Varanasi bomb blast victims

Bomb wounds 20 in Indian temple city of Varanasi

Source: Washington post
LUCKNOW, India -- A bomb hidden in a metal canister exploded during a Hindu ceremony Tuesday, wounding 20 people, including four foreigners, in India's temple town of Varanasi.

Police said the blast appeared to be a terrorist attack but would not say who they suspected.

The bomb was hidden in a milk container on the Sheetla Ghat, one of many stone staircases leading to the Ganges river, according to police official Brij Lal.

The force of the explosion ripped away a metal railing and damaged stones up to 200 feet (60 meters) away, said a witness, Ramatama Srivastava.

Three victims, including one of the foreigners, were hospitalized in serious condition. It was not immediately clear where the foreigners were from.

Srivastava - who spoke by telephone from Varanasi, which is about 180 miles (300 kilometers) southeast of the Uttar Pradesh state capital of Lucknow - said he noticed the foreigners were watching the Hindu prayer ceremony and taking photographs.

In March 2006, twin bombings blamed on a Pakistan-based Islamic militant group tore through a train station and a temple in Varanasi, killing 20 people.

Pakistan suicide bomb attack kills dozens

Source: BBC
Advertisement

Some of the injured people were taken to Peshawar

Continue reading the main story

Taliban Conflict

• Despair as Nato eyes endgame
• Can Afghan forces step up?
• Who are the Taliban?
• Q&A: Fighting the Taliban

A suicide bomb attack in north-west Pakistan has left at least 40 people dead, local officials have said.

The attack took place at a government compound in the Mohmand Agency as officials met anti-Taliban allies.
Dozens of people have also been hurt in the attack, local media say.
The area borders Afghanistan and is a stronghold of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. The military has launched offensives there but insurgent attacks continue on a regular basis.
A Taliban spokesman said the group was behind the latest attack.
It was carried out by two suicide bombers disguised in police uniforms and targeted a local administration compound in Ghalanai, the main town in Mohmand, about 175km (110 miles) north-west of the capital Islamabad.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

There were dozens on the ground like me, bleeding and crying”

End Quote Qalandar Khan Eyewitness

• In pictures: Suicide blasts kill dozens in Pakistan

More than 100 people were said to be in the compound, where talks were taking place between government officials, tribal elders and local anti-Taliban groups.

One official, Mohammad Khalid Khan, told Associated Press that tribal elders and police officials were among the dead.
At least two journalists were also killed.
One eyewitness, Qalandar Khan, told AP: "There was a deafening sound and it caused a cloud of dust and smoke. There were dozens on the ground like me, bleeding and crying. I saw body parts scattered in the compound."
Bullets About 25 seriously injured people have been taken to Peshawar for hospital treatment.
One of the possible targets of the attack, Mohmand's top political official, Amjad Ali Khan, was not hurt.
A local administration official told the BBC a man on a motorbike had driven up to a sitting area at the meeting and detonated his explosives. Seconds later another bomber, also on a motorbike, exploded his device at the gate of the compound.

Amjad Ali Khan said the bombers had also packed their suicide vests with bullets, which had increased the death toll.
Thousands of people have been killed in al-Qaeda and Taliban attacks across Pakistan since government forces raided an extremist mosque in Islamabad in 2007.
In July, a double suicide bombing in the village of Yakaghund in Mohmand, which also targeted tribal elders, killed more than 100 people.
The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in Pakistan says the army has carried out limited operations in Mohmand but has focused more thoroughly on the neighbouring Bajaur tribal region.
He says the Taliban in Mohmand are led by Umar Khalid, a little known but powerful commander whose fighters are more active in Afghanistan than Pakistan.
Umar Khalid is said to provide sanctuary to top al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders as they flee operations by the army. These are said to include Hakimullah Mehsud and Ayman al-Zawahiri, our correspondent says.
Pakistan's military says its offensives have disrupted militants in the north-west but analysts say the insurgents often escape.

Greek Police Find Weapons Cache in Raid as Suspects Questioned

bloomberg
Greek police confiscated explosives and weapons including hand grenades and sub-machine guns in overnight raids on houses in Athens.
Operations by counter-terrorist police yielded four hand- grenades, 50 kilos of industrial-grade ANFO, an explosive mixture of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil, 200 grams of TNT, seven handguns, three Kalashnikov assault rifles, three sub- machine guns and ammunition, the police said by text message.
Police spokesman Athanasios Kokkalakis declined to say how many people were being held and questioned, adding that a further statement might be made later today. State-run news agency ANA reported seven people were being held.
Greek authorities are on alert ahead of the second anniversary tomorrow of the killing of a Greek teenager that sparked weeks of protests. Student, union and leftist groups plan marches to mark the anniversary amid increased dissatisfaction with the government of Prime Minister George Papandreou, which has cut wages and pensions and spending on education to qualify for an European Union-led bailout.
Last month, police struggled to tackle a spate of mail bombings targeting embassies and European leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, forcing the country to suspend international mail services for 48 hours.

Internet cafe blast kills 6, injures 37 in SW China

oneindia
Beijing, Dec 5 (ANI): Six people have been reportedly killed and 37 others injured in an explosion that rocked an Internet cafe in Southwest China's Guizhou province on Saturday night.

Xinhua quoted Guizhou's provincial public security

department as saying that the explosion occurred at around 10:30 pm in an Internet cafe in the Kaili city of Miao-Dong autonomous prefecture of Qiandongnan.

According to rescuers, the powerful blast had turned the cafe into "complete ruins" and also destroyed windows of nearby residential buildings.

However local police have not yet confirmed how many people were inside when the accident happened. Moreover victims have not been identified so far as the customer registration book might have been burnt in the fire, the report said.

Dynamite experts were still investigating the site for the cause of the blast till the reports last came in. (ANI)

WikiLeaks cables portray Saudi Arabia as a cashpoint for terrorists

Hillary Clinton memo highlights Gulf states' failure to block funding for groups like al-Qaida, Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba

• Declan Walsh in Islamabad
• guardian.co.uk, Sunday 5 December 2010 12.00 GMT
• Article history

The terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab walks through the Chatrapathi Sivaji train station in Mumbai during the 2008 attacks. Lashkar-e-Taiba, which carried out the atrocity, is one of several groups that have raised funds via Saudi Arabia. Photograph: Sebastian D'souza/AP

