Pirates Getting Help From Overseas

This isn't much of a surprise really. The pirates and the shipping industry have been in close contact through intermediaries for years in order to secure ransoms and negotiate deals to release ships and crews in Somalia and elsewhere around the world.

Therefore, it's not much of a reach to learn that there are unscrupulous people who are tipping off the pirates as to the whereabouts of lucrative targets ripe for being attacked by the pirates.

It says that pirate groups have "well-placed informers" in London who are in regular contact with control centres in Somalia where decisions on which vessels to attack are made. These London-based "consultants" help the pirates select targets, providing information on the ships' cargoes and courses.

In at least one case the pirates have remained in contact with their London informants from the hijacked ship, according to one targeted shipping company.

The pirates' information network extends to Yemen, Dubai and the Suez canal.

The intelligence report is understood to have been issued to European navies.

"The information that merchant ships sailing through the area volunteer to various international organisations is ending up in the pirates' hands," Cadena SER reported the report as saying.

This enables the more organised pirate groups to study their targets in advance, even spending several days training teams for specific hijacks. Senior pirates then join the vessel once it has been sailed close to Somalia.

London Calling: G20 Protesters Clash With Police

The usual suspects at international financial summits are at it again. The G20 is meeting in London to discuss the financial mess, and the protesters are out in force trying to stop the meetings from proceeding.

The anarchists are busy trying to gum up the works and Gothamist has more.

Of course, whenever these folks riot, it means that businesses suffer the most for it. Storefronts get their windows knocked out, such as this Royal Bank of Scotland branch. Smile for the camera as these thugs knock out the windows. Note that the reflections catch the photographers busy snapping the photos:





The meetings will continue regardless of the anarchists attempts, but the damage has been done to downtown London. These thugs sought to storm the banks and calling for the abolition of money.

Police said at least 23 people were arrested but no serious injuries were reported.

Thousands of anarchists, anti-capitalists, environmentalists and others jammed into London's financial district for what they called "Financial Fool's Day." The protests were called ahead of Thursday's summit of world leaders, who hope to take concrete steps to resolve the global financial crisis that has lashed nations and workers worldwide.
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Protesters attacked the offices of the Royal Bank of Scotland, shouting "These streets, our streets! These banks, our banks!"

Some spray-painted the side of the RBS building with the phrases "class war" and "thieves." Others pushed against columns of riot police who swatted them away with batons.

Demonstrators shouted "Abolish Money!" and clogged streets in the area known as "The City" even as Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President Barack Obama held a news conference elsewhere in the British capital.

UPDATE:
The media couldn't get enough of the violence and anarchists. In fact, they got a front row seat to it. Smile for the cameras indeed.

Congestion Pricing Stalls In Albany?

While New York City's congestion pricing tax has apparently stalled in Albany due to the annual budget process being what it normally is (snafu) plus serious concerns about fiscal tricks played by proponents with Port Authority funds, London's congestion pricing scheme may get an overhaul.

By overhaul, I mean a big tax increase for many drivers.

[Mayor Ken] Livingstone, locked in a bruising contest with conservative candidate Boris Johnson, has proposed levying a £25 (about $50) charge on vehicles deemed to be causing the worst pollution, including four-wheel drives such as “Chelsea Tractors,” Land Rovers dubbed as such because of their predominance in London’s ritzy southwestern borough.

The tax would replace the current £8 (around $16) congestion charge, implemented in February 2003 and aimed at combating pollution and overcrowding in central London’s traffic-choked streets.

The new charge is organized into three different price bands. While many drivers will continue to pay the £8 fee for their mid-range emission vehicles, those with cars that produce under 120 g/km of carbon dioxide, like the Volkswagen Polo, will no longer have to pay to drive across the capital city.

Meantime, those with high-end vehicles that produce more than 225 g/km, like almost all Porsches, Land Rovers and Mercedes, will have to pay £25. The new charges would start in October and affect anyone driving into the center between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday to Friday.

Residents living within the congestion charge zone would also lose their current 90 percent discount and instead pay the same as those living outside the area.

'A complete rip-off'
Some workers and residents in the wealthy Kensington and Chelsea districts have protested Livingstone’s campaign.

“I don’t see why people who have bigger cars should have to pay more when some old cars produce worse (emissions),” said Philip Thornton, a driver for clients who own large vehicles such as Land Rovers.

