Civilian deaths caused by the US-led coalition in Afghanistan - including an airstrike that killed at least 16 villagers and a fatal traffic accident that sparked a riot in Kabul on Monday - are undermining President Hamid Karzai and boosting support for the resurgent Taliban, lawmakers and rights activists say.
“It’s damaging for the dignity of the government,” said Noorulaq Homi, a lawmaker from Kandahar province. “The people distance themselves from the government and move toward the Taliban. It is a positive message for the enemy.”
At least 16 people were killed in an airstrike on Azizi village in Kandahar on May 21. US security forces on Monday fired on protesters, killing one person and wounding two, in Kabul after a riot erupted because of a traffic accident involving US troops that killed three people, police and witnesses said.
Such incidents place Karzai, the US-backed president, in a political fix. He remains reliant on the US-led coalition to protect his government but canÂ’t ignore the public anger stirred by military mistakes. Karzai was also angered in mid-April when seven civilians were killed by coalition fire in eastern Kunar province.
The risk of civilian casualties appears to have heightened as security forces and militants, who often hide among their ethnic Pashtun brethren, have gone head-to-head in some of the deadliest combat since the hard-line Taliban regime was ousted by US-led forces in late 2001.
As many as 372 people have died in the fighting since May 17, mostly militants, many of them killed in airstrikes, according to Afghan and coalition figures.
The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, which keeps track of coalition attacks that result in civilian deaths, said at least 135 Afghans have been killed by coalition fire since it started keeping track in mid-2003, though it does not consider its record complete.
An Associated Press estimate of civilian deaths during major combat - from the beginning of the US-led coalition invasion in October 2001 until about February 2002 - found that between 500 and 600 civilians were killed in that period. Other estimates put the toll much higher.
In the time since then, an AP count based on figures from Afghan officials, the coalition and witnesses shows at least 180 civilians have died during coalition military action.
Karzai took the unusual step last week of summoning the top US commander in Afghanistan, Lt Gen Karl W Eikenberry, and telling him “every effort” should be made to ensure civilians’ safety. He has also called an official investigation into the incident.
The government and coalition have reported 16 dead civilians from the May 21 airstrike. But Abdul Qadar Noorzai, director of the rights commission office in Kandahar, said Friday that people from Azizi told him approximately 25 family members were killed in one mud-brick home and nine in the villageÂ’s religious school. Haji Ikhlaf, an Azizi resident wounded in the attack, told AP earlier that villagers had buried 26 civilians.
Ahmad Nader Nadery, a member of the Afghan rights commission, said the accidental killings are being used by the Taliban and Al Qaeda as a recruiting tool.
In the eastern city of Gardez, near the border with Pakistan, tribal leaders have shown the commission fliers printed by the Taliban that cited civilian casualties as a reason to join the militantsÂ’ struggle, he said.
Parliamentary speaker Yunus Qanooni on Monday asked Afghans to exercise restraint in light of the riots in Kabul. “We call on the people to be tolerant because there is the risk this could be exploited by our enemies,” he said, referring to Taliban rebels.
The worst such incident came in July 2002, when Afghan officials said 48 civilians were killed and 117 wounded in an airstrike in Uruzgan province. The dead included 25 members of an extended family attending a wedding celebration.
In 2004, the US military said it had modified its rules of engagement after Karzai expressed outrage over the deaths of 15 children in two airstrikes in late 2003. Officials refused to say how the rules had been changed, saying that would help militants.
The US military has responded to past accidental deaths by saying that efforts are made to avoid such casualties but that Afghanistan is still a combat zone where militants take cover among civilian populations.
Col Tom Collins said the deaths in Azizi were a result of the militants firing from the mud-brick homes. He said international law gives coalition forces the right to return fire.
Lawmakers in AfghanistanÂ’s newly elected parliament have drafted a resolution condemning the civilian deaths in Azizi and calling for the military to take more care.
“They (the coalition) need to be very careful to separate the civilians and the enemy,” said Saleh Mohammed Registani, a lawmaker from central Panjshir province. “The situation is getting worse. It’s a big problem for the coalition.”
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/30/2006 02:15 ||
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Sounds to me like the Taliban is CAUSING Afghan civilian deaths IN ORDER to exploit them.
DOHA - Afghan President Hamid Karzai has indefinitely postponed a three-day visit to Qatar which he had been due to begin Monday in the face of deadly anti-US riots in Kabul, Afghan diplomats said. “Mr Karzai’s visit has been put off indefinitely because of the violence in Kabul,” one diplomat told AFP, asking not to be identified.
Stay close to home, keep an eye on your friends, the army, and that shifty-eyed Mahmoud down the hall ...
Karzai had been due to visit Qatar on the third leg of a regional tour that has already taken him to the United Arab Emirates and Iran. He was instead to head straight home from Iran.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/30/2006 00:00 ||
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USA 30 May. 06 ( Sh.M.Network) top U.S. official handling Somalia has been transferred from his job after criticising payments to warlords that are said to be fuelling some of Mogadishu's worst-ever fighting, diplomats said on Tuesday. Fellow analysts in the close-knit community of Somalia- watchers in Nairobi said the U.S. State Department transferred Michael Zorick, formerly Somali political affairs officer at the U.S. Embassy in Kenya, to the Chad embassy after he spoke out.
"And if you open your mouth again, there's an opening in Zimbabwe"
The move exposes a rift inside the U.S. government on how to handle Somalia -- whether efforts to build peace should come before counter-terrorism -- and the effect Washington's perceived role has had in inflaming fighting there.
At least 320 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the anarchic city since February in battles between the warlords, who dubbed themselves the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism, and Islamist militias.
"He really decided to take up the battle. He realised very well what he was doing," a Western diplomat who is close to Zorick and asked not to be identified, told Reuters. Various other diplomats involved with Somalia, including those from Washington's allies, have expressed frustration at U.S. aid to warlords which they say has undermined Somalia's weak interim government, seen as the best hope for peace there.
Zorick could not be reached for comment and e-mails sent to his State Department address, which had previously worked, were returned as undeliverable.
Ouch! No e-mail means he's a non-person. Heh.
Bob Kerr, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, said Zorick was due to leave his post in a few months but left early in April by mutual agreement with Ambassador William Bellamy. "There were no unwilling transfers from the embassy," Kerr said.
Kind of like "He's leaving to spend more time with his family"?
The embassy in Kenya is also responsible for neighbouring Somalia.
Analysts say Washington's widely believed links with the warlords have had the contrary effect of rallying Islamist groups and increasing support for them among Somalis, who are not usually strong supporters of radical Islam. The analysts say it has also strengthened the influential Mogadishu Sharia courts -- which have brought a semblance of order to parts of the lawless country -- against the interim government.
..and Mussolini had the trains running on time
The diplomats said Zorick opposed a U.S. intelligence plan to capture a handful of al Qaeda suspects believed to be in Somalia, by paying warlords there -- among them ministers in the government -- to hunt them down. "He felt it was wrong in the sense that it didn't achieve the objectives," the diplomat said.
Zorick was part of the peace process in Kenya to create the Somali government, formed in late 2004 in the 14th such attempt since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991. The new administration has made little progress and stays in the south-central town of Baidoa because it is too weak to move to the capital. The pitched battles in Mogadishu have emphasised its lack of control.
The United States has never confirmed its support for the warlords, but has made clear it will work with anyone it considers an ally in its counter-terrorism fight. Ambassador Bellamy said last week the United States was being "wrongly blamed" for fighting in Somalia and should be credited for spending millions in aid and peace work there.
Washington has invested considerable military and intelligence resources in the Horn of Africa, starting with a base in Djibouti, and is known to operate in tandem with local security services and Ethiopia in particular. Somalia is a particular U.S. worry because of its total lawlessness, and the fact planners of the 1998 blasts at U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi and a 2002 bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya operated from there.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/30/2006 15:03 ||
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"There were no unwilling transfers from the embassy," Kerr said.
With a follow-on post of Chad, who would dare bitch or moan?
#2
State officials are there to push forward our policies, not to openly question US policy. He is lucky he's not fired. His time to speak out is at the country team meetings, in private with the Ambassador, and prior to any policy execution.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/30/2006 21:54 Comments ||
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Stilted phrasing and fractured syntax in the original, which was a translation from, I believe, Chickladorian. How things are done by the Somali "government": I think the gist of it is that he robbed Peter to pay Paul. Peter thinks he likes Paul better. Mounds, meanwhile, was in Mogadishu, shelling a hospital...
The president of the transitional federal government Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed accompanying with government members of ministers and MPs has today paid short visit the training camp of Manas 35 km away from the provisional town of Baidoa, reports say. The president and the other officials supervised the parts of the training camp in which resided by militia of Digil and Mirifle clans and militia of Puntland those who had a month ago shifted from Jowhar suburb, capital town middle Shabelle region controlled by Mohamed Dhere, a powerful warlord.
The journalists were not allowed to witness the presidentÂ’s supervision to the camp, with the militia officers refuted the press to record the speech that president Yusuf delivered there. Sources close to the presidentÂ’s aide say Mr. Yusuf had whispered with the militia of Puntland those consist of 1,300 soldiers, giving each of them one million Somali Shillings for salary.
Mr. Yusuf also visited the part in the camp in which both RRA militia of Digil and Mirifle clans and hundreds of former national forces of totally 940 soldiers stationing by not paying them any salary or promotion as they were waiting him attentively. Nevertheless the deputy minister of defense Omar Adam Dhere said the government would recently pay salaries to militia of RRA (Rahanwein Resistance Army) and for national forces.
MogadishuÂ’s Somalinet correspondent says the comment of the deputy minister was an excuse to the militias not today being paid. The RRA militia were recruited and collected from checkpoints in and out side of Baidoa town and the government promised them with salary and welfare.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Chickladorian, ah yes, 1st person plural on Fridays, always, no possessive pronouns in months without an R. No word for toe and the 63 variations of Noose are banned in mixed company.
Members of militias fighting for control of the Somali capital could face war crimes charges for attempting to prevent the wounded and civilians from receiving assistance during the conflict, a U.N. official warned Monday.
But it's doubtful they will...
