`The House lawmaker in charge of defense spending said Friday that he intends to force the closure of the Guantánamo Bay military prison and curb U.S. engagement in Iraq, and that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “absolutely” supports his efforts. [..]
He said the best way to control what course the war takes is for Congress to attach conditions to war-spending bills, because Bush is unlikely to veto a bill that provides money to keep fighting.
The Guant�namo military prison, where prisoners have been held without charges and abused, need to be closed to restore U.S. credibility, Murtha said.’
`The U.S. Embassy in Athens was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade Friday morning, said top metropolitan police officer Asimakis Golfis.
U.S. Ambassador Charles Ries said the explosion injured no one and caused minimal damage, but was still being treated as a “very serious attack.”
The entire compound in downtown Athens is a crime scene, he told reporters.
Greek counterterrorism authorities and U.S. officials are working to uncover who is behind the attack, Ries said.’
This is a recording of a phone call between someone trapped in the World Trade Center and a 911 operator. The building actually collapses during the phone call.
Well, at the end of the phone call, actually. [shrug]
see it here »
`Helicopter gunships attacked suspected al Qaeda fighters in the south Tuesday after U.S. forces staged airstrikes in the first offensive in the African country since 18 American soldiers were killed there in 1993, witnesses said.
Witnesses said 31 civilians, including two newlyweds, died in the assault by two helicopters near Afmadow, a town in an area of forested hills close to the Kenyan border 220 miles southwest of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. The report could not be independently verified.
A Somali Defense Ministry official described the helicopters as American, but the local witnesses told The Associated Press they could not make out identification markings on the craft. Washington officials had no comment.’
`The Bush administration is expected to announce next week a major step forward in the building of the country’s first new nuclear warhead in nearly two decades. It will propose combining elements of competing designs from two weapons laboratories in an approach that some experts argue is untested and risky.
The new weapon would not add to but replace the nation’s existing arsenal of aging warheads, with a new generation meant to be sturdier, more reliable, safer from accidental detonation and more secure from theft by terrorists.’
`The Pentagon plans no action as a result of a newly released FBI report on detainee abuse at the Guantanamo Bay military prison, a spokesman said today, asserting there is nothing new in the report.
“The idea that this is new is misguided and misleading,” said Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman.
“These are things the department has thoroughly investigated and where allegations have been substantiated, disciplinary action has been taken,” he said.’
Followup to: FBI: Workers saw prisoner abuse at Guantanamo
`The FBI on Tuesday released documents showing at least 26 of the agency’s employees witnessed aggressive mistreatment and harsh interrogation techniques of prisoners by other government agencies or outside contractors at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
“On several occasions witnesses saw detainees in interrogation rooms chained hand and foot in fetal position to floor with no chair/food/water; most urinated or defecated on selves and were left there 18, 24 hours or more,” according to one FBI account made public.
One FBI witness saw a detainee “shaking with cold,” while another noted a detainee in a sweltering unventilated room was “almost unconscious on a floor with a pile of hair next to him (he had apparently been pulling it out through the night).”
Another witness saw a detainee “with a full beard whose head was wrapped in duct tape.”‘
`Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson predicted Tuesday a horrific terrorist act on the United States that will result in “mass killing” late in 2007.
“I’m not necessarily saying it’s going to be nuclear,” he said during his news-and-talk television show “The 700 Club” on the Christian Broadcasting Network. “The Lord didn’t say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that.”
Robertson said God told him during a recent prayer retreat that major cities and possibly millions of people will be affected by the attack, which should take place sometime after September.
“I put these things out with humility,” he said.’
God told me that Pat Robertson is a fuckwit. I say this, of course, with the utmost humility.
Update: video of this here – Pat Robertson’s Predictions for 2007
`The Defence Department is investigating why a rocket launcher was found by a man at a rubbish tip in central Queensland.
James Maloney said he bought the rocket launcher for $2 at the recycling centre for the tip at Yeppoon, near Rockhampton.
“I work in the local theatre restaurant and wanted to use it as a stage prop,” Mr Maloney said.
“But I read in the local paper about the army misplacing rocket launchers and they were worried about them getting in the hands of terrorists, so I thought it might be a good idea I gave it back to the authorities.’
`It’s Saturday night in Middlesbrough, England, and drunken university students are celebrating the start of the school year, known as Freshers’ Week.
One picks up a traffic cone and runs down the street. Suddenly, a disembodied voice booms out from above:
“You in the black jacket! Yes, you! Put it back!” The confused student obeys as his friends look bewildered.
“People are shocked when they hear the cameras talk, but when they see everyone else looking at them, they feel a twinge of conscience and comply,” said Mike Clark, a spokesman for Middlesbrough Council who recounted the incident. The city has placed speakers in its cameras, allowing operators to chastise miscreants who drop coffee cups, ride bicycles too fast or fight outside bars.’
