“The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious.” -Marcus Aurelius
1. A witness told a Spanish radio station she first heard a loud explosion and then saw the train derail
2. Spanish TV streaming coverage
3. At least 35 people were killed when a train derailed outside the northern Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela
Several medical workers treated the man in the terminal after the blastXinhua showed several medical workers providing emergency treatment, with police officers also at the scene.
The man was named by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV as Ji Zhongxing, 34, from Shandong province in China’s north-east. The explosive device consisted of gunpowder from fireworks, CCTV reported.
Officials say order has been restored at the airport and there is no disruption to flights.
An original translation by C.B.
H/T M
An RATP bus was firebombed on Saturday around 8:15 PM on Berthier Blvd. in the 17th district of Paris. It was an articulated bus that circulates on line PC3. According to witnesses who were questioned on the spot, and police, the disaster would have been caused by a petard (detonator) of July 14th (Bastille Day) or a molotov cocktail thrown against the bus
There were no casualties among the 50 passengers present on board so far. According to RATP, the driver was a good professional who himself evacuated the passengers. He was lightly wounded in the operation.
An investigation is now in progress and no avenue of investigation will be ignored. According to a witness at the scene, a “petard” (detonator) was drawn on the back of the bus”, and this would have immediately ignited the fire. In the early hours of July 14th (the national holiday) the question of fireworks worried the police force.
VIDEO: A BUS IN FLAMES IN FULL VIEW IN PARIS
The fire released a very impressive plume of smoke that could be seen over Paris which the reporter, Stephane Bern, didn’t fail to capture.
Nail Bomb’ Near Mosque Probed By Terror Cops
Counter-terrorism officers are investigating a suspected nail bomb attack outside a mosque in the West Midlands, Sky sources say.
Several streets have been sealed off by police after residents reported hearing a loud bang in Tipton around 1pm.
Police said the explosion is being treated as a terrorist incident and some residents have reported finding nails and other debris in the area.
West Midlands Police were called to Binfield Street, Tipton, at about 13:00 BST
Part of a town has been sealed off by police after reports of “a loud bang” near a mosque in the West Midlands.
Police, including counter terrorism officers, were called to Binfield Street in Tipton at about 13:00 BST and have since cordoned off the area.
Residents reported finding nails and debris but there are no reports of any injuries, West Midlands Police said.
circenses et circenses
According to witnesses interviewed on CTV news, the train was traveling much faster than the strict speed limit for that section of track.
(I would think this would crush the notion that the train just ‘got away somehow’. The conductor who is being questioned has still not been named.)
“They started screaming about jihad”
*** UPDATE ***
As I suspected, the RCMP press conference so far is partially self congratulatory (perhaps rightfully so actually) but as most of us predicted, was designed to deny us more information than they gave us. With each press conference after the arrest of muslims for terror in Canada, they see what buzz words we learn to decode, then deny us those so that we may not connect the ideology or motive for terrorist acts with the terrorist acts. In this case, the RCMP have reached an Obamaesque level of new-speak in order to make sure we cannot know why these two people, who were clearly muslim, attempted to blow up pressure cooker bombs and kill as many as they could on Canada’s national day.
It is also significant that they gave the suspect’s English names when a dollar gets you a dime they had taken muslim ones and used them for some time now.
I would however like to congratulate the media present. They saw the obfuscation and in a typically Canadian way, politely asked over and over again in as many ways as they could think of whether or not this was islamic terror. Eventually the junior officer answered a question by the CBC in such a convoluted way they he accidentally revealed that it was, although his intention was to say that it was a purely criminal act and had no religious connection although it was inspired by Al Qaeda.
I will put together the relevant questions in this video and skip the press conference, as we now are used to in the modern West, press conferences are to hide information and because the Q&A are both more informative as well as a hell of a lot funnier.
I hope to have this ready in a couple of hours.
****
H/T Ted L
The RCMP are set to announce this morning several arrests in connection with a possible terror plot in Victoria.
Mounties have scheduled a news conference for 11 a.m. in Surrey to provide details about arrests made in project SOUVENIR, a national security investigation.
