Monday, May 3, 2010
May 02, 2010 — FOREIGN MILITANTS Authorities will likely try to determine whether the attack was sponsored by foreign militants such as al Qaeda or offshoots of the organization. That group was behind the September 11, 2001, attacks at the World Trade Center in Manhattan as well as the Pentagon.
New York Times Square Deadly Blast Averted - Updated
Men busted in Dubai may be new faces of terror: Experts
Source: Thai indian
New York, May 3 (ANI): In the 1998 Baruch College yearbook, Wesam (Khaled) El-Hanafi was a young man on his way to the top, but 12 years later, he is an Al Qaeda suspect along with his friend Sabirhan (Tareq) Hasanoff.
Both aged 33 and 34 respectively, are accused of pledging allegiance and technical help to terrorists in Yemen, the New York Daily News reports.
The pair was busted in Dubai and hauled to Virginia for arraignment. They are accused of trying to modernize an Al Qaeda cell in Yemen, giving 50,000 dollars to the group and supplying them with modern equipment.
According to experts, the emergence of educated and well-paid professionals allegedly turning to homegrown terrorism may mark a shift from disenfranchised, low-income radicals to a new class of criminal.
“Other countries have seen a similar pattern. First the fringe joins. When it gets dicier is when college-educated, ordinary, white-collar people start taking up the cause,” a law enforcement source told the paper.
“They are attractive recruits because they are harder to spot, and move about more easily,” he added.
FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said: “Profiling doesn’t work. There is no stereotype for who crosses that line or not. What works is investigating the criminal activities and following it back to those involved.”
El-Hanafi and Hasanoff will arrive in New York this week. (ANI)
New York, May 3 (ANI): In the 1998 Baruch College yearbook, Wesam (Khaled) El-Hanafi was a young man on his way to the top, but 12 years later, he is an Al Qaeda suspect along with his friend Sabirhan (Tareq) Hasanoff.
Both aged 33 and 34 respectively, are accused of pledging allegiance and technical help to terrorists in Yemen, the New York Daily News reports.
The pair was busted in Dubai and hauled to Virginia for arraignment. They are accused of trying to modernize an Al Qaeda cell in Yemen, giving 50,000 dollars to the group and supplying them with modern equipment.
According to experts, the emergence of educated and well-paid professionals allegedly turning to homegrown terrorism may mark a shift from disenfranchised, low-income radicals to a new class of criminal.
“Other countries have seen a similar pattern. First the fringe joins. When it gets dicier is when college-educated, ordinary, white-collar people start taking up the cause,” a law enforcement source told the paper.
“They are attractive recruits because they are harder to spot, and move about more easily,” he added.
FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said: “Profiling doesn’t work. There is no stereotype for who crosses that line or not. What works is investigating the criminal activities and following it back to those involved.”
El-Hanafi and Hasanoff will arrive in New York this week. (ANI)
Terrorism Doesn't Go Away When You Ignore It
Source: Rightsidenews
03 May 2010 05:52
Terrorism doesn't go away when you ignore it. Much like a massive oil spill, it doesn't go away just because you want to play golf or bask in the attention of a worshipful press at a Correspondents Dinner that seems to have more celebrities, both Hollywood and Big Media, than honest hardworking reporters. Terrorism doesn't take a day off or take holidays off. Not even Muslim holidays. Not even for Ramadan. Terrorism doesn't go away until you defeat it. It's that simple.
Islamic terrorism is one of those things that isn't supposed to exist anymore in the realm of human affairs. The zero sum game. The struggle to which there can only be two outcomes. An unambiguous victory by one side or the other. No amount of negotiations, outreach programs, speeches, concessions, scholarships and books will change that. And that is a shame because for the last century our culture has embraced the idea that every problem in human affairs can be settled if we all sit down and talk it out. And that naive idea of violence in human affairs resulting from a lack of concessions is exactly the kind of thing our enemies would like us to believe. All the better for them to cut our throats.
The negotiation fallacy depends on the assumption that every player in the game would rather talk than fight, would rather settle for 33 percent of the pie, than 100 percent of the pie. Human history alone testifies to the fact that such players not only exist, but that they tend to walk away with the whole pie, which is not surprising as history tends to be written by those who play to win, rather than by those who play to draw even. An inconvenient truth for the apostles of soft power who think that empires of paper tigers are all it takes to usher in a new world order.
Unfortunately for them, wars so often come down to who wants victory more. In WW2, Nazi Germany swept the field because its soldiers wanted it more, while the Allies and even the Russians initially wanted to split the difference, to keep Fritz at bay, until everyone had a chance to talk it over, and pick up as much as they could from the new state of affairs. Only when England and Russia looked into the abyss, did they actually begin to want it more. Only then did they begin making the sacrifices, putting forth the desperate effort and endurance that allowed them to survive long enough to exhaust Germany's warfighting capabilities and bring the United States into the war.
Today we aren't the ones who want victory more. Our enemies do. And they make a point of it every time a suicide bomber walks into a crowd. His death is their way of communicating to us their ruthlessness and their determination to stay in the fight until the last infidel is dead or in chains. Suicide bombing is not strategy, it's propaganda by those who make up for their lack of strategic and military acumen, with their contempt for the "soft and decadent enemy" whom they see as wanting nothing more than a comfortable life surrounded by consumer goods. An assessment of the modern world that Islamists shared with Khrushchev and Hitler, not to mention your average progressive critic of American consumerism.
Islamic terrorists cannot militarily defeat a people who walked on the moon. But they don't have to. Their strategy does not depend on playing to our strengths, but to our weaknesses. Their bullseye is painted square on our sense of fair play, our eagerness to reach out to the Other and see his point of view, our desire to be at peace, and our willingness to forget the past in order to embrace the future. They know that while we may have B2 bombers and nuclear warheads, that we will not do to them, as they would do to us. That we are not willing to kill them, as they would kill us.
And so their strategy is very painfully simple. They will keep killing us. Day by day. Week by week and year by year. We will catch them, break up their cells, give them fair trials with ACLU lawyers, and they will laugh at us and curse us. And those cells that we do not catch will succeed. If not today, then tomorrow. If not tomorrow, then next week. As long as Muslims continue to immigrate to America and solicit new converts, they will never have a shortage of potential terrorists. And they know that. What's more, they know we aren't about to do anything about it.
They don't have to succeed with every car or plane bombing. With every shooting rampage or sniper attack. They just have to succeed now and then. Enough to keep the engine of terror running, greased with our blood. Enough to convince us that we can't defeat them, and that we need to sit down at that negotiating table, and discuss how much more of the pie they're going to get, in exchange for a temporary truce. And when that expires, they'll want more of the pie of course. And we'll give it to them. Because appeasement is a learned behavior. And once you've given up your dignity and your patriotism, and your refusal to bow to evil-- then there is no depth to which you will not sink to. If you doubt that, look Eastward to Europe or Southeastward to Israel. And then tell me it can't happen here.
No, Islamic terrorism doesn't go away when you ignore it. It plots and schemes. It runs off at the mouth and eventually it kills again. Because it may be up against the children of the men who walked on the moon, but it has time and numbers on its side. And the sentimentality of an enemy who will not behead them, or shove them into pits and throw a grenade in. Who will look on in horror if one of his bombs falls on a school, where the occupants of that same school would have been jumping for joy if one of their bombs had fallen on a school filled with infidels. Who will try to negotiate. Always try to see their point of view. Who will ignore the hard truths that the cold and barren desert teaches the bandit and the trader at night. That those who prosper must learn to be pitiless in the defense of their own lives and that of their house.
