Tag: InternationalNews

Osama bin Laden was buried at sea from a US warship amid high secrecy that included his body being referred to as “the package” delivered by “Fedex”, secret military emails reveal.

No sailors watched as the body of the al-Qaida leader – killed in a raid on his hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on 2 May 2011 – was tipped from a board into the North Arabian Sea from aircraft carrier the USS Carl Vinson after brief Islamic rites.

The emails were obtained by the Associated Press under freedom of information.

The news agency said they were heavily blacked out but nonetheless offered the first public disclosure of government information about the al-Qaida leader’s death.

Bin Laden was killed by a navy Seal team that swooped on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

One email stamped secret and sent on 2 May by a senior navy officer briefly describes how bin Laden’s body was washed, wrapped in a white sheet, and then placed in a weighted bag.

According to another message from the Vinson’s public affairs officer, only a small group of the ship’s leadership was informed of the burial.

“Traditional procedures for Islamic burial was followed,” the 2 May email from Rear Admiral Charles Gaouette reads. “The deceased’s body was washed (ablution) then placed in a white sheet.

The body was placed in a weighted bag. A military officer read prepared religious remarks, which were translated into Arabic by a native speaker.

After the words were complete, the body was placed on a prepared flat board, tipped up, whereupon the deceased’s body slid into the sea.”

Earlier, Gaouette, then the deputy commander of the navy’s Fifth Fleet, and another officer used code words to discuss whether the helicopters carrying the Seals and Bin Laden’s body had arrived on the Carl Vinson.

“Any news on the package for us?” he asked Rear Admiral Samuel Perez, commander of the carrier strike group that included the Vinson.

“Fedex delivered the package,” Perez responded. “Both trucks are safely en route home base.”

The emails include a reference to the intense secrecy surrounding the mission and why few records were held.

“The paucity of documentary evidence in our possession is a reflection of the emphasis placed on operational security during the execution of this phase of the operation,” Gaouette’s message reads.

Recipients of the email included Admiral Mike Mullen, then the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, and General James Mattis, the top officer at US Central Command. Mullen retired from the military in September 2011.

The Obama administration has kept a tight hold on materials related to the Bin Laden raid. The AP said that in response to separate requests from the AP for information about the mission, the defence department replied in March that it could not locate any photographs or video taken during the raid or showing Bin Laden’s body.

It also said it could not find any images of Bin Laden’s body taken while it was on board the Vinson.

The Pentagon said it could not find any death certificate, autopsy report or results of DNA identification tests for Bin Laden, or any pre-raid materials discussing how the government planned to dispose of Bin Laden’s body if he were killed.

The defence department also refused to confirm or deny the existence of helicopter maintenance logs and reports about the performance of military gear used in the raid.

One of the stealth helicopters that carried the Seals to Abbottabad crashed during the mission and its wreckage was left behind. People who lived near Bin Laden’s compound took photos of the wrecked chopper.

The AP has lodged an appeal requesting more information from the defence department. The agency said the CIA, which ran the Bin Laden raid and has special legal authority to keep information from ever being made public, had not responded to requests for records about the mission.

Guardian

Nigerian Police on Thursday blamed a radical Islamist sect for attacks that witnesses say left 18 people dead over the past two days in Nigeria’s troubled north, part of a cycle of spiraling violence that is exacerbating religious tensions and that the government has been powerless to stop.

Meanwhile, members of a largely Muslim community in the small village about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from Nigeria’s largest northern city of Kano turned against its Christian minority after a trader was accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad, police said Thursday.

Although police say nobody died in the violence, a witness reported seeing four dead bodies.

Christians and Muslims have lived together peacefully across the country of 160 million for years, but the growing violence is creating a climate of religious distrust and local communities have lost faith in the government’s ability to protect them.

Suspected members of the radical lslamist sect known as Boko Haram carried out three attacks Wednesday and Thursday in different parts of the northeastern city of Maiduguri, said Borno state police spokesman Gideon Jibrin.

Jibrin declined to say how many people had been killed overall, but witnesses said 18 people died — including three children.

Boko Haram did not immediately claim responsibility. The group is believed to be responsible for more than 740 deaths this year alone, according to an AP count, and is also blamed for attacks targeting mosques, churches, schools, phone masts and government buildings.

