AFP: A man who carried out a suicide attack in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul last month has been identified as a former Kuwaiti detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, US military officials said Wednesday. Abdallah Salih al-Ajmi, who was released from Guantanamo in November 2005, is the first suicide bomber to be identified as a former Guantanamo detainee, Commander Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman said. “We don’t know what motivated him. His family apparently was shocked to hear that he had conducted the bombing,” said Major Bradford Leighton, a US military spokesman in Baghdad. Al-Ajmi was one of three […]
BREAKING: Cops Catch Cop Killer
NBC 10 is reporting that police have captured Eric Floyd, wanted in connection with the murder of Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski…He was captured in southwest Philadelphia, reportedly cops used Sgt. Liczbinski’s handcuffs to secure Floyd… DEVELOPING… UPDATE: Police received a tip Wednesday night that Floyd was possibly in an abandoned property on Windsor Avenue near 54th Street. Police found the fugitive by himself at the property, unarmed. They later handcuffed him with Liczbinski’s handcuffs — a department tradition — and took him to police headquarters, according to a police source. Floyd’s arrest ends a massive police manhunt, aided by the FBI […]
BURMA: Cyclone Death Toll Could Hit 100,000
UPDATE: YANGON, Myanmar — Bodies floated in flood waters and survivors tried to reach dry ground on boats using blankets as sails, while the top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar said Wednesday that up to 100,000 people may have died in the devastating cyclone. Hungry crowds stormed the few shops that opened in the country’s stricken Irrawaddy delta, sparking fist fights, according to Paul Risley, a spokesman for the U.N. World Food Program in neighboring Thailand. Shari Villarosa, who heads the U.S. Embassy in Myanmar, said food and water are running short in the delta area and called the situation there […]
HEAR YE: Eli “Paperboy” Reed & The True Loves
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NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
FRESH AIR Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who commanded ground troops in Iraq from 2003 to 2004, has since been speaking out about the conduct of the Iraq war — especially about what he calls the Bush administration’s “catastrophically flawed, unrealistically optimistic war plan.” His views take book form in Wiser in Battle: A Soldier’s Story, which also details his rise from an impoverished Texas childhood to become the Army’s highest-ranking Hispanic officer. When Sanchez relinquished command of group troops in Iraq to Gen. George Casey in 2004, investigations into torture at Abu Ghraib prison were being conducted. […]
EARLY WORD: Cinco De Miro
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THUG LIFE: Cops Gangbang Shooting Suspects
DAILY NEWS: Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey yesterday asked Philadelphians not “to rush to judgment” when watching a video showing baton-wielding cops repeatedly striking, kicking and stomping three young men whom they had stopped after a triple shooting in Hunting Park. “On the surface, it certainly does not look good in terms of the amount of force that was used,” Ramsey said during a news conference with Mayor Nutter at police headquarters. Ramsey said that an Internal Affairs investigation is under way. D. Scott Perrine, a defense attorney representing the three men, said the commissioner seemed to be making excuses […]
MARCH OF THE PENGUINS: Nefarious Rocky Statue Plot Afoot; WIP Promises 24-7 Goon Squad Protection
[Photo by iirraa via FLICKR] CRAIGSLIST: Need to recruit someone who is a Pittsburgh native, living in Philly. I want you to put a Penguins jersey on the Rocky statue and take pictures. I am going to send it in to the Post-Gazette and other media outlets to show some pride. If you are interested please reply to this ad ASAP. INQUIRER: This morning on WIP (610 AM), host Angelo Cataldi was on the case, appealing for a thug lookalike — a big guy with “menacing facial hair” — to “guard” the statue from 8 a.m. through noon, when a […]
THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW: 54th & Kingsessing
[Photos by JUSTIN ROMAN] BY JEFF DEENEY We discovered the pile of teddy bears gathered around the base of a stop light at 54th and Kingsessing while on our way to the scene of another recent homicide in Southwest Philly. This wasn’t the first time we stumbled upon a street memorial by accident while en route to another site; it isn’t surprising in this extremely violent part of town, and especially not along Kingsessing Avenue, which has had a double-digit number of shootings and homicides along its length over the last two years. A clue as to who is memorialized […]
KILLLADELPHIA: 1 More Dead Since U Went To Bed
INQUIRER: A 29-year-old man was shot to death in the city’s Brewerytown neighborhood last night, police said this morning. Delaney Humphrey, of the 1500 block of Hollywood Street, was shot in the head, chest and stomach around 10:20 p.m. in the 1500 block of North Dover Street, police said. Humphrey was transported to Hahnemann University Hospital and pronounced dead at 11:52 p.m. No arrests were reported.
Obama’s Binge Drinking Strategy Surprisingly Effective
NEW YORK TIMES: Senator Barack Obama captured a decisive victory in the Democratic presidential primary in North Carolina on Tuesday. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s loss combined with a tight race in Indiana, where the counting was continuing deep into the night, did nothing to improve her chances of securing the Democratic presidential nomination. If anything, Mrs. Clinton’s options for overtaking Senator Barack Obama may have dwindled further. For Mr. Obama, the outcome came after a brutal period in which he was on the defensive over the inflammatory comments of his former pastor. That he was able, at a minimum, to […]
TONITE: The Marshall Plan
As a young musician, Marshall Allen (b.1924) performed with pianist Art Simmons, Don Byas and James Moody before enrolling in the Paris Conservatory of Music. After relocating to Chicago, Allen became a pupil of Sun Ra, subsequently joining the his Arkestra in 1958 and leading Sun Ra’s formidable reed section for next 40 years (a role akin to the position Johnny Hodges held in the Duke Ellington Orchestra). Marshall, along with John Gilmore, June Tyson and James Jacson, lived, rehearsed, toured and recorded with Sun Ra almost exclusively for much of Ra’s musical career. As a member of the Arkestra, […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Al Gore, who galvanized public opinion with his advocacy on global warming, sees danger in another poisoned environment, this one metaphorical: In his book The Assault on Reason [CLICK TO READ EXCERPT], just published in paperback, he argues that what used to be called civil discourse is threatened by a combination of public apathy and political cynicism. In our infotainment-mad culture, Gore writes, the public attention span is short, the media are easily distracted, and a politics driven by fear and uninterested in facts has undermined the essential functions of democracy. “When evidence that any reasonable person can […]