KABUL -The US-led coalition in Afghanistan said on Wednesday it had used precision fire from aircraft cannon and not bombs during an anti-insurgent operation this week that Afghan officials said killed at least 16 civilians. The troops also had the right to return fire during the raid, in which militants occupied the homes of locals, coalition spokesman Tom Collins told reporters in the capital Kabul.
Villagers from southern Kandahars Panjwayi district said Monday their homes had been bombed during the operation that started late Sunday, which they said killed more than the 16 civilians admitted to by Afghan officials.
Collins said coalition troops had come under attack from militants and had retaliated. We had the right to open fire... the enemy chose to occupy those houses, he said. We did not bomb them, we used precision fire. He said he was referring to 30mm shells fired by 4,000-round-a-minute gatling guns mounted on US A-10 Thunderbolt aircraft.
President Hamid Karzai summoned on Wednesday the commander of the 20,000-strong coalition, Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry, to demand an explanation of the civilian deaths. The US military has also promised a full investigation.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/24/2006 10:58 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
How the F*CK can you tell civilian from Taliwacker? They don't wear uniforms or ID cards, they use civilians as human shields and their houses and mosques firing positions ?!?
#2
The headline yesterday in the local fishwrap was 17 Civilians Killed in Airstrike. Buried further down in the article was the meat: dozens of Taliban killed. A little misleading, perhaps? Sure, but it supports the narrative. Damn that Bushitler and his murderous ways!
/sneer
#5
Yep, kick their ass before they turn into teen agers and develop a bigger pair of balls then you'll ever have Ima'am.
I'd pay a thousand bucks for 5 min's alone w/this dude. I'd piss on his fucking throw rug and then rub his bitch-ass face in it. The money could go to the kid's medical bills.
Anger is simmering in Egypt over the crackdown against democracy activists. Thursday may see the boiling point hit.
CAIRO, EGYPT - Riot police are preparing for another confrontation on the smoggy streets of downtown Cairo on Thursday while opposition leaders are calling for mass demonstrations against President Hosni Mubarak.
Last week, when Mubarak's opponents last mobilized for a showdown with the helmeted security forces, bloody scenes unfolded near the famed Egyptian Museum where the treasures of King Tut are housed and other landmarks as the police beat dozens of protesters and arrested several hundred others.
Street fighting pitting police against protesters has become a regular feature of Cairo life such head-banging is a rite of passage for most university students but the current demonstrations are potentially more potent than any previous ones.
The next round in the escalating struggle over Mubarak's future is expected Thursday, when demonstrations are planned to mark the first anniversary of a crackdown on democracy activists.
As the heat begins to intensify, spreading like a moist blanket over much of Egypt, Mubarak faces increasing pressure to make good on last year's pledge to overhaul the country's autocratic electoral system. His critics say the 78-year-old president has become like the Pharaohs of old an all-powerful leader impossible to remove.
Instead of moving toward democracy, Mubarak has clamped down on opponents since the start of this year, jailing on fraud charges the lawyer who opposed Mubarak in last year's election and reprimanding a judge who accused the government of rigging elections.
Broad opposition coalition
The action against Judge Hisham Bastawisi, who suffered a major heart attack last week, has galvanized public anger and highlighted the weakness of the courts.
Thousands of judges have made public calls for independence from the government, but to no avail. It was the judges who called unfair and one-sided last year's elections that kept Mubarak and his party in power for another six years,
The dissident judges have joined a broad opposition coalition that includes religious and secular organizations seeking an end to the Mubarak era, which began when he came to power after the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat.
"The law is totally controlled by the government, and we want the judges to be independent, like they are everywhere else but Egypt," said George Isaac, coordinator of the secular "Kefaya" movement.
The group is calling for constitutional change to allow "everyone" to run for president in open elections, he said. Its members were beaten, and some female activists sexually abused, last May 25 when they urged a boycott of a referendum on a Mubarak proposal held that day.
The referendum, approved by voters, allowed a limited reform of presidential voting but left Mubarak in control.
"Condoleezza Rice said that Mubarak is a wise man," Isaac said. "Tell me how? The obstacles he is putting in our way are destroying the chance for democracy. He is no democrat."
Isaac said Egyptians are willing to ignore the Ministry of Police when it bans public protests. Authorities prohibited protests outside the judges' union hall last week, but the demonstrators came anyway.
Isaac said the small democratic openings of the last year, made under pressure from Washington, are closing.
The government in the last week has arrested more than 200 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the banned Islamic organization that has scored surprisingly well in parliamentary elections by running its activists as independents. Several senior figures also have been imprisoned.
In a White House statement, President Bush has criticized the crackdown on the fledgling democracy movement, and U.S. diplomats here have called in vain for the release of Ayman Nour. The defeated presidential candidate has been sentenced to five years on fraud charges viewed as politically motivated.
Egyptian officials have shrugged off criticism from Washington, insisting that the Americans stay out of Egypt's internal affairs. Egypt, a vital U.S. ally, receives more than $2 billion each year in aid.
Critics of U.S. policy believe the Bush administration should take an active role in promoting democracy in Egypt.
"Condoleezza Rice went to the region saying America would no longer stand by despots but would press for democratization across the board," said Eugene Rogan, director of the Middle East Center at Oxford University in England. "But that policy has been reversed. The more the Americans ignore it, the more the Egyptians crack down."
Changes called cosmetic
Angry opposition leaders say Mubarak made some cosmetic changes but has retreated from his commitment to open up the system. They believe the aging leader hopes to eventually hand over the presidency to his son Gamal Mubarak rather than allow fair, multiparty elections.
"They have no intention of reforming," Mohammed Habib, deputy leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, said of Mubarak and his advisers. "Instead they are confronting all segments of society the students, the judges and the Muslim Brotherhood. We see them attacking peaceful protesters. They have extended state-of-emergency laws."
"Mubarak made good promises, but everything evaporated."
The Brotherhood has deep roots in the Islamic fundamentalist movement, but it has adopted a more moderate position in the last year. Senior leaders and the group's platform call for the establishment of a democratic government that would respect the rights of all minorities rather than the establishment of an Islamic state.
Mubarak, by contrast, is laying the groundwork for the transfer of power to his son, Habib said, but his path will be "unacceptable" to a majority of Egyptians.
As Egypt's security forces complete their massive manhunt for suspects in three suicide bombings in the Sinai resort of Dahab last month, experts and residents say it's clear that this city and the sprawling desert and craggy mountains around North Sinai have become a new breeding ground for violent Islamic extremism in Egypt.
It is here in this vast and isolated region, traditionally known for smuggling, that extremists have planned high-profile attacks on nearby resorts, officials say.
But experts and residents agree that the reason behind growing Islamic extremism is not only Sinai's expanse and isolation. Also responsible are the desperate living conditions among many of North Sinai's residents, which have made young men angry enough to commit recent terrorist attacks, including three at tourist resorts and two against international peacekeepers since October 2004, killing about 120 people in all.
The government must address these conditions, says local businessman Safwat el-Gelbana, if it wants to solve its Islamic extremist problem. "Unless there is political vision, no solution can be found," he says. "The generals alone cannot solve the problem. This is one of the reasons people turn to religion."
On Monday, Egypt's Ministry of Interior released a statement, announcing that it had caught or killed most of the suspects in the Dahab attacks. Officials said that 22 were in police custody and seven were killed, including the man police say was the terrorist group's leader, Nasser Khamis el-Mellahi. Mr. Mellahi, alleged leader of Tawhid wa el-Jihad, died during clashes with security forces near El-Arish earlier this month.
The statement also said that Palestinians helped finance and train this group, the first time Egyptian authorities have so specifically linked Gaza militants to the Sinai bombings. El-Arish is just 30 miles from the Gaza border.
Interior Ministry officials say that most of the Dahab bombing suspects are Bedouins, formerly nomadic tribes with distinct tribal laws and traditions. Security forces have also suspected North Sinai's Bedouin and non-Bedouin residents in other Sinai attacks, including bombings at the Sinai resorts of Sharm el-Sheikh last summer, and Taba in 2004.
Residents and experts say that Egypt's new generation of Islamic militants is drawn mostly from 18- to 30-year-old men; some are educated, some not; many are unemployed. Living in and around El-Arish, North Sinai's capital, and the surrounding mountains, many become isolated from their families, shunning the community of "nonbelievers" or being disowned by them first.
With few prospects, these young men are particularly susceptible to the extremist ideas of radicals, like Al Qaeda's Osama bin Laden, calling for a global jihad or holy war against non-Muslims, says Abed el-Kader Mubarak, a journalist with the independent weekly el-Osboua. He is also a member of El-Arish's Bedouin community, and has discussed Islam with the city's young radicals.
"These young men are frustrated. They have no work, always sitting at home. They become an easy target for these ideas," says Mr. Mubarak.
Residents here say if the government doesn't change its strategy and deal with Egypt's growing Islamic extremist problem by improving the area's living conditions, increasing numbers of young men will continue to join extremist groups. "It will happen again," says businessman Mr. Gelbana. "We need development, jobs, freedom, hope."
The poor Mediterranean city of El-Arish and the surrounding North Sinai region have a history of mutual distrust between residents and the government. Israel occupied the Sinai Peninsula for 12 years until a peace treaty was signed with Egypt in 1979 and since then North Sinai's residents say the government has neglected and discriminated against them.
