KABUL -- After shunning Afghanistan during the Taliban regime, India has become a major donor and new friend to the country's democratic government -- even if its growing presence here riles archrival Pakistan.
From wells and toilets to power plants and satellite transmitters, India is seeding Afghanistan with a vast array of projects. The $1.2 billion in pledged assistance includes projects both vital to Afghanistan's economy, such as a completed road link to Iran's border, and symbolic of its democratic aspirations, such as the construction of a new parliament building in Kabul. The Indian government is also paying to bring scores of bureaucrats to India, as it cultivates a new generation of Afghan officialdom.
India's aid has elevated it to Afghanistan's top tier of donors. In terms of pledged donations through 2013, India now ranks fifth behind the U.S., U.K., Japan and Canada, according to the Afghanistan government. Pakistan doesn't rank in the top 10.
Afghanistan is now the second-largest recipient of Indian aid after Bhutan. "We are here for the same reason the U.S. and others are here -- to see a stable, democratic, multiethnic Afghanistan," Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan Jayant Prasad said in an interview.
Such a future for Afghanistan is hardly assured, as the run-up to Thursday's presidential election shows. On Tuesday, a pair of mortar shells hit near the presidential palace in Kabul while Taliban insurgents attacked polling stations across the country, as part of wave of violence aimed at preventing people from casting ballots in the election.
Despite backing the Taliban in the past, Pakistan doesn't want to see an anarchic Afghanistan, say Pakistani security analysts.
"Pakistan is doing nothing to thwart the elections in Afghanistan and everything to help Afghanistan stabilize and have a truly representative government," says Gen. Jehangir Karamat, Pakistan's former ambassador to the U.S. and a retired army chief.
Yet India's largess has stirred concern in Pakistan, a country situated between Afghanistan and India that has seen its influence in Afghanistan wane following the collapse of the Taliban regime. At the heart of the tensions is the shared fear that Afghanistan could be used by one to destabilize the other.
"We recognize that Afghanistan needs development assistance from every possible source to address the daunting challenges it is facing. We have no issue with that," says Pakistani foreign-ministry spokesman Abdul Basit. "What Pakistan is looking for is strict adherence to the principle of noninterference."
The two countries have sparred repeatedly about each other's activities in Afghanistan. Indian officials say their Pakistani counterparts have claimed that there are more than the official four Indian consulates in Afghanistan, and that they support an extensive Indian spy network. For years, Pakistan refused to allow overland shipment of fortified wheat biscuits from India to feed two million Afghan schoolchildren. India instead had to ship the biscuits through Iran, driving up costs for the program.
The World Food Program, which administers the shipments, said the Pakistan government gave its approval for overland shipment in 2008 -- six years after the first delivery from India. "Why did it take six years ... is something that WFP cannot answer," a spokesman for the aid organization said. "However, we are indeed thankful to the government of Pakistan for allowing transit for the fortified biscuits."
Mr. Basit, the foreign-ministry spokesman, didn't respond to a question about the Indian food assistance.
India's aid has extended well beyond physical infrastructure to the training of accountants and economists. For a nation devastated by decades of war, these soft skills fill a hole, says Noorullah Delawari, Afghanistan's former central-bank governor and now head of Afghanistan Investment Support Agency, an organization that promotes private enterprise. "The country shut down for 20 years," he said. "We stopped producing educated people to run our businesses and government offices."
Some believe there is room for cooperation between India and Pakistan in Afghanistan since both countries share an abiding interest in its stability. "The opportunity is there," says Gen. Karamat, "if we can get out of the straitjacket of the past."
Posted by: john frum ||
08/19/2009 15:14 ||
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Posted by: john frum ||
08/19/2009 15:19 Comments ||
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Pakis are irked by someone else great-gaming? F*ck em
Posted by: Frank G on the road ||
08/19/2009 16:10 Comments ||
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#3
Anything that irks Pakistain is OK by me.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/19/2009 20:07 Comments ||
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#4
ION INDJUH BIGNEWSNETWORK > NASA SATELLITE DETECTS SHRINKING GROUNDWATER IN INDIA; + PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUMS > WATER WARS IN THE FUTURE?
Foreign Secretary David Miliband was accused last night of condoning terrorism after declaring that there were circumstances in which it was justifiable.
His remarks made in support of the ANCs armed struggle against apartheid in South Africa were swiftly condemned by the Conservatives, who accused him of giving succour to the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The military wing of the ANC carried out a number of terrorist attacks during its campaign, including the Church Street bombing in Pretoria in 1983 in which 19 people were killed and more than 200 wounded. Many of the victims were civilians.
Mr Miliband was speaking on BBC Radio 4s Great Lives programme, in which he chose to pay tribute to the South African anti-apartheid activist Joe Slovo a friend of Mr Milibands father, the academic Ralph Miliband.
Mr Slovo, who shared Miliband seniors belief in Marxist ideology, was one of the leaders of Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), the armed military wing of the ANC.
Asked by presenter Matthew Parris whether there were any circumstances in which terrorism was justified, Mr Miliband said: Yes, there are circumstances in which it is justifiable, and yes, there are circumstances in which it is effective.
He added: The importance for me is that the South African example proved something remarkable: the apartheid regime looked like a regime that would last forever, and it was blown down.
It is hard to argue that, on its own, a political struggle would have delivered. The striking at the heart of a regimes claim on a monopoly of power, which the ANCs armed wing represented, was very significant.
Last night, Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague said the remarks were ill-judged. He said: Ministers must be very careful before advancing any argument that seems to legitimise terrorism in some circumstances.
