Explosion at Pakistan Marriott hotel kills 40
Ohhhhhh Kayyyyyyy. (eye) C. Suppossedly, this was a truck bomb. A truck bomb cannot explode and continue moving as anything but a fireball. There are also odd and conflicting reports coming out about the size and location of the crater in relation to the gates and hotel. I smell sumpin' really stinky.
Excerpt:
"One of the four, who identified himself only as Tony, said they had begun moving toward the rear of the Chinese restaurant after the first blast when the second one threw them against the back wall.
"Then we saw a big truck coming through the gates," he said. "After that it was just smoke and darkness." "
Two blasts? Then a truck smashes through the gates? What the fuck? Was he watching a video in reverse?
Explosion at Pakistan Marriott hotel kills 40
Sep 20 11:52 AM US/Eastern
By ASIF SHAHZAD
Associated Press Writer
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - A massive truck bomb devastated the heavily guarded Marriott Hotel in Pakistan's capital Saturday, killing at least 40 people and wounding at least 100. Officials feared there were dozens more dead inside the burning building.
The Marriott has been a favorite place for foreigners as well as Pakistani politicians and business people to stay and socialize in Islamabad despite repeated militant attacks.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast. But Pakistan has faced a wave of militant violence in recent weeks following army-led offensives against insurgents in its border regions.
The capital has not been spared, though Saturday's blast appeared to be one of the largest ever terrorist attacks in the country.
The blast left a vast crater, some 30 feet deep in front of the main building, where flames poured from the windows and rescuers ferried bloodied bodies from the gutted building.
Witnesses and officials said a large truck had rammed the high metal gate of the hotel at about 8 p.m., when the restaurants would have been packed with dinners, including Muslims breaking the Ramadan fast.
Senior Police official Asghar Raza Gardaizi said rescuers had counted at least 40 bodies at the scene and that he feared that there "dozens more dead inside."
Associated Press reporters saw at least nine bodies scattered at the scene. Scores of people, including foreigners, were running out—some of them stained with blood.
Witnesses spoke of a smaller blast followed by a much larger one.
A U.S. State Department official using a section of white pipe as a walking stick led three colleagues through the rubble from the charred building, one of them bleeding heavily from a wound on the side of his head.
One of the four, who identified himself only as Tony, said they had begun moving toward the rear of the Chinese restaurant after the first blast when the second one threw them against the back wall.
"Then we saw a big truck coming through the gates," he said. "After that it was just smoke and darkness."
Ambulances rushed to the area, picking their way through the charred carcasses of vehicles that had been in the street outside. Windows in buildings hundreds of yards away were shattered.
Mohammad Sultan, a hotel employee, said he was in the lobby when something exploded, he fell down and everything temporarily went dark.
"I didn't understand what it was, but it was like the world is finished," he said.
In January 2007, a security guard blocked a suicide bomber who triggered a blast just outside the Marriott, killing the guard and wounding seven other people.
In July, a suicide bombing killed at least 18 people, most of them security forces, and wounded dozens in Islamabad as supporters of the Red Mosque gathered nearby to mark the anniversary of the military siege on the militant stronghold.
In June, a suicide car bomber killed at least six people near the Danish Embassy in Islamabad. A statement attributed to al-Qaida took responsibility for that blast, believed to have targeted Denmark over the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
In mid-March, a bomb explosion at an Italian restaurant killed a Turkish woman in the capital, and wounded 12 others, including four FBI officials.
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Truck-bomb now car-bomb. Check out the size of that crater!
Pieces of Flight 93, er I mean the Toyota Camray were said to have been scattered by the wind for upwards to eight miles.
How much will this story morph with time?
"Al Qaeda-linked militants based in sanctuaries in the Afghan border have launched a bloody campaign of bomb attacks in retaliation for offensives by the security forces."
Of course. To say that "Al Qaeda" has been involved in bombing something is redundant and wasteful of carbon and precious electrons desparately needed by the Federal Reserve to manipulate digital money. No need to say any more than just the word "bomb." We know who da ones what dunnit.
