12.29.2009

Goldman Sachs and others investigated for betting against the securities they created

this is huge. - ed.

Betting against their own securities has prompted numerous investigations of Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street institutions. Prior to the financial collapse, Goldman and others figured out a way to package risky securities, such as subprime mortgages, and sell them to investors who were told they were buying sound investments. Little did the investors know that the firms selling the synthetic collateralized debt obligations (or CDOs) turned around and bet that the CDOs would fail—costing pension funds and insurance companies billions of dollars.

“The simultaneous selling of securities to customers and shorting them because they believed they were going to default is the most cynical use of credit information that I have ever seen,” Sylvain Raynes, an expert in structured finance at R & R Consulting in New York, told The New York Times. “When you buy protection against an event that you have a hand in causing, you are buying fire insurance on someone else’s house and then committing arson.”
In addition to Goldman, CDOs were sold and bet against by Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and Tricadia Inc.—an investment company whose parent firm’s CDO management committee was overseen by Lee Sachs. Sachs is now a special counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
The schemes are now being investigated by Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission and Wall Street’s Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
-Noel Brinkerhoff

source: allgov

in trouble

1. North Korea confirms detention of American who entered illegally

PYONGYANG, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- The official Korean Central News Agency said on Tuesday the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) had detained an American who illegally entered the country.

The American slipped into the country from China on Thursday and is now under investigation by "a relevant organ," the news agency said in a brief dispatch.

The detained American was believed to be 28-year-old human rights activist Robert Park, who is a Korean descent.

Park's crossing comes just months after the DPRK freed two U.S. journalists who had been arrested in March and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor.


source: chinaview


2. mafia boss's son shot and killed


MONTREAL - NICK Rizzuto, the son and grandson of mafia bosses, was shot and killed in Montreal's Notre-Dame-de-Grace neighbourhood, police said on Monday.

Mr Rizzuto, 42, died from the gunshot wounds he sustained while being transported to hospital. A suspect was seen fleeing on foot after firing four rounds into the victim, police said.

Mr Rizzuto is the grandson of Nicolo Rizzuto, 85, the reputed godfather of the Sicilian mafia in Montreal.

The elder Rizzuto was last year was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to four years in prison, but he was released after serving two years in preventive detention.

Nicolo Rizzuto's son, Vito Rizzuto - Nick Rizzuto's father - was arrested in 2004 and is currently serving a 10-year sentence for his role in the 1981 murder of three Bonanno crime family members in New York City.

Nick Rizzuto was allegedly his family's financier and two of his brothers are lawyers, according to experts interviewed by Radio-Canada. The Montreal mafia is considered Canada's most powerful, but lately has come under attack by rival street gangs. -- AFP

source: straits times




12.28.2009

just like swine flu: worry, don't worry, worry, don't worry, worry, don't worry

1. Chris Floyd: Instant Karma: New US War Target Gets Its Own Terror Icon

Wow, that didn't take long at all. Scant days after the American war machine took the cloaking device off its direct military involvement in Yemen, we have an alleged attempted terrorist attack by an alleged attempted terrorist who, just scant hours after his capture, has allegedly confessed to getting his alleged attempted terrorist material from ... wait for it ... Yemen!

Yemen-trained terrorists on the loose in American airplanes! At Christmas! Great googily moogily! It's a good thing our boys are on the case over there right now, pounding the holy hell outta some of them Al Qaeder ragheads! And to think, a few pipsqueaky fifth columnists had been starting to wonder why we were killing dozens of innocent civilians on behalf of an authoritarian regime embroiled in a three-way civil war on the other side of the world.

Well, now they have their answer, by God! Alleged attempted terrorists allegedly trained in Yemen! What else do you need -- a freaking warrant or something? We would obviously be justified in nuking that desert hell-hole and everybody in it! Just think of it -- some guy with some kind of something on an airplane, right there in the Heartland! You gonna stand for that? Exterminate the brutes!

read more @ empire burlesque


1. alert cleared after another Nigerian passenger reported disruptive. also via Amsterdam. but DON'T WORRY.

Security officials at the Detroit Metro Airport "responded to a report from an incoming flight from Amsterdam where a passenger spent a lengthy time in the restroom. This raised concerns so an alert was raised," said the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in a statement. The FBI said that the incident was a "non-serious incident," and cleared the alert it triggered.


2. ALSO, "no indication" plane attack part of larger plot, but we have to tighten up security so thanks for understanding, but seriously, DON'T WORRY


"Right now we have no indication it's part of anything larger, but obviously the investigation continues," US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told CNN, referring to the thwarted attack on a Northwest jet by suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, as the plane approached the city of Detroit, Michigan.


3. Nigerian "SYRINGE" bomber -- more "CHILLING" details unfold -- MAYBE YOU SHOULD WORRY. hmm?

It emerged that Al-Qaeda had warned in a video posted online, four days before the foiled deadly attack was to take place. One of Al-Qaeda’s top generals in Yemen, Mohamed Al-kalwi, had warned in the video, of a devastating terror attack on the ‘enemies’. He said: “We are carrying a bomb to hit the enemies of God.”

According to reports on British and US media, the plot was hatched in the Yemeni capital of Sana over a month ago while Abdulmutallab was trained by the terror men and was allegedly in contact with the men in Yemen, who supplied the explosive device. Further reports say, the terror group had vowed yesterday to unleash more havoc on the United States who it says killed around 50 militants earlier this month during raids on them.



4. aha, he was a troubled youth. remember that Boko Haram crisis in Nigeria in July? WORRYING.

"We know Farouk’s extreme views and were always apprehensive of where it may lead him to. In fact, during the last Boko Haram crisis, we were afraid he may be involved, but he [wasn’t]. He has maintained his distance from us and we never bothered him much. He wanted to be left alone so we respected his wishes. We were always worried about him because he is young. But I was shocked to hear he wanted to blow up a passenger airliner. I hope it is not true," the alleged family member was quoted as saying.


5. well everybody calm down, it was maybe just a battery DON'T WORRY


I am an electrical engineer by profession for over 30 years, and the description of the explosion sounds just like a faulty battery on a personal electronic device (PED). If the plane was just starting it's descent, it could be he was stowing his device at the time of the explosion (turning it on/off, cabin pressure fluctuations, etc.), a more likely time for the battery to explode if it were faulty. These PED battery explosions are typically "small" and limited in area, consistent with the reported events.


6. he rejected his elite background and is highly educated. MAYBE WORRY.


LAGOS (Nigeria) - AS A member of a prominent and wealthy Nigerian family, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab received the best schooling, from the elite British International School in West Africa to the vaunted University College London. But the education he wanted was of a different sort: Nigerian officials say his interest in extremist Islam prompted his father to warn US authorities. As Abdulmutallab was being escorted in handcuffs off the Detroit-bound airliner he attempted to blow up on Christmas Day, he told US officials that he had sought an extremist education at an Islamist hotbed in Yemen.


7. who is the Indian accomplice, the smart-dressed man, and the other Indian arrested at the airport? why the hell doesn't anyone ask questions about Amsterdam and the airport there? wait they're not really talking about this are they. hmm. you might want to WORRY but for other reasons....

AMSTERDAM - DUTCH military police are investigating the possibility that an accomplice may have helped the Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day, a spokesman said on Monday.

A US couple on the flight, Kurt and Lori Haskell, told Reuters and other news agencies that they saw a tall, well-dressed man aged about 50 with the suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on Friday morning at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.


8. in true wily terrorist fashion, he "SNEAKED" in and out of Nigeria on the same day, 12/24. seriously. WORRY.


'The man in question has been living outside the country for a while. He sneaked into Nigeria on the 24th of December and left the same day,' Nigerian Information Minister Dora Akunyili told reporters in the commercial capital Lagos. 'The father, Alhaji Umar Mutallab who is a responsible and respected Nigerian, with a true Nigerian spirit had earlier reported his concern about his son's activities to relevant American authorities,' Mr Akunyili said.



