Three powerful US congressmen have sharply criticized Saudi Arabia following a report in Monday's Jerusalem Post that the desert kingdom is breaking its pledge to drop the Arab League boycott of Israel.
In November 2005, Saudi leaders promised Washington they would abandon the embargo on Israel after the Bush administration conditioned admission to the World Trade Organization on the move. A month later, Saudi Arabia was granted WTO membership. The WTO, which promotes free trade, prohibits member states from engaging in discriminatory practices such as boycotts or embargoes.
Got played again by the Saoodis, did we?
Nonetheless, as first revealed in the Post, Saudi customs officials continue to block entry of goods manufactured in Israel and of items containing Israeli components. "Saudi Arabia's boycott of Israel never should have existed in the first place and they should end it immediately," Indiana Rep. Mike Pence, ranking Republican on the Middle East Subcommittee of the US House of Representatives' Committee on Foreign Relations, told the Post. "It is a relic of wars waged decades ago and there is simply no moral or strategic reason there should be a boycott at all."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2007 00:00 ||
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Well, if they don't fulfill the conditions, kick them out.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/21/2007 1:00 Comments ||
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This sort of crapulence needs more than just retaliatory ejection from the WTO. We should freeze all their state-side assets in order to conduct a thorough search for any links with terrorist financing. "Saudi treachery" is now a redundant term.
#2
But-t-t KOMMERSANT > Russia presently controls approxi 40% of world centrifuges [SPACEWAR > 70% of Russ Science is Mil-oriented] + RUSSIA WILL NOT AND NEVER TRANSFER RUSSIAN NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY TO NATIONS WITH NO NUCLEAR CAPABILITY [OF THEIR OWN?], and SSSSHHHHHHHH none to unstable or violent states either, ERGO IRAN???
#8
This train will be going nowhere after launch. The cold launch, or hot launch impulse centered on one end of the railcar with only 4 axles to distribute the entire launch load to the rails, and subsequently to the ground, will fail the ground.
Since launching the missile is the prime mission, I guess that is OK. A short train, with an 80 foot long railcar, with no windows, and 8 axles is sort of indicator that this no ordinary train.
Posted by: Glereque Scourge of the Leprechauns6947 ||
04/21/2007 23:52 Comments ||
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#1
We have guys busting ass to produce a victory while these bloodless d***heads sit in their cushy offices and upper-crust cocktail parties, make pronunciations on things they have no knowledge of since they have never done what we do behind the trigger.
Bill, you and the liberals at E&P can grasp this with both hands, rotate it sideways, then take a mallet and pound it up your *ss.
#2
The delusional characteristics of such as Moyers have come to resemble those of Truthers, Klansmen, etc. And the number of folks who cling to increasingly baroque mythological distortions of recent history is frightening.
#3
OS, Verlaine, I feel for you and everyone else who serves or has served in the military. The civilian political opposition is as clearly on the enemy side as if they were caught on camera placing IEDs. I've got some ideas about what is eventually going to be necessary to fix the problem, but I suspect it's going to have to get worse before it gets better. A lot worse.
Posted by: Mac ||
04/21/2007 4:33 Comments ||
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#4
He told us it was a fight to preserve the Union. But the Union was never in danger. Now he tells us the war is to free the slaves. I can't believe we fell for it.
#5
I didn't want to pollute this site by putting the actual words of the article where your eyes might see them (go there and read it if you feel a masochistic need to drive up your blood pressure), but this kind of stupidity is the reason PBS has such very low ratings, except for the nature and science shows and the children's things like Sesame Street and Barney.
#6
Only a matter of time before this old dolt puts out a "documentary" on the Bush staging of 9/11.
Posted by: regular joe ||
04/21/2007 8:01 Comments ||
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#7
"I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast."
#8
but this kind of stupidity is the reason PBS has such very low ratings, except for the nature and science shows and the children's things like Sesame Street and Barney.
Slow bleed 'em.
That or take off and nuke the whole site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure...
#9
but this kind of stupidity is the reason PBS has such very low ratings, except for the nature and science shows and the children's things like Sesame Street and Barney.
Slow bleed 'em.
That or take off and nuke the whole site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure...
While much of the evidence of the media's role as cheerleaders for the war presented here is not new, it is skillfully assembled, with many fresh quotes from interviews (with the likes of Tim Russert and Walter Pincus) along with numerous embarrassing examples of past statements by journalists and pundits that proved grossly misleading or wrong. Several prominent media figures, prodded by Moyers, admit the media failed miserably, though few take personal responsibility.
The war continues today, now in its fifth year, with the death toll for Americans and Iraqis rising again -- yet Moyers points out, "the press has yet to come to terms with its role in enabling the Bush Administration to go to war on false pretenses."
Good grief... the sheer dishonesty of these paragraphs is overwhelming.
"Cheerleaders for the war"??? We have here, archived on Rantburg, thousands upon thousands of articles from the establishment media over the past five and a half years, in which they act as anything BUT cheerleaders. The media in this country have been on a non-stop campaign to undermine the war by sowing fear, uncertainty, doubt and distrust, right from the moment the WTC towers fell.
"False pretenses"??? Anyone who did not spend the entire 1990's in a deep coma, or jerking off, was acutely aware of the menace posed by Saddam Hussein; night after night throughout that decade, the news was full of stories about his refusal to cooperate with the United Nations WMD inspection teams; and the rationale for getting rid of him was not articulated first by George Bush, but by Bill Clinton years before. What happened- did all these media people suddenly develop complete amnesia the moment George Bush took the oath of office? Are they mentally ill? Or are they just lying?
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/21/2007 9:31 Comments ||
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Yeah, that's my take as well. They're certainly not stupid; I suppose it's possible they're insane, as some psychiatrists have proposed (notably Charles Krauthammer, who gave us the term "Bush Derangement Syndrome", and Dr. Pat Santy, of the Dr. Sanity blog, who goes into great detail on what she believes ails these people); and I guess it's also possible that they could all be having selective amnesia about Bill Clinton's own 8-year-long struggle with Saddam during the '90's.
But the simplest explanation, to me, is that they are simply lying. They are dishonest people.
