A lot of the "Taliban" violence, isn't caused by the Taliban. What is happening is the normal reaction of rural Afghans to new economic opportunities. Since September 11, 2001, the Afghan economy has been booming, with average annual growth of close to ten percent. This is happening to the poorest country in Asia, where about half the population is considered living below the poverty line, and there is 40 percent unemployment. In response to this, certain tribal traditions (especially among the Pushtun tribes in the south) developed over the centuries. The most popular of these traditions is "grab whatever you can, at any opportunity." Thus "loot" (goodies stolen from someone not belonging to your tribe) is a big deal, and a good thing (for the looter, of course.) The Taliban believe in traditional values, especially those that encourage and justify obtaining loot. So a lot of the gunmen thought to be working for the Taliban, aren't. They are just guys with guns taking advantage of the situation. Many of those civilians killed or kidnapped by the Taliban, were actually done by bandits (some of whom will claim to be Taliban, as that makes them more intimidating.)
With the increased number of troops available, U.S. and NATO commanders are planning many more operations against known targets that, until now, they simply could not hit because they did not have enough troops. Over the last few years, intelligence capabilities have found far more targets than there were troops available to go after. This was one reason for the call, over the last two years, for more armed UAVs. These could be used to attack many targets. But often you wanted troops there as well, to take prisoners and collect documents and other evidence. The enemy is elusive, and basically operating like bandits. The Taliban and drug gangs either buy off or, more usually, terrorize any civilians or police they encounter. But they can't do that with the foreign troops or, usually, the Afghan soldiers. But there are only about 100,000 soldiers (foreign and Afghan) in southern Afghanistan, where all the action is. There they face 10,000-15,000 Taliban, drug gang fighters and bandits. You can't put troops in every one of the thousands of villages or town neighborhoods where some thugs might show up and threaten pain or death to any who do not cooperate. But with more troops, more "clear and hold" operations can be conducted, to clear the gangs and Taliban out of large areas, establish a police and security (local armed volunteers) force to keep the gangs from returning, and moving on. The gangs will resist this, but they are not guaranteed success in fighting against "clear and hold." Most Afghans just want to be left alone, and given decent odds, will fight to achieve that. More foreign troops can even those odds.
The intensity of the fighting is increasing, but Taliban casualties continue to 5-10 times those of the foreign and Afghan forces. The Taliban are still unable to defeat, or even hold their ground, when fighting foreign troops. The Afghan troops are also getting better, and usually win any pitched battles with the Taliban or drug gangs (and you often have to interrogate prisoners or search the bodies before you can identify who you just defeated.) The Taliban and drug gangs are avoiding contact with foreign troops, and shifting their efforts to the use of roadside bombs. But these are also dangerous to use, because the growing number of UAVs and intelligence units are locating the roadside bomb crews, and putting them out of action. As in Iraq, the bomb crews are paid for their work. But it's not too difficult to discover who is making more money in an area, and trace that back to bomb making (rather than drugs, or a relative in the West sending home money). The foreign intelligence troops are often as dangerous as the foreign infantry because of that.
Continued on Page 49
The Marine Corp applies lessons learnt in Iraq: female Marines can search the women without causing riots, are told things the Marines need to know... they know if you've been bad or good (or lying), so you better be good for goodness' sake!
#1
This should frighten the radicals half to death. Unlike most men, who have a narrow focus of information transmission and reception with each other, many women can pass volumes of information between themselves quickly.
It sounds improbable, but the moment a female Marine enters the room, Iraqi women scope her out from top to bottom, looking for things men would not be consciously aware of: carriage, countenance, status, deference, physique, prosperity, command, attractiveness, attitude, etc., etc., and all at once. Before she even speaks.
#2
When I used to work in the ER, some times the female nurses would forget I was there. If they were getting along with each other, when the ER was quiet, they would share just about everything in the lives with each other. Their husbands, if they knew about it, would have been truly appalled.
Marines Move Out on New Mission:
Thousands Deploy in Afghanistan's South in Crucial Test for Revised U.S. Strategy
CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan, July 2 -- Thousands of U.S. Marines descended upon the volatile Helmand River valley in helicopters and armored convoys early Thursday, mounting an operation that represents the first large-scale test of the U.S. military's new counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan.
The operation will involve about 4,000 troops from the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, which was dispatched to Afghanistan this year by President Obama to combat a growing Taliban insurgency in Helmand and other southern provinces. The Marines, along with an Army brigade that is scheduled to arrive later this summer, plan to push into pockets of the country where NATO forces have not had a presence. In many of those areas, the Taliban has evicted local police and government officials and taken power.
Once Marine units arrive in their designated towns and villages, they have been instructed to build and live in small outposts among the local population. The brigade's commander, Brig. Gen. Lawrence D. Nicholson, said his Marines will focus their efforts on protecting civilians from the Taliban and on restoring Afghan government services, instead of mounting a series of hunt-and-kill missions against the insurgents. "We're doing this very differently," Nicholson said to his senior officers a few hours before the mission began. "We're going to be with the people. We're not going to drive to work. We're going to walk to work."
Similar approaches have been tried in the eastern part of the country, but none has had the scope of the mission in Helmand, a vast province that is largely an arid moonscape save for a band of fertile land that lines the Helmand River. Poppies grown in that territory produce half the world's supply of opium and provide the Taliban with a valuable source of income.
The operation launched early Thursday represents a shift in strategy after years of thwarted U.S.-led efforts to destroy Taliban sanctuaries in Afghanistan and extend the authority of the Afghan government into the nation's southern and eastern regions. More than seven years after the fall of the Taliban government, the radical Islamist militia remains a potent force across broad swaths of the country. The Obama administration has made turning the war around a top priority, and the Helmand operation, if it succeeds, is seen as a potentially critical first step.
