An influential adviser to the U.S. commander in Afghanistan declared Friday that anything less than 25,000 extra international troops in the country would not be enough to win. That's 25,000 troops spread out over a country the size of Afghanistan. Yeah, that ought to do the trick. Assuming you want to draw this conflict out over the next 100 years and fret about the high cost of the war and the deaths of American soldiers.
David Kilcullen, who also advised U.S. commanders in Iraq, told CNN's Christiane Amanpour the window of opportunity to turn around the war is closing.
Kilcullen's comments came as President Barack Obama, only hours after being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, again met with his top advisers to discuss strategy and troop levels in Afghanistan.
The U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, is reportedly asking for up to 40,000 extra troops. Some reports say there is an option on the table to send 60,000 additional troops, almost doubling the U.S. force now in the country. That's more like it. Git 'er dun!
Kilcullen, who has just come back from Afghanistan -- said the Obama administration needs to finish the strategy review as soon as possible. While the war is not as bad as some say, "it's worse than any other time in the past," he said.
He identified three critical problems in Afghanistan: the lack of legitimacy for the government, the existence of safe havens for terrorists across the border in Pakistan, and the lack of military resources.
He said it will not be possible to protect the Afghan population -- the key to any counterinsurgency strategy -- without a substantial input of additional resources.
Security in major population centers in Afghanistan is vital, Kilcullen said, as the perceptions of the Afghan people are critical to turning around the war.
"People are angry at the coalition sometimes, not because we are there, but because we are not providing security," he said. Nothing else will matter if the counterinsurgent forces do not control the environment, he asserted.
It also is critical to end the corruption that feeds the violence, he said. Corruption creates anger and bad government, which creates space for the Taliban, which in turn leads to poppy cultivation across the country, he said. That floods the country with money, which creates even more corruption.
But Kilcullen spoke positively about some aspects of the efforts to defeat the insurgency. He said he has never seen a better leadership team in the International Security Assistance Force, the U.S. military, and the American Embassy. In addition, he said, the Afghan military has improved, though he noted there are still problems with the Afghan police.
In Kilcullen's view, the biggest problem is with the civilian leadership in Afghanistan.
* SAME > [Prof-Scholar]NATIONALISTS IN NORTH KOREA WAGE GUERILLA WAR IN MANCHURIA [after end or fall of KIM REGIME + SOKOR's "takeover of PYONGYANG + YALU RIVER REGIONS]???; + BURMA STEPS UP BANGLADESH BORDER TENSIONS, BUT WHY?/ BURMA FASCIST BUDDHISTS SPREAD LIES ABOUT CHINESE AND MUSLIM MINORITIES.
[Iran Press TV Latest] After facing allegations of attempting to cover up evidence of cheating in Afghanistan's presidential election, the head of UN mission in the country admits "significant fraud" affected the August vote.
Responding to the accusations made by his sacked deputy, Peter Galbraith, that he had concealed evidence of vote rigging, Kai Eide told reporters on Sunday that he had no doubt that fraud had taken place during the election but any effect on the result remained unclear.
"It is true that in a number of polling stations in the south and the southeast there was significant fraud," Eide told a news conference in Kabul. "The extent of that fraud is now being determined".
"It has been claimed that there was 30 percent fraud. There is no way to know at this stage what the level of fraud is. No one knows. I can only say there was widespread fraud," he continued.
Galbraith -- an American diplomat who was dismissed from his post at the end of September -- had claimed that his former boss had allowed voting irregularities to occur in the run-up to and after the country's August 20 election in favor of the incumbent president, Hamid Karzai.
Galbraith says Eide had failed to stop polling stations from opening in areas that were too dangerous for monitors to visit and banning his staff from handing over evidence that showed that actual voter turnout was far lower than reported.
The US, British, French and German ambassadors and the European Union's special representative to Afghanistan accompanied Eide during his news conference but none of them spoke and journalists were prevented from asking questions.
Final results are expected to be announced by the end of this week, with preliminary results putting President Karzai well ahead of his nearest rival, Abdullah Abdullah.
Karzai has secured about 55 percent of the vote, while Abdullah is on 28 percent.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2009 00:00 ||
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Well, they're at least up front about unlike the officials in Minnesota. The ACORN way keeps democracy away.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Four Sudanese who face the death penalty for killing a U.S. diplomat dismissed their defense team on Sunday, denounced the trial as political and labeled the United States murderers of Muslims.
