torsdag 3 mars 2011
"Serbia can count on U.S. support"
"Serbia can count on U.S. support" | ||
| 3 March 2011 | 10:22 | Source: Večernje novosti | ||
BELGRADE -- Serbia can count on Washington’s support in the EU integration process in the future, said U.S. Ambassador to Serbia Mary Warlick.
“As U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during her visit to Belgrade, the U.S. policy is to continue helping Serbia reach its primary strategic goal – integration and possible membership in the EU,” the ambassador pointed out. She especially underlined that the U.S. was supporting the Belgrade-Priština talks. “I see that both sides are ready to approach the dialogue in a pragmatic and constructive way. I know that the chief of your negotiating team has been working on determining topics and areas for the discussion in which progress can be made in the future period,” Warlick stated. “It is in the best interest of both sides to build trust and reach concrete results,” she added. According to the U.S. ambassador, the EU has a leading role in the process which will facilitate the dialogue between Belgrade and Priština. “The U.S. wants to get involved, to be helpful in any way we can in order to make sure that there will be a progress and that results will be achieved,” she stressed. Warlick also added that Washington would continue to act “behind the scene” and not in the front lines, to talk to the EU and both sides “in order to make sure that it is a positive process”. She pointed out that Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Countryman would be involved in consultations with all parties. |
onsdag 2 mars 2011
Gunman Targets U.S. Soldiers At Frankfurt Airport
Gunman Targets U.S. Soldiers At Frankfurt Airport
March 2, 2011 | 1633 GMT
Two people were killed and two were injured, at least one critically, in a shooting attack on U.S. military personnel at 3:20 p.m. local time March 2 at Germany’s Frankfurt International Airport. According to breaking news reports, an armed attacker boarded a U.S. military bus idling in front of Terminal 2 and began shooting. The two killed were a U.S. soldier and the driver of the bus, whose nationality is unclear. The perpetrator is alleged to be from Kosovo, of Albanian ethnicity and 21 years old, according to German media sources. According to news reports, the U.S. forces involved in the attack were on their way to Afghanistan.
There have been plots against U.S. military targets in Germany in recent years. The attack fits in the category of “armed jihadist assault” similar to what American-born Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki called for in mid-2010 in jihadist Internet chat rooms. Al-Awlaki had been tied to U.S. Maj. Nidal Hasan, who was charged with the November 2009 Fort Hood shooting.
The attack in Frankfurt appears to have been a soft-target attack. Soft targets are vulnerable to attack due to the absence of adequate security or standoff distance. Areas at airports outside the security check-in points are such targets. STRATFOR has for some time predicted that militants would seek out such targets, especially considering their fixation on airplanes. The recent bombing at Domodedovo International Airport in Moscow, for example, targeted the international arrivals area where families, friends and drivers awaited travelers emerging from the terminal. Such areas are difficult to secure because doing so would require essentially cordoning off the entire airport.
If reports of the attacker’s ethnicity are true, this would not be the first time ethnic Albanians have joined international jihad. A number of Albanian individuals were part of the Fort Dix plot in the United States in 2007. U.S. authorities broke up a militant cell in North Carolina that involved an individual of ethnic Albanian origin. In 2009, a U.S. citizen of Albanian descent from Brooklyn, New York, tried to go to Pakistan for militant training. Albanian militants fighting in the Kosovo Liberation Army, however, largely eschewed militant Islam during their fight against Serbia in the late 1990s and in fact allied with NATO against the regime of then-Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic. Recent jihadist plots, however, indicate that the diaspora in the West has had a considerable number of cases of radicalization.
There have been plots against U.S. military targets in Germany in recent years. The attack fits in the category of “armed jihadist assault” similar to what American-born Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki called for in mid-2010 in jihadist Internet chat rooms. Al-Awlaki had been tied to U.S. Maj. Nidal Hasan, who was charged with the November 2009 Fort Hood shooting.
