By: Tufail Ahmad *
On March 25, 2008, Yousuf Raza Gilani of the Pakistan People's Party was sworn in as prime minister of Pakistan. His government is advocating dialogue with the Taliban, as is the secular government of the North WestFrontierProvince.
Recently, following an understanding, the Taliban commander in Pakistan's tribal region of Waziristan, Baitullah Mehsud, distributed a pamphlet directing the Taliban to shun all provocative activity that could threaten law and order in the region. [1] Baitullah Mehsud heads militants from his Mehsud tribe in the tribal district of South Waziristan; the organization that issued the pamphlet has been named as Tehreek-e-Taliban Waziristan. [2]
The pamphlet appeared amidst wide speculation that the Pakistan government is holding talks with Mehsud, who was declared a fugitive by a Pakistani court for his involvement in the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
At this time, the details of the draft of an agreement between Beitullah Mehsud and the Pakistan government are emerging, as reported by the London edition of the Urdu-language newspaper Roznama Ausaf.
Following are the highlights of the draft agreement: [3]
Roznama Ausaf reported that the draft of the 15-point peace agreement was discussed during a meeting in Islamabad between the leaders of the Pakistan People's Party, the Pakistan Muslim League (N), and the Awami National Party, and was "approved with the support of the military establishment."
The Pakistan Muslim League (N) of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif is a partner in the federal government led by Prime Minister Gilani, whereas the Awami National Party is a secular Pashtun party that came into power in the North West Frontier Province, which borders the federally administered tribal districts.
According to the report, "as per the agreement, the [Pakistani] government will release extremist prisoners [Taliban] and withdraw its troops in a phased manner from the [federally administered tribal district of] South Waziristan. In return, Baitullah Mehsud has guaranteed total peace."
The agreement will be signed by the political administrator of South Waziristan, on the behalf of the government. Tribal elders nominated by Baitullah Mehsud, who belongs to the Mehsud tribe, are to sign the accord on his behalf. The political administrator is the federal government's representative in the tribal district, while the Political Administration is the local executive authority that governs the district.
The agreed points include:
1. The government and security forces will neither target the Mehsud tribe nor destroy their assets and machinery.
2. The Mehsud tribe will not kidnap any government representative or military official.
3. The Mehsud tribe will open roads so that paramilitary forces can move around.
4. The Mehsud tribe is responsible for its members' non-involvement in terror activity in any part of Pakistan.
5. The Mehsud tribe will not aid/shelter in its areas anyone who seeks to engage in terror-related activity, nor will it use its areas for terror-related activity.
6. The Mehsud tribe will not create a parallel administration, nor will it challenge the writ of the government.
7. The political administrator will resolve the tribe's problems as per the tribal customs and traditions and as per the [1901 British Law] Frontier Crimes Regulation, and this will be acceptable to the Mehsud tribe.
8. The Mehsud tribe will expel all foreigners in its areas, and will not allow its region to be used as shelter for militants.
9. Within a month of signing the agreement, the expulsion of foreign elements will begin; if the process is not completed, the tribe will receive a one-month extension.
10. The Mehsud tribe will not obstruct regional progress and will assist the government with the completion of developmental programs.
11. The Mehsud tribe is responsible for protecting local and foreign officials working on the government-run development programs in the region.
12. The Political Administration and the Mehsud tribe will issue joint reports on the likelihood of the presence of training camps for militants and of the preparation of terror attacks.
13. If the Mehsud tribe fails to eliminate suspicions of militant training in the area, the government will have the right to take action as per tribal customs and traditions and the Frontier Crimes Regulation.
14. The exchange of prisoners of both sides will take place after the signing of this agreement. The government will release all prisoners from the Mehsud tribe.
15. Government troops will begin phased withdrawal from the region of Mehsud tribe after the agreement is signed.
According to the Roznama Ausaf report, the agreement was reached with the complete understanding of the country's political leadership and military establishment.
[1] Roznama Jang (Pakistan), April 24, 2008.
[2] Roznama Jang (Pakistan), April 24, 2008.
[3] Roznama Ausaf (London), April 24, 2008.
KANO, Nigeria, April 23 (Compass Direct News) Hundreds of Muslims took to the streets of this northern Nigerian city on Sunday (April 20), attacking Christians and their shops and setting vehicles on fire on claims that a Christian had blasphemed Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. Thousands of Christians were trapped in churches until police dispersed rioters. Fearing that Muslims may attack again, many Christians have relocated to army and police barracks in the city.
An as yet unidentified Christian was said to have written an inscription on a shop wall that disparaged the prophet of Islam. Muslims at a market in the Sabon Garia area of the city reportedly attacked the Christian, whom police rescued and took to the area police station.
Muslims in large numbers soon trooped to the police station, threatening to set it ablaze unless officers released the Christian to be stoned to death in accordance with sharia (Islamic law), sources said. Police were able to disperse the mob.
A Christian trader was accused of making some blasphemous inscriptions against Muhammad in his shop by his Muslim colleagues, who pounced on him, Baba Mohammed, Kano police spokesman, said in a special radio broadcast. He said the accused Christian escaped from being lynched and ran to the police station seeking protection, adding, We had to move him to the police headquarters here in Kano for protection.
