Afghans Shout ‘Death to Obama’ over Killings

NATO disputes finding that most of the dead were teenage students

Protesters chant anti-American slogans and burn an effigy of President Barack Obama in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, on Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2009. (Photo credit: Rahmat Gul / AP)

The Associated Press and Reuters, via MSNBC.com
Dec. 30, 2009

ASADABAD, Afghanistan – The head of a presidential delegation investigating the deaths of 10 people in eastern Afghanistan concluded Wednesday that civilians — including schoolchildren — were killed in an attack involving foreign troops, but NATO officials disputed that.

NATO spokesman Col. Wayne Shanks said in a statement NATO has no direct evidence to substantiate the Afghan probe’s findings, and the international force has requested an immediate joint investigation to find out what happened.

Asadullah Wafa, a senior adviser to President Hamid Karzai, gave conflicting numbers on the schoolchildren. He told The Associated Press by telephone that eight schoolchildren between the ages of 12 and 14 were among the dead discovered in a village house in the Narang district of Kunar province. But Reuters quoted him as saying that eight boys, ages 13 to 18, and two men in their 20s were killed.

A NATO official had said that initial reports from troops involved in the fighting on Sunday indicated that those killed were insurgents — all young males.

Civilian deaths are one of the most sensitive issues for foreign troops in Afghanistan, especially now when some additional 37,000 U.S. and NATO troops are being deployed to the war-ravaged country. Although far more civilians are killed by the Taliban, those blamed on international forces spark widespread resentment and undermine the fight against militants.

Afghans protested the deaths Wednesday in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad and in the capital of Kabul.

In the capital of Nangahar province, which borders Kunar, around 200 university students took to the streets to protest against the raid, demanding those responsible be brought to justice.

“Death to Obama. Down with Karzai,” they shouted.

Wafa said he was convinced all those killed in the Kunar incident were innocent civilians. …

The latest figures released by the United Nations show that 2,021 civilians died during clashes in the first 10 months of this year, up from 1,838 for the same period last year. Taliban insurgents were blamed for 68 percent of the deaths this year — three times more than NATO forces, according to the U.N. …

12/31/09 Update

U.N.: Afghans Slain in Troop Raid Were Students

Dec. 31, 2009

KABUL – The United Nations said Thursday that a weekend raid by foreign troops in a tense eastern Afghan province killed eight local students and that it warned against nighttime actions by coalition forces because they often cause civilian deaths.

The Afghan government said its investigation has established that all 10 people killed Sunday in a remote village in Kunar province were civilians. Its officials said that eight of those killed were schoolchildren aged 12-14.

NATO officials initially said all the dead were insurgents, but later backed off by saying there was no evidence to substantiate the claims that they were civilians. …

The coalition attack in Kunar has sparked protests by Afghans who have demanded that foreign troops leave the country.

[UN special representative in Afghanistan Kai Eide] said the UN remained concerned about nighttime raids by coalition troops “given that they often result in lethal outcomes for civilians, the dangerous confusion that frequently arises when a family compound is invaded.” …

A statement issued Thursday by the Afghan National Security Directorate said the government investigation showed no Afghan forces were involved and “international forces from an unknown address came to the area and without facing any armed resistance, put 10 youth in two rooms and killed them.

“They conducted this operation on their own without informing any security or local authorities of Afghanistan,” the statement said.

1/1/10 Update

More civilian deaths claimed in Afghanistan … Local governor’s office cites 7 killed in second such incident in a week. 

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Taliban Claim Blast That Killed 8 Americans

CIA staff slain on base; 5 Canadians killed in separate attack

Video

Official: Afghan blast kills 8 Americans (NBC Nightly News, Dec. 30, 2009) – According to reports, a suicide bomber claimed the lives of eight U.S. citizens at a military base in eastern Afghanistan’s Khost province. NBC’s Jim Maceda reports. (01:15)

Dec. 30, 2009

KABUL – The Taliban claimed responsibility Thursday for a suicide bombing at a base in eastern Afghanistan that killed eight American civilians and one Afghan, the worst loss of life for the U.S. in the country since October. A U.S. congressional official said CIA employees are believed to be among the victims.

Four Canadian soldiers and a journalist also were killed Wednesday by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan’s south, the bloodiest single incident suffered by that country’s military this year.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press that a Taliban bomber wearing a military uniform and a suicide vest entered the base in Khost province Wednesday evening and blew himself up inside the gym. A U.S. official who was briefed on the blast also said it took place in the gym.

That official said eight U.S. civilians and one Afghan were killed; it was not clear if the Afghan victim was military or civilian. Six Americans were wounded, the official said.

The CIA has not yet commented on or confirmed the deaths.

A senior State Department official said all of the victims were civilians. A former senior CIA officer who was stationed at the base said a combination of agency officers and contractors operated out of the remote outpost with the military and other agencies. He said contractors also might be among those who died. …

NATO said only that the base is used by provincial reconstruction teams, which consist of both soldiers and civilians, and other personnel.

In Kabul, a spokesman for the international coalition force in Kabul said no U.S. or NATO troops were killed in the afternoon explosion. The attack was the bloodiest day for Americans since eight soldiers were killed in an insurgent attack on a base in eastern Afghanistan on Oct. 3.

Canadian troops, reporter killed

Chris Bolin / AFP – Getty Images Reporter Michelle Lang was killed in Afghanistan on Wednesday.

In the south, NATO said that the four Canadian troops and a reporter embedded with their unit died when their armored vehicle hit a bomb while on an afternoon patrol south of Kandahar city. It’s the third deadliest day for Canadians in Afghanistan since the war began.

Michelle Lang, a 34-year-old health reporter with the Calgary Herald, was the first Canadian journalist to die in Afghanistan. Lang arrived in Afghanistan just two weeks ago. …

Brig. Gen. Daniel Menard, commander of coalition forces in Kandahar, said that the soldiers were conducting a community security patrol in order to gather information about daily life in the area and how to maintain security.

Wednesday was the second lethal strike against the Canadian force in a week. One Canadian soldier and an Afghan soldier were killed Dec. 23 during a foot patrol in Panjwayi district of Kandahar province. According to figures compiled by The Associated Press, the latest casualties bring to 32 the number of Canadian forces killed in Afghanistan this year; in all, 138 have died in the war. …

12/31/09 Update

Bomber in CIA Attack Was Not Searched

The Associated Press and Reuters, via MSNBC.com
Dec. 31, 2009

Video

Suicide attack takes heavy toll on CIA (NBC Nightly News, Dec. 31, 2009) – The CIA is seeking answers after seven officials were killed Thursday in Afghanistan in what was one of the deadliest single attacks on U.S. intelligence personnel. NBC’s Jim Maceda reports. (02:30)

KABUL – The suicide bomber who killed seven CIA employees at a remote outpost in southeastern Afghanistan had been invited onto the base and had not been searched, two former U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Thursday

A former senior intelligence official says the man was being courted as an informant and that it was the first time he had been brought inside the camp. An experienced CIA debriefer came from Kabul for the meeting, suggesting that the purpose was to gain intelligence, the official said.

The former intelligence official and another former official with knowledge of the attack spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. …

Blow to tight-knit spy agency

The bombing on Wednesday dealt a blow to the tight-knit spy agency. Among those killed was the chief of the CIA post, whom former officials identified as a mother of three. Six more agency personnel were wounded in what was considered the most lethal attack for the CIA since the war in Afghanistan began in 2001 and possibly even since the 1983 embassy bombing in Beirut. …

The CIA did not release information about the victims, citing the sensitivity of their mission and other ongoing operations. Harold E. Brown Jr., a State Department employee of Fairfax, Va., died in the attack, his father, Harold E. Brown Sr., told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The younger Brown, 37, who grew up in Bolton, Mass., served in the Army and remained a major in the reserves. He is survived by a wife and three children ages 12, 10 and 2. …

1/7/10 Update

Bomber Targets Afghan Security Convoy; 7 Die

Residents of Gardez, Afghanistan, on Thursday, Jan. 7, 2010 examine the scene where a suicide bomber killed at least seven people. (Photo credit: The Associated Press)

Jan. 7, 2010

KABUL – A suicide bomber killed seven people at a busy bazaar in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, and a bomb hidden in a garbage container outside a provincial governor’s compound slightly wounded the official, authorities said.