Pictured: At least 40 people killed as fire sweeps through Marriott hotel in Pakistan after suicide car bomb
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1058763/Pictured-At-40...
Pakistan: I wonder if
man... I wonder if the US will now need to occupy Pakistan for their own "security"
Marriott was last second THIRD target choice TRUCK bomb
Crater and non=collapse images at link below.
Death toll from Pakistan hotel blast reaches 53
By ZARAR KHAN
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Rescuers pulled more bodies from the shell of the truck-bombed Marriott Hotel in Pakistan's capital Sunday, pushing the death toll from one of the country's worst terrorist strikes to 53, including the Czech ambassador and two Americans.
The hotel, a favorite spot for foreigners and the Pakistani elite - and a previous target of militants - still smoldered from a fire that raged for hours after the previous day's explosion, which also wounded more than 250 people.
The targeting of the American hotel chain came at a time of growing anger in the Muslim nation over a wave of cross-border strikes on militant bases in Pakistan by U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
No group immediately claimed responsibility, though suspicion fell on al-Qaida and the Pakistani Taliban. Analysts said the attack served as a warning from Islamic militants to Pakistan's new civilian leadership to stop cooperating with the U.S.-led war on terror.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said the bomber attacked the hotel only after tight security prevented him from reaching Parliament or the prime minister's office, where the president and many dignitaries were gathered for dinner.
"The purpose was to destabilize democracy," Gilani said. "They want to destroy us economically."
The government released footage from a hotel surveillance camera showing the heavy truck turning left into the gate at speed, ramming a metal barrier and coming to a halt about 60 feet away from the hotel.
Guards nervously came forward to look, then scattered after an initial small explosion.
Several guards tried repeatedly to douse flames spreading through the cab of the truck as traffic continued to pass on the road behind. There is no sign of movement in the truck and the footage played did not show the final blast.
The owner of the hotel accused security forces of a serious lapse in allowing a dump truck to approach the hotel unchallenged and not shooting the driver before he could trigger the explosives.
"If I were there and had seen the suicide bomber, I would have killed him. Unfortunately, they didn't," Sadruddin Hashwani said.
Officials said vehicles carrying construction materials are allowed to move after sunset, meaning the sight of a dump truck near the government quarters might not have aroused suspicion.
Rescue teams searched the blackened hotel room by room Sunday, but the temperatures remained high, and fires were still being put out in some parts. Officials feared the main building would collapse.
The bomb went off close to 8 p.m. Saturday, when the restaurants inside would have been packed with Muslim diners breaking their daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan.
Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said the bomb contained an estimated 1,300 pounds of military-grade explosives as well as artillery and mortar shells and left a crater 59 feet wide and 24 feet deep in front of the main building.
Khalid Hussain Abbasi, a rescue official, confirmed that six new bodies had been found, but would not say if the dead were foreigners. He said he expected more charred remains to be discovered.
Gilani said the death toll had reached "about 53" and that Czech Ambassador Ivo Zdarek was among the dead. Zdarek, 47, only moved to Islamabad in August after four years as ambassador to Vietnam.
Malik said two Americans were confirmed dead as well as one Vietnamese national. Officials in Pakistan said at least 21 foreigners were among the wounded, including Britons, Germans, Americans and several people from the Middle East.
TV footage showed at least two bodies partially visible from the wrecked facade Sunday morning. Outside, the hotel was surrounded by torched vehicles and debris.
The bombing came just hours after President Asif Ali Zardari made his first address to Parliament, less than a mile away from the hotel. Malik said authorities received intelligence there might be militant activity linked to Zardari's address and security had been tightened.
The attack drew condemnations from around the world, including the United States, which has pressured Pakistan to do more to wipe out militant hide-outs on its side of the Afghan border. Washington worries about Taliban and al-Qaida fighters using Pakistan as a training, recruiting and regrouping ground to aid the insurgency in Afghanistan.
