Posted on 06/02/2008 1:05:15 AM PDT by ozguy
ISLAMABAD (AFP) — A blast occurred Monday outside the Danish embassy in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, causing casualties, police and security officials said.
"Yes, there has been a blast at the Danish embassy but we are not sure whether it was inside or out," local police official Mohammad Shabir told AFP. Security officials said there were several casualties.
(Excerpt) Read more at afp.google.com ...
They can’t get over cartoons...
ALERT - Pakistan: 8 dead in explosion outside the embassy of Denmark in Islamabad
ISLAMABAD - At least eight people were killed Monday in an explosion caused by a suspected suicide attack outside the embassy of Denmark in Islamabad, according to public television.
Note: The following news brief is a quote:
http://www.dawn.com/2008/06/02/welcome.htm
Eight dead, 12 injured in blast at Danish mission in Pakistan ISLAMABAD, June 2 (Agencies): At least three persons were killed and several injured in a blast outside the Danish embassy in Islamabad on Monday (a private television channel put the latest casualty toll at eight dead and 12 injured). “I have seen three bodies,” Reuters correspondent Kamran Haider said, adding that one body was just inside the gate and two were outside. The blast damaged a wall of the mission and a gate and left a crater on the road. “It appears to have been a car bomb,” he said. Security officials said there were several casualties as well. The force of the blast badly damaged two buildings in front of the embassy and left a huge crater, while the injured were being taken on stretchers, an AFP reporter at the scene said. The explosive wrecked dozens of cars, Dawn News TV’s Arjumand Azhar reported. According to Dawn News TV, interior ministry secretary Kamal Shah confirmed the blast outside the embassy but had no further details. Its footage showed dozens of cars damaged and a large crater as rescue workers removed at least one injured person. (First Posted @ 13:30 PST, Updated @ 14:05 PST)
From an Amazon review of The Looming Tower:
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Hardcover)
I saw the author last night at a book signing/lecture, and wrote down some of his main points. I hope it is o.k. with him that I share them here, and what he said, because I found if very fascinating. Mr. Wright is a very intelligent, “gentle” man who obviously cares about things and people, and I found him very likeable, becuase he has a good sense of humor and he did so much research for this book, and travelled extensively. He said he interviewed over 1,000 people in the Arab world for this book.
Some of the main points of what he said:
- The Arabic world is incredibly insular. He said, if you take away oil, the entire Arab world, from Morocco to Pakistan, produces less economically than the Finnish company Nokia (Nokia has less than 8,000 employees). He said, there have been 10,000 books ever translated into Arabic. If you think about that in terms of how many rows of book stacks that would be at a bookstore, it is shocking (I calculate that to be a few stacks of books !). One single Borders in the U.S. thus contains far more books than have ever been translated by Arabic translators (Spain alone translates about 10,000 books a year). Thus, most Arabs are, for our standards, incredibly lacking in resources, to understand our world. Not only that, but their countries censor books and all media. Freedom to assemble basically does not exist in the Arab world, and thus, basic freedoms are lacking.
- There is “gender apartheid” in [most of] the Arab world (particularly Saudi Arabia). Women are mostly not seen in public in Saudi Arabia. Men know very little about women as a result (how to meet them ?). It is pathetic, how little young men know about women. (he said, in Saudi Arabia, the women secretaries at his reporting agency worked in a room below a stairwell, and were basically never seen. he said, you would see Saudi women so covered by a burka, that you could not tell which direction their face was pointing !).
- The author said, in discussion with Arab men, the opinions he expressed, they had never considered, and never heard of. He said, it was like if a martian came down and said things that no one had ever said before and that were new and shocking. And those are normal conversations in the West.
- The Islamists (Al Quida, Muslim Brotherhood, etc.) have no plan. They simply want to destroy things and “take over”. But when asked what their economic plan is, they have none. The only real goal of the Muslim Brotherhood, for example, is the hijab for women (headcovering). Other than that, the muslim brotherhood has no plan or goal for society. “It is like an empty vessle”. Bin Ladin has no plan other than wanting the U.S. out of Saudi Arabia, and blind destruction of things western. How do you deal with unemployment (no answer). Hamas is now in power in “Palestine”, and has found that ruling is very hard. It shows them that they now must have a program, but they don’t have one.
- Pakistan was “the most mysterious country” the author visited. Far from being unstable, it is “very, very stable”, “too stable” (”eerily stable”). He said, the military “owns” Pakistan, and it is run by military families. If you are not in the military, you are basically locked out of Pakistani society. He said, they play a game with the U.S. called “find Bin Ladin”. They constantly get paid by the U.S., and they pretend to look for Bin Ladin. It is all a game to get money from the U.S. He said, there is now a “permanent Al Quida zone” along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and it is very worrying.
- Our U.S. intelligence is basically incapable of dealing with Al Quida. The FBI is staffed by Irish and Italian men, who know those cultures. The Arab applicants are shut out as a “security risk”. Result: no one who really speaks Arabic. The FBI recently graduated 50 new recruits. Only one of them speaks any foreign language. Since the 1970s, U.S. intelligence has been hamstrung and hollowed out. There is no “human intelligence” anymore. There is basically zero hope that the CIA and FBI can deal with Al Quida. Everyone in government realizes that the Dept. of Homeland Security is a joke.
- Clinton really tried to kill Bin Ladin, and should have fired his CIA director after he gave the CIA the order to kill Bin Ladin, and two years later, he was still alive.
