The new United Nations envoy to Afghanistan, Kai Eide, said on Saturday that his top priority would be to better coordinate international development and aid efforts with the NATO-led military forces and Afghan authorities.
The Norwegian diplomat said that more security in southern and eastern Afghanistan was needed to foster economic and social development, but that the solution to the war-torn states problems was political, not military. Eide said he was encouraged by a UN focus on coordinating relief and nation-building efforts and expected flexibility from all players to make the pieces fit together better.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
He's from the Useless Nitwits and he's here to help the Afghans.
Afghanistan is doomed.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/16/2008 0:06 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Expect an order for large numbers of white Toyota Land Cruisers.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/16/2008 1:06 Comments ||
Top||
#3
And a Kabul branch office for the Emperor's Emir's Club
#6
The Vampiric Vulture Elite (VVE) of the UN will follow the tried and true method of standing off and criticizing those who are actually working then, when all is just about done (and a 5-star hotel with 24 Hr Catering is in place), jumping in with a big fanfare (and full MSM coverage) and claim all the credit.
Charges against three Somalis in Oslo of providing "support to terrorism" have outraged many Somalis in Norway. The charges are that the Somalis may have sent money to rebels in Somalia, but their defenders say they were supporting freedom fighters. On Feb. 28 police in Norwegian capital Oslo arrested three Somalis, and are still detaining one of them. The Somalis, the security services say, have been sending money to terrorists in Somalia fighting the UN-supported transitional federal government.
This has not gone down well with a large section of the 18,000-strong Somali population in Norway, many of whom strongly oppose the transitional government and its Ethiopian protectors. Some say the accusations fit a pattern of prejudice against Norwegian Somalis by the media or security services. "I have my doubts regarding these accusations," Hamsa Mohamed, a Norwegian Somali politician told IPS. "Similar accusations were levelled against Somalis here in 2001, but were found to be false after four years of investigations. I would have thought that the authorities had learned from that experience so that the Somali community could be spared a repeat."
According to senior researcher Stig Jarle Hansen at the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research (NIBR), Norwegian Somalis are "a group that has received a lot of unfair criticism previously. What we need from the media is an increased focus on the positive things that Somalis contribute, rather than punishing whole groups because of the actions of three persons who haven't been convicted yet," he told IPS.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic Courts
#1
A slave to Sharia is not a slave to God but rather Mohammed.
Mohammed is NOT GOD.
Freedom is a vice of God, not of hadiths. Not of Sharia.
#6
This has not gone down well with a large section of the 18,000-strong Somali population in Norway
then get the F*ck out and don't come back, ya green-drooled bastids!
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/16/2008 10:24 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Somalia: Terrorist or Freedom Fighters?
Neither. They are just a bunch of Clan based bandits with delusions of grandeur.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
03/16/2008 13:31 Comments ||
Top||
#8
There are 18000 Somali in Norway and they rate having their very own "Norwegian Somali Politician." What's the total population of that ice drift anyway?
Posted by: regular joe ||
03/16/2008 14:19 Comments ||
Top||
Westerners in Qatar have been urged by their embassies to be extra vigilant after a militant website reportedly referred to the opening of the Muslim Gulf states first church.
The British Embassy in Qatar said the website flagged the opening on Friday of St Marys Roman Catholic church in Doha, the first of five to be built in the gas-rich state. The authorities are aware of this and are taking appropriate security measures, the embassy said on its website, without indicating what the unidentified militant website said. British citizens should maintain a high level of security awareness, particularly in public places... you should avoid large gatherings and demonstrations, it said.
In March 2005, a suicide bombing in Doha killed one Briton and wounded 12 people.
A shadowy militant group calling itself the Jund al-Sham Organisation (Organisation of Soldiers of the Levant) claimed responsibility for the attack in Internet statements, in which it also threatened strikes against oil facilities, churches and Western military bases in the Middle East.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Jund al-Sham
#1
"al-Sham Organisation"
At least they're honest about themselves....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/16/2008 0:08 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Imagine a Europe where building one mosque in France or Italy or Germany - sticking the nose of the camel just a tiny bit into the tent - provoked insane outrage, rioting and mayhem.
closest category I could find....ht to hotair
Four British Broadcasting Corp. journalists were among seven men arrested in Ireland in connection with an investigation into paramilitary activity, the BBC said Sunday. The news organization said the journalists were working on a current affairs program when they were arrested by Irish police Saturday.
Ireland's police confirmed that seven men between the ages of 30 and 48 were in custody but declined to provide further details.
The BBC said the arrests took place in County Donegal, which neighbors Northern Ireland. Its website said the men had "full editorial authority under the BBC's guidelines" for their work. A BBC spokeswoman said that means they had approval for what they were doing. She refused to say anything else about the arrests. "under BBC guidelines" - that doesn't make me feel comfy, Auntie.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/16/2008 16:21 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Pretty obvious. They were hanging out with the paras, filming propaganda for them, just as readily as they'd do for al Qaeda or the Taliban, if they let them.
#1
He said: "There is no crisis in relations, but there are fewer contacts than before. Brown's focus seems to be on doing things with other Europeans rather than pushing ourselves forward as best friends. Since Sarkozy got in, the French have filled the vacuum and we seem happy to let them."
A second British official said that the term "special relationship" has been branded unhelpful because it "creates expectations by the public and the press" that cannot be met. He said: "People ask: 'Well, what do we get for it?'" That issue has been particularly sensitive following criticism of Tony Blair for failing to win more favours from George W Bush in exchange for supporting the Iraq War.
Favours? What were they expecting, cake?
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/16/2008 8:07 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Gordon Brown, Client #11
Posted by: Creling Darling of the Lichtensteiners8341 ||
03/16/2008 8:28 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Periodically being less friendly with America serves the English notice of how much they have in common with America, and how little they have in common with everything east of Gibraltar.
All that is English culture, the "Rights of Free-Born Englishmen", is in jeopardy from the continent, where it is not just sneered at, but despised.
And it is the cowards of England, those who think themselves the betters of Englishmen, who are the elites that rule. Not noble lords, but faceless and gray bureaucrats, loyal only to their peers in Brussels.
It is they who see their own countrymen as no better than the colonial masses of their once great empire. And hopefully, like those masses, the Englishmen will someday rise up and drive out their overlords.
#4
If Gordon Brown and his minions stay in power for any significant amount of time, the US relationship with England will become more "special", similar to the relationships we have with Pakistan and Egypt.
#5
I think that's an exaggerated claim. Brits are conducting combat operations in Afghanistan, which is more than you can say for most of the other NATO countries. The relationship is still special - it's just that it's not as special as it used to be.
