Category Archives: Taliban

Another slap on the wrist for terrorist in Canada

Posted on by

 Ali Mohamed Dirie [far left in court art picture] and his family [masked gang] are allowed to hide amongst us because they are Muslim.

mohamed1220Ali Mohamed Dirie's family. Masked gangToronto Star… A Scarborough man whose role in the so-called Toronto 18 was to supply it with firepower so the group could launch a deadly terror attack in downtown Toronto was sentenced in a Brampton court on Friday to seven years.

Ali Mohamed Dirie was given credit of five years in pre-trial custody, meaning he will have to serve an additional two years. The Somali-born man will be eligible for parole in one year.

The 26-year-old pleaded guilty last week to participating in the activities of a terrorist group and confessed he had obtained handguns and ammunition knowing they were for the group’s alleged ringleader.

While delivering his sentence, Superior Court Justice Bruce Durno said he believed Dirie’s “moral culpability is high.”

“Terrorism offences strike at the heart of Canadian values and society,” Durno told the court, as Dirie’s mother, brother and cousin sat expressionless.

Durno also ordered Dirie submit a DNA sample, and be prohibited from handling firearms for life.

In a joint submission, the Crown and defence had suggested a seven-year sentence. However, they disagreed on how much credit he deserved for the time he has already spent behind bars. Crown prosecutor Clyde Bond proposed Dirie serve two more years, while defence lawyer Robert Nuttall suggested that he be released.

After the sentencing, Nuttall told reporters that he and his client’s family were satisfied with the judge’s ruling.

“Mr Dirie, I can say, profoundly regrets and is extremely remorseful for the means adopted in advancing his beliefs,” said Nuttall, explaining that “maturity” had helped his client see the errors of his ways.

The terror plot first surfaced in 2005, when Dirie and a co-accused were stopped at the Canada-U.S. border in a rented vehicle while attempting to smuggle firearms and ammunition into the country.

Officers found two loaded handguns on Dirie and bullets in his socks, court heard.

While Dirie was serving a two-year sentence for gun smuggling, other members of the alleged homegrown terror cell pushed forward with their plot, which they hoped would prompt the withdrawal of Canadian forces from Afghanistan.

Some in the group attended a so-called terrorist training camp in December 2005 and others pushed ahead with an explosives plot targeting the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Toronto offices of Canada’s spy agency and an unidentified military base off Highway 401.

In June 2006, police busted up the alleged homegrown terror cell after members purchased three tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertilizer destined for truck bombs.

Dirie, who was already in jail, was charged with terror-related offences in 2006, along with 13 other adults and four youths.

Court heard that even after he was incarcerated on gun smuggling charges, he continued to play an important role in the group.

During a March 2006 intercepted telephone conversation from jail with the alleged ringleader, whose name is covered by a publication ban, Dirie was described as “a major asset to the circle.”

According to wiretapped calls, Dirie was trying to find jailhouse connections who could supply fake passports guns for the group.

During their phone conversations, Dirie and the alleged ringleader used code words such as “wives” and “girls” and “black chicks” for firearms, and “food” for ammunition.

Court heard that while in jail, Dirie received a package of books and CDs dubbed a “Qur’an kit,” which contained hidden violent videos of attacks and bombings of military personnel. He was also actively recruiting inmates to adopt hardcore jihadist beliefs.

Although specific details such as terrorism targets were not revealed in these conversations, the calls formed the basis of the Crown’s case against Dirie and prompted his guilty plea, the court was told.

Bond said it was clear Dirie intended to play a role once he was released on parole in May 2006, after serving time on his gun smuggling conviction.

Bond argued that Dirie continued to foster terrorism behind bars by trying to recruit other inmates to his extremist views, which Dirie admitted to doing.

However, Nuttall argued that his client had changed his extremist views and while he was still opposed to the military presence in Afghnaistan, he understood that using violence to bring about change was wrong.

Dirie was the second person to plead guilty. Saad Khalid and Saad Gaya also pleaded guilty to conspiring to cause an explosion. Last year, Nishanthan Yogakrishan was found guilty.

Seven more await trial.

