Several Tunisian politicians and members of non-governmental organisations expressed unhappiness with Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi's visit to Tunisia this week. The protesters called the chairman of the Association of Muslim Scholars "a symbol of intolerant salafist ideology."
Al-Qaradawi arrived in Kairouan on Sunday (March 8th) to participate in "Kairouan: Capital of Muslim Culture in 2009" celebrations.
"We express strong unhappiness with a policy that honours and celebrates a symbol of intolerant salafist ideology, who is known for attacking our country, especially the gains of Tunisian women," said a statement issued by the Association of Democratic Women on Wednesday.
The protesters said al-Qaradawi is known for harbouring a "hidden enmity towards Tunisia". In his 2001 book, entitled "Secular Extremism in the Face of Islam: Tunisia and Turkey as Examples", al-Qaradawi accused the Tunisian authorities of hostility towards Islam and Muslims. He also accused one of Tunisia's most prominent poets, Saghir Oulad Ahmed, of being an infidel. Ahmed then filed a lawsuit against al-Qaradawi, but according to human rights sources in Tunisia, the courts have yet to examine the case.
"We can't forget that he has previously attacked Tunisia," said Mondher Thabet, Secretary-General of the Liberal Social Party, "and it was shameful behaviour in which he used maximum degrees of violence."
Thabet said that he did not shake al-Qaradawi's hand because he wanted to make his point clear.
Kairouan was selected to be the capital of Muslim culture for the year 2009 by the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (ISESCO). The city, situated some 150 kilometres southeast of Tunis, is "on the forefront of Arab and Muslim cities in North Africa with a glorified history and distinguished, rich contributions in the service of Arab and Muslim culture," ISESCO said.
Tunisian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi attended the opening ceremony on behalf of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who had taken will with the flu and was unable to attend, according to the official Tunisian news agency.
Not all of the reaction to al-Qaradawi's visit was negative. The head of banned Islamist Ennahda Movement, Rashed Ghanouchi, issued a statement from London in which he expressed the movement's "joy over the visit by distinguished scientist sheikh al-Qaradawi."
"The organising committee of the celebration should allow the Tunisian audiences who are eager to meet with Sheikh al-Qaradawi and to directly listen to him have enough opportunities for that and not to just restrict the occasion to festivities."
Adel Chaouch, an MP representing the opposition Attajdid movement, said that he was surprised by al-Qaradawi's visit because of his previous position on Tunisia. But he also said that al-Qaradawi could correct the mistakes of the past. "I personally will welcome him if he can revisit his ideas. I don't consider him to be revolutionary or an enemy of regimes."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2009 00:00 ||
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Peninsula Arabs are disliked in the Maghrib. Nothing can change that.
Rwanda's Hutu rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) claimed on Friday they had inflicted heavy losses on the forces involved in the joint operation launched against them by Kinshasa and Kigali. The Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) said that "heavy fighting has opposed and continues to oppose the coalition" to its troops, in a statement received by AFP in Nairobi.
The FDLR listed three separate incidents on March 8 to March 9 during which it claimed Rwandan and Congolese government forces lost more than 120 troops.
The statement also implied that the Rwandan troops who entered the DRC on January 20 to raid FDLR positions were still operating on Congolese territory despite the official announcement of their pullout on February 26.
FDLR rebels have been operating out of eastern DRC since the aftermath of Rwanda's 1994 genocide by Hutus against the Tutsi minority. Some of its members are accused of being among the main perpetrators of the massacres.
Until the January joint operation, the Tutsi-led government in Kigali which came to power after the genocide had long accused Kinshasa of sheltering the FDLR and even using it as proxies in the eastern Kivu region.
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03/15/2009 00:00 ||
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Uganda will begin withdrawing its troops on Sunday from north-east Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where they are deployed to hunt Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, the Congolese defence minister said.
"It has been agreed that the Ugandan soldiers are to be withdrawn beginning Sunday," DRC Defence Minister Charles Mwando Nsimba said on Friday. "The operation to track the LRA will continue with MONUC (the UN mission in DR Congo)."
The pull-out should last eight days, said Mwando.
Ugandan, Congolese and south Sudan armies launched an operation against the Ugandan LRA in December after its leader, Joseph Kony, refused to sign a final peace deal with the Kampala government. They have been unable to capture Kony, though the Ugandan army on Wednesday said they had killed an LRA commander in a south Sudanese jungle in a military operation against the insurgents.
Kony's rebels are accused of having raped and mutilated civilians, forcibly enlisting child soldiers and of massacring thousands during two decades of conflict.
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03/15/2009 00:00 ||
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Commerce Minister Lt Col (retd) Faruk Khan yesterday said the motive for the last month's carnage at BDR Pilkhana headquarters was to destabilise the country and hinder its progress under a democratic government. "They [mutiny plotters] thought the army would counter-attack in response to the BDR mass killings, and things would eventually lead to a civil war-like situation," he observed.
Lately assigned to coordinate probes into the February 25-26 bloodbath, Faruk was speaking to reporters at Pilkhana after over three hours long meeting with the inquiry committees. The meeting that began at 12:45pm was the second of its kind.
The minister said, "We have some evidence that several militant organisations had links to the bloody revolt." He however did not elaborate on the proofs. A couple of days back, he said Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) had a hand in the vicious killings of 74 people including 52 army officers on February 25.
Meanwhile, 11 BDR personnel suspected of leading the carnage were sent to Dhaka Central Jail yesterday on completion of their remand in CID custody. They include Deputy Assistant Directors Tauhidul Alam and Abdur Rahim, havildar Azad Ali, nayek Mohammad Firoz Ahmed, sepoys Fasiur Rahman, Sirajul Islam, Emran, Shah Alam and Shahjahan, and cook Amirul Islam.
COORDINATION MEET
At the Pilkhana meeting, the commerce minister expressed satisfaction over progress in the work of the government, army and Criminal Investigation Department's probe bodies. He however stressed the need for more coordination between them.
Sources said reorganising the paramilitary force under a new name was among the issues discussed. Replying to a query, Faruk Khan said those who cannot stand the existence of Bangladesh and its progress were involved in the BDR massacre. They want to render the country a failed state. He urged people to help arrest the border troops who have fled the headquarters with firearms and ammunition. Everyone having leads to the mutiny should report to the nearest police stations or army camps, he added. Queried how many jawans might be still at large, he replied, "Not many."
The minister said investigators have made some significant progress through interrogation of those arrested in connection with the BDR killings. So far, 236 border guards have been arrested and 25 of them have been grilled while on remand, he continued.
SCOTLAND YARD TEAM LEAVES
The four-member Scotland Yard team that came to Dhaka on March 11 to help in investigations into the February carnage left the country yesterday. Faruk Khan said the British officials have pledged further assistance.
TORAB QUIZZED
Torab Ali, detained president of the BDR retirees' welfare association, have told interrogators that he had knowledge that there might be 'some kind of problem' at the Pilkhana headquarters on February 25, said sources in the Rapid Action Battalion.
Zakir, a retired junior commanding officer's son, learned it from fellow students, mostly children of serving BDR men, at a coaching centre in Jhigatola. He in turn confided in Torab on February 24.
