This was a great little video about a little known subject. How close were we in killing OBL in the early years of the war? According to this interview, it sounds like we were really close. Also, if you want to read the book written by the guy that is being interviewed, check it out here. -Head Jundi
A vast crater, some 40 feet wide and 25 feet deep, lay at the security barrier to the Marriott hotel in Pakistan. Witnesses said security guards and their gate posts were buried under a mound of rubble.
Photo: Mian Khursheed/Reuters
Two VBIED’s at two entrance points, with snipers as well. These guys were also wearing police uniforms and had a small force on foot that tried to enter through the attack points. Looks like these mufsid failed to get in, thanks to the good work of the security professionals guarding the embassy. Unfortunately, 16 people died in this attack. -Mudeer
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Bush: Embassy attack a reminder nation ‘at war’
By MATTHEW LEE
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush says the attack on the U.S. embassy in the capital of Yemen is a reminder that the United States is “at war” with extremists.
Attackers armed with automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and at least one suicide car bomb assaulted the embassy. Sixteen people were killed, including six assailants. No Americans were hurt.
The U.S. says the assault has “the hallmarks of an al-Qaida attack.” The United States says a “vicious” attack on the U.S. Embassy in the Yemeni capital was a failed attempt to breach the compound’s walls.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters Wednesday that the embassy’s security upgrades, combined with the response of security officials, stopped attackers armed with automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and at least one suicide car bomb.
Officials say sixteen people were killed, including six assailants.
McCormack says no Americans were hurt. He says one U.S. embassy guard from Yemen was killed, along with several Yemeni security officials.
He says the assault bears “all the hallmarks of an al-Qaida attack.”
I wanted to post this, because this was my answer to some questions someone asked me about my thoughts on 9/11. Obviously the questions were intended to evoke a negative response. But as you can see, I gave my response, and with good measure.
My heart goes out to the victims of 9/11, and today is a day of remembrance. -Head Jundi
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Where were you during that event?
I was in a hotel breakfast room, watching it live on a big screen, in Carson City, Nevada. I was working as a smokejumper at the time.
What were your initial thoughts about what happened when you found out?
The first plane that hit, made me think an accident. The second one that hit, clued me into an act of war. I was angry and I was saddened for the victims. My thoughts were at the time is, who did this and why. Most of all, what will be our response in this new war.
Do you think security personnel are being more cautious today than other days because of the date?
I am one of those ’security personnel’, having worked in Iraq and other places on 9/11, before in the past. To a security professional, this day is important, because the enemy likes to use anniversaries for attacks. 9/11 is a very significant date. So yes, guys and gals are a little bit more wary on this day. But really, in this business, you get paid to be on your game every day you are on the job.
Do you feel more secure with the changes in security that have taken place within your country?
Yes. We have not had a major attack on US soil since 9/11. Numerous planned attacks have been stopped by the hard work of law enforcement and gov. agencies. I am thankful for their efforts. And the security efforts at airports is necessary, and an adjustment that I don’t mind. I like the fact that someone cares.
Did this event inevitably change the way the international community looks at United States of America?
Of course it has. This event has also changed the way the international community looks at radical Islamic fundamentalists. War tends to piss off a whole range of folks out there. Our reaction to the 9/11 attack was to be expected, and the planners of that attack had succeeded in angering the people of the US and of the world. We had a similar reaction to an attack in our past, that led to even more devastating consequences. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor led to the US eventually bombing Japan with atomic weaponry. We won, but the price in blood on both sides was devastating. Our response and the price in blood in this current war, pales in comparison.
And our war against the ‘mufsid’ waging ‘hirabah’ continues….
*Mufsid is an evil and corrupt person in arabic. Mujahideen, means holy warrior.
Hirabah is sinful warfare in arabic. Jihad means striving for god’s will.
‘Jihad’ and ‘mujahideen’ does not describe what our enemy is.
They are mufsid waging hirabah. Enough said.