Police have arrested some of the Muslim rioters, he said, adding that an investigation is underway. We have made several arrests of persons suspected of attempting to breach the peace while the suspect [accused Christian] is in our custody pending conclusion of the investigation, Mohammed said.
Nnamdi Ike, a Christian who witnessed the disturbances, told Compass in Kano that Muslim claims that a Christian painted an inscription insulting Muhammad were false. Christians have always been attacked on false claims of blasphemy, Ike said. No Christian wrote anything against Muhammad or Islam. It is all a lie. They just made this up to find a reason to attack us.
In the past year, four cases of false claims of blasphemy against Christians have been reported in Kano state, three in high schools and this latest one in the market area. The three alleged blasphemy cases in high schools were reported in the towns of Tudun Wada, Gwarzo, and Samaila. In all these public high schools, Christian students were attacked, injured or sent home from school.
Additionally, in 1994 Muslim fanatics beheaded Gideon Akaluka, a Christian held in a Kano prison over claims that he desecrated the Quran.
Posted by: anonymous5089 ||
04/26/2008 00:04 ||
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#1
I wait with baited breath for CAIR's condemnation of this mistreatment of a religious minority.
#4
THey Muhammadeans have been killing Christians off and on for years in Nigeria. My parish (Roman Catholic) already harbors a dozen refugees from that stuff (all of whom are on the citizen path, their loss is our gain of a good doctor a nurse and a civil engineer).
Kabul believes Germanys foreign intelligence service may have spied on several Afghan ministers, a newspaper said on Saturday, after news broke that the agency illicitly monitored the economy ministers emails.
The Afghan government believes the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) not only spied on emails between Mohammad Amin Farhang and a reporter for the German news weekly Der Spiegel, but also tapped Farhangs work and private phones, and may have spied on his colleagues too, according to German regional daily Mitteldeutsche Zeitung.
The fact that half a dozen Afghan ministers speak German may have facilitated the BNDs work, the newspaper wrote.
Der Spiegel reported late last week that Farhang had been the target of a spying operation that had involved one of its journalists. Now it is saying the entire computer network of the Afghan trade and industry ministry could have been under surveillance.
The incident of the email spying infuriated Farhang and sparked sharp criticism by a German parliamentary commission against the BND and its chief Ernst Urlau for undermining faith in the agency. I am appalled and repelled by these methods, which should not be used in a state respecting the rule of law. Such a thing must never be allowed to happen again, Farhang told Der Spiegel on Saturday.
Why?
Now Chancellor Angela Merkels chancellery office is launching a special investigation into whether the BND was spying on other Afghan ministers.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called his Afghan counterpart Rangeen Dadfar Spanta on Saturday to apologize, expressing regret over the spying of emails between Farhang and the journalist, a foreign ministry spokeswoman said. Urlau apologised personally to the Der Spiegel, journalist in question, Susanne Koelbl, whose emails were read by BND agents from June to November 2006.
The German government said Friday the incident had not prompted a formal protest from Kabul but that it would make efforts to smooth over matters.
While it remains unclear why the BND had set its sights on Farhang, who has a German passport and lived for several years in Germany, Der Spiegel, said he had been the source for several of its articles in recent years.
#2
Are the Germans such pussies nwo that they will not even engage in proper espionage?
ANd we put how many troops there for how many decades and how many dollars to defend these pissy fools?
Tell the Poles its time to "get some revenge" and roll the tanks and take Germany over. Theres not a set of balls left in the land of the gelded, Deutschland. Or better yet, invite the Russians in.
#3
Tell the Poles its time to "get some revenge" and roll the tanks and take Germany over. Theres not a set of balls left in the land of the gelded, Deutschland. Or better yet, invite the Russians in.
>:)
Old Spook we have a few nutless ones in our spy orgs. Better we send our geldings on extended German duties without offices, budgets, portfolios, or any clearances other than OPEN.
French police have smashed an international network that printed and sold fake British passports across Europe, reported The Daily Mail of UK yesterday. Around 20 people, mostly from Bangladesh and Pakistan, were arrested in this connection in co-ordinated raids across the Paris suburbs on Tuesday. All have been placed under official investigation, the daily added.
Officials at the French frontier police said they seized more than 100 forged British passports, as well as stamps used for forging British birth certificates and tax documents. They also found order forms and passport-size photographs of potential buyers. "The passports were being sold for between £2000 and £4000 to illegal immigrants in Britain, France, Belgium and Germany," said a spokesman of the frontier police. "We found more than 100 forged passports, all of very high quality.
These were destined to be sold to immigrants or others not entitled to British passport, and we have a list of potential buyers who had placed advance orders," he added.
The passports were being made in several separate buildings around Paris, and also in a mobile forging and printing unit based in a transit van. One of the "manufacturing units" was based in a specially adapted van that moved around the Paris region.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
20 people, mostly from Bangladesh and Pakistan
-------------------------------------------------
I would have figured Hungarians.
Posted by: George Smiley ||
04/26/2008 7:26 Comments ||
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#3
Couldn't have been French, though. The French know that there's nothing in Britain for them. The sex is bad, the food inedible and the wine is simply impossible. With bad f*****g, bad eating, and bad drinking no Frenchman could long survive.
