Car bomb rips through Peshawar; 11 dead

Just another start to the weekend in Pakistan...you know....11 people blown into small chunks by a car bomb set off to prove how merciful allah is.

I'm tempted sometime to count up the number of days in a year that Pakistan DOESN'T have someone killed in a bombing or other terror attack or by some fanatic honor killing or killing of an infidel.  I swear I bet there aren't 20 days out of 365 that blood isn't shed.

The story comes from DAWN.

Car bomb rips through Peshawar; 11 dead


PESHAWAR: A powerful car bomb ripped through a market in northwestern Pakistan on Friday, killing at least 11 people, police said.

The explosion in Matni bazaar near the city of Peshawar injured another 20 people and damaged 30 shops, senior police official Abdul Sattar said.

Khan said the dead and wounded had been transported to a hospital, and some of the injured were listed in a critical condition.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack.

Provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar condemned the attack, saying terrorists had killed innocent people by detonating the bomb in a crowded bazar.

“Such attacks cannot deter our resolve in the fight against terrorism,” he said.

Peshawar has witnessed scores of such attacks, most blamed on Pakistani Taliban against whom the military has launched several offensives in recent years. Local tribal elders have assisted the military in its campaigns.

Video: The Pig This Country Calls President

Christian Family Shot and Killed In Cold Blood On Syrian Street By Muslim "Rebels"

More Christians murdered in the Middle East....does it ever end?  Whether it is Egypt or Yemen or Syria, Christians in the Middle East have a bullseye on their backs.  The blood is flowing and no one, absolutely NO ONE in the Obama administration will utter a word about the religious purge going on.

From TREND via The Religion of Peace.

Armenian family killed in Damascus



A family of Syrian Armenians was killed in the Zamalka district of Damascus, Zhamanak newspaper reported referring to the Syrian agency ShamTimes.

According to the publication, the family members were killed by militants of the 'Liua Islam' group, Armenia Today reported. According to the publication, the criminals shot an Armenian family in the street. As a result, husband and wife, their three children and sister of the head of household were killed. Local people confirmed that the victims were members of the local Armenian community. According to the newspaper, mostly Christians live in Zamalka.
Anti-government protests have continued in Syria for about 17 months.

According to UN, the total number of victims of the conflict in Syria is nearing 20,000 people. More than 230,000 people have become refugees. About three million are in need of humanitarian assistance. The Syrian authorities say that they are opposing the well-armed militants.

Are the Pakistani Muslims Going To Execute the 11 Year Old Christian Girl Affliced With Downs Syndrome?

Blasphemy.  It's all about blasphemy.  You know...protecting almight "allah" , the "creator" of the world against the evil powers of an 11 year old infidel.

The story is from Family Security Matters.

Islamic Lawyers Press for Blasphemy Trial, and possible Execution, of 11-Year-Old Girl with Down Syndrome

An international coalition of churches representing more than half a billion Christians will meet in Geneva next month to take up the plight of an 11-year-old Christian girl who faces execution under Pakistan's blasphemy laws.

The World Council of Churches called the meeting to discuss Pakistan's brutal blasphemy laws and, in particular, the case of Rimsha Masih. Masih, who is believed to have Down syndrome, has been in jail for allegedly burning pages from a book containing Islamic scripture. The case has generated international condemnation, but the fundamentalist firebrands behind her imprisonment seem immune to criticism, much less diplomatic efforts.

"It is inconceivable that human beings could treat a little girl, let alone one with Down syndrome, in such a brutal manner."

- Faith J.H. McDonnell, of the Washington-based Institute for Religion and Democracy

"This latest affair just highlights the total hypocrisy of Pakistan, and its supporters, in the Human Rights Council," Roy Brown, chief representative to the United Nations for the International Humanist and Ethical Union, said in a statement.

Pakistan's blasphemy laws are ambiguous -- except in their mandatory prescription for execution -- and, as in the case of Masih, often enforced in tribal regions at the insistence of angry mobs. Pakistan's President Asif Al Zardari has demanded a report on the girl's arrest, which has brought protests from Amnesty International, British-based Christian group Barnabas Fund and others.

The Council, which links 349 Protestant and Orthodox church organizations, will hold the conference from Sept. 17-19, with United Nations representatives also expected to attend. The agenda will be topped by Pakistan's blasphemy laws, persecution of Christians and Masih's case.

Video: Rep. Allen West Reacts To Chris Matthews

Video: Cleaning Up On the Taliban

Pakistani Taliban Behead 7 Pakistani Soldiers In South Waziristan

In the aftermath of a Taliban attack on Pakistani troops in South Waziristan, the Taliban (Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan) have claimed that they beheaded 7 of the 20 Pakistani troops killed in the raid.

From The Long War Journal:

The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan claimed to have "chopped off the heads" of seven Pakistani soldiers after attacking a military outpost in South Waziristan. In all, the Taliban claimed to have killed 20 Pakistani soldiers during the attack.

The claim was made yesterday by Ishanullah Ihsan, the spokesman for the al Qaeda-linked Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, in an email sent to The Long War Journal.

Ihsan said that 20 Pakistani troops were killed after the Taliban attacked their camp in Badar, and that 29 assault rifles, three RPGs, a machinegun, a sniper rifle, a submachine gun, and "thousands of cartridges and many small military equipments" were seized during the raid. Ihsan said seven of the soldiers were beheaded in accordance with sharia, or Islamic Law.

"Mujahideen also chopped off the heads of 7 captured soldiers as Shariah directs them to do with enemies of Islam," Ihsan said.

As I stated the other day, the Taliban are desperate to try and stop the Pakistanis from conducting the North Waziristan operation so they have chosen to show their might in South Waziristan - part of the plan is to worry the Pakistanis that they can't cover their flanks in the North if the operation goes forward.  The problem with the Pakistani government is that they have allowed the Taliban to repopulate places like South Waziristan and Swat Valley after they, at one time, had cleared those areas.

Pakistani Taliban 'chopped off the heads' of 7 Pakistani soldiers in South Waziristan


The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan claimed to have "chopped off the heads" of seven Pakistani soldiers after attacking a military outpost in South Waziristan. In all, the Taliban claimed to have killed 20 Pakistani soldiers during the attack.

The claim was made yesterday by Ishanullah Ihsan, the spokesman for the al Qaeda-linked Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, in an email sent to The Long War Journal.

Ihsan said that 20 Pakistani troops were killed after the Taliban attacked their camp in Badar, and that 29 assault rifles, three RPGs, a machinegun, a sniper rifle, a submachine gun, and "thousands of cartridges and many small military equipments" were seized during the raid. Ihsan said seven of the soldiers were beheaded in accordance with sharia, or Islamic Law.

"Mujahideen also chopped off the heads of 7 captured soldiers as Shariah directs them to do with enemies of Islam," Ihsan said.

In the past, the Taliban previously released videos of the execution and beheading of Pakistani troops. On June 28, a video showing the heads of 17 Pakistani soldiers who had served in the district of Dir was released by the Taliban.

Pakistani officials confirmed that fighting took place at the Badar camp, and claimed that 18 Taliban fighters and only eight soldiers were killed during the clash, according to The Nation. Ihsan said that only one Taliban fighter was killed during the attack.

The Taliban have been battling the Pakistani military in the Mehsud areas of South Waziristan for nearly three years. In the fall of 2009, the military launched an operation to defeat the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, and in mid-November of that year claimed to have defeated the group in South Waziristan. But the Taliban group withdrew the bulk of its forces from the Mehsud tribal areas and relocated to neighboring tribal areas, maintaining a rearguard to fight the Pakistani military.

The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan's South Waziristan branch, which is led by Waliur Rahman Mehsud, later returned to the tribal agency and stepped up the fight against the Pakistani military. Most of the engagements in South Waziristan are initiated by the Taliban, who have assaulted bases and checkposts, and ambushed military convoys.