President Bush said the attack was "a reminder of the ongoing threat faced by Pakistan, the United States, and all those who stand against violent extremism."
[Cough, cough, sputter, sputter.]
A recent series of suspected U.S. missile strikes and a rare American ground assault in Pakistan's northwest have signaled Washington's impatience with Pakistan's efforts to clear out militants. But the cross-border operations have drawn protests from the Pakistani government, which warned they would fan militancy.
Terrorism researcher Evan Kohlmann told the AP the attack was almost certainly the work of either al-Qaida or the Pakistani Taliban.
[So, just who is this fuck?]
Evan Kohlmann, International Terrorism Consultant
"It seems that someone has a firm belief that hotels like the Marriott are serving as 'barracks' for Western diplomats and intel personnel, and they are gunning pretty hard for them," Kohlmann said.
The Marriott blast could prompt diplomats and aid groups in Islamabad, some of whom already operate under tight security, to re-evaluate whether nonessential staff and family members should stay. U.N. officials met Sunday to discuss the security situation and, for now, made no decision to change their measures, said Amena Kamaal, a spokeswoman.
Zardari, who on Sunday was headed to New York to lead a delegation to the United Nations and was expected to meet with Bush during the week, spoke out against the cross-border strikes in his speech to Parliament. He condemned the "cowardly attack" afterward in an address to the nation.
"Make this pain your strength," he said. "This is a menace, a cancer in Pakistan which we will eliminate. We will not be scared of these cowards."
In January 2007, a security guard blocked a suicide bomber who triggered a blast just outside the Marriott, killing the guard and wounding seven other people.
The country's deadliest suicide bombing was on Oct. 18, 2007, and targeted ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto - Zardari's wife - who survived. It killed about 150 people in Karachi during celebrations welcoming her home from exile.
Bhutto was assassinated in a subsequent attack on Dec. 27, 2007.
On Aug. 21, 2008, suicide bombers blew themselves up at two gates into a mammoth weapons factory in the town of Wah, killing at least 67 people and wounding more than 70.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080921/D93B4KB00.html
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Though human noses have an impressive 5 million olfactory cells with which to smell, sheepdogs have 220 million, enabling them to smell 44 times better than men.
Raw video of TRUCK bomb initial explosion
Raw: Security Video Shows Burning Bomb Truck Moments Before Islamabad Blast
AP = bad liars, psyops ams. The video has obviously been edited. Notice the artistic page curl effect at 1:25.
The truck is stopped at the gate, which appears to be an odd stack of wooden shipping pallets. Guards run away, then return only to run away again. Then an explosion similar to one one might expect from an electrical panel box blows out the windshield of the truck. Guards return with a small ABC fire extinguisher. The video abruptly ends before the big one. But, that's not a big deal because we were told it really wasn't a truck, it was a car. So, this video wouldn't have shown anything anyway right?
Obviously, since this is not "Raw" video as claimed by the AP, it is reasonable to assume that there is still video being withheld.
The interior ministry said the truck was packed with 600 kilos (1,300 pounds) of explosives, and pointed a finger at Taliban militants allied with Al-Qaeda who are based in the remote areas along the border with Afghanistan.
"All roads lead to Fata," ministry official Rehman Mailk told a news conference, using the acronym for the rugged tribal areas that have become a safe-haven for militants despite an army campaign to root them out.
"It has the hallmarks of Al-Qaeda," a senior official involved in the investigation told AFP. "It was an Al-Qaeda style bombing."
The bombing came on the one-year anniversary of Osama bin Laden's call for Pakistani Muslims to unleash jihad or holy war against the government, a vital ally in the US-led "war on terror".
Closed-circuit footage showed that the attacker rammed his truck into the gates but failed to get through a second barrier which is raised again after each vehicle enters the heavily secured complex.
[No, it didn't.]
Malik said the attacker intended to drive right into the lobby of the luxury hotel . He apparently tried to convince the guards to lower the second barrier -- and when they would not, he blew himself up in the truck's cabin.
