Britain has privately complained to Beijing that Chinese-made weapons are being used by the Taleban to attack British troops in Afghanistan. The BBC has been told that on several occasions Chinese arms have been recovered after attacks on British and American troops by Afghan insurgents. The authorities in Beijing have promised to carry out an investigation. This appears to be the first time Britain has asked China how its arms are ending up with the Taleban.
At a meeting held recently at the Chinese foreign ministry in Beijing, a British official expressed the UK's growing concern about the incidents. When asked about the latest British concerns, the Chinese foreign ministry referred back to a statement made by their spokesman Qin Gang in July who said China's arms exports were carried out "in strict accordance with our law and our international obligations".
The Taleban have recently begun boasting that they have now got hold of much more sophisticated weaponry
For their part, the Taleban have recently begun boasting that they have now got hold of much more sophisticated weaponry although they refused to say from where. Afghan officials have also privately confirmed to the BBC that sophisticated Chinese weapons are now in the hands of the Taleban.
... Chinese-made air-to-surface missiles, anti-aircraft guns, landmines, rocket-propelled grenades and components for roadside bombs
They said these included Chinese-made air-to-surface missiles, anti-aircraft guns, landmines, rocket-propelled grenades and components for roadside bombs.
A senior Afghan official told the BBC, "Chinese HN-5 anti-aircraft missiles are with the Taleban, we know this... and we are worried where do the Taleban get them, some of these weapons have been made recently in Chinese factories".
Another Afghan official who deals with counter-terrorism said, "Serial numbers and other information from most of the Chinese weapons have been removed in most cases and it's almost impossible for us to find out where they come from but we have shared our concerns with the Chinese and the Americans also".
The Afghan government considers China to be a friend, and a much less meddlesome ally than the other big player in its neighbourhood, India. But, the counter-terrorism official added, "China is worried about the presence of the US in the region".
Southern Afghanistan has been awash with Chinese made arms for decades which are some of the cheapest on the market. In the past the Taleban got them via the Pakistan intelligence agency, the ISI, or bought them directly from arms smugglers. But it is extremely unlikely the ISI would now allow them access to anti-aircraft missiles or armour-piercing ammunition.
The Pakistani army's relationship between militants in its tribal areas along the Afghan border has deteriorated sharply in recent years after Washington put pressure on President Musharraf post-9/11 to crack down on al-Qaeda and Taleban groups operating inside Pakistani territory. So the Taleban might well use any sophisticated new weapons it received against the Pakistani army.
It is not in China's interest either to arm Pakistan-based militants. Over the last couple of years Chinese workers in Pakistan have been targeted by militants, in retaliation for the Pakistani army allegedly going after hard-line Muslim Uighur leaders from China's Xinjiang province, hiding in the tribal areas.
So instead of Pakistan being the transit point for these weapons, the finger is being pointed by many commentators towards Iran.
The Afghan government has long acknowledged privately that Iranian intelligence agencies have been active in southern Afghanistan post-9/11. Iran has been pursuing a policy of building up proxy networks to be able to attack American forces in response to any US attacks against Teheran's nuclear infrastructure.
China has been selling arms to Iran which Iran is then passing on to insurgent groups
Unnamed US officials have recently been quoted as saying that China has been selling arms to Iran which Iran is then passing on to insurgent groups in Afghanistan and Iraq.
China's booming economy and its seat at the UN security council have made it an important player on the world stage. It is a major trading partner for the UK whose economy has benefited enormously from China's cheap goods.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown's newly-appointed British Minister for Asia, Lord Mark Malloch Brown acknowledged to journalists in Beijing last week that countries "need to work with China to get things done in today's world". China is going to have to show that getting things done also means stopping its arms illegally ending up in the hands of men bent on killing British troops.
#1
Peshawar, Pakistan is a major market for Chinese arms. The Musharaf government has done nothing about stopping that arms trade. The Iranians finance Sunni terror groups as a means to undermine US foreign policy, but they are concerned about further strengthening of the drug mafia. There are at least 2 million heroin addicts in Iran.
#3
They said these included Chinese-made air-to-surface missiles
new weaponry for the Taliban Air Force? Or just plain bad writing by an ignorant "journalist" with an agenda?
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/04/2007 8:05 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Britain has privately complained to Beijing that Chinese-made weapons are being used by the Taleban to attack British troops in Afghanistan.
Pappy is it time to start giving Russian anti-aircraft missles to the Western Islamist in China?
How 'bout "WE" shoot down a few large aircraft in Western China with some Special Forces A Teams, Friends, by feinting to be Islamist? btw, do u have any Special Forces Friends? 'cause i currently don't.
well take a bite outta that Pappy!! Grrr!
~:)
/who knows the whole article could be pure Bunkum
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
09/04/2007 12:34 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Pappy is it time to start giving Russian anti-aircraft missles to the Western Islamist in China?
Good question. Chinese have been supplying Pakistan and Africa (via Pakistan) for decades. Ask 3dc about that sometime.
Might be a good time to start playing heavy-buyer in the Afghan markets.
How 'bout "WE" shoot down a few large aircraft in Western China with some Special Forces A Teams, Friends, by feinting to be Islamist? btw, do u have any Special Forces Friends? 'cause i currently don't.
Marine Recon.
well take a bite outta that Pappy!! Grrr!
~:)
Might be an appropriate time to hint that a) the US Olympics team might not be able to make it b) any US or US-multinational who sponsors the Olympics gets a nice chat with the Treasury Department and c) it might be time to start putting a crimp in importing from China.
#6
Might be an appropriate time to hint that a) the US Olympics team might not be able to make it b) any US or US-multinational who sponsors the Olympics gets a nice chat with the Treasury Department and c) it might be time to start putting a crimp in importing from China.
All of the above, Pappy. All of the above. China has so much invested in the Olympicsboth face-wise and financiallythat they are probably at their most vulnerable for the last few decades. This is the precise moment to give them their turn in the barrel. Force them to revalue their currency plus take substantive measures towards enforcing export quality control and combating intellectual property theft.
Too bad our politicians traitor elite are such whores for the Politburo. This is our one big chance to reverse a lot of damage done. I'm not saying that we can balance the ledger or anything approaching it but the playing field can be brought back to near-level for once in a very long time. A US ban on travel to China for the Olympics' duration would cost the communists untold billions in lost revenue andfar worseinvalidate the final sporting event category scores just like what happened with Moscow in 1980.
