Month: August 2010

STRATFOR: Israelis never left Israeli territory

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Israel: Photo Shows Soldiers Did Not Cross Border – IDF STRATFOR.COM

August 3, 2010
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) released an aerial photograph showing that IDF soldiers were in Israeli territory during clashes with Lebanese soldiers, The Jerusalem Post reported Aug. 3. A U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) representative reportedly confirmed the information. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned Lebanon that Israel would respond with force to any further incidents.

Ynet news on Lebanon-Israel ‘war’?

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Photo: Reuters

Dead, wounded in massive skirmish on Lebanon border

Explosions rock northern border Tuesday as IDF clashes with Lebanese forces; at least four Lebanese reportedly killed; Northern residents in Israel report major blasts, UNIFIL urges both sides to show restraint

Ynet reporters

Latest Update: 08.03.10, 15:30 / Israel News

Fire in the north: A day after rockets were fired at Eilat, loud explosions were reported on the northern border as Israeli and Lebanese forces engaged in massive exchanges of fire.

Security sources and witnesses in Lebanon said three Lebanese soldiers and a local journalist were killed in the clash.

Click link above for rest of story.

Israel – Lebanon exchange fire. Soldiers dead on both sides.

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Information is coming in fast from Stratfor.com

Typically, the first info is from the Muslim/Arab press and is highly spun. However according to Al Arabya, the Prime Minister of Lebanon has called for a ‘confrontation’ with Israel ‘no matter what the cost’ and there is one soldier dead on the Israeli side as well as several dead on the Lebanese side. I have no idea as to the cause or provocations but find your favourite source of geopolitical news and dial in. Something is going on in South Lebanon for sure involving live fire, machine gun and artillery. That much is certain.

UPDATE   Egypt now sides with Lebanon against what they call Israeli violations, and may be. I have no idea at this point.  UPDATE


Here is a Tundra Tabloids prediction for this action or something similar: Take it seriously.

MANFRED GERSTENFELD: LIMITLESS SUPPLY OF SUPPORT FOR THE JIHAD

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Writing at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Dr.Manfred Gerstenfled, chairman of the Board of Fellows at the JCPA, discusses the challenges facing American Jews now and in the near future. One of those challenges that caught the Tundra Tabloids’ eye, is an issue that Dr.Gerstenfeld mentions -that effects us all, Jew and non-Jew alike-concerning the continual threat of violent jihad. In the portion of the article titled “The Future of Jihadism”, Dr.Gerstenfeld writes*:

In a world whose main elements are becoming opaque for an increasing number of people, is Muslim jihadism going to disappear, or at least greatly weaken? That seems unlikely both in view of the fanatically ideological commitment of its promoters and because people are inclined to look in an amorphous world for something they perceive as more certain.

The Muslim world is permeated with a clear-cut recipe for an apocalyptic totalitarian future. This does not contradict the possibility that even more Muslims will reject extremism. Some surveys show declining public support for suicide bombings among many Muslim populations. A 2009 Pew study, however, also found that more than 20 percent of Muslims in Indonesia, Jordan, and Egypt (more than 100 million radical Muslims**) have confidence in Osama bin Laden doing “the right thing in world affairs.” Among Nigerian Muslims this percentage was over 50 percent. When President Barack Obama said in his Cairo speech of June 2009 that the extremists were a “small but potent minority,” he was clearly understating the problem.
 
The Pew study and other data indicate that there are many more current adherents of extremist Islam than the number of Nazis at the time Hitler invaded Poland in 1939. They are far from a majority in the Muslim world. The same, however, is true of the committed moderate and secular Muslims on the other side of the ideological spectrum. These are also less well organized. A large, presently uncommitted center will usually side with the likely winner”.

Gerstenfeld is of course right about the “uncommitted center”, it was exactly this majority demographic Nathan Sharansky was talking about in his seminal book, “The Case For Democracy“. The Doublthinker is the third group Sharansky draws the reader’s attention to after the “True Believers” and the “Dissidents” on pg.47, stating:

“If a fear society is repressive enough, it will appear to an outside observer to consist of only true believers when in reality it may have thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions, tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions of doublethinkers living in terror.”

Though Sharansky was talking about highly tyrannical, oppressive societies in general, and Dr.Gerstenfled is talking about Islam and Muslims inparticular, (many of whom live in many different kinds of societies, ranging from the tyrannical to a softer kind of tyranny) the situation is exactly the same, for Islam is a top down oppressive ideology and the Islamic center will fall to which ever side they deem will eventually have the upper hand.