#6
All that is English culture, the "Rights of Free-Born Englishmen", is in jeopardy from the continent, where it is not just sneered at, but despised.
Western governments should talk to Islamist extremists including Al-Qaeda and the Taliban to end violence, one of former Prime Minister Tony Blair's closest aides said in comments published Saturday. "It's very difficult for democratic governments to do -- talk to a terrorist movement that's killing your people," Blair's former chief of staff Jonathan Powell he told The Guardian in an interview. "(But) if I was in government now I would want to have been talking to Hamas, I would be wanting to communicate with the Taliban and I would want to find a channel to Al-Qaeda."
Maybe that's why you're no longer in government ...
Powell, who was in the post throughout Blair's premiership from 1997 to 2007, is seen as having been a key behind-the-scenes figure in talks to bring about an end to sectarian violence in the British province of Northern Ireland. London had been in secret communication with the Irish Republican Army (IRA) since the 1970s, which had been a key factor in eventually securing a peace deal in 1998, he told the newspaper.
He accepted though that "there's nothing to say to Al-Qaeda and they've got nothing to say to us at the moment" and there was also a problem of whom to talk to and about what. "But at some stage you're going to have to come to a political solution as well as a security solution. And that means you need the ability to talk," he added.
The Foreign Office dismissed Powell's suggestion outright. A spokesman told the newspaper: "It is inconceivable that Her Majesty's Government would ever seek to reach a mutually acceptable accommodation with a terrorist organisation like Al-Qaeda."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Global Jihad
#1
That is surrender talk. However, Karzai is obstructing Helmand, Afgh. operations because he wants a status quo "peace" with Taliban/al-Qaeda a legal political party. Terrorists control 10% of the country only because they are part of Karzai's proposed political solution. Reminder: UN documents source most of the world's heroin, in Helmand. TaQ take a 15% cut of the proceeds. If a military solution continues to be obstructed, the entire world will be poisoned by Karzai drugs. I hope McCain has a plan; the status quo is an embarassment.
According to police statistics, the Colombian authorities have seized 24 tons of cocaine already this year, half of last year's total.
Colombian anti-drug authorities have dealt a heavy blow to smugglers in the past two days, seizing more than 11 tons of cocaine, police said Saturday.
At least seven tons of cocaine, heading for the United States and hidden in several containers, were seized in the Caribbean coastal city of Cartagena in northwest of the country Saturday.
On Friday, the police found around 4.3 tons of cocaine at the port of Barranquilla, another Caribbean coastal city in Colombia. The drugs were also hidden in containers, with Mexico as the planned destination.
According to police statistics, the Colombian authorities have seized 24 tons of cocaine this year, half of last year's total.
#6
Colombia seizes over 11 tons of cocaine in two days
How much longer will the kind of money awash from the Cocaine Industry significantly corrupt our Law Enforcement officials?
Keeping in mind that the ever brazen Cartels have the muscle and the cash to corrupt.
AND that it doesn't take but a few rotten apples to flip an entire department, district, town, border crossing, court, judges etc.
Three Mexican students have been confirmed killed in Ecuador during a cross-border raid earlier this month by Colombian troops who were hunting a guerrilla leader, police and victims' relatives said Friday.
So it would seem the "students" were studying Armed Struggle.
Five Mexicans - three men and two women - were at the camp near the border with Colombia during the raid, which killed 25 people including Raul Reyes, the public face of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Dental records helped forensic experts identify the bodies of Mexicans Soren Ulises Aviles Angeles, 29, and Fernando Franco Delgado, 28, police morgue director Marcelo Jacome told The Associated Press. At a news conference at a military hospital in Quito, Alvaro Gonzalez told reporters DNA testing confirmed that his son Juan Gonzalez del Castillo, 29, also was among the dead.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
28 and 29 yr-old "students" huh?
buh-bye, losers
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/16/2008 10:33 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Sigh. Stupid poli-sci grad students. Cannon fodder, like the Madrassa graduates in the 'stan.
Gather round, children, and watch the miracle of evolution in action.
Posted by: N guard ||
03/16/2008 17:33 Comments ||
Top||
TOKYO - Japan will likely extend its sweeping economic sanctions against North Korea amid a deadlock on Pyongyangs nuclear drive and a row over kidnappings, reports said Sunday. The government number two, Nobutaka Machimura, met Saturday with families of Japanese abducted by the communist state and suggested sanctions would be prolonged for another six months, Jiji Press and the Yomiuri Shimbun said.
The sanctions-which ban all imports from North Korea including money-making produce such as clams, crabs and high-end matsutake mushrooms-are set to expire on April 13. Japan imposed the sweeping sanctions, which also include a ban on all port calls by North Korean ships, after the communist state tested an atom bomb in October 2006.
It would be a different story if some progress were made before they expire, Machimura was quoted by Jiji as saying in the closed-door meeting. Otherwise the government will make a proper judgement.
North Korea last year signed a landmark deal to abandon all its nuclear weapons in exchange for badly needed energy and economic aid, security guarantees and diplomatic benefits. But the six-nation agreement-which includes the two Koreas, Japan, China, Russia and the United States-has been stalled as Pyongyang as usual missed a year-end deadline to declare all its nuclear programmes and disable its plutonium plant.
Its very disappointing that North Korea has not taken specific actions, Machimura, the chief cabinet secretary, was quoted as saying. The government will make a proper judgement while looking carefully at the situations over the abductions, six-way talks and US-North Korea talks, he said.
Japan, which has refused to provide aid under the six-nation deal, has tense relations with North Korea in part due to the emotionally charged abduction row. North Korea has admitted it had kidnapped Japanese civilians in the 1970s and 1980s to train spies for the regime. North Korea returned five abductees and their families in 2002, and says others are dead. But Japan contends that more of its nationals are alive and being kept under wraps.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/16/2008 01:23 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
and high-end matsutake mushrooms
That draws an Ewww, from me, I know what Mushrooms grow in, and odds are good it's Human, sterilize them carefully Japan.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/16/2008 14:49 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Second thought, just what is NORK doing exporting Food, ANY food.
This tends to make me think that "The Starving NORKS" just might be a Media Fiction?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/16/2008 19:26 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Friends of mine who served in Korea recently say the starvation is real, Redneck Jim. FWIW, but I don't think those clams are getting onto the plates of average people there.
As many as 160 people may have died in Albania Saturday when a powerful explosion ripped an army depot outside Tirana, officials said. While exact casualty figures were unknown, a spokeswoman for Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha said officials were concerned U.S. citizens working at the military site may have been among the victims of the large blast, The Guardian reported. "We do not know the exact number, but we fear the worst for the three teams, each of 21 people, working there at the time," spokeswoman Juela Mecani said. "Several were U.S. citizens." Officials at the U.S. embassy in the Albanian capital had no news regarding the condition of U.S. citizens reportedly at the blast site, the BBC said.
