NATO will not enter Pakistan to hunt Taliban insurgents, but reserves the right to hit the militants there should they attack alliance troops across the border in Afghanistan, the alliance's chief said on Thursday.
NATO says militant attacks along the border in eastern Afghanistan have jumped by 40 percent this year since de-facto ceasefires came into effect between Pakistan's new government and insurgents in the border tribal regions.
Afghan officials say the ousted Taliban and al Qaeda have bases in Pakistan's tribal areas and President Hamid Karzai last month said he might send troops there to fight them after a series of high-profile attacks by the militants.
Standing alongside Karzai at a Kabul news conference, NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer was asked if the alliance was considering a wider mandate from the United Nations to go after militant sanctuaries inside Pakistan. "My answer is an unqualified no. We have a United Nations security mandate for Afghanistan and that's it. If NATO forces are shot at from the other side of the border, there is always the right to self-defence but you will not see NATO forces crossing into Pakistan territory," Scheffer replied.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2008 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
Hunt = search
Killing is not searching. We already know at that point where they are.
#2
As long as border = security, there is no way to extermanite these vermin. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to pursue these Bad Boyz to the ends of the earth?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
07/25/2008 10:37 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Is NATO's position mandatory for American Special Forces troops already wandering, ghostlike, on the far side of the border?
A radical Somali Islamist leader has condemned attacks on humanitarian workers in Somalia. Aid workers have increasingly become a target in the conflict pitting Islamist and clan-based militias against the transitional government and the Ethiopian troops backing it.
"I weep for you," the Walrus said:
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the leader of a radical faction of Somalia's Islamist opposition based in the Eritrean capital Asmara, says his group will work to protect aid workers in areas it controls.
"I deeply sympathize."
U.N. officials and aid agencies have warned in recent weeks that rising insecurity threatens humanitarian efforts in the country. More than 20 aid workers have been killed in Somalia this year, and several more abducted.
With sobs and tears he sorted out
A spokesman for Sheikh Aweys' faction, Zakaria Mohamud Haji Abdi, blamed the Ethiopian-backed Transitional Federal Government for such attacks.
Those of the largest size,
"We are condemning the killing of the U.N. officials in Mogadishu. And this act is actually perpetrated by the Ethiopian occupation and the militia of Abdullahi Yussuf in order to starve the Somali people whom they have displaced from their homes and from their neighborhoods in Mogadishu," he said.
Holding his pocket-handkerchief
According to Somalia's Garowe Radio, the transitional government parliament Wednesday condemned attacks on aid workers, blaming them on insurgents trying to derail a peace agreement signed last month with a more moderate opposition faction.
Before his streaming eyes.
This week Aweys claimed control of the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia, a coalition of exile Somali opposition leaders based in Asmara, saying he has replaced the more intelligent moderate Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. The United States and United Nations say Aweys has ties to al-Qaida. The Islamist opposition has for some time been effectively split between the two leaders' factions. The divide became more pronounced after Ahmed signed a U.N.-backed peace agreement with the transitional government in June. That deal has done little to curb violence. Ahmed and many of his backers remain in Djibouti, where that deal was signed.
"O Oysters," said the Carpenter,
"You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?'
But answer came there none--
And this was scarcely odd, because They'd eaten every one.
This article starring:
Abdullahi Yussuf
SHEIKH HASAN DAHIR AWEYS
Islamic Courts
SHEIKH SHARIF SHEIKH AHMED
Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic Courts
(Xinhua) -- Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir Wednesday vowed to boost Sudan's efforts to provide better security for the United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur, according to the United Nations.
"For the inhabitants, we intend to continue providing the same high level of skilled service."
He made the pledge when meeting with Rodolphe Adada, the joint special representative of the mission, at the mission's headquarters in El Fasher. "You are our guests and our partners," said al-Bashir, "and we are ready to provide any assistance that will help you do your work."
He also expressed his condolences to those peacekeepers that have lost their lives in Darfur while serving the mission. Seven blue helmets were killed in an ambush earlier this month in North Darfur, and, just over a week later, another was shot dead in West Darfur.
Adada, for his part, said the mission's deployment was besieged by numerous challenges but the mission was strengthening its resolve to reach its full capacity as soon as possible. He said his mission had thousands of containers awaiting "movement along the difficult and sometimes dangerous routes into Darfur," calling on the Sudanese government to ensure that the convoys reach their destinations safely.
This article starring:
President Omar al-Bashir
Rodolphe Adada
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan
#1
I will cover them with my giant hat and epaulets...
A Dhaka court yesterday expressed dissatisfaction over negligence in duties by police personnel in executing arrest warrants against seven absconding Harkatul Jihad (Huji) members accused in the August 21 grenade attack case.
Metropolitan Sessions Judge Mohammad Azizul Haque asked the Public Prosecutor (PP) to take actions against the policemen who failed to comply with the court order. The court said it had issued arrest warrants against the absconding accused on June 23 and directed the authorities concerned to send copies of the arrest warrants to their addresses the same day.
But the officers-in-charge (OC) of different police stations, who had been asked to return reports on arrest warrants to the court by yesterday, did not comply with the court order.
The court also said the police submitted the charge sheet of the case after four years of the grenade attacks and have been trying to delay trial.
Only Barisal Kotwali police submitted a report on the arrest warrant against Abu Bakar alias Hafez Selim mentioning that they could not arrest him.
Meantime, the same court rejected the bail petitions of detained former deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu and three Huji members, Arif Hasan Sumon, Jahangir Alam and Shahadat Ullah Jewel. Huji Chief Mufti Abdul Hannan and Sumon submitted petitions for retraction of their confessional statements saying that they were forced to give the statements.
The court fixed August 10 for next hearing of the case and directed the OC of different police stations to submit reports on arrest warrants against the seven absconding accused on the scheduled date.
The prosecution told the judge that they would try to make sure that police submit the reports in due time.
Moving the bail petitions, the lawyers told the court that their clients were implicated in the case as part of a conspiracy to harass them. The prosecution said the petitions should be rejected as they had earlier confessed to their involvement in the incident.
