[Pak Daily Times] The Taliban called on the US Congress on Sunday to send a "fact-finding mission" to Afghanistan to investigate what they called the lies and propaganda spread by American military chiefs to prolong the war. The statement, addressed to "Messers American Congressmen," was emailed to AFP and signed by Qari Mohammad Yousuf Ahmadi, "spokesman of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan".
It suggested that the US Congressional team travel throughout Afghanistan to uncover "ground realities" it said are being concealed by military leaders eager to give the impression of victory.
The resistance to the US-led war against the Taliban was indigenous, the group said, contrary to claims by Washington it was influenced from outside the country.
The Taliban occasionally issue such statements, which are generally dismissed by Washington and its partners backing the Kabul government. "Can a few militants stand up to armed forces of 40 countries including the strongest countries of the world," Sunday's statement said, referring to the US-NATO alliance.
"In fact the current armed jihad is a country-wide resistance against you. Men and women, old and young from every tribe, ethnicity, caste and area have arisen to oppose you".
"Thus by your intending to wipe out the resistance, you have chosen the way of committing genocide of the whole nation," it said.
The Taliban said that if the US government would not provide proof of its claims, "then how about another experiment? Send a team to Afghanistan on a fact-finding mission."
"The team should have freedom of movement and should be allowed to remain far from the clutches of your intelligence agencies," it said, adding that US military leaders were unlikely to allow the team to do so.
The statement accused US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, commander of foreign troops in Afghanistan US General David Petraeus, and other "military brass" of exaggerating battlefield successes to appear victorious and for financial gain.
For nine years "Afghans have been festering in the vortex of an imposed war... The apparition of mass murder, imprisonment, night house raids and plundering which has become the order of the day constantly haunts them," the statement said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/08/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
What the Taliban are trying to prove is that Western forces in Afghanistan are incompetent servants to the Afghan people. They're incompetent because they do not understand their master's needs and wishes.
Any official Western rebuttal to the Taliban would claim that Western forces are indeed effective and committed servants, but the underlying ludicrous premise, that our troops are supposed to serve the Afghans would not be disputed.
No official would dare say that Western forces are in Afghanistan to eliminate a threat and to retaliate for an attack by hunting down and killing terrorists and those who harbor them, whether the Afghans agree with this policy or not.
#2
Taliban taqiyya translation, we have no more easy infidels, please send infidel stimulus for hostage deprived insurgents and mainstream media ratings!
#3
From this day forward, all Predators should be armed with two napalm canisters, and attacks made using napalm instead of explosives. After we fry a few taliban leaders and their families, I'm sure there will be a 'rethinking' of the taliban thinking, and the 'foreign' elements will be substantially less welcome house guests.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/08/2010 17:53 Comments ||
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[Emirates 24/7] The United States has offered to remove Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism early to keep a January referendum that may partition the country on track, officials said Sunday.
Bambi blinked. He should have told them, fine, we'll just arm the southerners ...
President Barack B.O. Obama's offer, which would not affect US sanctions against Khartoum related to the war-torn western region of Darfur, was proposed on his behalf by Senator John I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry during weekend meetings with Sudanese officials.
The administration had taken a decision "to move up our readiness to rescind the designation of Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism as early as July 2011," bigwigs told journalists during a conference call.
This was provided that the Khartoum government prepares and conducts a "transparent on-time referendum on the status of southern Sudan" and "reflects the results of that referendum," the officials said.
Between January and July, Khartoum must also "implement all the appropriate post-referendum agreements as relates to among other things border demarcation, oil revenue sharing, currency, citizenship, and other matters."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/08/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
See also TOPIX > CAN THE US PREVENT SUDAN WAR [POTUS BAMMER-VS-SUDAN-CIVIL-WAR].
Also from TOPIX > BIO TERROR THREAT FROM KENYA [ + Uganda]GERM LABS WORRIES US. US Senator Richard Lugar plans trip to kenya + Uganda to investigate Labs' security.
At least 46 convicted terrorists who have been either released from prison or are close to being freed pose a risk to the public and face tight new controls on their freedom, a secret Government document discloses.
#2
Probation officers have been issued with a menu of restrictions that can be placed on terrorists freed on licence. The curbs are understood to include orders to have contact with only Government-approved imams, not to visit certain mosques, not to associate with anyone with a criminal record and not to use computers.
I hope they add a remotly exploding tracking collar too.
#3
Thanks labour for bringing up a generation of brit born pakis that hate the west as you allowed in all the extremist clerics who were banned from everywhere else in the world.