But this of course means that in no uncertain terms, can or should, anyone paper over the unpleasant facts that surrounds the Mohammedan faith. It remains unchanged since the time of Mohamed, which means it still contains the seeds to violence to be used whenever a substantial number deem the moment right for jihad.

Then there is also the stealth jihad, that Robert Spencer has dedicated much of his time and effort to alerting the general public about, as well as confronting it face on. Even in the event that the violent jihad is effectively beaten, or at least beaten back substantially, there still remains the stealth jihad, which the Tundra Tabloids deem the more destructive of the two jihads, and will take even more time and effort to properly educate the public and to counter.

Now with the stealth version of the jihad, there is absolutely no indicator whatsoever whether the vast majority of Muslims “that reside in the center” would have any problem in seeing the west Islamized to the point that they (the Muslims) would “feel better at home”.

Therein lies the greater danger for Jews, Israel and the west, for while the vast majority of Muslims, in the TT’s opinion, may indeed reject violent jihad, the overwhelming majority however, would find it very difficult to challenge let alone to disagree with the stealth jihad, or in other words the Islamization of the west, in any significant way. So in regards to the violent jihad, the Muslim center needs to be fought for, but in the stealth jihad, they have to be considered an automatic fifth column. KGS

*Manfred Gerstenfeld and Steven Bayme American Jewry’s Comfort Level Present and Future, (Jersualem, JCPA & AJC, 2010) 57-58.

** The Pew research document itself is not explicit but if you take the number of Muslims in specific countries mentioned there and multiply them with the percentage of people who share Bin Laden’s world view and add them up, you come out at about 100 million. These are convinced Bin Laden adherents and as said they are more than Hitler had followers when Germany marched into Poland in 1939. People are simply not aware how big the jihadi Muslim problem is. If you had the figures for the other tens of Muslim countries, it would increase further. A hundred million is already a big enough figure to make an impression.

STRATFOR: Lebanon – Israel exchange fire

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August 3, 2010

U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon urged “maximum restraint” after an exchange of fire between the Lebanese and Israeli armies along the Blue Line in the area of al-Udaysah village, Reuters reported Aug. 3, citing a U.N. spokesman. U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon Deputy Commander Santi Bonfanti is in contact with the Israelis and Lebanese, the spokesman said. Israeli troops fired four shells from tanks, with the Lebanese responding with two shells and fire rounds, according to Al-Alam TV. According to unnamed Lebanese security sources, an Israeli tank targeted a Lebanese army position, slightly injuring a Lebanese soldier. In another report, Al-Arabiya said two Lebanese were injured.

ADL: Community Center Near Ground Zero “Not Right”

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New York, NY, July 28, 2010 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today issued the following statement regarding the proposed Islamic Center near Ground Zero in Manhattan:

We regard freedom of religion as a cornerstone of the American democracy, and that freedom must include the right of all Americans – Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and other faiths – to build community centers and houses of worship.

We categorically reject appeals to bigotry on the basis of religion, and condemn those whose opposition to this proposed Islamic Center is a manifestation of such bigotry.

However, there are understandably strong passions and keen sensitivities surrounding the World Trade Center site. We are ever mindful of the tragedy which befell our nation there, the pain we all still feel – and especially the anguish of the families and friends of those who were killed on September 11, 2001.

The controversy which has emerged regarding the building of an Islamic Center at this location is counterproductive to the healing process.  Therefore, under these unique circumstances, we believe the City of New York would be better served if an alternative location could be found.

In recommending that a different location be found for the Islamic Center, we are mindful that some legitimate questions have been raised about who is providing the funding to build it, and what connections, if any, its leaders might have with groups whose ideologies stand in contradiction to our shared values.  These questions deserve a response, and we hope those backing the project will be transparent and forthcoming.  But regardless of how they respond, the issue at stake is a broader one.

Proponents of the Islamic Center may have every right to build at this site, and may even have chosen the site to send a positive message about Islam.  The bigotry some have expressed in attacking them is unfair, and wrong.  But ultimately this is not a question of rights, but a question of what is right.  In our judgment, building an Islamic Center in the shadow of the World Trade Center will cause some victims more pain – unnecessarily – and that is not right.

(The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world’s leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.)

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 →