British Defence Secretary Des Browne has become the most senior serving member of a Western government to propose talks with Taliban and other Islamist radical groups, in a sign the 'clash of civilisations' phase may be moving towards the endgame.
Browne told a British newspaper on Saturday that it was important the UK talked to elements within the Taliban in order to stabilize the world.
Some elements within the Taliban, he said can be persuaded to change sides and this would relieve the intolerable pressure currently faced by the British armed forces as it struggles to fight on multiple fronts. Browne admitted the pressure was unsustainable, "We can't do this for ever and we aren't."
Browne's proposal is seen to contradict his prime minister's very public refusal last year to talk to extremists in a bid to end the protracted, hearts-and-minds war-without-end with Islamist radicalism.
In proposing to negotiate with the Taliban, the British defence secretary is seen to give ballast to an earlier suggestion by security minister Alan West and the former Downing Street chief of staff Jonathan Powell urging the UK to hold discussions with al-Qaida.
But Browne did not countenance negotiations with al-Qaida, saying "their demand is an end to our way of life". Even so, security experts said the British defence secretary's proposed negotiations with the Taliban could be the start of a new Western policy of rapprochement with militant Islamist groups.
Browne justified his suggestion by stressing that "the Taliban is a collective noun" and contained different strands, some of whom could be won over to the Western world view.
Browne said, "We have to get people who have previously been on the side of the Taliban to come onto the side of the government (because) ...what you need to do in conflict resolution is to bring the people who believe that the answer to their political ambitions will be achieved through violence into a frame of mind that they accept that their political ambitions will be delivered by politics".
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
Ah, yes - "peace in our time." Again.
Is it something in the water over there? That whirring sound you hear is Churchill spinning in his grave. >:-(
Here's my message you can take to the Tali-tubbies when you kiss their asses "talk" to them, Neville Des: DROP DEAD.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/30/2008 0:24 Comments ||
Top||
#5
This comment comes in the context of debates of NATO's future and role. The Browne position is/has been that the main issue in Afghanistan is reconstruction, a capable and honest police force and a strong central government. From their perspective, only 6% of Afghanis are in areas affected by Taliban violence and so the pressure is to end the drugs growing and somehow bring the Taliban into agreement w/ Kabul.
Fat chance, I suspect - but that's the position. And it's backdrop for the Bucharest NATO meeting, which will be pretty contentious as the future (or not) of the alliance is decided sort of.
Last month The Observer carried a claim from a United Nations source that the British Pacific territory of Diego Garcia has been used to house prisoners subjected to extraordinary rendition by America. Manfred Nowak, the UN special rapporteur on torture, said several detainees had told him they had been held there before being transferred to secret detention centres elsewhere.
The detainees were trained to lie about their circumstances of course, but the Y'urp-peons don't care about that. And Mr. Nowak can't reveal his sources ...
Last week the Foreign Office minister, Kim Howells, said in Parliament: 'We have received allegations about detainees being held on US ships stationed outside the three-mile territorial waters of Diego Garcia from a number of interested non-governmental organisations, including Amnesty International and Reprieve [a campaign for people sentenced to death].' Howells said the government was prepared to look into claims that Diego Garcia, which is now a US naval base, had been used for extraordinary renditions. He added that his fellow Foreign Office minister, Lord Malloch-Brown, had contacted Nowak to encourage him 'to provide the government with any evidence he may have regarding these allegations'.
Nowak has offered to share his information - which was given on a confidential basis - if he can gain agreement from his sources.
#3
So how does this become a British matter? Kim-boy said the US ships were OUTSIDE the 3 mile limit of Diego Garcia; to my reading that puts the ships in international waters and these striped pants wienies can bugger off.
Captain Ed spotlights a Christian Science Monitor article that says tensions between Colombia and Venezuela and Bolivia have calmed in the past few weeks... with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez acting strangely conciliatory.
Venezuela has since restored full diplomatic relations with Colombia, and Ecuador says it intends to. But there's uneasiness in the capitals of Caracas and Quito about what else may be revealed by the FARC laptops -- and how Colombian President Alvaro Uribe intends to use it, analysts say...
Both Chavez and Correa are now warning that tensions in the Andes will not fully ease unless Colombia agrees to keep quiet about what's on the computers. . . .
Only a fraction of what is on the computers -- believed to contain thousands of files -- has been released to the public.
Following up on one of the comments on that Hot Air thread, I found the following in NRO's archives:
On January 5, [2003] Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's former personal pilot dropped a bombshell that has been ignored by just about every major U.S. news organization: The Venezuelan president, according to the pilot, gave al Qaeda a substantial sum of money following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. . . .
The first attempt to transfer the money fell through, but in late September 2001 Venezuelan Vice President Diosdado Cabello decided to funnel the money through Venezuela's ambassador in India, one Walter Marquez. The Taliban received the money and publicly acknowledged receipt of $100,000 in "humanitarian aid." "The rest went straight to al Qaeda," claims Diaz Castillo. "That is, $900,000."
Would a FARC laptop have some sort of confirmation of this tale, or subequent contact between Chavez' regime and al-Qaeda? The Colombians found something on that laptop that has Hugo Chavez suddenly backing down and playing nice. Chavez himself "jokes" that next the Colombians will say they found a photo of him, the leader of FARC, and Osama bin Laden.
Hmmmm...
Obviously, we may never know what else was found on that laptop, and this is speculation. But if a tie is established between Chavez and al-Qaeda (and I grant that's a big "if") how will Americans look upon Barack Obama's pledge to conduct face-to-face diplomacy with Chavez, without preconditions?
Posted by: Mike ||
03/30/2008 10:05 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"But if a tie is established between Chavez and al-Qaeda (and I grant that's a big "if") how will Americans look upon Barack Obama's pledge to conduct face-to-face diplomacy with Chavez, without preconditions?"
The Lefties and the Dems (butI repeat myself) will still think it's a peachy idea.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/30/2008 11:00 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Don't you know? The Global War on Terrorism is a Republican myth generated to funnel billions to Karl Rove's buddies in the arms and aerospace industry........or at least that is how the MSM wants to play it.
Terrorism??? What's that? They are just "freedom fighters", "insurgents" or some disgruntled minority wanting a place at the table..........The Dems will never get a grip on this because they are all closet Leninists and would support anything that weakens the USA.
We will never be safe with a Democratic president. In fact, if FDR was alive today, the Dems would think he was a conservative.
#5
On January 5, [2003] Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's former personal pilot dropped a bombshell that has been ignored by just about every major U.S. news organization:
When is someone going to explain the reason why all of the major newspapers here in the US act as propaganda machines by foreign entities? They are worse than Pravda. While I don't think that the individuals that work for them are even aware that they are tools of forces beyond their control, I do think it is obvious that we are being denied stories that expose how these forces are interconnected with dictators such as Chavez, Castro, and others who work against the interests of America.
#7
Are you saying that because it wouldn't sell papers is the reason why most major American newspapers act as propaganda machines for anti-American interests?
#8
Actually it is the kind of stuff that does Zebulon Angavick7428. It's the kind of red meat dirt that does sell papers when splashed on the front page. What we have instead is defeatism and socialist outrage against the system. There is no wonder that the Newspaper is about to go extinct in the USA.
#10
Are you saying that because it wouldn't sell papers is the reason why most major American newspapers act as propaganda machines for anti-American interests?
North Korea on Saturday rejected a UN resolution condemning Pyongyang's alleged human rights abuses as a US-led political plot and warned the US, the European Union and Japan of "unpredictable consequences" for leading the move. North Korea's Foreign Ministry issued the harsh warning, labeling the resolution - passed at the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday - as a "politically motivated document...full of sheer lies and fabrications."
Pyongyang "sternly refutes the resolution as it is a product of the anti-(North Korea) political plot hatched by the EU and Japan at the prodding of the US," the ministry said, according to the country's official Korean Central News Agency. "The US, the EU and Japan will be held fully accountable for all the unpredictable consequences," the state news agency said, without elaborating on what those consequences might be.
The warning came a day after North Korea test-fired a barrage of short-range missiles into waters off its western coast in an apparent response to the new South Korean government's tougher stance on Pyongyang. South Korea also voted in favor of the resolution, but the North's ministry made no mention of that.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Unpredictable my a$$. Prepare for another engineered "stall" in the negotiations. Just remember to withhold fuel oil and fertilizer and you might be able to minimize it.