Although it is now nearly three years since the Pakistani military commenced the South Waziristan operation, only one of the six areas targeted -- Sararogha -- has been certified by the military as cleared, according to a report in Dawn that was published on Aug. 5. The other five areas -- Shawal, Sarwakai, Tairza, Makeen, and Ladha -- are still contested.

Video: A Taliban Recruiting Film?

The Loose Lips of the White House

This article from Family Security Matters speaks to the incessant security leaks coming from the White House and how they are putting our national security interests at risk, not to mention the lives of our operatives and troops in the field.

Let's face it, this is an administration that is both inept and deceitful - I have never seen anything like the loose lips in this collection of clowns.  When it's not the New York Times reporting the spoon fed leaks from White House officials it's Joe Biden wanting to be in the spotlight by revealing top secret shit.

Rank amateurs.

Intelligence Professionals Tell Obama off


Few people really know what triggered the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Most believe it was the random discovery of the sites in aerial photographs taken by high-flying U-2 aircraft over Cuba.

But the U-2 flight was ordered after a "leak."

Two-and-a-half weeks before the flight, an undercover CIA agent overheard a conversation in a bar in Cuba involving Fidel Castro's personal pilot. He bragged the island nation would soon have nuclear weapons.

The agent's subsequent report of this to Washington prompted U.S. President John Kennedy to order the U-2 flight that revealed solid evidence as to what the Soviet Union was doing.

During World War II, the phrase "Loose lips sink ships" evolved within the U.S. military to remind those entrusted with classified information not to talk about it.

Obviously, Castro's pilot had never heard the expression. His loose lips would bring the world to the brink of nuclear war. Although the end result proved beneficial to U.S. national security interests, the Cuban pilot's lack of operational security -- opsec -- cost his country a nuclear weapons capability.

For as long as there have been military secrets to be kept, history is replete with examples of enemies eager to learn them. The United States has been victimized at times as there have been those guilty of failing to observe opsec, endangering the country's national security, either through lax security or a personal need to promote themselves as knowing what others do not.

But it is inexcusable when it is our own leaders, with access to all our national security secrets, who violate opsec for political gain, endangering our national security in the process.

This is the clarion call of a recent documentary entitled "Dishonorable Disclosures: How Leaks and Politics Threaten National Security." The film reveals concerns by retired military and intelligence professionals who have come together to emphasize the personal risks to our warriors involved in conducting classified operations and opportunities lost to use the intelligence those operations yielded as a direct result of leaks made by our own president -- leaks members of both political parties agree endanger our national security interests.

The documentary cites several examples:

-- Following the May 2011 raid by Navy SEALS to kill Osama bin Laden, U.S. President Barack Obama immediately went public with details on the raid rather than allowing the intelligence community time to evaluate documents captured at bin Laden's compound to extract maximum value from them. Obama's announcement immediately put other terrorists in a damage-control mode, causing them to change locations, cellphones, codes, plans, etc.

-- Raid details included information about a Pakistani doctor who assisted the United States, causing him to be tried for treason by Pakistan, for which he was sentenced to 33 years in prison. This will make recruiting locals for future operations much more difficult.

-- As if revealing these details to the general public was insufficient, the president personally briefed in greater detail an elite audience of Hollywood producers -- sharing information benefitting al-Qaida as well.

-- Sharing operational details with those having no need to know has compromised the ability of the United States to conduct similar operations in the future and endangered specific units involved in the raid -- as well as their families -- by revealing unit identities and tactics.

-- Concerning the Stuxnet malware used to disrupt Iranian equipment involved in that country's nuclear arms production program, Obama's admission the United States and Israel are responsible for developing it removes the need for Iran to go through the complex process of identifying Stuxnet's manufacturer. Now stripped of the ability to claim plausible deniability, the United States and Israel can expect to be targeted by similar malware attacks or other retaliation.

-- The revelation the president can authorize the assassination (death by drone) of terrorist leaders whose names appear on a "kill list" has put at additional risk those charged with maintaining and operating them overseas.

It is interesting to note that part of the reason it took so long to locate bin Laden was because of other instances of loose lips. He had been utilizing cellphones during the early days of the manhunt -- until he realized U.S. voice- recognition and tracking technologies were compromising his location.

Subsequently, as the manhunt continued, bin Laden released video messages recorded in outdoor locations. Once he learned the United States was using geologists to analyze the surrounding terrain to approximate where he might be hiding, bin Laden began deploying a blanket as a backdrop during video recordings to prevent such an analysis from being undertaken.

Learning as well that U.S. analysts listened carefully for background noises in audio and videotapes the terrorist released in hopes of gaining intelligence about location resulted in various noises being recorded into them to throw analysts off track.

The more information released by U.S. government representatives about the processes that were used in the manhunt for bin Laden or -- for that matter -- any classified operation, the better able terrorists are to avoid detection or counter such operations in the future.

It is senseless to give information to terrorists who can only benefit from what we tell them by needless public disclosures. There is absolutely nothing to be gained by a U.S. government employee with national security information doing so, other than to inflate his personal importance or political career.

The "Dishonorable Disclosures" documentary ends with solid advice a retired U.S. Marine Corps officer would give, if asked, to the Obama administration about its use of U.S. intelligence leaks that impact upon our national security, made for political gain.

Demanding Obama observe quiet time concerning all opsec but putting it in a straightforward vernacular only a Marine would dare do, his message to the president is to: "Shut the #@&$%@ up!"

Video: The Brits In Afghanistan

Video: The Taliban Ambush That Didn't Pan Out

Russian "Black Widow" Terrorist Strikes, Moderate Muslim Cleric Assassinated, 5 Others Killed In Suicide Bombing

The word best get out in Russia that the al Qaeda branch there, known as Islamic Caucasus Emirate is busy using female jihadis to carry out suicide bombings and assassinations.  And today, another "black widow" attack occurred claiming the life of a very prominent Muslim cleric who has tried to moderate things in his region of Russia.

Here's the details from The Long War Journal:

A "Black Widow" from the Islamic Caucasus Emirate, an al Qaeda-linked terror group operating in southern Russia, carried out yesterday's suicide attack in Dagestan that killed a moderate Sufi cleric and six other people. The attack is the third in two months against prominent Muslim clerics who were working to promote moderate versions of Islam in Russia.

Sheikh Said Afandi, an influential Sufi cleric in Dagestan who had tens of thousands of followers, and six other people, including a young girl, were killed by a female bomber who entered his home under the guise of being a follower. The suicide bomber detonated her vest as Afandi was giving a sermon.

The attack was carried out by a Russian woman named Aminat Kurbanova, a convert to Islam whose two previous husbands were "militants" and who was also currently married to "an Islamist militant," police told Reuters.

Kurbanova is the first ethnic Russian to become a female suicide bomber, according to Reuters. Female suicide bombers from the Caucasus, known as the Black Widows, have targeted Russian civilians and security personnel in multiple attacks over the past decade

The really unique thing about this bombing is, as you can see above, that this is a native Russian who carried out this attack.  We have witnessed plenty of Islamic terror attacks in Russia but as pointed out, these latest attacks are targeting MUSLIMS and this is not some sort of Shia vs. Sunni conflict - these are radical by the Qur'an jihadis trying to stop clerics from trying to moderate Islam in the region.

'Black Widow' assassinates moderate Muslim cleric in Russia's Caucasus


A "Black Widow" from the Islamic Caucasus Emirate, an al Qaeda-linked terror group operating in southern Russia, carried out yesterday's suicide attack in Dagestan that killed a moderate Sufi cleric and six other people. The attack is the third in two months against prominent Muslim clerics who were working to promote moderate versions of Islam in Russia.

Sheikh Said Afandi, an influential Sufi cleric in Dagestan who had tens of thousands of followers, and six other people, including a young girl, were killed by a female bomber who entered his home under the guise of being a follower. The suicide bomber detonated her vest as Afandi was giving a sermon.

