World Terrorism: News, History and Research Of A Changing World #10 Security Watch

Lowry: The CIA's record leading up to Sept. 11 was one of failure By Rich Lowry Article Last Updated: 08/25/2007 09:07:06 AM MDT

The new report from the CIA's inspector general about the spy agency's pre-9/11 failings could be titled, ''What We Did During Our Holiday From History.'' The stretch between the end of the Cold War and the Sept. 11 attacks was supposed to be a shiny new era of globalized peace and prosperity, to which an intelligence service was considered quaintly irrelevant.

The CIA conformed to the zeitgeist by remaining quaintly irrelevant. George Tenet presided over the agency, failing his way to the second-longest tenure of any director of central intelligence, a Presidential Medal of Freedom and a $4 million book advance. He made the Peter Principle work for him not just by advancing to his level of incompetence, but by benefiting from it handsomely.

Congressional Democrats pushed for the release of the scathing IG report, completed back in June 2005, to embarrass the Bush administration. But most of the failures identified in the report took place during the Clinton administration, which set the CIA's skewed priorities and selected Tenet in the first place. President Bush should be embarrassed only because he didn't fire Tenet upon taking office or after 9/11, while Bush also has failed to undertake a serious retooling of the sclerotic bureaucracy that is the CIA.

Tenet took terrorism seriously, ''sounding the alarm about the threat to many different audiences,'' in the words of the report. Maybe he should have gone on a lecture tour. Where Tenet fell down was in managing his agency. The thought may be father to the deed, but without the actual deed, the thought is only political cover in after-the-fact memoirs.

Tenet insists that he had a ''robust plan'' against al-Qaida. In reality, he only thought he had. He directed that such a plan be formulated, but according to the IG report, it never happened. Worse, Tenet did not ''work with the National Security Council to elevate the relative standing of counterterrorism in the formal ranking of intelligence priorities.''

In Tenet's defense, he operated within the context of a Clinton administration that basically was uninterested in intelligence. Tenet notes that the intelligence community lost 25 percent of its personnel in the 1990s and ''tens of billions of dollars in investment compared with the 1990 baseline.'' He implored the administration for funding increases in 1998 and 1999, but had to go ''outside established channels to work with then-Speaker Gingrich to obtain a $1.2 billion budgetary supplemental.''

Even with more resources, his managers repeatedly moved funds from counterterrorism programs to other needs, without ever raiding other programs to fund counterterrorism, according to the IG report. What could be more important than counterterrorism? Analytic resources were poured into addressing more pressing matters like the Balkans and the environment.

After 9/11, Clinton officials and Tenet argued whether the CIA had been granted the authority to kill Osama bin Laden, with the Clintonites, in a bout of retrospective bloodlust, insisting that it had. The IG report finds that restrictions on the CIA killing bin Laden had been ''arguably, although ambiguously, relaxed'' for a brief period in late 1998 and early 1999 (how Clintonian). But CIA managers refused ''to take advantage of the ambiguities,'' and even if they had, the agency didn't have the covert-action capability to kill bin Laden. Such was life during history's holiday.

What's more scandalous is how the CIA has escaped serious reform even today. Two CIA directors in a row have resisted the IG report's recommendation for an accountability board to evaluate the pre-9/11 performance of CIA officials. That word - not ''board,'' but ''accountability'' - raises hackles at Langley, where everyone is above-average at fighting al-Qaida. Even though as many as 60 CIA employees knew that two of the hijackers were in the U.S. before 9/11 and no one managed to get the word to the FBI, CIA Director Michael Hayden thinks holding anyone accountable for that or other failures would be ''distracting.'' And so the band plays on.

http://forums.hannity.com/showthread.php?t=325841&page=10

September 29th, 2007, 3:50 pm
kwikk kwikk is offline
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“Ali Ackbed.”

Quote:
Documents reveal new details in Zorkot case
http://www.pressandguide.com/stories...70930005.shtml
By Sean Delaney, Press & Guide Newspapers

PUBLISHED: September 30, 2007

DEARBORN - New details have emerged in the case against 26-year-old Houssein Zorkot — a Dearborn resident and former medical student charged earlier this month with carrying a loaded AK-47 semi-automatic rifle in a public park.

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According to documents obtained by the Press & Guide under the Freedom of Information Act, Zorkot was arrested about 8:04 p.m. Sept. 8 after police were contacted by three men who saw him carrying a firearm in the north end of Hemlock Park between Schaefer and Oakman.

Zorkot was allegedly dressed in dark clothing and wearing black face paint when officers approached his 2007 Ford Explorer, which was parked in a space near the tree line in the park’s west lot. The vehicle was already running, police said.

Officers approached the vehicle, which proceeded to pull out of the parking space and head northbound toward the park’s entrance. Police were able to block the vehicle in before it was able to leave the park.

When approached by officers, Zorkot opened the driver’s side door, but remained in the vehicle. He then asked officers why they had stopped him and said, “You guys are always harassing me.”

During the confrontation, officers saw Zorkot lower his right hand toward the center console, which was out of view. According to police reports, officers feared Zorkot was reaching for a weapon and grabbed his left wrist while ordering him to exit the vehicle.

An officer at the scene observed the AK-47 in the vehicle’s back seat, and alerted her fellow officers that he was armed. Zorkot was then forcibly removed from the vehicle through the driver’s side door — although he initially refused to let go of the door.

When he refused to release the door, officers struck Zorkot’s arm once with a plastic flashlight; however, he still refused to let go.

Officers used a Taser, which struck Zorkot between his shoulder blades. The electrical jolt caused him to fall to the ground, where he began rolling back and forth while yelling “Ali Ackbed.”

When Zorkot refused to comply with officers’ orders, he was stunned again and taken into custody. As police placed him into the back of a patrol vehicle, he allegedly said: “You think this is over? This is not over.”

