(Xinhua) -- Polish forces in Afghanistan will concentrate in the province Ghazni, Polish Defense Minister Bogdan Klich said Friday. Klich said Ghazni had been chosen as in the case of the also-considered province Paktika the soldiers would have had to patrol dangerous border zones, Polish news agency PAP reported.
The minister, who is in Ghazni inspecting Polish troops, also announced the enlargement of Poland force in Afghanistan by 400 men and extra helicopters and transport vehicles. Under earlier agreements Poland was to take over one of the Afghan provinces following the enlargement of its forces. Currently Polish troops are stationed in Ghazni, Gardeza, Sharan, Wazi-Khwa, Bagram and Kandahar.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Taliban
EU states agreed on Friday on tight laws against incitement to terrorism in order to clamp down on militant groups' use of the Internet. EU justice and interior ministers also agreed in Luxembourg on an action plan to try to stop groups getting explosives.
Police say the Internet has taken on huge importance for militants, enabling them to share know-how, plan operations and spread propaganda to a mass audience. "The Internet is used to inspire and mobilize local terrorists ... functioning as a virtual training camp," a text agreed by ministers said. "Each member state shall take the necessary measures to ensure that terrorist-linked offences include ... public provocation to commit a terrorist offence, recruitment for terrorism, training for terrorism."
Boy, can't put anything past those Euros ...
States may also consider attempts to train and recruit as terrorist offences, but are not obliged to do so, an EU official said.
Spain's secretary of state for justice, Julio Perez Hernandez, welcomed the move. "The battle to anticipate (terrorist acts) is crucial for Spain," he told reporters. "One should not wait for smoke to know there is terrorism."
In an effort to assuage civil rights campaigners, the law says that the new measure may not be used to restrict freedom of expression and freedom of the press. Before entering into force, the law still needs to be confirmed by ministers after a number of national parliaments have discussed it.
A European Commission official said countries like Spain and Italy already punish public provocation to terrorism but others, like Scandinavian countries, would have to change their legislation to apply the new EU text.
Under the plan to enhance the security of explosives, ministers agreed to establish an early-warning system on stolen explosives and detonators by the end of the year. They also agreed to create by the year-end a "European Bomb Data System" that would give police and governments permanent access to information on incidents involving explosive devices.
(Xinhua) -- The war in Iraq will gain an even worse place in history than the last century's war conflict in Vietnam, Madeleine Albright, Czech-born former U.S. secretary state, said in an interview with the Czech daily Hospodarske noviny on Friday. This is the biggest decline of U.S. foreign policy, Albright said, referring to the Iraqi war.
She said that the war has set forces in motion in the Middle East that will be difficult to calm down. She compared diplomacy and international affairs to a billiards game with a number of balls reacting to each other. What is happening in Iraq now has an influence on the developments in other countries, Albright said, adding that Iran's power is growing, as is the tension between the Kurds and Turks.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
#1
Just based on the headline, I disagree strongly.
I feel sorry for the boys in Vietnam, who were handicapped by Congress and 55k dead.
#3
If she thinks Iraq is worse than Vietnam, she is certifiably insane, too stupid, or too ignorant. Talk about a quagmire. We never had a coherent national strategy. What strategy we did have was clearly not understood at the operational level at USMACV and was certainly not articulated to the tactical operators.
For all of the warts in the COIN phase of Iraq, we finally have a semblance of a national strategy, CENTCOM and Petraeus have formulated a campaign plan (the Surge) that our tactical operators have the skills, logistics and the capacity to execute well.
Iran's power is not growing. Internally Iran is actually less stable with the diminishing age of the population, and the ready access to Western news. The majority of Iranians hate the mullachracy. It's only a matter of time, and the right sequence of events.
I assume her rant is just her shilling for the donks.
Posted by: George Smiley ||
04/19/2008 7:50 Comments ||
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#7
Albright probably told them of how she won two Medals of Honor as a tank commander in the 33rd Airborne Corps, fighting in the battle of Jeet Kune Do, by calling off a napalm strike against a village of puppies and kittens and saving John Kerry before the enemy could Swiftboat him.
Well, that's how she remembers it. Ask John Kerry. He was there.
The problems we are solving now grew and festered under her leadership of the State Dept.
ANd to call this worse than Vietnam is an insult toboth the soldiers fighting now, and those who fought in Vietnam.
Prima facia evidence that she is an idiot? Casualties. Our now vs then, and the outcome of our cut-n-run that resulted in millions dying in cambodia, and millions imprisoned in Vietnam.
Posted by: George Smiley ||
04/19/2008 15:42 Comments ||
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#18
No, wrong gender, I'm a Janet.
Posted by: Jan ||
04/19/2008 16:47 Comments ||
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#19
Albright says Iraqi war worse than Vietnam
..Yeah, but wars eventually end. She'll always be an idiot.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/19/2008 16:48 Comments ||
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#20
Get it right, OS! It's "Mad Halfbright." In a just world, the day after Bush's Inaugural every former member of the Clinton Administration's inner circle would have been arrested, flogged, had their citizenship immediately revoked,and been deported to Haiti with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. And that would have been better treatment than they deserved.
