Attack in Mumbai -2

[Guest]

Moved 6 posts from Bomb Blasts thread to this thread. Please continue with Headley/Rana affair here.

[Guest]

[url="http://news.rediff.com/report/2009/dec/17/anniversary-26-11-headley-had-plans-to-target-commonwealth-games.htm"]Headley had plans to target Delhi Commonwealth Games[/url] <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

[Guest]

[quote name='Kevat' date='17 December 2009 - 01:14 AM' timestamp='1260992180' post='102996']

I dont understand why an American ends up following a violent path against India for no reason...

[/quote]



He is an American by accident (of birth), everything else indicates he is a proud kafir hating ROP follower/activist, one on crack at that.

[dhu]

[url="http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/21286.asp"]White man's abandoned car with Pakistani signs, Indian city reels with terror[/url]

Jan. 3, 2010

Kolkata goes in bomb panic after finding pakistani signed car abandoned in the street.



The Pakistani marked car was parked near the Indian Museum on the Jawaharlal Nehru Road since Saturday night.



police to broke its window panes to see if there was a bomb inside.



Policemen after braking open the window panes, found a driving licence, documents, books and articles of daily use. An officer said the car owner was an Oxford University student, Alexander Henry Parcel.

[url="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata-/Car-with-Pak-sticker-sparks-panic/articleshow/5407612.cms"]Car with Pak sticker sparks panic[/url]

"Maybe, he had gone to Pakistan sometime back and hired the car there and brought it to India. He has all the proper documents," the officer said.

[url="http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_car-having-lahore-number-plate-found-abandoned-in-busy-area_1330472"]Car having Lahore number plate found abandoned in busy area[/url]

Kolkata: A car, bearing a number plate of Lahore in Pakistan, parked in the no-parking zone in the busy New Market area here has caused a flutter with the police on the trail of the owner.



The car, a Toyota Land Cruiser with number plate L 992 WYZ, and a sticker of Islamabad attached to it, was first noticed by locals in front of the Bible Society of India in the New Market area of central Kolkata last night.



The police, after getting information, broke into the vehicle, and seized the driving license, some documents, books and utensils.



Alexander Henry Parcel of London, the supposed owner of the car, and a student of Anthropology in Oxford University, possibly hired the car from Pakistan and came to India, police said.



Initial investigation revealed that Parcel was looking for an international driving license and passport needed to travel across different countries.



The police is on a lookout for the man.

[Husky]

^ Important.





http://rajeev2004.blogspot.com/2010/01/w...-2611.html

Why did Indian channels not air the 26/11 documentary?

dec 4th, 2009



---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Radha Rajan <





Yes, why? My turn to thump the pulpit. RR



Why did Indian channels not air the 26/11 documentary?

Vivek Balaraman

TheHoot.org

November 18, 2009

http://www.thehoot. org/web/home/ story.php? storyid=4207& pg=1&mod= 1&sectionId= 1&valid=true



For TV channels the Dan Reed documentary is the worst of news. It is

embarrassing and damaging as it shows all too clearly the link between

the media coverage and the actions of the terrorists and their handlers,

says VIVEK BALARAMAN



India's TV channels have a reputation for overstatement and hyperbole.

The ecstatic coverage recently of Sachin Tendulkar reaching the 17000

run milestone (though India lost the match) further underlines this

reputation. And this tendency was given full rein to a little over a

year ago, when channels pumping testosterone and high on adrenaline went

into overdrive providing non-stop 60 hours live orgasmic coverage of the

26th November Mumbai terror attack. I suspect no other event over the

past decade and a half has had as much coverage by Indian media as

26/11.



That is why the media silence that has greeted Dan Reed's explosive

documentary on 26/11 is curious. The 48 minute documentary titled

"Terror in Mumbai - Dispatches" co-produced by Channel 4 and HBO,

consists of interviews with victims, actual CCTV videos of the

terrorists at various sites, video testimony of the captured terrorist

Ajmal Kasab soon after he was nabbed and most chillingly, actual audio

intercepts between the terrorists and their handlers in Pakistan.