Posted by: Paul D ||
11/08/2010 12:57 Comments ||
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Google Translate. For a map, click here.
Employees of the US Consulate in Hermosillo, Sonora have been forbidden from traveling south the Navajoa and from traveling in areas without security because of drug gang violence, say Mexican news accounts.
The area around Navajoa, which is about 300 kilometers south of Hermosillo and the area south is a known drug trafficking route for the Sinaloa Drug cartel.
Travel is discouraged to Los Alamos (Sonora tourist icon), via Ciudad Obregon, as is travel to the mountainous area of the state, "which applies broadly to the line running north to south through Montezuma Nacozari, Arivechi, Rosario and Los Alamos."
Consular officers are instructed if they travel through the border city of Nogales, Sonora, to do so only in armored vehicles with personal bodyguards.
Travel from Hermosillo to Nogales in private vehicles is only encouraged during daylight hours and only along Mexico Federal Highway 15 turnpike.
The highway to Nogales bypasses an area to the west called the Altar Desert. The area is a known gang strong point and communications center centered around El Saric and Tubutama, which have been the scene of massive intergang shootouts in July and August. The area was also recently swept by a joint operation of the Mexican Army and elements of the Policia Federal last October.
Plan to Form 18 More Rifle Battalions Proceeds
A budget committee for the Mexican Chamber of Deputies endorsed a Mexican Federal government plan to increase the defense budget by 300,0130,000 pesos (USD $24,578,535) approving nearly all the proposed 400,000,000 pesos increase request, according to Mexican press accounts.
Implicit in the request is a plan by the Secretaria de Defense (SEDENA) to form 18 more rifle battalions for deployment in northern states. The plan was proposed only a few months ago.
Chairman of the budget committee Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) deputy Arturo Vagus said the increase was for the only institution "capable of facing the crisis of violence."
Reports indicate that half the increase wound be committed in the current budget year and the rest to be committed to increasing military salaries in 2011.
Specific expenditures call for recruiting 10,000 more soldiers, purchases of military rapid pursuit vehicles, maintenance of C-130 Hercules aircraft, the purchase of bulletproof vests and parachutes, and purchase and repair of weapons.
The plan includes the formation of 18 more rifle battalions to be deployed in the states of Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, Chihuahua, Zacatecas, Coahuila, Sonora, Durango and Sinaloa, and to reinforce operations in Michoacan, Veracruz, Guerrero, Mexico State and Morelos. For a map, click here
"It takes 10,000 additional troops to do the work of national security, fighting crime and natural disasters, as we have battalions that go to meet rains in Veracruz and to fight drug gangs in Nuevo Leon and Chihuahua, some of which have not had a day off in three or four months, " Vargas added.
The North Korean media on Sunday listed leader Kim Jong-il's son and heir Kim Jong-un second after his father among members of a funeral committee for a senior apparatchik, suggesting that Kim junior has consolidated his position in the party hierarchy.
The Kims topped a list of 171 members of the funeral committee for Jo Myong-rok, a member of the Politburo of the Workers Party and first vice chairman of the top policy-making National Defense Commission. Jo, who ranked fourth in the party hierarchy, died of a heart attack on Saturday aged 82.
The heart always stops at the end, though at age 82 it might have actually been a death due to natural causes. But to live to 82 in Nork-Land you have to be one nasty piece of work ...
A South Korean security official speculated Kim Jong-un "seems to have risen to second place some 40 days since he was rated sixth" during a Sept. 28 party congress that marked his first public appearance, following his father, Kim Yong-nam, the president of the Supreme People's Assembly, premier Choe Yong-rim, Jo, and Ri Yong-ho, the chief of the Army general staff.
Each of whom should retain their food tasters ...
A North Korean source said the heir apparent has probably already been promoted to the posts left vacant by Jo or will assume them as soon as the mourning period ends.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/08/2010 00:00 ||
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AMSTERDAM - A majority of Dutch voters are opposed to the Netherlands sending troops to Afghanistan, a poll showed on Sunday, underlining the issue's sensitivity as the fledgling Dutch government mulls a new mission to the country.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Friday he wanted to set up a new training mission in Afghanistan, just months after the previous government collapsed over its involvement there and pulled its troops out of the country.
Pollster Maurice de Hond said on Sunday a possible new mission could form an electoral hurdle, noting that his survey showed 57 percent of respondents were opposed to sending troops to Afghanistan, while 34 percent were in favour.