Story is dated the 28th, but only made NYT yesterday. Didn't recall seeing it here, delete if it already ran. NYALA, Sudan, Aug. 28 Some of the same Arab tribes accused of massacring civilians in the Darfur region of Sudan are now unleashing their considerable firepower against one another in a battle over the spoils of war that is killing hundreds of people and displacing tens of thousands.
In the past several months, the Terjem and the Mahria, heavily armed Arab tribes that United Nations officials said raped and pillaged together as part of the regions notorious janjaweed militias, have squared off in South Darfur, fighting from pickup trucks and the backs of camels. They are raiding each others villages, according to aid workers and the fighters themselves, and scattering Arab tribesmen into the same kinds of displacement camps that still house some of their earlier victims.
United Nations officials said that thousands of gunmen from each side, including some from hundreds of miles away, were pouring into a strategic river valley called Bulbul, while clashes between two other Arab tribes, the Habanniya and the Salamat, were intensifying farther south.
Darfurs violence has often been characterized as government-backed Arab tribes slaughtering non-Arab tribes, but this new Arab-versus-Arab dimension seems to be a sign of the evolving complexity of the crisis. What started out four years ago in western Sudan as a rebellion and brutal counterinsurgency has cracked wide open into a fluid, chaotic, confusing free-for-all with dozens of armed groups, a spike in banditry and chronic attacks on aid workers.
United Nations officials said tribal and factional fighting was killing more people than the battles between government and rebel forces, which, except in a few areas, have declined considerably.
Though the recent round of clashes between the splintering groups has not come close to taking as many lives as the thousands who were dying each month during the height of the conflict in 2003 and 2004, many aid officials say they fear that the situation is getting out of control.
The fragmentation of armed groups is among our major concerns, said Maurizio Giuliano, a spokesman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for Sudan. This is making the situation even more complex, and more difficult for civilians as well as for humanitarians trying to help them.
The rising insecurity is spelled out in two color-coded maps taped to Mr. Giulianos wall in Khartoum, the capital. One is from May 2006 and has only a few pockets of orange and yellow danger zones. But on the map from this June, the danger zones are everywhere.
United Nations officials say the militias may be jockeying for power and trying to seize turf before the long-awaited hybrid force of United Nations and African Union peacekeepers begins to arrive, perhaps later this year. Todays battlefields are superimposed on yesterdays, with the Arab militias killing one another over the same burned villages and stingy riverbeds where so much blood has already been spilled.
Though many Western diplomats and a seemingly endless supply of advocates have blamed the Sudanese government for arming Arab militias in the first place, an accusation the government denies, several independent observers in Sudan said the government was not driving this phase of the conflict.
The government is no longer arming the janjaweed, said Col. James Oladipo, the African Union commander in Nyala, in South Darfur. The problem now, he said, is bandits and factions.
Some aid workers say Darfur is beginning to resemble Somalia, the worlds longest-running showcase for AK-47-fed chaos. Highwaymen in green camouflage rebel fighters? local militia? janjaweed? routinely flag down trucks and drag out passengers, robbing the men and sexually assaulting the women. Newly empowered warlords are exacting taxes. The galaxy of rebel armies the Greater Sudan Liberation Movement, the Popular Forces Troops, the Sudan Democratic Group, to name a few new arrivals keeps expanding, and ideology seems to fade away. Despite peace talks among them in early August, the rebels, mostly non-Arabs, are now also battling themselves.
Among Arabs, one of the most egregious examples of the recent infighting happened on the morning of July 31 near Sania Daleibah, in southern Darfur. Terjem leaders said hundreds of Terjem had gathered to bury an important sheik. Then they were suddenly surrounded. It was Mahria tribesmen, and according to United Nations reports and witness accounts, the Mahria opened fire with rocket-propelled grenades and belt-fed machine guns and mowed down more than 60 Terjem.
It was a massacre, said Mohammed Yacob Ibrahim Abdelrahman, the top Terjem leader. By our brothers.
The Arab-Arab violence is impeding the slow recovery process that had begun in some parts of Darfur. Around 2.2 million people are stuck in displaced persons camps, though some had been taking the first steps to leave, like villagers from Jimaiza, north of Nyala, who left their camp in July to go back to plant their peanut fields. They were not worried about Arab militias raiding their village, they said. Those days seemed over. But then the Terjem-Mahria feud erupted.
It was strange, said Abakar Ahmed Abdul Rahman, a leader of the Fur tribe, which is non-Arab and the biggest in Darfur. A few days after the fighting, a Mahria elder came up to me and said: Tell your people not to go back to the camp. Theyre safe in the village. We dont have a problem with you.
But Mr. Abakar shook his head and laughed.
I know these people, he said. They killed my wife and burned my hut. Ill never trust them.
Not all Arab tribes joined the bloodletting when Darfur exploded in 2003. But according to United Nations documents, the Mahria and the Terjem did.
The Mahria are nomadic camel herders from northern Darfur, rugged people of the desert whose militias have helped the Sudanese government patrol the long, sandy border with Chad. The Terjem are farmers and cattle herders who lived closely with the Fur. The Mahria knew how to fight. The Terjem knew where the Fur lived.
Together, the two tribes massacred many Fur villagers, according to United Nations officials and Fur survivors. Then they divvied up Fur land. But the partnership broke down late last year, when, Terjem leaders say, the Mahria kidnapped a 14-year-old Terjem boy. For their part, Mahria leaders say the Terjem started it by stealing Mahria animals, an act that had to be answered.
Juma Dagalow, a Mahria sheik, said that after one ambush in which Terjem gunmen killed many Mahria, he called other sheiks by satellite phone and rallied the troops.
We went to that funeral to attack them, to finish the account, the sheik explained, adding that his people were a little aggressive.
It was then that the wali stepped in. The wali, or governor, of South Darfur called a peace conference and urged neutral tribes to mediate a cease-fire.
The wali, Ali Mahamoud Mohammed, said in an interview that such clashes were just a natural part of the life of the tribes and something he had witnessed growing up in Darfur in the 1970s.
