1. black box found. what will it say? let us hope the box is recovered without incident. so many experts around…
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and the French body for civil aviation security Bureau D’Enquetes et D’Analyses (BEA) have sent experts to join a team investigating the tragedy. The search operation has been led by Lebanese navy troops, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) as well as US navy destroyer the USS Ramage and a civilian boat from Cyprus with sonar equipment.
2. Headley pleads not guilty, said to be cooperating with investigators
CHICAGO - AN AMERICAN pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to US charges that he scouted targets for a militant Pakistani group blamed for the attack on Mumbai in 2008 that killed more than 160 people. David Headley, 49, has been cooperating with US investigators since his arrest in October….
Headley, who was born in the United States but spent several years in Pakistan, has previously pleaded not guilty to similar charges. His accused co-conspirator, 49-year-old Pakistani-born Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana, entered a not-guilty plea on Monday to charges he provided material support to the plots and to Lashkar. — REUTERS
3. did Headley cut a deal with DoJ? and why does Dana Perino come out of the woodwork all of a sudden??? to support the intelligence services having maximum latitude and political cover at all times, or they can’t do their job and we’ll all be killed.
As Mumbai terror plot accused David Coleman Headley pleaded not-guilty during an arraignment in Chicago, he could become the centrepiece of a debate on how to treat terror suspects in the US. Headley, who was presented before US Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys on Wednesday morning, expectedly entered a plea of not guilty to all the 12 counts of indictment against him.
Just one day before the arraignment former Bush White House press secretary Dana Perino used his case to challenge the Obama administration’s strategy to deal with such cases. The main point of contention of President Barack Obama’s detractors and critics is that in such cases it makes no sense to treat suspects as criminal defendants.
Citing the Obama administration’s supposed argument Perino and Bill Burck, a former federal prosecutor and deputy counsel to president Bush, wrote in the National Review Online: “Most recently, David Headley, who has been indicted in Chicago for helping plan the 2008 Mumbai attacks, has given us information of enormous intelligence value.”
The two then countered it saying: “So the Justice Department has cut a deal with Headley to get him to talk. It will be interesting to see how much prison time will be shaved off for his cooperation. We’ll find out after he pleads guilty and is sentenced. Headley’s deal might give us a preview of how much time the Justice Department is contemplating for Abdulmutallab: 50 years? 20? Two?”
The reference to Abdulmutallab is about Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian who nearly blew up a Delta jet on Dec 25 flying in from Amsterdam.
Perino’s mention of Headley is part of a larger piece titled “Obfuscation after obfuscation” that wonders whether the Obama administration’s statement on Abdulmutallab’s interrogation hides more than it reveals. It is critical of the decision to treat Abdulmutallab as a criminal defendant “with Miranda rights, a decision we now know was made without consulting the intelligence services whose job it is to protect the country from attacks”.
4. Philippines: air force general and 8 others killed in Cotabato City, southern Philippines, near Jolo Island. general stationed in Zamboango City, very near to Jolo Island, where Abu Sayyaf allegedly operates from.
COTABATO CITY, Philippines—(UPDATE 4) An Air Force general and eight other people were killed when a military Nomad plane crashed into a residential area here before noon Thursday, authorities said. Mayor Muslimin Sema said the Nomad plane crashed into at least two houses in Barangay Rosary Heights here around 11:35 a.m., killing all eight passengers, including Maj. Gen. Mario Lacson of the 3rd Air Division based in Zamboanga City.
Gumitom said she heard a loud noise before the plane hit her house.
…Maj. Randolph Cabangbang, spokesperson of the Eastern Mindanao Command, said Lacson and his party were on their way to Zamboanga City. “The plane crashed two minutes after takeoff,” Cabangbang said by phone.
Maj. Gen. Carlix Donila, commander of the 5053rd Search and Rescue Squadron based in Davao City, said moments before the crash the “pilot made a call (to the Cotabato airport tower) and he said ‘power loss.’” Sema said based on witnesses’ account, the plane was trying to land again at the airport after takeoff and appeared to be having “some trouble.” “It was flying in a zig-zag mode and crashed.”
5. tension in Sri Lanka — Colombo also involved in the recent capture of Mohammed Abdul Khwaja, a purported LeT terrorist, who during interrogation made statements that led to the recent terrorist warnings in the UK
COLOMBO - SRI Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse won his second war in a year, crushing an electoral challenge by his former army chief, who was left holed up in a hotel surrounded by troops yesterday. But a defiant General Sarath Fonseka refused to accept the result, which gave Mr Rajapakse 57.9 per cent of the popular vote in Tuesday’s presidential election against his own 40.1 per cent.
He vowed to challenge the result in court because of ‘obvious rigging’. In an apparent effort to dispel the acrimony of the campaign, the 64-year-old President said: ‘From today onwards, I am the President of everyone, whether they voted for me or not.’ He urged Sri Lankans to join together to rebuild the country, which is still recovering from a 26-year civil war with Tamil Tiger rebels that ended last year.
Speaking from the Colombo hotel where he has been encamped since Tuesday evening, Gen Fonseka accused Mr Rajapakse of intimidation and said his staff had received threatening phone calls.
