Most Canadians want their troops to return from Afghanistan if the death toll continues to climb and believes that the war against terror has increased the risk of terror attacks in their country, according to a poll published on Sunday. Fifty-five percent of those surveyed by the SES Institute study for the Sun-Media group said they wanted Canadian troops to withdraw if the militarys losses rose.
Most of us would love to see our troops withdraw from Afghanistan and Iraq -- always provided those countries aren't run by lunatics. That, keep in mind, is how we ended up in both countries in the first place. Allowing the ISI to install Chapter Two of the Taliban in Afghanistan makes even less sense to the West than does withdrawing from Iraq and leaving that country to its own devices. As the left is constantly reminding us, Iraq wasn't involved with 9-11. Afghanistan actually was, and that's not something that can be changed. The tactic the bad guyz are following is to try and scare off the weak sisters from the international force, leaving only the Americans, who can then be trapped into a grinding guerrilla war like the Russers were. A fickle public and a cowardly Democratic party can then be counted upon to get us out in the natural course of events, leaving the whole dog's breakfast to the ever-helpful Paks.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2007 00:00 ||
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I'm hoping against hope a corner has been turned up north. Was up there recently and spoke with a military guy slated for Afghanistan service later this year - he said morale was very high (no surprise, they feel like they're able to finally participate, contribute - and I doubt most CF personnel harbor moonbat foreign policy delusions). After two decades of decay and increasing insanity, perhaps Canada is turning the corner to once again become a decent country that punches above its weight in military affairs on the side of civilization. Perhaps ....
#2
Man for man the Canadians may have the world's toughest military. For two generations Canada has neglected a military tradition built up over centuries. The lack of resource and attention hasn't killed the institutional knowledge and the ability to attract warriors. The Canadian Forces are small, tight and extremely professional. They are held back more by the lack of Canadian national will than they are by lack of expensive weapons systems.
#3
Frankly, I am leaning to pulling out and supporting remnants of the Northern Alliance. Give them ample arms and set them loose on our mutual enemies: drug producers and IslamoNazis. Why should the West do Karzai's dirty work? Nation-building hasn't exactly been a thundering success.
#4
As silly as it sounds, our declining support for Afghanistan is largely about Iraq. Or more precisely, the dog and pony show that the democrats are doing in congress.
Our news media spends more time covering Iraq and the political machinations in the US than it does on what our troops are doing in Afghanistan. The defeatist drumbeat is loud and clear up here, and its spreading.
#5
Not only has Canada been weakened by decades of socialist moonbattery, but they have also had a huge influx of muzzies from former members of the British Commonwealth and other muzzie paradise spots. This has placed a very large, potentially hostile fith collumn within their borders, people who care not a whit about the centuries of Canadian tradition.
The new French government must pull troops out of Afghanistan, a Taliban spokesman said on Monday and offered to extend a deadline over the release of a French hostage. Spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP that the insurgent movement was ready to extend the deadline for its demands to be met for the release of the Terre dEnfance [A World For Our Children] aid worker if the Afghan and French governments contacted them. We ask the new French government to secure the national interests of both France and Afghanistan, Ahmadi said after Nicolas Sarkozy won the French election, adding, It must not sacrifice its national interests for the interests and strategies of the Americans. It is also unfair that French and Afghan youth are dying in the fighting.
Our first demand from the new government of France is that they must present an exact timetable for the withdrawal of their troops from Afghanistan, Admadi said. He added that insurgents were also willing to trade the release of Taliban prisoners from Afghan jails for volunteer Eric Damfreville and three Afghan co-workers captured over a month ago.
Ahmadi said on Sunday the deadline had been extended till the new government was in place, which should be around late June. If anybody either the French or the Afghan government contacts us about the hostages, we are ready to further extend the deadline, he added. Another Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said the group did not yet have an exact date for the deadline. We will wait for a time period after the election of the president. We expect him to be busy with his governments internal issues in the beginning but expect him to pay attention to foreign issues promptly, he said. The spokesmen had previously said that a Taliban council of leaders would decide what to do with hostages if the demands were not met.
The Talibans policy regarding the foreign hostages is clear, Ahmadi said. While the extremists have beheaded several Afghans many accused of spying their foreign victims have mostly been Turkish and Indian roadworkers and engineers helping to develop southern Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2007 00:00 ||
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Don't piss off Sarko, he might get, well, brutal (here's hoping).
#4
As long as Sarko is not brutal as in Afghan winter; those are over-rated. Though from France I will settle for brute (trying to find an after-shave pun here somewhere but it is not coming to me).
