IS is getting closer. They are now in the Philippines. A notorious group, Abu Sayyaf has now aligned itself with IS.
In May 2001, Abu Sayyaf raided a foreign tourist resort on Palawan Island, not that far really from the Resort we owned at the time. They captured about 10 Filipinos and 3 Americans. Two of whom were Missionaries and married to each other. They were taken by boat to their haven, a Muslim controlled island named Mindanao. The Philippines comprises 7107 islands. The third American was beheaded by this group. They remained captive for around 18 months and the husband was killed when the groups camp was raided by Philippine Army. The wife was rescued. Her name is Grace Burnham and she wrote a book about their ordeal, titled In The Presence of My Enemies
Im making this post under I Digress to enlighten all Australians that this is a threat getting closer to home and should be taken seriously.
Read the post, watch the video and if you wish to comment, please keep away from politics and religion. I wouldnt like this thread closed because of such comments.
These groups have been in the Philippines for quite a while and have never made it to Australia. Other than publicly aligning themselves with IS there doesn't appear to be any real change and certainly no indication that they have acquired the capacity to conduct activities in Australia. However, they pose an obvious risk to those living or visiting the Philippines so be careful BG.
These groups have been in the Philippines for quite a while and have never made it to Australia. Other than publicly aligning themselves with IS there doesn't appear to be any real change and certainly no indication that they have acquired the capacity to conduct activities in Australia. However, they pose an obvious risk to those living or visiting the Philippines so be careful BG.
Dave
I truly hope hope you're right Dave but I'm glad security is being beefed up.
These groups have been in the Philippines for quite a while and have never made it to Australia. Other than publicly aligning themselves with IS there doesn't appear to be any real change and certainly no indication that they have acquired the capacity to conduct activities in Australia. However, they pose an obvious risk to those living or visiting the Philippines so be careful BG.
Dave
It is true Dave, several groups, large and small, have been active in the Mindanao and Zamboanga Regions of the Philippines for many years. None of the groups have caused any mayhem since several bombings in Manila in 2001. However this is the first time a group, one of the worst, Abu Sayyaf, has aligned itself with Islamic State, and this is the problem. IS has threatened Australia and now we have a group aligned with IS only 3 hours flight time from Darwin. In addition, there are a lot of Australian businesses in the Philippines, mining interests, call centers, tourist resorts and of course the Australian Embassy.
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Retired Airline Pilot and Electrician..
I'm not old, I've just been young a long time....Ken
Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
Heard on the radio this morning on the way to work. ISIS have actually named Australia and Australians both military and civilian as part of their target. They actually played a recording. Very chilling the way his indifference came across to me.
Never said this public ally before..
I use to pick a Christian Lebanese work mate up in the 80's in Bankstown to our line worker training school
Over by Botany Bay..
We went past these Arabic posters on the power poles..
I asked him what they said .. He knew I was from NZ..
Basically he said it said all Australians are dogs the woman are sluts and don't follow Allah..
Along with other things..
Sheesh I nearly run off the road !.
These signs where in front of our noses back in the early 80's ..
Top marks to the Victorian police for shooting the idiot towel head. One less on the streets. He had a knife, so he had intent to harm.
Let's see now. The cops knew this guy was dangerous, so they asked him to come to the police station. When he got there, he produced a knife and stabbed two of them before they were able to stop him.
"An 18-year-old man who made threats against the Prime Minister was shot dead after he stabbed two police officers from the joint counter terrorism team in Melbourne's outer south-east.
The ABC understands the dead man, who recently had his passport cancelled, was considered a "person of interest" by authorities and was being investigated over terrorism.
The incident occurred as the man arrived at a police station on Heatherton Road in Endeavour Hills about 7:40pm (AEST) on Tuesday.
He had been asked to attend an interview as part of an investigation."
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"No friend ever served me, and no enemy ever wronged me, whom I have not repaid in full."
Top marks to the Victorian police for shooting the idiot towel head. One less on the streets. He had a knife, so he had intent to harm.