The attacks were in Paktia and Khost provinces, both of which border Pakistan and suffer frequent violence as insurgents gain momentum in their fight against Afghan and international troops.

In Gardez, the capital of Paktia province to the south, a suicide bomber on foot blew himself up in a bazaar near a six-vehicle convoy of security workers, said Deputy Gov. Abdul Rahman Mangal. He said seven people were killed, including the commander of Afghan security guards at a base for a provincial reconstruction team in Logar province. Another 24 were wounded, he said. …

Khost is one of Afghanistan’s most troubled provinces. Seven CIA employees were killed Dec. 30 when a suicide bomber attacked an agency base there. On Wednesday, at least 15 people were wounded in a blast outside a shop in Khost city, the provincial center.

Rockets hit Kabul

Earlier Thursday, three rockets were fired into a residential area of Kabul, wounding three civilians. The Interior Ministry said in a statement that two of the rockets hit a house and the third landed in a garden. Local police said the attack was in the Qalafa neighborhood, about three miles southeast of central Kabul. …

In the eastern city of Jalalabad, about 5,000 demonstrators gathered to protest the Wednesday deaths of children in an explosion that they blamed on U.S. forces. Local officials said four children were killed, but NATO said Thursday that two died and that international troops were not responsible.

The blast about 15 miles south of Jalalabad, tore through a group of soldiers and civilians while the soldiers were visiting a road-construction project. Some 80 civilians and three soldiers were wounded.

Afghan police said the blast was caused by a passing police vehicle hitting a mine, but the protesters blamed it on the U.S. soldiers. They shouted “Death to America” and burned an effigy of President Barack Obama. …

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IRAQ UPDATE

Staggered Suicide Attacks Kill 23 in Iraq

Bombing marks worst violence in months in former al-Qaida heartland

Wounded police officers are treated at a hospital after a bomb attack in Ramadi, Iraq, on Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2009. (Photo credit: Reuters)

Dec. 30, 2009

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Staggered explosions Wednesday killed 23 people — 13 of them policemen — and wounded an Iraqi provincial governor, officials said, in the worst violence in months to hit the western province that was formerly al-Qaida’s top stronghold in Iraq. …

The attacks Wednesday were worrisome because the strategically important Anbar province was once the heartland of support for al-Qaida-linked militants, before many insurgents turned on the terror organization and joined forces with U.S. troops and the Iraqi government. The governor is the most senior Sunni leader to be attacked since then.

Checkpoint

Police official Lt. Col. Imad al-Fahdawi said two bombs exploded in Anbar’s capital of Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad. He says a suicide bomber in a car caused the first blast near a checkpoint on the main road near the provincial administration buildings.

Gov. Qassim al-Fahdawi, the deputy police chief and other officials came to inspect the damage, the police official said, when a suicide bomber on foot detonated a vest full of explosives nearby.

The deputy police chief was killed and the governor and other officials wounded, al-Fahdawi said. Police have put a curfew in place, he added. …

Forensic investigations

A doctor at the main hospital in Ramadi, Ahmed Abid Mohammed, said 23 people had been killed and 57 injured. He said the governor had suffered burns on his face and injuries to his abdomen and other areas.

American forces were helping evacuate casualties, establish security and carry out forensic investigations, military spokesman Lt. Col. Curtis Hill said. …

In the town of Khalis, about 50 miles northeast of Baghdad, a bomb killed six pilgrims taking part in a procession to commemorate the death of a Shiite revered saint, said a Diyala province police spokesman, Capt. Ghalib al-Karkhi. He said the blast also wounded 24 people.

1/7/10 Update

Blasts Kill 6 in Iraq’s Western Anbar Province

By Hamid Ahmed

Jan. 7, 2010

BAGHDAD – A series of blasts killed six people in Iraq’s western province of Anbar on Thursday, a police official said, in the latest attack to hit the province that was once the heartland of the al-Qaida-led insurgency.

Col. Fadhil Nimrawi said one explosion targeted a house belonging to Lt. Colonel Walid Sulaiman al-Hiti, the director of the anti-terrorism unit in the town of Hit, about 85 miles west of Baghdad. A second explosion targeted the home of his father next door. Slaiman was wounded and his mother, two sisters, another family member and a child were killed.

Nimrawi said a lawyer was killed by another bomb at his home and a fourth bomb exploded at the home of a police officer, injuring him as he slept.

Seven people were injured in the bombings, Nimrawi said. …

Thursday’s blasts follow last week’s attack on Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, which wounded the Anbar governor and killed 24. The Islamic state of Iraq, an umbrella group for al-Qaida affiliated insurgent groups, claimed responsibility for that attack.

In a separate incident in northeastern Iraq’s Diyala province, a bomb exploded near a police station, killing one policeman and injuring ten other people near the Iranian border, police and hospital officials said. …

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — December 31, 2008

MN-06: Notable Year in Review

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I reported that Michele Bachmann, Minnesota’s 6th District representative in Congress, made a strong showing in several “Year in Review” lists – no easy feat, considering the U.S. House of Representatives has 435 members, each vying for media attention.

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U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq

As of Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009, at least 4,370 members of the U.S. military had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Since the start of U.S. military operations in Iraq, 31,613 U.S. service members have been wounded in hostile action, according to the Defense Department’s weekly tally.

U.S. Troop Casualties in Iraq

Latest identifications:

• None

U.S. Military Deaths in Afghanistan

As of  Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009, at least 861 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department.

Latest identifications:

• Army Spc. Jason M. Johnston, 24, Albion, N.Y., died Dec. 26, 2009 in Arghandab, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.
• Army Staff Sgt. David H. Gutierrez, 35, San Francisco, Calif., died Dec. 25, 2009 at Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his dismounted patrol with an improvised explosive device in Howz-e Madad. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.
• Marine Lance Cpl. Omar G. Roebuck, 23, Moreno Valley, Calif., died Dec. 22, 2009 as a result of a non-hostile incident in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Remember Their Sacrifice

Related links

Iraq Casualties

Afghanistan Casualties

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BREAKING NEWS

8 American civilians killed in Afghanistan suicide blast

Staggered suicide attacks kill 23 in Iraq

12/31/09 Update

U.S. troop deaths soar in Afghanistan in 2009 (AP, Dec. 31, 2009) — U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan doubled in 2009 compared with a year ago as 30,000 additional troops began pouring in for a stepped-up offensive and the Taliban fought back with powerful improvised bombs. … Full story

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — December 30, 2008

THE IRAQI EXODUS

Exodus: Iraqi Refugees Head for US

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I reported that more than 2 million Iraqis had fled the kidnappings, car bombings, and killings that have racked Iraq since the U.S. invasion in 2003; that the United States admitted more than 16,000 Iraqi refugees in 2007-2008 and expected to more than double that number by the end of 2009; and that a coalition of advocates, including Refugees International, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, called on the United States to nearly triple the amount of money it spends on the displaced Iraqis and allow the entry of as many as 105,000 in 2009 — a sevenfold increase in admissions.

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U.S. Service Member Killed by Afghan Soldier

Video

Soldier killed (MSNBC, Dec. 29, 2009) – An Afghan soldier opened fire at military base, killing a U.S. service member. MSNBC’s Lynn Berry reports. (00:35)

Dec. 29, 2009

KABUL – An Afghan soldier killed a U.S. service member and wounded two Italian soldiers on Tuesday  in western Afghanistan’s Badghis province, NATO and Afghan officials said.