Traveling though swirling dust clouds under the light of a half-moon, the first Marine units departed from this remote desert base shortly after midnight on dual-rotor CH-47 Chinook transport helicopters backed by AH-64 Apache gunships and NATO fighter jets. Additional forces were slated to pour into the valley during the pre-dawn hours on more helicopters and in heavy transport vehicles designed to withstand the makeshift but lethal bombs that Taliban fighters have planted along the roads.
It was not immediately clear whether the initial Marine units faced resistance as they converged on their destinations. Marine commanders said before the start of the operation that they expected only minimal Taliban opposition at the outset but that assaults on the forces likely would increase once they moved into towns and began patrols. Field commanders have been told to prepare for suicide attacks, ambushes and roadside bombings.
Officers here said the mission, which required months of planning, is the Marines' largest operation since the 2004 invasion of Fallujah, in Iraq. In the minutes after midnight, well-armed Marines trudged across the tarmac at this sprawling outpost to board the Chinooks, which lumbered aloft with a burst of searing dust. A few hours later, another contingent of Marines was scheduled to board a row of CH-53 Super Stallion helicopters packed onto a relatively small landing pad at a staging base in the desert south of here. As the choppers clattered through the night sky, dozens of armored vehicles rolled toward towns along the river valley.
The U.S. strategy here is predicated on the belief that a majority of people in Helmand do not favor the Taliban, which enforces a strict brand of Islam that includes an eye-for-an-eye justice and strict limits on personal behavior. Instead, U.S. officials believe, residents would rather have the Afghan government in control, but they have been cowed into supporting the Taliban because there was nobody to protect them.
The Brits had neither manpower nor weaponry enough to do the job, though they've done their best.
In areas south of the provincial capital, local leaders, and even members of the police force, have fled. An initial priority for the Marines will be to bring back Afghan government officials and reinvigorate the local police forces. Marine commanders also plan to help district governors hold shuras -- meetings of elders in the community -- in the next week.
"Our focus is not the Taliban," Nicholson told his officers. "Our focus must be on getting this government back up on its feet."
More meat in the article, which is half again as long. Go read the whole thing.
The Marines I have seen around the world have the cleanest bodies, the filthiest minds, the highest morale, and the lowest morals of any group of animals I have ever seen. Thank God for the United States Marine Corps!
[ADN Kronos] The elders of 260 Yemeni tribes have signed a document that criminalises the abduction and harming of foreigners in Yemen, the country's state media said on Wednesday. The elders - who come from the cities of Dhale, Mahara, Dhamar, Baidhaa, Lahj, Saada, Shabwa and Jawf - signed the document which also bans revenge, banditry and sheltering fugitives.
On Monday, hundreds of people gathered in the capital Sanaa to protest against the kidnapping of nine foreigners and the murder of three of them in north-western Yemen. The protest was organised by the country's tourism union. Gentlemen! We've got to protect our phony baloney jobs!
A German family of five and a British engineer were abducted as well as two German women and a South Korean woman during a picnic in the country's restive province of Saada on 12 June. Ahhh, to be picnicking in Yemen...
Two German women and the South Korean teacher were killed three days after the kidnapping.
But the fate of the German family and the British engineer is still unknown.
Yemen has developed a reputation as a haven for Islamist militants in recent years and there have been several attacks there against western targets and abductions of foreigners.
However, most foreigners are abducted by disgruntled tribesmen and most have been released unharmed.
The tribesmen kidnap foreigners as a means of bargaining with the government either to secure the release of jailed tribe members, for jobs or improved living conditions.
Yemeni authorities have accused Shia Zaidi rebels in Saada but the rebels have denied the charge.
However, an Al-Qaeda group reportedly operates in the region where the bodies of the foreigners was found.
The bodies were discovered one day after Hassan Hussein Alwan, said to be Al-Qaeda's finance chief in Yemen was arrested by authorities.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2009 00:00 ||
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Words, just empty words until the tribal elders take some action to stop thee abductions.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
07/02/2009 15:44 Comments ||
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[Kyodo: Korea] The U.N. World Food Program said Wednesday that a drying up of international food aid has given rise to a ""dramatic"" food shortage in North Korea and the WFP has been forced to scale back emergency operations trying to feed millions of hungry in the North. At a press conference in Beijing to call donor-community attention to what it called a severe situation in the reclusive North, WFP country representative Torben Due said only slightly more than 2 million of a planned 6.2 million people are now receiving food aid under its humanitarian food program.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2009 00:00 ||
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#3
Story here a few days ago said they were selling us food aid to china for cash.
The hell with them, if true, the "Starvation" is engineered for pity.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/02/2009 0:58 Comments ||
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#4
China never seems to get mentioned in these "the Norks are starving" stories. Let them feed their sock puppet.
#8
Its worse than that - Bambi will give the food to Kimmie - who will repackage it (as being provided from HIM) and give it to his Military and party favorites (or sell it to China) - that way he can divert even more funds to nuclear weapons.
To hell with the Peasants - they can eat tree bark and edible clay.
SEOUL, July 1 (Yonhap) — The long-range rocket North Korea launched in April could be converted into a ballistic missile capable of striking half of the continental U.S., two American physicists have concluded in a joint study.
North Korea launched on April 5 what it claims was a rocket designed to carry a satellite into orbit. The U.S. and its allies say nothing entered orbit, calling the "Unha-2" rocket a disguised ballistic missile capable of flying over 6,700km. South Korean and U.S. officials have refrained from elaborating on the capabilities of the rocket, while media reports said the rocket flew at least 3,000km before falling into the Pacific Ocean.
MIT professor Theodore Postol and David Wright, a physicist at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), said the rocket could fly even farther — over 10,000km — if converted into a missile. "The Unha launcher represents a significant advance over North Korea's previous launchers and would have the capability to reach the continental United States with a payload of one ton or more if North Korea modified it for use as a ballistic missile," they said.
"It could have a range of 10,000-10,500km, allowing it to reach Alaska, Hawaii, and roughly half of the lower 48 states," they said in an article posted this week on the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
Noting that a "first-generation plutonium warhead could have a mass of 1,000kg or more," Postol and Wright said the rocket could carry a 1-ton payload as far as 7,000-7,500km even if it completed only two of its three stages. "This would allow it to reach Alaska and parts of Hawaii, but not the lower 48 states," they said, writing on the assumption that the rocket was not designed to carry a lightweight satellite.
