UGANDA today ordered its military to halt operations against Lord's Resistance Army rebels as a truce aimed at boosting peace talks to end nearly 20 years of brutal war took effect.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni issued the order as a weekend "cessation of hostilities" accord came into force at 6am (1pm AEST) under which LRA fighters will move to camps in southern Sudan for the duration of the talks.
Officials in Kampala said the Ugandan People's Defence Forces (UPDF) were preparing routes of safe passage for the rebels to move to the two sites and would soon begin publicising their locations by radio.
"The commander in chief of the UPDF... has directed all UPDF to cease all search and destroy operations against the LRA," army spokesman Felix Kulaije said, reading from the presidential order.
"It is hereby directed that the UPDF should withdraw to their barracks and to the guarding of internally displaced people," he said. "They should not shoot at the LRA unless in defence of the population."
In the southern Sudanese capital of Juba, where the peace talks are being held, LRA officials said rebel supremo, Joseph Kony, who declared a unilateral ceasefire on August 4, had re-affirmed the earlier truce.
"We have just heard that the president has announced a cessation of hostilities (and) that is sufficient to move the process forward," rebel spokesman Obonyo Olweny said.
Uganda's deputy Defence Minister Ruth Nankabirwa said military experts were mapping out safe corridors for the LRA to use to move to the camps.
"We expect the LRA to start using those corridors that will be announced later in the day and our troops have been directed not to shoot at them unless it is to protect civilians," she told a Kampala news conference.
Under the agreement, Uganda has guaranteed the rebels - who number anywhere between 500 and 5000, according to various estimates - safe passage to the assembly points.
They will stay there under the protection of the government of autonomous southern Sudan, which is mediating in the negotiations that are to resume on Friday.
On Monday, less than 24 hours after the truce was signed, LRA commanders began informing rebel fighters of the agreement and telling them to prepare to leave the bush in accordance with its provisions.
In recorded messages broadcast over radio stations in war-ravaged northern Uganda, they told their forces not to attack or molest civilians as they make their way out of the bush toward the sites.
The commanders also appealed to local communities not be alarmed if they see LRA fighters moving through their villages.
Many of the rebels are illiterate, hungry and desperate children cut off from most communication in remote jungle locations in northern Uganda, southern Sudan and the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Juba talks are seen by many as the best chance to end northern Uganda's conflict, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced nearly two million people since the LRA took leadership of a regional rebellion in 1988.
However, mediators have warned of a tough road ahead with the two sides at deep odds on a variety of wealth and power-sharing issues.
Kampala has flatly rejected rebel demands for huge cuts in the government army and 40 per cent LRA representation in the reduced force as well as a call for complete autonomy for northern Uganda under a revamped constitution.
Mr Museveni has set a September 12 deadline for a final settlement and warned that an offer of amnesty to Kony and other top LRA leaders charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC) will also expire on that date.
The ICC has said that arrest warrants for those charged remain in force and Mr Museveni warned late yesterday that his military would re-engage the LRA if the talks were not successful.
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has scolded his nation for over-reliance on oil, foreigners and imports and called for the manufacture of things people need. The criticisms, in an unusual series of speeches in July and August, have stirred keen interest in a forthcoming annual September 1 address to the nation of 5 million marking the 1969 coup d'etat that brought him to power.
We don't produce anything. We sell only oil and consume everything...
"We don't produce anything. We sell only oil and consume everything," he said, condemning what he said was a consumer society destined for a sorry future when oil finally runs out. "The kind of trade in which you produce nothing and import goods in exchange for oil, it's a catastrophe," the Libyan news agency quoted him as saying. Libya could have become an economic power like Japan were it not "socially backward", he said.
Libya could have become an economic power like Japan were it not 'socially backward'...
Reformist rhetoric is nothing new from Gaddafi, but Libyans say it is unusual for such speeches to be made so frequently and to such a wide variety of audiences from professional groups and state planners to teachers and religious students. The flurry of stern commentaries suggests his September 1 address may unveil further reforms to modernise the country. Experts say there is real hope the non-oil sector of the economy may finally be on the mend in a country long enfeebled by international sanctions and suffering serious unemployment.
Two factors, one foreign and one domestic, mean Libya has a chance to diversify its old-fashioned command economy, long hobbled by a primitive banking sector and red tape, experts say. The foreign factor is the revival of diplomatic relations with Washington: On May 15, the Bush administration said it would restore formal ties with Tripoli as a reward for Libya's scrapping of its weapons of mass destruction programme.
AoS note 13:40 CDT: Fembot provided as requested. You ask, we deliver.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2006 00:00 ||
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Things that Maummar produced............well?
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/29/2006 0:10 Comments ||
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Getting smarter as he gets older, it seems. Too bad he couldn't have done it a bit sooner.
#3
Libya could have become an economic power like Japan
Hahaha! Muammar is spending too much time smoking hash pipe. That will never happen.
But if the command economy is scrapped, banking system reformed and property rights are set in legal code, it may become relatively prosperous country. Also, emphasis on Berber-ness of Lybians rather than on Arab-ness may help to ease the transition.
#10
Also, militant Berberists tend to as minimum, despise wahabism and often, Islam itself so I doubt they would long for the times where Berbers perpetrated atrocities for Islam.
#15
It's a good first step for an oil-based Islamic country to admit that a) oil as a power/wealth base is not going to last much longer and b) what real countries do is develop educated workforces and industries that use them.
Libya won't suddenly turn out Nobel prize winners in electronics or computer science, like modern Japan. But Japan bootstrapped themselves after the war by producing first shoddy and then better consumer products. Gaddafi is right. Devil's in the implementation details, though.
Posted by: he has a point ||
08/29/2006 10:21 Comments ||
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This is almost as surprising as when he gave up WMD's.
With age and experience comes wisdom (to some).
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/29/2006 11:16 Comments ||
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Mmmm...Fembots.
Posted by: Homer ||
08/29/2006 15:25 Comments ||
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But Japan bootstrapped themselves after the war by producing first shoddy and then better consumer products.
I remember when 'Made in Japan' was synonmous with shoddy and badly made.
YOKOSUKA - The USS Shiloh, the first missile defence-capable ship to be deployed in Japan, arrived in the port of Yokosuka on Tuesday, eight weeks after North Korea unnerved the region with a barrage of missile tests. White-clad sailors lined the decks of the 10,000-tonne cruiser as it pulled slowly into the US naval base 45 km (30 miles) southwest of Tokyo, to be greeted with a Japanese-style taiko drum performance by US seamen.
The deployment of the Shiloh, boasting Standard Missile-3 interceptors for shooting down medium-range ballistic missiles, is a symbolic first step in a joint US-Japanese programme to try to shield Japan and the region from missile attack. The United States remains committed to the defence of Japan and peace and stability in the western Pacific, visiting US Navy Secretary Donald Winter said in a speech at the dockside welcome ceremony. The two allies stressed the significance of the ships arrival as an example of the United States strong security alliance with Japan, although the chances of preventing a missile attack on the country with a single vessel are slim.
North Korea condemned US missile defence plans. The scheme of the US war-thirsty quarters to deploy dense MD (missile defence) networks in the US mainland, Japan and the Pacific reveals their wild ambition to rule the world by strength, Pyongyangs KCNA news agency reported the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper as saying in a commentary on Tuesday. No country in the world threatens the US with missiles, it added.
Don't get out much, do you?
In July, Pyongyang test-fired a series of ballistic missiles, an incident that drew attention to Japans lack of defence systems eight years after Tokyo was spooked by a previous North Korean ballistic missile test in 1998. Many analysts, however, have cast doubt on whether missile defence systems can reliably shoot down incoming missiles, and they criticise the programme for drawing funds away from other areas of defence spending. Missile defence accounts for 140 billion yen ($1.2 billion) of Japans 4.81 trillion yen ($41 billion) defence budget this year. The defence agency plans to seek a record 219 billion yen for missile defence in the fiscal year from next April 1, Kyodo news agency reported, although such requests are usually whittled down in the budget process.
As a second line of defence, the US military will begin to install Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) interceptors at its Kadena Air Base on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa in September and plans to make them partly operational by the end of the year. The ship-to-air SM-3 interceptors are designed to shoot down ballistic missiles in mid-flight, when they fly outside the earths atmosphere, while ground-based PAC-3 interceptors target missiles in their terminal phase, shortly before they reach their targets.
Japan, whose pacifist constitution restricts the activities of its armed forces, relies on the United States for much of its defence capability, playing host to about 50,000 military personnel. But Tokyo plans to install its own missile defence hardware, including fitting its four Aegis radar system-equipped warships with SM-3s. This is just a beginning, Japanese Foreign Ministry official Chikao Kawai said at the Yokosuka ceremony. We need more capability. We need to speed up the deployment of additional equipment. Kyodo said the United States had offered to provide Japan with up to 80 more Patriot missiles, as Japan seeks to speed up its own deployment of ground-based interceptor missiles.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/29/2006 08:50 ||
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White-clad sailors lined the decks of the 10,000-tonne cruiser as it pulled slowly into the US naval base 45 km (30 miles) southwest of Tokyo, to be greeted with a Japanese-style taiko drum performance by US seamen.
That would have been something to see. Talented guys, those US seamen! (Not to mention terribly useful at times...) ;-)
JACK Thomas; the target of the nation's first control order; says he is an innocent man caught in the Government's war on terror.
"I feel betrayed, I honestly do ... and I'm hurt," Mr Thomas, 33, has told the Herald Sun.
"I do not believe in killing innocent people and never will. I want to scream it from the rafters.
"I do everything I can to be open and honest.
"I reject killing innocent people, of any type. I reject killing flies; it's what I've been taught by mum and dad, and it's what Islam teaches us.
"I believe in an eye for an eye.
"I believe in justice."
The man dubbed "Jihad" Jack was this week hit with a court order imposing a midnight-5am curfew at his Williamstown, Melbourne, address, strict controls over who he can contact, and mandatory reporting to police.
He said he was being worn down by a Howard Government campaign to secure another conviction for terrorism.
"I don't think it's personal, but I just happened to be the one. If it wasn't me, it would be someone else.
"I do feel hurt that they are using me, because all I ever wanted was to get back to my family. I haven't done anything wrong. We just feel like it's all come down like an avalanche."