I think this is pretty telling of what the enemy is capable of. Sending in a woman for martyrdom operations amazes me. I wonder if they can stone that woman in paradise for not killing enough innocent people in these attacks? So Al Qaeda and other islamic extremists are an equal opportunity employer of female suicide bombers now?
But the most important lesson in all of this, is that the enemy took advantage of a weakness in the security apparatus. If you cannot search females, because you do not have a female searcher, then you are allowing a breach. And in this war, anything goes with the enemy. They use children, the mentally ill, old men, women, etc. and everyone is a potential threat.
Perhaps a solution to this problem is to set up more contracts requiring female security professionals that can take part in searches of females? The military has female soldiers, but do they have enough? We already hire local female guards, but are they trained enough to handle the job of a security professional? Do they have the eye for reading situations and being an effective member of a security team?
I realize that these were Iraqi Police and Forces that were attacked, but these are still issues that apply to everyone over there. There is obviously a trend here, and all the companies and military need to be prepared for this trend. So are there enough female security specialists, both Iraqi and other, that can handle search operations over there? It might actually be prudent to hire more females for security operations.
It might be something that today’s security companies operating in war zones might have to consider. To fill out a security team with some female security specialists, to accommodate such situations as searching other females at front gates or at an event? And that also brings up another question? How many women are operating as security professionals overseas? I don’t think I saw one female security specialist the entire time I was over there. And I worked for three companies and spent over a year in Iraq, both north and south as a security specialist.
Things to think about, and we should not take anything off of the table when it comes to evaluating and refining the way we do business. -Head Jundi
An Iraqi police commando officer inspects the bag of a pilgrim
Bomb attacks in Iraq kill at least 56
BAGHDAD (AFP) — Three women bombers blew themselves up on Monday in a crowd of Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad, one of a string of attacks in Iraq that killed at least 56 people, undermining hopes of a drop in violence.
Scores of people were also wounded in the attacks, which came after a relative lull in the sectarian violence that has ravaged Iraq since February 2006, when insurgents blew up a Shiite mosque in the central city of Samarra.
The triple attack in Baghdad killed at least 25 pilgrims as they headed to a holy shrine for a major religious ceremony on the Shiite Muslim calendar that has been marred by bloodshed in the past, security officials said.
Another 27 people died and 126 others were wounded in a suicide bombing during a protest rally in the northern oil city of Kirkuk, and by gunfire in a panicked stampede that followed, local officials said.
Among the dead in Baghdad were women and children, security and hospital officials told AFP, adding that about 70 other people were wounded.
The violence was condemned by the White House.
“The United States condemns the violent attacks on innocent Iraqis,” National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.”We urge the Iraqi people and government to respond with calm determination to the threat from violent extremists who seek to destabilise the country.”
So is this what Al Qaeda and others in Iraq have had to resort to? Convincing or paying distraught or mentally ill women to martyr themselves and kill in the name of Allah? I find it odd that the same religious extremists that believe in honor killing women and treating women like property, are resorting to this tactic of recruiting female suicide bombers. Do women get 72 virgin males in paradise? Or do they get to become someone else’s property in paradise? Oh the hypocrisy. -Head Jundi
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US says women suicide bombers seeking revenge in Iraq
14 hours ago
BAQUBA, Iraq (AFP) — In the war-ravaged streets of Iraq, US-led forces say insurgents are recruiting women driven by despair or revenge to act as suicide bombers in the latest tactic against coalition troops.
Motivated by poverty, desperation or vengeance against the US-led military they blame for the deaths of family members, vulnerable women are easy prey for insurgents promising them a place in a paradise afterlife.