It is dynamite. As Irfan Husain, the eminent columnist who saw the

documentary said about it in a column in Dawn, the most chilling part

was the constant voice contact between the terrorists and their

handlers. Talking on cell phones, the controllers urged on their pawns

in Punjabi and Urdu, interspersed with the odd English words and

phrases.



All through the atrocity, the handlers - obviously watching the drama on

TV - keep urging their foot soldiers on, encouraging them by

descriptions of what they are seeing on TV



And when the terrorists are clearly exhausted, the controllers urge them

on: 'Throw some grenades, my brother, there's no harm in throwing a few

grenades. How hard can it be to throw a grenade' Just pull the pin and

throw it. For your mission to end successfully, you must be killed. God

is waiting for you in heaven.'



Given such content, we would have expected that Indian news channels

would be vying with each other to 'exclusively' air this video



We would be wrong.



While the documentary was broadcast in the UK in June 2009, in the

intervening four months no news channel in India has chosen to do so.

Equally curiously, there has not been, to my knowledge, any discussion

about this documentary in the news channels.



Why'



One possibility is that as the matter is sub-judice in India, the

documentary cannot be shown in India. But this stands negated as HBO

have just announced that they will be broadcasting the documentary on

November 19th.



So why this silence'



Perhaps it is because the audio intercepts in the documentary inexorably

lead us to one inference. That the terrorists and their handlers greatly

profited from the live video coverage of the attack by the Indian TV

channels. The handlers, possibly in Pakistan were largely able to follow

minute by minute, site by site, how their operation was going on in

Mumbai, thousands of kilometers away, by merely surfing Indian channels

and could direct their charges holed up inside various sites based on

what they saw on their TV screen. The media acted as the on site eyes

and ears of the handlers and unwittingly helped them attain their goals.



Here for example is a handler directing a terrorist at the Taj Mahal :



Handler: Pile up the carpets and mattresses from the room you have

opened, douse them in alcohol and set it alight. Get a couple of floors

burning.



Terrorist: Ok



After some time the handlers become impatient



Handler: Start the fire now, nothing is going to happen until you start

the fire. When people see the flames they will begin to be afraid.



Terrorist: We are about to. You'll be able to watch the fire in a second



Handler: We can't watch if there aren't any flames. Where are they'



Some time later when some of the sea-facing rooms at the Taj are on

fire, the handler, watching the blaze through live coverage, is

exultant.



Handler: This is the most important target. The media is covering the

target Taj Mahal more than any other



At Chabad House, the Jewish Centre, the handlers watching the still live

coverage warn the terrorists when a helicopter arrives.



Handler: Heli aa gayi hai kya (Has a helicopter arrived')



Terrorist: Yes



Handler: Shoot, shoot



The inference these intercept excerpts suggest is not new. Soon after

26/11 a chorus of voices rose against the media coverage of the

massacre. A market survey of opinion about the coverage by Newswatch

magazine showed that an overwhelming majority of those surveyed also

felt disturbed by the coverage. Over 10,000 people took the online

survey. The survey results are not representative of all opinion but

unambiguous. Most felt that the news channels had been way over the top,

indiscreet, speculative, unquestioning about information they were

getting from various sources, and often seemed to be goading the

government to go to war with Pakistan. They were theatrical in terms of

dramatization of events and use of colorful language, irresponsible in

giving away the locations of guests still hiding in the attack sites,

were obsessed with elitist institutions like the Taj / Oberoi while

ignoring 'common man' sites such as the CST station and the Leopold

Cafe. Those surveyed felt they were intrusive while interviewing

hostages, overemphasized the Pakistani angle while the operations were

still on, obsessed with 'exclusive coverage' while covering the tragedy

and trivialized the issue of terrorism by including celebrities and

non-experts in their 'panels'. As a thumb rule, the regional language

news channels were a lot more hysterical than the English language

media. In the blogsphere too there was outrage such as the well written

critique by Harini Calamur. Another excellent criticism is by Anjali

Deshpande and SK. Pande in The Hoot.



