Friday, December 25, 2009

30 Al Qaeda Members Presumed Killed

Anwar al-Awlaki

An air strike in Yemen has reportedly killed 30 Al Qaeda members, including troublemaking imam, Anwar al-Awlaki, who influenced some of the September 11th bombers and Fort Hood shooter, Nidal Malik Hasan.

Terrorism is not of Christ and many have been led astray, in the misguided and erroneous belief suicide bombings will lead to paradise. It does not. These acts of terror need to desist, as Christ, the only true Savior, does not approve.

Airstrike in Yemen Targets Outspoken Radicals

December 24, 2009, 1:48 pm - Yemeni fighter jets carried out an airstrike targeting “a meeting of senior Al Qaeda operatives” on Thursday in southeastern Yemen, according to the country’s government.

On Wednesday Al Jazeera published an interview with Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemeni-American cleric who corresponded with Maj. Nidal Hassan before the shooting rampage at Fort Hood. On Wednesday Al Jazeera published an interview with Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemeni-American cleric who corresponded with Maj. Nidal Hassan before the shooting rampage at Fort Hood.

In a statement on the raid sent to reporters from Yemen’s embassy in Washington, the government said that Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born radical cleric in Yemen who counseled the suspected Fort Hood gunman, was among those “presumed to be at the site” of the predawn raid...

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com

Why Do Airstrikes in Afghanistan Keep Killing Exactly 30 People?

December 11, 2009 - On Monday, the anonymous blogger Security Crank noticed something interesting: all the U.S. and NATO airstrikes in Afghanistan seemingly kill exactly 30 people every time. How can that be?

Security Crank documented no less than 12 occasions in which news reports, relying on field commanders' estimates, noted that exactly 30 suspected Taliban were killed in airstrikes and, occasionally, artillery attacks. He said:

But the much more important point remains: how could we possibly have any idea how the war is going, here or anywhere else, when the bad guys seem only to die in groups of 30? The sheer ubiquity of that number in fatality and casualty counts is astounding, to the point where I don’t even pay attention to a story anymore when they use that magic number 30. It is an indicator either of ignorance or deliberate spin… but no matter the case, whenever you see the number 30 used in reference to the Taliban, you should probably close the tab and move onto something else, because you just won’t get a good sense of what happened there...

http://www.alternet.org