The poll found only a majority of voters of the centrist Christian Democrat CDA which governs the country in a coalition with the Liberal VVD party supported a new mission, with 61 percent in favour and 26 percent opposed.
But Prime Minister Ruttes right-leaning Liberal VVD is deeply divided over the issue, with 44 percent of its voters in favour and 46 percent opposed. The Freedom Party of anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders, whose support is crucial to the minority coalition Cabinet, has always opposed a mission to Afghanistan and 78 percent of its voters would not support a new deployment, the poll showed.
Voters for the nations left leaning parties were also strongly opposed to a new mission.
The previous government collapsed in February after failing to agree on whether to extend its four-year Afghanistan mission and the Netherlands pulled out its 2,000 troops in August a move some analysts say has reduced its international profile.
Rutte said on Friday he was in talks with opposition parties in the parliament to get support for a mission to train Afghan police or soldiers.
Dutch daily newspaper De Telegraaf reported last week the government was considering deploying a force of 50 police trainers and 250 to 300 soldiers to protect the trainers.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/08/2010 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] David Headley joined the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) hoping to fight in Kashmir; the Pak-American ended up scouting out targets for the Mumbai attacks and helping al Qaeda plan a strike on Denmark.
Headley's story, contained in confidential Indian government documents, casts fresh light on the November 2008 attack on Mumbai, where US President Barack B.O. Obama paid tribute to the victims during a visit to the city this weekend.
It suggests that LeT cadres are increasingly being drawn into the orbit of al Qaeda and its affiliates and slipping out of the control of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), as the once cohesive group becomes more fractured and more receptive to al Qaeda's global agenda.
The LeT has in the past been seen as one of Pakistain's most reliable proxies, security analysts say, eschewing attacks on Pakistain itself and focusing on India and Kashmir.
"Tensions have existed within Lashkar for some time between those with a narrower focus on India and those with an international bent," said Stephen Tankel, a US-based analyst who is writing a book on the group.
"As the Kashmire separatist movement waned and al Qaeda's global activities accelerated, managing these tensions became more difficult. The decision to launch a terrorist spectacular in Mumbai was driven by these internal dynamics," he added.
Headley, jugged in Chicago last year, provided his account to Indian investigators in 34 hours of interviews in June.
According to documents obtained by Rooters, he said plans for Mumbai began as a limited operation to attack an annual conference of software engineers in the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel.
Within a matter of months it ballooned into a sea-borne assault by 10 gunnies on many targets -- the kind that security officials have said could also be planned for European cities -- and ended up killing 166 people in a three-day siege.
The LeT had been straining at the seams for years, under pressure from the ISI to limit its activities in Kashmir, which has been disputed by Pakistain and India since they won
independence in 1947. The group has been and losing members who went off to fight with, and become influenced by, other groups waging the more active jihad in Afghanistan.
"I understand this compelled the LeT to consider a spectacular terrorist strike in India," the documents quote Headley, who has turned witness for the prosecution, as saying.
Headley, who scouted out targets in Mumbai on a number of trips, began working increasingly with Ilyas Kashmiri, the commander of a snuffy group based in Pakistain's Tribal Areas who is closely linked to al Qaeda.
He visited Kashmiri twice in 2009, and discussed plans for an attack on Denmark, where the newspaper Jyllands-Posten had published cartoons deemed offensive to Islam. The men present "even discussed a general attack on Copenhagen", Headley said.
Headley found himself scouting targets in Copenhagen for al Qaeda, and travelling to Sweden and the British town of Derby to seek help for the attack. It was thwarted when he was jugged in Chicago last year, according to some reports on a tip-off from British intelligence.
Much of Headley's story has been leaking out steadily since his arrest. But what comes across in the testimony given to Indian prosecutors is a much more detailed picture of how the LeT has been transformed over the last decade.
While security officials worry that LeT's supporters in the Pak diaspora could be used in an attack in the West, the group's leaders still view Kashmire as the most important front.
In many discussions cited by Headley, they asserted its primacy with a zeal which frequently appears to go further than the ISI would like.
But it has been heavily influenced by the Afghan war, as LeT cadres have worked with groups fighting the Pakistain Army on the border and returned committed to global jihad and less willing to toe the line of the group's one-time ISI masters.
Pakistain has officially banned the group and curtailed its activities after it began a peace processor with India in 2004.
Headley said that with Pakistain facing an identity crisis over the war in Afghanistan and in the Tribal Areas, "a debate had begun among the terrorist outfits as to whether to fight in
Kashmire or in Afghanistan. The clash of ideology led to splits in many of our outfits".