The media have a leftist political agenda (these are the people who go into journalism "to make a difference" and "to make the world a better place", and in many newsrooms over 80% of them are Democrats) and they have collectively made a knowing, conscious, deliberate decision that the success of their political mission is more important than the truth.
They have become what author M. Scott Peck called, "People Of The Lie".
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/21/2007 10:11 Comments ||
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80% would be a blessing Dave D. Figure more like 95%.
#14
What happened- did all these media people suddenly develop complete amnesia the moment George Bush took the oath of office?
One thing that's become apparent is that the press is so utterly corrupt they truly believe they decide what is true and what is not. What is true, what gets reported, depends entirely on the political advantage they can make for the Democrats.
Moyers, though, is a special class, alongside Lord Haw Haw.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
04/21/2007 10:29 Comments ||
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Naw upon further review you may be correct. 80% Democrat, 15% CPUSA.
#17
"One thing that's become apparent is that the press is so utterly corrupt they truly believe they decide what is true and what is not."
!!!!
Thinking about it, I do believe you're right. Perhaps they're drunk on their perceived power to manufacture consensus.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/21/2007 10:34 Comments ||
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Perhaps they're drunk on their perceived power to manufacture consensus.
I believe you have hit the nail on the head, Dave.
Concensus for the good of the little people, of course. Goes without saying.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/21/2007 10:44 Comments ||
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#19
Mr. Moyers hasn't gotten as far as analyzing the run-up to the invasion of Iraq (although no doubt he will, if this one on Afghanistan does well in his cocktail party circle). Something that was brought to my attention the other day is that the journalism people are completely focussed on tomorrow morning's headlines. As far as they're concerned, the archives really are a memory hole; the world to them is effectively created anew every single day. They live on a floating island of Now, extending a a short time in both directions. What to us is the solid reality of six years of Rantburg archives, to them is a void, misty and unformed, not even the waters above separated from the waters below. ;-) Which makes it really easy to believe whatever their chosen sources of information put in front of them as Truth. The consensus, I think, simply happens because they are completely innocent of memory and that smattering of broadbased knowledge that give context. Mr. Moyers is something else, of course -- he manufactures reality to fit his desires.
I was thinking about this as I read the story Bobby posted yesterday about the Marine who received the Medal of Honour (I think it was). The story mentioned the Wall Street Journal reporter who wrote a book about him. I'd read the book because of a friend-of-a-friend connection. The sad truth -- sad because the reporter had embedded with that unit for the invasion and beyond, and wrote with the passion of admiration and love -- was that the reporter, despite having been on the staff of the WSJ for a number of years, and having reported at their behest about a number of complicated stories in the depths of Africa and other remote and exotic places, he had never grasped how large organizations work, nor how the Armed Forces work, nor even how the Marines work. He was furious that his friend had given his life for an imperfect organization based on incomplete information, that he'd put all on a bet that if he put his helmet over the grenade and held it down with his body, he would both save his fellows and survive intact... not at all understanding that had he known the helmet was inadequate to the task, he'd have done the same anyway. The reporter is a brilliant man at the top of his field, and yet had lived four decades without grasping that perfection doesn't happen when people are involved, and that there are those who willingly make the highest sacrifice that others might carry on the necessary task.
Sorry for the verbosity. Perhaps I'll be more capable of succinctness later in the day.
#20
Mac, just to clarify, I never served in uniform, though I worked closely with many doing so (obviously). I was a REMF, never went looking for trouble by kicking in doors or trying to draw fire like the blessed, wonderful Marines and many in the Army - that is, I didn't get to have the big fun like they did!
I did deal with press quite a bit, actually. Not sure how to bread down the %, but in addition to stupid and dishonest, there's a large chunk simply blinkered by a mindset. It's especially important at the upper editorial levels. I saw many instances of reporters in the field (and many do seek opportunities to get out with the troops, not sit back at the bureau) whose stuff was distorted by being crammed into the same old template back in New York, Washington, or London.
Having said that, the moral imbecility and inability to see the things right in front of them was in some cases simply breath-taking. We've never faced a less interesting, more thoroughly repugnant and despicable enemy. Yet so many somehow manage to affect a "neutral" stance, with frequently a tilt towards the murderous thugs.
#22
We've never faced a less interesting, more thoroughly repugnant and despicable enemy. Yet so many somehow manage to affect a "neutral" stance, with frequently a tilt towards the murderous thugs.
A "tilt"? I'd say out-and-out preference.
Which press releases get more play -- and are treated as if they have more credibility -- the US military's or the jihadis'? How much play do they give to the merest accusation of crimes by US forces, compared to the clear evidence of war crimes as policy among the jihadis?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
04/21/2007 12:48 Comments ||
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TW: superb.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/21/2007 13:59 Comments ||
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Mac, just to clarify, I never served in uniform...
Verlaine, we always looked forward to your reports here at the 'Burg when you were in Baghdad! for real.
..and that goes for all RBees who have served and are currently serving.
~~~~~~~~
Verlaine,
In recognition of your Civilian Service to the United States of America while serving in the Baghdad theater of operations I'd like to award you an RB-CIB for going up against our Nation's Enemies [the MSM!] many times often with only your wits as weapons.
#26
I'll sign on to that, RD. Only what does CIB stand for?
Xbalanke, Dr. Steve, y'all flatter me enormously. Verlaine, did you ever meet that WSJ reporter? Michael something, his name was, tall and lean, blond... he wrote a wonderful series of reports about the part "his" Marine unit played in the invasion.
#27
I was well into the first paragraph and hadda scroll down ... yep! It's TW!
But I don't remember posting said article.
Anyway, never apologise for your words, kiddo, but a couple a more carriage returns wouldn't hurt. ;-> And you blushed when I called you ever-intelligent!
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/21/2007 15:45 Comments ||
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It's possible I'm confused, Bobby dear. These days I generally assume that if it's worth remembering, I must have read it here. And it felt like something you'd post. First Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honour (that is the one that's our Military's highest honour, right?)in decades, and if I recall correctly only the second such award in this war. In the ceremony the award was presented to the man's parents, with President Bush standing by to honour them all.
Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday that if she is elected president, she would make her husband a roaming ambassador to the world, using his skills to repair the nation's tattered image abroad.