Saudi Arabia is the world's largest source of funds for Islamist militant groups such as the Afghan Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba – but the Saudi government is reluctant to stem the flow of money, according to Hillary Clinton.
"More needs to be done since Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qaida, the Taliban, LeT and other terrorist groups," says a secret December 2009 paper signed by the US secretary of state. Her memo urged US diplomats to redouble their efforts to stop Gulf money reaching extremists in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
"Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide," she said.
Three other Arab countries are listed as sources of militant money: Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
The cables highlight an often ignored factor in the Pakistani and Afghan conflicts: that the violence is partly bankrolled by rich, conservative donors across the Arabian Sea whose governments do little to stop them.
The problem is particularly acute in Saudi Arabia, where militants soliciting funds slip into the country disguised as holy pilgrims, set up front companies to launder funds and receive money from government-sanctioned charities.
One cable details how the Pakistani militant outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, which carried out the 2008 Mumbai attacks, used a Saudi-based front company to fund its activities in 2005.
Meanwhile officials with the LeT's charity wing, Jamaat ud Dawa, travelled to Saudi Arabia seeking donations for new schools at vastly inflated costs – then siphoned off the excess money to fund militant operations.
Militants seeking donations often come during the hajj pilgrimage – "a major security loophole since pilgrims often travel with large amounts of cash and the Saudis cannot refuse them entry into Saudi Arabia". Even a small donation can go far: LeT operates on a budget of just $5.25m (£3.25m) a year, according to American estimates.
Saudi officials are often painted as reluctant partners. Clinton complained of the "ongoing challenge to persuade Saudi officials to treat terrorist funds emanating from Saudi Arabia as a strategic priority".
Washington is critical of the Saudi refusal to ban three charities classified as terrorist entities in the US.
"Intelligence suggests that these groups continue to send money overseas and, at times, fund extremism overseas," she said.
There has been some progress. This year US officials reported that al-Qaida's fundraising ability had "deteriorated substantially" since a government crackdown. As a result Bin Laden's group was "in its weakest state since 9/11" in Saudi Arabia.
Any criticisms are generally offered in private. The cables show that when it comes to powerful oil-rich allies US diplomats save their concerns for closed-door talks, in stark contrast to the often pointed criticism meted out to allies in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Instead, officials at the Riyadh embassy worry about protecting Saudi oilfields from al-Qaida attacks.
The other major headache for the US in the Gulf region is the United Arab Emirates. The Afghan Taliban and their militant partners the Haqqani network earn "significant funds" through UAE-based businesses, according to one report. The Taliban extort money from the large Pashtun community in the UAE, which is home to 1 million Pakistanis and 150,000 Afghans. They also fundraise by kidnapping Pashtun businessmen based in Dubai or their relatives.
"Some Afghan businessmen in the UAE have resorted to purchasing tickets on the day of travel to limit the chance of being kidnapped themselves upon arrival in either Afghanistan or Pakistan," the report says.
Last January US intelligence sources said two senior Taliban fundraisers had regularly travelled to the UAE, where the Taliban and Haqqani networks laundered money through local front companies.
One report singled out a Kabul-based "Haqqani facilitator", Haji Khalil Zadran, as a key figure. But, Clinton complained, it was hard to be sure: the UAE's weak financial regulation and porous borders left US investigators with "limited information" on the identity of Taliban and LeT facilitators.
The lack of border controls was "exploited by Taliban couriers and Afghan drug lords camouflaged among traders, businessmen and migrant workers", she said.
In an effort to stem the flow of funds American and UAE officials are increasingly co-operating to catch the "cash couriers" – smugglers who fly giant sums of money into Pakistan and Afghanistan.
In common with its neighbours Kuwait is described as a "source of funds and a key transit point" for al-Qaida and other militant groups. While the government has acted against attacks on its own soil, it is "less inclined to take action against Kuwait-based financiers and facilitators plotting attacks outside of Kuwait".
Kuwait has refused to ban the Revival of Islamic Heritage Society, a charity the US designated a terrorist entity in June 2008 for providing aid to al-Qaida and affiliated groups, including LeT.
There is little information about militant fundraising in the fourth Gulf country singled out, Qatar, other than to say its "overall level of CT co-operation with the US is considered the worst in the region".
The funding quagmire extends to Pakistan itself, where the US cables detail sharp criticism of the government's ambivalence towards funding of militant groups that enjoy covert military support.
The cables show how before the Mumbai attacks in 2008, Pakistani and Chinese diplomats manoeuvred hard to block UN sanctions against LeT's charity wing Jamaat ud Dawa.
But in August 2009, nine months after sanctions were finally imposed, US diplomats wrote that "we continue to see reporting indicating that JUD is still operating in multiple locations in Pakistan and that the group continues to openly raise funds". JUD denies it is the charity wing of LeT.

15 Pakistanis among 19 detained foreigners: Police

timesofindia

KOCHI: Interrogation of the 19 foreigners, apprehended on board a dhow by a naval warship off Bitra Island, started today with police claiming 15 of them were Pakistani nationals.

There were 15 Pakistani nationals and four Iranians in the dhow which was intercepted by warship INS Rajput on Friday when they were sailing suspiciously, police said.

The crew were being questioned by a joint team of Navy, Coast Guard, Intelligence Bureau and police in Lakshadweep, top police sources in the Union Territory told PTI when contacted from here.

Confirming the presence of the Pakistani nationals, the sources said that the men had identity cards displaying their nationalities.

INS Rajput, a destroyer warship, was on patrol in the Exclusive Economic Zone west of Bitra when it spotted the dhow sailing suspiciously.

The dhow with the 19 foreigners was escorted to Kavaratti in the Lakshadweep Islands and handed over to local police late last night, they said.

The Navy's operation came just four days after India deployed a multi-ship force in the Arabian Sea, which has been witnessing a spurt in piracy in the recent weeks, to ward off the sea brigands operating there.

China role in PoK, its J-K policies worrisome: Rao

  Indian Express
Ahead of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao has said the relationship with China will grow stronger as Beijing shows more sensitivity on core issues related to India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
“We believe the India-China relationship will grow even stronger as China shows more sensitivity on core issues that impinge on our sovereignty and territorial integrity. We hope this can be realised,” Rao said at a seminar on Sino-India relations organised by Observer Research Foundation in the Capital on Friday.
The Chinese Premier’s visit is scheduled on December 16-17.
The Foreign Secretary commented on the China-Pakistan relationship. “India firmly believes a stable and prosperous Pakistan is in India’s interest, and we are not against Pakistan’s relations with other countries.”
“While I agree that relationships between countries are not zero-sum games, we do not hesitate to stress our genuine concerns regarding some aspects of the China-Pakistan relationship, particularly when it comes to China’s role in PoK, China’s J&K policy and the Sino-Pak security and nuclear relationship,” she said. 
“The need for mutual sensitivity to each other’s concerns cannot be denied. The issue of giving stapled visas to Indian nationals from J&K arises in a similar context,” Rao said.
This is one of the most frank statements made by any Indian official in the recent months on China-Pakistan ties.
Rao raised another issue of concern — management of trans-border rivers.
“Many of the rivers nourishing the plains of Northern India and also areas in North-east India arise in the highlands of the Tibetan Autonomous Region and are a source of livelihood for millions of our people. We are alert to reports of China damming trans-border rivers and have sought assurances that it will take no action to negatively affect the flow of the rivers into India...” 
Rai said China had assured India that the projects on the Brahmaputra are not meant for storing or diverting water.
She said the two countries were putting in place more confidence-building measures to tackle the boundary issue, for which India was making a serious attempt to try to arrive at a “fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution”.
Speaking on India-China cooperation on various fora, Rao said, “We hope such cooperation can be strengthened on the important issue of UN reforms”, including on India’s quest for a permanent membership of the UN Security Council.

An unlikely rebel: Unruly boy to Maoist top

The revolutionary in Sudip Chongdar, 43, called Kanchan by Maoists and police, surfaced during his boyhood. And it was this that eventually landed him in the police net. But no one neither his family nor neighbours ever thought that this rebellious village boy would one day be at the forefront of an armed struggle to overthrow the Indian state.

From early childhood, Sudip would throw his weight around among boys of his age in Chandabila village in West Midnapore's Garbeta. Villagers passed off his tantrums "as naughty traits" that they blamed on pampering which often comes with being the youngest child of his parents.

Born in 1967 after six siblings, father Madhu Chongdar sent him to Garbeta High School, hoping that an education would help discipline his rather unruly boy and get him established in life. Though that hope was eventually belied, young Sudip did turn out to be a good student at least till the higher secondary stage. After doing his school proud with his Madhyamik marks, his equally good performance in the Higher Secondary examination helped him gain admission to an honours course in Ramakrishna Mission, Kamarpukur college. He didn't clear his honours, though, and left college content with a BSc (pass) degree.

His education, thus, couldn't take him to

the heights that his father and mother, Hemalika, had dreamt for him. Sudip's parents then got

him engaged in agriculture, like two of their other three sons. Their second son, Rabindra, is now a senior lecturer at Kharagpur Inda College. The Chongdars own 40 bighas of land in Chandabila, 2 km from Garbeta police station. The quantum of paddy and potatoes the land yields keeps the money flowing in quite regularly. They also have a very large two-storeyed concrete house in the village, with a large compound around it. Sudip's three sisters are married.

Madhu passed away, perhaps content with the thought that the land he had left behind for his children would suffice for them. Given his family wealth, Sudip had no reason to take to the path of armed revolution like so many landless rebels.

The family had no inkling that revolutionary thoughts were churning inside the mind of the youth who joined the Jharkhand Party(JKP) in 1993. This foray, at the age of 25, saw the beginning of a new trait in Sudip. He would often stay away from home for months at times for years together remaining incommunicado from his mother and siblings.

During his stint in JKP, he got acquainted with Garbeta resident Asit Sarkar, the Midnapore leader of the revolutionary outfit People's War (PW). In 1995, Sarkar sent him for arms training with PW cadres in Andhra Pradesh, where he remained till 1998. It was during this stint that he married Sarkar's daughter Rita, something even his family was unaware of.