Mr. Ali said the fighting began in December, when the Mahria headed south on a seasonal migration with their camels and trampled through Terjem territory near the Bulbul River. The fighting predictably resumed in July, he said, when the Mahria trampled back.
The governor said he sent troops to Bulbul to quell the fighting. But the Arab-Arab bloodshed, fueled by an overflow of guns in Darfur and a breakdown in the traditional order, seems to be spreading faster than anyone can control. Several tribes have recently fought over land, livestock and the right to extort money along certain trade routes. Among those fighting: Hotiya versus Rizeigat (the Rizeigat are a huge tribe that includes the Mahria); Rizeigat versus Habanniya; Habanniya versus Salamat.
Tribal feuds that used to be reconciled by sheiks before the body count reached into the hundreds are now turning into tribal wars.
And there may be a connection to the rampant banditry, which seems to spare no one not aid workers, villagers or even Sudanese government officials.
As these groups split, said Colonel Oladipo of the African Union, banditry becomes the source for weapons, money and food in order to sustain their factions.
The 50 miles of asphalt running between Nyala and the neighboring town of Kas, which cuts straight through a Terjem stronghold, have become bandit boulevard. On a single day in late August, there were six attacks. Traveling by road has become so dangerous in Darfur that the United Nations now uses helicopters to fly even 12 miles.
Theres absolutely no law and order in this place, said Annette Rehrl, a spokeswoman for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The insecurity has driven away some aid workers, United Nations officials said, with 12,300 working in Darfur, 16 percent less than last year.
It has also cemented tens of thousands of Terjem, who traditionally roam with their animals for part of the year, in internally displaced persons camps where they are not free to move. Out here, newly widowed women lie in plastic huts, flies exploring the corners of their eyes. Once proud sheiks have been reduced to carrying sacks of sand on their backs for work. A Terjem baby with a three-inch, bubbly scar at the base of her spine a recent gunshot wound howled her head off.
We just sit here, hating ourselves, said Mariam Mohammed, a wisp-thin Terjem woman who said her husband had been shot dead in front of her. Just look at me. Im half of what I used to be.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/04/2007 08:26 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Janjaweed
#1
Aside from slave-taking and rapine what possible spoils of war are they after?
#2
Slaves, rapine, and the idea that the other tribe has no innocents. If one person in tribe A does something evil to somebody from Tribe B, then Tribe B can take revenge on anybody from Tribe A. They're all equally guilty.
Tribe A competed with Tribe B for centuries over local resources. They used spears and whatever primitive weapons they had available, to commit murder and rape, to gain resources and slaves.
European rulers measured their wealth by how much productive land they had under their control. They made war on their neighbors to gain control of more land and workers. Tribal kings in Africa measured their wealth and prestige by how many people they had under their control. This partly explains why they made war for slaves so often.
The colonial powers either squelched or encouraged local rivalries to suit their purposes. The colonials are gone, but the same tribal hatreds still exist. The tribes now have political leaders who are willing to manipulate tirbal rivalries to suit their purposes. The tribes follow their same evil patterns, only now they have access to modern weaponry.
This same article, with different names and tribes, could have come out of Liberia's implosion, or Sierra Leone's, or the Balkans.
#4
In the past several months, the Terjem and the Mahria, heavily armed Arab tribes that United Nations officials said raped and pillaged together as part of the regions notorious janjaweed militias, have squared off in South Darfur
Can't we all rape and pillage together and just get along?
North Korea said on Monday that the United States has decided to remove it from a list of states sponsoring terrorism - a crucial step towards the normalisation of relations between the two countries.
The US decision came at a weekend meeting between the chief nuclear negotiators of the two countries in Geneva, a foreign ministry spokesman told the official Korean Central News Agency. Both sides discussed the issue of taking practical measures to neutralise the existing nuclear facilities in the DPRK (North Korea) within this year and agreed on them, the spokesman said. In return for this the US decided to take such political and economic measures for compensation as delisting the DPRK as a terrorism sponsor and lifting all sanctions that have been applied according to the Trading with the Enemy Act, he said. There was no immediate confirmation from the United States.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
LUCIANNE, FREEREPUBLIC + REALCLEARPOLITICS, etal. all had recent articles indic that Kim's hold on power is becoming unstable. Kim's had to keep moving from locale to locale, even outside NK on PC diplom ventures, out of fear from local Party and Army elements.
Posted by: anonymous5089 ||
09/04/2007 10:08 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Global Jihad
#1
About freaking time! Al Qaeda had an entire brigade of troops in Bosnia, and these guys have been doing nothing but plotting Terrorist acts since the fighting ended.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
09/04/2007 13:32 Comments ||
Top||
The rest of the article is about the recent Chinese attacks on the unclassifed Pentagon network and German government computers, the Russian attack on Estonian government networks, and limitations on BlackBerry use. But this bit piqued my interest
The US Air Force will soon create a cyber war-fighting command aimed at improving defensive and offensive capabilities to counter such asymmetric threats. We want to ensure that we can operate freely in the domain, says Major General Charles Ickes, another senior Air Force official involved with cyberspace issues. On the other hand . . . it is seen by everybody in the defence department as a war-fighting domain and you must have offensive capability.
Gregory Garcia, the assistant secretary for cyber security at the department of Homeland Security, says the number of cyber incidents reported to the departments computer readiness team so far this year is 35,000. That compares to 4,100 for the whole of 2005.
The Defence Science Board, an independent Pentagon advisory group, will soon publish a study on non-conventional military challenges that will examine cyber threats.
#3
The Air Force has been casting about for new missions for some time and the Cyber Command appears to be one. They have been talking about this for at least a year. The academy graduate fighter pilot generals who constitute the bulk of AF leadership are frustrated by a lack of credible opponents to justify buying enough F-22s to keep the fighter pilots happy. The AF started shrinking when the Berlin Wall went down and is still shrinking. PBD 723 is causing pain throughout the force. The rise of armed UAVs is exacerbating their pain.
Why spend millions of dollars to train a fighter pilot when you can get the same results from sergeant sitting at a game console flying an armed UAV half a world away?