Meanwhile, Sky News said the explosion was so powerful windows on homes six miles away were blown out by the ensuing shock wave. The capital's international airport also suffered damage from the powerful concussion, the British broadcaster added.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#4
It sounds like a good old fashioned ammo dump explosion. We have them more often than we like to admit, but usualy without such a high body count. Google FOB Falcon for an example.
I hope that the safety standards we are planning on teaching these guys eventualy sinks in. Inshallah safety protocalls and high explosives are not a good mix.
Posted by: N guard ||
03/16/2008 17:28 Comments ||
Top||
Anti-war protesters held rallies across Canada Saturday against the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Demonstrators organized rallies in 20 communities, including Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver.
At the Toronto rally -- where about 1,000 protesters showed up -- they shouted, "End it, don't extend it," in reference to Canada's military mission in war-torn Afghanistan. The protests come after Parliament voted 198-77 on Thursday to extend the Afghan mission until December 2011. They also marked the upcoming fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion on March 19.
In Canada, the Conservatives and Liberals voted for the motion, while the NDP and Bloc Quebecois opposed the extension. NDP Leader Jack Layton attended the Toronto demonstration, which was held at the Ontario legislature. "Canada should be on a path towards peace in Afghanistan," he told CTV News at the rally. "We should be a voice calling for the end to this kind of conflict, but instead our government is prolonging it -- and that's wrong."
The Canadian Peace Alliance, which helped organize Saturday's protests, said in a news release that the Afghan war has "nothing to do with the defense of democracy or women's rights in Afghanistan and everything to do with advancing U.S. strategic interests in the region. The release said that Canadian soldiers were being used as "cannon fodder." Eighty Canadian soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since 2002, along with one diplomat and a civilian aid worker.
Foreign troops have operated in Afghanistan since the fall of 2001. They helped push the Taliban from power for harbouring al Qaeda, the Islamist terror group whose members carried out the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks on U.S. soil. Canada has 2,500 soldiers serving in southern Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Stabilization Assistance Force (ISAF). They are operating the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar province, one of the most volatile and dangerous parts of Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
Canada is turning out to be a brave force, a very brave force for good in life. Bless Canada and Bless your Soldiers Canada.
#2
The protests come after Parliament voted 198-77 on Thursday to extend the Afghan mission until December 2011. They also marked the upcoming fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion on March 19.
Cognitive dissonance at its best. These people aren't anti-afghan, more like anti-american. Pre-9/11, the same types were clamouring for intervention against the taliban for their practices. Now, their most heart-felt feelings are coming to fore.
#7
The Afghanistan Canada Research Group was formed in 2006 by a group of York University graduate students concerned with the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan. The focus of our work over the past two years was to document Afghan opinions of the international intervention in Afghanistan.
In June and July of 2007, I spent five weeks travelling in Afghanistan with another researcher. Based out of Kabul, we travelled to Bamiyan and Yawkawlang in the central region of Afghanistan, north into Parwan province, and as far south as the city of Ghazni.
The purpose of our visit was to ask ordinary Afghans particularly workers and students who do not have a voice in either the international or Afghan media what they think about the international military intervention in their homeland.
Many Afghans told us they consider the current military mission the same way as they consider previous invasions by British and Soviet military forces. We were reminded the invading forces in both those cases claimed to represent the best interests of Afghans, but both occupations proved to serve the geopolitical interests of these powerful states at the expense of most Afghans.
Numerous Afghans told us variations of the phrase: If you come as a guest we will treat you with the greatest hospitality, but if you come as an invader we will resist and ultimately overcome your force.
We had a close encounter, when our taxi driver mistakenly pulled into an intersection in front of an ISAF convoy. Our driver stated we were fortunate the soldiers were Turkish rather than Canadian or American, because the Canadians and Americans are known to shoot the occupants of the car in such cases.
While NATO leaders claim insurgents are at fault for civilian deaths, because they hide among civilians, this rationalisation is clearly unacceptable. Such a rationalisation is akin to giving a police force here in Canada the right to bomb an entire neighbourhood, because criminals might be hiding in some of the houses. A security tactic we would never accept for our own population has been given carte blanche approval in Afghanistan.
Many Afghans also indicated a number of geopolitical and economic reasons why they believe Canada and the other international forces continue to occupy their country.
Michael Fumento is reporting that Monsoor will be awarded the Medal of Honor next month, posthumously. And I just published my book on the first three awardees...
Isn't it about time for the Army to recognize a few of its soldiers? Paul Smith was at the very start of the war.
#3
To my limited knowledge, this was the largest recent gathering, on the sixtieth anniversary of Pearl Harbor and less than three months after 9/11. It was awesome just to watch the parade go by.
Posted by: Matt ||
03/16/2008 18:53 Comments ||
Top||
#4
My military studies professor freshman year at the Air Force Academy won the MoH. He told us the story. He was a chopper pilot. He had to pick some guys up. He hovered his helicopter in place at the edge of a river to let them all get on board while the VC or NVA shot out his windscreen.
I suspect most MoH stories are like that. Someone had a job to do to save someone else and just did it.
India today rejected the observations of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) that Kashmir issue should be resolved as per the UN resolutions, saying the grouping had "no locus standi" to comment on India's internal affairs.
External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said India "regrets" that OIC has "once again chosen to comment on Jammu and Kashmir and issues internal to India." The 57-nation body, in the final communique adopted at the summit which concluded yesterday in Dakar, Senegal, suggested that the Kashmir dispute be resolved in accordance with "relevant UN resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people".
The meeting also extended the Islamic world's support for the right to self-determination of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
Reacting to the OIC document, Sarna said: "The OIC has no locus standi in matters concerning India's internal affairs including Jammu & Kashmir which is an integral part of India. We strongly reject all such comments." The OIC, at its meets, used to regularly comment on Kashmir issue but for the last few years it had been silent on the matter
Posted by: john frum ||
03/16/2008 15:52 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
American officials say that Pakistans pledge to fight Al Qaeda and Taliban militants in the restive tribal areas is being weakened by disagreements in the Pakistani military and security forces over what their priority should be.
The divisions have emerged as a source of growing frustration to the Bush administration, with officials saying the main disagreement in Pakistan is over whether to gear up a counterterrorism campaign against Islamic extremists or to try to shore up a conventional force focused on potential threats from India.