The case was filed for carrying out grenade attacks on an Awami League (AL) rally on August 21, 2004 that left 23 people dead and around 200 injured.
Detained former lawmaker Pintu and other accused, who are in jail custody now, were produced before the court. The seven absconding accused are Pintu's brothers Maulana Tajuddin and Maulana Liton, Anisul Mursalin and his brother Mahibul Muttakin, Iqbal, Jahangir Alam Badar and Khalilur Rahman.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2008 00:00 ||
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A UK parliamentary committee has called for dialogue with Hamas, as a UN report says poverty has reached an unprecedented high in the Gaza Strip.
Gaza's economy has been hit hard by an Israeli embargo tightened when the militant group took control last year.
Major world powers refuse to speak to Hamas unless it recognises Israel.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, said 52% of Gaza households were living in poverty, and unemployment there had topped 45%.
The House of Commons International Development Committee said in a report on Gaza that the current truce between Hamas and Israel, agreed on 19 June, "offers the international community an opportunity to begin a dialogue with Hamas".
The aim of the talks should be to move the group towards accepting principles laid down by the international community and to repairing the rift between it and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party, it said.
The so-called quartet - the US, EU, UN and Russia - has said it will not talk to Hamas unless it recognises Israel's right to exist, renounces violence and agrees to abide by agreements made by the Palestinian Authority.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2008 00:00 ||
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Former U.N. ambassador John Bolton said the United States should assist Israel in any strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. The ex-U.S. envoy in an op-ed in the July 15 Wall Street Journal said the United States must consider what assistance to extend to Israel before and after an airstrike.
We will be blamed for the strike anyway, and certainly feel whatever negative consequences result, so there is compelling logic to make it as successful as possible," wrote Bolton, who was known for his hawkish foreign policy views. "At a minimum, we should place no obstacles in Israel's path, and facilitate its efforts where we can."
Bolton said the efforts to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions through sanctions had failed, and even if they could still be enacted, the time for their effectiveness has passed. He also lashed out at presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama for advocating the threat of sanctions and incentives for changed behavior to divert Tehran from its present course.
Bolton had only a slightly milder appraisal of presumptive Republican nominee John McCain's approach, describing the Arizona senator's call for a workable missile defense system to protect the United States from the Iranian threat "only a component of a post-failure policy."
#2
I agree with Darth Vader's assessment of John Bolton. He makes tingly down my leg. Wouldn't it be great to run him in an electon for Supreme Great Leader of Gaia against His Worshipship, The Great Obama. Words of reason and power against BO's cotton candy words. If he were to win, then Gaia would return to being earth. How's that for a fantasy movie?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
07/25/2008 10:59 Comments ||
Top||
#3
We will be blamed for the strike anyway, and certainly feel whatever negative consequences result, so there is compelling logic to make it as successful as possible,"
This guys isn't your average govt. numbskull.
I think we should make use of the one guy in D.C. that can actually say what he thinks.
#5
FOX NEWS AM > seems IRAN has released new photos of its military strength = assets as per its Air Force [Iran F14's, MIG 29's]. HOWEVER, FOX > said Air Force photos may only be that of MODEL PLANES, NOT THE REAL THINGYS???
As for BOLTON being VEEP, REDDIT > specul still favors MCCAIN-GUILIANI versus OBAMA-CLINTON???
*FOX NEWS AM WAPO-WSJ Poll > MCCAIN leads ober Barack in majority of US + RED States, BUT BARACK IS AHEAD IN BIG BLUE STATES - OBAMA's lead as per BLUES is not SOLID OR DECISIVE???
IOW, IFF ELEX WERE HELD TODAY, BASED ON ABOVE POLL ONLY MCCAIN WOULD PROB STILL DEFEAT OBAMA.
#6
Bolton's got balls and brains. That's not a common combination in DC these days, and almost inconceivable anywhere near the UN (unless a NYC cop walks by). No wonder those UN eunuchs hated him.
#7
See also WAFF.com > BOLTON - THE DECLINE THAT NEVER WAS. Why the "Declinist View" of America is wrong - America will as a Concept will continue to endure, prevail, succeed and expand, as long as it adheres to its founding beliefs and above all is willing to undertake SUBJECTIVE RISKS ON ITS OWN BEHALF, NOT PRE-GUARANTEES.
Compare wid REDDIT > TELEGRAPH.UK > DOCTORS: UK SHOULD LIMIT FAMILIES TO TWO CHILDREN PER FAMILY TO HELP COMBAT AGZ GLOBAL WARMING.
D *** NG IT, IIRC/IICC TELEGRAPH ARICLE > EVEN "UNPLANNED" TEENAGE PREGNANCIES MUST IN FUTURE BE "PLANNED" TEENAGE PREGNANCIES?, + FUTURE HUMAN GENERS MUST WEAR GREENHOUSE GASES-CAPTURING PERSONAL DEVICES AS THEY WILL BE RELEASING MORE GG THAN THEIR PREDECESSORS???
You just knew those COWS wid GG THINGYS STRAPPED ON THEIR BACKSIDES-ARSES WASN'T GOING TO END WELL FOR US HUMANS.
SIGN OF THE APOCALYPSE NO. ????? > THE FARTS OF OUR DISCONTENT???
Soon after Osama bin Laden's driver got here in 2002, he told interrogators the identity of the al Qaeda chief's most senior bodyguard -- then a fellow prison camp detainee. But, inexplicably, the U.S. let the bodyguard go.
This startling information was revealed in the fourth day of the war crimes trial of Salim Hamdan, 37, facing conspiracy and material support for terror charges as an alleged member of bin Laden's inner circle.
Michael St. Ours, an agent with the Naval Criminal Intelligence Service, NCIS, provided the first tidbit. He testified for the prosecution that his job as a prison camps interrogator in May 2002 was to find and focus on the bodyguards among the detainees.
And Hamdan helped identify 30 of them -- 10 percent of the roughly 300 detainees then held here. They had just been transferred to Camp Delta from the crude compound called Camp X-Ray, and U.S. intelligence was still trying to unmask them. Chief among them was Casablanca-born Abdallah Tabarak, then 47, described by St. Ours as ''a hard individual,'' and, thanks to Hamdan, ``the head bodyguard of all the bodyguards.''