The court sentenced the men to death in June for shooting dead 33-year-old John Granville, who worked with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and his driver in their car in Khartoum on January 1 last year.
Granville, from Buffalo, New York, was the first U.S. official to be killed in Khartoum for more than 30 years and the New Year's Day murders shocked the expatriate community there.
Procedural problems meant the death sentence is being reconsidered. At a Sunday hearing the convicted men waived their right to a defense. "This case is a political trial and we release our defense team," Abdel Basit al-Hajj Hassan said, speaking on behalf of all four.
Another, Mohaned Osman, called Granville a "kafir", or disbeliever, and said: "The Americans killed Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan and even in Darfur."
Mother's demand
Under Sudanese law, the families of murder victims can choose blood money or the death penalty for retribution. Granville's mother demanded the death penalty for his killers, according to a letter read out in court on Sunday.
Under Islamic law, the court at the time of issuing the death sentence asked Abbas' family whether it wanted the men executed, or chose to forgive them or receive compensation to spare their lives. The family opted for execution, but his father has since said he forgave the men.
Granville's mother Jane Granville at the time wrote the court a letter also demanding their execution, but it was rejected because it had not been properly notarized. In the letter read out in Arabic by a prosecutor on Sunday, Granville wrote: "I say, with a torn heart, there is no option before me: a death sentence is the only sentence that safeguards the lives of others from those who killed my beloved son."
The court will ask Abbas's widow on Monday if she wants the death sentences carried out. The court can decide to carry out the execution even if the family opts for compensation or to forgive the men.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2009 00:00 ||
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Using sweeping security codes passed after the Sept. 11 attacks, the United Arab Emirates' highest court convicted an American citizen Monday on terrorism-related charges amid claims that torture was used to extract his confession.
The four-month trial of Naji Hamdan also was carried out without making public details of the accusations -- showing the tight lid on information over security matters in a nation that promotes itself as the West's foothold in the Gulf.
Anti-terrorism laws in the Emirates, passed in the aftermath of the 2001 U.S. terrorist attacks, have been often expanded to muzzle political dissent and have drawn sharp criticism from international rights groups.
The court sentenced Hamdan, an American of Lebanese origin, to 18 months in prison after facing three terrorism-related charges, including having ties an al-Qaida group in Iraq. But Hamdan -- who denied the allegations -- should be freed soon because the sentence takes into account the time he spent in custody since his arrest here last year. Once he serves his time, Hamdan is to be deported from the country.
Hamdan said he was not politically active after he moved with his family back to the Middle East in 2006 after living in the United States for almost 20 years. He was an active member of the Islamic community in the Los Angeles area, where he ran a successful auto parts business.
He said the FBI began questioning him about whether he had terrorist ties in 1999. He was never charged with any crime in the United States.
It sounds like the FBI shared what they'd learnt with their counterparts in the UAE, who have fewer compunctions. I suspect that if the FBI actually was moved to question Mr. Hamdan two years before 9/11, he was involved in some pretty serious stuff.
Posted by: ed ||
10/12/2009 15:01 ||
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WMF > CERN ARREST: FRENCH FEAR AL QAEDA -LINKED CERN SCIENTIST [AQ-In-Islamic-Mahgreb/North Africa]WAS CONSPIRING TO LAUNCH NUCLEAR TERROR STRIKES AGZ BRITAIN AND OTHER NATIONS ALIGNED WID THE USA.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Yemen's leader of the Zaidi Shiite rebels, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, said on Saturday he is ready for a "dialogue" proposed by opposition leaders after two months of bloody battles with government troops in the northern province of Saada.
"We are ready for dialogue, to respond positively to all national initiatives and to stand alongside all honorable people wanting to save the country from corruption and injustice," Houthi said in a statement aired on Al Arabiya TV.
Last month an opposition alliance urged Sanaa to halt Operation Scorched Earth, launched against the rebels on Aug. 11, and to also promote development in Yemen's south in order to preserve the unity of the impoverished country.
Houthi did not specifically mention the possibility of dialogue with the government, which accuses the rebels of being supported by Iran, a charge the Zaidis and Tehran deny.
But rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdessalam told the AFP news agency: "We are ready for dialogue with all political parties in Yemen including the government." His group would accept "Yemeni or Arab" mediation aimed at a ceasefire.