Video Afghan army flunks report card (NBC Nightly News, Dec. 29, 2009) – A sobering Pentagon assessment of Afghanistan’s security forces has raised new questions about whether America’s partners in the fight against terrorism are fit for the task. NBC’s Richard Engel reports. (02:50)

Afghan Gen. Jalander Shah Bahnam said the Afghan soldier opened fire on a base in the province’s Bala Murghab district.

NATO soldiers tried to prevent the Afghan soldier from approaching an area where an allied helicopter was about to land, said Bahnam, the corps commander for the Afghan National Army’s western district.

He said the incident was still being investigated, but initial reports indicated that the Afghan soldier became angry and opened fire. Allied troops and the soldier’s Afghan colleagues returned fire and wounded him, Bahnam said.

The two Italian soldiers suffered minor wounds and went back to work immediately, Italian Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa said in a statement. …

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12/31/09 Update

IMMEDIATE RELEASE
No. 1012-09
December 31, 2009

U.S. Department of Defense
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)

On the Web: http://www.defense.gov/releases/
Media Contact: +1 (703) 697-5131/697-5132
Public Contact: http://www.defense.gov/landing/questions.aspx or +1 (703) 428-0711 +1

DOD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Staff Sgt. Ronald J. Spino, 45, of Waterbury, Conn., died Dec. 29 in Bala Morghab, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when he was shot while unloading supplies. He was assigned to the 274th Forward Surgical Team, 44th Medical Command, Fort Bragg, N.C.

The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation.

For more information the media may contact the XVIII Airborne Corps public affairs office at 910-396-5600 or 910-396-5620.

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Pakistan Appeals for Calm as Blast Toll Hits 43

People walk in a market area burned by angry protesters after a suicide attack on a Shiite Muslims mourning procession, on Monday, Dec. 28, 2009 in Karachi, Pakistan. (Photo credit: Fareed Khan / AP)

The Associated Press and Reuters via MSNBC
Dec. 29, 2009

KARACHI – Authorities appealed for calm Tuesday after a bombing against a Shiite Muslim procession killed 43 in Pakistan’s largest city of Karachi, setting off riots and igniting fears of sectarian unrest.

Security was tight as thousands of people gathered in central Karachi for funerals of some of those killed in Monday’s bombing of a Shiite procession marking the key holy day of Ashoura.

The attack sparked riots as people rampaged through the city, setting fire to markets and stores, including the port city’s largest wholesale market. More than 200 firefighters were still battling the flames 24 hours after the attack, with authorities calling for reinforcements from the city of Hyderabad, 105 miles north of Karachi, Pakistan’s main commercial hub. …

“We believe that it was a planned conspiracy,” said Interior Minister Rehman Malik. …

Karachi has largely been spared the Taliban-linked violence that has struck much of the rest of the country, a fact that analysts believe is driven by the group’s tendency to use the teeming metropolis as a place to rest and raise money. But the city has been the scene of frequent ethnic, political and sectarian violence.

Bomber’s head, torso found

Bomb disposal squad official Munir Sheikh said some 35 pounds of high explosive were used in the bombing. He said the intact head and torso of the suspected suicide bomber was found on the third floor of a nearby office building, where it had crashed through a window.

Video Blast hits Karachi (MSNBC, Dec. 28, 2009) — A suicide bomber kills and injures scores during a holy procession in Pakistan. MSNBC.com’s Dara Brown reports. (00:41)

Residents in apartments near the blast site tossed down body parts that had been cast into their homes from the explosion, while birds dove down to pick at the flesh amid damaged vehicles and motorbikes. …

No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but Malik on Monday pointed his finger at a cluster of militant groups, including the Pakistani Taliban, al-Qaida, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Jaish-e-Mohammad, that he said have a joint goal to destabilize Pakistan.

Pakistani authorities say sectarian groups have teamed up with Taliban and al-Qaida militants waging war against the government in a joint effort to destabilize Pakistan. More than 500 people have been killed in attacks since mid-October when the army launched a major anti-Taliban offensive in the country’s northwest. …

Hundreds of shops destroyed

Karachi Mayor Mustafa Kamal said that hundreds of shops had been destroyed, with damages estimated to run into millions of dollars. …

On Saturday, another blast near a Shiite procession wounded 19 people.

——

IRAQ UPDATE

Gunmen Kill 5 Sunni Guards in Iraq

A U.S. Army soldier inspects the site of a bombing at a parking lot belonging to a government office in eastern Baghdad, Iraq, on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009. (Photo credit: Khalid Mohammed / AP)

Dec. 29, 2009

BAGHDAD – Gunmen killed five Sunni security guards — including one who was beheaded — in a gruesome pre-dawn slaying Tuesday at a village checkpoint in central Iraq, officials said.

The five victims were members of the Sons of Iraq, or Awakening Councils — a Sunni-dominated security force now on the government payroll that has been targeted in revenge attacks after helping turn the tide against al-Qaida.

Authorities were alerted to the checkpoint in the village of Tal Massoud shortly after the 2 a.m. shooting, said one police official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the attack with the media. The village is about 30 miles north of Baghdad.

The police official described a scene of bullet-riddled bodies littered across the checkpoint. One of the bodies, he said, had been beheaded.

The victims were part of the Sunni tribe of Khazraj. They are the latest example of attacks on Sahwa, the Arabic word for Awakening. Some of the force fought American troops as insurgents, before tiring of the violence and turning on their former allies, the militant group al-Qaida in Iraq.

The councils have been widely credited with stabilizing Iraq after joining up with U.S. and Iraqi forces in the anti-al-Qaida drive about three years ago. But they have been hit by a steady barrage of revenge attacks since then. …

Monitoring attacks

The U.S. is seeking to ease some of the group’s concerns. The American military also has been monitoring attacks against Awakening leaders — 212 of whom have been killed in the past two years. The U.S. military, which tallied the deaths, blames al-Qaida for the attacks.

In other deadly shootings on Tuesday, an Iraqi army intelligence officer was killed in the eastern Baghdad neighborhood of al Baladiyat, Iraqi police officials said.

Drive-by shooters targeted Iraqi Army 1st Lt. Wadi Direa Atiyah as he was driving his car, said the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. Atiyah was wearing civilian clothing at the time.

On Tuesday evening, two women were killed and five people were wounded when three mortar rounds landed in al Baladiyat, a police and a medical official said. Among the wounded was a four-year-old child, they said. …

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — December 29, 2008

Iraq Civilian Deaths Near 100,000

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I reported that 8,300 to 9,000 civilians were killed in Iraq in 2008, bringing the total number of civilian deaths since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 to at least 98,400, according to figures released by Iraq Body Count.

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U.S. Widens Terror War to Yemen, a Qaeda Bastion

Yemenis protest in the Radfan district of Lahj on Thursday, Dec. 24, 2009 against a government raid that targeted suspected al-Qaida members. (Photo credit: AFP – Getty Images)

By Eric Schmitt and Robert F. Worth

December 28, 2009 

Excerpts

WASHINGTON — In the midst of two unfinished major wars, the United States has quietly opened a third, largely covert front against Al Qaeda in Yemen.

A year ago, the Central Intelligence Agency sent several of its top field operatives with counterterrorism experience to the country, according a former top agency official. At the same time, some of the most secretive Special Operations commandos have begun training Yemeni security forces in counterterrorism tactics, senior military officers said.

The Pentagon is spending more than $70 million over the next 18 months, and using teams of Special Forces, to train and equip Yemeni military, Interior Ministry and coast guard forces, more than doubling previous military aid levels.

As American investigators sought to corroborate the claims of a 23-year-old Nigerian man that Qaeda leaders in Yemen had trained and equipped him to blow up a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines jet on Christmas Day, the plot casts a spotlight on the Obama administration’s complicated relationship with Yemen.