Also president of Awami League (AL) ward No.48 unit and father of top criminal Liton alias Leather Liton, Torab is now on a five-day remand. He was arrested by Rab at his Moneswer Road house on March 10. Despite knowing beforehand that something untoward might take place, he did not inform the BDR authorities about it, said a source close to the investigation.
Asked why he did not contact the authorities concerned as president of the welfare association, he told interrogators that he indeed "made a huge mistake by not doing so".
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2009 00:00 ||
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Posted by: john frum ||
03/15/2009 10:01 ||
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an Islamic hypocrite, ya say? Shocker
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/15/2009 11:03 Comments ||
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“Tariq Mahmood, of the Islamic Cultural Society, based at Luton's Central Mosque, said the protesters were notorious for causing trouble… ‘This small group of people is not representative of the Muslim community.’”
No…certainly not. As evidenced by that large crowd from the “Muslim community” waving flags as they welcomed home the troops.
RANTING hate preacher Anjem Choudary -- the man behind the vile Luton protests -- wants the flag of Allah to fly over Downing Street and ALL British women forced to wear a burka.
The wild-eyed fanatic today insisted he wanted the UK to live under tough Sharia Law, saying anyone caught drunk should suffer 40 lashes in public, while adulterers should be stoned to death.
As opposed to him moving to say, Saudi Arabia ...
Bile-spouting Choudary, who refuses to condemn the 7/7 attacks, says Britons are "living like animals in a jungle" with their "alcohol, gambling, prostitution and pornography".
And having a fine time of it too ...
The lawyer, 41, boasted his group, Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah, was behind sick protests at the homecoming parade of British troops in Luton, Beds, this week.
In a just world, the entire membership would have been flogged by now ...
The fundamentalist sect, which claims 1,000 members held placards calling the heroes 'murderers' and 'baby killers'.
British born Muslim extremist Choudary likened the home-coming troops of the 2nd Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment to "Nazis". He spouted: "Those British troops are guilty of torture and atrocities in Iraq and we Muslims will not swallow the argument that as soldiers, they were just following orders."
He's angry because Iraq is not and will not be a sharia state.
He added: "The troops were not heroes but cowards, doing the bidding of a British government engaged in state-sponsored terrorism."
Choudary says his group's ultimate aim is to "fly the flag of Allah above 10 Downing Street" and bring about "through jihad" - "a pure Islamic State with Sharia Law in Britain".
And he added: "Every woman, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, would have to wear a traditional burka and cover everything apart from her hands in public."
Because womens' ankles incite impure thoughts, particularly in him ...
In some cases, he wants British women wearing the full niqab (full face veil).
Despite hating British life, evil Choudary claims he has "every right to stay" in Britain -- and says he is proud to be reviled. "That's a badge I wear with pride," he said. "It's inevitable that when you offer an alternative morality and way of life, many people will hate you for it."
Separated from wife Rubana Akhtar, it is alleged poison preacher Choudary lives off £25,000 a year in benefits supporting his three young children but rejects hypocrisy saying: "I don't think it's of any importance."
No, no, certainly not!
Choudary -- right-hand man of exiled cleric Omar Bakri -- no longer practises conventional law and is now a judge of the Sharia Court in the UK.
Which is another travesty ...
In his vision of judicial law one male witness would be sufficient to counter the testimony of two females.
Fellow students from Choudary's Southampton University days have claimed they took drugs with him and that "he didn't seem very religious at the time" but Choudary maintains the story is a "fabrication" peddled by enemies.
They need pictures of him in compromising positions ...
This article starring:
Anjem Choudary
Posted by: john frum ||
03/15/2009 09:27 ||
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He needs brain surgery, but the NHS doesn't have a scanning electron microscope powerful enough. Just take him up to Scapa Flow and make him swim back to the mainland. In his birthday suit.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/15/2009 13:27 Comments ||
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he wont move to an Islamic state as he would have to work for a living!!!!
#6
He need a simple beating down. I am so tired of this crap. He would not last ten minutes in soddi, they would stone him for past whorings. Here it is, beat him down, drug him, put him on a plane to soddi with no passport. Hope he likes it.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/15/2009 23:33 Comments ||
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An Islamic cleric, whose supporters led a hate-filled protest against British troops returning from Iraq, has urged his followers to give cash to front-line mujaheddin fighters. A recording has emerged of Anjem Choudary, a self-styled sharia judge and former leader of the banned group Al-Muhajiroun, telling his followers to stop spending their money on their families and divert it to Muslim soldiers waging jihad, or holy war.
There were demands for Choudary to be investigated by police. He has previously called for British women to be forced to wear burqas and for adulterers to be killed. Several radical preachers have previously been jailed for urging British Muslims to give money to Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents in Iraq.
The emergence of the tape coincided with the death yesterday of a British soldier in Afghanistan, the 150th to die there since 2001. The soldier of the 2nd battalion, Royal Welsh regiment, was on foot patrol.
Last week Choudary’s followers shouted abuse at soldiers from the Royal Anglian Regiment as they paraded through Luton, calling them “butchers and killers”. Choudary later called the troops “cowards who cannot fight”.
Patrick Mercer, chairman of the Commons subcommittee on counterterrorism, said: “It is crucial that Choudary is investigated by the police and if the evidence stacks up he must be charged.” Geoffrey Bindman, a leading lawyer, said: “There’s an element of ambiguity in the term ‘mujaheddin’ but in the context it’s possible he would be held to be seeking to raise money for terrorist purposes.”
Choudary supporters taped a meeting last year at which he was preaching to disciples. A copy of the recording has been passed to The Sunday Times. At one point on the tape Choudary says: “People [are] looking for a place for their money to go so they can go to the front line and they can’t find it. You should not think to yourself ‘my money, my money’ . . . you have [an] opportunity to carry da’wah [the spread of Islam] to society . . . and you have money that can go towards the da’wah, you have money that can go towards the mujaheddin. One day you will not have that. Then you will regret the time when you said, ‘When I had that time, when I was with people, I did not invest it properly’.”
Choudary added: “When you are working collectively . . . people supporting the mujaheddin, people collecting money for the da’wah or giving money to the mujaheddin, he [the ‘shaytan’, or devil] will come to you then. He will divert you, he will say to you, ‘This money is needed for your family’.” When confronted, Choudary said: “I don’t think I’ve ever said to people ‘raise money and send it to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban’, which is what you are suggesting.”
Imam Abdul Jalil Sajid, a leading Muslim cleric, said: “When people like Choudary say mujaheddin, they mean armed struggle against Britain and America.”
“North Korea’s human rights situation is wholly poor. Economic, social, and cultural rights are growing notably worse, while there have been institutional improvements in civic and political rights. Also, the human rights situation is different by social group and region, with continually deepening disparity.”
So goes the National Human Rights Commission’s description of the state of human rights in North Korea in its report, “Findings on the State of Human Rights of the Residents of North Korea,” released March 11.
The report is based on interviews with 122 North Korean defectors, 93 of which are women receiving orientation at a South Korean education facility for new defectors and 30 of which are defectors who came to the South in 2007 and 2008. The interviews were conducted between July 2008 and February of this year. It was drafted by a team of researchers at the University of North Korean Studies led by Professor Lee Woo-young.