North Korea, which has conducted two known atomic tests since 2006 — including one on May 25 this year — is not believed to have obtained the capability to miniaturize nuclear warheads to mount on ballistic missiles.
But the scientists just told you that the missile can mount a 1 ton payload. That's not so 'miniature' ...
Even Libya got a copy of the Chinese warhead blueprints. AQ Khan gave it for free when they purchased centrifuges from him. Why would the authors think the North Koreans haven't gotten a copy of this miniaturized nuke design?
South Korean defense officials believe the North has enough weapons-grade plutonium to create at least six nuclear bombs, but they said each one would weigh far more than one ton.
Postol and Wright based their analysis partly on the video footage of the rocket launch North Korea released in April, and said computer modeling and past analysis also contributed to their study. "By measuring the distance the launcher moves as a function of time in these videos, we determined the thrust-to-weight ratio of the Unha vehicle at launch," they said. "Using estimates of the mass of the Unha launcher, we then estimated the thrust at liftoff generated by the engines."
Drawing similarities between the North Korean rocket and the components previously developed by China, Russia and Iran, the physicists concluded that "it's extremely unlikely that these technologies were indigenously produced by North Korea."
"It's likely that these critical rocket components were acquired from other countries, most notably Russia, although likely without the involvement of the Russian government," they said. "If these guesses are true, it could mean that North Korea's indigenous missile capability could be significantly constrained if Pyongyang is denied further access to such components."
Wright and Postol said North Korea would rely on "combining existing components in clever ways" or realize it has "a dead-end program" if it is blocked from importing technical supplies.
Why is it a dead-end? They continue to make progress. Their latest plutonium bomb had a higher yield than the previous one. Their last missile flew further than the previous one.
They also called on the U.S. to work with Russia to ascertain the extent of cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang that has likely helped North Korea build its stockpile of ballistic missiles. "It should be a high priority for the United States to assess it and work with Russia to determine what technical assistance and components North Korea may have received," they said.
'Work with' the Russians to discover just how extensive their canoodling with the Norks has been? Uh, sure, right ...
Wright and Postol also said evidence points to cooperation between Iran and North Korea, rebutting speculation that the last stage of the Unha-2 rocket was solid-fueled. "The third stage appears to be very similar, if not identical, to the upper stage of the Iranian Safir-2 launch vehicle, which placed a small satellite in orbit in February," they said.
Almost as if it were planned that way ...
"Therefore, the Unha-2 appears to use a third stage with liquid rather than solid fuel," they wrote.
South Korean and U.S. officials say the final stage of the Unha-2 rocket separated but failed to ignite, plunging into the Pacific Ocean along with the payload.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/02/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
It also "Potentialy" could be shot down long before it got anywhere near US soil.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/02/2009 1:00 Comments ||
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#2
Obviously, a new round of negotiations is in order.
#5
Wouldn't it be nice if our government told NK's little dictator that it's not too late for him to step back. If they shoot missle(s) towards us, he will not survive the day. Sigh. Wouldn't it be nice to have a president with some true grit and not afraid of a little gun boat diplomacy.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
07/02/2009 15:38 Comments ||
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#6
what we really need is an interception system that doesn't shoot it down but instead returns it to sender.
You've been watching Kung Fu movies again, Glenmore,Haven't you?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/02/2009 15:57 Comments ||
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SEOUL, July 2 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is expected to suffer from a food shortage of up to 840,000 tons this year as foreign countries withhold humanitarian aid, a government report said Thursday. The Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the state-run Korea Development Institute said North Korea's total grain production may reach around 4.29 million tons this year, which falls short of the minimum 5.13 million tons needed to feed its 20-plus million people.
The report based on estimates released by the United Nations World Food Program said the communist country may be able to produce 3.34 million tons of grain on its own, import 500,000 tons from abroad and receive aid amounting to 450,000 tons that could bring the total to 4.29 million tons.
"The calculation is based on an average North Korean consuming 1,600 calories per day, which is 75 percent of the 2,130 calories recommended for a healthy person by the World Health Organization," the assessment said.
It also said that if the total took into account the 330,000 tons of grain that Pyongyang declined to accept from the United States in March, the shortfall may top 1.17 million tons.
They don't want our grain? Perfect! Make sure we don't send them any more.
Other think tanks like the Korea Rural Economic Institute said the food shortage may reach 560,000 tons, with Pyongyang able to produce or import 4.86 million tons of grain out of 5.42 million tons it needs.
To overcome the expected shortfall, government experts said the only viable option is to let them starve for South Korea to give aid, although the testing of a second nuclear device in late May could hinder such a move. "The government's position on providing humanitarian aid remains unchanged from the past, but policymakers must consider public opinion, which is not favorable to the North at present," said a finance ministry official.
He said Seoul has set aside 426.4 billion won (US$338.6 million) in its budget this year to provide food assistance to North Korea, with a further 291.7 billion won worth of funds that can be used to offer fertilizer support.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/02/2009 00:00 ||
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SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea appears to be enriching uranium, potentially giving the state that has twice tested a plutonium-based nuclear device another path to making atomic weapons, South Korea's defense minister said on Tuesday.
And another path for sales to other, like-minded thug-states ...
"It is clear that they are moving forward with it," Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee told a parliamentary hearing, adding such a programme was far easier to hide than the North's current plutonium-based activities.
North Korea earlier this month responded to U.N. punishment for its most recent nuclear test in May by saying it would start enriching uranium for a light-water reactor. Experts said destitute North Korea lacks the technology and resources to build such a costly civilian reactor but may use the programme as a cover to enrich uranium for weapons.
North Korea, which has ample supplies of natural uranium, would be able to conduct an enrichment programme in underground or undisclosed facilities and away from the prying eyes of U.S. spy satellites.