The battle between fundamentalist Islamic militias and rival secular combatants has forced about 1,500 to seek treatment at Mogadishu's two main hospitals since the beginning of this year, said Eric Laroche, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia. "Increasingly worrying reports from Mogadishu describe indiscriminate shelling of civilian populations and the city's medical facilities, with dozens dead in the last few days," the U.N. said in a statement. "Due to the intensity of the recent fighting, an increased number of civilian casualties have been unable to reach medical facilities."
Y'see, it's politically incorrect to refer to anybody as a savage anymore, so we're always surprised when we see savargery.
He warned the warring factions "that any deliberate attempt to prevent wounded or civilians receiving assistance and protection during fighting in the city may constitute elements of future war crimes," according to the statement.
I'd call that a pretty definite "tut tut." I'm sure a qualifying statement will be out in a day or two, to take the edge off.
I see the hand of Carla Del Ponte in this, she's looking for a job ...
The official said he was shocked at the targeting of hospitals, describing the action as a blatant violations of the basic rules of international humanitarian law.
The word you're looking for is "savagery." But you won't use it.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2006 00:00 ||
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May 30, 2006: Palestinian terrorists have just lost a major ally, Egypt popular support. This all happened because some Palestinian terrorists decided to help their terrorist brethren in Egypt. Big mistake.
Palestinian terrorists are heroes in the Arab world, especially for their suicide bomber attacks on Israeli civilians. But over the last few years, Israel has shut down nearly all terrorist attempts. This led to a truce, which the largest terrorist group, Hamas, has honored. As a result, some of the more radical Hamas members joined the small al Qaeda operation in Gaza. This led to links with Islamic terrorists in Egypt (and participation in the April, 2006 attacks that killed twenty people (mostly Arabs and Moslems) in an Egyptian Red Sea resort town. The renegade Hamas killers were apparently also involved with three assassination attacks against Fatah (the Palestinian old guard party that opposes Hamas) leaders in Gaza. Renegade Hamas terrorists have also shown up in Jordan, where they are trying to link up with local al Qaeda remnants.
The three al Qaeda operations (Gaza, Egypt and Jordan) are basically local terrorists who have bought into the al Qaeda philosophy. This means they are out to kill any who oppose them, using assassination or suicide bomb attacks. But since al Qaeda got run out of Afghanistan in late 2001, many radicalized Moslems, taken with the idea of a world dominated, and run, by Islamic zealots, have tried to set up local al Qaeda chapters. Few have gotten past the plotting, scheming and shooting your mouth off phase. The Sinai group was made up of angry Bedouins, some of whom developed connections with Islamic radicals in the cities. This led to some earlier terror bombings, and an alliance with the Gaza terrorists.
Most of the Sinai group have now been hunted down and arrested or killed. But given the poverty, and long history of bad treatment, the Sinai Bedouins will probably generate another bunch of Islamic terrorists. The situation in Gaza is different, because Islamic terrorists are still heroes there, even if they kill Palestinians. The Jordanian al Qaeda group is under a lot of pressure, mainly because of an al Qaeda attack last year that killed dozens of Arabs attending a wedding. Islamic terrorists have constantly undercut their support with atrocities like that. The Sinai terrorists made themselves very unpopular because they are not only killed lots of Egyptians, and foreign Arabs, but attacked the tourism industry, which is a major part of the Egyptian economy. This has turned Egyptians against Islamic radicals in the past. Going after government officials would be a popular act to most Egyptians, but that's difficult to carry out. So the terrorists just kill whoever they can get at. Yes, it's stupid, and we should all be grateful for that.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/30/2006 08:29 ||
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It's probably a mistake to analyze the motives of the terrorists, and to judge whether a particular terrorist attack was 'stupid'. Raving psychotic muzzie death cult rampages are inherently stupid, all the time.
No, they don't analyze whether their 'attacks' will be percieved as stupid or smart. They commit these acts for the same reason the scorpion stung the frog...it's in their NATURE.
#2
They have this overwhelming urge to kill someone, anyone. And soldiers/officials are hard to kill. So what do you do? Civilians, schoolkids, women especially are much easier.
#4
I think this article is cruelly insensitive. If cut off from killing Israelis what do you expect? I mean, ramifications and cause-effect issues aside, they have to kill somebody.
#5
IMO, these are are to Radical Islamists what so-called "blanks" were to Mao and Stalin - simple, perennially poverty-stricken honest people whom are too trusting for their own good, highly susceptible to abuse, corruptions, and deceptions. Probably being told how America, Israel, and West is against God and Islam, and is a threat to traditional [desert] values, and Grandma and Grandpas' camels and way-of life. Dad will go to hell for working 9-5 plus earning time-and-a half to get a decent 1+ storied private house + car(s), and so will Mom for attending post-elementary/basic school(s) and cooking meals wid a GE or Westinghouse appliance. Everyone will go to hell , or at least bear risk of execution, for wanting politicians and espec Mullahs to be elected by popular-democratic vote. REMINDS ME OF AN OLD "BENSON'S" TV EPISODE WHERE A TERROR/GUERILLA COMMANDER HAD KIDNAPPED BENSON AND BENSON'S CO-WORKER, AND WANTED SIX-EIGHT? FULLY ARMED? F-4 PHANTOM JETS, ONE FOR EACH MEMBER OF HIS LOCAL ARMED GROUP EACH OF WHOM DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO FLY ONE, AND DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO FLY PERIOD!
In his recent State of the Nation speech, President Vladimir Putin said that "Russia's modern foreign policy is based on the principles of pragmatism, predictability and the supremacy of international law."
That seems clear-cut if you forget that recent events have shown that pragmatism overrules predictability and international law whenever it serves Putin's concept of Russia's self-interest.
Various groups among his cronies press Putin with different conceptions of where that self-interest lies. A visiting Russian scholar at Chatham House (Yury E. Fedorov) recently identified the different groups trying to bend Putin's ear. (His talk, "Boffins and Buffoons," can be found at the Chatham House Web site).
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/30/2006 02:40 ||
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Officials within Putin's own govt. admit that Russia's oil and gas reserves will run out within 20-plus years, while the women will be basically paid little to nothing per year [ruble-wise]for having babies to save Socialist Russia from itself.
Congratulations! That was the most readable of your comments I have ever seen!
Don't forget though that Russia has potentially vast reserves under the arctic ocean (as does the US, Canada and Denmark) which will become more accessible if the current warming trend continues.
Posted by: DanNY ||
05/30/2006 7:06 Comments ||
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predictability
Yes, we have it down. Predictability, as in.... we can never, ever, phueching trust you!
May 30, 2006: The mystery, of what China is doing with the former Russian aircraft carrier Varyag, continues. The Chinese appear to be doing some kind of work on the Varyag, one of two Kuznetsov class that Russia began building in the 1980s. The Varyag has been tied up in a Chinese shipyard at Dailan since 2002. While the ship is under guard, it can be seen from a nearby highway. From that vantage point, local military and naval buffs have noted that some kind of work is being done on the ship. The only visible signs of this work are a new paint job (in the gray shade used by the Chinese navy) and ongoing work on the superstructure (particularly the tall "island" on the flight deck.) Many workers can be seen on the ship, and material is seen going into (new stuff) and out of (old stuff) the ship.
Originally the Kuznetsovs were conceived of as 90,000 ton, nuclear powered ships, similar to American carriers (complete with steam catapults). Instead, because of the cost, and the complexity of modern (American style) carriers, the Russians were forced to scale back their goals, and ended up with the 65,000 ton (full load ) ships that lacked steam catapults, and used a ski jump type flight deck instead. Nuclear power was dropped, but the Kuznetsov class was still a formidable design. The thousand foot long carrier normally carries a dozen navalized Su-27s (called Su-33s), 14 Ka-27PL anti-submarine helicopters, two electronic warfare helicopters and two search and rescue helicopters. But the ship can carry up to 36 Su-33s and sixteen helicopters. The ship carries 2,500 tons of aviation fuel, allowing it to generate 500-1,000 aircraft and helicopter sorties. Crew size is 2,500 (or 3,000 with a full aircraft load.) Only two ships of this class exist; the original Kuznetsov, which is in Russian service, and the varyag.
Because of the expense, and risk of accidents with an inexperienced crew, the Kuznetsov doesn't get to sea much. But the Russians have had enough experience with Kuznetsov to encourage them to get develop plans for two more, larger, carriers. These new ships, which are not expected until the next decade, if ever, may look like current carriers, but will probably be quite different inside. For one thing, the Russians would probably arm any future class of carriers with more missiles and robotic aircraft (combat UAVs.) Even the Kuznetsov had twelve aircraft size P-500 Shipwreck anti-ship missiles. These were launched from tubes mounted beneath the flight deck.
The Kuznetsovs also had 24 anti-aircraft missile launchers, as well as 30mm close-in guns, anti-torpedo decoy rockers and lots of radars and electronics. Thus the Chinese have much to learn from how the Varyag, and it's 3,800 compartments, and 16 kilometers of internal passageways. The Kuznetsov was designed based on decades of Russian experience building, and operating smaller carriers. The Russians had also obtained much technical data on the most modern U.S. carriers. Thus the Varyag is a huge depository of useful information on how to build an aircraft carrier. And that's apparently how the Chinese are using it. At the same time, the Chinese are spending a lot of time, and money, installing new equipment on the Varyag (which arrived in China without engines.) So far, China has been silent on their plans for the Varyag, but judging from what has been going on with the ship in the Dalian harbor, something substantial is happening.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/30/2006 08:41 ||
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Is Taiwan outside of the range of Chinese land-based air cover? Do you see where I'm going with this?
Posted by: Jonathan ||
05/30/2006 9:23 Comments ||
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Sounds like a nice target. How many US Admirals are there who would go beserk at the chance to be the first to sink a carrier since 1945?
They'd have to beat the sub captains to it, though.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
05/30/2006 9:32 Comments ||
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One theory is that the PLAN will use their first carrier(s) as a mobile foward-airfield (land, refuel, re-arm) rather than embark aircraft.
#4
. . . the Varyag is a huge depository of useful information on how to build an aircraft carrier. And that's apparently how the Chinese are using it.