Posted by: Jack Slineger4174 ||
04/26/2008 11:38 Comments ||
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The Obama campaign quietly removed from its official website a page managed by a fundraiser tied to the Islamic terrorist group Hamas.
The page for Hatem El-Hady former chairman of an Islamic charity closed by the U.S. government for terrorist fundraising listed Barack Obama's wife, Michelle, as one of three "friends" as recently as yesterday, according to blogger Charles Johnson.
But by yesterday morning, days after Johnson's "Little Green Football's" site drew attention to the El-Hady page, Michelle Obama's name had been removed. Then, later in the day, the entire page disappeared. more
LAHORE: Amidst appeals for clemency for Sarabjit Singh by his family and human rights activists, hundreds of students in Lahore took to the streets demanding that the Indian death row prisoner not be pardoned.
The students marched in the city on Friday and sought withdrawal of all official moves to pardon Sarabjit, sentenced to death for alleged involvement in the 1990 blasts in Punjab province. They also said he should not be made a "hero".
The demonstrators termed former Pakistani human rights minister Ansar Burney, who has sent a mercy petition on behalf of Sarabjit to President Pervez Mushrraf, an "Indian agent", The News reported on Saturday.
The students said if Sarabjit is released, they would launch a joint movement against the government.
The demands were made by student leaders while addressing a conference outside Lahore Press Club. They also protested against an anti-Quran movie by a Dutch lawmaker.
Tulaba Jamaatud Dawah chief Muzammil Iqbal Hashmi demanded that Burney should be arrested and tried for treason. He said the release of Sarabjit would "humiliate" the whole nation.
Holding banners and placards, the students shouted slogans and blocked roads. Their leaders also demanded a boycott of western products and culture and promotion of Islamic teachings.
Sarabjit's April 1 hanging was deferred for 30 days by President Pervez Musharraf. His family, which is in Lahore currently, is seeking clemency for the condemned man.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/26/2008 11:29 ||
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#1
It seems terribly easy to "humiliate" any muslim for any reason. I think some good old-fashioned a$$-kicking would help develop a greater sense of humility and humanitarianism for all muslims. Let it begin.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/26/2008 17:16 Comments ||
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#2
One of the reasons given by mullahs for the creation of Pakistan is "takleef".
Apparently Muslims in undivided India felt takleef because they had to walk past Hindus on their way to the mosque.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/26/2008 19:32 Comments ||
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Kathmandu: For nearly two centuries, Nepal's valiant Gurkha soldiers have battled their foes with guns and their lethal kukri knives, which tradition demands must draw blood every time it is unsheathed. But in a narrow lane off Nepal's parliament complex, they prepare for a battle of a different kind - not with weapons but printing machines and fliers. Their enemy: a life-altering new diktat from Nepal's rulers-elect, the Maoists.
The Maoists, who won a surprise election this month after a decade of civil war, want to stop a 200-year-old tradition of Gurkhas enrolling in the British and Indian armies, calling the practice humiliating and mercenary.
It is a charge the Gurkhas do not deny, but Nepal's crushing poverty and unemployment have pushed the valiant warrior tribe into a moral dilemma of choosing between dignity and livelihood. "Nothing stirs a Gurkha more than his honour dared, but here we are in a fix," said Mahendra Lal Rai, the general secretary of the largest former Gurkha soldiers group. "We do feel like mercenaries fighting for foreign armies, but who can deny our economic reality, our compulsions? We are caught between pride and practicality."
The Maoist threat is not yet set in stone. Chances are, if not the Gurkhas, the economic reality of Nepal will deter them.
Here is why: in Nepal's impoverished Himalayan foothills, Gurkha service is hugely popular. Last year some 17,500 applicants competed for 230 British army jobs. Gurkha privates in the British army begin their service on $28,000 (Dh102,760) a year, on the same pay scale and with the same pension as any British soldier. After they retire, the longer-serving will also receive a British old-age pension, payable in Britain, where they may settle, or in Nepal. An average Nepali, by contrast, earns less than $300 a year.
Remittances from Gurkhas and some two million Nepalis working abroad, many as maids in the Middle East and security guards in Iraq, amount to more than $1.1 billion every year.
"What is there in Nepal? Even if we get a job, will it pay as much as an overseas one?" said Manender Limboo, a Gurkha youngster who aspires to go abroad, even if as a British soldier.
Another reason for Gurkhas looking for jobs in foreign armies is caste-based discrimination in jobs in Hindu-majority Nepal, including in the army where soldiers from the Gurkha tribe rarely make it to a senior rank.
The Maoists, however, say opportunities will be given at home so that the recruitment centres of the British army in Nepal can be closed down and also hiring by the Indian army can be stopped. "Such obnoxious practice of your citizens joining foreign armies as mercenaries, this will be stopped," said Baburam Bhattarai, a top Maoist leader.
A tribe of about 3 million people living mostly in the Himalayan foothills of western and eastern Nepal, the Gurkhas' fierce combat skills, loyalty and courage made a strong impression on the British army during its unsuccessful invasion of Nepal in early 1800s. The British actively recruited Gurkhas into their colonial army from 1815 and soon set up Gurkha regiments. About 3,400 Gurkhas serve in the British army today and another 40,000 serve in the Indian army.
- The Gurkhas are legendary fighters who have served in the British army since 1815 when a peace agreement was clinched by the British East India Company after it suffered heavy casualties during an invasion of Nepal.