Evidence technicians then searched his vehicle and found two pairs of cloth gloves; a military combat belt with a canteen and two knives; boots with socks; a receipt for the AK-47 rifle and ammunition; a gunlock and keys; a list of metropolitan Detroit shooting ranges; numerous photographs of Zorkot standing in front of a billboard depicting “various Muslim extremists;” a briefcase containing a laptop; and a cell phone.

Two cameras, a portable AM/FM radio, a pair of binoculars, four computer CDs, an Army surplus bag, a camouflage face paint kit, a Lebanese flag, a VCR cassette of “The Never Ending Story,” and eight prepaid international phone cards were also found inside the vehicle.

Based on the statements he made at time of his arrest, and the materials found inside his vehicle, a search warrant was issued for Zorkot’s home. Dearborn police have partnered with the FBI in Detroit to examine the items seized during that search.

Zorkot was arraigned Sept. 11 in 19th District Court on two felony charges — including one count of carrying a dangerous weapon with unlawful intent and one count felony firearm — as well as one count of possession of a loaded firearm, a misdemeanor. If convicted of the charges against him, Zorkot could be sentenced to up to nine years in prison.

Sept. 21, the Dearborn resident waived his right to a preliminary examination within 14 days of his arraignment. He is scheduled to return to court Nov. 9 after undergoing a psychological evaluation that will determine his competency and criminal responsibility in the case.

Calls to Zorkot’s attorney, Gerald J. Gleeson II, were not returned by the Press & Guide’s Friday deadline.

According to police, Zorkot does not have a criminal record and has not been identified as a terrorist. He has also not been linked to any terrorist group — including Hezbollah, which he openly supports on his Web site, www.zorkot.org.

“Expressing sympathy for something is not a crime and it does not make one a terrorist,” said Imad Hamad, regional director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

“We are still learning the facts in this case and it is important not to rush to judgment. Clearly, this was an unfortunate incident perpetrated by a disturbed individual — but I fear that some may try to use it to further anti-Arab and anti-immigrant sentiments. I pray that is not the case.”

Zorkot is of Lebanese descent, but has resided in Dearborn for several years with his father. His mother resides in Lebanon. Zorkot previously attended medical school at Wayne State University; however, the school has severed its ties with him following his arrest.

“He is no longer welcome on their campus,” said Dearborn Detective Sgt. Ronald Beggs.

The university has declined to comment on the case.

Zorkot remains in custody on a $1 million cash bond. The bond, which Gleeson argued was excessively high given the nature of the charges against his client, was set Sept. 11 by 19th District Judge Mark Somers and upheld Sept. 21 by Judge William Hultgren.

For more on this story, see future editions of the Press & Guide.

Contact Staff Writer Sean Delaney at (313) 359-7820 or sdelaney@heritage.com.
__________________
If the Arabs put down their weapons today there would be no more violence.
If the Jews put down their weapons today there would be no more Israel.

http://www.pbase.com/kburch
Reply With Quote

Originally Posted by kwikk View Post
from Jihad Watch...

Video here http://www.wxyz.com/news/local/story...f02574&rss=785

Thankfully someone did their part and tipped the authorities off - Id say he was T-Minutes from carrying out his personal Jihad.

September 30, 2007
US airbase bomb plotter on run in UK
David Leppard

A KEY suspect in the alleged plot to mount an attack in Germany on the scale of 9/11 is on the run in Britain, German security officials disclosed yesterday.

Scotland Yard counterterrorism detectives are hunting the man, who escaped from Germany after a plot to explode bombs at Frankfurt airport and a US airbase. The collective power of the bombs would have exceeded those in Madrid and London in 2004 and 2005.

The plot was foiled on September 4 when three men were arrested at a rented holiday apartment near the central German town of Kassel. Police recovered chemicals and bomb-making equipment which investigators believe would have led to the biggest loss of life since the 9/11 attacks in America six years ago.

About 10 other members of the gang were said by German prosecutors to have escaped and one is now in Britain. The arrested three - two of whom were German nationals who had converted to Islam - were alleged by prosecutors to be members of an Al-Qaeda splinter group called the Islamic Jihad Union.

At the time the British and German authorities denied that there were any links between the cell and Britain. Security sources also played down reports that there had been telephone contact between members of the cell and people in Britain.

However, it emerged yesterday that the Germans have told Britain that at least one of the fugitives has since made his way to this country. A security dragnet has been put in place by Scotland YardÂ’s counter-terrorism command to try to arrest the man.

Wolfgang Schuble, GermanyÂ’s interior minister, revealed last week that the three arrested men had acquired detonators that originated from Syria and had received direct orders to act from operatives in Pakistan. Â“We know that there is a clear network, highly conspiratorial,Â” he said after two days of meetings in Washington with US security officials. Â“The demand came from Pakistan [saying], Â‘You should go on for action. Do not go on preparing for months and months and months, but now is the time to take action in the first half of SeptemberÂ’ and they did.Â”

German officials said that the attacks were timed to coincide with the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks. The suspects had already assembled the ingredients for homemade bombs: they were caught with 750kg of hydrogen peroxide, a chemical that is easily transformed into explosives.

Al-Qaeda trainers are known to have taught Britons how to use hydrogen peroxide at camps in Pakistan that were attended by other Europeans. The chemical has been deployed at least twice by terrorists in Britain, including the four July 7 suicide bombers who killed 52 people in London in 2005.

The German bombs were designed for an attack on Americans in Germany, possibly at Ramstein airbase and the US consulate in Frankfurt. There were also plans to explode a bomb at Frankfurt airport. Targets were said to include other US bases, a nightclub and a bar used by American servicemen.

The fugitive’s presence in Britain will add to fears that the group may have a network in this country. British and other European intelligence services remain nervous about the possibility of further attacks.

