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"Page unavailable/under construction"

:^(

Heh heh heh!

I think what you are facing is a settings issue with the display monitor. Check the graphics display resolution to see that it matches the hardware resolution.

Yup.

Country	Bituminous & Anthracite coal at end-2006 (million tonnes [teragrams])
USA	111,338
India	90,085
China	62,200
Russia	49,088
Australia	38,600

It’s not about the money. It’s about influence, which is worth more than the money.

Buying influence.

Afghanistan is useful in keeping Pakistan busy.

Messing around with hormones is always crazy.

India


GDP (official exchange rate): $1.099 trillion (2007 est.)

Exports: $150.8 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.)

Ratio Exports-to-GDP = 150.8 / 1099 = 0.137 = 13.7%

Exports partners: US 15.1%, UAE 8.8%, China 8.4%, UK 4.3% (2006)

Imports: $230.2 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.)

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/in.html#Econ

 

‘US losing trust in Pakistan intelligence’

http://thepost.com.pk/MainNewsT.aspx?bdtl_id=11987&fb_id=2&catid=14

Online

ISLAMABAD: US military, for the past four months, has routinely withheld advanced information from Pakistani authorities on attacks carried out in Pakistan’s border region targeting al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects, for fear the information could be leaked to militants, according to a high-level European defence official in Islamabad. The official told CBS News’ the Bush administration is demanding a comprehensive revamp of Pakistan’s powerful counter-espionage agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), before Washington will resume full intelligence cooperation with Pakistan. In the latest secret operation, Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri - a leading Qaeda chemical and biological weapons expert, was killed in a US missile strike early Monday morning at a remote location in Waziristan region.

“Information of this attack was shared very late with Pakistan. This was a case where the US did not want to alert the Pakistanis in advance because of concerns over information leaks,” said the European official, whose country has contributed troops to the NATO coalition force in Afghanistan. He spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the information.

The revelation on the Bush administration’s toughening stance on its long-time ally in the war against extremists came as Pakistani officials angrily denied a newspaper report that its intelligence service helped plan a bombing of India’s embassy in Kabul that killed at least 41 people.

The New York Times reported for Friday’s editions that American intelligence agencies had concluded that members of the ISI were involved in the July 7 attack in the Afghan capital.

A senior Pakistani official, who also spoke to CBS news on condition of anonymity, said the US military campaign in Afghanistan was failing, the militants were gaining ground. “The US and others are just pointing fingers towards others.”

Western diplomats based in Islamabad told CBS News last week that the cross-border tension presents a major dilemma for US policymakers, as the Bush administration tries to get the two countries to cooperate in the war on terror.

My entire HDD on my laptop is encrypted. Their search would be short.

No, it won't. Military-grade encryption and decryption technologies are not available to private players. If you did succeed in encrypting the contents in a way that exceeds military levels, your HDD contents will be copied, and worked on.

International

Pakistan not eligible for similar n-deal: Burns

http://www.hindu.com/2008/08/01/stories/2008080155501400.htm

Washington: The former Under Secretary of State of Political Affairs, Nicholas Burns, one of the architects of the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal, feels Pakistan cannot expect a similar pact, a day after its Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani demanded such a deal from the U.S.

Mr. Burns also pressed for the speedy approval of the deal ahead of the IAEA taking up the India-specific safeguards pact for approval, saying it was “good” for both the countries besides helping strengthen the non-proliferation regime.

“India’s trust, its credibility, the fact that it has promised to create a state-of-the-art facility, monitored by the IAEA, to begin a new export control regime in place, because it has not proliferated the nuclear technology, we can’t say that about Pakistan.” said Mr. Burns when asked whether the U.S. would offer a nuclear deal with Pakistan on the lines of the Indo-U.S. deal during a debate on the nuclear agreement at the Brookings Institution.

After meeting U.S. President George W. Bush, Mr. Gilani demanded a nuclear deal similar to the one Washington has forged with New Delhi, assuring the nuclear proliferation network of its scientist, A. Q. Khan, was broken and would not be repeated.

“There should be no preferential [treatment], there should be no discrimination. And if they want to give civilian nuclear status to India, we would also expect the same for Pakistan too,” said Mr. Gilani at a gathering under the aegis of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Middle East Institute.

On the Indo-U.S. pact, Mr. Burns, who was the U.S. pointsman for the deal, said: “My conviction is that this deal strengthens the non-proliferation regime... it makes India a stakeholder. I am for this agreement because it is good for both countries.... The civilian nuclear deal is a symbolic centre piece of the bilateral relations.”

He also gave a Teheran link to the nuclear deal when he said a swift approval by the IAEA, NSG and the U.S. Congress would send a strong message to countries like Iran “to play by the rules” and for strengthening the non-proliferation regime. “If you play by the rules.... there will be benefits,” he reminded Tehran.

Mr. Burns, who stepped down in March and was appointed as a special envoy to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the deal, also stressed the U.S. has in place “the right measures to protect” its interests by retaining the right to terminate the agreement. He asserted the 123 Agreement is “absolutely’ consistent with the Hyde Act. — PTI

You’ll need to read what I wrote, again.