On returning to Garbeta in 1998, he worked to strengthen PW, which then maintained alleged links with CPM. Sudip was allegedly hand-in-glove with CPM leaders Tapan Ghosh and Sukur Ali, the alleged masterminds of the Choto Angaria killings of January 4, 2000. Sudip is known to have aided the duo in that massacre and ensuring that bodies of the 11 victims were never found. Sudip is also wanted for the 2001 murder of another Tapan Ghosh at Garbeta's Kashtogora. He name is also associated with Ramzan Ali and Mukut Patra, dreaded for killings in Garbeta.

Though away from home for most of this time, he would surface in Chandabila once in a while and rejoin his farmer brothers Khitish and Nemai on the field. The family was completely unaware of his murky activities during his long periods of absence till police arrested him from Ghatshila in 2005 for suspected Maoist activities. He remained behind bars for six months and got bail to rejoin the mainstream. He returned to his village where mother Hemalika and his elder brothers and sisters, all diehard CPM supporters, tried to impress upon him that he should never join the Maoists and disgrace his family, which had to face police raids.

"We didn't want our brother to take up arms. We tried to explain to him that we had become the target of insults from villagers because of him. His three nephews and two nieces were regularly taunted by their friends," said Sudip's third brother Nemai.

Sudip did heed their advice. He opened a shop in Garbeta bazaar, where he sold fertilizers and irrigation pumps. But this proved short-lived. After 18 months, Sudip told his family that he needed to go to Kolkata, faking a heart ailment which, he said, needed treatment. When the family said one of them would accompany him, he insisted on going alone. He never returned home as promised. Nemai says the family lost contact with him since seeing off Sudip at Garbeta station three years ago. He had clearly decided to dedicate himself to the Maoists and rose up its ranks.

"We would hear of him only when his name figured in news reports about Maoist activities," said Nemai. These reports didn't refer to him as Sudip but Kanchan as he was known in Maoist ranks. The family learnt of this name from police officers quoted in news reports.

When Somen, state secretary of the party, was arrested in 2008, Kanchan assumed the post. Clearly, the rebellious boy child of the late 60s had turned full circle to be at the forefront of an armed struggle. A sobbing Hemalika rued on hearing of her son's arrest, "I wanted my youngest son to light my funeral pyre (perform my mukh agni). But it seems that wish won't be fulfilled now."

Wikileaks: LeT plotted to assassinate Narendra Modi

Indian Express
Terrorist organisation Lashkar- e-Taiba was plotting to assassinate Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and discussions to carry out the attack took place between Pakistani handlers and Indian members in June last year, intelligence reports released by whistle blower website wikileaks have revealed.
The terror organisation was planning three major tasks in India just six months after the Mumbai attack, including the assassination plot and setting up of terror camps in South India, US intelligence inputs that are part of a leaked diplomatic cable, reveal. The third task pertained to some work involving a car but details were not shared in the leaked cable.
“ LeT member Shafiq Khafa possibly preparing for operations. Hussein, an India-based LeT member, continued operational planning on three tasks in early June. The tasks were associated with a possible operation against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendar Modi, the establishment of a training camp, and unspecified work involving a car,” the cable reads. It goes on to say that Hussein would coordinate his activities with an India-based colleague identified as Sameer.

Watchdog warns India, Somali pirates nearing India

Source: HT
The dreaded Somali pirates have extended their operations from the Gulf of Aden waters to the west coast of India, openly using previously hijacked vessels as mother ships, a piracy watchdog body said here. "The pirates are now rampant in the west coast of India and Maldives, their favourite haunt
sued to be the Gulf of Aden in the Arabian Sea," Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting centre, said. "They are now using previously hijacked vessels as their mother ship in open waters," he said here.

He said though there had been instances of pirates attacking off the coast of India the frequency had increased lately and attributed this partly to the end of the monsoon season in September.

He urged vessels plying the international waters to maintain vigil and radar watch and try and steer clear of small boats which looked "out of place" in the open sea, the New Straits Times said. Last week, a ship owned by a Penang-based company was hijacked by somali pirates after sailing around the Seychelles, a distant 900 nautical miles east of the Somali coast.

The ship with 23 crew from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Iran was headed to Mombasa, Kenya from Jebel Ali in the UAE. The hijackers have reportedly not asked for ransom yet. Malaysia says it is taking steps to secure the release of cargo ship.

Qaeda says suicide bomber killed Yemen Shiite spiritual head

Source: Hindustantimes
Al-Qaeda said on Friday the aging spiritual guide of northern Yemen's Shiite rebels was among those killed in a suicide bombing in November, dismissing accounts that Badreddin al-Huthi died of natural causes. Huthi was among the dead on November 24 when Al-Qaeda bomber Abu Aisha al-Sanaani
al-Hashemi struck a Shiite procession in Al-Jawf, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) said in a statement on an Islamist website.

The rebels, observing an uneasy truce with Sanaa since February, said a suicide car bombing killed 23 fighters or backers at the religious procession, but that Huthi, an asthma sufferer, died a natural death a day later.

The Zaidi Shiites "claimed that the cause of death was natural" and "concealed his death and spread rumours contrary to the truth," AQAP said in a statement monitored by US-based SITE Intelligence Group.

Badreddin al-Huthi was the father of rebel commander Abdulmalik al-Huthi and of his predecessor Hussein al-Huthi, who was killed in the on-off Shiite uprising in northern Yemen that erupted in 2004.

The Shiite faith makes up the majority community in Yemen's northern mountains but a minority in the mainly Sunni country as a whole.

Yemen is the ancestral homeland of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and has been a growing focus for the operations of his worldwide network, sparking a sharp increase in US military aid.

But its attacks had previously been largely confined to the capital Sanaa and to the mainly Sunni south and east of Yemen, rather than the Shiite majority north.

"The truth is that the happiest people with you are the American intelligence who halted the war with you in return for your work as agents for them in your war against the mujahedeen (Muslim fighters)," AQAP said on Friday.

In a statement dated November 25 and posted online on jihadist websites, the group called the Huthi rebels "legitimate targets" and said "new attacks are being prepared" against them.

CBI website hacked by 'Pakistani Cyber Army'

Source: Indian Express
In a major embarrassment, the website of premier investigating agency CBI was hacked on Friday night by programmers identifying themselves as "Pakistani Cyber Army". The home page of the CBI website had a message from the 'Pakistani Cyber Army' warning the Indian Cyber Army not to attack theirwebsites.
The hackers have made a mockery of the country's cyber security by infiltrating into the CBI website, supposed to be one of the most secure websites. The CBI is connected to the command centre of world police organisation - Interpol - 24x7.
The message from the hackers also spoke about the filtering controls provided by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), a body which mans computer servers across the country.
Intelligence agencies have been often warning the government that proper cyber security was not being ensured in government offices and that no security audit was being carried out.
The Pakistani Cyber Army has also warned that it would carry out "mass defacement" of other websites.

pak cleric offers 5 lakh for killing a christian woman

A Muslim cleric of an historic mosque in the capital of Pakistan's Khyber Paktunkhwa province offered Rs 5 lakhs for killing Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who was recently sentenced to death by a court for allegedly committing blasphemy.
Maulana Yusaf Qureshi, the imam of the well-known Mohabat Khan mosque, announced the reward for killing Asia Bibi during his sermon at the Friday prayers.
He announced that he would pay Rs 5 lakh to the person who killed "blasphemor Asia Bibi". The payment would be made from the mosque's fund, he said.
Qureshi is known for his outspoken ways and has issued several controversial fatwas in the past.
The death sentence given by a lower court in Punjab to Asia Bibu, a 45-year-old mother of five, has triggered a heated debate across Pakistan on the need to repeal or amend a controversial blasphemy law. 

A report submitted to President Asif Ali Zardari by Minority Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti concluded that the blasphemy case against her had been registered on "grounds of personal enmity and the story narrated in the FIR was concocted and mala fide".
Acting on a petition, the Lahore High Court has barred President Zardari or any other government functionary from pardoning the Christian woman.
Asia Bibi's husband too has filed an appeal against her death sentence in the Lahore High Court.
Hardline religious parties and clerics have threatened they will launch nationwide protests if Asia Bibi is pardoned or if the blasphemy law is changed.
The Taliban too have opposed any move to pardon the woman.  

