Major US bomb alert. A stuffed horse.

Seriously, How deep can the fear of terrorism attacks run?...

Not so seriously:
Two-year-old Timmy Johnson, spokesman for Toddlers for Justice, who claimed responsibility for the stuffed horse attack, said in a written statement that if they can not burn Korans, they have a constitutional right to display horses in parks.

His girlfriend, two-and-a-half year old Suzy Elderman confirmed they are planning similar attacks using Barbie dolls...

Sarah Palin is rumoured to comment on the incident, using Facebook.


Discovered via American Everyman

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Pakistan floods: Wishing I was wrong

A few days ago, I -once more- climbed onto my soapbox and proclaimed my eternal wisdom on the Pakistan flood emergency as if the Holy Truth Was Installed Upon Me by The Powers Above. Hallelujah..!

For all those involved in the emergency, I honestly wished I was wrong. But unfortunately, I am watching it all unroll as I predicted.

I claimed funding for the Pakistan emergency would probably not be forthcoming due to a lack of interest from the West... and here is a clip from yesterday's papers:

The global aid response to the Pakistan floods has so far been much less generous than to other recent natural disasters — despite the soaring numbers of people affected (...)

Reasons include the relatively low death toll of 1,500, the slow onset of the flooding compared with more immediate and dramatic earthquakes or tsunamis, and a global "donor fatigue" — or at least a Pakistan fatigue. (Ed: I would only accept the last explanation)

Ten days after the Kashmir quake, donors gave or pledged $292 million, according to the aid group Oxfam. The Jan. 12 disaster in Haiti led to pledges nearing $1 billion within the first 10 days.
For Pakistan, the international community gave or pledged $150 million after the flooding began in earnest in late July (...) (Full)

A detailed updated status of the consolidated pledges to the Pakistan humanitarian appeal, you find here.


And on staff security, all warning lights are on:

The Pakistani Taliban has urged the government not to accept any foreign aid for victims of the worst flooding in the country's history.

Spokesman Azam Tariq told an Associated Press reporter Tuesday that the Taliban would themselves provide money if the government stopped accepting international help.

"Pakistan should reject this aid to maintain sovereignty and independence," Tariq said. (Full)

Last year, the Taliban issued a similar statement one week before aidworkers were bombed in their Peshawar hotel.


Edited picture based on original by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images, discovered via The Boston Globe's second "The Big Picture" series on the floods and The Horizon

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Suicide bombers going on strike

Muslim suicide bombers in Britain are set to begin a three-day strike on Monday in a dispute over the number of virgins they are entitled to in the afterlife. Emergency talks with Al Qaeda have so far failed to produce an agreement.

The unrest began last Tuesday when Al Qaeda announced that the number of virgins a suicide bomber would receive after his death will be cut by 25% this May from 72 to only 60. The rationale for the cut was the increase in recent years of the number of suicide bombings and a subsequent shortage of virgins in the afterlife.

The suicide bombers' union, the British Organization of Occupational Martyrs ( or B.O.O.M. ) responded with a statement that this was unacceptable to its members and immediately balloted for strike action.

General Secretary Abdullah Aziz told the press, "Our members are literally working themselves to death in the cause of Jihad. We don't ask for much in return but to be treated like this is like a kick in the teeth".

Speaking from his shed in Tipton in the West Midlands in which he currently resides, Al Qaeda chief executive Osama bin Laden explained, "We sympathize with our workers concerns but Al Qaeda is simply not in a position to meet their demands. They are simply not accepting the realities of modern-day Jihad in a competitive marketplace.

Thanks to Western depravity, there is now a chronic shortage of virgins in the afterlife. It's a straight choice between reducing expenditure and laying people off. I don't like cutting wages but I'd hate to have to tell 3000 of my staff that they won't be able to blow themselves up."
Spokespersons for the union in the North East of England, Ireland, Wales and the entire Australian continent stated that the strike would not affect their operations as "There are no virgins in their areas anyway".

Apparently the drop in the number of suicide bombings has been put down to the emergence of that Scottish singing star, Susan Boyle - now that Muslims know what a virgin looks like that they are not so keen on going to paradise.

With thanks to Jeff for the tip
Cartoon courtesy StrangeCosmos

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Terror alert levels in chaos around the world

The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist threats and have raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." The English have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to a "Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was in 1588 when threatened by the Spanish Armada.

The Scots raised their threat level from "Pissed Off" to "Let's Get the Bastards." They don't have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years.

The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide". The only two higher levels in France are "Collaborate" and "Surrender." The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France 's white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country's military capability.