"I can't think of a better cheerleader for America than Bill Clinton, can you?" the Democratic senator from New York asked a crowd jammed into a junior high school gymnasium. "He has said he would do anything I asked him to do. I would put him to work."
Clinton spoke at a town hall-style meeting Saturday where she took questions from about 200 people. When asked what role the former president would play in her administration, she left no doubt it would be an important one.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/21/2007 16:45 ||
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Send him to "Rove" around Zimbabwe, Venezuela, and North Korea. No Bodyguards or Marines.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/21/2007 17:36 Comments ||
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He'd fit right in with us.
Posted by: UN Peacekeepers ||
04/21/2007 18:02 Comments ||
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WASHINGTON (AP) - The federal government is inspecting churches and religious groups to clamp down on fraud in a visa program for religious workers, government officials said Thursday. The visits are part of an effort by Citizenship and Immigration Services, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, to tighten rules for the religious worker visas after finding fraud in about 33 percent of applications.
How many for the mosque in Arizona?
The agency said that because of the level of fraud it did not want to wait until proposed rule changes became final to start checking on the religious organizations.
Every religious organization that files visa applications for its workers will be visited before the application is approved. They may not get a second visit if they seek a visa for a second worker, but could be contacted by phone, said Janis Sposato, an associate director of CIS who led the fraud review.
The review uncovered churches that did not exist and applications filed falsely under the name of a legitimate church that did not petition for the worker, Sposato said. "This is an ongoing program. There is no start date. We are doing the site visits," Sposato said.
Costs for the federal inspection would be absorbed in fee increases proposed by Citizenship and Immigration Services. Eventually, federal contractors would do the inspections, she said. The proposed rule changes come 20 months after the agency reviewed the religious worker visa program and found the 33 percent fraud rate, officials said Thursday.
Sposato refused to say whether the review uncovered any terrorism suspects or someone who might cause harm in the country.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/21/2007 00:00 ||
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Ah yes. Good ol seperation of church and state.
Two things the government WILL clamp down on, white Churches who endorse certain candidates on one extreme (threatened with the loss of IRS non-profit status if they do endorse) and on the other extreme, Islamist religious groups who want to import Islamists.
But, NO, can't clamp down on Catholic churches who organize political rallies by the tens of thousands of illegal Mexicans in the US to change Federal politics, NO NO NO. Can't do clamp down on THAT.
#3
careful on the broad brush on the Catholic Churches. Our parish in La Mesa, CA does NOT support any sanctuary position
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/21/2007 23:00 Comments ||
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But, NO, can't clamp down on Catholic churches who organize political rallies by the tens of thousands of illegal Mexicans in the US to change Federal politics, NO NO NO. Can't do clamp down on THAT.
Sorry - it isn't a 'political rally'. Disagreeable as it is (and I disagree with my bishops on this), they do have a right to engage in rallies on issue advocacy.
What they cannot do is advocate, endorse, or promote a political candidate or party.
A Missouri college fired a geography instructor and filed a report with police after students complained the man had joked about being a suicide bomber. Ozarks Technical Community College spokesman Joel Doepker said several students had complained that the teacher walked into class Wednesday, set his briefcase on a table and said, "I'm a suicide bomber," the Springfield News-Leader reported in its Friday editions. "As to the why, I really don't know. But after the class, several students complained to campus administrators about the comment," Doepker said. The part-time instructor was fired Thursday.
The students said the comment was inappropriate after the Virginia Tech massacre this week. Ozark police and the college did not release the teacher's name pending an investigation. The instructor told an investigator "that he did make a comment that he was a suicide bomber to his classroom as a joke, to lighten up the mood as the classroom was preparing for a test," a police statement said.
The instructor reportedly felt bad about making the comment after he was informed by at least one student that the comment was inappropriate, according to the news release. "Even without the Virginia Tech situation, (the instructor's comments) still would have been cause for termination," Doepker said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2007 00:00 ||
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The instructor told an investigator "that he did make a comment that he was a suicide bomber to his classroom as a joke, to lighten up the mood as the classroom was preparing for a test,"
That seems to take a cream in the "Idiot of the day" category.
#2
that's the good thing with "shall issue: CCW" states. These guys are gone, and everyone has an alibi
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/21/2007 0:47 Comments ||
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If he had been tenured he would now be writing an article for the Chronicle of Higher Education about his experience as a victim of his students' indoctrination by the fright-wing media. But seeing as he is an adjunct he is out on his ass.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief, Altaf Hussain, has said that in a rapidly changing world scenario, Talibanisation and religious extremism in Pakistan pose a serious challenge to the viability of the country.
Responding to questions by Norwegian newspaper, The Asians the leader-in-exile said this should be a real cause of concern for moderate and progressive Pakistanis living in Pakistan and abroad.
Hussain said the fate of the country lies in the hands of the people of Pakistan. If the people rise to bring about middle class rule by changing the primitive feudal-military political system and seriously confront Talibanisation and religious extremism, they can make the nation viable.
Referring to future political plans of his party, Hussain said, We are expanding across Pakistan and are being warmly received. We may surprise our opposition in the Punjab and rural Sindh in the forthcoming general elections as we did in Azad Kashmir. He said the MQM had significant representation in federal and Sindh parliaments and had also achieved two seats in the Pakistan Administered Kashmirs legislative assembly.
Hussain said he would return to Pakistan when he felt safe again because he had been the victim of several assassination attempts while living there. However, I am ready to return if the Rabita Committee, workers and supporters of the party advise me to do so. Life in exile is very difficult for leaders belonging to middle and downtrodden classes, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2007 00:00 ||
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Pakistan said on Friday its troops had exchanged fire with an Afghan patrol a day earlier, but contradicted Kabuls account that Afghan troops were tearing down a fence Pakistan had put up on the disputed frontier. The Pakistan military accused an Afghan patrol of opening fire without provocation on one of its border posts. Our forces retaliated and they ran away. There were no casualties, military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said.