The country has long been a refuge for jihadists, in part because Yemen’s government welcomed returning Islamist fighters who had fought in Afghanistan during the 1980s. The Yemen port of Aden was the site of the audacious bombing of the American destroyer Cole in October 2000 by Qaeda militants, which killed 17 sailors. …

The White House is seeking to nurture enduring ties with the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh and prod him to combat the local Qaeda affiliate, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, even as his impoverished country grapples with seemingly intractable internal turmoil.

With fears also growing of a resurgent Islamist extremism in nearby Somalia and East Africa, administration officials and American lawmakers said Yemen could become Al Qaeda’s next operational and training hub, rivaling the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan where the organization’s top leaders operate. …

American and Yemeni officials said that a pivotal point in the relationship was reached in late summer after separate secret visits to Yemen by Gen. David H. Petraeus, the American regional commander, and John O. Brennan, President Obama’s counterterrorism adviser. …

Yemen’s remote areas are notoriously lawless, but the country’s chaos has worsened in the past two years, as the government struggles with an armed rebellion in the northwest and a rising secessionist movement in the south. Yemen is running out of oil, and the government’s dwindling finances have affected its ability to strike at Al Qaeda.

Meanwhile, there have been increasing Yemeni ties to plots against the United States. A Muslim man charged in the June 1 killing of a soldier at a recruiting center in a mall in Little Rock, Ark., had traveled to Yemen, prompting a review by the F.B.I. of other domestic extremists who had visited the country.

A radical cleric in Yemen, Anwar al-Awlaki, has been linked to numerous terrorism suspects, including Nidal Malik Hasan, the American Army major who faces murder charges in the shooting deaths of 13 people at Fort Hood, Tex., in November.

In the latest issue of Sada al-Malahim, the Internet magazine of the Qaeda affiliate in Yemen, the group’s leader, Nasser al-Wuhayshi, urged his followers to use small bombs “in airports in the western crusade countries that participated in the war against Muslims; or on their planes, or in their residential complexes or their subways.

Yemen escalated its campaign against Al Qaeda with major airstrikes on Dec. 17 and last Thursday [Dec. 24] that killed more than 60 militants. …

The airstrikes of the past two weeks have been successful but have come at a price, Yemeni officials said. “They have been hit hard, but they have not yet been disabled,” said one high-ranking Yemeni official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the diplomatic issues involved. “The problem is that the involvement of the United States creates sympathy for Al Qaeda. The cooperation is necessary — but there is no doubt that it has an effect for the common man. He sympathizes with Al Qaeda.”

As if to reaffirm that message, Al Qaeda’s Yemeni affiliate released a statement to Internet sites on Sunday that put strong emphasis on the American role in the recent raids, deriding the Yemeni government for claiming responsibility.

1/31/10 Update

U.S. Citizen in CIA’s Cross Hairs

This Oct. 2008 file photo shows Imam Anwar al Awlaki in Yemen. The cleric, who was born in New Mexico, has been linked to recent terrorism cases. (Associated Press / Los Angeles Times)

By Greg Miller

January 31, 2010

The agency builds a case for putting Anwar al Awlaki, linked to the Ft. Hood shootings and Christmas bomb attempt, on its hit list. The complications involved are a window into a secretive process.

Full story

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Bomber Kills 30 at Holy Procession in Pakistan

Athar Hussain / Reuters

Reuters and The Associated Press via MSNBC

KARACHI – A suicide bombing targeting a Shiite Muslim procession in Pakistan’s largest city of Karachi killed 30 people and wounded dozens more Monday, as Shiites across the country marked the key holy day of Ashoura.

Violence broke out in the aftermath of the bombing, with shots fired into the air and outraged Shiites hurling stones at security forces who had been guarding the march for their failure to prevent it.

The bombing was the latest in a wave of violence to hit Pakistan since the army started taking on Islamist militants allied with al-Qaida and the Taliban, with terrorist strikes killing 500 people since October. …

Full story

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — December 28, 2008

This image taken from television footage June 26, 2008, reportedly shows Afghan militants holding weapons next to the burning wreckage of a vehicle in Wardak province, Afghanistan. (Photo credit: The Associated Press)

Taliban Power Growing

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I reported that the Taliban, which had long operated its own shadow government in the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan, had begun spreading north, encroaching on the capital city of Kabul.

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Pat Forte suffered a setback this year around Easter with a relapse of thymic carcinoid, but has fought back courageously, sustained by his strong Christian faith, the prayers and support of his many friends, and excellent medical care at the University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center.

Check back here and visit Pat’s Caring Bridge site for updates.

Pat and Nico Forte with the Sartell Sabres hockey team after their spring yard clean-up at Pat’s home.

We thank God for sustaining Pat to spend another Christmas with Nico and giving him the health and strength to assist with coaching the Sartell Sabres Varsity hockey team.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — December 27, 2008

A Christmas Story

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I highlighted Pat Forte’s achievements as Sartell hockey coach while battling life-threatening thymic carcinoid.

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Fellow Travelers Help Foil Attack Aboard Jetliner

Video

Passenger: Once subdued, alleged attacker was ‘calm’ (NBC Today, Dec. 26, 2009 — Melinda Dennis, a first class passenger aboard Flight 253, joins NBC’s Amy Robach to discuss the scene on the jetliner when the man was placed in a seat across the aisle from her. (03:16)

NBC, MSNBC.com, and news services
Dec. 26, 2009

ROMULUS, Mich. — An attempted terrorist attack on a Christmas Day flight began with a pop and a puff of smoke — sending passengers scrambling to subdue a Nigerian man who claimed to be acting on orders from al-Qaida to blow up the airliner, officials and travelers said.

British officials on Saturday were searching the last known address of the suspect, who was thought to be an engineering student at University College London, one of the United Kingdom’s leading universities, according to Sky News. …

Travelers said they smelled smoke, saw a glow, and heard what sounded like firecrackers.

“It sounded like a firecracker in a pillowcase,” said Peter Smith, a passenger from the Netherlands. “First there was a pop, and then (there) was smoke.”

Smith said one passenger, sitting opposite the man, climbed over passengers, went across the aisle and tried to restrain the man, who officials say was trying to ignite an explosive device. The heroic passenger appeared to have been burned.

Afterward, the suspect was taken to a front-row seat with his pants cut off and his legs burned. Multiple law enforcement officials also said the man appeared badly burned on his legs, indicating the explosive was strapped there. The components were apparently mixed in-flight and included a powdery substance, multiple law enforcement and counterterrorism officials said.

Attempted act of terrorism

The White House said it believed it was an attempted act of terrorism and stricter security measures were quickly imposed on airline travel. Dutch anti-terrorism authorities said the U.S. has asked all airlines to take extra precautions on flights worldwide that are bound for the United States. …

Intelligence and anti-terrorism officials in Yemen said they were investigating claims by the suspect that he picked up the explosive device and instructions on how to use it in that country. …

One law enforcement official … said Mutallab’s name had surfaced earlier on at least one U.S. intelligence database, but he was not on a watch list or a no-fly list. …

Nigeria’s information minister, Dora Akunyili, condemned the attempted bombing. She said the government has opened its own investigation into the suspect and will work with U.S. authorities. …

London’s Metropolitan Police also was working with U.S. officials, a spokeswoman said, and searches were being conducted in that city. …

University College London issued a statement saying a student named Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab studied mechanical engineering there between September 2005 and June 2008. But the college said it wasn’t certain the student was the same person who was on the plane. …

‘Firecracker’

Alain Ghonda was also aboard Flight 253. He told msnbc.com that he was seated in the same row as the suspect, sitting several seats to his left.

“I heard the explosion … at that point we thought it was outside the plane so people lifted the window blinds to look out,” Ghonda told msnbc.com. “It wasn’t a big explosion, it sounded like a firecracker, but it smelled like a gun had just gone off.