Not surprised they would back-engineer it--it's quicker than desiging a ship from a cold start.
How many US Admirals are there who would go beserk at the chance to be the first to sink a carrier since 1945?
There hasn't been a genuine carrier-vs-carrier battle since Cape Engano in 1944, and that almost doesn't count (the Japanese fleet was a mere shadow of its former self). Nobody has any direct experience with how such a battle would shape up using modern aircraft and missiles and modern damage control--thus, the use of the hulk of America for weapons testing, and the recent US-India naval maneuvers which seem to have included a little carrier-on-carrier sparring.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/30/2006 10:04 Comments ||
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It's being converted into a Spaceship, and will roam the Galaxy battling aliens...or something like that.
#7
This could tilt the balance of power when it comes to the outlieing islands that are disputed. Islands such as the Spratlys could be affected by a large warship in the area. But I cant wait to see it off the coast of Florida checing on the oil well they are putting inout there.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/30/2006 10:31 Comments ||
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Nah. The ex-Varyag instantly becomes a chewtoy for B-1's out of Guam or F-15s out of Kadena. I don't think the Chinese would use it for a Helicopter base. It would then be in range of antiship missiles from Taiwan. It would also suck in an attack against the US Navy since the SU-33s are few in number and can only take off with minimum fuel and weapons. Best use is a lab to study future aircraft carrier designs or intimidate less well armed neighbors to the south.
Posted by: ed ||
05/30/2006 11:15 Comments ||
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One theory is that the PLAN will use their first carrier(s) as a mobile foward-airfield (land, refuel, re-arm) rather than embark aircraft.
Try, just try to land on a carrier with a conventional aircraft (Hint: Even if it had an arrestor hook the cell will not take the severe stresses of a carrier landing).
And just try to land on a carrier without a loooong and painful training. You have no idea how small a carrioer can look when you have to lmand on it. Even in fair weather.
#10
Hey a carrier in the hands of a country with no experience with carrier landings and take offs and the flight deck choreography?
THATS GREAT!!!
I mean, you gotta think this could deplete the stockpile of experienced ChiCom MIG pilots by at least a third AND it has the additional philup of scaring the bejabbers out of an additional third and having the rest defect to the US to flight commercial jets.
I think we should GIVE the ChiComs a couple of old carriers, buy some popcorn and video tape the carnage.
#11
JFM's right, that big assed carrier looks small even from the helicopters I have flown. I can only imagine it from a fighter respective. Lots of popcorn.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/30/2006 12:40 Comments ||
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Because of the expense, and risk of accidents with an inexperienced crew, the Kuznetsov doesn't get to sea much. But the Russians have had enough experience with Kuznetsov to encourage them to get develop plans for two more, larger, carriers.
The Chinese have the same idea. This is a first step, just to get some experience in seaborne flight ops. The steps after this will be much more interesting.
#19
Time to twist the Chinese boxers a bit tighter - Let's give Japan two of our old oil-burning carriers, and a fleet of F/A-18s. The Chinese screams would echo off the moon.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/30/2006 16:43 Comments ||
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I *still* think they may be turning it into a lily pad type vehicle for the Spratleys.
Posted by: Phil ||
05/30/2006 16:57 Comments ||
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#21
Let's give Japan two of our old oil-burning carriers, and a fleet of F/A-18s.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/30/2006 17:07 Comments ||
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#22
I've done one carrier trap in my life, as cargo, on a Greyhound. And one is enough.
I got to look out the front when they pointed out the carrier and said thats where we were landing.
My thoughts, which escaped as words (and made the crew laugh) "You gotta be shittin me!"
(Got the usual Navy comeback: "We wouldn't shit you spooky, you're our favorite turd", to which I said "Just give me a chute and I'll jump.").
Carrier traps are nothing if not insanely scary. No way the Chinese will be able to operate this unless they ahve a lot of sea-tiome for the crew and aircrews.
#23
My analysis: It's a bluff, "Hey look over here!" Like it's french cousin (they collaberated on it) this Russian junk can't even defend itsself except against the most weakest of enemies. One day it will stay into Korean waters, the ROKs will capture or sink it, and then the Norks/Chicoms will attack the south.
#24
Try, just try to land on a carrier with a conventional aircraft (Hint: Even if it had an arrestor hook the cell will not take the severe stresses of a carrier landing).
Likely they'll use a carrier-capable airframe.
The tactics supposedly are not to have an embarked air-wing on the carrier. Acting as a "lily pad' is probably the best description.
And just try to land on a carrier without a loooong and painful training.
The Chinese have had an airfield configured like a carrier's deck for quite some time, even before the Varyag showed up. I suspect they may also take (or are taking) advantage of Russian facilities as well.
You have no idea how small a carrioer can look when you have to lmand on it. Even in fair weather.
#25
hope they use their best and brightest to test it out :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/30/2006 22:23 Comments ||
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#26
Against the USN's NIMITZ-class and escorts the PLAN realistically has no chance, against the Royal Navy CV's the PLAN has a very slight chance of victory but I believe will lose in the end. We all know about France and PROP-GATE - the French normally have very good systems but they have to get there first. Taken collectively, the VARYAQ [MELBOURNE???]is at best a "show-the-flag" training ship for follow-on PLAN designs, at worst an expendable vessel or one that will likely be sunk in the openning/first round of a US-China regional war - it will take lots of time and espec $$$ for the Chicoms to dev an indigens CV + escorts even remotely capable of challenging a US-NATO carrier battle group. Both RUSSIA + CHINA > stated that WAR Against America, AND ONLY AGAINST AMERICA, circa Year(s) 2015-2018 is not only possible or realistic but desired - its 2006-1/2 already, and Year 2015 is 7-1/2 years away. Iff CHINA still wants to wage its war starting circa 2015, at its current rate of military modernization it will have to do it wid Airborne forces, Commandos-Fifth Columnists/PYWAR, and "boomer" Subs, i.e. regional "take-and-hold" subject to IMMEDIATE REGIONAL-GLOBAL NUCLEAR ESCALATION against US = US-Allied milfors and CONUS itself. China's Central Military Commission and PLA General Staffs will likely be willing to accept prohibitive losses amongst pan-PLA attacking units, espec iff tradeoffs have occurred vv modern tech transfers vs primitivity. *IFF THE RUSSIANS BUILD IT, CHINA WILL BUY OR RE-ENGINEER IT". On a separate note, its is my belief that, vv China's recent purchase of Russian BE fast jet-propelled seaplanes, that China will convert these into multipurpose littoral crafts, wid some versions potens equipped wid LR MISSLE TUBES for surface attack, anti-air, BMD andor possible strategic attack capability. Worse coming to worse, China = IRAN = North Korea, etc > biggest, ultimate ace are ANTI-AMERICAN AMERICANS PC working within the Amer NPE against their own country and people. Both Russia-China adhere to the "WAR/BATTLE/LOCAL ZONE" anti-US strategy which emphasizes or prioritizes POLITICAL-DIPLOMATIC VICTORY OVER MILITARY [MSM, PYWAR/Fifth Column, PC=PDeniability, Perceptions-Info Management-Warfare, etal.].
National intelligence service AIVD can when necessary eavesdrop on journalists, Interior Minister Johan Remkes told the Dutch parliament on Tuesday.
Journalists may not break the law in the execution of their profession and are therefore not shielded from investigation by the AIVD and the prosecution service, the Minister said.
His comments came amid reports that Germany's foreign intelligence service spied on German journalists and recruited reporters as informants.
Remkes was responding to written questions from MPs about allegations the AIVD eavesdropped on two Dutch journalists who were suspected of obtaining classified information.
The journalists
reported in newspaper 'De Telegraaf' that secret crime reports compiled by the BVD, the AIVD's predecessor, were circulating in the Amsterdam underworld.
Remkes emphasised that such monitoring had to be really necessary and only with the permission of the minister.
Acknowledging the press "because of its unique position in democratic society deserved far-reaching protection," Remkes said the country's jurisprudence allowed journalists to appeal to the right of privilege and the question of whether to launch an investigation into their work had to be considered very carefully.
In a joint response, the Society of Chief Editors and the Dutch journalists union NVJ wrote that this meant journalists had to pay a high price for warning society that State secrets were circulating among criminals.
Both groups said they hoped parliament could persuade the minister to change his mind.
I question a lot of this "no direct links" stuff, incidentally. The group that carried out the 3/11 attack was part of the same North African jihadi network that was involved in the Casablanca attacks and had done a lot of logistics work on the side for mujahideen in Chechnya, Iraq, and Bosnia, to say nothing of their ties to Yarkas and the 9/11 attacks. As for the 7/7 bombings, the UK authorities want to claim there wasn't any direct connection to organized groups as an excuse to keep them from cleaning up Londonistan or going after the LeT. In each case, the governments probably believe that they are delaying action until they're ready and preventing panic, but what they're actually doing, ironically enough, is providing more than ample fodder to anyone who wants to argue that all Muslims are actual if not potential security threats and should be viewed as such by the authorities, though I doubt such thoughts have crossed their minds at this point.
European intelligence networks have thrown a blanket of surveillance over a small but fiercely violent cast of Islamic militants, many homegrown with no direct links to al-Qaida, whose fingerprints they expect to find on the Continent's next big terrorist attack.
Senior security officials across Europe warned in interviews with The Associated Press that the relative ease and low cost of an attack, combined with the anger and isolation felt by Muslim populations, mean more bloodshed is almost inevitable.