- The Gurkhas took part in the two world wars, the Falklands conflict and British operations in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, East Timor and Sierra Leone.
- More recently they have been deployed in Iraq. In 2007 Britain's Prince Harry trained with Gurkhas and lived with a Gurkha battalion during his 10 weeks in Afghanistan.
- From a peak of about 112,000 men in World War Two, their numbers in the British army have dwindled to about 3,400. Tens of thousands of Gurkhas also serve in the Indian army, including in counter-insurgency operations in the Himalayan territory of Kashmir and the northeastern states.
- Known for their valour and loyalty, the Gurkhas' trademark is their lethal kukri knife, which tradition demands must draw blood every time it is unsheathed. Gurkhas say nowadays the fabled knife is used more often in cooking.
- Each year, thousands of young Nepalis apply for about 230 places in the Gurkha brigade of the British army.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
So not only are they MAOISTS they want to get into a pissing match wiht Gurkhas?
U.S. occupation forces have killed more than 800 people, most of them innocent civilians, in their three-week long military campaign to subdue the Mahdi Army in Sadr City, the leader of Sadr movement in Baghdad said. Sheikh Salaman al-fariji ...
... who for some inexplicable reason is still alive ...
... said the troops have also injured more than 1,800 people and caused large-scale destruction of private property and the citys rickety infrastructure. Fariji made the remarks as he accompanied a delegation of 20 members of parliament on a tour of the impoverished city home to more than 2 million people.
U.S. troops have imposed a tight embargo on the city and bombing by war planes and helicopter gun ships in the densely populated Baghdad neighborhood continued even during the MPs tour.
Falah Shanshal, an MP, said the group would write to the parliament to lift the siege of Sadr City and reach a peaceful solution to the standoff with Mahdi Army.
Good luck with that.
Mahdi Army is the military wing of Sadr movement which has 30 deputies in parliament. The MPs were shocked by the scale of damage, said Fariji.
Shanshal said: The people of Sadr City undergo horrific humanitarian conditions as a result of U.S. military operations and embargo.
This article starring:
Sheikh Salaman al-fariji
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC ||
04/26/2008 04:00 ||
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#1
U.S. occupation forces have killed more than 800 people, most of them innocent civilians
#3
They sure don't act like brave freedom fighters that are winning.
They act more like craven douche-nozzles that know their time is short unless they find some friends to put a stop to this.
Some of you are, no doubt, sadly shaking your heads at this terrible news. As for me, I see great opportunites for my newly formed baby ducks, kittens and bunnnies exporting business.
Under pressure from Iraqi government troops and the American military, Moktada al-Sadr called on his followers to stop the bloodshed, unite with all Iraqis and focus their firepower on driving out the occupation forces, meaning the United States military and its foreign allies.
The statement, read at Friday prayers, appeared to be part of a carefully calibrated political strategy of keeping Mookie alive reaching out to his Iraqi brothers while threatening any Iraqis who work with the occupying forces.
So he's already crying like a Nancy-boy ...
It echoes the one Mr. Sadr, a rabidly nationalist Shiite cleric, made last year when he asked his Mahdi militia to halt its most aggressive activities, including most sectarian killings. That gambit improved his image nationally while allowing him to build up his own forces.
So he's trying to repeat the magic, not quite realizing that Basra and Sadr City are no longer his ...
In the statement Mr. Sadr, who is believed to be hiding in Iran, issued eight edicts in an effort to open the way for a negotiation with the Iraqi government, but also to shore up his own support. He instructed his followers to to wage open war against the Americans but forbade them from raising a hand against another Iraqi citizen. He also urged the Iraqi Army and Iraqi police to stop cooperating with the Americans, and he asked the government to purge the militias within the ranks of the police and the army. He said he would oppose any American military bases in Iraq.
He also issued a final warning to the Iraqi government to end its crackdown or face an open war until liberation.
But he quickly softened the threat, saying, If we have threatened with an open war until liberation, we have meant by it a war against the occupier.
Yeah, yeah, nancy-boy, why don't you come home and talk bad to us ...
The very public effort to calm the situation follows nearly a month of open fighting in Sadr City, Basra and several provinces in southern Iraq. It appeared to reflect an effort by Mr. Sadr to ensure that he'll still be alive in October his movement is able to compete effectively in local elections scheduled for October.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
The young Shia Cleric is having a moment perhaps.
Posted by: George Smiley ||
04/26/2008 7:48 Comments ||
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#2
Probably saw the casualty figures and realized the war would be MUCH shorter than he planned
Iraq's prime minister has set four conditions for stopping a government-led crackdown against radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia and other illegally armed groups. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki says the groups must hand over heavy and medium weapons. He says they must cease interference in the work and affairs of the state as well as the security forces. And he says they must hand over all wanted people and present lists of names of people involved in violence.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Not unlike a demand for Unconditional Surrender.
Efforts to negotiate a truce between Israel and the Islamic militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip have hit a snag. As Robert Berger reports from VOA's Jerusalem bureau, a deadly Palestinian attack has reinforced Israeli concerns.
Israel has rejected a Hamas proposal for a six-month ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. The proposal, drafted under Egyptian mediation, calls for Hamas to end rocket and other cross-border attacks and for Israel to lift its crippling blockade on Gaza.