Asia Bibi¿s case dates back to last year.
She was arrested after a Muslim cleric accused her of blasphemy following a row she had with a group of Muslim women. She has denied the charge.
Her case has outraged liberals and rights groups in the country and abroad, amid demands for her release.

WikiLeaks: Assassination threats, new warrant for boss

Source: Deccanchronicle

Stockholm: Sweden said on Thursday it would issue a fresh arrest warrant for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as new revelations from his website's expose of US diplomatic cables saw Russia branded a 'mafia state'. While the elusive whistleblower laid low, his British lawyer insisted police knew his whereabouts and it emerged that an initial warrant was defective.
The United States meanwhile named an anti-terrorism expert to lead a review of security in the wake of the leaks which have angered its friends and foes.
After the Supreme Court in Stockholm refused to hear an appeal by Assange against the initial warrant over allegations of rape and molestation, Swedish police said they would issue a new one as a result of a procedural error.
"We have to refresh the warrant. It's a precedural fault, we agree. The prosecutor Marianne Ny has to write a new one," Tommy Kangasvieri of the Swedish National Criminal Police told AFP.
"The procedure demands that the maximum penalty for all crimes Assange is suspected for is written" in the warrant, he explained.
"We described it only for the rape."
While Assange has not been seen in public since WikiLeaks began leaking around 250,000 cables on Sunday, his London-based lawyer Mark Stephens denied he was on the run.
"Scotland Yard know where he is, the security services from a number of countries know where is," Stephens told AFP.
"The (British) police are being slightly foxy in their answers, but they know exactly how to get in touch with him, as do the Swedish prosecutors."
Britain's Times newspaper said that Assange was at a location in southeast England although there was no confirmation from Stephens.
After former US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin said the WikiLeaks team should be treated like a terrorist organisation, a spokesman for the website said Assange feared for his life.
"When you have people calling, for example, for his assassination, it is best to keep a low profile," Kristinn Hrafnsson said in London, after right-wing US websites and pundits called for him to be assassinated.
Assange's mother also expressed fear for her son's safety.
"I'm concerned it's gotten too big and the forces that he's challenging are too big," Christine Assange told the Courier Mail, her local newspaper in Queensland, Australia.
Assange's Stockholm-based lawyer Bjoern Hurtig told AFP on Thursday he would fight his client's extradition to Sweden in the event of his arrest.
The US State Department's spokesman described Assange as an 'anarchist' as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tried to smoothe feathers ruffled by the leaks as she toured Central Asia.
Some of the most eye-catching of the latest revelations centred on Russia with one memo quoting a Spanish prosecutor describing it as a virtual 'mafia state' whose political parties operate 'hand in hand' with organised crime.
Jose Gonzalez, who has been investigating Russian organised crime in Spain for a decade, also agreed with poisoned dissident Alexander Litvinenko's thesis that Russian intelligence and security services "owned organised crime."
In a separate leaked cable sent shortly after Litvinenko's death in London in 2006, US Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried questioned whether Russian Prime Minister Putin knew beforehand of the plot to kill the dissident.
In a meeting with a senior French diplomat, Fried asked 'whether rogue security elements could operate... without Putin's knowledge', given the leader's 'attention to detail'.
The cables have also quoted Defense Secretary Robert Gates as saying 'Russian democracy has disappeared' and describing President Dmitry Medvedev as 'Robin' to Putin's 'Batman'.
But in an interview with CNN, Putin said Gates was 'deeply misled' and warned US officials not to 'interfere' in Russia's internal politics.
Although relations between Moscow and Washington have thawed in recent months, Putin made clear his annoyance.
"Our country is led by the people of the Russian Federation through the legitimately elected government," he said.
As the leaks piled on embarrassment for his administration, US President Barack Obama named Russell Travers, an anti-terrorism expert, to 'lead a comprehensive effort to identify and develop the structural reforms needed in light of the WikiLeaks breach," the White House said.
The State Department has already temporarily suspended Pentagon access to some documents. WikiLeaks is believed to have obtained the cables from Bradley Manning, a disgruntled army intelligence officer.
WikiLeaks was thrown off its Web host Amazon, best known as a book retailer. After several hours, WikiLeaks was again accessible in the United States via a European server.

How terrorists from across the globe conspired to execute 26/11?

Source: Rediff

It has been two years since the horrific 26/11 attacks shook Mumbai and India, but there are still plenty of loose ends in the case thanks to the fact the Pakistani spy agency Inter Services Intelligence and the Lashkar-e-Tayiba relied on operatives from around the globe to execute the dastardly attacks, reports Vicky Nanjappa.
Just when the Indian investigation agencies thought that they had completed the probe in the 26/11 case in record time, the name of Pakistani American LeT operative David Coleman Headley cropped up.
While his interrogation put an end to all doubts as to who conducted the recee for the attacks, there were still some doubts on the financing of the operation, the obtaining of the SIM cards used for the terror communications and also the creation of fake documents.
Today when one takes into account the investigation into the 26/11 case, it looks incomplete, thanks to the fact that there has not been much cooperation internationally.
There has been Italian, Omani, Spanish and Thai connections to the probe and these countries have not yet responded the way India would have wanted them to.
A look at the people whose custody India wants to crack the case: Abdul Al Hooti from Oman, Athar Butt from Spain/Thailand, Mohammad Yaqub Janjua and Aamer Yaqub Janjua from Italy and Tahawwur Rana from the United States.
Barring Al Hooti, all the rest are Pakistani nationals who have settled down in various parts of the globe and have been helping terror groups carry out operations.

Tahawwur Rana was an associate of the notorious David Headley who conducted a survey of all the targets that were attacked in India.
Indian intelligence agencies feel that interrogating Headley is not sufficient, but they need to get access to Rana as well since he can fill in the blanks.
Although the interrogation of Headley has given India a strong case against Pakistan, Rana would help solve the mystery behind the suspected 'local links.'
Rana was not just involved in the 26/11 attacks, but he has helped survey other targets in different places in the country. It appears that Rana may have taken the help of locals in these recee operations.
Indian agencies are waiting to interrogate Rana, currently under Federal Bureau of Investigation's detention, and if possible also seek his extradition into India.
However, there are various legal formalities, which are being worked out between India and the US.

There was some noise regarding this Omani national. The first leg of the 26/11 probe which concerned obtaining of SIM cards used for terror communications and the information regarding their suppliers led to various places in India, including Kolkata.
Not one of that could be established and there was a huge vacuum when the chargesheet was filed. However, the arrest of Al Hooti in Oman in connection with a plot that he had planned on his mother country led to various other aspects.
Through intelligence channels it had been established that he had used his contacts in India to arrange for the SIM cards.
Another crucial aspect that came to light during his interrogation by Omani authorities was that he had gone around arranging for money to facilitate the 26/11 attacks.
It was a kind of a given that such an important member of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba would be involved with this attack.
This was largely due to the fact that his mother hails from Mumbai and he had visited the city prior to the attack. Although he was aware of the terrain of the city, he was not made part of the recee operations since it would have been too obvious.
However, he was asked to focus on the financing part of the operation and it is believed that he had raised funds through rich businessmen.
A couple of days after his arrest a year back, India made efforts to extradite him. However, that was not possible since he was being tried in a case pertaining to terrorism over there.
Today Al Hooti has been sentenced. Indian agencies say that an extradition at this point of time would be difficult, but modalities are being worked out to interrogate him in Oman, which would give more clarity to the role played by him in the 26/11 attacks.

The father-son duo of Mohammad Yaqub Janjua and Aamer Yaqub Janjua, who were arrested in Italy last year, also hold a key to the investigations into the 26/11 attacks. Hailing from Pakistan, this duo was involved in financing terror operations for both the Al Qaeda and the Lashkar.

In addition to this, they had are also alleged to have transferred money to Mumbai a day before the attack. The money is said to have been used to activate the internet phone account which was used by the attackers.
This helped the attackers communicate during the attack.
When the arrests took place, the Indian agencies were confident that this would provide more clues into the operation. A letter seeking permission to interrogate the duo was sent to the authorities in Italy.
However, Indian agencies claim that till date they have not received any reply from their Italian counterparts.
"We will continue to push for the interrogation of these two men since it is crucial to our investigation," intelligence sources told rediff.com.

