Day: 2 August 2010

Four guilty of bungled ‘honour killings’

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By Kim Pilling, Press Association

Monday, 2 August 2010

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Four men were convicted today of murdering a couple in a bungled honour killing arson attack.

Abdullah Mohammed, 41, and his wife, Aysha Mohammed, 39, were overcome by smoke and fumes after petrol was poured through their letterbox and set alight.

Hisamuddin Ibrahim, 21, wanted to punish a man who was having an affair with his married sister and ordered three men to cause a blaze at his terraced home in the early hours while he was asleep.

But the wrong address was targeted as the blaze was started at the home of the Mohammeds in 175 London Road in Blackburn, Lancashire - instead of the intended address of 135 London Road.

A jury at Preston Crown Court took just 90 minutes following a six-week trial to convict Ibrahim, Habib Iqbal, Sadek Miah and Mohammed Miah (no relation) of their murders. Continue Reading →

Islamists Gain Upper Hand in Russian Republic

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I do not wish to make light of a mans loss of his son, but the caption on this photo does give one pause…

Nowhere in Russia is the situation so explosive as in the autonomous republic of Dagestan. An ongoing Islamist insurgency has plunged the corruption-plagued region into a state resembling civil war. Here, Magomedshapi Vagabov holds up a picture of his son, who was allegedly killed by police because they considered him an insurgent. "All my son did was to preach pure Islam," says Vagabov. "He wasn't an insurgent."

From SPIEGEL:

Nowhere in Russia is the situation so explosive as in the autonomous republic of Dagestan. An ongoing Islamist insurgency has plunged the corruption-plagued region into near civil war. Some high-ranking Russian officials believe it will take years to defeat the extremists, if it can be done at all.

An old man is trudging home through the narrow, dusty streets of Gubden, carrying a last memento of his murdered son in the pocket of his trousers. The photo of his eldest son, which the man has stored on his mobile phone, shows a gaping hole next to his left eye. “They killed him when he could no longer defend himself,” says the man, whose name is Magomedshapi Vagabov.

Vagabov takes off his grey, sheep’s wool cap. His house lies in the shadow of a mosque that towers like a fortress over Gubden, a village in the mountains of Dagestan, a Russian republic in the Caucasus region. Representatives of the central government in Moscow rarely come to Gubden without the protection of armored vehicles and helicopters. It’s not Russian criminal law but Sharia law that applies in this village of 4,000 inhabitants, many of whom sympathize with the Islamist insurgents who have spent more than a decade trying to establish a theocracy that would extend from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea.

Close to 9 million people live in the autonomous republics of Russia’s northern Caucasus. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, each of these republics, particularly Chechnya, has been plagued by terrorism and war. But nowhere is the situation today as explosive as it is in Dagestan. This desperately poor strip of land on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, which is smaller than the US state of West Virginia, is home to several dozen ethnic groups that are bitterly at odds over government posts and grazing land, while an Islamist insurgency wages a war against Moscow and Dagestan’s Russian-controlled government.

Almost Ungovernable

The resistance against the military campaigns of Czarist troops began in Dagestan more than 150 years ago. Russia needed a force of more than 300,000 to finally subjugate the region after a war than raged for about 30 years. The spirit of resistance continues to shape the republic today. Two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, chaos prevails in Dagestan, primarily because of the activities of radical Islamists. The Caucasus republic has become almost ungovernable.

In less than four years, the world will come together in the region for the 2014 Winter Olympics, which are being held in the city of Sochi. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin insists that this will not be a problem, and yet his Interior Ministry has just reported that the number of terrorist attacks in the northern Caucasus has more than doubled. Only last Wednesday, armed men stormed a hydroelectric power plant in the Kabardino-Balkar Republic, where they detonated three bombs. Sometimes the attacks even hit the Russian capital: In late March, a group of young female suicide bombers from Dagestan blew themselves up in the Moscow subway, killing themselves and 40 others.

In Makhachkala, the Dagestani capital, there are reports of attacks on a daily basis. In the last two weeks alone, a high-ranking judge, a Christian priest, three police officers and mayor were shot to death, policemen were injured when a bomb exploded, and another bomb caused a train to derail.

‘All My Son Did Was to Preach Pure Islam’ Continue Reading →

2 ‘Asians’ arrested for sending bombs to various British government addresses.

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Two Men Held After Parcel Bomb Sent to MI6HQ

The men, aged 52 and 21, were detained in Caernarfon on Friday following a joint operation by officers from the Metropolitan Police and North Wales Police.

A suspect package was delivered to MI6 (PA) A suspect package was delivered to MI6 (PA)

They were taken to a police station in central London on Saturday and questioned about alleged offences under Section 4 of the Explosives Act.

Magistrates subsequently gave the police permission to hold them for a further 48 hours.

Officers are investigating the sending of two suspect packages, one of which was delivered to the Secret Intelligence Service’s offices on Albert Embankment.