St. Ours said he was eager to speak with Tabarak. But the Moroccan was ''uncooperative,'' and St. Ours moved on to other intelligence jobs -- and never learned afterward what became of him.
Then, on cross-examination, Hamdan defense attorney Harry Schneider dropped a bombshell: ''Would it surprise you to learn he was released without ever being charged?'' St. Ours looked stunned.
''Yeah,'' he said.
Prison camp and Pentagon spokesmen did not reply Thursday to a request for an explanation. Tabarak's name was gone from an official prison camp roster drawn up by the Defense Department in September 2004, after some 200 captives had been sent away. A month before, Morocco's state news agency said all five of its nationals had been repatriated from the camps, for investigation.
For two days, FBI and other federal agents have testified about the extent -- and limits -- of Hamdan's cooperation in a string of interrogations since his November 2001 capture by U.S.-allied Afghan forces at a checkpoint in southern Afghanistan.
Defense lawyers have sought to portray the father of two with a fourth-grade education as ultimately helpful to the Americans -- after he initially covered up his relationship with bin Laden.
Prosecutors have called him truculent, a loyal and trusted member of bin Laden's inner circle who grudgingly spoke with interrogators -- and never came clean on why there were two surface-to-air missiles in his car when he was captured. Hamdan said at his Nov. 25, 2001, battlefield interrogation that he borrowed the car, and the missiles happened to be inside it.
This article starring:
Abdallah Tabarak
Salim Hamdan
Posted by: ed ||
07/25/2008 06:56 ||
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Top|| File under:
#1
Tabarak: Released or ....disappeared? Heh
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/25/2008 12:01 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Sadly not. Wikipedia sez: In August 2004 Abdullah Tabarak Ahmad was released from Guantanamo to Morocco police custody where he was then released four months later on bail.[7][1][8][9] Security analysts puzzled over the release as camp commander General Geoffrey Miller on February 2, 2004 told the Red Cross that Tabarak was the sole remaining detainee they would not be allowed access to and the Moroccan authorities described him as the emir of Guantanamo.
3 years for mass murder. Our leaders hold American life to be cheap.
Posted by: ed ||
07/25/2008 12:55 Comments ||
Top||
Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Qazi Hussain Ahmad has warned the United States (US) against attacking Pakistan saying that if Washington committed "the folly of invading Pakistan", every Pakistani will fight them.
Talking to reporters after the meeting of JI Executive Council (Majlis-e-Amla) at Mansoorah on Thursday, Qazi said that the government was "playing into the hands of conspirators", threatening national security.
"The entire nation is being deliberately pushed into frustration," he said, adding that prices of petrol, electricity, gas and edibles had been increased deliberately. Qazi claimed that the US-led NATO forces were positioned against Pakistan on the Afghan border, and were building underground bunkers. He also warned that Pakistan was being used to fight "a war against Islam and Muslims". He said that the JI would mobilise Pakistanis against the American designs, and would welcome all the forces joining that cause. He said that leaderships of Iran and China would also be consulted in this regard.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2008 00:00 ||
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[7 views]
Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami
* "The Leaderships of both Iran and China wouod also be consulted" > COMPARE WID TOPIX > CHAVEZ/VENEZUELA SEEKS STRATEGIC/MILITARY ALLIANCE WITH RUSSIA.
#2
for some reason, when I read things like this I realize how weak the jihadis are. Time is not on their side. They are like the Klu Klux Klan moving into the 20th century. Their power and influence has a rapidly deteriorating shelf-life. Not to say they aren't dangerous and need to be dealt with, but in reality, Darwin is having a discount blow out sale to clear space for new product.
#3
These people keep spewing this nonsense like they actually believe it. Rumsfeld was absolutely clueless about the islamists, and needed a good butt-kick. These people only understand power. That's all Islam is about - the amassing and using of power. Our failure to show these nutjobs just how powerful we can be has cost us an estimated 1000 additional casualties. It's well past time we showed this bunch of mental midgits just how powerful the US is, and just how much it can ruin their day. We need to hit so hard, so deliberately, and so thoroughly, that not even a mouse would survive the attack point. Then we need to tell the islaminauts that what we've done at the attack point is only a PORTION of the disaster that would be afflicted upon their nation if they keep up their current BS. We need to scare them so badly they'll become as one with the back walls of their dismal cave hideouts. Then, and only then, can there be anything resembling "peace" with these nutjobs.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/25/2008 14:14 Comments ||
Top||
#4
ION TOPIX > PHILIPPINES: TALKS BETWEEN MANILA, MUSLIM REBELS FOR MINDINAO ANCESTRAL HOMELAND FAIL; + PHILIPPINE, MALAY MUSLIM REBELS LAUNCH NEW ATTACKS.
The government has formed a four-member committee to review the Islamic justice system in Malakand, Dawn News reported on Thursday. The channel quoted official sources saying that the committee would hold its first meeting on August 4 and would take decisions on the implementation of the Islamic justice system, it said. The committee includes two members from the central government and two from the NWFP government -- Federal Law Minister Farooq Naik, Adviser to Prime Minister on Interior Rehman Malik, NWFP Law Minister Arshad Abdullah and Law Secretary Farooq Sarwar. Earlier, the caretaker government had formed a six-member committee, which has been reconstituted following objections raised by the population.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
...the caretaker government had formed a six-member committee, which has been reconstituted following objections raised by the population.
Objections because they want it, don't want it,...what?
The federal government has asked the NWFP government to gather details of the assets of banned religious groups and their financers, Dawn News reported on Thursday. It said the ministry had directed the provincial government and political administrations of all the seven tribal agencies to collect the data, and would likely recommend freezing the funds of the banned groups.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
The law enforcement agencies and intelligence agencies, acting on information of ethnic and religious violence to occur, may conduct 'Operation Green' soon against militants who aim to disturb peace in the city.