Islam was born out of that same school of the desert. Its classroom was the broad sands, hot in the day and cold at night. Its ledger was the Koran. Its pencil was the scimitar. And its graduation exam was survival. And while the West has changed, Islam has not. The fall of the Ottoman Empire and the departure of the British Empire has reverted the Middle East to the old ways, the tribe and the family, the fanatical creed and the low crunning with which to advance it. Mercy is murder. Death is a blessing. And all ideas fall before the sword.
And so out of that terrible classroom only one idea has survived. No, not the borrowed algebra of India or the stolen scrolls of the Greeks. That of the supremacy of power. The power of Allah as embodied by the victorious armies of Islam. For the triumph of ruthless power is the only true message of the Koran. The men and women of the West may sit at negotiating tables, but in the East they still understand that tables are good mainly for hiding knives under. And that men who wish to sit at a table with you, are either hiding a knife of their own, or are too soft and addled to know what is about to happen to them.
Where the West is full of words, the East is full of deeds. Not great deeds. Not high deeds. Not even noble or virtuous deeds. Just deeds. And that you see is the point. It is better to do something, than to do nothing. And in a war between the fighters and the talkers, the fighters will surely win. Because the freedom of the pen must be defended by the sword, or it will surely fall to the sword. The East understands that. Mohammed understood that. But the West has forgotten it. And it is paying a terrible price for that already.
The Socialists of the West believe that they are building themselves a kingdom of heaven on earth through government centralized social justice. The Muslims believe that they are building a kingdom of heaven on earth through murder and genocide. And while the Socialists pass bills, debate in their legislatures, deliver speeches and hand out concessions-- the Muslims kill. The Socialists have built their Tower of Babel out of the bureaucracy of government. Islam has built its tower out of corpses, and daily it adds new corpses to the pile.
These two towers now overshadow the world. The Tower of Socialism and the Tower of the Dead. Every time the second tower grows, the first tower trembles. And unless a third tower rises soon, the Tower of Determination, there will be only one tower hanging above the world. The Tower of the Dead. The Tower of Islam.
Terrorism doesn't go away when you ignore it. The people of the free world do. One by one. Into the dark night.
From NY to Jerusalem, Daniel Greenfield Covers the Stories Behind the News
03 May 2010 05:52
Terrorism doesn't go away when you ignore it. Much like a massive oil spill, it doesn't go away just because you want to play golf or bask in the attention of a worshipful press at a Correspondents Dinner that seems to have more celebrities, both Hollywood and Big Media, than honest hardworking reporters. Terrorism doesn't take a day off or take holidays off. Not even Muslim holidays. Not even for Ramadan. Terrorism doesn't go away until you defeat it. It's that simple.
Islamic terrorism is one of those things that isn't supposed to exist anymore in the realm of human affairs. The zero sum game. The struggle to which there can only be two outcomes. An unambiguous victory by one side or the other. No amount of negotiations, outreach programs, speeches, concessions, scholarships and books will change that. And that is a shame because for the last century our culture has embraced the idea that every problem in human affairs can be settled if we all sit down and talk it out. And that naive idea of violence in human affairs resulting from a lack of concessions is exactly the kind of thing our enemies would like us to believe. All the better for them to cut our throats.
The negotiation fallacy depends on the assumption that every player in the game would rather talk than fight, would rather settle for 33 percent of the pie, than 100 percent of the pie. Human history alone testifies to the fact that such players not only exist, but that they tend to walk away with the whole pie, which is not surprising as history tends to be written by those who play to win, rather than by those who play to draw even. An inconvenient truth for the apostles of soft power who think that empires of paper tigers are all it takes to usher in a new world order.
Unfortunately for them, wars so often come down to who wants victory more. In WW2, Nazi Germany swept the field because its soldiers wanted it more, while the Allies and even the Russians initially wanted to split the difference, to keep Fritz at bay, until everyone had a chance to talk it over, and pick up as much as they could from the new state of affairs. Only when England and Russia looked into the abyss, did they actually begin to want it more. Only then did they begin making the sacrifices, putting forth the desperate effort and endurance that allowed them to survive long enough to exhaust Germany's warfighting capabilities and bring the United States into the war.
Today we aren't the ones who want victory more. Our enemies do. And they make a point of it every time a suicide bomber walks into a crowd. His death is their way of communicating to us their ruthlessness and their determination to stay in the fight until the last infidel is dead or in chains. Suicide bombing is not strategy, it's propaganda by those who make up for their lack of strategic and military acumen, with their contempt for the "soft and decadent enemy" whom they see as wanting nothing more than a comfortable life surrounded by consumer goods. An assessment of the modern world that Islamists shared with Khrushchev and Hitler, not to mention your average progressive critic of American consumerism.
Islamic terrorists cannot militarily defeat a people who walked on the moon. But they don't have to. Their strategy does not depend on playing to our strengths, but to our weaknesses. Their bullseye is painted square on our sense of fair play, our eagerness to reach out to the Other and see his point of view, our desire to be at peace, and our willingness to forget the past in order to embrace the future. They know that while we may have B2 bombers and nuclear warheads, that we will not do to them, as they would do to us. That we are not willing to kill them, as they would kill us.
And so their strategy is very painfully simple. They will keep killing us. Day by day. Week by week and year by year. We will catch them, break up their cells, give them fair trials with ACLU lawyers, and they will laugh at us and curse us. And those cells that we do not catch will succeed. If not today, then tomorrow. If not tomorrow, then next week. As long as Muslims continue to immigrate to America and solicit new converts, they will never have a shortage of potential terrorists. And they know that. What's more, they know we aren't about to do anything about it.
They don't have to succeed with every car or plane bombing. With every shooting rampage or sniper attack. They just have to succeed now and then. Enough to keep the engine of terror running, greased with our blood. Enough to convince us that we can't defeat them, and that we need to sit down at that negotiating table, and discuss how much more of the pie they're going to get, in exchange for a temporary truce. And when that expires, they'll want more of the pie of course. And we'll give it to them. Because appeasement is a learned behavior. And once you've given up your dignity and your patriotism, and your refusal to bow to evil-- then there is no depth to which you will not sink to. If you doubt that, look Eastward to Europe or Southeastward to Israel. And then tell me it can't happen here.
No, Islamic terrorism doesn't go away when you ignore it. It plots and schemes. It runs off at the mouth and eventually it kills again. Because it may be up against the children of the men who walked on the moon, but it has time and numbers on its side. And the sentimentality of an enemy who will not behead them, or shove them into pits and throw a grenade in. Who will look on in horror if one of his bombs falls on a school, where the occupants of that same school would have been jumping for joy if one of their bombs had fallen on a school filled with infidels. Who will try to negotiate. Always try to see their point of view. Who will ignore the hard truths that the cold and barren desert teaches the bandit and the trader at night. That those who prosper must learn to be pitiless in the defense of their own lives and that of their house.
Islam was born out of that same school of the desert. Its classroom was the broad sands, hot in the day and cold at night. Its ledger was the Koran. Its pencil was the scimitar. And its graduation exam was survival. And while the West has changed, Islam has not. The fall of the Ottoman Empire and the departure of the British Empire has reverted the Middle East to the old ways, the tribe and the family, the fanatical creed and the low crunning with which to advance it. Mercy is murder. Death is a blessing. And all ideas fall before the sword.
And so out of that terrible classroom only one idea has survived. No, not the borrowed algebra of India or the stolen scrolls of the Greeks. That of the supremacy of power. The power of Allah as embodied by the victorious armies of Islam. For the triumph of ruthless power is the only true message of the Koran. The men and women of the West may sit at negotiating tables, but in the East they still understand that tables are good mainly for hiding knives under. And that men who wish to sit at a table with you, are either hiding a knife of their own, or are too soft and addled to know what is about to happen to them.