Posted by: Thaimble Scourge of the Pixies4707 ||
04/19/2008 18:31 Comments ||
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The explosion shook the earth. And it wouldn't be the last one. Twenty-five years ago Friday, a suicide bomber drove a pickup truck full of explosives into the U.S. Embassy in downtown Beirut, killing 63 people. It heralded the rise in the Middle East of a soon-to-be common tool in the arsenal of radicals: the suicide bomb.
"I don't think we realized on April 18 the significance of the attack," said Graeme Bannerman, a former Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff director who shuttled between Beirut and Washington during much of the early 1980s. "It was a disaster. But most people didn't realize we had a problem with these guys until 9/11."
Bombing survivors, victims' relatives, diplomats and embassy staff gathered Friday to remember the dead at a somber ceremony on the grounds of the heavily guarded hilltop U.S. mission in Lebanon, the Mediterranean Sea spreading out below. "We remember today and every day our colleagues, relatives and friends who died at the hands of those terrorists during Lebanon's terrible war years," said Michele J. Sison, Washington's envoy to Lebanon.
The event commemorated not only those who died and survived the bombing of the Beirut embassy, but also the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks the following year, in which 241 American military personnel died, and the Sept. 20, 1984, attack here in Aukar, in the Christian hills north of Beirut, at what was then called the U.S. Embassy annex, in which 24 people perished.
Embassy employees, tearful Lebanese survivors and a contingent of visiting Marines gathered around and laid wreaths upon the half-circular monument engraved with the names of the those who died. "They came in peace," it said. As a choir sang, an elderly Lebanese woman with a bent back hobbled with her cane to the monument and brushed her fingers against the name Rudaina Sahyoun, her daughter, who died in the embassy explosion three months after she began working for the Americans. She was 28.
C. David Welch, U.S. assistant secretary of State for Near East affairs, described the moment he heard about the attack as the Lebanon desk officer at the State Department. "I will never forget receiving the call to alert me of the attack," he said at the ceremony. "It was quite a blow."
Islamic Jihad, a previously unknown group, claimed responsibility. Court rulings later pointed to Iran and the Iranian-backed Shiite militia Hezbollah as having a role in the embassy and barracks attacks.
"Since the Beirut attack, we and citizens of many countries have suffered more attacks at the hands of Hezbollah and other terrorists, backed by the regimes in Tehran and Damascus, which use terror and violence against innocent civilians," President Bush said in a statement released Friday..
#1
A reminder that 9-11 was not the start of this war with Islamofascism (in fact it was already going on before the Beirut embassy bombings.) Or is it only a war if you fight back when attacked?
#2
I remember the incident. US sentry troops were reduced to waiving their rifles at a smiling terrorist, as he prepared to murder their colleagues. Local commanders were told to restrict ordenance from the sentries because a local militia was being formed, and the DOD didn't want to alientate the locals. Unfortunately, when US troops pulled out in futility, the militias joined Hizbollah. Little was learned from the atrocity.
WASHINGTON (AP) Democrats in Congress, seeking to avoid a vote on funding the Iraq war during the fall campaign season, are likely to combine President Bush's two pending requests into a single bill to be voted on this spring. House Democratic aides said Thursday that Bush's $108 billion request to finance military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through the Oct. 1 end of the 2008 budget year is likely to be combined with his $70 billion request to continue the war into the next president's term.
"You vote one time and get the money out of the way," said Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of the House panel responsible for the Pentagon budget. He cautioned that House leaders have not officially endorsed the idea.
Only thing I want from Murtha is an apology from him to the Marines ...
But votes on war funding bills inevitably generate tension among Democrats and unhappiness among their core supporters, who are strongly opposed to funding the war. That has leaders such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., hoping to avoid a second vote in the fall.
Democrats are struggling behind-the-scenes to coordinate strategy for passing the war funding bill, a task made more difficult by a recent Bush threat to veto any domestic add-ons to the war funding measure that would bring its price tag above his request. D
emocrats are poised to defy the veto threat by adding to the Iraq funding bill a measure to significantly expand education benefits for veterans. The new GI bill, sponsored by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., would greatly increase college education benefits for veterans to cover tuition and fees at most public universities. That would, on average, double college aid for veterans to about $12,000 per year at a cost of up to $4 billion a year under preliminary Congressional Budget Office estimates. The additional money for college aid for veterans has bipartisan support and could be difficult for Bush to stop in an election year.
And little reason why he would. But read on ...
But there's little agreement among Democrats on what other items unrelated to Iraq and Afghanistan to try to add to the war funding bill. Senate Democrats are considering up to $10 billion simply for infrastructure projects such as roads, bridge repairs and school construction. At an Appropriations Committee hearing Wednesday, Democratic senators pressed a multitude of other ideas: crime-fighting grants; overseas food aid; heating subsidies; funding to combat western wildfires; and heating subsidies for the poor to name just a few.