German Authorities Arrest Alleged Terror Suspects

Posted on by
 MUNICH  —  Two men with suspected links to Islamic extremists were taken into custody by Munich police, and security at the Oktoberfest beer festival has been increased as videos threatening Germany continued to surface on the Internet, officials said Monday.
Two men from Arab countries were arrested Saturday, the same day authorities banned flights over Oktoberfest, said Munich police chief Wilhelm Schmidbauer.

Such bans are usually imposed only during visits by high-ranking state visits. Traffic was also restricted around the Theresienwiese, the 77-acre festival grounds where Oktoberfest is held for 16 days each year. This year’s event began Sept. 19.

At least five videos by Islamic terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda and the Taliban have threatened Germany in recent weeks. A video released by the Taliban late Friday included pictures of Oktoberfest and threatened an attack.

In the latest message, a 28-minute audio recording released Monday, Al Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri criticized Germany and Turkey, saying the former is “lying” about the nature of its mission in Afghanistan and accusing Turkey of taking part in a war against another Muslim nation.

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said Monday that two videos have referred to the festival while leveling threats. But he added, “There is currently no concrete evidence of an attack in Germany.”

Schmidbauer said one of the detained men had contact with Bekkay Harrach, who was identified as the speaker in several recent videos threatening Germany for the country’s military presence in Afghanistan. The second knew Harrach through a relative.

Schmidbauer would not release their names, but said both men have lived in Munich a long time.

“We are not making accusations of any criminal acts,” Schmidbauer said.

Two judges approved a police request to keep the men in “preventative custody” until Oktoberfest ends on Sunday. German authorities have taken similar action in the past, for instance to hold unruly football fans during the World Cup in 2006.

Oktoberfest has been targeted in the past. Saturday’s festival opened with a minute of silence to honor the victims of a bomb attack that killed 13 people and injured 200 others on Sept. 26, 1980

 

 

Smuggled US Arms Flood Pak Tribal Belt

Posted on by

American taxpayers are unwittingly arming the enemy.

SatellitePESHAWAR — Sophisticated US-made arms, either snatched from foreign troops in neighboring Afghanistan, or sold out by cash-strapped Afghan soldiers, have flooded the arms markets in Pakistan’s northern tribal belt and are in high demand too.

“We have various kinds of US-made arms, which we procure from Afghan arms smugglers,” an arms dealer from the town of Darra Adamkhel in Pakistan’s western frontier province (NWFP) told IslamOnline.net.
Darra Adamkhel, virtually the arms factory of the tribal areas, is also the hub of illegal shipments of weapons throughout the country and one of the biggest private arms’ markets in Asia.
Till a few years back, China-made weapons and their replicas undisputedly ruled the tribal arms markets.
But after the arrival of stolen US-made arms, the sale of Chinese weapons has reduced to a great extent.
“The (US-made) weapons, we procure, are usually stolen from the warehouses of the US troops,” the arms dealer said.
Not only stolen, the arms are also sold out by Afghan army soldiers who need money.
“A number of Afghan police personnel have sold their pistols to the arms smugglers, who later smuggle them into tribal arms markets.
“In southern and northeastern Afghanistan particularly, Afghan soldiers sell their weapons, provided by US, to the arms smugglers, and report to their high-ups that their weapons were snatched by Taliban,” the arms dealer added.
“Many of them have replaced their actual weapons by replicas made in Pakistani tribal arms market.” Continue Reading →

Does Pakistan assist the Taliban and Al Queda?

Posted on by

H/T Gates of Vienna and CB

Pakistani journalist on Swedish TV

from Swedish TV news and an interview of a Pakistani writer and journalist, who’s been lauded as an expert on Islamist terror when he came to Sweden, this past week.

In this short interview he talks about the route the Swedes took when they came to Pakistan and he claim that it is a quite regular one, or the most important, for Islamist trying to hook up with the Taliban.

Bin Laden: Obama ‘powerless’ in Afghanistan

Posted on by

CBC… President Barack Obama is “powerless” to stop the war in Afghanistan, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden reportedly said in a tape released Monday.

Bin Laden, who is believed to be hiding in the mountainous region along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, typically addresses the American people in a message timed around anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

“We have demonstrated and stated many times, for more than two and a half decades, that the cause of our disagreement with you is your support to your Israeli allies who occupy our land of Palestine,” bin Laden says in the 11-minute video, which shows a still picture of him.

“The delay in your knowing those causes has cost you a lot without any result whatsoever,” he said in the tape released by al-Qaeda’s media wing, as-Sahab in Cairo.