People who leave North Korea and enter China but are then repatriated are more often than not being given relatively brief sentences of six months labor, while North Koreans who leave the North repeatedly, attempt to go to South Korea or have contact with Christians outside the country are being treated as political prisoners, the report says.
The document notes that there have been systemic improvements in civic and political rights, and that the a weakened regime structure and economic difficulties have led to slight but unintended improvements in the rights of regular North Koreans. Public executions have been become less frequent since the start of the decade, and they have become more common for crimes like corruption on the part of party officials, murder, human trafficking, and narcotics production and sale than for political crimes.
They might be running out of bullets. Or the soldiers may be too hungry to lift their weapons.
The report also describes what it says is increasing class and regional disparity in human rights. There are, on the one hand, some who are enjoying various rights for having adjusted to a new climate created by the allowance of some market activities by the “July 1 Economy Management Improvement Measure”; they amassed wealth in the process. Those who have not been able to take advantage of the new rules are, according to the report, having their livelihoods threatened and are “exposed to a violently oppressive regime.”
So capitalism is springing up in the North ...
It also describes an increasingly weak sense of community in North Korean society, saying that people often no longer care when others are starving and suffering.
“The human rights situation in North Korea is influenced by the one-party system, patriarchal culture and a regime weakened by economic difficulties,” said Lee. “It is also being influenced by inter-Korean relations over the past decade and international pressure.”
The situation won't improve until riots in Pyongyang grab the current leaders and stand them against a wall.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/15/2009 00:00 ||
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Stephen Bosworth, the new U.S. special representative for policy on North Korea, was willing to visit North Korea during his trip to Asia in early March on condition that Pyongyang agree to refrain from launching a long-range ballistic missile, diplomatic sources said Saturday. Although Bosworth was prepared to convey a message from U.S. President Barack Obama expressing Washington's intention to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue and to achieve the normalization of bilateral ties, North Korea rejected the idea of a visit, the sources said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2009 00:00 ||
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TOPIX > TENSIONS ESCALATE ALONG KOREAN BORDERS; + KIM JONG-IL: NORTH KOREA'S COMMUNIST REGIME IS STRONG, INVULNERABLE [agz any enemy].
Pakistani authorities placed opposition leader Nawaz Sharif under house arrest Sunday to stop him from taking part in a major anti-government rally, a spokesman said.
The move against former Prime Minister Sharif shows Pakistan's determination to squelch Monday's rally in the capital Islamabad but risks igniting anger among his supporters. It will also likely damage the democratic credentials of the one-year-old government led by U.S.-backed President Asif Ali Zardari. his democratic cred was already at near zero so this just brings it to the nanocredential stage
The arrest order came hours after the government announced its first major concession in the month long political crisis by pledging to appeal a disputed court ruling against Sharif and his brother.
Sharif's spokesman Pervez Rasheed said hundreds of police surrounded his { Sharif's ] house Sunday in the eastern city of Lahore.
ISLAMABAD - The office of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari announced a package of concessions to main opposition leader Nawaz Sharif on Saturday following a two-week political stand-off. The decisions were taken during a meeting between Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Zardari late Saturday, it said in a statement.
So he's only going to take 5% from now on ...
The government would file an appeal to the Supreme Court against a ruling on February 25 that disqualified Sharif and his brother Shahbaz from contesting elections and holding public office, it said.
The president and prime minister also agreed that a dispute over the restoration of judges sacked under emergency rule in 2007 “would be resolved in accordance with the principles laid down in the charter of democracy”. That document, signed by Zardari’s widow, assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, and Sharif in 2006, pledged to restore democracy, avoid confrontation and abolish the role of the military in politics.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/15/2009 00:00 ||
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Federal Minister for Industries Mian Manzoor Ahmed Watto has said on Saturday that government has decided not to allow sit-in at the Constitution Avenue, Islamabad and vowed to safeguard the life and property of the people.
Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif is inviting army takeover by inciting people towards Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) as the aftermath of CMD could lead to country at the mercy of another dictator, Minister added. Addressing a news conference in Lahore, he said federal and provincial governments are responsible to provide security to the people amidst lawyers' long march. He said government has evolved mechanism not to allow the marchers to come to Islamabad and stop them wherever they are.
He said, in this connection, government will not allow the state machinery to arrest women, weak and aged people and will treat them with honour and respect. The Minister said Punjab Chief Secretary and Additional Inspector General of Police have been assigned to work out modalities with Mian Nawaz Sharif, Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Imran Khan about their strategy of long march so that adequate security could be provided to them. "Government will leave no stone unturned to provide security to the political leaders. PPP believes in reconciliation with all political parties and does not want confrontation with political forces", he said adding, and "We want political resolution of the problem and promote democratic traditions."
"The PML-N, PPP government in the Punjab was dismissed as a result of Supreme Court (SC) verdict and PPP leadership expressed their regret with Shahbaz Sharif with a view that it will destabilize democracy," he remarked.
Minister for Food and Agriculture Nazar Muhammad Gondal said there is complete unity among President, Prime Minister and the government and they are running the affairs smoothly. "The government's long march policy is that, this problem should be resolved in a democratic method and all the decisions taken should reflect democracy," he added.
Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Syed Aseff Ahmed Ali, on the occasion, informed, "The government has no objection on the peaceful long march by the lawyers" but added, "The lawyers are being made instrument to achieve political motives." He said the deposed judges cannot be reinstated without legislation.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2009 00:00 ||
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Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf on Saturday has strongly condemned the arrests and torture perpetrated by police on the participants of lawyers' long march and termed the ban on Geo transmission as undemocratic act. Participants from separate political parties attended the All Parties Conference (APC) organized by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf Sindh and announced to partake in lawyers' long march in Karachi on March 16. Activists from Jamat-e-Islami (JI), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), Awami Tehreek (AT) and Labour Party were present in the APC here. Speakers at the conference strongly deplored Karachi police torture and arrests of political activists and lawyers and said, Â"Police are still raiding on lawyers and political activists' residences.Â" They also deplored ban on Geo News transmission in some parts of country saying, Â"Media are being forced to hide truth.Â" Political activists announced to gather in City Court followed by staging sit-in with lawyers on M.A Jinnah road on March 16.
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03/15/2009 00:00 ||
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Hopes for a compromise between the Pakistani government and its protesting opponents over the status of sacked judges faded on Saturday with President Asif Ali Zardari refusing to cave in to pressure, a senior government official said. That's certainly unusual.
Lawyers and opposition political activists nationwide planned to march on the capital by Monday to press embattled President Asif Ali Zardari to reinstate judges sacked by ex-military ruler Pervez Musharraf. Their main demand is the reinstatement of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. Zardari refused to reinstate the judge, seeing him as a threat to his own position.
Pakistan police on Saturday erected a tight cordon to block lawyers and activists who defied a ban on protests, vowing to march on Islamabad as part of a mass anti-government rally named "long march."
The planned protests threaten to bring turmoil to nuclear-armed Pakistan as its year-old civilian government struggles to stem surging Islamist militancy and to revive a flagging economy. Some 150 workers of former Prime Minister Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) rallied in the Punjab city of Multan on Saturday, from where they were scheduled to march on the capital.