Sources said that after the army operation in different areas of NWFP, the militants have taken shelter in various areas in Karachi, including Sohrab Goth, Benaras Colony, Landhi, Quaidabad, Shah Latif Town and other areas. The green signal for the operation has been given after consultation with the federal government, the Sindh government and the coalition partners of the Sindh government, following reports of the presence of the militants.
The sources also said that the approval for the operation was given after the seven bomb blasts that rocked the city within the space of an hour on July 7. The operation has become inevitable after intelligence reports that those militants against whom the government has launched the recent operation in NWFP may target political and religious figures.
It is also learnt that the intelligence and law enforcement agencies have already indicated that there are some militant religious parties involved that are backed by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Commander Baitullah Mehsud.
Acting Karachi CCPO Wajid Ali Durani said that the operation has not begun yet but the media will be informed when it is launched.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
'Operation Green'? It'll probably commence when when we send them a couple of million bucks worth of Priuses.
NATO will not enter Pakistan to hunt the Taliban insurgents but reserves the right to hit the militants if they attack alliance troops across the border in Afghanistan, NATO Secretary General Jaap De Hoop Scheffer said on Thursday.
The existence of extremist sanctuaries is unacceptable and Pakistan should be a part of the "regional approach" to eliminate the global threat of terrorism, he said.
Scheffer was visiting amid high tension between Afghanistan and Pakistan over a spate of violence, including the Indian embassy's bombing, which Kabul has blamed on its neighbour's intelligence agency.
"The bottom line is that the present situation cannot be acceptable for anyone," Scheffer said after talks with President Hamid Karzai.
"Let us practise a regional approach and let us involve all the regional actors here," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I read this as, "You come here, we'll chase you all the way back home, then blow it up. Capisce? (spelling? Italian is not one of my languages.)
(Xinhua) -- The summit of Pakistan's ruling coalition partners Wednesday reached a consensus that the situation facing the country warrants the evolution of a long-term policy across the board with the support of all political partners.
The ruling coalition partners held a meeting here and it was agreed that Pakistan's national security and internal stability was paramount and no one would be allowed to challenge the writ of the state, the News Network International news agency reported.
It was also agreed in principle that in order to mobilize public support for greater national consensus on Pakistan's battle against extremism and militancy, parliament will discuss the formulation of a national policy to address the situation.
The coalition partners also reiterated that Pakistan's territory would not be used for terrorist attacks, nor would attacks from external forces on Pakistan's soil be tolerated.
The meeting was attended by Pakistan People's Party Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz President Shahbaz Sharif and other political leaders and senior government officials.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2008 00:00 ||
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A tribal jirga has successfully brokered a peace deal between the local Taliban and the administration in the Hangu district, a source told Daily Times on Thursday. According to the source, the peace accord would come into effect anytime late on Thursday. The agreement espouses a ceasefire and a ban on arms display.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2008 00:00 ||
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A Swiss-led, five-nation panel proposed Thursday that the United Nations assert itself as leader of a global fight against terrorism and establish a new agency or program to coordinate that effort.
U.N. ambassadors from Costa Rica, Japan, Slovakia, Switzerland and Turkey suggested that the U.N. General Assembly create an agency for counterterrorism along the lines of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. It also recommended that the U.N. assist counterterrorism officials from individual nations in promoting "a human rights-based approach to counterterrorism" that disdains torture and preserves prisoners' rights.
The panel, launched by the Swiss U.N. mission in November, is an attempt to involve more of the General Assembly's 192 member nations in fighting terrorism. It also seeks to shift some of the emphasis away from military or police work and onto grappling with interrelated social, economic and health factors.
Its proponents say the panel's conclusions, reached after holding five workshops on three continents, is a response to the U.S.-led war on terror and the counterterrorism work of the powerful U.N. Security Council. "It's an attempt maybe to shift or, should I say, to rebalance the focus away from the war on terror to a more comprehensive way in dealing with terrorism," Swiss Ambassador Peter Maurer told The Associated Press.
Another panel member, Costa Rican Ambassador Jorge Urbina, also serves on the 15-nation Security Council. "There is a need to deepen interagency cooperation and cooperation, both at the national and international level, and this should not be limited to traditional counterterrorism actors, but also include human rights, development, health and social services," he said. "We continue to advocate for the creation of a body that unites all current U.N. counterrorism efforts under one roof, and gives it a clear mandate and direction."
In March, President Bush said the global war's main challenges included securing Iraq, fighting al-Qaida, combating Iran's "destructive influence," and ending "the flow of suicide bombers through Syria." But the panel pointed toward an alternative strategy, an approach based on a belief that the U.N. also must provide a framework all nations can participate in. "The problem is that it is a one-dimensional view, suggesting that with military deployment and military means you can cope with the phenomenon of terrorism," Maurer said.
July 25, 2008: The success of the surge offensive resulted in an intelligence windfall. Documents and prisoner interrogations (as well as identifying the dead) provided a lot more information on hostile Sunni and Shia groups, as well as interesting observations about the factions currently controlling the government. All this clarified and confirmed the very factious nature of Iraqi society. Seems anybody with a quick mouth and a lot of guns can form their own little army. This factionalism is accompanied by a self-righteousness that seems to justify a wide range of bad behavior. This includes corruption, but also murder, torture, rape, theft and a long list of exotic crimes. The religious factions invoke God a lot, but the more sectarian groups make a big deal about protecting the family or tribe. Not a lot of loyalty to Iraq, or the concept of nationwide law and justice. Iraqis will make a lot of noise about being Iraqi, but the real loyalty begins closer to home, family, tribe or mosque.
Some Iraqis are still loyal to a foreign power. The largest group are those who follow senior Shia clerics and scholars in Iran. These guys believe in the Iranian concept of a world-wide Islamic dictatorship, run by clerics of the Shia persuasion. Al Qaeda, or what's left of it in Iraq, has the same idea, only the leadership would be from the mainstream Sunni form of Islam. There are even some socialists and communists left (Saddam's thugs hunted them for sport), who yearn for their own form of international dictatorship.