Cairo, Egypt (AHN) - The Egyptian Foreign Ministry stated Sunday that Egyptian officials are to meet with the two Egyptian students charged with transporting explosives in the United States. The students were arrested on August 4 in South Carolina. A federal grand jury in Tampa, Florida has indicted them on charges of illegally transporting explosives over state lines.
"Officials from the Egyptian embassy in Washington will meet the two students at their place of detention on Wednesday," the ministry said Sunday. "The Foreign Ministry will spare no efforts in defending the interests of Egyptians abroad as long as they respect the laws of the countries they are in."
That's their right, and the indicted men have the right to counsel from their embassy.
Egypt's official news agency MENA reported Saturday that Washington denied Cairo's request to meet with the two men.
Got another one wrong, did they?
The two University of South Florida, Ahmed Abdel Latif Sherif and Youssef Samir Megahed were arrested after being stopped for speeding in Goose Creek, South Carolina and police say they found "pipe bombs" in their car. Sherif is a graduate engineering student and teaching assistant at the University of South Florida in Tampa, while Megahed is a civil engineering student.
Just a couple of misunderstood students, that's all ...
Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit met Sunday with Ahmed's father, the ministry added. Megahed's father, who lives in the U.S., said Saturday he and his son have cooperated with federal investigators, but the situation is worsening. "They want us to say what they want to hear," the father told The Tampa Tribune Saturday. "They want the stories they have in mind. It's all in their imagination."
How much imagination do we need after 9/11?
If they are taken to trial and found guilty, the two men could face up to 20 years in prison on the charges that can be considered an act of terrorism.
"The charges in the indictment are merely allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent until and unless they are proven guilty," a Justice Department official said Friday.
Yup. Let's see what the evidence looks like in open court.
#1
This will be interesting, unless the State Dept and the Egyptians make a deal of some sort. But I cannot figure out if they have anything that we need. Of course they do ahve a big $$ debt to us that we could forgive in exchange for freeing the two Do brothers, Wal and Dil....
Qazi Hussain told reporters after the meeting that no MMA leader would meet government leaders and officials without seeking permission from the top leadership of the alliance. Sources told Daily Times that some participants of the meeting, especially Prof Sajid Mir and Sahibzada Al Zubair, criticised Maulana Fazl for meeting Pakistan Muslim League President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain in Islamabad in which Shujaat had sought his help for the presidents re-election.
This article starring:
MAULANA FAZLUR REHMAN
JUI-F
MAULANA FAZLUR REHMAN
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
Pakistan Muslim League President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain
PIR ABDUL RAHIM NAQSHBANDI
JUI-S
QAZI HUSEIN AHMED
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
SAHIBZADA ABU AL KHAIR AL ZUBAIR
Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan
SAJID MIR
Jamiat Ahle Hadith
Jamiat Ahle Hadith
Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan
JUI-S
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
BAGHDAD (AP) - An Iraqi appeals court on Tuesday upheld death sentences imposed against 'Chemical Ali' al-Majid and two other Saddam Hussein lieutenants convicted of crimes against humanity for their roles in a massacre of Kurds, a judge said.
All three were convicted of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in June for their role in the brutal crackdown that killed up to 180,000 Kurdish civilians and guerrillas two decades ago known as "Operation Anfal." Life sentences were also upheld for Farhan Mutlaq Saleh, former head of military intelligence's eastern regional office, and Sabir al-Douri, former director of military intelligence, Hadad said.
#1
True poetic justice would be to have someone from the region of Kurdistan where the mustard gas was used pull the lever for the trap door at the gallows. Let his face be the last one the 3 bastards see before their journey to Hell, and make sure they know who he is...
#2
Let the Kurds do it. They can auction off the various roles like executioner, noose-setter, knot-tier, piano-wire provider, witness, cameraman, director, resuscitator, etc. on e-bay.
#3
I'm to be condemned for getting so out of touch with the whole process that I'm not even sure where things stand, but I suspect the timing of this is slightly unfortunate as Ali Quimiyawi's starring role in the 1991 case is as yet unfinished. Unfortunately the 30-day law passed by the Iraqis ties everyone's hands. Yes, yes, there's never an ideal time for some things, but Ali's main roles were in Anfal and 1991, so the hemp party would be better held after the 1991 case is finished. Media snarking and bias aside, many Iraqis do follow these cases and do show an interest in the evidence presented and probably (if even unconsciously) pick up an idea or two about due process along the way.
My headline sounds a whole lot more positive than the actual one, don't you think? (And probably more positive than the facts, but still 'closer' than most MSM are presenting.)
There's a difference: you're looking at the facts. Anne has a narrative to meet.
GAO: Iraq hasn't met 11 of 18 benchmarks
By ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Baghdad has not met 11 of its 18 political and security goals, according to a new independent report on Iraq that challenges President Bush's assessment on the war, The Associated Press has learned.
The study, conducted by the Government Accountability Office, was slightly more upbeat than initially planned. After receiving substantial pushback from the White House, the GAO determined that four benchmarks instead of two had been partially met.
But GAO stuck with its original contention that only three goals out of the 18 had been achieved. The goals met include establishing joint security stations in Baghdad, ensuring minority rights in the Iraqi legislature and creating support committees for the Baghdad security plan. "Overall key legislation has not been passed, violence remains high, and it is unclear whether the Iraqi government will spend $10 billion in reconstruction funds," said U.S. Comptroller David Walker in prepared remarks for a Senate hearing on Tuesday.
The report was to be released at the hearing. An advanced copy of the 100-page report and Walker's testimony was obtained by The Associated Press.
#1
The simple fact is, that they have meet any of them proves that they are trying to make things work. These people have not worked together and have killed each other for thousands of years.
I'm amazed Iraq hasn't slid into total genocidal anarchy actually.
#2
And with September 30th coming hot on calendar, how many of the department appropriations have cleared Congress. Let's use that as the benchmark for this American Congress.
N.B. For the youngings, the old federal fiscal year used to start on 1 July back in the ancient 70's. Then Congress, seeing that it couldn't seem to get the paperwork out in time, moved the fiscal year to start on 1 October so they'd have more time to get the job done. Heh.
Representatives from Sunni and Shiite groups in Iraq agreed on a road map to peace during secret talks that ended Monday in Finland, organizers said.