9. the UK knew about him. they had banned him why are the US officials so stupid??? oh Geez you better WORRY NOW.

The man at the centre of the failed Detroit airliner bomb plot had been banned from entering Britain, it was disclosed today. Home Secretary Alan Johnson said Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had been placed on a watch list earlier this year after UK authorities refused to renew his student visa. Mr Johnson also said he did not believe that Abdulmutallab was acting alone, and that police and security services were examining whether he was radicalised while at University College London (UCL) between 2005 and 2008.


10. "serious shortcomings in the system to protect passengers are coming to light" NEED WE SAY MORE? WORRY WORRY WORRY.

Serious shortcomings in the system to protect passengers are coming to light. The suspect took his flight unimpeded from Lagos to Detroit connecting through Amsterdam even though the US, and he managed to smuggle his device through screening at two airports.

one failed state (nigeria) + another failed state (yemen) = al Qaeda. that's what failed states are for.

1. violence erupts in Nigeria's Bauchi state


LAGOS, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian police said it is curtailing a violence that broke out on Monday in some part of northern Nigeria's Bauchi State.

...Sources in Bauchi said they woke up into the pandemonium, as sporadic gunshots were heard across the city. The cause of the crisis could not be ascertained as at the time of filling this report.

In July, the state witnessed a sectarian unrest that erupted in northern Nigeria's Bauchi State that spread to neighboring Adamawa, Kano, Bornoand Yobe States where about 600 people were reportedly killed.

Nigeria is a secular country with the population evenly divided between Christians and Muslims.

The northern region with 19 out of the country' s 36 states is predominantly Muslim, while Christians dominate the south.

source: chinaview


EVENLY DIVIDED POPULATIONS ARE VERY USEFUL FOR PSYOP OPERATIONS.



2. Nigeria: US plane terrorist a REMINDER of aq sleeper cells in northern Yemen


A Nigerian suspected of acting on behalf of al-Qaeda, has been detained in America for attempting to blow up a Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Friday, U.S. officials have said.

...

The Nigerian Diaspora have meanwhile expressed disappointment and concern over the susceptibility of al-Qaeda sleeper cells amongst predominantly Northern Muslim Nigerians. The Nigerian Taliban known as Boko Haram, an anti-western extremist Muslim group that sprung up in Northern Nigeria in July and threatened state civility in Nigeria were armed with machetes, knives, home-made hunting rifles and petrol bombs.

The group went on rampage in several states across Northern Nigeria, attacking churches, police stations, prisons and government buildings, and demanding sharia law for all Nigeria as opposed to democratic western-styled education and ideals.

After the sects uprising in northern Nigeria, many beheaded bodies were found in the sect’s headquarters, including at least three Christian preachers and the second in command of the military operation. Hundreds of sect members were also killed by Nigerian security forces in a major clampdown to dismantle the sect. Over 700 deaths related to the violence was reported.

The presence of an al-Qaeda branch operating across the Sahara Desert in Mauritania, Morocco, Mali and Niger and Nigeria’s porous borders was confirmed when a report submitted to top government officials in 2007 had identified and classified the Boko Haram sect as a "murderous religious group" that had been train by the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat. State Security Service of Nigeria stated that "the group was linked to Al Qaeda through some of its members including Barah Abdul and Mohamed Al-Amin who were in Afghanistan and have strong links with some Al Qaeda leaders".


source: afrik.com


3. Yemen in crisis


Author:
Dan Katz

Yemen’s population is predominantly rural (73 %), young (most are under 15) and poor (National Income per capita was $950 in 2008; only 40% have access to electricity).

Its oil sector provides 90% of export earnings, and 75% of government revenue, but oil production has passed its peak and output is declining. Oil revenue is expected to dry up completely by 2017 (BBC).

The World Bank comments, “living conditions for most of the 22 million Yemenis remain difficult… the situation is particularly dire for women.” Female literacy stands at 30%.

Women are not free to marry who they want and some are forced to marry as young as eight. Once married, a woman must obey her husband and obtain his permission just to leave the house. Women are valued as half the worth of men when they testify in court (Amnesty International).


...

Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda is closely associated with Yemen. Osama bin-Laden’s father was born in Yemen. The first al-Qaida action against the US was a bomb attack on American troops in a hotel in Aden, the major port in southern Yemen, in 1992. And in 2000, two suicide bombers in a speed boat attacked the USS Cole in Aden harbour.

Of the 250 prisoners still in detention at Guantanamo Bay, more than 100 are Yemenis, the largest group by nationality.
Thousands of Yemeni mujahedeen who fought against the Russians in Afghanistan in the 1990s are back in the country. Many are loyal to a former mujahedeen leader, Asker Zuail, who now has a senior position in the Yemeni army, often acting as a government spokesman.

...

The future

The future is bleak for Yemen which is falling apart under pressure from various reactionary, and ultra-reactionary forces.

read more @ workers' liberty



4. October 2009: Nigeria heading toward a failed state


A cargo ship loaded with weapons and ammunitions from the United States has been confiscated in Lagos, Nigeria. The arms loaded ship has raised concerns over arms proliferation either to the unrelenting rebel factions of Niger Delta or to political thugs ahead of the 2011 electoral polls. Experts say the Nigerian government, unable to deliver basic social services, is “plagued by corruption so endemic and monumental it is hard to separate it from state policy” and also lacks the capability or discipline to prevent threats to public safety and national integrity.

read more @ afrik.com



5. political chaos in Nigeria

6. the Gaza playbook

oil for security? it's just like the civil rights for security deal. they get the oil and your rights, but you never get the security.

1. ISI, CIA ran over 60 joint operations against al Qaeda commanders hiding in FATA

A senior Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's main spy agency, official has revealed that the Central Investigation Agency (CIA) and the ISI together have run over 60 operations against Al-Qaeda and other key extremists commanders hiding in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Balochistan.

The official said the missions included "snatch and grabs", the abduction of important militants, as well as efforts to kill extremist leaders, The New York Times reports.

The operations were carried out on the basis of intelligence inputs provided by both the US and the Pakistani agencies, the official said, on conditions of anonymity.

The Obama administration has been pressing Pakistan to take action against the Haqqani group, which is controlled by one of Al-Qaeda's top commanders, Sirajuddin Haqqani.

The US believes that the Haqqani network is using Pakistan's lawless border areas to carry out attacks in Kabul and important locations in Afghanistan.

US troops, stationed in Afghanistan, have intensified their commando operations against the Haqqani network in Afghanistan and have gained substantial success.

Although President Obama and his top aides have never discussed these highly classified missions in public, such counterterrorism operations are expected to increase, along with the deployment of 30,000 more US forces in the next year, as part of the revamped strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

US Central Command Chairman General David Petraeus has also made it clear that following the surge there would be more focus on the counterterrorism operations.

Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, earlier this month, General Petraeus had said that more such commando offensive against hard-core Al-Qaeda and Taliban extremists could be seen in the near future.

"We actually will be increasing our counterterrorist component of the overall strategy," General Petraeus had told the Senators.

"There's no question you've got to kill or capture those bad guys that are not reconcilable.

And we are intending to do that, and we will have additional national mission force elements to do that when the spring rolls around," he added. (ANI)


source: sify.com



2. 2006: The geopolitics of weapons procurement in the gulf states

Par Nadim Hasbani
jeudi 22 juin 2006.

INTRODUCTION

The Gulf region currently remains the largest defence procurement market in the world. With tens of billions of dollars spent annually on highly lethal and technological weapons, it is a very high value-added market for Western defence industries.