Seems like most Iraqis either want someone to tell them what to do, or want to be the guy issuing the orders and death sentences. A really rough neighborhood. And it's getting worse partly because of all the training American instructors have been giving to the new Iraqi army and police force. There are still plenty of incompetent commanders and troops, but about a third of the units are pretty good, The trouble is that most army or police units are led by officers who are loyal to one faction or another. The troops tend to share the loyalties of their officers. Iraq, like most of the Middle East, is a culture of Factions.
The intelligence bonanza has made it more clear what the relationship between Iran and various Iraqi factions (both Shia and Sunni, and even Kurdish) has been. Other captured data has made it easier to shut down the arms smuggling from Iran. But it has also revealed many long term relationships between some Iraqi politicians, and leaders of the clerical dictatorship that runs Iran. This sort of thing worries the Sunni Arab states to the south.
While Sunni parties have rejoined the government, Kurdish legislators are now jamming things up over Kirkuk. This city was, for centuries, a Kurdish place (by population and culture). But in the 1990s, Saddam Hussein began driving Kurds out and giving Sunni Arabs (from the south) their property. After 2003, Kurds began returning, seeking to get their homes, farms and businesses back. Some Sunni Arabs fled, but others joined with al Qaeda to fight. The fighting continues, and the Kurds are insisting that parliament pass a provincial voting law that will favor Kurds regaining political power in and around Kirkuk. Although political compromise is a new concept in Iraq, the issue of who "owns" Kirkuk has proved to be a very contentious one, and is holding up provincial elections (which were to be in October, but now look more likely in December, or even later).
The Shia militias, all under some degree of influence from Iran, have basically decided to accept a truce. Everyone wants to see if a power (and oil revenue) sharing deal can be negotiated without resorting to a civil war. Such a conflict would bring in outsiders (Iranians, Saudis, Syrians, Americans), and would mainly destroy Iraqi property.
The offensive against al Qaeda and the remaining Sunni Arab terrorists continues. For many Iraqi troops involved, this has become a training exercise with real bullets. The Sunni terrorists are outnumbered, out-thought and outfought. Many more are surrendering and accepting amnesty. Continuing police corruption is ruining this reconciliation opportunity. But corruption and factionalism are the twin curses that really make Iraq such a hellhole. It's long been ignored by the rest of the world. But with the religious fanaticism, and all the oil money, these local problems become international ones. The Middle Eastern miasma is not going away by itself
#2
"Seems like most Iraqis either want someone to tell them what to do, or want to be the guy issuing the orders and death sentences."
Submission and blood. Sounds as much like the prophet (peas be upon him) as the Crips and Bloods.
#3
We're stuck with the results of the Saddamite oppression, when the various groups took help from wherever they could find it. In another decade those ties may well matter not at all, politicians being for the most part faithless creatures.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/25/2008 18:17 Comments ||
Top||
#7
I find this article filled with what I believe to be simplistic half-truths. Yes, to some extent there is a culture of "following the leader" and it is going to take two or three generations to change that. Things like that are impossible to change by decree or training.
Americans just seem to have no sense that some things take longer than an election cycle to fix and when it comes to core behaviors and basically, reflexive responses to things, you need to have a population that was raised in the new reality, not one simply exposed to it.
The generation children now in Iraq will make a completely different reality when they take the reigns of power ... in 40 years time.
MOSUL, IRAQ: The Battle for Mosul over the past several years has worked as a microcosm for the larger Iraqi conflict, with Coalition and Iraqi forces successfully imposing their will only after al Qaeda and other insurgent groups held large parts of the city and region for long periods. Control over the city of 1.9 million people and the surrounding Ninewa province has been lost to Coalition and government forces twice since 2003. A successful security operation in May brought attacks to their lowest recorded levels since the conflict began.
Operation Lions Roar in May involved 5,000 Coalition forces and 55,000 Iraqi Police and Army members and cut insurgent attacks in the city to less than one a day over the next two months. The tactics used to defeat the insurgents were similar to successes in other parts of the country: joint operation with improving Iraqi forces, a focus on intelligence gathering, and economic reconstruction to create jobs to lower a national unemployment rate of 25-40 percent, which is higher in rural areas.
The fight in the North is still on-going. Its a balanced fight, pursuing insurgent on the one hand and doing reconstruction and supporting Iraqi government activities, said Major General Mark Hertling, commander of Multinational Division North and the US 1st Armored Division in an interview on July 22. When you talk about the growth of security, you have to mention that the government is getting stronger.
Mosuls central position, bisected by the Tigris River and the historic crossroads between Syria, Turkey and the rest of Iraq, made it a critical hub for the Sunni insurgency. Al Qaedas facilitators used the citys western Sunni-dominated neighborhoods as a center for funding, insurgent traffic and safe houses after the US-led Coalition toppled Saddam Husseins government in April 2003.
Mosul was overthrown by US Special Forces and Kurdish Peshmerga militia units on April 11, 2003, and operations were taken over by then Major General David Petraeus in late May with the 101st Airborne Division. Through the summer and fall Petraeus implemented many of the counter-insurgency techniques he would later use across Iraq, setting up a local government, rehiring police personnel, rebuilding roads and organizing reconstruction projects.
By January 2004, the 101st left and was replaced by a unit half its size, allowing ethnic tensions between Sunni and Kurdish Iraqis to grow and security to be undermined. In November, several hundred insurgents attacked police stations around the city, prompting almost all of the citys 5,000 police officers to abandon their posts.
Three battalions of the US 25th Infantry, along with several thousand Kurdish militia later retook parts of the city, but a two-year stalemate ensued with the Kurdish force, re-flagged the 2nd Iraqi Army Division, dominating the east bank of the Tigris River, while Sunni insurgents controlled the western side of the city, maintaining a travel corridor for foreign fighters traveling from Syria to safe havens throughout the country.
The security problem was a political problem, said Ahmed Mohammed Khalif al Jibouri, the police chief of Ninewa province from December 2004 to October 2005. Tensions between Kurdish political parties and the Sunni population in Mosul caused civil order to collapse, he said. They destroyed the police stations and left Mosul without a government for two months.