Separately, Kano state police chief Ibrahim Idris said Thursday nobody died in the religious violence in a town in the state, but resident Sadiq Ahmed said he saw four dead bodies outside Christian-owned shops that had been set ablaze.

Ahmed also said he saw a burned-down church.

Idris said he believes the trader was misunderstood and that the situation is now calm.

Earlier this week, a Christian vigilante group in central Nigeria killed a Muslim resident after he defied an illegal checkpoint the group had put up to protect their church from a Boko Haram attack, even though the sect had not previously struck in that area.

The killing sparked riots that left 10 people dead.

President Goodluck Jonathan, whose government has responded to the crisis by sending more troops to the most affected areas, recently said on state-run television that Boko Haram remained a “faceless” group and that there was nobody for the government to meet with to seek peace.

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Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy is appearing in court to answer questions about suspicions he illegally accepted donations from France’s richest woman to fund his 2007 election campaign.

A judge in Bordeaux on Thursday will decide whether the 57-year-old Conservative will be charged with taking advantage of the 90-year-old L’Oreal heiress, Liliane Bettencourt.

Sarkozy has consistently denied all allegations.

Bettencourt’s former accountant told police that she handed over €150,000 ($192,000) in cash she was told would be passed on to Sarkozy’s campaign treasurer.

In July, a magistrate ordered the seizure of Sarkozy’s diaries.

Wirestory

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In India, Ajmal Kasab has been executed after being convicted over his role in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which killed 166 people.

A Mumbai court had convicted 24-year-old Mohammed Ajmal Kasab of murder, waging war against India, conspiracy and terrorism in May 2010 and sentenced the Pakistani national to death.

The sentence was confirmed by the Maharashtra high court in February last year.

The judges also rejected his claim that he had been denied a fair trial.

“In view of the nature of the gravity of his crime and the fact that he participated in waging war against the country, we have no option but to uphold his death penalty,” Supreme Court Justices Aftab Alam and CK Prasad ruled on Wednesday morning.

It was not immediately clear what Kasab’s next step would be, but legally he can still appeal to India’s president for mercy.

In Gaza, six men accused of spying for Israel were shot dead in public in Gaza Tuesday – ahead of a planned ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Masked gunmen executed the suspects in Gaza City – then paraded their bodies before a crowd.

Several people stomped and spat on the corpses as one was tied to a motorbike and dragged through the streets while onlookers screamed, “Spy! Spy!”

The Hamas military wing, Izzedine al-Qassam, admitted responsibility for the killings, claiming the men had been feeding Israel information.

The deaths came on the seventh day of an Israeli military offensive that has killed more than 120 Palestinians, both militants and civilians.

Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes, targeting rocket-launching sites, weapons caches and homes of Hamas activists, after Palestinians fired hundreds of rockets at Israel.

However a truce is said to have been agreed after the two sides held negotiations in Egypt.

wirestory

British palace officials Tuesday hastily removed several photographs of Prince William from the Internet after realising that they showed Ministry of Defence passwords in the background.

The photos, published on the website the 30-year-old prince shares with his wife Catherine, had aimed to provide a glimpse into his life as a search and rescue pilot with the Royal Air Force (RAF) – but revealed more than intended.

“Due to an administrative oversight, these photographs were not properly cleared at RAF Valley and the images showed unclassified MoD user names, passwords and computer screens on a restricted system,” a ministry spokesman said.

“The passwords and user names shown have now been reset as a precaution and we are satisfied the images do not contravene security regulations.

“All the photos have been now amended and reissued. Media organisations are kindly asked to use these images.”

The photos show the second in line to the British throne in his RAF khaki jump suit and going about every day tasks at his Welsh base, from carrying out checks on his Sea King helicopter to making a cup of tea.

Several shots in the album, entitled “A working day in the life of Flight Lieutenant Wales” in reference to the prince’s name while he is at work, show computer screens in the background of RAF operation rooms.

A spokeswoman for William’s Clarence House residence said: “The photos were taken and supplied by the RAF. Any security issues are a matter for the MoD.”

William, who will one day be head of the armed forces as Britain’s monarch, joined the RAF in 2010 and qualified as a search and rescue pilot last June.

His four-man crew performs regular rescue missions, often picking up stricken climbers in mountainous north Wales.

William’s younger brother, Harry, an Apache helicopter pilot with the British army, is currently serving in Afghanistan.

Nigeriaguardian