Image: The father-son terror duo of Mohammad Yaqub Janjua and Aamer Yaqub 

Athar Butt is the latest in the list of names that India would like to get its hands on. He was arrested in Spain a couple of days back. Operating between Spain and Thailand, Butt and nine others were involved in creating fake documents.
It is believed that they had created documents for the Lashkar terrorists who carried out the 26/11 attacks. Butt was a full-fledged operative for terror groups and had coordinated with local criminals to carry out his job.
He had instructed local criminals to steal documents from tourists and later forged them and handed them over to terror groups.
The Indian agencies say that it has just been two days since the arrest and they would have to wait a while longer before they make a formal request to interrogate these men.
"However, we are on the job and hope to probe these men as well," Indian interrogators say.

Image: Police officers take an arrested man into a car after a police operation in Barcelona.

Taliban kidnap demining team in east Afghanistan

Source: HT
An Afghan demining organization says the Taliban are holding eight of its workers after kidnapping a group of 16 in eastern Afghanistan.
Fazel Wahab, from the OMAR humanitarian group working to find and dismantle homemade bombs, said militants attacked the 16-member team on Wednesday morning near
the Torkham border crossing in Nangarhar province.
He says the militants also set fire to two of the group's vehicles.
Wahab says several hours later, the Taliban released eight of his colleagues, who contacted the organization to report that they had been freed.
Gen. Aminullah Amerkhail, border police commander for eastern Afghanistan, and Hazrat Mohammad, a spokesman for the Nangarhar provincial police chief, also confirmed the kidnapping.

Nepal new haven for militants?

Source: HT
Rajkumar Meghen, chairman of the banned United National Liberation Front (UNLF) of Manipur, also known as Sana Yaima, has yet another name - a Nepali one. If police in Bihar's Motihari are to be believed, one of Northeast India's most wanted militant, arrested in Bihar's East Champaran district
Tuesday, also called himself Raju Shreshtha. The details of his arrest are still sketchy but the use of a Nepali name and Meghen's alleged attempt to cross over to the neighbouring country seems to be part of pattern among ultras of north east India.

Faced with an 'unfriendly' government in Bangladesh, leaders of banned outfits from Northeast could be looking at Nepal as their next safe haven. An open border and lax authorities could be reasons for the move.

In October this year, Anthony Shing, of Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (Issac-Muivah) was arrested in Kathmandu while Niranjan Hojai, 'commander-in-chief' of the Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel) of Assam, was also arrested in July.

Garo militant group chairman killed in encounter

Source: HT
In a major breakthrough, Nikson G Momin, the self-styled chairman of the Garo militant outfit Liberation Achik Elite Force (LAEF) was killed in an encounter with security forces in Meghalaya's East Garo Hills district in the early hours on Thursday. On a tip-off, a special Meghalaya police team
combed the Rongsak area during which militants fired at them leading to a fierce encounter at Darugree at around 3:00 am in which Nikson alias Dilkam and his personal security officer Rakpat were killed, Superintendent of police Sylvester Nongtnger said.

A grenade was hurled at the police vehicle, but it did not explode, while 28 rounds were exchanged in 15 minutes between the two sides, the SP said. Two managed to escape.

Two pistols, one grenade and some documents were found from the slain rebels, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma said making a suo moto statement at the Assembly after the incident.

LAEF, a Garo rebel group, floated in 2005 for fighting for a separate Achik (Garo) land has been engaged in extortion and kidnapping in the Garo hills.

The outfit was floated by a former Meghalaya Police commando Peter Marak, who was killed by the police.

Arrested LAEF cadre have revealed that the NSCN-IM had provided the outfit with AK-47s, automatic M20 pistols and Universal Machine Guns besides hand grenades.

Most of the top leaders of the group have been eliminated by the police.


more from this section

Garo militant group chairman killed in encounter

Source: HT
In a major breakthrough, Nikson G Momin, the self-styled chairman of the Garo militant outfit Liberation Achik Elite Force (LAEF) was killed in an encounter with security forces in Meghalaya's East Garo Hills district in the early hours on Thursday. On a tip-off, a special Meghalaya police team
combed the Rongsak area during which militants fired at them leading to a fierce encounter at Darugree at around 3:00 am in which Nikson alias Dilkam and his personal security officer Rakpat were killed, Superintendent of police Sylvester Nongtnger said.

A grenade was hurled at the police vehicle, but it did not explode, while 28 rounds were exchanged in 15 minutes between the two sides, the SP said. Two managed to escape.

Two pistols, one grenade and some documents were found from the slain rebels, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma said making a suo moto statement at the Assembly after the incident.

LAEF, a Garo rebel group, floated in 2005 for fighting for a separate Achik (Garo) land has been engaged in extortion and kidnapping in the Garo hills.

The outfit was floated by a former Meghalaya Police commando Peter Marak, who was killed by the police.

Arrested LAEF cadre have revealed that the NSCN-IM had provided the outfit with AK-47s, automatic M20 pistols and Universal Machine Guns besides hand grenades.

Most of the top leaders of the group have been eliminated by the police.

Navy wary of unguarded WB stretch

Source: HT
The Indian Navy has asked the Border Security Force and the customs department to beef up their presence along the 160-km-long stretch of water that runs through the Sunderbans. Commodore Brian Anthony Thomas, naval officer in charge of West Bengal, said here on Thursday that this vast unmanned
stretch might threaten India’s security.

The reason: This stretch provides almost free-entry rights to the Indian waters where ships from Bangladesh are allowed to travel a long stretch before reaching the customs checkpoint at Namkhana, about 120 km south of Kolkata.

According to an Indo-Bangladesh trade agreement, ships from Bangaldesh can enter India through Bihari Khal by going through a routine check by the BSF.

At present, seven to eight ships enter India from Bangladesh everyday through this route.

Navy officials are concerned that even two years after the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, such a long stretch remained unmanned. For, the Pakistani killers reached Mumbai through the sea route.

Commodore Thomas said the issue, however, had at last been taken up by the Union cabinet secretary. “We have already informed the BSF and the customs department. We understand that they are short of staff but something needs to be done.

Nigeria Oil Clashes Threaten Production in Challenge to Jonathan

Source: Bloomberg

A surge of violence in Nigeria ’s delta region is threatening output in Africa’s biggest oil producer and may thwart President Goodluck Jonathan’s ambition to win next year’s election. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