The Afghan Interior Ministry said on Thursday the gunbattle erupted after Pakistani troops opened fire on Afghan forces as they were removing a fence and mines laid by Pakistan. Arshad denied Pakistani forces were fencing and mining the area. There was neither any fence there, nor did they tear one down. Nobody entered into Pakistani territory, he said. The clash happened on the border between Pakistans South Waziristan tribal region and the Bermal district of Afghanistans eastern province of Paktika.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2007 00:00 ||
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Mullah Nazir, a local Taliban leader who led a weeks-long battle against Uzbek militants in South Waziristan, said on Friday he would protect Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden if he sought shelter with him. Mullah Nazir told a rare press conference in Wana that he had never met Bin Laden, but would help him in line with local traditions. Bin Laden has never come to this area but if he comes here and seeks our protection then according to tribal laws and customs we will protect him, the 32-year-old Taliban commander said.
Nazir said that peaceful foreigners were welcome in South Waziristan, but the area would not be a safe sanctuary for miscreants now. He announced an amnesty for foreigners and their local supporters if they surrendered, but warned that fighters loyal to Uzbek militant leader Tahir Yuldashev would not be spared, Reuters reported.
Nazir denied receiving anything more than medical aid from the Pakistan Army during the fighting, and said that the remaining Uzbek militants may have moved to Mir Ali. Nazir made conditional talks offer to President Musharraf to resolve the Waziristan issue, adding that they would not run a parallel administration in the area. He denied that tribal militants from Waziristan were crossing into Afghanistan and said his men would fight the US and the infidel forces if they attack our territory.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2007 00:00 ||
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"if he comes here and seeks our protection then according to tribal laws and customs we will protect him, the 32-year-old Taliban commander said."
Deja vu. Exactly what Taliban said to us when they 'governed' Afghanistan.
Lal Masjid prayer leader Maulana Abdul Aziz said on Friday that clerics would not allow dance and music in Pakistan and those interested in such activities should go to India. We will not wait more ... it will now be Sharia or shahadat (martyrdom), Aziz said in his Friday sermon at Lal Masjid.
Aziz invited exiled Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain for dialogue, but at the same time he accused the MQM chief of murdering thousands of people. He said that the MQM had staged a rally against the Lal Masjid administration on the governments orders. He (Hussain) should not see the Quran and Sunnah movement through western spectacles ... he should come to Pakistan and know the facts after meeting us, he added.
Aziz said that no untoward incident had occurred during the ongoing Islamic movement, but said that the Lal Masjid administration was ready to sacrifice everything, including their lives, for the enforcement of Sharia in Pakistan. The Lal Masjid head urged clerics across the country to enforce Sharia in their respective areas. Pakistan was created in the name of Islam, but Islamic laws have not been enforced in the country even after 60 years of its independence, he said, vowing that the clerics would now enforce Sharia in Pakistan at any cost. Aziz criticised the Wafaqul Madaris for cancelling the affiliation of the Jamia Hafsa and Jamia Fareedia madrassas and said that the Lal Masjid administration would not compromise on its stance.
NNI adds: Talking to a private television channel, Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi, deputy prayer leader of Lal Masjid and younger brother of Maulana Abdul Aziz, said that non-government organisations were protesting against Jamia Hafsa students to please the West. Ghazi claimed that a large number of people were supporting the Lal Masjid administration for Islamisation in Pakistan, adding that the clerics negotiations were continuing with PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and the issue was expected to be resolved amicably.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2007 00:00 ||
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Are we to understand that fun-loving Pakis must leave anti-fun Muslim Pakistan for [anti-fun?] Maoist/Communist-troubled India??? Well, D ***ng it, lets go.
BAGHDAD - US troops are building a wall around a Sunni enclave in Baghdad, part of a strategy to break the cycle of sectarian violence in the Iraqi capital. Work began on April 10 on the 5-km (3-mile) cement wall at Adhamiya, a mainly Sunni Arab area surrounded on three sides by Shia communities. The wall is one of the centrepieces of a new strategy by coalition and Iraqi forces to break the cycle of sectarian violence, Sergeant Mike Pryor, a public affairs officer, wrote in an article released by the US military.
Senior US military officials in Baghdad said the wall was not intended to divide the capital into separate communities as part of a two-month-old security crackdown. Senior military officials said the crackdown would not include dividing the capital into Sunni Arab and Shia areas. It is not the stated goal of the Baghdad security plan to divide everything up into these ... small gated communities, military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver said.
He said this was not completely incongruous with the wall at Adhamiya because local commanders could conduct operations appropriate to conditions on the ground.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that a similar project had started around Doura, another Sunni area in southern Baghdad. The article said Adhamiya had been trapped in a spiral of sectarian violence and retaliation and work would continue on the wall, with barriers up to 12-feet (3.5-metres) tall.
Adhamiya is a small Sunni Arab enclave on the east bank of the Tigris River. Eastern Baghdad is predominantly Shia although there are some Sunni areas such as the nearby Fadhil district, a violent Sunni insurgent stronghold. While protecting Sunni Arabs who live in Adhamiya from attack by Shia militias, the wall would also stop Sunni militants launching attacks in Shia areas and then retreating back into Adhamiya, the article said. Traffic control points manned by Iraqi soldiers will be the only way in and out of Adhamiya once the wall was finished.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/21/2007 00:00 ||
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But they're only crossing to commit murders that Shiites and Kurds won't do.
#2
I'm so lazy I'd much rather be at risk of being murdered at night than have to travel a little further to get "groceries" which my side of the fence "doesn't have".
#3
Same thing, only to keep them in, shoulda been built years ago. As in most cases the "cycle" is really mostly one-sided - until a year ago, it was almost entirely one-sided.
While protecting Sunni Arabs who live in Adhamiya from attack by Shia militias, the wall would also stop Sunni militants launching attacks in Shia areas and then retreating back into Adhamiya, the article said.
Gee, wish someone had thought of that years back, when the Sunni terrorism war was boosting Shi'a militias and making them a logical response. Oh, wait ....
#9
I was just thinking ... I'm not sure how the Sunnis and the Shia tell each other apart. Do they wear symbols on their foreheads? Wear different hats? Carry different Korans?
It's probably a good thing in the USA (and everyplace else, for that matter)that it's been hard to distinguish religious persuasions; it's already easy enough to kill people based on what they look like.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/21/2007 10:49 Comments ||
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#10
I don't know about anything else, but apparently there are first names that are exclusive to Shiites, and presumably a different set to Sunnis as well, Bobby. So one thing they do is check the person's papers.