The Middle East, which extends from the Maghreb, through the Mashrek to the Persian (Arabian) Gulf, is far from being homogenous, particularly in terms of its armaments market. However, a distinction must be made between the weight and the characteristics of the major defence markets in North Africa, the Near East and the rest of the Middle East.

Traditionally, Russia has had the monopoly on major Algerian Defence contracts. With the end of the arms embargo, a new Libyan defence market is emerging, but has yet to come into its own. Israel and Egypt are in a league of their own, because of massive US military aid received following the signing of the 1979 peace accords : approximately US$2.3 billion for the former and US$1.3 - US$1.8 billion for the latter . Jordan, since signing a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, is in a similar position. Syria finds itself virtually excluded from the international procurement market, with the exception of the sale of Russian ground-to-air missiles following Bashar el Assad’s visit to Moscow in January 2005. Conventional Syrian weapons are nearly exclusively Soviet, dating from the first half of the 1980s.

The oil monarchies of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) - make up the core of the Middle East defence market, with just under 40 percent of the world’s total weapons sales during the 1990s. Combined, its ratio of military spending to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the highest in the world and, on average, is above 6 per cent. This ratio is two times greater than in industrialised countries, where the average is closer to 2.4 per cent.

There are, of course, a number of reasons for these levels of expenditure. Ethnic and community fractures crisscross the Gulf’s geopolitical space. They are exacerbated by the region’s wealth in hydrocarbons, its specific geographic configuration, and large-scale foreign intervention. The region is also a stage for internally destabilising factors, such as radical Islamist movements and demands for social, economic and political reform.

Due to its wealth and geo-strategic importance, the Arab-Persian Gulf has witnessed three major international wars over the past 25 years : the Iran-Iraq war, the first Gulf War and the War against Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein. The “manna” of oil in the Gulf - almost one out of two barrels comes from this region and it has 70 percent of known world reserves - coupled with the strategic stakes and risks of military confrontation have transformed the Gulf into the principal weapons market for Western Defence industries.

Nevertheless, owning these large amounts of highly technological weapons has not allowed the Gulf states to take independent control of their own security. External threats still extend beyond their political, military and human capacities, and it is for this reason that an “oil for security” pact has remained for a long time the principal motivation for the large weapons orders in the region.

The decision-making process that precedes the signing of major defence contracts, which can some years amount to a total of US$50 billion, takes into account the political-security guarantee that these contracts offer, the technological quality of the equipment itself, the industrial marketing campaigns, and the quality and financial arrangements associated with competing offers. Other factors of varying importance also play a role, including the influence of the different members of the ruling families and the degree of power and influence of indigenous tribes. Moreover, a decision-making rationale is evolving and other factors are also being taken into account. Today, procurement policies are being devised more and more on “Western-style” geo-political grounds, where military, defence and security strategy dictates future equipment needs.

Finally, the influence of domestic threats on defence and military procurement policies, such as militant Islam and internal upheavals, is growing. These internal threats have become major decision-making factors since 11 September 2001 and following the various attacks - both successful and thwarted - in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the region.


read the rest here


"the drugs are slowly dying," after decades of misuse, and that means people will die

Anthropormorphism is when people attribute human qualities to animals. What shall we call it when people attribute human qualities to pharmaceutical products? The desperately poor people smuggle and counterfeit the drugs, leading to drug resistant disease, and nobody can figure out what to do because you sure as hell don't expect those pharmaceutical companies to give the stuff away now, do you? - ed.




1. new form of malaria threatens thai-cambodia border

PAILIN, Cambodia (AP) _ O'treng village does not look like the epicenter of anything.

Just off a muddy, rutted-out road, it is nothing more than a handful of Khmer-style bamboo huts perched crookedly on stilts, tucked among a tangle of cornfields once littered with deadly land mines.

Yet this spot on the Thai-Cambodian border is home to a form of malaria that keeps rendering one powerful drug after another useless. This time, scientists have confirmed the first signs of resistance to the only affordable treatment left in the global medicine cabinet for malaria: Artemisinin.

If this drug should stop working, there would be no good replacement to combat a disease that kills 1 million people annually. As a result, international medical leaders declared this year that resistant malaria here is a health emergency.

"This is not business as usual. It's something really special, and it needs a real concerted effort," said Dr. Nick White, a malaria expert at Mahidol University in Bangkok, who has spent decades trying to eradicate the disease from Southeast Asia. "We know that children have been dying in Africa _ millions of children have died over the past three decades _ and a lot of those deaths have been attributed to drug resistance. And we know that the drug resistance came from the same place."

Malaria is just one of the leading killer infectious diseases battling back in a new and more deadly form, the AP found in a six-month look at the soaring rates of drug resistance worldwide. After decades of the overuse and misuse of antibiotics, diseases like malaria, tuberculosis and staph have started to mutate. The result: The drugs are slowly dying.


read more @ taiwan news



2. MMS -- alternative cure for various diseases including malaria -- pennies per dose







12.27.2009

the Gaza playbook

1. 12/23/09: "informed sources" say the border is calm, situation returning to normal in Saudi Arabia

This is the first time the Kingdom has given a death toll for the fighting between Saudi forces and Yemeni intruders, which began more than a month and a half ago. On Nov. 3, rebels killed a Saudi border guard and occupied two villages inside Saudi territory.

The following day, Saudi military jets began bombing enemy positions. Prince Khaled said that the main operation is now over. “The southern border is now under the complete control of Saudi forces.”

Informed sources told Arab News that the southern border area was calm on Tuesday.

Prince Khaled said Saudi forces would remain in the area until the last of the intruders are expelled.

“What we are doing now is bringing things to normal. We have also made arrangements to prevent infiltration and other crimes,” the minister told reporters.

He indicated that the infiltrators were backed by foreign parties. “It seems that their allegiance is not to their country.”

He praised Saudi forces for their bravery and their efforts in driving away the intruders.



2. 12/27/09: Riyadh continues air raids on North Yemen, Houthi rebels allege Saudis using white phosphorous on Yemeni civilians

Saudi fighter jets have launched another round of air strikes on Houthi positions in the northern part of Yemen along the border with the oil-rich Kingdom.

According to a statement released by the fighters on Thursday, Saudi forces carried out blitzes on the northern region of Jabal al-Ramih and the border area of al-Jabiri.

The statement added that Saudi forces had fired 879 rockets and carried out air strikes against rugged regions in the north. This came despite Tuesday claims by Saudi Deputy Defense Minister Prince Khaled bin Sultan that the bulk of operations against northern Yemeni fighters were now over.

The conflict in northern Yemen began in 2004 between Sana'a and Houthi fighters. The conflict intensified in August 2009 when the Yemeni army launched Operation Scorched Earth in an attempt to crush the fighters in the northern province of Sa'ada.

The Houthis accuse the Yemeni government of the violation of their civil rights, political, economic and religious marginalization as well as large-scale corruption.

Fighting between Saudi forces and Yemeni Shia resistance fighters, known as Houthis, began on November 3 when Houthis killed a Saudi border guard and occupied two villages inside Saudi territory. Saudi jets began bombing Houthi positions the following day.

Houthi fighters say that Riyadh pounds their positions and that Saudi forces strike Yemeni villages and indiscriminately target civilians. According to the fighters, Saudis use unconventional weapons such as white phosphorous bombs against civilians in northern Yemen.

The US military also continues its air raids on Yemen's northern regions of Amran, Hajjah and Sa'ada which have already been the target of joint Saudi-Yemen offensive against the Houthi fighters.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that since 2004, up to 175,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in Sa'ada and take refuge in overcrowded camps set up by the United Nations.

source: press tv



3. Yemeni lawmaker alleges Saudis engaging in vicious attacks on civilians, of course the US govt gives full support -- to Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni government

Yemeni lawmaker Yahya al-Houthi says Saudi Arabian warplanes are engaged in the relentless bombardment of civilian positions in Yemen's war-torn north.