Let's see now. The cops knew this guy was dangerous, so they asked him to come to the police station. When he got there, he produced a knife and stabbed two of them before they were able to stop him.
"An 18-year-old man who made threats against the Prime Minister was shot dead after he stabbed two police officers from the joint counter terrorism team in Melbourne's outer south-east.
The ABC understands the dead man, who recently had his passport cancelled, was considered a "person of interest" by authorities and was being investigated over terrorism.
The incident occurred as the man arrived at a police station on Heatherton Road in Endeavour Hills about 7:40pm (AEST) on Tuesday.
He had been asked to attend an interview as part of an investigation."
"Between 550,000 and 1.4 million people in West Africa could be infected with the Ebola virus by January 20, 2015, according to a worse case scenario study published by researchers at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
According to the CDC analysis published in the journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, reported cases in Liberia are doubling every 15 to 20 days, while those in Sierra Leone are doubling every 30 to 40 days."
Are we likely to see ebola in the middle east? If so, will there be any way to mount an effective medical response, especially in Iraq and Syria? Worse still, can we expect that ebola will be weaponised by bioterrorists or delivered by infected suicide warriors?
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"No friend ever served me, and no enemy ever wronged me, whom I have not repaid in full."
IS...Ebola...It's all scary stuff. Something we always thought happened elsewhere and couldn't happen in Australia. It could... That's the reason I started this thread, to make people aware of threats that are getting closer to our doorstep, and not be complacent.
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Retired Airline Pilot and Electrician..
I'm not old, I've just been young a long time....Ken
Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
Commercial nuclear fusion reactors are not too far away, but I expect that fusion bombs will be a reality even sooner, despite what the scientists tell us. If so, then we will have a way to annihilate an entire region without contaminating its petroleum resources. That should result in a major political paradigm shift.
"The project is funded and run by seven member entities -- the European Union, India, Japan, People's Republic of China, Russia, South Korea and the United States."
As usual, OPEC's petrodollars are conspicuously absent ... thankfully so.
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"No friend ever served me, and no enemy ever wronged me, whom I have not repaid in full."
I find myself wrestling with conflicting emotions. A part of me wants to demonise the entire Islamic population so that I can conveniently focus my frustration and hatred without regard for "collateral damage". That would be the easy option. But then I think of my personal encounters with people from that part of the world, including friends, workmates, and my doctor. In fact, at my sister's funeral there were people from all parts of the world and from all religions. That's how a perfect world should be.
That said, I confess that I'm at the tipping point. It wouldn't take much for me to abandon all idealistic notions and become a bigoted "realist". I ask myself, can any modern society really coexist with a medieval ideology, and my answer is a resounding no, especially in the light of the events of the past decade. To answer the question of whether our xenophobia is justified or misplaced, ask yourself, should a Christian who avoids an Islamic neighbourhood be seen as a bigot, or should he be seen as exercising reasonable caution?
Apparently there are around 60 people on the government's watch list. A security expert claimed on the ABC last night that it costs around AU$18m to watch a single person for one year. That's in excess of $1 billion, or around $100 per family. It makes me angry to think that these terrorists are damaging our way of life in so many ways.
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"No friend ever served me, and no enemy ever wronged me, whom I have not repaid in full."
Haven't you been watching any news ? So far, there have been more Muslims, [and a lot of them have been women and children,] who have been at least verbally abused, in the last few days than any-one else, and you can guess who by.
At least 1 Mosque has been de-faced. The people who do this type of thing, are showing just how much their thinking is like that of the Terrorists overseas , even if they can't see it themselves.
well I WONDER WHY ????...can you blame them for feeling frustrated ?? I don't condone responding in kind...but what if WE went to their country and threatened a "Jihad" at THEIR citizens...
I would EXPECT to be ostracised !!...and it would come as NO SURPRISE to me that people felt hostile towards me!!
There are TOO MANY people in this country who have little or no understanding of what it means to be muslim...and what this entails...there is WAY too much "pussy footing" around this issue.