#5
If Sarko threatens to send another battalion every time they make that demand, I swear I'll start writing love poems. Especially if he does so while actually sending another battalion...
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
05/08/2007 13:14 Comments ||
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A senior member of the Pak-Afghan Peace Jirga Commission has said that two meetings of 700 delegates from Pakistan and Afghanistan may not succeed against the increasing Taliban-linked insurgency in Afghanistan. I do not have much hope for success, said Rustam Shah Mohmand, adviser to Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao Khan, who is heading the Pakistani commission in the jirga.
The governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed on May 4 to hold their first joint jirga in the first week of August in Afghanistan, which would be followed by another one in Pakistan. The two countries recently decided to try using the traditional tribal system to combat the Taliban. President Pervez Musharraf and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai agreed to the idea during their joint meeting with US President George W Bush in September last year.
Mohmand, former ambassador to Afghanistan, told Daily Times after his return from Kabul where arrangements for the first jirga were finalised, that the decisions at the jirgas would be more or less binding on the two governments. These types of questions boggle the mind, he said when asked if Kabul would agree to withdraw US and NATO forces from Afghanistan if the jirga demanded it. He said Pakistan had finalised the names of jirga attendees and they included clerics, members of parliament, tribal elders and people from the Sindh province. Opposition members are also included, he added.
Security concerns could reduce the delegate strength, the adviser said. He said the final decision would be taken in the last meeting on the matter during the last week of May in Islamabad. The jirga delegates have been instructed to avoid indulging in blaming each other according to rules of engagement, said Mohmand. They can only try to provide positive suggestions.
A neutral mediatory jirga, if the joint jirga accepts, will open talks with people [referring to Taliban] currently opposing the present Afghanistan government, Mohmand said. He said the mediatory jirga would not include government representatives and only tribal elders would be selected. They can then proceed to overturn those silly elections they had a year or two ago.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2007 00:00 ||
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WORLDNEWS > ISLAMABAD considering deportation of Afghan illegals. Afghanis doing a NORTH KOREA and may just well demand to stay as oposed to being sent back, even iff it means being treated as aliens???
#2
The governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed on May 4 to hold their first joint jirga in the first week of August in Afghanistan, which would be followed by another one in Pakistan
a circle-jirga
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/08/2007 9:43 Comments ||
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Thank you, Frank, for that homage to multi-culturalism..... (/snark)
(SomaliNet) Amid Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia's recovery from two weeks of street fighting many public schools reopened on Saturday after the Ethiopian backed interim government ran over the local insurgents a week ago. Very few students in their uniforms could be seen this morning going back to their shattered schools as most of the pupils are still away from the capital while some of them fled the country for good.
Mogadishus schools were closed for more than a month due to the fighting that stopped early this month as Somali troops backed by their Ethiopian allied forces gained the upper hand over the Islamic insurgents. Many institutes and universities in north of Mogadishu where the fiercest battle took place were badly damaged. University students have not yet begun returning to their classes.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2007 00:00 ||
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(SomaliNet) Some of the people who fled the areas hit by the recent fighting in the Somalia capital Mogadishu are complaining about the allied forces of Ethiopia and Somalia who made their base in civilian houses during the war and still remain there. These people are now in makeshift houses in the southern outskirt of the capital expressing worry about how they would return to their houses as the Ethiopian soldiers reside the area. We can not return to our house because it is resided by Ethiopian soldiers and I ask the Ethiopian forces to vacate the civilian areas and locate outside of the capital in order people have access to to their houses, said an old man who declined to be named.
He whines almost as well as a Paleo.
The areas made by the Ethiopians as military zone include houses alongside the Industry Road where people are not allowed to return. Many displaced people who are facing more trouble in the outside of the capital are asking the transitional federal government to be given access to return to their homes.
Meanwhile, the security forces in the transitional federal government along with the Ugandan peacekeepers continue to patrol through the capital to tighten the security and prevent any violence. Government soldiers could be seen on the main streets in Mogadishu searching all cars for weapons.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2007 00:00 ||
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Lessirree, BRUSSELS JOURNAL Poster > writes that the Muslim conquest of [northern]INDIA resulted in approxi 80.0Milyuuhn being killed, while in TIMOR over 100,000 were beheaded for not being Muslim.