MI5’s Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, which monitors terrorist threats, says that Britain is still facing a “severe” level of threat - meaning that an attack is “highly likely”.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article2558165.ece

September 30, 2007
Germans sell British gangs replica guns
Nicola Smith, Cologne

REPLICA handguns that are being converted so British criminal gangs can use them to maim and kill can be bought in Germany without a permit.

Guns of the type said to be fuelling gang culture in the UK are available in high street stores and family-run arms dealerships for as little as £80.

Outlawed in the UK, they are sold over the counter in Germany as blank firers, CS gas guns and alarm pistols. They are then smuggled into Britain and converted into lethal weapons.

Greater Manchester police say almost half the illegal guns they seize are converted replicas.

Inquiries by The Sunday Times last week found that the weapons on sale in German shops include exact replicas of popular Smith & Wesson, Luger and Glock models. They are designed for self-defence or sport.

In the Waffen Wissmann shop in a warehouse complex in Cologne, a reporter was able to buy a Valtro 98 alarm pistol for cash without giving a name or other personal details.

The reporter was told by the shop owner that it was possible to place a bulk order for other models of blank firers without a permit. The price of the guns on offer ranged from £80 to £180. At the Kettner weapons shop in one of Cologne’s main streets, bulk orders were also welcomed.

Another reporter in Berlin was able to buy a Cuno Melcher ME 38 Magnum revolver in the Europa shopping centre simply by showing a British driving licence and needed no proof of residence in Germany.

The Manchester police say Cuno Melcher models from Germany and Russian Baikals bought in Lithuania are two sources of gun crime in the city. Most can be converted by drilling through a partial obstruction in the barrel and installing a new cylinder.

One victim of a converted weapon was Jay Patel from Roch-dale, Lancashire, who nearly died in October 2005 when his post office and convenience store was targeted by armed robbers. He was shot by a flare gun converted to fire real ammunition. The bullet hit the right side of his head before lodging itself in the ceiling. “It smelt of firecrackers and I fell back thinking I was hurt. It’s only because the gun was not 100% accurate that I’m here today,” he said.

Patel is lobbying for uniform gun laws across Europe. A campaign to tighten controls on replicas sold on the Continent is being led by Manchester police.

Chief Inspector John Lyons said guns that had been imported and converted were a contri-butor to gang problems. “The guns are inevitably getting into the hands of both older and more experienced and younger criminals, armed robbers and murderers,” he said. “When we deal with this [converted guns] we deal with half the problem.” Last year Greater Manchester police broke up one of the largest gun import rackets in the UK. Between 2004 and 2005, 274 weapons had been illegally imported, including ME 38 magnums and the Umarex Reck King Cobra. The guns had been bought legally in a shop – Firma Hocke Sporthaus – in Cologne and from the Cuno Melcher factory in Solingen. Three men were convicted.

The weapons were brought into the UK by ferry or through the post. The Manchester police began Operation Carbon after 14 Cuno Melcher guns were mistakenly delivered to a shop in Levenshulme. They discovered that the weapons were being converted in a workshop owned by a local engineer before being sold for up to £750 each. Of the 274 guns imported by the gang, only 100 have been recovered.

Lyons said the investigation had been hampered by the absence of a paper trail linking the guns to their buyers. The police are pushing for obligatory registration of the buyer’s name and passport details for all replica guns sold in Europe.

He argues this would serve as a deterrent and also as the start of an investigation. “It’s not bought because it’s a CS weapon but because it looks like a real gun and behaves like a real gun and because of the kudos. If it looked green or was shaped like a banana then nobody would buy it,” he said.

Arlene McCarthy, a British Labour MEP, is trying to update a European Union directive on gun control. “I’d prefer to have them banned but other member states are not ready to. But at the moment they’re not even catego-rised as a firearm and that’s very worrying,” she said.

Additional reporting: Damien Seaman

Gun culture in action

Watch the video

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article2558291.ece

Kenya: US warns of kidnap threat

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_2193019,00.html
US warns of kidnap threat
29/09/2007 17:05 - (SA)
# Kenya lifts Somali flight ban
# US airstrike ‘kill’ Islamists
# Islamists deny planning attacks

Nairobi - The US government has warned its citizens that Islamic
militants based in Somalia may be planning kidnappings at Kenya’s
tourist-friendly beaches along its northern coast.

Kenya closed its border with war-ravaged Somalia before the New Year,
when Somali government forces backed by Ethiopian military might and
US intelligence support, ousted an Islamist movement in the Horn of
Africa nation.

Kenyan authorities fear remnants of the Islamist movement who fled the
Somali capital Mogadishu may be active along the border.

“The US embassy has received information that Islamic extremists in
southern Somalia may be planning kidnapping operations inside of
Kenya,” the embassy in Nairobi said.

“There are indications that Islamic extremists based in Somalia may be
planning to target Westerners, especially American citizens,” the
statement released on Friday said.

Earlier this year, the US government sparked criticism among officials
in Kenya’s vital tourist industry when it issued a similar warning for
the predominantly Muslim coast.

The Kenyan and US governments have redoubled efforts this year to
track al-Qaeda masterminds behind the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya
and Tanzania that killed hundreds.

US intelligence believed some of those militants and others involved
in attacks against Israeli targets in Kenya in 2002 were in Somalia
during the war over the New Year, and may still be there.

Some Muslim leaders in Kenya say the US government is persuading local
authorities to crack down on their communities.

Guardian: Wave of killings fuels fear of a second Chechnya

Wave of killings fuels fear of a second Chechnya

Muslim gunmen are murdering ethnic Russians in Ingushetia as security
forces take their own toll

Tom Parfitt in Karabulak, Ingushetia
Sunday September 30, 2007
The Observer

It was gone midnight and Vera Draganchuk was drifting off to sleep
when she heard the shots. ‘My son Mikhail appeared in the bedroom
doorway,’ said the schoolteacher. ‘There was fear in his eyes and he
was swaying strangely. He couldn’t speak. Then I realised the shooting
was in our home.’