The officials painted a picture of a diverse group of militants with competing agendas, vastly different social and educational backgrounds and a litany of gripes that makes it difficult to predict their next move. While they may be motivated by Osama bin Laden's call for worldwide jihad, they mostly operate independently of al-Qaida's leadership, the officials said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/30/2006 02:07 ||
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The last time I heard we (the Brits) hadn't interrogated the returned Egyptian chemistry PhD student affiliated to the London group... hmmmmn, looks like a 'serious' investigation to me. I hope they blow parliament to tiny bits next time - then something may be done i.e. sensitivities to certain communities being overridden.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
05/30/2006 8:03 Comments ||
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#2
This requires a paradigm change: there is no right to live there for those who wish to undermine the native culture and laws. Those being watched who are in the country illegally should be summarily deported as undesirable aliens, along with their dependents; those there legally on temporary or long term visas as resident aliens, should be summarily returned to their place of origin -- or their estimated place of origin (based on physical appearance, accent, etc) for breaking the terms of their visa, along with their dependents. Those who have taken citizenship under what are obviously false pretenses, should have that citizenship revoked, then be deported to their country of previous citizenship, along with all naturalized dependents and subsequent offspring; native-born spouses should be given a choice to join the deportee in exile, or to remain, with the understanding that there will be no dole beyond the first year, to enable them to make the transition to being self-supporting -- it takes no education or job skills to obtain employment scrubbing floors.
Finally, those being watched who are native-born should be jailed for conspiracy to commit terror. Much will be revealed about the terror cells and the overall structure as they scramble to replace those taken from them, on the one hand, and the morale of those remaining will suffer as they think of being cast out of their state-supported Eden on account of their nefarious activities, however noble and Lion of Islam-y they may be.
Not that this will happen, either over there or as much as needed on this side of the pond.
PARIS (EJP) --- French police opened an investigation Monday after suspected members of a black extremist group marched through a Jewish quarter in central Paris shouting anti-Semitic slogans at the weekend.
Shoppers in the historic Marais neighbourhood, one of the busiest districts in the Jewish area of Paris, were left in shock early Sunday evening after a group of black extremists terrorised community members with anti-Semitic verbal abuse.
More than 20 men claiming to be members of the Tribu-Ka anti-white group walked up and down the crowded Rue des Rosiers shouting at the families and youths in the area. Jewish groups want the extremist group to be banned.
The French Office of Vigilance against anti-Semitism (BNCVA) said in a statement the gang was “performing Nazi salutes, looking for a fight with the neighbourhood's Jews, threatening and intimidating them".
BNCVA said the gang members were "performing Nazi salutes, looking for a fight with the neighbourhood's Jews, threatening and intimidating them".
"We are in contact with the interior ministry and the police department on the question," the head of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRCIF), Roger Cukierman, told AFP.
“They screamed out 'Death to Jews!'” one witness, who would only give his name as Julien, told EJP.
“They told us they weren’t Arabs and that they would kasherise us,” said a second witness, Stephan, a fifty-year-old butcher from the Panzer delicatessen.
“I’ve never been more scared in my life,” book-salesman David R added.
Police quickly broke up the march, running identity checks on 19 people none of whom were armed. Security has been stepped up in the area. Since they committed no apparent offence, police let the men go.
#2
These tards are trouble. Toss them in jail and throw them out when their term is served. Export them to the region of their ethnic and tribal origins. It will never happen.
If I was Jewish I would be making arrangements to move to North America. It's only going to get worse for you if you stay in Eurabia.
Believe it or not, but french people are not genetically predisposed toward collaborating, otherwise we wouldn't have lost 1,4 millions men in WWI.
We're sick, the same sickness that's affecting you americans, by the way, though the rot is *much* deeper here, but we're not intrisincally subhuman cheese-eating surrendering monkeys, thnaksyouverymuch.
Separately, why don't you try posting your link over in the O Club (see clickable thingy in the right margin of the page), and whichever moderator is on duty can take it from there.
#13
I'm threading on JFM's territory, I hope he won't sue me for copyright infringement.
As for the comments, it's not really important, it's just that (summary to avoid RA) :
- The kemites/tribu ka are a NOI off-shoot, more antiwhite than antisemite, complete with revised conspiracy History (ancient egyptians = blacks, etc, etc,...).
- This is actually a "response" to a couple of kemites having been beaten up during the Ilan Halimi march (as youssouf fofana was friendly to the kemites's ideology, as some radicalized black are in the 'hoods); they're so "responding" to this in a gang mentality, and offer themselves street credibility in the 'hoods by "going after" a fantasized all-powerful ennemy, the LDJ... 30-40 of them already got at a krav maga school looking for trouble and issuing a challenge to the LDJ members supposedly training there (though there was actually no jews there at that moment, since it was sabbat...).
In their website (now down), they see themselves as the victors, since the "cowardly jews" didn't show up when they crossed their "territory".
- They were ready for a clash; some witnesses reported to jewish online media that some of them sported mouthguards (they're heavily into "street martial arts", as many homeboyz from the 'hoods, mostly thai boxing), iron rods, baseball bats, and there was even reports of bulletproof vests.
Btw, I see my own comment doesn't add much to the article, I should have gone to the link first. I stand by my remark about the mouthguards and all, though it could be a rumor (received it through emails).
Note the kemites are not muslim, they're more like a cult, even more than the NOI, neopagans adoring aton-ra and rejecting christianity as the white man's tool for enslaving the superior black race. Their antisemitism is an opportunist one, to push the right buttons in the projects (jews = slave sellers then and now, etc, etc,...), they're foremost antiwhite, from what I've read, and this demonstration of strenght was a PR move based on their gang mentality.
#18
anonymous5089, Now my mind is boggling. "neopagans adoring aton-ra"
What is the drug comsumption in this environment?
If they reject Christianity why do they feel the need to create another belief system? Why not just be atheists? This is as wacked as the Church of the SubGenius except that the SubGenius knows it is a joke and has fun with it.
#19
You have insulted the almighty Bob 3dc! Sacrilege!
On a more serious note it does sound like some wigged out bozos. My recommendation still stand. Put them all on the export list after a rough jail sentence.
#20
I say give them community service in that neighborhood. Let them pick up the Jooos trash.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
05/30/2006 16:33 Comments ||
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We're sick, the same sickness that's affecting you americans, by the way, though the rot is *much* deeper here, but we're not intrisincally subhuman cheese-eating surrendering monkeys, thnaksyouverymuch.
It's a joke. Deal with it.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/30/2006 16:34 Comments ||
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#22
f*ck waiting for the french law to protect the Jewish people.
People have an inalienable right to defend themselves. The anti-Jewish scum have already been paid for by the blood of millions of innocent Jews. Enough!
Use your *imagination for Christ sake, these attacks and threats must be nipped in the bud now before it's too late.
In an additional twist, Johnson traced the movements of the sender of the threat, and found direct parallels between the internet locations of the sender and Inayat Bunglawala, Media Secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain.
Bunglawala, who contirbuted an editorial to the Guardian website, has attracted negative attention in the past after making anti-Semitic outbursts, and has declared that the British media was "Zionist-controlled."
In the comment section of the Guardian, underneath his own editorial, Bunglawala denied sending the threat, blaming "Zionists" instead.
"That was not me! Methinks some Zionists are up to mischief," he wrote.
"There is strong circumstantial evidence connecting Bunglawala to the threat, but there is no way for me to verify this for certain. Only a Reuters network administrator would have access to the necessary records," Johnson said.
Canada's spy service admitted on Monday it couldn't track down many domestic terror suspects and said the country faced an increasing threat from "home-grown terrorists" who are assimilated into society.
The frank comments by a senior official at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) underscore the problems facing the country's counter-terrorism operatives in the wake of the Sept. 11 suicide attacks in New York.
Jack Hooper, deputy director of operations at CSIS, said the service was trying to keep track of "350 high-level targets" as well as 50 to 60 organisations thought to be linked to groups such as al-Qaeda.
"We know who and where some of them are," he told the Senate's national defense committee.
Both the current and previous directors of the CSIS have said over the last two years that an attack by militants inside Canada is inevitable.
Hooper, who complained about a lack of funding, said the overall number of targets CSIS was tracking had not changed since 1998.
"Since 1998 ... we have cut back back considerably in a number of investigative fields. We've reduced the number of individual and organizational targets and yet the target numbers themselves have remained static," he said.
"So we've effectively augmented our target base in a number of particularly terrorist domains. I am concerned that ... maybe we operate at top operational capacity and we've reached that and that critical capacity hasn't really been enhanced over the years."
In recent years, al-Qaeda has twice specifically threatened to strike against Canada.
"We stay up at night worrying about the threats we don't know about. We always used to work on the basis ... that for every one we knew (about), there were probably 10 we didn't," said Hooper. "I worry that the ratio is increased. I think there may be more unknowns now there than ever."
Hooper said CSIS was increasingly concerned by what it called the emergence of "home-grown terrorists" -- young Canadians from immigrant backgrounds.
"They are virtually indistinguishable from other youth. They blend in very well to our society, they speak our language and they appear to be -- to all intents and purposes -- well-assimilated ... (they) look to Canada to execute their targeting," he said.
Hooper drew parallels to last year's London bombings, where four young British men from immigrant families set off bombs in the transit system which killed 52 people and wounded 700.
"I can tell you that all of the circumstances that led to the London transit bombings, to take one example, are resident here now in Canada," Hooper said.
Because home-grown suspects were Canadian, they could not be deported, Hooper told the committee.
"We have two remedies -- we can work in collaboration with law enforcement to see them prosecuted or we can work to disrupt their activities," said Hooper, who declined to answer reporters' questions afterward.
The Senate committee was examining the possible ramifications of Canada's military mission to Afghanistan, which Canada wants to extend for two years to 2009.
Hooper said there could be a risk of veterans of the fighting coming to Canada and launching terror attacks.
CSIS staff could only investigate about 10 percent of the 20,000 immigrants who have come to Canada from Pakistan and Afghanistan over the last five years.
"That may be inadequate," said Hooper.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/30/2006 02:20 ||
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#1
That's wonderful news. Just as we suspected. Another reason to slam borders shut now. North and South. If these PC lefties insist that armed troops can't be used, then they better hire about 300,000 Border Patrol pronto. This is very serious and needs immediate attention.
Canada's spy agency says potential terrorists already reside in Canadian cities. The deputy director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service says there are many people currently living in Canada who fought with al-Qaida during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
And Jack Hooper says those same people have since trained in al-Qaida terrorist training camps.
Hooper made the revelation today at a Senate committee studying Canada's role in Afghanistan. He pointed to several examples of people who had lived in Canada, and later took part in terrorist attacks. RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli told the committee that the Mounties and CSIS are working closely together to thwart potential homegrown terrorists threats.