:)

I’m not sure if ethanol (ethyl alcohol) does any damage to metal directly, but secondary damage from debris created by the reaction of ethanol with plastic and rubber components of the car, is most likely the culprit.

Automobile technology has had the advantage of decades of research to perfect the systems necessary for standard petrol / gasoline. Ethanol is relatively very new, as an automobile fuel.

		West ignoring ISI's deadly role http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/kpsgill/terrorism/08June07Pio.htm KPS Gill: Freedom From Fear Despite the experience of the post-9/11 age, Washington continues to view Al Qaeda as the most serious threat to the US. Similarly, Britain's MI5 speaks of as many as 30 'active plots' in the UK, most of which have links back to Al Qaeda in Pakistan. In the process, the real devil -- Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence -- is studiedly ignored   For decades, now, the West has systematically misread what it perceives as 'Islamic' or 'Islamist' terrorism, and despite the experience -- and one would presume, large volumes of intelligence -- of the post-9/11 age, continues to do so. Thus, on the one hand, the US National Intelligence Estimates, 2007, continued to view Al Qaeda as "the most serious threat to the Homeland, as its central leadership continues to plan high-impact plots, while pushing others in extremist communities to mimic its efforts and to supplement its capabilities". Similarly, the UK's MI5 speaks of as many as 30 'active plots' in the country, most of which "have links back to Al Qaeda in Pakistan".   On the other hand, some analysts have reduced the threat, principally, to what one writer describes as a "leaderless jihad", a loose-knit network of terror in the West, inspired by the Al Qaeda brand of Islamist extremism, but operating essentially as independent "bunches of guys", with no direct or necessary contact with any central structure of command. (Overtly Pakistan-controlled Islamist terrorism in theatres such as India and Afghanistan seldom receives significant attention in these analyses).   In all this, there is a studied neglect of the realities of the ground, particularly of the fact that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) -- as an organ of the country's military and political establishment -- has been, and remains, the principal source of the impetus, the infrastructure and the organisational networks of Islamist terrorism across the world. Historically, it is now common knowledge, it was the ISI that created virtually the entire structure of Islamist terrorist groupings behind the global jihad, which has now proliferated in new areas through the agency of various proxies. This includes Al Qaeda, and the entire spectrum of affiliates that continues to operate, with varying degrees of freedom, from Pakistani soil more than six-and-a-half years after 9/11.   At least part of the selective blindness of the West (and, indeed, of much of the world) is because 'Al Qaeda' has begun to mean different things to different people and, in much of the commentary, has become shorthand for a wide range of ideologically sympathetic groups located in Pakistan, many of which continue to receive active state support. Of the numerous cases of arrests, conspiracies and terrorist attacks related to Islamist groupings across the world (which I have documented in some detail in Pakistan: The Footprints of Terror, www.satp.org), connections that are generally attributed to the 'Al Qaeda', have been found, on closer scrutiny, to be more correctly ascribed to a range of other groupings, prominently including Lashkar-e-Tayyeba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Harkat-ul Mujahiddeen, Harkat-ul jihad Islami, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan and various factions of the Taliban -- everyone of which was a sarkari (state-sponsored) jihadi group in its origins, and most of which (with the exception of the SSP, and, more ambiguously, some of the Taliban factions) continue to receive state patronage in Pakistan.   In the immediate aftermath of Operation Enduring Freedom, when the Afghan infrastructure of Islamist terrorism was uprooted, Indian intelligence sources and various analysts, including this writer, had repeatedly asserted that Osama bin Laden, the Al Qaeda leadership and remnants, and the defeated rump of the Taliban, had all been relocated in Pakistan with the active co-operation and collaboration of the ISI and the Pakistan Army. A perfunctory denial by President Pervez Musharraf was immediately and uncritically seized upon by the West as sufficient 'proof' that this was not the case, despite the overwhelming burden of intelligence and evidence -- significant parts of which were actively suppressed by US agencies. When attacks against US coalition and Afghan forces, increasingly sourced from Pakistani soil, began to draw blood in Afghanistan, these same denials continued to be blindly accepted, or remained sufficient grounds for the Western political leadership to muddle over the Pakistani role.   More recently, these positions have begun to shift subtly -- though their principal thrust remains the same. Western commentators easily concede past Pakistani 'misdemeanours', but are quick to justify their favoured 'allies' in the 'war on terror', on the grounds that the establishment at Islamabad is now, itself, a victim of the same Islamist groups.   It is, of course, the case that some elements of state-initiated terrorism have now turned against their sponsoring state. But this is natural in any association of violent groupings not explicitly and effectively bound by law and a dominant mechanism of legitimate control. The 'implosion of terrorism' in Pakistan is a fact -- as with revolutions, terrorism consumes its own children and, one may add, progenitors. Pakistan has, par excellence, harnessed terrorism as an instrument of state policy for well over two decades. Today, Pakistan is in the grips of a violent 'blowback', what the Italian magazine Limes has described as Il Boomerang Jihadista.   Nevertheless, the fact that the Pakistan establishment continues to use Islamist extremism and terror as a principal instrument of state policy -- despite the disastrous implosion within the country -- is equally inescapable. This is most visibly the case across Pakistan's Afghan and Kashmir borders -- as well as in the substantial infrastructure of support in Pakistan for the terrorists operating in these theatres -- but is equally true of the far more dispersed incidence of Islamist terrorism in Western countries. Despite the internal turmoil they have contributed to, the Islamist fundamentalist and extremist groupings in Pakistan remain a necessary element of the state's instrumentalities of domestic management and external projection -- giving the country leverage far beyond its natural means, in every concentration of Muslim populations across the world. It is Pakistan, through its state agencies, and loosely controlled radical and jihadi affiliates, that continues to propagate Islamist jihad among the Muslim youth across the world, and that offers opportunities for training and absorption into terrorist organisations headquartered on its soil.   The Pakistani establishment's apparent conflict with Al Qaeda and elements of the Taliban is, at worst, tactical and transient -- in the long term, there is an identity of undiluted purpose. Were the Al Qaeda to be completely destroyed at some (improbable) stage in the foreseeable future, Islamist terrorism would continue to thrive on and from Pakistani soil.   The reality is, there is no such thing as Islamist terrorism. To understand the position correctly, we need to recognise that there is only ISI terror that has been dubbed as 'Islamist terror'. What we have, on the ground, is the proliferation of Pakistani terrorism, strategically compounded across new areas of disorder by networks loosely affiliated with their Pakistani sources. If Pakistani state support to so-called Islamist terrorism ended today, it would not be long before the various terrorist groups atrophied and withered away, lacking safe havens, institutional support and training infrastructure, and the vast ideological resources that have been brought to bear on the so-called global jihad. This does not, of course, mean that no Islamist terrorist incident whatsoever would then be possible.   Disaffected 'bunches of guys' may still secure the capacity and will to execute the occasional attack -- but another 9/11 (not to mention the ongoing campaigns in Afghanistan and Jammu & Kashmir) would need at least as much state support as the last one had.   (Published in The Pioneer, June 7, 2008)

