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Voltaire’s axiom articulates a core principle of any free society. Thus, when my book The Truth About Muhammad was banned in Pakistan, I immediately thought of the Council on American Islamic Relations.
CAIR’s vision, says its website, “is to be a leading advocate for justice and mutual understanding….Since its establishment in 1994, CAIR has worked to promote a positive image of Islam and Muslims in America.” CAIR officials have met with Presidents Clinton and Bush, consulted with the FBI, led sensitivity training seminars for law enforcement authorities nationwide, and are regularly consulted by the media for a moderate Islamic perspective. Since I wrote my book in order to draw attention to the elements of Islam that are being used by jihad terrorists worldwide today to recruit among peaceful Muslims, what group is better situated than CAIR to protest its banning in the name of American pluralism, free and open debate, and a Western Islam that is free of coercion, intimidation, and enforced conformity?
The government of Pakistan banned the book and confiscated all copies and translations because the book, according to the Kuwaiti News Agency, allegedly contains “objectionable material” about Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. Shahid Ahmed, counselor of community affairs at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, declared: “The book is very, very damaging — let me tell you.”
Excerpted
"...and addictive"
Ditto!
Smiling...I do understand.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=china
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1768557/posts
"China is threatening America's lead in technology"
Financial Times of London ^ | January 15, 2007 | Ernest Hollings and Charles McMillion
Posted on 01/16/2007 2:21:31 PM PST by Paul Ross
Is Pakistan truly our ally? Or a wolf in sheep’s clothing? FSM Contributing Editor Tashbih Sayyed explains why Pakistan is, in fact, the lifeline for al-Qaeda.
What everyone in Pakistan always knew has now, for the first time, being acknowledged by the U.S. administration publicly: Al-Qaeda has found a secure hideout in Pakistan from whence they are rebuilding their strength. National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said the Islamist terrorists have been operating from within Pakistan. But he did not tell the whole truth; Al-Qaeda has found a secure hideout in Pakistan from whence they are rebuilding their strength and these terrorists enjoy the support of Sunni/ Wahhabi elements of Pakistan’s civil and military establishment and are operating with the full knowledge of Pakistan authorities. And as long as the U.S. does not tell the whole truth by openly identifying the elements in Pakistan that have been serving as the lifeline for Al-Qaeda, our war on Islamist terror will never be successful.
Negroponte told a Senate committee that al-Qaeda was still the militant organization that, "poses the greatest threat to US interests.” He said, "They are cultivating stronger operational connections and relationships that radiate outward from their leaders' secure hideout in Pakistan to affiliates throughout the Middle East, North Africa and Europe." The National Intelligence Director also conceded, "We have captured or killed numerous senior al-Qaeda operatives, but Al-Qaeda's core elements are resilient. They continue to plot attacks against our homeland and other targets with the objective of inflicting mass casualties."
It is surprising that Negroponte did not dwell at any length on the reasons why al-Qaeda has been able to cultivate these “stronger operational connections and relationships.” He also did not comment on the factors in Pakistan that are helping al-Qaeda to remain “resilient”. The Bush administration’s reluctance, in the eyes of many regional political analysts, to call a spade a spade – identify the real culprits in Pakistan’s civil and military administration - is the main reason for al-Qaeda’s continued survival and empowerment.
It is mind-boggling to see the Bush administration declaring on one hand that Pakistan is harboring the Islamist terrorists and on the other hand, continue to maintain that the sole Islamic nuclear power is a "vital partner in the global Coalition against terrorism, playing a key role in the diplomatic, law-enforcement, and military fight to eliminate Al Qaeda." South Asia experts believe that the continued U.S. reluctance to place the blame where it truly belongs is causing a lot of grief to the American troops busy fighting the scourge.
The U.S. has to recognize that Global Jihad and Pakistan are the two sides of the same coin. We will have to understand that Pakistan, without being overhauled completely and absolutely in terms of its Islamic ideological moorings and its national and territorial ambitions, will always remain a sanctuary for Islamist extremism. As Husain Haqqani said in Washington Quarterly, “Pakistan’s status as an Islamic ideological state is rooted deeply in history and is linked closely both with the praetorian ambitions of the Pakistani military and the Pakistani elite’s worldview. For the foreseeable future, Islam will remain a significant factor in Pakistan’s politics. Musharraf and his likely successors from the ranks of the military will continue to seek U.S. economic and military assistance with promises of reform, but the power of such promises is tempered by the strong links between Pakistan’s military-intelligence apparatus and extremist Islamists.”