“I looked and saw that smoke was coming out of him and he was trying to brush something off his pants … and suddenly I saw a big flame come out of him,” Ghonda said. “A Dutch guy jumped over the seats and grabbed the guy on fire.”

Federal officials said there would be heightened security for both domestic and international flights at airports across the country, but the intensified levels would likely be “layered,” differing from location to location depending on alerts, security concerns and other factors.

Passengers can expect to see heightened screening, more bomb-sniffing dog and officer units and behavioral-detection specialists at some airports, but there will also be unspecified less visible precautions as well, officials said.

The FBI and the Homeland Security Department issued an intelligence note on Nov. 20 about the threat picture for the holiday season, which was obtained by The Associated Press. At the time, officials said they had no specific information about attack plans by al-Qaida or other terrorist groups. …

Video Obama monitoring security from Hawaii (NBC Nightly News, Dec. 25, 2009) — CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla speaks with NBC’s Chuck Todd. (02:04)

President Barack Obama was notified of the incident and discussed it with security officials, the White House said. Officials said he is monitoring the situation and receiving regular updates from his vacation spot in Hawaii.

Airline Terror Suspect Tied to Yemen al-Qaida?

Robert Windrem Senior investigative producer

U.S. agencies are looking into whether al-Qaida extremists in Yemen directed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and provided him with the explosives used in the failed bombing of Northwest Flight 253, senior administration officials told NBC News on Saturday.

They are also examining a possible link to an attempted assassination of a Saudi government official last August that used the same explosive, PETN, or pentaerythritol tetranitrate. In both incidents, the explosive device was in or attached to the suspect’s underwear.

The New York Times quoted unidentified officials as saying Abdulmutallab had obtained the explosive materials from a bomb expert in Yemen associated with al-Qaida. Abdulmutallab had visited Yemen in the past few months, say officials. Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula is a Yemen-based offshoot of al-Qaida.

Abdulmutallab’s increasingly radical leanings and anti-western rhetoric caused his family to alert the U.S. Embassy in the Nigerian capital of Abuja of their concerns. He was added to a terrorism watch list in November, say officials, but not to the no-fly list. The larger watch list — the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, or TIDE — contains more than 500,000 names, while the no-fly list has some 4,000 names.

Military action

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula has been increasingly active in the past year. It is headquartered in Hadramout, the vast desert region shared with Saudi Arabia, but operates in other parts of the peninsula as well. U.S. and Yemeni forces have stepped up military activities in the region in recent weeks. …

Reuters Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is shown in an undated photograph released to Reuters on Saturday.

Of particular interest to U.S. officials, beyond Abdulmutallab’s travels to Yemen, is a thwarted attack on the head of Saudi Arabia’s counterterrorism effort and an October article on the use of small amounts of explosives, authored by the Yemen al-Qaida group’s leader.

In the former incident, a suicide bomber hid PETN in his underwear, detonating it when greeting Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, head of Saudi counterterrorism, last Aug. 28.

The man, who had claimed he was turning himself in, died in the attack. Bin Nayef, a U.S. ally, suffered burns to his hands. Cultural taboos prevented a search in that part of the terrorist’s body.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the attack. Officials told WNBC that the explosives in the Christmas Day attack also were attached to Abdulmutallab’s underwear.

‘War is a Trick’

That was followed by an article published two months later in Sada al-Malahim, the group’s online magazine. In the article, “War is a Trick,” the group’s leader, Abu Basir al-Wuhayshi, advised would-be al-Qaida members to use small amounts of explosives to kill “apostates” and Western nationals, including on passenger aircraft and in airports.

Video Did terror suspect fall through cracks? (NBC Nightly News, Dec. 26, 2009) — NBC’s Amy Robach speaks with NBC’s Chuck Todd. (01:14)

According to a translation proved by NBC counterterrorism analyst Evan Kohlmann, al-Wuhayshi wrote:

“You do not need to sacrifice huge efforts, or large amounts of money, to make 10 grams of explosives, or more or less … make it [the material] in the shape of a grenade to throw, or [an explosive] to time, or ignite it from a distance, or a martyrdom belt … and bomb with it any tyrant, or intelligence forces den, or a prince, or a minister, or a crusader wherever you find them, and also in airports in the western crusade countries that participated in the war against Muslims; or on their planes, or in their residential complexes or their subways.”

Al-Wuhayshi pointed to the attempted assassination of bin Nayef as an example of how to carry out such attacks.

U.S. and Yemeni forces have carried out two joint attacks on al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula within the past week, killing more than 60 suspects and larger numbers of civilians. Among those targeted in the second attack, only three days ago, was al-Wuhayshi.

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12/28/09 Update

Qaeda Wing Claims Responsibility for Attack on U.S. Plane

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is seen in this undated handout, distributed by IntelCenter on December 28, 2009, and attributed to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Abdulmutallab, who was traveling with a valid U.S. visa although he was on a broad U.S. list of possible security threats, was overpowered by passengers and crew on the Northwest Airlines flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit on December 25 after setting alight an explosive device attached to his body. (Photo credit: IntelCenter — Handout / Reuters)

Dec. 28, 2009

DUBAI – A regional wing of al Qaeda said it was behind the failed Christmas Day bombing of a U.S. passenger plane, which was meant to avenge U.S. attacks on the group in Yemen, according to a web statement posted on Monday [see Note].

The group said it had provided the Nigerian suspect with a “technically advanced device” but that it had failed to detonate because of a technical fault.

“The martyrdom-seeking brother Umar reached his target … but a technical fault occurred leading to a lack of complete explosion,” al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said in the statement posted on Islamist websites.

The group identified the suspect as Umar Farouk al-Nigiri (the Nigerian), and published a montage of him smiling with a passenger plane in the background.

Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, is charged with attempting to blow up a Delta Airlines plane as it approached Detroit on a flight from Amsterdam with almost 300 people on board.

“We call on all Muslims … to throw out all unbelievers from the Arabian Peninsula by killing crusaders who work in embassies or elsewhere … (in) a total war on all crusaders in the Peninsula of (Prophet) Mohammad,” it said.

On Sunday, the group said in an Internet statement it would take revenge over raids against it this month, which it said were carried out by U.S. jets and killed about 50 men, women and children.

The United States and Saudi Arabia fear al Qaeda will exploit instability in Yemen to stage attacks in the kingdom, the world’s largest oil exporter, and beyond.

Note: The first missile strikes occurred on Dec. 17, making it highly unlikely that the Dec. 25 terror plot could have been planned and executed as a direct retaliation.

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1/24/10 Update

Bin Laden Purportedly Lauds Detroit Bomb Plot

On tape, terror chief claims responsibility for attempt

Video

Bin Laden purportedly claims bomb plot (NBC Nightly News, Jan. 24, 2010) — NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski discusses an audio tape, purportedly from Osama bin Laden, in which the al-Qaida claims responsibility for the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner. (01:35)

Jan. 24, 2010

CAIRO – Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the failed attempt to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas in a new audio message released Sunday threatening more attacks on the United States.

The United States said there was no indication to suggest that bin Laden or any of his top lieutenants had anything to do with the attempted attack and that the claim may have been motivated by the wish of the terror network’s leaders to appear in control of al-Qaida’s offshoots.

“They offer strategic guidance and rely on their affiliates to carry out that strategic guidance,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in an interview.

“He (bin Laden) is trying to continue to appear relevant,” he said.

The Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab told federal agents shortly afterward that he had been trained and given the explosives by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, an al-Qaida-inspired offshoot in bin Laden’s ancestral homeland of Yemen.

In the minute-long recording released to al-Jazeera Arabic news channel, bin Laden addressed President Barack Obama saying the recent attempt was meant to send a message similar to that of the Sept. 11 attacks.

“The message delivered to you through the plane of the heroic warrior Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a confirmation of the previous messages sent by the heroes of the Sept. 11,” he said. “America will never dream of security unless we will have it in reality in Palestine,” he added.