A government official who asked not to be named said the rebels should meet the six conditions the state has set for a ceasefire.
"We are pleased the rebels are opening up to dialogue but they must fully comply with the six points set by the government at the start of the war," he told AFP.
1. Surrender
2. Pay jizya, like the Jews did before they all left. The government coffers are starting to look a bit empty.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2009 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Holding trial of all Razakars (local collaborators of Pakistan occupation forces during the Liberation War) is under government consideration, and a complete list of them will be prepared at a convenient time, the state minister for liberation war affairs informed the House yesterday.
Replying to lawmakers' queries, ABM Tajul Islam also said a list of Razakars was prepared during the war.
"We have received part of the list. We will now prepare a complete list of Razakars and Al Badr members," the state minister said.
"Ya wanna stay off that list, it'll cost ya. Call my secretary to make an appointment."
The government wants to bring all of them to book. The process of their trial will begin with the trial of war criminals, he added.
Tajul Islam said the government has planned to build a replica of boat at the Shishu Park at Shahbagh in the capital so that people get a scope to know the history of the Liberation War.
"Bangabandhu (Sheikh Mujibur Rahman) delivered the historic March 7 speech from a dais built on a boat at the site where the Shishu Park was set up later," he said.
The state minister said the then military ruler Ziaur Rahman set up the park at the historic place to destroy the history of the Liberation War.
"The prime minister has instructed us not to demolish the Shishu Park since it has become a place for children's amusement. We will develop the park and also build a replica of boat," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2009 00:00 ||
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To state the obvious, but things are getting scary in a 1930's sort of way. The deed was right out of Stalin's playbook in a "Missing Commisar" sort of way, and the objects of deletion would have warmed Goebbel's heart (if he had had one).
MI5 learn he worked at top-secret British lab, investigate brilliant scientist's links to world-famous Rutherford Appleton nuclear research centre
Last night fears were growing that Dr Adlene Hicheur — who was a researcher for the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire for a year — could have been planning a nuclear attack in the UK. His brother Dr Halim Hicheur, 25, carries out research at similar high-security scientific institutions around Europe.
The brothers' council flat was stormed at 6am last Thursday by eight masked officers from the elite Central Directorate of Interior Intelligence (CDII), the French equivalent of MI5, and 20 armed riot officers. A battering ram was used to break the lock and the warning 'Armed police!' shouted. Large-calibre machine pistols and other weapons were aimed at those inside the flat, including the brothers' parents and sisters. The family has had the same flat for 30 years.
One wonders what the French expected to find there.
Secret agents had been monitoring the brothers' movements, and all their phone calls, text messages and emails were being bugged 'in real time and minute by minute', according to a security source. The source said that Adlene Hicheur had been 'pinpointing nuclear targets' but would not be more specific. French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said both men posed such a serious threat that he had halted the long-running surveillance operation and ordered their 'immediate' arrest.
Mr Hortefeux said the apparently mild-mannered, highly religious brothers were a 'high-level threat' who were suspected of 'criminal activities related to a terrorist group'.
Last night, MI5 was understood to be examining their British links amid fears that they were plotting to launch a nuclear attack in the UK. A spokesman for the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory refused to release details about Adlene Hicheur's time there. Fears were growing that the men may have been in a position to smuggle nuclear material out of a secure lab for use in a 'dirty bomb' attack, or to plant explosives inside the sensitive facility.
According to European intelligence sources, MI5 had been warned that the suspects 'are outstanding scientists who had been honing their techniques in nuclear fusion across the world. 'There are genuine fears that they were locating terrorist targets, especially in countries like France and Britain. Their level of expertise in nuclear fusion was improving all the time, leading to the terrifying scenario of a terrorist nuclear attack.'
The arrests followed surveillance that had logged the French-Algerians' 'every word and every move', including frequent visits to England. The police will want to question anyone who has worked with or studied alongside either man at Britain's scientific research centres or universities.
The brothers first came to the attention of French anti-terrorist officers when their names cropped up in an investigation trying to identify French jihadists fighting Nato forces in Afghanistan.
The decision to arrest them followed the interception of internet exchanges with people identified as having links to terrorists in Algeria. The messages reportedly included information on potential targets in France and elsewhere in Europe. The brothers' British links included Adlene's work for the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, as well as research at university cities including London, Manchester, Durham, Edinburgh and St Andrews. They had also spent time studying at Ivy League universities in the US.