Using the war bill as a Christmas tree ...
The war supplemental appropriations bill is one of the few must-pass legislative vehicle to leave the station this year. That has lawmakers in both parties eying it as an engine to tug funding for their pet programs into law. Republicans were disappointed that Bush accepted about $17 billion in add-ons to last year's war funding bill and the White House is determined to avoid a repeat.
Meanwhile, Democrats are poised to clip almost $10 billion worth of savings from Bush's war funding request and shift the money to other purposes, including long-term purchases of next generation F-22 fighter planes, 15 C-17 cargo planes and 10 C-130 cargo planes. Another $3.5 billion would be diverted to pay for higher fuel costs. The savings to pay for the military add-ons would come from a lower estimate for operations costs, reducing purchases of light trucks for the Army, and purchases of fewer combat radios, according to documents the Pentagon gave to lawmakers.
Once again taking money from our troops for their pork. Lawmakers are at least predictable.
#4
Nancy Pelosi and Murtha are the gift that just keeps on giving to the Republican party. The obvious flaw in their strategy is that it is clearly in the interest of the Republicans if the Dems can not pass a war funding bill. As much as the Democrats might like to believe the press and their moon-bat base, the fact is that the majority of Americans do support the war. That's why when Dems try to pass bills to bring the troops home or to limit funding they get their bums handed to them in a bag - EVERY TIME.
So you would think they would just wrap up a nice package that they KNOW the president will sign and get quietly get the issue off the table befor the fall. Just putting extra GI benefits in there isn't going to fool ANYONE since most American's believe that GW Bush supports the troops.
It is only in the advantage of the Republicans if their bill does not pass or is vetoed by the president. You can only wonder if they are really as stooopid as they seem to be.
It's even more Rhetorical than that, it's really "When will WE (Voters) Learn, and NOT re-elect these slimeballs.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/19/2008 14:09 Comments ||
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#6
They can't leave it alone, Woodrow Slusorong7967. Their base is the Progressives, not the centrist [Reagan] Democrats. Which is one reason why the swing to the center by the Democratic presidential candidate will be so amusing this fall -- s/he has so very far to travel, and so many speeches to unsay.
GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba - The U.S. military will televise the Guantanamo trial of accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and five other suspects so relatives of those killed in the attacks can watch on the U.S. mainland. Were going to broadcast in real time to several locations that will be available just to victim families, Army Col. Lawrence Morris, chief prosecutor for the controversial war crimes court, said at the naval base recently.
In February, military prosecutors charged Mohammed and five other captives with murder and conspiracy and asked that they be executed if convicted of plotting to crash hijacked planes into New Yorks World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001. No trial date has been set but they are the first Guantanamo prisoners charged with direct involvement in the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
Morris said several of the victims relatives asked to watch the trials at the detention center set up in Guantanamo Bay naval base to try foreign terrorism suspects. The trials will be beamed to closed-circuit television viewing sites on military bases at Fort Hamilton in New York, Fort Monmouth in New Jersey, Fort Meade in Maryland and Fort Devens in Massachusetts, Morris said.
The military is borrowing a page from the civilian court sentencing hearing of Zacarias Moussaoui, a flight school student who is the only person convicted in the United States in connection with the Sept. 11 plot. He pleaded guilty to conspiring with al Qaeda and was sentenced to life in prison. U.S. federal courts normally ban cameras. But through an act of Congress, Moussaouis 2006 court hearing in Virginia was shown by closed-circuit television to victims families at courthouses in Boston, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
We got much more information from those hearings than we ever got from the 9-11 Commission, said Lorie Van Auken, whose husband Kenneth died in the World Trade Center, referring to the investigation the U.S. Congress launched into the attacks.
Some of the victims relatives praised the U.S. military for ensuring they had access to the Guantanamo proceedings. Hamilton Peterson, whose father and stepmother, Donald and Jean Peterson, died on the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania, called the prosecutors true patriots, and said he was grateful for the ability to see justice being fulfilled in one of the most significant attacks on Americas heartland.
Others urged the trials be televised nationwide without restriction because of the sweeping impact of the attacks.
The broadcasts will mark the first time a Guantanamo detainees face has been shown publicly. The U.S. military prohibits journalists and other visitors from taking photographs or video that shows faces, citing a provision of the Geneva Conventions that aims to protect war captives from insults and public curiosity.
The U.S. military lawyer assigned to defend Mohammed, Navy Capt. Prescott Prince, said if the trials are truly fair, then broadcasting them widely would prove that to the world. But he worried about setting a precedent by televising what he suspects will be show trials. I can just imagine American soldiers and sailors and airmen being subjected to similar show trials worldwide, he said.