Makes you wonder if they've been enriching all along. It's a pain to do but they have plenty of uranium and plenty of time. Perhaps they and Iran are working on this problem together.
The North's plutonium programme uses an aging reactor and is centered at its Soviet-era Yongbyon nuclear plant, which has been watched by U.S. aerial reconnaissance for years.
Proliferation experts said the North has purchased equipment needed for uranium enrichment, including centrifuges and high-strength aluminum tubes, but they doubt that Pyongyang has seriously pursued the project.
They bought centrifuges and tubes but they're not seriously pursuing it? How much more serious do they have to be to convince the experts? Shall we await the earth-shattering kaboom?
"It seems unlikely that North Korea will succeed in establishing a substantial enrichment capability ... in the near term," nuclear expert Hui Zhang wrote in an article this month in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, adding outside help from the likes of Pyongyang's ally Iran could speed up the process.
No kidding? By golly, it's like he reads Rantburg ...
A U.S. accusation that Pyongyang was clandestinely operating a uranium enrichment plan led to the breakdown of a 1994 disarmament deal. New, six-way nuclear talks began in 2003 but are now dormant after the North quit the process in April.
Which means we had suspicions, back in 2001, that the Norks were enriching uranium. Who thinks they gave it all up back then?
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/02/2009 00:00 ||
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That's nothing, France and Spain have already pulled their envoys from Honduras.
Iran risked diplomatic isolation from the European Union, as European officials discussed whether to withdraw the ambassadors of all 27 member nations in a dispute over the detention of the British Embassy's Iranian personnel. European diplomats said Wednesday that they had made no formal decision to order their envoys home, but that the measure was an option as the European Union -- Iran's biggest trading partner -- tried to work out how to defuse the dispute in a way that would shield other embassies in Tehran from similar action.
Withdrawing all 27 ambassadors would be a rare and unusually forceful display of European anger at Iran's crackdown on dissent after the June 12 presidential election, and several diplomats said the European Union would prefer to avoid such a move. Iran arrested nine employees of the British Embassy in Tehran over the weekend, but said it had released all but one of them by Wednesday.
The Iranian response to the potential European action was bellicose. A high-ranking Iranian military official demanded that the Europeans apologize for interference in Iran's affairs, which, he said, disqualified European countries from negotiating on Iran's nuclear program. The official, Maj. Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi, the armed forces chief of staff, was quoted by the semiofficial Fars news agency as saying that because of the European Union's "interference" in the postelection unrest, the bloc had "totally lost the competence and qualifications needed for holding any kind of talks with Iran." He added, "We believe that they don't have the right to speak of negotiations before apologizing for their obvious mistakes and showing their regret in practice," Fars said.
Iran appears to be caught between strategies: one that does not want to downgrade diplomatic relations with other nations for fear of international isolation, and another that is pushing the concept of foreign interference for domestic reasons. For the West, meanwhile, the Iranian reaction to a potential European diplomatic withdrawal added another layer of complexity to assessments of how to deal with Iran -- not only for Europe, but also for the United States, where the Obama administration had expressed hopes for a new dialogue with Iran before the election-related crackdown.
The Iranian authorities have sought to cast Britain in particular as an instigator of the unrest. The nine Iranian employees of the British Embassy who were arrested over the weekend were accused of fomenting unrest. Five were released by Monday night, and Press TV said that three more were released Wednesday, leaving one still in custody. That employee, Fars said Wednesday, "had a remarkable role during the recent unrest in managing it behind the scenes." As the dispute unfolded, the European Union said it would support Britain, but it has been unclear what form that backing would take. Britain has been pushing for a tough response, while Germany, Iran's biggest trading partner in the European Union, is being more cautious.
Some Europeans believe the Iranians can be persuaded to avert a confrontation by quickly releasing the remaining British Embassy staff member, diplomats said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the matter.
Carl Bildt, the foreign minister of Sweden, told reporters in Stockholm on Wednesday -- the day his country took over the presidency of the European Union -- that it was in the interests of the European Union and Iran to retain full diplomatic ties. But he did not exclude the withdrawal of ambassadors, saying that "from the diplomatic perspective, all options are on the table." However, he added that the bloc had "an interest in maintaining full diplomatic relations" with Tehran and that he thought "it would be in Iranian interests that we retain diplomatic courtesies in a situation like this."
NYPD publishes handbook for landlords, security personnel
"We understand that the threat of terrorism will remain a serious concern for the foreseeable future -- and we continue to do everything possible to prevent another attack and mitigate the harmful effects one might cause," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly touted a 100-page report "Engineering Security" as an ideal safety roadmap for property owners. "We have also provided in the publication and online the tools to calculate the risk to your building," Kelly told a group of owners gathered at One Police Plaza.
Police used the example of how a truck bomb filled with explosives can be loaded and driven to a target to illustrate the continuing terrorist threat. The report urged property owners to improve perimeter security, design buildings that can better withstand a blast, step up screening of visitors, design emergency evacuation plans and safeguard air systems in the event of a chemical attack.
These are not just lessons from 9-11, police said. The NYPD outlined more then 10 terrorist plots in past past years with the city in the cross-hairs of al Qaeda as well as homegrown groups. These included plans to attack the Citicorp Center and other landmarks, as well as plots on trains and transportation hubs. "Terrorist intention to attack New York city's people, building or critical infrastructures is unambiguous," said David Cohen, Deputy Commissioner of the NYPD's Intelligence Division.
Officials said the report was designed to help existing buildings as well as future ones. The NYPD has given its opinion on plans for ground zero and the building of the New Yankee Stadium and Citifield. Real Estate Groups and the city's building commissioner welcomed the report. "It will also act as an important tool for property owners to identify how to protect their buildings in the design phase," said Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri.
Lahore: July 1, 2009. (SLMP reports for PCP) Over six hundred Muslims attacked Christians in village Bahmani District Kasur on June 30, 2009. Angry Muslims mob, after accusing of blasphemy, destroyed Christians houses, looted valuables / jewelry and tortured Christian men and women ruthlessly.
