THE NEW BABYLON TIMES

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

German Police Officers Secretly Trained Libyan Forces
2008-04-04 21:24:00
Der Spiegel - Disciplinary proceedings have been instigated against all eight officers, who went to Libya in their free time without the knowledge of their superiors.the officers have already been transferred from elite SWAT-style units to normal police duties.According to the media reports, former officers of the elite anti-terrorism GSG-9 police force had founded a private security company and hired police officers from the German equivalent of SWAT units on a freelance basis. The special police forces officers reportedly went to Libya in 2006 and trained security forces on behalf of the private security company. The officers were paid up to €15,000 for their efforts.
More About: Police , Officers , Forces , Trained

Blasphemers, Unite!
2008-04-04 21:19:00
Michael J. Totten - Egypt's Grand Imam Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi threatened “severe” consequences if the Dutch government doesn’t ban Parliamentarian Geert Wilders’ anti-Islamic film Fitna. It makes no difference to Tantawi and other perpetually outraged Islamists that the Netherlands is a sovereign country with its own laws. Ever since Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini condemned Salman Rushdie to death for writing the supposedly offensive Satanic Verses – and sent death squads after him and his publishers around the world – radical Islamists have seen it as their right and duty to enforce their own unilateral anti-blasphemy laws on the human race. More...

Islamic Support For Obama Coming Into The Open In California
2008-04-03 20:13:00
Anti-Mullah, via AINA - We heard rumors of the Islamic Republic of Iran also passing the word to their American agents and clerics to support Obama but had nothing tangible till now.The photo above was taken during the last week of March, 2008 by an AntiMullah person who happened to see this woman and was delighted to have a camera on hand.Don't be misled by there only being one person. Mosques have been told to get the message across effectively rather than to hold demonstrations, since there was no protest involved where numbers rather than a "bilingual" sign become important.Note the "bilingual" aspect uses English lettering for Persian (not Arabic) words to reach a broader audience than writing it in Farsi (Persian) fonts.
More About: California , Open , Support

Heart of israeli soldier gives life to arab
2008-04-03 20:06:00
ANSAmed - Protagonists in the story are a 19-year-old soldier, Yaniv Pozoarik, from the town of Holon, and a 25-year-old Arab with Israeli passport, Salim Louai, resident of the town of Ibillin, in Upper Galilee. On the night of March 25 corporal Yaniv was injured by mistake by a fellow soldier while he was in the military base. He was taken to the hospital in Haifa where doctors told his family he was brain-dead. ''It only took us a minute to decide to donate his organs because we were certain that he, who had always been so generous, would have been proud of our choice,'' the father, Yafim, said. The screening for patients awaiting transplantation started while the doctors were still in the operating room. This is how the death of corporal Yaniv became crossed, due to complicated genetic reasons, with the life of Salim. The young Salim Louai, a Palestinian Arab with Israeli passport, lived attached to an artificial heart for five months. ''We knew that transplantation was th...
More About: Life , Heart , Soldier

North Korea sells rocket launchers to Myanmar
2008-04-03 20:05:00
TOKYO (Reuters) - North Korea has been selling multiple rocket launchers to military-ruled Myanmar since the two countries restored ties last year in violation of U.N. sanctions, Japan's NHK public broadcaster reported.Quoting unspecified diplomatic sources, NHK said in a report late on Wednesday that the launchers were the same type as those deployed near the demilitarized zone separating the Korean peninsula.Diplomatic relations between North Korea and Myanmar were cut off following the 1983 "Rangoon" bombing in which Pyongyang agents killed 17 South Korean officials, but were restored in April, 2007.
More About: Rocket

Darfur: US Wants 3,600 New Troops
2008-04-03 19:51:00
Time -- Ambassador Richard Williamson, the U.S. special envoy to Sudan, told Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in the letter that additional troops are the best hope of increasing security in the Sudanese region.A joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force took over in January from a beleaguered AU force to try to stem the violence. But it only has about 9,000 troops and police on the ground, out of a total of 26,000 that have been authorized.
More About: Darfur , Troops