“This position of yours, combined with some other injustices, pushed us to undertake the events of [Sept. 11, 2001],” bin Laden said.

He said that if Americans realized the extent of the “suffering from the injustice of the Jews … you will realize that both our nations are victims of the policies of the White House,” which he described as “a hostage” to interest groups and companies.

Canadian soldier killed, four injured in Afghanistan IED blast

Posted on by

Ottawa Citizen… KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — The price Canada pays for waging war in Afghanistan has risen once more with the death of Pte. Patrick Lormand, 21, who was killed in action Sunday when a Canadian armoured vehicle struck an improvised explosive device.

Pte. Lormand is the 130th soldier to die in Afghanistan since the mission began in 2002. Four other Canadian soldiers received minor injuries in the blast, and were treated and released from hospital.

Brig.-Gen. Jonathan Vance described Pte. Lormand as a proud and heroic infantryman who “came here to do right by Afghanistan, to serve Canada’s objective to help bring peace, a chance for lasting security and a better environment to live and raise a family.”

In praising Pte. Lormand, however, Gen. Vance also seemed to take aim at the growing voices of opposition to the war back home.

“He did not come here as a potential victim. He came here to help, and help he did. He does not need to be told his efforts are futile, for he could see positive results in the communities he was protecting.” said Gen. Vance. “Neither he nor his family benefit from uninformed opinions about what his goals were and the techniques he used to achieve them. You need only look into those young clear eyes to know that he was a good soul, who tried every day to do the right thing and saw in the results of his efforts a chance to succeed on a wider scale on behalf of Canadians and Afghans alike.”

Canada’s role in Afghanistan was sharply criticized by Senator Colin Kenny in an op-ed article published in some Canwest newspapers on the weekend.

“What we hoped to accomplish in Afghanistan is proving to be impossible,” wrote Mr. Kenny, chair of the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence. “We are hurtling toward a Vietnam ending.” Continue Reading →

Canada really needs to assess it’s role in Afghanistan

Posted on by

Not for the first time, Vladtepesblog asks what exactly is Canada’s role in Afghanistan? What is it we seek to achieve? If we are propping up a government that is fully committed to sharia law, I say we destroy terrorist infrastructure and methods of raising money such as opium cultivation with tons of Agent Orange and leave them with a warning that if they attack Canada or it’s allies again we will launch major ordinance against them from which they will not recover.

Eeyore

pervez2502_17371t

From Jihad Watch:

September 8, 2009

Afghanistan: Clerics fume as student journalist convicted of “blasphemy” is freed by secret pardon

An unexpected turn in the case of Sayed Pervez Kambakhsh. Perhaps Karzai decided he needed to do something “moderate”-looking in a hurry. “Clerics and hardliners vent their fury at Pervez release,” by Kim Sengupta for the Independent, September 8:

Conservative and religious groups in Afghanistan reacted with fury yesterday to the news that Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, who was sentenced to death for promoting women’s rights, has been freed.

After President Hamid Karzai secretly pardoned the 24-year-old student, hardliners called for an urgent ulama, a meeting of Islamic scholars, to organise protests against the decision.

Mr Kambaksh’s brother, Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi, said he was “very glad, very happy” at what had happened, and human rights organisations and a number of liberal parliamentarians welcomed the news.

The fate of Mr Kambaksh became a cause célèbre after his plight was revealed by The Independent. A petition to secure justice secured more than 100,000 signatures and the Afghan government came under pressure from Western leaders to free him.

Mr Kambaksh’s original death sentence was set aside by Afghanistan’s Supreme Court. But the judges ruled that he must serve at least 20 years in prison. Following the presidential amnesty he is now starting a life with a new identity in another country after 20 months of incarceration.

Mr Ibrahimi said: “We are all very happy that so much progress has been made with Pervez and I want to thank all the people who have helped in this. I have to be careful about what I say but, of course, Pervez should never have been put in that position, it was wrong. The family is very glad he is out.”

But yesterday in Kabul, Maulavi Hanif Shah Hosseini, a prominent mullah, declared: “Kambaksh committed a crime against the Koran and the people who conspired so that he escaped the law have also committed a crime.