#11
To reinforce what TW says, the was an incident in the bad old days in Falluja where AQ was stopping Shia truck drivers and killing them. One guy survived because his name was mispelled so it looked like he was a Sunni.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
04/21/2007 15:07 Comments ||
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President George W. Bush said Friday that sectarian murders have dropped by half in Baghdad since the US-Iraqi military buildup began in February, rejecting a Democratic leader's claim that the war is lost.
"These operations are having an important effect on this young democracy," Bush said in a speech on terrorism, his second in two days. "They're showing Iraqi citizens across the country that there will be no sanctuary for killers anywhere in a free Iraq."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2007 00:00 ||
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Oh, c'mon! You tryin' ta tell me da Soige is suck-seed-in?
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/21/2007 7:55 Comments ||
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"TURN OUT THAT LIGHT!!!" says both Bin Laden and Reid...
When the President finally gets the courage to back up the progress with facts, that just screws up the Dhimcrats and Al Qaeda's propaganda flow.
More than 200 Sunni sheiks in Iraq's western Anbar province have decided to form a new political party to oppose al-Qaida, participants said Friday. The men met Thursday in Ramadi, Anbar's provincial capital, and agreed to form a new party called Iraq Awakening, said Sheik Jubeir Rashid, a participant at the meeting. The group would be a national party, with a platform of opposition to al-Qaida and cooperation with the Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad, organizers said.
The Iraq Awakening party would not be linked to any existing Sunni groups, Rashid said. "We have no trust in the current Sunni political parties, because they have given nothing to the citizens except lies and false promises," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
OTOH, WORLDNEWS > ISN - IRAN'S SOUTH AZERBIJIAN PROBLEM. Azeris on one end + Russians on the other.
Iraq's use of the death penalty has risen rapidly since it was reinstated in mid-2004 and it now ranks as the country with the fourth-highest rate of executions in the world, Amnesty International said on Friday. The London-based human rights group said in a report that Iraq had sentenced more than 270 people to death since sovereignty was handed back to the Iraqis by the Americans in mid-2004. Of those, at least 100 have so far been executed. "Iraq now figures among the countries with the highest numbers of executions reported in 2006," the group said. "Higher totals were recorded only in China, Iran and Pakistan."
Among those to have been executed are former president Saddam Hussein and three of his closest advisers who were convicted last year of crimes against humanity for their part in scores of deaths in the 1980s. But beyond those high-profile executions, which Amnesty said took place after a trial that "failed to meet international fair trial standards", the rights group said it was also concerned about lower-key cases in the Iraqi Central Criminal Court.
Death sentences are frequently handed down after very brief trials in which defendants are poorly represented, seldom allowed to give evidence and are often tortured into making confessions that are then used against them. "The restoration of the death penalty in Iraq and its extension to additional crimes was a grave and retrograde step," Amnesty said. "More than this, it was a grievously short-sighted development, one that has contributed to, rather than helped alleviate, the continuing crisis in Iraq." The group urged Iraq to introduce a moratorium on executions and abolish the death penalty, which is opposed by the European Union and the United Nations but remains common in the United States.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Good. It's going to take a lot more killing in Iraq to get the job done there. The sooner they get started, the sooner it will be finished.
Posted by: Mac ||
04/21/2007 4:29 Comments ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
04/21/2007 8:37 Comments ||
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#4
Death has shown remarkable success in deterring second offenses. When those 'second offenses' seem to include car bombing women and children in a market or mosque by the scores or hundreds, it is an unnecessary burden for society to deal with.
From Geostrategy Direct, subscription.
Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno has been taking a hard look at the state of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq and believes time is running out for the United States. Odierno, commander of Multinational Corps-Iraq since December 2006, and the rest of the U.S. command there have assessed they might have between six and eight months to either stabilize Baghdad or declare victory and begin packing up in 2008.
Odierno knows full well the thinking in Washington. His last assignment was in the Pentagon as the assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In that task, Odierno oversaw the drafting of numerous options for Iraq, particularly withdrawal. He also knows Iraq, and in his second and current tour has been directing the operations of the joint and coalition forces in all sectors of the country.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/21/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Once again, KOMMERSANT > war in Iraq not only between SHIA vz SUNNI, but also AL QAEDA vz IRAN??? See also LUCIANNE/WORLDNEWS > THE [deadly] WAR WITHIN ISLAM.
#2
I call bull shit. The reports I'm reading is that the Sunni insurgency is on the wane. Moreover, it wouldn't be Odierno's call.
It would be Bush's call, and W has been pushing that "packing up" is not an option. He is also pushing that if we don't fight them there, they will follow us here. Last check, he is still CiC.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/21/2007 1:06 Comments ||
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#3
It would help a lot if the good ol' boyz network went away. The Iraqi government can do stuff and not tell the US military who did it. That's got to go away. We can't tell who are our enemies that way.
Oh, and one more thing. Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran .... :-)
#4
Moreover, the supposed option of "packing it in" begs the question of what comes next? It's disturbing that Odierno is pushing an either/or proposition.
Perhaps W will need a new slate of commanders in eight months?
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/21/2007 1:15 Comments ||
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#5
The reports I'm reading is that the Sunni insurgency is on the wane
#6
The cliche 'darkest just before dawn' can be an appropriate description in war. We just need the strength of spirit to see past the media/political opposition version of things.
200 killed by Islamist anarchists (that seems more descriptive these days than fascists) is only as bad as we let it be. I think AQ understands one lesson from military history - 'concentrate your forces' when attacking - and that's what these are; their version of a 'surge'. It's probably the most they CAN do. Let's not allow the media and political opposition to turn it into another Tet, like they are trying to do. We can't afford it.
#8
In other alarming news, a recent DoD report finds that fewer than 1 percent of Army recruits are able to balance a pencil on its tip for more than 0.8 seconds.
#9
Even if America had the political will to maintain a massive military presence in Iraq indefinitely, it would still require recruiting tens of thousands of additional troops and it would take many months before they were ready to go overseas.