 

Kanwar Pal Singh Gill

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanwar_Pal_Singh_Gill

Kanwar Pal Gill, was born in Ludhiana, Punjab, India. He began his career as a police officer in the north-eastern state of Assam, quickly earning a reputation as a tough officer. He became a household name across the country as Punjab police chief in the early 1990s, when he was credited with crushing a separatist revolt in the Sikh-majority state.

Widely given credit for addressing the terrorism in Punjab, Mr Gill was dubbed “Super Cop” after his success in Punjab. He publishes the Faultlines journal and runs the Institute for Conflict Management, as well as advising governments and institutions on security related issues. He was asked by the government of Sri Lanka last year for similar advice. Mr Gill has also written a book, “The Knights of Falsehood”, which explores the abuse of religious institutions by the politics of freedom struggle in Punjab.

He got involved in sports administration after retirement and is currently the IHF ( Indian Hockey Federation) president.

He has also been appointed as a consultant by the Chattisgarh government to help tackle the Naxalite movement in the state.

Quotes

“Democracy and liberalism are not a sufficient defence and this is a fact that the ideologues of ‘freedom’ need, equally, to comprehend. There is a fatal flaw in the liberal mind. Having established, in structure and form [though seldom in substance], a system of governance that corresponds to its conception of democracy, it feels that nothing more needs to be done. The ‘Truths’ of the liberal ideology are, as the American Declaration on the Rights of Man expresses it, ‘Self Evident’. They require no proof, no reiteration, and no defence - certainly no defence by force of arms. Once democracy [or even the ritual of quinquinneal elections] is established, according to liberal mythology, the mystical ‘invisible hand’ keeps everything in place; the ‘superior wisdom of the masses’ ensures order and justice...”. This is just so much rubbish. As we should know after living with falsehoods for fifty years now. Truth does not triumph; unless it has champions to propound it, unless it has armies to defend it.”

From his book, ‘Punjab: The Knights of Falsehood’

Criticism

For some critics his success is a part of the story started by predecessor Julio Francis Ribeiro who started the “Bullet for Bullet” campaign of hitting back at militants and the strong hand in dealing with militancy adopted by Chief minister Beant Singh.

 

Pakistani spies reportedly aided Kabul suicide attack

Fri Aug 1, 2008 4:34am BST

http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKN3147248120080801?sp=true

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that members of Pakistan’s spying service helped plan the suicide bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul this month, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

U.S. government officials told the newspaper that communications had been intercepted between Pakistani intelligence officers and militants who carried out the July 7 attack that killed 54 people.

The newspaper said it was the clearest evidence to date that Pakistani intelligence officers were actively undermining U.S. efforts to combat militants in the region.

The unidentified U.S. officials also said new information showed that members of Pakistan’s Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, were increasingly providing militants with details about the U.S. campaign against them, allowing them to avoid missile strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

The ISI has maintained ties to militant groups in the tribal areas, in part, to contain Afghanistan’s power, the paper said.

