Archive for category Identities

state sponsored plots in India

1. Kasab trial: as predicted, prosecution blames Pakistan, specifically that Pak Army sponsored Mumbai attacks — state sponsored — that means PAKISTAN, not any other states like maybe India or Israel or the US or the UK.

The 26/11 trial took a new turn on Tuesday with the prosecution stating that Pakistan Army was involved in the Mumbai terror attacks and a serving Major General had supervised their training in LeT camps across the border.

“The conspiracy of the 26/11 attack was hatched on Pakistan soil…It was a classic case of state-sponsored terrorism”, Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said in his final arguments which began in a high-security court at Central Prison here.

Attired in white kurta and pyjama, 22-year-old Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving Pakistani gunman, was seen in the dock covering his face with a handkerchief most of the time. Two other accused, Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed, sat besides him on a bench.

Nikam said Kasab and the nine other slain terrorists had undergone military and intelligence training in Pakistan given by activists of terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and supervised by certain officers of the Pakistan Army….Kasab, he said, was a well trained commando and had also been imparted intelligence training to mislead the court. He had taken U-turns a number of times by making confessions and later retracting them, Nikam said. Alleging that the LeT and the Army were hand-in glove, the prosecution said a deliberate attempt was made by the conspirators to conceal Pakistan’s involvement in the attack.

more @ express india

Kasab has also said that he was framed by the Israelis, and RAW, and interrogated by David Headley, alleged CIA agent. Also note that Ansari’s attorney was assassinated a few weeks before the trial started.

2. more “Pakistani” terror, sailing from Colombo, Sri Lanka, ? “intelligence” sounds the alert leading to big display of police state in Mumbai harbor

On Friday, a red alert was sounded in and around the Mumbai harbour after a central intelligence agency provided fresh inputs that a mystery ship could be heading towards Mumbai from the Colombo harbour

The intelligence points to an attack on warships in the harbour. A group of trained marine commandos has been assigned to carry out the strike.

Coast Guard sources said five patrol vessels had sailed out of Mumbai harbour on the same day to track down the vessel and all ships have been put on high alert. Officially, the Coast Guard have chosen to remain tight-lipped. Its spokesperson, Commandant A Malhotra, refused to furnish details of the alert.

Officials said the ship could be carrying arms for Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives, at the behest of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence. There is a possibility that the crew could pull off a high seas transfer of arms and ammunition.

Coast Guard air stations at Dabolim in Goa and the Union Territory of Daman, about 200 km north of Mumbai, have also been put on alert. Sorties are being flown to assist ships in locating the mystery ship.

The alert follows another sounded in January this year on the heels of another group of trained Pakistani marine commandos planning to strike defencep establishments in and around Mumbai.

This was followed by joint patrolling by the Mumbai police, Coast Guard, Navy, Customs and port officials.

All naval and Coast Guard ships have been placed on high alert and security has been beefed up around defence establishments and ships off Mumbai harbour.

Naval commandos have been deployed round the clock on battleships in docks and entry to defence areas has been restricted to visitors.

source

3. body of 9 year old girl found in police housing colony

The body of a nine-year-old girl was on Sunday discovered on the terrace of a building in the police housing colony in northeast Mumbai, police said.

As the news spread, hundreds of angry city residents from nearby areas marched to the police station in Nehru Nagar and held protests, demanding action against the culprits.

The victim, Anjali Jaiswal, was reported missing after 7.30 pm on Saturday by her family. She was a Class 4 student and lived in a nearby slum.

Her body was discovered by the daughter of an assistant police inspector when she went to hang clothes to dry on the terrace around 10.30 am on Sunday. This created a sensation in the area and several hundred irate residents marched to the police station.

Police declined to reveal further details and the victim’s body, which bore some injury marks, has been sent for an autopsy to Rajawadi Hospital.

An official of the Nehru Nagar police station said a special team had been formed to probe the case.

The victim’s family, however, took strong exception to the police directly sending her body for an autopsy before informing them.

There are around a dozen buildings in the colony housing police personnel from different parts of Mumbai.

source

Philippines

some context for what’s happening in the Philippines:

1. US embassy officials met with MILF rebels, in their very camps, back in November, after they abducted the Irish priest Michael Sinnot. This was around the time that the tungsten gold bars story circulated. Hillary Clinton rushed to the Philippines. from Asia Times:

Despite the row over Sinnot’s kidnapping, senior US Embassy officials in Manila have held clandestine meetings with MILF leaders in their Maguindanao camp. The US Embassy has kept mum on the meetings, but on its website, the MILF confirmed in a statement that it had held talks with a visiting group of American diplomats led by the US Embassy charge d’affaires, Leslie Basset, on October 16. Lasting for two hours, the meeting “was warm and forthright”, the MILF said and quoted Basset as saying that the US was willing to play a role in the peace talks. “Helping attain and sustain peace, security and development in Mindanao is a priority concern of our government,” the MILF quoted Bassett as saying.

pretty cozy, huh?

2. as covered here earlier, a whistleblower testified to the US military having permanent structures, unmonitored by the Filipino government, in the Southern Philippines, in violation of the Philippine Constitution, and that the US military behaves with arrogance toward the Filipinos.

In her affidavit, Gadian also accused the US military of building permanent structures in different military camps in the country. She said US forces have established “permanent” and “continuous” presence in Zamboanga, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi in the south. She added that the Philippine military has no access to the camps built by the US soldiers in these areas since they are “fenced off by barbed wires and guarded by US Marines.” Gadian likewise said these structures are indications the US troops had no intention of leaving the country, which is a violation of the Philippine Constitution….The ex-Navy official also complained of the “arrogant” behavior of many US military officers toward Filipinos.

pretty suspicious, huh?

So taking official pronouncements at face value,  here’s two stupid QUESTIONS… why doesn’t the MILF control it’s people, since the MILF has such a good relationship with the government… and what is the US military doing holed up illegally in the same area of the Philippines as the Abu Sayyaf?


3. NOW: over 10 dead in Abu-MILF raid on village

ZAMBOANGA CITY – (UPDATE 3) At least 11 people – including two children – were killed when suspected Moro rebels and Abu Sayyaf bandits stormed a village in Maluso, Basilan early Saturday, authorities said. The police corrected its initial report of 13 killed in the 5:45 a.m. attack staged by more or less 70 gunmen led by Puruji Indama in the village of Tubigan, Senior Superintendent Antonio Mendoza Jr., Basilan police chief, said by phone.

…Mendoza said the gunmen, including Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) members, razed at least five houses during the attack. The attack on Tubigan came barely nine hours after authorities rescued the two Chinese nationals that Indama’s group had abducted in November, along with a local. The local, Marquez Singson, had been beheaded.

Mendoza said the gunmen immediately fled to Barangay (village) Libug in Sumisip town after the attack and were being pursued by the police and elements of the Army and the Marines. Founded in the early 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden, the Abu Sayyaf is blamed for a series of bombings and kidnappings targeting foreign missionaries, Christians, and US military advisers based in the south.

They have also carried out the worst terror attacks in Philippine history such as the 2004 bombing of a passenger ferry in Manila Bay that killed more than 100 people. Indama was an obscure Abu Sayyaf commander who gained prominence after he and other Muslim militants attacked a military convoy, killing and mutilating 14 Marines in 2007. The military says fewer than 400 Abu Sayyaf members remain active in the islands of Basilan and Jolo, down from a peak of about 1,200 in 2002. Government forces recently scored a string of victories over the Abu Sayyaf in Jolo Island, south of Basilan, and last week captured a bomb-maker and killed top commander Albader Parad, and five of his men.

more @ inquirer

4. missionary recounts captivity

Held hostage for 376 days by the Islamic terrorist group Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines, Gracia Burnham doesn’t seem to tire of recounting the time she and her husband spent in the jungle with their kidnappers. It was the last year of her husband’s life. Burnham conducted a three-day lecture series this week at Southeastern Bible College, discussing mission work, terrorism and her personal experiences.