Where the West is full of words, the East is full of deeds. Not great deeds. Not high deeds. Not even noble or virtuous deeds. Just deeds. And that you see is the point. It is better to do something, than to do nothing. And in a war between the fighters and the talkers, the fighters will surely win. Because the freedom of the pen must be defended by the sword, or it will surely fall to the sword. The East understands that. Mohammed understood that. But the West has forgotten it. And it is paying a terrible price for that already.
The Socialists of the West believe that they are building themselves a kingdom of heaven on earth through government centralized social justice. The Muslims believe that they are building a kingdom of heaven on earth through murder and genocide. And while the Socialists pass bills, debate in their legislatures, deliver speeches and hand out concessions-- the Muslims kill. The Socialists have built their Tower of Babel out of the bureaucracy of government. Islam has built its tower out of corpses, and daily it adds new corpses to the pile.
These two towers now overshadow the world. The Tower of Socialism and the Tower of the Dead. Every time the second tower grows, the first tower trembles. And unless a third tower rises soon, the Tower of Determination, there will be only one tower hanging above the world. The Tower of the Dead. The Tower of Islam.
Terrorism doesn't go away when you ignore it. The people of the free world do. One by one. Into the dark night.
From NY to Jerusalem, Daniel Greenfield Covers the Stories Behind the News
Maoists in Delhi: Is the Police Prepared?
Source: idsa
May 3, 2010
The detection of the presence of Naxalites of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) in New Delhi persuades one to wonder if it is turning into an established safe-home. Also, because the rebels have not committed any ‘action’ in Delhi, the police may not have, possibly, paid adequate attention to understanding the rebels, their motives and modus operandi. The arrest of a few Maoist leaders and activists since September 2009 is, perhaps, the tip of the ice berg of the Maoist presence and activities in Delhi, and, therefore, the police would have to prepare themselves urgently in facing and defeating the Maoist challenge.
Polit Bureau member Kobad Ghandy was the highest ranking leader arrested in Delhi, on September 20, 2009. He was arrested following a tip-off by the Special Intelligence Branch (SIB), the elite anti-Naxal intelligence-wing of Andhra Pradesh Police, which has turned into a role model for the other affected States. Investigations following Ghandy’s arrest are now leading the police to some more Maoists.
On March 23, 2010, Lakkaraju Satyanarayana Murty (LSN) was officially arrested in Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh. He was believed to have been picked up from Delhi a few days earlier. LSN’s interrogation led to the detention and subsequent release of Sunil Mandiwal, a college teacher. On April 28, a trade union leader, his wife and another associate were arrested. Possibly, a few more Maoists could be arrested in the weeks and months ahead, while many more would try to cover up their trail and move out of Delhi.
In fact, the role of the Maoists was suspected in the strike in 2005 at the Honda factory located in Gurgaon, in the National Capital Region (NCR). After that, for a very long time, little was heard about the Maoist presence in Delhi. Also, little is known of the leaders who are trying to build a base and spread the Maoist ideology in Delhi. According to well-informed sources, the Maoists have formed a State Committee comprising six members to spearhead the movement in Delhi. This has been in operation since, at least, the past four to five years. It is believed that Maoist Central Committee member Sukanth has been entrusted with the task of ‘guiding’ the Delhi State Committee.
There is nothing unique about the Maoist presence in a city like Delhi, other than that it is the national capital. The Maoist urban presence has already been detected in various cities and towns across the country – in Mumabi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Pune, Nagpur, Surat, Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur, Rourkela, Bhubaneshwar, etc.
Moreover, since September 2005 there have been reports of Maoist activities in places which are a few hours’ drive away from Delhi, in Haryana, in Jind, Kaithal, Kurukshetra Yamunanagar, Hisar, Rohtak and Sonepat. In June 2009, Haryana police claimed to have arrested eight important Maoists in Kurukshetra, including Pradeep Kumar, the Haryana state secretary of the CPI (Maoist). Besides, the police also claimed that the Maoists have formed a number of front organizations in Haryana, viz. Shivalik Jansangharsh Manch, Lal Salam, Jagrook Chhatar Morcha, Krantikari Majdoor Kisan Union, Jan Adhikari Surakhsa Samiti and Shivalik Jansangharsh Manch.
The Maoists, at the Unity Congress held in January 2007, decided to spread their movement to urban areas. In this wake, the Congress also created a five member sub-committee –– known as Urban Sub-Committee (USCO) -- with Ghandy as its head, and tasked it with preparing a plan. Perhaps, this was submitted to the all-powerful Central Committee in September 2007. This plan is known as the Urban Perspective Plan.
The Urban Movement has a defined role in the political and military strategy of the CPI (Maoist). According to the CPI (Maoist), “… being the centres of concentration of the industrial proletariat, urban areas play an important part within the political strategy of the new Democratic Revolution.” The Maoists envisage that they would mobilise and organise the industrial workers and channel them towards playing “leadership role in organising the agrarian revolution by sending … advanced detachment to the rural areas.” The role of the Urban Movement within the military strategy of the Maoists has been best explained by Mao Tse Tung thus: “the final objective of the revolution is the capture of the cities, the enemy’s main bases and this objective cannot be achieved without adequate work in the cities.” The CPI (Maoist) holds that “[they] should, by building up a strong urban movement, ensure that the urban masses contribute to creating the conditions that will obtain success for the armed struggle in the countryside.”
In the Maoist scheme of things, the objectives/tasks of the Urban Movement could be classified under three broad heads or categories: (a) mobilise and organise the basic masses and build the party on that basis; (b) build the United Front; and (c) Military tasks.
The Maoists contend that the urban movement should be conducted through various types of mass organisations; the wider the organisations, the better. These organisations are of different types –– secret revolutionary mass organisations, open and semi-open revolutionary mass organisations, open legal mass organisations which are not directly linked to the CPI (Maoist). The last of these would include Maoist-inspired cover organisations and legal, democratic organisations.
It is fairly easy for the Maoists to establish bases in urban areas. As a well-known authority of the Maoist movement, K. Srinivas Reddy, told this author, “because of the anonymity it accords, it becomes easy for the Maoists to stay and operate in urban centres.” Urban presence for the Maoists has the utility of (a) providing a place for rest and recuperation, (b) arranging for logistics and (c) mobilising students, youth and industrial workers.
More importantly, if and when the Urban Movement catches on among the industrial workers, the state will have to deal with possible sabotage activities and workers/ industrial unrest. When the Urban Movement becomes strong, the state will then also have to deal with urban terrorism.
May 3, 2010
The detection of the presence of Naxalites of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) in New Delhi persuades one to wonder if it is turning into an established safe-home. Also, because the rebels have not committed any ‘action’ in Delhi, the police may not have, possibly, paid adequate attention to understanding the rebels, their motives and modus operandi. The arrest of a few Maoist leaders and activists since September 2009 is, perhaps, the tip of the ice berg of the Maoist presence and activities in Delhi, and, therefore, the police would have to prepare themselves urgently in facing and defeating the Maoist challenge.
Polit Bureau member Kobad Ghandy was the highest ranking leader arrested in Delhi, on September 20, 2009. He was arrested following a tip-off by the Special Intelligence Branch (SIB), the elite anti-Naxal intelligence-wing of Andhra Pradesh Police, which has turned into a role model for the other affected States. Investigations following Ghandy’s arrest are now leading the police to some more Maoists.
On March 23, 2010, Lakkaraju Satyanarayana Murty (LSN) was officially arrested in Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh. He was believed to have been picked up from Delhi a few days earlier. LSN’s interrogation led to the detention and subsequent release of Sunil Mandiwal, a college teacher. On April 28, a trade union leader, his wife and another associate were arrested. Possibly, a few more Maoists could be arrested in the weeks and months ahead, while many more would try to cover up their trail and move out of Delhi.