Senior Bush administration officials and American military commanders universally praise Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Pakistans new army chief, for making the counterterrorism campaign his immediate priority.
But American officials in the Pentagon and State Department say other senior Pakistani officers and security officials are not yet willing to reduce a traditional commitment to fight a conventional land war with India, despite greatly reduced tensions now between the long-time adversaries.
American officials can offer specific examples to illustrate the disconnect between Pakistans military requests and efforts by the United States to enlist Islamabad to combat terrorists and insurgents in the tribal areas.
An American officer said the Pentagon was surprised when, in negotiations on the counterterrorism effort, Pakistan requested an advanced air defense radar even though Taliban and Qaeda fighters have no air forces.
They want this kind of hardware, while we are suggesting training and different procedures, an American officer said. When American officials offered assistance in surveillance and reconnaissance, the Pakistanis requested Predators, the state-of-the-art remotely controlled aircraft that is in short supply even in the American military.
We are suggesting radios and surveillance equipment but not the kinds of hardware with long training timelines and lots of maintenance needs, the officer said. We want them to want counterinsurgency stuff. They want to fight India.
It is not yet clear what policies will be embraced by the leaders of Pakistans two main opposition parties that won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections last month.
Doctrines are hard to change, and theres a lot of bureaucratic resistance to this approach, a senior State Department official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of diplomatic concerns, as some others interviewed for this article did. There are still many Pakistani officers who are worried about where they stand with the Indians.
The official said that top State Department officials in Washington and at the United States Embassy in Islamabad did not view the divisions as an insurmountable obstacle; at the same time, these officials acknowledged the slow progress toward developing a comprehensive approach to fighting the militants.
Bush administration and military officials have expressed concerns that some of the $5 billion the United States has reimbursed Pakistan since 2001 for conducting military operations to fight terrorism has been diverted to help finance weapons systems better suited to counter India, not Al Qaeda or the Taliban.
In 2006, the United States signed arms transfer agreements with Pakistan for more than $3.5 billion in equipment, including 36 F-16 fighters and their bombs and missiles, as well as 155-millimeter self-propelled howitzers, Richard F. Grimmett of the Congressional Research Service said.
A parade of senior American military and intelligence officials has visited Pakistan in the past two months to offer help in fighting the militants.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has made an extraordinary effort to build a stronger relationship with Pakistans military leadership, going to Islamabad twice in just over three weeks this year to meet with his counterparts.
In an interview after his most recent meetings in early March with General Kayani, the nations most powerful officer, Admiral Mullen said the two had discussed the counterterrorism effort at a very high level, the level of strategy and policy. The two officers did not discuss specific programs for training assistance or equipment, but Admiral Mullen left the clear impression that he believed General Kayani and his top advisers were committed to the counterterrorism effort in the tribal areas.
One American military officer noted the irony of the United States criticizing Pakistan for not pivoting rapidly enough from preparing for war with India to responding to the threat of terrorists and insurgents.
After all, the officer said, the Army and Marine Corps were slow to recognize the changing adversary in Iraq, and even the Armys new field manual on counterinsurgency has not been universally accepted by a service still lobbying to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on a high-tech Future Combat System designed to fight a major state rival.
Within its own borders, Pakistan faces many of the challenges bedeviling the American-led security efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, American military officers said.
The Pakistani Army is viewed as an occupier in the tribal areas, an officer said, and therefore has moved to shift to Frontier Corps and Frontier Constabulary forces drawn from the local population.
But those forces are woefully under-trained and under-equipped, and need, in particular, helicopters for rapid movement in the mountains, night-vision gear and broad training in standard military techniques.
A senior Pakistani official complained that his nations request for this very type of equipment had been caught in Pentagon red tape. We need to move much faster than the routine bureaucratic cycle for supply of equipment, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid offending American officials.
American officials said one of the greatest challenges is preventing the huge refugee camps along the Pakistani-Afghan border from being used as havens for recruiting and training terrorist fighters. A million Afghans are estimated to live in several camps in Pakistan on the border. Many have the organization of a permanent city, but are all but inaccessible to law enforcement and military personnel.
They have become a primary training ground for Taliban and Al Qaeda, American officials said, particularly as places to build explosive-laden suicide vests and to recruit young men with little education and no prospects for other employment to wear them in attacks.
Speaking of the tribal areas, Admiral Mullen said in an interview with Charlie Rose on PBS last week, We know this is a place from which, if I were going to pick the next attack to hit the United States, it would come out of the FATA, or Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/16/2008 12:55 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
An American officer said the Pentagon was surprised when, in negotiations on the counterterrorism effort, Pakistan requested an advanced air defense radar even though Taliban and Qaeda fighters have no air forces.
...
We want them to want counterinsurgency stuff. They want to fight India.
Not exactly a surprise to anyone who even gives a cursory glance over the Pak press.
Why would they fight their own jihadi brethren ?
Posted by: john frum ||
03/16/2008 13:15 Comments ||
Top||
LIPANG VILLAGE, Nepal China border - China has deployed security personnel inside neighbouring Nepal to keep an eye out for protests by pro-Tibetan groups, Nepali officials have said. We are a very small country. China is very powerful so we must do what the Chinese tell us, said one Nepali official, while refusing to say if Chinese security officials were allowed to detain people inside Nepal.
I'm told Nepal is a sovereign country, but they don't act like one.
Plain-clothes Chinese officers could be seen on Saturday on the Nepali side of the border with Tibet, and even blocked an AFP correspondent and photographer from working on Nepali soil near the main border crossing with Chinese-controlled Tibet.
Because of the situation in Lhasa, there are a lot more plain-clothes Chinese armed police on the Nepal side, explained a senior Nepali military official who asked not to be named. In India, there are Tibetan exiles starting marches to Tibet, and the Chinese are scared the same thing could happen here, the military official told AFP from the border crossing near Lipang village, 70 kilometres (44 miles) northwest of Kathmandu.
Another Nepali border official confirmed the presence of Chinese security officials inside Nepal. Before, there were very few Chinese security on our side, but since the protest in Lhasa, there has been at least six Chinese security officials on the Nepali side of the border post all the time. Sometimes, there are as many as 12, said the Nepali border official, who also asked not to be named.
An AFP photographer was challenged by 10 Chinese security officials in civilian clothing and uniforms more than 200 metres (yards) inside Nepali territory, and ordered to erase his images of the area.
Nepal hosts thousands of Tibetan refugees, and each year about 2,500 Tibetans make the dangerous journey across the Himalayas from Tibet into Nepal on their way to Dharamshala-the home of the exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama-in northern India.
