Al Jazeera: A suicide bomb outside the gates of a judicial complex in Peshawar, Pakistan has left 19 dead and 30 injured. The bombing occurred during rush hour, guaranteeing that plenty of lawyers, court personnel, and visitors would be present when the bomb detonated.
“The blast comes as military battles members of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, one of the main anti-government groups, in the country’s semi-autonomous tribal region of South Waziristan.”
Well, this is jacked. Anyone remember the stories of the refugee boys from the Sudan and Somalia who were resettled in random, totally alien places like Minneapolis and subsequently pursued success and college educations?
Now the NYT reports that some of them are becoming radicalized within their adoptive cities and are returning to the countries of their birth to join al-Qaeda affiliate groups like Shabaab, whose mission is to overthrow the Somali government.
The (individuals mentioned) are among more than 20 young Americans who are the focus of what may be the most significant domestic terrorism investigation since Sept. 11.
AP (via MSNBC) reports that Al Qaeda continues to form allegiances with homegrown groups sharing similar goals e.g. the al-Qaida of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM or AQLIM) in Algeria. Put simply, Al Qaeda trains them and lends them their brand name, and in return the ubiquitous group gets more members at their disposal and a greater reach across areas like northern and western Africa and Europe.
Note: some of you might remember that AQLIM was the group whose training camp was decimated by the bubonic plague this past January. Click here for my post.
Ironic that their business model is based on one of the Western concepts they most despise. One could argue the joke is meant to be on us, but I thought the point was to find culturally non-Western, Islamic ways of doing things and prove they work better than Western concepts? What do I know, I’m just an infidel.
At least 23 are dead in the latest bomb detonated in Pakistan. The NYT reports that the car bomb that rammed into a wall housing emergency response services in Lahore was likely intended to decimate the local nearby branch of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI).
Recall that after the Mumbai bombings, the ISI raided camps of the militant group Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, the group that is widely believed to have been responsible for the bombings. Some suggested that there were hidden ties between the ISI and LeT. View my previous posts on the topic here.
Last year, we saw one major wave of Somali pirate attacks on tankers and other ships traversing the region. In December, analysts were warning that, in its weakened state, Somalia may become a new safe haven for militant jihadis as well as pirates and other international criminals.
Around that same time, in a particularly ironic move the Somali Islamist group Al-Shabab “vowed” to hunt down and attack the pirates who hijacked a Muslim-owned Saudi oil tanker.
However, analysts have posited the idea that in fact the al-Shabaab extremists are in collusion with the pirates and have sought to take a share of any ransom gained.
Now, UPI writer Claude Salhani suggests that Somali pirates are natural allies of radical Islam:
U.S. Navy warships supported by helicopter gunships tracked four Somali pirates and their American captive in the Horn of Africa throughout the weekend as American negotiators tried to obtain the release of the hostage.
Local militias, many of them adherents of strict Islamist theology, offer a fertile breeding ground to al-Qaida and its affiliates. If and when the day Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida begin to feel the pressure in their current safe haven, the region around the Horn of Africa will look very enticing.
On a routine basis, reports the Washington Post.
Apparently, American-owned Web-hosting outfits often unknowingly rent cyberspace to anti-American extremists, and the practice is growing.
Intelligence officials and private experts cite dozens of instances in which Islamist militants sought out U.S. Internet firms — known for their reliable service and easy terms that allow virtual anonymity — and used them to incite attacks on Americans.
“The relatively cheap expense and high quality of U.S. servers seems to attract jihadists,” said Rita Katz, co-founder of the Site Intelligence Group, a private company that monitors the communications of Muslim extremist groups. Even al-Qaeda has sometimes paid American companies to serve as conduits for its hate-filled messages, said Katz, who has tracked such activity since 2003.
The firms acknowledge that it is not always easy to spot militants’ activity….Yvonne Donaldson, spokeswoman for ThePlanet, said the firm cannot afford to monitor every site and instead reacts to complaints, as it did in the case of alemarrah1.com. “If the complaint is credible, we notify the authorities,” she said.
The Washington Post reports that several major defense programs will be restructured soon, as the Obama administration is reportedly “shift[ing] military spending from preparations for large-scale war against traditional rivals to the counterinsurgency programs that Gates and others consider likely to dominate U.S. conflicts in coming decades.”
Can’t say I’m arguing!