European intelligence sources said that Adlene Hicheur, who studied at Stanford University in California before moving to Oxfordshire, had expressed a 'very strong wish to carry out attacks anywhere where Western security interests can be damaged'. This included 'countries like Britain and any others where Americans are well represented', the source added, making it clear that neither brother had yet 'carried out an attack nor put the material into place to do so'.
The Mail on Sunday has learned that Adlene Hicheur used to work at another atomic collider — the two-mile long Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC) at Stanford University in 2001.
Sen. John McCain said any added military deployment in Afghanistan smaller than the 40,000 troops reportedly requested by the top U.S. commander there "would be an error of historic proportions."
Asked whether he thought the war in Afghanistan could be won with fewer troops than Gen. Stanley McChrystal has reportedly requested, McCain said, "I do not."
The Arizona Republican, who was defeated by President Obama in the 2008 presidential election, spoke in a wide-ranging interview that aired Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."
"I think the great danger now is a half-measure, sort of a -- you know, try to please all ends of the political spectrum," McCain told CNN chief national correspondent John King. "And, again, I have great sympathy for the president, making the toughest decisions that presidents have to make, but I think he needs to use deliberate speed."
Disregarding requirements that have been "laid out and agreed to" by Central Command head Gen. David Petraeus and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen "would be an error of historic proportions," McCain said when asked whether 10,000 or 20,000 additional troops in Afghanistan would suffice.
Also Sunday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said U.S. troops would be put in "jeopardy" if Obama does not listen to McChrystal.
"I don't know how you put somebody in who's as crackerjack as Gen. McChrystal, who gives the president very solid recommendations, and not take those recommendations if you're not going to pull out," the California Democrat said on ABC's "This Week."
Feinstein was one of many members of Congress who discussed the situation in Afghanistan with Obama last week. Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," she called on Obama to make a decision "sooner, rather than later." That's a turnaround from her position two weeks ago when she expressed support for Obama's wait-and-see approach on Afghanistan.
The president and his top military, national security and foreign policy advisers are in the midst of an intensive strategic review of the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. McChrystal is advocating a counterinsurgency strategy similar to the so-called "surge" in Iraq -- which McCain championed. Vice President Joe Biden is advocating a counterterrorism strategy focused more on using drone aircraft and special forces to rid Afghanistan of al Qaeda militants along the Pakistan border.
As Obama continued a planned series of meetings with his war council, last week a remote U.S. outpost in Afghanistan was attacked by hundreds of insurgents, leading to the deaths of eight Americans during the single incident. The fierce firefight has become part of the ongoing debate about how many troops are necessary to accomplish the United States' goals in the country.
"Adm. Mullen and Gen. McChrystal and Gen. Petraeus have said the situation is deteriorating. Just over the last several days, as you know, week or so, we've lost 10 more brave young Americans. And the longer we delay the decision, the longer it will be before we provide them with what the needed resources are," McCain said on "State of the Union."
And pointing to the successful "surge" in Iraq that involved a broad, troop-intensive counterinsurgency strategy, in which Petraeus and McChrystal both played roles, McCain suggested that rather than delay, the president should follow the strategic advice that the two generals have already set out.
"The strategy that was developed by Gen. Petraeus in particular, but also with Gen. McChrystal as his strong right arm, did succeed there [in Iraq]," McCain told King. "Should we risk going against the advice and counsel of our best and strongest advisers, those we've given the responsibility? ... This is a very tough decision, but I do again argue for some deliberate speed, because our allies in the region are beginning to get the impression that perhaps we are wavering."
McCain also weighed in on Friday's surprise announcement that Obama has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. "I can't divine all their intentions," McCain said of the Nobel Committee that awards the prestigious international honor, "but I think part of their decision-making was expectations. And I'm sure the president understands that he now has even more to live up to."
McCain on health care reform, Palin
On the domestic front, McCain said his party needs to be prepared for the next phase of the health care reform debate, likely to begin as soon as the last of five reform bills is put to an expected vote Tuesday in the Senate Finance Committee.
"We Republicans need to come up with our agenda, and we need to do it so that there is a viable alternative to this [legislation in the Senate Finance Committee]. And it has to do with things that are not associated with government-controlled health care in America.