Travellers also described security on the Tibetan side of the border as tight. Theyve put up more barriers on the road and there are a lot more army and police around, said Keshab Timilsina, a Nepali truck driver who plies the road between Nepal and China.
Although the border appeared to be open to local travellers and traders, Nepali tour operators said they had been told not to bring in foreign tour groups. Our operator in Tibet is saying that the groups cannot come through the border any longer, and we are hearing that people who were on their way to Lhasa from Kathmandu are being turned around, said a tour operator, who also asked not to be named.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/16/2008 01:25 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The Maoists must be in ecstasy. Their masters have arrived.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/16/2008 7:27 Comments ||
Top||
#2
PR NEWSWIRE/US NEWSWIRE [WND] > USA > Dubya = USA is being called upon or demanded by varo Activist/Humanitar Groups to defend Western interests in MONGOLIA, vv LOCAL MONGOLIAN GOVT NATIONALIZATION EFFORTS: + INITIATE-SUPPOR UNSC INVESTIGATIONS + POTENS ACTIONS AGZ CHINA ON NEW TIBET CRISIS.
NEW DELHI Security has been tightened at major railway stations across north India following a Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) threat to attack railway stations during Holi next week. A letter from the militant outfit threatened to strike during Holi, which falls next Saturday, railway officials said. At the time of festivals, railway stations across the country are crowded with mainly migrant passengers, who visit their hometowns.
"A letter in the name of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba was received by railway officials in Hapur, Uttar Pradesh, six days ago, claming that an attack would happen at New Delhi, Ghaziabad, Meerut and other railway stations during the upcoming Holi festival," Rajiv Saxena, a senior northern railway official, told IANS yesterday. "Keeping in view the passenger flow, we have alerted the investigating agencies and adequate security measures have been taken. We get such threats every year, mostly at festival time, but no compromise on security is made," Saxena added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/16/2008 01:21 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
Referring to the success over in Iraq, naturally.
Five years after the Iraq war began, and one year into the US troop 'surge', bombings and attacks in Baghdad and across the country have plummeted, and a relative calm has settled in. But, as pressure to speed troop withdrawals grows, the question on the ground is: can it hold? Ever the optimists! Rest at link.
Sen. John McCain, the Republican Party's presumptive nominee for president who has linked his political future to U.S. success in Iraq, was in Baghdad on Sunday for meetings with Iraqi and U.S. diplomatic and military officials, a U.S. government official said.
McCain's visit was not announced and he was believed to have been in the country for several hours before reporters were able to confirm his arrival. It was unclear who he met with and no media opportunities or news conferences were planned. McCain, a strong supporter of the U.S. military mission in Iraq, is believed to be staying in the country for about 24 hours.
"Senator McCain is in Iraq and will be meeting with Iraqi and U.S. officials," said Mirembe Nantongo, spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
This is his eighth visit to Iraq. He's accompanied by Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Before leaving McCain said his trip to the Middle East and Europe was a fact-finding venture, not a campaign photo opportunity.
#6
I do hope Lindsey Graham's presence on this "fact-finding" trip is NOT a consideration for VP.
RIght there with ya on that one, Sherry. Right now, Rasmussen shows him starting to slooooowly creep ahead of both Shrillary and the Obamessiah...but if he's stupid enough to tab "Grahamnesty" as his running mate, that evaporates immediately as the conservatives tell each other "the hell with it, let's sit this one out and concentrate on saddling the new Dem President with a Republican House and Senate in 2010".
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
03/16/2008 20:18 Comments ||
Top||
#7
I hope McCain isn't that dumb, because I'm with you abu Bugaloo. But I think he will opt for a RINO from a battleground state. My bet is Pawlenty from Mn. Gives his gubernatorial back-up from an upper-midwest state.
BAGHDAD - The sectarian bloodshed which has ravaged Iraq since 2006 is now running at a much lower level, offering a chance for leaders to push national reconciliation, a top UN official said on Saturday. Staffan de Mistura, special representative in Iraq of the UN secretary general, said the country was no longer experiencing the high levels of communal bloodletting that followed an attack on a revered Shiite shrine in February 2006, despite some horrific acts in the past few weeks.
One more leg kicked out from under the Dhimmicrats, but the Dhimmis are like centipedes in that regard.
De Mistura acknowledged a recent spike in violence but asserted that none of this was of intra-sectarian nature. The (sectarian) violence is much lower. There is no question about it, he told reporters as he presented the 12th report by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) on the state of human rights in Iraq between July 1, 2007 and December 31, 2007.
See what happened after Samarra and see what is happening today, he said, referring to the attack on Al-Askari shrine in Samarra in February 2006 that sparked brutal Shiite-Sunni conflict across Iraq.
The top UN official in Iraq also said that one of the key reasons for the overall drop in violence has been a general fatigue factor among the people. We are seeing among Iraqis a feeling of tiredness, De Mistura said, adding that the controversial US military surge and the ceasefire announced by Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr had also helped reduce violence.
Oh gee, you think US troops helped?
The overall fall in bloodshed, he added, was an opportunity for Iraqi leaders to push ahead with national reconciliation. This is the window of opportunity for Iraq. The fact that there has been reduction in violence. Despite a spike of horrific acts there is still lot of improvement ... it should be interpreted as an opportunity. It does not last long, he said.
The UNAMI report, meanwhile, acknowledged a marked decrease in violent attacks during the period under review and particularly from October to December 2007. But it cautioned that Sunni and Shiite armed groups continue to target civilians through suicide bombings, car bombs and other attacks.
Violent attacks are prompting Iraqis to continue flee from their homes, the report said, adding that as of December the number of internally displaced Iraqis had reached 2.5 million, while the number of those who have fled the country has reached 1.9 million.
Jim Dunnigan (of Strategy Page) noted on the Glenn and Helen Show podcast that most of the displaced Iraqis living abroad are Sunnis, and the Shi'a don't want them back. Even if sectarian violence falls, these refugees are likely to stay in Jordan and Syria.
De Mistura regretted that the United Nations had no statistical data on violent deaths of Iraqi civilians and urged the Iraqi government to provide such information from its health ministry.
Or you could ask the U.S. military which does maintain records.
It is a huge problem, added UNAMIs human rights officer Ivana Vuco, referring to the lack of access to Iraqi governments statistics on civilian casualties.
The report also expressed concern about civilian deaths that continued to be caused by US air strikes. It said during the period under review, 123 civilian deaths were reported due to air strikes.
Any word on the number of civilian casualties caused by the terrorists?
De Mistura acknowledged the US militarys argument that many of the civilian casualties occur as insurgents often use civilians as human shields.