Bahmani village is situated at some short to Ganda Singh border Kasur between India and Pakistan . More then hundred Christian families are living in village Bahmani among perhaps 600 Muslim families since long time. Most of the Christians do labour work in the fields of Muslim landlords while some of them are doing reasonable job or getting education.
According to the recent facts collected by SLMP team there was a trivial quarrel between a Sardar Masih, 38 aged years, on 29th June 2009. Sardar Masih was driving a tractor at about 7:30pm while Muhammad Riaz riding on the bike stopped his way. Sardar Masih requested him to give way on which Muhammad Riaz became angry and abused Sardar saying, How dared you to stop me you low caste. A scuffle took place between both of them which, later, became reason of a critical incident.
Muhammad Riaz contacted a local clergyman named as Qari Lateef who is known to be bone of contention many other blasphemy cases in Kasur. Qari Lateef urged Muhammad Riaz to plot a blasphemy accusation against Sardar Masih and other Christians. After an agreement, Qari Lateef made several announcements in the loud speakers of the mosque in the village and urged Muslims of the village and in surrounding villages to get together against Christians of village Bahmani Wala.
SLMP team during facts finding witnessed and stunned by the announcements as he announced that Christians of the village have committed blasphemy, they have been passed derogate remarks against Prophet Muhammad therefore they are liable to death. He called hundred of Muslims from surrounding villages as well. The angry mob of Muslims, shouting on Christians attacked their houses and destroyed everything. They set many houses of Christians on fire, looted their money and valuables, tortured Christian men and women of the village and fled away from the spot.
SLMP team members interviewed some Christians of the village who told Muslims attacked their houses in presence of local police but the policemen did nothing to secure Christians. On the other hand some Muslim influential have registered a criminal case wide FIR No. 460, offense under section 148/149, 337/379 A2, A1, L2, F1 of Pakistan penal court, with police station Sadar Kasur, against eight nominated whereas three unknown Christians of the village. The FIR got registered on 29th June 2009.
On 30th June when Muslims attacked Christians police were also there to arrest Christians under the above-mentioned case.
Mr. Sohail Johnson, Chief Coordinator of SLMP, condemned the false accusation against Christians of Bahmani Wala and ruthless attack on them in his speech at District Police Officers office. He met with District Police Officer and District Coordination Officer and asked him to take appropriate action against the real culprits. He pointed out Qari Lateef who has played a wicked role to persecute innocent Christians.
Mr. Sohail Johnson also visited Christians at Bahmani Wala village to console them on the shameful incident.
He, in his special message for media, said that this incident refreshed the memories of brutal attack on Christians of Shanti Nagar, Chiyan Wala and Sangla Hill. He condemned polices and other high authorities ignorance to protect Christians of Kasur. He appealed Christians in all over the world to pray for persecuted Church in Pakistan as the situation worsening day by day. SLMP team is working to collect the facts and to interview different involved in the case. We will provide updated report by tomorrow.
#1
This, and a few thousand other reasons (mostly gleaned from Rantburg, but not all) make me want to declare war against this death cult and ALL its members, including the current "president" of the United States. The only thing holding me back is the lack of nuclear weapons. Think I could "borrow" a few from Nork?
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/02/2009 22:53 Comments ||
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Islamist charities and the United States are competing for the allegiance of the 2 million people displaced by the fight against the Taliban in Swat and other parts of Pakistan and so far, the Islamists are in the lead. Although the United States is the largest contributor to a U.N. relief effort, the Pakistani authorities have refused to allow U.S. officials or planes to deliver the aid in the camps for displaced people. The Pakistanis do not want to be associated with their unpopular ally. Meanwhile, in the absence of effective aid from the government, hard-line Islamist charities are using the refugee crisis to push their anti-Western agenda and to sour public opinion against the war and the United States.
Last week, a crowd of men, the heads of households uprooted from Swat, gathered here in this village in northwestern Pakistan for handouts for their desperate families. But before they could even get a can of cooking oil, the aid director for a staunchly anti-Western Islamic charity took full advantage of having a captive audience, exhorting the men to jihad. "The Western organizations have spent millions and billions on family planning to destroy the Muslim family system," said the aid director, Mehmood ul-Hassan, who represented Al Khidmat, a powerful charity of the strongly anti-American political party Jamaat-e-Islami. The Western effort had failed, he said, but Pakistanis should show their strength by joining the fight against the infidels.
The authorities' insistence that the Americans remain nearly invisible reveals the strains that continue to underlie the U.S.-Pakistani relationship, even as cooperation improves in the fight against the Taliban, and public support for the war grows in Pakistan. Yet Islamist and jihadist groups openly work the camps. In contrast, although a substantial amount of U.S. aid is getting through, it is not branded as American, and Pakistani authorities have insisted that it be delivered in a "subtle" manner, said Lt. Gen. Nadeem Ahmad, the head of the Pakistani army's disaster-management group. The general said he had told U.S. officials that there would be an "extremely negative" reaction if Americans were seen to be distributing aid, particularly if it was delivered by U.S. military aircraft.
[Al Arabiya Latest] A United Nations commission appointed to investigate the assassination of Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto began work on Wednesday, a spokesman said, almost two years after the former prime minister was killed. Right about on schedule... Anyone see Carla del Ponte? Can't have an investigation start up without Carla ...
The panel, which has a six-month mandate, is being led by the Chilean ambassador to the U.N., Heraldo Munoz, and includes an Indonesian ex-attorney general and an Irish former police official.
" We want to know who was behind this, who had conspired it, who has financed it. And we think this was a big international conspiracy "
Interior minister
Bhutto, the first woman to become prime minister of a Muslim country, was killed on December 27, 2007 in a gun and suicide attack after addressing an election rally in Rawalpindi, a garrison city near the capital Islamabad.