- One thing that motivated Wolfowitz and Cheney is that they really believed that Iraq had a hand in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
- Iraq is a mess. Either way, Al Quida wins. If the U.S. withdrew, it would get much worse.
- Al Quida has very long-term plans, involving “drawing the U.S. in” to the Arab world. They would love it if we attacked Iran, because that would draw Iran in, and their “resources”, into a world-wide fight.
- The author asked Islamic experts in the Arab world, “how will this conflict end”. They mostly said that it is likely that the following will occur: a major western city were to be attacked by nuclear or biological weapon. Wright said, because we live in democracies, the public outcry would be so exterme and harsh, that a counterstrike, “attacking and destroying Mecca, Medina, and various targets in Iran” would be very, very likely, if not a foretold conclusion (!). (the CIA has even gone to Hollywood script writers to ask them for “scenarios”, because they think that those scriptwriters “have more imagination” than bureaucrats at the CIA.
- The way to deal with Bin Ladin, if he were caught: try him before “Sharia courts”. Take him to Kenya and Tanzania and make him confront the 150 Muslims who he blinded by the 1998 bomb blasts. Take him around and try him by sharia law. Take him to Saudi Arabia and ask for his execution. Make him look like he violated his own standards. Don’t kill him, because then you make him a martyr.
http://www.truthusa.com/MoreThanCartoons.html
#
Note: Photo included.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7430721.stm
Page last updated at 07:55 GMT, Monday, 2 June 2008 08:55 UK
“Blast by Pakistan Danish embassy”
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “Some Danish embassies around the world have been threatened since a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad was reprinted in Danish newspapers in February.
The cartoons, deemed offensive to Islam, led to worldwide protests when they were first printed in September 2005.”
It is NOT that fanatical of a religion that, say, people would engage in such random violence out of outrage of something like cartoon pictures being harmlessly published.
Thank goodness.
/s
UPDATE:
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iLyZF8ZkV1gWd8e2SHNLHLy-4z9g
“Eight dead in blast at Danish embassy in Pakistan: state TV”
54 minutes ago
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “ISLAMABAD (AFP) — A suspected suicide car bombing outside the Danish embassy in the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Monday killed at least eight people and wounded several others, state television said.
The blast left a huge crater outside the embassy, damaging the building and a nearby development agency. Several cars were destroyed by the force of the explosion and some were on fire, an AFP reporter said.
Denmark had downgraded the embassy and moved out most foreign staff in recent months due to threats linked to a row over the reproduction in February of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in Danish media, diplomatic sources said.
Government-run Pakistan television said at least eight people were killed in the blast and several more injured. “
Note: 2 Photos included.
#
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/06/02/pakistan.blast/index.html
updated 2 minutes ago
“Suicide bomber targets Danish embassy in Pakistan”
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) — A suicide car bomber targeting the Danish Embassy in Pakistan detonated explosives Monday, killing at least eight people, authorities said.”
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “The blast, heard from at least two miles away, sheared off the front wall of the embassy. It also damaged a house across the street.”
<”- Clinton really tried to kill Bin Ladin, and should have fired his CIA director after he gave the CIA the order to kill Bin Ladin, and two years later, he was still alive.
- One thing that motivated Wolfowitz and Cheney is that they really believed that Iraq had a hand in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
- Iraq is a mess. Either way, Al Quida wins. If the U.S. withdrew, it would get much worse.”>
WHAT A BUNCH OF HORSE PUCKY!!!
One: Bill Clinton treated the Al Qaida threat like it was a legal problem, not a terrorist threat. Clinton was too afraid of being drawn into a war. Hell, WWIII had already started and the fool President didn’t know it!!!
Two: Wolfowitz and Cheney are right; Iraq was involved up to Saddams’s neck.
Three: Iraq is struggling to find its best form of self-governing. This takes time and is messy. It sure was for our nation the first 50-years. What? You expect the Iraqis to be perfect when we sure as Hell were not!!!
Aria — I know someone named Aria. She is an Iranian architect working in Irans nuclear projects. Is that you, Aria? How’s your husband?
I hope there are not secondary explosions.
http://www.travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_930.html
Travel Warning
United States Department of State
Bureau of Consular Affairs
Washington, DC 20520
This information is current as of today, Mon Jun 02 2008 01:41:06 GMT-0700 (PDT).
PAKISTAN
September 21, 2007
And Clinton tried to squash the documentary about his foolish errors being broadcast, too, didnt he? He was rather redfaced about that airing on TV and showing he and Albright to be abject fools.
i’d love to be an architect - but nah...that’s not me.
I thought most of what the author had to say - especially about the lack of books - was interesting.
Some of his pre-surge predictions haven’t turned out - thankfully. Apparently it’s supposed to be a very good book.
People killing themselves and others in order to crush freedom of speech. High tech tools, Neanderthal culture. We'll be seeing a lot more of this. We'll see it everywhere civilization boarders the wilderness, and we'll see it soon. Welcome to the era of New Barbarism.
It’s not new.
It’s the global jihad.
P.S. Thank you for your service for our country.
Mon,02 Jun 2008
Pakistan
“Eight dead in suicide blast at Danish embassy in Pakistan: State TV”
Rana Jawad, Agence France-Presse
Islamabad, June 02, 2008
June 02, 2008
Islamabad, June 02, 2008
First Published: 12:53 IST(2/6/2008)
Last Updated: 14:11 IST(2/6/2008)
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “There was no immediate comment from Danish officials. Officials from the nearby Netherlands embassy said their staff were unhurt and the building was not affected.”
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