Archive for August 5th, 2008
Renewed terrorism in Algeria
Sunday’s bombing in Tizi Ouzou underlines Algeria’s inability to effectively stamp out terrorism. Algerian security services have improved their counter-terrorism tactics since the 1990s but formation of the group Al Qaeda in the Maghreb in 2006 has reinvigorated terrorism across the country despite increased police raids and the stricter control of chemicals used in bomb making.
Just ten days ago, Algerian authorities promised to completely secure the city of Tizi Ouzou by 2009. But after Sunday’s suicide bombing these promises sound hollow. The attack targeted a police station in the city and 25 people were wounded in the blast.
Algeria has improved its counter-terrorism strategy since the 1990s but the security services are now dealing with a reinvigorated enemy. In 2006 the Algerian terrorist group GSPC pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda, to become Al Qaeda in the Maghreb.
France 24 | Algerian authorities face renewed terrorism | France 24.
Technorati Tags: Al-Qaeda+for+an+Islamic+Maghreb, Al-Qaeda+in+the+Maghreb, Algeria, GSPC, Islamism, terrorism
Al-Qaida figure eludes Kenya capture
Police narrowly missed capturing a wanted al-Qaida leader in Kenya during the weekend and are conducting an intense manhunt for him, officials said.
The fugitive, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, is accused of planning the 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 250 people, the BBC reported Monday. The broadcaster said Mohammed barely evaded a police raid at the coastal town of Malindi, where three people were arrested for allegedly harboring him.
The United States has offered a $5 million reward for information leading to Mohammed’s arrest.
Al-Qaida figure eludes Kenya capture – UPI.com.
Three people have been charged in the operation he fled from:
Fazul Abdullah Mohammed escaped arrest during a police operation in the coastal town of Malindi Saturday in which police seized two other suspects. The wife of one of the suspects was arrested a day later.
The three denied the charge before a court in Kenya’s port town of Mombasa and were remanded until Friday.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn is dead
I am really sorry but not for him: I am sorry for the world. He really was a dissident, someone who fought totalitarianism, Stalin’s dictatorship and Siberian Gulags. He confronted anyone who he believed was not a freedom supporter and that has had its price on his life and even on his consideration in society.
Be in peace and pray for the rest: I am sure he is awaited by a peaceful and glorious eternity.
Having experienced the crimes of Stalinism at first hand, he exposed them in both fiction and factual form. “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”, published in 1962, gave Soviet citizens their first opportunity to read about the brutality, squalor, humiliation and fear of daily life in a prison camp, all told in the matter-of-fact style of a Russian folk tale. “The Gulag Archipelago” described the system, its tortures, rules and subculture, in relentless, gruesome, encyclopedic form. Modern scholars, able to research the subject with a freedom that Mr Solzhenitsyn could never have dreamed of, say it is astonishingly accurate.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn | An icon of his age | Economist.com.
Technorati Tags: Alexander+Solzhenitsyn, One+day+in+the+life+of+Ivan+Denisovich, Russia, The+Gulag+Archipelago
China: 16 policemen killed while they were jogging by Uighur terrorists
In an audacious and deadly attack just days ahead of the Beijing Olympics, two men from a mainly Muslim ethnic group rammed a truck and hurled explosives at jogging policemen in China’s restive far west Monday, killing 16.
Attack kills 16 police days before the Olympics – Yahoo! News.
The attack took place near the Afghan-Pakistani border and it has renewed the fear of more attacks during the Olympic Games. But there is the idea that Communist authorities are using the terrorist threat to rise the censorship over internet and information in general. And of course, to crack down the Uighur minority:
About 300 Uighur, and Tibetan residents in Japan and their supporters march in protest against the Bejing Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, Sunday, Aug. 3, 2008.(Shizuo Kambayashi/AP PHoto)
In recent months, the Chinese government has implemented broad restrictions on religious activities, movement, and speech on the Muslim Uighur minority, human rights groups say. Police have arrested 82 individuals for allegedly plotting an attack at the Games, and the Chinese government publicly executed three accused militants. Chinese police have also conducted house-to-house searches near the traditionally Uighur city of Gulja (Yining in Chinese), a center for opposition to Chinese rule, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported in July. Police denied that they were targeting any specific population, just “specific areas,” an officer told RFA.