It added that Pakistan’s government had also become concerned about India’s growing influence inside Afghanistan, including New Delhi’s close ties to the government of President Hamid Karzai.

U.S. officials believe the Indian Embassy attack was probably carried out by members of a network led by Maulavi Jalaluddin Haqqani, whose alliance with al Qaeda has allowed the militant network to rebuild in the tribal areas, the Times said.

The U.S. officials cited gave the newspaper no specific details about the kind of support provided by the ISI officers, but said they were not renegades, indicating their actions might have been authorized by superiors.

“It confirmed some suspicions that I think were widely held,” one State Department official with knowledge of Afghanistan issues said of the intercepted communications, according to the Times.

“It was sort of this ‘aha’ moment. There was a sense that there was finally direct proof.”

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that a top CIA official travelled to Islamabad to confront senior Pakistani officials with evidence of ties between the ISI and militants operating in the tribal areas.

The report, based on accounts by U.S. military and intelligence officials, described the decision to confront Pakistan over ISI’s activities as the bluntest warning to Islamabad since shortly after the September 11 attacks.

(Editing by Peter Cooney)

© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved.

http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/ISI-involved-in-Kabul-bombing-on-Indian-embassy-NSA/334809/

 

It does say that it “stimulates” the skin...

:^)

Curry or Currycomb: A tool made of rubber or plastic with short "teeth" on one side, that slides onto the hand of the groom. It is usually the first tool used in daily grooming. The horse is rubbed or "curried" in a circular motion, which helps to loosen dirt, hair, and other detritus, plus stimulate the skin to produce natural oils. The curry comb is usually used in a circular motion to work loose embedded material. Curries are generally too harsh to be used on the legs or head, though varieties made of softer rubber are available.

:^)

Enjoy!

Would sticking a fairly powerful magnet under the car work?

Gigantopithecus is an extinct genus of ape that existed from roughly one million years to as recently as three-hundred thousand years ago, in what is now China, India, and Vietnam, placing Gigantopithecus in the same time frame and geographical location as several hominid species. The fossil record suggests that the Gigantopithecus blacki species were the largest apes that ever lived, standing up to 10 feet (3.0 m) and weighing up to 1,200 pounds (540 kg).

Gigantopithecus blacki (Greek and Latin for "Black Giant Ape") is an extinct species of ape.

The only known fossils of G. blacki are a few teeth and mandibles found in cave sites in South-East Asia. As the name suggests, these are appreciably larger than those of living gorillas, but the exact size and structure of the rest of the body can only be estimated in the absence of additional findings. Recent research using high-precision absolute-dating methods has shown that after existing for about a million years, G. blacki died out 100,000 years ago. This means that it coexisted with (anatomically) modern humans (Homo sapiens) for a few dozen thousands of years, and with the most immediate ancestors of H. sapiens before that.

Based on the fossil evidence, paleontologists speculate that Gigantopithecus had an adult standing height of over three meters (ten feet) and a weight of 550 kg (1200 lb), and was thus much larger and heavier than current-day gorillas.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigantopithecus_blacki

 

 

 

I am a bit skeptical. Soy is a major staple of the Japanese diet and they have no sperm count problems. I told my wife about this, who is Japanese, and she seemed a bit skeptical as well. Perhaps there are other parts of their diet that counteract the effect.

I've heard it said that the Japanese and Chinese don't actually consume Soy as-is, but they ferment it. Fermenting might neutralise the oestrogen-like compounds.

Maybe the rest of the world swallowed the whole thing with a poor translation, and will suffer for it.

The pen tech seems to be quick and almost instantaneous.

Yup. That's the electro-static, active-matrix sensing part of N-Trig's DuoSense technology. That's what Apple will have to use, for smooth handwriting recognition.

The lag, is not the fault of the input devices. There were some utilities running in the background. I was mainly referring to the N-Trig technology. Sure, Apple could do magic with it, but will they? If you know, please do tell!

If Apple makes a convertible with something like N-Trig for input, I’m sold.

Take a look here:

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx/?mkt=en-us&vid=3bfe6958-8740-4557-9788-c96aa5fe0cd8&wa=wsignin1.0&vv=600

I don’t see any lag there. Take care to note the Autocad application, where he demonstrates the multi-touch zoom-in, and notice that the application instantly tracks his finger (you can see two thin dotted lines following both his fingers without any delay, and finalises the zoom by tapping the screen).

Besides, like I mentioned earlier, Apple’s touch technology can’t do pressure-sensitive pen input, which is crucial if you want an application like OneNote, to make digital handwritten notes, with about the same delay and feel as traditional pen and paper. The only company out there that makes a sensor with both pen and capacitive finger input, is N-Trig, which Dell uses.

http://www.n-trig.com/Default.aspx

Yes I have. That is why I mentioned the capacitive touch technology, which is what basically makes multitouch possible.