Excerpted
Speaking of Hezbollah...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tXfIYxPGQs
"A Hizbullah Leader: 'Death to America'"
(Added to YouTube.com January 15, 2007)
(MEMRITV.ORG clip - http://www.memritv.org )
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ADDING 2 LINKS:
http://www.memritv.org/Search.asp?ACT=S5&P1=152
http://www.memritv.org/Search.asp?ACT=S5&P1=166
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_3072.html
Travel Warning
United States Department of State
Bureau of Consular Affairs
Washington, DC 20520
This information is current as of today, Tue Jan 16 2007 16:12:22 GMT-0800.
LEBANON
December 22, 2006
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=sandyberger
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=berger
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"Sandy Berger: What Did He Take and Why Did He Take It?"
http://www.realclearpolitics.com ^ | Ronald A. Cass
Posted on 01/16/2007 4:36:01 PM PST by LC HOGHEAD
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=nuclear
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=nrc
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Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1768646/posts
NRC Chief Says Future Reactors Should Include Better Protection Against Terror Attacks By Plane
Fox News Website ^ | 1/16/07 | AP via Fox News
Posted on 01/16/2007 5:17:18 PM PST by kerryusama04
WASHINGTON — Future nuclear power plants should include design improvements to better protect against a terrorist attack by large aircraft, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday.
The chairman, Dale Klein, said the commission soon will give guidance to reactor manufacturers on "what we believe the reactors should be designed to withstand," including the possibility of a terrorist crashing a plane into the reactor.
-snip-
The NRC is gearing up for a rush of applications for new power reactors, the first such applications since the 1970s before the Three Mile Island nuclear accident.
Klein said four or five firm applications for new reactors are expected to be received this year with another eight likely in 2008. Most, if not all, of the new reactors are expected to be built on the sites of existing nuclear power plants.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Michigan Muslim flyers allege discrimination by Northwest
Tuesday January 16, 2007
DETROIT - A group of 40 Michigan Muslims said Tuesday they were unfairly profiled earlier this month when they were not allowed to board a Northwest Airlines flight in Germany on their way home from a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.
A Northwest spokesman said that the travelers reported to the gate Jan. 7 in Frankfurt, Germany, only about 20 minutes before their connecting flight was due to take off. Airline and international rules stipulate that passengers must check in for international flights at least an hour before departure and be onboard the aircraft at least 30 minutes beforehand.
``They showed up at the last minute,'' spokesman Dean Breest told The Detroit News.
But the Muslim pilgrims and the Council on American Islamic Relations rejected the airline's statement at a news conference Tuesday, saying flight rules are at least the third reason given for the incident.
``We arrived at the gate at least an hour and 30 minutes before the departure,'' said Imam Sayed Hassan al-Qazwini of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn. ``Others who came after us were allowed to board the airplane.'' Al-Qazwini told the Detroit Free Press the airline was likely afraid of having 40 Muslims together on one flight.
http://wfrv.com/michiganwire/MI--Muslims-Northwest_g_n_0mi--/resources_news_html
Muslims say they'll boycott Northwest Airlines
January 16, 2007 5:19 PM
DETROIT - A group of metro Detroiters is threatening to lead a boycott of Northwest Airlines over what they say is a pattern of profiling against Muslim passengers.
''I know that many Muslims call Northwest 'Northworst' . . . for its treatment to the Muslim community,'' Imam Hassan Al-Qazwini, head of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, Mich., said Tuesday. Al-Qazwini was in a group of about 40 pilgrims who were prevented from boarding a connecting flight in Germany to Detroit on Jan. 7 while returning from a trip to holy cities in Saudi Arabia. The Muslim group, most of whom are Lebanese-American Shiites, held a news conference Tuesday at the Dearborn mosque to describe what they say happened to them. They called for Northwest to apologize, compensate them, and discipline the employees they said profiled them.