The attack was carried out by a Russian woman named Aminat Kurbanova, a convert to Islam whose two previous husbands were "militants" and who was also currently married to "an Islamist militant," police told Reuters.

Kurbanova is the first ethnic Russian to become a female suicide bomber, according to Reuters. Female suicide bombers from the Caucasus, known as the Black Widows, have targeted Russian civilians and security personnel in multiple attacks over the past decade, including: the attack on the Nord-Ost Moscow theater (129 killed); an assassination attempt against Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov (14 killed); a suicide attack on a train in Southern Russia (46 killed); a dual suicide attack at a rock concert at Tushino Airfield in Moscow (16 killed); the destruction of two Russian airliners in 2004 (more than 90 killed); the attack on a school in Beslan in North Ossetia (334 killed); the Moscow metro bombings (39 killed); and the Moscow airport bombing (37 killed).

The Black Widows are female suicide bombers within the Riyad-us-Saliheen (Garden of Paradise) Martyr Brigade. In the spring of 2009, Doku Umarov, the emir of the Islamic Caucasus Emirate, reignited the Chechen insurgency by launching a wave of suicide attacks in the Caucasus and broadening the battle beyond the Chechen border. In April 2009, Umarov revived the Riyad-us-Saliheen Martyr Brigade, which has spearheaded the assault.

Afandi, the Dagestani cleric killed in yesterday's attack, is the third prominent moderate cleric targeted by the Islamic Caucasus Emirate in the past six weeks; all three were Sufis. The two other assassinations took place in the Russian republic of Tatarstan, which is hundreds of miles northeast of the Caucasus region.

On July 19, Ildus Faizov, the senior Muslim cleric in Tatarstan, was wounded after he was thrown from his car in a bombing. His deputy, Valiulla Yakupov, was gunned down as he sat on his porch.

Faizov "had been leading efforts to expunge Saudi-trained clerics and extreme Salafist textbooks from local mosques and religious schools," according to The Christian Science Monitor. Yakupov "was an Islamic scholar who was widely regarded as the main strategist in the fight against religious extremism."

Both Faizov and Yakupoz were "leading proponents of the officially sponsored brand of Euro-Islam, which preaches tolerance, democracy and acceptance of modern secular life," The Christian Science Monitor reported.

Video: Gotta Love the AT-4

British soldiers resort to 'baiting' Taliban to beat rules of engagement

It just keeps getting worse and worse in the War in Afghanistan.  General George Patton and Sir Winston Churchill are rolling over in their graves.

The article is from The Independent.

British soldiers resort to 'baiting' Taliban to beat rules of engagement


British soldiers in Afghanistan are being forced to act as bait in an attempt to draw the Taliban into opening fire, a serving platoon commander has alleged.

Soldiers are risking their lives to get round strict rules of engagement that allow them to shoot only if they are being attacked or are in "imminent danger".

The Taliban are increasingly exploiting the rules by hiding weapons in undergrowth near patrol routes – meaning British forces cannot act against them until they actually pick up their guns.

The claims are made by Lieutenant Jimmy Clark , a platoon commander who recently returned from a tour of Afghanistan.

Shocking scenes to be broadcast in a documentary, Our War, on BBC Three this evening reveal how it was only by luck that soldiers survived a bomb while on a patrol nicknamed "Op Bait" late last year.

Lt Clark from 2 Mercian, who was leading the patrol, describes his frustration at the rules of engagement, which led to soldiers acting as bait to tempt the Taliban into attacking them. "It's difficult really to 'fight' an enemy we're not allowed to fight. Under our rules of engagement we can only really return fire and sometimes it's very frustrating." Footage of Op Bait, shot from headcams on soldiers' helmets, released by the Ministry of Defence, shows how the plan almost backfired.

Lt Clark sums up the approach: "You have a foot patrol which has air support… you get contacted, you're being fired at and the helicopter can come in and kill that guy." For the avoidance of doubt, he adds: "Our job was to get shot at."

As they prepare to go on the patrol, soldiers try to hide their nerves by joking. One says: "Hi, I'm Lance Corporal Shepherd, this will be the last you see of me, I'm going on suicide." To howls of laughter, another says: "Hi, I'm Private Morgan, I'll be picking up Shep's legs."

The soldiers then silently move out on patrol, aware they are being watched by Taliban fighters just across the canal they are walking alongside. Suddenly two large explosions ring out followed by screams – the world temporarily turned to smoke. Amid heavy gunfire, the soldiers pull back. Miraculously, none of the patrol are killed.

In the aftermath, an exhausted Lt Clark says: "It is incredibly frustrating to be leading soldiers out on patrol with the purpose of getting shot at. There's a line between bravery and stupidity and so far we are pushing the limits."

In an interview with The Independent, Lt Clark said: "What the Taliban were extremely good at doing was walking around without weapons, having cached them in undergrowth or behind cover, walking up to those locations, which were already ready-made firing positions, and shooting at us."

The number of British soldiers being shot dead in Afghanistan has spiralled as new tactics stop them from shooting at the Taliban until they have been fired at. Fourteen have been killed by enemy gunfire in Helmand Province in the past four months, compared with three in the same period in 2011.

Last month it emerged that the US general John Allen, head of coalition forces, had instructed the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) not to shoot first unless attacked, although the Ministry of Defence has denied this amounted to a change in the rules of engagement.

In a statement the MoD said: "We have always been very clear, as has ISAF, that our troops go to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties. Recent amendments to the ISAF tactical directive reflect that commitment."

Taliban Ambush Pakistani Checkpoint In South Waziristan, 6 Pakistani Soldiers Killed

The reports are all over the board here as to whether six or nine or 12 Pakistani soldiers were killed in a Taliban ambush of a checkpoint in South Waziristan this morning but either way, one of the biggest attacks on Pakistani military in a long time.  The military retaliated with the killing of at least 10 Taliban.

From the report at DAWN:

Six soldiers were killed when militants attacked a check post in the area of Badar in South Waziristan Agency (SWA), the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) confirmed.

In retaliation, security forces reportedly killed at least 10 militants and a dozen militants had been injured, security sources told Dawn.com.

Dozens of militants armed with rockets and grenades stormed the checkpost in Farhang Baba Ziarat village, around 30 kilometres north of Wana, the main town of South Waziristan tribal district, a senior security official in Peshawar told AFP.

Six soldiers have been confirmed killed in the clashes and seven injured, the official said, adding that the toll was likely to rise. Ten militants were killed, he said.

Moreover, sources said that nine, and not six, soldiers had died in the attack.

I, personally, think this out of the blue attack is the Taliban's way of telling the Pakistani military that if they decide to start the operation in North Waziristan, the Taliban will step up attacks all over the northwestern part of the country - the message is that no operation better start in North Waziristan.  I still say the chances are slim for the operation but between civilians leaving North Waziristan and this attack, it might just be coming.

Six soldiers killed in South Waziristan clash, ISPR confirms


PESHAWAR: Six soldiers were killed when militants attacked a check post in the area of Badar in South Waziristan Agency (SWA), the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) confirmed.

In retaliation, security forces reportedly killed at least 10 militants and a dozen militants had been injured, security sources told Dawn.com.

Dozens of militants armed with rockets and grenades stormed the checkpost in Farhang Baba Ziarat village, around 30 kilometres north of Wana, the main town of South Waziristan tribal district, a senior security official in Peshawar told AFP.

Six soldiers have been confirmed killed in the clashes and seven injured, the official said, adding that the toll was likely to rise. Ten militants were killed, he said.

Moreover, sources said that nine, and not six, soldiers had died in the attack.

Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack and said that they had killed at least a dozen soldiers.

TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said “we have killed more than a dozen soldiers in South Waziristan. Some of the soldiers have been beheaded”.

The area is cut off to journalists and aid workers and it was not possible to confirm the death toll independently.

South Waziristan was once the main stronghold for the Pakistani Taliban. The military launched a large offensive against militants there in 2009, but insurgents still operate in the area and periodically stage attacks.