(SomaliNet) An extra 8 000 peacekeepers will be sent to Somalia, the African Union (AU) announced on Monday but saying that dialogue remained the only solution to the bloody conflict in that country. "The crisis in that country has so far proved intractable. The AU has decided to send 8 000 troops immediately to assist peacekeeping efforts," AU chairperson John Kufuor told the opening of the seventh ordinary session of the Pan African Parliament (PAP) in Midrand near Johannesburg, South Africa. "The solution to the situation lies with the people of Somalia. We cannot impose a solution. But dialogue is better than allowing force to reign," he said.
Meanwhile, hundreds have died since the beginning of the year as the Somali capital Mogadishu saw an upsurge in clashes between government-backed Ethiopian forces and insurgents and clan fighters opposed to their presence.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2007 00:00 ||
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Bringing the 7,000 strong troop presence to 15,000 seems still too sparse to rout out the city; but the valiant Ethiopian forces can use all the help they can get. With the US providing logistics, support, and intel; hopefully another full invasion of the capitol can be put on the back burner...fingers crossed!
#2
IIRC, only the Ugandans have actually shown up in that "7000" count - about 1500 troops in all. THE AU needs to meet its FIRST commitment before making more.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/08/2007 18:15 Comments ||
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US President George W. Bush telephoned Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Monday to wish him a happy birthday and congratulate him on his son Gamal's marriage. Serving his fifth 6-year term, Mubarak celebrated his 79th birthday on Saturday, the day of the marriage of his 43-year-old son, who is for all intents and purposes the heir apparent to the throne presidency.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said Bush thanked Mubarak for agreeing to see Vice President Dick Cheney during Cheney's coming trip to the Middle East to shore up support for Iraq's struggling government. "They discussed the recent conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, the president commenting that the meetings had been very well organized adn led by Egypt and provided important support for Iraq and its government," Snow said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2007 00:00 ||
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Various Net news sites are focusing on the son's new marriage as indicative of the son's future ambitions in politics, and by extens the Mubarak family.
Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat, Bangladesh says Islamist organisations that had threatened the Ahmadiyyas on various occasions in the last few years might be behind the three concurrent bomb explosions in Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet on May 1. At a press conference at its central office in the city, Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat said Alami Majlish-e-Tahfuje Khatme Nabuwat, Khatme Nabuwat Sangrakkhan Committee, International Khatme Nabuwat Movement Bangladesh, Amra Dhakabashi and Jahase Mostaba might be involved in the explosions.
The press conference was organised against the backdrop of the ultimatum issued by Jadid al-Qaeda, which asked the Ahmadiyyas to acknowledge by May 10 that Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (SM) is the last and greatest prophet. The Ahmadiyya Jamaat observes that the anti-Ahmadiyya elements have roots in Pakistan and Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh endorses these elements from behind the scenes. "We suspect that the above mentioned organisations including the Jadid al Qaeda have the same origin and urge the government to investigate the matter and reveal the facts," said Maulana Abdul Awwal Khan Chowdhury, Naeb Ameer of Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat, Bangladesh.
It is imperative for the government to find out if there are any similarities between the May 1 explosions and various other militant activities and threats by the anti-Ahmadiyya elements in the last few years, said Ahmad Tabshir Chowdhury, coordinator of public relations division, in his written speech. The anti-Ahmadiyya forces killed seven of its members by bombing one of Ahmadiyya mosques in Khulna in 1999. In 2003, they killed an Imam in Jessore, committed atrocities against the community and set fire to many Ahmadiyya structures all over the country, he said.
Ahmad Tabshir said, "We believe that Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (SM) is the last and greatest prophet and there will not be any more advent of any other prophet. The propaganda against our belief therefore is intentional and false and it is due to ignorance." There is only one difference between the Ahmadiyya Jamaat and other sects (Firkas) of the Muslims, he said explaining, "We believe that Hazrat Imam Mahdi (A) has already appeared, but the others are still waiting for His appearance -- an event that was foretold by Hazrat Mohammad (SM)."
This difference cannot determine that the Ahmadiyya Jamaat cannot practise Islam, said Naeb Ameer of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat, adding that this is an artificial crisis imported from Pakistan and it is being imposed on the Ahmadiyyas in Bangladesh. "These elements from Pakistan are spreading the poison of communalism in Bangladesh, which traditionally is known as the land of harmonious co-existence," he said.
He also said that the militants are in fact against Islam and the nation. "Please identify the reasons behind the creation of such militant outfits and root out these outfits to uphold the tradition of co-existence here."
Asked if there should be any religion-based politics in Bangladesh, Maulana Abdul Awwal said in the context of present day, politics and religion cannot go together..."water and oil cannot mix."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2007 00:00 ||
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This is the price they pay for supporting the creation of Pakistan.