"And there are many, many things we can do -- medical malpractice reform, go across state lines to get insurance policies of your choice, refundable tax credits -- there's a long list of things that we can and should propose as we enter this debate."
Asked whether he would vote for the version of health care reform legislation championed by finance committee chairman Max Baucus, D-Montana, if it came to the Senate floor, McCain said he would have to wait and see what the final Senate version of reform legislation looks like.
As the release date approaches for his former running mate's new book, "Going Rogue: An American Life," McCain openly admitted that there were tensions between his former campaign manager Steve Schmidt and those close to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
Still, McCain called Palin "a formidable force" in the GOP and said he remains open to the possibility of Palin being his party's presidential nominee in 2012. "I have great affection for her," McCain continued. But "did we always agree on everything in the past? Will we in the future? No."
While McCain said he could not predict what would happen in the next presidential election, the Arizona Republican said he is open to many potential nominees for his party -- including Palin.
#1
Trying to innoculate against the criticism he fears in Palin's book, and that will be generated by others even if she avoids nailing him directly I suspect.
#2
She won't knock him directly, nor should she indirectly. He's very useful to her, and he's the past as far as the game she's now in.
Besides, he's her entree into the other side of the GOP.
She's got far too many opportunities farther to the left - anyone think we've heard the last of "community organizing" or "death panels"? How about "beltway community organized death panels"? It's a target rich arena.
Good to see the Sen. back on point on security - that's his strength and he needs to play to it.
#3
the GOP needs to get away from Palin. Find someone qualified, there are lots of women who are going to fit that bill who are republicans. Bandwagons can be quite harmful especially when everyone is brainlessly supporting a pawn, get a leader, and then support them, whoever they end up choosing.Please!
#5
Riiiight, 746. We should always happily support whoever the elite choose for us. It worked out so well for McCain, didn't it?
Palin may not be the best choice in 2012, true. But I think I'd rather listen to what she has to say than Peggy Noonan or George Will, thank you very much.
#6
Actually Palin has more experience and decision making skills that most of the present leadership of both parties. She just didn't have a bottomless pit of money to fight the frivolous lawsuits that are allowed in Alaska laws.
Pakistani security forces are investigating possible links between the sole surviving militant from the army headquarters siege and an attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team earlier in the year, said officials on Sunday. Military officials said they had arrested the ringleader of the group -- identified as Aqeel alias Doctor Osman. Military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas said Aqeel initially managed to flee and detonated a cache of explosives, injuring five security personnel, but was eventually injured and arrested. He told AFP that Aqeel appeared to have the same name and alias as one of the terrorists wanted in connection with the March gun-and-grenade attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2009 00:00 ||
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Mohammad Aqeel alias Dr Osman, the injured terrorist commander captured by security forces from the General Headquarters (GHQ) on Sunday morning, is a member of a Punjab-based militant group with links to Baitullah Mehsud's Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Sources say Aqeel, who was ostensibly the leader of terrorists who attacked the military headquarters, hails from Kahuta tehsil of Rawalpindi. Muhammad Aqeel, who has also served in the Army Medical Corps, left the army in 2006 and joined Maulana Masood Azhar's Jaish-e-Muhammad. Later, he joined the Qari Saifullah Group under the command of Ilyas Kashmiri. As Dr Osman, he briefly worked with the Pakistan Army Surgeon General Army Lt Gen Dr Mushtaq, who was killed in a terrorist attack in Rawalpindi, an attack which he was allegedly involved with.
Sources said Aqeel was also the brains behind the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore. He was also involved in planning attacks on former president Pervez Musharraf and prime minister Shaukat Aziz.
Earlier, police had arrested another operative of Aqeel's network in Punjab. Zubair alias Nek Muhammad, who was involved in the March 3 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, had told police what he knew about Aqeel.
The Taliban hostage-taker arrested after a brazen attack on the headquarters of the army on Saturday is believed to be a member of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, an Al Qaeda-linked group based in Punjab.
Here are some facts about some of the major groups in Punjab.
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) is one of the most notorious Al Qaeda-linked groups with roots in the province. It also has forged strong ties with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) operating in the Tribal Areas. A senior leader of LJ, Qari Muhammad Zafar, appeared before a group of journalists in South Waziristan last week along with new TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud.