He said US-run prisons were seeing reduction of detainee overcrowding, but added that the number of juvenile detainees had increased. The UNAMI report, on the other hand, said the number of detainees had risen in Iraqi prisons, peaking at 21,112 in November 2007.
The report said the ongoing violence continued to hamper efforts to research and assess the situation of women. It said honour killings of women continued to be a regular occurrence in the countrys Kurdish north, otherwise the most peaceful area in Iraq.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/16/2008 01:34 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The sectarian bloodshed which has ravaged Iraq since 2006 is now running at a much lower level.
Wow, wonder how that happened? Must have been the United Nations in action again. Those folks are just amazing.
BAGHDAD - Iraq will hold a two-day conference of all political groups starting on Tuesday to promote national unity and help defuse sectarian tensions, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said on Saturday.
The conference, which begins just two days before the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion, will be organised by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to achieve security, reconstruction and complete sovereignty, Dabbagh said. Different political leaders will be present and the conference will aim to activate the role of different groups in the political process for positive contribution and national reconciliation, he said in a statement.
The gathering will be Malikis second attempt to bring together members of Iraqs warring factions to resolve their differences. On December 16, 2006, he presided over a similar gathering, calling on the members of Saddam Husseins former Baath Party to re-join the political process. He also urged officers and soldiers from Saddams defeated army to join Iraqs new security forces to fight insurgent groups.
Since then, the government claims to have brought hundreds of former Baathists back into public life and, last month, parliament approved a law that would offer government jobs to them.
Dabbagh said on Saturday that next weeks meeting is an attempt to offer every group participation in the political process. The government believes political participation is an equal right for every citizen and group, to allow them to contribute to a democratic regime and prevent any (single) party or group from controlling the process, he said.
Several nationalist organizations are calling upon the public to join them as they march on the home of the terrorist who massacred eight Merkaz HaRav students and destroy it.
The police, already on high alert because of terrorist warnings, are planning to deploy large forces to stop the march.
The march is set to begin at 5 p.m. Sunday afternoon from the Banks Junction on Hevron Rd. in the south Jerusalem neighborhood of Talpiyot. It is being sponsored by Beit El-based Komemiyut (Standing Tall), Women in Green, Lev Yehudi (Jewish Heart), and the bereaved families.
Red, black and white posters that can be seen all around Jerusalem blare, "The Arab enemy is inside Jerusalem! The mourning period is over. It's time to destroy the terrorist's house and wipe out the evil from our midst."
"Government Has Done Nothing"
Moshe Musa Cohen, a Komemiyut organizer, told Arutz-7's Hebrew newsmagazine about the initiative: "It's been over a week, and our government has not yet provided a real response to the slaughter in Merkaz HaRav. The same government that destroyed thousands of homes in Gush Katif can't destroy the home of just one terrorist? The still-standing home of the terrorist is a symbol of the government's weakness and failure to act. They want quiet while they carry out their mistaken diplomatic policies, and are generally unwilling to take action, and that's why the house is still standing."
"They keep talking about completing the partition fence," Cohen said, "yet this terrorist came from within the fence! He is a full-fledged resident of Israel." Most Arabs of eastern Jerusalem are residents with near-total citizenship rights, except for the right to vote in national elections. In 1980, when Israel annexed the entire city of Jerusalem, the Arab residents were given the right to full citizenship, just like the other Arabs of Israel, if they would learn Hebrew and pledge allegiance to the country; most of them refused.
The Message: Internal Enemy Must be Fought
"When a country is afraid to deal with its enemies in its own capital," Cohen said, "that is a sign of bankruptcy... For us, it is hard to sit quietly; we want to express our protest and destroy the house."
Cohen does not expect to fulfill his second objective of destroying the house: "The same police whose men stayed outside Merkaz HaRav while the terrorist massacred the students, will be out in force to make sure that we don't get close to the house. But at least we will get our message across: We have an Arab enemy in Israel, and we must protect ourselves and fight against him."
"There is a fifth column inside the State of Israel," Cohen said, "and that is the Israeli-Arabs. We don't see a solution to this problem."
Matar: Boycott Arab Transport Company
Nadia Matar of Women in Green said, "The family of this terrorist is a wealthy one; it runs the Tiyulei HaPninah transportation company in Jerusalem, and we should boycott it."
Matar further said, "Today's protest is an important one. It begins a new campaign regarding the future of our country, and it is good that this issue is being raised... The government has not razed the house because it is afraid of the Arab MKs' reaction - just like it is afraid to attack Gaza and stop the Kassams. The government thus does not represent Jewish interests."
Israeli-Arabs Happy With Attack
Not only have the Arab Knesset Members not condemned or spoken out against the murder of the eight yeshiva students, other Israeli-Arab elements have actually implied praise of it. The main headline in the Islamic Movements Al-Mithaak weekly the day after the attack read, The First Response to the Massacre in Gaza!!!
The body of the story said: In a first response to [Israel's] acts of slaughter [in Gaza], Palestinians carried out an operation yesterday in which eight Israelis were killed and ten wounded. The story refrained from using the term terror attack, murder or terrorist.
This weeks edition of the Al-Mithaak weekly reported on Wednesday's IDF liquidation of four senior terrorists in Bethlehem as follows: After the Massacre in Gaza: The occupation turns to perpetrating massacres in the West Bank as undercover agents carry out massacre in heart of Bethlehem.
Chabad Response: Israel is the Only Place
Rabbi Menachem Brod of the Young Chabad movement wrote in this week's Sichat HaShavua:
"If there is something more horrific than the terrible massacre of the yeshiva students hunched over their Torah texts, it is the quick return to the daily routine and the indications that the government is not planning to do a thing to respond appropriately to this crime. Nearly 52 years ago, we saw similar photos when terrorists infiltrated Kfar Chabad and shot and killed five students and a teacher as they were praying Maariv [the evening prayer]. This event was one of the factors that caused the Government of Israel to begin the Kadesh Operation [Suez Canal War of 1956]. But today, the government merely suffices with an expression of sorrow.
"In the past, this type of event was called a pogrom. Jewish communities were aroused to demand that the world not stand silently in the face of Jewish bloodshed. We used to be told that the establishment of the State of Israel was in order to prevent Jewish blood from being spilled wantonly - but now it turns out that the Jewish State is the only place in the world where yeshiva students can be massacred, and within a few days everything is back to normal, as if this is something we must learn to live with."
#3
A couple thousand people marching in column will get their attention. After they level the house, maybe they should march onto the Knesset. That might really get their attention.
Posted by: Black Charlie Omavimp5359 ||
03/16/2008 13:54 Comments ||
Top||
#4
In this situation the so-called traitors are the enemy. Their Israeli citizenship as an accident of location, not because they had ever desired it.