Convictions against Mr Thomas for receiving support from al-Qaeda and using a falsified passport were quashed on August 18 when Victoria's Court of Appeal ruled that his admissions were involuntary.
But he may face new charges based on a media interview in which he spoke about undergoing weapons and explosives training in Afghanistan.
Mr Thomas, a father of three, has served 14 months in prison; five months in Pakistan and nine months in Australia; all but three months of it in solitary confinement.
The Australian Federal Police will decide next week whether they will pursue fresh charges.
Accompanied by his wife, Maryati, Mr Thomas yesterday played with his children; Amatullah, 5, Salsabil, 2 and Gabriel, eight months; in a western suburbs playground.
He said he was a patriotic fifth-generation Australian who would never conspire to hurt his country.
While declining to comment on matters directly before the court, he said his travels to Afghanistan and Pakistan were an adventure and no more.
"It's an Australian thing to do, go on an adventure. They talk about the Anzac spirit and the free-roving spirit, but the reality of it is it just doesn't seem to run through."
In the park, a local woman with her child walked up and embraced Mr Thomas, saying he had her full support.
An emotional Mr Thomas thanked her and went on to say he had trouble walking the streets without being recognised.
He told of an incident earlier this year while driving a late-night taxi when he picked up two off-duty female police officers.
After driving them home, they asked him to pose for them in a photograph with their dog.
A chef by trade, Mr Thomas said he had unsuccessfully bid to supply halal food to Muslim athletes during the Commonwealth Games; a touch of irony, given the heavy security.
He now wants to focus on developing a catering business for the Islamic community.
Indonesian-born Maryati also sought to clarify allegations that were, in part, used to establish the control order.
They relate to her connection to a woman who later married Jemaah Islamiah leader Abu Bakar Bashir.
She said she didn't know the woman, but a senior at her school more than a decade ago did know her.
"I just don't know (on) what grounds they would use that evidence," Mrs Thomas said.
#3
his daughter's a little old, but could still be married off, since she's cute, eh?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/29/2006 20:55 Comments ||
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Guess he's not a terrorist until thousnads of Australians are dead. The story of Jihad Jack While Thomas was at the camp, bin Laden visited several times. "[He was] very polite and humble and shy," Thomas told "Four Corners" about the al Qaeda leader. "He didn't like too many kisses, you know, he didn't mind being hugged but kisses he didn't like. He was just, seemed to float, float really across the floor."
Jihad Jack told the program that 9/ll horrified him, but after the United States began bombing Afghanistan as part of its campaign to topple the Taliban, he said he was ready to take up arms "to fight the Americans." Before and after 9/11, Jihad Jack met other al Qaeda leaders, including bin Laden's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and the military commander Mohammed Atef. "At that time, I had no idea who I was dealing with," Thomas told "Four Corners."
But he discovered just what al Qaeda had in mind for him at a safe house in Pakistan, where he had fled from Afghanistan. He met Khalid bin Attash, the man accused of planning the 2000 al Qaeda attack on the USS Cole in Yemen. "Khalid bin Attash had said that there was a need for an Australian to work, or Osama bin Laden would like an Australian white person to work for him in Australia. ... It was definitely involved with terrorism," Thomas told "Four Corners."
Posted by: ed ||
08/29/2006 22:00 Comments ||
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It was definitely involved with terrorism," Thomas told "Four Corners."
Posted by: ed ||
08/29/2006 22:03 Comments ||
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ROMEThe Italian foreign minister said that groups such as Lebanese guerrillas Hezbollah and Palestinian militants Hamas are not purely terrorist organizations and that efforts to bring them into the political fold should be encouraged. Hamas and Hezbollah are not Al Qaeda, Italian Foreign Minister Massimo DAlema said in an interview with Corriere della Sera published Tuesday. Besides their well-known responsibilities for terrorist actions, they have a political side, they are engaged in assistance. IRA and ETA have become political movements from (being) terror groups, DAlema said, referring to groups that have carried out terrorist attacks in Northern Ireland and in Spain.
Ummm, no. They have political fronts that they use to demand a piece of the action, but they are both still terrorist groups
We must encourage this metamorphosis in the Middle East, DAlema said. Instead, organizations that are purely dedicated to terror must be fought and defeated, he told Corriere, the countrys leading newspaper. Both Hezbollah and Hamas are on a U.S. list of terror organizations. The European Union considers Hamas a terrorist organization but does not list Hezbollah.
DAlema made the remarks as Italy was sending troops to Lebanon as part of a reinforcement of the U.N. peacekeeping force in the southern part of the Middle East country. The Italian government approved sending 2,500 troops on Monday evening, the largest national contingent so far. A thousand Marines and engineer corps specialists were leaving later Tuesday as a vanguard of the contingent.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Tuesday that in my eyes, an organization that supports terror cannot be part of a political systemthese organizations use democracy to spread their antidemocratic ideas. If Hezbollah were really to take the decision to lay down its weapons and stopped representing this extremist Iranian ideology, the destruction of Israel, then they could be part of the political system in Lebanon, Livni said, speaking on Germanys ZDF television.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/29/2006 08:37 ||
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"Al Qaeda linked groups have bombed trains in Europe and are therefore terrorists. Hezbollah and Hamas mostly just kill Jews and sometimes Americans and are therefore not terrorists."
-- Europe
there are Sunni supremicist muslim terrorists
there are Shia supremicist muslim terrorists
there are Palestinian muslim terrorists
there are Caliphatist muslim terrorists
there are kill-the-Buddhist muslim terrorists
there are kill-the-HIndu muslim terrorists
#8
Stalin and Hitler are not Mao. Rankers two and three still didn't match the body count of number one. However, they all were butchers and the toll in human misery and life taken make them no less horrible.
#11
He's just doing the IO thing hoping the lions dont eat his troops. A coward on the world stage.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/29/2006 13:13 Comments ||
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Hezbollah, Hamas are not Al Qaeda
But they all need killin' just the same. D'Alema seems hell bent on playing the moral relativism game. Being stationed as aide de camp in Beirut for a few months might help him to purchase a clue.
#13
We must encourage this metamorphosis in the Middle East, DAlema said. Instead, organizations that are purely dedicated to terror must be fought and defeated,
Attention al-Qaeda-
Any effort you make to promote yourself through social services will now exempt you from being fought and defeated as a purely terrorist organization. Pass this on to others who may find it useful.
How many soup kitchens does it take to wash away the blood of your victims? We'll find out.
Maybe the day-care centers Patty Murray knows about will count. Let's call Rome and see.
If only the Red Brigades had thought to hand out old clothes to unwed mothers, they too would have been "engaged in assistance" and they'd be a whole lot better off today. That whole Aldo Moro thing might have just blown over.
Posted by: Baba Tutu ||
08/29/2006 14:45 Comments ||
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How many soup kitchens does it take to wash away the blood of your victims?
#18
HHHHHHHHHMMMMMMMMMMM, the choice is between IN-YOUR-FACE, "We Hate You and Don't Care Who Knows It" and closed-fisted angry "Power Salutes" during the Olympics; vs THEY-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED, PC Truth = Lie and vice versa, and kidnap/rape/death squads in the middle of the night. Guns + pit bulls have no purpose why, again???
FALLON NAVAL AIR STATION, Nevada Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he is deeply troubled by the success of terrorist groups in "manipulating the media" to influence Westerners.
"That's the thing that keeps me up at night," he said Monday during a question-and-answer session with about 200 naval aviators and other Navy personnel at this flight training base for Navy and Marine pilots.
Rumsfeld was asked whether the criticism he draws as Pentagon chief and a leading advocate of the war in Iraq is an impediment to performing his job. He said it was not and he knows from history that wars are normally unpopular with many Americans. "I expect that," he said. "I understand that."
Get the facts about news gathering in FOXNews.com's Media Content Center.
"What bothers me the most is how clever the enemy is," he continued, launching an extensive broadside at Islamic extremist groups which he said are trying to undermine Western support for the war on terror.
"They are actively manipulating the media in this country" by, for example, falsely blaming U.S. troops for civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said.
"They can lie with impunity," he said, while U.S. troops are held to a high standard of conduct.
Later, in remarks prepared for delivery at a Reno, Nevada, convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Rumsfeld made similar points.
"The enemy lies constantly almost totally without consequence," he told the veterans group, which was presenting him with the Dwight D. Eisenhower Distinguished Service Award. "They portray our cause as a war on Islam when in fact the overwhelming majority of victims of their terrorism have been thousands and thousands of innocent Muslims men, women and children they have killed."
In his prepared remarks at Reno he also said, "While some argue for tossing in the towel, the enemy is waiting and hoping for us to do just that."
Rumsfeld often complains about what he calls the terrorists' success in persuading Westerners that the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are part of a crusade against Islam. In his remarks at Fallon he did not offer any new examples of media manipulation; he put unusual emphasis, however, on the negative impact it is having on Americans in an era of 24-hour news.
"The enemy is so much better at communicating," he added. "I wish we were better at countering that because the constant drumbeat of things they say all of which are not true is harmful. It's cumulative. And it does weaken people's will and lessen their determination, and raise questions in their minds as to whether the cost is worth it," he said alluding to Americans and other Westerners.
Rumsfeld flew to Fallon on Monday from Fairbanks, Alaska, where he spent the weekend meeting with families of soldiers deployed in Iraq. He also visited a missile defense site at Ft. Greely and met Sunday with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov to discuss Iraq and other issues.
Vice President Dick Cheney addressed the VFW convention in Reno on Monday morning. He asserted to the veterans that policies initiated by the Bush administration are the reason the United States hasn't been attacked since the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes five years ago.
Cheney defended the Iraq war as necessary in the overall battle against terrorism and reiterated the administration's position that U.S. troops would not withdraw until Iraqi forces were able to maintain order and stability.
I think you're missing the point, Rummy. The MSM is allowing itself to be 'manipulated' because of it's deep down anti-Americanism, BDS, and sympathy for radicalism in any form. The terrorists aren't geniuses, they just have willing partners.
#4
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The mediots don't care about Hezbollah or al-Qaeda or Hamas. After all, they share a common goal in wanting to do away with President Bush. NOTHING else matters.
Now, the JonBenet Ramsey thing? Hoo-boy! They're spitting nails over that one. "Conspiracy to perpetuate a media frenzy" was how one outraged mediot claimed that Carr feller should be charged.