Qaida No. 2 to Answer Web Questions Soon
2008-04-02 21:00:00
Breitbart -- Al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri will soon answer the hundreds of questions submitted by journalists, militants and others about the terrorist network's future.A banner bearing the logo of the Al-Qaida's media arm, al-Sahab, appeared on Web sites linked to the organization that have carried its messages in the past."Soon the surprise," read the flashing banner, which showed a picture of the Egyptian-born militant dressed in white wearing a turban. "Soon by the grace of God, the open interview with Sheik Ayman Zawahri, first episode."More than 900 entries—many with multiple questions—were posted on the main Islamist Web site until the cutoff date of Jan. 16. After the deadline, the questions disappeared from that site.The questioners appeared uncertain whether al-Qaida's central leadership directly controls the multiple, small militant groups around the Mideast that work in its name, or whether those groups operate on their own.Some asked if al-Qaida have a long-te...
More About: Questions , Answer

Iran intercepting Israeli communications through Syria
2008-04-02 20:56:00
The Jerusalem Post -- Iran has set up sophisticated listening stations in Syria in recent months to intercept Israeli military communications, Israeli security officials say.Top brass won't be allowed to bring their mobile phones into rooms where classified information is being discussed, the officials said. And generals will be assigned special areas on bases to conduct private conversations. That way, listening stations won't be able to hear sensitive conversations that might be going on in the background while generals talk on their cellular phones, they explained.
More About: Communications

Pakistan: Couple stoned to death for adultery
2008-04-02 20:54:00
AKI -- According to the Pakistan i daily, Dawn, this is the first incident of stoning carried out in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas on the border of Afghanistan.In the past, couples found guilty of adultery by militants or tribesmen were executed by firing squads.The woman, identified as Shano, had allegedly eloped with Daulat Khan Malikdeenkhel on 15 March.Quoting Dr. Asad, a spokesman for the militants, Dawn said that Shano was a married woman living in Peshawar’s Deen Bahar colony.He said a complaint had been received from her family that she had been abducted by Daulat Khan. But later it was reported that she had ran away with him.He said that some members of the Taliban captured them when they were returning from Karachi.
More About: Couple , Death , Adultery , Stoned

Hamas TV puppet "kills" President Bush
2008-04-01 13:26:00
Brandishing "the sword of Islam", a Palestinian boy stabbed U.S. President George W. Bush to death in a new puppet show for children aired by Hamas -owned television in the Gaza Strip.
More About: President Bush , Puppet

Iran: New defense umbrella for Sudan
2008-04-01 13:22:00
DEBKA -- After Russia, China and Libya froze arms sales to Sudan over the horrors of Darfur, Tehran stepped in last month with a string of military pacts signed on March 8 by Iran ’s defense minister Gen. Mostafa Mohammad Majjar and his Sudanese counterpart, Gen. Abdul Rahim Mohammad Hussein.For Sudan, they open up a new source of weapons and the promise of defense systems for its strategic sites, including the controversial White Nile dams, which are creating a new refugee crisis.Iran has gained a foothold on the Suez and Red Sea coasts, access to Chadian uranium and a hook-up with anti-American terror groups in northern and central Africa.
More About: Defense , Umbrella

A Giant Mosque in Europe
2008-04-01 13:15:00
The Brussels Journal -- The Regional Council of Alsace (France), consisting mainly of UMP members, voted in favor of a 420,000 euro subsidy for the construction of the Grand Mosque of Strasbourg. The UMP is President Sarkozy’s party.The Concordat is a special agreement decreed by Bonaparte dating from 1801 that grants public status to religion, and that permits priests to be paid by the State. In 1801, Alsace was part of France. However, when in 1905 the law separating Church and State went into effect in France, Alsace was part of Germany. After WWI Alsace again became French but never renounced the Concordat.
More About: Europe , Giant

Mahdi Army taking significant casualties in Baghdad, South
2008-03-30 14:00:00
While the size of the Mahdi Army is a constant source of debate, media accounts often put the Mahdi Army at anywhere from 40,000 to 60,000 fighters. With an estimated 1,000 Mahdi fighters killed, captured, wounded and surrendered, the Mahdi Army has taken an attrition rate of 1.5 to 2.5 percent over the past five days. More...Photo: About 200 demonstrators held a rally to support the military operations in Basra and Maliki's government, in Diwaniya.
More About: Baghdad , South , Casualties