Video: Maybe Mitt Romney Should Get Divorced Really Quick and Marry a Crack Whore

Video: Muslim Men In Afghanistan Showing a Woman How Peaceful Islam Is

Kenyan Muslims Go Nuts When Local Sheikh Gets Killed, Rioting and Burning of Churches Ensues

 Muslim Youth Center ideological leader Sheikh Aboud Rogo Mohammed. Photo from Al Shahid.

No, it's not Nigeria and it's not Somalia and it's not the Sudan...it's Kenya this time where an al Qaeda-linked terror group's top dog got taken out and his throng of moron Muslim supporters have now gone into their second day of rampage.  I read the article and can't see who is suspected of killing this guy but no matter who, it's great news - well, it's great news for us, not so good for the regular people of Kenya who now have to put up with rampaging Muslims.  I'm guessing that Kenyan security forces did it in some way but who knows, I'm sure this doofus had some enemies in his own ideological cult.

The story comes from The Long War Journal.

Kenyan Muslims riot after murder of Shabaab-linked cleric


Kenyan Muslims in Mombasa have rioted for the second day in a row after a Shabaab-linked cleric who was recently added to the US's list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists was gunned down.

Shabaab supporters rampaged in Kenya's second largest city after Sheikh Aboud Rogo Mohammed was shot and killed as he was driving with his wife on Aug. 25. Shabaab supporters quickly organized and attacked and looted two churches, torched a government vehicle and other cars, and killed one person. The man was "slashed to death," according to The Daily Nation. Police have arrested 12 people for their involvement in the rioting, which is still ongoing.

Rogo, who served as the spiritual leader of the Muslim Youth Center, a Shabaab and al Qaeda-linked group in Kenya, was listed by the US as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist on July 5 along with two other Kenyans, a Sudanese, and two Eritrean military officers [see LWJ report, 2 Eritrean officials designated for supporting Shabaab]. The other two Kenyans who were designated are Omar Awadh Omar, a facilitator who was involved with the planning of the double suicide attack in Kampala, Uganda in July 2010, and Abubaker Shariff Ahmed, a close aide to Rogo.

The Muslim Youth Center, which is Shabaab's affiliate in Kenya, declared it was "part of al Qaeda East Africa" on Feb. 10, just one day after al Qaeda and Shabaab formalized their longstanding relationship and announced their merger [see LWJ report, 'We in MYC are now part of al Qaeda East Africa'].

The US Treasury Department said that Rogo served as a fundraiser, radicalizer, and recruiter for terrorist activities.

"He continues to exert influence over extremist groups in East Africa as part of his campaign to promote violence throughout East Africa," the Treasury Statement said. "As an ideological leader, Aboud Rogo Mohammed has used an extremist group as a pathway for radicalization and recruitment of principally Swahili-speaking Africans for 'action' in Somalia."

Starting in February 2009, Rogo began issuing "a series of inspirational lectures" in which he "repeatedly called for the violent rejection of the Somali peace process," and urged Muslims to attack United Nations and the African Union Mission in Somali (AMISOM) forces in Somalia. He not only encouraged his followers and other Muslims to wage jihad in Somalia, but provided assistance to those who sought to travel to fight there.

"Aboud Rogo Mohammed also offers guidance on how Kenyan recruits joining al-Shabaab can evade detection by the Kenyan authorities, and which routes to follow when traveling from Mombasa, Kenya, and/or Lamu to Al Shabaab strongholds in Somalia, notably Kismayo," Treasury said. "He has facilitated the travel to Somalia of numerous Kenyan recruits for al-Shabaab."

Both the Muslim Youth Center and Shabaab have reacted to Rogo's death. The MYC Press Office, a Twitter site linked to the Muslim Youth Center, reported that Sheikh Ahmad Iman Ali, the group's leader, said: "We are on the right track when our leaders get shahadah," or martyrdom. Ali, who has fought in Somalia, was named the "Supreme Emir" of the Muslim Youth Center on Jan. 6. The MYC Press Office also indicated a formal statement was forthcoming and that it has "sent messages to the mujahideen in Tanzania about reports of Sheikh Rogo's death."

The MYC later released a formal statement announcing Rogo's death.

"As a popular and well-respected Sheikh, Aboud Rogo used his unique gift and knowledge of Islam to inspire and inform thousands of young Muslims all over East Africa," the statement said, according to the SITE Intelligence Group. "Undeniably, MYC and its members are part of the generation of Muslim youths that have been inspired by Sheikh Aboud Rogo's vision of the Muslim Ummah in East Africa."

Shabaab issued a formal statement on Twitter that denounced "the cold-blooded murder of Sheikh Aboud Rogo in Mombasa" and urged "the Muslims to wake up to the Kenyan authority's vicious witch-hunt against their fellow Muslim brothers."

Shabaab said that although Rogo "was not officially a member of Harakat Al-Shabaab Al Mujahideen, he, like the rest of the Muslims in Kenya, shared unbreakable religious ties with the Mujahideen." Shabaab also accused the Kenyan government of conducting "a spate of extra-judicial killings ... against innocent Muslims in Kenya."

Video: Lighting It Up

Israel's Clock Is Running Out on Iran

The story comes from Family Security Matters.

Israel's Clock Is Running Out on Iran


Last February Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said "Israel is a true cancer tumor on this region that should be cut off." Khamenei promised to support any groups fighting Israel anywhere in the world. On about August 17, Iranian President Ahmadinejad said Israel's existence is an insult to humanity. There has been an almost steady stream of Iranian provocations like these. Meanwhile, Iran's nuclear weapons program proceeds unabated.

This week, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will attend a summit of the 120 UN "non-aligned" nations in Tehran giving the Iranian kakistocracy the legitimacy it craves, further isolating Israel and diminishing America's position in the Middle East.

What comes next will be a war between Israel and Iran. Unfortunately, there's a lot of fuzzy thinking going around about how that war could be prevented. In short, it cannot.

Too little and too much has been made of the conflicting statements by White House press secretary Jay Carney and Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren's statements on diplomatic efforts to stop Iran's development of nuclear weapons.

Carney, in a press briefing two weeks ago, said the Obama administration believed there was still "time and space" for sanctions to work. Shortly after that, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren said Israel's clock "is ticking faster" than America's. Oren repeated the statement made by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu late last month that sanctions have failed to stop Iran's nuclear program. Not that they are failing or are likely to fail. Netanyahu used the present perfect tense, not the future, and he is correct. That means Israel's moment to take military action has almost arrived.

Oren also said that while Israel appreciates the supporting rhetoric coming from Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, there are "structural differences between the United States and Israel which we can't ignore."

Too much has been made of this because most of the analysis is entirely wrong. Analysts have said this indicates that Netanyahu has decided to attack Iran before the U.S. election, which is almost certainly untrue. Too little has been made of it because it indicates how dire the Israelis believe the situation has become, and how little influence America will have at the onset or the end of what is likely to become the largest war the Middle East has ever seen.

Perhaps the most wrong-headed analysis came from the least likely source. Charles Krauthammer's August 24 column said that Israel was either engaged in the "most elaborate deception since the Trojan horse or it is on the cusp of a preemptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities." Krauthammer proceeds from that assertion to adopt CSIS analyst Tony Cordesman's three points to forestall the conflict.

Cordesman, as Krauthammer relates, says there should be a statement of "clear U.S. red lines" that Iran cannot cross, that we must make it clear to Iran that it has no successful options for developing nuclear weapons and that we need to give the Iranians a "face-saving way out."

But Israel isn't required to choose between deception and imminent war. In fact, any successful strategy would have to combine the two and give flexibility to the term "imminent." Because America's influence on both Iran and Israel has been significantly diminished by Obama's hostility toward Israel -- and his comprehensive weakness in dealing with Iran -- we lack the credibility of posting "clear red lines" or imposing a non-nuclear option on Iran.

Video: Just Another Republican Who Complains About the Media Carrying Water For Obama?