He said he doubts the defendants can get a fair trial in the Guantanamo court because it accepts hearsay evidence that may have been obtained through cruel and dehumanizing means. The Geneva provision cited in shielding prisoners faces also bans acts of violence or intimidation, he noted. The CIA held Mohammed in a secret prison for years and acknowledged interrogating him with methods that included the simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding.
Wafaqul Madaris Al-Arabia has demanded the reconstruction of Jamia Hafsa and the release of Lal Masjid cleric Abdul Aziz within 30 days, Aaj TV reported on Friday. The clerics told a press conference that people had voted for the PML-N because of their stance on the sacked judges and Jamia Hafsa. They said the government should set the same deadline for the rebuilding of Jamia Hafsa as they had for the restoration of judges.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
A senior Taliban leader said on Friday that the removal of President Pervez Musharraf, a review of the countrys foreign policy and the enforcement of Shariah law in the Tribal Areas were required for lasting peace in the country, adding that Islam comes first, then Pakistan.
These three demands are a must for a lasting peace in the settled and Tribal Areas of the NWFP, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leader Maulvi Faqir Muhammad told a jirga near Khar, regional headquarters of the Bajaur Agency. The TTP organised the jirga to brief people on their policy. He said the Taliban were following a ceasefire and that was why there was a marked change in the security situation across the country. However, he said jihad against the United States would continue.
Losses: He said, The US-led war in Afghanistan is actually aimed at destroying Pakistan. The Pakistan Army has suffered losses more than any other army after Musharraf committed Pakistan to the war on terror. He told Reuters that the money offered by the US on Bin Ladens head was not even worth his cap.
The jirga concluded on an agreement demanding the government to replace the Frontier Crimes Regulation with Shariah law. MNA Akhunzada Chattan, who is from the Pakistan Peoples Party, was among the signatories to the agreement.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
removal of President Pervez Musharraf, a review of the countrys foreign policy and the enforcement of Shariah law in the Tribal Areas were required for lasting peace in the country, adding that Islam comes first, then Pakistan.
From his point of view, he is right. In this modern era of global transport and communications, Islam will not survive unless they can somehow do exactly what he has proposed. They are in a losing battle and they know it. The problem with Islamists is that they will happily blow everything to Hell rather than acknowledge that the modern world is washing over them like a rising tsunami.
BAGHDAD Anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr gave a "final warning" to the government Saturday to halt a U.S.-Iraqi crackdown against his followers or he would declare "open war until liberation."
A full-blown uprising by al-Sadr, who led two rebellions against U.S.-led forces in 2004, could lead to a dramatic increase in violence in Iraq at a time when the Sunni extremist group al-Qaida in Iraq appears poised for new attacks after suffering severe blows last year.
Al-Sadr's warning appeared on his Web site as Iraq's Shiite-dominated government claimed success in a new push against Shiite militants in the southern city of Basra. Fighting claimed 14 more lives in Sadr City, the Baghdad stronghold of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.
Fighting in Sadr City and the crackdown in Basra are part of a government campaign against followers of al-Sadr and Iranian-backed Shiite splinter groups that the U.S. has identified as the gravest threat to a democratic Iraq.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, also a Shiite, has ordered al-Sadr to disband the Mahdi Army, Iraq's biggest Shiite militia, or face a ban from politics.
In the statement, al-Sadr lashed back, accusing the government of selling out to the Americans and branding his followers as criminals.
Al-Sadr, who is believed to be in Iran, said he had tried to defuse tensions last August by declaring a unilateral truce, only to see the government respond by closing his offices and "resorting to assassinations."
"So I am giving my final warning ... to the Iraqi government ... to take the path of peace and abandon violence against its people," al-Sadr said. "If the government does not refrain ... we will declare an open war until liberation."
U.S. officials have acknowledged that al-Sadr's truce was instrumental in reducing violence last year. But the truce is in tatters after Iraqi forces launched an offensive last month against "criminal gangs and militias" in the southern city of Basra.
The conflict spread rapidly to Baghdad, where Shiite militiamen based in Sadr City fired rockets at the U.S.-protected Green Zone, killing at least four Americans. U.S. officials say many of the rockets fired at the Green Zone were manufactured in Iran.
The Iranians helped mediate a truce March 30, which eased clashes in Basra and elsewhere in the Shiite south. But fighting persisted in Baghdad as U.S. and Iraqi forces sought to push militiamen beyond the range where they could fire rockets and mortars at the Green Zone.
The Americans are attempting to seal off much of Sadr City, home to an estimated 2.5 million people, and have used helicopter gunships and Predator drones to fire missiles at militiamen seeking refuge in the sprawling slum of northeast Baghdad.
At a news conference Saturday, Iran's ambassador to Baghdad said his government supports the Iraqi move against "lawbreakers in Basra" but that the "insistence of the Americans to lay siege" to Sadr City "is a mistake."
"Lawbreakers (in Basra) must be held accountable ... but the insistence of the Americans to lay siege to millions of people in a specific area and then bombing them randomly from air and damaging property is not correct," Ambassador Hassan Kazemi Qomi said.
