Threat Matrix: February 2008

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[nwctwx]

Is the U.S. Failing in Afghanistan?

It was malice in wonderland at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday as Bush Administration envoys insisted things are getting better in Afghanistan, while angry lawmakers from both parties cited facts and figures showing just the opposite. Even the senior Republican on the panel, Senator Richard Lugar, found the Administration's claims wanting. "I'm not sure that we have a plan for Afghanistan," he said.

Long seen as the "forgotten war" eclipsed by Iraq in U.S. priorities, Afghanistan is in the Washington spotlight this week with the release of three independent reports concluding that without a change in U.S. policy there, the erstwhile sanctuary of Osama bin Laden would remain a failed state. Read More

	Why the Taliban Feel Confident
	Top US Officer Lauds al-Qaida Death
	US Air Strike Signals al-Qaida Onslaught

Threat Matrix:
February 2008

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[Godzilla]

Although it is from that ‘site that is not to be named’, provides more linkage to Florida and the terror base there. IIRC, the 911 terrorists were living there before going to the northeast for the attack.

[MamaDearest]

Thanks for the Philippines link Oorang. Our troops said adios in 1992 and it's gone severely downhill since.

Dallas police website hacked, defaced

The Dallas Police Department Web site was shut down Monday night after a hacker took over the site with anti-American rants.

Whoever hacked into the site also posted a doctored photograph showing American troops watching over four people lined up against a wall.

Each of the four prisoners had lines leading away from their faces to individual head shots of President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Sen. John McCain, according to Dallas-Fort Worth television station KTVT.

[Donna Lee Nardo]

Thank you, Oorang.

It has been relatively quiet in Israel. It never lasts very long though.

[Cindy]

Fyi Only.

Note: Photos included.

http://www.startribune.com/local/15776642.html
“4 students killed in bus crash near Cottonwood”

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “The cause of the crash was unclear late Tuesday.”

[Cindy]

Taking a break and watching videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoDVrZaa-Tw

[texpat72]

Wow!

[Cindy]

Yes.

[Cindy]

I SUPPORT OUR TROOPS.

Time out for this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwY67LYzH7Q

“New US Marine Corps Commercial — Official Extended Version”
(Added January 16, 2008)

[texpat72]

I love that! My Dad was a Marine. I love their dress blue uniforms. I’ve never seen them with the white pants before.

[Cindy]

Yes, it was great.

My husband was in the 82nd Airborne and father-in-law was a bombardier in WWII.

I appreciate all who have served, are serving and will serve our country.

[Cindy]

Link Set Updated:

WESTERN RESISTANCE.com - blog: "UK: HOW MUSLIM BEHEADING PLOTTER TAUGHT HIS CHILDREN TO HATE" (February 18, 2008)

JIHAD WATCH.org (TELEGRAPH.co.uk): "UK JIHADIST TAUGHT FIVE-YEAR-OLD SON: 'Kuffar -- kill! Sheikh Osama bin Laden I love'" (February 18, 2008)

[Cindy]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=norway

#

blog:

http://www.westernresistance.com/blog/archives/003988.html

February 19, 2008
“Norway: Islamic Radicalism a ‘Significant Challenge’”

[Cindy]

Travel.State.Gov - Country Specific Information: “NORWAY”
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_990.html

[Cindy]

Fyi Only.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1973202/posts

“7.5 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Sumatra, Indonesia: Tsunami Warning Issued”
USGS ^ | 20 Feb 2008 | US GS
Posted on 02/20/2008 12:39:26 AM PST by Alter Kaker

[Cindy]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080220/FOREIGN/435014368/1001

“U.S. presses N. Korea on Syria”
By Nicholas Kralev
February 20, 2008

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “The United States, alarmed by mounting evidence that North Korea gave nuclear assistance to Syria, has rejected pressure from some of its partners in six-nation talks to compromise on an overdue declaration of Pyongyang’s nuclear activities, U.S. officials said yesterday.

The declaration, which was due at the end of December, would complete the second phase of an October deal aimed at denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and clear the way for promised political and economic benefits to the communist state.”

[Cindy]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080219/wl_afp/australiaattacksjusticetrial

T”error suspects discussed killing Australian PM, court told”
Tue Feb 19, 2:23 AM ET

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “MELBOURNE (AFP) - Members of a group of Muslim men who allegedly formed a terrorist cell in Australia discussed killing the then prime minister John Howard in 2004, a court heard Tuesday.