[What second barrier?]
The guards then tried to put out the fire in the truck, and it was several minutes before the second larger blast devastated the Marriott, which was popular with politicians, foreigners and the Pakistani elite.
[Supposedly, the video was a live feed from the Marriott to other locations. Why then, no part of the second blast?]
No group has yet claimed responsibility.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080921133429.x2ls83ez&show_artic...
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Though human noses have an impressive 5 million olfactory cells with which to smell, sheepdogs have 220 million, enabling them to smell 44 times better than men.
Not “terror expert†Evan Kohlmann again!
No, NOT “terror expert†Evan “Terra has beena very good ta me†Kohlmann and his Liverpudlian puddin’ basin haircut again! Didn’t we dispense with him on this blog sometime last year? He is yet another paid liar and charlatan working for the Father of all Lies, and you can bet your last bottom dollar that if li’l Evan says that al-Kayda “The Toilet,†or the Pakistani branch office of the “Taliban†pulled off the Marriott job, then it was most likely a Ha-Mossad operation, for the idea of blowing up Muslims in nuclear Islamabad while they broke their fast at the Marriott during the sacred period of Ramadan was just too tempting an opportunity to pass up, and think of all the geo-political side benefits as well. Attack both sides and then make both sides attack and exhaust each other, pick up the pieces later, and form a new world reality – an old, tried and true technique of provocateurship, works almost every time like a charm.
This attack on the Islamabad Marriott was described by “experts†as “an al-Qaeda style bombing.†If this description is referring to the method of simultaneous attacks using—yes, the technology exists—remote-controlled trucks (with or without dummies), loaded with 1,300 lbs of TNT, as was the method used to blow up the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on August 7, 1998, then it is a completely inaccurate description.
Along with package bombs and letter bombs, this truck bomb method of terrorism was actually invented by the Jewish Terrorists of the Irgun Zvai Leumi back in the late 1930s in Palestine. Only back then, lacking remote control technology, the driver would have to jump out and run before the truck slammed into, say a British police station in Jerusalem. The ‘truck bomb of terror’ was actually developed by Amichai “Giddy†Paglin, who stepped in as Chief Operations Officer of the Irgun after Tzipi’s dad, Eitan Livni was sentenced to prison for blowing up trains and railway stations in the spring of ‘46. Paglin (Mr. Truck bomb) was also the planner and developer of the seven milk-can bombs with timers used to blow up the King David Hotel in the summer of ’46. No, this recent operation against the Marriott in Islamabad, like the 1998 Mossad truck bomb attacks against the U.S. embassies in Africa, was more of an updated Irgun style bombing.†The U.S. or U.S. interests abroad have still yet to be actually bombed by any operatives working for UBL’s “The Toilet,†and thus no one really knows what an al-Qaeda style bombing might look like. They might employ multiple exploding dialysis machines for all we know. BTW, it has been reported that the Mossad operations center in that Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania triangle which pulled off those U.S. embassy bombings back in ‘98 has been there since the “Entebbe Incident†in Uganda in the summer of 1976. Ah, those crazy days of General Idi Amin and unscheduled landings at night.
Thanks Laz
I figured that someone here would have some information on "Evan “Terra has beena very good ta me†Kohlmann" of which I was not aware. His name not being familiar caused me to wonder how this "expert" had slithered under my hillbilly radar.
This attack seems clearly to have been designed and timed to make the Pakistanis stand down while US Special Forces and Israeli (?) drones continue their attacks on innocent Pakistani men, women, and children.
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Though human noses have an impressive 5 million olfactory cells with which to smell, sheepdogs have 220 million, enabling them to smell 44 times better than men.
Like I said...drones continue flights over Pak tribal areas
US drones continue flights over Pak tribal areas despite warning
ANI
Sat, Sep 20 03:35 PM
Lahore, Sep 20 (ANI): American drones are continuing their flights over various areas of North and South Waziristan, spreading panic and fear among locals despite a warning from Pakistan not to do so.