In fact, the role of the Maoists was suspected in the strike in 2005 at the Honda factory located in Gurgaon, in the National Capital Region (NCR). After that, for a very long time, little was heard about the Maoist presence in Delhi. Also, little is known of the leaders who are trying to build a base and spread the Maoist ideology in Delhi. According to well-informed sources, the Maoists have formed a State Committee comprising six members to spearhead the movement in Delhi. This has been in operation since, at least, the past four to five years. It is believed that Maoist Central Committee member Sukanth has been entrusted with the task of ‘guiding’ the Delhi State Committee.
There is nothing unique about the Maoist presence in a city like Delhi, other than that it is the national capital. The Maoist urban presence has already been detected in various cities and towns across the country – in Mumabi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Pune, Nagpur, Surat, Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur, Rourkela, Bhubaneshwar, etc.
Moreover, since September 2005 there have been reports of Maoist activities in places which are a few hours’ drive away from Delhi, in Haryana, in Jind, Kaithal, Kurukshetra Yamunanagar, Hisar, Rohtak and Sonepat. In June 2009, Haryana police claimed to have arrested eight important Maoists in Kurukshetra, including Pradeep Kumar, the Haryana state secretary of the CPI (Maoist). Besides, the police also claimed that the Maoists have formed a number of front organizations in Haryana, viz. Shivalik Jansangharsh Manch, Lal Salam, Jagrook Chhatar Morcha, Krantikari Majdoor Kisan Union, Jan Adhikari Surakhsa Samiti and Shivalik Jansangharsh Manch.
The Maoists, at the Unity Congress held in January 2007, decided to spread their movement to urban areas. In this wake, the Congress also created a five member sub-committee –– known as Urban Sub-Committee (USCO) -- with Ghandy as its head, and tasked it with preparing a plan. Perhaps, this was submitted to the all-powerful Central Committee in September 2007. This plan is known as the Urban Perspective Plan.
The Urban Movement has a defined role in the political and military strategy of the CPI (Maoist). According to the CPI (Maoist), “… being the centres of concentration of the industrial proletariat, urban areas play an important part within the political strategy of the new Democratic Revolution.” The Maoists envisage that they would mobilise and organise the industrial workers and channel them towards playing “leadership role in organising the agrarian revolution by sending … advanced detachment to the rural areas.” The role of the Urban Movement within the military strategy of the Maoists has been best explained by Mao Tse Tung thus: “the final objective of the revolution is the capture of the cities, the enemy’s main bases and this objective cannot be achieved without adequate work in the cities.” The CPI (Maoist) holds that “[they] should, by building up a strong urban movement, ensure that the urban masses contribute to creating the conditions that will obtain success for the armed struggle in the countryside.”
In the Maoist scheme of things, the objectives/tasks of the Urban Movement could be classified under three broad heads or categories: (a) mobilise and organise the basic masses and build the party on that basis; (b) build the United Front; and (c) Military tasks.
The Maoists contend that the urban movement should be conducted through various types of mass organisations; the wider the organisations, the better. These organisations are of different types –– secret revolutionary mass organisations, open and semi-open revolutionary mass organisations, open legal mass organisations which are not directly linked to the CPI (Maoist). The last of these would include Maoist-inspired cover organisations and legal, democratic organisations.
It is fairly easy for the Maoists to establish bases in urban areas. As a well-known authority of the Maoist movement, K. Srinivas Reddy, told this author, “because of the anonymity it accords, it becomes easy for the Maoists to stay and operate in urban centres.” Urban presence for the Maoists has the utility of (a) providing a place for rest and recuperation, (b) arranging for logistics and (c) mobilising students, youth and industrial workers.
More importantly, if and when the Urban Movement catches on among the industrial workers, the state will have to deal with possible sabotage activities and workers/ industrial unrest. When the Urban Movement becomes strong, the state will then also have to deal with urban terrorism.
FACTBOX-Countries warn against travel to Thailand 03 May 2010 11:22:50 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Orathai Sriring
BANGKOK, May 3 (Reuters) - Many countries have issued travel advisories for the Thai capital since Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva declared a state of emergency in April to quell unrest that has killed 27 people and wounded nearly 1,000.
The United States, Britain and Australia have recently advised against travel to anywhere in Thailand, not just Bangkok.
Arrivals at Bangkok's main Suvarnabhumi airport dropped by a third in April, putting a government target of 15.5 million tourists this year in doubt and dealing a blow to an industry that supports 6 percent of the economy.
Following are some advisories from foreign governments:
BRITAIN - On April 27, the British government advised against all travel to the country because "violent incidents of an unpredictable nature are occurring in many parts of Thailand", citing protests and incidents in tourist destinations such as Pattaya, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Ayuthaya.
In 2009, 841,000 British tourists came to Thailand, more than from any other European country, according to government data.
AUSTRALIA - The Australian government has also advised its citizens to "reconsider your need to travel to Thailand".
"There is a strong possibility of violent clashes in Bangkok and in other parts of Thailand between demonstrators and security forces. These clashes could involve the use of lethal force and could occur at any time."
In 2009, 647,000 Australians visited Thailand.
THE UNITED STATES - On April 28, the State Department advised against non-essential travel to Thailand. In 2009, 627,000 Americans came to Thailand.
GERMANY - The German government has issued a heightened security alert for Thailand and tour operators have cancelled tours to Bangkok and some destinations in northern provinces.
Some 573,000 Germans visited Thailand in 2009.
CANADA - Canada warned on April 28 against non-essential travel to Thailand. "The security situation is very volatile with significant potential for further civil unrest, violent clashes, and attacks." About 170,000 Canadians came to Thailand in 2009.
NEW ZEALAND- New Zealand warned against non-essential travel to Thailand and advised citizens concerned about their safety to consider leaving the country. "There is high risk to your security in Thailand due to the uncertain political situation, civil unrest and threat from terrorism," it said.
Some 88,000 New Zealanders visited Thailand in 2009.
JAPAN - Japan raised its security risk level for Thailand to 2 out of the maximum 4 on April 27, advising its nationals to seriously reconsider travel plans to the affected areas and take precautions if they did decide to make a trip. Just over a million Japanese tourists came to Thailand in 2009.
CHINA - On April 26, Beijing warned its people not to visit and to "temporarily leave Bangkok if possible" if already there.
Chinese tourists cancelled in droves in April after violence on April 10 that spilled into the Khao San Road area, popular with low-budget travellers. Some 778,000 people travelled to Thailand from China in 2009. Another 319,000 came from Hong Kong.
SINGAPORE - Singaporeans have been advised against non-essential travel to Bangkok since April 10. "Singaporeans who are already in Bangkok are strongly advised to remain indoors as far as possible and avoid unnecessary travel within the city, in particular to avoid the areas where demonstrations are occurring."
SOUTH KOREA - South Korea is advising its citizens to avoid travel to Bangkok and other parts of Thailand.
TAIWAN - Taiwan is maintaining its "red" level alert on travel to the Bangkok area. Red is the highest level of alert in Taiwan's four-tier warning system and urges nationals to refrain from travelling to the affected area. About 350,000 Taiwanese tourists visited Thailand last year. (Sources: Embassy and government websites; Thai Ministry of Tourism and Sports; tour operators) (Editing by Jason Szep and Alex Richardson)
By Orathai Sriring
BANGKOK, May 3 (Reuters) - Many countries have issued travel advisories for the Thai capital since Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva declared a state of emergency in April to quell unrest that has killed 27 people and wounded nearly 1,000.
The United States, Britain and Australia have recently advised against travel to anywhere in Thailand, not just Bangkok.
Arrivals at Bangkok's main Suvarnabhumi airport dropped by a third in April, putting a government target of 15.5 million tourists this year in doubt and dealing a blow to an industry that supports 6 percent of the economy.