Prosecutors said two of the 12 men allegedly involved in the Melbourne-based group raised the possibility of killing Howard in September 2004, when they were discussing what actions were permitted under the Koran.

They said secretly-recorded conversations revealed that group member Abdullah Merhi asked the leader, cleric Abdul Nacer Benbrika: “If John Howard kills innocent families... Muslims, do we have to kill him?”

The prosecution said Merhi also asked if an attack on the Australian government would be wrong if it was aimed at forcing the withdrawal of the country’s troops from Iraq.

Benbrika did not give a direct reply to either question, simply saying he was passing on Allah’s teaching, according to tapes played to the court.

Benbrika allegedly then goes on to suggest the group “do a big thing”, adding” “You shouldn’t kill just one, two or three.””

[Cindy]

A Look at More Than Cartoons
http://www.truthusa.com/MoreThanCartoons.html

#

Note: The following post is a quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1973205/posts

Threatened Danish cartoonist told to leave hotel
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/europe/news/article_1391875.php/Threatened_Danish_cartoonist_told_to_leave_hotel ^
Posted on 02/20/2008 1:26:11 AM PST by marthemaria
Copenhagen - Threatened Danish newspaper cartoonist Kurt Westergaard has been asked to leave the hotel he has been staying at, media reports said Tuesday.

‘I suspected this could happen,’ Westergaard told the Berlingske Tidende newspaper after the hotel management asked him and his wife to leave by Thursday, citing fears for the safety of other guests.

Westergaard’s depiction of the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his turban was one of 12 published in newspapers that sparked violent protests in 2006 by Muslims around in the world.

A week ago, security police said they uncovered an alleged plot to murder Westergaard and arrested three men in the city of Aarhus. Two Tunisian nationals face deportation.

Acting on advice from police, the cartoonist has since November lived at secret locations over the alleged plot.

Leading Danish newspapers on Wednesday republished the cartoon in what was said to be a stand for freedom of expression.

[Cindy]

Ding dong....We have a STUCK ON STUPID award winner:

Note: The following post is a quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1973207/posts

Al-Sadr Threatens to Lift Cease-Fire
AP via brietbart ^ | Feb 20, 2008 | QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
Posted on 02/20/2008 1:39:43 AM PST by Jet Jaguar

BAGHDAD (AP) - Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has threatened to lift by the end of the week a six-month cease-fire widely credited with helping reduce violence in Iraq, officials said Wednesday.

Sheik Salah al-Obeidi, a spokesman for al-Sadr in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, said that if the cleric failed to issue a statement by Saturday saying that the cease-fire was extended “then that means the freeze is over.”

The cease fire was declared in August and due to expire at this month’s end.

Al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army is among the most powerful militias in Iraq. The crux of the message being sent by the organization was that al-Sadr followers would be free to resume their activities if no message was sent by the cleric on Feb. 23.

According to al-Obeidi, this “has been conveyed to all Mahdi Army members nationwide.”

The threat was confirmed by another al-Sadr official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The U.S. military has welcomed the cease-fire, saying it is a major factor in the estimated 60 percent decline in violence in the country in the second half of 2007.

But the military has insisted on continuing to stage raids against what it calls Iranian-backed breakaway factions of the Mahdi Army militia, and anger among the cleric’s followers has been building.

Influential members of al-Sadr’s movement said recently that they had urged the anti-U.S. cleric to call off the cease-fire when it expires.

Al-Sadr’s followers claim the U.S.-Iraqi raids, particularly in the southern Shiite cities of Diwaniyah, Basra and Karbala, are a pretext to crack down on the wider movement.

The maverick cleric announced earlier this month that he would not renew the order unless the Iraqi government purges “criminal gangs” operating within security forces he claims are targeting his followers.

That was a reference to rival Shiite militiamen from the Badr Brigade who have infiltrated security forces participating in the ongoing crackdown. The Badr Brigade and the Mahdi Army also are involved in a violent power struggle for control of the oil-rich south.

[Cindy]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=china

#

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1973220/posts

“China can effectively detect and trail F22 now?”
http://www.indiandefenceforum.com/index.php/topic,2368.460.html ^ | Feb,20,2008 | badguy2000
Posted on 02/20/2008 2:22:27 AM PST by badguy2200