Terrorism in Africa and Ghana’s present position

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• PAA 12 years ago

  Npp are so desperate that each day they pollute the airwaves and electronic media with lies and lies. Npp criminals, thieves, looters, nation wreckers, arsonists, murderers. What npp are looking for is to come to power to lo ...
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  Npp are so desperate that each day they pollute the airwaves and electronic media with lies and lies. Npp criminals, thieves, looters, nation wreckers, arsonists, murderers. What npp are looking for is to come to power to loot the nation's resources. Npp thinks Ghanaians have soon forgotten when they were stealing gold, money, land and other state properties. Ghanaians can still remember when Sir John told npp followers to dress in white and go to church for thanksgiving even when the final results were not complete just to make a case that they had been robbed. Npp is now for dogs, especially with people like sir john in the helm of affairs of the party. You have been found out and God will punish you for wasting Ghanaian tax-payers money. Npp would surely pay for their demonic and evil plans.

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• Wa 12 years ago

  NDC WILL SURELY PAY VERY SOON

  NDC WILL SURELY PAY VERY SOON

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• Big Name 12 years ago

  The turbaned gunmen who infiltrated Nairobi's Westgate mall arrived with a set of religious trivia questions: As terrified civilians hid in toilet stalls, behind mannequins, in ventilation shafts and underneath food court tab ...
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  The turbaned gunmen who infiltrated Nairobi's Westgate mall arrived with a set of religious trivia questions: As terrified civilians hid in toilet stalls, behind mannequins, in ventilation shafts and underneath food court tables, the assailants began a high-stakes game of 20 Questions to separate Muslims from those they consider infidels.
  A 14-year-old boy saved himself by jumping off the mall's roof, after learning from friends inside that they were quizzed on names of the Prophet Muhammad's relatives. A Jewish man scribbled a Quranic scripture on his hand to memorize, after hearing the terrorists were asking captives to recite specific verses. Numerous survivors described how the attackers from al-Shabab, a Somali cell which recently joined al-Qaida, shot people who failed to provide the correct answers.
  Their chilling accounts, combined with internal al-Shabab documents discovered earlier this year by The Associated Press, mark the final notch in a transformation within the global terror network, which began to rethink its approach after its setbacks in Iraq. Al-Qaida has since realized that the indiscriminate killing of Muslims is a strategic liability, and hopes instead to create a schism between Muslims and everyone else, whom they consider "kuffar," or apostates.
  "What this shows is al-Qaida's acknowledgment that the huge masses of Muslims they have killed is an enormous PR problem within the audience they are trying to reach," said Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, director of the Center for the Study of Terrorist Radicalization. "This is a problem they had documented and noticed going back to at least Iraq. And now we see al-Qaida groups are really taking efforts to address it."
  The evolution of al-Shabab is reflected in a set of three documents believed to be written by the terrorist group, and found by the AP in northern Mali earlier this year. They include the minutes of a conference of 85 Islamic scholars, held in December 2011 in Somalia, as well as a summary of fatwas they issued last year after acceptance into the al-Qaida fold.
  Baptized with the name al-Shabab, meaning The Youth, in 2006, the group began as an extremist militia, fighting the government of Somalia. As early as 2009, it began courting al-Qaida, issuing recordings with titles like, "At Your Service Osama."
  Until the Westgate attack, the group made no effort to spare Muslim civilians, hitting packed restaurants, bus stations and a government building where hundreds of students were awaiting test results. And until his death in 2011, Osama bin Laden refused to allow Shabab into the al-Qaida network, according to letters retrieved from his safehouse in Pakistan. The letters show that the terror leader was increasingly troubled by regional jihadi operations killing Muslim civilians.
  In a letter to Shabab in 2010, bin Laden politely advised the Somali-based fighters to review their operations "in order to minimize the toll to Muslims." Shabab did not get the green light to join al-Qaida until February 2012, almost a year after bin Laden's death.
  In an email exchange this week with The Associated Press, it made its intentions clear: "The Mujahideen carried out a meticulous vetting process at the mall and have taken every possible precaution to separate the Muslims from the Kuffar before carrying out their attack." However, even at Westgate, al-Shabab still killed Muslims, who were among the more than 60 civilians gunned down inside.
  Their attack was timed to coincide with the highest traffic at the upscale mall after 12:30 p.m. on Sept. 21, a Saturday. More than 1,000 people, including diplomats, pregnant women with strollers and foreign couples, were inside when the fighters armed with grenades and AK-47s burst in and opened fire. At first the attack had the indiscriminate character of all of Shabab's previous assaults.
  Rutvik Patel, 14, was in the aisles at Nakumatt, the mall's supermarket which sells everything from plasma TVs to imported kiwis, when he heard the first explosion. "They started shooting continuously, and whoever died, died," he said. "Then it became calm and they came up to people and began asking them some questions. If you knew the answer, they let you go," he said. "They asked the name of the Prophet's mom. They asked them to sing a religious verse."
  