When so much of the efforts of our security services, and the sacrifices of our troops in Afghanistan, are devoted to defeating terrorists, this is hardly the time to argue that terrorism is sometimes acceptable.
Mr Miliband, who appeared on the programme with Mr Slovos daughter Gillian, described fondly how, as an 18-year-old, he opened the door to Mr Slovo, who had turned up unannounced at the Miliband family home to discuss politics with his parents.
Mr Miliband was speaking on BBC Radio 4s Great Lives programme, in which he chose to pay tribute to the South African anti-apartheid activist Joe Slovo a friend of Mr Milibands father, the academic Ralph Miliband.
Mr Slovo, who shared Miliband seniors belief in Marxist ideology, was one of the leaders of Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), the armed military wing of the ANC.
Asked by presenter Matthew Parris whether there were any circumstances in which terrorism was justified, Mr Miliband said: Yes, there are circumstances in which it is justifiable, and yes, there are circumstances in which it is effective.
He added: The importance for me is that the South African example proved something remarkable: the apartheid regime looked like a regime that would last forever, and it was blown down.
It is hard to argue that, on its own, a political struggle would have delivered. The striking at the heart of a regimes claim on a monopoly of power, which the ANCs armed wing represented, was very significant.
Last night, Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague said the remarks were ill-judged. He said: Ministers must be very careful before advancing any argument that seems to legitimise terrorism in some circumstances.
When so much of the efforts of our security services, and the sacrifices of our troops in Afghanistan, are devoted to defeating terrorists, this is hardly the time to argue that terrorism is sometimes acceptable.
Mr Miliband, who appeared on the programme with Mr Slovos daughter Gillian, described fondly how, as an 18-year-old, he opened the door to Mr Slovo, who had turned up unannounced at the Miliband family home to discuss politics with his parents.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/19/2009 17:51 ||
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> David Miliband: There are circumstances in which terrorism can be justifiable
I agree, it's getting rid of Britain's Gramscian shits.
SEOUL, Aug. 18 (Yonhap) -- Seoul is considering proposing talks to Pyongyang this week to follow up on a pledge by Pyongyang to resume inter-Korean family reunions in October, according to an informed source Tuesday.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and South's Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun on Sunday agreed on a series of steps which, if officially endorsed by Seoul, will resuscitate stalled tourism projects and restart the reunion of families separated by the 1950-1953 Korean War. The Hyundai Group is the main North Korean counterpart in cross-border business ventures.
Kim suggested arranging the reunions on Chuseok day on Oct. 3, which is Korea's version of Thanksgiving.
The source, requesting to be unnamed, said Seoul may make the proposal as early as Wednesday either through military or maritime channels, as North has unilaterally cut off communications between the Koreas' Red Cross offices which in the past organized the reunions. Seoul has not yet decided on the date for the suggested talks, the source said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/19/2009 00:00 ||
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I'm sort of hoping that Kimmie gets reunited with his father.
SEOUL, Aug. 18 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has inspected a thermal power plant and a coal mine and demanded efficient management of the facilities to maintain a stable supply of the country's electricity, the North's media reported Tuesday.
Kim gave "field guidance" to the Pukchang Thermal Power Complex and the Feb. 8 Jikdong Youth Coal Mine, both in South Pyongan Province, the North's Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) said. The report gave no date for the visits as usual. "The complex's position and role are very important as it takes a big portion in the nation's electricity output," Kim said after looking around the thermal power complex, according to KCNA.
The report also said that Kim underlined "the need to increase coal production at the relevant coal mines" to maintain power output at the thermal complex.
Arrest some more 'traitors', 'wreckers' and 'dissidents'! We need more miners!
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/19/2009 00:00 ||
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Jikdong Youth Coal Mine, eh?
Looks like they found the answer on what to do with miscreant youts.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton met President Barack Obama at the White House on Tuesday to brief him about his visit to North Korea early this month and apparently passed on a message from North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Clinton had already been debriefed by U.S. National Security Advisor James Jones immediately after the visit.
By any chance did he brief the Secretary of State?
Clinton's meeting with Obama came after North Korea made conciliatory gestures toward South Korea by signing a five-point accord in a meeting with Hyundai chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun. While welcoming the move, which amounts to an opening of the inter-Korean border, the U.S. State Department on Monday urged Pyongyang to take steps toward complete denuclearization.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/19/2009 00:00 ||
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By any chance did he brief the Secretary of State?
I don't think Willy has debriefed Hillary in many seasons.
Posted by: ed ||
08/19/2009 9:00 Comments ||
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The Dutch city of Rotterdam and its university have fired Tuesday Swiss Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan after he hosted a program on an Iranian television channel, a joint media statement said, as the scholar said he would take the council to court for its politically motivated dismissal.
The city of Rotterdam, where Ramadan has been an advisor to the mayor on issues of multi-culturalism since 2007, and Erasmus University, where Ramadan is a visiting professor of theology, said: "The reason is Tariq Ramadan's involvement with the Iranian television channel Press TV, which is incompatible with his functions."
"Press TV is a channel that is financed by the Iranian government," said the statement, adding "although there is no doubt about the personal effort of Tariq Ramadan, both boards find this indirect relation with this repressive regime or even to be associated with it, not acceptable."
Rotterdam's mayor is Ahmed Aboutaleb, a Muslim who was formerly junior minister for social affairs and who has vowed to ease tensions between the city's native Dutch and a growing immigrant population.