Iraqi Shiites Copying From Their Hezbollah Cousins in Lebanon?
2008-03-30 13:57:00
Counterterrorism Blog -- It shouldn't surprise us if we find that the Shiite militias have prepared for the same type of warfare engaged in by their Hezbollah cousins in 2006, using Iranian arms, IRGC advisers and trainers, and similar tactics.The obvious difference between Lebanon 2006 and Iraq 2008 is the direct action in Iraq by the U.S. military, who are now far more efficient in counterinsurgency and urban warfare than the Israelis were entering the 2006 conflict. Did the Shiite militia desire such a reaction? Is that why they shelled the Green Zone so early in the conflict with the Iraqi army, to draw the Americans in and inject more uncertainty over Iraq into the 2008 election cycle?Shiite militia leaders have already achieved one strategic goal: they showed Pentagon planners and American voters that the Iraqi army is nowhere ready to secure Iraq, much as Hezbollah exposed the weaknesses in Israeli armed forces. We can also expect that unless the American military completely...
More About: Shiites

Fatah PA Corruption Exposed
2008-03-30 13:53:00
Arutz Sheva -- Senior Fatah officials in the Palestinian Authority health system systematically stole valuable medications and replaced them with worthless placebo pills.The placebos, which lab tests show had no medical value, were passed along to clinics and hospitals, where they were given to patients suffering from serious and often life-threatening diseases.The real medications were taken to massive warehouses in Ramallah and Shechem, and were sold for high prices on the black market.
More About: Corruption

'Satanic Verses' play premieres in Germany
2008-03-29 21:07:00
Al-Arabiya -- The play, adapted from Rushdie's 1988 book, was reworked for the stage by the manager of the Hans Otto Theatre in the eastern city of Potsdam, Uwe Eric Laufenberg, and dramatist Marcus Mislin.Amid heavy media coverage of the upcoming premiere, the general secretary of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany , Aiman Mazyek, urged followers of Islam to remain calm over the staging of the play and engage in a "critical and constructive dialogue" about the issues it raises.But he also questioned whether the play might go too far.
More About: Play , Satanic Verses , Premieres , Satanic

Damascus lines its borders with troops ahead of semi-boycotted Arab summit
2008-03-29 20:50:00
DEBKA -- Yemen and Jordan sent junior representatives, following the lead of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco and Oman. Lebanon boycotted the meeting in protest against Syrian “meddling” which has deprived the country of a president since November. Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki was too busy with his offensive against fellow Shiites in Basra. But Baghdad sent its Shiite Arab vice president Adil Abdul-Mahdi. Iran sent FM Manouchehr Mottaki after backing away from Syria’s original plan to invite its president.Syrian president Bashar Assad has inexplicably responded to the partial boycott of the Arab League “summit” by lining up army units on his borders with Iraq, Lebanon and Israel, as well as pushing contingents across the border into Lebanon proper.DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s military sources report that a group of Syrian armored divisions has been posted along the Beirut-Damascus highway at Zabadani, under the command of the president’s younger brother, Maher Assad, commander of the pr...
More About: Troops , Semi , Summit , Lines , Borders

Retired Kuwaiti pop star joins al-Qaeda
2008-03-19 18:44:00
Jihad Watch -- Hussein al-Ahmad, who was until recently one of the Gulf’s most famous pop stars, decided to join “his Mujahideen brothers in Afghanistan to support Islam and fight alongside his fellow Muslims in al-Qaeda ”, reported Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai.He says: “I then informed my family and friends that I would retire from the dark world of sin (singing). Since then, my job has been to warn against arts and their sinful atmosphere.”
More About: Al Qaeda , Star , Al-Qaeda

Indians ‘involved’ in missile technology smuggling
2008-03-19 18:43:00
Dawn -- An employee of the Indian Embassy in Washington and Indian government agencies conspired with an Indian businessman to obtain secret weapons technology from US companies, the US Justice Department said. The technology they tried to smuggle to India included microprocessors and electronic components used in the development of ballistic missiles, space launch vehicles and fighter jets.The businessman, Parthasarathy Sudarshan, entered a guilty plea in a federal court in Washington, admitting that he was part of the arms conspiracy.The plea suggests that the Indian government violated a ‘pledge’ made in 2004 that it would not try to bypass US export-control laws and regulations imposed after India tested a nuclear weapon in 1998.Documents by the Justice Department showed that Mr Sudarshan worked closely with an Indian Embassy employee identified only as “co-conspirator A”.
More About: Indians , Technology , Smuggling , Missile