`A documentary says French special forces had Osama bin Laden in their sights twice about three years ago but their U.S. superiors never ordered them to fire.
The French military, however, said that the incidents never happened and the report was “erroneous information.”
The documentary, due to air next year and seen by Reuters on Tuesday, says the troops could have killed the al Qaeda leader in
Afghanistan but the order to shoot never came, possibly because it took too long to request it.
“In 2003 and 2004 we had bin Laden in our sights. The sniper said ‘I have bin Laden’,” an anonymous French soldier is quoted as saying.’
`In early December, defense lawyers acting for Jose Padilla, a US citizen detained as an “enemy combatant,” released a video showing a mission fraught with deadly risk — taking him to the prison dentist. A group of masked guards in riot gear shackled his legs and hands, blindfolded him with black-out goggles and shut off his hearing with headphones, then marched him down the prison corridor.
Is Padilla really that dangerous? Far from it: his warders describe him as so docile and inactive that he could be mistaken for “a piece of furniture.” The purpose of these measures appeared to be to sustain the regime under which he had lived for over three years: total sensory deprivation. He had been kept in a blacked-out cell, unable to see or hear anything beyond it. Most importantly, he had no human contact, except for being bounced off the walls from time to time by his interrogators. As a result, he appears to have lost his mind. I don’t mean this metaphorically. I mean that his mind is no longer there.’
`The screams were louder than the roar of the engines when more than 100 passengers on board a Saudi plane fought off an invasion by 80 stowaways: mice.
Al-Hayat newspaper reported on Friday that the mice escaped from the bag of a traveler on the internal Saudi Arabian Airlines flight and started falling on the heads and scurrying between the feet of panic-stricken passengers.’
This guy is even worse than the pickle woman. He runs like a motherfucker at the merest sight of a peach.
(6.9meg Windows media)
see it here »
`An Australian was barred from a London-Melbourne flight unless he removed a T-shirt depicting George Bush as the world’s number one terrorist.
Allen Jasson was also prevented from catching a connecting flight within Australia later the same day unless he removed the offending T-shirt.
Mr Jasson says Qantas and Virgin Blue were engaging in censorship but the airlines say the T-shirt was a security issue and could affect the sensitivities of other passengers.’
`An Illinois man plotted to set off hand grenades at a Chicago-area shopping mall in a holiday season terror campaign that was thwarted by federal investigators. According to an FBI affidavit, Derrick Shareef, 22, told a confidential source that he wanted to “commit violent acts of jihad,” and spoke of killing judges and blowing up public buildings. A copy of the affidavit can be found below. Shareef told the snitch that he sought “to disrupt Christmas,” adding that, “I swear by Allah man, I’m down for it too, I’m down for the cause, I’m down to live for the cause and die for the cause, man.”‘
`A student activist who pounded a placard depicting the Prime Minister with water bombs has been accused of breaching terrorism laws.
Police investigated Jessica Moore, the president of the Wollongong University students’ association, after a caller to the national security hotline reported she had organised the protest in support of Hamas, the Palestinian party whose military wing is on a list of terrorist organisations.
But Ms Moore, an anti-war activist and member of the Socialist Alliance, said the protest was against homophobia and had nothing to do with Hamas. About 20 students had gathered on a university lawn where posters reading “Target homophobia. Take out the Libs”, were on display.’
`Without their knowledge, millions of Americans and foreigners crossing U.S. borders in the past four years have been assigned scores generated by government computers rating the risk that the travelers are terrorists or criminals.
The travelers are not allowed to see or directly challenge these risk assessments, which the government intends to keep on file for 40 years.
The government calls the system critical to national security following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Some privacy advocates call it one of the most intrusive and risky schemes yet mounted in the name of anti-terrorism efforts.’
`A couple’s ill-concealed sexual play aboard a Southwest Airlines flight from Los Angeles got them charged with violating the Patriot Act, intended for terrorist acts, and could land them in jail for 20 years.
According to their indictment, Carl Persing and Dawn Sewell were allegedly snuggling and kissing inappropriately, “making other passengers uncomfortable,” when a flight attendant asked them to stop. [..]
They have been placed under legal surveillance until their trial on February 5. If found guilty, they both could be sent to jail for up to 20 years.’
`Wal-Mart is making life difficult for Oscar Brufani, a 52-year-old man who makes his living delivering potato chips in Buenos Aires. One of the corporation’s store managers thinks he looks like Osama bin Laden — and won’t let him come near her store.