He--along with the Boulder DA--are guilty of the one unpardonable sin in Big Media's collective eye: wasting their precious time.
#6
WHat? And I thought all those LLL talking points Bin Laden, his ilk, and of course most recentley Iran Pres was spewing was becuase they were LLL's at heart and not totalitarian Radical Islamist. hehehe
#7
For the very simple reason that Big Media really doesn't see any stake of their own in the conflict. It either hurts Bush, or it helps him. And if it hurts, they don't care what else might happen.
#10
Great article, phil_b, especially if you follow the trail of breadcrumbs links. This is slander against Israel writ large and damn the media to hell if they do not provide intensive coverage of the backwash on this monumental LIE.
Crap like this is what will eventually relegate mainstream media to all the journalistic credibility of the National Enquirer.
It is indeed a great story and it's telling that the MSM is ignoring it or turning it into a story about MSM versus blogger credibility, which in their Arrogance and ignorance they think they will win (the debate).
By Michael Chertoff WaPo, Tuesday, August 29, 2006; Page A15 Registration Required
Imagine that our troops in Afghanistan raided an al-Qaeda safe house and captured a computer containing the cellphone numbers of operatives in Europe. Wouldn't it be important to know whether one of those cellphone numbers was used to book a transatlantic flight? Unfortunately, today our ability to make that connection remains limited: Information that terrorists readily share with travel agents cannot easily be shared throughout the United States government. That needs to change.
Information sharing and intelligence gathering are some of our most important tools in the global war on terrorism. British authorities, in partnership with the United States and our allies, were able to disrupt the recent terrorist plot against passenger aircraft precisely because of timely, actionable intelligence, properly shared and acted upon before the terrorists could carry out their plans.
But despite the strong links we've forged with our European partners to protect our nations, we still remain handcuffed in our ability to use all available resources to identify threats and stop terrorists.
To defeat terrorists, we must limit their movement between countries and disable their worldwide networks by targeting our investigative resources. One technique practiced by the Department of Homeland Security and a number of foreign governments is the use of name-based information, such as passenger manifests and crew lists, to screen travelers coming to the United States before they get here. These manifests allow us to identify known persons of interest on watch lists and to act upon threats before they can reach our shores -- even, where possible, before they depart on their trip. But how do we thwart a terrorist who has not yet been identified?
One way is by using more of the detailed information collected by airlines and travel agencies when an individual books a flight. These passenger name records contain information, such as travel itineraries and payment details, that can be analyzed in conjunction with current intelligence to identify high-risk travelers before they board planes.
If we learned anything from Sept. 11, 2001, it is that we need to be better at connecting the dots of terrorist-related information. After Sept. 11, we used credit card and telephone records to identify those linked with the hijackers. But wouldn't it be better to identify such connections before a hijacker boards a plane?
By comparing passenger name record (PNR) data and intelligence gathered on known terrorists -- such as cellphone numbers collected in Afghanistan -- we can identify unknown threats for additional screening and enhance our ability to assess risk. At the same time, that means we will spend less time with inconvenient screening of low-risk travelers.
The U.S. government has collected PNR data on travelers aboard international flights to the United States since the early 1990s. This information is of such value that after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Congress mandated its continued collection. But in the past few years European privacy concerns have limited the ability of counterterrorism officials to gain broad access to data of this sort.
For example, under an agreement with the European Union, U.S. Customs and Border Protection receives this information regularly, but it cannot routinely share it with investigators in another DHS component, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or with the FBI -- never mind with our allies in London. This information might yet identify associates of those arrested in the plot in Britain, but the rules blind us in routinely searching for that connection.
DHS has made a strong commitment to protect personal privacy while screening international travelers. We do not profile based on race or ethnicity, but we do assess potential threats through careful analysis of individual behavior. The DHS chief privacy officer has closely reviewed the PNR program to ensure that it meets standards of fair information practices and U.S. law. This includes providing a process through which travelers can seek redress if they feel their freedoms have been violated.
Protecting personal privacy is a part of responding to the post-Sept. 11 world, but it should not reflexively block us from developing new screening tools. Indeed, more data sharing leads to more precisely targeted screening, which actually improves privacy by reducing questioning and searches of innocent travelers.
All governments bear a responsibility to prevent terrorists from boarding aircraft, and information sharing is a critical way we can work together to limit terrorist mobility, screen for unknown threats and investigate terrorist cells. Smart screening -- including careful and responsive analysis of travel data -- will enhance security and privacy.
The writer is U.S. secretary of homeland security.
And the ACLU will be ramping up to kill this idea.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/29/2006 12:42 ||
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I'm with you on this Chertoff. Especially your little crack about limiting movement of terrorists between countries. Start here on the homefront. Stop the visa approval, visitation, and travel of any more Mooselimbs into the US. This is only the most basic of common sense. When will you issue the orders?
#3
Sadly, false identification papers thwart much of what the article exhorts. Still, just like the proverbial busload of lawyers on the lakebed, it's a good start.
#5
As I was walking through National Airport last Friday looking at the various travelers a strange thought hit me. How would the demographics of America appear today had 9/11 not happened?
University of Chicago political scientist John Mearsheimer was in town yesterday to elaborate on his view that American Jewish groups are responsible for the war in Iraq, the destruction of Lebanon's infrastructure and many other bad things. Mearsheimer, with co-author Stephen Walt of Harvard's Kennedy School, set off a furious debate this spring when they argued that "the Israel lobby" is exerting undue influence in Washington; opponents called them anti-Semitic.
Yesterday, at the invitation of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), they held a forum at the National Press Club to expand on their allegations about the Israel lobby. Blurring the line between academics and activism, they accepted a button proclaiming "Fight the Israel Lobby" and won cheers from the Muslim group for their denunciation of Israel and its friends in the United States.
Walt kicked off the session with a warning that we face a "threat from terrorism because we have been so closely tied to Israel." This produced chuckles in the audience. Walt allowed that this was "not the only reason" for our problems, but he did blame Israel supporters for the hands-off position the Bush administration took during the Lebanon fighting.
"The answer is the political influence of the Israel lobby," Walt said. He also hypothesized that if not for the Israel lobby, the Iraq war "would have been much less likely."
Up next, Mearsheimer ridiculed U.S. leaders for "falling all over themselves to express support for Israel." And he drew groans from the crowd when he spoke about a lawmaker who, after questioning Israel's policy, "met with various representatives from major Jewish organizations, who explained to him the basic facts of life in American politics."
When the two professors finished, they were besieged by autograph- and photo-seekers and Arab television correspondents. Walt could be heard telling one that if an American criticizes Israel, "it might have some economic consequences for your business."
Before leaving for an interview with al-Jazeera, Mearsheimer accepted a button proclaiming "Walt & Mearsheimer Rock. Fight the Israel Lobby."
"I like it," he said, beaming.
Interesting the liberal, blue blood, Ivy League types are ready to leave Israel in the dust, especially if the petrodollars keep coming in to expand those Ivy endowments, but the bigoted, redneck, evangelicals are ready to fight to support God's Chosen.
#1
First time in a long time that I liked something Dana ("D" as in Democrat) Milbank wrote. These two Academicians are truly repugnant and unprofessional Jooooo haters. Their respective employers should look long and hard at their work and the embarrassment they're bringing. CAIR hires and supports them, nuff said
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/29/2006 11:35 Comments ||
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Stephen Walt of Harvard's Kennedy School
This says it ALL!!
University of Chicago political scientist John Mearsheimer was in town yesterday to elaborate on his view that American Jewish groups are responsible for the war in Iraq, the destruction of Lebanon's infrastructure and many other bad things. As evidence, he cited the influence pro-Israel groups have on "John Boner, the House majority leader."
Actually, Professor, it's "BAY-ner." "Ooops, sorry, I was thinking of my Viagra."
But Mearsheimer quickly dispensed with Boehner (R-Ohio) and moved on to Jewish groups' nefarious sway over Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who Mearsheimer called "Von Hollen."
Such gaffes would be trivial -- if Mearsheimer weren't claiming to be an authority on Washington and how power is wielded here. . . .
Whatever motivated the performance, the result wasn't exactly scholarly.
Ouch! Nice to see Millbank stick it to someone who deserves sticking for a change.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/29/2006 12:10 Comments ||
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#4
These two Academicians are truly repugnant and unprofessional Jooooo haters.
#5
Professional Jew-haters: let me nominate, in no particular order, Mother Sheehan, Osama, Ned Lamont and his Kossacks, Hezbollah, Hamas, the New York Times, Boris the troll, Ramsey Clark, Jimmah Carter, the Mad Mullahs.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/29/2006 12:53 Comments ||
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#6
should've had a comma after professionals... :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/29/2006 13:49 Comments ||
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#7
American Jewish groups are responsible for the war in Iraq
Lunatic conspiracy theory involving Illuminati, Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Trilateral Commision in five ... four ... three ...
#8
garbage given a megaphone. Not much different than that crazy cult woman from Kansas who pickets funerals. They get in our face and demand we take them seriously and we have to just because they get in our face. Just another bunch of wackos.
#9
Tenured faculty members from the most prestigeous universities in the country are not garbage or a crazy cult, much as their words may indicate that they are. They are the establishment of the country and that they are willing to persist in expressing these opinions quite publicly shows that their opinions resonate with a significant portion of the establishment.
We have a problem in this country with anti-Israelism, which is also anti-westernism. The media is clearly of that opinion as are large segments of academia and mainline religion. The next step is for one of the Democrat candidates to take that position in the primaries.
WASHINGTON Muslim circles have expressed alarm and disgust at the publication of a redrawn map of the Islamic world in a journal closely linked to the US armed forces. The Armed Forces Journal, which has published the redrawn map of the world of Islam along with a long explanatory article, is published by the Army Times Publishing Company, a part of Gannett Company, Inc, the worlds largest publisher of professional military and defence periodicals.
The proposed scheme places Pakistan on the chopping block. According to the plan, Iran, a state with madcap boundaries, would lose a great deal of territory to Unified Azerbaijan, Free Kurdistan, the Arab Shia State and Free Balochistan, but would gain the provinces around Herat in todays Afghanistan a region with a historical and linguistic affinity for Persia.
Iran would, in effect, become an ethnic Persian state again, with the most difficult question being whether or not it should keep the port of Bandar Abbas or surrender it to the Arab Shia State.