While LeT leaders approved the Mumbai plans, according to Headley, they were influenced by more radical members as targets grew to include places frequented by foreigners and Jews.
The targets chosen led even many Indian security analysts to rule out the involvement of the ISI leadership, which they said would never have taken the risk of triggering a US backlash by allowing the LeT to attack Americans and Jews.
According to Headley, official ISI handlers were aware of the Mumbai plans. But in an organisation which runs into the thousands, and where agents were given a great deal of autonomy, it is unclear how far this information was passed up the line.
The Indian documents quote Headley as saying that ISI chief Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha visited an LeT commander in jail after the assault "to understand the Mumbai attack conspiracy".
Posted by: Fred ||
11/08/2010 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] Chief Paleostinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat has bristled at Israel's demand that the Paleostinians recognize it as a Jewish entity, saying such a request is tantamount to asking them to join the Zionist movement.
Erekat, who travelled to Washington on Thursday to attempt to narrow down differences and jump-start the stalled talks between Israel and the Paleostinian Authority, took issue with Tel Aviv's refusal to extend the partial freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank and said Israel must choose between settlements and negotiations, The Jerusalem Post reported on Saturday.
Following his meeting with US Middle East envoy George Mitchell and other senior State Department officials on Thursday, Erekat flatly dismissed calls for recognition of Israel as a Jewish entity.
"They [Israel] want me to join the Zionist movement. I will not," said Erekat, who insisted that Tel Aviv must resume the partial settlement freeze as a precondition for the resumption of the US-sponsored talks between Israel and the Paleostinian Authority.
He made the remarks in Paleostine, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in the United States for talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill... and Vice President Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden.
Last week, Erekat sent a clear message to the US administration over the stalled negotiations, saying that it is high time to shift the focus away from talks and to solid decisions.
He also stated that the Paleostinian Authority is prepared to give Washington two or three weeks to obtain a final answer on Israel's position on the settlements issue.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/08/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
The Israelis have apparently wised up to the disingenuous and endless Paleo approach, demanding everything and giving nothing.
[Iran Press TV] Germany has urged Israel to lift the export embargo imposed on the Gazoo Strip, saying economic prosperity is necessary for the impoverished Paleostinian enclave.
Following a meeting with his Israeli counterpart, Avigdor Lieberman, in al-Quds (Jerusalem) on Sunday, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said negotiations between the Paleostinian Authority and the Israelis would continue to founder unless Tel Aviv gives the Paleostinians a chance to achieve economic progress.
"We want to strengthen moderate Paleostinian forces, and to do that we need better economic development," AFP quoted Westerwelle as saying.
"That is why I called for exports from the Gazoo Strip to be permitted and made concrete proposals to my counterpart," he added.
Westerwelle, who arrived in Israel on Sunday as part of a two-day visit to the occupied Paleostinian territories, was scheduled to pay a rare visit to the Gazoo Strip and to hold talks with business leaders and representatives of the UN agency for Paleostinian refugees.
He also made a reference to the stalled talks between the Paleostinians and the Israelis, suggesting that the two sides should reach a compromise on the extension of the partial moratorium on settlement construction in the West Bank.
The German foreign minister is expected to meet with Israeli President Shimon Peres, but not with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is currently in the United States.
In June 2007, Israel imposed an economic siege on the Gazoo Strip after Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, took control of the coastal sliver. Hamas had won the democratic elections in 2006.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/08/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
besides terrorist , just what would Gaza export?
Posted by: chris ||
11/08/2010 8:06 Comments ||
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In adiition to Herr Westerwelle being German as long as there are Jews alive they remind the Eurosupremacists of some, say, moral failures who undermine Europe's right to lead the world.
I think there is a correlation between Pan-europeism and Palestinism aka Antisemitism chic.
#4
The Israelis could easily have some fun with this.
They could act a bit puzzled, ask rhetorically if what the German FM said was correct, and then respond with a tongue in cheek question: "But why does the German government want resettlement of the Paleostinians in Germany?"
NEW ORLEANS - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began a US visit on Sunday to meet with Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and discuss ways to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Might be more productive with Benji here and Bambi in Mumbai ...
It is our fervent desire that the current impasse can be overcome and we see an expeditious return to direct talks with the Palestinians, Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev said on board the prime ministers flight from Tel Aviv to New Orleans.
Netanyahu meets Biden later in the day before the vice president speaks to an American Jewish conference. Netanyahu addresses the forum on Monday before a four-day visit to New York.