A surge of violence in Nigeria’s delta region is threatening output in Africa’s biggest oil producer and may thwart President Goodluck Jonathan’s ambition to win next year’s election.
A year after thousands of fighters laid down their arms under a government amnesty program, militants this month struck an Exxon Mobil Corp. offshore platform, Afren Plc’s shallow water field and a pipeline supplying crude to two refineries. They also clashed with government troops and vowed more raids.
“Any increase in violence is likely to affect oil output,” Mark Schroeder, director of Africa analysis at Strategic Forecasting Inc., an Austin, Texas-based global intelligence group, said in a telephone interview. “And the impact of that is felt not only in the country but globally in terms of higher oil prices, even here in the U.S.”
The attacks have undermined the ability of Jonathan, 53, the nation’s first leader from the Niger River delta, to guarantee security for an industry that is the fifth-biggest source of U.S. crude imports and provides 80 percent of government revenue. Total SA, Europe’s third-largest oil company, said it may consider quitting the region if the violence worsens.
“The easiest solution is to say that each time we are confronted with a security problem we should leave, but then there won’t be any more oil,” Total Chief Executive Officer Christophe de Margerie said at an investor conference in Paris on Nov. 19. “If it gets worse, we may have to leave.”
OPEC Producer
More than 90 percent of the country’s oil is pumped by Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil, The Hague-based Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Chevron Corp. of San Ramon, California, Total and Rome’s Eni SpA in joint ventures with state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. in Abuja, according to the Petroleum Ministry. Afren, a U.K. oil and gas explorer focused on West Africa, is based in London.
Nigeria was the seventh-biggest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries as of October, with output of about 2.05 million barrels a day.
Shell doesn’t “speculate or comment on security issues,” said spokesman Precious Okolobo by phone in Lagos.
This month’s attacks were claimed by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the main group responsible for Nigeria’s oil output being cut by more than 28 percent between 2006 and 2009. The organization says the region’s resources should be exclusively controlled by the people of the delta, who would then pay taxes to the national government.
‘Major Operation’
“In the coming weeks, MEND will launch a major operation that will simultaneously affect oil facilities across the Niger Delta,” MEND spokesman Jomo Gbomo said in a Nov. 16 e-mailed statement.
Jonathan, an ethnic Ijaw like most of MEND’s fighters, responded by ordering the army to take the offensive. The military task force in charge of security in the region raided rebel camps on Nov. 17 and freed 19 hostages, including two Americans, two French nationals, two Indonesians and a Canadian, and 12 Nigerians seized in the recent attacks. The military said it arrested 60 militants responsible for the abductions.
MEND announced its return to violence with two bomb blasts that killed 12 people in the capital, Abuja, on Oct. 1, as Nigeria celebrated 50 years of independence from the U.K. A day later, South African police arrested Henry Okah, whom the Nigerian government says is the leader of the militant group.
‘Extreme Deprivation’
The political ascent of Jonathan, a southern Christian, was partly spurred by the insurrection in the delta, according to Schroeder. The Ijaws and other ethnic minorities in the area say they are oppressed by central governments working with international oil companies in a region that the United Nations Development Programme said suffers from “extreme deprivation.”
“In many cases, the conditions of rural communities where crude oil is produced are deplorable, with severe environmental degradation, and no access to safe drinking water, electricity and roads,” UNDP said in a 2006 report. “The results have been disillusionment, frustration about their increasing deprivation and deep-rooted mistrust.”
Jonathan, who was chosen as vice president in 2007, became president after his predecessor, northern Muslim Umaru Yar’Adua, died in May. His decision to run for the presidency is contrary to an unwritten agreement in the ruling People’s Democratic Party to rotate the office between the mainly Muslim north and the predominantly Christian south.
Northern Opposition
Opposition to his candidacy by party members from the north prompted the choice of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to run against Jonathan in the PDP party primaries next year.
Jonathan can’t “afford to be seen to be weak,” Bergen Risk Solutions, a Fantoft, Norway-based risk adviser specializing in Nigeria’s oil region, said in a Nov. 24 note to clients. “These factors undoubtedly shaped Jonathan’s decision to unleash” the military “on his ethnic brethren in the delta.”
Jonathan had assumed that since he is from the Niger delta, his presidency would assuage grievances in the region, Anyakwee Nsirimovu, a member of a government committee that recommended amnesty for militants, said by phone from Port Harcourt.
“Jonathan is confusing his presidency with the solution to the Niger delta problem,” he said.
Nigerian presidency spokesman Ima Niboro didn’t answer calls on his mobile phone seeking comment.
The government has put more emphasis on giving fighters money to lay down their arms, known as “settling” in Nigeria, than tackling the development problems and the social crises that sparked the unrest, Godwin Ojo, a director of Environmental Rights Action, the Nigerian affiliate of Friends of the Earth, said by phone from the southern city of Benin.
“People will always be left out and they will surely fight to be settled, they will fight to be recognized,” he said. “That’s what is happening now.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Dulue Mbachu in Abuja at dmbachu@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net.

1,000-man militia being trained in north Somalia

Source: AP
(AP) – 12 hours ago NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — In the northern reaches of Somalia and the country's presidential palace, a well-equipped military force is being created, funded by a mysterious donor nation that is also paying for the services of a former CIA officer and a senior ex-U.S. diplomat.
The Associated Press has determined through telephone and e-mail interviews with three insiders that training for an anti-piracy force of up to 1,050 men has already begun in Puntland, a semiautonomous region in northern Somalia that is believed to hold reserves of oil and gas.
But key elements remain unknown — mainly who is providing the millions of dollars in funding and for what ultimate purpose.
Pierre Prosper, an ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues under former President George W. Bush, told AP he is being paid by a Muslim nation he declined to identify to be a legal adviser to the Somali government, focusing on security, transparency and anti-corruption.
Prosper said the donations from the Muslim nation come from a "zakat fund," referring to charitable donations that Islam calls for the faithful to give each year. The same donor is paying for both training programs.
Somalia hasn't had a fully functioning government since 1991 and is torn between clan warlords, Islamist insurgent factions, an 8,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force, government forces and allied groups. Given that mix, the appearance of an unknown donor with deep pockets is troubling, said E.J. Hogendoorn, a Nairobi-based analyst with the International Crisis Group.
"We don't know if this unknown entity is operating in the interests of Somalis or their own self-interest," he said in an interview. "If it's a company, there has to be a quid pro quo in terms of (oil and gas) concessions. If it's a government, they are interested in changing the balance of power."
The new force's first class of 150 Somali recruits from Puntland graduated from a 13-week training course on Monday, said Mohamed Farole, the son of Puntland President Abdirahman Mohamed Farole. The son, who is a liaison between the government and journalists and diplomats, told AP the new force will hunt down pirates on land in the Galgala mountains.
The range lies 125 miles (200 kilometers) north of the nearest main pirate anchorage but is home to an Islamist-linked militia that complains it has been cut out of energy exploration deals.
The Islamist militants led by Mohamed Said Atom have clashed with government forces several times this year. A March report by the U.N. accuses Atom of importing arms from Yemen and receiving consignments from Eritrea, including mortars, for delivery to al-Shabab forces in southern Somalia. Al-Shabab is Somalia's biggest insurgent group and has ties with al-Qaida.
The president's son emphasized the force was dedicated to anti-piracy, but said that he hoped greater security in the region would bring more investors into "public-private partnerships" with the government.
"You cannot have oil exploration if you have insecurity," Mohamed Farole said. "You have to eliminate the pirates and al-Shabab."
Energy exploration has started mainly just south of the mountains, although the amount of estimated reserves is unknown, or at least not publicly divulged.
Michael Shanklin, who was the CIA's deputy chief of station in Mogadishu 20 years ago, told AP he is employed by the unidentified donor country as a security adviser and liaison to the Somali government. Prosper said he is encouraging the Muslim donor nation, which insists on keeping its identity secret, to become more transparent.
The new force will be equipped with 120 new pickup trucks — which have already arrived — and six small aircraft for patrolling the coast, Farole said. No other force in Somalia, including the Mogadishu-based central government or African Union peacekeepers, has air assets.
Prosper said the Muslim nation is also donating four armored vehicles. A photo provided by diplomats and taken at Mogadishu's airport show two armored trucks made by Ford with gunner's turrets.
In recent weeks, Shanklin and Prosper met several Nairobi-based diplomats to discuss the contract between the Puntland and Mogadishu governments and a private security company called Saracen International, Prosper said in written replies to questions from AP. Prosper said Saracen is doing the military training and is being paid by the unnamed Muslim nation. Saracen is not providing the militia with any weapons, he said.
Uganda-based Saracen International was named in a March letter written by the Somali president's former chief of staff, Abdulkareem Jama, and obtained by AP that described training for the presidential guard. And it was named in a Nov. 18 statement from Puntland's government announcing the anti-piracy training. Bill Pelser, the chief executive of Saracen International, said it is "definitely a mistake or a misrepresentation."
Pelser denied being involved in the training program in Puntland or the one for the presidential guard in Mogadishu, saying he merely made introductions for another company called Saracen Lebanon. Lebanese authorities have no record of a company called Saracen. Pelser did not respond to requests for contact information for Saracen Lebanon.
Pelser is a former South African special forces soldier. Like many of his staff, he used to work for Executive Outcomes, a South African mercenary outfit credited with helping defeat rebel forces in Sierra Leone in return for mineral concessions.
Prosper declined to say how much the donor country has spent on the programs. Two Nairobi-based security analysts calculate it has already spent around $10 million on equipment, salaries and other costs. The analysts asked for anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the press.
Somalia's vast swaths of lawless territory host training camps for hundreds of foreign fighters aiding al-Shabab. Lying across the narrow Gulf of Aden from Yemen, Somalia is a haven for figures seeking to escape a U.S.-funded crackdown on terrorist networks in Yemen.
Whoever controls a well-trained, well-equipped and consistently paid military force is in a strong position to make a bid for filling the power vacuum in Somalia.
Farole declined to comment on his father's political future but noted that since his father became Puntland's president, he chased many pirates out of the region and ensured regular payments for soldiers in a country where many desert because the central government is too disorganized or corrupt to pay them.
The U.N. is quietly investigating to see if the creation and outfitting of the new military force violates an arms embargo, according to a U.N. representative who asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to speak publicly.
The embargo forbids the importation of arms, military equipment or any support to any armed group in Somalia, including to any Somali government, without authorization from the U.N.'s sanctions committee. There is an exemption for support for counter-piracy operations, provided the Security Council was notified and gave permission. In the case of the new military force, the Security Council was not notified.