Vera scrambled through the window into the yard of her cottage in the
small town of Karabulak in Ingushetia, a Muslim republic in southern
Russia. She urged her son to follow her but Mikhail, 22, didn’t make
it. He collapsed just under the windowsill, shot through the heart.
Vera found her second son, Denis, 19, slumped on the doorstep. Denis
died in an ambulance on the way to hospital. On that early morning of
1 September, Vera also found her husband Anatoly’s bullet-riddled
corpse, lying in the hallway. The attackers had fled.

The Kremlin may have largely pacified its rebel Chechnya region
through a local hardman, the 30-year-old tiger-owning Ramzan Kadyrov,
but neighbouring Ingushetia is on the brink of a crisis.

While Chechnya - first a cauldron of separatist sentiment in the
Nineties and then a new outpost in the global jihad - boasts safe
streets and new apartment blocks, in recent weeks Ingushetia has
suffered a wave of brutal executions of people of non-Ingush
nationalities.

A poor and rural republic about the size of Suffolk, Ingushetia is now
the epicentre of terrorism in Russia. And some analysts are warning of
a ‘second Chechnya’ in the making.

The killing began last July when an ethnic Russian schoolteacher and
her two children were shot dead in their beds by an intruder. At their
funeral a few days later a bomb exploded, injuring several people.
Unidentified assailants then murdered Vera Draganchuk’s family on 1
September. Soon after, armed men assassinated a Russian doctor outside
her apartment block. A gypsy man and his two sons were the next to be
shot dead at home.

There are few signs that the killing will stop and no one can be quite
sure who is carrying out the murders.

‘My parents were born here and so was I,’ says Vera, 52. ‘I’m a native
ethnic Russian and I have no enemies.’ Neighbours of the other victims
say that they had no conflicts with local Ingush people.

That may be the point. Since the spring, policemen and soldiers have
been killed or injured almost daily as their vehicles or offices come
under fire from Islamic militants, based in the mountains of Chechnya
and Ingushetia.

This summer an adviser to Murad Zyazikov - the former KGB officer who
is President of Ingushetia - was gunned down and the President’s own
motorcade was fired on. On 17 September a senior officer in the
Federal Security Service (FSB) died after his car was strafed by
gunfire.

The fear and uncertainty created by killing innocent civilians may be
just another weapon in the armoury of the boyeviki, or rebel fighters,
who aim to carve out an Islamic power base in the North Caucasus. Yet
many believe that darker forces are at work. The respected Caucasus
expert Alexei Malashenko suspects there is a pact between the
militants and Zyazikov’s political opponents, who may include elements
of the security services that resent the President’s weakness and want
him ousted.

In turn, opposition figures say the killings play into Zyazikov’s
hands by making it impossible for Moscow to remove him from office at
a time of great crisis. The Kremlin is certainly rattled. In the
summer it sent 2,500 Interior Ministry troops to Ingushetia in an
attempt to shore up the local security forces. Dmitry Kozak, President
Putin’s representative in southern Russia, admitted concern over the
republic this month but urged caution. ‘Many have the impression that
the entire North Caucasus has caught fire,’ he said. ‘This is not the
case. This phenomenon is local in its nature.’

For the local people, that’s little consolation. Critics say that one
factor fuelling resentment against the authorities is the brutality of
security forces.

At 5am on 8 September, the Ingush security forces arrested Murad
Bogatyryov, a suspected boyevik, at his home in Verkhniye Achaluki, a
mountain village. An official protocol showed that nothing suspicious
was found during a search of the shack. Bogatyryov was taken to a
local police station. His wife Aset, who had taken their three young
daughters away for the night, arrived in time to see his corpse being
brought out of the building and loaded into a van.

Ingushetia’s chief prosecutor later claimed that the 37-year-old
construction worker had died of a heart attack. ‘No traces of violence
were discovered on his body,’ he said. A video clip of his corpse at
the mortuary seen by The Observer tells a different story. Murad’s
body is covered in black welts and bruises.

Human rights groups say that at least two other young men were shot
dead this month by security forces who then planted weapons on them to
make it appear they had resisted arrest.

‘This is extra-judicial killing,’ said Azamat Nalgiev, former deputy
chairman of the Ingush parliament. ‘When President Vladimir Putin said
the rebels should be “rubbed out in the toilet”, the FSB knew what it
had to do.’

As for the murders of non-Ingush residents, several suspects have been
arrested but then released without charge. President Zyazikov declined
an offer to meet The Observer, but denied in interviews with Russian
media that he had lost control. ‘When a chicken gets run over these
days, it’s called a terrorist attack,’ he said, claiming his republic
was no more violent than others.

Zyazikov’s critics say poverty and rampant corruption in the republic
have fuelled armed opposition. For Vera Draganchuk, however, such
debates mean little. ‘I’m afraid they might kill me too,’ she says.
‘But it doesn’t matter. My family is gone; my life is already
destroyed.’

To visit your on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chechnya-sl/

http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?fr=yalerts-keyword&c=&p=school+bus+accident&ei=utf-8

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Emergency responders are working a school bus accident on Compton and Kessler.

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(GALLATIN COUNTY, KY) — An accident involving a Gallatin County School bus sent one person to the hospital with minor injuries this afternoon.

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Police are investigating a Center City accident in which a School District of Philadelphia yellow bus hit and injured a 70-year-old woman yesterday afternoon.

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VIENNA, Va. (AP) - Fairfax County Police are investigating an accident in Vienna that left a woman dead after a school bus hit her. Police say that about 8:15 this morning, a bus that had no children on it was waiting in the road to turn left.

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http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/display.var.1717126.0.air_passengers_diverted.php

Air passengers diverted

Passengers aboard a Jet2 flight bound for Leeds Bradford Airport from Barcelona were re-directed to Manchester and delayed for three hours to prevent passengers on another flight facing further delays.

