John Solecki, Kidnapped American U.N Refugee Officer Threated To Be Killed In 72 Hours

ISLAMABAD (AFP) — A kidnapped American UN official abducted in Pakistan 11 days ago was apparently shown in a video aired by Pakistani television on Friday, appealing for his release and saying he was unwell.

The video, broadcast by private channel Dunya and rival station Geo, shows a close up of the face of a blindfolded man, apparently John Solecki, although the person was not identified.

Solecki, who heads the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in Quetta -- the capital of Pakistan's restive southwestern Baluchistan province -- was abducted at gunpoint on February 2 while travelling to work. His driver was killed.

"This is a message to the United Nations. I am not feeling well, I am sick and in trouble. Please help solve the problems soon so I can gain my release," said the person shown in the video.

It was not clear if he was speaking under threat, nor was it immediately clear when the video was taken.

Dunya announced that the video was shot on a mobile phone and delivered on a memory card to the television station.

Dunya said the Baluch United Liberation Front, which claimed Solecki's abduction in a telephone call to local media, demanded the release of 141 women Baluch detainees apparently in Pakistani custody within 72 hours.

Keep  Mr. John Solecki in my prayers!

China Southern Airlines Hijacking Thwarted

Chinadaily reported:

BEIJING -- China on Friday foiled a planned attack on a passenger plane taking off from Urumqi, capital of the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, an official said here on Sunday.

The plane of China Southern Airlines took off at 10:35, and was forced to land at Lanzhou, capital of neighboring Gansu Province, at 12:40 Friday, because "some people were attempting to create an air disaster," said Nur Bekri, chairman of the Xinjiang regional government, on the sidelines of the ongoing parliament session.

The attackers were stopped in time by the air police, and all the passengers and crew members on board are safe, he told reporters after a panel discussion at the ongoing session of the National People's Congress (NPC).

An official with the airliner told Xinhua in a telephone interview that he cannot confirm whether the incident was a terror attack, "it's up to the police department to verify."

The plane arrived in its destination of Beijing on Saturday. The official did not elaborate on the details, just saying that the authorities are investigating "who the attackers are, where they are from and what's their background."

Abu Laith al-Libi, Al Qaeda's No. 3, Killed in Pakistan

Abu Laith al-Libi, Al Qaeda's No. 3 man after Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, was killed in Pakistan, CNN cited a knowledgeable Western official and an unnamed military source as reporting. It's not clear if US millitary was invovled in the operation. Abu Laith al-Libi, 41, who is of Libyan descent and thought to have been involved in the February 2, 2007 bombing at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan while Vice President Dick Cheney was visiting. Abu Laith al-Libi's elimination could be expected to hamper al Qaeda's efforts to establish a strong base of operations in North Africa.

Jose Padilla Is an Islam Convert Terrorist Who Was Sentenced 17 Years in Jail

Jose Padilla, a Brooklyn-born convert to Islam, was convicted of plotting to kill people overseas and of supporting terrorism last August. Yesterday January 21, Judge Marcia G. Cooke of Federal District Court in Miami, sentenced him to 17 years and four months in prison, instead of a life sentence as government prosecutor’s requested, for that conviction. Of Puerto Rican origin, he was arrested at Chicago's O'Hare airport in May 2002 after stepping off a flight from Pakistan. He first gained notoriety when he was arrested on suspicion of plotting a "dirty bomb" attack inside the US.

Adam Yahiye Gadahn Renounced His US Citizenship

Adam Yahiye Gadahn who was born as Adam Pearlmanon is an American al Qaelda member known as Azzam al-Amriki. In a newly released al Qaeda video, this 30-year-old American terrorist renounced his US citizenship and threatened President Bush's safety. From CNN

On a videotape released Sunday, American al Qaeda member Adam Yahiye Gadahn renounces his U.S. citizenship, destroys his passport and cites U.S. President Bush's upcoming trip to the Middle East.

The 50-minute tape -- titled "An Invitation to Reflection and Repentance" -- was released by As Sahab, al Qaeda's video production wing and was provided to CNN by www.LauraMansfield.com, a Web site that analyzes terrorism.

In it, Gadahn renounces his citizenship to protest the imprisonment of Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman, a blind Egyptian Muslim leader serving a life sentence for his role in the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center; and John Walker Lindh, the American Taliban who was arrested in Afghanistan in 2001, and others.

Gadahn displays his passport to the camera, rips it in half and says, "Don't get too excited -- I don't need it to travel anyway."

Though Gadahn speaks mostly in English, he references Bush -- who is to travel this week to the Middle East -- only in Arabic.

"We raise an urgent appeal to our mujahedin brothers in the Muslim Palestine, the Arabian Peninsula in particular, and the region in general, to be prepared to receive the crusader butcher Bush on his visit to Muslim Palestine and the occupied peninsula at the beginning of January," he said. "They should receive him not with roses and applause, but with bombs and booby-traps."

#Tags: american terrotist, Adam Yahiye Gadahn, citizenship, passport, california, al qaeda

Benazir Bhutto Assassination Video

In October, Benazir Bhutto narrowly escaped an assassination (video here) where killed more than 140 people on the day she returned to Pakistan after nearly ten year's self-exile. Unfortunately, Bhutto couldn't survive another assassination (video above, pictures here) staged by the man what Perez Musharaf called him the extremist. Bhutoo was shot in the neck and chest by the attacker, who then blew himself up. The main cause of Bhutto's death was the damage to her spinal cord inflicked by a bullet pierced through the neck.

#Tags: benazir bhutoo, assasination, video, perez musharaf, pakistan, al-qaida

Benazir Bhutto, ex Pakistan Prime Minister, Killed in Gun and Bomb Attack on Political Rally

Benazir Bhutoo (1953-2007), the first woman elected to lead a Muslim state and twice elected Prime Minister of Pakistan, was assassinated on a political rally in Rawalpindi, Islamabad! I'm overwhelmed to hear such bad Pakistan news, which made me feel deeply concerned for one of my friend who recently wedded to her Pakistani husband. What has Perez Musharaf as Pakistan's President brought to his country? I think, it's the human right abuse! Our prayers go to Pakistan Peoples Party and Benazir Bhutto's family! #Tags: benazir bhutoo, pakistan, perez musharaf, assasination

Zawahiri: Mahmoud Abbas Is Traitor

In a new audio released online from purportedly Osama bin Laden's deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri has criticized Middle East leaders who attended November's Annapolis peace summit moderated by President Bush, CNN reported. 

In the 20-minute message, al-Zawahiri accuses Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, of being a "traitor" who has taken his people to the brink of disaster,

"I'm stunned at the politicians' stance who gave up four-fifths of Palestine, granting Mahmoud Abbas the authority to negotiate ... and then they finally cried out warning and condemning the conference after they saw with their own eyes the disaster which ... (Abbas) is driving them to," al-Zawahiri said.

"Is the traitor Mahmoud Abbas still the 'Brother President' after they condemned the conference? Is Mahmoud Abbas, the Agent, still the one invited for the dialogue, and Mahmoud Abbas the sellout is still the one they consider legitimate.

"Isn't it time for you to go back to the pure creed, which doesn't know compromises and political tricks and diplomatic ploys which obstructs religion and life?" he asks.

Mamoud Abbas might be 'the enemy' of Al-Qaeda, but not for the Western countries. You see, Middle East peace envoy -ex-UK prime mister Tony Blair is seeking $5.6bn of international aid for Palestinians at the coming Monday’s donor conference in Paris as part of a wider plan to create an economically independent state of Palestine. Tags: al-qaeda, osama bin laden, zawahiri, mahmoud abbas, palestine, bush, tony blair