A constant complaint is over rampant unemployment - estimated as high as 30 percent. "No one is working," says Abou Salem, a Bedouin, living in a squalid camp of ramshackle huts made of sticks and plastic sheeting near El-Arish. "Even the ones graduating from school are not finding jobs. They are suffocating."
Six years ago, Abou Salem and his tribe descended from their mountain home to this scrappy strip of desert, wanting to be closer to water, food and, most importantly, work. They now wait for olive picking season to make just $2 a day.
Residents also fume that salty water pours from their taps, that they can't get senior jobs with Egypt's military or police, and because the whole area is considered a military zone, that they can't own land.
"When I see that there is no hope, that I can't find a job, for myself or my son, that there is no real development, not even water to drink, what can I do?" asks Khaled Arafat, a member of the People's Council for the North Sinai's Citizen Rights. "We are not second-class citizens. We are class-10 citizens," he says.
In response, government officials argue that North Sinai receives more development funding than any of Egypt's other governorates. Since Israel completely withdrew from Sinai in 1982, the Egyptian government spent more than $4.5 billion on developing Sinai's infrastructure, including water, electricity and roads, according to General Ahmed Salah el-Din, North Sinai's deputy governor.
"The Delta won't see in the next 100 years the spending on development North Sinai has seen in the last 24," says Mr. Din.
Residents and local leaders, however, also complain about the security situation, the arbitrary arrests and daily humiliations from police since the terrorist attacks. They say they can't walk freely in the streets without the fear of being detained.
"Police can do anything. They can take people from anywhere for any reason," says El-Arish businessman Emad Bullock.
"We know lots of people who have been picked up," says Bedouin Abou Salem. "The police take them two or three days. If they have files on them they keep them. If not, they let them go."
After the Sharm el-Sheikh bombings, Abou Salem says police detained him, leaving him handcuffed in prison for a week.
Security may be tight in North Sinai now, but everyone agrees that it's much better than after the 2004 Taba attacks when police arrested 3,000 people, many of them suspects' family members, and detained and tortured them to extract information.
When police couldn't find suspect Ossama Mohamed Abdel Ghani they arrested 11 members of his Bedouin tribe, including women, say family members. His brother, Ayman, was held with the other men for five months.
In the beginning he was tortured. "They hung us with our arms behind our back, using electrical shocks and questioned us," says Ayman, sitting with his mother in a small room with paint-chipped walls in a poor El-Arish neighborhood.
"They wanted information on my brother. I wasn't even a suspect," he says.
The more moderate security tactics of late have relieved locals, government officials and residents agree, making them more willing to help security forces apprehend terrorist suspects. Police were able to track down the alleged Tawhid wa el-Jihad leader Mellahi earlier this month with local help.
While less aggressive security is seen as a step in the right direction toward improving life in North Sinai, residents stress that much more is needed.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/24/2006 00:47 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Extremism in the defence of liberty is no vice!"
Saudi Arabia has assured the United States it no longer enforces the Arab League boycott of Israel, even though it attended a recent meeting in Damascus to discuss ways to tighten it, a top US trade official said in remarks released on Monday. "We have raised this issue directly with senior Saudi officials on several occasions, both in Riyadh and in Washington," Deputy US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said in written responses to questions raised by members of the Senate Finance Committee. "In all cases, we have received assurances that Saudi Arabia fully understands and remains committed to its WTO obligations, including the WTO obligation to treat all WTO members according to WTO rules," Schwab said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
My granma used to say "Yeah, and maybe I'm a Chinese god of laughter". After considering all the angless at the tender age of five, I scientifically concluded that can't, possibly, be the case. ;-)
#3
"In all cases, we have received assurances that Saudi Arabia fully understands and remains committed to its WTO obligations, including the WTO obligation to treat all WTO members according to WTO rules," Schwab said.
Assurances from the Saudies, assurances from the True Believers to infidels. What a crock. What kind of suckers does this trade chick take us for?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/24/2006 9:42 Comments ||
Top||
#4
AP that's hardly the first time an US official acted as patsy for Soddies.
#5
Oh yeah, I believe everything that comes out of their terrorism funding, human rights abusing, oil price gouging, Christian beheading, child raping, human trafficking, genital mutilating pieholes.
#1
The "Whirling Dervish" dance pattern actually serves to preferentially stimulate one side of the brain more than the other. Thus giving access to alternate thought modes. If they spun in the opposite direction, the results would be reversed.
Trial of Kadyr Guljamov, ex-Defense Minister and former Presidential Advisor, began on May 22 as Ferghana.Ru news agency duly reported. The bill of indictment includes eight points. Some charges pressed against Guljamov have to do with the military base of the counter-terrorism coalition in Khanabad. Others are connected with trials of former officers of the Defense Ministry, judged, convicted, and imprisoned in 2003-2005.
Guljamov was relieved of his duties to become Presidential Advisor in November 2005.
According to what information this news agency has compiled, Guljamov was undone by a cable from US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Forwarded to Guljamov several days after his resignation as the Defense Minister, the cable from his counterpart played a mean joke on Guljamov. The Presidential Advisor was sacked, criminal charges were pressed against him.
The message was just a courtesy, it did not contain anything beyond protocol phrases, much less anything incriminating. Rumsfeld thanked Guljamov for having been so cooperative in military-technical matters and praised the addressee for his contributions to the global war on terrorism and advancement of cooperation between the United States and Uzbekistan.
Despite the "current difficulties" in the relations between George W. Bush's Administration and the leadership of Uzbekistan which Rumsfeld was sure would pass, "mutually rewarding and promising contacts on personal level will be appreciated," Rumsfeld wrote.
Ironically, the cable never reached Guljamov himself. It ended in the hands of his successor Ruslan Mirzayev, former Secretary of the National Security Council who phoned the President right away. Forty minutes later, Rumsfeld's letter was in Islam Karimov's anteroom.
A few words are needed here on President Karimov's disposition towards contacts between his subjects and the US Administration. (It is needed for a better understanding of the chain of cause and effect that followed.) Shortly speaking, Karimov is prone to outbursts of rage whenever informed of any such contacts.
When the armed rebellion in Andijan was crushed and America was horrified by brutality of the government troops, Karimov became obsessed with the idea that the US Administration may orchestrate his physical extermination - at whatever cost.
If the US Administration really intends it or not is anybody's guess. Nobody will ever say anything definite on the subject, at least in public. One thing is clear - that Karimov is not exactly the best favored politician for the West. Which is far from saying that he is the least favored, that is.
It is common knowledge that the West remembers the zest with which the President of Uzbekistan once promoted American interests in his own country. How he had the Russian language and Russian equipment and machinery turned out in order to make American and European investors welcome.
It is only recently that Islam Karimov began castigating performance of US-made Caterpillars in gold mines and extolling BelAZ vehicles. It was the other way round 15 years ago.
The situation in Uzbekistan nowadays is polar to what it was only 3 or 4 years ago. America is number one enemy now, American democracy filth the amoral Yankees are forcing on the world.
Uzbek newspapers regularly feature articles with which the Uzbek authorities hope to brainwash the population into thinking that the United States is out to turn Uzbekistan into its own warehouse of mineral resources and make the local authorities Washington's puppets.
The situation being what it is, Rumsfeld's hints suggesting even a hypothetical possibility of contacts with the former Defense Minister could not help making Karimov wary.
Ever cunning and farseeing, Karimov has never hesitated to move against whoever he thinks may aspire for presidency even in theory. On this occasion, Karimov perceived in physicist Guljamov a rival he has somehow missed before.
Karimov chose to interpret appearance of a purely protocol cable to Guljamov as a confirmation of his friendship with the American authorities. Some observers point out that Rumsfeld would have never exposed any such contacts, close and clandestine, in an official letter. Unless the Americans did so deliberately, of course, just to make problems for the ex-Defense Minister.
Its only known address is a half-collapsed abandoned building, and its only telephone number doesn't work. But somehow a secretive lobby group, with reputed links to Russia's intelligence services, has emerged as a possible source of inspiration for President Vladimir Putin's state-of-the-union speech.
When Mr. Putin gave his annual televised address on May 10, military analyst Ivan Safranchuk immediately thought the President's words about national defence sounded different from the rest of the speech.
"That part seemed out of place," the Moscow director of the World Security Institute said a few hours after Mr. Putin's appearance. "Maybe there was a different speechwriter for that section." More observers started wondering who wrote Mr. Putin's remarks, after political gossip websites pointed out the uncanny similarity between the President's text and an essay published by a private organization based in St. Petersburg that calls itself the Public Association of Veterans of Special Services.
If this lobby group did have a role in crafting Mr. Putin's speech, analysts say, it would be a troubling sign because the group also lobbies against democracy and favours a return to rule by emperors.
"It looks very serious," Mr. Safranchuk said. "It means these views have deeply infiltrated the Kremlin."
Mr. Putin's speech made headlines with the assertion that Russia must rebuild its military to resist foreign pressure. The President cited the nationalist writer Ivan Ilyin, saying the job of soldier should be considered an honourable profession. Russia's conscript army should be transformed into a two-thirds professional organization, Mr. Putin added, which would allow a reduction in the mandatory military service to 12 months from 24.
All of these ideas -- along with many of the sentences, paragraphs and the same quotation from Mr. Ilyin -- are contained in an essay on military reform posted at http://www.specvet.spb.ru.