As Deshpande and Pande write (I've masked names of channels and news

anchors since this would focus attention on a few channels or anchors

when almost all were equally culpable ), Channel A continued showing the

operation. It also took us to the scene outside the Trident. There

News-anchor, B spoke to the Deputy Chief Minister RR Patil asking him

for details. She asked him whether there were any Indians among the

hostages. RR Patil said he could not disclose information for it could

affect the security of the people held hostage. Patil also pointed out

that [showing the] firing from outside could give away the direction

from, which security forces were approaching the building. Despite that

the channel showed where the commandos were hiding behind pillars!



Channel C reported on November 27, around 6 P M that the terrorists were

being given updates by people in other countries who are watching TV!

Despite this the live coverage continued uninterrupted and continues

even now.



Meanwhile there were also rumbles in the government that if the media

would not police itself then the government watchdog National

Broadcasting Authority or NBA would.



So unsurprisingly, the heartfelt wish of the media must be to close the

chapter on the media coverage of 26/11 and do nothing to redirect

attention on their role.



[color="#0000FF"]The Dan Reed documentary is thus, for them, the worst of news. It is

embarrassing and damaging as it shows all too clearly the link between

the media coverage and the actions of the terrorists and their handlers.

And it almost casually leaves us with an elephant in the room, viz., the

possibility that lives of hostages and members of the armed forces may

have been lost or endangered on the altar of the fierce competition

between channels for better TRPs and the need for exclusives in the

midst of carnage and human tragedy.[/color]



Posted by nizhal yoddha at 1/04/2010 07:37:00 AM 0 comments Links to this post

[Guest]

[url="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/LeT-gave-Headley-28000-for-Mumbai-terror-preparation/articleshow/5448151.cms"]LeT gave Headley $28,000 for Mumbai terror preparation[/url]



WASHINGTON: Guns, grenades, ammo, some dry fruits and bottled water, and the promise of paradise was all that offered to the ten young men who constituted the Pakistani cannon fodder for the 26/11 attack on Mumbai.



Expatriate Pakistanis who were part of the planning and surveillance cost a whole lot more – in US dollars.



A Federal Grand Jury indictment unsealed in Chicago on Thursday reveals that the Lashkar-e-Taiba bankrolled 26/11 suspect Daood Gilani alias David Coleman Headley to the tune of $ 28,000, including $ 3000 in Indian currency, for his repeated trips to India for surveillance jobs. Gilani/Headley’s LeT handlers also showed him a styrofoam mockup of the Taj Mahal hotel and provided him with a global positioning system device and taught him how to use it to record the locations of possible landing sites and potential targets in Mumbai, which Headley then used during his surveillance trips in April and July 2008, the charges state.



The new details are contained in the indictment formally charging Chicago businessman Tahawwur Hussain Rana with helping his army school mate Daood Gilani alias David Coleman Headley in the Mumbai terror attack and being part of a conspiracy hatched in Pakistan to attack a Danish newspaper that published cartoons of Prophet Mohammed.



Throwing fresh light on the case, the Grand Jury also indicted Ilyas Kashmiri, a former Pakistani special forces commando who authorities allege is a terrorist leader in contact with al Qaeda, and Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, a ''retired'' major in the Pakistani military. Both are believed to be in Pakistan and it was not immediately clear how the U.S intends to proceed against them. Rana and Gilani are in federal custody in Chicago.



The indictment offers new details about the role that the two Pakistani army school buddies are alleged to have played in the 2008 terror assault in Mumbai that killed nearly 170 people and the financial transactions in Pakistan. It says Rana knew of the planned attacks as long ago as 2006, and that he allowed Headley to travel as a representative of his Chicago-based Immigration business when the latter went overseas to scout locations for the

attacks.



