Tag Archives: Afghanistan

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Mounties arrest terrorism suspects in Ottawa, Canada

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The Mounties always get their man
The Mounties always get their man

Story here from AFP.

Excerpt:

The three men arrested over a terror plot in Canada were in possession of bomb-making materials and at least one has links to a group fighting Western forces in Afghanistan, officials said Thursday.

Hiva Alizadeh, 30, and Misbahuddin Ahmed, 26, were arrested in police raids on their suburban Ottawa homes Wednesday morning, and formally charged with “terrorist offences” on Thursday during brief court appearances.

A third Canadian national, Khuram Sher, 28, of London, Ontario was arrested on Thursday.

“Investigators have grounds to believe that Alizadeh, Ahmed and Sher are part of a domestic terrorist group operating in Canada,” Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) superintendent Serge Therriault told a press conference.

“We also believe that Alizadeh is a member of, and remains in contact with, a terrorist group with links to the conflict in Afghanistan,” he said.

Police said the accused were in possession of a horde of material for making improvised explosive devices, including schematics, videos, drawings, instructions, books and electrical components.

During raids on the homes of the suspects, authorities said they also seized more than 50 electronic circuit boards that could be used in remote detonators.

This “large amount of terrorist documentation and manuals” demonstrates that the suspects “intended to construct an explosive device or explosive devices for terrorist purposes,” said Therriault.

Police also said they had evidence a member of the cell had received bomb-making training abroad, but they did not specify which suspect or where and when the training allegedly took place.

[…]Alizadeh, Ahmed and Sher were arrested following a year-long investigation by the RCMP, Canada’s spy agency and several police forces across the country.

Raymond Boisvert, assistant director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), said the intelligence that led to the arrest of the trio was provided to the RCMP.

Police said they arrested them this week to prevent one suspect from providing financial support to “terrorist counterparts” for the purchase of weapons for use against coalition forces in Afghanistan.

“This group posed a real and serious threat to the citizens of the national capital region and Canada’s national security,” said Therriault.

“Our criminal investigation and arrests prevented the assembly of any bombs and the terrorist attack or attacks from being carried out.”

Here’s the latest: Ottawa was a potential target for the group. Keep in mind that Ottawa is the capital of Canada, about an hour north of the northern tip of New York state.

News

How well is Democrat appeasement working to contain Russia?

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Not well, according to the Heritage Foundation.

Excerpt:

On Wednesday, Gen. Alexander Zelin, the commander of the Russian Air Force, announced that Moscow had deployed a state-of-the-art S-300 (SA-20 Favorit) long- range air defense system in Abkhazia, a region of the Republic of Georgia that Russia has occupied since the August 2008 war.

Since then, Russia recognized breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent republics. According to Zelin, the task of the air defense systems is “to prevent violation of Abkhaz and South Ossetian airspace and to destroy any aircraft intruding into their airspace no matter what their purpose might be”.

However, there is much more than the defense of Abkhazia to the Russian deployment. Taken together with the S-300 base in Armenia, it extends the strategic air space over South Caucasus and over parts of the Black Sea, furthering Russian control.

What does it mean?

Most importantly from the perspective of the United States, Russian actions are aimed at denying the United Space airspace and over-flight options. The surveillance aspect is no less important—depending on the actual deployment of the air defenses: associated radars will be able to picture or “paint” much of western Georgia and the adjoining Black Sea coastline. The ultimate objective for Moscow is to become an uncontested hegemon in the South Caucasus. And of course this has potential implications in case of an Iranian contingency.

The Russians are committed to deployments in the Caucasus that lead to the strategic denial of U.S. power projection in that region. This bears on the U.S.’s future ability to resupply Afghanistan; to use power to disarm a nuclear Iran; to ensure energy supply from the Caspian; and to help pro-Western friends and allies. These are hardly great accomplishments for the Obama “reset” policy”.

So what else is in the news?

Well, the Taliban are seizing control of nothern Afghanistan, and Russia is assisting Iran with nuclear weapons development.

And that is why the deployment of these advanced SAMs is devastating to our foreign policy objectives. We’ve become a paper tiger by cutting defense systems, like the F-22, so that we can pay for turtle tunnels to nowhere with “stimulus” money. The first job of the federal government is to protect its citizens, not to study how to reduce drinking among Chinese prostitutes.

News

Taliban forces kill 10 unarmed members of Christian medical charity

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Story here from the Boston Globe. (H/T ECM)

Excerpt:

Last week, Little, 61, was one of 10 members of a Christian medical team — six Americans, two Afghans, one German, and a Briton — who were gunned down by the Taliban, which accused the volunteers of spying and trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.

[…]The victims — doctors, nurses, and logistics personnel — were found shot to death Friday near three vehicles in woods just off the main road that snakes through a narrow valley, provincial police chief General Agha Noor Kemtuz said.

Bridge Afghanistan, another relief organization, said on its website that the team included one of its members, Dr. Karen Woo, who gave up a job in a private clinic in London to work in Afghanistan.

[…]Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said they killed the foreigners because they were “spying for the Americans’’ and “preaching Christianity.’’ The Taliban also said the team was carrying Dari language Bibles and “spying gadgets.’’

[…]Frans said the International Assistance Mission, or IAM, one of the longest-serving nongovernmental organizations operating in Afghanistan, is registered as a nonprofit Christian organization but does not proselytize.

“This tragedy negatively impacts our ability to continue serving the Afghan people,’’ the charity said. “We hope it will not stop our work that benefits over a quarter of a million Afghans each year.’’

[…]In August 2001, Little and employees from other Christian organizations were expelled by the Taliban government after eight Christian aid workers were arrested for allegedly trying to convert Afghans to Christianity.

He returned to Afghanistan after the Taliban government was toppled in November 2001 by US-backed forces. Known in Kabul as “Mr. Tom,’’ Little supervised a network of eye hospitals and clinics largely funded through private donations.

[…]“We are a humanitarian organization,’’ Frans said. “We had no security people. We had no armed guards. We had no weapons.’’

Some “Christians” who vote Democrat think that it is OK to oppose the war in Afghanistan because it is “too expensive”. But both of our wars didn’t cost HALF of Obama’s FIRST YEAR DEFICIT of 1.5 trillion dollars. Not only do wars deter terrorism and protect our democratic allies, but they also allow aid workers to re-enter Islamo-fascist states so they can provide medical care to some of the poorest people on Earth. Not to mention safeguarding freedom of religion.