Somali militants lose more territory

Source: Newvision

Museveni greets a Ugandan female Police officer serving in the peacekeeping force in Somalia

By Joshua Kato in Mogadishu

THE al-Shabaab Islamist insurgents fighting the Somali government are slowly losing control of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, as the Transitional Government Forces, backed by the African Union forces (AMISOM), continue capturing more areas of the battered capital.

“In July, we controlled about eight positions in Mogadishu. But by the end of September, we had 16 positions,” said the Ugandan contingent commander, Col. Michael Ondoga.

A young soldier, who was watching the al-Shabaab positions just a few metres away, said: “They regularly try to push us back, but every time they attack, we chase them away and capture more territory.”

Such is the closeness of the two forces that sometimes the al-Shabaab attack the AMISOM forces using stones.

“When you call al-Shabaab, they answer back with insults,” said Ondoga.

According to Ondoga, the capture of eight more positions brought the total share of Mogadishu by the government to around 50%.

“This is the largest share ever enjoyed by the government since AMISOM came to Mogadishu three years ago.

The force deployed tanks at the frontline to counter any threats.

“In September, they came as far as Malkalamu Road, the major avenue in Mogadishu, but we pushed them further,” said AMISOM spokesman Maj. Bahoku Barigye.

Gunshots can be heard almost every hour at the frontline.

“The al-Shabaab fire at our positions all the time and we fire back. If we do not fire constantly, it becomes dangerous for us because they take positions and attack,” said Lt. Col. Francis Chemonges, the in-charge of the Ugandan Battle Group 5, which is in charge of Urubah, JUBA, Fishbay and other areas.

The best way to stop this endless firing, Ondoga said, is to capture more of the high ground.

He said their next move will be to capture Bakara market. However, he added, their plan had been hampered by lack of troops to take over rear positions and consolidate new ones.

“That objective is achievable. All that we need is more soldiers on the ground. Our current 8,000 troops are not enough,” Ondoga said.

President Yoweri Museveni on Sunday made a surprise visit to Mogadishu, becoming the first foreign head of state to set foot there in almost 20 years, officials said.

Museveni, who was accompanied by a group of army officers, spent several hours in Mogadishu, arriving in the morning and leaving in the afternoon,.

While inspecting the peacekeepers’ bases, Museveni appealed for more international support to bolster the African Union (AU) force.

“We want more troops from Uganda or from anywhere in Africa. Uganda is a country of 33 million people so we could mobilise three million people. But who will pay for it? International support is not enough. They don’t take the Somali problem seriously,” Museveni said.

He also met with Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, new prime minister Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed and other officials, AMISOM officials said.

Museveni’s visit comes a day after Somali lawmakers overcame differences over the new prime minister, a relatively newcomer to Somali politics, and approved the cabinet he appointed.

The AU and the seven-nation east African Intergovernmental Authority on Development have promised to take about 20,000 troops to Somalia.

Obama takes aim at Africa's Lord's Resistance Army

Source: Minipost

By Tristan McConnell

NAIROBI, Kenya — With a campaign of kidnapping children to make them hardened soldiers or sex slaves, tactics including amputations, torture and the murders of entire villages, the Lord's Resistance Army has been a vicious, destabilizing force in central Africa for more than 20 years.
Under the cunning leadership of Joseph Kony, the LRA has evaded all efforts to eradicate it by the Ugandan army as well as the United Nations.
Now the LRA must also battle the efforts of the United States to disarm it. U.S. President Barack Obama has announced a strategy aimed at ending the scourge of the LRA , notorious for abduction, rape, murder and pillage across a swath of central Africa.
Obama said the strategy “identifies priority actions related to protecting civilians and eliminating the threat posed by the LRA.” In a letter to U.S. Congressmen last week, Obama said it was necessary to bring, “political, economic, military, and intelligence support to bear in addressing the threat.”
Obama's priorities are to protect the civilians who are the main victims of LRA attacks, to capture or kill LRA leader Joseph Kony and his senior commanders, encourage defections by lower-ranking officers and foot soldiers, and increase aid to affected communities.
Advocacy groups welcomed the announcement which had been expected since May when Obama signed into law the "LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act" after hard lobbying by activists.

“President Obama’s team has done an admirable job in formulating a strategy and demonstrating commitment to address the LRA scourge, but the challenge now is to turn this piece of paper into improvements on the ground,” said Paul Ronan, director of Advocacy at Resolve, a Washington-based advocacy group.
Ronan called on Obama to match the words with “a significant boost in resources.”
Defeating the LRA will be difficult, because the LRA purposely targets communities in remote and marginalized areas.
Details are scarce in Obama's strategy but it does not appear that any U.S. troops will be sent to central Africa. Implementation of the White House plan will depend on funding but some aspects should be relatively inexpensive such as building telecommunications infrastructure — mobile phone and radio capacity — so that communities being targeted have a way of getting information out to the outside world.
Obama also suggested that it will be important to improve coordination of militaries in the region. Last month, Uganda, the Central African Republic, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo agreed to form a joint military force to fight the militia.
In late 2008, U.S. military intelligence helped plan and organize attacks on the LRA but there was no indication that Obama is willing to put American boots on the ground to hunt down Kony.
The LRA rebellion began in northern Uganda in 1987. For more than 20 years the LRA has terrorized northern Uganda and fought a low-level war against President Yoweri Museveni’s army. During that time close to 2 million people have been forced from their homes, and perhaps as many as 70,000 children were abducted to fight in the rebel ranks or to be sex slaves to LRA commanders.
An end seemed near in 2006 when peace talks were hosted in Sudan but when negotiations collapsed in 2008 the LRA, pushed out of Uganda, began launching attacks in southern Sudan, northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo and southeastern Central African Republic.
In the last two years more than 2,000 people have been killed in LRA attacks and close to 3,000 have been abducted while a further 400,000 have been forced to flee their homes, according to the United Nations and human rights researchers. In late March reports emerged of a four-day killing spree carried out by LRA fighters in northeastern Congo, one of 240 attributed to the rebels this year alone.
The LRA claims to be fighting to establish rule by the Bible's 10 commandments. But under the leadership of Joseph Kony the group has shown few signs of Christianity as it spreads terror across central Africa.
Although most attacks are on civilians, the LRA is no rag-tag rebel army, but a battle-hardened force with decades of experience of guerrilla war in Africa’s forests. A team of Guatemalan Special Forces deployed by the U.N.’s Congo peacekeeping mission in 2006 to kill Kony were themselves ambushed and killed.
The LRA is thought to number less than 400 fighters but even though they have fragmented into small units they are adept at causing mass havoc.
Kony and two of his surviving top commanders (Okot Odhiambo and Dominic Ongwen) are wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, accused of dozens of counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“Halting the LRA threat to civilians and catching its leaders who are wanted for war crimes is achievable with political will and the right resources,” said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch in New York.
The imperative to act against the LRA is not only moral but also strategic, according to activists. The areas in which the LRA operates are on the fringes of some of the world’s weakest countries; the rebel group’s presence increases the likelihood of fragile states becoming failed ones

Shia militias helping Haqqani network evade US drone attacks, cross Pak-Afghan border

Source: Sify
Shia militias in Pakistan's tribal regions are helping the Al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network- one of the fiercest enemies of NATO- evade US drone attacks to cross safely into Afghanistan, a tribal activist has revealed.
The Daily Times quoted Munir Bangash, who is familiar with the deal, as saying that Shias, who control a key piece of the tribal real estate, cut a deal with the Haqqani network to give insurgents a safe, alternative route to Afghanistan through the Kurram region.
A second tribesman from Kurram, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed the deal.
The deal in Kurram was brokered two months ago during Ramazan, when a delegation of Shia elders and militiamen from Kurram met representatives of the Haqqani network, and laid the groundwork for the deal, said Bangash, who is the chairman of the Community Rights Programme, an independent organisation trying to broker peace between Kurram's Shias and Sunnis while bringing development to their areas.
Under the agreement, the Shias gave the Haqqani network safe passage from its Pakistan strongholds in neighbouring North and South Waziristan to its Afghan bases in Khost and Paktia provinces through Kurram, Bangash added.
In return, the Haqqanis intervened with the Sunni militants to get them to agree to a truce with the Shias in Kurram.
Bangash said hundreds of Haqqani insurgents as well as Pakistani Taliban have taken refuge in Kurram to escape attacks by US drones in North Waziristan as well as a Pakistan military offensive in South Waziristan and Orakzai. (ANI)

Afghan, coalition force targets Haqqani Network senior leader in Khost

Source: Dvids

KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghan and coalition security forces killed several insurgents and detained one suspected insurgent during an operation targeting a Haqqani senior leader in Khost province yesterday.

