Author: |Posted: 11:35 am on 24/09/09
Category: World News Blog
It’s not surprising security is tight at the UN during the general assembly. We all expect to have to stand in long queues to pass through metal detectors at any gathering where Barack Obama is present, especially when he is joined by Benjamin Netanyahu, Mahmoud Abbas, Muammar Gaddafi and Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. No wonder there are snipers on top of the nearby hotels and sniffer dogs are roaming the streets.
But now it seems all the security is in the wrong place. The latest US terror alert issued yesterday is not warning of a possible attack against any of the world leaders visiting here or the United Nations itself. The most dangerous places in the city are apparently the sports stadiums. That’s where the police say they are now expecting the next Al Qaeda attack - a ball game is more likely to be hit than tomorrow’s meeting of the security council.
The Feds are warning that an Al-Qaeda training manual specifically lists “blasting and destroying the places of amusement, immorality, and sin … and attacking vital economic centres” as desired targets of the global terror network.
A joint statement from the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI said while the agencies “have no information regarding the timing, location or target of any planned attack, we believe it is prudent to raise the security awareness of our local law enforcement partners regarding the targets and tactics of previous terrorist activity.”
They obviously don’t realise that all of their local law enforcement partners in New York (I assume they include the NYPD) are patrolling the weird array of protests outside the United Nations building.
Still, since it appears that the NYPD accidentally blew the surveilance of a terrorist suspect this month by questioning one of his friends about him, maybe the FBI will be happy if all the cops are kept out of the way.
Author: |Posted: 4:22 pm on 30/04/09
Category: World News Blog
Gordon Brown has announced a mini-surge of British troops in Afghanistan to help police the August presidential election there. He’s also promised a big increase in aid to Pakistan, with half of the money going to the Afghan frontier region, which Mr Brown has branded “the crucible of global terrorism”.
His 15-page strategy document (UK Policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan: the Way Forward) highlights the “critical strategic importance to the UK” of what the Americans now just call “the Af-Pak theatre”. read more
Author: |Posted: 3:46 pm on 30/03/09
Category: World News Blog
Today’s attack on a police training school in Lahore could be part of a worrying trend. This was not suicide bombing, but a commando-style raid, as per the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team which left seven dead in the same city earlier this month, and the attacks on the hotels in Mumbai, India last year.
If these incidents are tactically connected, the finger of suspicion could point to homegrown Lashkar-e-Taiba militants. A senior army officer said the attackers were “Afghans”, but a police recruit read more
Author: |Posted: 4:55 pm on 19/03/09
Category: World News Blog
We’ve now had not one but TWO audio messages from Osama Bin Laden in the past week, urging Somalis to rise up against their new president, Sheikh Sharif, and wage jihad. Even though the sheikh has been quoted as saying he wants to introduce sharia law, Osama is not a happy man.
The latest Osama missive is called “Fight on, champions of Somalia” and goes like this: read more
Author: |Posted: 7:20 pm on 05/03/09
Category: World News Blog
I’ve just interviewed Sri Lanka’s top spin bowler, Muttiah Muralitharan, about a story that’s doing the rounds. Conspiracy? Collusion with terrorists? He says it’s just a load of spin.
Was the attack on the Sri Lanka test team and the umpires an inside job? Quite an allegation – but that’s what’s been suggested.
The Pakistan captain, Younus Khan told a news conference yesterday: “Thank God we decided to leave our hotel five minutes after the Sri Lankans.” He put it down to good fortune.
But eyebrows have been raised over this unexplained five-minute delay between the departure from the Pearl Continental Hotel of the Sri Lankan team bus and the Pakistan team bus. read more
Author: |Posted: 4:04 pm on 03/03/09
Category: World News Blog
I’ve just had a very insightful chat with Ahmed Rashid, doyen of the Lahore journalism set, the best-selling Taliban-Qaida watcher and described by Christopher Hitchens as “Pakistan’s best and bravest reporter”. His latest book, Descent into Chaos, documents Pakistan’s apocalyptic downward spiral.
So what did he make of what went on in the upmarket Gulberg district at 9 o’clock this morning? “Pakistan,” he said to me, ominously, “is running away with its crises. It doesn’t bode well.” read more
Author: |Posted: 10:56 am on 17/02/09
Category: World News Blog
I’ve just come up for air after several weeks investigating claims that dozens of Islamic extremists have returned to Britain from training camps in Somalia.
The security services believe that they may end up using the skills they have learned in Somalia to commit acts of terror here in the UK. read more
