SAS 'assassinate' Taliban leader Mullah Noorullah

Mark Dodd (The Australian)

AUSTRALIAN special forces have taken part in a targeted assassination of a senior Taliban leader, an operation army commanders claim will disrupt the insurgents' campaign in southern Oruzgan.

Mullah Noorullah was killed in a combined operation involving coalition troops and Australian special forces, Defence said yesterday.

It did not say when Noorullah was killed but did say the incident occurred in Deh Rafshan district in southern Oruzgan, where the Australian Special Operations Task Group is based.

The SOTG tag is commonly used by defence as a synonym to describe elite Special Air Service operatives authorised to hunt and kill Taliban leaders in an Afghan variation on the Vietnam-era Phoenix Program.

The statement was vague about Noorullah's position within the Taliban hierarchy, but it claimed he had been involved in an April 12 attack on Australian reconstruction and mentoring soldiers, in which four insurgents were killed.

It was alleged the insurgent leader was implicated in other unspecified roadside bomb and rocket attacks against coalition forces.

Ten Australian soldiers have been killed in action in Afghanistan since 2001 and more than 60 wounded, many of them as a result of roadside bomb explosions.

Noorullah and one other insurgent were tracked moving into a tunnel system and then killed in a "targeted operation", Defence said.

"There were no civilian casualties resulting from the operation," it said.

Chief of Joint Operations Lieutenant-General Mark Evans said Noorullah's death would have a "degrading effect" on the Taliban's command and control ability.

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~ Source: Stop War.ca ~

'120 die' as US bombs village

Patrick Cockburn - The Independent

KABUL, May 7 - A misdirected US air strike has killed as many as 120 Afghans, including dozens of women and children. The attack is the deadliest such bombing involving civilian casualties so far in the eight years since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Families in two villages in Farah province in western Afghanistan were digging for bodies in the ruins of their mudbrick houses yesterday. "There were women and children who were killed," said Jessica Barry, a Red Cross spokeswoman. "It seemed they were trying to shelter in houses when they were hit." Survivors said the number of dead would almost certainly to rise as the search for bodies continued...

US Marine Special Forces supporting the Afghan army apparently called in the air strike on Tuesday on two villages in Bala Baluk district after heavy fighting with the Taliban. Accounts by Afghans of high civilian casualties are often denied or dismissed by US officials. But a team from the Red Cross visited the scene of this attack. "There were bodies, graves, there were people burying bodies when we were there," said Ms Barry. She said a first aid worker for Afghanistan's Red Crescent died with 13 members of his family. "Dozens of dead bodies were seen in the two locations we went to." Rohul Amin, the provincial governor of Farah, told The Independent that "the dead numbered over 100". Villagers brought 30 bodies, including women and children, in a truck to Mr Amin in Farah City to prove it had happened...

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Massachusetts authorizes martial law in case of pandemic emergency

From Red Tide:

While Massachusetts residents were sleeping our Legislature rushed through a bill- in response to the recent Swine flu outbreak. This bill has been on the shelf but our state government felt this was the perfect time to slip this bill through. What is the big deal about the bill- S18? It gives the Governor power to authorize the deployment and use of force to distribute supplies and materials. It gives local authorities the permission to enter private residences for investigation and to quarantine individuals. Basically during an "emergency" our state can and will declare martial law; you lose your Constitutional rights.

This bill ('An Act Relative to Pandemic and Disaster Preparation and Response in the Commonwealth') has many disturbing facets.

I put these in general terms- read the full text of the bill here.

1. the state can enter your home or business without your permission ( they don't need a confirmed illness to enter)
2. the state can require you to take medications (vaccines, etc)
3. the state can destroy your property if it is contaminated.
3. the state can see your medical records without your consent.
4. the state can restrict your movements- not allow you to leave your home
5. the state can employ the national guard, state police, local police to force compliance.
6. the state will not punish those who report individuals for non-compliance (if it is done in good faith)

If you do not comply with these orders- you can be arrested or fined or both.

Fatal stabbing by Madrid fascist caught on surveillance camera

Surveillance cameras on the Madrid subway captured the brazen murder of Carlos Palomino at the hands of fascist Josué Estébanez.

Palomino was part of a crowd making their way to an anti-fascist demonstration. He approached his murderer, they exchanged words and he was stabbed in the heart. In the ensuing melee two others are injured. The fascist ran away from the scene but was caught by the mob in pursuit. A court has proposed a 30-year sentence. The video is available here.

G20 police 'used undercover men to incite crowds'

An MP who was involved in last month's G20 protests in London is to call for an investigation into whether the police used agents provocateurs to incite the crowds.

Liberal Democrat Tom Brake says he saw what he believed to be two plain-clothes police officers go through a police cordon after presenting their ID cards.

Brake, who along with hundreds of others was corralled behind police lines near Bank tube station in the City of London on the day of the protests, says he was informed by people in the crowd that the men had been seen to throw bottles at the police and had encouraged others to do the same shortly before they passed through the cordon.

Brake, a member of the influential home affairs select committee, will raise the allegations when he gives evidence before parliament's joint committee on human rights on Tuesday.

"When I was in the middle of the crowd, two people came over to me and said, 'There are people over there who we believe are policemen and who have been encouraging the crowd to throw things at the police,'" Brake said. But when the crowd became suspicious of the men and accused them of being police officers, the pair approached the police line and passed through after showing some form of identification.

Brake has produced a draft report of his experiences for the human rights committee, having received written statements from people in the crowd. These include Tony Amos, a photographer who was standing with protesters in the Royal Exchange between 5pm and 6pm. "He [one of the alleged officers] was egging protesters on. It was very noticeable," Amos said. "Then suddenly a protester seemed to identify him as a policeman and turned on him. He ­legged it towards the police line, flashed some ID and they just let him through, no questions asked."

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