Ramadan said he would take the council to court. "I am going to sue the municipality. It is a question of honor and dignity™," he told public broadcaster NOS.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2009 00:00 ||
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I have seen his Press TV shows on Live Station. He withholds all criticism of abuses of the democratic movement in Iran.
[Dawn] Dutch prosecutors declined on Tuesday to put far-right MP Geert Wilders on trial for distributing caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed (bees pee upon him). But they found that a Holocaust-denying cartoon in a separate case was punishable.
The prosecution service had received complaints about Wilders reproducing controversial Danish cartoons of the prophet on his website, as well as their display on a television programme. It had also received complaints about two cartoons published on the website of the Arab-European League (AEL) lobby group, one of which allegedly shows Jews denying that the Nazi Holocaust happened.
The Danish cartoons and their reproduction were not punishable, the prosecution service said in a statement. 'The cartoons are about the Prophet Mohamed, but don't say anything about Muslims. None of the cartoons are offensive towards Muslims or contribute to hatred, discrimination or violence against Muslims.'
The Holocaust cartoon 'is punishable because it offends Jews on the basis of their race and/or religion.' The AEL has agreed to remove the cartoon from its Dutch website, said the statement. 'If it complies, charges will be provisionally dropped.'
The Mohammed cartoons originally appeared in Danish newspapers in September 2005, sparking protests across the Muslim world. Five people died in Pakistan in protests in February 2006.
In a separate investigation, Wilders faces prosecution for inciting hatred against Muslims by making statements comparing Islam to Nazism. He made a 17-minute film, 'Fitna,' which UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called 'offensively anti-Islamic'. The screening of the film last year prompted also protests in Muslim nations.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Geert is a good man struggling against the same type of political correctness that is trying to subvert the United States. They are trying to get a Freedom of Speech law into force in the EU.
North Side resident Uzair Ali Hashmi informed the FBI last month that terrorists were trying to recruit him and that one of them gave him a letter stating, "Our job here is to carry out 'the mission' of giving the nonbelievers what they deserve." Hashmi said the letter also asked if he was familiar with downtown Chicago and stated, "This is your calling to Jihad my brother. You have a key roles in our operation." But an investigation found that Hashmi made up the story and fabricated the letter, authorities said. On Wednesday, he was indicted by a federal grand jury on three counts of making false statements to the FBI.
According to the indictment, Hashmi contacted the FBI on July 28, saying that someone had approached him the previous day and asked him if he was proficient with firearms and suggested that he join "God's military." But the person Hashmi claimed approached him actually "made no such statements," the indictment said.
"We take very seriously any allegation of terrorism activity, and we will aggressively investigate every lead," said Robert D. Grant, special agent-in-charge of the Chicago FBI. "But, while we want to encourage people to report genuinely suspicious activity, we also will seek to prosecute anyone who deliberately provides false information that diverts agents and resources from other important matters."
If convicted, Hashmi could get up to 24 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
A federal judge has ordered the Pentagon to free a Yemeni father of two with a heart condition who has been held for seven and a half years at Guantánamo on suspicion of serving as Osama bin Laden's bodyguard.
Mohammed al Adahi, 47, testified by video link from the prison camp that he had met bin Laden socially during the summer before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but never worked for him or waged jihad. "I did not fight the American alliance. I did not deal with Taliban or al Qaeda. I am a working man in my country ," he said, according to a transcript of his June hearing at the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. U.S. Judge Gladys Kessler ruled for his release on Monday, instructing the U.S. government to "take all necessary and appropriate diplomatic steps" and comply with congressional requirement to release him "forthwith."
Unclear is how soon Adahi might leave Guantánamo, where his attorneys say he suffers high blood pressure and at one point was offered angioplasty treatments by prison camp medical staff. The United States is still negotiating a repatriation agreement with the Yemeni government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh for up to 93 Yemeni citizens held among the 229 detainees at the U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba.
Kessler's ruling raised to 29 the number of long-held Guantánamo captives that federal judges have ordered released through unlawful detention suits, compared with the six whose detentions that judges have upheld. Dozens more cases are winding their way through the courts.
The hearing lasted three days. Justice Department attorneys called no witnesses but showed the judge prison camp videos of guards tackling and shackling the Yemeni and forcing him from his cell, said defense attorney Kristin Wilhelm of Atlanta. To clear his name, she said, Adahi collected statements from fellow detainees at Guantánamo who supposedly implicated him in prison camp interrogations. None corroborated the U.S. government allegations, Wilhelm said.
Pakistani troops captured Adahi as he fled the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan soon after 9/11. He was aboard a bus carrying wounded Taliban soldiers, the basis of a Pentagon claim that he had been in league with the Taliban. On his wrist was a Casio watch, which U.S. military intelligence said was similar to those al Qaeda terrorists had rigged as explosive triggers. But the Yemeni told the judge at his hearing that his watch had hands, and wasn't digital, a key distinction.
For a time, the United States had suspected that Adahi served as a bin Laden bodyguard, in part because his brother-in-law may have worked for the al Qaeda leader. But Adahi had long maintained that he was captured during what was meant to be a two-month vacation from a Yemeni oil refinery. He was escorting his sister to an arranged marriage with a fellow Yemeni in Kandahar, Afghanistan. While there, in the summer before the 9/11 attacks, Adahi attended a party of men celebrating his sister's wedding and was introduced to bin Laden among the guests. They made small talk about Yemen he said, and then a few days later he was summoned to meet bin Laden again.
[Dawn] US President Barack Obama says Al-Qaeda and its allies have shifted their bases from Afghanistan to the remote, tribal areas of Pakistan.