Following are some advisories from foreign governments:
BRITAIN - On April 27, the British government advised against all travel to the country because "violent incidents of an unpredictable nature are occurring in many parts of Thailand", citing protests and incidents in tourist destinations such as Pattaya, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Ayuthaya.
In 2009, 841,000 British tourists came to Thailand, more than from any other European country, according to government data.
AUSTRALIA - The Australian government has also advised its citizens to "reconsider your need to travel to Thailand".
"There is a strong possibility of violent clashes in Bangkok and in other parts of Thailand between demonstrators and security forces. These clashes could involve the use of lethal force and could occur at any time."
In 2009, 647,000 Australians visited Thailand.
THE UNITED STATES - On April 28, the State Department advised against non-essential travel to Thailand. In 2009, 627,000 Americans came to Thailand.
GERMANY - The German government has issued a heightened security alert for Thailand and tour operators have cancelled tours to Bangkok and some destinations in northern provinces.
Some 573,000 Germans visited Thailand in 2009.
CANADA - Canada warned on April 28 against non-essential travel to Thailand. "The security situation is very volatile with significant potential for further civil unrest, violent clashes, and attacks." About 170,000 Canadians came to Thailand in 2009.
NEW ZEALAND- New Zealand warned against non-essential travel to Thailand and advised citizens concerned about their safety to consider leaving the country. "There is high risk to your security in Thailand due to the uncertain political situation, civil unrest and threat from terrorism," it said.
Some 88,000 New Zealanders visited Thailand in 2009.
JAPAN - Japan raised its security risk level for Thailand to 2 out of the maximum 4 on April 27, advising its nationals to seriously reconsider travel plans to the affected areas and take precautions if they did decide to make a trip. Just over a million Japanese tourists came to Thailand in 2009.
CHINA - On April 26, Beijing warned its people not to visit and to "temporarily leave Bangkok if possible" if already there.
Chinese tourists cancelled in droves in April after violence on April 10 that spilled into the Khao San Road area, popular with low-budget travellers. Some 778,000 people travelled to Thailand from China in 2009. Another 319,000 came from Hong Kong.
SINGAPORE - Singaporeans have been advised against non-essential travel to Bangkok since April 10. "Singaporeans who are already in Bangkok are strongly advised to remain indoors as far as possible and avoid unnecessary travel within the city, in particular to avoid the areas where demonstrations are occurring."
SOUTH KOREA - South Korea is advising its citizens to avoid travel to Bangkok and other parts of Thailand.
TAIWAN - Taiwan is maintaining its "red" level alert on travel to the Bangkok area. Red is the highest level of alert in Taiwan's four-tier warning system and urges nationals to refrain from travelling to the affected area. About 350,000 Taiwanese tourists visited Thailand last year. (Sources: Embassy and government websites; Thai Ministry of Tourism and Sports; tour operators) (Editing by Jason Szep and Alex Richardson)
Fears reach U.S. - terror in a trunk
Source: bendbulletin
May 03. 2010 4:00AM PST For years it has been a weapon of choice in hot spots across the globe, from Iraq to Sri Lanka to Colombia: cars or trucks loaded with explosives, detonated in busy markets, public squares and government buildings.
Since 9/11, both law enforcement officials and average New Yorkers have worried and wondered — why not here? They were simpler propositions than hijacked planes, and they could, as a result, have an even more destabilizing effect on the city and its residents.
Saturday night, however crudely imagined and ultimately botched, the threat of a car bomb hit New York.
It was brought home on a busy street off Times Square in the form of a smoking Nissan Pathfinder loaded with propane, gasoline, fireworks and bags of what the authorities described as nonexplosive fertilizer.
‘You know it’s coming’
The roughly fashioned device — wired with clocks and designed to, in the words of the police, “cause mayhem” — was dismantled before it could do harm. But for New Yorkers, it was an unsubtle and unsettling reminder that threats could be lurking in the trunks or back seats of any of the thousands of vehicles that push their way into the city every day.
“You know it’s coming,” said Konstantine Pinteris, 42, a Greenwich Village psychotherapist who lives on the Lower East Side. “It’s in the back of your mind. All the time.”
Counterterrorism officials are ever wary of vehicular threats, as evidenced by the sidewalk barriers blocking access to sensitive buildings across the city, and by the Police Department’s determination to place hundreds of surveillance cameras in the city’s financial district.
And of course, the country is no stranger to huge vehicle bombs. The 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City killed 168 people. The first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 killed six. In both, hundreds were injured.
But since 9/11, as car bombs have wreaked varying degrees of havoc in Baghdad and Kabul, Peshawar, Pakistan, and Glasgow, Scotland, New York has been free of that particular menace. Eerily so, for many.
“One of the things that’s striking is they’re incredibly effective,” said Gary LaFree, director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland. “They’re very lethal. So why not in the U.S.? That’s a great question.”
Lethal yes, in part because of their everyday quality and their mobility, said Jim Cavanaugh, a bomb expert who retired last month as head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Nashville field division.
“We call them vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices,” he said. “That’s sort of the inside baseball vernacular, but basically it’s a car bomb, and of course the reason the car is used is the delivery. It can carry the weight.”
From 1970 through 2007, terrorists used car bombs at least 1,495 times, according to research by the terrorism response center in Maryland. The center tracked 876 in the Middle East and North Africa, 212 in Western Europe and 163 in South Asia.
Among the biggest culprits were the Irish Republican Army, the Basque Fatherland and Freedom in Spain, the Taliban and al-Qaida in Mesopotamia, the center found.
A mix of reactions
New Yorkers on Sunday had contradictory reactions to the failed bomb attack. Many said they had grown accustomed to the fear of terrorist attacks, and they could not say they were truly surprised. Others, who said they had gotten used to the fact that no terrorist strike had succeeded in the city since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were now suddenly faced with a reminder of how suddenly and randomly it could happen.
Roy Otwell, 53, who sells contemporary furniture accessories and lives several blocks from Times Square, said he always felt currents of apprehension whenever he crossed a bridge or drove through tunnels into Manhattan. The fear gripped him too when he walked through Times Square.
“I always thought that it would be a logical place,” said Otwell, who has lived in New York for five years. “That it would represent the center of the world to the rest of the world, even though for locals, it’s not that at all.”
Peter Nash, 65, a neuroscientist who lives on the Upper West Side, said he had been expecting another terror attack in New York since 9/11. He said he had taken precautions like renting a safe deposit box outside the city for important personal and business papers, keeping an emergency pack (flashlight, duct tape, plastic bags, canned foods) in his apartment and arranging rendezvous points with friends.
“It’s just a matter of time,” he said. “It’s the nature of terrorist organizations that they don’t do creative things and worthwhile things; they destroy. The only thing that surprises me is they haven’t been more successful.”
Whoever left the bomb in Times Square picked a spot that is already assumed to be a target and where it was likely someone would spot it, Gottlieb said.
He said the driver of the Nissan simply could have parked it at a meter on Madison Avenue “and I don’t know who would be left.”
But Michael Sheehan, the New York City Police Department’s top counterterrorism official from 2003 to 2006, said one reason car bombs have been rare in the United States is that they are harder to make and set off than people might think.
“They haven’t been able to do anything, and the reason is quite simply, in the U.S., they have not had the access to the training to put together a sophisticated bomb,” Sheehan said.
May 03. 2010 4:00AM PST For years it has been a weapon of choice in hot spots across the globe, from Iraq to Sri Lanka to Colombia: cars or trucks loaded with explosives, detonated in busy markets, public squares and government buildings.
Since 9/11, both law enforcement officials and average New Yorkers have worried and wondered — why not here? They were simpler propositions than hijacked planes, and they could, as a result, have an even more destabilizing effect on the city and its residents.
Saturday night, however crudely imagined and ultimately botched, the threat of a car bomb hit New York.