Israel Air Force may buy vertical-takeoff planes to dodge Hizballah-Hamas r
2008-03-18 11:32:00
Debka -- Israel ’s southern and northern air bases have come within range of rockets from Hizballah in Lebanon and Hamas from the Gaza Strip, respectively, and possibly from the West Bank too. Air landings and takeoffs have therefore become hazardous. Israeli air bases and installations have been fortified against Palestinian rocket attack from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.This information has been kept from the Israeli public as the Olmert government continues to avoid proactive options for knocking out the increasingly dangerous Hamas and Hizballah’s rocket capabilities - boosted by Iran, and remains fixed in defensive mode. This fixation is not lost on Iranian, Syrian, Hizballah and Hamas in charting their assault scenarios against Israel.
More About: Force , Dodge , Air Force

Qaeda says Austrian hostages have a week more
2008-03-18 11:29:00
Reuters -- An al Qaeda affiliate holding two captured Austrian s has extended by one week, to midnight on Sunday, its deadline for Austria to meet its demands, according to an Internet posting monitored on Monday.Austria had said on Sunday the deadline had been extended for an unspecified time.The U.S.-based terrorism monitoring service SITE Institute said Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb posted the note to Jihadist forums.In a SITE translation, the group said the extension was "the final opportunity from the Mujahideen to absolve their responsibility before the families of the two hostages and the Austrian people, and to allow adequate time for the state of Austria to respond to the legitimate demands."
More About: Week , Hostages

Palestinian stabs rabbi in Arab East Jerusalem
2008-03-18 11:24:00
Reuters -- The Zaka emergency service said he was walking with a bodyguard in Jerusalem 's walled Old City, where his seminary is located, when he was attacked. The bodyguard gave chase but the attacker escaped, leaving behind a blood-stained knife.The rabbi, 49, was stabbed in the neck.
More About: East , Arab , Rabbi , Palestinian

"I fought for my land against the US. Now I fight alongside them"
2008-03-16 10:50:00
Times Online -- As a loyal officer under Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi major never imagined that one day he would become an insurgent, but when Iraq fell five years ago he was left bitter, jobless and desperate to drive the invading forces out.“I saw my country collapse right in front of my eyes,” said Abu Abdullah, who has since orchestrated countless attacks against the US military, spent time in the notorious Abu Ghraib detention centre and briefly joined forces with al-Qaeda.Recalling the invasion, he told The Times: “I felt as though my freedom was being snatched from me. It was one of the darkest moments of my life.”He, like many Sunni Arab officers and other Saddam supporters, resorted to guerrilla warfare to kill better-equipped US soldiers but gradually found that his nationalistic resistance had fallen under the control of the militant Islamists of al-Qaeda. Appalled at the cruelty of attacks sponsored by al-Qaeda, Mr Abdullah switched sides recently and is cooperating...
More About: Fight , Land

Chinese Security Forces Swarm Tibet
2008-03-16 10:31:00
My Way News -- Soldiers on foot and in armored carriers swarmed Tibet 's capital Saturday, enforcing a strict curfew a day after protesters burned shops and cars to vent their anger against Chinese rule.In the Tibetan capital Lhasa on Saturday, police manned checkpoints and armored personnel carriers rattled on mostly empty streets. One Westerner who went to a rooftop in Lhasa's old city said he saw troops with automatic rifles moving through the streets firing, though did not see anyone shot.There are military blockades blocking off whole portions of the city, and the entire city is basically closed down," said a 23-year-old Canadian student who arrived in Lhasa on Saturday and who was making plans to leave.Preparing the public for tough measures, state-run television on the evening newscast showed footage of red-robed monks battering bus signs and Tibetans in street clothes hurling rocks and smashing shop windows as smoke billowed across Lhasa.
More About: Security , Forces , Swarm