Israel dismissed the truce offer hours after a Palestinian militant armed with a pistol entered an Israeli industrial zone on the border with the West Bank and killed two Israeli security guards. Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group claimed joint responsibility for the attack. "Israel is interested in peace," said Israeli spokesman David Baker. "We feel Hamas is not serious. Hamas is trying to buy time in order to rearm and regroup and get ready for its next offense against Israel. Israel will continue to take the necessary steps to protect its people."
Hamas brushed off Israel's rejection of the truce, saying Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman would visit Jerusalem next week to try and get the Israelis on board.
Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar told reporters in Gaza that a ceasefire is within reach and the ball is now in Israel's court. He said the goal of the truce is to end Israel's blockade on Gaza, but he warned that Hamas has other options for breaking the siege. He did not elaborate, but this month, Hamas has carried out a wave of attacks on Israeli border crossings.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2008 00:00 ||
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Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Friday he failed to achieve any progress in Middle East peace talks with President George W. Bush and he was returning home with little to show for his visit.
In an interview with The Associated Press, the Palestinian leader sounded pessimistic about the prospects of achieving any deal with Israel this year despite a big US push that began five months ago at a summit in Annapolis, Maryland. "Frankly, so far nothing has been achieved. But we are still conducting direct work to have a solution," Abbas said.
Abbas said the biggest obstacle is Israel's continued expansion of Jewish settlements on Palestinian-occupied territories. "We demanded the Americans implement the first phase of the road map that talks about the cessation of settlement expansion," Abbas said, expressing disappointment the US has not exerted more pressure on Israel to stop. "This is the biggest blight that stands as a big rock in the path of negotiations."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
They built houses and schools on it, you prolly arent getting it back.
The IDF has tightened regulations on farmers in the Jordan Valley who work land along the border with Jordan, out of concern that al-Qaida terrorists might try to kidnap them, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
The fears within the defense establishment have grown over the past year as threats from al-Qaida and global jihad elements against Israel have increased. The concern within the IDF's Jordan Valley Brigade is that farmers who work fields that are within Israel but on the other side of the border fence that is visible from the Jordan Valley Highway will be targeted, since there is barely any security in the area.
The border fence runs in some parts along the actual border, but in most sections, it fences in farmland that belongs to Israel. According to the new regulations, farmers need to coordinate their crossings of the border fence with the IDF so the military knows at all times of the number and identity of the Israelis who are there.
Israel and Jordan, defense officials said, have close security ties, and field commanders as well as higher-level defense officials meet regularly to discuss different issues, including the security situation along the border.
The IDF Jordan Valley Brigade conducts numerous patrols along the border and also lays ambushes throughout sections it believes are more vulnerable to infiltration. In contrast, the Jordanian military does not patrol the border, but maintains a large number of watchtowers where lone soldiers are stationed. "This is a real threat," a senior officer in the Central Command said. "It is no secret that al-Qaida is converging on our borders and the kidnapping of a farmer or a soldier would be a major success."
Al-Qaida's presence in the region is not new. For years, the defense establishment has warned of the looming threat, claiming that global jihad cells were bolstering their presence in Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2008 00:00 ||
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The briefing brought out key data hidden from the public in the eight months since the Israeli raid.
1. It confirmed DEBKAfiles October 2007 report that North Korean personnel had built a reactor for the production of plutonium for nuclear weapons in a hidden canyon of of eastern Syria.
2. Israel managed to plant a mole or moles inside the reactor compound capable of producing professional photos from inside the reactor. US lawmakers where shown, for instances, images of a concrete floor with rows of holes ready for the nuclear fuel rods to power the plant.
Assad must have been irked beyond endurance when his most coveted secrets and security were shown to the world as having been blown wide open, when the regime he heads depends for its survival on a battery of secret police and undercover agencies with eyes and ears everywhere.
3. The Israeli raid demonstrated too that Syrias military establishment has been penetrated as fatally as his clandestine agencies.
4. The congressional briefing will have done more to mar the relations of trust between Tehran and Damascus than any diplomatic or military action. Cracks are inevitable in their strategic pact. It will be hard for Iran to continue to pose as the No. 1 Middle East power after Syria, its foremost ally and military mainstay, exposed its extreme vulnerability.
5. Tehrans precise role in the Syrian nuclear program is not known, but it was obvious to the American lawmakers listening to the intelligence briefing that Syria would not have built a nuclear reactor with Irans knowledge and consent, and that the Syrian plant was designed to be an integral part of Irans own nuclear program.
Iran will no doubt have inferred from the disclosures about the Israeli attack on the Syrian reactor and its painful fallout for the Assad regime that its own projects may be subjected to the same fate.
It is a matter of record now that Israel is the only country in the world to have ever destroyed two nuclear reactors in successful go-it-alone, intelligence-backed military operations.
Posted by: Bernie ||
04/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
See WND > US WILL GIVE NUCLEAR FUEL TO ARAB STATES; + TOPIX > CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR-CNN - IS THE US TRYING TO FORCE A NUCLEAR STANDOFF?
