Hopefully you do not open everything sent to you in your email. Here is the Snopes scoop on some of the most recent messages circulating.Hopefully you do not open everything sent to you in your email. Here is the Snopes... more
One of Osama bin Laden's sons may have been killed by a US missile strike in Pakistan earlier this year, National Public Radio reported.
Saad bin Laden, the Al-Qaeda leader's third-oldest son, is "believed" to have been killed by Hellfire missiles fired from a US Predator drone "sometime this year," the US broadcaster said on its website.
The United States has put Pakistan at the heart of the fight against Al-Qaeda. The US military and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) are the only forces that deploy drones to the region.
US spy agencies are "80 to 85 percent" sure that Saad bin Laden is dead, a senior counterterrorism official told NPR, while acknowledging that it was difficult to be completely sure without a body on which DNA tests could be conducted.One of Osama bin Laden's sons may have been killed by a US missile strike in Pakistan... more
New Film Chronicles Civilian Slaughter In Afghanistan
Video
The footage you are about to see is poignant, heart-wrenching, and often a direct result of U.S. foreign policy. - Warning - Viewer discreation advised.New Film Chronicles Civilian Slaughter In Afghanistan
Video
The footage you are... more
6.44pm: Here is some grainy but fantastic footage of the march to Imam Khomeini square in Tehran, from 5 pm Iranian time. You can hear the crowd chanting "Ya Hossein! Mir Hossein!" 6.40pm: Just after 10 pm in Iran, Saeed writes that the people are again shouting "Ya Hossein! Mir Hossein!" and "Allah-o-Akbar!" (Arabic for "God is Great!") all across Tehran. 5.24pm: A reader i
(...)chanting "Ya Hossein! Mir Hossein!" 6.40pm: Just after 10 pm in Iran, Saeed writes that the people are again shouting "Ya Hossein! Mir (...)
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In the event that the divisive Ahmadinejad were to be dropped and Mousavi became president, his 25-year-long battle with Khamenei can be expected to resume in earnest. That is a strong reason for Khamenei to fight hard to keep him out. But while the warring cousins differ sharply on social issues, there may be more room for an accommodation than many suspect.Iran protests: live
guardian.co.uk, Thursday June 18 2009
Daniel Nasaw and... more
Osama bin Laden has threatened Americans in a new audio tape, saying President Barack Obama inflamed hatred toward the U.S. by ordering Pakistan to crack down on militants in Swat Valley and block Islamic law in the area.Osama bin Laden has threatened Americans in a new audio tape, saying President Barack... more
Il mio BLOB sull' 11 SETTEMBRE 2001.
Dopo l'attacco terroristico impazzavano sul web filmati ,animazioni, cartoni.
Ne ho raccolti alcuni.
Questa è la mia ricostruzione dei fatti.Il mio BLOB sull' 11 SETTEMBRE 2001.
Dopo l'attacco terroristico impazzavano sul web... more
Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden has issued a new audiotape urging Muslims to launch a jihad, or holy war, to stop the Israeli offensive in Gaza.Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden has issued a new audiotape urging Muslims to launch a... more
What a surprise after almost 8 years of war with a country not even involved with Bin Laden, after countless billions of dollars and lives that the Bush Administration was necessary to protect America and its’ Freedoms. No Bin Laden after all of these years, only to get a slap in the face because of the policies and procedures that America has bestowed on these sovereign nations.try not even invovlved with Bin LadenWhat a surprise after almost 8 years of war with a country not even involved with Bin... more
White House hopeful Barack Obama has said that Osama Bin Laden is in the tribal areas of Pakistan.White House hopeful Barack Obama has said that Osama Bin Laden is in the tribal areas... more
WASHINGTON, Sep 29 (IPS) - New evidence from former U.S. officials reveals that the George W. Bush administration failed to adopt any plan to block the retreat of Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders from Afghanistan to Pakistan in the first weeks after 9/11.
That failure was directly related to the fact that top administration officials gave priority to planning for war with Iraq over military action against al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
As a result, the United States had far too few troops and strategic airlift capacity in the theatre to cover the large number of possible exit routes through the border area when bin Laden escaped in late 2001.
Because it had not been directed to plan for that contingency, the U.S. military had to turn down an offer by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in late November 2001 to send 60,000 troops to the border passes to intercept them, according to accounts provided by former U.S. officials involved in the issue.
On Nov. 12, 2001, as Northern Alliance troops were marching on Kabul with little resistance, the CIA had intelligence that bin Laden was headed for a cave complex in the Tora Bora Mountains close to the Pakistani border.