The website claims to represent veterans of Russia's special services from the northern city of St. Petersburg. (Mr. Putin would theoretically qualify for membership, as he was born in the city and served the KGB and its successor agency the FSB.) Google's cached database of Internet sites shows the St. Petersburg site existed at least since February, and some Internet references suggest it was published months earlier, but it's impossible to confirm exactly when the military-reform essay was posted.
The site contains no names or contact details for its owners, and its only external link is to the FSB website. But registry information provided by Relcom Business Network Ltd., the site's Moscow-based host, says it is managed by somebody named Nikolay Petrov. Mr. Petrov did not respond to e-mails and there was no answer at his telephone number last week.
The website's postal address, southeast of downtown St. Petersburg, is a jumble of crumbling red bricks and empty window frames.
Alexander Yermolayev, a former KGB major-general who serves as executive secretary for a group of special-services veterans in Moscow, said he has heard of the St. Petersburg organization and believes it is legitimate. But the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 splintered the KGB veterans into many sub-groups, Mr. Yermolayev said, and his group has lost contact with the former officers from St. Petersburg.
"Such bodies as the special services present great danger if they are used as political instruments," Mr. Yermolayev said. "But nobody thought or cared about that when they divided and broke the structure." A source familiar with Russia's special services said the St. Petersburg group probably consists of former and current members of the GRU, the military-intelligence unit established in 1918 by Vladimir Lenin. Unlike the KGB, the GRU was never disbanded after the fall of the Soviet Union.
The website argues that Russia should be ruled by one leader who isn't regularly replaced by elections. "Democracy is a trap, and democrats are demagogues," the site says. "For Russia, democracy is as foreign as cannibalism." Instead of democracy, the website proposes a blended model of czarist rule, Communist-era authoritarianism and votes with limited enfranchisement: "Like a democratic Soviet Union, headed by Czar Alexander III," the website says, referring to fierce nationalist emperor.
"There will be elections, but not democratic," the site continues. "Only the elite would be allowed to vote." Under the website's model, all ministers and governors would be appointed by the elected ruler, whose terms might last 20 to 40 years. Leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church would bless the leader and encourage support for the regime. "Thus the ruler will serve God, and people will serve the ruler," the site concludes.
These ideas aren't entirely outrageous in the country's current political climate, in which many Russians associate democracy with the chaos and lawlessness of the 1990s. Leonid Sedov, a senior analyst at the independent VTsIOM-A polling agency, said roughly 80 per cent of Russians dislike the idea of democracy. While only 3 per cent want a return of the pre-revolutionary czars, he said, about 16 per cent think Russia needs an authoritarian ruler such as Stalin.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/24/2006 01:18 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The Globe and Mail is arguably the worst MSM publication on the planet. Back in the 80's when I lived in TO I thought it was complete/unmitigated crap. Thank God for the Internet.
#2
I tend to look at Putin from the point of view of somebody who is utterly pragmatic when it comes to restoring his country to power. He is constantly looking for an "angle", and continually disappointed because there are no easy solutions.
His biggest flaw is that all his ideas come from his inner circle of FSB buddies, who are no more creative or imaginative than long time mid-level bureaucrats anywhere.
The Czars had a solution to that problem: import German bureaucrats. They were still uncreative, but they were at least familiar with a better way of doing business and would help "upgrade" Russia's bureaucracy to do things a little better.
#3
The last time a bunch of German bureaucrats went to Russia, the Soviet army had a heck of a time dislodging them. I know what, import a bunch of Chinese laborers. It'll be different this time.
Posted by: ed ||
05/24/2006 9:31 Comments ||
Top||
#4
True, democracy is a trap, and democrats are demagogues. Why not try a representative republic with a true separation of powers? I'm just sayin'....
#5
Puty's best move would to be to simply take over the Russian mafia first. The rest of the process will then follow. Its so Byzantine that it is so Russian.
#9
'billy, I've heard Boortz say something similar in that only the educated in our country should be aloud to vote as well. Not educated in the higher degree sense but those who know what's going on i.e. - those who can name the speaker of the house, where Iraq is on a map, etc.
Three circles of bare-footed men, one ring inside another, sway to the cadence of chant.
The men stomp in time as they sway, and grunt from the abdomen and throat, filling the room with a primal sound. One voice rises over the rest, singing variants of the names of Allah.
The men stop, face right and walk in a counterclockwise rotation, slowly at first, then fast. As they gain speed they begin to hop on their outside feet and draw closer. The three circles merge into a spinning ball.
The ball stops. It opens back up. The stomping resumes, softly at first, then louder. Many of the men are entranced. The air around them hums. The wooden floor shakes. The men turn left and accelerate the other way.
This is a zikr, the mystical Sufi dance of the Caucasus, and a ritual near the center of Chechen Islam.
Here inside Chechnya, where Russia has spent six years trying to contain the second Chechen war since the Soviet Union collapsed, traditional forms of religious expression are returning to public life. It is a revival laden with meaning, and with implications that are unclear.
The Kremlin has worried for generations over Islam's influence in the Caucasus, long attacking local Sufi traditions and, in the 1990s, attacking the roles of small numbers of foreign Wahhabists, proponents of an Arab interpretation of Islam often blamed for encouraging terror attacks.
But Chechnya's Sufi brotherhoods have never been vanquished - not by repression, bans or exile by either the czars or Stalin, and not by the Kremlin of late.
Now they are reclaiming a place in public life. What makes the resurgence so unusual is that Sufi practices have become an element of policy for pro- Russian Chechens. Zikr ceremonies are embraced by the kadyrovsky, the Kremlin-backed Chechen force that is assuming much of the administration of this shattered land.
Post-Soviet Russia tried to make zikr celebrations a symbol of Chechen aggression, portraying zikr as the dance and trance of the rebels, the ritual of the untamed. Now zikr is held by the men the Kremlin is counting on to keep Chechnya in check.
The occasion for ceremony on this day was the blessing of the foundation of a mosque that will be named for Akhmad Kadyrov, the Russian-backed Chechen president who was assassinated in 2004.
The mosque, whose foundation rests on the grounds of the former headquarters of the Communist Party's regional committee, is meant to replace older associations. Not only is it an implicit rebuke of state socialism, it is located beside the ruins of another mosque - much smaller - that was being constructed by the separatists in the 1990s.
Its scale and grandeur are intended as public statement. At a cost of $20 million, it will be a sprawling complex, with room for a religious school and a residence for the mufti, said Amradin Adilgeriyev, an adviser to Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's pro-Kremlin premier and son of the slain president.
The mosque will hold 10,000 worshippers, making it the largest in the republic. Its minarets will rise 54.5 meters, or 179 feet, into the air. It will speak not just of faith, but of power.
And so on this day the men dance. And dance. Tassels on their skullcaps bounce and swing. Sweat darkens their shirts. There are perhaps 90 men in all, mostly young. They look strong. But zikr is demanding. As some of them tire, they step aside. Others take their place.
Their stomps can be heard two city blocks away.
The entrance to the construction site is controlled by gunmen who make sure none of the separatists enter with a bomb.
Other young men boil brick-sized chunks of beef in cauldrons of garlic broth, stirring the meat with a wooden slab.
Zikr has several forms. This form traces its origins to Kunta-Haji Kishiyev, a shepherd who traveled the Middle East in the 19th century and returned to Chechnya and found converts to Sufism.
Initially, his followers pledged peace, but in time many joined the resistance to Russia, and their leader was exiled. They fought on, becoming a reservoir of Chechen traditionalism and rebellious spirit.
In 1991, when Chechnya declared independence from Russia, the Kunta- Haji brotherhoods, long underground, fought again. The author Sebastian Smith, who covered the Chechen wars and wrote "Allah's Mountains: Politics and War in the Russian Caucasus," noted how they became a source of rebel resolve.
At one zikr ceremony he observed, the men were dancing, he wrote, until, a Russian bomber screamed low overhead, buzzing the village. Smith watched their reaction: "No one even looks up. The whooping grows louder." The Sufis also resisted the influx of Wahhabists who came to fight Russia beside them, but whose version of Islam aligned more closely with the Taliban.
Kadyrov said in an interview that he hoped to help restore Chechen Sufi traditions, as part of a way of preserving Chechen culture. He has reopened the roads to Ertan, a village in the mountains, where Kunta-Haji Kishiyev's mother is buried.
Her grave is a shrine and a place for pilgrimages, which for years had not been made. This spring the roads to Ertan are crowded with walkers, who visit the grave to circle it and pray.
Still, efforts to incorporate Sufi brotherhoods into a government closely identified with the Kremlin contain contradictions.
Some see manipulation on Kadyrov's part, noting that Chechen self-identity has never been suppressed, even by some of the most repressive forces the world has ever known.
Whether Kadyrov can control the forces he taps into is also unknown. The zikrists dance on this day with state approval. But for whom?
"Kadyrov wants to show that he is a supporter of Chechen traditional Islam," said Aslan Doukaev, a native of Chechnya who is director of the North Caucasus service for Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty. "But Sufis always wanted Chechen independence, and that signal is being sent here, too."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/24/2006 01:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Sufism is seen as the "gentler, kinder" islam, and hyped as some kind of new age spirituality (while IIUC it is actually some kind of derivative of christian theology infused into islam)... I don't know... the national-arabist fln butchers who comitted monstrous crimes during the algerian independence war were from a sufi background, and so were their pirates and slave traders predecessors, as northern Africa was mostly sufi (it is undergoing a salafization right now), so that idea is now really supported by facts.