The kidnapping happened May 27, 2001, less than four months before the 9/11 terrorist hijackings in the United States, and her captors considered themselves aligned with al-Qaeda, Burnham said. “A few were bent on jihad,” she said. Some others, including a 9-year-old boy and others recruited from villages against their will, may not have had much choice.

…Burnham returned to the Philippines in 2004 to testify against some of her former captors, under heavy security. Twenty-four of the captors, out of a group of about 80, are in a maximum-security prison in Manila, she said.

She got a call this month from the U.S. Office for Victims of Crime, informing her that another one had been apprehended on Feb. 18. Jumadail Arad, known to the Burnhams as “Hurayra,” had been their closest friend and kindest captor among the Abu Sayyaf, she said. Burnham remembers talking to her husband about how he would treat Hurayra if they escaped and he one day showed up at their door in Rose Hill, Kan. “I would invite him in, cook him a big meal and then call the FBI,” she recalls him saying.

Abu Sayyaf leader Khadafi Abubakar Janjalani, one of Burnham’s captors, bragged of talking with Bin Laden by satellite phone, according to an Associated Press report. Burnham said her conversations with Abu Sayyaf leaders showed that they at least believed themselves to be part of a global effort, not a ragtag band of kidnappers. “People in America don’t understand,” she said. “Their basic goal is world domination.”

read more @ ai.com


5. UNICEF: Philippines has a terrible child trafficking problem, and it’s because of the poor ignorant people ya hear? nothing to do with corrupt officials or military or wealthy people in the cities or anything like that, who drive DEMAND. it never has to do with the demand side of the equation, only the supply side. they keep studying the problem, studying and studying, and they can never seem to work their way around to figuring out who moves the children around and where they end up. well actually, they know the children are moved from rural to urban, and for what purposes (sex, pornography, labor), but if they tackled that end it might get a few connected people in trouble. so instead they keep talking about the ignorant poor parents. it’s their fault, see?

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - A United Nations agency has identified the Philippines as one of the seven countries in Asia with the worst child trafficking condition.

A study by the UN Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) entitled “Child Trafficking in East and Southeast Asia: Reversing the Trend,” said that throughout East and South East Asia, various socio-economic, family and individual factors render children vulnerable to trafficking.

These factors are poverty, family breakdown, the low status and role of children in their societies, lack of educational and viable employment opportunities, rapid economic growth and urbanization, gender inequality, discrimination, and the demand for illegal adoption, brides and sexual relations with children.

...It noted that the problem of child trafficking has yet to be stemmed amid the best efforts by the governments and aid agencies.

…In a region where the demand for young brides, adoptive infants, sex with children, images of child pornography, and cheap labor is strong, the study said children may be trafficked at source or during migration, either en route or after reaching their destination.

It noted that origin, transit and destination countries for child trafficking exist throughout the East and South East Asian region, with some countries characterized as origin and destination, transit and destination, and others encompassing all three.

Internal trafficking, from rural to urban centers, and from small towns to big cities, is also a considerable dynamic, although less researched in comparison to cross-border trafficking, it said.

In some countries, such as the Philippines, the country assessment indicated that internal trafficking is more of a problem than its cross-border form. “In the Philippines, children are mainly trafficked from the rural regions of Visayas and Mindanao to the urban cities of Cebu City, Manila and Quezon City,” the study said.

more here

their arrogance knows no bounds

1. the UK knew in advance that Israel would use stolen UK passports for a hit. israel knew in advance that this little kabuki of the UK slapping israel’s wrist would have to take place and look believable.

The British MI6 intelligence agency was tipped off by Mossad that Israeli agents were going to carry out an ‘overseas operation’ using fake UK passports, the Daily Mail reported Friday morning.

According to the UK newspaper, a British security source quoted a Mossad agent as saying that “the British Government was told very, very briefly before the operation what was going to happen.” The source explained that the tip-off was not a request for permission to use British passports but more a ‘courtesy call’ to inform British security services that ‘a situation’ might blow up. “There was no British involvement and they didn’t know the name of the target. But they were told these people were traveling on UK passports,” he was quoted as telling the Daily Mail.

The Daily Mail report came several hours after a 20-minute meeting in London between Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor and a senior British diplomat on Thursday, over the fake British passports apparently used in the assassination of Hamas military commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai. The report hinted that Israeli intelligence chiefs understood British authorities would have to ’slap them on the wrist’ and reportedly added: “The British government has to be seen to be going through the motions.”


jpost: http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=169139

2. daily mail story:

The Israeli agent rejected suggestions that intelligence-sharing between the two nations might be damaged.

He said Mossad was handling several sources within the UK Muslim community and added: ‘There is no question of jeopardising that information flow.’

The revelation of a ‘tip-off’ came after Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor was ‘invited’ to the Foreign Office and asked to co-operate fully with the inquiry into the forged passports by the Serious Organised Crime Agency.

Some people think that Mossad, MI6 and the CIA are trying to destabilise Dubai.Dubai’s aim is to make money from helping Iran to beat sanctions.

“Now the Americans (or the Israelis – you can take your pick) want to turn Dubai into the Beirut of the Gulf. That was actually a headline last week – in The Jerusalem Post, of course – which painted Dubai as dangerous as it was economically calamitous.” (Robert Fisk: Passport to the truth in Dubai remains secret )

3. meanwhile, in the most brazen display of greed and hubris i think i’ve ever seen, 85 victims of Hizbullah sue Iran’s top banks

In the first such case, 85 American, Israeli and Canadian victims of Hizbullah rocket attacks have filed a lawsuit against Iran’s leading banks.
The suit, Kaplan v. Central Bank of Iran, was filed in federal court in Washington, D.C. and seeks $1 billion in compensatory damages and an unspecified sum of punitive damages.

The plaintiffs, whose family members were killed or who were themselves injured by rockets fired at Israel by Hizbullah between July 12 and August 14, 2006, allege that Iran’s Central Bank and Bank Saderat provided the Shiite group with “over $50 million in financial support in the years prior to the attacks with the specific intent of facilitating Hizbullah terrorist attacks against American and Israeli targets,” the Israel Law Center, which helped bring the suit, said.

The plaintiffs rest their claims in part on an explicit October 25, 2007 finding by the U.S. Treasury that between 2001 and 2006 Bank Saderat transferred funds from the CBI via Bank Saderat, PLC in London to Hizbullah “to support acts of terrorism.”

naharnet

THIS IS STRAIGHT OUT OF THE JAMES WOOLSEY INTERVIEW AT HERZLIYA, AND HILLARY CLINTON’S SUBSEQUENT BABBLING ABOUT THE REVOLUTIONARY GUARD IN IRAN. IT ALL QUICKLY BECAME US POLICY IN ABOUT A WEEK’S TIME.

4. meanwhile, in a brazen insult to the world’s intelligence, the Ethiopian plane crash is officially caused by HUMAN ERROR. they give us the pilot’s last words. no mention of anything else he might have said up to that point. oh and the pilot ‘made a move’ that made him gradually lose control of the plane, and it remained intact until it hit the water.


A preliminary report said “human error” was the cause of the deadly Ethiopian Airlines plane crash into the Mediterranean Sea last month and that the last words the pilot said to his co-pilot: “We’re finished … God have mercy on us.”
Flight 409 bound for Addis Ababa crashed into sea off the coast of Naameh minutes after takeoff from Beirut airport early in the morning of Jan. 25, killing all 90 people on board.

Pending the outcome of the official report, which is to be announced by the Lebanese government sometime next week, the daily As-Safir on Friday uncovered outlines of the preliminary report.

As-Safir said the investigation team probing the plane crash incident retuned to Beirut from Paris on Thursday and handed over the report to Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

The plane’s two black boxes — data flight recorder and cockpit voice recorder – were separately retrieved among the wreckage and flown to France for analysis by BEA, a French agency that specializes in assisting with technical investigations of air crashes.

As-Safir quoted a reliable source at France’s Aviation Accidents Investigation bureau as saying that the cockpit voice recorder has revealed that the last words the pilot said were: “We’re finished … God have mercy on us.”