But Gilani/Headley’s involvement in terrorism goes even further back to 2002 and 2003 when he allegedly attended terrorism training camps in Pakistan maintained by LeT. According to the charges, unnamed Lashkar Member A, who served as a “handler” for Headley and another person associated with Lashkar, advised Headley in late 2005 that he would be traveling to India to perform surveillance of potential targets. Headley changed his given name of Daood Gilani on Feb. 15, 2006, in Philadelphia, enabling him “to present himself in India as an American who was neither Muslim nor Pakistani,” says the indictment.



In the spring of 2006, Lashkar Member A and a Lashkar associate discussed with Headley the idea that he could open an immigration office in Mumbai as a cover for his surveillance activities. In approximately June 2006, Headley allegedly traveled to Chicago, advised Rana of his assignment to scout potential targets in India, and obtained approval from Rana, who owned First World Immigration Services in Chicago and elsewhere, to open a First World office in Mumbai as cover for his activities.



Rana allegedly directed an individual associated with First World to prepare documents supporting Headley’s cover story of opening a First World office in Mumbai, and advised Headley how to obtain a visa for travel to India. Headley misrepresented his birth name, his father’s true name and the purpose of his travel in his visa application, the indictment alleges.



The indictment says Headley made five extended trips to Mumbai — in September 2006, February and September 2007, and April and July 2008 — each time taking photographs and making videotapes of various potential targets, including those attacked in November 2008, and using his association with First World as cover for his travels. Before each trip, Lashkar members and associates allegedly instructed Headley regarding specific locations where he was to conduct surveillance, and Headley traveled to Pakistan after each trip to meet with Lashkar members and associates, report on the results of his surveillance, and provide the surveillance photos and videos.



US authorities have refrained from naming LeT Member A and other Pakistani associates in the plot in order not to embarrass Islamabad, which is widely seen here as patron of terrorism in all but formal designation. Washington apparently needs Pakistani cooperation, and a toe-hold in Islamabad, to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism there. ana, 49, was indicted on three counts of providing material support to terrorism, including the Mumbai and Denmark plots. He remains held without bail and could face a life term if convicted. Headley, who is also 49, faces 12 counts, including six counts of conspiracy to bomb public places in India. The charges against him could carry the death penalty if he is convicted, but he has been cooperating with investigators since his arrest in Chicago in October in the hope of a reduced sentence.

[Guest]

Key Indian 26/11 suspect identified, says Mumbai Police

According to The Hindu, the Mumbai Police investigators said that they might have identified Indian Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operative who played a key role in guiding the operations of the team that attacked Mumbai in November 26, 2008. Based on information provided by India's intelligence services, as well as interrogation with arrested jihadis, Police believe the Indian national in the LeT's control room could be Syed Zabiuddin Syed Zakiuddin Ansari, a LeT-linked Maharashtra resident, who has been a fugitive since 2005. The unidentified Indian operative was one of several LeT militants who used Voice-Over-Internet Protocol (VOIP) links to provide orders to the assault team. Meanwhile, Indian intelligence agencies said that Ansari, operating out of terrorist camps in Karachi in Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), is a key figure in the jihadi group's plan to realise the threat he ordered the assault team to deliver.



Times of India adds that Mohammad Amjad Khwaja, a militant of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) from Hyderabad has told his interrogators that Abu Jindal was the alias of Syed Zabiuddin Ansari, a LeT operative from Beed in Maharashtra. The name Abu Jindal was earlier revealed by lone arrested militant Kashab during investigation. Ansari alias Abu Jindal, along with several other fugitive jihadis, has been sheltered in Pakistan by the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI)-LeT combine as part of their Karachi project to target India by using its own nationals. Khwaja pointed to Ansari after Police played recordings of the conversation between Jindal and the two militants who had attacked Chabad House in Mumbai

[Guest]

[url="http://www.hindustantimes.com/26-11-accused-s-lawyer-Shahid-Azmi-shot-dead-in-Mumbai/H1-Article1-507795.aspx"]26/11 accused's lawyer shot dead in Mumbai: reports[/url]

Lawyer Shahid Azmi, who is defending one of the key accused in the ongoing 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks trial, was shot dead in his office late this evening, according to media reports.