Dell’s Latitude XT uses the same technology, with all the bells and whistles of Apple’s multi-touch equivalent (pinching photos to resize, flicking pages, etc. with multiple fingers) with the additional enhancement of the electro-magnetic sensing technology, which makes sketching and running handwriting recognition possible, which Apple’s technology cannot do, atleast not as effectively as N-Trig’s sensor, since capacitive touch alone has poor sensing resolution.

Check out the YouTube video clip I had attached with the earlier post. You’ll see it all there.

But wasn’t the opening strange for a bomb-like explosion? There were no jagged, crumpled edges on it.

Besides, if it was a bomb, I believe it’s quite easy to do a residue analysis.

Thanks for the update!

The older thread was here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051720/posts

Breaking: Seven bombs hit Ahmedabad, two killed (back-to-back bombing)

What happens to the hermaphrodites?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovotestis

An ovotestis is a gonad with both testicular and ovarian aspects.In humans, ovotestes are an anatomical abnormality associated with gonadal dysgenesis.

Ovotestes can be found as normal anatomical features in some animals such as the gastropod, Helix aspersa.

You’re welcome!

They used gelatin detonators, and all the other timing devices, like they would, to trigger a high-intensity blast with agents like RDX.

Usually, the only explosive small-time groups use is gunpowder, or dynamite, smuggled or stolen from the mines.

The fact that they planted the explosives in different places all over the cities, and timed them to blast around the same time, shows some sophistication. All they had to do was combine the detonators with powerful explosives like RDX, and the results would have been much, much worse. The whole thing looks like someone out there is taunting the agencies.

There was a report which mentioned a pattern of them leaving exactly one unexploded bomb, all the time.

Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI)

http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/terroristoutfits/simi.htm

 

The Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), proscribed under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, is an Islamist fundamentalist organization, which advocates the ‘liberation of India’ by converting it to an Islamic land. The SIMI, an organisation of young extremist students has declared Jihad against India, the aim of which is to establish Dar-ul-Islam (land of Islam) by either forcefully converting everyone to Islam or by violence.

 

Formation

 

The SIMI was formed at Aligarh in the State of Uttar Pradesh on April 25, 1977. Mohammad Ahmadullah Siddiqi, Professor of Journalism and Public Relations at the Western Illinois University Macomb, Illinois, was the founding President of the outfit. It originally emerged as an offshoot of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind.

 

Objectives and Ideology

 

 

• Governing of human life on the basis of the Holy Quran

   

 

 

• Propagation of Islam

   

 

 

• Jehad for the cause of Islam

   

 

SIMI also attempts to utilize the youth in the propagation of Islam and also to mobilize support for Jihad and establish a Shariat-based Islamic rule through "Islami Inqulab". As the organization does not believe in a nation-state, it does not believe in the Indian Constitution or the secular order. SIMI also regards idol worship as a sin and considers it to be a holy duty to terminate idol worship.

 

SIMI is widely believed to be against Hinduism, western beliefs and ideals, as well as other ‘anti-Islamic cultures’. Among its various objectives, the SIMI aims to counter what it believes is the increasing moral degeneration, sexual anarchy in the Indian society as also the ‘insensitiveness’ of a ‘decadent’ west. Ideologically, SIMI maintains that the concepts of secularism, democracy and nationalism, keystones of the Indian Constitution, are antithetical to Islam. Parallel to its rejection of secularism, democracy and nationalism is its oft-repeated objective of restoration of the 'khilafat', emphasis on 'ummah' (Muslim brotherhood), and the need for a Jehad to establish the supremacy of Islam.

 

The outfit is known to have adopted an extremist and militant posture on various issues of concern to the Muslim community.

According to the SIMI, Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is an outstanding example of a true Mujahid, who has undertaken Jihad on behalf of the 'ummah'.

SIMI's interpretation of Islam is influenced to a great extent by the writings of Syed Abul A'ala Maududi, founder of the Jamaat-e Islami.

According to the scholar Yoginder Sikand, Nationalism, for SIMI, is seen as a false idol, and one devised by the non-Muslim 'enemies of the faith' to divide the Muslims and thereby weaken them. All non-Muslims are branded by the SIMI as 'kafirs', and no distinction is made among them. Because the 'enemies of God' are expected to show stiff resistance to Islam, violent Jihad is to be waged.

 

Leadership

 

Dr Shahid Badar Falah functioned as the national president and Safdar Nagori as the secretary-general till the organization was proscribed under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002. The Delhi Police arrested Falah on September 28, 2001, from its office in the Zakir Nagar area of Delhi and he has subsequently been charged with sedition and inciting communal disharmony in the State of Uttar Pradesh.

 

Currently, the outfit is reported to be operating underground under the leadership of Nagori. Nagori has been named in a First Information Report (FIR) under Section 3 of the Unlawful Activities Act, registered at the New Friends Colony Police station in South Delhi. Nagori, declared a Proclaimed Offender in the case, has been absconding since September 27, 2001. He is alleged to have established links with the operatives of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s external intelligence agency, and other Islamist fundamentalist leaders in a bid to revive SIMI cadres under the umbrella of a different outfit.