“It’s a complete rip-off,” Thornton said, although he noted that considering the wealth of the neighborhoods, “£25 is pushing it, but a lot of people will just pay it.”

For central London workers who rely on their cars for transportation, the charge has added to their long list of woes, which already includes long waits in traffic and problems finding parking.

The new scheme would hit high-end vehicles, regardless of their emission output when compared to older vehicles that may actually produce higher levels of emissions. It would also hit everyone who currently lives within the central business district who owns a car - a massive tax hike on those people.

If the congestion pricing tax was really about reducing emissions, they would hike the costs across the board to deter all drivers from entering the central business district regardless of the vehicle being driven. Instead, you get a perverse situation where those drivers who have certain vehicles will avoid paying the fees altogether and still pollute the air and create congestion on the streets if they fit a narrow class of vehicles. Most everyone else will pay much more for the privilege of sitting in traffic.

Then, there's the not insignificant question of where the money raised from the congestion pricing is going. It certainly isn't going to improve transportation projects.

In New York, there's serious questions over the fiscal tricks being used to try and get the congestion pricing scheme through the Legislature. As the Port Authority has already raised its tolls to $8, vehicles coming in to New York City from New Jersey would not be affected by congestion pricing - which means that the Star Ledger article from yesterday was wrong as it considers the congestion pricing above and beyond the new tolls.

The commuters most affected will be those who currently use the free bridges into Manhattan from Brooklyn, Queens, or the Bronx, which helps explain why the outer borough representatives in the City Council opposed the measure. This is a back door attempt to put tolls on the free bridges.

Explosive Find in London

An ambulance crew attending to an incident at a nightclub near Piccadilly Circus in London noticed something amiss with a car, although some reports indicate that bouncers at a nightclub saw something wrong with the vehicle or witnessed it crash. They called police to the scene, who discovered that the car contained gas canisters and shrapnel.

The bomb squad defused the device and moved the vehicle away safely, but the mystery remains as to who was involved and what they intended to do. CNN reports:

The device, consisting of 200 liters of fuel, gas cylinders and nails linked to a triggering mechanism, was found in a car in Haymarket, in the city's busy nightclub and theater district shortly before 2 a.m. (0100 GMT) on Friday.

British police anti-terror chief Peter Clarke said the explosives would have resulted in significant injury and loss of life had the explosives detonated.

Clarke said police were alerted to the car after an ambulance crew attending an earlier incident noticed a smoke-filled car parked close to the popular "Tiger Tiger" nightclub.

Explosives officers discovered canisters of fuel, gas cylinders and nails attached to a "potential means of detonation," inside the vehicle. Officers on the scene "courageously" disabled the trigger by hand, he said.

Earlier, security sources told CNN that the "relatively crude device" contained at least 200 liters, or about 50 gallons, of fuel in canisters.

"Even at this stage it is obvious that if the device had detonated, there could have been severe injuries and loss of life," Clarke said.

He said it was too early to say who was responsible, but police were examining footage from London's unparalelled mesh of CCTV cameras for clues.

The BBC reports that international elements are involved, which is highly suggestive of al Qaeda.

Law enforcement and intel officials note that there was no intel on this given incident - meaning they didn't know that this particular plot was ongoing until it was discovered this morning.

Hot Air is running with the story.

UPDATE:
Pajamas Media has running updates, and investigators are looking at other landmark areas to see if explosives were planted there as well.

The vehicle was spotted outside an American Express office, but was close to a nightclub that could hold up to 1,700 people. Last night, there were about 650 inside at the time the incident occurred.

UPDATE:
A second suspicious vehicle has been found in London and and a Sky News report links the second vehicle to the first incident.

Hours later, police closed a major road, Park Lane, on the edge of Hyde Park after reports of a suspicious vehicle.

Sky News reported that the second vehicle was connected to the car bomb found earlier. But, prior to the television report, a police spokesperson said there was nothing to immediately suggest it was linked to the earlier incident.

UPDATE:
Sky News is reporting that this appears to be the work of al Qaeda.

It is not known whether he was an al Qaeda suicide bomber who lost his nerve, or if the device was timed to go off when it would cause maximum casualties when the street was crowded with people leaving the club.