Police said that some unidentified persons barged into his office in Taximen's Colony in Kurla, a north-eastern Mumbai suburb just before 9 p.m. and opened fire at him.

Azmi was representing Fahim Ansari, an Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) activist, charged with preparing the groundwork to help the perpetrators of the terror attacks.

How this happened? Congress is running state, it is back to criminal enterprise. This is shameful.

[Guest]

Mumbai way to tell lawyer, YOU’RE FIRED !!!!

[dhu]

[url="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/American-national-detained-at-Delhi-airport-for-suspected-terror-links/articleshow/5558880.cms"]American national detained at Delhi airport for suspected terror links[/url]

NEW DELHI: A US national was detained at the Indira Gandhi International airport in New Delhi after a knife was found in his hand baggage duringthe security check while he was leaving for Doha.



The US national, identified as Winston Marshal Carmichael, was detained late last night after CISF personnel found knife in his hand baggage during the security check when he was to leave for Doha in a Qatar Airways flight, official sources said. ( Watch Video )



Reminiscent of the case of terror suspect David Headley, arrested in Chicago in October last for allegedly plotting terror strikes in India, Carmichael is a convert from Christianity to Islam.



The New York resident changed his religion some 40 years ago. Carmichael, who was flying to Doha in a Qatar Airways flight, is being questioned by security agencies and the American Mission had been informed about the same, sources said.



The New York resident had arrived in India for the first time a fortnight ago on a tourist visa and travelled to various parts of the national capital.



Carmichael, who has a tourist visa to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, came here from Pakistan.



He had visited Pakistan and Bangladesh on earlier occasions also.



Delhi Police Special Cell and IB is questioning him. According to airport sources, during the security check CISF found the knife concealed between a herbal plant 'Shilajit'.



He was then handed over to the police.

[Guest]

[url="http://www.hindustantimes.com/26-11-accused-Fahim-Ansari-s-lawyer-shot-dead/H1-Article1-507795.aspx"]26/11 defence lawyer, once outlaw, killed[/url]

“He was under threat,” said Milind Bharambe, deputy commissioner of police.

According to police records, Azmi had been under threat for the last four years after he decided to defend Faizal Sheikh, the alleged mastermind and executor of the July 11, 2006 serial train blasts.

He had lodged a police complaint alleging that the underworld had threatened to eliminate him.



Despite the threat, Azmi was not provided police protection, said Bharambe.

Azmi led a dramatic life. Demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992 and the subsequent riots were a turning point for him. He went to Jammu and Kashmir to seek arms training and express his solidarity to the separatist movement.



He was arrested in 1994 and convicted to five years imprisonment. While lodged at the Tihar jail, he completed his graduation and a post-graduate degree course in journalism and mass communication.



After he served his sentence in 1999, he shifted to Mumbai and studied law. He had since then been practicing at various courts here, including the Bombay High Court.

[Guest]

[url="http://www.hindustantimes.com/Chhota-Rajan-hand-in-26-11-accused-Fahim-Ansari-s-lawyer-killing/H1-Article1-508213.aspx"]Chhota Rajan hand in 26/11 accused Fahim Ansari's lawyer killing?[/url]

A senior case investigator told HT that Azmi was allegedly “bumped off to avenge Dawood gang’s operations chief Chhota Shakeel’s dispatching shooters last year to Delhi and Mumbai, respectively, to kill lawyers representing the BJP’s Varun Gandhi and September 2009 Malegaon blast accused Sadhvi Pragya Thakur.”

Armed men had barged into Azmi’s office at Kurla on Thursday night and gunned him down.

Azmi had also represented July 2006 Mumbai serial train blasts accused Faisal Sheikh.

“On Sunday, similarly, the Rajan gang claimed that they had sent shooters to kill in Nepal Zamim Shah, an agent of the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence), who handled its counterfeit currency trafficking operations in India,” said the officer, requesting anonymity as he is not authorised to talk to media.