Mohammad Aamir, the chief of SIMI's Uttar Pradesh State unit and the prime accused in the Kanpur riots of March 16, surrendered before a metropolitan magistrate on April 25, 2006.

 

Linkages and Areas of Operation

SIMI reportedly secures generous financial assistance from the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), Riyadh, and also maintains close links with the International Islamic Federation of Students' Organizations (IIFSO) in Kuwait. It also receives generous funds from contacts in Pakistan.

 

The Chicago-based Consultative Committee of Indian Muslims is also reported to have supported SIMI morally and financially.

 

The SIMI has links with the Jamaat-e-Islam (JeI) units in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. It also has a close working relationship with the Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS), the students’ wing of the JeI in Bangladesh. The SIMI is also alleged to have close links with the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), and the ISI. Certain SIMI leaders are reported to have close links with Pakistan-based terrorist groups such as the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed. SIMI activists, over the years, have also become a vital part of the LeT's grand plans for destabilisation in India.

SIMI also maintains ties with the Harkat-ul-Jehad-al Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B).

SIMI is also reportedly involved in a continuous recruitment drive for the HuJI-B in Uttar Pradesh's Jaunpur, Allahabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Ambedkar Nagar, Aligarh, Azamgarh, Sonauli, Ferozabad and Hathras areas. Further, SIMI cadres, sources indicate, are involved in the safe transportation of explosives and creation of channels for funds and securing safe houses for the HuJI-B cadres.

Groups of SIMI sympathizers reportedly exist in several places in the Gulf States. Jamayyatul Ansar, an organisation of SIMI activists comprising expatriate Indian Muslims, reportedly operates in Saudi Arabia.

Several Islamist fundamentalist organisations in India are allegedly controlled by former SIMI cadres. Prominent among them are the Kerala-based National Democratic Front and Islamic Youth Centre (IYC), and the Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam (TMMK) in Tamil Nadu.

According to official sources, in the year 1993 following the arrest of a Sikh terrorist, it was revealed that SIMI cadres, Sikh and Kashmiri terrorists, had been brought together by the ISI through the Jamaat-e-Islami in Pakistan to carry out subversive activities.

The outfit is currently regarded as having a national presence with strong bases in the States of Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra (Aurangabad, Malegaon, Jalgaon and Thane), Andhra Pradesh and Assam. It reportedly has a strong base in various universities in these States. SIMI is also believed to enjoy the support of a large section of the Muslim populace in cities such as Kanpur, Rampur, Moradabad, Saharanpur, Lucknow and Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh. Official sources are reported to have identified nine districts in Uttar Pradesh, where the SIMI is suspected of engaging in subversive activities-Lucknow, Kanpur, Aligarh, Agra, Faizabad, Bahraich, Barabanki, Lakhimpur Kheri and Azamgarh. The SIMI is also being utilised by various terrorist outfits because it has a well-knit network in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.

In Kerala, SIMI operates under the cover of some 12 front organisations, at least two of which are based in the capital, Thiruvananthapuram, and a third in the port city of Kochi. Kondotty in the Malappuram District has also emerged as a hot-bed of SIMI activities. An official declaration submitted on June 1, 2006, by the Kerala Government before the tribunal examining the legality of the ban on SIMI, indicated that the outfit's cadres had ‘lately' developed links with the LeT. Reports from various agencies, including the State Police Special Branch, further indicate that SIMI is operating under the cover of religious study centres, rural development and research centres. Some of these front organisations were spreading "extremist religious ideals" among sections of youth in Kerala by acting under the guise of "counselling and guidance centres working for behavioural change". SIMI is also reported to have established a women's wing in Kerala. Generous funds for such activities flow in from contacts in Kuwait and Pakistan.

In the western State of Maharashtra, areas such as Aurangabad, Malegaon, Jalgaon and Thane have remained strongholds of the SIMI. Intelligence agencies indicate that Madrassas (seminaries) in the Districts of Jalgaon, Nashik, Thane, Sholapur, Kolhapur, Gadchiroli, Nanded, Aurangabad, Malegaon and Pune have been brought under the scanner for SIMI activities. There are more than 3,000 Madrassas in the State, with about 200,000 students. As many as 500 seminaries are located in the State capital, Mumbai. Sources indicate that many of these seminaries are potential breeding grounds for SIMI's activities.

SIMI's activities have also continued in Assam and West Bengal, where the organisation has infiltrated Madrassas, Muslim clubs, libraries, and other cultural bodies for covert mobilisation of Islamist forces. In 2003, SIMI activists have operated from the platform of ‘Islamic Siksha Shivirs' (Islamic Educational Camps) in Mograhat in the North 24 Parganas district in West Bengal. A two-day ‘workshop' organised in the District between August 31 and September 1 had, in fact, finalised the outfit's infiltration plans. Sources indicate that in August 2003, one Jamaluddin Chaudhory of the ICS had taken seven SIMI activists from Assam and West Bengal to residential Madrassas in Chittagong, Rangpur and Dhaka for ‘higher Islamic studies'. Additionally, some hardcore SIMI activists from Malda and South 24 Parganas had crossed over to Bangladesh for higher studies in Islamic theology at a Saudi-funded private institution in Chittagong. In the 2004 general elections, SIMI had backed the newly floated ‘Indian National League (INL)', which put up candidates in six constituencies of Jangipur, Murshidabad, Diamond Harbour, Basirhat, Jadavpur and Kolkata North-West. Senior SIMI leader Hasan Saidullah Ashrafi contested the Basirhat seat from the INL platform and finished seventh among eight candidates polling just 4,780 valid votes.