Check this (from Jihad Watch) for sufism's view on religious tolerance and Jihad(Tm). Bostom: Sufism Without Camouflage (Beyond Stephen Schwartz)
AMSTERDAM The saga surrounding Ayaan Hirsi Ali continues to make international headlines despite efforts by Dutch ambassadors to improve the image of the Netherlands.
The International Herald Tribune (IHT) and France's 'Le Figaro' carried front page stories about the case on Wednesday, more than a week after Hirsi Ali, a native of Somalia, announced she is leaving the Netherlands and moving to the US.
Under the headline 'Fight over lawmaker divides the Dutch' in the IHT, journalist Marlise Simons of the New York Times wrote, "Once friends, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Rita Verdonk are now caught in an ugly conflict triggered by the fight for their ideas." The IHT is owned by and supplied with articles by the New York Times.
The article said Hirsi Ali "has been a lightning rod in a country that is moving to the right as it struggles with how to deal with immigrants, most of them Muslim. After two high-profile assassinations, people are deeply divided over whether to be cautious or blunt toward Muslims who settle in the Netherlands but do not adapt to the country's social mores".
Simons also noted that half the Dutch people questioned in opinion poll agreed with Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk for casting doubt on whether Hirsi Ali's naturalisation as a Dutch citizen was valid.
The international media has largely accepted this as the reason Hirsi Ali announced last week that she is leaving the country to work for a neo-conservative think tank in America.
Dutch ambassadors have been writing letters to the media since then to highlight the fact that she had decided to leave the Netherlands before the naturalisation issue arose. This is putting another spin on the story.
Hirsi Ali told a press conference that there were three main reasons for moving to the US. In the first instance, she wants a bigger stage from which to present her views. Verdonk's letter about her naturalisation and a court order forcing her of her rented apartment in The Hague caused her to accelerate the move.
Neighbours worried about their own safety convinced a judge that the government should not have moved Hirsi Ali into the apartment without consulting them.
Her decision has been a publicity nightmare for the Netherlands as news reports and columnists suggest that Hirsi Ali is being denied freedom of speech in the Netherlands.
"I don't care for the image that tolerance and freedom of speech are being oppressed in the Netherlands. There is every reason to remove this incorrect impression," Balkenende said recently.
Following confirmation by Foreign Minister Ben Bot that the affair had damaged the countrys image, Balkenende ordered Dutch ambassadors around the world to mount a charm offensive, but it doesn't seem to be working.
Conservative French newspaper 'Le Figaro' focused on Wednesday on the 'Iron Lady' Rita Verdonk. While the Minister declined to talk to the paper about her role in the Hirsi Ali affair, she was certain of one thing about herself: she will survive the political storm.
The Wall Street Journal publicised a comment piece entitled 'Dutch Disease' and Germany's 'Die Welt' carried the headline: Dutch break Islamic critic's spirit'.
International politicians have also weighed in. Daniël Cohn-Bendit, leader of the Greens in the European Parliament, described the case as "scandalous". He said the image of Dutch tolerance had been totally changed and he asked Verdonk of kicking Hirsi Ali when she was down.
The Flemish Liberal Party (VLD) of Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt has even suggested giving Hirsi Ali a Belgian passport should she lose her Dutch one.
The gunman in the attack against the Council of State last Wednesday, Alparslan Arslan, is being described as a "cool-headed" brawler and troublemaker during his time at university by former classmates, who also claim he was protected by police.
Speaking to the Anka news agency yesterday, Marmara University graduate Can Atalay said that Arslan's name was linked to a number of incidents while he was a student at the same university. Underlining that there were frequent fights and high tension in the years from 1996 to 1999, Atalay said that Arslan was a leading figure among ultranationalist students. Saying that Arslan managed to escape punishment despite getting in trouble a number of times, Atalay claimed that the police helped Arslan get out of the university following fracas, although he was usually wielding a cleaver in his hands.
"It's clear what he's done since graduating from university. I believe that he was used by the police back then but the consequences have taken him to where he is today," said Atalay.
An attorney who studied at Marmara University at the same time as Arslan but preferred not to be identified told the news agency that Arslan used to come to school wearing overcoats like those worn by mafia members and chain smoked. The attorney said that some attorneys who signed a joint statement following the attack have been getting threats.
Claiming that he personally saw Arslan in a number of fights at the university, the attorney said that he used to wield hammers, sticks and cleavers in these fights. Stating that he was injured in one of these university conflicts, he added that he came across Arslan at the courthouse following their graduation and was assaulted by him again. "In fact I'm not surprised that he carried out the attack, these people were trained by certain circles and used by them during their university years as well as graduating even though they didn't attend their courses," said the attorney.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/24/2006 08:52 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I have no idea what these guys are talking about...
#4
Sounds like he was being groomed as a hard boy from his school days.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/24/2006 14:16 Comments ||
Top||
#5
he used to wield hammers, sticks and cleavers in these fights
Hummm,... "cleaver" = large meat chopping hand tool, right?
He sure took campus political debate very seriously, didn't he?
Experiment seems to have failed; government scrambles to find solutions
BERLIN With tensions rising between Muslim immigrants, their children and the native-born populations in Western Europe, the question of how to integrate foreigners has stirred passions across the continent.
Germany, like the Netherlands, France and Belgium, has a large Muslim population which, by in large, clings to the language and traditions of their home countries.
Unemployment is rampant both among immigrants and native-born Germans, and violence in schools with large immigrant student bodies has caused many teachers to be worried for their safety.
But how did Germany, whose tradition of accepting newcomers dates to World War II's aftermath and includes asylum seekers, religious refugees and economic immigrants, come to be in this situation?
Germany is home to millions of immigrants, 3 million of whom are Muslim. The majority were invited to the country as gastarbeiters, or guest workers, mainly from Turkey. Faced with a labor shortage in the 1950s, and 60s, then-West Germany encouraged foreigners to fill positions in factories and in construction.
The Germans recruited untrained and uneducated people, said Steffen Angenendt of the German Council on Foreign Relations. It didnt seem necessary to have academics come to Germany to work on an assembly line. They were trained on the job.
Given temporary visas, the Germans expected the workers to come, make money and then head home.
What the government didnt count on was the employers reluctance to let trained workers leave. So the men stayed and then brought their families along with their traditions, religion and culture.
The immigrants settled together and neighborhoods slowly began to reflect their new inhabitants. Signs were hung in Turkish, supermarkets sold Turkish products and stands selling kebabs a traditional meal in a sandwich similar to a gyro popped up in nearly every German city.
They came in the sexual revolution and they saw the communes men, women and children living together. It was a shock for these people, so of course, they put up borders, said Seyran Ates, a lawyer who works with immigrant women. It was automatic. They felt, they dont want us here, and on the other side, we dont want to be like them; they are immoral, Ates said.
A changing market
As German industry changed and the need for more qualified workers rose, the jobs filled by many of these laborers disappeared, leading to widespread unemployment.
The discussion on integration problems you have today is to a large extent a result of this immigration, said Angenendt, who was part of a committee which suggested future immigration policies for the government. These workers had no ability to adjust to the labor market.
Although there were efforts at the city and state level to assist in integration, little effort was made on a federal level -- an oversight that has ramifications even today. Language has proved to be one of the bigger challenges. Many immigrants and their families dont speak German, which makes it more difficult for them to find work.
Integration never really started, said well-known actor Mehmet Kurtulus, who came with his parents as a baby to Germany from a small town in Turkey. The Germans missed the point that workers are people with families.
This is especially obvious in the German school system, in which even second-generation children perform significantly worse than their native-born counterparts, according to a report by the international Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Even more notable is the finding that immigrant students of Turkish origin perform worse in Germany than in Switzerland, which also hosted a guest worker program in the 1950s and 60s. In addition, the schools which immigrants attend are overwhelmingly homogeneous, leaving little room for students to build relationships with native-born children, according to the report.
The failure of the education system has sharp ramifications for these students after graduation. Unemployment rates are significantly higher for immigrants and their children than among native born individuals.
More than speaking German
Today there are about 200,000 immigrants a year entering Germany, mostly family members of former Turkish immigrants.
Recently the government has taken steps to encourage integration. In January 2005 government introduced free language and orientation classes to help with integration. Yet experts are skeptical about its value.
Being integrated means more than speaking German, said Angenendt, who says that Germany needs to recruit more skilled workers to survive in the future. Theres no discussion of how to bring people into the labor market.
Perhaps provoking the already tense relationship between the government and its immigrants, the German parliament is now debating the implementation of citizenship tests. Germany has one of the lowest citizenship application rates in Western Europe and its laws to become a citizen are much stricter than in the United States, for example.
Yet Germany has no choice but to find a solution to better integrate immigrants and their families. Falling birthrates, along with steady immigration mean that in several decades the country will come to rely more and more on immigrant labor.
For all the problems, children of Turkish immigrants who have assimilated are somewhat hopeful for the future and believe that each generation will both become part of German society and contribute their own background to the melting pot.
The question of immigration and integration never really ends, said Kurtulus. My hope is that the third generation will be more integrated, more established, more relaxed.