Part of Park Lane was closed to traffic this afternoon after reports of a suspicious car in the Mount Street car park. Scotland Yard said a 200-yard cordon was in place which will affect Oxford Circus, Green Park and the Curzon Street areas. People were being evacuated from Hyde Park.

Haymarket was shut for most of the day. Sixteen bus routes which normally pass through the area were being diverted.

Anti-terrorist officers have long feared a suicide or car bomb attack on a crowded club or pub in the city but sources said there had been no intelligence on a specific attack.

It had also been feared that terrorists would mount an attack to coincide with Gordon Brown taking over as Prime Minister. Sources say the most likely suspects are extremists linked to al Qaeda.

In April five British Muslim men were jailed for life for plotting a wave of al Qaeda bomb attacks - one target was to be the Ministry of Sound nightclub in Southwark.

There are also similarities to another al Qaeda-inspired plot, masterminded by Dhiren Barot, who had drawn up plans for limousines packed with explosives to be detonated in London. He was jailed for 30 years.

Security was being raised around London to a level not seen since the 7/7 attacks. Next Saturday is the second anniversary of the London bombings.

This incident also comes on the heels of threats made by Islamists around the world following the beknighting of Salman Rushdie. It is possible this incident could be related to those, but the media reports seem to downplay that connection.

UPDATE:
LGF now notes that there might be a connection to Salman Rushie, and also notes that Daily Kos is engaging in conspiracy theorizing that this was all timed to help Bush, and the Islamists are busy theorizing that the Jews were behind this plot - so as to smear Muslims living in Britain.

UPDATE:
It is curious that there were multiple bomb discoveries and no detonations. Someone probably screwed up before all the other bombs were in place - most likely the guy driving the first vehicle discovered. Why the other bombers failed to detonate their explosives doesn't make sense unless they didn't know that the first bomb failed to reach its intended target. Did they not have any contact with each other?

Something doesn't add up here - and I suspect that the Brits got real lucky.

UPDATE:
The device was sophisticated and carefully constructed but it appears to have fizzled, which is why people thought something was amiss when smoke started coming from the first vehicle.

UPDATE:
Law enforcement may have a bead on who may be involved in this plot. They apparently had let the driver involved in the morning's first vehicle incident go:

British police have a "crystal clear" picture of the man who drove the bomb-rigged silver Mercedes outside a London nightclub, and officials tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com he bears "a close resemblance" to a man arrested by police in connection with another bomb plot but released for lack of evidence.

Officials say the suspect had been taken into custody in connection with the case of al Qaeda operative Dhiren Barot (pictured), who was convicted of orchestrating a vehicle bomb plot involving targets in London, New York, Newark, N.J. and Washington, D.C.

Officials say a surveillance camera caught the suspect "staggering from the Mercedes" shortly after parking it outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub.

U.S. and British law enforcement officials tell ABC News it is increasingly clear Friday's bomb plot in London involves multliple vehicles, and is described by a senior official as a "terror plot involving lslamic extremists."

The bomb failed to detonate even though two calls were placed to the cellphone trigger. I guess they'll have much more solid evidence this go-around.

UPDATE:
Here's more on how the first device was defused by the bomb squad in London; it had to be done by a bomb squad officer because the robot could not see through the thick haze in the vehicle.

Donning an approximately 90-pound Kevlar suit , one technician took "the long walk" from his armored response van to the Mercedes E 300 sedan and found a carefully constructed, large vehicle bomb with a complicated fuse. The bomb technician defused the device by hand, officials in London said.

ABC News has learned the bomb was composed of tanks of propane, butane and 125 liters of gasoline (33 U.S. gallons), roofing nails and a fuse that initial reports indicated was constructed of simple light bulb or flashbulb filaments and designed to be triggered by a mobile telephone.

The bomb failed to detonate because the fuel-air mixture was incorrect. Had it worked, it would have been a significant explosion.

UPDATE:
Via MSNBC:

The three men are believed to be from the Birmingham area, a center of radical Islamic unrest in Britain, U.S. officials who had been briefed on the developments told NBC News.

Police said the two cars, a light green and a light blue Mercedes-Benz, were found early Friday morning in London’s theater district. The green Mercedes was defused at the site. The blue Mercedes was not discovered to be a threat until early Friday evening, after it had been issued a parking ticket and towed to an impoundment lot near Hyde Park.

