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| Post-attack photo from State Department publication |
On March 8, 1995, an unarmored U.S. Consulate Karachi shuttle van transporting employees was blocked in rush hour traffic and then fired upon by two men armed with AK–47 rifles. Two American employees were killed - Jackie van Landingham, a secretary, and Gary C. Durell, a communications technician - and a third was wounded.
There was no claim of responsibility, but the attack may have been in retaliation for the arrest one month earlier in Islamabad of Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, the main perpetrator of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Despite an FBI investigation and a $2 million reward for information, the attackers were never arrested.
35 comments:
Bad business. Everyone who works at State has a target on them at one time or another. I don't think that's appreciated enough by regular Americans.
James: I think the problem is that there has never been a realistic popular conception of U.S. diplomatic missions. It's either an image of decadent luxury in a palace or - recently - an image of a militarized outpost in a war zone. The reality is more like a fairly decent and reasonably secure office building where the employees accept the risk of doing the USG's business in a rather dangerous environment. That image wouldn't be useful for dramatists, however.
Good post! Speaking of Pakistan, Sec. Hagel was there and the only discussion of it I saw (media)was PM told Hagel they will complete the $7 billion? gas pipeline with Iran despite massive pressure (sanctions threat) from US not to do it. Since nat gas is the energy the country runs on this a big issue for a potential suicide bomber. Time to double the danger pay and get a coherent policy! gwb
TSB: When Bersani won in Italy Europe went a little bonkers. So 'Uncle Sugar" Bernanke injected a little cash in European banks operating in the US. $100 billion to be exact! That's a record! That kept Spanish and Italian bonds from crashing and stopped the Euro's slide. Ben is going to be a legend someday.. sort of like AID in Iraq and Afghanistan. gwb
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-09/fed-injects-record-100-billion-reserves-foreign-banks-operating-us-past-week
TSB:
"James: I think the problem is that there has never been a realistic popular conception of U.S. diplomatic missions". Agreed. But just where do you launder those striped pants?
James - They'd have to be striped cargo pants today, and those are wash & wear.
GWB - Bernanke is printing so much cash the Treasury is using special quick-drying ink. That's something that can't go on forever.
TSB: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/americans-training-syria-rebels-jordan-spiegel-194808853.html
It looks like after 2 years we are
IN the Syrian civil war. Of course we don't want to admit this to the citizenry because it's,well, risky!
Also, my sources tell me 100's of UN peacekeepers are running from the neutral Golan zone and the radicals are planning to take it over while Obama is in Isreal on the 20th. gwb
As that third American along for the ride that morning...and one who still works for the US Dept. of State, more needs to be done to promote FS employees overseas. MAM
Mark: Glad you're still in the land of the living. the promotion issue is beyond my bailiwick, but I do believe it's probably true.
TSB: They shut down JP Morgan! (at least electronically) http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-12/chasecom-hacked
I wonder why they don't tell us this stuff on the news?
gwb
Mark,
Thanks very much for commenting. I wasn't sure whether or not the third employee in that incident would have minded being named, so I left it at "a third employee."
Here's to hoping the FS and other overseas USG employees and their efforts will get that recognition. I think it helps to remember incidents such as that attack in Karachi in social media, judging by the number of people I encounter who had never heard of them before.
TSB
GWB: Shut down JP Morgan? That means someone with a cyber weapon did what anarchists with dynamite failed to do in 1920. I'm impressed!
lol TSB: I notice about 7pm eastern the main page was back up but I couldn't get to the customer section. Those occupy wall streeters were just using pre-millenial tactics. gwb
TSB: Great 5 point speech by Sen Cruz on the costs of Obamacare! (It's a bit late for these Repubs to finally be figuring this stuff out.)
Barbara Mikulski couldn't rebut anything he said. And could she please quit referring to her good friend Kay Bailey Hutchison as Hutchinson? It makes her sound like someone who doesn't read or listen well. gwb
Give Babs a break. Senators always call each other "my good friend" even when they've barely met. Those two must have crossed paths at women's caucuses and such.
President Clinton called his own CIA Director "Admiral Woolsey" when he introduced him to the press, even though Woolsey was a civilian. Now, he really should have known better.
Funny story about Kay Bailey H - when she toured Shaybah, a Saudi oil facility in the deep desert of the Empty Quarter, several years ago, she asked for directions to the ladies room. The Saudis were totally at a loss to find a ladies room in this facility that's probably 700 miles from the nearest female. In her honor, they have now designated a cornered-off area in a men's room as the KBH Ladies Room in case they ever have another female visitor.