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  Imagen cedida por la presidencia de Kenia muestra el colapso de la planta superior del centro comerc …
  
  Just across from the Nakumatt supermarket, a 31-year-old Jewish businessman was cashing a check inside the local Barclays branch when he, too, heard the shooting. The people there ran to the back and shut themselves in the room with the safe, switching off the lights. They learned, via text messages, that the extremists were asking people to recite an Arabic prayer called the Shahada.
  "One of the women who was with us got a text from her husband saying, they're asking people to say the Islamic oath, and if you don't know it, they kill you," said the businessman, who insisted on anonymity out of fear for his safety.
  He threw away his passport. Then he downloaded the Arabic prayer and wrote it on his palm.
  Al-Shabab's attempts to identify Muslims are clear in the 16-page transcript from the conference of Islamic scholars held in the Somali town of Baidoa, an area known to be under Shabab control in 2011, according to Somalia specialist Kenneth Menkhaus, a political science professor at Davidson College in North Carolina. The scholars issued several fatwas defining exactly who was a Muslim and who was an apostate.
  The document states it is halal, or lawful, to kill and rob those who commit crimes against Islam: "The French and the English are to be treated equally: Their blood and their money are halal wherever they may be. No Muslim in any part of the world may cooperate with them in any way. ... It leads to apostasy and expulsion from Islam," it says. Further on it adds: "Accordingly, Ethiopians, Kenyans, Ugandans and Burundians are just like the English and the French because they have invaded the Islamic country of Somalia."
  Former FBI supervisory special agent Ali Soufan, who investigated the bombing of the United States embassies in East Africa as well as the attack on the USS Cole, said that the gathering of dozens of religious scholars in an area under Shabab control harkens back to an al-Qaida conference in Afghanistan around 1997. That conference defined America as a target, Soufan said, leading to the bombing of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
  "You see something very similar here," said Soufan. "It's the same playbook."
  In a second document dated Feb. 29, 2012 — just two weeks after al-Shabab joins al-Qaida — the organization warns Muslims to stay away from buildings occupied by non-Muslims, chillingly predicting and justifying the death of Muslims at Westgate.
  "And so all Muslims must stay far away from the enemy and their installations so as not to become human shields for them, and so as not to be hurt by the blows of the mujahedeen directed at the Crusader enemies," it says. "There is no excuse for those who live or mingle with the enemies in their locations."
  Yet at the same time it says: "The mujahideen are sincere in wanting to spare the blood of their brother Muslims, and they don't want a Muslim to die from the bullets directed at the enemies of God."
  This is a concession for an organization that since its inception had killed people constantly, said Rudolph Atallah, who tracked Shabab as Africa counterterrorism director in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 2003 to 2007.
  
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  A mourner walks past portraits of Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta's nephew Mbugua Mwangi, left, and …
  
  "They would just go and mow people down," Atallah said. "They are now sending a clear message that, 'Look, we're different ... We're no longer indiscriminately killing. We're protecting innocent Muslims and we are trying to kill quote-unquote 'infidels,' nonbelievers."
  A similar tactic paid off in January after al-Qaida-linked terrorist Moktar Belmoktar attacked a gas installation in Algeria, Atallah said. When his fighters freed hundreds of Muslim employees, a Facebook page dedicated to him exploded with "Likes."
  Several hours after the gunshots at Westgate Mall, the people cowering inside the Barclays bank heard a commotion. As the attackers approached, the Jewish businessman spit on his hand to erase the words he had by then committed to memory.
  The door opened.
  He exhaled. It was the police.
  Several floors above, 14-year-old Patel looked for a place to hide on the roof. When the jihadists came up the stairs and threw a grenade, he didn't hesitate. He jumped, crushing his ankle on the pavement below.
  He said he would not have known how to answer their questions.

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• Joe Opuni 12 years ago

  Make your own deduction about these Muslims. If you don't submit to their wicked Islam, you are considered infidel. You are not worthy to live, to these Islamic terrorists.

  Make your own deduction about these Muslims. If you don't submit to their wicked Islam, you are considered infidel. You are not worthy to live, to these Islamic terrorists.

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• Show 12 years ago

  Powerful piece, friend, it is surprising as a country we cant rise above partizan frivolities and think wholly for ourselves! i pray we get better and know what matters most for us

  Powerful piece, friend, it is surprising as a country we cant rise above partizan frivolities and think wholly for ourselves! i pray we get better and know what matters most for us

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• CITIZEN VIGILANTE 12 years ago

  Having lost his ability to stage serial coups, and his wife also having failed in a sham attempt to bring Rawlings into power again, Rawlings will pose a serious terror threat to Ghana. He is known to have stockpiled weapons ...
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  Having lost his ability to stage serial coups, and his wife also having failed in a sham attempt to bring Rawlings into power again, Rawlings will pose a serious terror threat to Ghana. He is known to have stockpiled weapons and arms of all kinds at different locations in the country, and he also has a secretly-trained militia from his PNDC days. All the pieces are in place.