In the State of Madhya Pradesh, “While SIMI activities were confined to Indore, Ujjain, Khandwa and Bhopal before the ban on it in 2001, they have spread to Burhanpur, Guna, Neemuch and Shajapur as well now,” an unnamed police official was quoted as saying in Hindustan Times on August 16, 2006. Before the ban, 33 cases were registered against SIMI activists in various districts for spreading religious discord. Since then, however, 49 cases have been filed against the group. SIMI national general secretary Safdar Nagori, an Ujjain resident in his 40s, has been absconding since the ban. “He has cases against him of spreading religious discord since 1997-98,” Ajay Kumar Sharma, a Deputy Inspector General of Police, said. Since the ban, 180 SIMI activists have been arrested from across the State. And since April 2006, five SIMI members, including two women, have been taken into custody in Khandwa, four in Burhanpur and one each in Jabalpur and Ujjain.

 

Membership, Influence and Activities

 

Opposed to democracy, secularism and nationalism, SIMI has been advocating among its followers - some 400 ansars (full-time cadres) and the 20,000 ordinary members - the need to oppose "man-made" institutions and work for the Ummah.

Students up to the age of 30 years are eligible to be its members and after completing this age-limit they retire from the organization.

SIMI cadres consider Osama bin Laden as a ‘true believer of Islam’ and regard him as an epitome of ‘Islamic Hero’. According to Safdar Nagori, a prominent SIMI leader, bin Laden is "not a terrorist" and neither is Jammu and Kashmir an "integral part of India." At its congregations, messages and recorded speeches have been relayed from the Palestinian Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yasin and Qazi Hussein Ahmed, chief of the Jamaat-e-Islami in Pakistan.

Official sources have indicated that the SIMI has established links with terrorist outfits and is also supporting extremism/militancy in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere. The outfit is reported to have published objectionable posters and literature, which are intended to incite communal feelings and which question the territorial integrity of India.

Shaheen Force, the outfit’s wing for schoolchildren, seeks to "protect the children from present-day misguidance and vices" and keeps them "under the shade of Islamic culture". The outfit also has a wing that aims to channelise the talent of girls for the Islamist cause.

SIMI reportedly operates many special programmes for students of Arabic colleges and Islamic universities. Students receive training and other assistance in the study of languages and Islamic sciences. According to the SIMI, renaissance of the Ummah depends on Islamic scholars because the community can attain its glory only when it will be led and guided by sincere Ulema (scholars).

According to the SIMI, Israelis were responsible for the 9/11 attacks in New York. According to a press release issued by its secretary-general Safdar Nagori after 9/11, "there are strong reasons to believe that the recent attacks may be a conspiracy of the Zionist Israel, which is rapidly losing world support because of its inhuman and terrorist activities in Palestine."

 

Publications

 

SIMI publishes several magazines in various languages, including Vivekam in Malayalam, Sedhi Madal in Tamil, Rupantar in Bengali, Iqraa in Gujarati, Tahreek in Hindi, Al Harkah in Urdu and the Shaheen Times.

 

http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/terroristoutfits/simi.htm

 

Gujarat is a sensitive state. The current Indian government dismantled a series of anti-terror laws the previous government had enacted. They’ll be under tremendous pressure to reverse their decision.

These blasts were caused by detonators planted in different areas of both cities. If they wanted to make something much more massive, they would have used explosives like RDX, etc. I suspect and fear this was a taunt and a hint to something larger than this.

Gujarat is known for violent revenge against Muslims.

"There is no outfit called ''Indian Mujahideen'"

May 15, 2008 16:09 IST
Last Updated: May 15, 2008 16:42 IST

The Indian Mujahideen has claimed responsibility for the Jaipur blasts. This is the second time that the name of this lesser known outfit is coming to the forefront. The first time that the country heard of this outfit was during the Uttar Pradesh court blasts in November last year.

The Indian Mujahideen had in an email claimed responsibility for the UP blasts. Though investigating agencies probed into the antecedents of this new outfit, finally they came to the conclusion that the blasts were undertaken by HuJI.

Sources in the Intelligence Bureau told rediff.com that the Indian Mujahideen is a creation of the Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jihadi and the rejuvenated banned outfit, SIMI.

When the HuJI roped in SIMI to carry out logistic work for it in India, it was also decided that they would use two pseudo names to claim responsibility after the attack. While Indian Mujahideen was one of the names, the other was Guru Alhindi.

Investigators looking into the Hyderabad and the UP blasts which are similar in nature told rediff.com that though the Indian Mujahideen has claimed responsibility, they have not found any traces of this outfit.  None of the material had mentioned the name of Indian Mujahideen.