What Afghanistan would lose to Persia in the west, it would gain in the east, as Pakistans North-west Frontier tribes would be reunited with their Afghan brethren Pakistan, another unnatural state, would also lose its Baloch territory to Free Balochistan. The remaining natural Pakistan would lie entirely east of the Indus, except for a westward spur near Karachi. The city-states of the UAE would have a mixed fate as they probably will in reality. Some might be incorporated in the Arab Shia State ringing much of the Persian Gulf Since all puritanical cultures are hypocritical, Dubai, of necessity, would be allowed to retain its playground status for rich debauchees. Kuwait would remain within its current borders, as would Oman.
#2
I partially agree, but you have to argue that might, not fairness, makes right. Kurdistan has the might to sustain a greater Kurdistan, but Baluchistan is too backward to become an independant state.
It is also wealthy in resources vital to Pakistan, which would be loathe to let it go, along with its deep water port.
Syria could become a Sunni nation, as the vast majority of its people are Sunni. And I have several times outlined the same partitioning of Iran here, though I added the Azeri, rejoining with Azerbaijan, not through any great strength of their own, but enforced by the US, to deny Iran the resources to rebuild its nuclear power.
And Afghanistan is perversely, geographically united in such a way that dividing it would be next to impossible. It's different peoples are stuck with each other.
#3
Itsa plan. Few minor adjustments, though, IMHO...
West Bank and southern Lebanon below Litani to Israel. Gaza -- big wall around it as Egyptians don't want it... probably even if they were paid. Oh, yea, transfer them Paleos from Judea and Samaria to the current Paleostinian state--Jordan.
Kurdistan needs an access to Mediterranian--a strip along the current northern Syrian border would do. The can build a port, I believe, even with 10 km territory on the seashore.
Azeris need to cede Nagorno-Kharabakh and the territory that separates Nagorno-Kharabakh from Armenia on the west. There may be some territory ceded by Turks, north of Kurdistan boundary, to Armenia as a redress for genocide at the beginning of the 20th century. Access to black Sea would be desirable.
I am sure there may be some more bugs to iron out.
Oh, yea, the most important thing... At the time when this would be taking place, Islam needs to be neutered, or better yet, in a dustbin of history.
#4
Here's the actual AFJ article with the map in question.
I note that the Shia state, as described in the "After" map, would "own" what looks to be all of the Saudi oil, half of the Iraqi oil, and a good portion of the Iranian oil...
That would be one rich bitch state, Ralphie. Shia.
I can certainly see why the Sunnis are less than thrilled with this.
The only thing that I give a shit about is the Kurds. Give them a Med port, too. The rest, the Arabs and Persians, can pound sand AFAIC.
#6
This concept has one singular and gigantic appeal. By reconsolidating these individual ethnic groups into their historically respective homelands, they are now congregated in such a way that whomever decides to unleash another significant terrorist attack on America is handily clustered up in preparation for nuclear extermination. Go ahead, make my day.
#7
Sorry but Peters is way out of bounds here. Considering this hare-brained pie-in-the-sky scheme, he wants us to "think the unthinkable". I have a counter proposal that's just as absurd and idealistic: how about the civilized world gets together and demand that some people give up tribalism and try a little pluralism, even in Central Asia and the Middle East - especially in Central Asia and the Middle East. Who said that ethnic cleansing works?! This plan is nothing more than a blueprint for perpetual war. Of course more war is inevitable in the region and the borders will not stay as they are. But at some point we gotta look/hope/pray for the emergence of a state or several ones, where Sunnis can live with Shias, Palis with Hashemites, Balochis, Kurds, Azeris ad infinitum, are not all looking for their own special little mini-state, like the Balkans.
#8
Iran, a state with madcap boundaries, would lose a great deal of territory to Unified Azerbaijan, Free Kurdistan, the Arab Shia State and Free Balochistan
Someone has been reading Rantburg. The Middle East is a collection of Empires, partially disintegrated empires and countries made up by colonial administrators. The current states and their borders are THE main impediment to democracy, cos large numbers give a free choice would succeed from the state they are currerntly a part of. It's no coincidence that Kurdistan has a thriving civil society and a functioning democracy.
And MM, whilst it hasn't played out fully in the Balkans. The results are very promising. You may argue that the result is not worth the process to get there, but I would respond with, what's your alternative (And BTW, the notion we can maintain whatever staus quo exists today for ever is absurd).
#10
phil_b - No? Then we're not looking at the same map (linked in my #4). That horseshoe Shia state Peters describes wraps around the Gulf of Rumsfeld from Bandar Abbas to the Qatari border - that's 50% Persian and 50% Saudi Arab - at least in terms of territory. I don't think we're talking about the same "Shia state".
#12
phil_b - Are you saying the Iranian half of the horseshoe is (mainly) populated by Arabs?
This map agrees with you down around Bandar Abbas, but not the middle section that includes Bushehr.
I misspoke above, Peters' map does not include that Arab area around Bandar Abbas - my mistake. Sure looks to be Persion, in the main, on that side of the Gulf, however. So my question about Peters' Shia state being a mix of Persians and Arabs stands, as far as I can see.
#14
What's important is not the details, but that the Middle East is informally on notice that Bush's refusal, post-9/11, to unthinkingly support their status quo is already having effects far beyond the conquests of Afghanistan and Iraq and the establishment of more or less successful democracies in their midst, whereby the inchoate longings of their peoples can find focus. Now they need to worry that their minority populations are going to see this plan as a possible reality toward which they can take action even before the US sends troops into the various battles. Mr. Peters is a smart man, although I find his conclusions less useful than I did when I first discovered his writings* , but I see this a nice bit of preparing the ground for battle, on the assumption that the senior levels of the Armed Forces are aware the article was accepted for publication.
*That bit about Israel, for instance, demonstrates a distressing lack of understanding of the Muslim mindset with regard to what they see as dhimmis who refuse to accept their place. The only way the Middle East will accept Israel is when she defeats them all conclusively... and doesn't give back anything she's won. "Land for peace" buys Israel neither peace nor security.
#15
He calls Iraq an unnatural state and calls for a greater Kurdish state, which will include Turkish, Syrian and Iranian Kurds. A Free Kurdistan, stretching from Diyarbakir through Tabriz, would be the most pro-Western state between Bulgaria and Japan, he adds. Ralph Peters.
Have to agree with Peters to a point. Iraq when compared to the former Yugoslavia had a great deal in common, desperate ethnic groups all held together by ruthless dictators, for a time anyway. What I don't agree with is the concept of the U.S. fixing it. Stay the phuech out, let them square the corners to suite themselves. Our blood and national treasure is too precious for those heathen goat bonkers.
#16
Stay the phuech out, let them square the corners to suite themselves. Our blood and national treasure is too precious for those heathen goat bonkers.
Except that they always seem to phuech it up when they square the corners and it ends up costing us more in the long run. This is an, if you want it done right, do it yourself situation.
#17
Could not agree with you more NS. The challenge remains, there really is no shortage of global phuech-ups and none predicted for the future. As an illustration, I gave up on attempting to enforce my own modest standards of highway motoring protocal on the general public long ago. There simply isn't enuf time to train them all, and there are far to many to shoot! I just laugh and iggy the poor bastards, remain in my lane and hope and pray for the best.
#18
Of note is the fact that most Persian Gulf oil fields - including the Ghawar field (world's largest) - are in Arab-Shiite majority areas. Few are in Persian areas, thus, the ethnic card could be played by Iran's enemies. The following links reveal known oil pools around the Gulf (use of "Arabian Gulf" term suggests GCC consultant status of the map maker), but doesn't reflect the fact that only 10% of Iraq has been surveyed for oil. Also, Kurdistan is off map but holds the deepest (easiest to extract) pools in the world. My AOL IP doesn't handle html-tags well, so apologies if you have to cut-and-paste:
#21
The problem I have with this whole idea is that it's just Sykes-Picot / Churchill, version 2 (or 3, or 4) revisited. Instead of venal French and English politicans dividing up the Middle East to suit their interests, we'd have venal American politicans dividing up the Middle East to suit ours. Nice idea in theory but it's not going to work.
First off, the ethnicity maps aren't neatly drawn like Mr. Peters thinks. There's a lot of mixing. Who gets Baghdad? What happens to the Alawites and the Druze? You can give the Kurds access to the Med but someone's going to be shorted, and those folks are going to be 'plodingly unhappy.
And second, it says nothing about how these new states would be governed. They're not going to be liberal, secular democracies. And to the extent you have ethnic groups lumped into their own territories, guided by a Religion of Pieces, and susceptible to the next strong-man who comes along, you have trouble.
The only way to fix the problem is to let the people there sort it out. No one complains about the dissolution of Czechoslovakia -- the Czechs and the Slovaks managed to turn one country into two without killing anyone. That's the model. Good luck, Jim.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/29/2006 9:53 Comments ||
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#22
The only way to fix the problem is to let the people there sort it out. No one complains about the dissolution of Czechoslovakia -- the Czechs and the Slovaks managed to turn one country into two without killing anyone. That's the model. Good luck, Jim. Posted by: Steve White 2006-08-29 09:53
#24
The only way to fix the problem is to let the people there sort it out.
What's been preventing that for the last 50 years?
First off, the ethnicity maps aren't neatly drawn like Mr. Peters thinks. There's a lot of mixing.
That's what ethnic cleansing is for. Use some of the oil money to make payments to the displaced for the first couple of years, if necessary.
And second, it says nothing about how these new states would be governed. They're not going to be liberal, secular democracies.
But liberal (for the ME) democracies (I prefer republics) is where we'd like to end up. Is it easier to get there from a homogenous polity or one where ethnic divisions preclude the emergence of more policy oriented parties?
It would be a good idea to make it "their" responsibility, but who are "they" and are they as or more likely to be venal toward the average Middle Easterner as the US? We're the Hegemon. We can't escape the responsibility for what happens regardless of how superficially we are involved in it. It's our watch.
#25
No one complains about the dissolution of Czechoslovakia -- the Czechs and the Slovaks managed to turn one country into two without killing anyone
No credit whatsoever goes to the Slovaks, whose politicians were angling for more aid and economic concessions from Prague. Rather, it was Prime Minister Vaclav Havel who announced immediate separation rather than a civil war to impose unity. Since then, the Czech Republic has quietly gone from success to success, no longer drained by the needs of backward Slovakia.