Defying protest ban
The authorities had outlawed demonstrations in Islamabad and three provinces, and detained hundreds of activists in the worst such crackdown since Zardari replaced Musharraf last September. "We will go with lawyers to Islamabad by any means possible," Maimoona Hashmi, an MP for the party, told reporters.
Sharif demanded that Zardari reinstate judges and end central rule in Punjab, a PML-N stronghold and Pakistan's most populous--and therefore most politically important--province . Police said they would enforce a ban on protests and rallies. "We have to stop the lawyers and others because they are violating the law," senior police official Karamat Ali told AFP.
As lawyers in black suits and political activists marched down a main road outside the Multan high court, waving flags and punching the air, police said they had sealed off all exit routes from the city. "Police have blocked all roads, but we will go to Islamabad in small groups or one by one," bar association general secretary Rana Naveed Akhtar said.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani promoted a compromise package involving concessions to the main opposition party, led by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and the judiciary.
Zardari firm thus far
But Zardari, widower of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, has stood firm, at least until after the planned nationwide "long march" on Monday. "From what I know, President Zardari has made it clear: 'I am not going to negotiate under pressure. Sharif has to abandon the long march'," said a senior unnamed government official.
The News newspaper said Zardari had rejected a compromise package backed by the United States and Britain, whose top diplomats have consulted both sides in recent days. Zardari would only consider the reconciliation formula after Monday, when the long march is due to climax with a sit-in outside parliament in Islamabad, the newspaper said.
Pakistan's efforts to eliminate Taliban and al Qaeda enclaves on the Afghan border are vital to U.S. plans to stabilize Afghanistan and defeat al-Qaeda. The last thing the United States wants to see is Pakistan consumed by turmoil.
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03/15/2009 00:00 ||
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The lone suspect captured by police during militants' attacks on Mumbai in November expressed remorse and wept while being questioned soon after his arrest, a newspaper reported on Saturday.
Pakistani national Mohammed Ajmal Amir Iman, also known as Kasab, said his father forced him to join a hard-line Islamist commando unit to earn money for the family, the Mumbai Mirror newspaper reported, quoting a police transcript.
The newspaper, which gave no details about how it obtained the transcript, said it was a verbatim account of Iman's questioning for about an hour after his arrest. "My father told me we will get lots of money. We would be able to live like other rich people," Iman allegedly said in the transcript translated from Hindi and Urdu.
Iman, 21, is in Indian police custody and faces trial for murder and "waging war against India".
Mumbai police declined comment on the report, in which one policeman was quoted as telling Iman that, "Crying like this will not help. The people who lost their lives, they were poor and innocent, like you."
Iman, accused of being part of a 10-man group that killed 165 people in a 60-hour killing spree in Mumbai, allegedly belonged to the banned Pakistan-based Islamist group, Lashkar-e-Taiba.
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#1
"My father told me we will get lots of money. We would be able to live like other rich people,"...
Ah, that'll be the purity of spirit and lofty intent of a Holy Warrior.
#3
Newspaper accounts right after the attacks had the father saying young Mr. Iman had quarreled with his father and run away to the jihadis... after which the ISI shut down the village to outsiders.
A distinct vibe emanates from behind the 15-ft.-high chain fences reinforced with rebar and rimmed by razor wire that encircle the so-called "Waterfront" compound at Camp Bucca. It's different from the other compounds in this sprawling 100-acre, open-air U.S detention center close to the Kuwaiti border, the largest in Iraq, which houses a little over 10,000 of the 13,832 detainees currently in U.S custody. In other compounds hundreds of detainees mingle in expansive recreation yards, enjoy access to books, television and chess sets, and aren't locked in at night. There is noise from those sectors; the sound emanating from the Waterfront, however, is silence.
The 3,000 inmates confined to the Waterfront are kept in climate-controlled shipping containers with toilet facilities for 18 hours a day. There are about seven detainees per container, and up to 40 are allowed into one of the many recreation yards at any one time. "These guys are bad guys; they're the worst of the worst," says Brigadier General David Quantock, the commander of Task Force 134 which oversees the detention system in Iraq. He walks past a handful of detainees playing table tennis. "These are the guys the Iraqi government wants."
But to get them, there has to be enough evidence to either hold them on warrants or charge them under Iraqi law. Otherwise the new U.S-Iraqi security pact that came into effect in January demands that they be released. "Before, if we felt that we had a good basis to believe the individual was an imperative risk to the security of Iraq, that was good enough," says Quantock. "After 1 January [of this year], it is not."
And so, U.S investigators from the CIA, FBI and other American intelligence agencies, along with their Iraqi partners, have pored over detainee case files since October, chasing down leads, examining forensic evidence and looking for witnesses to build legal cases against all the inmates of Camp Bucca. Some 7,000 files have been reviewed, with another 3,000 expected to be completed by May. About 2,400 detainee cases are in the Iraqi court system right now. The U.S has largely succeeded in persuading Iraqi judges to expand the rules of evidence to include forensics such as bomb residue and fingerprints, rather than just the traditional requirements of two witness statements or a confession to secure a conviction. As a result, conviction rates have skyrocketed, from about 30% in October, to over 90%, according to Quantock.
Meanwhile, because of the new U.S-Iraq security agreement that went into effect on Jan. 1, a first batch of 1,500 inmates were released from Camp Bucca last month, at a rate of about 50 a day. The marked improvement in security across Iraq has meant that more detainees are being released than captured. Last year, 18,600 low-threat inmates were freed from Bucca, while only half of that figure were taken in. Of those released, 497 were transferred to the Iraqi government.
Still, that's not good enough for some Iraqis, especially Sunnis worried about their co-religionists, who make up 80% of Bucca's detainee population. The Tawafuk Front, the largest Sunni parliamentary bloc with 44 of the legislature's 275 seats, says it doesn't trust the Shi'ite-led government and wants all of the detainees immediately released, even "the minority" they acknowledge might be al-Qaeda members. "Even if you released an al-Qaeda emir [leader], he won't be able to wreak havoc in the same way he did three years ago," says Omar Almashhadani, a spokesman for the Front, citing improvements in the Iraqi security forces and their intelligence gathering capabilities. "The problem," he adds, "is that some detainees are going to be transferred from a prison that, to a certain degree, respects human rights, to another that doesn't. We have less confidence in the Iraqi government than we do in the American troops."
The good news is that the ghost of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal seems to have been laid to rest. The bad news is that detainee families from across the sectarian spectrum don't trust their government. Salam Baten al-Attiya, 30, a Shi'ite from Sadr City, was at Bucca last week to visit his brother Ali, who was picked up by U.S troops on suspicion of being a member of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. "My brother has been here for a year and a month; keep him here for another year and a month but don't hand him over to the Iraqis," Salam says, as other Iraqis gathered around him and echoed his sentiment. "He will be tortured at the hands of the Iraqis. They are corrupt and will make us pay bribes so that they don't torture him." At least they won't have to suffer the horror of women's panties on their heads.