The US President said that terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan cannot be eradicated in a short time span.
Speaking at the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention in Phoenix, Arizona, Obama said that the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan would enable Al-Qaeda to plan similar attacks to that of 9/11.
He reiterated that the war on terror is necessary for the defence of the people.
According to the US president the perpetrators of 9/11 are planning more attacks and if left unchecked the Taliban insurgency will mean the creation of larger safe havens from which Al-Qaeda could plot to kill more Americans.
'As I said when I announced this strategy, there will be more difficult days ahead. The insurgency in Afghanistan didn't just happen overnight, and we won't defeat it overnight. This will not be quick. This will not be easy.'
'But we must never forget: This is not a war of choice; this is a war of necessity.'
'Those who attacked America on 9/11 are plotting to do so again. If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which Al Qaeda would plot to kill more Americans. So this is not only a war worth fighting. This is fundamental to the defence of our people,' said the US president.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
So this is not only a war worth fighting. This is fundamental to the defence of our people,' said the US president.
#2
Hot Pursuit operations are allowed under international law. I believe that there is large support among Punjab speaking majority in Pakistan, for liquidation moves against Taliban/al-Qaeda.
#6
OOOPSIES, forgot PDF > AFGHAN WARLORD GULBUDDIN HEKMATYR DECLARES WAR AGZ USA [US = US-Allied miloccupat of Afghanistan].
* WAFF > JIHADISM SPREADS ACROSS CENTRAL ASIA.
* WORLD NEWS > IRAN'S SUPREME LEADER REINFORCES ALLIANCE WITH SYRIA ["symbol of resistance" across ME + Muslim World].
* THAILAND-INDONESIA > Currently, local Armed Forces are pushing the MilTerrs back "into the Hills", so to speak, but the MilTerrs are still packing in dem NEW RECRUITS = STILL PLAN TO FIGHT ANOTHER DAY!?
[Dawn] Pakistani troops will need months to prepare for a ground offensive against the Taliban in their South Waziristan stronghold on the Afghan border, an army commander said on Tuesday, citing equipment shortages.
Visiting US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke has said that the United States is scrambling to get the equipment the Pakistani army needs and that the timing of any ground operation was up to the army and government.
'It's going to take months,' Lieutenant-General Nadeem Ahmed told a small group of reporters after briefing Holbrooke, when asked how long it would take the army to move into South Waziristan.
Pakistani forces have bottled up Taliban fighters in their tribal lands in South Waziristan, a rugged region on the border with Afghanistan. Pakistani warplanes have attacked Taliban positions and US drone aircraft have launched several missile strikes like the one that apparently killed militant leader Baitullah Mehsud.
Ahmed said the Pakistani military was now trying to create the right conditions for launching a future ground offensive by imposing a 'tight' blockade around the area.
He said attack planes, helicopters and artillery were being used to hit militant targets.
'Once you feel that the conditions are right and you have been able to substantially dent their infrastructure and their fighting capacity, then you go in for a ground offensive,' Ahmed said. 'That may happen in winter, or even beyond, probably.'
Ahmed said the army was currently short of 'the right kind of equipment' to mount a large-scale ground operation, and urged Holbrooke to help Pakistan obtain Cobra attack helicopters and other equipment.
Ahmed said many of the military's helicopters were still being used in an offensive against militants in the Swat valley, northwest of Islamabad, and that they needed maintenance before being sent into Waziristan.
A US military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Pentagon was 'very aware of the counter-insurgency needs of the Pakistani military'.
'We know they have shortfalls and we're working hard to get them the equipment as soon as possible,' the official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Richard Holbrooke has said that the United States is scrambling to get the equipment the Pakistani army needs and that the timing of any ground operation was up to the army and government.
SUCKER must be tattooed on Holbrooke's forehead. The pause will last as long as required for Islamabad to co opt the TTP and redirect them toward the west. The Paks couldn't have done it w/o our taking out the top TTP leadership.
By next year it will be another division, 50,000 truckloads of supplies and $1 billion more in jizya.
Posted by: ed ||
08/19/2009 9:14 Comments ||
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#2
Given what I have read here about the efficiency levels of the Pakistani Army, I would be surprised indeed if they could maintain the pace of operations we would ask of US forces.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
08/19/2009 14:54 Comments ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] India's defence minister said yesterday there were dozens of Islamic militant training camps active near Pakistan's border with India that had not been dismantled by authorities there. "As long as the terrorist camps are functioning in the border areas in Pakistan soil, certainly there is a threat to India, and it is a fact," AK Antony said in the southern state of Kerala, PTI news agency reported.
On Monday, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said that militants in Pakistan were plotting new attacks on India and urged security forces to stay on high alert. Singh underlined that cross-border terrorism remained a "most pervasive" threat.
In response, Pakistan assured India of its "fullest cooperation" in preventing fresh acts of terror and asked India to share specific information about threats.
In the wake of his remarks, India's deputy high commissioner was called to Pakistan's foreign ministry and told Singh's remarks "warrant serious and prompt attention," the ministry said in a statement.
The deputy high commissioner was informed that "the government of Pakistan would like to extend its fullest cooperation to pre-empt any act of terror."
India has boosted its security to prevent assaults after November's attacks in the country's financial capital Mumbai, in which gunmen killed 166 people.
"In all sincerity, we would request India to share information that they have and for our part we stand ready to cooperate fully in pre-empting any act of terror," the Pakistan statement said.
It said that terrorism could only be combated by serious, sustained and pragmatic cooperation.