The Senate is holding a full day of hearings on Canada's military mission in Afghanistan, and how it relates to security at home.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/30/2006 02:13 ||
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On October 12, 2000, the guided missile destroyer USS Cole pulled into harbor for refueling in Aden, Yemen. Less than two hours later, suicide bombers Ibrahim al-Thawr and Abdullah al-Misawa approached the ship's port side in a small inflatable craft laden with explosives and blew a 40-by-40-foot gash in it, killing seventeen sailors and injuring thirty-nine others.
The attack on the Cole, organized and carried out by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist group, was a seminal but still murky and largely misunderstood event in America's ongoing �Long War.� Two weeks prior, military analysts associated with an experimental intelligence program known as ABLE DANGER had warned top officials of the existence of an active Al Qaeda cell in Aden, Yemen. And two days before the attack, they had conveyed �actionable intelligence� of possible terrorist activity in and around the port of Aden to General Pete Schoomaker, then Commander in Chief of the United States Special Operation Command (SOCOM). The same information was also conveyed to a top intelligence officer at the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), headed by the newly appointed General Tommy Franks. As CENTCOM commander, Franks oversaw all US Armed Forces operations in a twenty five-country region that included Yemen, as well as the Fifth Fleet to which the Cole was tasked.
It remains unclear what action, if any, top officials at SOCOM and CENTCOM took in response to the ABLE DANGER warnings about planned Al Qaeda activities in Aden harbor. None of the officials involved has ever spoken about the pre-attack warnings, and a post-attack forensic analysis of the episode remains highly classified and off-limits within the bowels of the Pentagon. Subsequent investigations exonerated the Cole's commander, Kirk Lippold, but Lippold's career has been ruined nonetheless. He remains in legal and professional limbo, with a recommended promotion and new command held up for the past four years by political concerns and maneuvering.
Meanwhile, no disciplinary action was ever taken against any SOCOM or CENTCOM officials. General Schoomaker was later promoted out of retirement to Chief of Staff, United States Army, and General Franks went on to lead the combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Enter Judith Miller, Pulitzer Prize-winning ex-New York Times reporter at the center of the ongoing perjury and obstruction of justice case involving former top White House official I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby. Miller spent eighty-five days in jail before finally disclosing that Libby was the anonymous source who confirmed to her that Valerie Plame was a CIA official, although Miller never wrote a story about Plame. Now, in an exclusive interview, Miller tells the details of how the attack on the Cole spurred her reporting on Al Qaeda and led her, in July 2001, to a still-anonymous top-level White House source, who shared top-secret NSA signals intelligence (SIGINT) concerning an even bigger impending Al Qaeda attack, perhaps to be visited on the continental United States. Ultimately, however, Miller never wrote that story either. But two months later --on September 11 -- Miller and her editor at the Times, Stephen Engelberg, another Pulitzer Prize winner, both remembered and regretted the story they �didn't do.�
those that heard about 9.11 before hand didn't believe it or it got lost among the 'noise' that is all the other planned attacks
attacks are planned all the time, every day of the week but not half of them happen, not even 10%
nobody knows which ones will or won't be acted on
nobody is to blame for 911 except the people that planned and did it.
anything else is a red herring designed to turn the blame inwards towards america instead of outwards towards the West-hating islamist culture that nurtured, funded and actioned it.
#3
There has been plenty of time in the last five years to do one of those big background pieces that the New York Times so prides itself on, and which get nominated for all sorts of prestigious industry prizes. There is still time to do these stories, which are important, and she still isn't writing them. There continues to be a choice made in these cases that the stories weren't/aren't actually all that important, and dear Ms. Miller didn't/doesn't care enough to fight for them.
It's the farmer's apology to the pigs, once again. I'm not impressed.
Congress pressures Pakistan to give more information about possible proliferation, upsetting already-delicate ties.
By David Montero | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN – One of the central relationships forged after 9/11 has hit a rough patch. The latest irritant between Washington and Islamabad came last week as US lawmakers urged Pakistan to wring more information from disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, alleging that he may yet hold the blueprint to some of Iran's nuclear secrets.
Earlier this month, Islamabad officially closed its investigation. While Mr. Khan remains under house arrest, Pakistani officials say they've given Washington all the details they could get out of him - though that information has never been made public.
"Some question whether the A.Q. Khan network is truly out of business, asking if it's not merely hibernating. We'd be foolish to rule out that chilling possibility," said Republican legislator Edward R. Royce in a statement at the Subcommittee on International Terrorism and Nonproliferation hearing. "Vigilance and greater international pressure on Pakistan to air out the Khan network is in order."
So far, the tough talk is coming only from Congress, suggesting that the White House may be more keenly aware of the many demands already placed on Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, including the pursuit of Al Qaeda suspects, the curbing of cross-border attacks into Afghanistan, and the development of good governance to keep radical Islam at bay. Some analysts say that the demand for access to Khan risks pushing an already delicate relationship to the point of overburn at a time when Pakistan is warming up to Iran.
"Even if the US gets access to Khan, he might not be able to give information on [Iran]. Khan has never been to Iran," says Hasan Askari Rizvi, a defense analyst in Lahore, Pakistan. "If you apply pressure, you may not get the information you want. The US will have to determine its priorities."
Interrogating Khan is a wish that Islamabad has never granted: Washington has always had to go through the Pakistani military to get to Khan, cherished as a national hero. Some say that's the problem, that Khan has never been pressed hard enough. Pakistan authorities, however, defied Congressional demands last week, saying Khan would never be given up.
"The government of Pakistan does not allow direct interrogation of Khan," says Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, spokesman for the Pakistani military. Pakistan's foreign minister, Khurshid Kasuri, recently told a parliamentary session that Pakistan would not "take dictation from anybody on our national interests."
Some saw double trouble in these words. For not long after he spoke them, Mr. Kasuri and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz were busy feting Iran's foreign minister, who came to Islamabad with visions of building a $7 billion gas pipeline.
Other signs of a deepening relationship between the two Islamic republics include:
• a proposed joint investment company to boost bilateral trade up to $1 billion;
• the ratification of a bilateral preferential trade agreement by the Iranian Parliament;
• a new Iranian center in Pakistan to provide artificial limbs for quake victims;
• Pakistan's opposition to a military option in the Iranian nuclear controversy.
Washington's relationship with Islamabad, meanwhile, is under greater strain as the US and its allies in Afghanistan face stepped up attacks from the Taliban. Islamabad remains extremely sensitive to claims that the insurgency operates from across the border in Pakistan. Earlier this month, Col. Chris Vernon, chief of staff for British forces in southern Afghanistan, told the Guardian newspaper, "The thinking piece of the Taliban is out of Quetta in Pakistan. It's the major headquarters. They use it to run a series of networks in Afghanistan."
Nor has Washington's courtship of Pakistan's nemesis, India, helped matters. The US has offered a civilian nuclear deal to India while flat out refusing one to Pakistan.
It's all led to dampening of relations that some analysts say are now at their lowest point since 9/11.
"Pakistan's real gripe is with the Americans. In recent months an angry Musharraf has quietly, but deliberately defied them. Relations between the two countries have not been so poor since 9/11," writes noted journalist Ahmed Rashid in a recent edition of Pakistan's The Daily Times.
For analysts like Mr. Rashid, pursuing Khan now would be tone deaf at a time when Islamabad is in no mood to do Washington any favors or jeopardize its ties to Tehran.
"[Officials in Washington] don't understand the regime in Pakistan," contends Ayesha Siddiqa, an independent defense analyst in Islamabad. "It's a rent-seeking establishment, providing a service to the United States, like regimes in the Middle East. But ... beyond a certain point, [the Pakistanis] have a mind of their own."
Some see it differently, pointing out that the views recently expressed in Congress do not necessarily represent those of the Bush administration. "The US administration and the Pentagon understand the limits of what Pakistan can do, but the Congress does not," says retired Lt. Gen. Talat Masood, a political analyst in Islamabad. Mr. Masood says that Congress, being influenced more by public opinion, has unrealistic expectations that threaten relations with Pakistan.
That's a gamble, given that Khan may have nothing substantive to say. Giving up Khan is also a huge political risk for Pakistan, since it would only add fodder to the claim that Pakistan is America's stooge, analysts point out. Plus, if Khan sings, he may implicate some of those in power. "It's suicidal to hand him over," says Siddiqa.
What is needed instead are better measures to build trust, analysts say. A recent US proposal to generate economic activity in Pakistan's tribal areas, where the Taliban are said to be growing in popularity, is a concrete step in the right direction, points out Masood. He says more bilateral trade and education assistance are the needed antidotes to the current tensions.
Trust, he and others add, cannot be managed so long as the current relationship remains one of demand and follow. "Even if [Pakistan] follows the US verbatim, there will still be so many frustrations," says Masood. "Raising the expectations too high can spoil the relationship."
Posted by: john ||
05/30/2006 18:38 ||
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Where's the surprise? Pakistan, and especially the ISI, have been nothing but trecherous rectal cavities supreme since day one. We need to expropriate Kahn and perform a rigorous personality debrief on him, just prior to decorticating the turd.
#2
Mushie is playing all sides of the fiddle. Someone is going to get tired of the delays for the money paid for their side and cut some pie fingers off.
Quetta, 30 May (AKI) - (by Syed Saleem Shahzad) - As brutal clashes continue between the US-led coalition forces and the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, across the border in neighbouring Pakistan, Maulana Noor Mohammed a respected Muslim scholar, leader of the hardline religious party, Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam and member of Pakistan's national assembly has called on Muslims in Pakistan to actively support the Taliban militants in their fight against the American forces. In an exclusive interview, Noor Mohammed told Adnkronos International (AKI) that there was enough of an historical basis for Pakistan to rally such support for the Taliban.
The Taliban movement appears to be resurgent in southern Afghanistan, carrying out fierce attacks on US-led coalition forces as well as on Afghan National Army positions. Some analysts believe that the hardline movement is once again in a position to regain power in Afghanistan, as long as it can secure the same level of support it received from neighbouring Pakistan in the mid-1990s, when the students from Pakistani Islamic seminaries flooded into Afghanistan to reinforce the Taliban.