Remember, Iraq is still only one theater in the war against radical Islamists, and ultimately it may not even be the most critical one (Iran, Pakistan, etc). It is possible to overcommit in Iraq and leave ourselves strategically vulnerable to other threats.
At some point the Iraqis have to stand up on their own and shoulder the burden of their own security. The ultimate solution to defeating an insurgency IS political - if millions of Sunnis are willing to destroy any hope of a better life rather than seek to coexist productively, then Iraq is a lost cause no matter what we do. And that is a propensity of the Arab world which we should not underestimate, the Palestinians being perhaps the best example.
From Geostrategy-Direct, subscription.
The Kurds have been the best friends of the United States in Iraq. But Washington might have to decide between supporting the Kurds or losing Turkey as an ally. Sticky wicket. Turkey stuck it to the US when they did not allow the 4ID to cross Turkey during OIF.
As a result, the Bush administration has been quietly urging the autonomous government in Kurdistan to meet Turkish demands to stop the Kurdish Workers Party, an insurgency movement in northern Iraq. The administration has also asked the Kurdish government to delay a controversial referendum regarding control of Kirkuk, the center of the oil sector in northern Iraq. The Kurds want the referendum held by the end of the year.
"Postponement of the referendum is simply unacceptable," Qubad Talabani, the Washington representative for the Kurdistan regional government in northern Iraq, said at a conference in Washington.
"It will lead to an escalation of the already tense situation, which may get out of control. The longer we delay the referendum, the worse the mess will be."
For years, the United States angered the Turks with its open support of Iraqi Kurds. But now Washington needs Ankara's help with Iran and Iraq, and the harboring of the PKK by the autonomous Kurdish government has jeopardized U.S. interests. Needing Turkey's help is a bad thing. If we go along with their requirements, we are having Turkey call the tune. Not exactly a position of strength.
At the Washington conference earlier this month, U.S. officials did not rush to the Kurdish side. Barbara Stephenson, deputy senior adviser and coordinator to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, said the Iraqis must resolve the Kirkuk problem within its constitution.
"We don't have a position on the timing, we don't weigh in on that," Stephenson said. "We don't have to express whether it has to be by Dec. 31 or not. But the outcome should be one that takes into account the worries of all parties."
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/21/2007 00:00 ||
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thanks AP,
A few weeks ago on a similar thread about the PKK and Turkey I said, such is statecraft that Sovereign Nations will almost always recognize each others interests before they let semi-autonomous areas trump them, IIRC 99% of the time.
Having said it, I'd like to add that in this instance I hope like hell we choose the Kurd's interests over Turkeys..
Do I trust our State Department to do the right thing visa vi the Kurds? Sadly no. >::(
Posted by: Dag Hammarskjöld ||
04/21/2007 2:34 Comments ||
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#2
Big mistake.
We lost the Sunnis from the very first day: we killed Saddam and overthrew Sunni rule. Does anyone imagine that will foster relationship building with the US for at least a generation? And now, we will lose the Kurds-betraying their loyalty, we kill off the one group who we have a chance of building a reliable alliance with, with a reliable base of operation. If we pick traitorous Turkey, we will have by default chosen the Shia as the demographic for the region for years to come, complicating pressure on Iran to abandon nuclear weapons development. Maybe this is Bush's way of picking up where Chirac left off-coming to accept a nuclearized Iran?
#4
Washington needs Ankara's help with Iran and Iraq,
We haven't and won't get it. No gain for the US there. Stick with the Kurds, base the um.... what's the paratrooper regiment now based in Italy, went into Kurdistan 1st thing in the war? Did well.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has invited Jordans King Abdullah to visit the Jewish state as Israel and Arab governments edge towards new discussion of an Arab peace proposal, officials said on Friday. No date has been set for the visit by the monarch, whose country is one of the few Arab states with full relations with Israel, Israeli and Jordanian officials said. His Majesty is ready to engage in any effort that helps to bring about the success of the Arab initiative and the setting up of a Palestinian state, a source in the Jordanian royal palace in Amman told Reuters. Olmerts office said it had not yet had an official response from Jordan and gave no details on the plans for the visit. Israels Maariv newspaper said on Friday that Olmert invited Abdullah over the phone for an official visit to Jerusalem. The daily said the trip would take place in the next few weeks and that the king may address the Israeli parliament. Jordan was asked this week by the Arab League to try to persuade Israel to accept an Arab peace plan offering normal relations in return for land and a Palestinian state. Abdullah met Israels acting president, parliamentary speaker Dalia Itzik, on Thursday in Amman, the first meeting by a top Israeli official with an Arab leader to discuss the latest initiative.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2007 00:00 ||
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Former PA foreign minister Mahmoud Al-Zahar of Hamas said Friday that recognizing Israel contradicts the Koran, Israel Radio reported. You could look it up!
In an interview with a Hamas-affiliated Web site, Al-Zahar said that Hamas had not given up on the principle that all of Palestine is Muslim land. According to the report, A-Zahar also claimed that Fatah was building a new army and training operatives in various Arab countries in a renewed effort to eliminate Hamas.
Hamas and Fatah have been attempting to maintain a shaky truce since they signed a peace treaty in Mecca in February, following weeks of brutal infighting Gaza and the West Bank. However, violence has continued sporadically since the accord was signed, and political tensions remain between the two parties as they try to form a unity government.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Koran forbids recognizing Israel
Well then, let's all be glad that Israel needn't recognize the Koran. 'Nuff said!
#8
I think it's about time to "forbid" a "paleostain" entity - anywhere. Give Israel the tools and the backing to carry out an all-out war on the inhabitants of Gaza and the West Bank. If anyone interferes (Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, etc.), let the Buffs show who's boss. One bomb run down across the Aswan Dam would put Cairo under 30 feet of silt. An ARCLIGHT strike down through the center of Damascus would do wonders for "hearts and minds", if there are any survivors. The United States needs to get over this idea of "playing fair" and do some serious a$$-kicking all over the MME. It'll do wonders for the whole world.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/21/2007 20:51 Comments ||
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Police Chief Brigadier General Esmaeel Ahmadi-Moghaddam lashed out at those who criticized the initiative to confront women not observing hijab or the Islamic dress code. Speaking in the first annual conference of provincial directors of Police Anti-Social Corruption Department, Ahmadi-Moqaddam added that these criticisms are politically motivated, IRNA reported.