In an interview with Press TV on Friday, the Yemeni lawmaker accused the Saudi army of using internationally banned weapons in its attacks on villages in the northern province of Sa'ada, regretting the high civilian toll from the raids.

emen's beleaguered north, bordering the Saudi kingdom, has been the scene of a massive military operation by the Saudi-Yemeni forces, since the Sana'a government stepped up its offensive against the Shia fighters in August.

The central government in Yemen says the Houthis are trying to force the return of clerical rule in the country.

Houthi fighters, however, reject the allegations, accusing the Sunni-dominated Riyadh and Sana'a governments of joining forces to uproot the Shia faith in the territory, and of hiring terrorist elements to reach this goal.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia says it will stop its bombing campaign if the Houthis leave the border area, which the Houthis maintain they will do only after Riyadh has stopped aiding the Yemeni army.

This is while the US has been launching airstrikes on the southeastern parts of the impoverished Arab nation in the past two weeks as part of a military pact it signed with Yemen.

Washington is reportedly providing Sana'a with firepower and intelligence in addition to some 70 million dollars worth of military aid Pentagon has poured into Yemen this year.

The White House on Friday once again reiterated President Barack Obama's support for the ongoing military operations across Yemen.



source: press tv



4. massive bomb attacks on villages at night

Houthi fighters in Yemen say Saudi warplanes have carried out several attacks on residential areas in the country's beleaguered north. In a statement released on Sunday, the fighters said that Saudi jets launched over 30 airstrikes on villages in the northern parts of the country.

Saudi forces have also fired some 660 rockets and artillery rounds at civilian areas along the border, websites close to the fighters reported. The warplanes reportedly fired more than 700 missiles overnight on the northern villages along the border with the kingdom on Saturday.

The raids continued with artillery bombardment, tank raids and mortar attacks on the areas, the Houthis reported.

Riyadh joined Yemen's offensive against the Houthi fighters in November and vowed to continue its raids until they move back from the frontier between Yemen and the kingdom.

The fighters accuse Riyadh of targeting civilian areas far from the Saudi-Yemeni border.

They also say the attacks have so far left scores of civilians killed and thousands of others displaced.



5. top Houthi rebel leader may be dead


DUBAI // The leader of Yemen’s Shi’ite rebels may have died after being severely wounded by government forces in the north of the country, a Yemeni government website reported on Sunday.

The rebels could not immediately be reached and their website did not comment on the reports.
...Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television said the rebel leader was dead, citing unnamed Yemeni sources he was killed in an air strike. Yemeni news websites carried the same report.

There have been rumours about Abdul-Malik’s death in the past but the latest reports appear to be stronger.

...The United States and Saudi Arabia fear al Qa’eda will exploit instability in Yemen, which also faces a separatist movement in the south, to stage attacks on neighbouring states and beyond.


source: the national


6. the rebels are fighting a guerrilla war, thus justifying indiscriminate killing of civilians by Saudi Arabia, which has "no choice," we're sure you understand. the dead civilians are "regrettable" but it's the rebels' fault. just like Hamas in Gaza forced the IOF to kill all those Palestinians last Christmas. it was self-defense.


...While Saudi Arabia is justified in taking action against the Houthis for their bold incursion and subsequent possession of some key territorial posts, the rapid escalation of the conflict is alarming. The Yemeni governmen claims that the Houthis are receiving arms and funds from Iran. With Yemen emerging as another proxy theatre for regional states on the lines of Lebanon and Iraq, the situation can be likened to a powder keg ready to explode.

...The problem facing Saudi forces is their reliance on conventional methods of warfare against the Houthis who are fighting a guerrilla war. While Saudi airstrikes against rebels have achieved some success they also pose a threat to civilians. It is something the rebels have taken advantage of having entrenched themselves among the civilians in villages.

...Yemen is already battling secessionists in its south and faces a serious challenge at the hands of a resurgent Al-Qaeda.

...Not only is the extremist group recruiting fighters for Iraq and Afghanistan, it is also planning terror attacks in neighbouring Saudi Arabia. It is only natural that it will take advantage of the ongoing instability at the Saudi-Yemen border and plan cross-border terror attacks inside the Kingdom.

Other Gulf states also recognise the importance of stabilising Yemen and have expressed full support to Sanaa. Besides, there has been a demonstrable increase in border security to prevent terrorists and others from infiltration, across the states. In the wider interest of the region, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and others on the Arabian peninsula must come together to take on the challenge.

read more @ khaleej times



7. there's even a fence!


ABU DHABI — Saudi Arabia, amid heavy fighting with Shi'ite rebels, has begun erecting another security fence along its border with Yemen. Saudi military sources said the Defense Ministry has overseen a fast-track project to construct a barbed wire fence along most of the 1,600-kilometer border with Yemen. The sources said the project reflected an urgent requirement for a physical barrier to block the flow of thousands of Shi'ite rebels and their supporters from Yemen to the Saudi kingdom.

"The infiltration has reached massive proportions," a Saudi source said. "Thousands are crossing into the kingdom."

The Royal Saudi Army has been assigned responsibility for the border fence, the sources said. They said the initial stage stipulated a barbed wire barrier in areas used by Shi'ite rebels to enter Saudi Arabia, particularly along Mount Doud and Mount Dukhan.

In 2009, the Interior Ministry oversaw a project to begin installing an advanced security network along the border with Yemen, Middle East Newsline reported. But the sources said infiltrators have largely avoided areas of the border that contain the electronic fence, developed by prime contractor EADS.

The sources said EADS and other Western contractors were helping the latest Saudi border effort. They said EADS was installing infrared sensors and cameras along numerous points of the Saudi-Yemeni border.


read more @ world tribune

Great Business Opportunities for defense contractors: Fencing the Kingdom: EADS lands huge Saudi Border deal. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

high tech.


8. it gets even more fantastic. radical cleric who advised on 911 and FORT HOOD said to have survived airstrike in Yemen (links removed) as he was meeting with al Qaeda


The radical US cleric who is thought to have advised three of the Sept. 11 hijackers as well as the Muslim-American US Army major who went on a shooting spree at Fort Hood, Texas, survived Thursday’s airstrike in Yemen’s Shabwa province.

Friends and relatives of Ansar al Awlaki claimed he was not killed in the attack, but they refused to disclose if he was in attendance at a meeting of al Qaeda leaders when it was hit by what the Yemeni government claimed were Yemeni Air Force fighter-bombers.

Awlaki was thought to have been attending a high-level meeting of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula on Dec. 24. He was at the meeting to provide the needed religious justification for a planned al Qaeda campaign to conduct attacks against Yemeni and US targets in response to the controversial Dec. 17 airstrikes against al Qaeda in Abyan and Sana’a, US intelligence officials told The Long War Journal.

Among those believed to be at the meeting were Nasir al Wuhayshi, the leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula; his deputy Said al Shihri; and Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al Quso, an al Qaeda operative wanted by the FBI for his role in the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000. Wuhayshi and Quso are also thought to have escaped the strike, while the status of Shihri is still unknown.

read more @ the long war journal



9. they just keep fitting the facts around the policy, been doing it for years and years

BBC now admits al qaeda never existed - Watch more Videos at Vodpod.


10. al Qaeda presence exaggerated, says Yemen


RIYADH – The Yemeni head of National Security, Ali Mohammed Al-Anisi, has described the “highest level” of information exchange with Saudi authorities as having a fundamental role in the “inseparable” security of the two countries.

...Al-Anisi said that the media exaggerated Al-Qaeda’s presence in Yemen.

...The security chief said that funding for Al-Qaeda in Yemen came from the sources the organization receives in the rest of the world.