According to Express News, the spy planes were seen flying over Ghulam Khan, Hamzoni, Ditta Khel and Mir Ali areas of North Waziristan and Angoor Adda and Mateen areas of South Waziristan.
According to the channel, the continued drone flights have increased fears among locals, already worried about the security situation in their areas.
Earlier, Pakistani security forces along with tribesmen repulsed a ground attack by US-led troops in South Waziristan.
Pakistani officials had earlier warned that no more border violations by US-led troops in Afghanistan can be tolerated and warned of retaliatory actions.
Pakistan's tribal leaders have also warned that if the US cross-border attacks continue, they would give a harsh response.
They even threatened to target US-led troops in Afghanistan if they continue to attack the tribal zone.
In recent months, there has been an increase in Washington-led missile strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas.
While the US claims the strikes have been directed at militants, it has killed scores of civilians in missile attacks this year and has sparked outrage in Pakistan. (ANI)
http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20080920/874/twl-us-drones-continue-flights...
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Though human noses have an impressive 5 million olfactory cells with which to smell, sheepdogs have 220 million, enabling them to smell 44 times better than men.
Pakistani Troops, Tribesmen
Pakistani Troops, Tribesmen Fire On US Helicopters
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/22/pakistani-troops-tribesma_n_128...
Mysterious Activity Going on in the Marriott Hotel
What Was Mysterious Activity Going on in the Marriott Hotel Islamabad by United States Marines
Sunday, 21 September 2008 12:18 pakistan Daily
Marriott Hotel has now become a ghost house which was yesterday the most beautiful and prestigious hotels in the Islamabad. While the condemnation of the blasts and the deaths and the loss of property is going on from all the quarters, some intriguing news is also pouring in.
After the blast, mysteriously fire was started at the fourth and fifth floors. It was said that this fire was the result of gas pipeline burst running through the hotel. The million dollar question is that was the gas pipeline not running through the other floors? Why the fire broke out from the fourth and fifth flours? That is the question which perhaps holds the key to the mystery as why the hotel was targeted yesterday, in which more than 60 people died including many foreigners.
Though it would never get confirmed but the fire on the fifth and fourth floor of the hotel broke out because those flours were housing the mysterious steel boxes under the heavy guard of United States marines and no one including the Pakistani security forces and the security men of the hotel were allowed to go near with the them. These boxes were shifted inside the hotel when the Admiral Mike Mullen met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and others in Islamabad.
It is said that one member of parliament Mumtaz Alam who belongs to the PPP, the ruling party was there eye witnessed the whole scene when the white truck of US embassy came to the gate of Marriot Hotel and US marines themselves unloaded the steel boxes from the trucks and shifted them to the fourth and fifth floors without passing through them the scanners at the entrance of the hotels. When the truck was there, all the entrance and the exit passage way to the hotels were closed.
And now this blast has occurred at the Marriott, while that mysterious activity was going on.
http://www.daily.pk/politics/politicalnews/7422-what-was-mysterious-acti...
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Though human noses have an impressive 5 million olfactory cells with which to smell, sheepdogs have 220 million, enabling them to smell 44 times better than men.
Marines moved boxes into Marriott AFTER Admiral Mullen left
Americans’ presence at Marriott not a secret: US embassy
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
By Ansar Abbasi
http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=17445
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani authorities are trying to solve the riddle of US Marines and their mysterious steel cases, which were shifted to the Marriott Hotel four days before the hotel was reduced to ashes by the worst ever terrorist attack in the history of the federal capital.
These authorities want to ascertain if it was a routine exercise or part of some special mission that does not have the approval of the Government of Pakistan.
The US embassy insists the activity witnessed was a team of support personnel that often and routinely precede and/or accompany certain US officials. However, the government authorities probing the matter have already got most of the facts ascertained as mentioned in The News story on Sunday.