"The six-month mandate of the Benazir Bhutto commission of inquiry has begun today. The commission is expected to visit Pakistan but the dates are not determined yet," Hiro Ueki, a U.N. spokesman in Pakistan, told AFP. Nah. Stay in Geneva. They got better restaurants.
The U.N. has said the panel will inquire into the facts and circumstances of the assassination, but have made clear it will be up to Pakistan to determine "the criminal responsibility of the perpetrators."
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik said his government thought the murder was a "big international conspiracy. We want to know who was behind this, who had conspired it, who has financed it. And we think this was a big international conspiracy," Malik said in an interview with the BBC. Damn right, Rehman. The Foreign Hand boys. That's my bet...
"Obviously, there might be some actors within Pakistan or within the region, but we want really to expose the whole conspiracy, because we think that this was a kind of a beginning of an attempt to Balkanize Pakistan," he said. Oooh. Wouldn't want that...
It remains unclear who was behind Bhutto's killing but immediately after her murder, Pakistan blamed Qaeda and then the Taliban, both groups denied responsibility. Binny, wuz it you?
Wuzzn't me, Blinky. Wuz it you?
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[ADN Kronos] By Syed Saleem Shahzad - As NATO and Pakistan have moved to cooperate in containing the Taliban's attacks on NATO supply lines in restive North West Frontier Province, the Taliban are switching their strategy to focus attacks on the southwest and Afghanistan.
Informed sources told AKI that the Taliban's bombing of a NATO container on Tuesday in Pakistan's southwest Balochistan province's Qalat district is the result of newly established militant networks.
The networks include several Pakistani jihadi groups based in the southern port city of Karachi, the Afghan Taliban and their allied Pakistani groups based in Balochistan's provincial capital of Quetta. "We have information that some Karachi-based groups had planned to sabotage NATO's supply lines right in the middle of Karachi as soon as the NATO supplies come out of the Karachi ports," said one source. "But due to the hostile attitude of Karachiites towards the Taliban and heavy vigilance they were able to carry out few such attacks and could not sustain these."
Karachi based militant groups currently only note the travel schedules of the NATO trucks and inform their Quetta counterparts. Attacks are then arranged on trucks bound for NATO's Kandahar Air Field base in southern Afghanistan which transit Balochistan, a senior security official told AKI. He spoke on condition of anonymity as his position does not allow him to speak to the press.
Al least 20 percent of NATO supplies bound for Kandahar air base pass through Balochistan. All NATO supplies arrive at Karachi's port before making the overland journey to Afghanistan. Eighty percent of supplies for NATO troops are destined for the main US Bagram air base outside Kabul. From there, supplies are distributed to several NATO bases in different Afghan provinces.
The Taliban have long worked to establish a powerful network in the Pakistani tribal areas in the northwest as part of their broader scheme to sever NATO's supply lines. Supplies for Bagram pass through the area around the town of Torkham on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Taliban attacks have jumped since December but NATO and Pakistani security agencies undertook several military operations against militants in Pakistan's Khyber and Orakzai areas close to the Afghan border. These operations has seriously impaired the militants' ability to launch attacks in recent months, prompting them to regroup and begin targeting NATO supply lines in southwestern Pakistan instead.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] It was for one of the biggest energy auctions in history that well-heeled executives braved the dust and danger of Baghdad this week to jet in and deliver bids for lucrative long-term oilfield contracts.
For months Iraq had hyped Tuesday's auction as a triumph in transparency and a bonanza for global firms, fending off critics at home by promising the multibillion-dollar service deals would mark a turning point for the struggling oil sector.
But by the end of the day, the carefully engineered auction had dissolved into chaos, with firms shaking their heads at exacting contract terms and wondering aloud how Iraq's cabinet would choose winners for deals that went unawarded.
In a cavernous hotel ballroom in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, exasperated executives crowded around a top auction official after a long day of bidding revealed a huge gap between what Iraq was prepared to pay them and what they expected.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
So... Is someone too optimistic or just too greedy for the existing market?
#3
MMS lease auction system: there is a uniform nominal minimum bid, then any interested companies submit a secret bid for whatever amount they want, then the MMS checks the high bid against their own assessment of what the lease should cost. If the company bid is high enough, they get the lease, if not, the tract stays open. It kind of means that if you win the tract you paid too much.
#5
Other ways to make the determination:
1) Who's going to pay the most cash up front for the rights to explore (very useful when not much is known about how much is to be found and produced.)
2) Who's going to pay the most cash per barrel (as opposed to percentage) - useful when budgeting in a volitile oil price marketplace.
3) Who's going to hire the most natives, either in the oil projects or other committments - politically very useful.
4) Who's going to pay the biggest bribes - historically the most important but tougher these days (now done by paying 'fines' for imaginary infractions, especially 'green' infractions.)
#6
The thing is that the other option don't incentivise to get the oil out in the most profitable way, or provide ways to bribe state officials to undervalue assets.
Bethlehem - Maan - Two of the 21 Free Gaza ship crew members were released without charges Wednesday, both Palestinian citizens of Israel, following interrogation by intelligence officers.
Nineteen other crew members, including a former US congresswoman and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, remain in prison cells at Israels Ashdod jail facility awaiting deportation. Enjoy it, Cynthia. It's for...THE PEOPLE!
The group was overwhelmed by eight Israeli naval warships as they steered a small ferry carrying reporters and humanitarian supplies toward the Gaza Strip on Tuesday. According to the capturing officers the ship was in violation of the Israeli blockade of the area, which was a closed military area as a consequence.
Free Gaza members on the Spirit of Humanity were threatened with live fire on two occasions, they said, and have pledged to continue their efforts to secure the safe release of the 19 remaining imprisoned crew members, and to continue efforts to break the Israeli siege on the coastal strip.
The two members released from prison Wednesday were Lubna Masarwa and Huwaida Arraf, both organisers of the Free Gaza Movement.
In an interview with the Israeli news agency Ynet, Arraf, who is also a citizen of Israel, said that authorities "put us in a warehouse, where we slept on a cockroach-infested cement floor, as armed soldiers were monitoring us. Probably felt right at home...