#2
This reminds me so much of the old lady's dog, all fury and weighs all of a half pound or so, no threat just irritating noise.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/30/2008 15:55 Comments ||
Top||
#3
To continue the "Small Yappy Dog" theme, small dogs have exactly two choices in life, fawning subservience, or all sound and fury but effectively impotent, they get only one bite, after the first bite they either get stomped to death, thrown out into the yard to starve, or sent to the pound to be euthanized, all therr choices are the same end result, Doggie Dead.
Kimmie obviously never sees himself as the little impotent Doggie, that's too bad, death is the only option with this mindset, stomped is the most likely end after he makes that one fiest and last bite.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/30/2008 21:34 Comments ||
Top||
#4
or they have... accidents
Posted by: Michael Vick ||
03/30/2008 21:57 Comments ||
Top||
#5
YAHOO NEWS > REPORT: NORTH KOREAN JETS FLEW CLOSE TO SOUTH AIRSPACE/NORTH KOREA TESTING SOUTH WITH JET FIGHTERS.
Ten times since near EOM February 2008, after recent SOKOR Elex = new Conservative Govt.
Japan completed deploying a ballistic missile defence system in the Tokyo area on Saturday, a day after North Korea reportedly fired short-range missiles off its west coast, said news reports.
According to Jiji Press, Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) surface-to-air interceptors had been installed at a Japanese ground force base in Ibaraki prefecture, northeast of Tokyo. It was the fourth and last set of interceptors for the nations four-part missile defence system protecting Tokyo as the pacifist nation beefs up its military capability in the face of North Korea and China. Immediate confirmation of the reports was not available.
Following Pyongyangs reported missile launches on Friday, the Japanese defence ministry said it does not believe that there is an emergency significantly affecting the countrys national security. The Japanese defence ministry plans to deploy the US-developed PAC-3s at a total of 11 bases in eastern and western Japan by March 2011. Japan and the United States began working on a more advanced missile shield after North Korea fired a missile over Japans main island in 1998. Japan has been repairing relations with China but has also voiced concern about Beijings rapidly growing military spending, including advances in its cruise missiles and air strike capabilities.
In December, Japan succeeded in shooting down a ballistic missile in space high above the Pacific Ocean as part of joint efforts with the United States to build a shield against a possible North Korean attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#3
Excal, it's a useful argument: when a Leftie tells me that a strategic missile defense is impossible, I ask why, if that's true, the Japanese are buying the PAC3 system and setting it up to defend their own country.
The Lefties usually don't have a straight answer.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/30/2008 14:30 Comments ||
Top||
#4
as the pacifist nation beefs up its military capability
#5
Sounds good to me TW, that's Heinlein's statement,
"An armed society, is a POLITE society".
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/30/2008 16:00 Comments ||
Top||
#6
I still say we need to sell the Kitty Hawk and a couple of squadrons of A-6s, EA-6bs, and F/A-18s to Japan, just for the spittle-spewing that would greet the news in NKor and China. The Japanese would have a half-dozen super-carriers and indigenous aircraft within five years. Say it's to defend the main islands and Okinawa from Chinese intervention, and it remains within the "self-defense" role Japan has saddled itself with.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/30/2008 16:34 Comments ||
Top||
#8
CHIN MIL FORUM/WAFF.com > REUTERS - CLINTON SAYS CHINA [$$$ investment-dollar holdings] THREATENS US NATIONAL SECURITY. Former Chin General claims China will no lnger buy US debt + will dump dollars iff sends USN Carrier fleet agz China vv TAIWAN. ALso, Article infers Chin may choose to treat any US intervention in TIBET CRISIS = same as for any TAIWAN CRISIS as per above-described economic retaliation???
Twelve men accused of terrorism will find out today whether their trial will stop and whether they will be able to apply for bail as a result of being kept in what a Supreme Court judge calls intolerable conditions.
The secretary of the Department of Justice has been told by Justice Bernard Bongiorno to respond in an affidavit by noon today to demands the judge has made about improving the men's jail conditions and the way they are transported to court. Justice Bongiorno rejected Crown arguments that the problems could be solved by moving the trial to Geelong or by allowing the men to watch the trial by audio-visual link from Barwon Prison.
The 12 Muslim men, including alleged leader Abdul Nacer Benbrika, have already spent two years in the high-security Acacia Unit at Barwon Prison near Lara. Their trial began on 13 February and soon afterwards defence lawyers applied to have it "stayed", arguing that the men could not get a fair hearing because of their "oppressive" jail and travelling conditions.
Jim Kennan, SC, said the conditions reduced the men's physical and mental ability to follow the evidence and instruct their lawyers. All the men have pleaded not guilty to the charges, which involve the alleged fostering of a terrorist act in pursuit of violent jihad.
Dr Douglas Bell, a forensic psychiatrist, told the court Acacia had an austere and restrictive regime that could cause an ordinary person to experience significant psychological and emotional difficulty, affect the ability to concentrate and perhaps trigger serious psychiatric problems. The men's travel arrangements would add to this, he said. On court days the men are strip-searched and shackled before their 80-minute trips to and from Melbourne. Two of the men were recently moved from Barwon Prison and found by psychiatrists to be too ill to attend court at that time.
AUSTRALIA has added its voice to the international chorus of outrage over an anti-Islam film posted on the internet by a right wing Dutch politician.
Oh, bother ...
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith today said Geert Wilders' film Fitna equated Islam with acts of terror and violence and was "highly offensive". "It is an obvious attempt to generate discord between faith communities," Mr Smith said. "Like leaders in the Muslim world and in Europe, I strongly reject the ideas contained in the film and deplore its release.
Even though he hasn't seen it ...
"In Australia we believe in the right to freedom of expression but we don't believe in abusing that right to incite racial hatred."
You're free to stand against racial hatred: that's right and noble. However, you can't use the power of government to silence dissenting voices, and you haven't yet proven that Fitna is racist.
Muslim nations, the European Union and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon have all expressed outrage over the film, posted on the internet last week.
Iran and Bangladesh warned the film could cause grave consequences and Pakistan has protested to the Dutch ambassador. Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has called for Muslim nations to boycott Dutch products.
But Mr Smith echoed Dutch Muslim leaders' calls for restraint, saying the best response was a "calm and responsible one".
A rare commodity in the Unmah these days.
Fearing a repeat of violent clashes in 2006 that followed the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed in Danish newspapers, the Dutch government has distanced itself from Wilders' 17-minute film.
The head of the Freedom Party, which has nine seats in the Dutch parliament, Wilders has also called for the banning of the Koran in the Netherlands, calling it "fascist".
#4
Just because they can find one spineless, weak willed dhimmi in every country, does not mean the country as a whole is that way. On top of that, foreign ministers are diplomats who thrive on "deploring" anything that isn't sweetness and nice.
You can spit in one hand and "deplore" in the other...
#6
I don't think the West is lost yet. We're approaching a tipping point. At some point all these dhimmi's will be OBE, and revealed as wearing no clothes. Islam can't hide much longer.
I've downloaded Fitna in several different formats and I have been emailing to everyone I know. I'm even considering renting a small Art-House theater that seats about 200 and showing it. Anything to wake people up.
#12
I agree that the West is approaching a tipping point. It has been obvious for a long while what Islam is to those willing to look. The rest divide into two categories: 1. those too self absorbed in their own concerns to be bothered or too narcissistic to understand what happened at Beslan or is happening in Israel every day, or 2. are fellow travelers.
The situation with our feckless leaders cannot continue. Nothing will change the fellow travelers, but at some point Muslims will commit an atrocity that cannot be ignored, and the rest will sweep away the leadership and follow any man on a horse who offers security.
#13
to me, it seems less important what the diplomatic corps says to smooth ruffled feathers and much, much more important whether or not the Dutch allow free speech to see the day.
#14
I think it's fairly safe to assume at this point that John McCain will win in November. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the world responds to that reality.
#17
I saw a copy of the film that I downloaded last night. In some ways it is formatted like a propaganda piece, but mainly Geert Wilders has taken it and held it up like a mirror to show what so-called radical Islam really is. And the reaction from Islamists shows that he is fundamentally right in his assertions.
At the end of the film, he, in effect issues a challenge to Islam to reform itself and take the murderous tenants out of the Koran.