The attack in Frankfurt appears to have been a soft-target attack. Soft targets are vulnerable to attack due to the absence of adequate security or standoff distance. Areas at airports outside the security check-in points are such targets. STRATFOR has for some time predicted that militants would seek out such targets, especially considering their fixation on airplanes. The recent bombing at Domodedovo International Airport in Moscow, for example, targeted the international arrivals area where families, friends and drivers awaited travelers emerging from the terminal. Such areas are difficult to secure because doing so would require essentially cordoning off the entire airport.
If reports of the attacker’s ethnicity are true, this would not be the first time ethnic Albanians have joined international jihad. A number of Albanian individuals were part of the Fort Dix plot in the United States in 2007. U.S. authorities broke up a militant cell in North Carolina that involved an individual of ethnic Albanian origin. In 2009, a U.S. citizen of Albanian descent from Brooklyn, New York, tried to go to Pakistan for militant training. Albanian militants fighting in the Kosovo Liberation Army, however, largely eschewed militant Islam during their fight against Serbia in the late 1990s and in fact allied with NATO against the regime of then-Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic. Recent jihadist plots, however, indicate that the diaspora in the West has had a considerable number of cases of radicalization.
Shooting at Frankfurt Airport US Soldiers Believed Among Dead in Killings
03/02/2011
Shooting at Frankfurt Airport
US Soldiers Believed Among Dead in Killings
A gunman at Frankfurt Airport, Germany's largest international hub, reportedly fired at several United States soldiers in a military bus on Wednesday, killing at least two people and seriously injuring two others. Wire reports suggest the two dead were likely American soldiers.
German news agency DPA is reporting that police arrested a 21-year-old male suspect from Kosovo following the attack. A police spokesperson said it was too early to determine if the attack had been politically motivated or an act of terrorism.
ANZEIGEIn Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the shootings as a "terrible incident" and promised a full investigation, the Associated Press reported.
Just after the attack, police still hadn't been able to determine the circumstances of the shooting. "It appears that everything happened in the bus," police spokesman Jürgen Linker told DPA.
Initial reports suggested that a soldier and the bus driver were killed in the shooting. Another Frankfurt police spokesman said the shootings took place at 3:20 p.m. in a non-secure, public part of the airport's Terminal 2.
A number of US military bases are located near Frankfurt, and soldiers regularly use the airport to fly between Germany and the United States.
US military officials in Germany referred calls to the the Air Force, but officials there were not prepared to make a statement on the incident late Wednesday afternoon.Although German police have not commented on the identity of the suspect, Bajram Rexhepi, Kosovo's interior minister, told the AP that German police have detained and identified Arik Uka, a citizen of Kosovo.
"The is a devastating and tragic event," Rexhepi told the wire service. "We are trying to find out was this something that was organized or what was the nature of the attack."
dsl -- with wires
Gunman kills two US airmen outside Frankfurt airport
Gunman kills two US airmen outside Frankfurt airport
Kosovan man arrested inside terminal building, but German investigators say motive for attack unclear
A lone gunman opened fire on a US military bus outside Frankfurt airport , killing two servicemen and wounding two others.
A 21-year-old Kosovan man fled from the scene but was arrested in a terminal building, local police said. All four casualties were American airmen based in the UK, a US air force spokeswoman said.
Major Beverly Mock, who works at the Ramstein airbase where the bus was heading, said she could not confirm the men's identities until next of kin had been informed.
Security around the airport was tightened and an investigation into the "terrible, senseless crime" was under way, said Boris Rhein, interior minister for the state of Hesse. "Whether the incident was linked to terrorism I cannot say at this stage," he told journalists.
Police said it appeared an argument had broken out on the bus before the suspect opened fire. The body of one soldier was found outside the bus, which had a US government licence plate marked AF, for air force. One of the dead was said to be the driver, and the other a passenger.
