Not a lot of details, but pretty wicked. Via Weasel Zippers :
Read the original post:
Drone Strike Video
Concerns are growing over the safety of a Pakistani doctor who might have played an unwitting yet heroic role in the U.S. take-down of Osama bin Laden. According to Fox News , Dr. Shikal Afridi may be in the custody of Pakistan’s clandestine Inter-Services Intelligence agency after it discovered the doctor’s participation in a fake Hepatitis B vaccination program that attempted to gain DNA samples from those within bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound — including several followers and their families. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta this week questioned the charges against the doctor. “I’m very concerned about what the Pakistanis did with this individual,” he told CBS News. “This was an individual who, in fact, helped provide intelligence on — that was very helpful with regards to this operation. And he was not in any way treasonous towards Pakistan. He was not in any way doing anything that would have undermined Pakistan.” Panetta reminded thst the U.S. and Pakistan “have a common cause here against terrorism.” “And for them to take this kind of action against somebody who was helping to go after terrorism, I just think it’s a real mistake on their part,” said Panetta. Fox reports that Panetta’s comments are the first to publicly acknowledge Afridi’s involvement in the operation. Fox provides some of the background: Afridi was arrested shortly after the raid and is thought to still be in custody despite not formally being charged with a crime. His detention has widened the rift between the U.S. and Pakistan, with Washington until now quietly pressing for his release so Afridi and his family can resettle in the U.S., according to The Guardian newspaper, which first reported on the doctor’s role in the operation last July. Reports suggest that Afridi rang the bell of the bin Laden compound during the vaccination drive, and the nurse who was with him was able to get inside but was ultimately unsuccessful in getting any DNA samples. Reports have also suggested that Afridi may not have even been aware that he was working for the CIA and instead may have been recruited by other Pakistanis to carry out the fake house-to-house vaccination program. Now, lawmakers are coming to Afridi’s aid. Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher introduced legislation to grant U.S. citizenship to Afridi as Pakistan’s Inquiry Commission on the Abbottabad Operation has recommended the doctor be tried for treason. If convicted, Afridi could be executed. An official press release from Rohrabacher’s office stated: “It is shameful and unforgivable that our supposed allies in Pakistan have charged Dr. Afridi, who contributed to the operation that killed Bin Laden, with treason,” said Rohrabacher. “The United States needs to stand with those who help us. We have not forgotten about Dr. Afridi.” “By granting him American citizenship we will send a direct and powerful message to those in the Pakistani government and military who protected the mastermind of 9/11 for all those years and who are now seeking retribution on those who helped to bring Bin Laden to justice,” Rohrabacher continued. “We must assume the obvious and conclude that Pakistan’s leaders have plotted for years to kill Americas.” Panetta also told CBS News that there was no actual evidence of Pakistani involvement in bin Laden’s presence in Pakistan, but suspicions must have been raised. “I personally have always felt that somebody must have had some sense of what was happening at this compound,” Panetta said of Pakistan’s alleged involvement in harboring bin Laden. “Don’t forget, this compound had 18-foot walls around it — 12-foot walls in some areas, 18-foot walls elsewhere, a seven-foot wall on the third balcony of the house. It was the largest compound in the area,” he said. “So you would have thought that somebody would have asked the question, ‘What the hell’s going on there?’
Reuters – The White House received a letter last year purported to come directly from Mullah Omar, the reclusive leader of the Taliban, asking the United States to deliver militant prisoners whose transfer is now at the heart of the Obama administration’s bid to broker peace in Afghanistan.
View original post here:
Amid peace bid, U.S. got purported letter from Taliban
(Reuters)
At Wall Street Journal , ” Afghan Immigrants in Canada Found Guilty of Honor Killing “: TORONTO—A Canadian court found two Afghan immigrant parents and their eldest son guilty of murdering four female family members in a so-called honor killing Sunday, the climax of a case that’s transfixed Canada and sparked a wider debate about clashing cultures amid the country’s large immigrant population. Mohammad Shafia, his wife, Tooba Mohammad Yahya, and eldest son, Hamed, were found guilty of killing Mr. Shafia’s three teenage daughters and Mr. Shafia’s first wife in an elaborately staged, though ultimately bungled, car accident in June 2009. The defense argued the four died after a late-night joy ride went awry. The four-month trial opened a relatively rare window onto honor killings in North America. The crime, where victims are murdered for bringing shame on their family, is increasingly common in western European countries like Britain and Sweden, which has seen large-scale immigration from countries where researchers say the custom happens most—such as Pakistan, India and Turkey …. The prosecution argued it was honor rooted in Afghan tribal traditions that led Mr. Shafia to cleanse the shame he felt from the conduct of his rebellious daughters, Zainab, 19 years old, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13. The eldest two took unapproved boyfriends, and all three disobeyed their father through their independent behavior and sometimes-revealing dress. Rona Amir Mohammad, who was Mr. Shafia’s first spouse in the polygamous family, was killed, the prosecution argued, because she was a troublesome first wife and lenient step mother. The trial filled the Canadian press with the macabre details of a murder in which police believe the victims were drowned and then placed into a car that was then pushed into a lock outside of Kingston, near Toronto. The local press printed police transcripts of a ranting Mr. Shafia calling his daughters “whores” and boasting, “nothing is more dear to me than my honor.” Video c/o Blazing Cat Fur . And my previous roundup is here: ” Shafia Family Guilty of Honor Killings in Canada: Updates .”