#2
It's about to be three!!! Unless the US steps in (either through the back door; such as with Syria and Iraq) or the front door with Iraq in the 1st Gulf War, or potentially with Iran next; Israel may become only the second nation to nuke a country on the verge of developing nukes themselves (documents that escaped destruction from the Japanese surrender and later witness statements showed they were within a year also)! Should Israel preempt the Iranian nuclear threat with destruction, becoming the only nation to destroy three separate nations nuclear ambitions. Could have been 4 (UNHEARD OF)had the US not stepped in with the Lybian initiative!
#4
It's peculiar, I find Mr. Mendiolas commentary of more worth than StratFor or the EarlyBird. Young SMN is not in the same league, still an effort I suppose.
Posted by: George Smiley ||
04/26/2008 7:54 Comments ||
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#5
There is real meat in JosephM's comments. It's just a matter of learning how to translate his shorthand, and when he's switched from serious to Madonna or old television shows. Although in my ignorance it seems this count of smn's does make sense.
White House claims nuclear reactor in Syria bombed by Israel last year
International Atomic Energy Agency's chief says U.S. should have told agency sooner
Isn't that bass ackwards? ElBaradei is the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The U.S. would seem to have a major gripe with them over them purposely not noticing such things.
U.S. also says North Korea helped Syria build the covert nuclear reactor
Syria's envoy to U.S. denies his country worked with North Korea on nuclear program
"No, no! Certainly not!"
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
El-Baradei should be on the carpet as to why he wasn't aware. Asshole's on the wrong team. Can him
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/26/2008 0:13 Comments ||
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#2
Notice ElBaradei 'blasted' the US; not Israel who actually actuated the communications blackout and bombing, why...because he knows Israel doesn't give a s*** about his views, and Mossad has his REAL profile!
#4
Not trusting a UN agency run by an Arab---shocking! Don't these feral dhimmis realize that Islam cannot win unless they cooperate fully in their own enslavement?
#5
These clowns are starting to realize that muBarak Hussein is not a shoe in for the next President. Their worst nightmare could be a McCain who pushes a league of democracies to the detriment of UN power. We will hear more squealing from Turtle Bay as this reality sets in. October will be a fun month.
#7
"The director general views the unilateral use of force by Israel as undermining the due process of verification that is at the heart of the non-proliferation regime."
#8
I translate that double-speak as "Shame on you, we wouldn't do anything "So you should have done nothing as well"
How dare you solve the problem when we wouldn't?
(It goes on and on, but that's the essence. HOW DARE YOU)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/26/2008 13:31 Comments ||
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#9
So they are mad as us for letting IDF destroy a clandestine reactor before they could verify its existence?
Does that mean if you declare you have one you can do whatever you want? Or does that mean the the freaking IAFA was asleep at the switch again?
Freaking amazing. He gets the Iranians thumbing their collective radioactive noses at the world and he is put off because we didn't let him go through another political charade over verification?
Tell me are the inmates in charge of the asylum again?
The nation's top military officer said today that the Pentagon is planning for "potential military courses of action" against Iran, criticizing what he called the Tehran government's "increasingly lethal and malign influence" in Iraq.
They've been doing everything but hang a "kick me" sign on their national backside to bring it. Not because they can win a war with us, but because they think it'll bring the "Last Days."
Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said a conflict with Iran would be "extremely stressing" but not impossible for U.S. forces, pointing specifically to reserve capabilities in the Navy and Air Force. "It would be a mistake to think that we are out of combat capability," he said at a Pentagon news conference.
Still, Mullen made clear that he prefers a diplomatic solution to the tensions with Iran and does not foresee any imminent military action. "I have no expectations that we're going to get into a conflict with Iran in the immediate future," he said.
Mullen's statements and others by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates recently signal a new rhetorical onslaught by the Bush administration against Iran, amid what officials say is increased Iranian provision of weapons, training and financing to Iraqi groups that are attacking and killing Americans.
In a speech Monday at West Point, Gates said Iran "is hell-bent on acquiring nuclear weapons." He said a war with Iran would be "disastrous on a number of levels. But the military option must be kept on the table given the destabilizing policies of the regime and the risks inherent in a future Iranian nuclear threat."
Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, who was nominated this week to head all U.S. forces in the Middle East, is preparing a briefing soon to lay out detailed evidence of increased Iranian involvement in Iraq, Mullen said. The briefing will detail, for example, the discovery in Iraq of weapons that were very recently manufactured in Iran, he said. "The Iranian government pledged to halt such activities some months ago. It's plainly obvious they have not. Indeed, they seem to have gone the other way," Mullen said.
He said recent unrest in the southern Iraqi city of Basra had highlighted a "level of involvement" by Iran that had not been understood by the U.S. military previously. "It became very, very visible in ways that we hadn't seen before," he said.
But while Mullen and Gates have recently stated that Tehran must know of Iranian actions in Iraq, which they say are led by Iran's Revolutionary Guard, Mullen said he has "no smoking gun which could prove that the highest leadership [of Iran] is involved in this."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
2008-2012/13 {Vari NET] > NO US-IRAN WAR EVEEER, espec NLT 2010 > BOTH IRAN + ISLAMIST TERROR ARE MORE THAN LIKELY TO GO NUCLEAR. The US-ALLIES will no longer be able to undertake any kind of unilateral milaction unless are willing to risk MUTUALLY DESTRUCTIVE STRATEGIC NUCLEAR WARFARE OR RELATED NUCLEAR-WMD RETALIATION.