#1
"The majority were invited to the country as gastarbeiters, or guest workers, mainly from Turkey."
Hmmm-interesting. Substitute a few nouns in the sentence and the Senate and House have a concept to chew on-but they won't. Kinda makes you wonder what quadrupled immigration and a guest worker program might produce here, although there is one big difference: one culture resists linguistic and cultural assimilation; another mainly resists linguistic assimilation. Still, a guest worker program should be VERY carefully considered by our govermental representatives. Unless of course they are running as the next representatives of the new Mexican state: America.
#7
Under the Commies she would be an abused [secular atheist?]woman, homemaker, and Socialist Mother of future People's Army soldiers with a university or post-university degree that "the Party" would not allow her to use for the benefit of herself or her family.
In March of 2005, President Bush nominated John Bolton to be the U.S. Ambassador to the the United Nations. The nomination ran into trouble in the U.S. Senate, and by August many began to wonder if Bolton would get enough Republican votes to confirm the nomination.
Rather than risk defeat, the president used his "recess appointment" authority to put Mr. Bolton in the job without a vote. Recess appointments have strict expiration dates and, in this case, Bolton's comes on January 3, 2007.
Is the president going to try and send Bolton through the official confirmation process again? Will he try to do it this summer....in case the Republican party loses Senate seats this fall? Has Bolton's track record changed any minds on Capitol Hill? A few pundits are already chiming in including Scott Paul.
And a sneak preview of what another Bolton confirmation hearing might look like is slated for this Thursday morning. Ambassador Bolton will appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at 9:30am ET to discuss United Nations reform efforts. This will be his first visit there since the initial confirmation hearings last year.
#5
Cheney/Bolton '08. The Treat Enemies like Enemies Tour.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
05/24/2006 13:34 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Let's see...Thursday before a holiday weekend, great opportunity for donks to pontificate and preen so they'll be invited on the Sunday morning MSM shows....perfect storm?
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/24/2006 14:17 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Rice/Bolton would be better. Cheney is getting up there in years and would prolly be a beeter Sec State. (was gonna say SecDef but he already had that ticket punched.Don't get me started 'bout my opinions of THAT!)
#9
Dick has to retire.
He's not a well man.
If the Dems put up a VP (who after all is just a HEARTBEAT away from the preidency) who had 4 heart attacks and needed an ambulance and doctors on perpetual call ( A heartbeat away from his last heartbeat, after all) you guys would yell.
A well earned retirement .
#11
Sorry, but Bolton's a loose canon. his heart's in the right place, and he gets it, but that's not enough. He's a lightning rod, and that, I'm afraid is his true vocation.
Since he's been the UN Rep, he has built a sterling record of representing this country. Period. He's on message, shown spine, illuminated the UN for the farce it is, and tolerated the inhuman level of bullshit with aplomb. Seems to me he's more than proven himself, LOL.
WASHINGTON The FBI missed many opportunities to identify a suspected Chinese spy and her FBI lover, including a tip that she "was in bed with" the bureau's Los Angeles office, a Justice Department internal review said Wednesday.
Katrina Leung, a Chinese-American paid informant for the FBI, and her handler, former counterintelligence agent James J. Smith, were able to deceive the FBI about their romantic relationship for nearly 20 years, Justice Department inspector general Glenn A. Fine said. In all, the FBI paid Leung $1.7 million over 18 years, Fine said.
That's a little over 94K per year. Not bad for lying on your back.
What makes you think she only took the bottom postion?? LOL
FBI supervisors failed to act on two serious incidents just 10 months apart in the early 1990s that indicated Leung was passing classified information to China without FBI authorization, Fine said in the report's 23-page executive summary. The full report is classified, he said.
The FBI "relied on Smith to resolve concerns about Leung, and failed to follow up further to ensure that he had done so," Fine said. Smith told Fine's investigators that Leung got the information from him. No one at the FBI suspected they were lovers, even after a supervisor who went to surprise Smith at the airport after a trip to London also saw Leung there at the same time, Fine said.
"I was, er, tailing her. Yeah, that's the ticket!"
In mid-2000, a source told the FBI Leung was "in bed with" the bureau's Los Angeles office, the report said. Smith was informed about the tip, compromising any investigation, and an FBI official at its Washington headquarters said it was unclear that the comment was meant literally, Fine said.
I'd say that was a "yes"
The bureau waited until May 2001 to begin investigating whether Leung was a Chinese spy who had a source within the Los Angeles office. Fine faulted the senior bureau official in charge of the counterintelligence division for the delay.
"It is particularly puzzling that the assistant director did not suspect Smith because the assistant director was overseeing the Robert Hanssen espionage investigation at the time," he said. FBI agent Hanssen was caught spying for the Soviet Union and Russia for years. Even then, a preliminary report concluded that "an espionage relationship between an FBI employee and Leung is unlikely," Fine said. Finally, a special task force was created in 2002 after FBI Director Robert Mueller, on the job for only a few months, expressed concern about the pace and scope of the investigation.
Smith and Leung were arrested in 2003 and indicted on various charges, the most serious of which related to misuse of classified information. Smith pleaded guilty to lesser charges in 2004. A federal judge dismissed the case against Leung, rebuking prosecutors for misconduct. While the government's appeal of the dismissal was pending, Leung agreed in December to plead guilty to making a false statement to the FBI and filing a false tax return.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/24/2006 14:23 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
From the various articles I've read here, what's with FBI agents (male or female) and chinese wimmen? It's a fetish!
Since the war on terrorism began many new Arabic and Islamic terms including "Fatwa" and "Jihad" have been introduced to Western vernacular. To the displeasure of some Islamists other terms such as "homicide bomber" and "Islamofascism" have also been introduced.
An article titled "How the Right Played the Fascism Card Against Islam" on the Web site of the Council on American-Islamic Relations is highly critical of using the term "Islamofascism":
"Fascism is coming back into fashion, at least in the propaganda wars. For the right, it comes in the shape of a new word: 'Islamofascism'. That conflates (sic) all the elements into one image: suicide bombs, kidnappings, and the Qur'an; the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan; Iranian clerics and Hitler ... Usage has gathered momentum among commentators and academics who seek a verbal missile to debilitate those who disagree with them. They have adopted it as a sort of Judeo-Christian war cry."
Unlike CAIR, many Arab liberal and reformist writers, have supported such an analogy.A Saudi columnist, Muhammad bin 'Abd Al-Latif Aal Al-Sheikh, published a series of articles in the Saudi daily Al-Jazirah in July, attacking the ideology of the Al-Salafiyya movement (long associated with Saudi Wahhabi Islam). He said that the ideology of this movement was similar to, or even worse than, the Nazi ideology, and that it should be dealt accordingly.
Mr. Al-Sheikh cited the conference on "de-Nazification" held in Potsdam, Germany, shortly following Nazi Germany's surrender in 1945 to serve as precedence today. He explained it was credited with uprooting the culture of Nazism from Europe and that the conference made Nazism into something similar to a crime, not just in judicial and political terms, but also in terms of culture, ideology, and the media.
Just as the world uprooted Nazism at the Potsdam conference, Al-Sheikh explained that the West should follow suit with Islamism after the attacks of September 11, 2001: "I still believe that one of the primary missions of the international community today is to repeat its experience with Nazism and to deal with this dangerous barbarian culture [of Islamofascism] exactly as it dealt with the Nazi culture. If this does not happen, the near future is liable to bring many [events], the consequences of which will be far more severe for all of humanity than [the consequences] of World War II."
A columnist for the London Arabic daily Al-Hayat, Zuheir Abdullah, blamed what he termed "Arab fascism" and "Islamism" for leading to the current backwardness of the Middle East. In an August 2003 article he wrote, "since 1948, primitive Arab fascism," sometimes "allied with fundamentalist Islam," has produced only "empty slogans." Mr. Abdullah continued, "many simple-minded people and ignorant persons were unfortunately brainwashed and turned into the fuel of this extremism." He concluded by stating the Arab world's embrace of fascism and Islamism has led it to adding "almost nothing" to modern civilization.
In a liberal Arabic Web site, elaph.com, on December 13, an Iraqi reformist, Dr. Abd Al-Khaleq Hussein, explained that the Iranian and Syrian regimes are fascist in the true sense of the word, and that no stability, democracy, or economic prosperity is possible in the region as long as they exist.
Dr. Hussein said, "Some believe that describing the Iranian Islamic regime and the Baath Party's Syrian regime as fascist is offensive ... I call a spade a spade, in accordance with the scientific definition of the terms 'Fascism' and 'Nazism.' Italian Fascism, like German Nazism, was a racist movement that discriminated among human beings on the basis of their racial or national affiliation ... The common denominator defining an ideology or policy as Fascist or Nazi is discrimination among human beings ... Since both the Iranian and Syrian regimes discriminate among the various groups within their peoples on the basis of religion and ethnicity, they are no different from any other fascist or Nazi regime."
Dr. Hussein is hopeful that the West will treat "Islamofascism" in the Middle East as Nazism in Europe was treated following World War 2 and that it will lead to similar results: "We are optimistic about the future ... The first domino has already fallen, when the fascist Baath Party fell in Iraq.The rest of the dominoes will follow. Just as Nazism and Fascism fell in Europe, and the rest of the totalitarian, tyrannical regimes followed, it is inevitable that history will grind down the remaining fascist regimes [in the Middle East]."