The attack occurred around 3.20pm local time as the bus stopped outside the airport's terminal 2, according to Frankfurt police spokesman Manfred Fuellhardt.
One person suffered serious wounds and another less serious injuries, Fuellhardt said. The two injured had been shot in the head and chest, he said.
"It all appears to have taken place on the bus," said Jürgen Linker, also from Frankfurt police. It was too early to discuss possible motives, he added.
Barack Obama said he was "saddened and outraged" by the killings and that the US would spare no effort in finding out they happened. Shortly after the shootings Patrick Meehan, a member of the congressional homeland security committee, said it looked like a terrorist attack and that he was being briefed by his staff. The Pentagon said it had no details about the reason for the attack .
At the airport, cab driver Salimi Seraidon was at a stand about 200 metres away when the attack took place, and said it was over quickly as police rushed to the scene. "We just heard the shots," he said.
Though German police would not name the suspect Kosovo's interior minister, Bajram Rexhepi, said he was Arif Uka, from the town of Mitrovica. "This is a devastating and a tragic event," Rexhepi said. "We are trying to find out was this something that was organised or what was the nature of the attack."
The US has had troops in Kosovo since 1999, when a Nato bombing campaign pushed out Serbian forces. The US troops there now are helping to oversee a fragile peace that has held since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008.
American troops have been based in Germany since the end of the second world war . Though the US has reduced its forces in Germany over the past decade, it still has about 50,000 troops in the country.
It operates several major facilities in the Frankfurt region, including the Ramstein airbase often used as a logistical hub for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In Berlin, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said her sympathies were with the victims and their families, and pledged that Germany would do everything in its power to investigate the crime. "It is a terrible event," she said.
The worst previous attack on US soldiers in Germany was in 1986, when a bomb was planted in a Berlin disco. Two soldiers died along with a Turkish woman, and 230 people were injured. The US blamed Libya and bombed Tripoli and Benghazi. During the 1970s and 80s, the leftwing German terror group Red Army Faction repeatedly targeted US soldiers in Germany.
Two Americans shot dead at Frankfurt Airport by Albanians from Kosovo
Two Americans shot dead at Frankfurt Airport
Published: 2 Mar 11 16:29 CET
Updated: 2 Mar 11 22:24 CET
Updated: 2 Mar 11 22:24 CET
Two US servicemen were shot dead at Frankfurt Airport and at least two others seriously injured on Wednesday after a man opened fire on bus for American soldiers. Both US President Obama and German Chancellor Merkel expressed shock and outrage.
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"Two airmen have been killed and two were wounded during a shooting incident today at Frankfurt International Airport," US Air Forces Europe said in a statement.
The victims had just flown in from Britain and were about to travel to Ramstein airbase near Frankfurt, German police said.
Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her condolences to the friends and families of the deceased. "This is a horrible event," she told reporters in Berlin.
The shooting came a month after Germany's authorities had announced that additional security measures imposed late last year in response to indications of an imminent "terrorist" attack were set to be gradually scaled back.
The police initially said they believed there was an altercation near the bus before the shooting occurred around 3:20 pm and there was no clear indication that it was an act of terrorism. However, by Wednesday evening evidence was mounting that it could have been a targeted attack against US forces.
The authorities said a 21-year-old suspect from Kosovo living in Frankfurt had been overpowered after fleeing into the terminal building.
Boris Rhein, interior minister for the state of Hesse, said the man had apparently approached the bus and shot a US solider standing in front of the vehicle before killing the driver in his seat. He said the motive for the shooting remained unknown.
"I am consciously speaking of homicide and not an attack," said Rhein at the scene of the shooting. "But at the moment nothing can be ruled out."
The suspect used a handgun, Rhein said, while media reports said that the man also had a knife. There was no exchange of fire aboard the bus.
Another police spokesman said that those injured were taken to a civilian hospital, but he was unable to say if they were in a critical condition.