Video: A 500 Lb "Can of American WhoopAss" Dropped On the Taliban

Two More Coalition Troops Killed In Cold Blood By An Afghan Soldier, Green-on-Blue Rears Its Head Again

The word is that two ISAF troops were killed by an Afghan (ANA) soldier today when he turned his weapon on them - we don't know the nationality of the two killed at this point but this is just another green-on-blue attack that have soared in recent months.

The million dollar question is this an Afghan soldier that just got pissed off or was this a Taliban plant?  The Afghan soldier was gunned down and killed by ISAF troops so he won't be talking but I'm damn curious if he is Taliban, a convert to the Taliban or just doped up Afghan piece of shit.

The story is from The Long War Journal.

Afghan soldier kills 2 ISAF troops in east


An Afghan soldier opened fire on Coalition soldiers in eastern Afghanistan, killing two of them before being killed himself in return fire. The attack is the latest in a string of so-called green-on-blue incidents, or insider attacks, in which Afghan security personnel kill members of the International Security Assistance Force.

ISAF said that two troops were killed after "a member of the Afghan National Army turned his weapon against ISAF service members in eastern Afghanistan today."

"ISAF troops returned fire, killing the ANA soldier who committed the attack," according to a press release. "Afghan and ISAF officials are investigating the incident."

The attack took place in the eastern province of Laghman, according to AFP.

Attacks by Afghan forces on Coalition forces have skyrocketed this year. In the first eight months of this year, the number of green-on-blue attacks (28) has doubled last year's total of 14.

Attacks that resulted in deaths of ISAF troops have also surged; they account for 13% of Coalition casualties so far this year. In 2011, green-on-blue attacks accounted for 6%; in 2010, 3%; in 2009, 2%; and in 2008, less than 1%. [For more details and statistics on the green-on-blue attacks, see LWJ Special Report, Green-on-blue attacks in Afghanistan: the data.]

ISAF commanders have insisted that most of the attacks are due to cultural differences between Afghan and Western troops. General John Allen, the commander of ISAF, even blamed the spike on Afghans being hungry and irritable due to fasting during Ramadan.

In seeking to account for the rise in insider attacks, ISAF commanders have downplayed the role of Taliban infiltration. Commanders have issued conflicting estimates of the percentage of attacks caused by Taliban infiltration and coercion, ranging from 10% to 25% in recent weeks, to 50% earlier this year.

The Taliban have seized on the green-on-blue attacks in their propaganda, and routinely claim each attack to be a result of infiltration. In early August, the Taliban released a video of two Afghan soldiers who attacked ISAF soldiers in Kunar and Uruzgan [see Threat Matrix report, Observations on Taliban video 'welcoming' rogue ANA soldiers].

Mullah Omar, the leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, or the Taliban, addressed the issue of green-on-blue attacks in a statement released on Aug. 16. Omar claimed that the Taliban "cleverly infiltrated in the ranks of the enemy according to the plan given to them last year," and urged government officials and security personnel to defect and join the Taliban as a matter of religious duty. He also noted that the Taliban have created the "Call and Guidance, Luring and Integration" department, "with branches ... now operational all over the country," to encourage defections. [See Threat Matrix report, Mullah Omar addresses green-on-blue attacks.]

Video: And We Call It Justice, Baby

Taliban Behead 17 Afghans For Attending "Mixed Sex" Dancing Party

The Taliban in Afghanistan have served up a harsh reminder of what life will be like in Afghanistan once Barack Obama's recall of U.S. troops occurs in the near future as 17 Afghan civilians who attended a party that had the audacity of having BOTH men and women there were beheaded.  Let's do a countdown for the outrage from Afghan President Karzai - I'm sure it won't take any longer than the outrage he would have shown if two Afghans were accidentally killed in a U.S. JDAM strike....right?

The story comes from The Jerusalem Post.

Taliban beheads 17 for attending mixed-sex party


KANDAHAR, Afghanista - The Taliban beheaded seventeen party-goers, including two women dancers, in Afghanistan's volatile Helmand province as punishment, recalling the darkest days of rule by the ultra-conservative Islamist insurgents before their ouster in 2001.

The bodies were found on Monday in a house near the Musa Qala district where a party was held on Sunday night with music and mixed-sex dancing, said district governor Nimatullah. Men and women do not usually mingle in Afghanistan unless they are related, and parties involving both genders are rare and kept secret.

The killings, about 75 km (46 miles) north of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, came at the beginning of a violent 24 hours for NATO and Afghan authorities in which 10 Afghan soldiers were killed in a mass insurgent attack, also in Helmand, while two US soldiers were slain by a rogue Afghan soldier.

"The victims threw a late-night dance and music party when the Taliban attacked" on Sunday night, Nimatullah, who only has one name, told Reuters.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility.

During their five-year reign, which was toppled by US-backed Afghan forces, sparking the present NATO-led war, the Taliban banned women from voting, most work and leaving their homes unaccompanied by their husband or a male relative.

Though those rights have been painstakingly regained, Afghanistan remains one of the worst places on Earth to be a woman.

Some democratic freedoms have also been wound back in what rights groups fear is an effort to reach a political reconciliation and possible power-sharing with the Taliban.

The Taliban gunmen stormed a lakeside hotel near Kabul in June demanding to know where the "prostitutes and pimps" were, witnesses said. Twenty people were killed.

The Taliban said they launched the attack on Qarga Lake because the hotel was used for "wild parties".

Helmand governor spokesman Daud Ahmadi said a team had been sent to the site of beheadings to investigate.

Why Is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Being Allowed Back In New York City?

From Family Security Matters.

Where Should Ahmadinejad Bunk Down in New York?


Plaudits to the watchdog group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), which is again tackling the mission of persuading New York City hotels to spurn Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his entourage when they come to Manhattan for the late-September opening of the United Nations General Assembly. This will be Ahmadinejad's eighth consecutive year of attending the UN's annual opening, and in years past UANI has led campaigns to drive him out of the Intercontinental and the Hilton Manhattan East, and is now calling on the Warwick Hotel - which hosted him last year - to give him the cold shoulder. In a Thursday press release, UANI congratulates an array of other hotels for refusing to provide rooms to the smirking face of Iran's terror-based regime.

All of which is gratifying, but presents an intriguing question - since it looks quite likely that even if Manhattan hoteliers take a principled stand for U.S. interests, the UN and the U.S. State Department will do no such thing. They will almost certainly insist that regardless of Tehran's baggage of terror plots, genocidal threats, domestic repression, illicit nuclear activities, and U.S. and UN sanctions, Ahmadinejad will yet again be accorded the full array of privileges and immunities that the UN is pleased to bestow on all its member tyrants. Ahmadinejad and his retinue will be permitted entry to the U.S., ushered into Manhattan, and provided with top-notch security, courtesy of the same U.S. taxpayers whose country and way of life he would like to destroy.

But the question. If New York hotels won't host Ahmadinejad, then where should he stay?

Maybe he can pitch a tent in Central Park? Fuggedaboutit. The late Moammar Gaddafi made a bid for that when he came to the UN's annual opening in 2009, the year Libya's man presided over the UN General Assembly. New York City said no. So did New Jersey.

There are plenty of other possibilities, of course. Perhaps Ahmadinejad could offer to deliver another lecture at Columbia University, in exchange for access to visiting faculty housing. Or, on a more pedestrian note, he could simply bunk down in the quarters of Iran's ambassador to the UN, and cram his retinue into the broom closets. One can come up with all sorts of ideas.

But I have my own preferred solution. It's obvious. By now, it would be entirely fitting for Ahmadinejad to bunk down in New York as the house guest of none other than Ban Ki-moon, the secretary-general of the UN.

For Ban to refuse Ahmadinejad such a favor would be nothing short of churlish. After all, Ban is about to avail himself of the Iranian regime's hospitality later this very month, when he travels Tehran to to attend the 16th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement. For reasons having no discernible connection to experience, reality, or even sanity, the UN secretary-general has apparently decided that if he can just spend a few days rubbing elbows with Iran's terror-masters, he can talk them into good behavior.