''Otherwise,'' Al-Qazwini said, ''if Northwest will not do that, then probably we have to call all Muslim organizations to encourage Muslims from not flying on Northwest.'' With tens of thousands of Muslim customers, Northwest could be hurt financially by such a boycott, Al-Qazwini suggested, adding that ''I hope Northwest will be wiser.''
But Northwest officials defended their actions Tuesday, repeating that the 40 or so pilgrims were unable to board because they weren't at the gate in time. ''They showed up at the gate late,'' said Dean Breest, a spokesman for Northwest Airlines. ''All customers need to be on time.'' Northwest Airlines requires passengers to check in for international flights at least 60 minutes prior to departure and to be on board the aircraft at least 30 minutes prior to the scheduled departure time, according to a statement it issued.
Al-Qazwini and other pilgrims said Tuesday that they were at the gate at least an hour and a half before departure time. ''We were treated really, really, really badly,'' said Jennifer Zreik, 29, one of the travelers. According to Zreik and others, some of the Muslims with the group were allowed on the plane. But about 40 were not. Some of the travelers said they had to spend the night at the airport; others had to pay $77 in penalty fees and more in hotel costs - without reimbursement. Breest said, ''I'm very sorry to hear that happened,'' but added this case has nothing to do with profiling.
Most of the pilgrims in the group are from Michigan, said Dawud Walid, head of the Michigan branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a group that has been fighting profiling of Muslims at airports. The council organized the news conference.
Al-Qazwini said he was recently prevented from praying on a Northwest Airlines flight. But Breest said Northwest does not discriminate. He pointed out the high-profile case of Muslim imams who were escorted off a US Airways jet in November at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport after they made Islamic prayers. The imams were eventually flown home by Northwest Airlines, he said.
http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=NATIONAL&ID=564947238037880859
Manhunt as terror suspect escapes control order
Wednesday January 17, 2007
The home secretary, John Reid, faced fresh embarrassment last night when he revealed that an urgent police manhunt had begun for a suspected terrorist who disappeared within four days of being placed on an anti-terror control order. The man, who has gone missing within the past fortnight, is a British citizen who was living in the Greater Manchester area. It is believed he wanted to travel abroad, possibly to Iraq, for "terrorism-related purposes".
He is the third suspected terrorist to go on the run out of 19 who have had control orders - amounting to virtual house arrest with 24-hour surveillance by the security services - imposed upon them. Mr Reid informed MPs in October that the other two, one an Iraqi and the other a British citizen, were missing.
There were reports last night that the man had sought sanctuary in a mosque after failing to show up at a local police station to surrender his passport.
It was claimed that police, who rarely enter mosques, held discussions with community leaders linked to the mosque while officers from Greater Manchester were stationed outside. The suspect is understood to have escaped from the mosque through a back entrance while these talks were taking place.
Excerpted
http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1992019,00.html
Swede questioned about Stockholm mosque
16th January 2007
Ahmed Essafri, the Swedish citizen of Moroccan descent arrested in Morocco on December 25th, is reported to have spent ten days in a prison cell with his hands and feet bound and his eyes blindfolded. Moroccan security services have been questioning him about a mosque in the Brandbergen suburb of Stockholm, Dagens Nyheter reports.
The newspaper spoke to Essafri's daughter after the family visited him in the Moroccan jail where he is being held. "When he was arrested he was led away with his hands and feet tied and with a blindfold on. He does not know where he was taken but he thinks it was far underground," she told Dagens Nyheter. He is then reported to have spent the following ten days bound, blindfolded and isolated in a small cell. Security services are said to have interrogated him around the clock.
"The questions were all just about Sweden, about a mosque in Brandbergen, about who went there, what they did and what they talked about," said Essafri's daughter. He was also quizzed about another Swede of Moroccan origin, who had his assets frozen by the US Finance Department in early December 2006.
The 41-year-old man was described by the American authorities as having been an "undisputed leader for an extremist group" associated with a Muslim community in the same Stockholm suburb. These suspicions have not led to any charges being brought against the man in Sweden.
Excerpted
Pakistan is buying 700 air-to-air missiles made by US defence group Raytheon for 284 million dollars, the company said on Monday. Pakistan is purchasing 500 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM), the largest international order for this weapon, and 200 short-range AIM-9M Sidewinder missiles, Raytheon said in a statement.