"Those who oppose our plan are seeking votes and popularity [as the Majlis elections are scheduled for winter], but their position will be undermined," he said, adding that the police is responsible for ensuring moral security in society. He called on his critics, who talk of cultural measures for promoting hijab, to take cultural steps in this regard. Referring to "familial security" as the people's top concern, Ahmadi-Moqaddam said ensuring moral security is a legal obligation, as the cultural assault of the enemy poses a "threat against national security".
The top police official said women who wear short, provocative and revealing clothes as well as thick make-up and reveal their hair will be confronted. "We aim to create safe conditions for women by confronting those who create insecurity in public places," he said. Ahmadi-Moqaddam added that one million women were notified about observing hijab properly last year, of whom 10,000 violators were sent to court.
Beirut- the Media office of Lebanons prime minister Fouad Siniora has reported that Hezbollah did not compensate for the destroyed homes , but has instead helped pay for one year rent. Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah during the war told the Lebanese not to worry about the war destruction and assured them that Hezbollah will rebuild their houses with Halal funds from Iran.
According to government sources instead of rebuilding the destroyed Hezbollah has been content with paying to some of those that lost their homes , rent for 1 year. Hezbollah has also launched an anti government campaign accusing the government of not paying its agreed share for compensation. But the government said the facts speak for themselves about what the government has already done and continues to do , but Hezbollah is misleading the Lebanese with its campaign of lies , trying to cover up for reneging on its own promises.
Over 100, 000 residential units ( single family homes and apartments ) were destroyed during the summer war as a result of Israeli bombardment. The majority of those that lost their homes are Shiites. This has prompted many Shiite leaders to attack Hezbollah for its miscalculations last summer when it kidnapped the Israeli soldiers , an action which resulted in the Israeli retaliation .
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/21/2007 0:50 Comments ||
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Tehran on Friday invited Western nations to participate in the construction of nuclear power plants across Iran, in the latest round of the country reiterating its tough stance on a disputed nuclear issue.
The invitation would test the West's "good will" and restore Iran's trust in the West, shaken after the years of the country's suspension of nuclear activities, Vice President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh said.
It comes after Iran announced on Monday an international bid for the building of two more nuclear power plants, despite international pressures to curb its controversial program.
Tehran says the plants would be light-water reactors, each with the capacity to generate up to 1,600 megawatts of electricity and would cost up to US$1.7 billion (1.25 billion) and take up to 11 years to construct. It was not immediately known if there were responses to the bid.
"The international tender for construction of the two nuclear power plants ... is a good yardstick to test the Westerners' good will," Aghazadeh told the official IRNA news agency but did not mention any specific country.
Aghazadeh said that Iran will never again stop uranium enrichment and vowed that Tehran will continue to work around the clock to install more centrifuges at its underground enrichment plant in Natanz, until all 50,000 planned centrifuges are in place, IRNA reported.
Aghazadeh claimed that Iran showed "good will" when it suspended uranium enrichment in 2003 for three years, but later lost trust in Western nations after learning they were "seeking a permanent halt to Iran's nuclear activities" rather than guarantees the program would not be diverted to weapons making. "Therefore, we won't repeat this experience," he said of the possibility of another suspension.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
NORTH KOREA > considers itself "still negotiating" wid USA, etc. over release of US$25.0M from Banco delta Asia. Wants to see iff $$$ can be transferred un-obstructed to other accounts.
#4
"Negotiate" until hell freezes over, no action, no $ release.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/21/2007 17:58 Comments ||
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#5
Tehran on Friday invited Western nations to participate in the construction of nuclear power plants across Iran, in the latest round of the country reiterating its tough stance on a disputed nuclear issue.
Cash in advance, Double Total payment required to be deposited with the US Treasury BEFORE any construction begins as an "Enemy Penalty"
Upon Completion and activation of the facility, and After performance and delay bonuses are paid.any unspent funds will be returned, no interest will be paid (Unislamic).
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/21/2007 18:10 Comments ||
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A former Hizbullah minister in the Lebanese government, Muhammad Fnesh, said Friday that Hizbullah has enough weapons to do what it needs to do in Lebanon, and doesn't need to smuggle weapons in from Syria, Israel Radio reported. Fnesh rejected UN claims that the group was continuing to smuggle arms into the country. The Lebanese official also said that the current talk in Israel about another war this summer was reminiscent of the eve of the Second Lebanon War last summer.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2007 00:00 ||
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Al-Qaeda is reaching out from its base in Pakistan to turn militant Islamist groups in the Middle East and Africa into franchises charged with intensifying attacks on western targets, according to European officials and terrorism specialists. The development could see radical groups use al-Qaeda expertise to switch their attention from local targets to western interests in their countries and abroad. For al-Qaeda, this is a force multiplier, said a British official who follows terrorism.
One of the first signs of the development was an announcement on September 11 last year by Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaedas number two, of a merger between al-Qaeda in the Maghreb and Algerias Salafist Group for Call and Combat, known by its French initials, GSPC.
Western officials expect to see a similar merger between al-Qaeda and the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, a mainly exiled organisation devoted until now to the overthrow of Muammer Gadaffi, the Libyan leader.
They say there are signs that similar moves are under way in Lebanon, Syria and East Africa and that there is an effort to unite militant groups across north Africa.
The Algerian merger was followed by a series of attacks, culminating in two suicide bombings last week that killed 33 and wounded 220. It is too early to say whether last weeks attacks were influenced by al-Qaeda central, officials said. The targeting including of the prime ministers residence was ambitious but traditional for the GSPC, analysts said. However, before these latest attacks, Algeria had suffered only one suicide bomb.
The effort by al-Qaeda to reach out to radical Islamist groups, which is still at an early stage, follows the rebuilding of al-Qaedas core in the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan, near the Afghan border. Al-Qaeda was severely disrupted by US-led military action after its 2001 attacks on the US. But the central organisation appears to have reconstituted around about 20 senior figures in farms and compounds that also act as training camps, western officials say.