I hope there are many more like them. Otherwise the alternative may be too terrible to imagine.
Posted by: DanNY ||
05/24/2006 14:19 Comments ||
Top||
#4
No mention of the ninja Motherly Communists again, which in Clinton-speak Fascists > De-Regulated pro-Competition Commies, Limited Totalitarians/Governmentists, etal. Hiding in the shadows, depending on the Right or Rightist Conservatism to solve their problems for them, andor take care of them, then to take over from the Right at opportune time. THE GWOT FOR THE FAILED LEFT(S) > also an INTER-SOCIALIST as well as INTRA-SOCIALIST GLOBAL IDEO WAR, i.e. RIGHTIST SOCIALIST vs LEFTIST-SOCIALIST, AND DEGREE OF LEFTIST-SOCIALIST OR PAN-SOCIALIST ABSOLUTISM/
TOTALITARIANISM! Also INTER-SECULAR vs INTRA-SECULAR - Radical Islam is both enemy, ally, andor "useful idiot" to the always PC Left.
KATHMANDU - A Nepali Maoist leader on Tuesday urged the constitution be thrown out, parliament dissolved and an interim government including the rebels formed before elections are held to map the nations future.
Now that the King has been neutered and the Army brought to heal under the parliament, the parliament's job is done. Time to get them out of the way so that the Maoists can take over and kill everyone.
We are going to have a new constitution. But how can you have that without abrogating the old one? asked Krishsna Bahadur Mahara two days after arriving in the Nepali capital to lead a three-member team in talks with a caretaker government.
The talks are to pave the way for a meeting between reclusive Maoist chief Prachanda and Prime Minister Girija Prasasd Koirala, appointed to head a multi-party government after violent protests forced King Gyanendra to give up power.
Mahara said a national political conference attended by all political parties including the rebels and the civil society should form an interim government to hold a planned election for a special assembly to decide the future political set up of the Himalayan nation and draft a new constitution. Reinstatement of parliament was not our demand, Mahara told Reuters in an interview, sitting in a plastic chair on the second floor balcony of a Kathmandu home.
The parliament should be dissolved permanently and the constituent assembly should be in place as soon as possible, said Mahara. We want this to happen in six months if possible.
The constituent assembly then will be intimidated and bullied into writing a constitution that favors the Maoists, and the country will be pushed into voting for it. One man, one vote, one time.
Mahara said the rebels were prepared to place their weapons under the supervision of the United Nations or any other credible international organisation only if the army did too. We are prepared to do that to ensure that the people dont have to vote out of fear, he said.
"We have ways of making sure they vote correctly," he added softly.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/24/2006 00:28 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Nepal rebels want reinstated parliament dissolved... and Playstation 3, and a PONY!
The Balochistan Home Minister Muhammad Shoaib Nowsherwani has denied the allegations that any Al-Qaeda or Taliban network exist in the province.
Talking to media persons here Tuesday, Provincial Interior Minister while commenting on the allegation of a neighboring country that Quetta is a stronghold of Taliban termed it baseless.
He said that if someone has any solid prove in this context then they should provide to Pakistan and assured that on the basis of these proofs strict action would be taken. Provincial Minister on the occasion asked not to accuse Pakistan without any proof.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/24/2006 00:20 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
The second roundtable on Kashmir convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Srinagar from Wednesday suffered another blow as the main opposition party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), also decided to stay away in protest against "deteriorating" security. Most separatist Kashmiri groups have already announced they boycott the conference.
Senior officials here said that the non-participation of some groups would not affect the outcome of the meet. The prime minister is expected to announce a mechanism through subgroups to address specific issues like security, economic development, human rights and cross-LoC travel and trade.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
Awami National Party (ANP) chief Asfandyar Wali Khan on Tuesday accused Pakistan of arming Taliban militants and stirring trouble in Afghanistan. "Insurgency is rampant only in areas of Afghanistan adjoining Pakistan," Asfandyar told an Afghan news agency. Afghan provinces away from Pakistan's borders are calm, Asfandyar added.
Y'know, we've noticed that. Thought it was strange at the time...
"Pakistani authorities and agencies are involved in the ongoing war and lawlessness in areas on both sides of the Durand Line."
No! Reeeeeally?
The ANP chief pondered where the Taliban were getting their weapons if not from Pakistan.
Air dropped from Swaziland? Mushed in from Yellowknife?
FedEx from "Bob's Guns and Ammo" in Houston?
He condemned the ongoing tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan and urged both the governments to resolve all disputes through negotiations. He asked the government of Pakistan to review its foreign policy, saying, "Pakhtuns in Pakistan and Afghanistan are suffering because of international politics."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
A 35-minute one-on-one meeting between the Indian and Pakistani defence secretaries on Tuesday morning set the tone for the two-day delegation level talks on the Siachen glacier amidst differences on the authentication of ground positions. Indian Defence Secretary Shekhar Dutt and his Pakistani counterpart Lt Gen (r) Tariq Waseem Ghazi led their delegations which held two rounds of talks. Ghazi later called on Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and National Security Advisor MK Narayanan and apprised them of Pakistan's proposals. Officials said the parleys were held in a cordial atmosphere.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
President Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday signed the notification of the appointment of Lt Gen (r) Ali Jan Orakzai as the NWFP governor, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told reporters on Tuesday. The prime minister said he had received the signed notification from the president. He said the new governor would take oath on Wednesday (today).
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
The Sunni Tehrik, a prominent Pakistani radical Islamist body whose leadership was twice eliminated through violence, has elected Engineer Sarwat Ejaz as its new chief. Locked in a constant squabble with other Sunni groups, the Sunni Tehrik reportedly draws support from among the business communities, including Bohras, Khatris and Memons, who migrated from Western India when Pakistan was created. Ejaz takes over six weeks after most of the Tehrik leaders were killed in an explosion at a congregation in Karachi's Nishtar Park April 11. The government has ordered an inquiry, which will be is still investigating the incident for the forseeable future and then some.
Rival Sunni Muslim organisations, belonging to the Wahabi school of Islam, are suspected to be behind the blast. Sunni Tehrik is the only radical organisation in an otherwise moderate Barelvi group. Both Barelvis and Wahabis, who belong to the Deoband school, have their theological headquarters in Bareilly and Deoband in India's Uttar Pradesh. The organisation's founders were killed in an explosion in 2001, causing tension in parts of Karachi.
Shahid Ghauri was elected as second-in-command to Ejaz, while Shakeel Qadri will replace the late Akram Qadri as the frontline leader, Daily Times newspaper reported. The announcement was made late Saturday night during the party's congregation, called the Shuhda conference to mark the Chehlum (completion of 40 days of mourning) of those who died at Nishtar Park. The April 11 incident was captured on large screens at camps organised at the congregation. Participants condemned the failure of the authorities to make headway in the investigations. They adopted a resolution saying that the party would launch a protest campaign next week that would continue till the authorities showed they were 'serious' about solving the mystery. "We will opt for a hard line stance if those responsible for the blast are not arrested," said the resolution.
In Iraq, as in all previous peacekeeping operations, order was not restored until the locals were doing most of the policing. Thus, as of the middle of May, Iraqi troops and police are involved with 80 percent of the 70 major operations (raids, cordon and search) that take place each day. Nineteen percent of these are conducted with just American or Coalition forces, and half of them involve both Iraqi and Coalition forces. The percentage of operations that are either partly, or wholly, Iraqi have been increasing each month over the past year. That causes other Iraqis to get involved. The telephone tip line is now a prime source of information on terrorist activity. Currently, 70 percent of the tips lead police to criminals or terrorists. Rest at link.
Posted by: ed ||
05/24/2006 09:18 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I wonder if they have ever gotten a hold on the tips going the other way. From Iraqi police/army to terrorists. In the beginning they had a lot of trouble with "plants" from the insurgency.
President Bush, facing political pressure for troop cutbacks, said Tuesday he would make a fresh assessment about Iraq's needs for U.S. military help now that a new government has taken office in Baghdad.
Bush also said Americans should not judge what's happening in Iraq solely on the basis of the unrelenting violence. "It is a difficult task to stop suicide bombers," Bush said at a news conference.
Bush said progress was being achieved on the military and political fronts - as Iraqis are trained to handle their own security force and a new unity government begins works.
Iraq's government will assess its security needs and its security forces and work with U.S. commanders, Bush said.
"We haven't gotten to the point yet where the new government is sitting down with our commanders to come up with a joint way forward," the president said. "However, having said that, this is a new chapter in our relationship. In other words, we're now able to take a new assessment about the needs necessary for the Iraqis."
One of Bush's top aides said the role of U.S. military in Iraq will change as the new government takes place.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/24/2006 00:50 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
President Bush, facing political pressure for troop cutbacks and election-year pressure is building to begin troop withdrawals.
Could conditions on the ground such as a newly formed government and increased Iraqi security levels facilitate a reduction in coalition troops? Nahhhhh cant be it has to be election-year political pressure.
#2
Per the Goldwater-Nichols Act, its the Theater Commander who determines what is needed based upon the mission statement that the Executive Authority [POTUS/SecDef] gives him. The TC figures out the particulars. Now the EA can fire'em or refuse resources, but in the end its the TC who defines what is needed. Now please, post here a link which identifies any request for more manpower or resources that the EA has denied the TC. We've had a handful of generals bitch about things, but none were the TC.