Delivery of the AMRAAM arsenal will start in 2008 and continue through 2011, it said. AMRAAM, from a joint US Air Force and Navy program, are used by the armed forces of 32 countries, while 20 countries have AIM-9M Sidewinder missiles, the statement said.
Pakistan has signed a letter of offer and acceptance for the 700 missiles, it said. “The combined 284 million dollar procurement augments Pakistan’s established inventory and will provide the bulk of the air-to-air fire power of the Pakistan Air Force,” the statement said.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\01\17\story_17-1-2007_pg7_21
Israel’s pilot ID system to foil Sept 11-style attacks
1/17/07
TEL AVIV — Israel will this year issue all commercial airlines that fly to its territory with a locally invented pilot identification system designed to prevent September 11-style suicide attacks, Israeli officials said yesterday. Planes without the “Code Positive” system, which will be distributed free of charge as of May, will be turned back from Israeli airspace on pain of being shot down, an official said. Israel is widely considered to have the world’s most sophisticated aviation security. Such expertise has been in high demand abroad since Al Qaeda squads hijacked American commuter jets and rammed them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. The hijackers are assumed to have killed the pilots.
Danny Shenar, head of security at the Transportation Ministry, described Code Positive as a credit card-size device that is personally and exclusively assigned to each pilot, and carried aboard their flights. “Using this card, it will be possible to verify that the person flying the aircraft is indeed the person qualified to fly it,” Shenar told Israel's Army Radio. “This system was developed to prevent aviation mega-terror over Israel, in the form of a plane coming through one of the borders and crashing into a target in Israel,” he said. “The system should be operational by the end of the year.” Code Positive was developed by Israeli firm Elbit Systems Ltd. Shenar declined to elaborate on the specific technology involved for security reasons.
But he said it would be impossible for a hijacker to force a pilot to hand over identifying details, or otherwise pose as a legitimate member of the flight crew. “You can’t bluff this system,” Shenar said. It was unclear from his remarks whether the system would send an alert if a pilot remained at the controls but was forced to follow hijackers' orders. The US government inquiry into the September 11 attacks said ground radio overheard orders apparently given by hijackers to their captive passengers over aircraft public address systems.
Excerpted
A Director of the Media Trust, Publishers of Daily Trust Newspapers, Muhammaed Ilyas Damagun, was yesterday arraigned before a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on a three-count charge of being a member and financing of an illegal terrorist organisation called "The Nigerian Taliban."
The accused, who was brought to court around 8.45a.m., was said to have committed the offence between October 16 and November 15, 2002, at Kano and other places in Nigeria. The charge sheet said Damagun received the sum of $300,000 from a terrorist organisation called Al Qaeda World Network, Sudan, and deposited the money with Habibsons Bank Limited, Windson House, 55-56 ST James Street, London, in the account No 21067695, with the intent that the said money shall be used in the execution of acts of terrorism committing an offence against the law.
He was also alleged to have given out various sums of money and a 10-seater bus with registration Number, KADUNA AN 379 ANC and 30 loud speakers to Muhammed Yusuff, operative of the Nigerian Taliban, to facilitate the spread of extremism and various acts and techniques on terrorism and committed the offence.
The accused was alleged to have committed an offence of recruiting, sponsoring and transporting 14 members of militia group to receive combat training on terrorism at a camp in Mauritania.
Excerpted
placemark
And so it goes...on and on and on....
stepping back in time...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1741897/posts
Thanks Oorang for the post.
Thanks for the links Oorang.
I can't comment Oorang or I'll be banned.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3353269,00.html
"IDF Chief Halutz resigns"
Latest Update: 01.17.07, 00:50
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "An earthquake in the military and political echelons: IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz resigned Tuesday night. He reported his resignation to Defense Minister Amir Peretz and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
He intended to report his resignation to the IDF general staff Wednesday morning, but, from fear of leaks, decided to issue a public statement Wednesday, slightly after midnight."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1761584/posts?page=868#868
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http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5621979422472502457
"abu_usamah_4.wmv"
(Added January 15, 2007)
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