The war had ended much more quickly than expected only days earlier. CENTCOM commander Tommy Franks, who was responsible for the war in Afghanistan, had no forces in position to block bin Laden's exit.
Franks asked Lt. Gen. Paul T. Mikolashek, commander of Army Central Command (ARCENT), whether his command could provide a blocking force between al Qaeda and the Pakistani border, according to David W. Lamm, who was then commander of ARCENT Kuwait.
Lamm, a retired Army colonel, recalled in an interview that there was no way to fulfill the CENTCOM commander's request, because ARCENT had neither the troops nor the strategic lift in Kuwait required to put such a force in place. "You looked at that request, and you just shook your head," recalled Lamm, now chief of staff of the Near East South Asia Centre for Strategic Studies at the National Defence University.
Franks apparently already realised that he would need Pakistani help in blocking the al Qaeda exit from Tora Bora. Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld told a National Security Council meeting that Franks "wants the [Pakistanis] to close the transit points between Afghanistan and Pakistan to seal what's going in and out", according to the National Security Council meeting transcript in Bob Woodward's book "Bush at War".
Bush responded that they would need to "press Musharraf to do that".
A few days later, Franks made an unannounced trip to Islamabad to ask Musharraf to deploy troops along the Pakistan-Afghan border near Tora Bora.
A deputy to Franks, Lt. Gen. Mike DeLong, later claimed that Musharraf had refused Franks's request for regular Pakistani troops to be repositioned from the north to the border near the Tora Bora area. DeLong wrote in his 2004 book "Inside Centcom" that Musharraf had said he "couldn't do that", because it would spark a "civil war" with a hostile tribal population.
But U.S. Ambassador Wendy Chamberlin, who accompanied Franks to the meeting with Musharraf, provided an account of the meeting to this writer that contradicts DeLong's claim.
Chamberlin, now president of the Middle East Institute in Washington, recalled that the Pakistani president told Franks that CENTCOM had vastly underestimated what was required to block bin Laden exit from Afghanistan. Musharraf said, "Look you are missing the point: there are 150 valleys through which al Qaeda are going to stream into Pakistan," according to Chamberlin.
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WASHINGTON, Sep 29 (IPS) - New evidence from former U.S. officials reveals that the... more
On Oct. 29, 2004, just four days before the U.S. presidential election, al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden released a videotape denouncing George W. Bush. Some Bush supporters quickly spun the diatribe as "Osama's endorsement of John Kerry," but behind the walls of the CIA, analysts had concluded the opposite: Bin Laden was trying to help Bush gain a second term.On Oct. 29, 2004, just four days before the U.S. presidential election, al-Qaeda... more
Our troops in Afghanistan prove they've retained their sense of humor with the following 'YOU MAY BE A TALIBAN IF...'
1. You refine heroin for a living, but you have a moral objection to beer.
2. You own a $3,000 machine gun and $5,000 rocket launcher, but you can't afford shoes.
3. You have more wives than teeth.
4. You wipe your butt with your bare left hand, but consider bacon 'unclean.'
5. You think vests come in two styles: bullet-proof and suicide.
6. You can't think of anyone you HAVEN'T declared Jihad against.
7. You consider television dangerous, but routinely carry explosives in your clothing.
8. You were amazed to discover that cell phones have uses other than setting off roadside bombs.
9. You've often uttered the phrase, 'I love what you've done with your cave.'
10. You have nothing against women and think every man should own at least one.
11.! You bathe at least monthly whether necessary or not.
12. You have a crush on your neighbor's goat.Our troops in Afghanistan prove they've retained their sense of humor with the... more
President Bush secretly approved U.S. military raids inside Pakistan against alleged terrorist targets, according to a former intelligence official with recent access to the Bush administration's debate about how to fight al-Qaida and the Taliban inside the lawless tribal border area.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the classified order.
The official told The Associated Press that Bush signed the order over the summer. It gives new authority to U.S. special operations forces to target suspected terrorists in the dangerous area along the Afghanistan border.
In addition to the presidential approval for special operations missions, conventional ground troops have new...
(Read Rest at Link...) President Bush secretly approved U.S. military raids inside Pakistan against alleged... more
" Closing arguments began Monday in the trial of Osama bin Laden's former driver, Salim Hamdan, the first inmate at the Guantanamo jail to face a full-scale trial before the special tribunals created by President George W. Bush.
Hamdan, a Yemeni national about 40 years old, is accused of conspiracy and material support to terrorism, and faces a possible sentence of life in prison if a jury of six military officers finds him guilty.