Human rights groups including Amnesty International have warned that detainees are at risk of torture, or even execution, if they are handed over to Baghdad. They have also raised concerns about "appalling" internment conditions as well as a backlog of judicial cases and questions as to how free and fair the judicial process is. Overcrowding is a pressing concern. The Iraqi prison system is operating at 103% capacity, Quantock says, and as a result, more than 500 convicted criminals are being held at Bucca on behalf of the Iraqi Ministry of Justice until space opens up. Says a senior Iraqi Ministry of Justice official who requested anonymity: "We have a lot of pressure on us, from political parties, human rights groups and detainee families, to get through the cases as soon as possible, but we have a shortage of judges and [prison] space."
Commanders at Bucca say they'll only hand over detainees to the nine Iraqi facilities that are regularly inspected by the U.S Justice Department and meet basic humanitarian conditions. They're also building a new prison in Taji, north of Baghdad, with 5,600 beds. The plan is to continue to release most of the Bucca detainees and transition the high-threat inmates over to Taji, train Iraqi staff there and then turn the entire facility over to the Iraqi corrections system. Bucca is expected to be closed by July, and the U.S wants to be out of the detention business here by early next year. But it's going to take more than just additional bed spaces to help boost the Iraqi prison system.
"The problem is that Iraqis don't realize that even if the detainees are transferred to Iraqi courts and prisons, it's not like in the past," says Sgt. Assaad, an Iraqi corrections officer who was monitoring detainee family visitations at Bucca. "Saddam's days are over, torture is over. We will treat everyone based on the law." Maybe that's what some people inside and outside the wire at Camp Bucca are really afraid of.
Iraq's northern enclave used to be called a model for the rest of the country. Not anymore, say Kurds.
Until the old man is out of the way, everyone else who hungers for power in Iraqi Kurdistan is on hold. It could be a long wait. Despite his chronic bad knee and a Mayo Clinic heart operation last August, 75-year-old Jalal Talabani, Iraq's president, is a survivor. At present, he and his longtime rival, Massoud Barzani (together with their families and their respective political machines), still control the largest part of what's worth controlling in the three northern Iraqi provinces that make up the autonomous region. Government ranks are filled with their relatives. Barzani himself is president of the Kurdistan Regional Government, while his nephew Nechirvan is its prime minister and his son Masrour is in charge of intelligence. Talabani's son Qubad is the Kurds' man in Washington, while a nephew heads counterintelligence. Backers once touted Kurdistan as the model for a democratic Iraq—perhaps even for a total makeover of the Middle East. But if anything, the place seems more and more like a stagnant, feudal principality.
Kurdistan used to be the Americans' favorite part of Iraq. Temperate and stable, pro-Western, mostly secular and gleefully capitalist, it was a haven from the chaos and bloodshed that engulfed the rest of the country. It was never perfect—then as now, corruption was endemic, human rights were patchy and civic life was dominated by the same two parties: Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Still, most Kurds could live with the flaws as long as the regional government defended their hard-won autonomy and kept away the suicide bombers.
But as the rest of Iraq keeps growing more open and democratic, the enclave remains stuck in its old ways—and ordinary Kurds are noticing. Businessmen grumble at having to form partnerships with government cronies; voters are demanding more choice. One recent survey in the region found that 83 percent of respondents say the place needs to change. "We're fed up with a government that forgets about people," says Mousa Rasoul, 39, owner of a small business in the town of Sangasar. Those complaints are not to be ignored, a senior Kurdish official agrees. "If we don't respond, others will come and take over this place," he tells NEWSWEEK, asking not to be named on such a risky topic. "Whether it is the Islamists or someone else. We cannot count anymore on revolutionary rhetoric to justify our rule."
Such warnings may be wasted on Kurdistan's two great clans. Talabani created the PUK in 1975 as a leftist challenger to the "feudalist, tribalist, bourgeois, rightist and capitulationist" KDP of the Barzani family. Thousands on both sides are said to have died before the two parties signed a formal ceasefire in 1998 and carved up the region. They gave up their ideological differences long ago, and neither hides its desire for a piece of any action in sight—starting with the region's share of the national budget, which totaled about $6 billion last year. Kurdish officials say each of the two parties takes as much as $35 million per month off the top, although party leaders deny any knowledge of such sums.
Even the Kurdish budget is undisclosed. "We need a transparent [regional] budget," complains the senior Kurdish official. The vast majority of Kurds agree. In a February poll by the Erbil-based Kurdistan Institute for Political Issues, 94 percent of respondents said the regional government ought to make its budget public and specify where and how the money is spent.
Much has been made of Kurdistan's booming economy, but the region is littered with unfinished construction projects. Most foreign investors, daunted by red tape and confusion, are skittish. A former member of the PUK politburo says no oil company operates in Kurdistan without paying commissions to party or regional-government officials. NEWSWEEK was at a recent meeting where one local entrepreneur complained to top Kurdish officials that businessmen have to pay millions to party bureaucrats to win contracts. The officials commiserated.
But neither party tolerates criticism especially well. Local journalists tell of beatings, death threats, even charges of treason. Dissidents are subject to far rougher treatment. "There have been widespread and credible allegations of torture and people being detained for years without a hint of due process," says Joseph Logan of Human Rights Watch. The U.S. State Department's latest Human Rights Report describes abusive practices in the regional government's jails, including electric shocks, beatings and "suspensions in stress positions."
Masrour Barzani says he's doing his best as intelligence and security chief to correct any problems in his jails. The idea, he says, is to build "a more world-standard institution that would be strong enough both to withstand challenges and at the same time be very modern and civilized in terms of protection of citizens and in terms of conduct of duty." Logan credits Masrour Barzani with giving good access to Human Rights Watch investigators, but he adds: "There's well-documented harassment of journalists who have expressed views critical of the political leadership. If the response to pointed criticism is to go after the critics Â… then you can say that experiment [with openness] has not come to fruition."
Kurds hate seeing their political system falling behind that of other Iraqis. Across Iraq a January vote for provincial councils was an impressive show of wide-open democracy, in which several incumbents were tossed out of office. By contrast, the Kurds have yet to hold their own provincial elections, and the PUK and KDP have signaled their intent to field a joint "closed" list. Instead of offering a real choice, ballots will present a slate of candidates drawn from both dominant parties.
Officials from those parties insist their leaders are receptive to opposing views. "Jalal Talabani has been more willing than many others to listen and change," says a senior PUK official. The party has promised it will work toward more transparency and less control. A KDP Central Committee member says his party is also working toward opening up: "Massoud Barzani wants to be seen more as the president of Kurdistan than as carrying on the party agenda," he says. Peter Galbraith, a former U.S. ambassador to Croatia and a longtime supporter of Kurdistan, argues that conditions are improving there. "I think there has been a lot of progress," he says, although he concedes: "Periodically, there are things that one doesn't like to see." A Western defender of the Kurds, asking not to be named on such a sensitive topic, says Kurdistan's people have their own priorities. "The national issue is so important to Kurds that other issues, like democratization, take a back seat," he says.
Not all Kurds agree—and they say the parties need to start cleaning up fast. "You simply cannot go on justifying your rule based on what you did 20 years ago," says the senior Kurdish official. "We can either be a party of the past and end up like Fatah in Palestine, or regenerate ourselves like the Labour Party in the U.K." The time to decide is running out.
BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq's top security official called Saturday for a shift from major military operations to a "war of intelligence" to track down remaining extremist cells responsible for attacks such as those that killed 60 people in the past week in the Baghdad area. In an interview with The Associated Press, Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said it appears that al-Qaida in Iraq is unleashing sleeper cells in a bid to reassert itself after being routed in recent U.S.-Iraqi military operations. He said the key to defeating the insurgents lies in better intelligence, not more wide-scale fighting.
"I do believe that launching major military operations against al-Qaida is no longer needed and that there is a need to activate the intelligence side," al-Bolani said in an interview at his office in a former Saddam Hussein palace on the edge of Baghdad's heavily guarded Green Zone. "There are some al-Qaida sleeper cells who are refreshing their activities to prove that they are still able to conduct attacks," al-Bolani said. "The only challenges we are facing (from them) are the suicide bombers and car bombs."
Al-Bolani appealed for more intelligence support from U.S.-led forces, although he noted that "Iraqis have acquired good experience over the past years."
Iraqi forces also have evidence that hard-line Shiite militants are regrouping in Baghdad and some southern provinces like Maysan and Basra, he said. He was referring to small but well-organized groups that split off from the movement led by Shiite firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. U.S. officials believe those groups are funded and trained by Iran. The Iranians have denied any links to Shiite extremists in Iraq.
The splinter "special groups" continued attacks against U.S.-led forces even after the anti-U.S. cleric declared a unilateral cease-fire in 2007 and then disbanded his Mahdi Army last year. The two major factions are Asaib Ahl al-Haq, or League of the Righteous, and Kataeb Hezbollah.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/15/2009 00:01 ||
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The women are outcasts in Duluiyah, an Iraqi town an hour's drive north of Baghdad. Everyone knows they once belonged to Al Khansaa--an all-female suicide-bomber wing of Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI)--and their neighbors have had plenty of trouble in their lives already without getting mixed up with extremists. "All the people know who they are," says a local official, asking not to be quoted by name. "I told my wife not to go near them."
Months have passed since the women publicly renounced Al Qaeda, but townspeople still ostracize them. The women are forbidden to veil their faces, so they can always be recognized on the street. One day not long ago, four of them went outside at the same time, and the police switchboard was swamped with frantic calls. When the teenage daughter of one former Khansaa member was expelled from school, the girl wept at having to pay for her mother's sins.
In Iraq's long, slow march back to some semblance of normalcy, the story of the women bombers of Duluiyah is a cautionary tale. Certainly U.S. and Iraqi officials are hoping the remnants of the insurgency will follow their example and quit the jihad. But while former insurgents in many places have switched sides and returned to normal life, the wounds of Iraq's civil war are not easily healed. Few refugees have returned to their original homes. Former fighters in Anbar province have been murdered by victims' relatives. And all too often, as the Khansaa women have discovered, fear trumps forgiveness.
The Duluiyah network began to unravel when Sana Alwan blew herself up. Like many other Khansaa women, she relied on the men in her life for guidance. Most Khansaa members joined because their fathers, husbands or brothers suggested it. Some were married off to foreign jihadists who ordered them to sign up. Others enlisted voluntarily, seeking revenge for the deaths of loved ones. In Alwan's case, several of her male relatives were recruited by Al Qaeda and then killed or captured by Coalition forces or pro-government Iraqis.
One day in late September Alwan walked up to a security checkpoint manned by local Iraqis and asked the way to the hospital. One of the guards froze. Alwan's face was veiled, but he recognized the voice as belonging to his niece. Members of the family had warned him she was having "bad thoughts." "Get away from her!" he shouted. The other guards scrambled for cover as he shot Alwan with his AK-47. Crumpling to the ground, she screamed, "God is great!" and set off her suicide vest. The checkpoint's blast walls trembled, but no one else was badly hurt.
Many in town think Alwan was out to get the town's religious leader, Mullah Nadhum al-Jabouri, when she was stopped. She'd complained that the preacher had lured her brothers into the insurgency and then had them arrested after he joined up with the Americans. Soon after the bombing, security forces captured a woman who confessed to leading the Duluiyah cell. Nine other suspected members were picked up, and authorities uncovered a cache of suicide vests as well.
Al Khansaa was disintegrating, and not only because of the arrests. Many of the remaining members could no longer endure the way their neighbors ostracized and shamed them. Four of the women (escorted by male relatives) went to Mullah Nadhum. "They came to me because I am very powerful. I am the master," says Nadhum. "They asked me to find a way to let them come back into society. The young ones could not marry anyone in the tribe, the old could not go out to the markets and the middle-aged could not find jobs."
Nadhum talked the women into reconciling, and in late November, 18 turned themselves in; 23 others soon joined them. This cleared their slates. But the real beneficiaries have been Nadhum and local tribal leaders--some of whom probably helped recruit the women into the Qaeda network in the first place. "I think that some in the Jabouri tribe recognized that, as a tribe, this has bettered their standing," says Lt. Col. David Hodne, battalion commander, 3rd Squadron 4th Cavalry regiment, which covers Duluiyah. "Now they can claim, 'We've turned in an AQI [network]'." The women themselves aren't so lucky, Hodne admits: "The minute they associated themselves with Al Khansaa, they were in a lose-lose situation ... At least they're alive."
True enough, but one neighbor, who lives down the street from some of the women, spends his time filing police complaints in hopes of forcing them to move. Other women have had trouble claiming social-welfare payments. A go-between recently told Iraqi officials the women were "afraid that out of desperation, need and financial trouble, they will return back to the same path." This isn't the death Al Qaeda promised the women of Al Khansaa, but it's not much of a life, either.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2009 00:00 ||
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Big Ol' Tip of the hat to Jammie Wearing Fool
An American activist critically wounded by an Israeli gas canister in the West Bank is "hanging from a thread" after brain surgery Saturday, friends said.
Tristan Anderson, 38, a "tree-sitter" from Oakland, Calif., was hit in the forehead when troops shot tear gas during a protest of the separation barrier between Israel and the West Bank village of Naalin.
Anderson was in the intensive care unit of a Tel Aviv hospital yesterday, with girlfriend Gabrielle Silverman keeping a bedside vigil. "He's really touch and go. He's hanging from a thread," friend Paul Larudee told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Anderson and Silverman, 25, were arrested last year after spending 21 months in a "tree-sitting" protest at the University of California-Berkeley, fighting against the administration's plan to rip down an on-campus grove.
They traveled to the West Bank to rally against the Israeli-erected barrier that could cut off Palestinian villages from valuable farmland.
The Israeli army said it fired the tear gas to stop protesters from throwing stones at soldiers. yep. 38 - yr old "activist". Spent nearly 2 yrs sitting in trees. Where do they get the coin to exist, much less travel to Israel to protest and throw rocks at Israeli troops? Somebody's paying for these commie agitators
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/15/2009 09:51 ||
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#1
Fortunately he was hit in the head, thus missing all vital organs
Posted by: regular joe ||
03/15/2009 11:30 Comments ||
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#2
Where do they get the coin to exist...?
Anderson was in the intensive care unit of a Tel Aviv hospital yesterday...
And the Israelis are picking up this tab no doubt.