The four-day meeting brought together 16 delegates from the feuding groups to study lessons learned from successful peacemaking efforts in South Africa and Northern Ireland. "Participants committed themselves to work towards a robust framework for a lasting settlement," said a statement issued late Monday by the Crisis Management Initiative, a conflict-prevention group that organized the meeting.
In an agreement released by CMI, the participants "agreed to consult further" on a list of recommendations to begin reconciliation talks including resolving political disputes through non-violence and democracy.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
An Iraqi draft law has been submitted to parliament to ease curbs on former members of Saddam Husseins Baath party joining the civil service and military, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Monday. The draft is one of the benchmarks set by the United States to foster reconciliation between warring majority Shiites and minority Sunni Arabs.
Many Baath party members were Sunnis who now feel persecuted by Malikis Shiite-led government. Maliki told a news conference the draft was discussed by a committee of political parties and said he felt the parliament, which represents the political powers that participated in this discussion, will approve it.
Lawmakers return to parliament on Tuesday after a month-long recess, but it was unclear when they would begin debating the draft debaathification law. On Aug. 26, Iraqs top five Shiite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish leaders including Maliki agreed on the draft legislation. But the measure - as it has for many months - is likely to face opposition from within the ruling Shiite Alliance and the committee tasked with purging Baathists from the government.
Iraqi officials have said the Aug. 26 deal on the draft law was a sign of progress ahead of reports to be presented to the US Congress next week.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Baath Party
AL ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq, Sept. 3 Making a surprise visit to Iraq for meetings with his commanders and top Iraqi officials, President Bush raised the possibility on Monday that some American troops could be withdrawn from Iraq if security there continues to improve. Mr. Bush told reporters after talks with Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq, and Ryan C. Crocker, the ambassador to Iraq, that they tell me that if the kind of success we are now seeing here continues, it will be possible to maintain the same level of security with fewer American forces.
I urge members of both parties in Congress to listen to what they have to say, the president said. Congress shouldnt jump to conclusions until the general and the ambassador report.
Mr. Bush, who took no questions, did not say how large a troop withdrawal was possible. Nor did he say whether he envisioned forces being withdrawn sooner than next spring, when the first of the additional 30,000 troops Mr. Bush sent to Iraq earlier this year are due to come home anyway.
Departing Washington late Sunday in secret, Mr. Bush flew with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice directly to this sprawling American air base in Anbar Province, the Sunni stronghold that has seen significant security improvements in recent months. There he was joined in the 110-degree heat by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staffs, who had flown separately
Administration officials said Mr. Bush decided to hold face-to-face talks with General Petraeus and with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and other top Iraqi leaders before completing a review of his Iraq strategy later this month and before General Petraeus and Mr. Crocker return to Washington next week to deliver their long-awaited assessment of conditions in Iraq. He has assembled essentially his war cabinet here, and they are all convening with the Iraqi leadership to discuss the way forward, the Pentagon press secretary, Geoff Morrell, said.
By summoning Mr. Maliki and other top officials to the Sunni heartland of Iraq, a region the Shiite prime minister has rarely visited, Mr. Bush is seeking to demonstrate that reconciliation among Iraqs warring sectarian factions is at least conceivable, if not yet a reality. Meeting with Iraqi leaders in a buff-colored one-story building near the runway, Mr. Bush effusively greeted Iraqs president Jalal Talabani, the last of the five Iraqi officials to enter the small conference room. Mr. President, Mr. President, the president of the whole Iraq, Mr. Bush said, kissing Mr. Talabani three times on the cheek.
Also at the meeting were Vice President Adel Abdul Mehdi, Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh and the Iraqi Kurdistan president, Massoud Barzani. Mr. Bush later presided over a meeting of the Iraqi officials with about 10 Sunni sheiks from Anbar Province.
Though Mr. Bush never left the confines of the air base on his six-hour visit, he declared: I have come here today to see with our own eyes the remarkable changes that are taking place in Anbar Province.
At a rally attended by 700 raucous marines and soldiers at the air base, Mr. Bush declared: When we begin to draw down troops from Iraq, it will be from a position of strength and success, not from a position of fear and failure. He added: Those decisions will be based on a calm assessment by our military commanders based on conditions on the ground and not nervous reactions by Washington politicians or poll results in the media.
Several administration officials say there has been progress in reaching a consensus on troop drawdowns in recent days, as Mr. Bush has met with his top commanders and military advisers. Speaking to reporters traveling with him, Mr. Gates said Monday that he had formulated an opinion about whether a troop reduction is possible in the coming months. He declined to reveal his view. Mr. Gates said the troop reductions would not just involve redeploying forces from Anbar Province but reducing the overall number of American soldiers in Iraq.
Describing the meeting on Monday between the tribal sheiks and Iraqi officials from Baghdad, Mr. Gates said, There was a sense of shared purpose among them and some good-natured jousting over resources. Asked about Mr. Bushs comments on possible troop reductions, Mr. Gates told reporters: Clearly, that is one of the central issues that everyone has been examining what is the security situation, what do we expect the security situation to be in the months ahead and what opportunities does that provide in terms of maintaining the security situation while perhaps beginning to bring the troops level down.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/04/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Someone get congress a "jump to conclusion" mat so I can persue regular employment within this country. Lest I engage on wack a democratic mole every day. Someone pay these idiots to stay on vacation so I can just be a regular guy again, please.
#2
Though Mr. Bush never left the confines of the air base on his six-hour visit, he declared: I have come here today to see with our own eyes the remarkable changes that are taking place in Anbar Province.
I get it. The writer can't understand how Bush sees progress from inside the building. Clever!
So W is finally coming over to the Democrapic position, eh?
Like saying on August 16, 1945 that there'd be a troop drawdown in the Western Pacific in the near future...
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/04/2007 8:45 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Its amazing how may Donks don't understand the concept of "surge". For your assistance -
ân.
1. a strong, wavelike, forward movement, rush, or sweep: the onward surge of an angry mob.
2. a strong, swelling, wavelike volume or body of something: a billowing surge of smoke.
3. the rolling swell of the sea.
4. the swelling and rolling sea: The surge crashed against the rocky coast.
5. a swelling wave; billow.
6. Meteorol.
a. a widespread change in atmospheric pressure that is in addition to cyclonic and normal diurnal changes.
b. See storm surge.