A verdict could be handed down as early as Monday afternoon in the trial, underway at the prison camp on a US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba since July 21.
"He was an Al-Qaeda warrior," said John Murphy, a Justice Department prosecutor. "He pledged bayat to Osama bin Laden," Murphy said, using the Arabic word for a pledge of allegiance.
Lawyers for Hamdan, who has already spent six years behind bars at Guantanamo, have questioned the fairness of the proceedings and argued that Hamdan was an insignificant figure while employed by bin Laden from 1998 to 2001, saying he was not involved in any way in Al-Qaeda operations.
"This is a classic case of guilt by association," said Lieutenant Commander Brian Mizer, an assigned military defense lawyer for Hamdan. Mizer described Hamdan as a driver with a fourth-grade education, motivated by financial gain not ideological passion.
"Mr Hamdan is not an Al-Qaeda warrior, he is not Al-Qaeda's last line of defense," Mizer said. "He's not even an Al-Qaeda member."
"You should not punish the general's driver today with the crimes of the general."
Once closing arguments wrap up, military jurors will immediately begin their deliberations amid predictions from human rights groups that Hamdan will likely be found guilty on at least some of the charges. "
" Closing arguments began Monday in the trial of Osama bin Laden's former driver,... more
Nor is it an operation tied to the manhunt for Osama bin Laden, notorious founder of the Al Qaeda terror movement who has eluded capture since the 9/11 attacks occurred almost seven years ago.
This mission is meant to restore lustre to a name that, because of him, has become synonymous with radical Islamists.
British-based Farrah Jarral, a doctor, and filmmaker Masood Khan have been flying from continent to continent, searching in local bazaars and in schools, to find “lovely Osamas” for their documentary Osama Loves.
“The project is not seeking to solve any major, burning, complex socio-political or theological question. It is simply about showing a sunny, positive face of Muslims, which people don’t tend to see,” said Jarral, speaking by phone from Jakarta, the third leg of their five-part journey.
They arrive in Toronto today – their only North American stop because the two British Muslims had difficulty obtaining U.S. visas.
“We initially hoped to go to New York City, for obvious symbolic reasons. Ironically, we couldn’t get in,” Jarral said.
Toronto was a natural second choice, with its sizable Muslim population and “high number of Osamas on Facebook,” she said.
Jarral hopes that during her three days here, a great number of Toronto Osamas will come out of the woodwork.
In fact, she’s counting on it. After 31 days of scouring Nigeria, Egypt and Indonesia, the partners are still more than 400 Osamas short of their goal.
“We’re getting a little bit desperate,” she said, so much so that they’ve opened up their quest to include Muslims using derivatives of the name such as Usama, Usamah, Oussama, Usamatu and even the diminutive Sam.
Nor is it an operation tied to the manhunt for Osama bin Laden, notorious founder of... more
The first Guantanamo war crimes trial began Monday with a not guilty plea from a former driver and alleged bodyguard for Osama bin Laden.The first Guantanamo war crimes trial began Monday with a not guilty plea from a... more
Pakistan's top diplomat said Saturday there are no U.S. or other foreign military personnel on the hunt for Osama bin Laden in his nation, and none will be allowed in to search for the al-Qaida leader.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said his nation's new government has ruled out such military operations, covert or otherwise, to catch militants.
"Our government's policy is that our troops, paramilitary forces and our regular forces are deployed in sufficient numbers. They are capable of taking action there. And any foreign intrusion would be counterproductive," he said Saturday. "People will not accept it. Questions of sovereignty come in."Pakistan's top diplomat said Saturday there are no U.S. or other foreign military... more
Obama says that if Osama is captured alive, killing him would make him a martyr, and we shouldn't do that.....because you know, its not like all of the taliban fighters we kill or who kill themselves arent seen as martyrs.(sarcasm)Obama says that if Osama is captured alive, killing him would make him a martyr, and... more
A man who labelled himself as the UK version of Osama bin Laden has today been found guilty of running terrorist training camps in Britain, as well as encouraging his supporters to murder non-believers.
Mohammed Hamid, 50, was found guilty along with three of his 'followers,' who were all found guilty of attending Hamid's training camps.
A fifth suspect, Atilla Ahmet, 43, the so-called emir of the group, who allegedly once claimed he was al Qaeda's 'top man' in Eurpoe was charged after admitting three charges of soliciting murder.
A man who labelled himself as the UK version of Osama bin Laden has today been found... more