The second was intercepted at a sorting office in London and police have refused to comment on its intended destination, amid press speculation it was addressed to 10 Downing Street.

No details have been released about the two men who are being held, other than that they were arrested at separate addresses.

However, Wales on Sunday reports that they are a father and son of Asian origin.

9 men convicted of gross sexual abuse of minors

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H/T KitmanTV

Nine men convicted of child sexual exploitation

Date published: 02/08/2010

Nine men have been convicted for their role in the sexual exploitation of a 14-year-old girl from Rochdale.

The men gave the victim drugs and alcohol and forced her to have sex with men for money.

The girl went missing from home in Rochdale on two occasions, first on 16 February and again on 22 February 2008.

The second time she was missing for 11 days – turning up in Rusholme, Manchester. When officers spoke to her she told them she had been sexually

exploited by a number of men while she was missing.

Over the following weeks the girl was spoken to by a specialist team of officers. She was able to identify the places she was taken and the men who had abused her.

She had been abused by a number of different men as she went from one vulnerable situation to another. In many cases, the men she was associating with were not linked, but they did all identify the child’s vulnerability and take advantage of her.

Superintendent Paul Savill from GMP, said: “This child has been through an absolutely horrifying ordeal at the hands of these men.

“The level of abuse she has suffered is almost beyond belief. She has been treated like a commodity; beaten, threatened and sexually exploited.

“These men took advantage of her vulnerability with no regard for her wellbeing.

“I commend this young girl for her bravery in supporting this case. Even after her ordeal she was able to revisit the sites where she was abused and testify against her abusers in court. This is not easy and can often be the main obstacle we face when trying to bring prosecutions in cases of child sexual exploitation.

“In Manchester we have a specially trained team called the Protect Team who specialise in dealing with victims of child sexual exploitation. They help these young people to pursue prosecutions while coming to terms with what has happened to them and moving on with their lives.”

The Protect Team involves GMP and Manchester Children’s Services working with children’s charities to combat the issue of child sexual exploitation.

Their work involves disrupting, investigating and prosecuting offenders, while offering the support to victims and their families from a specially trained team of professionals.

The victim herself has released a statement about her ordeal: “These people exploit young girls, introduce them to prostitution, feed them drugs and alcohol and tell them they love them. I know this because it has happened to me and it has changed my life enormously. I just hope that people will be more aware of this now and will be able to prevent this from happening to other vulnerable young girls.

The victim’s parents have released the following statement: “We are very proud of our daughter for her courage in assisting Greater Manchester Police with the prosecution of these abusers who caused her such terrible harm. No family should have to endure a nightmare experience like the one we have been through.

“Sadly, we now know that many young and vulnerable teenaged girls are targeted, groomed and abused in this way by such offenders; we support our daughter in hoping that these successful prosecutions will send a message that will help protect other children.”

Offender Details

Asad Yousaf Hassan, 28, of Rivington Street, Rochdale was sentenced to two years in prison after admitting two counts of sexual activity with a child.

Mohammed Basharat, 28, of Prospect Street, Rochdale was sentenced to two years in prison after he pleaded guilty to sexual activity with a child under 16.

Mohammed Atif, 29, of Rivington Street, Rochdale was sentenced to two years in prison after admitting to sexual activity with a child.

Aftab Khan, 31, of Tarporley Avenue, Fallowfield pleaded guilty to one count of controlling a child prostitute and one count of sexual activity with a child. He was sentenced to nine years in prison. This was later reduced to seven years on appeal.

Abid Khaliq, 30, of Shrewsbury Street, Stretford was sentenced to eight months in prison after admitting perverting the course of justice.

Ahmed Noorzai, 29, of Royce Court in Hulme was sentenced to four years in prison after he was found guilty of paying for the sexual services of a child.

Mohammed Anwar Safi, 31, of no fixed address was sentenced to 31 months in prison after admitting paying for the sexual services of a child.

Mohammed Khan, 26, of Royce Court, Hulme was sentenced to four years in prison after he was found guilty of facilitating child prostitution.

Najibullah Safi, 32, of Reabrook Avenue, West Gorton was sentenced to two years in prison after admitting to sexual activity with a child.

British soldier forced to leave England with family for safety.

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Sometimes you have to wonder if one is dreaming all this. If I had said to someone 15 years ago, that British soldiers would not be safe in their own country because of Britain’s own government, no one but no one would have taken me seriously and some would suggest I needed medical help. I might have thought so myself.

Eeyore.

From News.Com.AU By way of TROP

A SNIPER in the British Army submitted a legal challenge to the Ministry of Defence over a “catastrophic error” that put him and his family at risk of being kidnapped by al Qaeda.

The soldier received huge media coverage when it was reported he had shot dead several Taliban fighters at a range of 1.5 miles during his tour of Afghanistan.

The publicity, which he says he never agreed to, meant that police feared he could be the victim of a reprisal attack by British-based Islamists and he was forced to leave the country with his family.