“You can’t work here anymore. Orders from upstairs,” the store manager said when she finally arrived at the car park, Brufani remembers. He asked whether he had done anything wrong, and she told him no — the problem was his beard. “The controllers think you look like Osama bin Laden. If you appear on any of the images recorded by the security cameras, I’ll lose my job.”‘
`Prosecutors in the Madrid train bombing case will seek prison terms of about 38,000 years for each of the seven prime defendants in the trial due to start next February, according to a prosecution order released Monday and viewed by CNN. [..]
The sentences sought were calculated based on murder charges against the seven prime defendants for each of the 191 people who died in the attacks on Madrid commuter trains on March 11, 2004, and also for the attempted murders of the 1,824 others who were wounded, the 232-page prosecution order said.
The trial is expected to last for months. The defendants — if convicted of all the charges — would serve only a maximum of 40 years in prison, under Spanish law, which prohibits the death penalty, the prosecution said.’
`A Boston film student trying to recreate an armed sequence from the film, “The Matrix,” instead created a full-blown terror response and faces charges.
Police received a 911 call about people dressed in camouflage and wearing masks on an apartment rooftop, pointing guns toward the street.
Alex Stinson, a 21-year-old student at the New England Institute of Art and three others were arrested and six other people were being sought, the Boston Globe said.’
`A Little Rock man whose SUV was cut off in traffic was arrested after he allegedly shot at a motorist with a crossbow following a brief chase. “It was a drive-by crossbow shooting,” said Steve Gilgenbach, a pitcher for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock baseball team who said he was the man’s intended target. “I’ve never been shot at by a crossbow before.”
Wayne Allen Dierks Jr., 26, posted bail after his arrest Sunday on charges of committing a terroristic act, possession of an instrument of crime, driving while intoxicated and driving on a suspended driver’s license. Committing a terroristic act is a felony; the other charges are misdemeanors. An arraignment was set for Oct. 25.’
Good old terroristic acts.
`In a jail cell at an immigration detention center in Arizona sits a man who is not charged with a crime, not suspected of a crime, not considered a danger to society.
But he has been in custody for five years.
His name is Ali Partovi. And according to the Department of
Homeland Security, he is the last to be held of about 1,200 Arab and Muslim men swept up by authorities in the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
There has been no full accounting of all of these individuals. Nor has a promised federal policy to protect against unrestricted sweeps been produced.’
`The Iraq war is a “cause celebre” swelling the ranks of Islamist terrorists, who are likely to grow in numbers for the next five years, a newly declassified US intelligence report has said.
The National Intelligence Estimate, which represents the consensus of the 16 US spy agencies, said the US-led campaign since September 11, 2001, had significantly hurt al Qaeda, but that extermists were nevertheless growing in number across the world.
It said this would lead to “increasing attacks worldwide” for the next five years.’
`For the first time, US President George W. Bush has confirmed the existence of secret CIA prisons around the world, defending the program as well as “tough” interrogation procedures. [..]
Human rights groups have branded the administration’s “tough” interrogation techniques as torture and European Union MPs claim the CIA has conducted covert flights around Europe to transport terror suspects to countries where they could face torture.
Mr Bush stressed that the US does not use torture, claiming “it’s against our laws and it’s against our values”. He would not detail the type of interrogation techniques that are used through the program, but said they were lawful.
“I can say the procedures were tough, and they were safe, and lawful, and necessary,” he said.’
`It all started when I got out of my seat to go to the bathroom. I went to the bathroom, washed my hands, and returned to my seat. A little while later the two stewardesses on the flight crossed each other in the aisle. They had a quick conversation that I was in earshot of. [..]
So now I’m starting to realize that this is turning into a big problem. They offer their condolences, tell me that it’s unfortunate, and I take a seat. Okay. So far, not so bad. I return to my seat and spend the rest of the flight trying to act normal.
That is, right up until the pilot comes over the intercom.’
`Madin Azad Amin was intending to travel to Turkey with his mother when he was stopped by officials on August 16 after they spotted a grenade-like object in Mr Amin’s baggage, said AP.
Rather explaining the nature of the item in front of his mother, Mr Amin told the officials it was a bomb.
The item was in fact a section of a penis pump, AP reported Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Lorraine Scaduto as having said.
`In this day and time when terrorism is a threat, you just can’t be too careful.
A suspicious-looking black bag was sitting close to 20,000 gallons of jet fuel at the Somerset Airport Tuesday, prompting an employee to dial 911.
Airport Manager Ron Swartz looked at the bag through binoculars and said he couldn’t spot anything that would help identify it. Somerset Police officers responded to the scene, and after carefully approaching the black bag, opted to peek inside.
Fortunately, the only thing nefarious about the bag was its odor. The contents included a vomit-stained shirt and some empty beer cans.’