This was my favorite quote from the Economist article I posted earlier. This one’s for the enemy out there (and you know who you are) that might be reading this. You are a stain on Islam and humanity and we will put you back into the toilet where you belong. Inshallah. -Mudeer
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Reformed Booger Eater, Dr. Fadl
Another blow was delivered from an Egyptian jail by Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, better known as Dr Fadl, one of al-Qaeda’s founders in 1988 and a former leader of Mr Zawahiri’s movement, al-Jihad. He had developed much of al-Qaeda’s ideology, but at the end of last year he came up with a sweeping revision. “There is nothing that invokes the anger of God and His wrath like the unwarranted spilling of blood and wrecking of property,” he wrote. -Economist
This was an excellent special report written by the good people at the Economist. Be sure to follow the link I provided and read the entire thing, because this was just the teaser article below. There were lot’s of great ideas in this report, and I highly recommend reading it. What was really motivating to me, was to read about the current state of Al Qaeda and how we have actually accomplished some pretty remarkable things.
For me, Al Qaeda has always symbolized an idea more than anything. And AQ has certainly tarnished the rest of the Islamic world with their war. And like the article pointed out, the one thing that really hurts them in this war, is their killing of other muslims in the name of Allah. And when one of the founders of Al Qaeda named Dr. Ladl even says that Al Qaeda has gone too far, then I think we are starting to make some headway in this war.
And what really gets me, is that in Iraq, Zarqawi and company proclaimed that Iraq will be the main battle ground to fight the infidels at. Soon after this proclamation, we killed Zarqawi and then the surge happened and the rest is what we have today. A Iraq that is significantly better than it was, and Al Qaeda being run out of town by the Iraqis and the Coalition. The turning point with AQ was when Iraqis said enough was enough, and joined forces with us to rid the country of these islamic extremists. My point with this, is that the surge and our new counter-insurgency strategy was certainly a contributing factor, for this victory against AQ. And I say victory, because they are now a shadow of themselves in Iraq.
I also think it is significant what Saudi Arabia has been able to do in this war. I would have certainly expected AQ to have carried out several massive and successful attacks by now. But it seems that Saudi Arabia has done a pretty good job of putting down AQ, and I am sure Bin Laden and company have been biting their lip about that one. Bin Laden has always held a grudge against the Saudi Royal family, and it must kill him that Al Qaeda of Saudi Arabia sucks.
So now they are all running to Afghanistan, to join the fight there I guess. And to me, this is one of the most complex problems we have right now to deal with in this war. In Pakistan, you have the FATA region where AQ and the Taliban have been training and enjoying a safe haven. And then during the fighting season(summer), they make the cross over into Afghanistan and cause trouble. Couple that with the poppy situation(drugs for guns) and a nation ravaged by years of war and terrible infrastructure, and we have a really complex problem to solve there. And I am not even sure if more troops will solve this. We’ll see how it goes, because I think Afghanistan will be a huge deal in the coming months and then next summer with a new US President. I am optimistic, with Petraeus and company at the helm. If anyone could think up the correct strategy, it is the batch of warrior leaders we have right now. -Head Jundi
How to win the war within Islam
Jul 17th 2008
From The Economist print edition
In the long run, al-Qaeda will be defeated by Muslims, not foreigners. But the West can still help
AMERICA’S “global war on terrorism”, now in its seventh year, has gone on longer than the second world war. Will it ever end? Optimists believe some kind of victory is in sight: Iraq is improving; al-Qaeda has been unable to stage a big attack in the West in three years; and terrorists have shown little sign of using weapons of mass destruction. Jihadists face an ideological backlash, even from radical “brothers” who support jihad but disagree with killing Muslims.
Welcome as al-Qaeda’s setbacks may be, the world should not be complacent. As our special report in this issue explains, the threat is likely to last for decades. One reason is that al-Qaeda, though weaker in Iraq, has created a new sanctuary in Pakistan’s tribal belt. Another is that al-Qaeda’s ideology has spread far and wide thanks to the internet and ease of travel. A third is that anti-Americanism remains powerful across the Muslim world. Only a tiny proportion of the world’s billion or so Muslims need to take up jihad to create serious trouble.