The US-led campaign in Afghanistan, compelled many pro-Taliban forces in Pakistan to remain neutral and not express their support for a long time. However ever since the Taliban began its spring offensive, many of its former patrons have defied this and started a heated debate on whether or not Pakistan should support the Taliban movement in 2006, arguing that the Muslims of the sub-continent have a long history of supporting Muslim movements, especially in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/30/2006 15:47 ||
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#1
This "reporter" is quite the propagandist.
Something needs to slience this old turd "scholar".
Pakistan is a nest of vipers and needs to be cleansed. It is and will continue to be a threat to stability in Afghanistan. The Tribals on both sides of the border need to join the current era or be removed from the gene pool.
#2
Maulana Noor obviously still fuming about that close encounter back in January. Better luck next time mate.
PESHAWAR: 22 killed in Tank, Miranshah attacks.
Military spokesman confirms killings of eight FC men; eight perish in alleged US attack on clericÂ’s house. As many as 22 persons, including nine personnel of the law-enforcement agencies, were killed and 20 others injured in air and ground attacks in North Waziristan Agency and Tank in the Frontier region early Saturday.
Those killed in the Saidgai attack were identified as Bal Khan, his brother, two sons and mother, Salam Khan, his mother and a brother, while Maulana Noor Muhammad, Ali Jan, Muhammad Shafi, Shah Mehmud, Asadullah, Hazratullah and two women were among the injured. Two of the missing tribesmen have been identified as Gulabat Shah and Rehmat Khan, while the names of the two others could not be ascertained.
In Srinagar's Zakoorah Khwaja Bagh area, a crowd of 50 has gathered in a makeshift tent. Women and children listen to Asiya Andrabi. The audience, made up of women and children, sits cross-legged on carpets. A small woman, fully veiled, sits on a chair, giving a very charged speech. "You need to protect your daughters," she tells the gathering. Heads nod in agreement. The anguish on some faces is transparent. One elderly woman wipes her tears. The speaker is Asiya Andrabi, leader of Kashmir's separatist women's organisation, Dukhtaran-e-Milat, or Daughters of the Faith.
Today's speech, says Ms Andrabi, is to raise awareness among the women about a recent sex scandal that has rocked the Kashmir valley. Ms Andrabi, who has been leading protests against the scandal, is an excellent orator. The daughter of a physician and a housewife, she has had a long career in the limelight.
Three people died and at least nine were injured in religious clashes sparked by the killing of a right-wing Hindu leader in northern India, police said on Monday. Hindus and Muslims in Aligarh attacked each other with rods and sticks and torched shops and vehicles after the late Sunday night shooting of a well-known shop owner who was affiliated with the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, an official said. The shop owner was shot dead when he was passing through a Muslim area in the town. A curfew has been imposed and university exams cancelled in parts of the town, home to Aligarh Muslim University, said State Home Secretary SK Agarwal in Lucknow.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2006 00:00 ||
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The shop owner was shot dead when he was passing through a Muslim area in the town.
Muslim only, no go areas.
Posted by: john ||
05/30/2006 8:07 Comments ||
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#2
Hmmm.... Place bag in center of microwave with seam side facing up......microwave on high for 3 - 5 minutes or until popping slows.....
Lt Gen (r) Ali Muhammad Jan Orakzai, the NWFP governor, on Monday said the situation in Waziristan could be normalised through traditional tribal mechanisms of consultation and dialogue and that he “would proceed as had been planned earlier”.
"All is well. Nothing to see here. Move along. These aren't the droids you're looking for..."
Talking to reporters after addressing a tribal jirga from Kurram Agency at GovernorÂ’s House, he said that a grand tribal jirga was being set up.
Orakzai said that peace and development in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) would continue to be his top priorities. He said development projects would focus on education, health, road infrastructure and provision of potable water. The tribal areas were full of natural resources and these would also be identified and used, he added. He said that a development authority was being set up in GovernorÂ’s House to ensure just use of development funds. Orakzai said an effective monitoring system was also being set up to monitor the development process in the tribal areas.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2006 00:00 ||
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According to reports from Iraq originating on Radio Sawa and passed on by Omar at Iraq the Model, the people and government of Kurdistan are setting an example of religious tolerance which is in sharp contrast to the recent story of a man faced with the death penalty for converting to Christianity in Afghanistan.
According to reports from Radio Sawa and confirmed in a recent statement by General Georges Sada, there have been substantial numbers of Kurds converting or reverting to Christianity (hundreds) since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Sada himself was born an Assyrian Christian and converted to Islam during the reign of Saddam and later converted back to Christianity, a pattern which many seem to have followed.
Kurdistan has a history of religious diversity, with a fairly large Christian minority, but unlike Iran and Syria which have gone to great lengths to purge their religious minorities, Kurdistan is embracing theirs. They even openly tolerate the Yezidis and Zoroastrians who have been heavily persecuted elsewhere in the region.
Rather than condemning these conversions, Muslim Kurdish Prime Minister Nejervan Barzani commented "I'd rather see a Muslim become Christian than to see him become a radical Muslim," a uniquely enlightened viewpoint in these times and in that part of the world wher extremism and intolerance often seem to be out of control. This is yet another reminder that there is at least one third of the cobbled-together nation of Iraq which seems to have its head screwed on straight and isn't being torn apart by factionalism and fanaticism.
#1
Perhaps; still, the bulk of the armenian genocide was done by kurds, and judging from what I've heard on radio by a specialist about that matter, not only the unused churches in kurdish turkey are left to crumble, but they're also demolished, if only because locals believe it is where the christians hide their gold.
A car bomb explosion in central Baghdad Monday killed two CBS News crew members, an Iraqi interpreter and a U.S. soldier, and severely wounded the news team's correspondent, in one of a string of attacks that killed dozens of people in Iraq over the course of the day.
Paul Douglas, a cameraman, and James Brolan, a sound man, died in the blast, CBS News said in a statement. Both men were British citizens based in London. Kimberly Dozier, an American correspondent who has covered the war in Iraq for nearly three years, was taken to a Baghdad hospital for surgery. The network said she was listed in critical condition and that doctors were "cautiously optimistic" about her prognosis.
U.S. military authorities did not identify the soldier and the interpreter who were killed. Six other soldiers were wounded, the military said in a statement.
#2
Kimberly Dozier, an American correspondent who has covered the war in Iraq for nearly three years, was taken to a Baghdad hospital for surgery.
Tells you something doesn't it? Why not an American facility? Why not 'being evac'd to Germany'? Given the best and most experienced medical personnel are in that route.
Yes, of course this will get sustained converage like the ABC anchor. Just don't expect any similar coverage of Iraqi journalist, particularly females, who've been kidnapped, beheaded, and shot for doing their job either. When the hand wringers pop up the number of journalists killed in theater, they'll certainly include the overwhelming number of Iraqis in the count, but they'll never acknowledge them in any way but as a slight aside.
"the most dangerous place on Earth right now, and we take every precaution,"
Once again, its the story not the truth that counts. Of course it is dangerous, but there are other places on the planet which people are dying faster. BTW - how many did we kill this past holiday weekend on the highway in the US?
That would be an American military hospital on a base outside Baghdad. She has already been evac'ed to Landstuhl.
While I think she was one of the better TV reporters in Iraq, I was disappointed that every morning news show led with her being wounded. Not world events, military operations or even casualties, but the intense self absorption of the media.
Posted by: ed ||
05/30/2006 9:48 Comments ||
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#4
The newsreader on Good Morning America cheerily chirped that "American military patrols are a favored target of insurgents who are trying to get US troops out of their country". Grrrr...
And then they went right into HadithaHadithaHaditha.
#5
Once again, its the story not the truth that counts. Of course it is dangerous, but there are other places on the planet which people are dying faster.
Right. Not too many first-hand MSM reports coming out of Mogadishu or the Wazoo hinterlands.
#7
While I think she was one of the better TV reporters in Iraq, I was disappointed that every morning news show led with her being wounded. Not world events, military operations or even casualties, but the intense self absorption of the media.
Posted by ed 2006-05-30 09:48|| Front Page|| ||Comments Top
#8
Our local fish wrapper did the same, front page center above the fold goes to the "Poor Newsies" page four, and considerably smaller went to the soldiers injured and killed, same place, same time.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/30/2006 20:50 Comments ||
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#9
Just before the explosion, Hussein Abdel Ghaffar, a bystander, saw a woman walking hand-in-hand with her 8-year-old boy along the street. After the detonation, the boy was gone. The mother, hysterical, couldn't find him. Ghaffar helped, and found the boy's mutilated body.
"The thing that stayed in my mind, and I will never forget it, is that mother who lost her kid," Ghaffar said. "I was only able to bring her the upper half of his body."
Until the muslims hunt these cockroaches down and kill them all....this will continue to happen.
Former regime officials insisted on Monday that Saddam Hussein was not seeking revenge when he launched a crackdown on Shiites after a 1982 assassination attempt and that 148 people sentenced to death in the attack got a fair trial. The court heard a series of defence witnesses testifying on behalf of Saddam and two of his top co-defendants — former Mukhabarat intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim, and the former head of Saddam's Revolutionary Court, Awad Bandar. After a five-hour session, the court adjourned until Tuesday.
Mohammed Zimam Abdul-Razaq, who was appointed governor of Salaheddin province, where Dujail is located, a year and a half after the attack, said the attack was a serious attempt by Iran to overthrow Saddam. “There was an assassination attempt, and we heard so from Iranian officials afterward. But your honour, killings are still going on till now, hundreds of Baathis and tribal leaders are being assassinated everyday,” Abdul-Razaq said, referring to the current sectarian violence.
Asked by defence lawyers if Saddam ordered “systematic, wide-scale attacks” in revenge for attacks by his opponents — using the phrasing of the accusations against Saddam — Abdul-Razaq said no. “I didn't see anything written officially by President Saddam Hussein regarding Dujail's incident. He didn't issue orders in this regard,” he said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh pledged on Tuesday to pay salaries within days to thousands of government employees who have not received wages since March as a result of an international funds freeze. Haniyeh, in comments to his Hamas-led government, did not disclose the source of the funds. I guess al-Qaeda's check cleared.