They wanted a state where they, the "pure" could live apart from hindus, sikhs and others.
Well, they're just not pure enough for the land of the pure (east), even after its conversion to Bangla.
Posted by: John Frum ||
05/08/2007 18:31 Comments ||
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Security sources warned of a possible attack by Basque separatist group ETA after candidates linked to the movement were banned by the Supreme Court. Hundreds of candidates were barred by the court because of their links to the terrorist organisation. ETA issued a statement warning last month against such a ban in the forthcoming local elections on 27 May. The group said it would take the move very much into account. Security sources warned this probably meant the Basque separatist organisation would launch another attack. Batasuna, the main Basque party linked to ETA, was declared illegal in 2003 for its links to the terrorist group.
Sets new benchmark - suggests Petraeus needs to break pattern of Ramadan "surge" in violence. Ramadan begins September 12th this year, so it'll be hotter than last year.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/08/2007 06:26 ||
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In other words: All the insurgents have to do is pull off a few "spectacular" car bombs in September and all the talking heads will start wailing that the war is lost and we should run for our lives.
#5
As argued before, MOUD-MULLAHOCRACY must change their empiric agenda in order to preserve local power, or else ATTACK US-Allied interests, mainly US, IN RESPONSE TO DUBYA'S ENTRENCHMENT EFFORTS in ME + Moslem World. This FORT DIX incident, coupled wid Radical Iran's continuing efforts to proceed wid nuke enrichment, may bely Iran = Radical Islam's intent to ATTACK THE USA via Terror includ wid WMDS. EVEN THE ANTI-US RUSSIANS BELIEVE IRAN IS INTENT ON DEV NUCLEAR WEAPONS EVENTUALLY AND FEAR IRAN-LED ISLAMIST DESTABILIZATION OF MUSLIM NATIONS IN CENTRAL ASIA + THE SCO. The Russians are fine as long Radical Islam's ONLY TARGET/FOCII is AMERICA. REMEMBER, ONCE AMER GOES DOWN, THE HONEYMOON WILL LIKELY BE OVER BETWEEN ANTI-US SECULAR COMMIE, + ANTI-US RADICAL ISLAMIST i.e. GOD-BASED COMMIES-SOCIALISTS. The next target after the defeat = destruction of the US-West will be EACH OTHER, AND BOTH THE COMMIES = ISLAMISTS KNOW IT.
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Federal Council secretary general Khalid Ahmad Kharal has condemned Prime Minister Shaukat Azizs statement in which Aziz has threatened to impose emergency in the country. His unwise statement has directly affected Pakistans stock market, which has declined by 440 points in one day, he said, adding that the government can now neither invoke emergency nor any other legal mechanism to stop the people who have come on the roads against the regime.
The people of Pakistan will not allow Aziz to play with their fundamental rights and the courts of law will ensure that the peoples fundamental rights are not violated in any form, said Kharal. Aziz should go back to America and resume his profession as a banker, Kharal added. Former federal minister Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar said the only honorable exit for Aziz and President Pervez Muharraf lay in immediately withdrawing the reference against Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, installing a caretaker government, handing over the presidential office to the Senate chairman and allowing the caretaker government to hold fair elections in the country.
Mukhtar said Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and other exiled leaders should be free to return and participate in such an election. He said the peoples warm reception for the CJP has proven that the ruling party is flawed. He added that this is why Aziz raised the issue of imposition of emergency in Pakistan. PPP Punjab President Shah Mehmood Qureshi said the country is already undergoing a constitutional crisis with opposition parties and lawyers protesting to restore democracy and the supremacy of the constitution. While addressing a press conference, he said a statement concerning the imposition of emergency could only serve to fuel further anarchy in the country. He said there was no need of imposition of emergency and President Musharraf should himself condemn Azizs irresponsible statement.
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal deputy secretary general Liaqat Baloch said the rulers, instead of thinking about imposing emergency, should direct the president to resign from his dual offices and release control to an interim government till a new democratic government could be elected. Hailing the Supreme Court larger benchs decision of issuing a stay order for suspending the Supreme Judicial Councils proceedings, he said the people would hear historical decisions from the courts in the coming days. Baloch said the people of Punjab have shown that they are against one-man rule and now Musharraf should resign from his post to redress his wrongs against the nation. Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan, Punjab President Ehsan Rasheed and Secretary Information Umer Sarfraz Cheema, while condemning the prime ministers statement, said the countrys rulers were making mistake after mistake.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2007 00:00 ||
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Abdul Rashid Ghazi, deputy prayer leader of Lal Masjid, claimed on Monday that some generals had decided to impose emergency in Pakistan, but he did not disclose the source of his information. The CJP issue has become a nightmare for the government. Some generals have decided to impose emergency in the country to defuse the tension, Ghazi told a press conference. He claimed that in a recent meeting approved by President Pervez Musharraf, the generals had decided to impose emergency in Pakistan on the pretext of increasing militancy in the country. Ghazi said Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had not ruled out imposition of emergency in his recent statement. He claimed that a pro-US government would be set up after imposition of the emergency.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2007 00:00 ||
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"Emergency! Emergency! Everybody to get from street!"