If the Islamic people don't do it, others will, once this madness hits a crescendo, and it will be settled, once and for all.
Like the Fram filter guy sez, "pay me now, or pay me later."
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/30/2008 15:06 Comments ||
Top||
#18
The Memphis Belle was propaganda too, doesn't make it wrong.
#19
Australia is run by leftists and socialist and has been for a long while. Why would one expect anything different? Hell they don't even allow toy guns. (Airsoft)
Leftism after age of 25 years is a mental disorder.
But it is not an infection, it is a self-inflicted contruct. One day, they would have to face the consequence of their refusal to mature. The times that are coming won't be "nice" and the consequences would be brutal.
#24
I downloaded and viddied as well - thanks lotp. Also, CVF is currently working on translations. It'll be crude to some degree, but they're putting in their best effort. Euro speaks first (they're on the front lines)...English soon to follow. We have not yet begun to fight!
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
03/30/2008 21:19 Comments ||
Top||
Police kept guard on Sunday as the curtain went up in a German theater premiere of a play based on "The Satanic Verses," a controversial novel by Indian-born author Salman Rushdie.
The stage adaptation, the first of Rushdie's 1988 novel, was premiered at the Hans Otto Theatre, known by the acronym HOT, in the city of Potsdam, south-west of Berlin. The script is by Germans, Uwe Eric Laufenberg and Marcus Mislin.
Police in Potsdam described the watch at the theater as a precaution, saying there had been no threats to the event. Some Muslims have been upset by the production, suggesting that insulting Islam was a gimmick to attract audiences.
Germany's various Muslim groups have differed in their reactions, with one group, the Central Council of Muslims, calling for calm.
Though Rushdie's content was "insulting" to Islam, "despite the common misconception, the majority of the world's Muslims have rejected censorship," Aiman Mazyek, secretary general of the multi-ethnic council, said on Friday.
German-born Mazyek, 39, a political science graduate, told Radio Multikulti, a station run by public broadcaster RBB, the subject matter had the potential to "insult religious people in general and Muslims in particular."
"These days, insulting Islam is often used to attract publicity," he said. "Sulking only played into the hands of those doing the insulting."
"I say we should pursue a critical and constructive dialogue," he said. "One should explain that freedom of opinion and the arts is a prime value, but our values do not extend to insulting what is sacred to a religion."
But Ali Kizilkaya, chairman of the Islamic Council of Germany, a mainly Turkish group, said the stage show was one of a series of increasingly frequent provocations that went beyond the bounds of ordinary debate.
"Evidently it is becoming the fashion to insult Islam," he said in remarks quoted on Friday by the newspaper Schweriner Volkszeitung. Freedom of the arts was "an important value" but the rule of respect also applied.
Germans have shown only slight interest in Rushdie's theme, the dilemmas of Indian expatriates in contemporary England, but have been fascinated by the scandal over the book and threats to assassinate the author in revenge for passages portraying the Prophet Mohammed.
In Potsdam, the two main Indian characters were played by Tobias Rott, as Saladin and the devil, and Robert Gallinowski, as Gibril and the archangel, whose interplay is the theme of the story.
The HOT website said a cast of 12 Germans was performing the world's first stage adaptation of a work about "the battle between modernism and anti-modernism" and it would include the controversial climax with "a prophet named Mahound."
Rushdie has frequently visited Germany and lectured at writers' conferences. Under a Shiite Iranian fatwa or edict issued in Iran in 1989, it was declared right to murder him. As a result, for many years he had police bodyguards.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/30/2008 16:08 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
Dutch businesses warned on Saturday that they would consider suing far-right lawmaker Geert Wilders if his anti-Islam film led to a commercial boycott of Dutch goods, while police said cars were set ablaze and graffiti called for Wilders to be killed. A boycott would hurt Dutch exports. Businesses such as Shell, Philips, and Unilever are easily identifiable as Dutch companies. I dont know if Wilders is rich, or well-insured, but in case of a boycott, we would look to see if we could make him bear responsibility, Bernard Wientjes, the chairman of the Dutch employers organisation VNO-NCW, told the Het Financieel Dagblad newspaper.
Malaysias former prime minister Mahathir Muhammad on Saturday suggested a boycott of Dutch goods. If Muslims unite, it will be easy to take action. If we boycott Dutch products, they will have to close down their businesses, he told reporters. The media in Jordan has also called for such a boycott.
Two days after the Internet release of the long-awaited 17-minute documentary Fitna, Muslim nations, including Malaysia and Singapore, and the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned it. Although there were no mass disturbances in the Netherlands, two cars were set ablaze in Utrecht overnight, with a slogan calling for the death of Wilders. Police said they could not say with certainty that it was connected to the release of Fitna.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Global Jihad
#1
Dutch businesses warned on Saturday that they would consider suing far-right lawmaker Geert Wilders if his anti-Islam film led to a commercial boycott of Dutch goods
#6
Gee, the whole "Freedom of Speech and Expression" thingy in the Netherlands really went to shit in the last couple of years. I thought that was one of their core beliefs.
#8
Dutch businesses warned on Saturday that they would consider suing far-right lawmaker Geert Wilders if his anti-Islam film led to a commercial boycott of Dutch goods, while police said cars were set ablaze and graffiti called for Wilders to be killed. A boycott would hurt Dutch exports
whoa - talk about frick'n stupid! Were any business to sue Wilders because of a boycott resulting from his film, it would only result in a futher boycott of their own products by the Western world angry over their attempt to silence free speech.
There is no amount of money they could get from Wilders that would justify the loss of sales and bad PR these companies would endure from their attempts to silence free speech. So in effect, they would lose both their Mulsim markets (due to boycotts due to the film) AND any remaining Western markets due to their attempts to silence free speech.
#9
Anyone who has seen the film know they can go piss up a rope. Everything in the film is Muslim preachers talking, directly out of the Koran or actions taken by Muslims in accordance to their beliefs. There is very little out side commenting. These people ought to be boycotting their own religious leaders and beliefs then.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit confirmed Thursday the entire Detroit office has been recused from the Al-Hanooti case, but officials would not say why. The case is instead being handled by government lawyers from Washington, D.C. The indictment alleges that an ex-Iraqi Intelligence Service officer asked a former official with the Life for Relief -- Muthanna Al-Hanooti -- to publicize the damage of U.S. sanctions. As part of that, the indictment alleges, Al-Hanooti helped organize a trip to Iraq by a congressional delegation. Al-Hanooti allegedly received a potentially lucrative oil contract from Saddam's regime in return for his services.
Intelligence agencies who have discovered the close synergy between the Dawood Ibrahim gang and the ISI-backed Lashkar-e-Toiba say that consequent to the "merger" with the jehadi group, most members of the underworld outfit have embraced the Ahle Hadees sect.
"We are not saying that all Ahle Hadees adherents are terrorists or D-Company members. But it is a fact that now an overwhelming number of Dawoods gang members subscribe to the Ahled Hadees sect," a senior security official told TOI on Friday. The Times of India had on March 28 reported how the D-gang is now a part of LeT.
The Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadees was founded on December 22, 1906 with a view to "propagating pristine Islamic message among Muslims in a systematic way and to motivate Muslims to adhere to the pristine monotheism (Tawheed)". Its fundamentalist outlook is backed by Wahabi Islamic scholars of Saudi Arabia which is known to fund such religious activities.
This sect suffered badly during the 1947 partition since most of its main centres were located in Pakistan. In 1952, its leader Maulana Abdul Wahab held a conference in UP to revive the movement and significantly it was attended by the then Saudi ambassador to India.
Ahle Hadees is so fundamentalist that it enjoins its followers to stop going to dargahs , do away with taweez (amulets) and stop listening to even religious qawwalis .
Its face, rabble rousing Hafeez Sayeed, spews venom against other faiths, calling upon his followers to ensure the global domination of Islam.
Prior to the coming together of Lashkar and D-Company, members of Dawoods gang were split among diverse Islamic sects with only a section following Ahle Hadees. In fact, these differences did not bother Dawood who never showed any inclination towards religion. But now most D-gang members believe in the Ahle Hadees teachings and are highly-motivated by them. "This makes it easy for the ISI-backed LeT to indoctrinate and train the gang members in terror activities. They are no more fighting for money, but for a larger cause which guarantees them a place in heaven," a security official observed.