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• CLKK 12 years ago

  such rubbish talk...where do you get this shit????

  such rubbish talk...where do you get this shit????

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• Agyeman 12 years ago

  Eish,this writer has such awful grammar,lacks a true grasp of international dynamics and has a misplaced fantasy about Ghana's place in the international pecking order.

  Eish,this writer has such awful grammar,lacks a true grasp of international dynamics and has a misplaced fantasy about Ghana's place in the international pecking order.

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• David Ofosu-Appiah 12 years ago

  well said but we must tackle poverty,ignorance,squalor,illiteracy,social exclusion and fanatics and thieves in our party politics to build a strong foundation internally and externally.

  well said but we must tackle poverty,ignorance,squalor,illiteracy,social exclusion and fanatics and thieves in our party politics to build a strong foundation internally and externally.

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• Wa 12 years ago

  David let us think about Ghana

  David let us think about Ghana

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• kojo 12 years ago

  Quite honestly this statement just sounds like rubbish:
  
  "One cannot but say the numbering threats of attack on Ghana’s territorial cover are a great sign of her rising global status."
  
  How does being threatened with t ...
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  Quite honestly this statement just sounds like rubbish:
  
  "One cannot but say the numbering threats of attack on Ghana’s territorial cover are a great sign of her rising global status."
  
  How does being threatened with terrorist act be considered "a great sign of ... rising global status"? Can you tell me how? The gushing quest of Ghanaians to gain international recognition clearly is leading to blatant absurdity even stupidity.

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• BOY KOFI 12 years ago

  Ghana is 1000 times safer than UK and USA when it comes to terrorists attacks.I think some Ghanaian politicians are behind these false alarm.Thank you.

  Ghana is 1000 times safer than UK and USA when it comes to terrorists attacks.I think some Ghanaian politicians are behind these false alarm.Thank you.

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• Osei Yao 12 years ago

  Why are people like you make me sick. Have you forgotten that slavery is a form of terrorism, that colonialism was terrorism and exploitation of the resources and leaving the African poor is terrorism? The West will wring th ...
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  Why are people like you make me sick. Have you forgotten that slavery is a form of terrorism, that colonialism was terrorism and exploitation of the resources and leaving the African poor is terrorism? The West will wring their hands at the events in Kenya, but live fat at the expense of the African child who cannot get medicine, food and clothing. That is the terrorism that should worry you.

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• RGH7100 12 years ago

  The facts is that if Kotoka International Airport is bombed by extreme Islamic militia tomorrow, Pres. Mahama will not know how to deal with it. Al-Qaeda and the rest may hate the West, but the West has the intelligence resou ...
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  The facts is that if Kotoka International Airport is bombed by extreme Islamic militia tomorrow, Pres. Mahama will not know how to deal with it. Al-Qaeda and the rest may hate the West, but the West has the intelligence resources to prevent an attack from happening in the first place. Ghana does not. The terrorism that Osei Yao talks of is present, but can only be solved by astute African politicians, who give a damn about their countries. Poverty in this day an age is more the fault of African governments not knowing what they're are doing, than the West being prejudiced to African countries.
  
  On the topic of international terrorism- the author of the article is woefully misguided. Blaming areas of Ghana where there are many foreigners is not the answer. Both the UK and USA have homegrown terrorists, who are radicalised by extremist content on the internet and are indoctrinated to do evil. The bombers who killed 52 people in the London bombings in July 2005 were born in Britain.
  
  Yes, international co-ordination is vital to fight International terrorism. Yes, the West underestimated the terrorist cells in West and East Africa for too long. Yes, slow response to these cells has allowed the rise of Al-Shabaab, who have committed this disgusting evil. However, Ghana needs to work on developing its own industries which create an economy which can feed the country ALONGSIDE developing its security and intelligence. Poverty attracts terrorists, who go undetected as governments worry about feeding people. And Terrorism attracts poverty, where the world directs their investment elsewhere when a country is deemed unsafe.

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• Kordiaber 12 years ago

  When Educated Fools spread fear among the masses. These Educated retards continue to drag the Country into unnecessary fear and panic. For Heaven's sake, STOP YOUR IDIOTIC ATTITUDE AND LEAVE GHANA ALONE TO LEAVE IN PEACE. If ...
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  When Educated Fools spread fear among the masses. These Educated retards continue to drag the Country into unnecessary fear and panic. For Heaven's sake, STOP YOUR IDIOTIC ATTITUDE AND LEAVE GHANA ALONE TO LEAVE IN PEACE. If you don't have any progressive ideas for Ghana's Development, then SHUT THE HELL UP.

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• man 12 years ago

  indeed the country needs to be aware of the international reputation it currenltly commands and act concommitantly!

  indeed the country needs to be aware of the international reputation it currenltly commands and act concommitantly!

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