“Those who fund Al-Qaeda around the world are known to us. There are sympathizers and organizations attacking Islam, as well as sources that believe they are confronting the United States,” he said. Infiltrator connection

The Al-Qaeda connection with infiltrators who have come into conflict with Saudi forces in Jizan is “obvious”, Al-Anisi said. “You might remember the astounding confessions of the Saudi Mohammed Al-Oufi Al-Harbi, along with some channels that have confirmed the link, and then there’s Al-Houthi who released a group of persons he captured, and the connection has become known.”

Mohammed Al-Oufi Al-Harbi, a senior Al-Qaeda figure in Yemen, handed himself into Saudi authorities in February this year and was later reported as saying that Iran and the Yemeni rebels had a connection with Al-Qaeda in Yemen, and had offered to supply the organization with finance and arms.

On infiltrator claims that Saudi forces had penetrated Yemen territory, Al-Anisi said they were “false and have no foundation in truth”.

“They want to spread the war by attacking the Saudi border as they think it will become a forgotten war if it remains within Yemeni borders. They want to make it a regional war, but by entering into hostilities at the Kingdom’ border they were met with a swift failure,” the security chief said.Iranian connection“If Iran had no connection to what is happening in Yemen it would condemn it and make its position clear,” Al-Anisi said. “Every country has condemned what’s happening except Iran.”

“The continuation of the war all this time shows that there is strong Iranian support for the rebel groups and terrorism in Sa’ada,” Al-Anisi said.


Asked why it was taking so long to announce details of the Iranian ship seized in Yemen waters last October which officials said was transporting arms destined for Yemeni rebels, Al-Anisi said it was still being held and that “the investigation is continuing”.

When asked on the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden, Al-Anisi replied: “If the United States don’t know where he is, how would we? I think the question should be put to the United States.” – Okaz/SG

read more @ saudi gazette

oh hahaha, it's rude to notice the truth, let alone speak it




h/t incoming

people of The West, don't just lay down and die

1. the drinking and violence that is a way of life for many young Britons


Half-past three in the morning, and a snowy -2C outside, but at Newcastle General's Accident and Emergency department the drunks still keep coming. Some are delivered unconscious on stretchers by exasperated ambulance crews; others stumble in, smeared in blood, and make angry demands before being restrained by security.

In front of reception, a row of blue wheelchairs each holds a collapsed drinker waiting to be seen - or to sober up - while, from the corridor, a chorus of snores erupts from the long line of inanimate, intoxicated bodies.

One of these men broke and dislocated his ankle so badly he needed emergency treatment; yet, despite being put in an ambulance and taken to hospital, having his fractured leg X-rayed, put back together and plastered - without any painkillers - the dark-haired 20-something has yet to wake up and realise he's hurt.

read more @ daily mail



2. the underlying causes of cancer and how to treat it without chemo


Cancerous cells are always being created in the body. It’s an ongoing process that has gone on for eons. Consequently, there are parts of your immune system designed to seek out and destroy cancer cells.

Cancer has been around as long as mankind, but only in the second half of the 20th century did the number of cancer cases explode. Contributing to this explosion are the excessive amounts of toxins and pollutants we are exposed to, high stress lifestyles that zap the immune system, poor quality junk food that’s full of pesticides, irradiated and now genetically modified, pathogens, electromagnetic stress, lights, and just about everything that wasn’t here 200 years ago.

All these weaken the immune system, and alter the internal environment in the body to an environment that promotes the growth of cancer.

Cancer is not a mysterious disease that suddenly attacks you out of the blue, something that you can’t do anything about. It has definite causes that you can correct if your body has enough time, and if you take action to change the internal environment to one that creates health, not cancer, while at the same time attacking cancerous cells and tumors by exploiting their weaknesses.

Cancer tumors begin when more cancerous cells are being created than an overworked, depleted immune system can destroy.

Constant exposure to tens of thousands of manmade chemicals from birth onward, chlorinated and fluoridated water, electromagnetic radiation, pesticides and other toxins, leads to the creation of too many free radicals and excessive numbers of cancerous cells.

Alone this would be enough to raise cancer levels, but combined with an immune system weakened by a diet of refined and over processed food, mineral depleted soils, and too much exposure to artificial light at night, the immune system at some point no longer is able to keep cancer in check, and it starts to grow in your body.


read more @ ukiah community blog



3. Mike James: our Alamo against the Jewish NWO


excerpt:

Each day, I see physically enabled (yet terribly distraught) and proud men over the age of 50 rummage, usually by stealth of darkness, through the garbage skips outside of my estate. They’re looking for stale bread, half-eaten Pizzas, and empty bottles which can be fed into a machine at the local supermarket for a 15-cent returnable deposit. All of these men are German.

One day, I decided to sit with one such man on a park-bench next to a bowling alley that adjoins the field that lies like an ever-green virgin of manicured nature tempting all within her gaze to make the long walk through the wooded and ancient Philosophenweg (Path of Philosophers) that leads to Bad Homburg.

I offered him a cigarette, which he willingly accepted.

“You look terribly thin,” I told him. “May I offer you something to eat – perhaps a Bratwurstbrötchen (hotdog) and some Bratkartoffeln (fried chips) at the Metzgerei, the local butchers.”

The man did not reply, but continued, as if it were the oxygen of his life, to draw down deep upon the cigarette I had given him.

Presently, he replied: “Ach, nein. I have no need for food. I can always find everything I require. I have very keen eyes.”

I remembered that I had 40 euros at home, sufficient enough to buy this old hero tobacco enough to last for at least three days, and I put the offer to him.

“Du bist Engländer, oder?”

“Yes, I’m an Englishman,” I replied. “A Geordie born on the banks of the River Tyne.”

“Wie alt bist du?” he enquired.

“I’m still only 49-years-old, but will turn fifty in just a few months. December 20.”

The old man turned to me and said: “Your German is excellent, young man. Do not offer me handouts, for I am too old and too proud to accept them. I was once a professor at Frankfurt University, and I choose to retain my dignity as such.”

He fell into a long, reflective and strangely sad silence, watching a hapless old lady foul her parting shot by at least three yards. Then, quite suddenly, the old boy raised himself to his feet and gently placed his right hand on my head.

“Speak for me,” he managed to whisper, almost all strength gone from his voice and with tears in his eyes.

Then he grabbed me firmly by the shoulders in a half-embrace and said with the vigour of a man whose voice counts for nothing in the Soviet, Jewish-controlled Federal Republic of Germany: “Speak for all of us!”

And then he was gone.



read more @ the truth seeker

official Mumbai story unravels by the day

UPDATE: India can have Headley in about 300 years, because we can't have our intelligence assets/terrorists being held accountable and blabbing what they know. he might have to meet a sudden accidental death.

NEW DELHI: The FBI has politely turned down India’s request for extradition of terror suspect David Headley to this country on the ground he will have to first undergo a sentence which could be imposed on him in the US for the offences committed if convicted.

Indian officials were told there was no realistic possibility of the Pakistani-American being handed over since the sentence could range between 200 and 300 years of imprisonment.

The US stand was conveyed to the Indian investigators by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials during their regular interaction to discuss the case related to Headley, whose links with the banned Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT) were being probed by the two countries, official sources said here today.

The polite turning down of the Indian request for extradition of 49-year-old Headley, arrested in Chicago on October three last, came in the wake of repeated statements including that by Union Home Secretary G K Pilai that India would press for the extradition of the terror suspect.

Pillai had said earlier that India will seek his extradition after completing investigation by January next year into his links with the Mumbai terror attacks.

However, FBI seems to be in no mood to hand over him to India and very politely conveyed that he could be handed over once the sentence ranging to 300 years is completed. He can also be sentenced to death, the sources said.