This article starring:
Hafeez Sayeed
Posted by: john frum ||
03/30/2008 12:20 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
Mehboob Elahi, resident of Park Circus in Kolkata, was only 19 when he crossed over into Pakistan for a better livelihood in 1971. He was naive and thought his prospects would be brighter in an Islamic country. Arrested in Lahore on June 23, 1977, Elahi was tried by a Pakistan army court, which convicted him of espionage and sentenced him to 14 years of rigorous imprisonment on August 7, 1980. He was released on December 1, 1996.
"I was young and a bit like a vagabond. In our mosques we were told that Muslims had better prospects in Pakistan. That's how I went to Pakistan. Things were not at all rosy there and I tried to get out as well. But I was afraid that I could get caught," says Elahi. "The worst was the period between the capture and the conviction. I was kept in solitary confinement in the Field Intelligence Unit 619 cell, a 400-metre-long structure with about 20 cells. It was in Lahore, near a military field where horse shows were held every winter.
"I was given black kurtas and pajamas without lace, string or buttons. I could not make a sound, not even cough. Woken up at 3 a.m. every day, I had to clean my cell first. Then the gate would open for two minutes. I had to run to the bathroom, relieve myself and run back into my cell. Then there were some exercises inside the cell before namaz. A puri and a cup of tea used to be my breakfast. From 8 a.m. I had to stand still and was not allowed to sit or walk around. The Quran was the only book given to read. Around 12 noon two rotis and dal would arrive. I could sit while eating. Once again, I had two minutes to wash my plates and get back to attention position. At 2 p.m. I was allowed to sit, but no lying down. Thus progressed the day," recalls Elahi.
While interrogations did not have any specific timing, Elahi dreaded every minute between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. "After a day's interrogation, you would concede even to have murdered Hitler," he shudders. "First, they politely asked me to accept that I was an Indian spy. Then, they did not let me sleep. Strong lights focused on my eyes and the sentry's stick came down at the slightest hint of my eyes shutting. They tied my hands behind and hung me head down from a fan and turned it on full-speed. They rapped me so hard that I felt my limbs split into pieces. Then there would be a sudden break from all this torture for three weeks. When I start to think it was over, they start it all over again. I abused them, since it gave me the strength to forget the pain momentarily. For me, sleeplessness was the worst till that fateful day," he says.
On that fateful day, Elahi's torso was burnt with kerosene-lit torches. He suffered 25 per cent burns and the army doctors were doubtful of his survival. It took him three and a half months to recuperate, says Elahi, raising his shirt to expose the marks of brutality, his companion for the rest of his life.
Elahi spent his sentence in jails of Karachi, Faisalabad, Kotlakhpat, Gujranwala and Hyderabad. "I was known as 'Pardesi' there. I wrote petitions to Supreme Court judges on behalf of convicts and got many released. But shoddy treatment was meted out to Indian prisoners. We were given 1/7th of a Lifebuoy soap and 5gm of mustard oil every Sunday. I climbed on to the roof of the Hyderabad jail and shouted 'Bande Mataram' and threatened to kill myself. Standing there, I made the sentries and the superintendent swear by the Quran to give us clothes, decent food and newspapers. After I climbed down, they broke their promises and confined me inside an iron frame for 40 days."
After his release in 1994, Elahi was re-arrested and brought to Khairpur Jail. It was there he met Sarabjit Singh and Malkiat Singh, who were accused in a case of bomb blasts. "We were in the same cell. Sarabjit was known as Manjit Singh. He told me he was an agricultural labourer who lived close to the border and that one night, he got drunk and entered Pakistan by mistake. He must have been aged around 28 then. He was a quiet and recluse kind of a guy and I don't believe he is a spy. It would be extremely unfortunate if he is hanged after serving more time in prison than any regular lifer."
Elahi is also peeved at the absolute silence over Malkiat. "His family, in Tarn Taran in Punjab, is not coming forward to demand his release. The silence over Malkiat is actually sending Sarabjit to the gallows," Elahi gets agitated.
Elahi has had some illustrious jail mates and visitors during his 20 years. "I have had Begum Bhutto visiting me, and Benazir, too. I have spent time in the same cell as Jam Saki, the Sindh Liberation Army commander, and Wali Khan, the Muttahida Quami Movement leader."
Elahi pauses and drops a bombshell. "I remember it was the time of martial law in Pakistan. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had been arrested and sentenced to death. Bhutto was lodged in Kotlakhpat Jail in Lahore while I was under trial and kept in military quarter guard. One of Bhutto's supporters in jail tried to smuggle out a message to 70, Cliffton, the official Bhutto residence. It was intercepted and I took the blame upon myself. Later that night I was taken to a room in which sat Col Khaled Adib, commanding officer of 24 Punjab Regiment, in-charge of Kotlakhpat, Brigadier Mohd Salim Zia and Major Mulazzim Hussain, commanding officer of 619 Field Intelligence Unit. They pulled out a signed blank cheque of Habib Bank and asked me to enter whatever sum I could think of. They told me that I would be taken to Kotlakhpat Jail and a group of commandos would be provided. At midnight, there would be a false alarm, dispersing the sentries. I will have to go in and kill Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
"I was shaking when Col Adib added, 'Don't worry, the doctors all belong to the forces. They will promptly declare you to be mentally unstable and you will go scot-free. You will be released at a place of your choice with the money in your bag.' Later that night, I started sloganeering and shouting about their plans and, since my cell was close to the street, people in cars stopped by and listened to me. Word spread even to the embassies. Next morning, I was blindfolded and taken to the Brigade Headquarters and served with an ultimate warning that my court martial would be expedited.
"Had I killed Bhutto, they would have presented the things in such a way that it would appear as if an Indian national had sneaked in and killed the most popular Pakistani political leader. The next few days were strange. I would be woken up at 2 a.m. and driven to a desolate runway in chains. Someone held a gun to my head, asking me to offer my final namaz. Another guy would come running, shouting that final orders have still not arrived.
"There was water all over the floor of my cell so that I could not sleep. I boycotted the court martial and got my years. They could not liquidate me as I had been writing to all the judges and human rights bodies and even once to Indira Gandhi. When a human rights delegation visited the jail, they hid me in the gallows. I wrote to Indira about the plight of Indian prisoners in Pakistan, about the clothes they got to wear, how they braved the harsh winters without quilts or woollens, bad food, the interrogation sessions, the horror of huge dogs waiting to pounce on you," Elahi breaks down.
"It is not one Sarabjit. They are in thousands. Even in 1994, in Hyderabad jail I saw three sardars, POWs since 1965. They were acute mental cases. In our country, thousands of crores are spent on cricket. Can't decent clothes, medicines and food be reached to them?" he asks and signs off. By the time I closed my diary and packed my bag, Mehboob Elahi, now 56, had disappeared and milled into the madding Kolkata crowd on a late Saturday evening.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/30/2008 08:58 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
Darra Adam Khel, a small burg in Pakistan's tribal areas, is the quintessential frontier town. Picture Wyatt Earp sashaying down the streets of Tombstone in a turban, and you begin to get the idea. Because Pakistani laws don't apply here, smugglers, gunsmiths and, most recently, the Taliban find Darra, as it's locally known, an optimal place to do business.
Most stores along the main road sell firearms or drugs. In one, freshly pressed slabs of hashish are cured in goat skins, stacked up like a new line of sweaters at the Gap. Next door, customers can walk in, pull a Kalashnikov from the rack and step outside to test-fire it into the sky. On my first visit to Darra, I opened the car door just as a prospective AK-47 buyer rattled off a few rounds. Thinking that I'd stumbled into a duel, I dove into a ditch for cover.
It's hard to believe that the limits of American power -- and the future of how it's projected -- could reside in the streets of a Wild West-era holdover like this. But, handicapped by the lack of a good plan, reliable allies or decent intelligence, the United States has watched as this strip of mountainous territory wedged between Afghanistan and Pakistan has become the most ungoverned, combustible region in the world. The U.S. intelligence community has described it as a refuge for Osama bin Laden and the rest of al-Qaeda's reconstituted leadership. And recently, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, predicted that the next terrorist attack on the United States would originate from the tribal areas, probably from a town much like Darra.