The pilot was speaking in Amharic, a Semitic language spoken in North Central Ethiopia.

Audio recordings revealed that the pilot asked the co-pilot to follow instructions by Beirut airport control tower, only to find out that his assistance either did not heed to the orders or did the opposite.

This prompted the pilot to take a move which made him gradually lose control of the plane, the voice recorder showed.

The report said the jet remained intact until it hit water.

Cabinet, furthermore, did not take any decision to close the file on the plane crash incident pending an official report from the Lebanese Army about the search for remains of the remaining victims.

naharnet

set the table

gadget-crock-pot-programmable-vers

follow the finger to the philippines - 1/18/10

foreshadowing - 1/19/10

abu sayyaf: ready to come out of the crockpot - 1/20/10


1. Abu Sayyaf militant captured, linked to 9 year old kidnapping and murders of westerners. with links to aq and JI, let’s see if he talks about the Karachi Project…

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Feb. 19, 2010) – Philippine authorities arrested a wanted Abu Sayyaf militant accused of kidnapping three US citizens and 17 Filipino tourists at a posh resort nine years ago.

Security officials said Jumadali Arad was arrested late Thursday afternoon while trying to board a passenger ship bound for Zamboanga City.

Arad was among those who raided the Dos Palmas resort in Palawan province near central Philippines in 2001 and kidnapped US missionary couple, Martin and Gracia Burnham, and California man Guillermo Sobero and the Filipinos, and brought them to Basilan province, south of Zamboanga City in the southern Philippines.

Guillermo Sobero was beheaded in 2001 in Basilan while Martin Burnham was shot and killed in 2002 during a US-led military rescue operation in Mindanao. Gracia Burnham was also shot and wounded during the rescue operation.

“The arrest of Arad is part of the military’s continuing operation against terrorism,” said Army First Lieutenant Steffani Cacho, a regional military spokeswoman.

The Abu Sayyaf, which means “bearer of the sword, has been linked to many kidnappings of foreigners and terrorism in the southern Philippines and was linked by authorities to the al-Qaeda terror network of Osama bin Laden and the Indonesian Jemaah Islamiya. (Mindanao Examiner)

source


2. more details: he was going to the southern Philippines, on a mission to buy ammo for abu sayyaf commander Isnilon Hapilon

It said Jumadali Arad was captured at Manila harbour on Thursday as he was about to board a ship bound for the southern Philippines, where the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group has planted bombs and carried out kidnappings despite US-backed military offensives against the militants.

Arad had been in hiding since 2001, when Abu Sayyaf abducted three American and 17 Filipino tourists from the Dos Palmas resort in south-western Palawan province at the start of a year-long kidnapping spree, said marine commandant Major General Juancho Sabban….

Arad, who allegedly drove a speedboat loaded with the hostages during the kidnappings, was reportedly on a mission to buy ammunition for Abu Sayyaf commander Isnilon Hapilon when he was arrested on Thursday, the military said in a statement.

Hapilon has been indicted in the US on kidnapping and murder charges, and Washington offered a US$5 million (S$7.07 million) reward for his capture. — AP

source

3. a little more: those kidnappings 9 years ago JUSTIFIED the US military presence in Southern Philippines. this says there’s no top commander (no mention of Hapilon) and the group has split into at least five factions

The kidnappings and violence prompted Washington to deploy hundreds of troops to the southern Mindanao region, where they have been training Philippine forces and sharing intelligence. U.S. military personnel are not allowed to engage in combat in the Philippines.

Although the government claims to have crippled the Abu Sayyaf after several offensives, the group still poses a major threat. It held three Red Cross workers and several others hostage last year, attacked troops and blew up bridges. A roadside bomb in September killed two U.S. soldiers.

The militants, however, have remained without a central leader following the killings of its top commanders and have split into at least five factions, police said.

source

4. more: navy operatives captured him on the way to Zamboanga City, and he PROMPTLY CONFESSED during arrest! who needs courts.

Operatives of the Navy and Southern Police District arrested Thursday a suspected member of Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim militant group linked with the al-Qaeda, accused in the kidnappings of three Americans and dozens of Filipinos nine years ago, a Navy spokesman reported Friday.
Lt. Col. Edgard Arevalo said  Jumadali Arad was captured at 5:15 p.m. at the gate of Pier 2 in North Harbor, Tondo, Manila, as he was about to board a ship bound for Zamboanga City in Mindanao.

In his arrest, Arad confessed to the kidnappings and admitted being a member of the Abu Sayyaf.

Arad allegedly drove a speedboat loaded with the hostages that included American missionary Gracia Burnham, who survived the jungle captivity, and husband Martin who was killed in the military rescue in 2002. The third American, Guillermo Sobero, was beheaded by the militants on Basilan Island.

source

Philippines Terror SuspectIn this photo taken yesterday and released by the Philippine Navy, Jumadail Arad, a suspected member of the Abu Sayyaf group, is shown after his arrest. AP (source)

(ahem) This man evaded capture by the US military for NINE YEARS. Sure.

5. more: current militant activity — Chinese hostages and homemade bombs. the search for these hostages has led to soldiers dying.

Two soldiers were killed and one wounded on southern Basilan Island on Friday when they tripped the wire on a homemade bomb during an operation to track down militants, said regional commander Rear Adm. Alex Pama.

They are believed to be holding two Chinese workers snatched from a plywood factory last year, Pama said. A third hostage, a Filipino, was beheaded a month after the November abductions.

source

6. regarding Zamboanga City, where he was headed: see this post from 1/28/10

1/28/10: 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.”

more @ enquirer

also see foreshadowing (link up top), which ties Abu Sayyaf and the Philippines to Pakistan, and describes the US military presence in the Southern Philippines, where, supposedly, the are not allowed to engage in fighting against the rebels, but only to help the Philippine military.

  • The US military of building permanent structures in different military camps in the country. She said US forces have established “permanent” and “continuous” presence in Zamboanga, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi in the south.

  • The Philippine military has no access to the camps built by the US soldiers in these areas since they are “fenced off by barbed wires and guarded by US Marines.”

7. meanwhile, 5 Arabic translators arrested over alleged plot to poison the food supply at Fort Jackson military base in South Carolina… blah blah blah PAKISTAN….. blah blah blah MUSLIM….. blah blah blah ARABIC….. blah blah blah FORT HOOD. the army takes these allegations “extremely seriously” even though there is “NO CREDIBLE EVIDENCE to support the allegations.”

FIVE men have been arrested amid a probe into food poisoning at Fort Jackson US military base.

Sources told Fox News the five men were detained in December over allegations that they attempted to poison the food supply at the South Carolina base.

They were all part of the base’s Arabic translation training program, referred to in the army as “Lima 09″. “Each of them uses Arabic as his first language,” one source said. In an earlier report, before the arrests emerged, a military source told Fox News the suspects were Muslims.

CBN News reported that the five arrested men were Islamic and cited a source who said they may have been in contact with five Washington, DC Muslims, who were arrested in December after authorities uncovered their plans to travel to Pakistan to wage jihad against the US.

However, it was unclear whether the men were still in custody.

An ongoing probe into the alleged Fort Jackson plot began two months ago, the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division spokesman Chris Grey told Fox News. The army was taking the allegations “extremely seriously,” Mr Grey said, adding there was “no credible information to support the allegations”.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation told Fox News they were aware of the Fort Jackson investigation, however they said the inquiry would be carried out by the army’s CID. The investigation has surfaced in the wake of a mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas last November, which killed 12 people and wounded 31 others. It was allegedly undertaken by US Army major Nidal Malik Hasan, an American-born Muslim of Palestinian descent, who was serving as a psychiatrist. He has been charged and a prosecution is ongoing.

source

UK colluding with Israel?

by Robert Fisk

Collusion. That’s what it’s all about. The United Arab Emirates suspect – only suspect, mark you – that Europe’s “security collaboration” with Israel has crossed a line into illegality, where British passports (and those of other other EU nations) can now be used to send Israeli agents into the Gulf to kill Israel’s enemies. At 3.49pm yesterday afternoon (Beirut time, 1.49pm in London), my Lebanese phone rang. It was a source – impeccable, I know him, he spoke with the authority I know he has in Abu Dhabi – to say that “the British passports are real. They are hologram pictures with the biometric stamp. They are not forged or fake. The names were really there. If you can fake a hologram or biometric stamp, what does this mean?”