H/T: The Considered Opinion
“Marines ambush some insurgents who are using a bombed-out hotel to hide in during a night-time raid.” Video via Military.com, click here for link.
Hmmm. The L.A. Times reports:
Senator Feinstein says that “the Predator planes that launch missile strikes against militants are based in Pakistan,” Which in turn suggests “a much deeper relationship with the U.S. than Islamabad would like to admit”. I thought Hillary was Secretary of State.
It’s useful to remember that Pakistan and U.S. officials have both already acknowledged that a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy exists between the two countries on unmanned U.S. drone aircraft. Granted, that’s not the same as Pakistan hosting the launch sites for the U.S., but it does denote a sort of facultative symbiosis.
Here’s what I posted back in November:
The Washington Post reported that both Pakistani and U.S. officials acknowledged a “don’t ask, don’t-tell” policy between the countries, which allegedly allows for unmanned drone aircraft to attack suspected targets in the less monitored, tribal, western area of Pakistan with public deniability, in exchange for repeated publicized protest and complaints by Pakistan concerning the air strikes.
View story here.
UPDATE: Times Online takes Feinstein’s slip and runs with it, ironically titling expose piece, “Secrecy and Denial”. I choose to blame the Times Online at this point, more people listen to it anyway.
Some books I’ve been meaning to post on – Instapundit (H/T) just reminded me of one of them :
Austin Bay’s and Jim Dunnigan’s A QUICK AND DIRTY GUIDE TO WAR, 4th Edition – The Tools for Understanding the Global War on Terror, Cyber War, Iraq, the Persian Gulf, China, Afghanistan, the Balkans, East Africa, Colombia, Mexico, and Other Hot Spots (piping hot, newly updated)
Also:
Bernard Rougier, Everyday Jihad
Chris Blatchford, The Black Hand: The Bloody Rise and Redemption of “Boxer” Enriquez, a Mexican Mob Killer
William Queen, Under and Alone: The True Story of the Undercover Agent Who Infiltrated America’s Most Violent Outlaw Motorcycle Gang
M.F.K. Fischer, How to Cook a Wolf
I just threw this last one on, for good measure. To quote John Updike, she was a “poet of the appetites,” writing about her love for food and cuisine during WWII in Europe when times were tough and food was rationed. A useful perspective during our own (less) challenging times.
Enjoy!
The Daily Times of Pakistan reports here that on Sunday, February 8 the Taliban released a video to the foreign press of one of them beheading a Polish engineer, Piotr Stanczak, whom they’d kidnapped in September in Pakistan.
The group reportedly executed him because the Pakistani government refused to release numerous Taliban members before Friday’s deadline. According to al Jazeera and AussieIndoLanka.com (warning: graphic image), negotiations had been heating up and the terrorists had reduced their demands within the ten days prior to Friday’s deadline, but obviously both Pakistan and Poland wouldn’t budge.
Apparently, they’d also captured other hostages, including a Chinese telephone tech, and are threatening to execute more if their demands are not met. I’m not eager in the slightest to have anyone suffer at the hands of these bastards, but I would like to see them piss off China. That’s the thing about countries that don’t have respect for human rights – when it comes to dealing with terrorists, they don’t pussyfoot around e.g. the Muslim Uighurs, prior to the 2008 Olympics.
Weird coincidence point of interest: Friday’s deadline for releasing the prisoners was the same day that justices of the Islamabad high court were scheduled to rule on the detention of rogue nuclear scientist/proliferator Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan (they held it to be unlawful and released him).
Update: for you bloodthirsty types, scroll down for the alleged video of Stanczak’s execution (via Unambiguously Ambidextrous). This video was first delivered on a flash drive via a third party to a member of the foreign press. I am guessing this was the one originally broadcast on Polish t.v. – they edited it and did not show the beheading. This one doesn’t either.
I’m choosing to post this to remind us why we fight and who we are fighting.
Side note: I believe this video is the real deal; however, I also believe I’ve found some fake images of Stanczak floating around out there. Hence my saying “alleged”, above.
Click here for more information on Islamic terrorists beheading their targets.
The Washington Post recently reported that both Pakistani and U.S. officials have acknowledged a “don’t ask, don’t-tell” policy between the countries, which reportedly allows for unmanned drone aircraft to attack suspected targets in the less monitored, tribal, western area of Pakistan with public deniability, in exchange for repeated publicized protest and complaints by Pakistan concerning the air strikes.
View story here.
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Culper Ring 355 