Headley has been charged by the FBI for 26/11 attacks in Mumbai also on December seven. He is alleged to have conducted reconnaissance of all targets attacked by Lashker militants on November 26 last year besides drawing the routemap for their landing on the Mumbai coast.

via there are no sunglasses

original source: times of india


1. Kasab said signature taken on blank piece of paper

Friday, December 25, 2009
NEW DELHI: Ajmal Kasab, under-trial in the Mumbai terror attacks, on the fourth consecutive day on Thursday denied all the charges framed against him in the case.

He told the 26/11 trial judge, ML Tahiliyani, in Mumbai that his signature was taken on a blank sheet of paper by the Indian police with regard to his confessional statement. “The confession recorded by magistrate was not read out to me and it does not contain the truth,” he said.

He again told the special Mumbai court that he did not arrive in Mumbai by fishing trawler, Kuber, but by the Samjhauta Express. He also denied that he had talked to Abu Hamza by a satellite phone. “If I had talked to him, then my voice would have been recorded,” he said. When asked about Abu Ismail, Kasab said: “Who is he, I do not know... I was not with him.”


source: international news


2. latest twist to Karkare's missing jacket

The mystery over what happened to the missing bulletproof jacket of slain Maharashtra Police's Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare, has just got deeper.

On Tuesday, Dinesh Gattar, a sweeper at the J J Hospital in Mumbai, had told a Mumbai court that he found Karkare's jacket the morning after the 26/11 attacks. Karkare's body was brought to this hospital for an autopsy.

Then police sources had told NDTV that Gattar had thrown away the jacket into a disposable bag and sent it off to the Deonar dumping ground. But on Friday, Gattar exclusively told NDTV that he hasn't done that. Instead he had found the jacket and put it aside even informing a hospital nurse about it.

"I did not dispose the jacket. I just put it aside. We segregate waste into black bag and red bags. When I was doing that I saw the jacket and placed it aside," Gattar said.

Gattar's statement comes just days after the Mumai police almost gave up on finding the jacket. Some even claimed that Gattar might have even sold the jacket for money.

"I have not sold it. The judge asked me and I told him this," Gattar clarified.

Hemant Karkare, the chief of Maharashtra's Anti Terror Squad, was killed on 26/11 outside Cama Hospital, along with assistant police commissioner Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar. Karkare's bulletproof jacket was never found. A public interest litigation has alleged that the jackets worn by Karkare and others were defective. A court is trying to determine if a sub-standard consignment was indeed, delivered to the police, either accidentally or deliberately.

The late ATS chief's wife, Kavita Karkare, who has been leading the campaign to trace the jacket says she has little hope of it ever being found. "I know they may never find the jacket but my struggle will go on so that no one else goes through what I have undergone," she said.

The Mumbai police claims it is still trying its best to find the jacket and has questioned over 80 staffers at the hospital. Claims that only the appearance of the jacket might help support.

source: samachar.com



3. Mumbai: further evidence of Anglo - American - Mossad - RSS nexus

Intelligent people--what do you have to say now? It is becoming obvious that...


1. Several terrorists might have been white

2. Were they International mercanaries? If yes, then from which country? Who collected them? It is well known that Mossad and CIA have several mercenary organizations, including so-called Jihadi ones on their list. They create Jihad and manipulate Muslims disaffected by the Islamophobia in the world. Some of them might have been used in the Mumbai attack. But why were they carrying American, British, Mauritian and Malaysian passports?

3. Who were the Marathi speaking Karkare killers? The lane next to the Cama Hospital is a deserted one--it goes straight to the backyard of the Mumbai CID Headquarters. Anonymous sources in the Police have revealed that Karkare was taken there, by a joint team of anti-Karkare, pro-Hindutva Mumbai Police officers, and Chota Rajan men. Now Karkare was opposed to Chota Rajan. Salaskar was anti-Pradeep Sharma, another Mumbai senior Police officer now in jail, for working as Rajan's shooter. So the Marathi speaking terrorists could either have been Jews with some connection to Mumbai--or hired killers of the Hindutva brigade or men of Chota Rajan.

4. It seems that several things went on simultaneously--the Mahrashtra Chief Minister Vilas Rao Deshmukh was in Kerala when the Mumbai attack began at 9.30 PM on 26th November. Then by 11PM Deshmukh had informed the Home Minister Shivraj Patil--the latter has started proceedings to send the NSG Commandos. So Deshmukh knew about what was happening by 11PM--then why was there no Mumbai Police on various locations between 9.30 and 1am, the time when Karkare arrived? The Mumbai ATS is a separate organization. it does not lead the Mumbai Police. So the 40,000 strong Mumbai Police was absent from the scene of action between 11pm to 1am and then Karkare arrived and he was killed along with his men!

Isn't there something fishy here? Obviously the Mumbai Police was kept deliberately away between 11pm and 1am, the time period when terrorists were killing people merrily. Then Karkare must have been told--and he went there expecting Mumbai police personals to be there--but there were none or only a few! And he was killed!


read more @ countercurrents



4. sleaze in India

The video grab shows three women aged between 17 and 25 and an elderly man. An Old Man and Sleaze Tape - Tiwari Saga

INDIA IS RUN BY CRIMINALS?

aangirfan: INDIA'S CONGRESS PARTY IN BED WITH THE CIA?

Sex, lies and videotape in Indian politics


read more @ aangirfan



5. so far the evidence points to police corruption and a lot of discrepancies in the Mumbai story. thus Kasab must be discredited by the establishment -- it is imperative:

After getting into denial mode, gunman Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab on Thursday sought to use counter questioning as a method of retracting his statement given before a magistrate in the 26/11 case.

The special sessions court was reading out to him an account of the activities of the terrorists on board the trawler ‘Kuber,’ their landing on Mumbai’s shore and the massacre at the Chhatrapati Shivaji rail terminus, as stated in his confession. Kasab continued to deny everything.

“You called [Abu] Hamza on the satellite phone,” the court asked Kasab.

“What’s a satellite phone?” the lone surviving gunman queried.

“You suggested to Abu Ismail that Kuber’s navigator should be finished off.” “Who I?”

When such replies continued, judge M.L. Tahaliyani said: “You are asking me questions [when I am the one supposed to be doing that].”

When Mr. Tahaliyani asked Kasab what was the distance from where the police shot at him in the hand in custody, he demonstrated how his face was turned in the opposite direction when the shots were fired.

The court has completed, up to 95 per cent, the recording of Kasab’s statement under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. It will resume hearing on January 6, 2010.

The court meanwhile issued a show-cause notice to Mumbai Mirror, a tabloid, for carrying a distorted version of the proceedings.

A news report about a lacuna in the probe said the court had “reprimanded” special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam for shoddy investigation, when that was not the case. Mr. Tahaliyani only pointed to an aspect of the investigation, where a piece of writing had not been probed. He commented before Mr. Nikam that the investigators should have explored the angle. When Mr. Nikam objected to the report, saying it purposely maligned his image, and moved an application, the court ordered the newspaper to give an explanation by January 6 next.


source: the hindu

12.26.2009

why there is never any progress

We now know that 911-related intelligence was "fixed" around a preset agenda for Greater Israel long sought by Israelis and pro-Israelis with the help of Iraqi liar Ahmad Chalabi, an asset developed over decades by Zionist war-planners Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz.

Pakistan must realize that the same mental and emotional manipulation deployed to induce a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq is now being used to provoke an invasion of Iran. By destabilizing Pakistan and portraying its western provinces as a haven for Al Qaeda, Zionists will make it appear that Islamabad's nuclear arsenal is insecure. That perception heightens the plausibility of an attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran, citing a nuclear risk.

read more @ veterans today



1. ex-CIA operative warns of terror attack, the terrorists will come from the very areas where our troops are deployed

(CBS) A former CIA operative with the most direct experience fighting al Qaeda on the ground and who predicted the 9/11 attacks has "no doubt" the terrorist organization will strike U.S. soil again.

