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Suicide bombers are heading to Canada, America and Europe

Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir confirms truth of ABC suicide bomber tape

By Judi McLeod

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Celebrated Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir has confirmed as "absolutely true" Monday's, mainstream media-ignored ABC News report that suicide bombers are heading to Canada, America and Europe.

"It is absolutely true," Mir said last night, answering questions about the report's veracity posed by Polish-based journalist, David Dastych. l "It's absolutely true because I know that the number of English-speaking Taliban is increasing day by day in Afghanistan."

Mir told Dastych that the bomber recruits are coming "via Dubai to Kabul, via Tajikistan and Uzbekistan", posing under cover of "tourists and traders".

Recognized as the only journalist to have interviewed Osama bin Laden post 9/11, Mir was in touch with the Taliban in Ghazni, Afghanistan as recently as September of 2006.

Last November, Mir told America's Truth Forum, a terrorism symposium held in Las Vegas, that Dargai is a recent example where one Muslim suicide bomber killed more than 43 Pakistan Army soldiers. "All of them were Muslims.

"The tragedy of Dargai indicates that Islamic radicals are becoming a threat not only for non-Muslim invaders in Muslim countries, but they have become a threat for the Muslim allies of the West in the war against terror inside the Muslim countries."

Mir's unflagging probing of the truth at Pakistan's GEO Television comes with a personal cost. Ahmer Muzammil reported on www.pakitribune.com, June 18 that Mir was "man-handled by the police and agencies". The International Herald Tribune reported on June 7 that Mir "sent his family abroad because of threats and because his children were being followed to school".

The ABC's Brian Ross broke an exclusive story on Monday, first at his blog "The Blotter" and then on "World News with Charles Gibson".

Even though according to evidence on the tape some 300 recruits--including boys as young as 12--were supposedly sent off on suicide missions following an emasse graduation ceremony, the scoop seems to have fallen into a vacuum in the American mainstream media.

"The report included video-clips of a Taliban "graduation" ceremony ((abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3290535") video available here), with still-pictures of the event available (abcnews.go.com/Blotter/popup?id=3290410) here. "Yet despite the seriousness of this report, LexisNexis and Google News researches identified few media outlets covered the story.

That's the fate of the report in the U.S.

In Canada the story was all but ignored by mainstream media and played down by Canadian government authorities.

Canada's Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said the threat to send suicide squads to attack Canada is a desperate public relations ploy by a movement that's losing the battle on the ground in Afghanistan.

"I think the Taliban are aware that our troops cannot be intimidated, our troops prevail on the field of battle in Afghanistan. And so they're trying through public relations means to worry the hearts of Canadians at home," said Day.

"Their purpose is to strike terror, put fear into people's hearts.

"It's a sign of desperation, but it's not a sign that can be dismissed," he said. "We take threats seriously. We've always said that Canada is not immune to threats of terrorism."

But the report of suicide bombers enroute to the west, raised the antennae of terrorism experts.

John Thompson of the Mackenzie Institute, a Toronto-based think tank, warned that the public should not be complacent.

"The real threat," he said, "is potential home-grown terrorist cells, perhaps acting in loose coalition with al-Qaeda. Similar groups have mounted bomb attacks on rail and transit facilities in Britain and Spain.

"Ninety per cent of these cells are caught before they launch a successful attack," said Thompson. "But they're learning. The next wave is going to be a lot more astute and a lot more careful. It's not going to stop for decades."

The foiled attack on John F. Kennedy Airport was only the most recent reminder of suspected homegrown terrorists acting with al-Qaida.

The tape obtained by ABC News shows Taliban military commander Mansoor Dadullah, whose brother was killed by the U.S. last month, introducing and congratulating each team of graduates as they stood.

"These Americans, Canadians, British and Germans come here to Afghanistan from faraway places," Dadullah says on the tape. "Why shouldn't we go after them?"

It has been consistent practice for the Taliban to use Pakistani journalists like Mir, to get their messages disseminated. In the case of the Graduating Suicide Bomber Class of June 2007, a Pakistani journalist was invited to attend and take pictures for posterity.

"These Americans, Canadians, British and Germans come here to Afghanistan from faraway places," Dadullah says on the tape. "Why shouldn't we go after them?"

The leader of the team assigned to attack Great Britain spoke in English.

"So let me say something about why we are going, along with my team, for a suicide attack in Britain," he said. "Whether my colleagues, companions and Muslim brothers die today or tonight, every drop of our blood will invigorate the Muslim (unintelligible)."

U.S. intelligence officials described the event as another example of "an aggressive and sophisticated propaganda campaign."

The shocking video is being taken very seriously by authorities, as theevents shown in it are being investigated.

"It doesn't take too many who are willing to actually do it and be able to slip through the net and get into the United States or England and cause a lot of damage," said ABC News consultant Richard Clarke, the former White House counterterrorism official.

Meanwhile, we can only hope that U.S. Homeland Security and Canada's Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day know something that the rest of us don't.

Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com


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