About 200 passengers boarded the LS 232 flight from Spain at 7.25pm on Tuesday and were within 40 minutes of landing at the Yeadon airport when the pilot suddenly announced the flight was diverting to Manchester.

According to one passenger, David Moss, of Burley Woodhead, near Ilkley, the pilot informed passengers that they would have to disembark at Manchester as other passengers were waiting to go to Faro.

They were then ferried by bus to Leeds-Bradford, finally arriving at about 10.20pm.

“We were a group of ten,” said Mr Moss.

“We all got on the plane normally but then about 40 minutes from Leeds-Bradford the pilot came on the intercom and said he had been told to divert to Manchester due to service requirements. He wasn’t happy about it.

“When we landed in Manchester we discovered that we were there because passengers to Faro had been waiting for a flight since 3pm. I sympathise with those passengers but this shouldn’t have happened.

“It turned out they were servicing their customers not the planes.

“When we got off the plane there was no-one to help us with our baggage. One of our party is in his 80s and there was only one girl to put us on the buses which were all the way on the other side of the terminal.

“We are very upset about the cavalier attitude with which they treated their customers. We were never offered a drink or anything to eat all the way to Leeds-Bradford and when we got there, there was nobody at Jet2 there.

“I think they basically made the decision that we were only on the plane because it was a low-cost flight and they could do what they like. If they want customer loyalty they shouldn’t treat people like that.”

A Jet 2 spokesman said that while the airline regretted the inconvenience to passengers a decision had been made for the overall good of all.

He said: “The flight going to Faro had been delayed. If the Leeds-Bradford flight had not been diverted they would have been delayed for another four hours.

“It is regrettable for the people on board the flight but it was decided that this was the best option operationally for all involved. We regret any inconvenience but sometimes these things are unavoidable.”

He added that if Mr Moss wanted to discuss the issue with the company’s customer service department, it would try to assist him further.

4:55pm Wednesday 26th September 2007

By Paddy McGuffin

[update]

http://itn.co.uk/news/e44e1220cb7676350bc9ed8357c91786.html

passenger jailed
Updated 15.25 Fri Sep 28 2007
Keywords: Stephen Robinson, passenger, air rage

A passenger who terrified a packed holiday flight and the plane’s crew during an air rage attack has been jailed for 12 months.

Newcastle Crown Court heard how 53-year-old Stephen Robinson assaulted a crew member after he was told to extinguish a cigarette at 33,000ft.
“He is the sort of person I think should never go on an aircraft again” - Judge Esmond Faulks

On the Boeing 757, flying from Antalya in Turkey to Newcastle Airport in March last year, he clambered over other passengers to get into the aisle to confront crew members.

In the melee, he hit steward Philip Miles in the face, damaging his teeth, which cost £2,000 to repair.

Robinson, from Hope Town Lane, Darlington, was warned he may never be allowed to fly again after admitting endangering the safety of the Thomas Cook flight TCX313L and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The flight had to be diverted to Frankfurt in Germany and Robinson was forced to make his own way home while fellow passengers faced delays of several hours because of the diversion.

Judge Esmond Faulks said: “You have now finally pleaded guilty to the two charges on this indictment. They are obviously serious charges so I am not giving any promises about sentence.”

The judge added: “He is the sort of person I think should never go on an aircraft again.”

http://itn.co.uk/news/1aa76ef4380ae9b23ac15b9d075c025b.html

Riots erupt in Londonderry
Updated 09.59 Sun Sep 30 2007
Keywords: Londonderry, riots

A full-scale riots erupted in the centre of Londonderry in the early hours after exiting nightclub revellers clashed with police.

Hundreds of people were involved in the disturbances during which paving slabs were torn from the ground and hurled at police and business premises broken into.
Hundreds of people were involved in the disturbances during which paving slabs were torn from the ground and hurled at police

The trouble started at around 2am when police involved in a routine “nightlife patrol” were attacked by a hostile crowd.

It was 4am before officers in full riot gear finally restored order, said a Police Service of Northern Ireland spokesman.

An off-licence and other retail premises around Shipquay Street and the Guildhall were broken into and stolen bottles of drink used as missiles against the police.

Fencing and paving stones were used as missiles against the police and a BBC marquee damaged and plasma screens inside destroyed.

At least two officers were injured and PSNI Inspector John Burrows said it could have easily been more.

He said: “It was extremely dangerous, the officers had to wear riot helmets, they had to have pads on, they had to use shields and armoured Land Rovers.

“It simply would have been too dangerous for police officers to confront the crowd throwing bricks and paving slabs. It was only that equipment that prevented more officers being injured.

One civilian was injured and taken to hospital for treatment and police said one male was arrested.

As police prepared to examine CCTV footage of the city centre they appealed for any witnesses to contact them.

http://itn.co.uk/news/5d7a9b0275d7d91c0a9b021e10894d0e.html

Two arrested over Maldives blast
Updated 07.46 Sun Sep 30 2007
Keywords: Maldives

Two men from the Maldives have been arrested in connection with the bomb blast which injured 12 tourists.

British couple Christian and Jennifer Donelan were among the casualties of the explosion in the capital, Male.
Maldives government spokesman Mohamed Shareef said that police arrested the suspects hours after the blast, but no motive has been established yet

Mr and Mrs Donelan, who live in Qatar, were thought to have been on honeymoon. They had been staying on Baros, one of 87 designated tourist islands in the ocean chain that welcome thousands of Britons each year.

Maldives government spokesman Mohamed Shareef said that police arrested the suspects hours after the blast, but no motive has been established yet.

All except the British couple, who have sustained 40 per cent burn injuries, were discharged from hospital and immediately sent home.