It was brought home on a busy street off Times Square in the form of a smoking Nissan Pathfinder loaded with propane, gasoline, fireworks and bags of what the authorities described as nonexplosive fertilizer.
‘You know it’s coming’
The roughly fashioned device — wired with clocks and designed to, in the words of the police, “cause mayhem” — was dismantled before it could do harm. But for New Yorkers, it was an unsubtle and unsettling reminder that threats could be lurking in the trunks or back seats of any of the thousands of vehicles that push their way into the city every day.
“You know it’s coming,” said Konstantine Pinteris, 42, a Greenwich Village psychotherapist who lives on the Lower East Side. “It’s in the back of your mind. All the time.”
Counterterrorism officials are ever wary of vehicular threats, as evidenced by the sidewalk barriers blocking access to sensitive buildings across the city, and by the Police Department’s determination to place hundreds of surveillance cameras in the city’s financial district.
And of course, the country is no stranger to huge vehicle bombs. The 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City killed 168 people. The first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 killed six. In both, hundreds were injured.
But since 9/11, as car bombs have wreaked varying degrees of havoc in Baghdad and Kabul, Peshawar, Pakistan, and Glasgow, Scotland, New York has been free of that particular menace. Eerily so, for many.
“One of the things that’s striking is they’re incredibly effective,” said Gary LaFree, director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland. “They’re very lethal. So why not in the U.S.? That’s a great question.”
Lethal yes, in part because of their everyday quality and their mobility, said Jim Cavanaugh, a bomb expert who retired last month as head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Nashville field division.
“We call them vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices,” he said. “That’s sort of the inside baseball vernacular, but basically it’s a car bomb, and of course the reason the car is used is the delivery. It can carry the weight.”
From 1970 through 2007, terrorists used car bombs at least 1,495 times, according to research by the terrorism response center in Maryland. The center tracked 876 in the Middle East and North Africa, 212 in Western Europe and 163 in South Asia.
Among the biggest culprits were the Irish Republican Army, the Basque Fatherland and Freedom in Spain, the Taliban and al-Qaida in Mesopotamia, the center found.
A mix of reactions
New Yorkers on Sunday had contradictory reactions to the failed bomb attack. Many said they had grown accustomed to the fear of terrorist attacks, and they could not say they were truly surprised. Others, who said they had gotten used to the fact that no terrorist strike had succeeded in the city since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were now suddenly faced with a reminder of how suddenly and randomly it could happen.
Roy Otwell, 53, who sells contemporary furniture accessories and lives several blocks from Times Square, said he always felt currents of apprehension whenever he crossed a bridge or drove through tunnels into Manhattan. The fear gripped him too when he walked through Times Square.
“I always thought that it would be a logical place,” said Otwell, who has lived in New York for five years. “That it would represent the center of the world to the rest of the world, even though for locals, it’s not that at all.”
Peter Nash, 65, a neuroscientist who lives on the Upper West Side, said he had been expecting another terror attack in New York since 9/11. He said he had taken precautions like renting a safe deposit box outside the city for important personal and business papers, keeping an emergency pack (flashlight, duct tape, plastic bags, canned foods) in his apartment and arranging rendezvous points with friends.
“It’s just a matter of time,” he said. “It’s the nature of terrorist organizations that they don’t do creative things and worthwhile things; they destroy. The only thing that surprises me is they haven’t been more successful.”
Whoever left the bomb in Times Square picked a spot that is already assumed to be a target and where it was likely someone would spot it, Gottlieb said.
He said the driver of the Nissan simply could have parked it at a meter on Madison Avenue “and I don’t know who would be left.”
But Michael Sheehan, the New York City Police Department’s top counterterrorism official from 2003 to 2006, said one reason car bombs have been rare in the United States is that they are harder to make and set off than people might think.
“They haven’t been able to do anything, and the reason is quite simply, in the U.S., they have not had the access to the training to put together a sophisticated bomb,” Sheehan said.
Times Square attack: Don’t let our fear give terrorists a victory
Source: AJCA combination of luck and well-trained public safety officers saved New York City from a potentially devastating terrorist attack on Saturday night. In a scene straight out of the movies, tourists were evacuated from their hotels, Broadway shows were interrupted and blocks around busy Times Square were cordoned off. Police say the crudely-made bomb could nevertheless have made the area a “fireball”:
Raymond W. Kelly, the New York City police commissioner, said on Sunday that the materials found in the Nissan Pathfinder — gasoline, propane, firecrackers and simple alarm clocks — also included eight bags of a granular substance, later determined to be nonexplosive grade of fertilizer, inside a 55-inch-tall metal gun locker.
The bomb, Mr. Kelly said, “would have caused casualties, a significant fireball.”
Had it exploded, said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, “It would have been, in all likelihood, a good possibility of people being killed, windows shattered, but not resulting in a building collapse.”
The failed attack is one more reminder — if we needed one — that the Western world is engaged in a ongoing struggle against Islamic fanatics that could well go on for at least a generation. It’s also a reminder that they don’t succeed just by killing scores or hundreds of people. They succeed by provoking fear, anxiety and disproportionate responses that flout the law and forsake our longstanding constitutional principles.
After the failed Christmas Day bombing, President Obama’s critics went into hyperdrive lashing out against the administration and emphasizing the bomber’s capacity to bring down an airliner. That played right into the terrorists’ hands. This time, says The New Yorker’s Steve Coll, Obama should get out in front of that nonsense with a calm and rational response:
No matter who turns out to have been responsible, the Obama Administration has an opportunity to atone here for some of the botched communication that followed the more serious Christmas Day attack. Like the oil spill in the Gulf, this is a teachable moment—but it requires leaders to rise to the occasion.
Anyone who tries to set a vehicle on fire in Times Square on a warm Saturday night is going to make news in a big way. Presumably that was the primary goal of the perpetrators—to attract attention, to spawn fear. The very amateurishness of the attack—unlike the Christmas Day attack, for example, it does not immediately call into question the competence of the government’s defenses—offers President Obama the opportunity to start talking back to terrorists everywhere in a more resilient, sustainable language than he has yet discovered. By which I mean: They intend to frighten us; we are not frightened. They intend to kill and maim; we will bring them to justice. They intend to attract attention for their extremist views; the indiscriminate nature of their violence only discredits and isolates them. They intend to disrupt us and throw us into fits of media-saturated hysteria; we will remain vigilant, but we will also keep their unsuccessful attempted murder in perspective. Something like that.
There will be more of this sort of low-level terrorism in the United States in the years ahead, not only from self-styled jihadis but possibly also from the extreme right. Domestic terrorism constitutes a persistent and serious threat, but not a strategic or existential one. The country’s vulnerability arises not so much from the damage terrorists will cause but from American society’s self-defeating inability to see such violence in perspective and to find leadership and language to define national resilience.
Raymond W. Kelly, the New York City police commissioner, said on Sunday that the materials found in the Nissan Pathfinder — gasoline, propane, firecrackers and simple alarm clocks — also included eight bags of a granular substance, later determined to be nonexplosive grade of fertilizer, inside a 55-inch-tall metal gun locker.
The bomb, Mr. Kelly said, “would have caused casualties, a significant fireball.”
Had it exploded, said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, “It would have been, in all likelihood, a good possibility of people being killed, windows shattered, but not resulting in a building collapse.”
The failed attack is one more reminder — if we needed one — that the Western world is engaged in a ongoing struggle against Islamic fanatics that could well go on for at least a generation. It’s also a reminder that they don’t succeed just by killing scores or hundreds of people. They succeed by provoking fear, anxiety and disproportionate responses that flout the law and forsake our longstanding constitutional principles.