“God willing, our raids on you will continue as long as your support for the Israelis continues.”

U.S.-based IntelCenter, which monitors militant messages, said bin Laden used specific language he has used before in advance of attacks, a possible indicator of an upcoming action within the next 12 months.

The phrase “Peace be upon those who follow guidance” appears at the beginning and end of messages released in advance of attacks to warn al-Qaida’s enemies that they need to change their ways or they will be attacked, IntelCenter said in a statement. The language, used in the latest message as well, allows al-Qaida to blame the actual attack on those who refuse to change their ways, which in the group’s view forces a response. …

Bin Laden’s message came four weeks after the Yemen-based group made its own claim of responsibility for the bomb plot with a different justification — linking it to Yemeni military attacks on al-Qaida targets with the help of U.S. intelligence.

But a senior U.S. intelligence official in Washington said al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula is linked to the central al-Qaida that bin Laden heads and recent intelligence indicates there are ongoing contacts between al-Qaida in Yemen and in Pakistan.

He added, however, that there was “no evidence whatsoever” that bin Laden had any involvement in the Christmas Day plot or even knew about it in advance. …

The message appeared to be an attempt by bin Laden to stay relevant, said Rohan Gunaratna, author of “Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror.” …

Of all the various offshoots and branches of al-Qaida around the world, Gunaratna said the group in Yemen is one of the closest to bin Laden since it is made up of bodyguards and associates of the organization’s top ideologues. Yemen is bin Laden’s ancestral homeland. …

Two of the group’s top members were former detainees released in November 2007 from the U.S. military prison Guantanamo Bay. …

In the past year, bin Laden’s messages have concentrated heavily on the situation of the Palestinians in attempt to rally support from Muslims around the world.

Some analysts say bin Laden is focusing on the close U.S.-Israeli relationship because he is worried about Obama’s popularity across the Middle East with his promises to withdraw from Iraq and because his father was a Muslim from the African nation of Kenya. …

The last public message from bin Laden appears to have been on Sept. 26 [2009], when he demanded that European countries pull their troops out of Afghanistan. The order came in an audiotape that also warned of “retaliation” against nations that are allied with the United States in fighting the war.

1/25/10 Update

U.S. investigates bin Laden ties to jet bomb bid (NBC, Jan. 25, 2010) – U.S. intelligence analysts are investigating how much, if anything, Osama bin Laden knew about the plot to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day, following this weekend’s release of an audiotape from the al-Qaida leader claiming responsibility. … Sources told NBC News that an audiotape released Sunday claiming responsibility for the actions of so-called “underwear bomber” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was made by bin Laden. … But whether bin Laden himself was informed remains uncertain.  At one point the U.S. believed that any attacks on the United States or United Kingdom required specific approval of bin Laden or his Egyptian deputy, Ayman al Zawarhiri.  Lately, the thinking is that bin Laden has little if any operational control, acting more as an inspirational figure. … Full report

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Topical reports on this site

Obama Opens Third War Front (Dec. 28, 2009)

Yemen Link in Airline Terror Plot (Dec. 26, 2009)

Christmas Terrorism Alert (Dec. 25, 2009)

Obama Fires Missiles into Yemen (Dec. 19, 2009)

Where is Osama Bin Laden? (Dec. 10, 2009)

Chuck Hagel on National Defense (Sept. 3, 2009)

Obama War Strategy Setback (Aug. 29, 2009)

Iraq: Terrorist Training Ground (Sept. 18, 2008)

 
Foreign fighters return home from Iraq to launch new attacks against U.S. targets. Smoke billows from the U.S. Embassy complex in San’a, Yemen, after a deadly car bombing on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2008. (Photo credit: Yemen News Agency)

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — December 26, 2008

Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff (Photo credit: Matt Dunham / AP)

New Terrorism Forecast for U.S.

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I reported a new Homeland Security Threat Assessment for the years 2008-2013, which projects that that the terrorism threat to the United States over the next five years will be driven by instability in the Middle East and Africa, persistent challenges to border security, and increasing Internet savvy — with chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear [CBRN] attacks considered the most dangerous threats to U.S. national security.

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BREAKING NEWS: U.S. raises terrorism alert level for airline flights after Detroit incident …

Officials: Possible Terror Attack on Northwest Jet

Nigerian who allegedly tried to ignite powder on flight claims al-Qaida ties

Video

Incident in the air (Dec. 25, 2009) – A Nigerian man allegedly tried to light a powdery substance on a Northwest flight in what officials said was a potential terrorist attack. NBC’s Robert Windrem reports. (03:50)

By Robert Windrem of NBC News and Alex Johnson of MSNBC.com with NBC station WDIV-TV of Detroit
MSNBC.com and NBC News
Dec. 25, 2009

ROMULUS, Mich. – A Nigerian man claiming ties to al-Qaida tried to light a powder aboard a commercial jetliner before it landed Friday in Detroit in what senior U.S. officials called an attempted act of terrorism.

“He appears to have had some kind of incendiary device he tried to ignite,” a senior U.S. official told NBC News. Other officials said the explosive device was a mixture of powder and liquid, which failed when the passenger tried to detonate it during the plane’s descent into Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport.

Two people noticed the attempted attack, and a third person jumped on the man and subdued him, an airline official told NBC News. The man was being treated at the burn unit of the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, officials said.

Federal officials identified the man as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, of Nigeria, who was traveling one way, without a return ticket. …

Abdulmutallab told investigators that he wanted to set off a bomb over the United States and claimed to be connected to al-Qaida, the terrorism network responsible for the attacks that killed more than 3,000 people in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, counterterrorism officials said.

A counterterrorism official said Abdulmutallab, who was subdued by the crew of Northwest Air Lines Flight 253 from Amsterdam, left Lagos, Nigeria, on Thursday and boarded the flight in Amsterdam on Friday.

The timing of the attempted attack could be significant. It was eight years ago this week that a similar attempted attack was launched by a British member of al-Qaida [Richard Reid] who tried to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami by igniting explosives in his shoes. And the attempted attack comes on the same day that the Taliban released a video of a U.S. soldier it is holding captive in Afghanistan [more information here on this site]. …

Passengers removed, rescreened

There was nothing out of the ordinary until Flight 253, an Airbus 330 carrying 278 passengers, was on final approach to Detroit. Although the jet bore the insignia of Delta Airlines, it was operated by Northwest.

Then came the disturbance in the passenger cabin, and that is when the pilot declared an emergency, said Elizabeth Isham Cory, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration. Cory said in an e-mail message. The plane landed without incident at 11:51 a.m. ET.

The Transportation Security Administration reported that the plane had been taken to a remote area of Detroit Metropolitan Airport and that all passengers had left the plane and were rescreened, along with all the luggage on the flight. In addition, all passengers were interviewed, a TSA statement said, before they were allowed to go on their way.

Syed Jafri, a U.S. citizen who was on the plane flying from the United Arab Emirates, said he was seated three rows behind the passenger and saw a glow and noticed the smell of smoke. Then, he said, “a young man behind me jumped on him.”

“Next thing you know, there was a lot of panic,” Jafri said.

President Barack Obama, who is on vacation in Hawaii, was informed of the incident Friday morning by his National Security Council staff, said Bill Burton, a spokesman for the White House. …

U.S. counterterrorism officials are particularly concerned in light of the 2006 London airline plot, in which British and Pakistani nationals conspired to carry out multiple suicide bombings on board trans-Atlantic flights.

In addition, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, and his cousin Ramzi Yousef were accused of plotting in 1995 to take down multiple airliners over the Pacific Ocean using explosive devices hidden in airliner lavatories. …

——

Topical reports on this site

Obama Fires Missiles into Yemen (Dec. 19, 2009)

Chuck Hagel on National Defense (Sept. 3, 2009)

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Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

“Peace on Earth and Good Will to All Men”

– Aubrey, Pam, Tim, Matt, Elizabeth, & Patrick Immelman
Sartell, Minnesota

URBI ET ORBI MESSAGE
OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI

Christmas 2009

 (Video)

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Rome and throughout the world,
and all men and women, whom the Lord loves!