Palestinian banks have so far refused to transfer money to the Authority, fearing U.S. sanctions. And there ends our intrepid Rooters reporter's probing investigation of where the cash came from.....
"I would like to announce that the Ministry of Finance will begin to pay a full month's wages to those earning a monthly salary of up to 1,500 shekels ($332). The number of those employees is 40,000," Haniyeh said.
He also promised to pay each of the other 125,000 government workers, who earn higher salaries, an advance of 1,500 shekels. Cabinet spokesman Ghazi Hamad said the money would come from donations and internal revenues. There would be no banking complications, he added without elaborating.
The pledged payments could total nearly $55 million. The Palestinian Authority's monthly salary bill is $120 million.
International donors have frozen payments to the government, demanding Hamas, an Islamic militant group that came to power after a January election, recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept previous interim peace deals. Hamas, whose charter calls for Israel's destruction, has said negotiations with the Jewish state would be pointless.
In the West Bank city of Ramallah, some 1,200 unpaid civil servants held a protest outside the prime minister's office, demanding their pay. People getting uppity makes the leadership get nervous, I see...
Haniyeh made the pledge as the clock ticked down on a 10-day ultimatum from moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to soften its hard line against Israel or face a referendum on peacemaking in July. Abbas's deadline ends this weekend.
#2
Time Magazine says the Israelis destroyed the greenhouse in rtaliation for rocket attacks.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/30/2006 16:08 Comments ||
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#3
Time Magazine is lying. We've had several articles where the Paleos are imploring each other not to destroy what little they hadn't ruined already. They started on it the day the Israelis pulled out
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/30/2006 17:21 Comments ||
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#4
Could be interesting, popcorn-wise. The money will be gone in 72 hours. And the Pals will figure if Hamas can provide once, then the money is there and they are being denied.
Young Muslims will gather in Moscow Tuesday for a two-day international conference dedicated to protecting them from the dangers of radical Islam.
Mufti Ravil Gainutdin, the spiritual leader of Russia's Muslims, said the conference - Humanitarian Values and Young Russian Muslims - would try to steer young people away from extremist tendencies.
"Our main aim is to protect young people from radical ideas and sentiments, as well as to set them on a moderate path, so that enthusiasm will not turn into fanaticism," he said.
About 20 million Muslims live in Russia, which has had to deal with extreme forms of Islam in its southern territories, particularly in the troubled republic of Chechnya.
Muslim leaders, government officials, public activists from youth movements in various regions of Russia as well as Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Saudi Arabia and other countries will attend the conference.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/30/2006 02:38 ||
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#1
Though I am in no position to judge, I doubt this will do much good. It'll probably just make things worse - in the way that inept "just say no to drugs" (mmmkaaay) posters and educational movies, etc. Especially if it's crouched in meally-mouthed terms of 'mutual respect' and 'understanding' their anger. Once even a few of the grievances are acknowledged by the oleagenous kufr, then all calls for moderation will ring hollow.
1. Short title, extent and commencement
(1) This Ordinance may be called the Offence of Zina (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance, 1979.
(2) It extends to the whole of Pakistan.
(3) It shall come into force on the twelfth day of Rabi-ul-Awwal, 1399 Hijri, that is, the tenth day of February, 1979.
2. Definitions
In this Ordinance, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject of context:
(a) "adult" means a person who has attained, being a male, the age of eighteen years or, being a female, the age of sixteen years, or has attained puberty;
(b) "hadd" means punishment ordained by the Holy Quran or Sunnah;
(c) "marriage" means marriage which is not void according to the personal law or the parties, and "married" shall be construed accordingly;
(d) "Muhsan" means (ii) a Muslim adult woman who is not insane and has had sexual intercourse with a Muslim adult man who, at the time she had sexual intercourse with him, was married to her and was not insane;
(i) a Muslim adult man who is not insane and has had sexual intercourse with a Muslim adult woman who, at the time he had sexual intercourse with her, was married to him and was not insane; or
and
(e) "tazir" means any punishment other than "hadd", and all other terms and expressions not defined in this Ordinance shall have the same meaning as the Pakistan Penal Code, or the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898.
3. Oridnance to override other Laws.
The provisions of this Ordinance shall have effect nothwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force.
4. Zina
A man and a woman are said to commit 'Zina' if they wilfully have sexual intercourse without being validly married to each other.
Explanation: Penetration is sufficient to constitute the sexual intercourse necessary to the offence of Zina.
5. Zina liable to hadd.
(1) Zina is zina liable to hadd if-
(a) it is committed by a man who is an adult and is not insane with a woman to whom he is not, and does not suspect himself to be married; or
(b) it is committed by a woman who is an adult and is not insane with a man to whom she is not, and does not suspect herself to be, married.
(2) Whoever is guilty of Zina liable to hadd shall, subject to the provisions of this Ordinance, -
(a) if he or she is a muhsan, be stoned to death at a public place; or
(b) if he or she is not muhsan, be punished, at a public place; with whipping numbering one hundred stripes
Posted by: john ||
05/30/2006 11:58 Comments ||
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#4
As an Australian i am proud to say.....
F@#% indonesia ! No money out of my hard earned cash is going to help support a nation of idiots.
#6
Time to get medieval on those who wish to impose Shariah. Fine - we have something called the Inquisition we can drag up out of history's depths.....difference is, we're ashamed of ours, but it'll certainly cut down on the Friday sermons
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/30/2006 20:54 Comments ||
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Further consultations required over lunch, of course.
COLOMBO - The European Union is poised to formally ban Sri LankaÂ’s Tamil Tigers, diplomats say, amid fears a sharp escalation in attacks and clashes with the military could escalate into all-out war. The 25-nation bloc is expected to rubber-stamp the ban, which has been agreed in principle, at a meeting of EU Ministers later on Monday, following a series of deadly ambushes on the military, including the worst naval clash since a 2002 truce.
Welp, thank goodness the EU has weighed in. That makes it all legal, nice and tidy. Next, we get the Belgians to prosecute all the war criminals, since they of course have jurisdiction ...
The Tigers -- who want their de facto state in the north and east recognised as a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils -- have said the ban will only “exacerbate the conditions of war” and force them to take a more hardline approach.
Thus causing the EU to reconsider ...
They say it could deter them from resuming peace talks aimed at ending the islandÂ’s two-decade civil war. They pulled out of peace talks indefinitely last month.
“I don’t think the ban is going to achieve very much,” said Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, an analyst with the Colombo-based Centre for Policy Alternatives. “I can’t see any way out of ... moving towards large-scale hostilities.”
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Sri Lanka on Monday banked on the European Union to ban the Tamil Tigers even as the rebels said they would agree to more talks to shore up the implementation of a fragile ceasefire. The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) face the “terrorist” label across the 25-member European Union bloc following a meeting of ministers in Brussels later Monday, European diplomats said.
The threat of a ban as well as possible condemnation at a meeting of aid donors to Sri Lanka in Tokyo this week has put intense pressure on the rebels to mediate to help halt a surge in violence which has claimed about 600 lives since December. A ban could lead to a crackdown on fundraising for the Tigers, who are accused by human rights organisations of extorting money from Tamils living abroad.
Ahead of the EU meeting, a pro-rebel website reported that the group’s political leader had accepted an invitation by peace broker Norway to attend a two-day meeting on June 8 to discuss the role of ceasefire monitors. “Our leadership has accepted Norway’s invitation to attend the talks in Oslo,” Nitharsanam.com quoted leader S P Thamilselvan as saying. However, the website said the guerrillas needed assurances on the logistics of travelling to Norway. “Although we accepted the invitation, transport arrangements and safety of LTTE members attending the talks has not been finalised as yet,” Thamilselvan said. “The Norwegian facilitators have taken the full responsibility of making such arrangements.”
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2006 00:00 ||
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A leading Iranian pro-democracy and women's activist, who was jailed on trumped-up charges last year, has revealed how the clerical regime cynically deploys systemic sexual violence against female dissidents in the name of Islam.
Roya Tolouee, 40, was beaten up by Iranian intelligence agents and subjected to a horrific sexual assault when she refused to sign forced confessions. It was only when they threatened to burn her two children to death in front of her that she agreed to put her name to the documents.
Perhaps just as shocking as the physical abuse were the chilling words of the man who led the attack. "When I asked how he could do this to me, he said that he believed in only two things - Islam and the rule of the clerics," Miss Tolouee told The Sunday Telegraph last week in an interview in Washington after she fled Iran.
#3
I'm sure the MSM, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch will be all over this....
... just as soon as they finish their investigation of an un-airconditioned interrigation room in GITMO and a vague rumor of someone farting in the presence of the Koran....
I am sure that AI and HRW are fully aware of what is happening in Iran and other prisons but they are knowingly, deliberately, and willfully ignoring them. Which makes them as culpable(sp?) since they could, if they wanted to, focus world attention on it and bring international pressure to bear and perhaps get Iran to clean up its act.
The fact that they instead choose to focus on a few non-issues says a lot about their motives.
#5
"But I know of no religious morality that can justify what they did to me, or other women. For these people, religion is only a tool for dictatorship and abuse. It is a regime of prejudice against women, against other regimes, against other ethnic groups, against anybody who thinks differently from them."
Can we have that put on our money ? I want everybody to read it every day. The time has come to act. The time has come to stand together and take aim at our enemy, Islam (ptui).
#6
Dr. Roya was originally arrested last August during the uprising in Iranian-occupied Kurdistan--an uprising provoked by a murder the state security forces committed--for "disturbing the peace," and "acting against national security."
Many others were also arrested, murdered or wounded. Doctors were forbidden by the state to treat wounded Kurds. We knew of Dr. Roya's abuse several months ago, which is when the news came out in Kurdish media.
This abuse of female political prisoners is an everyday occurence in Turkey, Syria and Iran, and used to be an everyday occurence under Saddam.
Posted by: Azad ||
05/30/2006 15:12 Comments ||
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In an interview with SPIEGEL, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad discusses the Holocaust, the future of the state of Israel, mistakes made by the United States in Iraq and Tehran's nuclear conflict with the West.