-- The Russians Are Coming
#3
"The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming" - funniest movie in my files. BTW, the submarine used in the shoot was an old US "Tang" class.
Perv should acknowledge this a$$hole by flying something supersonic 200 feet above his madrassah. I'll leave it up to Perv if he wants that aircraft to drop anything (napalm, HE wrapped in ball bearings, and WP would be nice - together).
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/08/2007 19:01 Comments ||
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Nah, #1 mojo - it was "Egermency! Egermency! Everybody to get from street!"
I loved that movie. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/08/2007 19:53 Comments ||
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NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer arrived here on Monday on a two-day visit, largely aimed at tightening efforts in the fight against the Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. Before leaving Brussels, Scheffer said he also wanted to broaden bilateral ties in talks scheduled for Tuesday with President Pervez Musharraf and other officials. This is the first visit to Pakistan by a head of the military alliance.
Scheffer was accompanied by NATOs top military commander, General John Craddock, who was expected to raise concerns about continued attacks on troops in Afghanistan by militants crossing from Pakistans tribal areas. Speaking earlier to a Pakistani newspaper in Brussels, Scheffer said all players in Afghanistan had to step up action against the spoilers.
There is always room to do more for all of us but I say explicitly that this is true for all of us, not only for Pakistan, he said, noting the Musharraf was fighting as hard as we are.
More assistance should be given to Pakistan in mounting surveillance over the 2,500-kilometre border with Afghanistan, according to Scheffer. US officials in particular have criticised Pakistan for allowing the militants to establish safe havens in the mountainous border area from which to launch attacks. Scheffers visit comes a week after Musharraf met Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Ankara to try to overcome growing tensions over shortcomings in the fight against the Taliban.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2007 00:00 ||
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Pakistan Muslim League (PML) (Q) President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain on Monday visited the Lal Masjid and offered talks to the clerics on the enforcement of Sharia in the country, which the latter turned down.
Talking to Daily Times after the meeting, Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi, deputy cleric of the Lal Masjid, confirmed that Shujaats had made such an offer to them, and said: We already have an understanding that the government will ensure reconstruction of the demolished mosques in the first phase and the talks for the enforcement of Sharia would follow in the second. The government is yet to accomplish its first commitment, how can we jump into the second phase, said Ghazi. He said that during their meeting with Shujaat, the Lal Masjid administration raised objection to the notification issued by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for reconstruction of the mosques in Islamabad.
Ghazi said the government should have consulted the Muftis on the reconstruction of the mosques as according to Quran and Sunnah only the Muftis had the authority to decide about the reconstruction of mosques at new locations.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2007 00:00 ||
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NWFP Governor Ali Jan Orakzai on Monday expressed concern over law and order situation in the Bajaur Agency despite peace agreements between the government and all key tribes of the area.
Tribal elders should play their role in identifying and apprehending the culprits, Orakzai told a jirga consisting of elders, councilors and parliamentarians from Bajaur Agency at Governors House. Tribesmen are traditionally religious and individuals disrupting peace in the area have no place in the tribal system, he said. Orakzai urged the elders to form local peace and surveillance committees to ensure peace in their respective areas, adding that the government was committed to its responsibility to maintain peace and could deal with any situation with the cooperation of the tribesmen. The governor also expressed concern over reports of poppy cultivation in some areas of the agency and urged for joint struggle to eradicate poppy from the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2007 00:00 ||
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#6
I love mickey mouse song...I was mouskateer before becoming the bringer of apocalypse.
M-i-c - convert you real soon
k-e-y - why, because otherwise we'll kill you
m-o-u-s-e
#7
I dunno about that, not when all the various muzzie-initiated work accidents remind me of Wily E. and the ACME company......
And I really cannot see a spin-off of Sesame Street: can you see Obama the Grouch living in a sh!tcan that may have held pork residue? ( Oh did i misspell the name???? sorry)
#9
Is any more proof needed that Islam is a preposterous cult which must be dismantled for a multitude of reasons, just one being to save kids from being turned into walking bombs?