7. Elect.
a. a sudden rush or burst of current or voltage.
b. a violent oscillatory disturbance.
8. Naut.a slackening or slipping back, as of a rope or cable.
9. Mach.
a. an uneven flow and strong momentum given to a fluid, as water in a tank, resulting in a rapid, temporary rise in pressure.
b. pulsating unevenness of motion in an engine or gas turbine.
âv.i.
1. (of a ship) to rise and fall, toss about, or move along on the waves: to surge at anchor.
2. to rise, roll, move, or swell forward in or like waves: The sea surged against the shore. The crowd surged back and forth.
3. to rise as if by a heaving or swelling force: Blood surged to his face.
4. Elect.
a. to increase suddenly, as current or voltage.
b. to oscillate violently.
5. Naut.
a. to slack off or loosen a rope or cable around a capstan or windlass.
b. to slip back, as a rope.
6. Mach.to move with pulsating unevenness, as something driven by an engine or gas turbine.
Someone point out where it is implied that it is something that continues to constantly increase without a subsequent corresponding decrease?
#4
Thanks for the vocabulary lesson. Just so we can say the US is reducing troop levels before Iraq is as peaceful as Finland, which means the US has failed again, just like Vietnam. I can see the helicopters landing on the roof now....
A Sunni insurgent coalition in Iraq announced Monday the appointment of an education minister to the group's so-called 10-member ``Islamic Cabinet,'' set up in April to challenge the Iraqi government. In a statement posted on an Islamic Web site, the Islamic State of Iraq, made up of eight insurgent groups, including al-Qaida in Iraq, said its leader Abu Omar al-Baghdadi chose Mohammed Khalil al-Badria for the education position. Al-Baghdadi tasked al-Badria with ``protecting our sons against moral and ideological deviation and raising a new generation of sons of Islam based on true Islamic teachings and away from the filth of secular tenets.''
I think this means preparing them to be splodydopes.
The authenticity of the statement could not be verified,
... nor did it really matter since the MSM reported it verbatim ...
...but it was published by an Islamic Web forum that usually carries announcements by militant groups.
The formation of the Cabinet in April was meant to present the Islamic State of Iraq as a ``legitimate'' alternative to the U.S.-backed, Shiite-led administration of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki - and to demonstrate that it was only growing in power despite the U.S. military push against insurgents. The group includes the usual thugs new leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, as ``war minister'' and Sheik Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Falahi as ``first minister.'' The U.S. military has identified al-Muhajer by a different pseudonym, Abu Ayyub al-Masri.
Isn't he rather new at the job? What happened to his predecessor?
This article starring:
ABU AIYUB AL MASRI
Islamic State of Iraq
ABU HAMZA AL MUHAJER
Islamic State of Iraq
ABU OMAR AL BAGHDADI
Islamic State of Iraq
MOHAMED KHALIL AL BADRIA
Islamic State of Iraq
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
SHEIK ABU ABDUL RAHMAN AL FALAHI
Islamic State of Iraq
Islamic State of Iraq
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/04/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq
#1
said its leader Abu Omar al-Baghdadi: the thoroughly fictitious and unintentionally hilarious al-Baghdadi.
Abu Ayyub al-Masri: The would be Iraqi caliph is ... an Egyptian. Doing the mass murdering Iraqis aren't willing to do.
The Guardian: We make it up, you proles lap it up.
Posted by: ed ||
09/04/2007 12:43 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Well, why not boggle UN down on procedural issues? Sent a petition every time kassams are launched. The busybodies then will have less time to devote to smearing Israel.
#6
Time to propose permanent seizure of all lands that continue to fire kassams. As well as a 1km arc of land around the launch areas, and a 1km corridor back to Israel's border.
Three Strikes Your OURS.
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
09/04/2007 0:54 Comments ||
Top||
#7
The UN? They will help, like they helped in Rwanda.
#8
Time to propose permanent seizure of all lands that continue to fire kassams. As well as a 1km arc of land around the launch areas, and a 1km corridor back to Israel's border.
This is the only answer, Red Dawg, Others like 'moose and myself are firmly in the same camp on this. Maybe they'll reconsider when the Palestinians have finally crowded all of themselves onto a postage stamp. All around the world Islam continues to elude truly severe punishment. This despite the deepest and most heinous provocations upon Islam's part.
In the case of Israel's petition, I'll paraphrase Samuel Goldwyn:
A UN petition isn't worth the paper it's printed on
#9
RD, suppose tha hey fire somewhere from the center of Gaza. The proposed acuisition won't be practical. A better idea would be to start from north border. Acuire 1 km2 for each kassam fired into Israel. Push southward. D9 the acquired area. When the acquisitions reached the poximity of Egyptian border open the border wide for Gazans to pour into Egypt. Whether Egyptians would mow them down with a machine gun or not would be their biz. Anyway, Sinai is large and a lotsa Gazans could fit in there.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/04/2007 8:08 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Gentlemen, the Israelis do not have the spleen to defend the remains of the Temple let alone take decisive action of the kind you describe. What they should do is expel every journalist from Israel and make proper Old Testament war until the rabble are driven south into Egypt and east into the desert. The power grids and palaces of a handful of petty arab satrapies should be destroyed as an object lesson and targeted killings carried out on the neo-Nazis masquerading as academics and protesters in the West. But none of this is going to happen.
IDF soldiers evacuated the children from the day care center soon after the strike. The rocket was one of seven to be fired from the Gaza Strip into the western Negev on Monday. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks, calling them "a gift for the opening of the school year."
Over 80,000 illegal weapons are believed to be in the hands of West Bank terrorists, according to the IDF's latest assessments of the ongoing power struggle between Hamas and Fatah. The weapons are mostly held in private homes or hidden in caches throughout Judea and Samaria.
According to the latest assessment, and contrary to earlier predictions, defense officials told The Jerusalem Post this week that Hamas was just as strong as Fatah in the West Bank and could pose a genuine threat to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's security forces.
On Monday, the London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper reported that Fatah security forces had recently thwarted an attempted coup in the PA by Hamas. Hamas had tried establishing a military force in the West Bank similar to its Executive Force in the Gaza Strip, which then planned to attack PA institutions and take over the government, according to the report. "They have weapons and explosives and, more importantly, they are highly motivated," a senior defense official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The other 100000 are in the hands of the legal, USA/Israel supported FATAH government.