Two gunmen had shot Shah four times in Lajimpat, Kathmandu. Indian authorities suspect Shah was killed by Rajan’s confidante, Bharat Nepali, who handles the gang’s drug trafficking and contract.

The latest bout between the two gangs began in July 2009, when Delhi Police’s special cell nabbed seven suspected Shakeel men who were tasked to kill lawyers, Mukul Rohatgi and Siddharth Luthra. The lawyer duo was then representing Varun Gandhi

It means Varun Gandhi is on Dawood Hit list. Congress will let this happen.

[Guest]

Headley was an absolute monster, a terror jackal: Rahul Bhatt

pioneer.com

PTI | Mumbai

Four months after the involvement of American terror suspect David Headley in 26/11 attacks came to light, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt's son Rahul Bhatt is still to come to terms with the "betrayal of faith" by the US national whom he now calls a "terror jackal" and an "absolute monster".



"This incident has shaken me terribly. I have lost faith in everyone. I don't even trust my girlfriend now. I have started suspecting people in my family. I can't trust anymore. I have become like a typical policeman who looks at everyone with suspicion...Its paranoia," says 28-year-old Bhatt.



Bhatt, who is a nutritionist and a fitness professional, said the Headley incident has made him "xenophobic" and he has lost faith in all human relationships. Whatever has happened of late has also made him "wiser", he said.



"I have become a xenophobic... I have stopped trusting people and I am extremely suspicious of foreigners ...It is xenophobia that I have developed. So now, my guard is up and I am in a constant state of awareness and alertness because of the bizarre incident," said Bhatt who was questioned by security agencies after it emerged that Headley had known him during his stay in Mumbai.



To a question about his association with Headley, a sudden agitation is quite evident in Bhatt's voice. "Did I know Headley? The answer is a yes and a no. The David Headley that I knew then was a different man and the David who has now emerged now is a different man...The absolute monster."



Bhatt, a budding actor, said during his conversations with Headley, there was no chance that he could have been doubted of having had any terror links. "My father was making a film on terrorism and I was getting an American perspective from him (Headley).



"He was not just any American. He was an intelligent man. He was a well-informed man. A man with high IQ. And like I said in my dreams I still find it tough to believe that he was not only a terrorist but a terror jackal...And you imagine the betrayal... He turns out to be the terrorist jackal. An absolute monster."



Bhatt, who has been questioned more than twice by National Investigation Agency, probing the role of Headley and his Pakistani-Canadian associate Tahawwur Rana, said that Headley had called him a month after the 26/11 attack.



"A month after 26/11 when he had called me and sounded very concerned. He was a great actor. I would say, imagine the way he fooled me...Acting very concerned whether me and my family members and Vilas (Varak) and his family members are all okay and everything is safe...Yeah, that was one month after 26/11. He made a phone call," recalled Bhatt.



Headley, who was arrested in Chicago on October three last, has been charged by the FBI with conspiracy of 26/11 terror strike in Mumbai

Not sure whether Rahul Bhatt is a actor or jackal.

[Guest]

[url="http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/14-pak-army-officers-suspected-in-mumbai-attacks-zj-04"]Pak Army officers suspected in Mumbai attacks[/url]

ISLAMABAD: A serving Pakistani Army officer has been named in one of the three dossiers handed over by India to Pakistan for his suspected involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks, reports DawnNews.



The dossier has also named another retired Major and two other officers as 'Major Iqbal' and 'Major Samir Ali.



The three dossiers were handed over during the Indo-Pak Foreign secretary level talks.



The role of 'Major Iqbal' is believed to have emerged in the interrogation by the FBI of US terror suspect David Headley, arrested in Chicago in September last year in connection with the Mumbai attack.



India has named eight people, including 'Major Iqbal' and Hafiz Saeed, the leader of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa.

[Guest]

Looong live Malaysia!

[Guest]

[size="6"]Gaddafi calls for jihad against Switzerland[/size]







Libyan leader labels Switzerland an infidel state, escalating vendetta against country whose police once arrested his son.