Seven years after Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf ditched the Afghan Taliban to join the United States in the "war on terror," a new generation of Pakistani Taliban has brazenly turned the tribal areas into its bailiwick. In Darra, Taliban-inspired gangs have run out hash dealers, bombed DVD and CD shops, and closed girls' schools. In January, jihadists car-jacked five military supply trucks loaded with weapons and ammunition and kidnapped more than 50 Pakistani paramilitary troops on a stretch of highway near the town.
When the Pakistani army deployed to the region in 2003 for the first time since 1948, a cleric in Islamabad issued a fatwa proclaiming that any Pakistani soldier killed fighting the Taliban in South Waziristan should be denied a Muslim burial. Last August, militants under the command of Baitullah Mehsud, the Taliban leader accused of masterminding former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto's assassination, kidnapped more than 200 soldiers in South Waziristan.
The Pakistani Taliban hasn't toppled the political order and gained power, but it has overthrown centuries of traditional authority. With al-Qaeda, it has slaughtered hundreds of maliks, or tribal chiefs, branding them as traitors for dealing with Musharraf's government or as spies working for the Americans and NATO. Their corpses (often headless) are routinely dumped in town bazaars as a warning to any who might be plotting against the Taliban. Earlier this month, tribal elders gathered in Darra to draft a strategy for purging their area of militants. As the meeting ended, a suicide bomber ran into the crowd and blew himself up, killing more than 40 people, including many elders.
The Federally Administered Tribal Areas, or FATA, are a conglomeration of seven "agencies" and six "frontier regions" comprising an area slightly smaller than Maryland. Elected representatives from the FATA sit in Pakistan's parliament, but the laws it drafts mostly don't apply in the tribal areas. The national government's degree of involvement in local affairs varies -- Darra, for instance, which belongs to Frontier Region Kohat, is slightly more integrated into Pakistan's legal, political and administrative framework than South Waziristan, the largest agency. But all the tribal areas are "governed" by the Frontier Crimes Regulations, which give the tribes autonomy as long as they take collective responsibility for the actions of individual tribesmen.
The tribal belt is dominated by Pashtuns, an ethnic group of about 20 million who live on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border. Pashtuns are renowned for their hospitality and their martial ways, a people reputed to treat guests like kings but eye strangers with suspicion. U.S., Saudi and Pakistani intelligence agencies banked on this when they armed Pashtuns to drive the Soviet army out of Afghanistan in the 1980s. Today, Pashtuns compare the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan to the Soviet one, and residents of North and South Waziristan regard the Pakistani troops there, most of them Punjabis, as foreign invaders.
Washington's response to the Talibanization of western Pakistan has been clumsy and shortsighted. The White House's unwavering support for Musharraf backfired long ago, and Pakistanis, as I learned while living in the country for two years, by and large sympathize with the embattled tribesmen more than with their president. Periodic missile strikes at suspected al-Qaeda safe houses in the tribal areas by U.S. Predator drones have killed many civilians, creating more enemies than they eliminated. In October 2006, dozens of madrassa students died when a missile targeting al-Qaeda's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, landed in Bajaur, the northernmost agency, a few hours after Zawahiri apparently left. The attack handed al-Qaeda a symbolic victory; pictures of dead kids can fire up jihadists for generations to come.
The State Department, meanwhile, has earmarked $750 million for development in the tribal areas to win hearts and minds by paving roads and building schools and hospitals. But who will regulate and oversee this development when foreigners are officially prohibited from the tribal areas and the Taliban and its affiliates authorize dealings in most parts of the FATA? When the Pakistani government launched a polio vaccination drive there last year, Taliban leaders used pirated radio stations to convince locals that the vaccine was an impotency serum sent from the United States to eradicate Muslims. Few children got the shots.
Meanwhile, the U.S. presidential candidates have remained mostly mute. When Sen. Barack Obama once suggested that, if elected, he might authorize bombing the tribal areas if intelligence showed that al-Qaeda was planning attacks against U.S. interests and Pakistan refused to act, critics from all sides chastised him. Yet since Feb. 5, a barrage of Predator-fired missiles has rained down on North and South Waziristan, killing more than 50 people.
As if the challenges of devising a counterinsurgency strategy in the FATA weren't enough, political obstacles in Islamabad also abound. The winners of last month's parliamentary elections have pledged to withdraw the army from the tribal areas, negotiate with the militants and curb Predator flights over Pakistani airspace. Responding to this softened tone, the Taliban has reciprocated with goodwill gestures of its own, saying that Pakistan could save some of its defense budget by withdrawing troops from the tribal areas and allowing the militants to enforce border security.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#2
handicapped by the lack of a good plan, reliable allies or decent intelligence, the United States has watched as this strip of mountainous territory wedged between Afghanistan and Pakistan has become the most ungoverned, combustible region in the world.
I read nothing in this article to indicate the reporter is privy to American plans or intelligence. But it's possible I missed it.
#4
Three or four ARCLIGHT strikes and some napalm will straighten the place out in no time. If not, there are always more bombs, more napalm. In the end, we'll win - IF we have the will to do so. If this kind of behavior has to carry over into the Pashtun areas of Afghanistan, oh, well!
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/30/2008 17:31 Comments ||
Top||
A thick red line ran through the words democracy, secularism and polytheism, followed by an emphatic No!
Some of the other slogans the Students Islamic Movement of India had plastered across Mumbai in 2001 were even more strident: Mohammad is our commander; the Quran our constitution; and martyrdom our one desire.
Events have shown that the young men who had gathered in Mumbai got the message: SIMI cadre have been involved in almost every Islamist terror strike since, ranging from the Mumbai serial bombings of 2003 and 2006 to attacks in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Delhi.
Wednesdays arrest of SIMIs general secretary and top jihadist ideologue, Safdar Nagori, should help investigators piece together exactly how these attacks were carried out. Among the questions police in six States will have for Nagori is who funded the networks he ran and how they recruited cadre.
SIMIs origins
SIMI was formed in April, 1977, as an effort to revitalise the Jamaat-e-Islamis student networks. From the outset, the organisation made clear it saw Islam as a political project. Muslims comfortable in secular societies, its pamphlets warned, were headed towards damnation.
Elements of SIMIs leadership were drawn to the practices of General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haqs regime in Pakistan, and threw their weight behind the Islamists fighting the socialist regime in Afghanistan. Alarmed at the radicalisation of SIMIs posture, the Jamaat disassociated itself from the organisation in 1982.
But SIMI continued to grow, helped by Islamist West Asia-based organisations such as the World Association of Muslim Youth and the International Islamic Federation of Student Organisation. Their funds helped it establish a welter of magazines, social service enterprises and cultural front-organisations.
Radicalisation
SIMI polemic grew increasingly incendiary in the years after the demolition of the Babri Masjid. In 1996, the organisation put up posters calling on Muslims to follow the path of the eleventh-century conqueror Mahmood Ghaznavi, and appealed to God to help avenge the destruction of mosques in India.
When 25,000 SIMI delegates met in Mumbai in 2001 the organisation for the first time publicly called on its supporters to turn to jihad. Soon after the convention, the al-Qaeda carried out its bombings of New York and Washington D.C. SIMI activists hailed al-Qaeda chief Osama bin-Laden as a true mujahid.
In an April, 2001, interview, Nagori, propelled to office by his pro-jihad stance, defended violence. When an entire community finds itself collectively persecuted, he said, the cry for jihad is given. One is forced to revolt, take to arms, he said, claiming democratic options had been exhausted.
Nagori made bizarre claims to devalue Indias secular-democratic tradition. For example, he asserted Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru wanted Muslims to recognise Ghulam Ahmed Qadaini [a heterodox preacher considered heretic by conservatives] as our Prophet. He was forcing us to alter our religious belief.
Turning to terror
From the autumn of 2000, SIMI cadre drawn by Nagoris network had began training with the Hizb ul-Mujahideen in Jammu and Kashmir. At least three Jalgaon residents Sheikh Asif Supdu, Sheikh Khalid Iqbal and Sheikh Mohammad Hanif are believed to have died in shootouts with Indian troops near Kishtwar.
Survivors of the training went on to participate in several major jihadist operations. In July, 2001, for example, police forces in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi arrested 23 SIMI-linked terrorists. Four of those held turned out to have trained in Kishtwar.
Organisations such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Jaish-e-Mohammad and the Harkat ul-Jihad-e-Islami also drew on SIMI cadre for their operations. Mohammad Sabahuddin, arrested last month for his role in attacks carried out in Bangalore and Uttar Pradesh, was a SIMI member as was his key lieutenant, Fahim Ansari.