Qomi warned that the American strategy in Sadr City "will lead to negative results for which the Iraqi government must bear responsibility."
At least 14 people were killed and 84 wounded in Saturday's fighting in Sadr City, police and hospital officials said. Sporadic clashes were continuing after sundown, with gunmen darting through the streets, firing at Iraqi police and soldiers who have taken the lead in the fighting.
According to the Interior Ministry, at least 280 Iraqis have been killed in Sadr City fighting since March 25, including gunmen, security forces and civilians.
In Basra, Iraq's second largest city about 340 miles southeast of Baghdad, Iraqi soldiers backed by British troops pushed their way into Hayaniyah, the local stronghold of al-Sadr's Mahdi militia.
As the operation got under way, British cannons and American warplanes pounded an empty field near Hayaniyah as a show of force "intended to demonstrate the firepower available to the Iraqi forces," said British military spokesman Maj. Tom Holloway.
Last month, Iraqi troops met fierce resistance when they tried to enter Hayaniyah. On Saturday, however, Iraqi soldiers moved block by block, searching homes, seizing weapons and detaining suspects.
Lt. Gen. Ali Ghaidan said he expected the whole area to be secured by Sunday. He said troops had detained a number of suspects but refused to give details until the area was cleared.
The fighting in both Basra and Baghdad is part of a campaign by al-Maliki, a Shiite, to break the power of Shiite militias, especially al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, and improve security in southern Iraq before provincial elections this fall.
Al-Sadr's followers believe the campaign is aimed at weakening their movement to prevent it from winning provincial council seats at the expense of Shiite parties that work with the United States in the national government.
Tensions between the Sadrists and other Shiite parties have been rising for months before the Basra crackdown and escalated after parliament last month approved a new law governing the provincial elections.
Clashes also broke out near Nasiriyah, a Shiite city about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad, leaving at least 22 people dead, police said. A curfew was clamped on the town of Suq al-Shiyoukh, where the fighting broke out between police and al-Sadr's followers.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military said an American soldier was killed by a roadside bomb while on patrol in Salahuddin province. At least 4,038 members of the U.S. military have now died since the war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Elsewhere in Iraq, at least five people died and 18 were injured in separate bombings in the northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk and the Diyala provincial capital of Baqouba.
The attacks capped a violent week that has raised concerns that suspected Sunni insurgents are regrouping in the north. U.S. and Iraqi troops have stepped up security operations in Mosul, believed to be one of the last urban strongholds of al-Qaida in Iraq.
On Saturday, a Washington-based group that monitors Islamic extremists said al-Qaida in Iraq has announced a one-month offensive against U.S. troops.
The SITE group said the announcement was made on Web sites by the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, who took over the extremist group after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. airstrike in 2006.
#1
Uprise, MF. See what it gets you. Maybe a 7.62 round can do something about that dental problem you've had...
Posted by: Thaimble Scourge of the Pixies4707 ||
04/19/2008 18:11 Comments ||
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#2
Come out come out wherever you are! And the only "liberation" there that will come of this is that Iraq will be from the last meaningful terrorists in the country. The storm before the calm.
#6
Run a mini-ARCLIGHT strike through Sadr City, and tell the Iraqis we'll repeat it every day until al-Sadr and his top henchmen are turned in. Then follow through.
A nice strike by 100-150 1000-lb bombs would do marvels for renovating Sadr City. Just bulldoze the rubble and start building. Of course, brave, brave Mookie won't be anywhere NEAR where he might get so much as a skin rash, the POS.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/19/2008 22:13 Comments ||
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CD shops sell love songs again. Yeesh. The mere fact that they are selling CDs is a good sign!
Some women emerge from their homes without veils, and alcohol sellers are coming out of hiding in the southern city of Basra where religious vigilantes have long enforced strict Islamic codes.
The changes in recent weeks mark a surprising show of government sway at least for now after an Iraqi-led military crackdown that was plagued by desertions, ragged planning and ended in a virtual stalemate with Shiite militias in Iraq's second-largest city. Seems like a rite of passage necessary necessary to get the whole military system on the same wavelength to me. Hopefully now they can stand up.
But it's unclear whether the new tone in parts of Basra represents a permanent tilt toward the Iraqi government or just a temporary retreat of Shiite hard-liners challenging the current Baghdad leadership. Permanent. If the Donks don't have their way. These people are coming out of hiding and exposing themselves. They must trust that things are going to stay better, otherwise they clam up.
During five days of heavy fighting last month, Iraqi troops struggled against militiamen, particularly the Mahdi Army loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The military was plagued by desertions and poor organization and, in the end, the offensive was inconclusive with Iran helping mediate a truce.
Still, the crackdown appears to have succeeded in giving some sense of government control in Basra. Do you get a sense also that the Mahdi Army is off the streets, replaced with the IA?