He has now posted a “letter of claim” with the  ministry, accusing it of failing in its duty of care to him by allowing his identity to become public, Britain’s Sunday Telegraph has reported

The soldier was interviewed during a parade at his regiment’s barracks. His story was picked up around the world and received millions of hits on the internet.

Related Coverage

The solider claims he was given an undertaking by officials that his personal details would not be made public but that no such guidelines were detailed by Ministry of Defence media representatives present during the interview.

The letter of claim states: “Following the reporting of the story and the publication of our client’s photograph and personal details, he and his family suffered acute distress and anxiety. It was described to our client by the press liaison officer as a ‘catastrophic error.’ This was also accepted later by the Media Operations team within the MoD

Florida church plans to burn Quran on 9/11 anniversary

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Times of India:

MIAMI: A Florida church said it plans to publicly burn copies of the Quran on the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, prompting threats from Islamic groups and warnings the move will trigger a rise in hate crimes.

The Dove World Outreach Center of Gainesville, Florida said on its Facebook page it will hold an “International Burn a Koran Day” on September 11, asking other religious groups to join in standing “against the evil of Islam. Islam is of the devil!”

“Islam and Sharia law was responsible for 9/11,” pastor Terry Jones said. “We will burn Qurans because we think it’s time for Christians, for churches, for politicians to stand up and say no; Islam and Sharia law is not welcome in the US,” the organizer of the burning action added.

Reactions to the Koran burning announcement were swift. Members of the Al-Falluja jihadist forum have threatened to “spill rivers of your (American) blood” and “a war the likes of which you have never seen before”.

Mainstream Muslim groups also denounced the move and lamented the sentiments promoted by the Gainesville church.

Interview with John Bernard: Transcription

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Dumbing-Down Our National Interest

by Baron Bodissey

John BernardJohn Bernard is a twenty-six year veteran of the United States Marine Corps, and in his retirement blogs at Let Them Fight or Bring Them Home. His mission is to highlight the absurd rules of engagement imposed upon members of the U.S. military, and to expose the insane and dangerous policies of our political leaders.

Last week Vlad Tepes interviewed Mr. Bernard on skype. Unfortunately, the sound quality of the resulting video is so low that it is difficult to hear it clearly. With Vlad’s help I transcribed the entire conversation, and am posting it below. To improve the flow of the narrative, I edited out all the hesitations, placeholders, self-corrections, and repeated words and phrases.

John Bernard is an example of the extraordinary quality we have come to expect from American soldiers, sailors, and Marines. He is intelligent, lucid, well-informed, and devastating in his analysis. If only our political leaders would pay heed to him.

Those who are interested may watch the entire interview on Vimeo, or in two parts on YouTube: Part 1 and Part 2.


Interview With John Bernard

Let Them Fight or Bring Them Home!

July 26, 2010

Your principal concerns are the rules of combat that make the war in Afghanistan dangerous and absurd. Is that correct?

Yes. You look at the rules of engagement as a stand-alone doctrine, or a stand-alone directive, then it’s an almost impossible fight.

You can’t discuss the rules of engagement without discussing strategy that bears that. In every strategy — I don’t care whether it’s on the battlefield or if it’s on the streets with the police force — everybody that bears arms is governed by a specific set of rules that tell them when they can engage whoever it is that they have the authority to engage.

In this particular case, the strategy changed somewhere around 2009 to almost exclusively counterinsurgency doctrine. And counterinsurgency doctrine really is run very much more tightly than the police on the street. So rules of engagement are intentionally tight to allow them to operate under the doctrine of counterinsurgency.

Can you give us a couple of examples of the rules of combat as they now apply in Afghanistan?

Absolutely. The rules of engagement — and again, this is a fluid document, it’s a fluid set of rules. They do change occasionally. The only thing people need to understand is that there’s nothing published, or nothing for public consumption. They reside inside a secret directive. So even getting this to the floor of Congress is difficult, because people who hold the keys, shall we say, to the chest of secrets do not want to let that directive out.

So instead all we can do is relay what we’ve been given by mouth, and we know that that’s correct, because that’s frankly the way the average soldier and Marine receives those orders as well. They may be written in some kind of localized document, but you’re not going to get them in anything that comes out of the Pentagon.

So, to give you an idea: when they were first released last year — released publicly, sometime around June of last year — one of the more egregious ones was that there weren’t going to be any more surprise night searches of civilian compounds within Afghanistan. I mean, that’s basically that you have to tell everybody in advance that you’re coming in to search their house, search a specific house, that you suspected of carrying weapons or materials that might be used by the Taliban.

Again: this is a war zone. This isn’t downtown Los Angeles. And even if it was, this particular Los Angeles does not reside within the borders of the United States. So it shouldn’t be governed by the Constitution; it should be governed by the rules of war.

You certainly have a legitimate concern that if somebody is either hiding Taliban, hiding weapons, hiding materials for war that can be used against you, you have a right — you’d think you have a right — to go in and find out what those are. So this thing basically set up the circuits for failure. Continue Reading →