Khalif al Jibouri reconstituted the provinces police and, although terrorist activities decreased through the year, he was fired in October after losing support within the Kurdish-dominated provincial assembly. Insecurity again returned to Mosul, while the February 2006 mosque bombing in Samarra, north of Baghdad, pushed the country to the brink of a civil war, threatening a wholesale withdraw of US forces from the region.
In 2007, Petraeus returned to Iraq with his surge doctrine that increased Coalition combat forces and built tens of dozens of company-sized combat outposts, creating a permanent security presence in neighborhoods and a tactical template to be used by Iraqi forces if the Coalition began to downsize.
In additional, the formation of Sons of Iraq, an armed neighborhood-watch program that now includes 2,700 members in rural areas to the south of Mosul, denied insurgency safe havens to terrorists that had used them in past years.
You can attribute a lot of our success from Sons of Iraq, said Major Oscar Diano, intelligence officer for the 3rd Armored Calvary Regiments 1st Squadron located at Q-West, about 60 kilometers south of Mosul, where IED attacks have fallen by 90 percent since January. They took responsibility for security in their area.
The success of Lions Roar, when troops shutdown Mosul for 72 hours, had its start in January, with an increase in manpower through the arrival of the US 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and the creation of the Ninewa Operations Command, allowing the coordination of Iraqi Army, Iraqi Police, Border Patrol and Iraqi Special Operations troops with Coalition forces.
The national government of Nouri al Maliki also appointed Lieutenant General Riyadh Jalal Tawfiq, a Sunni with roots in Mosul, to lead the Ninewa Operations Command, boosting the potential for cooperation between the predominately Kurdish-led Iraqi Army Divisions and the Sunni-dominated local police forces, the US Army said.
In the first two months of 2008, Iraqi and Coalition forces captured or killed 142 al Qaeda in Iraq insurgents. Hertling said US strategy in Mosul would be similar to the strategy in Baghdad, with the expansion of command outposts in neighborhoods in order to sustain 24-hour-a-day security. By March, the Coalition had built 20 command outposts in Mosul and, on May 10, the lockdown began.
US M-1 Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles circled the city, freezing insurgent reinforcements from reaching Mosul while Iraqi Army and police set up an inner circle of security checkpoints, trapping the enemy within neighborhoods for days.
The operation captured more than 1,000 insurgents, 12 tons of home explosives, 500 mortars and artillery rounds that could be used in Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), 84 rocket propelled grenades, and 221 IEDs.
One of the key leaders captured at the time, Abu Nas, said forces discovered more than 70 percent of the arms caches he personally knew of, suggesting Iraqi intelligence has deeply penetrated the insurgency.
The insurgency is no big deal now, its our duty, so we wont stop fighting it, said Brigadier General Noor Aldeen, commander of the 2nd Iraqi Divisions 8th Brigade. But the bottom line is we are free. It is only outsiders to Mosul that are the problem.
Attacks are expected to increase with the run-up to regional elections, which were originally scheduled for October. Sunnis, who make up more than 60 percent of the regions population, boycotted the last regional election in 2005, leaving them with a meager two seats out of 41 in the regional assembly.
Registration rates in the Ninewa province were the highest in the country during the first week of the 30-day registration, which ends Aug. 15, leaving open the possibility that a more politically engaged Sunni population turning completely against terrorism, said Lieutenant Colonel Robert Molinari, head of operations for the 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment in Mosul.
Our solution for Iraq will become obvious with the regional elections, Molinari said. If you can get a representative government that is interested in getting essential services, then the terrorist will not have a leg to stand on.
The July 23 veto of voting legislation by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani could delay regional elections for several months. Talabani, who is Kurdish, rejected the law after it passed with less than 50 percent of parliament members present. The dispute is over the makeup of a provincial council in Kirkuk, the northern city which sits on some of Iraqs largest oil reserves and is contested by both Arabs and Kurds.
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Friday that any U.S. troop withdrawal would have to satisfy both parties and protect Iraq's sovereignty.
Maliki, who earlier this month suggested that a timetable may be set for the departure of U.S. troops, would not be drawn on any specific dates when asked by reporters after meeting Pope Benedict at the Pontiff's summer residence.
"There is a dialogue between us and the multinational forces, and we hope that we can reach results that satisfy both parties and protect the achievements made in Iraq and protect the sovereignty of Iraq," Maliki said.
U.S. troop levels are a key battleground in November's U.S. presidential election and Democratic contender Barack Obama has pledged to remove U.S. troops within 16 months of taking office should he win the election.
#1
It seems the original statement trumpeted by our journalistic elites was a mis-translation... in fact it took a third translation to get it right. Apparently Prime Minister Maliki's original statement was pretty much what he said in this one.
SAN DIEGO -- Charges have been dismissed against a Camp Pendleton Marine sniper accused in the shooting deaths of two Syrians in Iraq.
The Marine Corps announced Thursday that the charges against Sgt. John Winnick II were dismissed without prejudice by the commanding general of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, meaning charges could be brought again at a later time.
Winnick, 24, was charged with two counts of voluntary manslaughter and failing to adhere to the military's rules of engagement by firing without reasonable certainty that his targets were hostile.
"In light of all of the circumstances, the commanding general has determined Sgt. Winnick's actions do not warrant referral of the charges to a military justice forum," said Marine Corps spokesman Mike Alvarez.
Alvarez did not know why Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland left the door open for possible future prosecution.
The dismissal of charges against Winnick follows a recommendation by an investigating officer that the Marine face a lesser charge of dereliction of duty for the June 2007 shootings in Iraq's western Anbar province.
"This is the first I'm hearing of it," Winnick's attorney, Gary Myers, told The Associated Press when asked for reaction to the dismissal.
"We are obviously pleased, and it was the correct result," he said.
Myers said Winnick was not immediately aware of the dismissal of charges but believed he would be "relieved" by the news.
"Now he can go back to being a Marine," he said.
During an Article 32 hearing, similar to a preliminary hearing, to determine whether there was sufficient evidence to send the Marine to court-martial, Winnick testified that he shot the men because he believed he was protecting his Marines.
The shooting began after a soda delivery truck stopped near a sniper team hideout on a busy road near Lake Tharthar where roadside bombs were a common threat.