Ban is wrong - even more wrong than when he went to Libya in 2010 to attend an Arab League summit hosted by the late Gaddafi, with whom Ban was photographed whooping it up at a banquet. But if Ban really believes his own bunkum about needing some quality time with the ayatollahs, then let's see him follow through, and offer Ahmadinejad some down-home hospitality in New York. That should leave plenty of time for edifying chat at the end of a long day's propagandizing in Manhattan.

Courtesy of the good old United States, Ban certainly has the digs to accommodate Ahmadinejad's yen for plush rooms in Manhattan. Ban lives in the multi-million dollar Sutton Place Georgian town house that has served for decades as the official residence of the UN secretary-general. This 14,000 square-foot luxury dwelling is just up the road from the UN's midtown Manhattan headquarters. It's a lovely stroll on crisp autumn days, or at least a convenient strip for motorcades to race back and forth, protected by barricades and security officers from the gridlock that plagues the lesser folk of Manhattan during UN high-level events.

Surely Ban would be generous enough to share with Ahmadinejad for a few days the fruits of the relatively recent $4.9 million renovation of this spacious UN residence - the largest share of that tab paid, as usual, by U.S. taxpayers. Improvements, as reported at the time in the Washington Post, included "a new $2.1 million central heating and air-conditioning system, and a $200,000 kitchen upgrade" (at least those were the preliminary estimates; let us not be shocked should it turn out the real cost ran higher). Should Ahmadinejad wish to straighten his lounge suit before heading out into the streets of the Great Satan, Ban's residence reportedly boasts two small bathrooms in the entryway alone. We know that because it reportedly cost $100,000 to renovate them.

Yes, I know. Morally, this proposal is disgusting. Politically, it is outrageous. And surely the vision of Ahmadinejad during his next New York trip availing himself of the lavish comforts of Ban Ki-moon's UN residence, while dignified with special access to the secretary-general himself, is hardly in keeping with the UN's founding promises to promote peace, prosperity, and human dignity.

But as shorthand for the current relationship between Iran and the UN secretary-general, Sutton Place seems just the ticket. So, my vote is for Ban Ki-moon to return Iran's gracious hospitality, and open up his spare bedrooms, armchairs, and $200,000-upgraded kitchen to the UN's guests from Tehran. Would it really be all that different from what's going on anyway?

Video: Winning the Persian Gulf War

Videos: Surviving IEDs In Afghanistan

Oh Look! Another "Moderate" Muslim Is Really a Bloody Islamic Terrorist...British Doctor Leads Syrian Terror Cell

 Captive: John Cantlie, who was shot in the arm when he tried to escape the camp in Syria, said his British-born captor planned to return to a role in the NHS

Just a couple of weeks ago on the Blog Talk Radio show I talked about the myth of "moderate" Muslims and I pointed to the example of the two ordinary "moderate" Muslims in Britain who all of a sudden turned into radical Islamic extremists and conducted the attempted bombings of the London night clubs and the airport in Glasgow, Scotland.  Well, now we have to break the bad news to all of those Left Wing Muslim appeasers who insist that the majority of Muslims are nice little "moderate" Christians with a little twist - as it is now being reported here at the Daily Mail that a Muslim British doctor traveled to Syria to head up an Islamic terror cell and in fact, was responsible for the abduction of a British journalist.

So I ask the question - how many doctors and now many students and how many professors and how many store clerks and how many architects that strap bombs to themselves or put a gun to the head of another or plot to blow up a government building will it take for someone on the Left or in the mainstream to admit that finding a "moderate" Muslim is like finding a Dodo bird?

(Hat Tip:  Poppy in Scotland)

NHS doctor led Syrian terror cell that took British journalist hostage


An NHS doctor on leave from a London hospital was part of a heavily-armed extremist gang who took a British journalist hostage in war-torn Syria.

The Kalashnikov-toting doctor - believed to be around 28 - told photographer John Cantlie he had taken a sabbatical from his medical work to come to Syria and fight a 'holy war'.

The bearded medic, who spoke with a south London accent and said he had a wife and a child back in the UK, told the captive photographer he intended to return to an NHS job in Britain after his time in Syria.

Mr Cantlie, 41, was captured along with Dutch colleague Jeroen Oerlemans while they were in the country to report on the civil war between President Assad's army and rebel fighters.

The mystery doctor, who kept his face covered with sunglasses and a scarf, was one of around a dozen British militants who held the two journalists prisoner at a camp inside the Syrian border last month.

'It was a bit of a surprise to find an NHS doctor as one of our captors - with an AK-47 and preaching Sharia law,' Mr Cantlie told the Sun newspaper.

'When we asked his name he said: "Just call me the doctor. I'm the only one here."'

The hostages were handcuffed, blindfolded and kept under armed guard in a terrifying ordeal lasting seven days.

The extremist doctor told the photographer his experiences in war-torn Syria would be good for his NHS career, and that he intended to specialise in trauma medicine when he returned to the UK.

'He said he'd come here to "help people" - and yet he carried a gun at all times and said he was also here for war,' Mr Cantlie said.

He said his captor - who was equipped with gauzes, medicines, IV drips and other medical equipment at the camp two miles inside the Syrian border - even complained about NHS waiting lists, saying the service was good for emergency patients, but less so for those left waiting for routine operations.

The photographer also described hearing the unidentified doctor making phone calls home to his wife and child back in Britain.

When the journalists tried to flee the camp on their second day in captivity, a British militant was among those who opened fire on the pair to thwart their escape attempt.

Mr Cantlie was shot in the arm and Mr Oerlemans through the leg - and it was the NHS doctor who treated their injuries; administering antibiotics and saline drips, and stitching up the wounds.

But the medic's merciless views were evident when the planned executions of two Syrian prisoners at the camp were called off after they repented and pledged to follow Sharia law.

'The doc seemed annoyed. He said they should have been beheaded because they were spies,' said Mr Cantlie, who now has only limited movement in his left hand as a result of his injuries.

The doctor left the camp soon afterwards.

Mr Cantlie and Mr Oerlemans, who feared that they would be executed by their militant captors, were then told they were to be sold to an al-Qaeda group.

But the pair were rescued by Syrian rebels hours before the handover, bringing their seven-day ordeal to an end.

Rebels in the Free Syrian Army were told of the journalists' plight by their guide, who had managed to flee the camp in the wake of the pair's aborted escape attempt on their second day in captivity.

They overran the camp and were able to release the two hostages.

Video: Obama...."Mr. Scam Man"

(Hat Tip: Henry Bowman)

Is It On In North Waziristan?

 “Thousands of people have so far left the area, they are fleeing their homes due to the fear and rumours of a military operation,” an official in Miranshah said. -File Photo

This report from DAWN says that thousands of people in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal agency have fled due to the rumors that Pakistan's military is about to begin a major offensive there against the Taliban.  The article states that Pakistani officials are saying there won't be an operation but in these cases, the people usually know best.

A little background - the U.S. has made it very clear to the Pakistanis that they best clean up North Waziristan and the Pakistanis have been trying to mend some fences with the U.S. lately.  Pakistan has always resisted an operation in North Waziristan because of several groups of Taliban located there that are supposedly "friendly" to the Pakistani government.  At the same time, it is my belief that in North Waziristan you have a huge contingent of operatives that help the ISI with operations in Afghanistan.

If, and that is still a big IF, the Pakistanis move on North Waziristan...it could literally change the War in Afghanistan.  To understand what North Waziristan is all about...imagine you live in an apartment building infested with cockroaches.  The exterminators come in and blast the entire building for the roaches, except for one apartment.  What ensues is every cockroach in that building will flee the poison and run for safety in the unaffected apartment.  North Waziristan has always been that apartment that isn't treated.

Man, I hope this goes down.