The voice – I know the man and his origins well – wants to talk. “There are 18 people involved in the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Besides the 11 already named, there are two Palestinians who are being interrogated and five others, including a woman. She was part of the team that staked out the hotel lobby.” Two hours later, an SMS arrives on my Beirut phone from Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. It is the same source.

“ONE MORE THING,” it says in capital letters, then continues in lower case. “The command room of the operation was in Austria (sic, in fact, all things are “sic” in this report)… meaning the suspects when here did not talk to each other but thru the command room on separate lines to avoid detection or linking themselves to one another… but it was detected and identified OK??” OK? I ask myself.

My source is both angry and insistent. “We have sent out details of the 11 named people to Interpol. Interpol has circulated them to 188 countries – but why hasn’t Britain warned foreign nations that these people are using passports in these names?” There was more to come.

“We have identified five credit cards belonging to these people, all issued in the United States.” The man will not give the EU nationalities of the extra five – this would make two women involved in Mr Mabhouh’s murder. He said that EU countries were cooperating with the UAE, including the UK. But “not one of the countries we have been speaking to has notified Interpol of the passports used in their name. Why not?”

The source insisted that one of the names on a passport – the name of a man who denies any knowledge of its use – has travelled on it in Asia (probably Indonesia) and EU countries over the past year. The Emirates have proof that an American entered their country in June 2006 on a British passport issued in the name of a UK citizen who was already in prison in the Emirates. The Emirates claim that the passport of an Israeli agent sent to kill a Hamas leader in Jordan was a genuine Canadian passport issued to a dual national of Israel.

Intelligence agencies – who in the view of this correspondent are often very unintelligent – have long used false passports. Oliver North and Robert McFarlane travelled to Iran to seek the release of US hostages in Lebanon on passports that were previously stolen from the Irish embassy in Athens. But the Emirates’ new information may make some European governments draw in their breath – and they had better have good replies to the questions. Intelligence services – Arab, Israeli, European or American – often adopt an arrogant attitude towards those from whom they wish to hide. How could the Arabs pick up on a Mossad killing, if that is what it was? Well, we shall see.

Collusion is a word the Arabs understand. It speaks of the 1956 Suez War, when Britain and France cooperated with Israel to invade Egypt. Both London and Paris denied the plot. They were lying. But for an Arab Gulf country which suspects its former masters (the UK, by name) may have connived in the murder of a visiting Hamas official, this is apparently now too much. There is much more to come out of this story. We will wait to see if there are any replies in Europe.

independent

latin america news

1. charity vaccine clinic chief bagged in trafficking Haitian children — not many degrees of separation between “legitimate” and “criminal”

Admin boss Yis Jean Guerson is responsible for providing medical aid to victims of the January 12 disaster with respected local aid group AST (Association de la Santé Pour Tous - “health for all”).

But, unknown to dedicated colleagues, Guerson secretly heads a child trafficking ring and exploits his position of trust scouring camps for a stock of orphaned, lost and homeless youngsters.

Shockingly Guerson, 31, is also a TEACHER at a local school responsible for guiding and protecting children from the age of three.

But last week - as he gave our undercover reporters a tour of the devastated captal Port-au-Prince with the stench of decaying bodies still hanging in the air - Guerson told us: “Just tell me how many kids you need and what ages you want, boys or girls, and I’ll get them for you no problem.

On Wednesday he lined up eight youngsters ranging from a three-month-old baby to a 13-year old girl for our reporters to choose from. Not once in all our dealings did Guerson ask WHO we were or WHERE the children would end up. In fact he was eager to boost the price to £5,000 EACH by offering his gang’s services in SMUGGLING the kids out of the country. Warning of the danger of trying to do it without his help, Guerson said: “The big problem is you need papers.

We were given Guerson’s name by a guard at a legitimate orphanage called Foundation Blessing Hands in the village of Cotart, 11 miles outside Port-au-Prince. The security man told us: “This place has strict rules for adoption, but there is a man locally who has children that you can take.

After being told we were interested in getting five children and taking them abroad, grasping Guerson quickly abandoned the £65-a-head price tag and demanded $40,000 (£26,000) all in.

When we said that was too much he immediately replied: “I can give you a discount, make it $30,000.” Balding Guerson explained that would include the cost of smuggling them across the border and paperwork appearing to show we had legitimately adopted the children.

...Guerson apologised that he had only managed to find three children to inspect because the rest were at a clinic being immunised. It was then he revealed his job with the AST charity which runs a vaccination programme for youngsters.

more @ news of the world

2. Spain, US want Latin America to assume ‘global role’

MADRID – Spain and the United States agreed Monday on the need for Latin America to assume a role of “global interlocutor” to participate in overcoming problems like the economic crisis and confronting challenges like climate change.

The Spanish secretary of state for Ibero-America, Juan Pablo de Laiglesia and Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela met in Madrid.

The two officials particularly discussed issues like the humanitarian situation in earthquake-stricken Haiti and the political crisis in Honduras, as well as cooperation between the United States and the European Union on Latin America.

more @ latin american herald tribune

3. four human heads found in Mexico

MEXICO CITY – The heads of four people were found in Mexico, but the bodies have not been recovered yet, state officials said.

Three of the heads were found in the northwestern state of Sinaloa and the fourth turned up in the southern state of Guerrero.

Three of the heads were discovered Tuesday at 7:00 a.m. in front of a restaurant and a school in Palmillas, a town in Sinaloa, a spokesman for the state Attorney General’s Office told Efe.

Initial indications are that the victims were three unidentified young men, the AG’s office spokesman said.

The killers only left behind the heads, shocking the town, a Palmillas police department spokesman told Efe.

…The head belonged to “a person of the masculine gender, with a dark complexion, whose hair was shaved off and his facial skin removed, and a piece of cardboard with a message was left,” the Guerrero Public Safety Secretariat said. The body has not yet been recovered and authorities have not released the contents of the message.

Mexico has been plagued in recent years by drug-related violence blamed on powerful cartels that are battling for turf and control of the smuggling routes into the United States. Mexico’s most powerful drug trafficking organizations, according to experts, are the Sinaloa, Tijuana, Gulf, Juarez and Beltran Leyva cartels, and La Familia Michoacana. Los Zetas, a group of army special forces veterans and deserters who initially worked as hitmen for the Gulf cartel, may now be operating as a cartel, some experts say.


The state is currently the scene of a bloody turf war between Joaquin “El Chapo” (Shorty) Guzman and the Beltran Leyva cartel, whose leaders broke off from his Sinaloa cartel.

The Sinaloa organization, sometimes referred to by officials as the Pacific cartel, is the oldest drug cartel in Mexico and Guzman, considered extremely violent, is one of the most-wanted criminals in Mexico and the United States, where the Drug Enforcement Administration has offered a reward of $5 million for him. President Felipe Calderon, who took office in December 2006, has deployed 50,000 soldiers and 20,000 federal police nationwide to combat drug cartels and other criminal organizations. The anti-drug operation, however, has failed to put a dent in the violence due, according to experts, to drug cartels’ ability to buy off the police and even high-ranking officials. EFE

source: latin american herald tribune

Mumbai terrorists: unrecognizable faces

also see my post: unclaimed property for additional context

also see this long post by C. Story, which contains information allegedly given to Bob Chapman by a former, high-ranking member of the CIA, retired, which describes, among many other things, that peeling faces off of people is a calling card of certain intelligence operatives. scroll down to: THE CATASTROPHE, COURTESY OF THE CORRUPTION OF TENET, CHENEY AND BUSH

4. Colombian authorities nab 10 FARC rebels near Venezuelan border

BOGOTA – Colombian authorities captured 10 FARC guerrillas in several operations in Norte de Santander province, which borders on Venezuela, the Colombian government said Tuesday….All the people captured are accused of belonging to the financial and military network of the FARC and they will be turned over to the appropriate authorities to define their legal situation with an eye toward future prosecution or adjudication.

more @ latin american herald tribune

5. date unknown, maybe 2007: the mystery of Eugene Island 330  and self-renewing oil supplies

Look what i found on the Net about Self Renewing Oil Supplies Field. Quite an interesting articles and please share your thought.