#27
Gawd, what comic relief. The beauty of this coming out is the knotting of the turbans far and wide. If the cartoons got them going, what will this do ? Har, har.
#28
Penguin "#1 So when Mexicans are the majority in California Mexico can annex it? "
To answer your question YES that is exactley how the US got Texas. It was Mexico allowing for reasons of greed (extra taxes) to many imigrants from the US to quickly without demanding they become Mexicans. The result was short term gain for Mexico but in the end they lost the territory to a minority that saw themselves not as part of Mexico becuase they were not forced to merge.
#29
Too bad no Arabic speakers post here. The Qatar link suggests that the Peters' article - which is nothing more than opinion from a man who has written of Israel's "defeat" in the intervention - has entered the Arab rumor mill. They would be sufficiently stupid to treat Peter's comments as the US government position.
As for Mexican revanche politics, I saw t-shirts being sold in San Antonio ("San Antone" to some white people) that read: "Put The J Back In Texas." Lettring was in Mexican' Orange-White-Green. Coma mierda, Pepe!
#30
Woodrow Wilson had a similar idea for Europe after WWI along linguistic lines. Clemenceau pretty much killed that with the comment "Must every little language have it's own country?"
#31
Migration, even forced migration, is one thing. Ethnic cleansing, in its common usage, is a crime against humanity. Those who suggest it to be a useful problem solving tool are waaaaay off base. And not just in the sense of violently purging minority populations.
If there is to be any hope for these third world hellholes coming on line as global participants, all of them must learn to exist with pluralistic societies. At some point in the future, people of all cultures will be living anywhere and everywhere on the face of this earth.
Allowing for the use of ethnic cleansing both forestalls the eventuality of globalization and turns a blind eye to genocide. Neither of which are desirable in the least.
#33
tw and Snease - it's very unlikely that a report in AFJ would be any reflection of the attitudes at the top of the Pentagon. The Times Journals are civilian publications owned by Gannett. Most of their reporters are civilians,.most with no military experience. Their reporting reflects the normal civilian slant.
#34
Zenster:
My guess is that what the author means by ethnic cleansing has very little to do with Holocaust style genocide and everything to do with the sort of population exchanges that Greece, Turkey, and Bulgaria engineered after WWI. If done properly these can be quiet successful, actually preventing the sort of fratricidal bloodshed we have seen in Yugoslavia, Lebanon, Africa, and elsewhere. For an informative article on the subject link here.
Hey, is it my imagination or did The Peninsula take the map down?
#37
Secret Master, Nimble Spemble, thank you for clarifying. This is why I mentioned "forced migration" in the opening caveat of my previous post. "Ethnic Cleansing", as recently seen in the Balkans, was nothing but genocide, a repeat of which is entirely unnecessary.
EFL
India's opposition Hindu nationalists and Muslim groups are heading for a confrontation over a controversial move to get all Indians to sing the national song on the centenary of its adoption next month. The row was sparked this month after the government asked all schools, including Islamic madrasas, to get students to sing the song, which is separate from the national anthem, on Sept. 7. Within days, it backed down and made singing voluntary after Muslim leaders objected.
Muslim groups say the Sanskrit language song, "Vande Mataram", penned by Bengali poet Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, has strong connotations of Hindu deity worship because it reveres India as a holy goddess, which is against Islam's basic tenets. But the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has pounced on the government's climbdown, saying it smacked of discrimination and encouraged a lack of patriotism.
The party said late on Monday that the five states it rules would make the singing of "Vande Mataram" mandatory on Sept. 7 and would act against those disobeying the order. "There are some things which are symbols of national pride and 'Vande Mataram' is one of them. It can't be made optional," said Vijay Kumar Malhotra, a top BJP leader. "We will enforce it, whichever school it is will have to sing it. We will see what action can be taken against those who do not," Malhotra told Reuters.
Mother, I bow to thee!
Rich with thy hurrying streams,
bright with orchard gleams,
Cool with thy winds of delight,
Dark fields waving Mother of might,
Mother free.
Glory of moonlight dreams,
Over thy branches and lordly streams,
Clad in thy blossoming trees,
Mother, giver of ease
Laughing low and sweet!
Mother I kiss thy feet,
Speaker sweet and low!
Mother, to thee I bow.
Who hath said thou art weak in thy lands
When the sword flesh out in the seventy million hands
And seventy million voices roar
Thy dreadful name from shore to shore?
With many strengths who art mighty and stored,
To thee I call Mother and Lord!
Though who savest, arise and save!
To her I cry who ever her foeman drove
Back from plain and Sea
And shook herself free.
Thou art wisdom, thou art law,
Thou art heart, our soul, our breath
Though art love divine, the awe
In our hearts that conquers death.
Thine the strength that nervs the arm,
Thine the beauty, thine the charm.
Every image made divine
In our temples is but thine.
Thou art Durga, Lady and Queen,
With her hands that strike and her
swords of sheen,
Thou art Lakshmi lotus-throned,
And the Muse a hundred-toned,
Pure and perfect without peer,
Mother lend thine ear,
Rich with thy hurrying streams,
Bright with thy orchard gleems,
Dark of hue O candid-fair
In thy soul, with jewelled hair
And thy glorious smile divine,
Lovilest of all earthly lands,
Showering wealth from well-stored hands!
Mother, mother mine!
Mother sweet, I bow to thee,
Mother great and free!
Probably not be heard at Ireland's Four Courts in Arlington of a Friday night but......
For years, Nawab Mohammed Akbar Khan Bugti battled the Pakistan Army. The 80-year-old renegade hidden in the mountains of Balochistan became a legend in his fight for greater autonomy against what he saw as colonial brutality.
And now he's a martyr.
Bugti was both hated and revered. But as a former federal minister and governor, he symbolized a political as well as a violent struggle. And his death this weekend, during a fierce three-day battle that left more than 30 dead, could prove a serious blow to Pakistan's stability.
It could also close a door to a group seen as a counterweight to extremism represented in the region by a resurgent Taliban, analysts say. "This is not a good sign," says Samina Ahmed, South Asia director of the International Crisis Group. "Just a few years ago [Nawab Bugti] was talking to the government. Keeping that door open was the way to go. Now that door has been slammed shut."
#2
All his big turbaned bodyguards were of no avail,
Actually his bodyguards held off a much larger force, one backed with overwhelming airpower, for three days killing 26 commandos, including six officers.
Bugti was not some islamist moron 'militant' hoping for 72 virgins. He was no Taliban.
He was an Oxford educated, former Pakistan Federal Minister, former Chief Minister of Balochistan, Former Governor of the state.
As Nawab, he was the heriditary leader of a clan comprising hundreds of thousands of people.
He had close contacts with politicians throughout what was undivided India.
He was one of the politicians that created Pakistan. Perv has a serious problem on his hands. He was in diapers (and still an Indian citizen living in Delhi) when Nawab Bugti was running part of Pakistan.
Here a young Bugti greets Mohhamed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.
Bear in mind that Karachi is 60% populated by Sindhi speaking Balochi ethnic people.
Posted by: john ||
08/29/2006 7:26 Comments ||
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#3
Very illuminating John, thanks a lot for that.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/29/2006 18:33 Comments ||
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#4
John, as usual, thanks for your singular expertise. Most of us (meaning, me) are uninformed or misinformed on much of the politics and history (BTW, I do double-check you on stuff that's news to me...no discrepancies found). Please keep up the informative posts
Frank
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/29/2006 18:52 Comments ||
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#5
Comment no 2.
Karachi is not 60% Sindhi speaking balochi. The majority are mohajirs originally from India. Hence the fact the MQM (Mohajir or Muttahida Qaumi Movement)runs the city and has the provincial governor of Sindh of which Karachi is the capital. What are Sindhi-speaking balochi anyway. The Sindhi people (a minority in their capital Karachi) speak sindhi and the Baloch speak Balochi.
#6
My bad.
You're right about the Mohajir demographics. That's what I get for reading too many Pak newspapers - some rather dubious 'statistics'.
Posted by: john ||
08/29/2006 23:04 Comments ||
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#7
From the Daily Times..
Nawab Bugti on jihad
What use have I got for a God that needs me to fight His battles?
Posted by: john ||
08/29/2006 23:05 Comments ||
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#8
Karachi on the Eve of Partition
"The population of Karachi at that time was 450,000 of which 61.2 per cent was Sindhi speaking, 6.3 per cent was Urdu-Hindi speaking, 51 per cent was Hindu and 42 per cent was Muslim. By 1951 all this had changed and Karachis population had increased to 1.137 million because of the influx of 600,000 refugees from India. In 1951 the Sindhi speaking population was 8.6 per cent, the Urdu speaking population was 50 per cent, the Muslim population was 96 per cent and the Hindu population was 2 per cent1. These changes have had a major effect on the culture, politics and development of Karachi and its relationship to the politics of Sindh and Pakistan. For an understanding of the present situation in the city and the province, an understanding of the repercussions of these demographic changes is essential."
"a large number of present-day Sindhi landlords are of Baloch origin. According to the 1941 census, which was the last one held before independence, Balochis formed 23% of the total Muslim population of Sindh."
Posted by: john ||
08/29/2006 23:29 Comments ||
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Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) chief Nawabzada Gazzen Marri was released by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Government on Sunday, sources told Daily Times Monday. Marri has been acquitted of all charges levied against him by the Pakistani authorities. Sources said that as such the demand for his extradition to Pakistan was turned down by a UAE court. Marri has been detained since March 21, 2006. During his detention he was given special treatment. The second eldest son of the nawab was taken into custody by the Dubai authorities for alleged involvement in money laundering cases in the Persian Gulf. The 46-year-old BLA chief was picked up from Dubai's Dera area on the request of the Pakistan government that had lodged a formal complaint with the UAE government about the alleged involvement of Khair Bux's son in arranging finances for terrorist activities. But the prosecutor failed to prove any of the charges against him.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2006 00:00 ||
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Federal Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani said on Sunday that the body of former Balochistan governor and chief minister Nawab Akbar Bugti had not yet been taken out from the rubble of the bunker destroyed in the Saturday attack and that it would be buried in the presence of members of the bereaved family.
"You guys might want to wait a day or so. The mortician's going to be awful busy. I'm told they work wonders for a funeral."