Mr Shareef said it was too early to say whether the bomb targeted the tourism industry or was the work of Islamic militants.

Mr Donelan, originally from Rotherham, has undergone surgery to treat burns to his arms and legs.

His wife, whose maiden name is Green, suffered more serious burns but both are conscious and able to speak to friends and family by phone.

Mr Donelan’s friend Tim Bulleyment said: “Christian sounded really rough but he said he was lucky to be alive.”

The couple, both thought to be aged in their 30s, married in Italy just two weeks ago before their honeymoon in the Maldives, it was reported.

They had been coming to the end of their holiday when the device exploded near a park in Male, which is on a separate island from Baros.

If confirmed as a terrorist attack it brings the spectre of terrorism to a country that has been peaceful up until now.

http://itn.co.uk/news/bce7fab8357fc8d005f049cfe9fea301.html

Burma ignores international outcry
Updated 08.57 Sun Sep 30 2007
Keywords: Burma, United Nations

Political pressure from the UK and other governments appears to be failing to shame the military junta of Burma into allowing peaceful pro-democracy protests.

Thousands of soldiers and police have been deployed in Burma’s largest cities, keeping even the most die-hard protesters off the streets.
Scores of arrests were made overnight, further demoralising those seeking to end decades of military dictatorship

Scores of arrests were made overnight, further demoralising those seeking to end decades of military dictatorship.

The top UN envoy on Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, has arrived to try to persuade Burma’s leaders to end the violent crackdown on demonstrators that has sparked international outcry.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown demanded that Mr Gambari be allowed to meet democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest. The White House has also urged the junta to allow the meeting.

Mr Brown said he hoped the regime would be told by Mr Gambari just how seriously the situation in the secretive country was viewed.

He added: “There’s a huge anger across the world about the deaths and about the violence that has been perpetrated against the Burmese people.”

On arrival, Mr Gambari was taken to Naypyitaw, the remote, bunker-like capital where the country’s military leaders are based. His schedule has not been made public.

Overnight the number of troops in Rangoon, Burma’s largest city, swelled to around 20,000 after reinforcements arrived, ensuring that almost all demonstrators would remain off the streets, one Asian diplomat said.

“The security forces are demonstrating their strength,” said the diplomat. “I think the chance of protesters coming to the road and mobilising enough people to topple the junta is zero.”

People suspected of leading or organising this week’s rallies continue to be arrested, he said, estimating that the total number could be as high as 1,000.

With the main prison now overcrowded, people are being detained in university buildings and educational institutes, he said.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,330847324-119093,00.html

European police target cocaine smugglers

Mark Townsend
Sunday September 30, 2007

Observer
An international effort to target cocaine trafficking will begin today with the launch of a new intelligence centre to monitor South American drug smugglers crossing the Atlantic.

Using Royal Navy warships and UK narcotics officers, the Lisbon-based Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre aims to intercept shipments before they reach Europe.

During a six-month trial, officers have already seized almost 11 tonnes of cocaine.

The centre, which combines the efforts of officers from seven European countries, was conceived following mounting concern over the continent’s growing cocaine consumption.

Policing and security minister Vernon Coaker said: ‘This will help target cocaine smugglers by sharing intelligence with other countries and co-ordinating rapid air and sea operations, making the best use of law enforcement and military resources to stop attempted drug runs across the Atlantic.

‘By taking an active role in this innovative drug trafficking centre we are cutting down the pathways used by those serious criminals attempting to infest our country with cocaine.’
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-6959849,00.html

Woman Dies After Airport Arrest

Sunday September 30, 2007 9:01 AM

By BOB CHRISTIE

Associated Press Writer

PHOENIX (AP) - A woman late to her plane became irate, was put in handcuffs and was later found dead in a holding cell, police said. Authorities were investigating Saturday if the woman choked herself while trying to get free from the handcuffs.

Carol Ann Gotbaum, 45, of New York, was arrested Friday at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport after a conflict with gate crews who refused to allow her to board a plane, said Sgt. Andy Hill, a Phoenix police spokesman.

The airline said the plane was already preparing to depart. She was rebooked on the next flight, but ``she became extremely irate, apparently running up and down the gate area,’’ US Airways spokesman Derek Hanna said Saturday.

Officers handcuffed her and took her to the holding room, where she kept screaming, authorities said. Hill said officers checked on her when she stopped screaming and found her unresponsive.

Hill said it appears Gotbaum may have tried to get out of her handcuffs, became tangled in the process and the cuffs ended up around her neck. A cause of death will be determined by the Maricopa County Medical Examiner.

``She was very agitated and irate and angry,’’ Hill said. ``These are the things that led to the disorderly conduct arrest.’’

Authorities said neither a Taser nor pepper spray was used on the woman.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,330847839-119093,00.html

Mexican police capture the ‘Queen’ of drug trafficking

Jo Tuckman in Mexico City
Sunday September 30, 2007

Observer
Mexican police have captured the country’s highest profile female drug trafficker - the notoriously nicknamed Queen of the Pacific - along with her Colombian drug boss boyfriend, aka The Tiger.

Sandra Avila Beltran was arrested on Friday driving her BMW sports utility vehicle in a wealthy part of Mexico City. Juan Diego Espinosa was picked up in the same area a few hours later.

The couple are allegedly important figures in the organisation of shipments of Colombian cocaine to Mexico heading for the US. Both are also wanted on drugs charges in the United States.

Beltran is said to be close to Ismael ‘el Mayo’ Zambada, one of the top drug barons within the Sinaloa trafficking organisation that is headed by the legendary Joaquin ‘el Chapo’ Guzman. Her regal nickname comes from her reputed role in developing smuggling roots up the Pacific coast.

Espinosa, 39, is allegedly an important figure within the Colombian Norte del Valle cartel. That group’s leader, Diego Montoya, was arrested three weeks ago in an operation hailed as the biggest blow to Colombian drug traffickers since the fall of the infamous Pablo Escobar in 1993.