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/RCMP+announce+arrests+terror+plot/8605678/story.html#ixzz2Xu8VnUqF<
H/T Taffy in Canada
PUBLISHED: 07:41 GMT, 26 June 2013 | UPDATED: 08:56 GMT, 26 June 2013
At least 27 people have been killed after gangs armed with knives attacked a police station and a local government building in a remote region of western China today, according to state media.
The Xinhua agency said mobs in the Xinjiang region – home to a large Muslim Uighur minority – set upon buildings in the township of Lukqun at around 6am local time, stabbing people and setting fire to police cars.
Nine police officers and security guards and eight civilians were killed before police opened fire on the attackers, leaving 10 dead, regional Communist Party officials told the agency.
Restive: Violence erupted in the remote western Xinjiang region, where there were protests in 2009 (pictured) after riots pitting Muslim Uighurs against ethnic Chinese left nearly 200 dead (file photo)
The reported unrest in the region was the deadliest since July 2009, when nearly 200 people were killed in riots pitting Uighurs against ethnic Chinese in the region’s capital Urumqi.
The reasons for today’s attacks were not immediately clear.
This is an article of sizable importance IMHO
H/T M
By: Wendy Gillis News reporter, Published on Sat Jun 22 2013
Speaking slowly and firmly, his dark eyes staring straight through a thick pane of glass, Chiheb Esseghaier — the alleged mastermind of Canada’s first-known Al Qaeda-sponsored terrorist plot — said his arrest may have “neutralized” him but others could still be out there.
“I am in jail, I have been neutralized, but tomorrow, maybe four or five Esseghaiers will appear amongst the one million and a half Muslims living in Canada,” he said.
H/T M
The plane was escorted by two RAF Typhoon fighter jets to the airport following an what was described as an incident on board
An Egyptair plane from Cairo to New York has landed at Glasgow Prestwick Airport after being diverted.
BBC producer Nada Tawfik, a passenger on board, said she saw a note with the words “I’ll set this plane on fire” and a seat number.
Egypt Air flight 985 – which was travelling to JFK International Airport – touched down at around 14:30 BST.
The Ministry of Defence confirmed that RAF Typhoon aircraft were called following an “incident on board”.
The time the night is through I hope to make sense of this title. So much is coming in so quickly that it is hard to organize and present it clearly.
Ill try and at least post some point forms for some of the activity today here:
1. In the UK, one division of EDL are reporting the following via EDL Buck’s news feed:
Facebook post from casuals Casuals United
Word from our Manchester lot is widespread disorder in Ashton under Lyne large groups of Muslims and white youths on the streets, police everywhere after vicious racial attack on white teenagers on weekend. BBC saying nothing as usual. More as we get it. When it does escalate and they cant hide it I expect they will blame the EDL
2. today alone there have been a number of bomb scares and actual explosions
EDL Buck adds this:
Any one got any pics or intel on what’s happening in Ashton , greater Manchester right now. News is police have the place on lock down?
There is a great deal more coming in by phone, skype and email. I am just glad as hell I don’t have a fax machine any more. Ill try and be more detailed and lucid as information becomes available. Also readers here may also be aware that my site has been up and down a lot. Oh how they try, how they try.
H/T AMB
In this March 29, 2013 photo provided by the French Army’s images division, ECPAD, a French soldier holds the launch tube of an SA-7 surface-to-air missile before its destruction in Timbuktu, northern Mali. The knowledge that the terrorists have the weapon has already changed the way the French are carrying out their five-month-old offensive in Mali. They are using more fighter jets rather than helicopters to fly above its range of 1.4 miles (2.3 kilometers) from the ground, even though that makes it harder to attack the jihadists. They are also making cargo planes land and take off more steeply to limit how long they are exposed, in line with similar practices in Iraq after an SA-14 hit the wing of a DHL cargo plane in 2003. (AP Photo/ECPAD, Olivier Debes)
RUKMINI CALLIMACHI 3 hours agoPoliticsMilitaryMali
TIMBUKTU, Mali (AP) — The photocopies of the manual lay in heaps on the floor, in stacks that scaled one wall, like Xeroxed, stapled handouts for a class.
Except that the students in this case were al-Qaida fighters in Mali. And the manual was a detailed guide, with diagrams and photographs, on how to use a weapon that particularly concerns the United States: A surface-to-air missile capable of taking down a commercial airplane.