Zafar carries a $5 million reward from the US on his head for his suspected involvement in a bomb attack on the US consulate in Karachi. LJ emerged as a sectarian group in the 1990s targeting member sof the Shia community and later graduated to more audacious attacks, such as the truck bombing of Islamabad's Marriott Hotel last year in which 55 people were killed, as well as an assault on a Sri Lankan cricket team in which seven Pakistanis were killed. Six members of the team and a British coach were wounded.
LJ was outlawed in Pakistan in August 2001. LJ members are also involved in violence in Afghanistan. A security official told Reuters about two dozen Taliban linked to LJ and two other groups, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) and a splinter faction of Jaish-e-Muhammad, were suspected to be behind several attacks in Punjab in recent months.
Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan is a pro-Taliban anti-Shia group based in central Punjab. The group was banned in 2002 but officials say its members were suspected of involvement in attacks in the province in recent months, including the burning to death of seven Christians on suspicions of blasphemy in Gojra in August.
Jaish-e-Muhammad is a major group with links to the Taliban and Al Qaeda. It was banned in Pakistan in 2002 after it was blamed for an attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001. The group was founded by firebrand cleric Maulana Azhar Masood shortly after his release from an Indian jail in exchange for 155 passengers of an Indian airliner hijacked to the southern Afghan city of Kandahar in December 1999.
The group focused its fighting on the Indian part of divided Kashmir but later forged links with Al Qaeda and the Taliban and was suspected of involvement in several high profile attacks including the murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002 and an assassination attempt on former president Pervez Musharraf. Rashid Rauf, a British militant suspected of being ringleader of a 2006 plot to blow up airliners over the Atlantic, was also a Jaish member. Masood was arrested by Pakistani authorities shortly after the group was banned but security officials say he has disappeared since 2005.
Jaish fighters are also involved in violence in northwest Pakistan and across the border in Afghanistan.
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LT) was founded in 1990 to fight Indian rule in Kashmir. It was blamed for the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in November last year that killed over 170 people. LT was also blamed for the late 2001 Indian parliament attack and was also banned in Pakistan in 2002.
Seven LT-linked militants are being tried for suspected involvement in the Mumbai assault but India is insisting Pakistan prosecute its founder, Hafiz Saeed, who India says was the attack mastermind. A UN Security Council committee last year added Jamaatud Dawa, a charity headed by Saeed, to a list of people and organisations linked to Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
This article starring:
Hafiz Saeed
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Hakimullah Mehsud
TTP
Maulana Azhar Masood
Jaish-e-Muhammad
Qari Muhammad Zafar
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
Rashid Rauf
Jaish-e-Muhammad
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2009 00:00 ||
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While Israel kept a low official profile Sunday on Turkey's cancellation of a joint military exercise, defense officials said advanced weapons sales to Turkey would now be reviewed, and a leading academic expert on Israeli-Turkish relations suggested ending support for Turkey on the Armenian genocide issue in Washington if the deterioration in ties continues.
According to defense officials, several Turkish requests are currently under consideration by the Defense Ministry's Foreign Defense Assistance and Defense Export Organization (SIBAT). These will now need to be reviewed due to the change in the diplomatic ties between Jerusalem and Ankara.
Ooooo -- consequences. I like what Prime Minister Netanyahu's government is doing.
Ma'an -- Caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad joined US Consul General Daniel Rubinstein in the West Bank village of Abud, outside of Ramallah, to take part in the community's annual olive harvest.
Rubinstein also met with the Palestinian Authority Minister of Agriculture and members of the local community.
"The symbolism of the olive harvest to Palestinian identity and Palestinian political aspirations is clear, and I am pleased to be able to be here today to underscore US support for the Palestinian people," Rubenstein said in a statement after the photo-op olive-picking session.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2009 00:00 ||
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#2
Salam Fayyad is about the best Palestinian that has ever been in their govt. He is more honest than most American or Israeli elected officials (obviously more honest than Paleo officials) and has almost no inclination toward violence.
Having the US Consul cuddle up to Fayyad may, in the long run, not be so good for Fayyad's image but it has probably only a minimal effect. On the other hand the relationship between the IDF and the PA police has improved hugely under Fayyad with the PA police (with IDF support) now able to keep tabs on many, many Hamas activists.