'Tis what ISRAEL fears.
ION, PHILIPPINES > GOVT. ANTICIPATES MILITANTS TO ESCALATE ATTACKS.
Keep your Prayers current, and Fingers crossed for PEACE.
#2
REALCLEARPOLITICS > WHY ISRAEL WON'T/CAN'T SURVIVE + NORTH KOREA REDUX; + TOPIX > ITS TOO LATE TO STOP NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION + DRUMS OF WAR ARE BEATING LOUDER.
#3
What is funny is that if the Dhimmocrats insist on running BO as their candidate in the fall, John McCain will wind up as President. Then, any hostile action by Iran is most likely to result in a really nasty response by McCain, who has made his dislike of Iran well known.
#5
If they want to show we're really serious, they should announce that we've resumed work on the enhanced radiation weapon. That would be worth just seeing Carter's reaction. Then the breeder reactor. See how much we owe him?
#7
Guys, there are always plans for all contingencies. Somewhere in the Pentagon is a drawer full of detailed plans, updated regularly, to invade Canada if need be. Or for that matter, Greenland, Iceland, or Lichtenstein.
#8
I was talking to a former (ret.) scientist who worked at Livermore Lab. He said "all nukes have enhanced radiation, some more than others". When I was commenting about Carter stopping Neutron bomb research/production, he just said: "hmmm" with a smile.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/26/2008 10:12 Comments ||
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#9
You mean they did not make any contingency plans until now?
We get one of these reports every three or four months.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2008 10:44 Comments ||
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#10
I thought Mullen went gently into that good night.
#11
Neutron bomb#8 I was talking to a former (ret.) scientist who worked at Livermore Lab. He said "all nukes have enhanced radiation, some more than others". When I was commenting about Carter stopping Neutron bomb research/production, he just said: "hmmm" with a smile.
I too have *heard* second hand, that we have 'Dial-a-Nukes'; IIRC some changes in the size and strength of Nukes, which would automatically include particle changes in certain weapons..
But if youse really want to get the straight poop: get a Nuke Clearance and ask someone who knows.
#14
I hope you're right, RD, but I doubt it. Something that big doesn't get done after Congress says don't do it. But I do like the dial-a-yield option.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/26/2008 19:01 Comments ||
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#16
I've been in PRP, so can't really comment on neutrons, nukes, etc.
But I'd say the JCS wouyld be remiss if they were NOT prepping plans for Iran, and doing so on a daily basis, at least for contingency pruposes. That's their damned job.
Israeli President Shimon Peres was quoted Friday as saying the only way for Syrian President Bashar Assad to regain the Golan Heights is to cut his relations with Iran and Hizbullah.
and that ain't gonna happen...
The daily Maariv said Peres made the remark in a confidential meeting. "Withdrawing from the Golan and reaching an agreement with Assad is not accepted in light of the present situation."
Since it'd be stoopid... But wait. If it's stupid, no doubt Olmert will consider it.
"We would not turn the Golan heights to the Iranians. Assad prefers Lebanon and the relation with Hizbullah to the Golan Heights. If they do not break their relations with Hizbullah and the Iranians, they can't have the Golan. Barak, Netanyahu and Rabin offered the Syrians all the heights, but they prefer Lebanon. We all want peace, but the question is what do we give up and what does the other side give up."
An aide to Peres quoted the Israeli president as saying "Israel would not accept changing Lebanon into a branch for Iran ... Assad is worried that he might lose his rule of Syria if he agreed on peace with Israel."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I guess the Knesset cafeteria been serving a lot of fish.
Hezbollah ally and opposition leader Michel Aoun called the Lebanese government weak for not waging war with Syria, prior to the occupiers withdrawal in 2005, highlighting his previous "brave" attempt which resulted in surrender and exile.
Yeah. If they had, the whole country coulda been exiled to Gay Paree.
In a statement to his political news channel on Friday, Aoun said the March 14 majority alliance "declared war on Syria when it left Lebanon. Had they been brave they would have confronted Syria on Lebanese terrain."
Had there been no March 14 alliance Syria wouldn't have left.
Aoun, in a statement to his Orange Television, said: "When I called for a war of liberation it was aimed at liberating Lebanon's land and I said that by achieving this goal the war would end. The goal has been achieved. So what is the reason for proceeding with the battle?"
"We have no interest but in building future relations, and we shouldn't be in collision with them. The relationship between the two nations should be neighborly and brotherly," he stressed.
Aoun said Premier Fouad Saniora's Government "rejects calls to look for those missing in their land (buried in mass graves), that is why we cannot hold Syria responsible first" for the Lebanese missing in its jails. "The government should find those buried in its land and the government is capable of doing this because there is no village that does not know the location of its mass grave and who is responsible for it, be they Palestinians or Lebanese militias. The government knows, The intelligence agencies know and many journalists know where the mass graves are," Aoun added.
He said a "minority" of those held in Syria had been held directly by the Syrian forces. The majority were either arrested by Lebanese police or held by pro-Syrian factions and turned on to the Syrians.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2008 00:00 ||
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned Syria on Thursday not to side with the Americans. "We must always be prepared to thwart the plans of the US in the region," Ahmadinejad told Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem in Teheran. "The Americans are on the verge of destruction" and "anyone who sides with them will also go the same way," Ahmadinejad said, according to the Iranian Students News Agency.