Relations between India and Pakistan deteriorated after attacks in the Indian financial capital Mumbai in November, in which gunmen killed 166 people.
India blamed the attacks on Pakistan-based militants and broke off a five-year-long peace process aimed at resolving outstanding issues between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
Pakistan has accepted that the assault on Mumbai was partly planned on its soil and arrested five people who India said were behind the attack.
Antony said that despite India's continuous urging, however, no Islamic militant camps had been completely dismantled along the India-Pakistan border.
The two countries have fought three wars since independence in 1947 and came dangerously close to a fourth following an attack on the Indian parliament in 2001 by militants New Delhi said came from Pakistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Why do Pakistan want war with India,Surely they know they will get their arse kicked in a war?
#4
CHINA should make the same complaint vee thier "LITTLE BROTHER" PAKISTAN, ala PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > UIGHUR TRAINING CAMP IN PAKISTAN.
* SAME > INDIA AND CHINA IN THE HIMALAYAS, + CHINA REFUSES INDIAN REQUEST TO DECLARE MASOOD AZHAR A TERRORIST [Ldr - PAKI JAISH-E-MOHAMMED MilTerr Group].
* ION WAFF > INDIAN DEFENSE REVIEW Artics = CHINA WILL ATTACK INDIA BEFORE 2012 versus THE ILLUSION OF CHINA'S ATTACK ON INDIA BEFORE 2012.
[Dawn] Tehreek-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Muhammadi (TNSM) chief Sufi Mohammad's detention has been challenged at the Peshawar High Court, DawnNews reported court sources as saying on Tuesday. Detention of Sufi Mohammad and his three sons was challenged under the 3-MPO, sources said. Justice Dost Mohammad Khan of the Peshawar High Court subsequently summoned the District Coordination Officers of Peshawar and Swat and ordered them to present records before the Peshawar High Court on August 30.
This article starring:
Sufi Mohammad
TNSM
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2009 00:00 ||
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[The News (Pak) Top Stories] Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilanion Monday urged the US to provide drone technology to enable Pakistan armed forces to take action against terrorists.
He emphasized that the drone attacks remained a matter of public concern in Pakistan. They were counter-productive to government's efforts for isolating the terrorists and the concomitant collateral damage was exploited by the extremists for fuelling anti-Americanism in the country, he added.
He was talking to US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, who called on him at the Prime Minister's House Monday. The visiting envoy discussed the bilateral cooperation on war on terror, repatriation and rehabilitation of displaced persons of Malakand division and US aid and assistance for the development of various sectors of Pakistan.
The prime minister welcomed US President Barack Obama's initiative to form a joint task force for assisting Pakistan in overcoming the present energy crisis in the country and called on the US government and private sector to support specific projects and mobilize investment in Pakistan's energy sector.
While dilating on government of Pakistan's strong and successful counter terrorism offensive in Swat and Malakand, the prime minister highlighted the fact that it had the complete support of Parliament, security institutions, political and religious leadership, civil society and media.
The prime minister apprised Ambassador Holbrooke of his government's relentless efforts to promote good governance, transparency and accountability in the country. He stated that it was first time in Pakistan's parliamentary history that the Leader of the Opposition had been appointed the Chairman of Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly.
The prime minister added that the judiciary and media were completely independent now and hence the process of accountability to check the wrongdoings in any government department has become institutionalized.
Ambassador Holbrooke stated that he was most impressed with the very successful Swat operation. He paid glowing tributes to the government and Pakistan Army for determinedly taking on the militants and terrorists, providing relief to the dislocated persons and undertaking steps for their rehabilitation. He said the US would fully back government of Pakistan in its reconstruction efforts in Swat and Malakand and the US assistance pledged in the Friends of Democratic Pakistan Tokyo meeting would soon be disbursed towards that end.
He also assured the prime minister of his government's full support for overcoming the energy crisis, which he termed as the foremost problem in Pakistan. He informed the prime minister that the US Economic Advisor David Lipton and specialist Mary Beth Goodman would be visiting Pakistan by the end of this month to hold discussions with the joint task force being constituted to find ways and means for overcoming the energy crisis.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Horse$hit. They'll say anything they think works to get their hands on this tech. Why do you suppose that is? We do their work for them. Must have plans to sell it to someone.
#4
Well about 95% of the political appointees and an astonishing number of regulars, incl. in uniform, would swallow this whole and even point to it as vindication. Come on, you loutish linear thinkers, starting eating soup with a knife, winning hearts and minds, etc. There are no military solutions to military problems. Start getting with the program or it's more graduate education for you.
#5
clearly this requires a military AND political AND economic solution. And hearts and minds matter.
But drones can get very high value targets that cannot be gotten any other way. To say something has a cost, does not mean there wont be times when the benefit justifies the cost. The US military knows that. The US administration knows that. And the Pakistani govt knows that. It benefits the Pakistani govt to appear to push back on drone strikes. As much of a stretch as it is, some Pakistanis apparently actually believe that pushback is not just for show. Which I can only attribute to the backward state of the Pakistani educational system, low literacy levels, etc, etc.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
08/19/2009 14:51 Comments ||
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Ma'an -- An Egyptian security delegation met with Hamas and Fatah leaders in the West Bank on Tuesday in hopes of resuscitating Palestinian unity negotiations.
The delegation led by General Muhammad Ibrahim is hoping to bridge gaps between the rival groups ahead of talks scheduled to restart on 25 August.
After meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman, Jordan, the officials crossed into the West Bank, meeting with Ahmad Quriea, the head of the Palestinian Authority (PA) negotiating team, and senior Fatah leader Abu Maher Ghneim, who recently returned from exile, at his residence in Ramallah.
The delegation then met Hamas lawmakers at Ramallah's Grand Park Hotel.
Speaking after the meeting, Qureia said that Fatah would do its best to make the negotiations succeed. He said the main issues still to be resolved are, the makeup and platform of a unity government, reform of the Palestinian security forces, and reform of the electoral process.
Regarding Hamas' demand that the PA release political prisoners, Quriea said "During our conference Fatah was positive toward the negotiations, but Hamas prevented Fatah delegates from reaching the conference."
He was referring to Hamas' decision to bar Fatah members in Gaza from travelling to Bethlehem for the movement's general congress, which included elections for new leaders. The move was intended to pressure the PA in the West Bank into releasing Hamas members.
The Hamas leaders released a statement following their meeting saying that they "discussed the issue of political arrests with the Egyptian delegation."
The Egyptian delegation plans to meet with the leaders of other Palestinian factions in the West Bank before travelling to Damascus to meet with Hamas' highest-ranking leadership.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2009 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] A leading Swedish newspaper claims Israeli soldiers kidnap Palestinians to steal their organs and sell them in the black market.
In an article titled They plunder the organs of our sons, the daily Aftonbladet said Israeli soldiers abduct young Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip and return their bodies to their families after removing their organs. "Our sons are used as involuntary organ donors," relatives of Khalid a Palestinian man from Nablus told Donald Bostrom who authored the report.
He also reported the accounts of other Palestinians whose relatives are fallen the victim of the organ smuggling operation. According to the report, all of the victims were killed and their bodies were autopsied.
The report also cited another similar incident in 1992, in which a young Palestinian activist was captured by Israeli soldiers in the Nablus area. The man was shot in the chest, both legs and the stomach and then transferred to "an unknown distention." The man's body was found five nights later. "When Bilal was put into his grave, his chest was revealed and suddenly it became clear to the present what abuse he had been put through. Bilal was far from the only one who was buried cut-up from his stomach to his chin and the speculations about the reason why had already started," read the article.
The article also links the issue to a recently discovered crime syndicate in New Jersey, which was involved in organ smuggling. Several American rabbis were arrested in connection to the case.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2009 00:00 ||
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#4
You gotta be a fool to think the organs would be usable, with the ammount of plague, stds, aids etc it's a far riskier gamble to even think of harvesting organs.
Safer to just live on machines.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/19/2009 18:51 Comments ||
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Article about the latest test of the THAAD system in Hawaii, which apparently was a smashing (as it were) success. It was also the most realistic test to date.
After a decade of lackluster testing and a major redesign, the Pentagon's $15-billion Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) system finally seems to be hitting its stride. This is more than 20 years after the Pentagon embarked on a land-mobile, theater-wide ballistic missile defense system.
Recent flight tests--including a challenging trial in March--have boosted developers' confidence in the kinetic-kill system. Two different Thaad interceptors were launched against a single target, simulating an Army operational concept of dispatching a salvo of weapons to ensure a threat is destroyed. The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and industry officials declared the flight test a success shortly after it was executed.
However, they disclosed to Aviation Week only recently that the results exceeded their expectations. Early reports from the Pentagon said the second interceptor was intentionally destroyed in flight after the first disabled the target in a hit-to-kill engagement.
"Actually, what happened on the flight test was that the first interceptor hit just as it was supposed to and the second interceptor looked at all of this debris and said, 'OK, I've got another something that looks interesting,' picked out another threat, and went out and killed it," says Tom McGrath, Thaad vice president for prime contractor Lockheed Martin. "The second intercept hit another piece of hardware. We can't talk about what that was, but it picked out what logically you would expect it to pick out and killed it."
The two missiles were launched 12 sec. apart. The successful intercept of a fragment from the remaining debris is notable because the second interceptor was faced with what is called a "complex target scene." This included the wreckage of the target shortly after the first high-speed collision. "We had it timed [so] that the second kill vehicle would see the intercept of the first and see the target scene," says U.S. Army Col. William Lamb, the MDA's Thaad project manager.
The engagement also demonstrates the ability of the mission computer on board the Thaad interceptor to adapt to a rapidly changing threat scene. "In real short time, it said, 'Uh oh, that doesn't look like what the radar told me it was going to be'--because now, of course, it was looking at a debris field instead of something that was not planned to be a debris field," says McGrath.
MDA officials declined to say whether the target deployed countermeasures. Of the six flight tests and successful intercepts since a missile redesign, five of the targets have been "foreign-acquired targets, against the real thing," not a U.S.-designed threat emulator, says Army Lt. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly. He is the MDA director who oversaw Thaad during the redesign period. "Many of those targets were shot from an asymmetric threat point of view of putting the missile on a barge [and setting] it off at sea," he says.
Thaad was originally designed to act autonomously, which means its own AN/TPY-2, X-band radar would acquire a target, track it and cue the missile. Once launched and nearing its target, the interceptor's infrared seeker would read the target scene. It would then sort out the input from the radar and from IR to discriminate the kill vehicle from countermeasures or clutter. Blending the two data sources helps the system discriminate actual threats from simulated ones.
"Things look different to an X-band sensor than they do to an IR sensor. Something that really has a lot of sharp edges . . . will look big and bright to an RF [sensor], but it might be real, real cold," says McGrath. "So, it doesn't look that way to an IR [sensor]. I like to think of this as our two-color approach to life."