AQ Central has sophisticated target planners and expertise in poisons and explosives probably unavailable to local groups, officials say.
The Algerian group operates small training camps in northern Mali, attracting fighters from Algeria, Mauritania, Niger, Mali and Nigeria. UK officials say there is concern about the prospect of trained Nigerian jihadis entering the country among thousands of Nigerians who travel weekly to and from the UK.
According to Andrew Black, of the US Jamestown Institute, the training would equip jihadis for Iraq, from which they would return to the Maghreb with operational experience.
#1
It also means that they are *having* to consolidate due to severe losses.
I keep saying that there is a finite supply of extremists willing to actually do things, and leave their 'hood to do things, and connect up and obey those who can direct them. And once that batch has been exhausted, the number of recruits will take a tumble.
This is why volunteer armies rarely last in heavy attrition. And if they are drafted, then you have to pay the big bucks to get them to the battlefield. And that is a LOT more money than al-Qaeda has ever had.
One of Al-Qaeda's top ideologues and the brother of Osama bin Laden's deputy are leading hundreds of other Muslim extremists jailed in Egypt in a "review" of their radical views to renounce violence and suicide bombings. Sayed Imam Abdul-Aziz el-Sherif, 57, is leading the "review" which, if concluded with an unequivocal disavowal of violence, could lead to the release of some 3,000 members of Islamic Jihad, Egypt's most violent militant group, according to a lawyer familiar with the process.
In a wider context, the renounciation of violence by a key extremist group like Islamic Jihad would take a big chip off the ideological base of Al-Qaeda, although the terror network has dismissed similar reviews in the past as meaningless on the grounds that they took place under the pressure of incarceration. El-Sherif, A physician by training who also is known as Sheikh Fadl, authored "The Essential Guide for Preparation" in the 1980s while fighting Soviet occupation forces in Afghanistan.
The work, a military and political manual for Jihadist groups, contained some of El-Sherif's most extreme views and has been viewed as a main plank in the ideology of Al-Qaeda. In that work, he brands large segments of society -judges, lawyers, armed forces personnel and police -as "infidels" and labels democracy as a new form of idolatry. In the aftermath of the Sept 11 attacks, El-Sherif, one of Jihad's early leaders, wrote: "As long as America is an infidel enemy, terrorizing it is a duty."
"Terrorism is from Islam and whoever denies that is an infidel."
In a statement posted on Islamic militant web sites, he once wrote: "Terrorism is from Islam and whoever denies that is an infidel." Al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya, once Egypt's largest Islamic militant group that waged an insurrection against the government in the 1990s, reviewed its own ideology and published its "revisions" starting from 2002. Thousands of its members have since been freed from prison.
El-Sherif left Egypt in 1986 to go to Afghanistan. He later wound up in Yemen where he was arrested in 2001 and handed over to Egypt in 2004. He is serving a life sentence. "He is the number one Faqih (chief Islamic scholar) for Al-Qaeda and Jihadi groups," Montasser El-Zayat, a prominent Islamist lawyer who is familiar with the review by the Islamic Jihad, said of El-Sherif. Earlier this week, according to El-Zayat, El-Sherif addressed Jihad members detained in a prison southwest of Cairo, telling them that he disavows suicide bombings that take place in Muslim nations.
He also explained that "The Essential Guide for Preparation" was written under special circumstances that were no longer applicable, according to El-Zayat. Mohammed Al-Zawahiri, the younger brother of bin Laden's deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, is among the Islamic Jihad leaders advocating the review, according to El-Zayat. The younger Al-Zawahiri has been on death row since 1999, but El-Zayat said his sentence was expected to be commuted following a second trial.
Diaa Rashwan, an expert on Islamic militant groups, credits el-Sherif with laying down "the foundations for taking arms against the 'infidel' ruler, and religious justification for violence." The review, he said, would deal a blow to Al-Qaeda. "It's unimaginable for Al-Qaeda that someone like him will carry out this review ," he said.
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
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Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
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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.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The federal government is inspecting churches and religious groups to clamp down on fraud in a visa program for religious workers, government officials said Thursday. The visits are part of an effort by Citizenship and Immigration Services, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, to tighten rules for the religious worker visas after finding fraud in about 33 percent of applications.
A Missouri college fired a geography instructor and filed a report with police after students complained the man had joked about being a suicide bomber. Ozarks Technical Community College spokesman Joel Doepker said several students had complained that the teacher walked into class Wednesday, set his briefcase on a table and said, "I'm a suicide bomber," the Springfield News-Leader reported in its Friday editions. "As to the why, I really don't know. But after the class, several students complained to campus administrators about the comment," Doepker said. The part-time instructor was fired Thursday. 
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief, Altaf Hussain, has said that in a rapidly changing world scenario, Talibanisation and religious extremism in Pakistan pose a serious challenge to the viability of the country.
Lal Masjid prayer leader Maulana Abdul Aziz said on Friday that clerics would not allow dance and music in Pakistan and those interested in such activities should go to India. We will not wait more ... it will now be Sharia or shahadat (martyrdom), Aziz said in his Friday sermon at Lal Masjid. 
BAGHDAD - US troops are building a wall around a Sunni enclave in Baghdad, part of a strategy to break the cycle of sectarian violence in the Iraqi capital. Work began on April 10 on the 5-km (3-mile) cement wall at Adhamiya, a mainly Sunni Arab area surrounded on three sides by Shia communities. The wall is one of the centrepieces of a new strategy by coalition and Iraqi forces to break the cycle of sectarian violence, Sergeant Mike Pryor, a public affairs officer, wrote in an article released by the US military.
Former PA foreign minister Mahmoud Al-Zahar of Hamas said Friday that recognizing Israel contradicts the Koran, Israel Radio reported. 
Beirut- the Media office of Lebanons prime minister Fouad Siniora has reported that Hezbollah did not compensate for the destroyed homes , but has instead helped pay for one year rent. Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah during the war told the Lebanese not to worry about the war destruction and assured them that Hezbollah will rebuild their houses with Halal funds from Iran. 
Tehran on Friday invited Western nations to participate in the construction of nuclear power plants across Iran, in the latest round of the country reiterating its tough stance on a disputed nuclear issue. 