It's not only the French who are on a heightened level of alert. Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout Loudly and Excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing." Two more levels remain: "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides."

The Germans also increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbor" and "Lose".

Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual, and the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels.

The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish Navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish Navy.

Americans meanwhile and as usual are carrying out pre-emptive strikes, on all of their allies, just in case.

And in the southern hemisphere...

New Zealand has also raised its security levels - from "baaa" to "BAAAA!". Due to continuing defense cutbacks (the Air Force being a squadron of spotty teenagers flying paper aeroplanes and the Navy some toy boats in the Prime Minister's bath), New Zealand only has one more level of escalation, which is "I Hope Australia Will Come and Rescue Us".

Australia, meanwhile, has raised its security level from "No Worries" to "She'll be right, mate". Three more escalation levels remain: "Crikey!', "I Think We'll Need to Cancel the Barbie this Weekend" and "The Barbie is Cancelled". So far no situation has ever warranted use of the final escalation level.

Via The Gathering Storm and my Friend E.
Illustration courtesy Candide's Notebooks

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Why that damned war in Afghanistan is so complex

No explanation needed.

Source: Ari Rusila

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Picture of the day: Suicide bomb in Peshawar

A huge and lethal blast rocked a crowded market in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Friday, in what appeared to be a warning about the government’s plans to launch a military offensive against militants in the frontier region of South Waziristan.

The blast, which police and security officials suspected was caused by a suicide car bomb containing more than 100 pounds of explosives, was the biggest in Pakistan in months, killing at least 48 people, including seven children and one woman, and wounding 148 others. (Full)

A car bomb, in a public market place, on a Friday... Clearly aimed to kill as many innocent people as possible. Civilians. People like you and me, who have nothing to do with the so-called war.
Killing children has nothing to do with religion anymore. This has nothing to do with faith anymore. Not even with politics. This is about power, and money, and control. At any cost, in any way possible.

I can not imagine how vicious a mind can be to plan and execute something like this. It is a spiral that seems to be impossible control, leave alone to be stopped. Anyone can strap explosives around his waste or stuff it in the trunk of his car and blow himself up in the most crowded places, trying to kill as many innocent people as possible.

More Pictures of the Day on The Road.

Picture courtesy European Pressphoto Agency

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A deadly bomb blast in my office

It is difficult to imagine what people go through when a suicide bomb determines who is to live and who is not. Here is the story from Rehmat Yazdani, one of our colleagues, who survived yesterday's bombing of the UN WFP office in Islamabad, Pakistan.

I am shaken and traumatized after the yesterday’s blast which took place inside my office building only a few paces away from my glass-cabin. The blast was so sudden and strong that it took me some time to register what actually had happened there with all of us. It was so strong that I was thrown from my chair to a few feet away on the floor.


Everything was shattered into pieces only in a matter of seconds. When I tried getting up from the floor, I had broken wooden pieces in my hair, my head and body were aching badly as something had hit me severely. I was not in my senses and my whole body was shaking badly, the sound of the deadly blast was resonating in my ears and I was so shocked that I could not move a step. There were injured colleagues lying on the floor. My room was on fire and pieces of paper, broken pieces of doors, broken pieces of my glass cabin, windows and tables were lying here and there. I was looking at my injured colleagues in a state of shock and horror. “Vacate the building immediately”, I heard one of my colleagues saying. But I could not move till the time one of my colleague dragged me outside the building. But that was not the end of it.


The real horror started when my colleagues started taking the dead and injured bodies outside the building. Yes, bodies drenched in blood of people I worked and used to spent a major part of my day on regular basis… It was such a heartbreaking scene……We had tears in ours eyes. We were horrified and traumatized…


None of us in the office had ever imagined that this Bloody Monday will change our lives for ever and we will be left with haunted memories of the incident. I have not recovered from the shock yet, the whole scene is playing back again and again in my brain, even the sedative pills failed to calm down my nerves. None of my other colleagues are out of trauma yet. Those innocent souls who died in the blast would never be there in our office again and our office would never be the same place again….. I pray for all the departed souls (Gul, Farzana, Wahab, Abid Rehman and Udan) and I am going to miss them forever …


My mother says that it is a miracle that I have only minor injuries and I survived despite the fact that the bomb blasted only a few paces away from where I sit But I am thinking why this miracle did not happen in case of Gul, Farzana, Wahab, Abid Rehman and Udan. Why these innocent people lost their lives?? What will become of their families now?? What was their fault or What was our fault that all of us became victims of a bomb blast and are left with haunted memories ??