Islamic Jihad will likely bear the brunt of Israel's military response to the Kassam rockets that hit the western Negev on the second day of the school year, including one that slammed into a day care center's courtyard, government officials said Monday night. Islamic Jihad was responsible for all nine of the Kassam attacks, the officials said. The rockets were timed to hit when parents were taking their children to school, defense officials said.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned that Israel would not "live with the situation and carry on as usual." Olmert, at a press conference with visiting Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, said the IDF and security services had standing orders "to destroy every rocket launcher and hit everyone who is involved in the rocket fire."
While Islamic Jihad fired the rockets, they did benefit from logistical assistance from Hamas, Defense Ministry officials said, and the Islamist group was doing nothing to stop the attacks. Other government officials said Hamas's political wing opposed attacks at this time, while the organization's military wing wanted to see them continue.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic Jihad
#1
DEBKA > Israel > IRAN sending MILITARY AND HIZZ EXPERTS to Lebanon to teach on advanced tube and missle artillery methods.
#2
It seems there is literally no atrocity the arabs can perpetuate that will elicit the sniffling condemnation of "the left"; people who used to call themselves Nazis.
#3
Why single out Islamic Jihad for all the fun? Just as how they elected a terrorist government, all of the Palestinians should get to be on the receiving end of any festivities. They have sincerely begged for it.
JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned on Monday that Israel would hit militant leaders in Gaza over continuing rocket launchings from the Hamas-ruled territory. We will climb up the chain of command in the organisations responsible for the fire, Olmert told a joint press conference with visiting Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer. We will not hesitate to reach anyone who threatens the residents in the south, whoever they are and whereever they are, he said.
Stop talking about it and start doing it. The Paleos then will listen. From Damascus.
He spoke after Palestinian militants in Gaza fired six rockets and a mortar shell into Israel, with one of the projectiles exploding near a nursery school on Monday, the day after the start of the school year. There were no casualties or damage, but several people were treated for shock in the southern town of Sderot, an army spokesman said.
The radical Palestinian group Islamic Jihad in a statement admitted responsibility for the attacks following Zionist threats.
Tzahi Hanegbi, chairman of the Israeli parliaments defence and foreign affairs committee, said the attacks proved that sooner or later the army needs to launch a large-scale operation in the Gaza Strip to stop them.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/04/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Fox said this AM that Israeli cabinet ministers were raising the option of cutting off all water and power for Gaza. Should've been done a year ago
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/04/2007 8:11 Comments ||
Top||
Metin Peker, chairman of the Association of Turkish Cartoonists, speaking to Today's Zaman condemned the cartoon published by Swedish newspaper Nerikes Allehanda depicting Prophet Muhammad as a dog, saying it has nothing to do with freedom of expression but is obviously the product of the ill intention.
Caricature is the art of satire and humor and should never be used for insult or oppression. Such cartoons are not acceptable. Certainly they do not help the peace and mutual understanding of different cultures and do not contribute to world peace, which we are genuinely in need of. It is clear that such works are simply the products of an ill intention aiming to provoke Moderate Muslims and instigate a clash of civilizations.
Peker suggests these cartoons come at a delicate time for Muslims as Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting, is approaching. This is proof that it is provocation, according to Peker.
Chairman Peker is also extremely upset and angry that cartoon art is being used as a tool for such a dirty policy. "We are sick and tired that cartoon art is now repeatedly used as a weapon to hurt the feelings of Muslims. Of course cartoons are a very influential tool that reaches the masses easily. Everyone can understand and get the message quickly. This characteristic of cartoon art is now being used to make sensational insults. Peker adds that he did not understand why such outrageous works are published. But more than that, friendly countries such as Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden, which we always praised for their peaceful, respectful and humanitarian attitudes, are unfortunately becoming more and more the source of aggression and discrimination. It's a conspiracy! Muslims oppressed! Everywhere!
The chairman of the association of Turkish Cartoonists urged Lars Vilks, the Swedish cartoonist in question, to offer an apology and asked the Swedish paper Nerikes Allehanda to be more careful when publishing such cartoons. Chairman Peker concluded that with more than 1,000 members, the association condemns and protests such cartoons. He also called on the world's cartoonists to be respectful to others.
Posted by: anonymous5089 ||
09/04/2007 10:13 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Global Jihad
#1
I love dogs. How dare the Lars Vilks insult them like that!
Posted by: ed ||
09/04/2007 10:51 Comments ||
Top||
#4
There needs to be a contest sponsored for the most offensive cartoons imaginable about Islam. The submissions need to be publishedone at a timeover a protracted period so that Muslim seething remains at fever pitch for the entire duration. These images should be used to bring the entire MME (Muslim Middle East) to a grinding halt with daily riots, general strikes and unlimited bloodshed between Muslims. Once all of the cartoons have been published, then comes the actual judging and publication of the submissions as a whole. This ought to be good for another month or two of rioting. Wherever possible, the cartoons should be based upon the anti-Holocaust images published by Iran.
The West needs to begin yanking Islam's chain at every turn. We should be causing Muslims to slaughter each other in their usual zealous frenzy. The charade of "make nice" needs to go the way of the dodo. It's gloves off and a couple of right hooks to Islam's glass jaw.
#5
taking Zenster's idea a bit further: after the daily printing of said cartoon, massive air drops over various assorted 'Offical Muslim Holy Sites.' Bonus drops during Ramalamadingdong days. And print special editions on fly apaer for Qom drops, so they stick to the stone.....
An Iranian top official warned the United States on Tuesday to beware of the possible results if it launch a military action against the Islamic Republic, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported.
If the United States attacks Iran, they may face three problems: they can not predict "the volume of our response"; they don't know what would happen to Israel and Washington will not know what will the oil flow look like at that time, General Rahim Yahya Safavi was quoted as saying.
Safavi stepped down last week as chief of the elite Revolutionary Guards and now serves as senior military advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
He made the remarks just days after the U.S. President George W. Bush said Iran's continued nuclear program may lead to a "nuclear holocaust" in the Middle East.
The United States has never ruled out the possibility to launch a military attack against Tehran's nuclear facilities.