Henry Crumpton, the ex-CIA mastermind of the war on the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan right after 9/11, also tells 60 Minutes correspondent Lara Logan the U.S. needs to be in Pakistan making deals with locals to fight the Qaeda and Taliban leaders hiding there.

Logan's story, including a rare interview with the head of the Afghan intelligence service, will be broadcast Sunday, Dec. 27, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

"There will be an attack in the homeland …sadly…I think we'll be hit again," says Crumpton. Asked by Logan whether he had any doubts, he replies, "None." The former CIA man on the ground in Afghanistan days after 9/11 says the future attack could be greater than the one that killed nearly 3,000 people on September 11, 2001.

Crumpton is in the best position to make such a statement. It was he, with a few other CIA operatives, who enlisted Afghan tribal fighters to dislodge al-Qaeda and their Taliban hosts from Afghanistan in the weeks after the 9/11 attack.

To do so, he offered tribal leaders "a carrot and stick," says Crumpton. "The carrot would be if you come cooperate with us, we will reward you and your people. The stick was if you did not cooperate, the chances of your survival were greatly diminished," says Crumpton. Some tribal leaders were killed to make the point, he says.

That's how the U.S. needs to deal with the current situation in Afghanistan, says Crumpton. "This is not going to be a war that we win, certainly in a conventional sense, anytime soon," he tells Logan. "In Pakistan and elsewhere where you see enemy's safe haven, where they are the power…we must be the insurgents. We must work and recruit with locals and we must collect intelligence…engage in subversion and sabotage," says Crumpton.

Amrullah Saleh, the head of the Afghan intelligence service who worked with Crumpton in 2001, agrees. "Al Qaeda and Taliban are now headquartered in Pakistan," he tells Logan. "The bulk of the people we kill, neutralize or capture in Afghanistan are the expendable part of the terrorist network. The leadership is there and they are not feeling the heat, apart from these occasional drone attacks," says Saleh.

But the U.S. needs to stay in Afghanistan for the foreseeable future as well, says Amrullah.

To withdraw the troops not only means glory for al Qaeda, but a nightmare scenario for Afghans. "First, a massacre campaign will start. The human cost in this country will easily be up to two million people killed," says Amrullah. Says Crumpton, "[Afghanistan] is an enduring security concern for the United States…and for me, it’s much like déjà vu because prior to 9/11, I said 'If we do not address the situation in Afghanistan, we will suffer in the homeland. It will happen.' And it did."


source: cbs news



2. Mumbai attacks impeded improvement of Indo-Pak relationship - which is convenient to those who wish to prolong instability in the region


NEW DELHI, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- Relations between India and Pakistan have been plagued by decades of mistrust and suspicion, and now it still can not be changed after 10 terrorists launched attacks on Mumbai in November last year.

Political analysts here said that for several years prior Mumbai attacks, India had tried to forge a "friendly" relation with Pakistan although the two nations fought three major wars since the Partition in 1947. But the Mumbai terror attacks destroyed it all and is now an impediment in the peace process between the two countries.


...Some analysts also said that India is in the meantime frustrated with U.S. strategy in South Asia and should not blindly follow the anti-terror ideology of the West while solving its disputes with Pakistan.

"In fact, the U.S. is playing a game in South Asia. On the one hand, it's saying that Pakistan should act on India's Mumbai attacks dossiers, on the other hand it wants the Pakistani Army's cooperation in its fight against the al Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan," political analyst S.K. Gupta said.

For solving the dispute over Mumbai attacks, India and Pakistan should count on bilateral efforts to reduce tension rather than allowing the situation being further complicated by other issues such as the U.S.-led Afghan War, said some other analysts.

"Both India and Pakistan should realize one truth: outside powers will complicate the politics of this region, not help solve it," said Mehta in an article published in a leading local newspaper recently.


read more @ chinaview





3. ramping up Afghan war to control Caspian oil and transport routes

The 800-pound gorilla standing in the auditorium at West Point is still waiting for an answer to why Obama made his surge-speech for 30,000 more troops and $30 billion to pay for them. That gorilla wonders “why” Obama pitched so hard for the US to stay and surge through Afghanistan and Pakistan. The reasons given were that the Afghanistan Taliban and Al Qaeda led by Osama bin Laden were the people that attacked us on 9/11, which was an iteration of George W. Bush’s reasons for the War on Terror. They are as phony now as the day Bush promised to smoke out Bin Laden.

But, here are Obama’s actual words, pointed out by Christopher Bollyn on page 2 of his article, Why Afghanistan?

“1. I am convinced that our security is at stake in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is the epicenter of the violent extremism practiced by al-Qaeda. It is from here that we were attacked on 9/11, and it is from here that new attacks are being plotted as I speak.

“2. It is important to recall why America and our allies were compelled to fight a war in Afghanistan in the first place. We did not ask for this fight. On September 11, 2001, 19 men hijacked four airplanes and used them murder nearly 3,000 people.

“3: If I did not think that the security of the United States and the safety of the American people were at stake in Afghanistan, I would gladly order every single one of our troops home tomorrow.”

Also, as early as Oct. 14, 2001, a month and three days after 9/11, Bollyn wrote in The Great Game – The War For Caspian Oil And Gas: “President Bush’s ‘crusade’ against the Taliban of Afghanistan has more to do with control of the immense oil and gas resources of the Caspian Basin than it does with ‘rooting out terrorism.’


...Back then, Maiman also mentioned to the Wall Street Journal his role was to further the “geopolitical goals of both the US and Israel in Central Asia. We are doing what US and Israeli policy could not achieve, controlling the transport route is controlling the product.”

...Murray adds, “There are designs of this pipeline, and if you look at the deployment of US forces in Afghanistan, as against other NATO country forces in Afghanistan, you’ll see that undoubtedly the US forces are positioned to guard the pipeline route. It’s what it’s about. It’s about money, it’s about oil, it’s not about democracy.”


read more @ online journal




4. also, the drug trade


Instead, in the aftermath of 9/11 they were there to wage a “War on Terror”; at least that’s the official line repeated by the corporate media.

In reality however, Coalition forces were there to help re-establish the drugs trade. All the talk about fighting terror is a smokescreen to conceal the real reason for the invasion and continued occupation.

When the Taliban took power in 1996 the world powers took little interest in Afghanistan. In July 2000 that changed when the ruling Taliban outlawed the cultivation of opium poppies as a sin against Islam. At the time Afghanistan was the source of nearly 80% of the world’s heroin.

...It’s not just ‘foreign policy’ however but a lucrative business where vast amounts of money can be made. What’s more none of it need be accounted for, which is why it is so appealing to the West’s ruling elite. Vast amounts of money can be made and used to finance secret ‘Black Budget’ projects, which needn’t be accounted for or even known about.

read more @ the truth seeker

Nigerian allegedly got explosives in Yemen

1. Nigerian government orders probe into US plane bombing attempt

LAGOS, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian government announced a probe on Saturday into the attempted attack by its national on a U.S. passenger plane.

In a statement, the government authorized the security department to take steps to "identify" the suspect and the motives behind the bombing attempt.

U. S. intelligence officials said the explosive device was a mix of powder and liquid, which failed when the suspect, a 23-year-old Nigerian, tried to detonate it before the landing of an AirbusA330 wide-body jet at a Detroit airport. All the 278 passengers onboard the plane were evacuated, with the suspect burned and several others slightly injured.


source: chinaview



2. Nigerian man linked to al-Qaeda, flew via Amsterdam to US, got the explosives in Yemen naturally. Miraculously gets past security with his explosives.

bdul Mudallad, a 23 year-old Nigerian burnt his leg trying to ignite an explosive device on the jet with 278 passengers on board. Mr. Mutallab reportedly told investigators he had links to al-Qaeda and had received the explosives in Yemen. U.S. intelligence official said the explosive device was a mix of powder and liquid. It failed when the passenger tried to detonate it. Mr. Mudallad was an engineering student at University College London.