The minister made these remarks at a press conference in response to a demand by Nawab Bugtis son, Talal Bugti, that his father and other slain relatives be buried in their ancestral graveyard in Dera Bugti.
Mr Durrani said it was unclear whether Nawab Bugtis grandsons, Brahmadagh and Mirali, had also been killed in the raid which left seven security forces personnel, including three officers, dead.
He said the issue was discussed in detail at a meeting of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao and Pakistan Muslim League president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain with President Gen Pervez Musharraf at the summer hill resort of Murree on Sunday. The minister evaded questions whether he was personally grieved by the killing of a seasoned politician like Nawab Bugti. He refused to respond to a query as to why recommendations of the parliamentary committee on Balochistan had not been implemented by the government.
Mr Durrani dismissed as untrue reports that Nawab Bugtis cave had been hit by a laser-guided missile. No such missiles are manufactured by Pakistan. So there is no question of laser-guided missiles hitting the bunker in which Nawab Bugti was hiding, he said.
They might not have had 'made in Pakistan' stamped on them, that's true enough ...
Giving details of the military raid, he said that resistance offered by Nawab Bugtis men was so intense that arresting him alive was not even remotely possible.
"We told him to drop the heat and come out with his mitts in the air, but he didn't listen!"
The operation started on Aug 23 when one of the two helicopters sent on a tip-off about the presence of renegades in the Taratani area of Kohlu district came under fire. Another helicopter was hit by enemy fire shortly afterwards. The operation intensified on Aug 26 as the militants, operating out of heavily fortified bunkers, employed high-tech weaponry and killed seven security officials, he said.
Posted by: john ||
08/29/2006 00:00 ||
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Denying any knowledge of Osama Bin Laden cadres in the state, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik yesterday said any Al Qaida operation in Kashmir would turn the entire world against the ongoing "freedom struggle" here. Addressing a press conference, Malik said, "The whole world will turn against the oppressed Kashmiri people if the Al Qaida outfit starts operating in Kashmir."
The JKLF chief also issued an appeal requesting the people here not to support the group. Asked whether he held the same views about Al Qaida operations outside Kashmir, Malik said, "I am talking only in the context of Kashmir. We must keep our principles fully intact and wed those with the right actions, not driven by emotions, but by logic and rationality."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
That guy is been hitting a bong. He has reefer eyeballs.
Authors Alberto Alesina and Janina Matuszeski of Harvard University and William Easterly at New York University divided countries into two categories: natural and artificial. A natural state is one defined by ethnicity and geographic features such as mountain ranges. Mountains reinforce ethnic communities -- if only by isolating them. Natural national borders would tend to be bumpy.
The map of an artificial state by contrast looks like it was drawn with a ruler, which it often was. Its straight borders sometimes partition ethnic communities, placing them in two countries. Other times, they place tribes that are hostile to one another in the same nation.
The data bear that out. The squiggliest country out of 144 studied turns out to be Luxembourg, such a model of comity that many of us forget its existence. Slovenia is No. 3, and is indeed one of the calmer of the new nations to emerge since the Cold War ended. Switzerland, the classic mountain country, comes in fourth.
The less squiggly countries prove more problematic. The least squiggly nation in the world is Papua New Guinea, the site of chronic and violent feuds. Saudi Arabia is right down there with a squiggliness rank of 143. Somalia and Libya are 142 and 141. Iraq is 110. Iran is 86. Afghanistan is fairly squiggly, ranking 62nd.
Less squiggly countries, the scholars found, generally have lower income, worse public services and higher infant mortality rates. They also found that social unrest, the sort that leads to wars, was also more frequent in unsquiggly places. The net finding, says Alesina, is that artificiality is ``correlated with bad stuff.''
The bigger problem with the study is the circularity of the argument. The great powers of a 100 or 50 years ago drew the lines that created the colonies or satellite countries. Britain for example arbitrarily constructed Iraq, and arbitrarily decided its size, which is a bit less than twice that of the U.S. state of Idaho.
``The worst thing that ever happened to Iraq was the invention of the straight edge,'' Easterly says. ``They took Mesopotamia and combined mutually antagonistic groups in one nation.'' Colonialism or tyranny sets trouble in motion. The lines themselves came later.
``The lesson of history is respect nationality,'' Easterly says. ``For Iraq, at the very least you want to emphasize the federalism established there and strengthen it.'' He and his partners are looking at this in a new study, on wars and squiggliness.
As for the Kurds, ``the Turkish government should continue what it has started to do,'' he said. ``Respect language rights, do more to foster local autonomy.''
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
08/29/2006 12:02 Comments ||
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#4
There is some truth to this. Our own states were set up with respect to the autonomy of the various regions. Each was allowed their own power structures and ability to govern per the desires of the people who lived there. But when it comes to Federal - the laws should be limited to commerce, security, roads, and other issues where cooperation is of a benefit to all.
#6
Gee, ya 'spose that's the connection, {blank poster]?
I think we'd find an excellent correlation, folks!
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/29/2006 14:12 Comments ||
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#7
Hey Darth,
The New Mexicans already have too much water this year. Wouldn't mind sprending it around a bit at all. Ended a 6 year drought in 5 weeks. That's a lot of water.
#8
Few people remember the great Arizona-New Mexico border war of 1925. It began when NM aggressively tried to export its Art Deco-Pueblo style of architecture to AZ. Arizona retaliated with a slash and burn campaign which destroyed all of NMs saguaro cactuses.
This in turn forced the New Mexicans to put green chilis in all their food, even their State dish, dog meat with lard sauce. But they had the last laugh by charging obscene prices to tourists for their pottery and breeding vast herds of avant-guard artists in their art colonies.
And to this day, they try to spread the Art Deco-Pueblo look into Arizona.
#10
It doesn't take a genius to destroy this guy's argument. The United States has two very long borders. The majority of those borders are "drawn with a ruler". The longest and straightest of those borders is with Canada, and we haven't fought a major war against them since 1814. Guess there are exceptions to all the "rules"...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/29/2006 20:10 Comments ||
Top||
BAGHDAD - Britains defence secretary said on Monday security had improved in southern Iraq and predicted that formal control of a second province in the region would be handed back to Iraq soon. I recognise there are continuing challenges and Ive seen some violence over this weekend which suggests theres much more work to be done, Des Browne told a joint news conference with Iraqi Defence Minister Abdul Qader Jassim. But as Prime Minister Maliki said in an interview this weekend, things are improving and the challenge is to maintain that improvement.
British and Iraqi officials have said they expect Dhi Qar province, policed by Italians in the British-led force, to return to formal Iraqi control next month, following the return of neighbouring Muthanna in July. In my estimate Dhi Qar is ready for transition and it should be possible for us now to name a date for that transition, Browne told a group of foreign reporters.
Earlier, Jassim told reporters: There was the handing-over of security in al-Samawa (Muthanna province); very soon, God willing, security in Nassiriya will be handed over.
The Italian government has been planning to withdraw its forces from their base in Nassiriya, capital of Dhi Qar. The handover, following that of Australian- and Japanese-run bases around Samawa in July, would leave 7,000 British troops in charge of the oil city of Basra and the province of Maysan, around the city of Amara, along the southern Iranian border.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/29/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
The Italians are withdrawing; violence is escalating; no one (that I've talked to in the last five minutes) thinks we can win......Quagmire! Withdraw! Panic!
etc.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/29/2006 6:24 Comments ||
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Fatah activists and officials in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are threatening to launch an "intifada" against veteran leaders of the party, including Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, in an attempt to force them to accept demands for internal reforms and elections. The "rebels" plan to convene an emergency meeting of the Fatah revolutionary council, in what is regarded as the first sign of an open split. The council comprises many grassroots leaders and disgruntled activists who are fed up with veteran Fatah leaders.
Last week, the Fatah central committee, a decision-making body controlled by representatives of the movement's "old guard," met for three days in Jordan without reaching a decision on holding a general conference for party members to elect a new leadership. The committee members also ignored demands by "young guard" activists for major reforms in Fatah in the aftermath of its defeat in January's parliamentary election. The committee instead authorized Abbas to begin talks with Hamas and other Palestinian factions on the formation of a national-unity government - a decision that has also drawn sharp criticism from many Fatah members.
The latest row within the movement is likely to undermine Abbas's efforts to establish such a government. "The dispute in Fatah plays into the hands of Hamas," said a senior Fatah activist in Ramallah. "There is a lot of anger and resentment among Fatah cadres in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Many of them are threatening to declare an intifada against Abbas and the old guard." Azzam al-Ahmed, head of the Fatah list in the Palestinian Legislative Council, said the decisions of the central committee were "an indication that we are moving backward, not forward." The committee's failure to set a date for a general conference was a "negative step," he said. The last time Fatah held such a conference was in Tunis in 1989.
PA chairman Yasser Arafat repeatedly ignored demands to convene a conference to enable young activists to choose new leaders and inject fresh blood into the corruption-riddled Fatah, the PLO's largest faction. After he succeeded Arafat, Abbas also promised that he would work toward convening Fatah's sixth conference, but has since failed to fulfill his pledge. Commenting on the central committee's decision to give Abbas a green light to discuss a national unity government, Ahmed said, "There is nothing new about this. They simply reiterated the position that was taken by Fatah after Hamas formed its government."
Former PA minister Nabil Amr, who has long campaigned for reforms in Fatah, said he and many of his colleagues were very disappointed by the meeting in Jordan. He accused the committee of making a mockery out of demands for reforms and told the Ramallah-based Al-Ayyam daily: "The decisions of the committee did not rise to the level of the crisis in Fatah and the Palestinian territories."
"The committee members are continuing to use language that perished a long time ago," Amr said. "They are even using the same old tools; how can they decide to go the United Nations to resolve the Palestinian issue at a time when the party does not have a clear policy that differs from that of the [Hamas] government?"
Amr said that a petition that he and dozens of colleagues had sent to the committee members meeting in Jordan was completely ignored. "The committee was supposed to discuss ways of reviving Fatah, as well as the financial and administrative situation in the party, but that did not happen," he said.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/29/2006 11:33 ||
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#1
threatening to launch an "intifada" against veteran leaders of the party, including Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas,
Oh dear. Do they mean rock throwing youths, suicide bombers, or barrages of rockets? I'll go set up the movie theater popcorn machine that Fred somehow acquired. A single batch from the kitchen isn't going to do for this one.