Lux fulgebit hodie super nos,
quia natus est nobis Dominus.
A light will shine on us this day,
the Lord is born for us”
(Roman Missal, Christmas, Entrance Antiphon for the Mass at Dawn)

The liturgy of the Mass at Dawn reminded us that the night is now past, the day has begun; the light radiating from the cave of Bethlehem shines upon us.

The Bible and the Liturgy do not, however, speak to us about a natural light, but a different, special light, which is somehow directed to and focused upon “us,” the same “us” for whom the Child of Bethlehem “is born.” This “us” is the Church, the great universal family of those who believe in Christ, who have awaited in hope the new birth of the Saviour, and who today celebrate in mystery the perennial significance of this event.

At first, beside the manger in Bethlehem, that “us” was almost imperceptible to human eyes. As the Gospel of Saint Luke recounts, it included, in addition to Mary and Joseph, a few lowly shepherds who came to the cave after hearing the message of the Angels. The light of that first Christmas was like a fire kindled in the night. All about there was darkness, while in the cave there shone the true light “that enlightens every man” (Jn 1:9). And yet all this took place in simplicity and hiddenness, in the way that God works in all of salvation history.

God loves to light little lights, so as then to illuminate vast spaces. Truth, and Love, which are its content, are kindled wherever the light is welcomed; they then radiate in concentric circles, as if by contact, in the hearts and minds of all those who, by opening themselves freely to its splendour, themselves become sources of light.

Such is the history of the Church: she began her journey in the lowly cave of Bethlehem, and down the centuries she has become a People and a source of light for humanity. Today too, in those who encounter that Child, God still kindles fires in the night of the world, calling men and women everywhere to acknowledge in Jesus the “sign” of his saving and liberating presence and to extend the “us” of those who believe in Christ to the whole of mankind.

Wherever there is an “us” which welcomes God’s love, there the light of Christ shines forth, even in the most difficult situations. The Church, like the Virgin Mary, offers the world Jesus, the Son, whom she herself has received as a gift, the One who came to set mankind free from the slavery of sin. Like Mary, the Church does not fear, for that Child is her strength. But she does not keep him for herself: she offers him to all those who seek him with a sincere heart, to the earth’s lowly and afflicted, to the victims of violence, and to all who yearn for peace.

Today too, on behalf of a human family profoundly affected by a grave financial crisis, yet even more by a moral crisis, and by the painful wounds of wars and conflicts, the Church, in faithful solidarity with mankind, repeats with the shepherds: “Let us go to Bethlehem” (Lk 2:15), for there we shall find our hope.

The “us” of the Church is alive in the place where Jesus was born, in the Holy Land, inviting its people to abandon every logic of violence and vengeance, and to engage with renewed vigour and generosity in the process which leads to peaceful coexistence.

The “us” of the Church is present in the other countries of the Middle East. How can we forget the troubled situation in Iraq and the “little flock” of Christians which lives in the region? At times it is subject to violence and injustice, but it remains determined to make its own contribution to the building of a society opposed to the logic of conflict and the rejection of one’s neighbour.

The “us” of the Church is active in Sri Lanka, in the Korean peninsula and in the Philippines, as well as in the other countries of Asia, as a leaven of reconciliation and peace.

On the continent of Africa she does not cease to lift her voice to God, imploring an end to every injustice in the Democratic Republic of Congo; she invites the citizens of Guinea and Niger to respect for the rights of every person and to dialogue; she begs those of Madagascar to overcome their internal divisions and to be mutually accepting; and she reminds all men and women that they are called to hope, despite the tragedies, trials and difficulties which still afflict them.

In Europe and North America, the “us” of the Church urges people to leave behind the selfish and technicist mentality, to advance the common good and to show respect for the persons who are most defenceless, starting with the unborn.

In Honduras she is assisting in process of rebuilding institutions; throughout Latin America, the “us” of the Church is a source of identity, a fullness of truth and of charity which no ideology can replace, a summons to respect for the inalienable rights of each person and his or her integral development, a proclamation of justice and fraternity, a source of unity.

In fidelity to the mandate of her Founder, the Church shows solidarity with the victims of natural disasters and poverty, even within opulent societies. In the face of the exodus of all those who migrate from their homelands and are driven away by hunger, intolerance or environmental degradation, the Church is a presence calling others to an attitude of acceptance and welcome.

In a word, the Church everywhere proclaims the Gospel of Christ, despite persecutions, discriminations, attacks and at times hostile indifference. These, in fact, enable her to share the lot of her Master and Lord.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, how great a gift it is to be part of a communion which is open to everyone! It is the communion of the Most Holy Trinity, from whose heart Emmanuel, Jesus, “God with us”, came into the world. Like the shepherds of Bethlehem, let us contemplate, filled with wonder and gratitude, this mystery of love and light! Happy Christmas to all!

© Copyright 2009 – Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Pope Benedict XVI watches the faithful as he leads his Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world) Christmas Day message from the central balcony of Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican December 25, 2009. (Photo credit: Osservatore Romano / Reuters)

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Taliban Release Video of Captured U.S. Soldier

This undated photo shows Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl of Ketchum, Idaho. The media arm of the Afghan Taliban said last week on an affiliated Web site that a new videotape of Bergdahl was forthcoming. (Photo credit: Anonymous / AP)

Dec. 25, 2009

KABUL – The Taliban released a video Friday showing a U.S. soldier who was captured more than five months ago in eastern Afghanistan.

Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl is the only known American serviceman in captivity. The U.S. airborne infantryman was taken by the Afghan Taliban in Paktika province on June 30.

“This is a horrible act which exploits a young soldier, who was clearly compelled to read a prepared statement,” said a statement from U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, spokesman for the NATO-led international force in Afghanistan that confirmed the man in the video is Bergdahl. “To release this video on Christmas Day is an affront to the deeply concerned family and friends of Bowe Bergdahl, demonstrating contempt for religious traditions and the teachings of Islam.”

Bergdahl is shown seated, facing the camera, wearing sunglasses and what appears to be a U.S. military helmet and uniform. On one side of the image, it says: “An American soldier imprisoned by the Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.”

The man identifies himself as Bergdahl, born in Sun Valley, Idaho, and gives his rank, birth date, blood type, his unit and mother’s maiden name before beginning a lengthy verbal attack on the U.S. conduct of the war in Afghanistan and its relations with Muslims. He seems healthy and doesn’t appear to have been abused.

The video, which has an English-language narration in parts, also shows images of prisoners in U.S. custody being abused. The speaker says he did not suffer such ill treatment.

A statement read by a Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, appears at the end of the video and renews demands for a “limited number of prisoners” to be exchanged for Bergdahl. The statement says that more American troops could be captured.

The Geneva Conventions, which regulate the conduct of war between regular armies, bar the use of detainees for propaganda purposes and prohibit signatories from putting captured military personnel on display. As an insurgent organization, the Taliban are not party to the treaty.

Statements from captives are typically viewed as being made under duress. The insurgents also released a video of Bergdahl a few weeks after he was captured. In the July 19 video, Bergdahl appeared downcast and frightened.

Bergdahl, who was serving with a unit based in Fort Richardson, Alaska, was 23 when he vanished just five months after arriving in Afghanistan. He was serving at a base in Paktika province near the border with Pakistan in an area known to be a Taliban stronghold. …

U.S. military officials have searched for Bergdahl, but it is not publicly known whether he is even being held in Afghanistan or neighboring Pakistan. …

The man on the video said U.S. officials keep leading America “into the same holes,” citing Vietnam, Japan, Germany, Somalia, Lebanon and Iraq.

“This is just going to be the next Vietnam unless the American people stand up and stop all this nonsense,” he said.