Two Associated Press employees in Basra interviewed several shopkeepers and other residents on the lifting of some lifestyle restrictions imposed by Shiite hard-liners. The AP also toured four districts around the city to observe the recent changes.
For years, militiamen and vigilantes have had nearly a free hand in Basra. They intimidated, attacked and sometimes killed residents who broke the strict social rules in the city once known for its liberal lifestyles and nightlife.
Walid Khalid had to stop selling alcohol in 2005 after gunmen snatched his brother from their home and dumped him hours later in the street with gunshots to both legs.
But the two brothers resumed their business in the past days, feeling safer after the crackdown launched March 25. A finger in your eye, AQI!
"Now, I have resumed my business and I am selling alcohol in a street in central Basra near an army checkpoint," Khalid told the AP. Uh oh, better go check this out . . . .
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered the offensive in Basra in a bid to confront what he called Shiite gangs and criminals. Basra is also critical for the government as the commercial hub of the nation's southern oil fields.
The assault stalled as Mahdi Army fighters put up unexpected resistance, and at least 1,000 soldiers and many police refused to fight either because they were intimidated by the militias or were loyal to al-Sadr. Don't need them. Out. The rest better learn by example.
The military had to rush in reinforcements from other parts of Iraq and call for help from the British and the Americans. U.S. and British aircraft launched airstrikes and ferried wounded Iraqi soldiers to hospital.
Since the truce, government forces have continued raids and arrests, but in a more low key way. More than 400 militiamen and criminals have been arrested since the sweep began, the Interior Ministry said.
It is unclear whether the decreased presence of militiamen in the streets is because they were dealt a real blow or just a tactic to lie low for the time being. The Mahdi Army in Basra remains in control of its stronghold district of Hayaniyah and other small areas and it and other militias, all with political backers, retain enormous influence in the city. Could it be because almost 10% of them are dead, wounded, or captured?
Security forces are pushing hard to convince Basra residents they have broken the militias' hold. Checkpoints have been set up on main streets and intersections, with increased patrols in other areas. State TV showed police cars decorated with streamers and flowers circulating the streets broadcasting music through loudspeakers, and top commanders walking around, chatting with pedestrians and shopowners, telling them not to be afraid of gangs.
Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf told the AP the crackdown will continue till "Basra is back to its glorious joyful days." The people in Basra "will forget the dark ages they lived during the past years. Basra will not be a sad city anymore," Khalaf said, speaking from the city.
Muhanad Jawad, owner of a CD shop, said that before the crackdown, bearded men wearing black clothes frequently raided his shop to look for banned love songs or romantic Western or Egyptian movies. Gunmen would order him to sell only CDs with songs or video mourning Imam al-Hussein, a revered Shiite martyr in the 7th century. "Now, the situation is better. The fanatic gunmen have vanished and a lot of young people are visiting my shop to buy songs, pop music and romantic movies," he said.
In the city's main street, Al-Jazir, several CD shops have been opened and music is played loudly outside the stores while unveiled young women pass by. Although not fully covered by a traditional veil, most women nonetheless wear head scarves over their hair.
Mohammed Abdul-Amir, a government employee, dared to hire a singer and a band for his wedding four days ago. "I am happy to have a real wedding party," he said. "A few weeks ago, doing such a thing would have meant death."
#2
But SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer can scarcely contain his feverent desire that it will all come unglued again. I mean, if it weren't for Iran mediating the truce, the valiant insurgents would've caused the collapse of the whole Iraqi army - just like 1991.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/19/2008 15:03 Comments ||
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#3
yeah bobby... after all the thing "was plagued by desertions, ragged planning and ended in a virtual stalemate"
the writer says it and says it...
if he repeats it enough it might become true.
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
04/19/2008 21:28 Comments ||
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President George W. Bush and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak opened two days of talks on Friday that are focused on North Korea's unfulfilled pledge to disclose its nuclear activities and a US free-trade deal with South Korea that faces an uphill battle for acceptance by the US Congress.
Bush hopes to strengthen sometimes-shaky US-South Korea ties under Lee, who took office in late February and made the United States his first overseas trip. Their meeting took on renewed importance when South Korea announced Friday that it would lift its ban on US beef imports.
On North Korea, Bush is embracing Lee's get-tough rhetoric against its communist neighbor. The talks among North Korea and China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States are at an impasse over how the North should make good on its pledge to declare its nuclear and proliferation activities.
The two leaders were to have talks Friday night and then more meetings on Saturday along with a brief press conference. They are expected to herald the beef deal, the culmination of lengthy negotiations.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2008 00:00 ||
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Egypt is making good progress in negotiating a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, Reuters reported Friday. The Egyptian government is aiming for both sides to agree to a "period of quiet," said Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit.