A Western media recently reported the United States had made a plan to destroy Iran's military capability in three days if Tehran doesn't comply, drawing great attentions from the international community.
Iran has repeatedly vowed to fight back any outside aggression. After years of development, Iranian forces now has the Shahab-3 missile which could cover Israel and U.S. bases on the Arabian Peninsula with a range of 2,000 km.
Tehran also has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, a vital channel for the transport of the region's oil to the world. "If you attack us, you will get blood and bits of flesh all over your bomb fragments!"
#1
Radical Mullahs gener believe that MilPol Confrontation amongst the great powers, including but not limited to Mutually Destructive Warfare, is to Islam's = Islamism's advantage. As said times long ago, Amers are dealing wid Xtremist personages and aligned orgs whom don't care about destroying the world = taking the world to hell iff they don't get their way.
#1
Thank heaven they don't grow, no matter how much you water 'em...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
09/04/2007 12:24 Comments ||
Top||
#2
That just kills me. We bomb a meeting of a bunch of terrorist a$$hole leaders and by the time we get there the bodies are all carted away to a secret location and we can't touch them even if we did find them because it would be "unislamic". Now this pr!ck gets killed, we know who he is so they can't deny it, and all of a sudden it's OK if it takes a few weeks to bury his sorry a$$.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attracted criticism Monday when local media quoted him as saying his technical education and belief in God helped him rule out the possibility of a US attack.
Ahmadinejad has said previously he doubted Washington would bomb Iran over the country's controversial nuclear program, but his latest comments drew fire because of his justification. "I am an engineer. For hours, I write down various hypotheses, reject them, provide reasons and make plans based on calculations," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by several newspapers Monday, including the reformist daily Kargozaran. "They (the US) are not able to create troubles for Iran."
US President George W. Bush has refused to take military action off the table as an option in stopping Iranian nuclear development that Washington alleges is cover for a weapons program - a charge Teheran denies.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Ahmadinejad, you do not know GOD. God says wipe your ass all over the desert. Really. Yeah.
#2
Does twirling one's index finger next to one's aural input organ constitute "criticism"?
Posted by: Harry Elmetch3386 ||
09/04/2007 0:28 Comments ||
Top||
#3
For me, personally I can believe Moud. Moud is also reportedly quoted as saying Iran can install one new centrifuge every week - IOW, Moud is indirectly hinting that Iran one day will dev large quantities of its own highly enriched uranium + ultimately PLUTONIUM. It comes down to the USA,WEurope, and Russia-China accepting a Radical Iran wid Nuke weapons, and hence by extens Radical Islamist Terror and aligned; or NOT. Amers have to decide whether absolutist "Peace at Any Price" is worth the LT risk from Nuclear-WMD Terror agz the USA, inside the USA.
#4
I doubt Saddam Hussein believe W. meant it until he found himself scuttling into a spider hole. I read recently the President has often confused his enemies by doing exactly what he said he would do.
Lebanon's Democratic Gathering leader MP Walid Jumblatt announced after talks with Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir Monday that finishing off Fatah al-Islam terrorists meant that "red lines have fallen apart."
"Yesterday Lebanon emerged victorious over the Fatah al-Islam gang. We will continue in spreading state authority over all the Lebanese territory, without any exception," Jumblatt told reporters at Bkirki, seat of the Maronite church north of Beirut. "Yesterday the red line fell apart They had placed a red line on the international tribunal, but the tribunal has been agreed on and we shall achieve justice and the culprits will be punished," Jumblatt added.
In an apparent recalling of the red line slogan declared by Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah shortly after the confrontation broke out at Nahr al-Bared on May 20, Jumblatt said: "They said Nahr al-Bared is a red line and we said the state is the base. The red line has fallen apart."
Jumblatt expressed gratitude to "friendly states" for providing the Lebanese Army with weapons and equipment in its battle against Fatah al-Islam terrorists, naming Saudi Arabia, Egypt, France, the United States, the United Arab Emirates "and others." He concluded by stressing that "the state will spread its authority on every inch of Lebanese territory."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Fatah al-Islam
#1
Speaking of "red lines", aka "bottom lines", the RUSSIANS have reportedly drawn theirs ala KOSOVO + US MISSLE DEFENSE IN EASTERN EUROPE. *FREEREPUBLIC/LUCIANNE > RUSSIAN BOMBERS FIRE CRUISE MISSLES OVER ARCTIC.
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.
NYALA, Sudan, Aug. 28 Some of the same Arab tribes accused of massacring civilians in the Darfur region of Sudan are now unleashing their considerable firepower against one another in a battle over the spoils of war that is killing hundreds of people and displacing tens of thousands.
North Korea said on Monday that the United States has decided to remove it from a list of states sponsoring terrorism - a crucial step towards the normalisation of relations between the two countries.
The MMA on Monday stopped its leaders, especially secretary general 
BAGHDAD (AP) - An Iraqi appeals court on Tuesday upheld death sentences imposed against 
Representatives from Sunni and Shiite groups in Iraq agreed on a road map to peace during secret talks that ended Monday in Finland, organizers said. 
Islamic Jihad will likely bear the brunt of Israel's military response to the Kassam rockets that hit the western Negev on the second day of the school year, including one that slammed into a day care center's courtyard, government officials said Monday night. Islamic Jihad was responsible for all nine of the Kassam attacks, the officials said. The rockets were timed to hit when parents were taking their children to school, defense officials said. 
JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned on Monday that Israel would hit militant leaders in Gaza over continuing rocket launchings from the Hamas-ruled territory. We will climb up the chain of command in the organisations responsible for the fire, Olmert told a joint press conference with visiting Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer. We will not hesitate to reach anyone who threatens the residents in the south, whoever they are and whereever they are, he said.
Metin Peker, chairman of the Association of Turkish Cartoonists, speaking to Today's Zaman condemned the cartoon published by Swedish newspaper Nerikes Allehanda depicting Prophet Muhammad as a dog, saying it has nothing to do with freedom of expression but is obviously the product of the ill intention.
Lebanon's Democratic Gathering leader MP Walid Jumblatt announced after talks with Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir Monday that finishing off Fatah al-Islam terrorists meant that "red lines have fallen apart."