The flight trial, which took place at the Pacific test range, also included another first. A Navy Aegis-equipped ship cued Thaad with data on the target. This means the Aegis radar acquired the target first and redirected the Thaad radar to find the target. "We actually, on this flight, pointed it higher than we typically would for a search so that for sure Aegis would get that target--and it was closer to it--and we would not see it until after they cued us," McGrath says. "We've worked with Aegis before ourselves, but the cues have never gone to the shooter. It has always gone to other ships."
But remember kids, missile defense can't possibly work.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/19/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
The Dems better cancel this to prove it won't work.
[Iran Press TV Latest] After court confessions in post-vote Iran stirred up controversy, a senior official with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says those urging the release of protesters seek to conceal the truth behind the recent turmoil.
"Where's that Reset button!"
Brigadier General Yadollah Javani, head of the IRGC's political bureau, said the authorities should make every effort to resolve the recent ambiguities in the country.
Amid the turmoil following the controversial June 12 presidential election, Iranian authorities escalated their confrontation with the country's opposition.
Nearly 200 political activists and protestors were put on trial on charges of conspiring with foreign powers to stage a "velvet coup d'etat" using terrorism, subversion and a mass campaign to undermine the disputed vote.
The opposition and their supporters have condemned the trials as a "sham", arguing that the detainees' confessions lack credibility as they may have been forced.
Many insiders have criticized the government for its handling of the controversy over the election, saying the release of post-vote detainees is the way forward to settling the ongoing dispute.
Among them is influential cleric Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani who in a Friday prayer sermon said, "It is not necessary that in this situation people be jailed. Let them join their families."
The IRGC official on Monday questioned the motive behind making such comments by a Friday prayer leader.
"The question is if they had been released how Mr. [Mohammad-Ali] Abatahi would have confessed that the term 'fraud' was the code word for rioting ... and [how] Atrianfar [would have] said that 'we sought to change the system'," Brig. Gen. Javani said.
The fourth hearing of the post-vote trials is scheduled for August 25.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2009 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose disputed re-election plunged the nation into its worst crisis since the Islamic revolution, unveils his cabinet today facing a dogged opposition and challenges from within his own hardline support base.
Ahmadinejad already announced six names on Sunday and said he planned to have at least three women ministers in his 21-member government, which would be a first in the 30-year existence of the Islamic republic.
But some of his proposed appointments have already run into objections from MPs, who have complained that Ahmadinejad needs to consult them more and ensure his ministers have the right experience and credentials.
"From the six people named, we can assume the cabinet will not have the calibre required for an efficient government and this is not a good sign," influential conservative MP Ahmad Tavakoli was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.
"In this list there are people who have never recorded a day of executive work," he charged.
Ahmadinejad's position has already been shaken by the massive opposition protests over his June re-election and a dispute with some hardliners over his political choices which has exposed rifts among the ruling elite.
During his first tenure, he also came under fire for frequently reshuffling the cabinet, sacking 10 ministers and two central bank chiefs and retaining inexperienced ministers.
His new four-year term is also expected to see Iran remain on a collision course with the West, particularly over its nuclear drive and its crackdown against the opposition in the post-election tumult.
Among the top jobs, Ahmadinejad said he will name Heydar Moslehi, a former representative of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the volunteer Basij militia, as intelligence minister.
Manouchehr Mottaki is expected to stay at the foreign ministry, the Mehr news agency reported, quoting "unnamed informed sources."
Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli, a former Revolutionary Guard commander, will move to the defence minister in a swap with Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, it said.
Ahmadinejad on Sunday said the main criteria for his new team were "morality and commitment, efficiency as well as convergence and spirit of cooperation."
He has pledged that his new government will work to improve the economy, promote social justice and crack down on corruption.
His line-up will be put to a confidence vote before the 290-member parliament on August 30, but it may not be smooth sailing.
Among the women, his choice of Fatemeh Ajorlou for welfare and social security is likely to stir controversy because of her alleged support for Abbas Palizdar, who was jailed for accusing several senior clerics, including former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and their children of corruption.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2009 00:00 ||
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A top Iranian nuclear official has denied saying that Tehran was ready to hold talks with the West on its atomic drive "without preconditions," state television reported on Tuesday.
"No comments or interview with TV networks have been made on nuclear talks or conditions," the television quoted Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, as saying.
The television had earlier quoted Soltanieh as saying: "Negotiations without preconditions is Iran's main stance on the nuclear issue."
Instead, Soltanieh said he had referred to a letter he sent to the IAEA calling for the U.N. nuclear watchdog's September meeting to approve an initiative to prohibit armed attacks against nuclear facilities around the world.
"The only issue that was raised was to ban threats and attacks on the world's nuclear installations, because it is an international issue," he said, the television reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2009 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami and opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi will join the leadership of a new party to be formed by Mir-Hossein Mousavi.
Last week, defeated presidential candidate Mousavi announced that he was working on forging a new party -- named the Green Path of Hope Association -- to pursue his political goals.
Alireza Beheshti, a senior aide to Mousavi, said on Tuesday that Khatami and Karroubi would be members of the party's central council, ILNA news agency reported on Tuesday.
"The central council of the Green Path of Hope will be a small group of five to six, including Mr. Khatami and Mr. Karroubi," Beheshti said.
He added that the party would also include a 'counseling board consisting of 30 to 40 members' who are to be chosen over time; as well as 'monitoring committees'.
After the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 12 vote, both Mousavi and Karroubi rejected the results as 'fraudulent'. Their allegations of vote-rigging, however, were dismissed by Iran's electoral watchdog, the Guardian Council.