At a meeting in the city of Benghazi to mark the prophet Muhammad's birthday, Gaddafi described the country as an infidel state that was "destroying" mosques. Last year he urged the UN to abolish Switzerland and divide it between Germany, France and Italy.



"Any Muslim in any part of the world who works with Switzerland is an apostate – is against Muhammad, God and the Qur'an," Gaddafi said.



"There is a big difference between terrorism and jihad, which is a right to armed struggle," he said.





"The masses of Muslims must go to all airports in the Islamic world and prevent any Swiss plane landing, to all harbours and prevent any Swiss ships docking, inspect all shops and markets to stop any Swiss goods being sold," Gaddafi said.



Ohh my choclates....

[Guest]

[size="6"]EU calls for investigation into Bangladesh ethnic violence[/size]







Brussels - The European Union called on Friday for a full investigation into ethnic violence in Bangladesh earlier this month which was allegedly led by government forces. The fighting in parts of the Chittagong Hills Tracts (CHT) over the last week left at least two people dead and 15 injured, with hundreds of homes torched. Soldiers were sent in on Tuesday to quell the violence.



"The EU strongly condemns the acts of violence that took place in the Chittagong Hill Tracts ... The EU is aware of allegations that the incident involved army personnel and labourers employed by the army," Lutz Guellner, spokesman to EU foreign policy director Catherine Ashton, said in a statement.



"The EU calls upon the government of Bangladesh to swiftly and thoroughly follow up with an independent investigation of this incident and of the allegations that the armed forces were involved ... to ensure that the perpetrators of these shameful acts are brought to justice," the statement said.



Fighting broke out on February 19 in the CHT district of Rangamati, apparently in a feud between rival ethnic groups. It spread to the neighbouring Khagrachhari district on Tuesday.



Long-standing animosity exists between indigenous communities and Bengali settlers in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, home to at least 12 ethnic minority groups.



The region was battered by insurgency for more than two decades until a peace deal was inked between the government and the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti, a political platform of the tribal people, in late 1997.



Read more: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/...z0ge6aE6U4

[Guest]

[size="6"]Islamists Play Shell Games with Security[/size]







Despite the countless terror attacks perpetrated by their co-religionists, some Muslims still have the chutzpah to demand that security protocols conform to supposed Islamic sensitivities. But like a typical shell game, every time we think we know which procedures they grudgingly will tolerate, we discover that we have been hoodwinked yet again.





Responding to security measures implemented after the attempt to bomb a plane over Detroit on Christmas Day, CAIR characteristically charged that "the new guidelines, under which anyone traveling from or through 13 Muslim-majority nations will be required to go through enhanced screening techniques before boarding flights, ... amount to religious and ethnic profiling." CAIR's proposed alternative: "First look at behavior, not at faith or skin color. Then spend what it takes to obtain more bomb-sniffing dogs, to install more sophisticated bomb-detection equipment, and to train security personnel in identifying the behavior of real terror suspects."





Scrutinizing behavior. Consider the "flying imams" imbroglio, where six Muslims who seemed to exhibit "the behavior of real terror suspects" were removed from a plane before takeoff in 2006. Passengers and crew members became alarmed when the men spoke loudly in Arabic, refused to sit in assigned seats, and requested unneeded seatbelt extenders. How did CAIR respond? By alleging religious discrimination and suing everyone in sight - with some success. True, the imams were fingered originally by alert citizens rather than dedicated security officers. But should we believe that CAIR's reaction would have been different otherwise?





Bomb-sniffing dogs. Given that some Muslims see dogs as unclean, using them for security purposes often provokes Islamist criticism. Britain has experienced a litany of canine controversies, while a prominent Canadian Muslim recently voiced concerns about dogs patrolling Vancouver. The issue of police dogs also arose when a Detroit-based radical imam was killed in an October FBI raid. According to the Detroit News, the attorney representing his widow "said it was needlessly confrontational to send a dog after Abdullah because Muslims view dogs as unclean and anyone attacked by a dog could react violently"; an FBI canine was shot dead by the imam. How long until bomb-sniffing dogs in U.S. airports face objections?