UPDATE:
Hot Air has more on the ongoing investigation. ThreatsWatch has additional analysis.

Others blogging the investigation and providing analysis: AJ Strata, Kim at Wizbang, Macranger, JunkYard Blog, Gina Cobb, and Gateway Pundit.

Mixed Messages on London's Congestion Tax

Expect Mayor Bloomberg to talk up the supposed benefits, while downplaying the significant problems with the congestion pricing tax imposed by London, the leading large city to attempt to curtail traffic in the central business district.

Anecdotally, most Londoners say they have noticed little difference.

Some have said they believe the decision to increase the daily fee from 5 pounds (about $10) to 8 pounds ($16) last year was either because the decrease in traffic hadn't been enough or because the income the city had seen hadn't been as high as hoped.

Transport of London said it took in 210 million pounds last year ($420 million) in fees and fines levied to those who didn't pay, with a profit of 122 million pounds ($244 million).

Most of that money has been pumped into transit improvements - mainly the addition of more buses in an effort to further reduce the number of cars coming into the city.

Officials reported an additional 72,000 bus riders in 2005 and a steady increase in users of the London Underground subways since the scheme began. The use of bicycles, too, has gone up precipitously. Other benefits have been a 13 to 15 percent dip in harmful vehicle emissions, 8 percent of which is directly attributable to the congestion scheme, officials said.

That element has been so successful that Livingstone has commissioned a study on creating a sliding scale by which cars that emit the least carbon will have the fee waived, whereas those that emit the most could be hit with a fee of up to 25 pounds ($50) a day.

Additionally, officials report an average decline of 70 serious traffic accidents per year.

While Transport of London says businesses within the zone have done better in recent years than those in the rest of the city, the London Chamber of Commerce says 84 percent of the businesses it surveyed after the scheme went into effect reported revenue declines.

One possible reason for a decline in traffic could be attributed to the revenue decline by those businesses surveyed. If they've cut back on business or are receiving less traffic as a result of the tax, that means that they're paying less corporate taxes and receiving less in other taxes (VAT) from their business operations. Those declines in revenues have to be made up elsewhere, meaning that the congestion pricing tax has to be increased to cover the declines elsewhere.

Instead of the supposed goal of supporting transit improvements, the congestion pricing tax will have to be raised to cover declines in taxes elsewhere - a tax burden shift.

Another thing to keep in mind is that once a tax is imposed, it is near well impossible to see it eliminated. Jurisdictions don't like seeing revenue streams eliminated, so stand to continue them.

As I've previously noted, NJ Transit operates at near capacity on its routes into Manhattan, so there's no way to actually increase capacity for those seeking alternative access to Manhattan to escape the congestion pricing tax.

What NJ Transit must consider is expanding the hours of operation on many of its lines. Once you get to 11:30PM, trains and buses run only occasionally - once an hour at best. Some train lines stop operation for several hours until the start of the morning runs at 4-5am. That's unacceptable if you're hoping to wean even more people from cars and use mass transit. Expand the schedule to include even more off peak and weekend hours so that people feel that they have a choice to take mass transit instead of driving into the City.

Developing: Major Al Qaeda Leader Captured By CIA

This is a developing story, but it is breaking that the CIA has captured a major al Qaeda leader. The information was released by the Pentagon.

UPDATE:
Via Breitbart:

Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said the captive is Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi. He was received by the Pentagon from the CIA, Whitman said, but the spokesman would not say where or when al-Iraqi was captured or by whom.

The Pentagon took custody of him at Guantanamo Bay this week, Whitman said.

Whitman said the terror suspect was believed responsible for plotting cross-border attacks from Pakistan on U.S. forces in Afghanistan, and that he led an effort to assassinate Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

"Abd al-Hadi (al-Iraqi) was trying to return to his native country, Iraq, to manage al-Qaida's affairs and possibly focus on operations outside Iraq against Western targets," Whitman said, adding that the terror suspect met with al-Qaida members in Iran. He said he did not know what time period al-Iraqi was in Iran.

Who exactly is al-Iraqi? Regime of Terror has more.

Once again, the links between Iraq and al Qaeda's worldwide operations come to the forefront as this thug was not only a member of the Iraqi military, but was involved in al Qaeda operations in Afghanistan as well.