Read also this story by one of our colleagues, Dima, who remembers her friend, Farzana, she will not meet again.

Story republished courtesy MetBlogs. Picture courtesy Dawn

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Today is World Humanitarian Day

With a suicide car bomb killing two UN staff yesterday, a UN compound attacked in Somalia over the weekend, an aidworker killed during a mugging in Zanzibar and an NGO worker for a human rights NGO killed in Chechnya last week, we celebrate World Humanitarian Day today.

"Celebrate" is the wrong word... "Commemorate" should be more appropriate. Commemorating the 81 aid workers killed this year. And the hundreds who have lost their lives in the past years...

If there is one symbol that stands out for the sacrifice of many, it would be this UN flag, recovered from the rubble after the bombing of the UN HQ in Baghdad now 6 years ago.

This is the official World Humanitarian Day video:



August 19, 2003.

We will not forget.

Video courtesy of OCHA
Picture courtesy UN Media

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Peshawar bombing hits the aid community

Last night, a suicide bomb attack on a luxury hotel in the north-west Pakistani city of Peshawar, has killed 15 people and injured at least 60.

Gunmen stormed the outer security barrier at the Pearl Continental Hotel before blowing up a vehicle containing 500kg of explosives.

Two aidworkers, a Serbian UNHCR staff and a UNICEF employee from the Philippines were killed and several others were injured. (Full)

This was the last in a long series of bombings in Pakistan, the second targeting a prominent hotel. Nine months ago, the Marriott hotel in Islamabad was virtually destroyed in a similar attack.
The Pearl Continental was obviously chosen as a target for maximum impact: due to the obvious security constraints in Peshawar, it was the only hotel approved for UN aid workers, by UN Department for Safety and Security (UNDSS).

Picture courtesy Mohammad Sajjad/Associated Press

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The LRA: unresolved questions

Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) was founded back in 1987 as an armed opposition against the Ugandan government. At that time they based themselves in South Sudan, but operated mainly in Uganda.

They became mostly known through their numerous abuses and atrocities against civilians, including the abduction, rape, maiming, and killing of defenseless people. They regularly kidnap children to enslave them as child prostitutes and soldiers in there so-called "army".

Since they were pushed out of North Uganda in 2005, the LRA has been terrorizing civilians in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo), South Sudan and Uganda, hopping over the borders.

In February this year, the Ugandan army - apparently aided by the US - tried to root out the LRA from DRC. The LRA retreated, killing 900 civilians in the process (Full)

Even just a few days ago, the LRA kidnapped around 135 villagers, including children, during two attacks in DRC's North East. (Full)

I invite you to look at this excellent video, one of the very few interviews ever made with Kony, the LRA's leader.
It stroke me how the LRA seems to be mostly a loosely knit group of bandits, clearly with a wide network of informants, held together by the Thuraya telephone network. There is no clear goal nor ideology behind the LRA. When Kony was asked "why are you fighting?", he answered "for democracy", but it did not go any deeper than that.

Add to these impressions that their overall troop strength is estimated anywhere between 500 and 3,000 soldiers (half of them estimated to be women and children), I am left with only two, but fundamental questions:

1. How come nobody has been able to smoke out this gang of bandits (wanted by the ICC - International Criminal Court by the way)? In this day and age where technology exists and is routinely used to track the movement of people using satellite phones? Why is there an apparent unwillingness of the international community to make an end to these atrocities, which, to top it all up, continue to contribute to the instability in Eastern Congo, one of the longest lasting conflicts in Africa?
   
   
2. Who supports these rebels? They would not be able to operate without the financial and logistics backing of an entity. What entity? Who would contribute to an instable South Sudan, Uganda and DRC? Khartoum?
   

Picture courtesy Jacob Gelt Dekker

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Canadians face prosecution because they helped a Canadian national in a Canadian embassy.

Over 100 Canadians are facing prosecution for chipping in to buy a plane ticket for a Canadian who has taken refuge inside the Canadian Embassy in Sudan.

Abousfian Abdelrazik is a Canadian citizen from Sudanese descent, visiting his mother in Sudan when he was arrested for alleged terror ties. He claims to have been tortured, but was not charged. He was released from prison because Sudanese investigators found no evidence to support criminal activity.

As he is a Canadian national, he took refuge inside the Canadian Embassy in Sudan, but lacked the funds to pay for his return fair. Over 100 Canadians chipped in for him.