Do you see the flag in the photo? It’s a Turkish flag (or so it looks). What’s doing a Turkish flag in a demonstration of Uighurs and Tibetans against the Olypmic Games? Well it has its reason: Uighurs are “turcophones”, that is, their language is Turkish:
The police after arresting the two Uighurs (terrorists) have proceeded to block the highways and to isolate the area situated in the frontier with Tajikijstan (4 thousand miles from Peking). Those are measured needed for China, who, after this episode, must show the power to maintain under its control the dissidents and possible terrorist attacks during the Olympics.
Peking is really worried about the possible attacks that the turcophone minority can make to boycott the Olympics through terrorism.
(…)Today, four days before the beginning of the Olympic games, the Chinese authorities attribute the attack to the separatists of Etim (Islamic movement of Oriental Turkestan).
This was not however the only problem in China today:
On Monday, about 20 people evicted from their homes for urban renewal projects staged a small demonstration a few blocks from Tiananmen Square only to be surrounded by police.
“We don’t oppose the Olympics. But it’s wrong for them to demolish our house. It’s wrong,” said Liu Fumei, who scuffled with women from the government-backed neighborhood committee who pulled Liu and the other protesters away..
Technorati Tags: China, Communism, Gulja, Olympic+Games, terrorism, Tiananmen, Square, Turkophones, Uighur, minority, Yining
Spanish police finds AlQaeda’s manual
Or so it seems as there is no official statement supporting or denying the matter because neither police nor Ministery of Interior aren’t in conditions to do that:
How to make a car bomb or to explode a bomb from a distance against the international forces in Lebanon and Afghanistan. This is the “manual of the perfect Al-Qaedist” which has been found in internet by the Spanish police. It has been annuonced by Cadena Ser.
According to police sources quoted by the radio, the manual for the sleeping cells in Al-Qaeda in Europe has eight pages and has been written in last June.
The radio has also added that the manual also describes how to hit “the military structure of the enemies of Islam” without using suicide terrorists. In particular, it’s explained how to guide a car with a remote control without the need of a kamikaze.
TERRORISMO: POLIZIA SPAGNOLA TROVA SU INTERNET MANUALE AL-QAEDA – Agenzia di stampa Asca.
Technorati Tags: Al-Qaeda, Islamism, Jihad, Jihadism, Spain, terrorism
Two French hostages released in Afghanistan
An aid group said on Saturday that two French humanitarian aid workers kidnapped in Afghanistan last month have been released.
The Paris-based Action Against Hunger said in a statement that the two hostages are “apparently healthy” and will be sent back to France soon.
No further details of the release were given. There are reports saying that the release was done without payment of ransom.
The two aid workers were taken by unidentified gunmen in the Afghan province of Day Kundi on July 18.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy expressed his relief at the release.
France currently has about 1,500 troops in Afghanistan. More soldiers were pledged by the French leader to help the country to maintain peace.
Two French hostages released in Afghanistan_English_Xinhua.
These are good news indeed.
Technorati Tags: Action+Against+Hunger, Afghanistan, France, Islamism, Jihadism, Sarkozy, Taliban
Arrest made in Suzan Tamim murder case
Well, when the murderer is arrested and speaks about the reasons he had to killing her so viciously, we will see if this was an honor killing or not.
According to a source close to the investigation, a 23 year-old British man of Iraqi origin was arrested in Dubai on July 31. While he has initially been detained for a period of one week, it is understood that this could be extended.
Police refused to comment on Monday, saying there were no updates available on the investigation.
Arrest made in Suzan Tamim murder case – Culture & Leisure – ArabianBusiness.com.
Meanwhile her father has stated that she was killed by a hired hitman:
Before his arrival in Dubai, Tamim told Arabia TV that he had a telephone conversation with his daughter before her death and that she had disclosed some important information to him which could lead to the arrest of the murderer.
He said his daughter was not killed over any financial dispute, somebody wanted to take revenge and hired someone to kill her. He said that he will hand over some documents to the police, and called on the UAE authorities to speed up the investigation.
Technorati Tags: Dubai, honor+killing, Suzan+Tamim, UAE