#10
Throwing children into a burning furnace was an evil child sacrifice practice thousands of years ago. Now they revive the practice by training children to be sacrificed by putting on a bomb. Evil returns.
It's Debka and stranger then they usually are - so remember to SALT VERY LIBERALLY!
This is a very UNIQUE article and might well need an Israeli to explain. Is there a place coup or just removal of the keys to the kingdom?
Also, what's this done deal about a US exit?
The last sentence is an interesting kicker. Coup and attack Iran?
Lots to mull over here or maybe Debka has been taking LSD. I didn't see UFOs mentioned so that's a positive. It would be really interesting to be a fly on the wall in Olmert's offices right now.
Non-Political Israeli Officials Take Charge of Urgent Policy Business with Washington
US sources reveal that, this week, Israeli military and intelligence circles informed their opposite numbers in Washington that there is no vacuum in the management of vital issues and it is ongoing despite the crisis tying the hands of Israeli government leaders, prime minister Ehud Olmert, defense minister Amir Peretz and foreign minister Tzipi Livni, in the aftermath of a critical war report.
This was the first confirmation by senior Bush administration sources that they are working with non-political Israeli circles on urgent and critical affairs and leaving the Olmert government outside policy-making in Washington.
Those Israeli circles have voiced their deep concern over the Bush administration's inclination to meet Iran halfway on the nuclear question. Sources reveal that Washington is considering a compromise that will let Iran continue uranium enrichment against guarantees never to produce weapons-grade fuel or develop a nuclear weapon.
Israel military and intelligence experts have warned the administration that Iran is up to its old tricks of handing out promises it has no intention of keeping. Since this warning appears to be falling on deaf ears, they have asked for a quick and clear decision on the Iranian question. They fear that if it is delayed, the US withdrawal from Iraq in late summer of this year will catch Israel — and the rest of the Middle East — in the grip of two major crises: the dispute with Iran will either be settled or flare, American troops will be in the process of quitting Iraq - and both events may be exploited by Syria, Hizballah, Hamas and Jihad Islami for offensive operations against Israel.
Israel will then face a multiple threat without due preparation.
The US is therefore asked to reach a decision on Iran in the next couple of months before the onset of its pullout from Iraq.
Washington's Israeli contacts did not spell out the reaction they planned to a US-Iranian deal entailing concessions to Tehran on the nuclear question, perhaps because no one in Jerusalem is in a fit state for a balanced decision. But they inferred that the Israeli military option against Iran was not off the table.
US Vice President Dick Cheney will shortly be visiting Saudi Arabia and Jordan to discuss two main subjects:
1. The volume and type of US military assistance for the two kingdom to help them absorb the buffeting from the US exit from Iraq and stand up to any military threat from Iran.
2. To pick up the pieces of the disappointing foreign policy tactic led by US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, which hinged on the formation of a moderate American-Arab axis for reining in Iran to be led and brokered by Saudi Arabia.
Washington Can Trust Saudi Mediation — But Only for the Short Term
Saudi Arabia's performance as diplomatic middleman tends to peak when oil revenues are high. Abdullah's Middle East peace plan finally debuted in 2001 and was adopted with revisions by the 2002 Beirut Arab summit. It then gathered dust for five years. But then, when oil prices soared and the royal coffers overflowed with oil revenues, Abdullah swung into action against the rising threat posed by Iran's nuclear ambitions and its contributions to the vicious violence in Iraq, Lebanese instability and Syrian intransigence.
Saudi initiatives may have conveyed the impression of dramatic audacity. In practice, they boiled down to handling the Iranian threat by the classical methods favored by Saudi rulers of dialogue and engagement, fueled by oceans of petrodollars to reward those in tune with their goals.
In the short term, Riyadh's mediation efforts may work, but their long-term sustainability is problematic. There is no guarantee that oil prices will stay as high as they have been in the last two years; and Saudi diplomacy tends to fade away when oil prices sink.
The outcome of the Rice initiative was unfortunate; instead of the promised moderate Arab bloc allied with Washington, the Saudis have moved over and joined the radical camp of Iran, Syria and the Palestinian Hamas. Riyadh maintains in its defense that this alignment will wean Syrian president Bashar Assad and Hamas' hardline Khaled Meshaal from their ties with Tehran. That is something Cheney will have to sort out.
Jerusalem is too engrossed in political antics for keeping Olmert and Peretz afloat in the face of popular disaffection to heed the course of events among Israel's neighbors. Ignorant of those events, Olmert and Peretz still cling to the illusory windows of opportunity for peace which they believed had opened up in Damascus and Riyadh at the last Arab summit in late March.