High-ranking Israeli officials are plotting against Sheikh Raed Salah, the head of the Islamic Movement's northern branch claimed on Saturday. Salah told supporters during a rally in Umm el-Fahm that a certain Arab country had warned him that extreme right-wing members were planning to assassinate him.
His speech was made in the presence of the town's mayor, Knesset members and Arab religious leaders during an event organized by the Israeli Arab Higher Follow-up Committee. "I received information from an Arab country warning me of a plan to assassinate me. I have no more details in the matter," the sheikh, who is known for speaking at heavily-attended rallies in the town and is often accused of incitement, told the crowd.
Last week the Islamic Movement hired a private security firm to guard mosques and other public institutions in Umm el-Fahm. "Following the recent events and the threats made by right-wing religious leaders such as [MKs Avigdor] Leiberman and [Effi] Eitam, who talked about a religious sanction to seek revenge for the terrorist attack [at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva] in Jerusalem last week, we must not ignore the voices and take precautions," Umm el-Fahm Mayor Sheikh Hashem Abdel-Rahman told the Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Global Jihad
Hamas says its fighters will keep targeting Israeli aircraft with heavy machine guns, after hitting an Israeli helicopter over Gaza for the first time. The Israeli military did not comment on Friday's incident, but security officials say the helicopter was lightly damaged and returned to Israel safely.
It was not immediately clear whether Friday's hit was an isolated incident or a sign of Hamas' increasing military capabilities. Hamas is believed to have more than a dozen Russian-made KPV-14.5 machine guns.
Israeli officials have said Hamas is developing a weapons industry in Gaza, using the smuggling routes through Egypt to upgrade its fighting capabilities and to improve the range of its rockets to hit deeper inside Israel. Hamas militants say they are trying to improve their arsenal, but insist their weapons are largely homemade, and deny smuggling technology from Iran.
A Hamas video on YouTube showed a Hamas fighter aiming a machine gun toward the sky as a helicopter flew above. Another Hamas man stood under green tarp used as a visual shield from aircraft. The text accompanying the video said Hamas has also used the machine guns against Israeli armoured personnel carriers.
Abu Obeida, spokesman of the Hamas military wing, said that in Friday's incident, Hamas fighters fired at an Apache helicopter with machine guns from several directions. "This is progress for the resistance," Abu Obeida said. "It's a message to the occupation that our resistance men will confront the Zionist war planes, vehicles and soldiers with any means they get."
Abu Obeida said the machine guns were confiscated from security headquarters of its rival Fatah last year. Hamas militants overran Fatah security forces in a violent showdown last summer, seizing security posts and most of the Fatah-controlled arsenal since. Some security officials estimate that Hamas has at least 14 Russian-made machine guns, and has set up an "anti-aircraft unit" to use them. "We took them. We fixed them and we are using them now to defend our people," Abu Obeida said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
The IAF vows to keep Hamas in its line of fire, too. And they are probably better shots than Hamas.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
03/16/2008 1:06 Comments ||
Top||
The three alleged foreign terrorists arrested in the country last month planned to bomb a major airport and a military camp in Mindanao, according to a preliminary police report shown to the Inquirer yesterday.
The report said Jordanians Khalil Hasan Al-Alih and Walid Abu Aisem and Indonesian Bae Haki admitted during interrogation that they were involved in plans to bomb Awang airport in Cotabato City as well as the headquarters of the 6th Infantry Division located beside the terminal. The sources said the authorities were tracking the suspects funding source as well as other cohorts they may have had.
Police arrested Al-Alih on Feb. 15 at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Aisem and Haki were arrested in Davao between Feb. 15 and 29. The sources told the Inquirer the three were suspected members of an al-Qaida sleeper cell operating in the country that planned to bomb the American, British and other embassies in Manila.
Haki was reportedly a member of Jemaah Islamiyah, an Indonesia-based terror group with links to the al-Qaida international terror network of Osama bin Laden.
The Philippine National Police, meanwhile, is also on the lookout for a terror suspect who escaped from detention in Singapore three weeks ago, according to a confidential report obtained by the Inquirer. The report said Singapore police had alerted their counterparts in the Philippines to be on the lookout for Mas Selamat Kastari after they failed to find him in the city-state. Kastari, 45, is reportedly the Jemaah Islamiyah leader in Singapore.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Jemaah Islamiyah
Syrian dictator Bashar Assad's brother-in-law is suspected of engineering the assassination of Hizbullah's operations officer Imad Mughniyeh, according to a report Saturday in Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Siasa ("Politics"). The news report appeared under the headline "Mughniyeh's elimination breaking the back of Damascus regime."
The suspicions against the man, Colonel Wasef Shweikat, surfaced after his wife, Bashar Assad's sister Bushra, relocated to Paris with her children following the assassination. The move followed a split between Bashar and Bushra, which began when Mughniyeh informed Bashar of a plot against his regime.
The paper said Shweikat met with a senior American intelligence officer in a European country. Mughniyeh got wind of the clandestine meeting and informed Bashar personally about it. This is what caused the rift between Bashar Assad and his sister.
Bashar slapped his sister in the face after he informed her of the suspicions against her husband. Assad told his sister that Shweikat and the American agent met to discuss a possible coup in Syria, in which Shweikat would seize power.
Tension between Mughniyeh and Shweikat was not a new thing, Al-Siasa explained. Mughniyeh had repeatedly attempted to weaken Shweikat's standing in the Syrian power echelon. This is why Shweikat is a major suspect in the planning of the assassination.
Suspicions against Shweikat have increased since Bashar Assad appointed Hafez Makluf, the Head of General Intelligence, to head the investigation of the assassination. Makluf is considered to be a political rival of Shweikat.
Bushra Assad is said to be preparing to move again, from Paris to one of the Gulf emirates.
A month ago, the newspaper reported that none other than Hassan Nasrallah was the man behind the assassination of his operations officer. Nasrallah reportedly refused to allow Syrian investigators to interrogate three of his senior officers, because he feared that a connection would be established between the Mughniyeh assassination and a split between Hizbullah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
Kuwait has been disseminating information which shows Mughniyeh in a bad light, since his assassination. The Gulf state suspects Mughniyeh of involvement in the hijacking of two Kuwaiti airliners in the 1980s. Members of the Kuwaiti parliament who protested and grieved Mughneiyeh's death were put on trial.
A Lebanese newspaper reported Saturday that Syria recently sent Israel a message saying it was still interested in the peace process, but insisting that it must be open and that it must not be carried out "under fire." The phrase "under fire" is understood as relating to the Israeli confrontation with the Arabs in Judea, Samaria and Gaza.