During the trip, he will not see President Barack Obama, who is on a visit to Asia. But the US visit will give Netanyahu an opportunity to gauge the impact of last weeks Republican rout of Obamas Democrats in the midterm congressional elections. Netanyahu was scheduled to hold talks in New York with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moom on Monday and Clinton on Thursday, before flying home.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/08/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Netanyahu is repor going to ask the US for a Mil Plan agz IRAN.
[An Nahar] Hizbullah MP Nawwar Sahili on Sunday said Hizbullah is not afraid of an indictment to be issued by the Special Tribunal for Leb.
"To those who believe we are afraid, we tell them that we are not afraid of an indictment nor are we afraid of those who stand behind this Israeli-American decision," Sahili told a group of Hizbullah supporters.
He accused the United States of establishing a foothold in Leb since the 2005 liquidation of former PM Rafik Hariri.
"If not for the liquidation of the late PM Rafik Hariri, the U.S. wouldn't have been able to introduce its scheme in Leb that quickly," he said.
"One month after the (Hariri) liquidation, Americans were back in Leb with a team in Leb that boasts about its relationship with the U.S.," Sahili added.
"The other camp, and the U.S. behind it, thought that if they cannot curtail the Resistance That'd be the Hezbullies, natch... and Hizbullah then let us launch a new called 'indictment,' a decision which has only one goal -- stirring up strife in Leb and point the blame on what they have called 'rogue elements,'" he went on to say.
"But the Resistance That'd be the Hezbullies, natch... is the real target behind all that."
Turning to the false witnesses' issue, Sahili explained that an Opposition proposal to refer this issue to trial is a Lebanese demand -- a demand by Lebanese people who have lived four years of political crisis.
"The accusation," he said, "was not political as some idiots today say."
"When an accusation leads to prison, animosity, semi-strife, political differences and a crisis in the country that nearly brought us to the brink of civil war in 2008, all of that is the result of some people who misled the investigation and lied," Sahili stressed.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/08/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
not afraid? Your hysterical actions and pronouncements say otherwise
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/08/2010 19:30 Comments ||
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[An Nahar] Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Sunday said Hizbullah and the Lebanese Government hampered efforts to reach a solution on the border town of Ghajar.
"Israel decided to withdraw unilaterally from the village of Ghajar," Lieberman said.
He accused Hizbullah and the Lebanese Government of "hampering efforts exerted by various parties, including Israel, to implement the decision."
Lieberman noted during a meeting with his German counterpart that he "agrees" with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the time has come to implement the decision through an agreement with the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society without waiting for the Leb Government.
An Israeli official said that Netanyahu on Monday will present U.N. chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon with a plan to withdraw from the northern sector of the disputed border village of Ghajar.
Details of the plan were not released, though Israel clearly would like assurances that Hizbullah won't be able to gain a foothold there from which to threaten cross-border attacks.
An Israeli withdrawal could also set the stage for more tension between Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri's political bloc and its Hizbullah rivals, who have extended their political influence in Hariri's shaky coalition government and maintain the country's strongest military arsenal.
Hariri's allies would likely use the pullout to argue that Hizbullah no longer needs its weapons and that disputed land can be regained with the help of the international community instead. Hizbullah, which refuses to disarm, is already saying its military power would be to thank for any Israeli pullout.
The political director of the U.N. force in Leb, Milos Strugar, said the force has been "actively engaged with both parties" in an effort to facilitate an Israeli withdrawal from the area.
Ghajar sits on a strategic corner where the boundaries between Syria, Israel and Leb are in dispute.
Israel captured the entire village of some 2,000 people from Syria in 1967.
In 2000, after Israel withdrew its forces from south Leb, U.N. surveyors put the border in the middle of the village, leaving Israel in control of the southern half.
Israel reoccupied the northern part in the 2006 war. After the fighting, Israel pledged to withdraw from that sector but gave no timeline for doing so.
Ghajar's residents are members of Islam's Alawite sect, whose followers include many members of Syria's ruling elite. Most of the villagers have said in the past that they want the village to remain united, regardless of who controls it.
Netanyahu plans to ask a group of Cabinet ministers to approve the withdrawal proposal after he returns from a U.S. trip late this week. It is not clear whether that means not all the details have been sewn up.
Israeli officials have met several times with the U.N. peacekeeping force stationed in southern Leb to discuss a possible handover.
A senior Lebanese army officer refused to comment on the possible withdrawal before the Lebanese government is formally informed by the U.N. of a plan.