For this reason, military and intelligence officials have taken matters in their own hands to make sure that the most pressing issues with Washington were attended to without further delay.
CAIRO - The Gulf state of Qatar gave 22 million dollars to the Arab League on Monday so that teachers in the Palestinian territories can be paid, a League representative said. This sum is the third instalment of a Qatari donation to support the Widows Ammunition Fund Palestinian people and pay the salaries of Palestinian teachers, Mohammed Sobeih told journalists in Cairo, where the 22-member league is based.
The Arab League will transfer this amount through its own mechanism to the Widows Ammunition Fund Palestinian Authority, he said. Qatar has already donated two previous amounts of 22 million dollars each to the Palestinian Authority, again to pay teachers salaries.
Last week hundreds of angry Palestinian teachers staged a protest demanding to be paid their salaries in full, as well as several months arrears. At the start of the school year they went on strike for two months because they had not been paid. In recent months they have received part of their salaries, thanks mainly to the money from Qatar.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/08/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
The horror. Imagine poor Palestinian school kids missing out on a few weeks of Jew-hatred instruction and terrorism-worship.
Edumacation is the key to peace. It's for the children. Ya see.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has cancelled a trip to Israel planned for next week due to the unstable political situation in Israel, the Foreign Ministry confirmed late Monday night. Rice was scheduled to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders following a stop-off in Moscow. US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Monday that the cancellation would not get in the way of US efforts to move forward with Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. "It's a change in plans, yes," McCormack admitted, but added that the US would "continue efforts to advance the Israeli-Palestinian track."
"The political situation in Israel has become a bit more complex in the near term," said McCormack. Tension has risen between government officials following the release of the Winograd's interim report into the Second Lebanon War. Many government officials have called on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to step down. On Thursday, 150,000 people participated in a mass demonstration at Tel Aviv's Rabin Square in an attempt to get Olmert and his government to resign.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
the US would "continue efforts to advance the Israeli-Palestinian track."
OK, it's now been over a decade of doing this, contrary to common sense and the reality sitting right in front of us. There can be no serious argument for continuing this charade - and claims that going through the motions has any value with Arab publics are absurd.
Dubya showed so much promise on this a few years back. Tragic that he's apparently given up and returned to the empty, sanguinary, and ultimately more costly charade.
#4
SPACEWAR > CONDI warns Pacific Islands leaders about "Strongmen" andor anti-democratic cabals working to stifle or overthrow democracy. Methinks Condi is giving a veiled or subtle warning about CHINA's rising influence in the region. * NEWS > ASIA SEES CHINA AS KEY TO NEW SARKOZY DIPLOMACY. Sark not held/viewed in region as being pro-JAPAN - may switch French regional focii to PRC from Tokyo.
#7
OK, it's now been over a decade of doing this, contrary to common sense and the reality sitting right in front of us. There can be no serious argument for continuing this charade
It's the professional diplomatic corps at work. Two words: job. security.
When the problem is never solved, it keeps their lot in business in perpetuity.
Oh, sorry. You said a serious argument. I can't come up with one. But at least this time I think the cynical path leads closest to the truth.
The IDF does not inform cabinet ministers about its retaliatory security plans for the escalation of terror in Gaza Strip, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said late Monday evening during a Kadima faction meeting.
In a conversation between Livni and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert which had been aired on the Knesset Channel, the foreign minister claimed that instead of hearing of the military's plans directly from the military itself, she was told by Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz - a former defense minister. Livni's criticism came several hours after the IAF targeted a car which was said to have carried Islamic Jihad operatives. No one was killed in the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2007 00:00 ||
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#6
If by "Balance" you mean giving Isreal any Hezbollah in the country and cutting off every bank account in the country belonging to them, then yes. I agree.
Posted by: Charles ||
05/08/2007 19:34 Comments ||
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#7
Let's hope Sarkosy "balances" the cost of all those Car-B-Ques against the massive welfare payments being made into the banlieus. Add in the expenses of bullets and tear gas that are needed to overcome any future riots and the bottom line should become rather clear.
Iran will not freeze uranium enrichment to reach a truce with the United Nations over its nuclear program, the Islamic republic's foreign minister said Monday.
