You can be forgiven if you don't immediately recognize the name in the title of this posting. The story hasn't received a whole lot of attention. In fact, if the story appeared on the newspaper's front page or as a lead story of a television newscast (as the story should have), in the middle of the media's feeding frenzy over the Iowa caususes, I certainly didn't see it.Anyway, John Granville was the U.S. Ambassador to Sudan. According to this article, an Al Qaeda-linked group is boasting of their hand in his death:
Saturday, January 5th 2008, 4:00 AMEmpty bragging on the part of "Ansar al-Tawhid"? Or have AQ-like groups sprung up all over Northern Africa? The latter is happening, according to Dr. Walid Phares, whom I heard warn of just such a new terrorist push at America's Truth Forum's First Symposium On Terror in April 2006.
WASHINGTON - U.S. counterterror officials were caught by surprise Friday when an Al Qaeda-linked group in Sudan claimed its goons assassinated U.S. diplomat John Granville this week to "defend their religion."
Despite sending six FBI counterterror agents to Khartoum, Sudan, to probe the murder, the claim of responsibility on a credible jihadist forum was unexpected by many senior U.S. officials.
Most assumed the U.S. Agency for International Development officer died in a burst of random street crime, sources said. "This is now getting a lot of attention" inside the intelligence community, a U.S. official told the Daily News.
Jihadists calling themselves "Ansar al-Tawhid" boasted on a password-protected Internet site, Al-Ekhlaas, that the "global infidels" were slain so they couldn't "raise the cross over the land of Sudan," according to the private SITE Intelligence Group.
Granville, 33, of Buffalo, and his driver were killed in Khartoum on New Year's Day while driving home from a party. The little-known group said it "carried out an operation of killing the American diplomat and his Sudanese driver who sold his religion for few benefits of life."
Osama Bin Laden has urged jihadists to fight the U.S. and UN in Sudan's Darfur region. This week's slaying mirrors the 2002 murder of U.S. diplomat Lawrence Foley in Jordan, whose killers included the late Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi....
2008 surely is off to a rocky start. Too much is happening in favor of the worldwide jihad.
11 comments:
Yes, and in my opinion, the genocide in Kenya is also motivated by Islam.
Pastorius,
I agree. I've done a bit of digging on that topic.
i'm sorry to say you guys have this all wrong,, i live in sudan, and i was there at the site right after the shooting, i was the one to take Granville to the Hospital and i was the one that reported it in to the US Embassy in Khartoum, first, he was not the Ambassador, there is no ambassador of the US in Sudan, the highest rank in the embassy here is the Charge d’Affaires and his name is not John Granville, as for the murder, it has not yet been confirmed wether it is AQ related, there is no conf that the "Ansar al tawheed" even exist, i personaly never heard of them befor this,i'm not saying this to defend AQ or any murder, and just to infrom you, this has hit the headlines and first pages every where i dont know where u are, but i would say somewhere on your own, no murder is justified and esp if it was done in the name of relign, facts are facts and the truth is the truth,whether AQ likes it or not,they will go down,
sorry for the long post, i'm just angrey that 2 lifes have been lost for no reason,
Granville was a USAID diploamtic staff,
if you want i will update this post during the next few days when the Embassy releases a offical statment on the case,
R.I.P John, and every one who died serving the good cause,,
You heard it hear first, folks. Right here at the Infidel Bloggers Alliance.
Oh, by the way, I'm the guy who took Bhutto to the hospital.
I googled John Granville because he was a friend of mine and a colleague. I work for a USAID-funded project working in Sudan, but is based in Kenya, and I spent a lot of time with John. He was buried today in Buffalo, NY and I wanted to see if I could find an account. I came across this site, which calls John the US ambassador. I assume you now know this is not correct. He was a low-level USAID officer and quite new, at that, only being with USAID full-time for less than a year. He oversaw USAID's efforts in southern Sudan re media and civil society development and until just a few months ago had been based in Nairobi, Kenya. He was a good guy and it's absolutely insane that this has happened to him, of all people. We'll see whether this alleged Islamist extremist group had anything to do with his murder. No one's ever heard of this group before, so it's hard to say at this point.
I've lived in Kenya for almost 5 years now, so while I'm writing I'd also like to say that whoever wrote that Islam is somehow connected to the "genocide" in Kenya is misinformed. Mr. Raila Odinga, the presidential candidate who "lost", is calling the police crackdown on his supporters "genocide." The truth is that the police are being rather brutal, but are not targeting any tribe. They are simply forcing people off the streets. However, the tribe of Kenya's president, the Kikuyu, are being rounded up, locked into buildings, burned alive, macheted, etc. That sure sounds more like attempted genocide to me.
Bear in mind that the main tribes involved in this violence are Christian. Thanks to US evangelism over the past several years, most of the Christians here are born-again fundamentalists. The Muslims mostly live on the coast and apart from one or two mid-level politicans, have very little power in this country.
To blame Islam or even radical Islamists for African tribalism is nonsense. It's been a constant in most parts of this continent.
And to the guy who says he took John G to the hospital in Khartoum, I'd like to talk with you. I've been wondering since the incident how he managed to get to medical attention, especially given that the shooting took place so early in the morning.
well i dont mind talking to you,
do u have a contact in Sudan..
i would prefer that we talk somewhere els,just cant think where,
John was a friend to mankind. The world mourns.
I find it very odd that all these people who are, apparently, friends of John Granville have decided to come to the Infidel Bloggers Alliance website to talk about him. That's weird. Isn't anyone else writing about the man.
I am sorry you lost your friend.
As for the Anonymous man who says that Islam has nothing to do with the genocide in Kenya; don't be too sure.
Odinga signed an agreement with Muslims in order to get their vote. The candidate of the Muslim community lost. And, now people are being killed.
Coincidence? I think not.
Islam is, somehow, connected to most of the wars which are currently being waged in the world.
You should check your facts before you blog. As stated before, John was NOT the ambassador, he was a United States Agency for International Development staff member in Khartoum, recently arrived. I live in Khartoum, just a few blocks from where the incident happened. It is very close to me in all sense of the word. I worked with John in Southern Sudan, and I don't think he would appreciate the racist blabber you are spewing. He was a gentle man, here to do his best. A comment to the blogger: You are no better than an ignoramous if you spew untruths around the world. You are indeed the worst kind of infidel in the non-religious sense, you are unfaithful to the TRUTH...CHECK YOUR FACTS, ONE WORLD ONE LOVE
Try that saying on Hitler, my man.
And, I'm quite sure I know more about Islam than you do. I challeng you to an intellectual duel. You want to take me up on it?
Sudan arrests two over U.S. aid official's killing
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan has arrested two suspects in connection with the killings of a U.S. aid official and his driver in the capital Khartoum six weeks ago, state media reported on Sunday.
The suspects opened fire when they were cornered on Saturday in a suburb of Omdurman, a city close to the Sudanese capital, the SUNA state news agency said. Security officers returned the fire.
At least one suspect, a number of security officers and a member of the public were wounded, said SUNA.
John Granville, a 33-year-old officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development, was killed by gunmen while returning home from New Year celebrations in Khartoum on January 1. His driver, Abdelrahman Abbas Rahama, 39, was also killed.
source :
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL1026661320080210
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