Al-Akbar, which is considered pro-Hizbullah and pro-Syria, reported that Syria relayed the message to Israel through Turkish premier Tayyip Erdogan.
Syria reportedly wants the negotiations to be public, and wants them accompanied by Israeli signals that it is willing to withdraw from all of the "occupied Arab territories," and by negotiations between Israel and Lebanon as well as Israel and the PA.
"Knowledgeable sources" told the paper that Damascus believes the U.S. is not interested in this kind of dialogue between Israel and Syria and that Israel will not engage in it without an American green light.
#1
the good news is that Bashar is under some internal pressure. His economy is in trouble, his inner circle is getting old and he is having trouble keeping all of those nutjobs he gives sanctuary to, in line. Me thinks he needs to remember that to the fanatics he is useful but still an apostate.
Posted by: Grand Proconsul Sock Puppet ||
03/16/2008 12:08 Comments ||
Top||
Syria has conveyed a message to Israel via Turkey that it is interested in renewing peace talks, Lebanese paper Al-Akhbar reported Saturday. According to the report, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has transmitted messages from Israel to Syria on several occasions expressing Israel's interest in quick and intensive negotiations.
While Syria has responded positively, the Hizbullah-affiliated paper reported, Damascus set several conditions: That talks be conducted publicly and not secretly; that Israel show "serious signs" that it is willing to withdraw "from all occupied Arab territories;" that negotiations not be held "under fire" and while "Israel commits massacres against the Palestinians;" finally, that Israel simultaneously negotiate on other Arab tracks, although the report does not specify which.
The paper quoted an unnamed "informed source" as saying Damascus did not feel that the US was enthusiastic to achieve progress in negotiations between Israel and Syria, and there was no indication that Israel could override Washington's will at this time.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
Conservative opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a strong showing in Iran's parliamentary elections, according to partial results Saturday. The split could mean frictions between the president and former supporters disillusioned by his fiery, populist rule.
Reformists, meanwhile, claimed to have made better than expected gains even though most of their candidates were thrown out of the race by Iran's clerical leadership. If reformists succeed in expanding the largely muted bloc of around 40 lawmakers they had in the outgoing parliament, it would be a blow to hard-line attempts to bury the movement, which calls for reducing the power of clerics and opening up to the West.
The Interior Ministry put turnout in Friday's vote at around 60 percent up from 51 percent in 2004 parliament elections. Grouping all conservative factions together, it said they had won just over 70 percent of the seats so far with most of the nation counted, without giving an exact number.
Iran's leaders depicted the rise as a show of confidence in the Islamic republic and of defiance against criticism of the vote by the United States, which said Iran's clerical leaders "cooked the vote." "The history-making Iranian nation protected its identity, ideals and all its rights, especially the right to exploit nuclear energy," Ahmadinejad said.
But the differences among conservatives could prove significant.
Ahmadinejad's allies were on track to grab the largest share of the 290-member parliament. But they appeared likely to face a strong minority of conservative opponents, and perhaps of reformists. If that happens, "large disputes will flare up" in the coming parliament, said political analyst Saeed Laylaz. "Ahmadinejad will not bow to demands by the parliament, and legislators will change his bills based on their wishes."
It could also encourage a conservative challenge to Ahmadinejad in presidential elections in 2009.
Returns from Friday's voting rolled in from many parts of the country, but the biggest prize Tehran, with 30 seats was still up in the air. It could take another day at least to count votes there.
In the 158 parliament seats decided so far, pro-Ahmadinejad hard-liners won 57 seats, while a slate seen as representing his conservative critics seized 40, according to results announced by state television and the official news agency IRNA. Reformists won 24 seats, according to the results. Another 37 winners were independents whose political leanings were not immediately known. Races for more than 30 seats will go to a run-off vote scheduled for April.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
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.
Western governments should talk to Islamist extremists including Al-Qaeda and the Taliban to end violence, one of former Prime Minister Tony Blair's closest aides said in comments published Saturday. "It's very difficult for democratic governments to do -- talk to a terrorist movement that's killing your people," Blair's former chief of staff Jonathan Powell he told The Guardian in an interview. "(But) if I was in government now I would want to have been talking to Hamas, I would be wanting to communicate with the Taliban and I would want to find a channel to Al-Qaeda."
Three Mexican students have been confirmed killed in Ecuador during a cross-border raid earlier this month by Colombian troops who were hunting a guerrilla leader, police and victims' relatives said Friday. 
As many as 160 people may have died in Albania Saturday when a powerful explosion ripped an army depot outside Tirana, officials said. While exact casualty figures were unknown, a spokeswoman for Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha said officials were concerned U.S. citizens working at the military site may have been among the victims of the large blast, The Guardian reported. "We do not know the exact number, but we fear the worst for the three teams, each of 21 people, working there at the time," spokeswoman Juela Mecani said. "Several were U.S. citizens." Officials at the U.S. embassy in the Albanian capital had no news regarding the condition of U.S. citizens reportedly at the blast site, the BBC said.
Michael Fumento is reporting that Monsoor will be awarded the Medal of Honor next month, posthumously. And I just published my book on the first three awardees...
LIPANG VILLAGE, Nepal China border - China has deployed security personnel inside neighbouring Nepal to keep an eye out for protests by pro-Tibetan groups, Nepali officials have said. We are a very small country. China is very powerful so we must do what the Chinese tell us, said one Nepali official, while refusing to say if Chinese security officials were allowed to detain people inside Nepal.
NEW DELHI Security has been tightened at major railway stations across north India following a 
BAGHDAD - The sectarian bloodshed which has ravaged Iraq since 2006 is now running at a much lower level, offering a chance for leaders to push national reconciliation, a top UN official said on Saturday. Staffan de Mistura, special representative in Iraq of the UN secretary general, said the country was no longer experiencing the high levels of communal bloodletting that followed an attack on a revered Shiite shrine in February 2006, despite some horrific acts in the past few weeks.
BAGHDAD - Iraq will hold a two-day conference of all political groups starting on Tuesday to promote national unity and help defuse sectarian tensions, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said on Saturday.
Hamas says its fighters will keep targeting Israeli aircraft with heavy machine guns, after hitting an Israeli helicopter over Gaza for the first time. The Israeli military did not comment on Friday's incident, but security officials say the helicopter was lightly damaged and returned to Israel safely.
Syria has conveyed a message to Israel via Turkey that it is interested in renewing peace talks, Lebanese paper Al-Akhbar reported Saturday. According to the report, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has transmitted messages from Israel to Syria on several occasions expressing Israel's interest in quick and intensive negotiations. 