Related report

Family pleads for release of U.S. soldier

Related reports on this site

Taliban Holding U.S. Bodies (Nov. 6, 2009)

War Comes Home to Minnesota (July 21, 2009)

Captured U.S. Soldier Identified (July 19, 2009)

3 Dead in Attack on Base in Iraq (July 17, 2009

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

From the Immelman family, Sartell, Minnesota

The Pope’s Christmas Message 2008

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I shared Pope Benedict XVI’s 2008 Christmas message, “Urbi et Orbi” ["To the City and to the World"] and sent out the Immelman family’s 2008 Christmas greeting.

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Track Santa Claus on his journey around the world on Christmas Eve

Official NORAD Santa Tracker

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — December 24, 2008

Coalition Troops OK’d Until July

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I reported that the Iraqi parliament, in its final session of the year, forced out its abrasive speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani and authorized non-U.S. foreign troops to stay in the country for another six months.

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U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq

As of Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2009, at least 4,370 members of the U.S. military had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

U.S. Troop Casualties in Iraq

Latest identifications:

• None

U.S. Military Deaths in Afghanistan

As of  Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2009, at least 857 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department.

Latest identifications:

• Marine Pfc. Serge Kropov, 21, Hawley, Pa., died Dec. 20, 2009 as a result of a non-hostile incident in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to Marine Aircraft Group 16, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Calif.
• Army Sgt. Albert D. Ware, 27, Chicago, Ill., died Dec. 18, 2009 in Arghandab River Valley, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 782nd Combat Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.

Remember Their Sacrifice

Related links

Iraq Casualties

Afghanistan Casualties

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Abbreviating Christmas in Iraq

An Iraqi police officer stood guard at the entrance to Al Qaleb Al Aqdas Church in the Karada district of Baghdad on Sunday, Dec. 20, 2009. Some Iraqi churches are on high alert. (Photo: Eros Hoagland for The New York Times)

By Timothy Williams

December 22, 2009

Excerpts

BAGHDAD — As a priest led prayers for a few dozen worshipers inside St. Joseph Chaldean Church here on Sunday, Iraqi police officers stood guard outside. They blocked the street to traffic and frisked those who entered for explosive belts.

At churches in Baghdad this week, Christians are being asked for identification to determine if they have names that security force members recognize as Christian. Some churches around the northern city of Mosul are digging in, surrounding their buildings with giant earthen berms to prevent car bombers from getting too close.

For Christians in Iraq, this will be a year of canceled holiday celebrations and of Christmas Masses spent under the protective watch of police officers and soldiers because of a spate of threats by extremist groups to bomb churches on Christmas Day.

“I’m very sad that we are not able to have our rituals for Christmas this year and not have a sermon, but we do not want any Christians to be harmed,” said Edward Poles, a Christian priest at Sa’a Church in Mosul, which was bombed last week, though no one was killed.

In Baghdad, Christians said they were as fearful as they had been since 2006, when the outbreak of sectarian warfare forced many to leave their neighborhoods for months at a time.

“There will be no celebration or anything of that sort,” said Duraid Issam, a 41-year-old clerk. “We will keep it quiet because things are really bad. We are not targeted only at churches, but even in our houses because they will plant bombs outside our homes as well.”

There are no dependable figures on the number of Christians in Iraq, but the community had been estimated to number about 750,000 before the United States-led invasion in 2003.

Since then, they have become targets of killings and kidnappings, leading thousands to flee. 

Many who remain are frightened and have taken precautions to conceal signs of their faith. Celebrations this year will be even more low key because Christmas coincides with the Muslim observance of Ashura, a time of mourning for Shiite Muslims.

…

Some churches have dozens of soldiers and police officers positioned around them after the government placed security personnel on high alert because they received the names of churches that extremist groups said would be bombed on Christmas Day. Other churches have received individual threats.

In Mosul, during the past month, three churches have been bombed, killing a baby and wounding 40 other people. Last week, a Christian man in Mosul was shot dead as he walked down a street.

At least one church there has decided to relocate its Christmas Mass from Mosul to a small town about 30 miles north because parishioners say they feel it will be safer for them.

“We have moved the rituals for Christmas to the town of Qereqush, fearing that the Christians might be harmed in this insecure and unsafe city,” said the Rev. Behnam Asaad of Qahira Church. “We have distributed cards and fliers to the Christian families of this church informing them about the time and place where we will have the celebration, but we fear that assassinations might take place even after Christmas.”

Mr. Asaad said that he had received letters as recently as Monday from armed groups threatening to blow up churches and monasteries, including his own, if they celebrated Christmas. …

12/25/09 Update

6 Shiites Killed During Iraqi Religious Seremony

Series of violence acts target pilgrims during festival of Ashoura

Mourners carry the coffin of Mohammed Juma, 52, during his funeral procession in Baghdad, Iraq, on Friday, Dec. 25, 2009. Juma was killed Thursday when a car bomb exploded near a funeral tent. Explosions killed at least 26 people across Iraq on Thursday, most of them Shiite pilgrims, authorities said. (Photo credit: Karim Kadim / AP)

Dec. 25, 2009

BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb killed six Shiite Muslim pilgrims Friday during a procession, the latest violence targeting the group during observances of a religious holiday, officials said.

The deaths followed heightened tensions in a northern Iraqi town after troops were deployed following a scuffle between Christians and Shiites over holiday decorations.

Observances of the 10-day Shiite festival of Ashoura, which ends Sunday, coincided Friday with Christian celebrations of Christmas.

The government has been trying to assure people it can protect both Shiites and Christians during the two holidays. During Ashoura, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims converge on the holy city of Karbala.

In the days leading up to the event, large processions of men go through the streets of Shiite neighborhoods, beating their chests and using chains to flay their backs in a show of grief over the 7th-century killing of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Imam Hussein. …

The bomb in the capital killed six pilgrims and injured 17, including a local politician, said a policeman in Sadr city in eastern Baghdad. ….

In a northern Iraqi town, troops were deployed and a brief curfew was imposed after three guards at a Christian church were injured during a dispute between Shiites and Christians over competing religious decorations.

The confrontation in Bartela, 240 miles northwest of Baghdad, comes as many Christians in Iraq tamped down celebrations to avoid offending Shiites, who are making pilgrimages to the southern holy city of Karbala to commemorate the killing of Imam Hussein. His death sealed the split between Shiites and Sunnis.

Sayyid Harith Al-Odari, an aide to the powerful anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, said in his Friday sermon, “We offer our thanks and appreciation to our Christian brothers for respecting Ashoura by shortening their celebrations on the occasion of Christ’s birth.”

The incidents come a day after Shiite pilgrims were targeted in a handful of bombing attacks that left dozens dead. In the worst of those attacks, police on Friday raised the toll to 19 killed and 80 wounded in a double bombing in Hillah, 60 miles south of Baghdad.

Northwest of Mosul, near the border with Syria, a car bomb exploded near Kurdish Peshmerga forces, killing one and wounding 10 others, police said. …

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Related reports on this site

In Iraq, an Exodus of Christians (May 16, 2009; scroll down) 

Christians on the Run in Iraq (Nov. 26, 2008)

Christians Flee Iraqi City (Oct. 12, 2008)

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — December 23, 2008

Amanda Henderson holds a portrait of her late husband, Sgt. 1st Class Patrick Henderson, at her home in Henderson, Texas. (Photo credit: Herb Nygren, Jr. / AP)

Military Suicides Probed

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I reported that the Army had begun an investigation after being prodded by Amanda Henderson, wife of Sgt. 1st Class Patrick Henderson, an Iraq combat veteran who spent the final months of his life as an Army recruiter before hanging himself with a dog chain in his backyard shed. In all, 15 of the Army’s 8,400 recruiters committed suicide between 2003 when the Iraq war began, and 2008, with more than 540 of the Army’s half-million active-duty soldiers killing themselves during the same period.

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