According to an official source, the authorities were told that mysterious activity of the US Marines took place around 12:00 midnight on 16 September. Already the government has got the information that several rooms on the fourth floor of the Marriott were in permanent use of the US authorities. Three of these rooms were said to be inter-connected and contained some intelligence equipment and other material allegedly used for espionage.
Sadruddin Hashwani, the owner of the Marriott, when approached denied that the Americans had any such presence in the hotel and said that like any such hotel in the world his guests included people of different nationalities. “Why focus on the Americans unnecessarily,†Hashwani wondered. He refuted that the US embassy had permanently hired several rooms in his hotel.
The US embassy spokesperson Lou Fintor, however, when asked if the US embassy had hired several rooms in the Marriott Hotel for years, said in his written reply that the US embassy has been a frequent customer of the Marriott Hotel for many years. On any given day, he said, there were employees of the American embassy and official American visitors staying at the hotel. “There is nothing unusual, secretive or ‘mysterious’ about this,†he said.
When asked if three of these permanently hired rooms were interconnected, Fintor said, “For our frequent visiting delegations, the embassy often rented adjoining rooms — as we often do in other hotels in Pakistan and in the world.â€
Responding to unconfirmed reports that the US-rented rooms in the Marriott Hotel were being used by the CIA for espionage purposes, he said, “Unfortunately, far too many things have been ‘said’ that have absolutely no basis in fact. There is no truth whatsoever in allegations that covert activity was taking place on the part of the United States government.â€
The spokesman said that these allegations are inaccurate, irresponsible, baseless and completely without any foundation whatsoever.
About the Marines and the steel cases which were reported to have been shifted to the hotel between the night of 16 and 17 September and whether these Marines and the suitcases were in the hotel on the day of the blast or evacuated before, he said, “A team of support personnel often and routinely precede and/or accompany certain US government officials. They often carry communication and office equipment required to support large delegations, such as high-level administration officials and members of the US Congress.â€
He added that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff would travel with communications equipment. “It is quite possible that some saw this communications equipment moved into the hotel. This equipment would leave with the CJCS. If the equipment was transported in full public view then obviously there was no attempt made to conceal its movement.â€
Witnessed by many, including a PPP MNA and his friends, a US embassy’s truckload of steel boxes was unloaded and shifted inside the Marriott Hotel on September 16 midnight only after Mike Mullen, the US Admiral, had met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and others in Islamabad and had already left. Both the main gates (the entrance and the exit) of the hotel were closed while no one except the US Marines was either allowed to go near the truck or get the steel boxes unloaded or shift them inside the hotel. These steel boxes were not being passed through the scanners installed at the entrance of the hotel’s lobby, and were reportedly shifted to the fourth and fifth floors of the Marriott.
The US embassy spokesman also confirmed that the Marriott rooms, which were in use of the US officials, had the communication and office equipment, which were transported for use by Admiral Mullen.
A hotel employee, on condition of not being named, confided that the hotel management had been receiving threats from unknown persons for the last six months to get the US officials vacated from the hotel. However, Mr Hashwani when confronted said that there has been no threat received by the hotel management.
Post explosion, fires Marriott video
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Though human noses have an impressive 5 million olfactory cells with which to smell, sheepdogs have 220 million, enabling them to smell 44 times better than men.
"Horse Head" in the bed for Pakistan?
Video: The Marriott Hotel Bombing: A "Horse Head" in the bed?
setfree68
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m47417&hd=&size=1&l=e
21 settembre 2008
After weeks of complaining of US intervention in Pakistan the President Asif Ali Zardari in his speech to Parliament announces,"We will not allow Foreign forces to violate Pakistans territorial integrity in the name of fighting Terrorism", hours later a MASSIVE bomb ripped apart the Marriott Hotel killing scores of people.
The USA had threatened the Previous President Musharraf with "Being bombed back to the stone age", unless he co-operated with the USA in the War on Terror. Watch the video ALL the statements are there. Is this a "HORSE HEAD" in the bed for Pakistan?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijA4NgeHmV4
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"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corpora