Speaking of Egypt's mediation attempts, Reuters reported that Gheit explained the reason for this wording to the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. "Hamas wants to call it a period of quiet. That suits the Israelis because they do not want to reach a signed, written agreement with Hamas," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2008 00:00 ||
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Israeli minister Eli Yishai is ready to meet exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal to negotiate the release of prisoners held by the group, the Haaretz daily reported on Friday. I am ready to meet with all necessary Hamas members, the newspaper quoted the industry minister as telling former US president Jimmy Carter during a meeting this week. Carter was due in Damascus on Friday for talks with Meshaal as part of his Middle East tour to boost the peace process. During a visit to Israel earlier in the week, Carter met the parents of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian militants in June 2006, and pledged to take up calls for his release with Meshaal.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Industry minister? That's not in his portfolio normally, I'd think.
#2
I wonder if the Islamists are going to throw ol' Jimmy a bone on this one. He was a good and faithful Dhimmi when he President. It would certainly wash away some of his guilt if he could get Shalit released. Make a treasonous old man feel good before he dies.
Well, if Shalit is still alive and Jimmy can provide an excuse for Hamas to release him, more power to him. It would be little more than an interesting footnote to the President whose legacy will be that of inspiring the Islamist war against the West.
(Xinhua) -- Visiting former U.S. President Jimmy Carter met with exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Damascus on Friday and discussed the peace efforts in the region. The talks between Carter and Meshaal focused on three basic topics, namely the fate of Israeli captive Gilad Shalit, the situation in Gaza and the lift of the siege there, deputy chief ofthe exiled Hamas politburo Moussa Abu Marzouk told reporters.
The policy of Hamas was not to make any contact with the Israelis, but the movement did not reject negotiation with Israel through intermediaries, Abu Marzouk said. The issue of the Israeli captive Shalit could be discussed through indirect channels, he added.
Carter, who arrived here on Friday, has already held talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
On Thursday he held talks with a delegation of Hamas in Cairo after Israel prevented him from entering Gaza to meet Hamas officials. The talks focused on the deteriorating situation in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and the stalled Mideast peace process, as well as the possibility of lifting the blockade on Gaza and reaching a comprehensive truce between the Palestinians and Israelis.
The White House immediately rebuked the meeting, criticizing that "we do not think that meeting was useful. As we can all see by the recent violence in Gaza, Hamas is a terrorist organization." "The president (George W. Bush) believes that if ex-president Carter wants to go, that he is doing so in his own private capacity, as a private citizen, he is not representing the United States," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Syria...We'll take Kwame Brown and Isiah Thomas and you can keep Carter.
#2
Worst President Ever, Meshaal meet in Damascus on peace-of-the-grave-for-Israel efforts
There - fixed that for ya', Fred,
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/19/2008 1:16 Comments ||
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#3
TOPIX > AFGHANISTAN MOVES TO CENTER STAGE + US HAS NO PLAN TO FIGHT TERROR IN PAKISTAN TRIBAL AREAS + TALIBAN DEMAND SHARIA LAW IN PAKISTAN TRIBAL AREAS.
ALso from TOPIX > ANALYSIS: AL QAEDA PLANNING TO ATTACK TURKEY; + THE FEAR OF ISLAMIST REVOLUTION IN TURKEY. *BIGNEWSNETWORK > WE CANNOT WAIT FOR TURKEY TO REFORM ISLAM ANY MORE.
*RIGHTWINGNEWS > DAILY KOS - EITHER OBAMA SUCCEEDS/WINS, OR THERE WILL BE VIOLENT REVOLUTION IN AMERICA.
#4
"DAILY KOS - EITHER OBAMA SUCCEEDS/WINS, OR THERE WILL BE VIOLENT REVOLUTION IN AMERICA."
Uh-huh. Maybe they'd best remember who has the guns.
Hint: It ain't them.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/19/2008 17:33 Comments ||
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#5
#4 "DAILY KOS - EITHER OBAMA SUCCEEDS/WINS, OR THERE WILL BE VIOLENT REVOLUTION IN AMERICA." Uh-huh. Maybe they'd best remember who has the guns. Hint: It ain't them.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2008-04-19 17:33
Beat me to it, Barbara. Just a few words - I would DELIGHT in taking up arms against the far left, especially if they begin an insurrection. 10 to 1 Murtha would choose the wrong side, which would be a bonus.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/19/2008 18:48 Comments ||
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#6
I would DELIGHT in taking up arms against the far left
No, you probably wouldn't. Fortunately, the left is all talk and posturing. Remember, all the "if Bush is (re)elected I'll leave the country" statements.