After the failed Christmas Day bombing, President Obama’s critics went into hyperdrive lashing out against the administration and emphasizing the bomber’s capacity to bring down an airliner. That played right into the terrorists’ hands. This time, says The New Yorker’s Steve Coll, Obama should get out in front of that nonsense with a calm and rational response:
No matter who turns out to have been responsible, the Obama Administration has an opportunity to atone here for some of the botched communication that followed the more serious Christmas Day attack. Like the oil spill in the Gulf, this is a teachable moment—but it requires leaders to rise to the occasion.
Anyone who tries to set a vehicle on fire in Times Square on a warm Saturday night is going to make news in a big way. Presumably that was the primary goal of the perpetrators—to attract attention, to spawn fear. The very amateurishness of the attack—unlike the Christmas Day attack, for example, it does not immediately call into question the competence of the government’s defenses—offers President Obama the opportunity to start talking back to terrorists everywhere in a more resilient, sustainable language than he has yet discovered. By which I mean: They intend to frighten us; we are not frightened. They intend to kill and maim; we will bring them to justice. They intend to attract attention for their extremist views; the indiscriminate nature of their violence only discredits and isolates them. They intend to disrupt us and throw us into fits of media-saturated hysteria; we will remain vigilant, but we will also keep their unsuccessful attempted murder in perspective. Something like that.
There will be more of this sort of low-level terrorism in the United States in the years ahead, not only from self-styled jihadis but possibly also from the extreme right. Domestic terrorism constitutes a persistent and serious threat, but not a strategic or existential one. The country’s vulnerability arises not so much from the damage terrorists will cause but from American society’s self-defeating inability to see such violence in perspective and to find leadership and language to define national resilience.
New York police focus on man seen near Times Square car bomb
Source: TimesonlinePolice investigating the failed car bomb attack on Times Square in New York are focussing their attention on surveillance footage of a white man seen shedding his shirt near the SUV where the bomb was found.
The unidientified man, who appears to be in his 40s, is seen on the footage looking furtively over his shoulder and removing a dark shirt, revealing a red one underneath. The man then stuffs the dark shirt into a bag, officials said.
Investigators are also examining eight bags of a non-explosive grade of fertiliser which was found in a metal rifle cabinet amongst the other materials in the Nissan Pathfinder, including gasoline, propane, firecracks and alarm clocks.
Raymond Kelly, the New York City police commissioner, said the fertiliser alone would not have exploded but could have set the other materials alight. The bomb, he said, “would have caused casualties, a significant fireball.”
Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, said it if had exploded; “It would have been, in all likelihood, a good possibility of people being killed, windows shattered, but not resulting in a building collapse.”
No motive has yet been determined for the attack. Police have dismissed claims from the militant Pakistan group Tehreek-e-Taleban that it was responsible for the attempt. The al-Qaeda linked group has previously claimed the credit for other attacks which it was not involved in.
More credence, however, may be given to a video of the group's former commander Hakimullah Mehsud, believed to have been killed in a US drone attack in January, in which he threatens attacks on major American cities, according to the intelligence organisation SITE.
In the nine minute video, posted on the Internet today but allegedly made on April 4, Mehsud, who was once Pakistan's most feared militant commander, makes no specific mention of an attempt on New York but threatens strikes on the United States within a month for the killing of militant leaders.
"The time is very near when our fidaeen [soldiers] will attack the American states in the major cities," says Mehsud, who is flanked by two armed and masked men.
The attacks were in retaliaton for having “martyred many of our great muslim leaders and many respected brothers from Al-Qaeda," he adds, naming Baitullah Mehsud, his predecessor as the Taleban's leading commander in Pakistan who was killed in a US drone strike last August.
US authorities said they were treating the failed bombing , described as a “one-off” by Janet Nappolitano, the Home Security Secretary, as a potential terrorist attack, but said there was no evidence of a continued threat to New York.
Police released a photograph of the dark-colored SUV as it crossed an intersection at 6:28 p.m. Saturday. Two street vendors pointed the SUV out to a police officer about two minutes later after they noticed smoke coming from the Pathfinder, which had been parked haphazardly with its engine running and its hazard lights flashing.
Times Square was evacuated for ten hours as police defused the bomb and searched nearby streets for other possible explosives.
The license plate found on the vehicle did not belong to the SUV; police said it came from a car found in a repair shop in Connecticut.
The unidientified man, who appears to be in his 40s, is seen on the footage looking furtively over his shoulder and removing a dark shirt, revealing a red one underneath. The man then stuffs the dark shirt into a bag, officials said.
Investigators are also examining eight bags of a non-explosive grade of fertiliser which was found in a metal rifle cabinet amongst the other materials in the Nissan Pathfinder, including gasoline, propane, firecracks and alarm clocks.
Raymond Kelly, the New York City police commissioner, said the fertiliser alone would not have exploded but could have set the other materials alight. The bomb, he said, “would have caused casualties, a significant fireball.”
Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, said it if had exploded; “It would have been, in all likelihood, a good possibility of people being killed, windows shattered, but not resulting in a building collapse.”
No motive has yet been determined for the attack. Police have dismissed claims from the militant Pakistan group Tehreek-e-Taleban that it was responsible for the attempt. The al-Qaeda linked group has previously claimed the credit for other attacks which it was not involved in.
More credence, however, may be given to a video of the group's former commander Hakimullah Mehsud, believed to have been killed in a US drone attack in January, in which he threatens attacks on major American cities, according to the intelligence organisation SITE.
In the nine minute video, posted on the Internet today but allegedly made on April 4, Mehsud, who was once Pakistan's most feared militant commander, makes no specific mention of an attempt on New York but threatens strikes on the United States within a month for the killing of militant leaders.
"The time is very near when our fidaeen [soldiers] will attack the American states in the major cities," says Mehsud, who is flanked by two armed and masked men.
The attacks were in retaliaton for having “martyred many of our great muslim leaders and many respected brothers from Al-Qaeda," he adds, naming Baitullah Mehsud, his predecessor as the Taleban's leading commander in Pakistan who was killed in a US drone strike last August.
US authorities said they were treating the failed bombing , described as a “one-off” by Janet Nappolitano, the Home Security Secretary, as a potential terrorist attack, but said there was no evidence of a continued threat to New York.
Police released a photograph of the dark-colored SUV as it crossed an intersection at 6:28 p.m. Saturday. Two street vendors pointed the SUV out to a police officer about two minutes later after they noticed smoke coming from the Pathfinder, which had been parked haphazardly with its engine running and its hazard lights flashing.
Times Square was evacuated for ten hours as police defused the bomb and searched nearby streets for other possible explosives.
The license plate found on the vehicle did not belong to the SUV; police said it came from a car found in a repair shop in Connecticut.
Cobalt-60 trail takes experts to Rewari
Source: TOI
NEW DELHI: The mystery of the missing cobalt-60 pencils further deepened with investigators claiming that the lead cover of the gamma irradiator -- in which the radioactive metal was kept -- was melted at a furnace at Rewari in Haryana by one of the scrap dealers.
This shocking revelation has led to a team of experts from the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and Atomic Energy Regulation Board rushing to Rewari, where a combing operation was carried out on Saturday for radiation sources.
The agencies have so far have failed to find any radioactive source in the Haryana town. BARC officials told TOI the search would continue. They said cobalt-60 does not lose its radioactive properties despite being heated at high temperature in a furnace.
Since the lead was melted and sold to various people, experts did not rule out the possibility of the cobalt-60 being distributed across a wide area.
Police said, after buying the irradiator in an auction from Delhi University, Harcharan Singh Bhola sold the lead cover which contained cobalt-60 to another dealer, Giriraj Gupta. Gupta further sold it to Manish Jindal, a trader in Lahori Gate. Jindal took the scrap to his furnace in Rewari where the lead was melted.
DCP (west) Sharad Agarwal said, "We have carried out searches at Rewari but so far no radiation has been found. The officials of BARC and AERB are working to trace any further sources of radiation. An alert has also been sounded in the town and we have asked workers to remain watchful of any symptoms of radiation exposure."