#8
Fatah activists and officials in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are threatening to launch an "intifada" against veteran leaders of the party, including Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas
Who says there is no possibility of resolution in the Palestinian Terrortories? If they all kill each other off, what's not to like?
Count on me to bring a few growlers of fine micro-brewed beer.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/29/2006 16:20 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Red on red - works for me.
I believe this was predicted a while back; the Israelis leave, the Paleos celebrate, smash greenhouses, elect psychos, incumbent crooks not happy, launch ineffectual attacks against Israel, can't kill Israelis so turn on each other, world watches on in disbelief.
Ah well, such is life (and death).
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/29/2006 18:45 Comments ||
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#11
#10 Tony: "world watches on in disbelief:
Maybe the rest of the world, but not 'burgers. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/29/2006 19:29 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Dhineling Hupemble 1026 was me.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/29/2006 19:39 Comments ||
Top||
#13
I had my typeface set a bit small. I thought it said Fetish Activists Threaten 'Intifada'
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday rejected a state inquiry into the government's handling of the war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, despite widespread calls for a broad, independent investigation.
He's toast.
Instead, he authorized a less-powerful probe to be headed by a former head of the Mossad spy agency. A state inquiry would have the authority to dismiss top officials. In a speech in the northern city of Haifa, Olmert said the government doesn't have the "luxury" to spend long periods of time investigating the past.
He'll have lots of time in his retirement. In a few months.
Olmert also said he accepted full responsibility for the government's decision to go to war. "The decision ... was entirely mine," he said in a speech in the northern city of Haifa, where he addressed leaders of northern communities damaged by Hezbollah rocket fire.
Nobody's bitching about the decision to go to war. They're bitching about screwing it up.
The government has been heavily criticized for its handling of the 34- day war, and the public has been clamoring for an investigation. Olmert also defended his decision to authorize a last-minute ground offensive in Lebanon, despite the heavy casualties suffered by Israeli forces.
It should have been a first-minute ground offensive.
Thirty-three soldiers were killed in the offensive, launched even as a cease-fire agreement was taking place. Speaking in the northern city of Haifa, Olmert said the offensive helped push the cease-fire through the United Nations.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
He can't really stop it for long. Trying to move his assets out of the country first?
Manila, 29 August (AKI) - Ten years after a peace deal was reached between the Philippines government and the then secessionist rebel group the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), Manila said that "notable gains" have been achieved. But that interpretation is challenged by some Muslim groups who have told Adnkronos International (AKI) that the accord has brought neither peace nor prosperity to the region. The final peace agreement was signed was signed in Jakarta (Indonesia) on September 2, 1996.
The Moro National Liberation Front first appeared in the Philippines, a mainly Catholic country, in the early 1970s, fighting for an independent Moro nation in the south of the country. The Moro refer to the followers of Islam. The peace deal signed in 1996 created the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in the west of the island. MNLF leaders have been installed as governors in the region, but some 450 breakaway factions of MNLF members have continued to attack army troops.
The chairman of the office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, Jesus Dureza, told AKI that the implementation of the final accord was "on track" despite certain constraints brought about by the economic crisis and the resurgence of other armed conflicts in southern Philippines. "Notable gains were achieved particularly the successful conclusion of Phase I of the accord, including the integration of 5,750 MNLF fighters to the military and 1,500 others to the police, he said.
But Fatmawati Salapuddin, secretary general of the Bangsamoro Womens Solidarity Forum, a civil society organization, said the implementation of the peace agreement was not successful since it did not address the root cause of the problem, which is the wish for self-determination of the Bangsamoro, as the Muslims in Mindanao are collectively called. "To some extent, we feel that we are being sold so that Muslim countries will support the Philippines, she told AKI. She noted that militarisation continued in Mindanao, particularly in the island province of Sulu, from where she hails.
Sulu is dominated by the military, allegedly intent on fighting the local militant group, Abu Sayyaf who is believed to have links with Jemaah Islamiyah, a regional terror group. "The people in Sulu are already tired of military bomber planes hovering above them, she added. Amina Rasul-Bernardo, lead convener of the Philippine Council for Islam and Democracy, agreed that there is failure in the implementation of the peace pact. There is truth on the assertion of the MNLF that there have been violations of some of the terms of the agreement due to acts of Congress, she told AKI.
The MNLF has been questioning the unilateral passage of laws by the Congress, who according to the peace agreement - was required to consult with the Bangsamoro people. In particular, the former rebels have questioned the passage of the Republic Act 9054 or the New Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Organic Act in 2001. The creation of ARMM was one of the major enticements by the government for the MNLF to sign a peace accord. All of the indicators point to a final peace agreement that has not been very successfully implemented, Rasul-Bernardo said, noting that poverty incidence in most areas covered by ARMM is still high. "If theres a change, it seems to be for the worse," she added.
Salapuddin and Rasul-Bernardo said that the very first step the government should do to correct the mistakes and false steps with the MNLF is to free Nur Misuari, the Moro leader, who signed the accord on behalf of the group, but who has been detained for almost five years now after being accused of leading an uprising. Supporters of Misuari, who was the founder of the MNLF, launched a series of attacks on army troops in Jolo, the largest of the Sulu islands in 2005.
Jesus Dureza will spearhead the commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the peace deal on 2 September. Despite having a peace accord with the MNLF, the government is currently negotiating another peace pact with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a breakaway group of the MNLF, which has been pushing for independence in the Muslim-dominated Southern Philippines.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/29/2006 08:17 ||
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This guy is thinking he is now The superpower of the world!
If I were Bush I'd take him up on it. I'd make sure Bush's advisors let Bush be himself. And I'd make sure it was televised live throughout Iran.
TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called on U.S. President George W. Bush to participate in a "direct television debate with us," so Iran can voice its point of view on how to end world predicaments. "But the condition is that there can be no censorship, especially for the American nation," he said Tuesday.
Ditto for yours. We'll even provide our own Farsi translator for Dubya.
The White House called the offer to debate Bush a "diversion" from international concerns over Iran's nuclear program, Reuters reported.
I'd use the 'debate' to talk over Ahmadinejad's head (which wouldn't be hard with Shrimpy) to the Iranian people.
During during a news conference in Tehran, Ahmadinejad also blamed "special concessions" granted to the United States and Britain as "the root cause of all the problems in the world." "At the Security Council, where they have to protect security, they enjoy the veto right. If anybody confronts them, there is no place to take complaints to."
His comments came two days before a deadline set by a U.N. Security Council resolution for the Islamic republic to suspend uranium enrichment or face possible sanctions. Although he did not directly address the U.N. deadline, Ahmadinejad said '"nobody can prevent" Iran from its right to a "peaceful, nuclear program."
"I think the time has passed to speak of the Security Council and the tools they can use to force a country to do certain things," he said.
Ahmadinejad said he would reject any suspension of enrichment, even if requested by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan during an upcoming visit to Iran.
#4
I'd watch it on pay-per-view, especially if the debate ends with W pulling out a Glock and blowing that @ssmonkey away.
Posted by: Tibor ||
08/29/2006 15:28 Comments ||
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#5
His self righteousness and arrogance will only be exacerbated when he finally has the capability to throw nukes at us. We might as well debate his ass; our government is going to self debate this issue until he nukes us anyway. All snarks aside, the world has a platform for this type of debate, its called the UN. By my count if he goes there to speak he will have the home court advantage anyway.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/29/2006 15:47 Comments ||
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Lebanese opposition MP Walid Jumblatt accused Syria on Monday of playing a major role in the violence in the region and promised to continue to fight them as much as he could. Speaking to Labor MK Colette Avital at an unplanned meeting in Paris, Jumblatt said "We are stuck between the Israeli rock and the Syrian hard place," Army Radio reported. The Druse leader in Lebanon spared no insult in describing Syrian President Bashar Assad and his regime, according to Avital, calling Assad deceitful and manipulative.
After talking to Avital, Jumblatt continued to meet with United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, where he stated that all Syrian influence must be removed from Lebanon. Jumblatt has been a vocal opponent of Syria and pressed for the removal of Syrian troops from Lebanon. He has accused Syria of being behind the killing of Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005. Damascus issued a warrant for Jumblatt's arrest in May.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
More Syrian hypocrisy. Jumblatt's grandfather - Shakib Arslan - inspired the Syrian revolt of 1925 against France.
#2
Snease Shaiting3550, I don't see hypocrisy. If I were in Jumblat shoes, I'd dislike (loathe, hate, despise, you get the idea) Pencilneck too, whether my granpa inspired Syrian revolt in 1925, or not.
#8
The Druse leader in Lebanon spared no insult in describing Syrian President Bashar Assad and his regime, according to Avital, calling Assad deceitful and manipulative. ..;-)
#11
If I were Wally I'd be willing to fight the Syrians (as long as I didn't get hurt), and if I were Wally's grampa I'd be willing to fight the French (ditto).
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/29/2006 9:45 Comments ||
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#12
note he said this talking face to face with an Israeli MK (member of the Knesset). That alone is spitting in the face of Syria, Iran, and Hezbollah.
A U.S. anti-terrorism official says Iran is providing money to finance terrorism carried out by the militant group Hezbollah - calling the country quote - "the central banker of terror". In an interview with the Associated Press Monday, Stuart Levey said Iran is a country that has terrorism as part of its budget.
Levey - the U.S. Under-Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism - spoke as Iran faces a Thursday, August 31 U.N. deadline to stop enriching uranium or face possible sanctions. Separately, the United States confirmed it will issue a visa to former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, who has been invited to speak next month at a multi-faith seminar in Washington. Khatami, considered a moderate among Iranian religious leaders, had advocated dialogue with the U.S. during his term in office, which ended last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
OOOH! OOOH! That's as big a secret as Armitage outing Plame!!
#2
DEFENSETECH.org and other Net blogs > US slowly but steadily accumulating undeniable evidencias that Iran is heavily involved in the Iraqi insurgency, what used to be labeled/called
"foreign intervention/-ism]!?
#3
Not because it's a secret (or not), but preparing the ground to announce that any banks that deal with Iran will be frozen out of the US banking system, like was done to North Korea and post-Hamas Palestinian Authority. We already don't deal with them directly, if I recall correctly, but the next step would make it difficult (though not impossible) for them to find any banks that would so much as allow themselves to be used to transfer funds.