Continue reading here:
Shafia Convictions Put Focus on Culture of Honor Killings
Via Weasel Zippers : And from yesterday, ” The Taliban Go Mainstream: Afghanistan Terror-Sponsors Seek ‘Softer Side’ to Medieval Political Regime .”
More here:
Hellfire Missile Takes Out Taliban Jihadist
This is rad. At New York Times , ” U.S. Forces Rescue Two Hostages From Somali Pirates “: KHARTOUM, Sudan — American Navy Seals swooped into Somalia early on Wednesday and rescued two aid workers, an American woman and a Danish man, after a shootout with Somali gunmen who had been holding them captive in a sweltering desert hideout for months. Under a cloak of darkness, a couple of dozen Seals parachuted in, stormed the hideout, killed nine gunmen and then whisked the aid workers into waiting helicopters, Pentagon officials said. The Seals were from the same elite Navy commando unit — Seal Team Six — that secretly entered Pakistan to kill Osama Bin Laden in May, senior American officials said, though the rescue mission in Somalia was carried out by a different assault team within the unit. President Obama was closely tracking the raid on Tuesday night, which was Wednesday morning in Somalia, and as he stepped into the House chamber to deliver his State of the Union address, he looked right at Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta standing in the crowd and said: “Leon, good job tonight, good job.” The hostages were safe and soon flown to an American military base in neighboring Djibouti. No Seals were hurt during the operation, Pentagon officials said. Mr. Obama seems to have taken a special interest in this case, presiding over several high-level meetings on it since the two aid workers were kidnapped in October by gunmen whom Somali elders said were part of a well-established pirate gang. Pirates operate with total impunity in many parts of lawless Somalia, which has languished without a functioning government for more than 20 years. As naval efforts have intensified on the high seas, stymieing hijackings, Somali pirates seem to be increasingly snatching foreigners on land. Just last week, pirates grabbed another American hostage not far from where the Seal raid took place. American officials said they were moved to strike in this case because they had received “actionable intelligence” that the health of Jessica Buchanan, the American aid worker, was rapidly deteriorating. The gunmen had just refused $1.5 million to let the two hostages go, Somali elders said, and ransom negotiations had ground to a halt. Somali pirates have held hostages for months, often in punishing conditions with little food, water or shelter, and past ransoms have topped more than $10 million. One British couple sailing around the world on a little sailboat was kidnapped by pirates from this same patch of central Somalia and held in captivity for more than a year. President Obama said that he had personally authorized the go-ahead for the operation on Monday. “As commander in chief, I could not be prouder of the troops who carried out this mission,” he said in a statement on Wednesday. “The United States will not tolerate the abduction of our people.” Also at Telegraph UK , ” US special forces team behind Osama bin Laden death rescue aid workers from Somali pirates .”
More here:
U.S. Navy SEALs Rescue Hostages in Daring Overnight Raid in Somalia
At Telegraph UK , ” Militants storm police station in northwest Pakistan .” Also from Agence France-Presse, ” Pakistan quells militant attack, eight killed: Official “:
**Written by Doug Powers For the Goracle, watching a presidential campaign that isn’t focusing on his cash cow is too much for him to bear. From the Daily Caller : Though in recent years the climate change issue has disappeared from the forefront (and former Vice President Al Gore has found himself criticizing Democratic President Barack Obama for not being more aggressive on the issue), on Tuesday night’s coverage of the New Hampshire primary on Current TV, Gore insisted it should be part of the 2012 campaign. “It should be in the presidential campaign,” Gore said. “And it is not at present. Not a single question was asked about climate in any of the numerous, multitudinous debates that these candidates have had. And yet in the year 2011, the United States of America had more than 12 climate-related disasters that cost over a billion dollars. The state of Texas has had the worst drought in its history. It is climate-related. Out of 254 counties, 252 are on fire. 2010 was the hottest year ever recorded. We have record melting of the volume of ice in the Arctic Ocean, dramatically powerful storms, in Pakistan, Australia, the Northeast. Record flooding in the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers, and the list goes on. And it’s consistent with what the scientific community has been warning us.” Gore added that the future of civilization was “at risk” if the issue continues to be neglected. I’ll bet those two counties in the state that aren’t on fire are loaded with climate change deniers. Gore wants the world to let him lead the charge to change the planet’s climate and weather patterns but he can’t even control Keith Olbermann for cryin’ out loud… **Written by Doug Powers Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
Follow this link:
Al Gore: If Global Warming isn’t a Campaign Issue, Civilization is at Risk