UPDATE:
Hot Air has more details.

UPDATE:
He was captured back in 2006 and the information related to his capture wasn't released until now. It would seem that someone has decided that national security trumps the purely partisan political advantages that releasing this information might have on their domestic agenda. As for the importance of al-Iraqi, Ace notes that the US considered him an extremely high value target. From Hot Air (link above):

Executive Order 13224, executed by Bush on September 23, 2001 to block assets held by certain groups and persons in connection with 9/11. Or click and scroll just a bit and you’ll find him named, again a few lines below Osama, in a UN document posted a month before 9/11 regarding terrorists operating in Afghanistan. Newsweek published a blockbuster article about him last April that claimed he was dispatched to Iraq, where he was born, along with Saif al-Adel by Osama himself to set up AQ’s organization there after the homegrown insurgency had already broken out.

In fact, al-Iraqi rates higher on the September 23, 2001 list than Zawahiri, who many consider to be running al Qaeda these days with Osama MIA. That gives you some context as to how important and high ranking this thug was.

Also, he was captured while trying to get back into Iraq. That means he was coming from somewhere else. Where could that have been, especially considering that intel believed he had met with Iranian agents.

But here is where things get real interesting. Just what exactly was the relationship al-Iraqi had with Saddam's government after he went and joined up with al Qaeda? Read that whole post as he runs through other questions that this terrorist can shed light upon.

Here's a few more:
1) What was your relationship with the Iranians and what assistance, if any, did the Iranians provide to your group.
2) To what extent is al Qaeda operating with, or providing assistance to, the following terrorist groups: Hamas, Hizbullah, Fatah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Abu Sayaaf, Muslim Brotherhood, and their subsidiary terrorist groups?
3) Where are the terrorists able to obtain the funds in order to continue their operations and who is providing the funding?
4) Who is providing the training and outfitting for al Qaeda in Iraq and Afghanistan? Who is providing al Qaeda with weapons and intel? How is such intel gathered and has al Qaeda penetrated the Afghan government? Do they have moles within the Iraqi government?

Those are just a few of the many questions that need to be asked and answered.

UPDATE:
Seems that the British government might want to talk things over with al-Iraqi, as they're noting that he appears to have been behind the 7/7 London Underground bombings.

Abd al-Hadi recognised the potential for turning young Muslim radicals from Britain who wanted to become mujahidin in Afghanistan or Iraq into terrorists who could carry out attacks in their home country. He realised that their knowledge of Britain, possession of British passports and natural command of English made them ideal recruits. After al-Qaeda restructured its operations in Pakistan’s tribal areas he sought out young Britons for instruction at training camps. In late 2004 Abd al-Hadi met Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, from Leeds, at a militant camp in Pakistan and, in the words of a senior investigator, “retasked them” to become suicide bombers.

They were sent back to Britain where they led the terrorist cell that carried out the 7/7 bombings, killing 52 Tube and bus passengers.

Pakistani intelligence sources said that Abd al-Hadi was also in contact with Rachid Rauf, a Birmingham man now in prison in Pakistan and alleged to be a key figure in last summer’s alleged plot to blow up transatlantic airliners in mid-flight.

Abd al-Hadi has also been linked to a number of other foiled al-Qaeda plots to carry out attacks in Britain. But the Security Service, which has previously sent officials to question detainees at Guantanamo Bay, may not have the opportunity to question him directly.

The Government’s recently adopted position in favour of closing Guantanamo Bay is likely to act as a bar on agents travelling there. British Intelligence would have to rely on relaying questions it would like asked by American interrogators.

London 7/7 Bombing Suspects Arrested

Three men have been arrested in connection with the July 7, 2005, bomb attacks on the London transport network, British police said in a statement.

Two men, aged 23 and 30, were arrested at Manchester airport in northern England shortly before 1 p.m. GMT on Thursday as they were due to catch a flight to Pakistan, New Scotland Yard said.

A third man, aged 26, was arrested hours later at a house in Leeds. Police were searching five addresses in the Leeds area, the statement said.

"The three men were arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation, or instigation of acts of terrorism under the Terrorism Act 2000," it read.

Hot Air has more, and what keeps coming up in terrorism related investigations - especially in the UK - is the connection with Pakistan.