Lebanon's opposition leader Michel Aoun, Hizbollah's main Christian ally, urged the cabinet on Monday to resign, citing what he said was its failure to handle the crisis during Israel's war with the guerrilla group. The retired army general, who in the past had demanded that Hizbollah disarm but later strengthened his ties with the Shi'ite Muslim group, appeared to threaten unrest if the cabinet of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora did not resign peacefully. "We hope... a very peaceful change takes place, preserving stability in the country. If this change does not happen in such a way, there are other ways to escalate from now on," he told a news conference.
Aoun's remarks came as U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was meeting Siniora and his ministers. Annan arrived in Beirut earlier in the day on the start of a regional tour to shore up a truce between Israel and Hizbollah that ended a 34-day war. Hizbollah's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah called in an interview broadcast on Sunday for a national unity government including Aoun, without demanding more power for Hizbollah, which has two cabinet ministers in the current coalition.
Saad al-Hariri, a leading member of the coalition that dominates the cabinet and the 128-seat parliament, rejected Aoun's call. Aoun, who has a major parliamentary bloc, said there were "big questions about the government's behaviour" during the war, ignited by Hizbollah's July 12 capture of two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. Siniora's government has condemned the Israeli attacks on Lebanon but said from the outset it did not endorse Hizbollah's operation. Hizbollah has criticised the government for what it described as its slow moves to extend aid and to help in rebuilding the areas destroyed by Israeli attacks. "Once this government is changed, there will be a new government 100,000 times better," said Aoun, who declined to say if his Free Patriotic Trend would take part in any new cabinet.
Aoun, who hopes Hizbollah will back him in Lebanon's 2007 presidential election, supported the group's resistance against Israeli attacks and agreed with its reservations over the U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the fighting. He also agreed with its rejection of an Israeli demand that U.N. peacekeepers should deploy along Lebanon's border with Syria to prevent arms shipments from reaching Hizbollah. "Do they (U.N. troops) want to come to our toilets and monitor what we do there as well?" he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
What happened to the man? I don't get it. Is he senile, or what? Maybe the old adage about following the money is what is going on here.
#6
he's identified as "Christian", not "self-serving bastard whore warlord masquerading as a Christian". For some reasons, MSM labels sink in, that's why they keep using them fallaciously
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/29/2006 18:27 Comments ||
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#7
Is there some religious thing im not onto - did like Pat Robertson say something nice about this guy?
#8
btw - nice projection LH - Pat Robertson = Christians = Aoun. If I pulled that shit with Jews (which I won't), I'd be called on it (hopefully). You should be ashamed for that intellectual cowardice. All Christians support what Robertson supports? Jeebus
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/29/2006 20:01 Comments ||
Top||
#9
It hapens Frank. He's like Besoeker; every so often the mask slips.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday demanded that Hezbollah release two captured Israeli soldiers to the international Red Cross, pressing both sides to fulfil their commitments to solidify the two-week-old ceasefire in Lebanon. Annan launched a major, 11-day diplomatic push to turn the truce into what he called a "long-term peace for Lebanon." He said Israel and Hezbollah could not "choose and pick" parts of a UN ceasefire resolution to implement.
The UN chief met with a Hezbollah official in Beirut. He is also expected to visit Iran and Syria, as well as Israel. Annan said UN resolution 1701, which set out the terms of the ceasefire, "a fixed menu." "Without the full implementation of resolution 1701, I fear the risk is great for renewal of hostilities."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
WND.com > Hizzies are building [fortified]bunkers within Palestinian refugee camps where the Lebanese army has no authority to stop them -you know, Lebanon being an alleged sovereign nation and all that.
#2
Hezbollah and Iran are backing Israel into a corner where the only option Israel has is to nuke the entire middle east. I don't think that's necessarily the wisest move hez and Iran have made, but then again, they're not rational human beings, so nothing surprises me. Next time, Israel may counter a hezbollock move by nuking Damascus, Beirut, and everything along both sides of the Litani and the Bekaa valley.
As for AintNone, it takes two sides to make a peace, but only one side to make war. As long as there are no penalties for hezbollah, they will continue to harass Israel by attacks along the border and rocket fire into Israel's cities. The UN is helpless, without teeth, and usually supportive of the wrong side.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/29/2006 22:33 Comments ||
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Iran said yesterday a US threat to form an independent coalition to impose sanctions if the UN Security Council failed to act over Tehran's nuclear programme was an insult to the council's work. The Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday that the US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, had indicated Washington was prepared to act independently with allies to freeze Iranian assets and restrict trade if the council did not.
The United States has previously called for a swift response if Iran does not heed the Security Council's Thursday deadline to halt uranium enrichment, a process that can make fuel for reactors or material for warheads. "These remarks [by Bolton] are an obvious insult to the Security Council," Iranian government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham told a weekly news conference. "These remarks are just bullying and baseless remarks and show that they [the US] is not competent to be a member of the Security Council."
The LA Times said Washington planned to introduce a resolution imposing penalties soon after the Aug 31 deadline if Iran's position did not change. Analysts say opposition from veto-wielding powers Russia and China could delay any move.
Iran has so far shown no sign it will halt enrichment, which the West says Iran is using to build atomic bombs, a charge Tehran denies. "The Islamic Republic has repeatedly announced that using nuclear weapons is not in our defence policies," Elham said.
Bolton said Washington was working on a parallel diplomatic track outside the United Nations if Russia and China did not accept the resolution, the LA Times reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Oil cash has been going into Iran like crazy ever since oil prices have gone up. What would be the effect of economic sanctions and the freezing of Iranian assets by an independent coalition? Iran has plenty of cash and plenty of oil. The world needs oil. It doesn't seem that sanctions would have all that great an impact on Iran's present nuclear policies. That begins to lead to the other option--eventually taking out their nuclear facilities.
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.
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has scolded his nation for over-reliance on oil, foreigners and imports and called for the manufacture of things people need. The criticisms, in an unusual series of speeches in July and August, have stirred keen interest in a forthcoming annual September 1 address to the nation of 5 million marking the 1969 coup d'etat that brought him to power. 
Two factors, one foreign and one domestic, mean Libya has a chance to diversify its old-fashioned command economy, long hobbled by a primitive banking sector and red tape, experts say. The foreign factor is the revival of diplomatic relations with Washington: On May 15, the Bush administration said it would restore formal ties with Tripoli as a reward for Libya's scrapping of its weapons of mass destruction programme.
FALLON NAVAL AIR STATION, Nevada Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he is deeply troubled by the success of terrorist groups in "manipulating the media" to influence Westerners.
WASHINGTON Muslim circles have expressed alarm and disgust at the publication of a redrawn map of the Islamic world in a journal closely linked to the US armed forces. The Armed Forces Journal, which has published the redrawn map of the world of Islam along with a long explanatory article, is published by the Army Times Publishing Company, a part of Gannett Company, Inc, the worlds largest publisher of professional military and defence periodicals. 
For years, 
Federal Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani said on Sunday that the body of former Balochistan governor and chief minister Nawab Akbar Bugti had not yet been taken out from the rubble of the bunker destroyed in the Saturday attack and that it would be buried in the presence of members of the bereaved family.
Denying any knowledge of Osama Bin Laden cadres in the state, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik yesterday said any Al Qaida operation in Kashmir would turn the entire world against the ongoing "freedom struggle" here. Addressing a press conference, Malik said, "The whole world will turn against the oppressed Kashmiri people if the Al Qaida outfit starts operating in Kashmir."
BAGHDAD - Britains defence secretary said on Monday security had improved in southern Iraq and predicted that formal control of a second province in the region would be handed back to Iraq soon. I recognise there are continuing challenges and Ive seen some violence over this weekend which suggests theres much more work to be done, Des Browne told a joint news conference with Iraqi Defence Minister Abdul Qader Jassim. But as Prime Minister Maliki said in an interview this weekend, things are improving and the challenge is to maintain that improvement.
Fatah activists and officials in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are threatening to launch an "intifada" against veteran leaders of the party, including Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, in an attempt to force them to accept demands for internal reforms and elections. The "rebels" plan to convene an emergency meeting of the Fatah revolutionary council, in what is regarded as the first sign of an open split. The council comprises many grassroots leaders and disgruntled activists who are fed up with veteran Fatah leaders. 
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday rejected a state inquiry into the government's handling of the war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, despite widespread calls for a broad, independent investigation. 
Lebanese opposition MP Walid Jumblatt accused Syria on Monday of playing a major role in the violence in the region and promised to continue to fight them as much as he could. Speaking to Labor MK Colette Avital at an unplanned meeting in Paris, Jumblatt said "We are stuck between the Israeli rock and the Syrian hard place," Army Radio reported. The Druse leader in Lebanon spared no insult in describing Syrian President Bashar Assad and his regime, according to Avital, calling Assad deceitful and manipulative. 
A U.S. anti-terrorism official says Iran is providing money to finance terrorism carried out by the militant group Hezbollah - calling the country quote - "the central banker of terror". In an interview with the Associated Press Monday, Stuart Levey said Iran is a country that has terrorism as part of its budget.
Lebanon's opposition leader Michel Aoun, Hizbollah's main Christian ally, urged the cabinet on Monday to resign, citing what he said was its failure to handle the crisis during Israel's war with the guerrilla group. The retired army general, who in the past had demanded that Hizbollah disarm but later strengthened his ties with the Shi'ite Muslim group, appeared to threaten unrest if the cabinet of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora did not resign peacefully. "We hope... a very peaceful change takes place, preserving stability in the country. If this change does not happen in such a way, there are other ways to escalate from now on," he told a news conference.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday demanded that Hezbollah release two captured Israeli soldiers to the international Red Cross, pressing both sides to fulfil their commitments to solidify the two-week-old ceasefire in Lebanon. Annan launched a major, 11-day diplomatic push to turn the truce into what he called a "long-term peace for Lebanon." He said Israel and Hezbollah could not "choose and pick" parts of a UN ceasefire resolution to implement.
Iran said yesterday a US threat to form an independent coalition to impose sanctions if the UN Security Council failed to act over Tehran's nuclear programme was an insult to the council's work. The Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday that the US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, had indicated Washington was prepared to act independently with allies to freeze Iranian assets and restrict trade if the council did not.