"They'd have to be striped cargo pants today". You'd have to have some panache to wear those with tails at a formal dinner.
That's a good one TSB. You are right. I shouldn't single out Babs because probably 2/3's of the pols mispronounce KBH's name. She's pushing a new $55 billion program that will build schools, support teacher's pay, hire more school police, fund hi-speed rail and help NASA prepare for a manned mission to Mars. Who could be against any of that? gwb
James: The appropriate formal attire to go with striped cargo pants would be a long-sleeve tuxedo tee shirt. That would be casual elegance.
Sorry TSB: I missed a bunch of stuff.
'Babs' is in hog heaven, stuffing 99 packages of democratic pork sausage in the Senate spending bill! Boehner says they better cut most of that out or he' not playing. gwb
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/03/senators-rush-to-protect-home-from-sequestration-88897.html
TSB: "Working through Jordan, Britain and France are determined to get arms shipments to the Syrian rebels fighting Bashar Assad - parting ways for the first time with the Obama administration’s objections to this course throughout Syria’s two-year civil war" It looks like Cameron and Hollande have decided to stuff some stronger weapons into the Syria battle over US and EU objections. Jordan is the conduit. gwb
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_EGYPT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-03-17-09-37-56
TSB: I take back my support for Morsi. He has repeatedly promised and then done the exact opposite. The latest being saying he wouldn't appeal the lower court ruling to postpone elections. Now there's no fuel, no$$, no constitution, no police...even Mubarek is trying to help him! gwb
Tweet-Tweet: Bravo!
World's largest embassy to be slashed by two-thirds
(AFP) – 4 hours ago
Before long Joe Biden will be able to defend the place with a shotgun.
gwb
TSB: The other day the Prez couldn't eat at a lunch meeting with congressional leaders because his 'taster' wasn't there. I'm guessing someone asked the 'taster' to fill the tank and he'll blame it on the sequester. gwb
TSB: Reading those Blumenthal emails was pretty tedious (not knowing most of those Libyans he discussed at length) but the gist seemed to be that AQ got the $$ for Benghazi Algerian attacks from the Saudi Wahabbis. That would be difficult to explain publicly.gwb
TSB: I think it is really interesting and telling that all the so called 'discussion' about Benghazi produced nothing, but the 'so called' hacked emails from Blumenthal produced only one article I can find which has to do with whether Blumenthal was a Clinton hack from the 90's. (Maybe I was the only one able to wade through them?..Maybe everyone's waiting for the responses to be published?) gwb
GWB: you read more of the Blumenthal memos than I did. They looked quite phony, but, even taken at face value, didn't amount to any new information.
TSB: There's new ones today about Algeria's secret deal with the gas plant attackers and the 'machinations of Morsi'but the best new info seems to be those dog
paintings by gwb. That guy's got talent! gwb
Dog paintings? Like, dogs playing poker? I love those.
TSB: I noticed about a week ago that we have a new ambassador in Libya. IT'S A GIRL! How come nobody's mentioned it? gwb
GWB: I don't think she has been confirmed by the Senate yet, so she is merely the nominated Ambasador. We have many girl Ambassadors, BTW. They smell better than the other Ambassadors, if I may say so without being a male chauvinist.
TSB: I looked at her bio. She seems like a good one! gwb
Kerry's not having much luck in the ME so far. Once Joe Biden tries to fix something you pretty much have to live with it. http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-kerry-maliki-20130324,0,4190952.story
TSB: Nobody in the S.Korean embassy is scared of N. Korean threats. But the Ambassador did decide to take his daughters for a long drive to see the cherry blossoms! gwb
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/us-ambassador-s-korea-blogs-about-vacation-amid-tension-north-korea_714668.html
I think the North Koreans ran out of credibility after making so many empty threats for so many years. But, there's no accounting for craziness, so I'll keep my bomb shelter stocked and ready.
Is there a conversion factor to the reward that makes it come up the the unfamiliar amount of rupees?
Anonymous,
I assume the Rupee figure was rounded up or down in order to come out as an even figure when the reward offer was converted from dollars.
I don't know how a monetary offer is adjusted to maintain its value over 18 years, however, if you have any information about the attackers, I'm sure someone from State would like to discuss it with you.
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