Mexican authorities said the investigations that finally led them to Beltran began five years ago after the seizure of nine tons of Colombian cocaine in a tuna fishing boat off the Pacific port and resort of Manzanillo. ‘This woman has been transporting Colombian cocaine into Mexico since the Nineties. She is part of a family that has been dedicated to drug trafficking for three generations,’ public safety under-secretary Patricio Patiño said.

A video released to the local media by the police show the alleged Queen of the Pacific claiming to be a housewife who earns extra money selling clothes and renting houses. Beltran speaks with hesitation throughout, until asked why she is in police custody. ‘Because of an arrest warrant with a view to my extradition,’ she replies quickly with a smile.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007

http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/misc/print.php?artid=1723563

Kidnap gang beat man in ransom bid

Four members of a kidnap gang, who believed they were “untouchable” have been locked up by a judge after they abducted two men off the streets of Bradford and demanded huge sums in ransoms.

The gang severely bound and beat up one businessman with tree branches after they threatened him with an imitation gun and drove him to secluded woods and demanded £100,000.

Tobias Melgram, 19, and Amjad Khan, 22, were told they were a serious risk to the public and would have to serve a minimum of five-and-a-half years behind bars before being considered for release by the Parole Board.

But Recorder Paul Sloan QC said at Bradford Crown Court said they could be kept in custody for longer if they were still a risk.

The pair, together with 21-year-old Imran Khan, kidnapped 27-year-old Mohammed Tanveer Mir last September after they dragged one of his friends out of a car.

The trio got into the vehicle and after Amjad Khan produced an imitation handgun he was driven away with a coat over his head to begin a terrifying ten-hour ordeal.

Prosecutor John Topham described how their victim was driven to woods in the Fellside Close area of West Bowling, Bradford, where he was taken into a clearing and his hands bound with tape and a belt.

Mr Mir was struck with tree branches and other implements as Amjad Khan demanded a ransom of £100,000 for his release.

Calls were made to friends and relatives of Mr Mir saying that he would be “dealt with’’ if money was not paid and he was told that a four-foot grave had been dug.

Mr Mir said that Melgram pointed the gun at him and even took out the magazine showing him the bullets.

Mr Topham said the police had been alerted and hostage negotiators were brought in to assist with the discussions which lasted throughout the night.

During his ordeal Mr Mir was held captive in a house which the men had commandeered because the occupants were frightened of them.

Eventually it was agreed that £4,000 would be paid, but the police were waiting outside the home of one of Mr Mir’s brothers and when Imran Khan arrived with Mr Mir to collect the cash he was arrested.

Mr Topham said Mr Mir suffered various cuts and bruises as a well as a fractured finger and also needed medication later for stress and anxiety.

Melgram and Amjad Khan were not arrested for that offence until after they had carried out another kidnapping in January this year.

On that occasion 21-year-old Rehan Ameen was lured in his BMW car to a meeting in Hustler Street, Undercliffe, Bradford, where he was confronted by the duo together with 21-year-old Ziaurauman Khan.

Mr Topham said the three men had their faces covered and after getting into the car they assaulted Mr Ameen using bats.

Again they said they wanted £20,000 or they would kill him and he was driven to a car park near Sedbergh Boxing Club, Odsal, where he was further attacked and told he would be locked in a cellar.

Mr Ameen was driven back to another car park in the Little Horton Lane area, but he managed to flee from the vehicle and seek refuge a nearby fish and chip shop.

Melgram, of Tamar Street, Little Horton, Bradford, pleaded guilty to two offences of kidnapping and one of possessing an imitation firearm with intent.

The court heard that when he was only 14 he had been involved in a street robbery and was locked up for 18 months in 2002.

Amjad Khan, of New Cross Street, West Bowling, Bradford, pleaded guilty to the same three offences.

Imran Khan, of Round Street, West Bowling, was jailed for six years after he admitted kidnapping Mr Mir, robbing him of £350 and possessing an imitation firearm with intent to rob.

He will serve half that jail term before being released.

Ziaurauman Khan, of Springmill Street, West Bowling, pleaded guilty to kidnapping Mr Ameen.

He will serve half of a four-year prison term for that offence.

Passing sentence Recorder Sloan said he was passing sentence on the basis that the gun used in the first kidnapping was an imitation but he said that would be little consolation as far as their victim was concerned.

‘It is clear he believed it (the gun), and the bullets he was shown during this kidnapping were real,’’ said Recorder Sloan.

‘He was hit on the head and legs with a branch even after he went to the ground and he thought he was going to be killed.’’ He noted that various threats were made to Mr Mir during his ordeal including threats to use pliers on his toes or to shoot his brother if the ransom handover was a set up.

At one stage it was even suggested he put on a bullet-proof vest to see if one of the bullets from the gun would go through it.

After the gang was jailed Detective Superintendent Andy Brennan of West Yorkshire Police’s Homicide and Major Enquiry Team, said: “They are all very dangerous people who just thought they could get away with these things.

“This sad and pathetic group of individuals now face years behind bars. I expect that is a very sobering thought for them.

“They ran around Bradford under the apparent misapprehension that they were above the law and that no-one could touch them. They couldn’t have been more wrong.”

Det Supt Brennan also praised the officers who had been involved in bringing the gang to justice.

He said: “This investigation has been an excellent example of police work and I would like to pay particular tribute to Bradford North CID, most notably Detective Constable Giuseppe Rawling and Detective Constable Richard Oxley who were involved with investigating the first incident from the beginning.

“They have worked tirelessly over the last 12 months to ensure witnesses and evidence were available to the court. They have been entirely committed and focused to seeing justice served.”