According to the federal “situational awareness” bulletin: “The subject is claiming to have extremist affiliation and that the device was acquired in Yemen along with instructions as to when it should be used.”

Fellow passengers who smelled smoke and heard cracking sounds reportedly rushed to subdue the Nigerian. Mr. Syed Jafri one of the passengers aboard the airline told MSNBC television network that he had been seated three rows behind the suspect and had seen a glow and noticed a smoke smell. "A young man behind me jumped on him. Next thing you know, there was a lot of panic," Mr. Jafri was quoted.

Another unnamed passenger said he heard a pop sound and saw a smoke and flames, before the suspect was reprimanded. The suspect later told the US authorities he had taped explosive powder to his leg and used a syringe of chemicals to mix with the powder that was to cause explosion, MSNBC reported.

The plane which flew from Amsterdam was to land at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport Friday afternoon. The suspect was reported to have traveled from Lagos international airport in Nigeria on board KLM Flight 588 and made a connection in Amsterdam on to Northwest 253. According to ABC News his visa stated that he was traveling to the US for a religious ceremony. Initial reports were that he had lit firecrackers on board the Airbus 330, which was carrying 278 passengers. According to U.S authorities, Mr. Muttalab was reportedly on a US intelligence “watch-list” but not on the US Government’s no-fly list.

The US House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee chair, Republican Peter King, has said that investigators were looking into whether the incident was part of a larger plot and a worldwide alert had been raised. However additional screening measures has been put into effect since the incident. The aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing shortly before noon when a smoke detector alarm went off.

The Nigerian Diaspora have meanwhile expressed disappointment and concern over the susceptibility of al-Qaeda sleeper cells amongst predominantly Northern Muslim Nigerians. The Nigerian Taliban known as Boko Haram, an anti-western extremist Muslim group that sprung up in Northern Nigeria in July and threatened state civility in Nigeria were armed with machetes, knives, home-made hunting rifles and petrol bombs.

The group went on rampage in several states across Northern Nigeria, attacking churches, police stations, prisons and government buildings, and demanding sharia law for all Nigeria as opposed to democratic western-styled education and ideals.

After the sects uprising in northern Nigeria, many beheaded bodies were found in the sect’s headquarters, including at least three Christian preachers and the second in command of the military operation. Hundreds of sect members were also killed by Nigerian security forces in a major clampdown to dismantle the sect. Over 700 deaths related to the violence was reported.

The presence of an al-Qaeda branch operating across the Sahara Desert in Mauritania, Morocco, Mali and Niger and Nigeria’s porous borders was confirmed when a report submitted to top government officials in 2007 had identified and classified the Boko Haram sect as a "murderous religious group" that had been train by the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat. State Security Service of Nigeria stated that "the group was linked to Al Qaeda through some of its members including Barah Abdul and Mohamed Al-Amin who were in Afghanistan and have strong links with some Al Qaeda leaders".

source: afrik.com



3. 12/14/09: US sends special forces to Yemen amid crisis

US special forces have reportedly been sent to Yemen to train its army, as the Yemeni military backed by the Saudi Arabian army has been fighting local Houthi fighters in the north of the country.

The development comes amid fears that foreign military intervention in the country has put Yemeni civilians in dire condition.

American officials told The Daily Telegraph on Sunday that US forces have been sent to Yemen to prevent the country from turning into a "reserve base" for al-Qaeda.

The move to strengthen Yemen's army comes at a time that the country's army is not fighting with al-Qaeda militants, which are based in the southern parts of the country.

read more @ press tv



4. let's recap

Nigeria's president has been in a hospital in Saudi Arabia for a month, leaving Nigeria in political chaos. Oil companies are trying to get deals done but cannot because the president has not delegated his authority and remains behind some sort of information firewall in Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile Saudi Arabia has been fighting Yemeni rebels also for a month. Supposedly al-Qaeda is in Yemen. The rebels are conflated with al-Qaeda.

US forces go to Saudi Arabia to help fight the Yemeni "al-Qaeda" rebels. They kill civilians. al-Qaeda has a news conference, seemingly unafraid of exposure.

A Nigerian somehow gets explosives from Yemen, not sure when or how, and flies to the US, via Amsterdam, supposedly on a religious purpose, and explodes the firecrackers on his leg. He is apprehended and claims to be linked to al-Qaeda. The Nigerian government vows to investigate.

Just waiting on how this ties back to Iran.....


political chaos in Nigeria

1. President of Nigeria has been away in Saudi Arabia for medical treatment since 11/23/09.

A new twist has been added to President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s absence-from-the-country saga, as an opposition member of the House of Representatives – Farouk Adamu Aliyu - and one Sani Garun Gabass have approached an Abuja Federal High Court seeking an order directing Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan to start performing the function of the president. Also yesterday, Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Michael Aondoakaa (SAN) denied that he wrote to the vice-president, asking him to take over from President Yar’Adua who has been admitted in a Saudi Arabian hospital since November 23, 2009. Aondoakaa said he was not in a position to direct the vice-president to take over.

2. Nigeria faces government collapse as a result

President Yar'''Adua was flown out of Nigeria on 23 November, 2009 to King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Saudi Arabia where he has since been receiving medical attention for acute pericarditis'' (inflammation of the heart'''s lining). He jetted out of the country without informing both the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives about his inability to discharge the functions of his office and has spent more than one month outside the country. During his absence, a number of state duties having to do with release of monies for the running of government machineries which the 1999 constitution directly empowers him to do are suffering while in less than one week from today, the nation'''s Chief Justice, Justice Kutigi would bow out of the bench with no one to swear in his successor, Justice Katsina Iyorger Alu.

3. Corrupt aides running the show while the president remains in Saudi Arabia

It does not include those who are sufficiently worried about the president’s achievement or lack of it in almost three years in office. Those who do not wish Yar’Adua well, like the insects that destroy the kola nut, live within. They are some of his aides and advisers and ministers and political associates who have little or no clue about his present condition and yet lie to the nation on how well he’s recovering.

...What the nation is told after every cabinet meeting is that the president is responding to treatment or the president will soon return home or only his doctors can determine when he would return or such other sweeping generalization that says nothing and means nothing. There have been no specifics, no facts, nothing to hold on to as to his state and condition on a daily basis. This has created room for all kinds of media speculations and widespread rumours that are neither dignifying to the person and office of the president nor healthy for the nation. Indeed the handling of Yar’Adua’s illness has made Nigeria a laughing stock around the world.

4. Important decisions languish while the president remains in Saudi Arabia

Some of the International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in the country, particularly Shell and Chevron, which mining and exploration licenses have expired are said to be in a quandary as their mining leases cannot be renewed because of the absence of the President.

Again, the National Assembly is in the process of passing the Petroleum Industry Bill, a critical legislation that would open up the oil sector and ensure the equity participation of the oil producing communities in Nigeria. It is a single bill that contains all the legal requirements that will apply to the entire petroleum industry in Nigeria.

If this bill is passed tomorrow, it cannot become law because the assent of the President is required. And the Vice President cannot give such assent in the present circumstance.


Even militants in the oil-rich Niger Delta, whom Mr. Yar'Adua brought into peace talks only weeks ago, now worry they have no "good faith partner" to negotiate an end to attacks that have cut into Nigeria's oil-dependent economy.


An oil industry source disclosed that Yar'Adua's absence had become an important issue for oil and gas investors, especially as the multinational petroleum operators have not renewed their OMLs, which are due for renewal very soon. The situation, it was gathered, was particularly delicate for the foreign oil firms, which have been locked in negotiations over their expiring licenses and the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), now before the National Assembly. An official of one of the companies, who craved anonymity, stated that they may follow the example of ExxonMobil Corporation, which successfully signed a 20-year extension on three oil licenses in November, this year.