Mousavi has vowed his new party will continue to 'defend the rights and votes of citizens that were crushed in the election'.
Most of the Principlist figures have demanded that Mousavi and other senior opposition figures be barred from the political arena, while others have reacted to Mousavi's plans with more caution.
Iran' Vice Parliament Speaker, Mohammad-Reza Bahonar, said on Tuesday that Mousavi's new party would be welcome if it is formed 'within the framework of the law', ILNA reported.
"The legal aspects of the movement [the Green Path of Hope Association] should be clearer," the senior Principlist figure added.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2009 00:00 ||
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Last year, bureaucrats at the VA's National Center for Ethics in Health Care advocated a 52-page end-of-life planning document, "Your Life, Your Choices." It was first published in 1997 and later promoted as the VA's preferred living will throughout its vast network of hospitals and nursing homes.
After the Bush White House took a look at how this document was treating complex health and moral issues, the VA suspended its use. Unfortunately, under President Obama, the VA has now resuscitated "Your Life, Your Choices."
Who is the primary author of this workbook? Dr. Robert Pearlman, chief of ethics evaluation for the center, a man who in 1996 advocated for physician-assisted suicide in Vacco v. Quill before the U.S. Supreme Court and is known for his support of health-care rationing.
"Your Life, Your Choices" presents end-of-life choices in a way aimed at steering users toward predetermined conclusions, much like a political "push poll." For example, a worksheet on page 21 lists various scenarios and asks users to then decide whether their own life would be "not worth living."
The circumstances listed include ones common among the elderly and disabled: living in a nursing home, being in a wheelchair and not being able to "shake the blues." There is a section which provocatively asks, "Have you ever heard anyone say, 'If I'm a vegetable, pull the plug'?"
There also are guilt-inducing scenarios such as "I can no longer contribute to my family's well being," "I am a severe financial burden on my family" and that the vet's situation "causes severe emotional burden for my family."
#1
Don't you know there are 32 priests in the basement of the pentagon praying 24 hours a day for the retirees to die off???
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/19/2009 20:52 Comments ||
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#2
1. I cannot get my gov't health care takeover passed.
2. I'm reasonably certain my mother was a whore.
3. My wife's bum is now three feet wide.
4. Axelrod's media connections have now been revealed.
5. I am down to my last carton of Lucky Strikes.
After my column, "For the left, war without Bush is not war at all," appeared Tuesday, I got a note from Cindy Sheehan, the anti-war activist who was the subject of so much press coverage when she led a protest against the Iraq war outside then-President George W. Bush's ranch in Texas....
After receiving the email, I asked Sheehan to give me a call, so I could verify that the note in fact came from her. She did, and we discussed her plans to protest next week in Martha's Vineyard, where President Obama will be vacationing. "I think people are starting to wake up to the fact that even if they supported Obama, he doesn't represent much change," Sheehan said.... I asked Sheehan about the fact that the press seems to have lost interest in her and her cause. "It's strange to me that you mention it," she said. "I haven't stopped working. I've been protesting every time I can, and it's not covered. But the one time I did get a lot of coverage was when I protested in front of George Bush's house in Dallas in June. I don't know what to make of it. Is the press having a honeymoon with Obama? I know the Left is."...
I yield to no man, woman, child, mixed-breed puppy, or fancy parakeet in my loathing for Cindy Sheehan and her misguided desecration of her son's memory, but:
1. Give her credit, she at least believes in what she's saying.
2. She got used, big time, buy the Dem-Media axis.
3. She is smart enough to recognize that she got used.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/19/2009 08:41 ||
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#7
To me one of the benefits of electing Obama (or any Dem) was to make the Dems step up and support the WOT (under whatever name) and necessary measures that are part of that. I think I suggested as such here as early as late 2007.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
08/19/2009 14:42 Comments ||
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#8
"I know the Left is"
the sane left has always know the war in Afghanistan is necessary and just. Even most of the Iraq war doves have recognized that any withdrawl could not be sudden, and the US has some interest in the outcome in Iraq. Cindy Sheehan and her pals were never part of the sane left.
Using her? Comes with the territory of being an extremist. Think the GOP congressional leadership etc isn't using people right now? Cmon.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
08/19/2009 14:45 Comments ||
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#9
To me one of the benefits of electing Obama (or any Dem) was to make the Dems step up and support the WOT (under whatever name) and necessary measures that are part of that. I think I suggested as such here as early as late 2007.
Too bad the people have t pay them off with power to get them to support what's right for the country.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
08/19/2009 15:13 Comments ||
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#10
Whether or not the GOP is using people isn't the issue. She used the Media to garner sympathy and be the center of attention and they used her to bash Bush. The irony is she's figured out she is no longer of use to the Left or the Media.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/19/2009 15:46 Comments ||
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#11
remember her cavorting with Chavez, et al? Die soon, b*tch. Her son Casey was worth a 1000 of her.
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.
[Dawn] Dutch prosecutors declined on Tuesday to put far-right MP Geert Wilders on trial for distributing caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed (bees pee upon him). But they found that a Holocaust-denying cartoon in a separate case was punishable.
A federal judge has ordered the Pentagon to free a Yemeni father of two with a heart condition who has been held for seven and a half years at Guantánamo on suspicion of serving as Osama bin Laden's bodyguard. 
[Dawn] Tehreek-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Muhammadi (TNSM) chief 
[Iran Press TV Latest] A leading Swedish newspaper claims Israeli soldiers kidnap Palestinians to steal their organs and sell them in the black market. 