The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly backed legislation on Tuesday to impose broad restrictions on US aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, defying President George Bush in the midst of high-profile Middle East talks.
The House voted 361-37 for the bill that backers said was needed to keep any US funds from supporting Hamas, a militant group pledged to the destruction of Israel and deemed a terrorist organisation by Washington. The vote came during Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's first trip to Washington, where a topic was expected to be how to ease the Palestinians' humanitarian crisis while isolating the Hamas controlling the Palestinian government. The Bush administration contends this bill would tie its hands in that effort. The administration has cut off direct aid to the Hamas-led government, but the bill would put into law more sweeping bans.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Wow! The House Dems and Reps do something right! What next - dogs and cats living together?
#2
Just a first step. Second step: cut the aid to zero. Third step: Force Palestinains under threat of massive bombing to give back all money they got since 1948. That will teach them to dance in the streets after 9/11 and to threaten Europena nations after the cartoon affair.
#8
I don't comment on American politics, because I'm not an American, but in this case I will.
My mother used to tell me, things are not good or bad they are merely better or worse than the alternatives. American politics may appear bad, but consider the alternatives.
#10
Well, what a pleasant surprise. The House as a semblence of a backbone! Good. About time the President be told to stop giving away our money to terrorist scum.
JFM, come on up here to Alaska. We have plenty of glaciers for everyone. And did I mention rabbits? We have wabbits running around on our property.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/24/2006 9:52 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Be quick and sneek in before the amnesty deadline. French don't even need a visa.
Posted by: ed ||
05/24/2006 10:07 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Must've gotten in a shipment of those new strap-on plastic spines...
#14
It's an election year for the House, thus they are following the will of the people like good little lambs.
Maybe all seats of power should be 2 year terms.
Who wants to write that amendment ?
MANILA - Filipino Muslims are opposed to their governments attempts to win a seat on the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the Philippines largest Muslim rebel group said on Wednesday. This is simply an insult added to injury, said Khaled Musa, deputy head of the Moro Islamic Liberation Fronts committee on information, in a statement posted on the separatist groups Web site.
Musa said Manilas effort to get observer status in the OIC could be considered a direct affront to Muslims in the southern Philippines, where fighting between government troops and Muslim rebels has killed more than 120,000 people since the late 1960s.
"We don't want those infidels in our private club! They're icky! And they might learn our secret handshake."
But some Filipino diplomats have complained that the OIC was only listening to the complaints of Filipino Muslims, represented by the countrys oldest Islamic rebel group, the Moro National Liberation Front, arguing the government of the largely Roman Catholic country should also be heard.
The OIC, a group of 57 Muslims states, sent a five-member delegation to the Philippines last week to try to save a 1996 peace deal with Islamic rebels after intense fighting erupted in the south last year. Insurgencies by four Muslim groups and communist rebels have devastated communities and delayed development of the Philippines resource-rich south since the late 1960s.
On Wednesday, the OIC mission headed by Egyptian diplomat Sayed Kassem el-Masry released a joint statement with the Philippine government, saying the peace pact needed to be reviewed amid complaints Manila reneged on its commitments.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/24/2006 11:01 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Isn't Russia a part of the OIC, due to its muslim minorities?
#3
This 'resistance' is funneled down from HQ in Soddy Arabia. Can't have the maids hanging out with the ruling class. 'Twouldn't do, the Pinoy might start taking on airs.
A new line of activity has begun in the Passdaran Revolutionary Guards Corps that aims to organize those who have a similar political outlook and ideology. The purpose of this initiative, which is undertaken by the political bureau and particularly the Political Guidance office of the Passdaran is to coordinate and organize all other individuals at the senior levels of the Guards and provide them with ideological input.
Abdollah Davarzani the deputy at the Guards responsible for political guidance recently made this announcement and said that currently there were 3,735 passdars and more than 5,261 baseej mobilization individuals who have been organized as political guides. Reports indicate that this network will gradually shape the minds of all groups connected to the Passdaran Revolutionary Guards and the Baseej, including their families.
The details of this indoctrination program have not been revealed beyond this, but analysts believe that this is a response to the weakening convictions of the families of the passdars and baseejis regarding their trust of senior officials of the Islamic regime. Other observers attribute this new initiative to be the response and preparations for a possible military attack on the country following the crises that has engulfed regarding Irans nuclear programs.
It should be noted that a recent seminar titled Entegal Ababil which was held on the day commemorating the US attempt to rescue the American embassy hostages held in Iran, the leader of the Esteshhadiyun group (martyrs brigade) claimed that some 55,000 had signed up throughout the world using the internet as volunteers to perform suicide missions for the country.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/24/2006 01:57 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The Passdaran is modelled on the Russian communist party. In terms of development of their qausi-communist model they are probably around the stage Russia was in the early 1930s. The masses are wavering. Expect purges and show trials soon.
#2
Excellent news, the political commisars are being sent in to control the troops. Now, if the West is smart, we will start a whisper campaign against their best and brightest military officers, including the setting up of offshore bank accounts with real sums of money transfered into them. Then let the Iranian secret police "discover" the same, and we might just luck out with a purge of the Iranian military to match Stalin's of the Soviet Army.
I understand banning an opposition newspaper, but the state newspaper?
TEHERAN - Iran has suspended publication of its official state newspaper after it published a cartoon that sparked violent ethnic protests in the northwestern city of Tabriz, a senior judiciary official said on Tuesday.
The cartoonist, Mana Neyestani, and the editor-in-chief, Mehrdad Qasemfar, of the Iran newspaper were arrested over the lampoon that was deemed to insult Irans Azeri minority, Teherans chief Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi said. Some charges were brought against both of them and they were transferred to Evin prison, he told state television. He did not specify the charges.
In the VIP suite, to be released when things calm down.
He added the publishing manager of the newspaper, Gholamhossein Eslamifard, had been summoned to court.
Furious members of the Azeri minority pelted government buildings and banks with stones in Tabriz on Monday night, enraged by the cartoon, eyewitnesses in the city told Reuters. The cartoon, which appeared in Fridays edition of Iran, showed a boy repeating the Persian word for cockroach in different ways while the uncomprehending bug in front of him says What? in Azeri.
Neyestanis relatives told Reuters he had not intended to insult Azeris.
"No, no, certainly not! If I had intended that, I would have cursed their mustaches!"
The Azeris of northwestern Iran speak a language related to Turkish. Although Azeris have many luminaries among Irans commercial elite, Irans majority Persians mock them in jokes.
The conservative Siyasat-e Rouz daily on Sunday said a crowd of Azeris had set fire to Irans local office in the city of Orumiyeh, where Azeris make up the majority of the population. Azeris account for about 25 percent of the overall population of the Islamic Republic.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/24/2006 00:19 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Other Internet blogs have reported these riots, and t'aint only about the Azeris neither.
#2
You may have noticed that the Government of Iran does not really govern, Steve. The ruling mullahs all have their agendas, all control bits and pieces of the ministries, and have varying alliances with the President. It's no wonder that they try to suppress each other. It's politics.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
05/24/2006 0:41 Comments ||
Top||
#3
It took the Azaris a week for someone to read the joke to them and then explain it, before the riots broke out.
Opposition by US "hawks" led by Dick Cheney, the vice-president, is complicating efforts by the main European powers to put together a package of incentives aimed at persuading Iran to suspend its nuclear fuel cycle programme, according to diplomats and analysts in Washington.
As opposed to the European "pigeons"
London is today hosting political directors of the EU3 of France, Germany and the UK, together with China, Russia and the US to look at the twin tools of incentives and sanctions.
Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, was said by one diplomat to have "gone out on a limb" in an attempt to back the EU3's package of incentives but was facing resistance from Mr Cheney who is playing a more visible role in US foreign policy. Another diplomat said US internal divisions were holding up an agreement with the Europeans. The political directors held a preliminary meeting in London yesterday.
Some European diplomats believe that Washington will back the package - which includes guarantees for the construction of light water reactors in Iran, promises of nuclear fuel and a new regional security forum - if Moscow endorsed a tough chapter seven United Nations Security Council resolution that would require Iran to suspend uranium enrichment. "The idea is that something moves if everything moves," said one EU diplomat. "The positive elements of the package have to move at the same time as Security Council action."
US officials would not comment on Washington's internal debate. Ms Rice has denied reports that the EU3 asked the US to provide security guarantees to Iran. Accusing Iran of being the "central banker of terrorism", she made clear that such assurances were "not on the table". The current version of the package steers clear of formal security guarantees. It would, however, set up a new "regional security mechanism", including Iran and other Gulf countries, to reassure the Iranian government that its neighbours did not seek its overthrow.
Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, has already rejected the EU's advances, even before an offer has been made.
Diplomats are doubtful Iran will accept a deal that does not allow it to continue at least small-scale uranium enrichment. The US and EU3 have ruled that out. But the package envisages participating governments providing guarantees for an international consortium of companies to build light water reactors in Iran.
Mr Cheney is said to oppose the notion of "rewarding bad behaviour" following Iran's alleged breaches of its nuclear safeguards commitments. The "hawks" - who include John Bolton, the US envoy to the UN, and Bob Joseph, a senior arms control official - fear a repeat of a similar agreement reached with North Korea in 1994 which did not stop the communist regime from pursuing a secret weapons programme. Ministers are still bruised from angry exchanges between Ms Rice and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov two weeks ago.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/24/2006 23:14 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The Euros very much believe in 'soft power'. Fortunately there are several pills on the market that can effectively treat that disorder.
