- Meet Baitullah Mehsud, Enemy Number One
- Swine Flu Fear Isolates 84 Cadets At Air Force Academy
- Airlines Suspend Operations From Peshawar Pakistan
- American Jihadist al-Amriki Attacks Obama In New Video
- Netanyahu Adviser Raises “MAD” Nuclear Scenario
- Swine Flu – Parts of Britain Near An H1N1 Epidemic
- Statue of Liberty Replica Beheading Probed By NYPD
- Egypt Nabs Al-Qaida-linked Terror Cell Plotting Suez Attacks
- Two Americans Beaten, Murdered In Mexico
 Baitullah Mehsud - Pakistani Taliban Leader Meet Baitullah Mehsud Pakistan’s biggest problem, and the man who has taken his country of 176 million to the center of the West’s war on terror. Once described by a Pakistani general as a “soldier of peace,” he now carries a 50 million rupee (about $615,300) bounty on his head from Pakistan and a $5 million one from the United States. Mehsud is earning the ire of the Pakistani military and Western policymakers alike as his movement destabilizes Pakistan, and the United States has destroyed several of his hide-outs with drone strikes in recent months. His now-famous 2008 press conference — which came almost exactly a decade after Osama bin Laden called for the killing of Americans in a similar announcement just across the border in Khost, Afghanistan — was an extraordinary piece of stagecraft even for a commander with a certain penchant for public flare. By incautiously exposing his location to a big group of journalists, Mehsud should have facilitated his own capture; that he didn’t serves as ongoing testament to the incompetence (and perhaps lack of will) of those who purport to pursue him. Mehsud’s growing influence is of particular concern to Western policymakers because Pakistan represents the gravest general security threat to the international community — the prospect of a nuclear-armed al Qaeda. Keeping Pakistan’s nuclear weapons out of the hands of Islamist extremists is contingent on a stable Pakistani state, and Mehsud is the one man perhaps most capable of destabilizing it. This story comes to us via Homeland         
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Colorado – Dozens of sick cadets at the Air Force Academy have been isolated over fears of H1N1, the Swine Flu. A spokes-person for the Academy tells 11 News 84 cadets, mostly freshman recruits, started showing symptoms on Monday. Since then, they have been tested, and are being isolated from the rest of the Academy in a dorm on the base. Officials say test reults she come back within 24 hours. Test samples were sent to Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. As protocol the Academy has been in touch with the El Paso County Health Department and the Centers For Disease Control. This story comes to us via Homeland    
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Three airlines from the Middle East– Gulf Air, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways – have suspended their operation from Peshawar airport in northwest Pakistan citing security reasons. Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Pervez George said the three airlines had stopped their operations to and from Peshawar airport”temporarily”. “The airlines have not given any specific reason for suspending their operations but they have assured us that it will be for a few days only,” George said. However, an employee of Gulf Air told PTI that the airline had made the decision following news reports that the Taliban might try to target commercial aircraft. The reports said some detained militants had disclosed the Taliban&aposs plans in this regard. The three airlines will divert their operations to Islamabad airport. This story comes to us via Homeland    
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American Jihadist al-Amriki Attacks Obama In New Video Posted: 09 Jul 2009 11:23 PM PDT
An American jihadist tied to Al Qaeda has released an extremist audiotape attacking President Obama, calling for American Muslims to leave the U.S. and join the armed Islamic struggle around the world. Abu Mansoor al-Amriki, an apparent American citizen, is a member of the Somalia-based Islamist militant group al-Shabaab and speaks in English with a flat American accent addressing American Muslims. Titled “A Response to Barack Obama: The Beginning of the End,” the tape is a belated reply to Obama’s speech in Egypt addressed to the Muslim world. In it, Abu Mansoor praises Osama bin Laden and refutes various points Obama made during his speech from Cairo. Abu Mansoor al-Amriki (the American) has raised his profile in recent months, and followed in the footsteps of the better known Adam Gadahn, an American al Qaeda operative based in Pakistan. Gadahn is wanted by the FBI, and the State Department has offered a $1 million reward for his capture. American Jihadist Attacks Obama in Extremist Audio Tape – ABC News. This story comes to us via Homeland    
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Netanyahu Adviser Raises “MAD” Nuclear Scenario Posted: 09 Jul 2009 11:15 PM PDT