Eugene Island is an oil field in the gulf of Mexico, 80 miles off the coast of Louisiana. It was discovered in 1973 and began producing 15,000 barrels of oil a day which then slowed to about 4,000 barrels in 1989.

But then for no logical reason whatsoever, production spiked back up to 13,000 barrels a day.

What the researchers found when they analyzed the oil field with time lapse 3-D seismic imaging is that there was an unexplained deep fault in the bottom corner of the computer scan, which showed oil gushing in from a previously unknown deep source and migrating up through the rock to replenish the existing supply.

Furthermore, the analysis of the oil now being produced at Eugene Island shows that its age is geologically different from the oil produced there after the refinery first opened. Suggesting strongly that it is now emerging from a different, unexplained source.

The last estimates of probable reserves shot up from 60 million barrels to 400 million barrels.

Both the scientists and geologists from the big oil companies have seen the evidence and admitted that the Eugene Island oil field is refilling itself.

Odd Reservoir Off Louisiana Prods Oil Experts to Seek a Deeper Meaning
By CHRISTOPHER COOPER
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

This completely contradicts peak oil theory and with technology improving at an accelerating pace it seems obvious that there are more Eugene Islands out there waiting to be discovered. So the scientific community needs to embrace these possibilities and lobby for funding into finding more of these deep source replenishing oilfields.

The existence of self-renewing oil fields shatters the peak oil myth. If oil is a naturally replenishing inorganic substance then how can it possibly run out?

source: offshoreman


terrorist activity news: some narratives progress, others trail off

Narrative progresses in Southeast Asia, West Africa, Pakistan: drug trafficking, Abu Sayyaf, JI, al qaeda, attacks on Westerners…

1. JI terrorist Dulmatin resurfaces on Jolo, Philippines - Abu Sayyaf — same area that US forces use wo/oversight

MANILA - AN ISLAMIST militant accused of being behind the deadly 2002 Bali bombings is alive and hiding in the southern Philippines despite earlier reports of his death, a senior military official said on Tuesday.

Dulmatin, leader of the regional militant group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), was not killed in a clash in 2008 as the military initially believed, said Major General Juancho Sabban, the head of the Philippine Marines.

‘I believe, from what my sources say, he is still in Sulu,’ Maj. Gen. Sabban told reporters, referring to the southern chain of islands in the south including Jolo, a hotbed of Islamist militants.

He also said that another JI militant, Umar Patek, is also believed to be hiding in the Sulu islands and is being sheltered by the Abu Sayyaf, a local Muslim extremist group linked by intelligence agencies to the Al-Qaeda network.

Dulmatin, accused of helping the JI plan and carry out the Bali bombings that killed 202 people in the Indonesian resort island, was initially believed to have been killed by the military in the southern Philippines in January 2008. However DNA tests of the body of the slain man raised doubts that it was Dulmatin.

Patek and Dulmatin, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, have been hiding out in the Philippine jungle with the Abu Sayyaf group since 2003, intelligence officials have said. The US State Department has offered a reward of US$10 million (S$14 million) for information leading to the arrest of Dulmatin, and $1 million for Patek. — AFP

source: straits times

2. 2 Malaysians abducted in Borneo, affirming warning given by US authorities last month

KOTA KINABALU (Malaysia) - MALAYSIAN police said on Monday that two men have been abducted by gunmen near a Borneo town which the United States warned last month was being targeted by criminal and terrorist groups.

Noor Rashid Ibrahim, police chief in Sabah state, said the maritime border with the Philippines, which lies to the north of Borneo, had been sealed off to prevent the gunmen from escaping.

He said that the two abducted men, Malaysians working at a seaweed farm near the fishing town of Semporna were seized in the early hours of Monday by five men armed with two rifles. ‘Based on police investigation, the group is believed to be comprised of foreigners and locals out to commit robbery,’ he told reporters.

Mr Noor Rashid declined to say which country they came from, and also sidestepped questions over whether they were from the Abu Sayyaf militant group which is active in the southern Philippines.

The US embassy in Kuala Lumpur had warned that there were indications of strikes being planned in isolated areas of eastern Sabah state, including the diving resort of Sipadan as well as the destinations of Semporna and Mabul.

Mr Noor Rashid said that the two kidnapped men were a 40-year-old manager and a 25-year-old farm supervisor. He said their abductors arrived in a narrow-hulled boat and were believed to still be in Malaysian waters. — AFP

source: straits times

3. Malians face cocaine charges in the US: drug trafficking, FARC, al qaeda, Europe, West Africa

Three men have been charged with plotting to transport tons of cocaine across Africa with the help of Al Qaeda. The three defendants all of them from Mali, were arrested in Ghana on Wednesday and flown to the United States on Thursday night. The men said that they were helping some people set up a trafficking network to move what they thought was FARC’s cocaine from Ghana to the deserts of North Africa to Spain.

The 3 whose names were given as Oumar Issa, Harouna Touré and Idriss Abelrahman, were charged with conspiracy to commit narco-terrorism and conspiracy to provide material support to terrorist groups: Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and the FARC.

According to the charges, the men were alleged to be members of a criminal organization operating in the West African countries of Togo, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Mali and that they worked with Al Qaeda groups in the region which ultimately promised to provide security for the North African leg of the journey. According to the New York Times, the three men were charged under statutes passed in 2006 that gave federal drug agents the authority to pursue narcotics and terrorism crimes committed anywhere in the world if a link between a drug offense and a specified act of terrorism or terrorist group could be established.

source: Newstime Africa

4. Plot foiled to bomb Americans in Pakistan hotel — police get testy with reporters

LAHORE—Pakistan police claimed Monday to have arrested six suspects, including a would-be suicide bomber, who were plotting to attack a five-star hotel and kill Americans. Police recovered an explosive-laden suicide vest fitted with 26 hand grenades during the operation in Lahore, the country’s second-biggest city, senior police superintendent Zulfikar Hameed told a news conference.

Police in Pakistan, which is under huge US pressure to do more to root out Islamist militants, routinely claim to foil high-profile attacks, most often in Karachi, but rarely release any details of the alleged plots. It is not possible to confirm the alleged plots independently.

The six suspects were paraded at the news conference wearing black masks to hide their identity….

Police also recovered four kilograms (nine pounds) of hashish, he added.

But officers angrily called a swift end to the news conference after a television reporter snatched away a hood, unmasking one of the suspects.

“If you behave like this we will not invite media in the future,” one police inspector said.

more @ inquirer

5. India: asks officers to please not speak to reporters there are too many leaks!

CBI officials are not allowed to interact with the media under their service rules. Only the CBI director and the chief PRO is allowed to interact with reporters and share details of stories. Journalists are not allowed to carry mobile phones, camera, laptop and other electronic gadgets inside the CBI headquarters at the CGO complex in New Delhi.

A new circular issued by the top brass of the agency has asked the officers to refrain from speaking to the media.

The agency sleuths are anyway not supposed to talk to the press under the service rules laid down for them, so why the circular?”The directions are against any particular group of mediapersons or individuals. It is only meant to alert the officials from some fake journalists who can misuse the information imparted to them,” explained an official spokesperson for the top investigating agency.

CBI sources told MiD DAY that though no such journalist has been encountered by the agency, so far but the circular seems a clear effort to “safeguard the secrets better.” While contents of the circular, issued last week, is being guarded as a much-valued secret, sources said it is “very clear and categorical in nature.”