The targeted individual coordinates suicide attacks in Sabari district as well as improvised explosive device attacks against coalition forces operating in the area.

Intelligence reports led the security force to a compound east of Taraka in Sabari district to search for the targeted individual. As the security force approached, they immediately took contact from insurgents in established fighting positions. The security force responded, killing several insurgents and destroying their fighting positions.

Afghan forces then called for all occupants to exit the buildings peacefully before the joint security force cleared the compound finding multiple grenades, automatic weapons, a pistol and IED materials, including blasting caps. After initial questioning at the scene, the security force detained the suspected insurgent.

The assault force ensured the safety of the women and children for the duration of the search.

Pakistanis, Nigerian held in Spain over terror links

Source: AFP on Google

By Denholm Barnetson (AFP) – 18 hours ago

MADRID — Spanish police have arrested six Pakistanis and a Nigerian suspected of providing forged passports to organisations linked to Al-Qaeda, including the group accused of plotting the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, the interior ministry said Wednesday.
Three others -- two Pakistanis and a Thai national -- were held in Thailand as part of the same Operation Kampai, which "neutralised a vast cell that helped provide passports for Al-Qaeda," it said in a statement.
A police source in Thailand said four people were arrested in the country as part of the operation, but gave no further details.
Spanish police detained the seven suspects in raids in and around the northeastern city of Barcelona, which has a large Pakistani community, late on Tuesday.
The gang stole documents, including passports, which were sent to Thailand to be forged and then delivered to Al Qaeda-linked "terrorist groups," in particular the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba that has been accused of plotting the Mumbai attacks, the ministry said.
Ten militants killed at least 166 people in three days of violence in the Indian city in November, 2008.
The suspects arrested also supplied the defeated Sri Lankan separatist group the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the Spanish statement said.
"In total, seven people have been arrested in Barcelona (six Pakistanis and a Nigerian), all for belonging to a cell providing documentation for terrorist organisations linked to Al-Qaeda," it said.
"The international structure was led by a Pakistani national living in Thailand and who has been detained, who directed the cells based in Europe, decided the features of the passports to obtain and, once they were received in Bangkok, supplied them to different terrorist groups."
Since the investigation began a year and a half ago, police "have detected a number of stolen passports taken from Spain to Thailand, which were stolen almost entirely in the province of Barcelona from tourists who met the requirements stipulated by the 'World Islamic Front' in order to be used by members of different terrorist cells linked to Al-Qaeda," the statement said.
In the raids, police also seized stolen passports, a computer and hard drives, mobile phones, documents and cash in various currencies, the ministry said.
The operation, which was carried out in conjunction with the police forces of other European countries and of Thailand, is continuing, the ministry said.
Spanish authorities have stepped up operations against Islamist radicals since the March 11, 2004 Al-Qaeda-inspired train bombings in Madrid that killed 191 people and wounded 1,800 others in the country's worst terror attack.
Sixteen of 28 anti-terrorist operations carried out since those attacks have taken place in the Catalonia region, whose capital is Barcelona, according to a study published last year by the research institute Elcano.
Last August, Spanish police arrested a Moroccan man suspected of recruiting Islamic extremists over the Internet and helping them travel to "conflict zones" such as Pakistan's restive tribal zone of Waziristan, Afghanistan and Chechnya.
Spain's interior ministry Wednesday named the seven held in Barcelona as Junaid Humayun, Atiqur Rehman, Jabran Ashgar, Malik Iftikhar Ahmad, Mohammad Saddique Khan Begum, Tanveer Arshad -- all Pakistanis -- and Nigerian-born Babatunde Agunbiade.
The three detained in Thailand were Thai national Sirikanlaya Kijbumrung, and Pakistanis Muhammad Athar Butt and Zeeshan Ehsan Butt, the ministry said.

WikiLeaks: Pakistan continues to support Mumbai terror attack group

Source: Telegraph

Pakistan continues to support the militant group which carried out the 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai despite its claims to have launched a crackdown on the organisation, the United States Ambassador to Islamabad wrote in a cable. 

Ten Lashkar e Taiba 'fedayeen' commandos killed 166 in a three day attack on Mumbai in 2008 Photo: PA

By Dean Nelson, New Delhi 5:49PM GMT 01 Dec 2010

In a review of Washington's strategy on Pakistan and Afghanistan, its ambassador to Islamabad, Anne Patterson, said Pakistan was supporting four militant groups, including the Taliban's Haqqani network and the Lashkar e Taiba (LeT) terror group, and could not be persuaded to abandon them.

The Haqqani network is based in North Waziristan, from where it launches attacks on Nato forces over the border in Afghanistan. The LeT has been nurtured by Pakistan's ISI intelligence service to carry out proxy attacks on India to put pressure on New Delhi to negotiate the future of Kashmir.

Pakistan has denied Indian claims that elements in its security forces trained and funded the ten Lashkar e Taiba 'fedayeen' commandos who killed 166 in their three day attack on Mumbai in 2008. Under international pressure following the attack it arrested several senior LeT leaders and put its founder Hafiz Saeed under house arrest.

Related Articles

• Spanish police bust 'terrorist cell' that stole from tourists in Barcelona

  01 Dec 2010

• Pakistan admits creating terrorist groups

  08 Jul 2009

• US publicly criticises Pakistani efforts against terror

  01 Dec 2010

• British intelligence agents sent to foil attacks on Games

  01 Dec 2010

• Mumbai attacks gunman pleads guilty and confesses in court

  01 Dec 2010

• Pakistan to release 'terrorist' linked to Mumbai attacks

  01 Dec 2010

But in a cable to Washington in September last year, the ambassador said "no amount of money" could persuade Islamabad to turn its back on these terrorist groups.
"There is no chance that Pakistan will view enhanced assistance levels in any field as sufficient compensation for abandoning support to these groups, which it sees as an important part of its national security apparatus against India. The only way to achieve a cessation of such support is to change the Pakistan government's own perception of its security requirements," she wrote.
She said Washington should reconsider its support for Indian aid in Afghanistan which causes anxiety within Pakistan's military and reinforces its relationship with terrorist groups.
"It is the perception of India as the primary threat to the Pakistani state that colors its perceptions of the conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan's security needs. The Pakistani establishment fears a pro-India government in Afghanistan would allow India to operate a proxy war against Pakistan from its territory. Justified or not, increased Indian investment in, trade with, and development support to the Afghan government, which the USG [United States Government] has encouraged, causes Pakistan to embrace Taliban groups all the more closely as anti-India allies. We need to reassess Indian involvement in Afghanistan and our own policies towards India, including the growing military relationship through sizeable conventional arms sales, as all of this feeds Pakistani establishment paranoia and pushes them closer to both Afghan and Kashmir-focused terrorist groups while reinforcing doubts about U.S. intentions," she wrote.
The United States should also consider new initiatives on resolving the Kashmir dispute which she said was "at the core of Pakistan's support for terrorist groups." B. Raman, an Indian security analyst and former official in India's Research and Analysis Wing intelligence agency, said the cables disclosed by WikiLeaks had only confirmed what India already knew.
"It is a known fact that Pakistan is behind the LeT. It was created by the ISI. The WikiLeaks cables show that Pakistan's policy is to help the Americans where they have to and to continue using terrorists against India. That continues," he said.
The Pakistan government has previously denied it now supports Lashkar-e-Taiba.