According to Canadian law, these benefactors can be charged, and could spend up to 10 years behind bars, as Abdelrazik is still on a UN terrorist blacklist.

Oh, and he is on the international no-fly list also. (Full).

Go figure.

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News: UN compound attacked in Baghdad

FLASH: A rocket struck near a UN compound in the heavily fortified Green Zone on Saturday, killing three foreigners and wounding 14, according to UN and military officials.

The victims were working for a catering company that provides services for the United Nations.

The UN presence in Iraq has been limited since the organisation's Baghdad headquarters was bombed on August 19, 2003, killing 22 people. (Full)

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News: UN compound bombed in Somalia

Five suicide car bombs rocked a presidential palace, government security post, a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) office and an Ethiopian consular unit in two regions of northern Somalia today.

Several buildings were leveled by the attacks, which happened within a span of half an hour.

At least two people were killed and six seriously wounded in the attack of the United Nations office in Hargeisa, long considered as the safest city in Somalia. (Full)

The UNDP compound was hit by an explosion caused by a vehicle that had forced its way into the compound at approximately 10 a.m. local time.

“At present, we can confirm that two national UN staff have been killed, while two others were critically injured and medically evacuated to Djibouti,” UN spokesperson Marie Okabe said. Full)

The attack came five years after the attack of the UN compound in Baghdad and ten months after the bombing of the UN offices in Algiers.

Investigations after both bombings showed significant short comings in the UN security apparatus. Follow-up actions included loads of finger pointing and scape goating but failed to deliver any noticeable differences for humanitarian workers, UN or not UN.

Status Oct 5th, 31 aid workers have been killed in Afghanistan, 32 killed in Somalia and 11 in Darfur. (Full). Since then 2 more aid workers were killed in Somalia, and one was shot dead in Afghanistan.

2008 is heading to set a sad record.

More posts on The Road about being an aidworker, Somalia and terrorism


Video discovered via Humanitarian Relief

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News: Bombing of the Islamabad Marriott hotel

A massive bomb blast has hit the Marriott Hotel in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, killing at least 40 people. The explosion occurred when a lorry, which was being checked by security staff and sniffer dogs blew up at the hotel's entrance.
The explosion - a suspected suicide bombing - is thought to have been caused by more than a tonne of explosives.
Pakistan authorities say 53 people died and 266 were wounded. (Full)

The attack sends a chill down my spine. When I lived in Islamabad, we used to go to the Marriott at least once per month. The hotel is featured in this shortstory.

The attack also comes just a few weeks after I wrote a post to watch the developments in Pakistan at at a time where the government is trying to find the right balance between its alliance to the US, and the grip the Taliban has in the Northern Territories...

More posts on the Road about Pakistan

Picture courtesy AFP.

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News: UN and US, more than one letter of difference?

Warning. This piece is highly opinionated and reflects my personal views.

Letter to the Editor of the New York Times (Source)

Re “For Terrorists, a War on Aid Groups” by Samantha Power (Op-Ed, Aug. 19):

As an aid worker who has worked in the Middle East for more than 10 years, I applaud Ms. Power’s call for more protection for nongovernmental organization workers in conflict zones, but she doesn’t mention an important element.

In recent years, the United States government has both contracted out for more aspects of development and humanitarian assistance in conflict zones and connected this foreign aid more closely than ever with strategic and military goals.

By publicly linking these objectives, the United States government has placed aid workers in the position where they may not be seen as neutral development professionals working solely for the benefit of the people in host countries, and has caused some people, especially in places where the United States military is involved, to see aid workers as representatives of an unpopular foreign policy or as part of an occupation administration, making them more vulnerable to attack.

Garrett Dorer, Cairo Aug. 20 2008

This letter represents the view many humanitarian workers have, since 9/11. The US unilaterally invaded two sovereign countries, Afghanistan and Iraq. The humanitarian workers were given all the financial resources needed to provide relief aid during and after these military actions.

And we, the aid workers, were effective: no-one saw children starving on the television. There were no reports of massive deaths due to the outbreak of diseases. Food, medical aid and shelter were flown in and distributed as almost a school example of how humanitarian assistance should be run. Did that directly or indirectly soften the public's opinion about the military actions?

As the humanitarians proved to be effective in their Afghanistan and Iraq aid efforts, how far have they brought down the threshold for any country to take unilateral military action against the other? And even worse: how far have they aligned themselves with military actions? Part of the planning for military actions? How far are aid workers seen as accomplices.
Consequently, up to what level are we, aid workers, now seen as "representatives" of an unpopular foreign policy of one country? And consequently, up to what level are we, aid workers, now targeted by terrorism and other hostilities as much as the US is?