“All the decisions to help this man who disrespected Islam are coming from the foreigners. But the decision to follow along with this came from Karzai and the Afghan government and we disown them. We are going to call for a gathering of the ulama to decide what to do. We are not going to make a big stand against this and any trouble will be the fault of people who helped Kambaksh.”

Qari Rahmatullah, MP for Kunduz, said: “This just shows that our country is not independent. Our policies are dictated by outsiders. Why should a man be allowed to insult Islam and then just walk away?” And he added: “Good Muslim people will be unhappy about this and Mr Karzai will have difficulties if the voting [in the election] goes to the second round.”

A number of reports suggest Karzai has covered his bases there.

Islam shows its usual tolerance in the Philipines:

Posted on by

From The Manila Times by way of The Religion of Peace:

Islam shows its multi faith tolerance to church in Kosovo

Islam shows its multi faith tolerance to church in Kosovo

many Filipinos were shocked to learn from a privileges speech of Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Piumentel Jr., the untiring advocate of federalism (out of concern for the Muslim Filipinos), that in Marawi City and Sulu province it is forbidden to display the cross—the symbol of Christianity—at the top or frontage of buildings, including church spires.

Christians are also proscribed from singing religious hymns. This makes it impossible for Catholics to hold sung High Masses and Protestants to melodiously exclaim their joy at the blessings of Amazing Grace.

Is intolerance toward Christian symbols and hymns in Marawi and Sulu the specter of Talibanization rearing its ugly head? Some Marawi City people are proud of their city being the Philippines’ “lone Islamic City.” They exult over trycyles there that proclaim their being the “Gift of Allah” and not of Jesus.

We oppose intolerance—especially religious intolerance. It cheers us to see many churches, chapels and mosques all over our country. We would lambast any act of intolerance by religious majorities against minorities.

The Muslim intolerance towards Christians in Marawi and Sulu must be stopped. It could be a sign of incipient Talibanization, the germ of a potential nationwide tragedy. It could turn the Mindanao problem from a socioeconomic and ethical one of injustice into a painful, widespread and bloody religious war.

Taliban cuts off fingers of those who vote.

Posted on by

This story has a lot of meaning. I am pretty confident the Taliban would indeed allow a vote if they thought for a moment that they would win it. Chavez and Hamas for instance were OK with the election that got them in power. Not so much any subsequent one in a fair and democratic manner.

So what does this say? That contrary to many amateur analysts expounding, the Taliban are not popular amongst the Afghan people and that despite any Islamic issues we in the west may and do still have with the people of Afghanistan they do not like nor desire the Taliban as a political/criminal/political entity, nor could they be expected to, given how they treat the Afghans at every opportunity, when in a position to do so.

From CNN by way of TROP

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) — Making good on a threat of election day violence, the Taliban sliced off the index fingers of at least two people in Kandahar province, according to a vote monitoring group.

Electoral workers count votes at a school in Kabul.

Electoral workers count votes at a school in Kabul.

After they cast their ballots, the fingers of Afghan voters are stained with ink to prevent them from voting multiple times. The fingers of the two women in Kandahar, a stronghold of the Taliban, were cut off because they voted, said Nader Naderi of the Free and Fair Election Foundation.

The Taliban had vowed to disrupt Thursday’s election and the risk was too great for some Afghans to venture out, especially in the southern provinces that form the heartland of the radical Islamist group. Continue Reading →

Child ‘Brides’ in Afghanistan

Posted on by

Reasonable laws in Afghanistan as in Egypt which appear to protect women and/or Minorities, are honored more in the breach than in the observance. Put more simply, they are pure bullshit for foreign consumption.

Taliban vow to bomb polling booths

Posted on by

The Times of India… KANDAHAR: The Taliban on Sunday threatened for the first time to attack Afghan polling stations, escalating their bid to derail key elections this week after striking Nato in the heart of Kabul. The threat was made in leaflets, dropped in villages in the south, and authenticated by a Taliban spokesman who said the militia would accelerate its bloody campaign of violence on the eve of polls.

“This is to inform respected residents that you must not take part in the polls so as not to become a victim of our operations, because we will use new tactics,” said one leaflet distributed in Kandahar. “All people are being informed that you must not rent out property to voting centres and if anyone did — even after elections — they may face problems”, they said.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi confirmed the leaflets were authentic and that commanders were ordering the masses to boycott the vote. The leaflets marked the first direct threat from the rebels to attack polling sites.