Posted by: lord garth ||
10/12/2009 9:00 Comments ||
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#3
You realize, of course , those Olives picked by US Consul General Daniel Rubinstein will be markd "Unclean" and trashed.
They were touched by a (Yuck) JEW.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/12/2009 14:16 Comments ||
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#4
They might be sold to Israel, Redneck Jim. Israel used to be big customer of Palestinian produce.
[Al Arabiya Latest] A United States presidential envoy ended a Middle East shuttle mission on Sunday with no sign of any imminent resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks despite President Barack Obama's pledge to broker a peace deal.
George Mitchell met Israel's prime minister again on Sunday after dashing to Egypt as part of an uphill task to bring Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table.
The former U.S. senator met for an hour in Jerusalem with Benjamin Netanyahu, officials said, after separate meetings on Friday with the hawkish premier and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
Netanyahu's office said at the end of the meeting, which was also joined by Defence Minister Ehud Barak, that two senior aides to the premier would travel this week to Washington for more talks.
Mitchell, who did not speak after the meeting, had earlier told reporters in Cairo that "everyone who truly believes in peace has to take responsibility to take actions to achieve that goal."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
For some reason, der Juden refuse to get on the train?
HT to Weasel Zippers
Israel has demanded that the United Nations investigate an explosion at a Hezbollah house in southern Lebanon on Monday, which it said proved munitions were being stockpiled in violation of a truce.
Hezbollah has denied that the explosion that rocked a south Lebanon house was serving as a munitions bunker, and rejected media reports that a senior group official was killed in the blast.
An Israel Defense Forces source said the explosion indicated the Iranian-backed guerrilla group Israel fought in a month-long war in 2006 was keeping "banned ammunition" in southern Lebanon. "The Israeli military has asked UNIFIL to open an investigation," the source said, using the acronym for a United Nations peacekeeping force that has patrolled the troubled Israeli-Lebanese border area for more than three decades.
The cause of the blast appeared to be accidental, reports from Lebanon said. An Israeli military spokeswoman also confirmed Israel had "nothing to do" with the incident.
Lebanese media said that a senior official and at least three others were killed in a blast in a three-story building in the southern Lebanese village of Tayr Filsi, on the southern bank of the Litani River.
Lebanese media named the official as Saeed Nasser and security sources listed his son among the fatalities.
Hezbollah denied that the house was being used as an arms depot and said that the munitions that caused the blast had belonged to the Israel Defense Forces and were left over from the 2006 Second Lebanon War.
The group also said that nobody had been killed in the explosion and only one person wounded.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/12/2009 19:05 ||
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nobody had been killed in the explosion
Or at least there were no body parts recovered that were large enough to identify as human.
He told his family he was going on a pilgrimage to Mecca.
Instead, the second-year college student packed a vinyl travel bag and left home in Saudi Arabia for a trip that would take him on a smuggling route across the Syrian border and into the heart of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq.
So began the underground life of safe houses, aliases and hit-and-run attacks of another Islamic foot soldier recruited to battle the U.S. military and its Iraqi allies.
The story recounted to The Associated Press in a rare interview with a captured foreign fighter is not one of extraordinary daring or singular cunning. It's about one of the anonymous trigger-pullers in alleys or roadsides in this case, an ordinary history major who became a rank-and-file gunslinger for insurgent commanders.
The journey of Mohammed Abdullah al-Obeid offers a window into how extremist networks manage to replenish their ranks by combing campuses, markets and mosques for those willing to take up arms in Iraq and now increasingly in Afghanistan. Even with violence in Iraq tailing off, authorities are concerned that the same clandestine channels used to bring the young al-Obeid into Iraq in late 2005 are still in operation and can be expanded at any time.
Posted by: ed ||
10/12/2009 15:09 ||
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It all comes down to education from a young age whether in state Saudi education or listening to the Mullahs/Parents.
Until Muslims reject the 'Us and them' mentality they will never live in with peace with any religion!
#2
It doesn't seem like Muslims have ever been able to live at peace with each other, let alone with outsiders. They have a consistent history of violence that is tolerated and encouraged by their religion, family, and tribe. Peace for many comes with death, either the death of their enemy or their own.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/12/2009 16:44 Comments ||
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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.
[Iran Press TV Latest] After facing allegations of attempting to cover up evidence of cheating in Afghanistan's presidential election, the head of UN mission in the country admits "significant fraud" affected the August vote. 