US President Barack Obama, in a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room, said that the US government would "spare no effort" to find out the circumstances of the attack.
"We will be working with German authorities to ensure that all the perpetrators are brought to justice," Obama said, describing the shooting a "stark reminder" of the sacrifices US service members serving abroad made.
The US military has a number of major bases near Frankfurt, including Ramstein, which are used as hubs for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Jihad ties emerge on Canada’s Bosnian Muslim group
Jihad ties emerge on Canada’s Bosnian Muslim group
February 28, 2011 – 2:52 pmBosnian Muslim group “Institute for Research of Genocide of Canada” has hailed Canada’s decision to bar Dr Srdja Trifkovic from holding a lecture there, however, more evidence is emerging that this Bosnian Muslim group has ties with violent Jihad.
The chief of the “Institute”, Emir Ramic, is on the editorial board of a radical Bosnian Muslim publication called Korak (Step) that is published in Sarajevo. The aim of the publication is toprotect the legacy (zastita tekovine borbe) of the Bosnian Muslim Jihad in the 1990s.
Some of the authors and “analysts” in that Magazine that Ramic edits are former Bosnian Muslim officials that were instrumental in issuing citizenship to foreign-born al-Qaeda and in weapons smuggling from Iran into Bosnia which opened doors to infiltration of Iranian agents in the region.
A notable figure in Ramic’s magazine is Enes Ljevakovic, whose brother Irfan Ljevakovic is on the supervisory board of the Third World Relief Agency (TWRA) that has been mentioned by the CIA Report on NGOs With Terror Links.
Irfan Ljevakovic is wanted for questioning by the Austrian government for recruitingJihadists in Austria to go fight in Bosnia. According to a Washington Post report “Bosnian sources said [Irfan] Ljevakovic is one of several influential officials protecting the Islamic fighters who remain in Bosnia in violation of the Dayton peace accord”.
Now, Irfan Ljevakovic is the youngest among 5 Ljevakovic’s – oldest Zijad, then Ekrem, Advan, Enes and Irfan – and all of them have been instrumental in the formation of the Izetbegovic extremist government in some form or fashion. Politically managed by Zijad, Enes’s role in Jihad has been to provide intellectual foundation for worldwide “stealth” Jihad.
Ramic, who is on the editorial board of Korak, had to have approved Enes’ declaration that “Jihad is a just and legitimate fight against aggression and a struggle in protection of human rights and freedoms”. (Džihad je ravedna i legitimna borba protiv agresije i ulaganje napora u zaštitii odbrani ljudskih prava i sloboda)
Ramic also had to have approved a text posted on the “Institute” web site in which his Ramic’s intellectual mate, Dr. Josip Pecaric, claims that the WWII genocide of Serbs, Jews and Roma in Croatia’s Jasenovac death camp is “Serbian propaganda“. Some of the Nazi guards were Bosnian Muslims at Jasenovac.
At the same time, Ramic is propagating a nonexistent “genocide” in Srebrenica where several thousand Bosnain Muslim male fighters were gunned down by Serbian armed groups.
Ramic’s group is also accusing distinguished General MacKenzie to be “the accomplice to the crime of aggression and genocide” while on the peace mission in Bosnian in early 1990s. Other Bosnian Muslim groups, with ties to Ramic, have joined the campaign against General MacKenzie charging the General of alleged multitude of rapes of Bosnian Muslim females. MacKenzie is apparently suing Ramic.
The rape charge against MacKenzie is led by the US branch of the Bosnian Muslims, the Congress of North American Bosniaks whose Treasurer is Uzeir Ramic. Both serve on an “Advisory Council” and Uzeir is noted for his $5,000.00 donation for a New York mosque.
As the story Ramic develops, some have told me that Ramic harbors more radical Islamist ties and represents the “stealth” wing of the radical Bosnian Muslims who seek to establish intellectual foundation for Jihad in north America.
More to come for sure.
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