Will these networks survive Nagoris arrest? Given their transnational linkages, the answer is most likely yes. Still, political Islamists opposed to SIMIs turn to violence have been fighting to marginalise the jihadists in its ranks. Wednesdays arrest will, most likely, help their cause.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Taiba
#1
Will these networks survive Nagoris arrest? Given their transnational linkages, the answer is most likely yes.
If Mr. Nagori's computer and cell phone were picked up along with Mr. Nagori, all sorts of interesting things could happen, transnationally speaking.
The war on terror is Pakistans war and the elimination of terrorism and extremism will be the new coalition governments top priority, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani said on Saturday.
He was addressing the National Assembly after securing a unanimous vote of confidence. The war on terror has become our war, because it has posed serious threats to our own country, the prime minister said.
Militants: Gillani said his government was ready to talk to those militants ready to lay down arms. Some of our people have unfortunately taken the path of violence in the Tribal Areas. We are ready to talk to all the people who are ready to give up arms and negotiate with us for the resolution of their problems, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman reacted strongly on Saturday to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillanis 100-day programme, which includes reforming madrassas. Speaking in the National Assembly, he said the new programme gave him the impression that the new government would follow the previous governments anti madrassa policy. Rehman warned of a possible confrontation if the government made any attempt to oppress the madrassas. The JUI-F chief also criticised the PMs announcement of the repeal of the FCR, which had been implemented in the FATA. He was of the view that the decision should be reconsidered and that parliamentarians from FATA should be taken into confidence before any final decision was taken.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami
Major General David Rodriguez, the commander of United States troops in Afghanistan, on Saturday described the opening of the first of six joint US-Pak-Afghan military intelligence centres along the Pak-Afghan border as a giant step forward in co-operation, communication, and co-ordination.
He was speaking to around 100 military personnel from the US, Afghanistan and Pakistan who had gathered at a ribbon-cutting ceremony at a small border outpost. This facility represents our best opportunity to move forward in our common mission to rid this region of the scourge of terrorism, Rodriguez said. The border co-ordination centre is the cornerstone upon which future co-operative efforts will grow.
The centres represent the next step in American efforts to encourage the South Asian neighbours to work together to combat the Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters who take refuge in the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
I think we would get better intelligence from a Batman Comic Book than we will get from the Paks
#2
hope they intend to throw some dis information in certain packages of data, just to test the waters and see who is not on the up and up (like [probably alomst]everybody wearing a Paki-waki uniform, methinks)
The caretaker NWFP government conceded on Saturday that the law and order situation in Swat was not fully under its control, but said the military had put out the militancy-triggered fire to a great extent.
The army was called into the Swat Valley last year to quell pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullahs attempts to take over the district and install a government of extremists there. A pocket of resistance still exists in Swat, although significant areas have been regained from the control of militants. Swat district was engulfed by a fire [of militancy]. The army has put out this fire to a great extent. But the smoke is still there. This is not the armys job to put out this smoke, NWFP Caretaker Chief Minister Shamsul Mulk told a press conference at his residence.
Mulk urged people to come forward and help the government extinguish this smoke.
He denied that the armys presence was the cause of disturbances in the district. Who was doing all these [unlawful] things before the arrival of the army in Swat. Its not an occupational force that needs to go back, he said. Mulk said the army did not want to operate in Swat but it had to after the militants were least interested in a peaceful solution to the conflict.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: TNSM
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan on Saturday welcomed Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillanis statement that the new government would repeal the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) and talk to militants in the Tribal Areas. The prime minister has won the tribal peoples hearts, Taliban spokesman Maulvi Umar told local reporters by telephone from an undisclosed location. The government should immediately enforce Shariah in the Tribal Areas, he said. The people of the Tribal Areas have long been waiting for Shariah.
The Taliban spokesman said the militants would respond positively to the governments dialogue offer. But he said the Pakistani government should stop participating in the US-led war on terror. This government should say bye-bye to pro-US policies, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
DAMASCUS - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi warned Arab allies of the United States that they could meet the same fate as former Iraq president Saddam Hussein, hanged in 2006 three years after the US-led invasion.
A foreign force occupied an Arab country and hanged its president and we stood by and watched, he told an Arab summit in the Syrian capital. How can they execute a prisoner of war and the president of a member of the Arab League? Gaddafi asked.
He said Saddam had been a friend of the United States during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s before they turned against him and executed him. You could all suffer the same fate, he warned.
Noticed that, did you? An intelligent people would consider this point carefully ...
Even you, even we, who are considered friends of America, one day (America) can give the green light for our own hanging, said the Libyan leader whose country resumed ties with the United States in 2004 after a 23-year break.
Gaddafi also deplored what he called a lack of unity among the 22-member Arab League. We insult each other and we plot against one another, he said. We share the same blood and the same language, although it is threatened with disappearance, but apart from that nothing unites us.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I think viciousness and stupidity hold the Arab League together.
British forces became embroiled in the fight to wrest control of Basra from Iranian-backed militias yesterday, as a senior US military adviser accused Gordon Brown of failing "as an ally" in his desire for a hasty withdrawal of troops.
While Iraqi Army forces continued to struggle to subdue Mehdi Army militiamen, British troops became directly engaged for the first time. British artillery based at Basra airport pounded guerrilla positions while US and British warplanes took part in bombing and strafing runs.
Although British commanders in Basra still intend to play only a back-seat role, the deteriorating security picture nationwide prompted harsh comments from the principal architect of the surge strategy.
Mr Kagan, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute think-tank, told The Sunday Telegraph: "British forces have an obligation to step up when needed and it sure looks here like they're needed. It is rather a watershed moment in the Anglo-American alliance. I understand that your Prime Minister has already said that the special relationship is over. There's an issue here of fulfilling your obligations as an ally, freely undertaken."
His fellow surge architect, retired US general Jack Keane, also voiced doubts that the Iraqi security forces would be able to pacify Basra unassisted. "There are about 8,000 armed militiamen with a stranglehold on the people of Basra. The situation in Basra has deteriorated since the British pulled out."
Their comments are likely to embarrass Downing Street and anger British commanders in Basra, who have insisted their policy of scaling down their presence is to encourage Iraqi security forces to take the lead. Senior officers also said that the coalition command in Baghdad approved their plans.Kagan
Posted by: Nimble Spemble ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Mahdi Army
#1
Brit Lib PArty is goign to whinge abotu this.
But ya know what? The truth HURTS when you've been denying it.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki vowed on Saturday to continue a military assault on Shiite fighters in Basra, saying the gunmen were worse than Al-Qaeda militants. "Our determination is strong. We will not leave Basra until security is restored, those who break the law are punished and those who draw their weapons in the face of the state are punished," he said in a statement broadcast by Al-Iraqiya state television.
Maliki said the Shiite gunmen were worse than Al-Qaeda militants. "Unfortunately we were talking about Al-Qaeda but there are some among us who are worse than Al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda is killing innocents, Al-Qaeda is destroying establishments and they (Shiite gunemen) also," he said. "Al-Qaeda wants to see that the political process fails and they are planning" the same thing. "We are facing another danger which is in our midst," he said, referring to the Shiite gunmen.
US and Iraqi officials claim that most of the violence in Iraq by way of car bombs, road bombs and shoot-outs is the work of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the local affiliate of Osama bin Laden's global jihadist group.
Maliki's latest salvo came just hours after radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ordered his followers to reject the premier's call to surrender their arms.
On Friday, a 72-hour ultimatum by Maliki for Shiite fighters in Basra to lay down their arms expired. The premier then announced an April 8 deadline for all people in Basra to turn in medium and heavy weapons in exchange for money.
Maliki is personally overseeing the crackdown in Basra which to date has killed at least 50 people and wounded an estimated 300.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Mahdi Army
#1
Bad Teef?
Chubby?
Turban Twirls Wrong Way?
Glower Like A Pro!
YOU CAN FROWN LIKE AN AYATOLLAH!
Our basic kit of 19 simple things to bitch about will get you on the road to 60 Minutes or Al
Qud, our choice. Be all you can be.
Act now and receive secret tips from the Thompson Campaign, including a free copy of We Didn't Fuck Up, You Fucked Up, destined to be a collectors item.