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, highly-placed officials in the CBI headquarters told the agency has already been under fire from various quarters for cases under its investigation, the word of caution would help the agency to stem bad publicity. They also pointed out that the notice is “actually about mediapersons who could be trying to do sting operations on cases being investigated by the CBI.”

“Recently, the agency came under public scrutiny after news reports related to Sant Singh Chatwal. Though public enjoy such investigative stories but sometimes the repercussions are very hard on the CBI officials related to that particular case. It is assumed that the story leaked from their end,” said a senior CBI official, requesting anonymity.

Sant Singh Chatwal whose name appeared in the latest list of Padma awardees was later discovered as a multiple offender who has been under CBI scanner for cases of fraud against him. Earlier the CBI had earned public ire for its probe into cases against Bofors kickbacks accused Ottavio Quattrocchi. “Of late the department became a subject of ridicule on issues like Bofors, Nithari, kidney transplant racket, Arushi double murder case and Ruchika Girhotra molestation case. It is assumed that officers connected to the cases leak information to the media and hence the notice,” the officer said.

source: mid-day

Narrative limps along slowly in Mexico shooting cases: drug trafficking, gunmen escape and reportedly go on to kill others, arrests of a few people around the edges. evidently some people are supposed to get away with murder.

1. a suspected lookout arrested in attack that killed 15 youth in Ciudad Juarez

Reporting from Mexico City — Authorities in the border city of Ciudad Juarez said on Tuesday night that they had arrested a man suspected of taking part in a shooting attack on a high-school party that killed at least 15 people early Sunday.

Officials summoned reporters to see the suspect, who said in their presence that the main Juarez-based drug cartel targeted the party because it had received reports that members of a rival trafficking group were in attendance.

The suspect, identified as Jose Dolores Arroyo Chavarria, said he acted as a lookout for the 24 or so gunmen he said took part. He said they were ordered to kill everyone inside.

Authorities said they arrested the suspect Monday afternoon after army troops interrupted the planned assassination of a drug rival. Killed during that gunfight was one of the men who allegedly supervised the assault on the party, in which dozens of young people packed a private home.

Officials said some of the same gunmen are believed to be responsible for the killings of four people Monday at a dance hall.

Authorities in the state of Chihuahua on Tuesday gave the number of dead as 15, though a day earlier they had said 16 died, a figure corroborated by local news reports.

Parents of the slain teens have denied that their children were involved in criminal activity.

source: la times

2. another arrest in the same case

Police have made a second arrest in connection with last weekend’s party massacre which left 15 people dead in the Colonia Salvarcar of Cuidad Juarez. Witnesses at the site of the massacre said they believed one of the “lookouts” for the group of armed men was driving a Jeep Cherokee.

Police said the witnesses gave police a description of the jeep and the license plate number. Police stopped the Jeep Cherokee and arrested the driver, Israel Arzate Melendez, who later confessed to taking part in the massacre. Juarez police say they now know the names of three other suspects.

http://www.foxrio2.com/2nd-shooting-suspect-arrested-in-cuidad-juarez/

3. Salvadore Cabanas case: just unconfirmed rumors (links removed)
Salvador Cabañas: Assailant Captured and Arrested in Sonora? True? Or Rumors?

Al Dia, Costa Rica newspaper, has reported that the Mexican newspaper, Diario Reforma, suggests that Jose Jorge Balderas (aka. JJ or el Modelo), Salvador Cabañas’ assailant, has been captured and arrested by Mexican authorities. Baldera was staying at a local hotel in the Municipality of Puerto Peñasco located in the State of Sonora.

According to Al Dia, it appears that media reports have been confirmed by the State Attorney General’s Office and Notimex, the official Mexican Government News Agency. However, no other governmental office has either confirmed or denied this rumor.

http://www.beautifulfootball.info/2010/02/salvador-caba%C3%B1as-assailant-captured-and-arrested-in-sonora-true-or-rumors.html

the heart attack method: not allowed - updated

1. Dubai’s police chief will issue a warrant for bibi’s arrest if it turns out Mossad assassinated Mahmoud-al-Mabhoub on 1/20/10:

We will issue a warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s arrest if it turns out Israeli intelligence was behind last month’s killing of a Hamas strongman, Army Radio quoted Dubai’s police commissioner on Thursday.

Dubai’s police chief Dahi Halfan referred to the January 20 assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was reportedly responsible for the smuggling of Iranian arms to Gaza.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, will be the first to be wanted for justice as he would have been the one who signed the decision to assassinate [Mahmoud] al Mabhouh in Dubai. We will issue an arrest warrant against him,” Halfan told the U.A.E. site The National.

The Dubai police chief also said that the method used to kill al Mabhouh, was a “Mossad method,” but did not elaborate further.

On Wednesday, Dubai’s police chief warned international intelligence agencies from working “behind our back,” saying anyone who did so “should be wary of his own back.

Halfan added that that threat was also applicable “to any intelligence organization around the world, whether Mossad, Hamas or any other agency.”

The Dubai police chief added that he believed the Hamas leader was in Dubai for business and not for any kind of arms transactions.

Halfan added that if Al-Mabhouh would have been interested in meeting Iranian officials in Dubai, as the Israeli media has claimed, he could have done so in either Syria or Iran itself.

The Dubai police commissioner refused to reveal the identity of the suspects linked to the incident, denying a Hamas claim that the assassins had entered the country by participating in Minister Uzi Landau’s entourage, when he visited Dubai earlier that month.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1147603.html

2. the Mossad method: inject a heart attack drug

Dubai Police said Sunday that at least seven individuals were involved in the murder of a Hamas official in a local hotel last week, and would not rule out the possibility that the Israeli spy agency Mossad had a hand in the attack.

“It could be Mossad, or another party,” police chief Dhahi Khalfan told AFP. “Personally, I don’t exclude any possibility. I don’t exclude any party that has an interest in the assassination.” Khalfan told news agencies on Sunday that the seven primary suspects carried various European passports, but he would not elaborate.

The police have contacted the relevant European nations, said a top commander, in order to glean more information on their identity.

The hit squad that assassinated top Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in his Dubai hotel room injected him with a drug that induced a heart attack, London newspaper The Times reported on Sunday.

A team of assassins broke into al-Mabhouh’s room and killed him silently before photographing all the documents in his briefcase and left a ‘do not disturb’ sign on the door, said the paper quoting unnamed sources in the Middle East.

Latest theories contradict a version of events given last week by Al-Mabhouh’s brother, who told Haaretz that a medical team had determined the cause of death as a massive electric shock sustained to the head. Doctors had also found evidence of strangulation, he said.

Hamas has publicly blamed Israel for the assassination, which occurred only three days after the first ever visit to the Arab Emirates by an Israeli minister.

Mahmoud al-Zahar, one of the group’s leaders and co-founders, claimed Saturday in an interview with Al-Jazeera television that the killers entered Dubai on forged passports as part of the entourage of Uzi Landau, the infrastructure minister, who was attending a regional conference on renewable energy.

Landau has refuted any connection between his visit and the assassination.

The 50-year-old Hamas man’s body was discovered by staff at the luxury Al Bustan Rotana hotel after lunch on January 20. There were no suspicious signs and local doctors diagnosed a heart attack.

But nine days later, blood samples sent to Paris for analysis showed signs of poison and Hamas announced his death and blamed the Israeli agents for the assassination.

Al-Mabhouh, who was the official responsible for arranging arms supplies from Iran to Gaza, was tracked from the moment he boarded Emirates flight EK 912 at Damascus at 10.05 on January 19, the Times reported.

Hamas has since accused Israel of ‘breaking the rules of the game’ by taking its war with Hamas onto foreign territory and vowed to retaliate by targeting Israeli officials in Europe.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1146385.html

3. assassins used IRISH passports. o_O

The assassins of senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was found dead January 20 in Dubai, traveled to the Gulf country using Irish passports, according to a report in the Irish Herald.

Up to seven people were said to have been involved in Mabhouh’s killing, four of whom used Irish passports to enter Dubai and who later fled to a “European country” after the killing, police sources in Dubai told the newspaper.