6:20am Saturday 29th September 2007

By Michael Black

UN Rights Council ‘Failed’ on Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Chairman

http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=10366
UN Rights Council ‘Failed’ on Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Chairman
29/09/2007

GENEVA (AFP) - The UN Human Rights Council has failed to handle the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a balanced fashion, the council’s
chair Doru Costea said in an interview published Saturday.

Costea suggested in the interview with the daily Le Temps that the
council was concentrating too much on human rights abuses by Israel,
adding that he was dissatisfied.

“On this point, the council has failed,” he said, days after US
President George W. Bush attacked the body for perceived anti-Israeli
bias.

“The council must remain simple, and concentrate on the human rights
dimension, but it must look at the stance of all sides, not only one
country.”

Costea said that the majority of the 47 seats held by Asian and
African countries on the council “gives a certain power, but that does
not mean that this power is always used wisely.”

The council was set up last year to replace the widely discredited
Human Rights Commission, but has drawn fire during its first year of
work for focusing too much on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and not
enough on other conflicts such as Darfur.

It has held four special sessions, three of which have concerned the
Middle East and have ended up condemning Israel. The fourth related to
Sudan, and one is planned next week following the crackdown on dissent
in Myanmar.

On Tuesday, US President George W. Bush said the panel needed to focus
less on Israel and more on places like Iran, and called for sweeping
reforms.

“This body has been silent on repression by regimes from Havana to
Caracas to Pyongyang and Tehran while focusing its criticism
excessively on Israel,” Bush said in a speech to the UN General
Assembly.

AP: Imam killed in Daghestan after speaking out against Islamic militants

Imam killed in southern Russia after speaking out against Islamic
militants

2007-09-29

MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AP) - Gunmen killed an imam on his way to morning
prayers in a restive southern region Saturday, a day after spoke out
against Islamic extremists, police said. Nurmagomed Gadzhimagomedov was

shot by attackers in a car while walking from his home to his mosque in

the Dagestani settlement of Gudben, district police chief Sergei
Makukha
said. Dagestan, a mostly Muslim region east of Chechnya that is home to

many ethnic groups, has been plagued by shootings, bombings and other
violence, including regular attacks on top officials and police. Some
of
the violence has been linked to Islamic extremists and some was rooted
in disputes between local criminal clans.

Gadzhimagomedov was a vocal critic of Islamic extremism who had spoken
out against militants during a service at the mosque on Friday, Makukha

said. He said the killing was «clearly a revenge attack» by Islamic
militants.
In July, a deputy chief mufti at the central mosque in the provincial
capital, Makhachkala, was killed, along with his driver, by a roadside
bomb blast.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chechnya-sl/

http://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com/2007/09/29/algerian-guerilla-chief-hassan-hattab-surrenders/

Citizenship Test
Imam shot dead at Syrian mosque »
Algerian guerilla chief, Hassan Hattab, surrenders

Just another muslim madman
This is mostly spin; we started seeing claims of Hattab’s impending surrender last February. Must have been one hell of a negotiation process. No doubt, the Algerian government wants us to believe they are diligently fighting against the global jihad but I for one don’t buy it. Hattab has not really had a position of power in the group for years now and will probably just get a full pardon on some Muslim religious holiday.

Chalk this up to kinda sort of in a way good news.

His surrender means absolutely nothing without a severe punishment. Others have already taken his place and will continue the jihad. What I would like to see is the murderous dog publicly executed for his crimes but instead he will get a soothing slap on the wrist a quick head nod, wink and brief smile from an Algerian judge.

September 29, 2007 (AFP)
ALGIERS — One of the most hardline guerrilla chiefs opposed to Algeria’s government, Hassan Hattab of the Salafist Movement for Preaching and Combat, has surrendered, an Arab-language daily reported Friday.

“Hassan Hattab, known under the name of Abou Hamza and founder of the GSPC in 1998, has surrendered to the security forces to benefit from the Charter for Peace and Reconciliation,” the daily Ech-Chourouk said on its website, citing “corroborating sources”.

The news was also given Friday by the international Arabic daily Al-Hayat, except that the latter said Hattab had been arrested on September 22, while for Ech-Chourouk he had turned himself in.

Hattab, 40, founded the GSPC almost a decade ago at the instigation of Osama Bin Laden, and his movement was soon put on Washington’s blacklist of terrorist organisations, but he had broken away from the radical Armed Islamic Group when it massacred civilians as well as targetting security forces.

Algeria’s President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, first elected in 1999, introduced a policy of reconciliation and social integration of former guerrillas in a bid to end a conflict that ravaged the north African country from early 1992, after the army intervened to call off a second round of elections the fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) was poised to win.

No full official figures have been released of casualties from that civil war, but a tally compiled from partial security force information and Algerian press reports suggests at least 160,000 people died.

Security chiefs last year stated that only remnants of the “terrorist groups” remained at large, but dozens of people have been killed this year in bomb attacks.

Al Hayat, based in London, reported that Hattab was “arrested on September 22 by the security services” during a day’s end feast with “former guerrillas who had laid down their arms” in the holy fasting month of Ramadan. Under the charter that took effect in 2006 after a September 2005 referendum, ex-fighters who renounce violence can benefit from a pardon.

However, Ech-Cherouk said the GSPC founder — who has been disavowed by members of his movement now calling themselves the Al-Qaeda Branch of the Islamic Maghreb (the north African part of the Arab world) — had arranged to be picked up in the old quarter of Alfiers and taken in after negotiating a deal.

A few days later, he had issued a statement via the Algerian press where he threatened to resume armed struggle on the grounds the “competent authorities” had failed to implement charter terms dropping proceedings against ex-fighters and paying compensation to the families of those killed.

According to unconfirmed reports, Hattab was scheduled to make an appearance on prime-time evening television news at an unspecified date to issue an appeal for an end to all guerilla violence in Algeria.
Explore posts in the same categories: Algeria, Arrests, Muslim on Muslim Violence, Radical Islam

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 29th, 2007

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