It was during the interrogations that took place in Karnataka where seven suspected terrorists were arrested did the name Indian Mujahideen figure for the first time. These persons were questioned about the outfit and they reportedly told the police that it was a pseudonym  used by SIMI activists to divert the police. It was also revealed that for every person in the force, it was mandatory to have five different names.

This is a relatively new ploy by HuJI and SIMI in order to keep their identity concealed.  After the UP blasts, a mail had been sent in the name of Mohammad Shameem, claiming that the Indian Mujahideen had carried out the attack.

Investigations in the case only revealed that Shameem was a HuJI operative involved in the recruitment of youth in the North. The IB also says that by concealing their identity, they also avoid international pressure which has stepped up the war on terror. Hence by floating pseudo names, not only do they distract the police from the main line of investigation, but keep the heat low on themselves.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/may/15rajblast9.htm

 

Serial blasts in Ahmedabad

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Serial_blasts_in_Ahmedabad_15_dead/articleshow/3283744.cms

AHMEDABAD: Close on the heels of Bangalore serial blasts, serial blasts rocked Ahmedabad on Saturday evening leaving two killed and several injured. (Watch)

The low-intensity explosions occurred at eight areas of Maninagar, Isanpur, Narol circle, Bapunagar, Hatkeshwar and Sarangpur bridge, Sarkej and Odhav and created a wave of panic.

There were two blasts in Maninagar and the first blast occurred in this area at 6.45 PM. The second blast here occurred near LG hospital. Maninagar is the constituency of Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

The Ahmedabad blasts came a day after the multiple explosions in Bangalore in which two persons were killed.

Police said at least two had died and 25 injured, some of them seriously, in the blasts. The injured have been rushed to civil hospital and LG hospital.

Union Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal said in New Delhi there were eight blasts. Unconfirmed reports said there were 13 blasts.

The explosion in the sensitive Sarkej area occurred in a CNG bus.

Some of the bombs were believed to have been placed in cycles eerily similar to the Jaipur blasts on May 13 in which 65 persons died. A couple of bombs were reported to have been placed in tiffin boxes in a modus operandi similar to the explosions outside a Lucknow court last year.

President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the blasts and appealed for calm.

Minutes before blasts, email said: ‘Stop us if you can’

http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/jul/26ahd3.htm

July 26, 2008 21:25 IST

Minutes before the Ahmedabad serial blasts, an email was sent to the Gujarat police which is now in the possession of the Intelligence Bureau. It read: Stop us if you can.

Intelligence Bureau officials told rediff.com that the email had been sent out by the Indian Mujahideen, a less known outfit which was slowly trying to spread its tentacles in the country.

The Indian Mujahideen in its email also said its intention was to cause panic and fight political outfits which were opposed to Islam. The mail further read, ‘We the Indian Mujahideen have carried out attacks and will continue to do so. Stop us if you can.’

The first time the Indian Mujahideen came into the limelight was during the Uttar Pradesh blasts in November 2007. Immediately after that a mail had been sent out by the outfit claiming responsibility for the blasts. The police, however, had dismissed the mail as a prank and continued to look for a Harkat ul Jihad e Islami-Lashkar e Tayiba link to the blasts.

The second time the outfit was in the news was during the Jaipur blasts in May this year when it claimed it was behind the incident.

The IB says the latest email shows that the Indian Mujahideen was behind Friday’s blasts too, and the Bangalore police is trying to ascertain the similarities between the two blasts.

IB officers told rediff.com that in both cases the intention was not to cause casualties but to create a scare. The mail also says the outfit’s intention is to fight governments which it feels is anti-Muslim. In both Karnataka and Gujarat the BJP is in power.

So who are the Indian Mujahideen?

The IB says the outfit was floated by a couple of youth from Hyderabad’s Old City, as a faction of the Students Islamic Movement of India.

With the arrest of SIMI’s top leaders in Indore, the Indian Mujahideen has been given the responsibility of carrying out terror strikes. Although the outfit is not as professional as SIMI it is capable of creating chaos, sources said.

Immediately after the UP blasts, the Indian Mujahideen was deliberately pushed to the forefront by SIMI and HuJI as the heat on them was growing.

If so, then I suspect it will have plenty to do with the fact that Apple implements touch gestures in addition to simple pointing. HP's technology is basically a substitute for a mouse cursor. As it stands right now, Apple's implementation on the iPhone/iPod Touch and MacBook Air is better than HP's implementation on their iMac clone. That could change.

http://www.dell.com/tablet?s=biz&cs=555

 

Better sensing technology- incorporates both capacitive and electro-magnetic field technologies by N-Trig for responsive finger-based, multi-touch gesture input, and highly accurate, pressure-sensitive, stylus-based active matrix input respectively.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waZj4NpT4-o

 

 

The LTTE did have a major grudge against India when one of the prime ministers sent Indian troops to Sri Lanka to enforce a truce. He got assassinated for it.

Years after that, the LTTE had openly come out to regret the assassination.