The report also quotes an Irish Foreign Ministry spokesperson, who said they are trying to determine the veracity of the report.Earlier this week, a preliminary investigation conducted by Hamas suggested that the assassination was likely carried out by agents of an Arab government, and not by Israel’s Mossad spy agency.

When Mabhouh, a senior Hamas official reportedly behind the smuggling of Iranian arms to Gaza, was found dead in his hotel room on January 20, the organization was quick to point the finger at Israeli intelligence, vowing revenge attacks.

Dubai police on Thursday said an arrest warrant could be issued for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if Israel is found to have been involved in the killing.

However, both Hamas and Dubai police have said that Mabhouh had enemies across the Middle East, any of whom may have had a motive for his murder.

A Hamas source told Haaretz on Monday that Mabhouh was wanted by authorities in both Jordan and Egypt, where he previously spent a year in prison.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1147848.html

karachi project and related news

1. tension in Mumbai, sports as the venue

Rejecting Shiv Sena contention of ‘Mumbai for Maharashtrians’ as “pernicious thesis”, Home Minister P Chidambaram said on Monday that the financial capital belonged to all Indians who are free to live and work there. Speaking on Sena threats to Australian and Pakistani players’ participation in the IPL cricket event in Mumbai, the Home Minister asserted that he would “guarantee them full security.”

Asked about safety of Australian and Pakistani players’ participating in IPL, Chidambaram said, “Let Australian players come to India. Let Pakistani players come to India. Let them play in Mumbai and I will guarantee them full security”. Sena had said its activists would not allow Australian players to play IPL matches in Maharashtra to protest the attacks on Indians in that country. The party has been opposing sporting ties with Pakistan contending that the neighbouring country has been supporting anti-India terrorists.

more @ samachar

2. ‘another LeT strike on India will undermine US efforts’ - PANETTA, CIA

Washington: Amidst reports that terror outfit LeT might be planning a major attack in India, the CIA chief today told US lawmakers that another such strike would undermine US efforts in Pakistan by raising tensions between the two neighbours.

CIA Director Leon Panetta said at a Congressional hearing that besides al Qaeda the US now faces a series of threats from terror groups like al-Shabaab, Hezbollah and Hamas.A particular concern is Lashkar-e-Taiba which, if they should conduct an attack against India, could very well undermine our efforts in Pakistan,” Panetta said expressing his apprehension of the impact that attack could have on relationship between India and Pakistan.

Panetta said this in his appearance before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence which held a hearing on ‘Current Projected Threats to the United States’.  A US-based security think tank in its yearly forecast had recently said that Pakistan-based terror groups have a “strategic intent” to launch major new attacks on the Indian soil to trigger a conflict between the two countries.

Panetta said one of the greatest concerns was of an al Qaeda attack on the United States, and the threat was a prime reason why the US has undertaken the task of dismantling terror infrastructure. He said the greatest threat comes from the fact that al Qaeda, which had launched the 9/11 attacks, had adapted its methods making them difficult to detect.

“We have done a very effective job at disrupting their operations in FATA,” forcing them to move to other regional nodes like Yemen and Somalia, the Maghreb and others, Panetta said. “I think intelligence confirms that they are finding it difficult to be able to engage in planning and command-and-control operations to put together a large attack,” he said.

He said the terrorists were now pursuing an effort to try to strike at the US in three ways, including deploying individuals like Zazi and Headley in the country and by using terrorists who have hitherto had “clean credentials” like Abdulmutallab. “And the third is the loner, an individual like Hasan (Texas military base shooter) who, out of self-radicalisation, decides that the moment has come to engage in an attack by himself,” Panetta said.

The bottom line here, he said, is that the war on terrorism is against a series of groups confronting the US.

Appearing before the same committee, FBI Director Robert Mueller said al Qaeda trainers see Pakistan’s tribal areas as less secure and this had led al Qaeda to franchise into regional components in places such as North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. “This evolution has been most rapid with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula which has changed from a regional group with links to al Qaeda to a global threat with reach into American cities such as Detroit,” he said.

source: zee news

3. suspected US drone strike kills 16 in NW Pak, Karachi violence continues - VOA

Suspected U.S. drones fired missiles at several suspected militant hideouts in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal region Tuesday, killing at least 16 people. North Waziristan is known as a base for the Taliban-allied Haqqani group, which is blamed for cross-border attacks against U.S., NATO and Afghan troops in Afghanistan.

U.S. officials do not publicly comment on the drone strikes, which have raised tensions between Pakistan and the United States in the past.

Meanwhile, the death toll from four days of violence in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi has reached at least 26, after at least six more people were killed Tuesday. The clashes appeared to be between activists from rival political parties - the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Awami National Party - which traditionally gather support from different ethnic groups.

source: VOA

4. Headley and Khwaja both talk about “karachi project” in which Pak trains Indian nationals to commit terror in India. so Pakistan can get Indians to strike India, and India can still blame everything on Pakistan for turning these people into terrorists i guess. right? but that would make Leon Panetta very sad, because he predicts that another LeT strike on India will ‘undermine US efforts’ with Pakistan, and perhaps spark a war between India and Pakistan…..which can be blamed on…….Pakistan.

Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the ISI is planning to carry out terror attacks in the country and has put together a team of Indian jihadis in Karachi for the same, a media report claimed on Monday.  The alleged plot has been revealed to investigators by terror suspects David Coleman Headley and Mohammad Amjad Khwaja, the report added.

The FBI had arrested Headley in Chicago in October last year. He is accused of conducting a recce of Mumbai and several other Indian cities on behalf of Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) for the 26/11 attacks. Khwaja, who is a member of Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul Jihad-i Islami (HuJI), was nabbed on January 18, and is currently in the custody of Hyderabad police.

The plot has been named “Karachi project”, details of which Headley has shared with FBI sleuths. The US investigating agency, on its part, has forwarded the details to New Delhi. According to sources, Headley has told the FBI that Indian nationals are being regularly trained for terror activities both by the ISI and the LeT. Once trained, these Indian jihadis are sent back to India for “terror projects” from time to time.

HuJI’s Khwaja, who was arrested by the Chennai police following his return from Saudi Arabia on a Pakistani passport, too has told investigators that the ISI-LeT Karachi project was a reality. According to sources, Khwaja has revealed that Karachi had a huge number of highly-indoctrinated jihadi Indian nationals.

Khwaja is also believed to have revealed that he met alleged Indian Mujahideen terrorists Amir Raza Khan and Riyaz Bhatkal in Karachi, both of whom are staying in Karachi’s Defence Enclave, probably under the ISI protection.

source: zee news

5. possibly related, i guess we’ll see if they’re part of the same shadowy network:  Indian militant arrested, confessed to planning air attacks, also “mastermind” arrested in multiple train blasts from 1993.. .

The arrested Indian Mujahideen (IM) militant and Delhi bomb blast accused Shehzad Ahmed alias Pappu confessed that the outfit was planning air attacks through its air terror module, reports Zee News. As per reports, Shehzad had undergone pilot training in Bangalore and was planning to carry out aerial attacks on key installations. He was also actively involved in the regrouping the IM following the death of key operative Atif Amin in the Batla House encounter and the arrest of Sadiq Sheikh. As per Sehzad’’s confession, besides the plan to carry out aerial attacks, the IM had also planned to plant bombs in education centres during the counselling season in May-June. He also, reportedly, revealed that the IM had sent young men out of the country for terror training by packing them in containers. As reported earlier, Shehzad was arrested by a joint team of Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and Delhi Police from his native village in Azamgarh District on February 1.

source

also: train blast mastermind nabbed

LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh police on Tuesday arrested Hamiduddin alias Hamiruddin alias Salim, who was wanted in connection with the serial bomb blasts on running trains in different parts of the country in 1993.