Hizbullah on Sunday positioned itself to claim victory for any pullout.
"If the withdrawal happens, it (Israel) won't be doing it for free but because of fear of the resistance and Leb's strength through the resistance," Hizbullah NP Nawar Saheli told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named in Beirut.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/08/2010 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The President of the Special Tribunal for Leb, Judge Antonio Cassese, issued two decisions Friday in which he rejected Major General Jamil Sayyed's motions to disqualify Judges Ralph Riachy and Afif Chamseddine from considering an appeal of his special application before the Tribunal.
The Special Tribunal for Leb issued a statement saying that Cassese determined that Riachy and Chamseddine have no personal interest in or association with Sayyed's application that could affect or appear to affect their impartiality.
In reaching these decisions Cassese referred to Rule 25 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the Special Tribunal for Leb, to jurisprudence of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and to the jurisprudence of some national courts.
The President first rejected Sayyed's argument that Riachy and Chamseddine were tainted by the very fact of their nomination to the Tribunal by the Government of Leb. The Judges were chosen for their "extensive judicial experience" and "high moral character, impartiality and integrity." They were appointed by the Secretary General of the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society, with the assistance of an independent selection committee, from a list of candidates proposed by the Lebanese Supreme Council of the Judiciary.
Furthermore, President Cassese emphasized that Sayyed's argument, if accepted, would mean no Lebanese judge could ever sit on any Chamber of the Tribunal. This would frustrate the mixed composition of the Tribunal's Chambers.
In his motion for the disqualification of Judge Riachy, Sayyed had also argued that Judge Riachy should be disqualified because of his earlier participation in a decision of Leb's Court of Cassation. The President rejected this argument as well, stating that "Judge Riachy was not involved in any case concerning the detention of Mr. Sayyed", much less has he made any ruling regarding the issue currently before the Tribunal.
Sayyed has petitioned the Tribunal for access to documents he believes will demonstrate that his nearly four year detention by the Lebanese authorities was based on false evidence. The Prosecutor of the Tribunal has appealed the Pre-Trial Judge's preliminary determination that the Tribunal has jurisdiction to consider Sayyed's application and that Sayyed has standing to bring his request before the Tribunal.
Judge Riachy and Judge Chamseddine will participate in the consideration of the Prosecutor's interlocutory appeal, along with President Cassese, Judge David Baragwanath of New Zealand, and Judge Kjell Erik Bjِrnberg of Sweden.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/08/2010 00:00 ||
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JERUSALEM - Israel is planning to withdraw its troops from part of a disputed village on the Lebanese border and hand over control to a UN peacekeeping force, Israeli media reported on Sunday. A government official, quoted in Haaretz newspaper, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was to inform UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon about the planned move when the two meet in New York on Monday.
Plans to withdraw from the northern sector of Ghajar village have been discussed with senior officials from the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which is deployed along the border with Israel to keep the peace.
The village, which has around 2,200 residents, lies on the borders of Lebanon, Syria and the Golan Heights which Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in 1981.
Netanyahu reportedly plans to present the Ghajar proposal to his political-security cabinet when he returns to Israel after a five-day trip to the United States.
UNIFIL confirmed it has been pressing Israel to withdraw from northern Ghajar in line with UN Security Council Resolution 1701 which ended a 2006 war between Israel and Lebanons Shia movement Hezbollah.
This has been a longstanding issue, UNIFILs director of political and civil affairs Milos Strugar told AFP. The United Nations had been actively engaged with both parties to broker a pullout of Israeli troops.
In our effort to advance the process of withdrawal, UNIFIL has recently suggested some ideas and modalities for consideration by the parties, he said, without giving details.
Northern Ghajar is in Lebanon and the rest lies in the Golan Heights, but Israel took over the Lebanese half during the 2006 war. The villagers of southern Ghajar were Syrian nationals when Israel occupied the region but they took Israeli nationality after the Golan annexation, a move not recognised by the international community.
Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar puffed himself up and hailed the planned pullout and said it should extend to other areas of dispute along the border.
The aggressions of the Israeli enemy are not limited to Ghajar. The Israeli enemy should withdraw not only from northern Ghajar ... but also from other occupied areas including Kfar Shuba and the Shebaa Farms, he said.
Any withdrawal is a result of the steadfastness of the Lebanese people, army and Hezbollah, he told AFP.
Yeah, yeah, little man ...
Most Ghajar residents are against re-partitioning the village, which would leave 1,700 people in the Lebanese part and 500 on the Israeli side.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/08/2010 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.