Bomb-detection equipment. Body scanners are about as sophisticated as it gets, but now we know that these, too, run afoul of Islamist sensibilities. "The Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA) emphasizes that a general and public use of such scanners is against the teachings of Islam, natural law, and all religions and cultures that stand for decency and modesty," the group explains in a fatwa issued on February 9. CAIR, which had championed "sophisticated bomb-detection equipment" just a month earlier, backed the ruling.



The shell game continues, with the Fiqh Council offering yet another idea: "FCNA appreciates the alternate provision of pat-down search" and advises Muslims to avail themselves of this option over the body scanners. After all, no Muslims balk at being touched, right?



Its called al taqiya or deception a la sharia!

[Guest]

[size="6"]Ten Obvious Reasons Why

Islam is NOT a Religion of Peace[/size]









#1 14,000 deadly terror attacks committed explicitly in the name of Islam in just the last eight years.





#2 Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, had people killed for insulting him or criticizing his religion. This included women. Muslims are told to emulate the example of Muhammad.





#3

Muhammad said in many places that he has been "ordered by Allah to fight men until they testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is his messenger." In the last nine years of his life, he ordered no less than 65 military campaigns to do exactly that.



Muhammad inspired his men to war with the basest of motives, using captured loot, sex and a gluttonous paradise as incentives. He beheaded captives, enslaved children and raped women captured in battle. Again, Muslims are told to emulate the example of Muhammad.







#4

After Muhammad died, the people who lived with him, and knew his religion best, immediately fell into war with each other.



Muhammad's favorite daughter, Fatima, and her husband, Ali (the second convert to Islam, who was raised like a son to Muhammad) fought a war against an army raised by Aisha, Muhammad's favorite wife - and one whom he had said was the "perfect woman."



Not only was her husband, Ali, eventually murdered, but Fatima (who survived the early years at Mecca safe and sound) died of stress from the persecution of fellow Muslims only three months after her father died.



Three of the first four Muslim rulers (caliphs) were murdered. All of them were among Muhammad's closest companions. The third caliph was killed by the son of the first. The fourth caliph was killed by the fifth, who subsequently poisoned one of Muhammad's two favorite grandsons. Muhammad's other grandson was later beheaded by the sixth caliph.



Even these high profile killings barely do justice to the astonishing level of violence taking place at the time, in which tens of thousands of believers were slaughtered by Muhammad's companions and their children in the infighting and power struggles. Within 50 short years of Muhammad's death, even the Kaaba, which had stood for centuries under pagan religion, lay in ruins from internal Muslim war.



And that's just the fate of those within the house of Islam!







#5 Muhammad directed Muslims to wage war on other religions and bring them under submission to Islam. Within the first few decades following his death, his Arabian companions invaded and conquered Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and Zoroastrian lands.

A mere 25 years after Muhammad's death, Muslim armies had captured land and people within the borders of over 28 modern countries outside of Saudi Arabia.







#6

Muslims continued their Jihad against other religions for 1400 years, checked only by the ability of non-Muslims to defend themselves. To this day, not a week goes by that Islamic fundamentalists do not attempt to kill Christians, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists explicitly in the name of Allah.



None of these other religions are at war with each other.







#7 Islam is the only religion that has to retain its membership by threatening to kill anyone who leaves. This is according to the example set by Muhammad.





#8 Islam teaches that non-Muslims are less than fully human. Muhammad said that Muslims can be put to death for murder, but that a Muslim could never be put to death for killing a non-Muslim.





#9



The Qur'an never once speaks of Allah's love for non-Muslims, but it speaks of Allah's cruelty toward and hatred of non-Muslims more than 500 times.





#10

"Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!"

(The last words from the cockpit of Flight 93)

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[size="6"]Must see silent video on burqa![/size]







http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZwC-VH8OnI