#9
lol - I have a 3' section of closet-pole rod under my bed - I can get to that faster than the 12 Ga Winchester Defender in the closet. I could do some damage wid dat if they aren't armed, and less likely to kill someone I love by mistake
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/19/2008 22:12 Comments ||
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(Xinhua) -- Syria welcomed the current visit by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter who held talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a Foreign Ministry official said hereon Friday. Bushra Kanafani, Director of the Information Department of the ministry, said in a statement that Syria also appreciated Carter's meeting with exiled Hamas politburo chief in Damascus Khaled Meshaal, which reflects his attention to pressing problems in the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2008 00:00 ||
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(Xinhua) -- A Hezbollah official has spoken about possible Israeli infiltration towards the Lebanese-Syrian boarders, local Elnashra news website reported on Thursday. "Syrian forces are trained on fighting in Hezbollah style," Sheikh Nabil Kaouke, a senior Hezbollah official responsible for south Lebanon area, was quoted as saying, adding that the Syrians will expand the battle to the Golan Heights.
Ruling out an Israeli military strike on Iran, Kaouke said if the Israelis move towards the boarders, the Syrian forces will be ready. He said Israel is avoiding for the time being any "provocation" until May 15, when celebrations of the Israeli state anniversary are over. During these celebrations, heads of states such as the American and French presidents will attend, thus, Israel would avoid problems, Kaouke added.
Israel has been on a high state of alert in fear of Hezbollah retaliation to the assassination of Hezbollah senior official Imad Moughnieh in Damascus on Feb. 12. Hezbollah accused Israel of killing Moughnieh, and vowed to retaliate.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2008 00:00 ||
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A conventional superpower, of course.
A high-ranking Iranian cleric on Friday said the country should grow into a military super power to defend all Muslims, following an army parade at a time of mounting tension with the West. "In a not so distant future, we should reach a point to have the most powerful military equipment in the world so that no one even think about invading our borders." Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said in his Friday prayer sermon carried live on state radio. "And not only that of the Islamic republic, but also the borders of Islam ... We must defend oppressed Muslims everywhere so that the enemies do not dare to attack Afghanistan, Palestine and Iraq."
On Thursday's annual Army Day celebration in Tehran, dozens of fighter jets and other aircraft flew over the parade ground in a bid to show the power of the air force. Also on display was Iran's Shahab-3 missile, whose range includes Israel and even the fringes of Europe.
The hardline cleric also vowed to cheering worshippers, who chanted "Death to America" and "Death to Israel," that their slogans will materialise. "I tell you that the death of the United States has come. You shouted Death to the Shah and he died," Jannati said, referring to the monarch overthrown by the 1979 Islamic revolution and who died in exile. "You say Death to Israel and it is dying. You say Death to America and it does not take so long that its death prayer will be said."
#2
Let's see...they rolled out the few functional F-4s, F-5s, and F-14s that are left in the world. They have a handful of older generation SU-29's. They have a handful of older diesel boats, a few old destroyers and frigates.
#6
I'd love to see the "motorboats of death" take on a squadron of A-10s. I might even PAY to see that...
As for the sh$$bag "top cleric": maybe the Islamic World doesn't want to be "defended" - I.E., controlled - by you. As for death prayers, may your death come within the week, and it be drawn-out and painful. How about them coockies, assatollah?
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/19/2008 18:55 Comments ||
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#7
Somebody in Washington appears fixated on allowing the Ayatollah tyranny to survive.
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.
(Xinhua) -- The war in Iraq will gain an even worse place in history than the last century's war conflict in Vietnam, Madeleine Albright, Czech-born former U.S. secretary state, said in an interview with the Czech daily Hospodarske noviny on Friday. This is the biggest decline of U.S. foreign policy, Albright said, referring to the Iraqi war. 
WASHINGTON (AP) Democrats in Congress, seeking to avoid a vote on funding the Iraq war during the fall campaign season, are likely to combine President Bush's two pending requests into a single bill to be voted on this spring. House Democratic aides said Thursday that Bush's $108 billion request to finance military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through the Oct. 1 end of the 2008 budget year is likely to be combined with his $70 billion request to continue the war into the next president's term.
GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba - The U.S. military will televise the Guantanamo trial of accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and five other suspects so relatives of those killed in the attacks can watch on the U.S. mainland. Were going to broadcast in real time to several locations that will be available just to victim families, Army Col. Lawrence Morris, chief prosecutor for the controversial war crimes court, said at the naval base recently.
Wafaqul Madaris Al-Arabia has demanded the reconstruction of Jamia Hafsa and the release of Lal Masjid cleric Abdul Aziz within 30 days, Aaj TV reported on Friday. The clerics told a press conference that people had voted for the PML-N because of their stance on the sacked judges and Jamia Hafsa. They said the government should set the same deadline for the rebuilding of Jamia Hafsa as they had for the restoration of judges.
BAGHDAD Anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr gave a "final warning" to the government Saturday to halt a U.S.-Iraqi crackdown against his followers or he would declare "open war until liberation."
(Xinhua) -- Visiting former U.S. President Jimmy Carter met with exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Damascus on Friday and discussed the peace efforts in the region. The talks between Carter and Meshaal focused on three basic topics, namely the fate of Israeli captive Gilad Shalit, the situation in Gaza and the lift of the siege there, deputy chief ofthe exiled Hamas politburo Moussa Abu Marzouk told reporters. 
