Showing posts with label USA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label USA. Show all posts

Friday, May 14, 2010

US will burn soon: Taliban claimed

Pakistan Taliban militants have warned America that it will soon "burn" while calling for Pakistan's rulers to be overthrown for following "America's agenda".The United States is convinced Pakistani Taliban militants allied with al-Qaida and operating out of northwestern Pakistani border regions were behind an attempted car bomb attack in New York's Times Square on May 1.

The Pakistan Taliban had claimed responsibility for the attempted bombing. If confirmed, it would be the first time their members were involved in an an attempted attack in the West.A Pakistan Taliban spokesman, in a video message said, repeated a claim of responsibility, saying: "The movement proved what America could not have even imagined ... It was just an explosive-laden vehicle which did not explode. "But it (America) will see, all imperialist forces will see that it will explode also and America will also burn," said the spokesman, Azim Tariq, sitting cross-legged on the ground in front of a rock face and speaking in Urdu.

America's allies would meet the same fate, he said. "They can neither eliminate the mujahideen nor jihad, nor they can harm Islam," he said, referring to Muslim holy warriors and holy war. "Instead, they will have to die themselves, they will be burnt themselves, they will have to dig their own graves," said the spokesman, sporting a long black beard and turban.Pakistan has been battling its homegrown Taliban, who are allied with the Afghan Taliban, and who have been accused of numerous suicide bombings killing hundreds of people across the nuclear-armed country. But Tariq denied responsibility for bombings in public places, saying authorities wanted to malign the militants with such attacks. Tariq spoke of fighting in various places in Pakistan saying his men were holding their own and the security forces, which he said were being paid with US aid money, were suffering significant losses. "They are being defeated," he said.

Tariq did not refer specifically to any attacks abroad, but said mujahideen "wherever they were, in any part of the world" were supporting each other.
Analysts have long doubted the Pakistan Taliban, operating out of remote mountains along the Afghan border, had the sophistication to plan and execute a bomb attack in a Western country on their own. They can, however, support and train people who are able to travel to the West and carry out attacks.Tariq said the Pakistani people were being sacrificed for the sake of the United States by their own government, which he called un-Islamic.

"Now is a time to remove them from power as soon as possible. All their policies are anti-Islam, anti-people," he said. "Jihad will continue as long as the ruling coterie and the unholy army continue to follow the American agenda," he said. Pakistan has been cooperating with US investigators trying to determine what links the Pakistani-American man suspected of carrying out the attempted Times Square bombing, Faisal Shahzad, had with militants in Pakistan.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

US CreditCard Hacker Sentenced

Computer hacker Albert Gonzalez has been jailed for 20 years in the US for his part in stealing the details of more than 130m credit and debit cards.One judge described the crime as "the largest and most costly example of computer hacking in US history".

The 28-year-old pleaded guilty to three cases of fraud at his trial last year.Gonzalez was sentenced to 20 years for the first two cases on Thursday, and 20 years and one day on Friday for the third. The terms will run concurrently.The judge in the third case said he had to serve the extra 24 hours because the crime had been committed when he was working for the US Secret Service as an informant, reportedly receiving as much as $75,000 a year.

As part of a plea agreement, Gonzalez also agreed to hand over $1m that he had buried in his parents' garden, a condo in his hometown of Miami, a car, a diamond ring and several expensive watches.

Gonzalez was accused last August, along with two Russian co-conspirators, of hacking into the payment systems of retailers.They targeted more than 250 US companies including payment processor Heartland Payment Systems, food and drink store 7-Eleven and American supermarket Hannaford Brothers Co.

Gonzalez was found to have used SQL injection attacks to exploit weaknesses in payment software programmes and access data, stealing millions of customer card details.He blamed "curiosity and addiction" for his crimes.Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer of the Department of Justice said that on a daily basis "cyber criminals try to steal the debit and credit card numbers of unsuspecting American consumers."

"These sentences - some of the longest ever imposed for hacking crimes - send a powerful message to hackers around the globe that US law enforcement will not allow them to breach American computer networks and payment systems, or illegally obtain identities."