In his meeting with Moallem, Ahmadinejad called on Middle Eastern countries to "raise their alert in the face of the enemies' plots and make plans to foil them," his office said. The US government was embarking on numerous operations in the region due to its internal issues, the "dead end" its policy toward Iran and Syria had reached, and the upcoming US presidential election, he said.
Moallem mentioned the "sensitive situation" of the Palestinians, saying that "despite the blockade on Gaza and the continuing Israeli aggression, Gazans have succeeded in continuing the resistance under the leadership of Hamas and conducting their affairs." Therefore, he continued, "the peoples' movement of Hamas has gained strength."
The Syrian foreign minister also accused the US of making baseless accusations to create internal conflicts and divide the nations of the Middle East.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Is it just me, or is anyone else smelling change in Syrian foreign policy? After Saddam, the bombing of Iran's, er, Syria's breeder reactor, the talk of returning Golan, the declarations of Aoun. It seems like pencilneck is distancing himself from Iran.
#3
The head of the UN nuclear monitoring agency on Friday criticized the US for not giving his organization intelligence information sooner on what Washington says was a nuclear reactor...
IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei also chastised Israel for bombing the site seven months ago, in a statement whose strong language reflected his anger at being kept out of the picture for so long.
Methinks the Israelis are just a little bit suspicious of having a muslim in charge of nuke non-proliferation oversight for muslim countries. After all he had such stunning success in Iran. At last the Syrians weren't tipped off prior to the airstrike.
#4
Being of different background, the UN 'official' fails to grasp a basic concept of the West.
It is the responsibility of government to provide security in on's family, self, and property. If a government is unable or unwilling to provide that security, it is the right of one to provide one's own security.
Opposition MP Elias Skaff canceled a press conference scheduled for Thursday at his office in Zahle to avoid protesters angry with his alleged involvement in the murder of two government supporters earlier in the week. After Skaff's announcement, Phalange party and Lebanese Forces supporters moved a sit-in they intended to hold in front of the Popular Bloc offices in Zahle to the cemeteries where victims Nasri Marouni and Salim Assi were laid to rest.
March 14 official Michel Mouawad on Wednesday accused Hizbullah of sheltering Zahle criminal Joseph Zouki in south Lebanon in coordination with MP Elias Skaff. "Joseph Zouki is in south Lebanon within the framework of coordination between Hizbullah and MP Elias Skaff," Mouawad said from Bkirki.
Contacts and mediation efforts were underway Wednesday evening to soothe the tense situation and prevent any unanticipated consequences. Zahle Patriarch Gregorios III Lahham instructed former ambassador Fouad al-Turk to carry out the mediation efforts, An Nahar said.
Phalange party leader Amin Gemayel on Tuesday accused Skaff of "advance knowledge" of the Zahle crime and urged him to turn the culprits in to justice. Gemayel warned Skaff not to get himself, his supporters and the Zahle area involved "in a battle that is much bigger than you. Do not try to play with fire for you know what the Phalange Party is." He also urged him to "turn the culprits in, without delay, and we will be ready to confront anything."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2008 00:00 ||
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Iranians voted Friday in parliamentary run-off elections expected to leave conservatives firmly in control after the country's clerical leadership barred most reformist candidates, who support better relations with the West, from running. At stake are 82 of the 290 seats in parliament including 11 representing the capital Tehran.
In the first round, conservatives won 132 seats. But the conservatives, who are loyal to principles of the 1979 Islamic revolution, are divided between supporters of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and opponents. His supporters took 90 of the 132 conservative seats in the first round on March 14. Reformists won 31 seats and Independents won 39 seats.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2008 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
KANO, Nigeria, April 23 (Compass Direct News) Hundreds of Muslims took to the streets of this northern Nigerian city on Sunday (April 20), attacking Christians and their shops and setting vehicles on fire on claims that a Christian had blasphemed Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. Thousands of Christians were trapped in churches until police dispersed rioters. Fearing that Muslims may attack again, many Christians have relocated to army and police barracks in the city. 
Kabul believes Germanys foreign intelligence service may have spied on several Afghan ministers, a newspaper said on Saturday, after news broke that the agency illicitly monitored the economy ministers emails.
French police have smashed an international network that printed and sold fake British passports across Europe, reported The Daily Mail of UK yesterday. Around 20 people, mostly from Bangladesh and Pakistan, were arrested in this connection in co-ordinated raids across the Paris suburbs on Tuesday. All have been placed under official investigation, the daily added.
U.S. occupation forces have killed more than 800 people, most of them innocent civilians, in their three-week long military campaign to subdue the Mahdi Army in Sadr City, the leader of Sadr movement in Baghdad said. 
Under pressure from Iraqi government troops and the American military, Moktada al-Sadr called on his followers to stop the bloodshed, unite with all Iraqis and focus their firepower on driving out the occupation forces, meaning the United States military and its foreign allies. 
Israeli President Shimon Peres was quoted Friday as saying the only way for Syrian President Bashar Assad to regain the Golan Heights is to cut his relations with Iran and Hizbullah.