Hamiduddin, who carried a reward of Rs. 50,000 on his head, was nabbed by the Special Task Force after an encounter on the outskirts of Lucknow, Additional Director-General ( Law and Order, STF and ATS) Brij Lal said here. A .32 bore pistol, a hand grenade and a fuse were seized from Hamiduddin, who had been absconding for the past 16 years. “Three other serial bomb blasts accused, Syed Abdul Kareem, Mohammad Tufail and Irfan Ahmed, are still at large. They belong to Ghaziabad, Hardoi and Bahraich in Uttar Pradesh,” Mr. Lal said. Hamiduddin was among the 15 persons who were instrumental in planting bombs aboard the Rajdhani Express, the Flying Queen Express and the A.P. Express in December 1993.

source

no mistake

This is terrorism.

Just across the US border.
Young people celebrating a soccer championship and a birthday.
Killed at a house party.
By drug cartels.
Randomly.
And it must have been a misunderstanding…because these were good kids.

But there’s no mistake, no misunderstanding. This is the idea.

Drugs. Danger. Close. Youth. Sports……”Random.”

It’s NOT random. This is terrorism. Conditioning your mind. It’s all in the papers. You only have to look. They want you to know this, very much, that there’s nothing you can do. There’s nothing even that THEY can do, because they tried. See? It’s hopeless. You can do everything right, and the authorities can try to protect you, but the terrorists will still strike. You can put your children into sports and keep them away from drugs, and they can still be targeted. That’s the message coming through loud and clear in all the important papers. Do you get it?

Terrorism is organized crime. The only question we need to answer: Who organizes it? And we already know the answer to that question.

For example, plots in Turkey are being exposed day by day, where the fascist group Ergenekon, which is tied to Mossad and the CIA and corrupt elements of the Turkish military, has a 5,000 page document planning acts of terrorism, to be blamed on al qaeda, including killing 200-300 Turkish children on a field trip, with the express purpose of toppling the Turkish government (Erdogan & Gul), and ushering in a military dictatorship. Seriously. This is what we’re dealing with. Click through to aangirfan.

LA Times: Reporting from Mexico City - Authorities in Ciudad Juarez said Monday that they have no idea what motivated a weekend shooting attack against a group of young partygoers that killed at least 16 people in the border city.

The death toll rose from 14 after two more victims died Monday from wounds suffered during the assault, in which gunmen in seven vehicles sealed off the street and opened fire on a party packed with teenagers. More than a dozen people were wounded during the attack around midnight Saturday.

The majority of the dead were under 20, and most were high school or college students..

..”The violence has always been between the criminal groups, [but] in this case in particular — good kids, students, athletes — there is no apparent motive for these deeds, and that is what concerns Juarez residents most today,” Reyes said during a radio interview. “This case is very difficult for us.”

The International News: Ferriz also encouraged local citizens to give information and tips through a new anonymous system.

“To solve this all us citizens of Juarez should insist that this case is solved. We obviously require the participation of local citizens and it is important to encourage everyone to participate in the “crime stoppers” system. It’s an anonymous system that allows information to be truly confidential. Not even the authorities know the identity of those who give information,” he said….Violence is escalating even as federal police and soldiers patrol the streets. Some 2,650 people were killed in drug violence in Ciudad Juarez last year and cartel murders have jumped since the start of 2010.

NYT: Juárez has become ground zero in the government’s war against drug traffickers, as rival cartels use their enormous firepower to fight over drug distribution and routes across the border to Texas.

Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz said Monday that investigators had no motive for the crime and that the victims were “innocent civilians.”…As they cowered in their houses, neighbors dialed emergency services, but soldiers and police officers did not arrive until after the shooting had stopped….A neighbor who gave his name only as Hector was quoted by The Associated Press as having said the students must have been attacked by mistake….Last month, the federal police said that 2,000 additional officers would be sent to the city to add to the soldiers and state police officers patrolling Ciudad Juárez. Five more people were killed in the Pacific Coast state of Sinaloa early Sunday when gunmen fired repeatedly on their car. Among the dead were a state police officer and a 16-year-old girl, state officials said.

Chinaview: Some 20 armed men entered the house and shot at them before escaping the crime scene in seven vehicles….Mexico is the key transit route for U.S.-bound cocaine from South America and the country itself is a top producer of marijuana and heroin.

Dallas News: Like most killings here, the motives remain unclear: Most of those interviewed said the teens had nothing to do with drugs. What’s troubling, though, is that the latest bloodbath marks a watershed moment for this city, as the victims – all students who grew up together – were not gathered at a bar or a rehab center but at a private home….It comes just weeks after President Felipe Calderon sent 2,000 U.S.-trained federal police officers to help restore order in this city. They joined about 7,000 soldiers and other local and state authorities to take on cartels in Juárez fighting to control drug distribution routes leading to the United States, the world’s largest drug consumer market. Juárez is across the Rio Grande from El Paso. For about two weeks, Calderon’s latest strategy seemed to be working as the killings fell dramatically. But it didn’t last. Since Thursday, at least 40 people had been killed, bringing the total for January to more than 220 people. In 2009, more than 2,700 people were killed, making Juárez the deadliest city in the Americas and one of the most violent in the world.

Others blamed the federal agents standing guard or federal investigators who were trying to piece together what had happened and why. They complained that the police and soldiers took too long to arrive after the emergency calls were made. And when they arrived, they wasted too much time before taking the victims to a nearby hospital. Some parents, out of frustration, said they took their children in their private vehicles. As two investigators walked by slowly, with notepads out, some of the relatives hissed at them and shook their heads in disgust. “Don’t waste your time or mine,” said one woman, who said her name was Teresa. Like most, she spoke on the condition of anonymity, explaining that she trusted no one in a country where more than 95 percent of all crimes remain unsolved. She answered a few questions and then buried her face in her hands and burst into tears. Two of the victims were her nephews. Both were baseball fanatics and had left their gloves in the front yard after playing a few hours before the massacre.

The victims’ final hours were replayed between family members as they looked for clues. The day they were killed, some studied or ran errands for their parents or played football or softball. By early evening, they washed up and prepared to celebrate their friend’s 19th birthday at a nearby home provided by a parent to keep the teens out of town where they feared the killings are more common. “We did everything right,” Soto said. “We raised them to be good, educated people, to dream of a better future. Where did we go wrong?”

LA Times, Headline: As Mexican teens celebrate school soccer win, gunmen open fire…Last month, the Calderon administration took a new tack. Amid widespread complaints that soldiers were trampling people’s rights, the government decided to reduce the army’s profile by pulling troops off the streets and sent in 3,000 more federal police officers to carry out patrolling and investigative duties.

UK Press Association: Police officials said witnesses told them there were at least 15 attackers.

Violence also rocked the oceanside Mexican community of Lazaro Cardenas. Police in the south-western city say that, just after midnight on Saturday, about 20 heavily armed gunmen riding in trucks with tinted windows attacked a police station with grenades and assault rifles, killing a police officer and two civilians - a mother and her son who had come to pay a fine.

Also early on Sunday morning, three women and two men, all identified as Mexican citizens, were murdered while driving in their van with California number plates near the western Mexican city of Navolato. The bodies of the five victims, including a 16-year-old girl, were found riddled with bullets, said Martin Gastelum, attorney general for the state of Sinaloa, where Navolato is located. Authorities also found more than 60 spent shell casings from Kalashnikov assault rifles in the van, Gastelum said.

CNN: “There was no situation that provoked it,” Reyes said. “The people who died were young. They were good people. There was no association with any crime group.”

The attack occurred around 12:30 a.m. local time Sunday in southern Juarez, Municipal Police communications spokesman Jacinto Seguro said. “Witnesses said the gunmen arrived in seven cars, closing down the streets and blocking exits,” Seguro said. “They then stormed into the party and began shooting as the group was watching a soccer game,” he said, adding that windshields and windows on the cars were darkly tinted. Reyes said Monday there were at least four vehicles and up to seven. The number fluctuates, he said, depending on the survivors’ memories.

“Now, the danger is that they will come into anyone’s home and shoot anybody,” said Teresa Henriquez, an aunt of one of the victims, according to El Universal newspaper. “We have no one to protect us or defend us.” Despite thousands of troops being deployed to Juarez, the violence there is unabated.