"They didn't say a word to us. They confiscated all our personal belongings and phones, and they didn't let us contact anyone. A day later they left us at the Ashdod central bus station without any money or belongings," Ynet quoted her as saying. "What they did to us is unforgivable, but we're not the story here," she added. Oh sure you are...
"The fact they threatened us with violence because we wanted to transfer medical supplies and drawing equipment for children is simply absurd."
#5
"Nineteen other crew members, including a former US congresswoman and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, remain in prison cells at Israel's Ashdod jail facility awaiting deportation."
Can't we make them keep her?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/02/2009 19:53 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Maybe they can "lose" McKinney's passport - both her US one and her fake "Pakistani" one.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/02/2009 22:56 Comments ||
Top||
#2
What about EMP? Is the current shielding enough?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/02/2009 15:48 Comments ||
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#3
I suspect EMP shielding will a primary design consideration considering what might be thrown at a carrier. One reason stuff like this is so expensive.
#4
I think Redneck Jim means the EMP generated by the emag catapult. Each catapult will have to generate 50-100MW over the 2 seconds it is launching an aircraft. That's a lot of amps ramping very quickly. And I'm sure the designers already factored in any EMP.
Posted by: ed ||
07/02/2009 22:12 Comments ||
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Three of Iran's most prominent opposition leaders flagrantly courted arrest yesterday by denouncing President Ahmadinejad's Government as illegitimate, one day after the regime said that it would tolerate no more challenges to the election result.
Mir Hossein Mousavi, the former Prime Minister who lost the election said that he was forming a political group to defend citizens' rights and votes, which suggested that he is preparing a campaign of resistance against Mr Ahmadinejad and his patron, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader. He still has powerful supporters including two former presidents, Mr Khatami and Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Ali Larijani, the parliamentary speaker. Ayatollah Mohammed Khatami, 65, a popular former President, accused the regime of mounting a "velvet revolution against the people and democracy" and called the security crackdown "poisonous". Mehdi Karroubi, 72, another defeated presidential candidate, said that "visible and invisible forces blocked any change in the executive power". He added: "I will continue the fight under any circumstances and using every means." The regime responded by shutting down his newspaper.
One Iranian analyst expressed astonishment at their audacity. "It looks like they're trying to become living martyrs," he said. "At the very least they will be put under house arrest. At worst they will be taken to jail and charged with threatening national security."
Forced from the streets by the security forces, Mr Mousavi's supporters are also preparing a campaign of civil disobedience. They are talking of strikes, boycotting goods advertised in the state-controlled media, moving money out of government-controlled banks and giving money directly to the needy instead of government-controlled charities.
That last would actually be felt by President Ahmadinejad and his supporters among the mullahs.
Analysts say that anger will grow and could erupt at football matches, prayer meetings or anywhere that large numbers gather. They say that opposition supporters will go underground and stage lightning demonstrations. They also expect some elements to start launching violent attacks on government targets.
In a possible sign of the regime's anxiety Mr Ahmadinejad abruptly cancelled a visit to Libya for an African Union summit yesterday.
That last bit may actually be meaningful information. After all, didn't Mr. Ahmadinejad run off to some meeting in Russia when things started getting interesting back home?
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran's Foreign Ministry said on Monday that one of three local British embassy staff still in detention had had a "remarkable role" in last month's post-election unrest in the Islamic Republic, according to a semi-official news agency.
Five of the detained Iranian staff at the British embassy in Tehran were freed while four were still being held for questioning, according to British officials. Wednesday's Fars news agency report suggested that one more person had also been freed.
" Among the three detained British embassy staff there was one who ... had a remarkable role during the recent unrest in managing it behind the scenes "
Fars news agency
"Among the three detained British embassy staff there was one who ... had a remarkable role during the recent unrest in managing it behind the scenes," Fars said, without giving a source.
It said another embassy employee had been a "main element behind the riots" but that she had been freed because she enjoyed diplomatic immunity.
The same news agency first revealed the detentions of what it said was eight British embassy staff on Sunday, saying they were accused of stirring unrest after Iran's disputed June 12 election, which moderate opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad say was rigged in his favor.
Iran has accused Western powers, but especially Britain, of inciting street protests and violence and the two countries have exchanged tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions. Britain has rejected the accusations.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
I wonder if anybody revealed to the Mullahs the theory that Brits are descendants of the ten lost tribes?
Also on Wednesday, President Ahmadinejad's office announced his trip to an African Union summit in Libya has been cancelled without giving any reason. "The president's visit to the summit that was supposed to start on Wednesday has been cancelled," said a presidential office spokesman.
Ahmadinejad was scheduled to join the summit of African leaders, which is set to get underway in Libya, to investigate Agricultural investment in Africa.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2009 00:00 ||
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Defeated Iranian candidate Mehdi Karroubi refused to recognize the Ahmadinejad's re-election after an electoral watchdog confirmed the results despite allegations of fraud, a statement on his Etemad Melli party website said on Wednesday. The statement prompted authorities to halt the publication of the party newspaper.
"Last night, after Karroubi's statement was released, representatives of the Tehran prosecutor and the culture ministry prevented the publication of Etemad Melli newspaper," the party said on its website. "They wanted the statement censored and not published -- so the newspaper will not be published today."
The newspaper is one of the few reformist publications to have survived a crackdown under Ahmadinejad's rule.
However, it chief editor Mohammad Ghoochani is among scores of reformist leaders and journalists detained in a crackdown by the authorities on opposition activists and protesters in the wake of the disputed election.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2009 00:00 ||
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[ADN Kronos] Iran's Basij militia has called for an investigation into the role of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi in the violent street protests that followed last month's presidential election. The move came as a grenade attack was foiled against a religious shrine in the capital Tehran on Wednesday.
The semiofficial Fars news agency said the militia has sent Iran's chief prosecutor a letter accusing Mousavi of taking part in nine offences against the state, including "disturbing the nation's security."
That charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years' imprisonment.
The militia said that Mousavi was attempting to undermine state security and reports have been circulating that he could soon face a judge to respond to nine criminal offences against the state.
At least 20 people were killed and more than 1,000 were arrested in the protests that followed Ahmadinejad's re-election, which Mousavi supporters say was rigged.
"Police arrested 1,032 people in the recent riots. Many have been released and the rest are being prosecuted in Tehran's public and revolutionary courts," Iranian police chief Ahmadi Moghaddam was quoted as saying by Fars on Wednesday.
The Basiji are known as the street enforcers of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Mousavi is continuing to insist that he won the presidential election. He did not immediately respond to Wednesday's allegations.
Staff at the Imam Zadeh Saleh mausoleum found a grenade that had been left in a garbage can in the women's bathroom.
The grenade's safety pin had been removed and a piece of tape had been put in its place, said the chief of the Tehran section of the Charity Organisation, Yadollah Shirmardi, quoted by semi-official news agency Fars on Wednesday.
Shirmardi said the explosive device was set to explode ahead of evening prayers when the area is crowded.
The mausoleum - a popular tourist destination - is located near Tajrish square, one of the busiest parts of Tehran.
Imam Zadeh Saleh is the son of the seventh Shia Saint Musa al-Kazim, and the brother of Ali ar-Rida, the seventh descendant of Islam's Prophet Mohammed.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
I have no more use for Mousavi than for Dinner Jacket. Like Hamas and Hezbollah. I do have sympathy for the people for whom these are the only choices, but for the true supporters of any of the above - let the Red on Red begin.
[Iran Press TV Latest] A senior member of the Jundullah terrorist group says that the group has been trained and financed by "the US and Zionists".
Abdolhamid Rigi, the brother of Jundullah leader Abdolmalek Rigi made the remarks in a court session held in the southeastern city of Zahedan on Wednesday.
Abdolhamid Rigi was among the thirteen members of the Jundullah who were accused of terrorist activities, Fars news agency reported.
Pakistani security forces arrested Abdolhamid last year and extradited him to Iran.
The defendants told the court that foreign spy agencies support Jundullah.
Citing the defendant's confessions, the court's judge said that after the extradition of Abdolhamid, foreign intelligence agencies had incited Jundullah members to step up their terrorist attacks in Iran including hostage takings to put pressure on Iran to release Abdolhamid.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2009 00:00 ||
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[Beirut Daily Star: Region] Iran's embattled opposition leader urged his supporters Wednesday to keep pressing for their rights, and he joined a reformist ex-president to denounce what both men called the regime's "coup" against those contesting the outcome of last month's presidential election.
Mir Hossein Mousavi said Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government would be illegitimate, and demanded the release of all political prisoners and the institution of electoral reforms and press freedoms, while former President Mohammad Khatami lashed out at what he termed "a poisonous security situation" in the wake of violent street protests.
In separate but equally stinging statements posted on their Web sites, Khatami accused Iran's leadership of a "velvet coup against the people and democracy," and Mousavi said the government's crackdown on demonstrators was "tantamount to a coup."
"Given what has been done and declared unilaterally, we must say that a velvet revolution has taken place against the people and democratic roots of the system," Khatami said, alluding to the government's declaration of incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the winner of the June 12 election.
"People's protests were suppressed, those who were required to protect people's rights humiliated the people yet it [the government] speaks of national reconciliation and peace," Khatami said.
The two men's latest displays of defiance came as Iran's Basij militia accused Mousavi of undermining national security and asked a prosecutor to investigate his role in violent protests, and the European Union considered a pullout of all 27 of its ambassadors in protest.
Mousavi said he was troubled by "the bitter, widespread distrust of the people toward the declared election results and the government that caused it."
"It's not yet too late," said Mousavi, who has slipped from public view in recent days. "It's our historic responsibility to continue our complaint and make efforts not to give up the rights of the people." Mousavi also condemned alleged attacks by security forces on college dormitories where "blood was spilled and the youth were beaten," and he called for a return to a more "honest" political environment in the Islamic Republic.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
SEOUL, July 1 (Yonhap) — The long-range rocket North Korea launched in April could be converted into a ballistic missile capable of striking half of the continental U.S., two American physicists have concluded in a joint study.
Lahore: July 1, 2009. (SLMP reports for PCP) Over six hundred Muslims attacked Christians in village Bahmani District Kasur on June 30, 2009. Angry Muslims mob, after accusing of blasphemy, destroyed Christians houses, looted valuables / jewelry and tortured Christian men and women ruthlessly. 
Islamist charities and the United States are competing for the allegiance of the 2 million people displaced by the fight against the Taliban in Swat and other parts of Pakistan and so far, the Islamists are in the lead. Although the United States is the largest contributor to a U.N. relief effort, the Pakistani authorities have refused to allow U.S. officials or planes to deliver the aid in the camps for displaced people. The Pakistanis do not want to be associated with their unpopular ally. Meanwhile, in the absence of effective aid from the government, hard-line Islamist charities are using the refugee crisis to push their anti-Western agenda and to sour public opinion against the war and the United States. 
[Al Arabiya Latest] A United Nations commission appointed to investigate the assassination of Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto began work on Wednesday, a spokesman said, almost two years after the former prime minister was killed. 
Bethlehem - Maan - Two of the 21 Free Gaza ship crew members were released without charges Wednesday, both Palestinian citizens of Israel, following interrogation by intelligence officers. 
Defeated Iranian candidate Mehdi Karroubi refused to recognize the Ahmadinejad's re-election after an electoral watchdog confirmed the results despite allegations of fraud, a statement on his Etemad Melli party website said on Wednesday. The statement prompted authorities to halt the publication of the party newspaper.
[Beirut Daily Star: Region] Iran's embattled opposition leader urged his supporters Wednesday to keep pressing for their rights, and he joined a reformist ex-president to denounce what both men called the regime's "coup" against those contesting the outcome of last month's presidential election.