Islamic Jihad operatives have been able to hack into several Israeli websites, the London-based Arabic-language newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat reported Sunday. "The electronic surveillance unit of the media warfare division has been able to hack into several Israeli websites and take them over," said a statement by the al-Quds Brigades, quoted by the paper.
According to the report, the operatives were able to plant images of Hassan Shakura, the former head of the Jihad's media warfare division in Gaza, who was killed by the IDF, on the sites; along with other images and Jihad videos. Hacking "Zionist websites," said the statement "was part of our response to the elimination of the head of the media warfare office in Gaza, as well as a token of our allegiance to the blood of our troops." The organization promised to "continue the pursuit of all Israeli websites and hack them in response to Israel's crimes in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank."
A Ynet probe has revealed at least two websites hacked by the Islamic Jihad the Kfar Truman and the "High-Tech Motors Body-Shop" websites. As announced in the Jihad's statement, both sites were plagued by images of Shakura alive and images of his funeral, as well as threats reading "The shahid commander Hassan Shakura, who was responsibale for media warfare is dead, but he has left many friends behind, ready to carry on his work." "This is our message to you pigs," continued the threat, "Hassan's missiles will come after you in Sderot and Ashkelon, the retaliation is coming."
Website defacement of this nature requires only basic programming know-how and usually boils down to changing the main page a file easy to reconstruct. Smaller sites are the ones most vulnerable to defacement, since large sites, databases and electronic commerce website usually have high-level security systems at their disposal. A statement by any terror group pointing to a unit dedicated to defacing websites does not necessarily indicate any operational sophistication, since any teenager with basic programming skills can do the same.
Hamas will seriously consider a cease fire with Israel in the context of an agreement that includes an end to the blockade on the Gaza Strip and an opening of the crossings, the group's Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said on Friday night.
According to Haniyeh, Arab countries made a decision to end the siege but said that nothing had actually been done in the matter. Haniyeh hoped that Arab leaders would act towards ending the blockade during the upcoming conference in Damascus. He called on Arab leaders to support the Yemeni initiative to solve the crisis between Hamas and Fatah.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
Efforts to release kidnapped IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Schalit are "semi-deadlocked" because of Israel's refusal to release Palestinian prisoners who are serving life sentences, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said Saturday.
He said Israel rejected most of the names that appeared on Hamas's list of prisoners who were supposed to be released in a prisoner swap. "Israel doesn't want to release prisoners who are serving life terms," he said. "That's why the talks over the release of Schalit are now semi-deadlocked."
In an interview with Arab reporters who arrived in Syria to cover the 20th Arab summit, which began Saturday, the Damascus-based Hamas leader also said that his movement was prepared to reach a truce with Israel. However, he stressed that Hamas considers a truce as "one of the tactics" in managing the conflict. "We're not offering Israel a hudna [temporary truce]," he explained. "But we will accept a hudna if Israel abides by it. We want a hudna not only in the Gaza Strip, but in the West Bank as well."
This article starring:
Khaled Mashaal
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
Stand those on the Hamas release list against a wall, demand Shalit or one dies each hour,
THEN DO IT DAMMIT, HE'S DEAD YOU MORONS.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/30/2008 1:16 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Not true, bigjim-ky. They care greatly that the Palestinians provide a constant running sore useful for attacking Israel.
But on a personal note? You're right.
I had occasion to talk with several Jordanians recently. One is an authority on Arabic poetry who is totally invested in a fantasized history in which only brutal suppression by the Brits disrupted Arabs' 1000 year+ leadership in science and technology.
The other is a professor of engineering whose family were among those the Al-Sauds expelled to the Hashemite kingdom. Being someone who deals daily with stubborn facts about materials and electrical currents and such, he is pretty clear-eyed about political issues as well. No romanticism re: the Palestinians in Jordan or elsewhere.
To his credit, the latter guy is working to educate Jordanian university students into a mindset that habitually start with facts as the basis for beliefs. He recognizes the cultural challenge in doing that but is chipping away when/as he can.
Brian Keenan prayed for his own death while held hostage in Lebanon in the late 1980s, a new documentary on his ordeal reveals. Keenan, from Belfast, was kidnapped by Islamic Jihad militia in the Muslim-controlled area of west Beirut as he made his way to the American University, where he worked as an English teacher in April 1986. He was held for four and a half years at the height of the countrys bloody civil war and often tortured and beaten before his release in August 1990.
In a new BBC documentary to be screened tomorrow night, which follows his emotional return to Beirut for the first time since his release, he reveals the crippling mental effect captivity had on him. Sleeping in the smell of my own filth, many times I thought of death, looked for it, prayed for it and asked for it, he said.
While filming, he also visited a number of parts of south Lebanon ravaged by the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel, including Qana, where 28 people, including women and children, were killed in one attack. Qana is the place where Jesus turned water into wine, but these days it is the place where high explosives turn children into ashes, he said.
Despite this, he said he felt a sense of release on this return visit. I didnt come to Beirut to be a hostage. It has taken away the dross that has been hanging around for 20 years. Keenans wife Audrey and his two young sons, Cal and Jack, also travelled with him. My sons know bad things happened to daddy here, but I didnt want them to grow up with that nightmare.
As Bashar al-Assad, Syrias president, opened the annual Arab summit meeting here on Saturday morning, Saudi Arabias foreign minister convened a competing news conference in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, with new criticism of Syrian policy, underscoring the bitter political feud that nearly upended this years Arab gathering.
The meeting had already suffered from deliberate absences, with the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Egypt boycotting in an unusual rebuke to Syria, which they blame for the continuing political crisis in Lebanon. King Abdullah of Jordan and President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen, both strong Saudi allies, also decided to stay away at the last minute, as did Lebanon.
Just 11 of the Arab Leagues heads of state were in attendance as the conference opened; it is rare for all 22 members to attend.
Some Syrian officials suggested that it was a victory for the two-day Damascus gathering to take place at all, given the Saudi and American campaign against it. American officials have been hinting broadly that they would prefer that Arab leaders not attend.
Controversy is common at Arab summit meetings, and leaders have often refused to attend for varying reasons. But the ferocity of this years divisions is unusual. Saudi Arabia and Egypt have repeatedly voiced their anger at Syria, which they accuse of deliberately prolonging the political deadlock that has left Lebanon without a president since late November.
Behind that dispute lurks a more basic division. Syria is allied not only with Hezbollah, which is competing for power in Lebanon, but also with Shiite Iran. Sunni Arab nations view Iran with deep suspicion, especially in light of its critics see as its nuclear ambitions.
As presidents and princes gathered here on Saturday, the Saudi foreign minister, Saud al-Faisal, speaking in Riyadh, accused Syria of refusing to abide by Arab League decisions on Lebanon and called for member states to punish it.
Mr. Assad, meanwhile, gave a mild 20-minute opening speech in which he avoided the subject of Arab divisions and denied that Syria had interfered with Lebanons affairs. What is happening on the ground is the exact opposite, he said. The pressures which have been put on Syria for more than a year, and increasingly for the past several months, have been for Syria to intervene in Lebanese internal affairs.
Mr. Assad devoted most of his speech to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, asking Shall we look for other choices, or keep giving unconditional initiatives at a time when Israel chooses what it wants, whenever it wants?
At a meeting earlier this month, Arab foreign ministers threatened to reconsider their support for the 2002 Arab peace initiative, which offered Israel normal relations in exchange for several conditions including withdrawal to the 1967 borders and a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem.
But the Arab foreign ministers who met here on Thursday before the summit meeting were unable to reach agreement on how to toughen their policy toward Israel.
Despite the controversies, this years meeting had all the usual pomp and ceremony that attend the gatherings, from the ritual airport arrival of the participants to the theatrics of Muammar el-Qaddafi, the Libyan leader. Dressed in a loose black cape, he delivered a rambling speech about the failure of Arabism, the history of Israel, and the importance of Africa. He told his fellow Arab leaders that America had betrayed Saddam Hussein, and warned them: Even you, or us friends of America Washington might decide to hang us one day.
Although the Syrian hosts generally steered clear of mentioning the absence of leaders from Saudi Arabia and Egypt, an editorial in the state-owned newspaper Thawra on Thursday touched on the subject, suggesting that the real villain was elsewhere. It is enough for the Arab summit in Damascus that the American ghost is banished, the editorial said. It is enough that for the first time, all of its decisions and agreements will be free of the American virus.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[15 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
Is there a blog or something that will post all the moustache insults as soon as they are hurled?
Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad told today's opening session of the Arab League summit in Damascus that he would help end Lebanon's long political crisis, but the solution required the Lebanese themselves to compromise. ``We in Syria are prepared to cooperate in Arab and non-Arab efforts on the condition they are based on Lebanese national consensus,'' Assad said in a televised speech.
The Lebanese parliament has been unable to choose a president to replace incumbent Emile Lahoud, who stepped down last November. Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has blamed both Syria and Iran for blocking the election through their ally Hezbollah, Lebanon's largest Shiite Muslim party. Hezbollah is demanding a veto over cabinet decisions in return for its votes. Syria supports the demand as part of the ``consensus'' solution.
The Lebanese standoff has been marked by assassinations and street unrest that have raised fears of civil war. In a speech yesterday to explain why Lebanon had boycotted the meeting, Siniora said: ``Syria has played, during and before this period, a major role in deepening the political crisis in Lebanon.''
The crisis has exposed rifts in the 22-member Arab League. Only half of the group's heads of state attended the summit, the first of the annual meetings to be held in Damascus.
Arab foreign ministers on Thursday agreed to re-launch the Arab peace initiative in its current form, despite earlier suggestions by the Syrian minister that the initiative could be rethought.
We agreed on maintaining the Arab peace initiative and there is no intention on the ministers part to amend it, Mohammed Sobeih, Arab League assistant secretary general for Palestinian affairs, told reporters. It was also agreed that the initiative will be re-launched to the international community in order to stress Arab concern for finding a solution to the Arab Israeli conflict, said Sobeih.
At the opening of the ministers meeting in Damascus earlier on Thursday, Syrias Foreign Minister Walid Muallem hinted at the possibility of reconsidering the initiative if Israel did not prove its intention to establish peace in the Middle East. We believe in a just and comprehensive peace but Israel, which is supported by the United States, is still unable to show a political will to create peace, Muallem told delegations of the 22-member Arab League. He said, Therefore we support what came out of our meeting in Cairo which is to study Arab options for the strategy of peace.
Earlier this month, Arab foreign ministers meeting in the Egyptian capital said the continuation of the Arab side to offer the Arab initiative for peace will be linked to Israels fulfillment of its obligations in the context of international texts for achieving peace in the region.
The initiative, first proposed at a Beirut summit in 2002, offers Israel normalisation of relations and comprehensive peace agreements with Arab countries in exchange for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from all occupied territories.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
A calling to defend fellow Muslims and a bit of aimlessness took Khalid al-Hubayshi to a separatists' training camp in the southern Philippines and to the mountains of Afghanistan, where he interviewed for a job with Osama bin Laden. Hubayshi, 32, a Saudi native, was among the Arab fighters dug in with bin Laden in the mountains of Tora Bora during the U.S. bombardment of Afghanistan in 2001. He later spent time in the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in a Saudi jail. He was released in 2006 into a world radically altered by the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Muslim fighters were no longer viewed in Arab countries as larger-than-life heroes, and clerics had stopped urging young Muslims to fulfill their religious duties by fighting on behalf of their brethren. Blame Bush.
Hubayshi had also changed. He had grown disillusioned with bin Laden, whose initial idealism had turned into terrorism, he said, adding that his family, not bin Laden, had suffered when he was at Guantanamo.
U.S. government documents and a series of interviews with Hubayshi provide a rare look into the mind and motivation of a man who trained for religious warfare, never fought in combat and now says he believes in the political process.
#1
He had grown disillusioned with bin Laden, whose initial idealism had turned into terrorism...
Buying into the Hope and Change rhetoric without the particulars can lead to a rude awaking for some, death for others, and a lot of suffering for the 'innocent'(tm), specifically those who'd refused to join the jihad movement and were made targets of violent reprisals.
#2
Hubayshi said he is sorry that Muslims carried out the Sept. 11 attacks because they targeted civilians: That was wrong. Jihad is fighting soldier to soldier.
I do Not Accept anything from you especially a, "sorry". I Never Will and I pray that before I die I can avenge my American Brother's and Sister's Murder.
#3
Muslims, particularly Arabs, avoid soldier-to-soldier fighting cuz they lose their ass EVERY time. Better to target schools, hospitals, unarmed civilians, girls, Jooo infants.... something more their speed
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/30/2008 16:58 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Procopius2k, was your comment supposed to be here or in the Hillary/Obama thread?
#6
Does kinda fit both, doesn't it? I wish every person in the United States could see things that clearly. Of course, it would totally RUIN politics for a decade or two.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/30/2008 18:50 Comments ||
Top||
#7
"it would totally RUIN politics for a decade or two"
What's the downside, OP?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/30/2008 19:31 Comments ||
Top||
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.
Last month The Observer carried a claim from a United Nations source that the British Pacific territory of Diego Garcia has been used to house prisoners subjected to extraordinary rendition by America. Manfred Nowak, the UN special rapporteur on torture, said several detainees had told him they had been held there before being transferred to secret detention centres elsewhere.
North Korea on Saturday rejected a UN resolution condemning Pyongyang's alleged human rights abuses as a US-led political plot and warned the US, the European Union and Japan of "unpredictable consequences" for leading the move. North Korea's Foreign Ministry issued the harsh warning, labeling the resolution - passed at the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday - as a "politically motivated document...full of sheer lies and fabrications." 
Japan completed deploying a ballistic missile defence system in the Tokyo area on Saturday, a day after North Korea reportedly fired short-range missiles off its west coast, said news reports.
Twelve men accused of terrorism will find out today whether their trial will stop and whether they will be able to apply for bail as a result of being kept in what a Supreme Court judge calls intolerable conditions.
Intelligence agencies who have discovered the close synergy between the 
JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman reacted strongly on Saturday to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillanis 100-day programme, which includes reforming madrassas. Speaking in the National Assembly, he said the new programme gave him the impression that the new government would follow the previous governments anti madrassa policy. Rehman warned of a possible confrontation if the government made any attempt to oppress the madrassas. The JUI-F chief also criticised the PMs announcement of the repeal of the FCR, which had been implemented in the FATA. He was of the view that the decision should be reconsidered and that parliamentarians from FATA should be taken into confidence before any final decision was taken.
DAMASCUS - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi warned Arab allies of the United States that they could meet the same fate as former Iraq president Saddam Hussein, hanged in 2006 three years after the US-led invasion.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki vowed on Saturday to continue a military assault on Shiite fighters in Basra, saying the gunmen were worse than Al-Qaeda militants. "Our determination is strong. We will not leave Basra until security is restored, those who break the law are punished and those who draw their weapons in the face of the state are punished," he said in a statement broadcast by Al-Iraqiya state television.
Islamic Jihad operatives have been able to hack into several Israeli websites, the London-based Arabic-language newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat reported Sunday. "The electronic surveillance unit of the media warfare division has been able to hack into several Israeli websites and take them over," said a statement by the al-Quds Brigades, quoted by the paper. 
Efforts to release kidnapped IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Schalit are "semi-deadlocked" because of Israel's refusal to release Palestinian prisoners who are serving life sentences, Hamas leader 
Brian Keenan prayed for his own death while held hostage in Lebanon in the late 1980s, a new documentary on his ordeal reveals. Keenan, from Belfast, was kidnapped by Islamic Jihad militia in the Muslim-controlled area of west Beirut as he made his way to the American University, where he worked as an English teacher in April 1986. He was held for four and a half years at the height of the countrys bloody civil war and often tortured and beaten before his release in August 1990.
As Bashar al-Assad, Syrias president, opened the annual Arab summit meeting here on Saturday morning, Saudi Arabias foreign minister convened a competing news conference in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, with new criticism of Syrian policy, underscoring the bitter political feud that nearly upended this years Arab gathering.
Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad told today's opening session of the Arab League summit in Damascus that he would help end Lebanon's long political crisis, but the solution required the Lebanese themselves to compromise. ``We in Syria are prepared to cooperate in Arab and non-Arab efforts on the condition they are based on Lebanese national consensus,'' Assad said in a televised speech. 
Arab foreign ministers on Thursday agreed to re-launch the Arab peace initiative in its current form, despite earlier suggestions by the Syrian minister that the initiative could be rethought.
A calling to defend fellow Muslims and a bit of aimlessness took 