Manouchehr Mottaki insisted Iran has a legal right to pursue nuclear technology and would spurn a Swiss initiative that calls for a simultaneous freeze of Iranian atomic activities in exchange for a commitment not to impose new UN sanctions. While Iran could agree to some parts of the proposal, "the red line is suspension," Mottaki told reporters during a visit to Stockholm. "We are having our legal enrichment, and suspension is not on our agenda."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2007 00:00 ||
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#2
SPACEWAR > WHAT IF IRAN DEVELOPED NUCLEAR WEAPONS. USA forced to accomodate nuclearized, agressive Iran according to Teacher-Student role game.; + FARSINEWS/TEHRAN TIMES > USA HAS FAILED TO ISOLATE IRAN - will not be able to stop Iran; + IPSNEWS > USA: SLOWLY,SLOWLY, THE SHIP OF STATE TURNS REALIST. FARSINEWS > IS IRAN'S MISSLES A THREAT TO EUROPE, + CSMONITOR > THE CASE OF MILITARY STRIKES AGZ IRAN [Now, now, now].
#3
Why doesn't europe seem to give a flying rat's ass about this? I'd be somewhat uneasy with the idea since they are the ones in range, not the states.
The European Union's foreign policy chief said Monday he wants to meet Iran's top nuclear negotiator again within weeks to discuss the deadlock over a UN Security Council demand that Teheran freeze uranium enrichment. The EU's Javier Solana last held talks in April with Ali Larijani, who said at the time they had come closer to a "united view" on how to break the stalemate. Solana said he would likely meet again with Larijani "in the coming weeks ... as soon as possible, to see if we can move on."
The April talks, held in Ankara, Turkey, were aimed at establishing if there was enough common ground for further discussions between the two men that could lead to a resumption of formal nuclear negotiations between Iran and the six countries leading international efforts to pressure Iran to make nuclear concessions. Those countries are United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2007 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The new French government must pull troops out of Afghanistan, a Taliban spokesman said on Monday and offered to extend a deadline over the release of a French hostage. Spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP that the insurgent movement was ready to extend the deadline for its demands to be met for the release of the Terre dEnfance [A World For Our Children] aid worker if the Afghan and French governments contacted them. We ask the new French government to secure the national interests of both France and Afghanistan, Ahmadi said after Nicolas Sarkozy won the French election, adding, It must not sacrifice its national interests for the interests and strategies of the Americans. It is also unfair that French and Afghan youth are dying in the fighting.
(SomaliNet) An extra 8 000 peacekeepers will be sent to Somalia, the African Union (AU) announced on Monday but saying that dialogue remained the only solution to the bloody conflict in that country. "The crisis in that country has so far proved intractable. The AU has decided to send 8 000 troops immediately to assist peacekeeping efforts," AU chairperson John Kufuor told the opening of the seventh ordinary session of the Pan African Parliament (PAP) in Midrand near Johannesburg, South Africa. "The solution to the situation lies with the people of Somalia. We cannot impose a solution. But dialogue is better than allowing force to reign," he said. 
Abdul Rashid Ghazi, deputy prayer leader of Lal Masjid, claimed on Monday that some generals had decided to impose emergency in Pakistan, but he did not disclose the source of his information. The CJP issue has become a nightmare for the government. Some generals have decided to impose emergency in the country to defuse the tension, Ghazi told a press conference. He claimed that in a recent meeting approved by President Pervez Musharraf, the generals had decided to impose emergency in Pakistan on the pretext of increasing militancy in the country. Ghazi said Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had not ruled out imposition of emergency in his recent statement. He claimed that a pro-US government would be set up after imposition of the emergency.
NWFP Governor Ali Jan Orakzai on Monday expressed concern over law and order situation in the Bajaur Agency despite peace agreements between the government and all key tribes of the area. 
CAIRO - The Gulf state of Qatar gave 22 million dollars to the Arab League on Monday so that teachers in the Palestinian territories can be paid, a League representative said. This sum is the third instalment of a Qatari donation to support the 
The IDF does not inform cabinet ministers about its retaliatory security plans for the escalation of terror in Gaza Strip, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said late Monday evening during a Kadima faction meeting. .JPG)
Iran will not freeze uranium enrichment to reach a truce with the United Nations over its nuclear program, the Islamic republic's foreign minister said Monday. 
The European Union's foreign policy chief said Monday he wants to meet Iran's top nuclear negotiator again within weeks to discuss the deadlock over a UN Security Council demand that Teheran freeze uranium enrichment. The EU's Javier Solana last held talks in April with Ali Larijani, who said at the time they had come closer to a "united view" on how to break the stalemate. Solana said he would likely meet again with Larijani "in the coming weeks ... as soon as possible, to see if we can move on." 