The leaflets came even as supporters of the candidates came out in their thousands on Sunday. In his regional power base in the north, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, President Hamid Karzai’s main challenger, was mobbed by thousands of supporters who stormed a gate to surge into the compound where his helicopter touched down.

He was hoisted onto a pickup truck and driven through the town of Taloqan, surrounded by crowds of adoring supporters. “I told the crowd we have already won,” Abdullah said.

Karzai disappointed thousands of people in the southern city of Kandahar who were hoping he would make an appearance at a rally addressed by one of his half-brothers, Ahmad Wali Karzai, Kandahar’s provincial council chief. Kandahar is Karzai’s home town as well as the heartland of the Taliban, whose fighters have vowed to disrupt the poll with attacks.

Sex-starved Afghans can deny food to wives: Report

Posted on by

From The Times of India:

Variant on the double decker?

Variant on the double decker?

LONDON: Afghanistan has enacted a new legislation empowering men of Shia sect of Islam to deny their wives food and sustenance if they refuse to obey their husbands’ sexual demands, a media report said on Saturday.

The new final draft of the legislation also grants guardianship of children exclusively to their fathers and grandfathers, and requires women to get permission from their husbands to work, The Guardian reported.

“It also effectively allows a rapist to avoid prosecution by paying ‘blood money’ to a girl who was injured when he raped her,” the report said quoting US charity Human Rights Watch.

In early April, US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown joined an international chorus of condemnation when the earlier version of the law legalised rape within marriage.

Although Afghan President Hamid Karzai appeared to back down, activists

said the revised law still contained repressive measures and contradicted Afghanistan’s constitution and international treaties it is signed up to.

According to the report, the new law has been backed by the hardline Shia cleric Ayatollah Mohseni, who is thought to have influence over the voting intentions of some Shias, who make up around 20 per cent of the population.

Karzai has assiduously courted such minority leaders in the run up to next Thursday’s election, which is likely to be close, a poll indicated.

European gang trained for terror

Posted on by

By CNN Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson and Paul Cruickshank

al-qaeda_recruitEditor’s note: This story is based on interrogation reports that form part of the prosecution case in the forthcoming trial of six Belgian citizens charged with participation in a terrorist group. Versions of those documents were obtained by CNN from the defense attorney of one of those suspects. The statement by Bryant Vinas was compiled from an interview he gave Belgian prosecutors in March 2009 in New York, and was confirmed by U.S. prosecutors as authentic. The statement by Walid Othmani was given to French investigators, and was authenticated by Belgian prosecutors.

(CNN) — An American who says he went to fight U.S. forces in Afghanistan told interrogators that about the time he became an al Qaeda member he came across several Belgian and French militants.

Belgian counter-terrorism sources said the group traveled to Pakistan’s tribal areas at the beginning of 2008, also intent on fighting in Afghanistan.

The Europeans — four Belgians and two French citizens, all of North African descent — were recruited, Belgian police say, by Malika el Aroud and Moez Garsallaoui, a married couple who had long enjoyed a notorious reputation among European counter-terrorism services.

El Aroud’s previous husband, Abdessattar Dahmane, had assassinated Ahmed Shah Massoud, the head of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, in a suicide bombing attack ordered by Osama bin Laden two days before 9/11.

When CNN interviewed the couple in 2006, El Aroud showed how she administered a pro-al Qaeda Web forum called Minbar SOS, which included pro-al Qaeda postings and propaganda videos. Read how al Qaeda is now operating

Belgian investigators say the Web site played an important role in the radicalization of members of the French-Belgian group.

One of them was a 25-year-old Frenchman, Walid Othmani. He was arrested on his return to Europe from Pakistan and is now in French custody. Belgian prosecutors told CNN Othmani has been charged in France with participation in a criminal conspiracy with the aim of preparing a terrorist act.

“I don’t think I would have left to fight jihad without viewing these videos [on Minbar] … it made me aware that the European media were hiding things about the situation in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan,” Othmani told French interrogators, according to Belgian legal documents obtained by CNN.

According to Belgian counter-terrorism officials, Garsallaoui, a Tunisian citizen, recruited some of those who traveled to Pakistan in person in Brussels, but relied on the Internet to recruit others. Continue Reading →