During the hearing, Winnick's comrades testified that the Marine fired a fatal sniper round at a man who hopped out of the cab, removed a container or bag from a side compartment, and appeared to begin digging at the ground. Winnick then killed a second man with a shotgun after the team stormed out of its hiding place, they testified.
Winnick testified that he believed he was protecting his Marines.
Winnick had faced up to 40 years in prison and dishonorable discharge if convicted on all counts, which also included aggravated assault against two truck passengers who were injured in the fight.
(VOI) -- The Iraqi Supreme Criminal Court on Thursday resumed its third session to try the Friday prayers case, in which 14 officials of the former regime are being tried on charges of detaining a large number of civilians, lynching many of them, rendering several families homeless, and decimating whole villages in the provinces of Baghdad, Missan, Samawa, and Basra in February 1999.
The session, headed by Chief Justice Muhammad Uraiby, began with hearing a witness's statement, who spoke from behind a curtain for security reasons. The witness depicted events that took at that time, then a number of defendants and their attorneys spoke.
The Friday prayers incidents erupted after the assassination of Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Muhammad Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr and his two sons in the city of al-Kufa on February 19, 1999, whose death is blamed on the former regime's intelligence agencies. The death of Sadr, the father of Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, was followed by security tension in many Iraqi cities then, including the then Saddam City (currently al-Sadr city), where the al-Mohsin and al-Hikma mosques were attacked, leaving a large number of worshipers killed and scores others detained.
Taking the protest against the Gaza blockade to a new level, two boats packed with foreign left-wing activists will attempt to sail from Cyprus to the sealed Gaza harbor in two weeks' time. The operation is being directed by members of the International Solidarity Movement and the Israeli Commission against House Demolitions. A Web site, FreeGaza, has been set up to collect donations and update the public.
The group - which numbers some 40 activists - has purchased two boats, one called SS Free Gaza and the other SS Liberty, named after the USS Liberty that was mistakenly bombed by the Israel Air Force during the Six Day War. Thirty-four American sailors were killed in the bombing. The boats are scheduled to set sail from Cyprus on August 5 and arrive, according to organizer Angela Godfrey-Goldstein, at the Gaza coast a day or two later.
"The purpose is to get into the Gaza harbor and breach the siege," Godfrey-Goldstein said Thursday. "The IDF will probably stop us but part of the point is to show that Gaza is closed off." She said that if the boats were stopped by the Israel Navy, they would likely remain at sea for a few days in an effort to get the government to change its policy and allow free access to Gaza by sea. Such access is not allowed and the waters off the coast are patrolled by the navy, mainly due to weapons-smuggling from Egypt and other countries.
In April, The Jerusalem Post reported that Iran was increasing its efforts to smuggle arms into the Strip by dropping floating devices off the Gaza coast that are then picked up by Gazan fisherman.
According to defense officials, Iran was sending rockets and other advanced weaponry to Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip via tunnels dug under the Philadelphi Corridor from Sinai as well as by sea. Officials said the navy was doing an effective job in curbing the smuggling by sea but that there were shipments that Israeli forces had not succeeded in intercepting.
The IDF Spokesman's Office would not say what the navy intends to do in the event that the protest boats try to enter the Gaza harbor.
#5
And in the meantime Blacks are being massacred in Sudan to the utter indiffernce of those activiists. Why is it that the only peope for whom they move a finger are those who want to exterminate Jews?
Show me a pro-Palestinian activist and they will show you a Nazi.
#7
Time to try out another of those super duper revamped Mk.48 torpedoes (see above). They are expensive as hell but I for one am willing to take up a collection for this particular acquisition.
#9
And how are those clowns going to protest against Hamas missile attacks on Israeli civilians? If they are pro Hamas, then they are targets in the GWOT.
#10
I agree with Phil. The best way to let the situation pass under the radar is to let them into Gaza, then seal the port like they want. Survivor: Gaza. I love it.
#11
letting their boats in without searching and removing anything of value would be foolish. Strip em, let em in, and lock em in with the Paleos. They become just another set of mouths to feed, and prolly not very fun after the first news conference is over and the attention goes away
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/25/2008 7:59 Comments ||
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#12
So sink them. That'll mean the blockade is working and prove their point. Everybody's happy!
#17
I'm hoping for a rogue wave, or a sudden squall at sea.
If not, intercept and arrest. Let the extradition process take about 6 months while they rot in a jail cell with Paleostain buggerers.
The trip organizers think one of four things will happen to the ship: it may be stopped as it crosses or approaches the barrier marking the international waters boundary, in which case the crew is prepared to stay on board for at least two weeks in protest of the illegal halt of passage. The second possibility envisioned by the organizers is that the ship will be allowed to pass into the area, and will be stopped in the territorial waters. In this eventuality the crew expects to be arrested, and the ship dragged to shore. A third possibility is that the ship will be sunk by the navy.
The final option is that the ship actually makes it through to the Gaza port near Gaza City in the north of the Strip.
According to Holocaust survivor and crew member Hedy Epstein, in the event that they can get through to Gaza they will "open the port, fish with the fishermen, help in the clinics, and work in the schools."
The ship was invited to Gaza by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and the Gaza Community Mental Health Program, and support for the initiative was provided in part from Carter Center in the US and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
#23
some metallic and kevlar strips adrift near the props will foul them. That, and some solvent in the diesel will cause the engines to burn out as well.
#26
Swamp the "vessels" at night with a couple of mines. Then an Israeli ELint Counter-Measures ship can "bend" their SOS signals enough to send any Paleo Helpers off chasing flying fish 150 miles away.
OH the GREAT WHITE Sharks are Hungry
For FAT FAT Paleo Snacks
OH the GREAT WHITE Sharks are Hungry
For FAT FAT Paleo Snacks
Repeat process with the Paleo Rescue "vessels".
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
07/25/2008 13:39 Comments ||
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#27
let them in, and as the ship gets close to shore, sink it. good chance they could survive if the Paleos assist them, but their ride home is now holding the seabed down.
#28
Let them into Gaza. Just don't ever let them out again. They can get the same treatment as Kuntar got from his dad and uncles. They'll probably like it.
