Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes;
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Ding-dong.
Hark! now I hear them — Ding-dong, bell.
— Ariel, scene ii, “The Tempest”, Shakespeare
I was sitting on this until further confirmation, but Fox news network has just broadcast it so confidence in the story must be getting higher. US forces might have killed Mansoor or “Baby” Daddullah in a precision bombing run.
The new code for determining which Terror groups are which in Pakistan is by language. In this article the terrorists holding the historic Haji Sahib Turangzai shrine, are designated “Urdu Speaking” which means they are the splinter called the “Pakistani Taliban” – a conglomerate of small groups originally hosted and funded by ISI in the Kashmir, but now allied and taking direction from Ayman Al Zawahiri, the Egyptian Dr.
If they were true to the shrine and the history of Pakistan, and if they were loyal patriots they would not have renamed it “Lal Masjid” in a bid to recreate the siege and storming in Islamabad. Their goals are transparent, as is their leadership.
They are two of 11 siblings of Malaysian descent, according to court documents. And they did most of their talking across the distance by coded e-mail using Malaysian language. They called guns “iron” and government agents were called “dogs.” Bombs were called “prizes” or “presents.”
Authorities have arrested Rahmat Abdhir, who is a US Citizen of Malaysian descent in Sunnyvale California. His brother, Zulkifli Abdhir, is a suspected leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, an Al Qaeda affiliated group responsible for killing 202 people in a nightclub bombing in Bali, Indonesia in 2002. Story at Breitbart, photo to the left depicts victims of the Bali bombing, which used a car bomb.
The Phoenix Mars mission hit a rain delay yesterday and instead took off this morning. The launch was clean, and one of our frequent commenters caught the trail, but not the takeoff — Aknot describes the scene below:
I verified the launch schedule before I left for work (3 am) and checked my watch at 5:10 am. The morning sky was cloudless and the moon was at my back…perfect! At 5:45 I saw a strange cloud formation in the sky and said “crap”, I missed it.
The trail was amazing, being lit up by the moon behind me or the city lights (Tampa and Orlando) in front of me. It looked like a huge white wispy ring but later you could better see the trail as the sun came up and changed some of it to an orange glow. The last half hour it was visible it resembled a smoke trail straight from a RoadRunner/Wile E. Coyote cartoon with loop-de-loops, u-turns, and circles.
It’s on my list of things to do to go down and watch a shuttle launch, Aknot watches from the Tampa area every launch. Continue reading
This is as predictable as the sunrise. The Movie, Khuda Kay Liye has taken Pakistan like wildfire and paints the lives of different Pakistanis post-9/11. Iman Ali stars in the movie, and extremists don’t like it. The movie is so popular they cannot attack it without gaining ire, so instead they go after the most vulnerable — the actress. (See this previous post about why movies about Pakistan usually use Bollywood actress’ instead of Pakistanis.) Continue reading
The Taliban is known for destroying shops that sell goods “forbidden” under their version of Sharia in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, and they are known for targeted assassinations against opposition leaders. In Oakland California, both tactics appear to have been used against the community this week.
Police have raided Your Black Muslim Bakery and seized multiple weapons after a prominent bay-area black journalist was slain. This comes after a year-long investigation for crimes including murder, robbery, and kidnapping.
UPDATE: Black Muslim Bakery and Yusef Bey are NOT part of Nation of Islam as a commenter pointed out. Indeed, during the violence against merchants in the area Nation of Islam members passed out flyers condemning violence against the store owners.
I stand duly corrected, and have fixed the title of this story, thanks.
UPDATE: SUSPECT CONFESSES
Note to investigators: The Journalist killed by them did a few stories on them — it was only when he started investigating their financing that they killed him. Perhaps you should follow the money too?
The journalistic landscape is littered with the corpses of failed journalists, staked through their black hearts by reality. They seek an eternal life of Pulitzer fame by betraying truth; but then one day truth dawns phoenix-bright and burns them to an ashen husk.
To win a Pulitzer you must venture into the realm of “literary reporting” where framing and gritty angle are more important than objective reality — you must sell out truth and fully prostrate yourself at the altar of nihilism as the entry-tithe to the kingdom.
Update: Beauchamp fully recants. Continue reading
Here’s the latest thirty days of clustrmap, you can see that the Lal Masjid incident drove a lot of visits from Pakistan; I have no idea if I am well-liked there, but I am well-read there. I’ve had some visits again from Diego Garcia as well I see.
For the man sound in body and serene of mind there is no such thing as bad weather; every sky has its beauty, and storms which whip the blood do but make it pulse more vigorously.
– George Gissing