#6
Close Jonathan. Usually it's not dear old Grand dad. It's some rich industrialist or financier who passed on his wealth to a trust which by the second or third generation gets taken over by the professional charity (i.e. commie) crowd and used for purposes in direct contravention to those the donor wished.
My solution: All trusts must spend their wealth within 20 years and dissolve.
Posted by: ed ||
03/15/2009 19:50 Comments ||
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#7
This is the difference between a Berkeley poli-sci major and an environmentalist. The poli-sci student knows that rather than trying to head the tear gas canister like a soccer ball, you pick it up off the ground and throw back.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/15/2009 22:58 Comments ||
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#10
what a great story. And the ironies abound - the Israelis still treated this piece of shit and spent tons of Israeli tax money on operating on this dumb hippy - if he was a man of principle he would of refused care at the zionist hospital he was brought to - he was prolly not conscious to do so - so his little pinko girlfriend Ms. Silverman (I'm guessing a Jewish last name) should of did it for him. They protest Israel but have no problem accepting hospital care - typical libtards. How come the Paleos didn't step in to help? Rhetorical.
Israel welcomed a weekend agreement by the US, Canada and seven European states to coordinate efforts to stop the flow of weapons into Gaza. Representatives of the nine countries, at a meeting in London on Friday, agreed on a series of measures including maritime interception, information sharing and diplomatic pressure.
Israeli representatives attended the gathering as observers, but the Egyptian government declined an offer to participate. The Palestinian Authority also did not attend, officials said.
British officials said it was agreed to use existing United Nations resolutions as a legal basis for their efforts rather than seek new legal authority to prevent weapons from reaching Gaza.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
agreed on a series of measures including maritime interception, information sharing and diplomatic pressure
Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Yuval Diskin and the prime minister's special envoy for prisoner exchanges, Ofer Dekel, will hold what are being called "make-or-break talks" in Cairo on Sunday in an effort to clinch a deal to free kidnapped soldier Gilad Schalit from Gaza before the Olmert government leaves office.
The negotiators, who will meet with senior Egyptian intelligence officials, have until Sunday night to finalize an agreement, sources told The Jerusalem Post on Saturday night.
A special cabinet session is scheduled to convene Monday morning on the exchange. Ministers will either be asked to approve the details of a prisoner swap, or be briefed on the unsuccessful efforts.
Fourteen of the 26 cabinet ministers have told the Post that they would likely support a deal, or at the very least would not prevent it from going forward.
Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu has been updated by Olmert, but was not asked to approve the latest developments.
Israel's deadline of Sunday night for an agreement is based on the expectation that coalition agreements for the new government are to be presented to the Knesset on Tuesday. "This is the last week that decision-makers have to fulfill their obligation to save Gilad," Yoel Schalit, Gilad's older brother, told Channel 2 on Saturday.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
This is a sausage I don't want to see being made. Tell me when Schalit is released, and his condition at the time; anything less is fairly meaningless, as Hamas dangles the possibility that they might release him if the right offer is made and they're in a giving mood that day.
Rival Palestinian factions will suspend on Saturday low-level national dialogue as they failed to overcome obstacles in reconciliation talks held in Cairo, said Wasil Abu Youssef, secretary general of the Palestinian Liberation Front.
Abu Youssef said the rival factions will end activities of five national dialogue committees which failed to bridge difference on how to form a unity government and conduct presidential and legislative elections, according to the Egyptian news agency MENA.
But parties made progress in talks over the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), reconciliation committees and security, he added.
President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement insisted during Egyptian-hosted talks taking place in Cairo that rival Islamist group Hamas must "abide" by existing peace agreements signed with Israel but Hamas refused to make such a commitment.
Hamas proposed using the word "respect" instead of "abide" but this falls short of satisfying the conditions set by United States, Israel and Western countries.
The agreements and commitments with Israel were signed by the PLO, now headed by Abbas.
Hamas, the Islamist movement which won a parliamentary election three years ago, has controlled the Gaza Strip since a brief, bloody fight against Fatah in 2007. Abbas's Palestinian Authority holds sway in the occupied West Bank.
Israel, the United States and Western countries refused to recognize Hamas's control of Gaza. Israel, which has imposed a blockade on the coastal territory, demanded an end to Hamas rule before it considers easing its restrictions.
Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman met Fatah and Hamas leaders late on Thursday to try to narrow differences, officials said. Abbas, talking to reporters in the West Bank town of Ramallah, said negotiations "had encountered difficulties."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2009 00:00 ||
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War-hit Sri Lanka Saturday denied UN charges that troops had fired into a safe zone for civilians and said allegations that 2,800 non-combatants had been killed in recent weeks were "unsubstantiated".
Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe accused United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay of relying on "pro-rebel" information in making her allegations on Friday in respect of the decades-long separatist conflict.
"It's very, very unprofessional of her (Pillay's) office to rely on unsubstantiated figures," Samarasinghe told reporters in Colombo. "The figures are similar to those on Tiger proxy websites."
"The army is not shelling into the safe zone for civilians."
Colombo has set up at least two so-called safe zones in the embattled north of the island in which civilians can take refuge. Tamil Tiger rebels say they do not fire on innocent people at all, whether in safe zones or not.
Troops have trapped the Tamil rebels in a narrow strip of coastal land in the northeastern district of Mullaittivu, where they hope to crush the guerrillas by next month.
The international community has begun applying pressure on Colombo amid fears for innocent people caught up in the fighting for an independent homeland for Tamils.
On Friday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, urging the military to avoid firing at civilians in the safety zone and asking that aid agencies get full access to people in need.
"Secretary Hillary Clinton expressed the United States' deep concern over the deteriorating conditions and increasing loss of life occurring in the designated safe zone," US state department spokesman Gordon Duguid said.
Hillary Clinton told Colombo that Sri Lankan troops "should not fire into civilian areas of the conflict zone" and urged him to allow humanitarian groups full access to people in need, said a State Department spokesman.
The secretary called Rajapaksa to "express the United States' deep concern over the deteriorating conditions and increasing loss of life" in the government-designated zone in the country's north, he said in a statement.
Last month the government in Colombo asked men, women and children to move to a stretch of coastline as troops advanced on rebel positions in the north in a bid to crush all remaining pockets of resistance by Tamil Tiger rebels.
Sri Lankan Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona called Hillary Clinton's remarks "exaggerated".
"The state is not plotting to kill civilians," said foreign ministry consultant Rohan Perera. "If they are looking at war crimes, they must point the finger the other way (at the Tigers)."
Sri Lanka has accused the Tigers of holding 70,000 civilians, including local UN aid workers, hostage in the tiny territory still under their control as a human shield -- a charge the rebels deny.
The UN, however, says 150,000-180,000 civilians are trapped by the fighting and are at risk as they remain cornered in the shrinking rebel territory.
"Certain actions being undertaken by the Sri Lankan military and by the LTTE (Tamil Tiger rebels) may constitute violations of international human rights and humanitarian law," Pillay had said.
"We need to know more... but we know enough to be sure the situation is absolutely desperate. The world today is ever sensitive about such acts that could amount to war crimes," she added.
"The current level of civilian casualties is truly shocking, and there are legitimate fears the loss of life may reach catastrophic levels," Pillay warned.