Thousands flee Waziristan in fear of military offensive


MIRANSHAH: Thousands of people have fled one of Pakistan’s troubled northwestern tribal districts in recent days, fearing a military offensive against militants, locals and officials said.

Panicked residents have hastily left the area of North Waziristan despite officials repeatedly insisting that Pakistan has no immediate plan to launch an offensive in the volatile region, they added.

North Waziristan, one of Pakistan’s seven tribal districts and riddled with militancy, is considered a stronghold of the Afghan Taliban and Al-Qaeda operatives.

Although Pakistan has fought Taliban militants across much of the region it has so far withstood American pressure to move against the Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network in North Waziristan.

“Thousands of people have so far left the area, they are fleeing their homes due to the fear and rumours of a military operation,” Saif-Ur Rehman, a government official in the main town of Miranshah, told AFP.

Tasleem Khan, another government official confirmed the evacuation.

Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders North Waziristan, told AFP that thousands of people have reached several districts in his area.

Rumours started early this week after a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban told local media that it had received “an exclusive intelligence report” about an offensive in North Waziristan.

In an email sent to media, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said the campaign was to be launched on August 26 and would last one month.

Government and military officials have taken to local radio, asking people to remain calm.

“This is a peaceful area with a peaceful atmosphere. The government has no plan to launch any military operation here,” a radio announcement heard by local residents said.

On Saturday, some 2000 tribal elders and religious leaders warned the government to not to launch any offensive and threatened to move to Afghanistan “in case of any military operation”.

“We will migrate to Afghanistan, if Pakistan launches any military operation,” Maulvi Abdur Rehman, a religious leader who presided over the tribal Jirga said.

The Jirga held in Mirali Town of North Waziristan also requested residents to stay at home.

An AFP reporter in the area witnessed people fleeing their homes in vehicles.

Washington has long demanded that Pakistan take action against the Haqqanis, whom the United States accused of attacking the US embassy in Kabul last September and of acting like the “veritable arm” of Pakistani intelligence.

Pakistan has in turn demanded that Afghan and US forces do more to stop Pakistani Taliban crossing the Afghan border to launch attacks on its forces.

Blog Talk Radio: The Awakening - " The Obama Apology "

The Awakening

" The Obama Apology "

Listen to internet radio with Holger Awakens on Blog Talk Radio


--

Pakistani Taliban Leader Was Killed In U.S. Airstrike When He Entered Afghanistan

 Mullah Dadullah (right), the emir of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan's branch in Bajaur. Photo from The Associated Press.

Huge news and a big fish is no more as the top Pakistani Taliban leader from the Bajaur agency was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Kunar province last week - Kunar is right on the border with Pakistan.

From the article at The Long War Journal:

The head of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan in the Bajaur tribal agency and his deputy were killed yesterday in a US airstrike in the remote Afghan province of Kunar.

Mullah Dadullah, who is also known as Maulana Mohammad Jamal, and his deputy, Shakir, were among 12 Taliban fighters killed in an airstrike in the Shigal wa Sheltan district in Kunar province, the International Security Assistance Force stated in a press release.

Dadullah "was responsible for the movement of fighters and weapons, as well as attacks against Afghan and coalition forces," ISAF stated.

Prior to announcing Dadullah's death, the International Security Assistance Force Joint Command (IJC) told The Long War Journal that an airstrike took place "near the Pakistani border" in Kunar, and that 12 "armed insurgents" were killed.

If you are a Taliban leader at the moment you've got to be shitting bricks as in the past week it was obvious that over four leaders were targeted by U.S. drones and Afghan operations - obviously, we know exactly where these clowns are and we are watching their movements.  So the message is clear to Taliban leaders...if you stay in Pakistan, our drones will take you out and if you cross into Afghanistan, our fixed wing aircraft and JDAMs will take you out.

Bajaur Taliban leader, deputy killed in airstrike in eastern Afghanistan


The head of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan in the Bajaur tribal agency and his deputy were killed yesterday in a US airstrike in the remote Afghan province of Kunar.

Mullah Dadullah, who is also known as Maulana Mohammad Jamal, and his deputy, Shakir, were among 12 Taliban fighters killed in an airstrike in the Shigal wa Sheltan district in Kunar province, the International Security Assistance Force stated in a press release.

Dadullah "was responsible for the movement of fighters and weapons, as well as attacks against Afghan and coalition forces," ISAF stated.

Prior to announcing Dadullah's death, the International Security Assistance Force Joint Command (IJC) told The Long War Journal that an airstrike took place "near the Pakistani border" in Kunar, and that 12 "armed insurgents" were killed.

The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan has been operating along both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border, and has been responsible for numerous attacks on military and government targets in Kunar and Nuristan in Afghanistan, and in Bajaur, Mohmand, and Dir in Pakistan.

ISAF has been pounding al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba leaders in Kunar over the past several months. Since the end of May, five al Qaeda leaders and two Lashkar-e-Taiba leaders have been killed in airstrikes in the Watahpur district in Kunar [see LWJ report, ISAF kills Taliban district governor, 'dozens' of fighters in Kunar airstrikes, for more details]. Three al Qaeda-linked Taliban commanders have been killed in airstrikes in Watahpur over the past week. One of those commanders killed in an airstrike in Watahpur was responsible for a recent suicide attack that killed three US soldiers and a USAID officer in Asadabad.

Dadullah was in the middle of an intra-Taliban feud, which began in 2010 when Faqir Mohammed, the group's previous emir for Bajaur as well as the deputy emir for the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, was accused by local Taliban leaders in Bajaur of failing to fight the Pakistani military during an offensive.

In December 2011, Dadullah lashed out at Faqir when the latter said he was conducting negotiations with the Pakistani military and government at the behest of the Taliban. Both Dadullah and Ihsanullah Ihsan, the group's spokesman, rejected Faqir's claim that he was negotiating with the approval of the Taliban, and said Dadullah was now in charge in Bajaur.

In March 2012, Ihsan said that Hakeemullah Mehsud, the overall emir for the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, formally dismissed Faqir after a meeting of the group's executive shura, or council. The move was controversial as Faqir is closely allied with Ayman al Zawahiri, the leader of al Qaeda. Faqir is known to have sheltered Zawahiri and other top al Qaeda leaders in Bajaur.

For more information on Faqir Mohammed, his feud with the Taliban, and Taliban activity in Bajaur, see LWJ report, Pakistani Taliban deputy Faqir Mohammad demoted.

Video: 2nd Annual Jihadi Bloopers

Video: 10,000 Volts of Electricity Always Wins - WARNING: GRAPHIC

Pakistani Gunship Helicopters Take It To the Taliban in Bajaur Agency

Pakistan got into it today with the Taliban along the border with Afghanistan, sending in gunship helicopters that set about blowing the shit out of Taliban compounds in the Bajaur agency.  When the dust and blood settled, there were 28 dead Taliban and several of the compounds lay in rubble.  I think this is a prelude to the promised operation in North Waziristan...a dry run if you will.  Let's hope so.

The story comes from DAWN.

At least 28 militants killed in Bajaur Agency


PESHAWAR: At least 28 militants were killed and 15 arrested in Bajaur Agency’s Salarzai area in a clash between security forces and militants at Pak-Afghan border on Saturday, DawnNews reported.

The security forces attacked shelled the main lodgings of militants using gunship helicopters.

According to the security forces, several militants’ hideouts were destroyed during the attack.

Video: When the Taliban Attack Your FOB

Countdowns in Tehran and Jerusalem

From Family Security Matters.

Countdowns in Tehran and Jerusalem


If Israel jets show up in Iranian airspace, it will most likely happen while Obama is too busy accusing Mitt Romney of secretly storing all his money in a giant cave in the Rocky Mountains to do more than dispatch a flunky to chew out Netanyahu over the phone. The election is the perfect window for a strike on Iran's nuclear program, because Team Obama will be too tied down on the Romney Front to do much damage to Israel.