SPIEGEL: Mr. President, you are a soccer fan and you like to play soccer. Will you be sitting in the stadium in Nuremberg on June 11, when the Iranian national team plays against Mexico in Germany?
Ahmadinejad: It depends. Naturally, I'll be watching the game in any case. I don't know yet whether I'll be at home in front of the television set or somewhere else. My decision depends upon a number of things.
SPIEGEL: For example?
Ahmadinejad: How much time I have, how the state of various relationships are going, whether I feel like it and a number of other things.
A string of top officials have blamed the Islamic republic's foreign "enemies" for a wave of unrest in ethnic minority border areas, with Azeri-dominated northwest Iran now the scene of violent clashes, AFP reported.
"Provoking ethnic differences is the last resort by the enemies against the Iranian people and the Islamic republic," Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday. "There is no doubt that this plot will be defeated," he said.
"Today the enemies are seeking to break the unity in the country. On one side they want to create a conflict between Arabs and Iranians, and on the other side they resort to Shiite-Sunni differences," said the deputy head of Iran's judiciary, Hojatoleslam Ebrahim Raeesi.
#1
This is such a farce. Iran meddles in Turkey, Lebanon,Paelstine, Iraq ,and Afghanistan on a daily basis. As usual they can't take what they have been dishing out for years and years. But that is islam for you.
Turkey reassured Israel yesterday that it opposed Iran acquiring nuclear weapons and said it wanted to see the whole Middle East region freed of the atomic threat. "Turkey is completely against the proliferation of nuclear weapons," Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul told a joint news conference with his visiting Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni, replying to a question about Iran. "We encourage cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and believe that especially countries signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) have a responsibility to act with full transparency."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Gee, that's a useful contribution, Turkey. Now FO and go back to sleep again.
Iran has conducted research into nuclear fusion, an Iranian nuclear official was reported as saying Monday by state television. It was the first time the country declared such a development. "Iranian nuclear scientists are competing with the advanced world in the field of producing nuclear energy through fusion," the official, Sadat Hosseini, was reported as saying by the television.
Nuclear fusion is the process by which multiple nuclei join together to form a heavier nucleus. It is accompanied by the release or absorption of energy depending on the masses of the nuclei involved. Hosseini, who runs the technical department at the Nuclear Research Center of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, added: "The first research of nuclear fusion in Iran was done five years ago."
It was not immediately clear why Iran had decided to announce the research only now, but the move seemed to be part of the country's defiance of world calls for it to limit its nuclear program to activities that could not be used for making weapons. Nuclear fusion is employed by certain kinds of atomic bomb.
#2
WORLDTRIBUNE.com reports that Iran foresees a futurist anti-US nuclear club composed of RUSSIA, CHINA, INDIA, and itself or Muslim nations headed by Iran. USA RUNS OUT BEANS AND BULLETS BEFORE ITS ENEMIES RUN OUT OF FODDER/BODIES - ALL THATS MISSING IS CHAVEZ and the Lefties from Central-SOuth America. WT also quotes a MOSNEWS report that says China is getting 95% of its arms imports from Russia. SPACEWAR.com article questions the reliability of the Euros-EU as an ally iff and when the s*** hits the fan, i.e. [surprise, surprise] America may need to go in alone. offensively or defensively. Its a Commie = Empire = International Proletarian Revol = ...@etal. thingy. FTLG, STAY ARMED - did I say STAY ARMED!?
#3
Iran can't build a decent airport runway; can't build refineries; can't develop its natural gas fields; can't even build municipal buildings that can withstand a 5.0 earthquake.
Yes, they probably have a cheap device that can produce some barely measurable fusion reactions.
PUTRAJAYA: Non-Aligned Movement chairman Malaysia called on Monday for the 114-member grouping to back Iran's right to nuclear technology, accusing the West of nuclear double-standards.
Alrighty then. We know which side they're on.
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, normally soft-spoken and diplomatic, used his opening speech at a NAM meeting to contrast the West's tough approach towards Iran with what he described as inaction over Israel's nuclear advances. "Allowing Israel to develop nuclear weapons with impunity - which it does not deny - while others in the region are prohibited from doing so, is a blatant case of double standard," he told the meeting in Malaysia's administrative capital. "In this matter, we must recognise Iran's right to develop such technology for peaceful purposes," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2006 00:00 ||
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#2
The NAM was pretty much anti-American throughout the whole of the Cold War. Why should much have changed in the interim?
Keep in mind that Malaysia, or more accurately people in high places in Malaysia, were directly involved in the AQ Khan network that supplied Iran with a lot of its nuclear expertise. That's likely considered incentive enough to keep backing the mullahs lest they start disclosing their role in the current situation.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/30/2006 1:48 Comments ||
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#3
"...a blatant case of double standard,"
Isn't M'sia's own so-called all encompassing racially discriminative policy? No attempt has been made to fine tune or ameliorate its more blatant aspects after more than 30 years.
#4
No Badawi, not a 'double standard', just a 'different standard'. Just because I allow a female nursery worker with no criminal record to be alone with my son, doesn't mean I allow a convicted child rapist the same privilege. You sir, are a complete idiot.
The Bush administration is pressing Europe and Japan to impose wide-ranging sanctions designed to stifle the Iranian leadership financially if diplomatic efforts fail to resolve an impasse over the country's nuclear programme, the Washington Post reported on Monday.
The newspaper, quoting internal government memos and interviews with three involved officials, said the scheme was developed by a Treasury Department task force that reports directly to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The plan is designed to curtail the financial freedom of every Iranian official, individual and entity the Bush administration considers connected not only to nuclear enrichment efforts but to terrorism, government corruption, suppression of religious or democratic freedom, and violence in Iraq, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories. It would restrict the Tehran government's access to foreign currency and global markets, shut its overseas accounts and freeze assets held in Europe and Asia, the report added.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Methinks tis is Dubya & Co.'s response to the curent phase of new, intensified guerilla attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Mullahs and Spetzlamists want to entice Dubya to invade Iran as a way of justifying global jihad and "retaliatory" new nuclear?] 9-11's, INCLDUING ANTI-BUSH DECAPITATION STRIKES, agz the USA-Allies-West, aka HAIL/VOTE FOR GORE-HILLARY, so now Dubya will not only keep [most?]our boyz in ME but hit the Mullahs in their wallets and overseas investments.
#2
The plan is designed to curtail the financial freedom of every Iranian official, individual and entity the Bush administration considers connected not only to nuclear enrichment efforts but to terrorism, government corruption, suppression of religious or democratic freedom, and violence in Iraq, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Well, that should cover just about everybody in the govt.
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.
DOHA - Afghan President Hamid Karzai has indefinitely postponed a three-day visit to Qatar which he had been due to begin Monday in the face of deadly anti-US riots in Kabul, Afghan diplomats said. “Mr Karzai’s visit has been put off indefinitely because of the violence in Kabul,” one diplomat told AFP, asking not to be identified.
USA 30 May. 06 ( Sh.M.Network) top U.S. official handling Somalia has been transferred from his job after criticising payments to warlords that are said to be fuelling some of Mogadishu's worst-ever fighting, diplomats said on Tuesday. Fellow analysts in the close-knit community of Somalia- watchers in Nairobi said the U.S. State Department transferred Michael Zorick, formerly Somali political affairs officer at the U.S. Embassy in Kenya, to the Chad embassy after he spoke out. 
Members of militias fighting for control of the Somali capital could face war crimes charges for attempting to prevent the wounded and civilians from receiving assistance during the conflict, a U.N. official warned Monday. 
National intelligence service AIVD can when necessary eavesdrop on journalists, Interior Minister Johan Remkes told the Dutch parliament on Tuesday.
Three people died and at least nine were injured in religious clashes sparked by the killing of a right-wing Hindu leader in northern India, police said on Monday. Hindus and Muslims in Aligarh attacked each other with rods and sticks and torched shops and vehicles after the late Sunday night shooting of a well-known shop owner who was affiliated with the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, an official said. The shop owner was shot dead when he was passing through a Muslim area in the town. A curfew has been imposed and university exams cancelled in parts of the town, home to Aligarh Muslim University, said State Home Secretary SK Agarwal in Lucknow.
Lt Gen (r) 
Former regime officials insisted on Monday that Saddam Hussein was not seeking revenge when he launched a crackdown on Shiites after a 1982 assassination attempt and that 148 people sentenced to death in the attack got a fair trial. The court heard a series of defence witnesses testifying on behalf of Saddam and two of his top co-defendants — former Mukhabarat intelligence chief 
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh pledged on Tuesday to pay salaries within days to thousands of government employees who have not received wages since March as a result of an international funds freeze. Haniyeh, in comments to his Hamas-led government, did not disclose the source of the funds. 
Sri Lanka on Monday banked on the European Union to ban the Tamil Tigers even as the rebels said they would agree to more talks to shore up the implementation of a fragile ceasefire. The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) face the “terrorist” label across the 25-member European Union bloc following a meeting of ministers in Brussels later Monday, European diplomats said.
Turkey reassured Israel yesterday that it opposed Iran acquiring nuclear weapons and said it wanted to see the whole Middle East region freed of the atomic threat. "Turkey is completely against the proliferation of nuclear weapons," Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul told a joint news conference with his visiting Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni, replying to a question about Iran. "We encourage cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and believe that especially countries signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) have a responsibility to act with full transparency."
Iran has conducted research into nuclear fusion, an Iranian nuclear official was reported as saying Monday by state television. It was the first time the country declared such a development. "Iranian nuclear scientists are competing with the advanced world in the field of producing nuclear energy through fusion," the official, Sadat Hosseini, was reported as saying by the television.
PUTRAJAYA: Non-Aligned Movement chairman Malaysia called on Monday for the 114-member grouping to back Iran's right to nuclear technology, accusing the West of nuclear double-standards. 
The Bush administration is pressing Europe and Japan to impose wide-ranging sanctions designed to stifle the Iranian leadership financially if diplomatic efforts fail to resolve an impasse over the country's nuclear programme, the Washington Post reported on Monday.