Israel must have “tremendously powerful” weapons to deter a nuclear attack or destroy an enemy that dares to launch an atomic strike, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted on Thursday as saying. National security adviser Uzi Arad, in comments to Haaretz newspaper, appeared to allude to what is widely believed to be Israel’s own nuclear arsenal and a standing policy of “mutually assured destruction” (MAD). He warned other countries they could bring about their own devastation if they launched an attack. Israel has never confirmed it has atomic arms. In excerpts on Haaretz’s English-language website of an interview to be published on Friday, Arad said he feared that if Iran became a nuclear power, five or six other states in the Middle East would follow suit. He called such a prospect a “nightmare” for Israel. “The defensive might we have must be improved and become tremendously powerful, and create a situation in which no one will dare to realise the ability to harm us,” Arad said. “And if they do dare, we will exact a full price, so that they too will not survive.” Israel has three German-made submarines that are widely assumed via Reuters AlertNet – Netanyahu adviser raises “MAD” nuclear scenario. This story comes to us via Homeland    
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Swine Flu – Parts of Britain Near An H1N1 Epidemic Posted: 09 Jul 2009 11:10 PM PDT
Fourteen Britons who had contracted H1N1 flu have died and the rapid spread of infection in two areas of the country is close to epidemic level, health officials said on Thursday. The Department of Health said Britain now had 9,718 laboratory-confirmed cases, the third most in the world behind the United States and Mexico. Britain’s Chief Medical Officer Liam Donaldson said the actual number of cases was likely to be higher. All 14 who have died had underlying health issues and it was not clear in how many cases the patients had died as a direct result of the virus, known as swine flu. “In London and the West Midlands we are getting pretty close to epidemic levels. We’ve seen big surges there,” Donaldson told BBC TV. “For the country as a whole, the average is about the level of the flu season but in some parts of the country the levels are getting pretty big.” via Parts of Britain near an H1N1 epidemic; 14 dead Reuters. This story comes to us via Homeland    
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Posted: 09 Jul 2009 07:16 PM PDT
 Statue of Liberty beheading Police in New York City are scrambling to locate the producers of a YouTube video that depicts a stolen replica of the Statue of Liberty blindfolded, beheaded and smashed into pieces a display that one terror expert says is intended to “instill fear” in everyday Americans. The 59-second video shows the 8-foot, 200-pound replica statue, which was stolen from a Brooklyn coffee shop last month, being decapitated and pulverized — accompanied by the words “We don’t want your freedom” and “Death to America.” NYPD Det. Joseph Cavitolo told FOXNews.com that investigators are searching for whoever stole the statue. That individual or individuals could face charges of criminal possession of stolen property and grand larceny or petit larceny. Computer experts are also trying to determine who posted the video, Cavitolo said. Professor Jeffrey Addicott, director of the Center for Terrorism and Law at St. Mary’s University in Texas, said the clip is an obvious attempt to “instill fear.”
This story comes to us via Homeland    
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Egypt Nabs Al-Qaida-linked Terror Cell Plotting Suez Attacks Posted: 09 Jul 2009 11:25 AM PDT
Egyptian authorities have arrested 25 al-Qaida-linked terrorists on suspicion of plotting attacks on oil pipelines and ships crossing the Suez Canal. On Thursday, a Palestinian-led cell planning terror attacks on ships crossing the Suez canal was nabbed in Egypt. The Egyptian Interior Ministry said the new cell was led by a Palestinian and included 24 Egyptians, mostly engineers and technicians. They planned to use mobile phones to detonate explosives against ships crossing the Canal, the statement said. The group learned how to make car bombs through communicating with al-Qaeda terrorists on jihadist websites, according to an Interior Ministry statement. This story comes to us via Homeland    
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Posted: 09 Jul 2009 11:14 AM PDT
A top member of a breakaway Mormon sect was dragged from his home by marauders and killed early Tuesday in a village founded and named for the American families that settled the remote community in the northern Mexican desert. Benjamin LeBaron, 31, and Luis Widmar, 29, a brother-in-law who tried to help him, were grabbed by at least 15 commandos shortly after midnight in Colonia LeBaron, which is about 200 miles southeast of El Paso, witnesses said. The bodies of the men, both naturalized U.S. citizens with five children each, were found nearby shortly afterward, each shot several times in the head, Brent LeBaron, a cousin of Benjamin who lives in the village, said by telephone. Benjamin LeBaron had led successful protests earlier this year to free his kidnapped brother and demand police protection for their isolated rural community. [...] Attacked cousin’s house The attackers struck his cousin’s house as the family slept trying to knock down the front door and smashing its windows, Brent LeBaron said. A panicked Benjamin LeBaron phoned two brothers-in-law for help. But after the attackers threatened to throw a grenade into the house, LeBaron opened the door. The gangsters beat Le-Baron and one threatened to rape his wife in front of their children before carrying their victims away, Brent LeBaron said. This story comes to us via Homeland    
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