For us, UN aid workers, we always half-jokingly say: "Between the US and the UN, there is more than a one letter difference", but that is not how it looks like to the outside world.

Picture courtesy Robert Kasca

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News: Let us not forget - August 19th 2003

Today, five years ago,
the UN headquarters -Canal Hotel- in Baghdad was viciously bombed.

Today, five years ago,
we lost 22 of our colleagues. Over a hundred were wounded.

Today, five years ago.
Let us not forget.

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News: Dunkin' Donuts, a scarf and extremism.

Only in America... On May 7, Dunkin’ Donuts began running an ad, featuring local celebrity chef Rachael Ray wearing a black-and-white fringed scarf.

The ad has now been revoked due to protest that Ms. Ray’s scarf resembled "to the type typically worn by Muslim extremists". (Full)

Apart from thinking "Only in America!", the whole story truly saddens me. Even if the scarf was a keffiyeh, the traditional scarf of Arab men, then why does this have to be automatically associated with extremism, or seen as a symbol of support to terrorism? Is this a sign of the depth of the world's polarization into Arab and non-Arab, Muslim and non-Muslim?

I have lived in Dubai for five years. I don't think I ever lived in a more tolerant society with respect for other cultures, religions and opinions. Far more tolerant than back home in Belgium, and certainly far more than the US. Sometimes I am ashamed on behalf of us, Westerners.

Picture courtesy boston.com

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News: Nelson Mandela (90) is still on US Terrorist List.

The African National Congress (ANC) was designated as a terrorist organisation by South Africa's old apartheid regime. Since that time, things changed. Apartheid is not legal anymore, Nelson Mandela was released from prison, and the ANC became the government.

Other things have not changed: all ANC leaders, including Nelson Mandela, are still tagged as 'terrorists' in US security databases and need to get a special waiver to enter the US.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has now asked for the "embarrassing" travel restrictions to be lifted. Good. I am happy the US administration is keeping up with the fast moving pace of world politics. The ANC has been South Africa's governing party since 14 years. (Full)

Soon, one embarrassment less. Some more challenges still to tackle, though. Like convincing US President Bush statements like "Mandela is dead" is not really OK. Not really.


It might have something to do with the fact that Mandela has never been short of criticism on US politics or the current US presidency. Remember that back in 2003, he commented: "If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the United States of America. They don't care."
Mandela was rather specific on Bush too: "What I am condemning is that one power, with a president who has no foresight, who cannot think properly, is now wanting to plunge the world into a holocaust (referring to the Iraq war)." (Full)

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News: Feel Safer Now?

After September 11th 2001, most countries beefed up security at airports and other vulnerable places. Tough-looking immigration officials no doubt made passengers feel safer, offsetting the irritation of longer queues. Yet doing something because it makes people feel good is not adequate justification. Is money devoted to counter-terrorism well spent?

What claims to be the first serious study of its costs and benefits, by economists at the Universities of Texas and Alabama, says no. It was commissioned by the Copenhagen Consensus, a think-tank that aims to scrutinise public spending on the world's woes and to ask “should we be starting from here?”

The authors of the study calculate that worldwide spending on homeland security has risen since 2001 by between $65 billion and $200 billion a year. But in either case the benefits are far smaller. (full)

Picture courtesy t4toby.wordpress.com. Source: The Road Daily

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News: The End of the Last Shangri-La?

Back in 2000, I had the privilege to spend two weeks in Bhutan. We had several school feeding project in remote areas. Kids would cross mountains at the beginning of the term, and only go back to their homes three months later. The schools had no funds for the kids' meals, and that was where we came in.

Over the past 20 years I have lived, or visited about 150 countries. From Antarctica to Kiribati, from East Timor to Andorra. Bhutan is the country that I would pick as the one place which left the longest lasting imprint in my mind. The people, their smiles and forthcomingness. The landscape and isolation. The culture. The "world's last Shangri-La", I thought.

This last Shangri-La seems to be no longer sheltered from the typical 21st century world problems, it seems:

A bomb exploded in Bhutan on Monday, the latest in a string of blasts blamed on ethnic Nepali exiles and designed to disrupt the Himalayan kingdom's first-ever parliamentary poll next month, police said. The United Revolutionary Front of Bhutan (URFB), a newly formed armed group fighting for the rights of ethnic Nepalis exiled in 1991, claimed responsibility for the blast, warning of more attacks unless the March 24 elections were cancelled. (Full)

Source: The Other World News

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