Despite the signs being brandished at your local Anarchists for Peace rally, accusing the United States of being a puppet of the Zionist regime, the United States and Israel have different interests. Israel is interested in not getting bombed and the United States is interested in regional stability. And regional stability means keeping the Sunni Arab oil countries happy.

The United States is interested in somehow making Iran's nuclear capabilities go away in the interests of regional stability. Particularly the regional stability of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar. But the last thing that this form of regional stability needs is Israeli planes flying over Saudi Arabia to take out that nuclear capability.

Just like during the Gulf War, regional stability demands that the United States protect Saudi Arabia and the Gulfies, while keeping Israel out of it. Since Iran's Revolutionary Guard isn't camped out in Kuwait City, protecting them is a matter of posture. That posture is there as a deterrent, a warning that Iran had better not interfere with our oil suppliers or there will be hellfire missiles to pay.

The posturing is hollow because everyone knows that Obama is not about to bomb Iran on behalf of Saudi Arabia and its colony in Bahrain. He is as likely to do it for Israel as he is to move to South Carolina and join the NRA. But he isn't alone in that regard. Despite the fevered fantasies of everyone from Noam Chomsky to Ron Paul, no American president would ever bomb Iran for Israel. If a third Gulf War is fought, it will be fought for Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, one more time.

The last time the United States fought Iran, in 1988, it was to protect Kuwaiti oil tankers. If Iran interferes with oil tankers from our friendly Gulfie terrorist states, then a future administration is likely to bomb Iran. If oil prices go high enough to potentially cost Obama the election, then he might pry away his foreign policy people from drawing up maps of Syrian targets and actually hit some Iranian naval installations.

None of this has anything to do with Iran's nuclear program... and that's the point. George W. Bush did appear to think that Iranian nuclear weapons might be bad news for the United States, not just for the balance of power in the region. He was nearly unique in that regard. The diplomatic and military establishment is full of experts who view Iranian nuclear weapons purely as factors in the balance of power and utterly refuse to look at them from any other angle. To them, Israel isn't really concerned about a nuclear attack, it's only playing a regional power game along with everyone else.

For Israel, violence is not a posture or a theory. It has few trading connections and no alliances in the region. Its foreign policy has always been about dissipating physical threats to its people, whether through diplomatic or military means. It does not follow this line because it is a saintly state, but because it is a state always on the edge. It has too little territory and too many enemies around it to follow any other path.

Surrounded by countries for whom destroying it is a matter of national pride and religious fervor, its only real deterrent is military. Winning several wars won it enough breathing room to try diplomatic solutions. And now the first and last of those diplomatic solutions has failed. It can still count on the military as a deterrent, but there is no deterrent against a nuclear attack carried out by terrorists under plausible deniability. The only remaining deterrent after a nuclear attack is killing as many of those responsible as possible before succumbing to radiation poisoning.

To the United States, Iranian nukes and an Israeli attack on them are equally unacceptable because they both disturb regional stability. The opponents of an attack insist on calling it a "War", not that a war is even structurally possible unless Iran decides to march an army through Iraq and Syria to get to Israel. They spread hysterical bulletins warning that an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear program could spark "another" recession.

Their message is that the cost of attacking Iran is less than the cost of allowing it to go nuclear. That may be true for the United States, which did not suffer too much from accepting that the Bolsheviks had taken over Russia, that Mao had taken over China and other once unacceptable phenomena that forced it the up its defense spending, but did not do any lasting damage. A nuclear weapon in the hands of people who believe that the world needs to be cleansed by fire for the arrival of the Mahdi and have dozens of terrorist front groups at their disposal may be a different story. Or it may not.

Washington D.C. did not get overrun by Communist forces. Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Tibet and a few hundred million other people who did not have oceans to protect them from the reasonable commissars in Moscow and Beijing, did. And that is why Israel's interests fundamentally diverge from those of the United States. Israel is not playing a grand game from across the ocean; it is trying to survive in a region that is as hostile to it, as Asia and Eastern Europe became to non-Communist countries.

That is why, no matter what speeches politicians deliver, the actual interests of the United States and Israel are only loosely aligned. The United States is trying to protect the tattered fabric of regional stability from Iran and Israel. Israel is trying to protect itself from Iran. The United States needs Israel to promote regional stability by going back to the table and negotiating with the terrorist front groups backed by Saudi Arabia and the Gulfies. Israel needs to protect itself while Obama is too busy telling senior citizens that Paul Ryan will cook them in a frying pan to pay attention to what it's doing.

Prime Minister Netanyahu has been cobbling together a national unity government, which in Israeli terms means that he is either running for sainthood or trying to get as much of the political system behind him in a critical time. It could all be a monumental bluff, a way to panic Obama into taking action out of fear that Israel will act instead. But that would make Netanyahu a very stupid man, and while he is not all that Americans think he is, neither is he likely to be playing such a silly game.

Everyone in the region understands the nature of the countdown. Most of the Sunni Gulfies also privately welcome Israel doing something about Iran's nuclear weapons, even as they redouble their efforts against the Jewish State to avoid allowing their Shiite enemies to benefit ideologically from a confrontation with the Zionist Entity. The rhetoric out of Iran now echoes the rhetoric out of Egypt in the 1960's. That buildup eventually ended in a preemptive Israeli strike that destroyed Egypt's air force.

But in Washington D.C., the countdown is not a real thing. The received wisdom among the press and the political and diplomatic establishments is that Netanyahu is an obstinate paranoid man who is playing games with them. They don't believe that Israel will do anything about Iran, because they wouldn't do anything about Iran and they assume that Netanyahu is just like them, only more deceptive because he pretends that he will do something about Iran.

The problem is that Israel really isn't playing a game. Its political establishment is as bad as that of any Western country. Its politicians are no better than their American or French counterparts, but its survival actually is on the line. Iran isn't playing a game. That's why Israel can't afford to play a game either.

It has become fashionable among Western elites to view aggression as either a posture or madness. They have forgotten that sometimes violence isn't a move on an international chessboard or a prelude to a set of political steps. Sometimes it's as simple as one side wanting to kill the other and the other side not wanting to be killed.

In the Middle East ideas that are considered aberrant insanity in the West are commonplace. Killing people is no great big thing. Most regimes do it from time to time to stay in power. Iran dispatched its Islamic militias to kill its own best and brightest in the streets of its capital. Virginity is believed to act as an instant pass to heaven for a woman, so teenage girls sentenced to death must first be forcibly married to their jailers and raped, before being hung.

The very idea that people think this way is incomprehensible in Washington D.C. But the simple question that Israel has to answer is, if this is what the Ayatollahs do to their own daughters, what would they do to those they consider the spawn of pigs and apes?

Israel already knows the answer to that. When Muslim mobs got their hands on Israeli Jews, before or after independence, they tore them to pieces and then sold snapshots of the remains. The policy of targeting all Jews, men, women and children, is not just something that terrorists do because they have no choice, it is the ideological position of Islamist leaders like Yusuf Al-Qaradawi in Egypt or Rashid Al-Ghannushi in Tunisia, and the policy of the Arab countries fighting Israel.

The liberal West has its illusions about the enemy. Israel has little room for those illusions. It will act when Washington is too busy fighting itself to focus on restraining it. It will act because it is alone as few other countries on earth are. It will act because it cannot afford to be Poland, Czechoslovakia or Tibet-- sacrificed in the great game of nations. It will act because it has no real choice but to act. It will act because for it this is not a set of talking points, a diplomatic program or a regional agenda, it is life or death. It will act, because for all its flaws, its survival is on the line.

That sense of a nation's survival and the life of a people hinging on a single course of action has become an alien one in an insulated world. It is not a thing that Washington D.C or Brussels can take seriously. It is not even a thing that all Israelis take seriously anymore. But those who hear the clock ticking know what is coming. They know the hard choices that will come in the months ahead. And they will make those choices as they made them before, because they will choose to survive.