An AERB official who visited Rewari on Saturday told TOI, "We believe that after being melted, the lead was sold in the market and is being used for different purposes. The radioactivity of the cobalt inside the lead cover has not died and we are awaiting any adverse report about the reaction of cobalt from adjoining areas. Of course, there is a possibility that the lead had no cobalt-60 in it."
Meanwhile, the Delhi Police said they would start an inquiry into the claim made a chemistry professor at DU, Ramesh Chandra, about the possibility of uranium being buried on the varsity campus. DCP (north) Sagarpreet Hooda said, "We are seeking the help of AERB and have written to them for an inquiry into the possible presence of uranium in DU. The help of the radiology safety department has been sought."
The cops have also asked the varsity to make available records of any uranium containing machines or substance bought by them.
On Saturday, AERB said that had categorized the Mayapuri radiation fiasco as level four on the International Nuclear and Radiation Event Scale, denoting high radiation exposure to more than one person.
"The entire incident was reported to the International Atomic Energy Agency under the incident reporting system which is a mandatory requirement of the global nuclear watchdog and to the illicit trafficking data base of the agency," said an AERB official. This is worst radiation accident in the world since 2006, he added.
NEW DELHI: The mystery of the missing cobalt-60 pencils further deepened with investigators claiming that the lead cover of the gamma irradiator -- in which the radioactive metal was kept -- was melted at a furnace at Rewari in Haryana by one of the scrap dealers.
This shocking revelation has led to a team of experts from the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and Atomic Energy Regulation Board rushing to Rewari, where a combing operation was carried out on Saturday for radiation sources.
The agencies have so far have failed to find any radioactive source in the Haryana town. BARC officials told TOI the search would continue. They said cobalt-60 does not lose its radioactive properties despite being heated at high temperature in a furnace.
Since the lead was melted and sold to various people, experts did not rule out the possibility of the cobalt-60 being distributed across a wide area.
Police said, after buying the irradiator in an auction from Delhi University, Harcharan Singh Bhola sold the lead cover which contained cobalt-60 to another dealer, Giriraj Gupta. Gupta further sold it to Manish Jindal, a trader in Lahori Gate. Jindal took the scrap to his furnace in Rewari where the lead was melted.
DCP (west) Sharad Agarwal said, "We have carried out searches at Rewari but so far no radiation has been found. The officials of BARC and AERB are working to trace any further sources of radiation. An alert has also been sounded in the town and we have asked workers to remain watchful of any symptoms of radiation exposure."
An AERB official who visited Rewari on Saturday told TOI, "We believe that after being melted, the lead was sold in the market and is being used for different purposes. The radioactivity of the cobalt inside the lead cover has not died and we are awaiting any adverse report about the reaction of cobalt from adjoining areas. Of course, there is a possibility that the lead had no cobalt-60 in it."
Meanwhile, the Delhi Police said they would start an inquiry into the claim made a chemistry professor at DU, Ramesh Chandra, about the possibility of uranium being buried on the varsity campus. DCP (north) Sagarpreet Hooda said, "We are seeking the help of AERB and have written to them for an inquiry into the possible presence of uranium in DU. The help of the radiology safety department has been sought."
The cops have also asked the varsity to make available records of any uranium containing machines or substance bought by them.
On Saturday, AERB said that had categorized the Mayapuri radiation fiasco as level four on the International Nuclear and Radiation Event Scale, denoting high radiation exposure to more than one person.
"The entire incident was reported to the International Atomic Energy Agency under the incident reporting system which is a mandatory requirement of the global nuclear watchdog and to the illicit trafficking data base of the agency," said an AERB official. This is worst radiation accident in the world since 2006, he added.
Kasab village watches 26/11 judgement on TV
Source: NDTV
Residents of Faridkot, home to the alleged surviving gunman of the Mumbai massacre, deny any connection with their wayward son but believe India should release him in the interests of peace.
The remote town in the Pakistani farming belt of Punjab province has earned notoriety as the home of Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, accused of taking part in the 72-hour bloodbath in November 2008 that killed 166 people in Mumbai.
On Monday, as the 22-year-old Pakistani prepared to learn his fate in court, some people in Faridkot, about 26 kilometres from the Indian border, sat in groups watching TV waiting to hear the verdict, said an AFP reporter.
The day before the sentencing, a hawker distributed a weekly newspaper published by Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which Indian and US officials believe is a front for the Lashkar-e-Toiba militant group blamed for the Mumbai attacks.
With Faridkot's wheat harvest in full swing, workers loading grain into vehicles to a din of folk music said they were sympathetic to Kasab's "good intentions" against an "enemy" country.
Around 10,000 people live in the town. Most of the population comprises of labourers and small farmers. Few are literate.
"Are they talking about our Ajmal?" 45-year-old Noor Ahmed asked, interrupting a discussion on how residents feel about the Indian sentencing.
"No. No. We don't know him," he said, sitting on a dirty cot in a small brick and clay room on the bank of Faridkot's canal.
"But we have sympathies for him being Muslim."
Residents said they would denounce any sentence India hands down to Kasab.
"Look, don't blame him. There is nothing wrong if he did it with good intentions against an infidel country like India," said Amjad Ali, a 60-year-old farmer with white hair.
"India should forgive him and set him free to improve relations with Pakistan," he added.
Bakhat Yar, 42, a farmer wearing a traditional grey shalwar khamis, said Kasab's father left the village years ago.
"We have never seen this boy in the village. Only his grandfather's haveli (house) is here," he said. "They have left this place, I guess."
Yar first said that Kasab should be found guilty and sentenced, then later retracted his remarks: "India should not give him the death sentence. After all, he is Muslim and if he did it against India, look what our neighbour India is doing."
Residents of Faridkot, home to the alleged surviving gunman of the Mumbai massacre, deny any connection with their wayward son but believe India should release him in the interests of peace.
The remote town in the Pakistani farming belt of Punjab province has earned notoriety as the home of Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, accused of taking part in the 72-hour bloodbath in November 2008 that killed 166 people in Mumbai.
On Monday, as the 22-year-old Pakistani prepared to learn his fate in court, some people in Faridkot, about 26 kilometres from the Indian border, sat in groups watching TV waiting to hear the verdict, said an AFP reporter.
The day before the sentencing, a hawker distributed a weekly newspaper published by Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which Indian and US officials believe is a front for the Lashkar-e-Toiba militant group blamed for the Mumbai attacks.
With Faridkot's wheat harvest in full swing, workers loading grain into vehicles to a din of folk music said they were sympathetic to Kasab's "good intentions" against an "enemy" country.
Around 10,000 people live in the town. Most of the population comprises of labourers and small farmers. Few are literate.
"Are they talking about our Ajmal?" 45-year-old Noor Ahmed asked, interrupting a discussion on how residents feel about the Indian sentencing.
"No. No. We don't know him," he said, sitting on a dirty cot in a small brick and clay room on the bank of Faridkot's canal.
"But we have sympathies for him being Muslim."
Residents said they would denounce any sentence India hands down to Kasab.
"Look, don't blame him. There is nothing wrong if he did it with good intentions against an infidel country like India," said Amjad Ali, a 60-year-old farmer with white hair.
"India should forgive him and set him free to improve relations with Pakistan," he added.
Bakhat Yar, 42, a farmer wearing a traditional grey shalwar khamis, said Kasab's father left the village years ago.
"We have never seen this boy in the village. Only his grandfather's haveli (house) is here," he said. "They have left this place, I guess."
Yar first said that Kasab should be found guilty and sentenced, then later retracted his remarks: "India should not give him the death sentence. After all, he is Muslim and if he did it against India, look what our neighbour India is doing."
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