Terror Net 2.0: Online 'Media Jihad'
2008-03-15 14:23:00
Threats Watch -- Pay special attention to points 4, 8 and 9 as translated by MEMRI from an online posting of instructions for conducting ‘media jihad.’4. Find out where you can purchase weapons, especially small ones that can be easily concealed. Buy as many as you can, but not more! Keep [the weapons] hidden… Do not take them out [of their hiding place] under any circumstances, until it is time…5. Stay away from demonstrations… Know that demonstrations are held for one purpose only: in order to give citizens the feeling that they have done something significant, when [in fact] they haven’t. The only exception is violent demonstrations, which provide an opportunity to use the weapon…7. Do not be too quick to judge people or things with which you are not familiar, the way some foolish people [judge] Al-Qaeda…8. Do not wait for a call from an Islamic group like Al-Qaeda… so you [can] begin to receive orders and act. Act on your own, starting today. Create a secret me...
More About: Media , Terror , Jihad , Online

Al-Qaida supporters lash out at Taliban for straying from global jihad
2008-03-11 21:30:00
JPost - Al-Qaida supporters on the Web have unleashed an unprecedented flood of criticism of Afghanistan's Taliban , once seen by extremists as the model of an Islamic state.Now extremists accuse the Taliban of straying from the path of global jihad after its leader Mullah Omar issued a statement saying he seeks good relations with the world and even sympathizes with Shi'ite Iran."This is the worst statement I have ever read ... the disaster of defending the (Iranian) regime is on par with the Crusaders in Afghanistan and Iraq," wrote poster Miskeen, whose name translates literally as "the wretched" and who is labeled as one of the more influential writers on an al-Qaida linked Web site.
More About: Global Jihad , Jihad , Global

Iran Unveils Hezbollah Commander Stamp
2008-03-11 21:23:00
Iran issued a stamp in commemoration of a top Hezbollah commander wanted by the U.S. who was killed in a car bombing in Syria last month, the official news agency IRNA reported.The stamp, which features a smiling picture of Imad Mughniyeh wearing a military uniform, was unveiled at a ceremony attended by Iran's minister of post and communication, Mohammad Soleimani, and Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, former chief of the country's elite Revolutionary Guards.
More About: Iran , Stamp , Commander

Grand Ayatollah Montazeri attacks Ahmadinejad - 'We have lost international
2008-03-11 21:20:00
Montazeri, who is married to the sister of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Musawi Khomeini - the leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, presided over the commission which drafted the Iranian constitution.Although he was considered the natural heir to Ayatollah Khomeini, Montazeri was "disinherited" by his brother-in-law and was instead placed under house arrest, up until four years ago, for having criticised the repressive actions in the middle of the 1980s.Montazeri stressed that "all governments and people have to have access to technology and nuclear energy." More...
More About: Lost , International , Grand , Ahmadinejad , Attacks

Yeshiva Teacher: Students Coping With Tragedy
2008-03-11 21:16:00
Following last week's terrorist rampage that left eight innocent teenagers dead, many people in the media have asked if the murderer succeeded in "breaking" the souls of those kids who survived the tragedy. To be sure, friends and colleagues of the latest victims of Arab violence will need love and strength to deal with the tragedy, but one of their teachers said those who say the attack "broke" the yeshiva simply do not know the flagship home of religious Zionism.
More About: Tragedy , Students , Coping , Teacher , Yeshiva

Syria 'intensely' arming itself
2008-03-10 21:16:00
Syria is in the midst of "intensely" arming itself, placing into position rockets and missiles capable of striking the entire Jewish state, according to an assessment presented to the Knesset today by multiple Israeli security agencies.Syria, aided by Russia and Iran, has been furiously acquiring rockets and missiles, including projectiles capable of hitting any point in Israel. The officials listed anti-tank, anti-aircraft and ballistic missiles as some of the arms procured by Syria.According to Israeli and Jordanian officials, Syria recently quietly struck a deal with Russia that allows Moscow to station submarines and war boats off Syrian ports. In exchange, Russia is supplying Syria with weaponry at lower costs, with some of the missiles and rockets being financed by Iran."The Iranians opened an extended credit line with Russia for Syria with the purpose of arming Syria," said one Jordanian security official."Russia's involvement and strategic positioning is almost like a retur...
More About: Syria