The government bars most journalists and aid workers from the north of the island, meaning the claims cannot be confirmed.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2009 00:00 ||
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(RIA Novosti) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Friday that pressure from Western powers trying to keep Iran in economic isolation have in fact spurred the country to become a space and nuclear power.
"Had you not been bad-tempered and blocked the way, the Iranian nation would not have been present in space, and would not have become a nuclear power," Fars news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying at the inauguration ceremony of a natural gas deposit in the Bushehr province.
Iran put its first communications satellite, Omid (Hope), into a near-Earth orbit on February 2. The research satellite was carried into orbit by a home-made launch vehicle, Safir (Messenger). Iranian Communications Minister Mohammad Soleimani earlier said that the country's scientists were working on the creation of four new satellites to be placed into near-Earth orbit.
The Iranian president said Western powers are unable to stop Iran's technological and scientific progress with their "spiteful actions." He also called the international economic sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program a "grave blunder."
"Of course, we believe that the Iranian nation can tread the path to progress under God's mercy," he said.
Western powers led by the United States, along with Israel, have accused Tehran of attempting to develop nuclear weapons and ballistic missile technology for their delivery. Iran says it needs its nuclear program for electric power generation, and its missile program for space exploration.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2009 00:00 ||
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Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden accused some Arab leaders of being "complicit" with Israel during its devastating offensive in Gaza, in an audio tape broadcast by media on Saturday. "It has become clear that some Arab leaders were complicit with the Crusade Zionist alliance against our people. These are the leaders that America calls moderate," said bin Laden, who carries a 25 million dollar U.S. bounty on his head.
"The countries of the Muslim world from Indonesia to Mauritania are divided into two: Some of them are crooked, while others are even more crooked," he said. "The Holocaust of Gaza amid a long siege is an important historical event that confirms the importance of distinguishing between Muslims and hypocrites," he added. Bin Laden, called on jihadists to liberate Iraq from the US army and then launch attacks on Israel from Jordan.
"Our state after the Gaza (offensive) should not be the same as our state before it. We should work hard and prepare for jihad (holy war) in order to bring about what is right," said the al-Qaeda leader, who is widely believed to have found refuge in Pakistan's largely lawless tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan.
The audio tape, whose authenticity could not be verified, was the second by bin Laden in two months in which he has focused on the Gaza offensive. In an audio tape posted on an Internet site on Jan. 14, he called on Muslims across the world to take revenge against Israel for the blitz, charging that the onslaught had been timed to take advantage of the final days of the Bush administration.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
It would be cool to have OBL use the phrases 'hope and change' or 'yes we can' but his American adviser is probably dead.
#2
INDONESIA reportedly fears the MUSLIM UMMAH under a OWG Islamist-Jihadist State more than its non-Muslim minorities, vee dominance of Muslim-majority Indonesia by MUSLIM NON-INDONESIANS???
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.
Several Tunisian politicians and members of non-governmental organisations expressed unhappiness with Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi's visit to Tunisia this week. The protesters called the chairman of the Association of Muslim Scholars "a symbol of intolerant salafist ideology." 
Rwanda's Hutu rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) claimed on Friday they had inflicted heavy losses on the forces involved in the joint operation launched against them by Kinshasa and Kigali. The Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) said that "heavy fighting has opposed and continues to oppose the coalition" to its troops, in a statement received by AFP in Nairobi.
Uganda will begin withdrawing its troops on Sunday from north-east Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where they are deployed to hunt Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, the Congolese defence minister said. 
RANTING hate preacher 
Pakistani authorities placed opposition leader Nawaz Sharif under house arrest Sunday to stop him from taking part in a major anti-government rally, a spokesman said.
ISLAMABAD - The office of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari announced a package of concessions to main opposition leader Nawaz Sharif on Saturday following a two-week political stand-off. The decisions were taken during a meeting between Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Zardari late Saturday, it said in a statement.
Hopes for a compromise between the Pakistani government and its protesting opponents over the status of sacked judges faded on Saturday with President Asif Ali Zardari refusing to cave in to pressure, a senior government official said. 
The lone suspect captured by police during militants' attacks on Mumbai in November expressed remorse and wept while being questioned soon after his arrest, a newspaper reported on Saturday. 
A distinct vibe emanates from behind the 15-ft.-high chain fences reinforced with rebar and rimmed by razor wire that encircle the so-called "Waterfront" compound at Camp Bucca. It's different from the other compounds in this sprawling 100-acre, open-air U.S detention center close to the Kuwaiti border, the largest in Iraq, which houses a little over 10,000 of the 13,832 detainees currently in U.S custody. In other compounds hundreds of detainees mingle in expansive recreation yards, enjoy access to books, television and chess sets, and aren't locked in at night. There is noise from those sectors; the sound emanating from the Waterfront, however, is silence.
Until the old man is out of the way, everyone else who hungers for power in Iraqi Kurdistan is on hold. It could be a long wait. Despite his chronic bad knee and a Mayo Clinic heart operation last August, 75-year-old Jalal Talabani, Iraq's president, is a survivor. At present, he and his longtime rival, Massoud Barzani (together with their families and their respective political machines), still control the largest part of what's worth controlling in the three northern Iraqi provinces that make up the autonomous region. Government ranks are filled with their relatives. Barzani himself is president of the Kurdistan Regional Government, while his nephew Nechirvan is its prime minister and his son Masrour is in charge of intelligence. Talabani's son Qubad is the Kurds' man in Washington, while a nephew heads counterintelligence. Backers once touted Kurdistan as the model for a democratic Iraq—perhaps even for a total makeover of the Middle East. But if anything, the place seems more and more like a stagnant, feudal principality.
BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq's top security official called Saturday for a shift from major military operations to a "war of intelligence" to track down remaining extremist cells responsible for attacks such as those that killed 60 people in the past week in the Baghdad area. In an interview with The Associated Press, Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said it appears that al-Qaida in Iraq is unleashing sleeper cells in a bid to reassert itself after being routed in recent U.S.-Iraqi military operations. He said the key to defeating the insurgents lies in better intelligence, not more wide-scale fighting. 
The women are outcasts in Duluiyah, an Iraqi town an hour's drive north of Baghdad. Everyone knows they once belonged to Al Khansaa--an all-female suicide-bomber wing of Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI)--and their neighbors have had plenty of trouble in their lives already without getting mixed up with extremists. "All the people know who they are," says a local official, asking not to be quoted by name. "I told my wife not to go near them."
Rival Palestinian factions will suspend on Saturday low-level national dialogue as they failed to overcome obstacles in reconciliation talks held in Cairo, said Wasil Abu Youssef, secretary general of the Palestinian Liberation Front. 
(RIA Novosti) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Friday that pressure from Western powers trying to keep Iran in economic isolation have in fact spurred the country to become a space and nuclear power. 
Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden accused some Arab leaders of being "complicit" with Israel during its devastating offensive in Gaza, in an audio tape broadcast by media on Saturday. "It has become clear that some Arab leaders were complicit with the Crusade Zionist alliance against our people. These are the leaders that America calls moderate," said bin Laden, who carries a 25 million dollar U.S. bounty on his head.