(Xinhua) -- Deposed Prime Minister of Hamas unity government in Gaza Ismail Haneya called on Egypt Thursday to reopen Rafah border crossing point to allow in Palestinian patients in need of proper medical treatment.
Haneya made the appeal after a Hamas woman lawmaker in the Hamas-dominant Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) was hit by a severe heart attack.
"The case of Om Nidal Farhat (the lawmaker) is not the only case that needs urgent medical treatment, there are dozens of patients that need an urgent treatment," Haneya told reporters when he was visiting Gaza Shifa Hospital.
Israel imposed a tightened blockade on the Gaza Strip after Hamas movement took control of the enclave by force and routed President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah security forces in June last year.
In January, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians thronged to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula to buy daily necessities of food, medicine and fuels after militants blew up the borders fence between the impoverished enclave and Egypt.
"We want Egypt to break the blockade and save the lives of hundreds cases," Haneya said, adding that "since the blockade was tightened, 250 patients died due to the lack of medical treatment in the Gaza Strip."
Israel and Hamas had agreed in a truce deal brokered by Egypt to ease security restrictions imposed on Gaza crossings. However, Rafah crossing has not been reopened due to splits between the two sides on its operation.
Gaza ruler Hamas wants Rafah crossing, the only Gaza passage to the outside world that bypasses Israel, to be run by Egyptian and Palestinian officials, but the Jewish state insists that its operation must abide by a 2005 agreement.
According to the U.S.-brokered deal in 2005, Abbas' presidential guard forces were put in charge of security at the crossing in addition to European Union (EU) monitors. The two parties left the crossing following Hamas' bloody takeover of Gaza.
In some occasions, Egypt opened the crossing for patients and some Hamas leaders who leave for talks in Cairo.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2008 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[2 views]
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#1
How many RPG's can fit in an "ambulance"?
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
07/25/2008 15:02 Comments ||
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#2
Egypt doesn't want Gazans in its territory either. The Israelis have repeatedly asked Egypt to take Gaza back, only to be laughed at and told "we're damned glad to be rid of those criminal bastards. They're your problem now, and welcome to it!" So much for Muzzie solidarity and all that.
(Xinhua) -- Islamic Hamas movement on Wednesday refused to comment on a initiative proposed by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to exchange prisoners with Israel.
"There is a decision in the movement not to speak about anything related to the negotiations over the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit who is held in Gaza Strip, in order to achieve the swap under the Egyptian sponsorship," said Ismail Radwan, a Hamas spokesman.
Radwan added that the negotiations to exchange Shalit for a number of Palestinian prisoners are halted despite the Arab and international mediation efforts.
Hamas demands Israel to free 1,000 prisoners, including 450 who serve life sentences in exchange for Shalit's return. Hamas also wants Israel to release all women, children and old detainees.
Radwan revealed that Israel has earlier accepted to free about 70 prisoners out of the 450 and latest reports said that Israel has agreed to release 300.
He also ruled out the option of holding direct talks with Israel on the swap as Carter's initiative suggested.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2008 00:00 ||
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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.
(Xinhua) -- Sudanese 
Former U.N. ambassador John Bolton said the United States should assist Israel in any strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. The ex-U.S. envoy in an op-ed in the July 15 Wall Street Journal said the United States must consider what assistance to extend to Israel before and after an airstrike. 
Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Qazi Hussain Ahmad has warned the United States (US) against attacking Pakistan saying that if Washington committed "the folly of invading Pakistan", every Pakistani will fight them.
The government has formed a four-member committee to review the Islamic justice system in Malakand, Dawn News reported on Thursday. The channel quoted official sources saying that the committee would hold its first meeting on August 4 and would take decisions on the implementation of the Islamic justice system, it said. The committee includes two members from the central government and two from the NWFP government -- Federal Law Minister Farooq Naik, Adviser to Prime Minister on Interior Rehman Malik, NWFP Law Minister Arshad Abdullah and Law Secretary Farooq Sarwar. Earlier, the caretaker government had formed a six-member committee, which has been reconstituted following objections raised by the population.
After five and a half years at top of global diplomacy, Israeli ambassador bids farewell to UN with his head held high
A Swiss-led, five-nation panel proposed Thursday that the United Nations assert itself as leader of a global fight against terrorism and establish a new agency or program to coordinate that effort.
July 25, 2008: The success of the surge offensive resulted in an intelligence windfall. Documents and prisoner interrogations (as well as identifying the dead) provided a lot more information on hostile Sunni and Shia groups, as well as interesting observations about the factions currently controlling the government. All this clarified and confirmed the very factious nature of Iraqi society. Seems anybody with a quick mouth and a lot of guns can form their own little army. This factionalism is accompanied by a self-righteousness that seems to justify a wide range of bad behavior. This includes corruption, but also murder, torture, rape, theft and a long list of exotic crimes. The religious factions invoke God a lot, but the more sectarian groups make a big deal about protecting the family or tribe. Not a lot of loyalty to Iraq, or the concept of nationwide law and justice. Iraqis will make a lot of noise about being Iraqi, but the real loyalty begins closer to home, family, tribe or mosque. 
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Friday that any U.S. troop withdrawal would have to satisfy both parties and protect Iraq's sovereignty. 
SAN DIEGO -- Charges have been dismissed against a Camp Pendleton Marine sniper accused in the shooting deaths of two Syrians in Iraq.
(VOI) -- The Iraqi Supreme Criminal Court on Thursday resumed its third session to try the Friday prayers case, in which 14 officials of the former regime are being tried on charges of detaining a large number of civilians, lynching many of them, rendering several families homeless, and decimating whole villages in the provinces of Baghdad, Missan, Samawa, and Basra in February 1999.
Taking the protest against the Gaza blockade to a new level, two boats packed with foreign left-wing activists will attempt to sail from Cyprus to the sealed Gaza harbor in two weeks' time. The operation is being directed by members of the International Solidarity Movement and the Israeli Commission against House Demolitions. A Web site, FreeGaza, has been set up to collect donations and update the public.