#2
"Reassure the Iranian Govt that its neighbors did not seek its overthrew" - its the other way around. MadMoud, etal. diploms have esens already rejected the Euro package a'fore t'was even offered. As for Sergei and Condi, guess the elopement/wedding is still off.
A Syrian government minister has said that his country may have to resort to "resistance" to regain control over the Golan Heights if the peace process with Israel is not revived soon.
Countries don't conduct "resistance" against each other. They maintain relations, they negotiate, or they engage in "war."
Come now, Fred. It's their Legitimate Right. Ev'rybody knows that.
And Syrian Resistance is a fearsome thing.
The Israeli-Syrian peace process has been in the deep freeze since early 2000, when a U.S.-sponsored attempt to revive talks bottomed out after several months of negotiations.
I believe they ended when Syria was offered almost everything it wanted, but would settle for nothing less than everything it wanted.
Although the Israeli-Syrian border along the Golan Heights has been one of Israel's quietest for more than 30 years -- with almost no infiltration attempts or trouble -- Israel says Syria continues its attempt to undermine the Jewish state by backing the Lebanese-based terrorist group Hizballah and hosting the headquarters of Palestinian terror groups in Damascus. In an interview that aired on Hizballah's Al-Manar television 12 days ago, Syrian Information Minister Muhsen Ballal said that if the peace process is not revived soon, Syrians would resort to "resistance" to liberate the Golan Heights.
My guess would be that Assad's come up with the idea of throwing Paleostinian "brigades" into the Golan area, an idea which could end up with Israeli tanks in Damascus.
He'll fight till the last Paleo is dead
"The liberation of the Golan is a comprehensive Arab-Syrian demand, made by 20 million Syrians, and the leadership must take this demand into consideration. The Golan must be returned to the motherland, and there is no alternative but to liberate the Golan," Muhsen said, according to a translation provided on Monday by the Middle East Media Research Institute.
This is known in diplomatic circles as a "suicide note."
Muhsen indicated that the time for peace talks was running out. "Until now, we have been waiting, and allowing a short period of time... We are allowing the peace process to have its last moment... If the peace process does not come back to life, if it is not resurrected once again, our people will have no alternative other than resistance in order to liberate and regain the land," Muhsen said.
I'd suggest they think back to how they manged to lose it in the first place, but I've noticed there are distinct holes in the collective Arab memory, which as we know stretches back 1400 years.
In response, Israel's Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said the problem is with Damascus. "Obviously, Israel wants peace with Syria," Regev said. "The trouble today is that the Syrian government appears uninterested in peace."
At the moment they're interested in survival, which is why the saber-rattling. They're expecting the plebs to flock to the flag.
... and get the more uppity ones to 'volunteer' for suicide missions ...
It lends active support to terror groups and allows extremist groups like Islamic Jihad to operate from its territory and has relations with Hizballah, "an extremely negative, anti-peace element," said Regev. "If the regime in Damascus wants to be seen as a partner for peace, they should start acting like one," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
ISRAEL has made it crystal clear times before the best Syria can hope for is partial or limited IDF withdrawal from the Golan, and no withdrawal period as long as Syria continues to intervene in Lebanese affairs, recognition of Israel's sovereignty and right to exist, and Syria's support of terror attacks against Israel from inside Lebanon.
#4
Yep, and this time there is no Soviet Union to threaten a nuclear exchange via an airlift of a nuke to Damascus; and therefore, no American demand for an Israeli halt 40 miles short of the goal.
#5
US Admin would demand these 40 miles pro forma, while through secure channels, it would be wink wink nod nod (Am hoping for wink wink nudge nudge, but I am a dreamer).
As for Syrian resistance, hmmm... about 2-3 micro Ohm.
#6
The US may make no real demands to stop Israel, but the EU would. There is no way they would find Israel actively defending itself -- even against Syria, murderer of Chiraq's personal friends -- in any way acceptable.
#7
Well, who listen to the EU, anyway? I sincerely doubt Israel would follow the wishes of a "something" (best term I could come up with) which is its de facto ennemy, especially during a shooting war.
#9
Despite everything, I do believe Europe is a major export market for Israeli products. Faced with the threat of a Europe-wide boycott, Israel would have to listen, I fear. But I would appreciate the thoughts of those who know more on the subject.
#11
a5089, I have watched with pleasure as your English improved since you found this place. I look forward to some day meeting you in person, and hearing that regional American "Dang!", spoken with a charming French accent and coming from what I've gathered is an oriental face.
And in a real shooting war, Israel is more likely to act as you suggest. At least, I hope so.
#13
Paleo 'gunmen' are mighty bold when the only resistance they face is a stymied Israeli military with rubber bullets and the MSM pointing their cameras at them like heroes. Lets see how they do against Tanks and Artillery in a real battle. Assad, please, please, form a paleo brigade and put it into real combat.
#17
Asshead of Sneria is using this to hedge against the UN investigation of his involvement in the bombing in Leb.
He's trying to enlargen the battle and cement the Iran-Sneria-Hamster axis.
Typical blackmail thuggery, as peace process translates into funds for the Hamsters.
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/24/2006 14:25 Comments ||
Top||
#18
I'm guessing that hanging out with his new Iranian pals has made Assad Jr. feel spunky. Someone needs to take that boy aside and give hime a good talkin' to.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad personally threatened Lebanon's former prime minister Rafiq Hariri before he was killed in a bomb attack in February 2005, Hariri's son, Saad, claimed in an interview published in Russia. "There were threats," said Saad Hariri, currently Lebanon's parliamentary leader. His father "told me that he had been threatened", his son is quoted as saying in an article published Monday in the Russian daily Vremia Novostei. Asked whether he knew if Bashar al-Assad had "personally threatened" his father, Saad Hariri said "Yes".
Former Syrian vice-president Abdel Halim Khaddam, who is now living in exile in France, has claimed that Assad personally ordered the assassination of the elder Hariri, allegations dismissed by Damascus as unfounded.Assad has denied all accusations that he or his government were involved in Harari's death, which prompted a UN investigation that is still underway. Saad Hariri met Friday with Vladimir Putin at the Russian President's Black Sea villa in Sotchi.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/24/2006 18:13 Comments ||
Top||
#2
These are religious people in their own mind serving the cause of jihad, and they dont mind playing both sides of the coin by professing to be allies of the US but in fact providing funding as an Islamic obligation to the jihadists who want to destroy America, he said.
Too bad the current administration has ZERO interest in bringing the Saudis to account over their actions. Yes, previous administrations have done much the same. But isn't it time that Saudi Arabia be included in "The Axis of Evil"?
The same Sheik who wants to control US seaports meets with bin Laden and supplies him in these camps!
Still think UAE control of our ports was such a good idea?
How many of you think that Bush will do a single thing about this?
#2
We've all seen how well that's worked in Afghanistan and Iraq. Perhaps a standing navy is next.
Posted by: ed ||
05/24/2006 9:34 Comments ||
Top||
#3
These guys really are retards. I can't find the article now, but I once read that a pilot in the first gulf war killed 6,000 Iraqi troops with one Daisy Cutter. So if they want to fight out in the open, in a conventional manner I think we could accommodate them.
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.
KABUL -The US-led coalition in Afghanistan said on Wednesday it had used precision fire from aircraft cannon and not bombs during an anti-insurgent operation this week that Afghan officials said killed at least 16 civilians. The troops also had the right to return fire during the raid, in which militants occupied the homes of locals, coalition spokesman Tom Collins told reporters in the capital Kabul.
WASHINGTON The FBI missed many opportunities to identify a suspected Chinese spy and her FBI lover, including a tip that she "was in bed with" the bureau's Los Angeles office, a Justice Department internal review said Wednesday. 
KATHMANDU - A Nepali Maoist leader on Tuesday urged the constitution be thrown out, parliament dissolved and an interim government including the rebels formed before elections are held to map the nations future.
The second roundtable on Kashmir convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Srinagar from Wednesday suffered another blow as the main opposition party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), also decided to stay away in protest against "deteriorating" security. Most separatist Kashmiri groups have already announced they boycott the conference. 
Awami National Party (ANP) chief Asfandyar Wali Khan on Tuesday accused Pakistan of arming Taliban militants and stirring trouble in Afghanistan. "Insurgency is rampant only in areas of Afghanistan adjoining Pakistan," Asfandyar told an Afghan news agency. Afghan provinces away from Pakistan's borders are calm, Asfandyar added. 
The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly backed legislation on Tuesday to impose broad restrictions on US aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, defying President George Bush in the midst of high-profile Middle East talks. 
A Syrian government minister has said that his country may have to resort to "resistance" to regain control over the Golan Heights if the peace process with Israel is not revived soon.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad personally threatened Lebanon's former prime minister Rafiq Hariri before he was killed in a bomb attack in February 2005, Hariri's son, Saad, claimed in an interview published in Russia. "There were threats," said Saad Hariri, currently Lebanon's parliamentary leader. His father "told me that he had been threatened", his son is quoted as saying in an article published Monday in the Russian daily Vremia Novostei. Asked whether he knew if Bashar al-Assad had "personally threatened" his father, Saad Hariri said "Yes".
