WASHINGTON (AP) — President Obama may change course again as the war worsens in Afghanistan, steering away from the comprehensive counterinsurgency strategy he laid out this spring and toward a narrower focus on counterterror operations aimed at al-Qaeda.
The White House is looking at expanding counterterror operations in Pakistan as an alternative to a major military escalation in Afghanistan.
Two senior administration officials told the Associated Press on Monday that the renewed fight against al-Qaeda could lead to more missile attacks on Pakistan terrorist havens by unmanned U.S. spy planes. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because no decisions have been made.
The armed drones could contain al-Qaeda in a smaller, if more remote, area and keep its leaders from retreating back into Afghanistan, the officials said.
The prospect of a White House alternative to a deepening involvement in Afghanistan comes as administration officials debate whether to send more troops — as urged in a blunt assessment of the deteriorating conflict by the top U.S. commander there, Gen. Stanley McChrystal.
The president thus far has not endorsed the McChrystal approach, saying in television interviews over the weekend that he needs to be convinced that sending more troops would make Americans safer from al-Qaeda.
Tellingly, Obama reiterated in those interviews that his core goal is to destroy al-Qaeda, which is not present in significant numbers in Afghanistan. He did not focus on saving Afghanistan.
"I'm not interested in just being in Afghanistan for the sake of being in Afghanistan or saving face," Obama told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday.
Top aides to Obama said he still has questions and wants more time to decide.
The officials said the administration aims to push ahead with the ground mission in Afghanistan for the foreseeable future, still leaving the door open for sending more U.S. troops. But Obama's top advisers, including Vice President Biden, have indicated they are reluctant to send many more troops — if any at all — in the immediate future.
The proposed shift would bolster U.S. action on Obama's long-stated goal of dismantling terrorist havens, but it could also complicate American relations with Pakistan, long wary of the growing use of aerial drones to target militants along the porous border with Afghanistan.
Most U.S. military officials have preferred a classic counterinsurgency mission to keep al-Qaeda out of Afghanistan by defeating the Taliban and securing the local population.
However, one senior White House official said it's not clear that the Taliban would welcome al-Qaeda back into Afghanistan. The official noted that it was only after the 9/11 attacks that the United States invaded Afghanistan and deposed the Taliban in pursuit of al-Qaeda.
Pakistan will not allow the United States to deploy a large-scale military troop buildup on its soil. However, its military and intelligence services are believed to have assisted the U.S. with airstrikes, even while the government has publicly condemned them.
Wider use of missile strikes and less reliance on ground troops would mark Obama's second shift in strategy and tactics since taking office last January.
But stepping up attacks on the remnants of al-Qaeda also would dovetail with Obama's presidential campaign promise of directly going after the terrorist network that spawned the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.
Over the past few weeks, White House and Pentagon officials have debated the best way to defeat al-Qaeda — and whether to send more troops to Afghanistan to battle the extremist Taliban elements that hosted Osama bin Laden and his operatives in the 1990s and have continued to aid the terrorist group.
McChrystal has argued that without more troops the United States could lose the war against the Taliban and allied insurgents.
"Resources will not win this war, but under-resourcing could lose it," McChrystal wrote in a five-page Commander's Summary that was unveiled late Sunday by The Washington Post. His 66-page report, which was also made public by the Post in a partly classified version after appeals from Pentagon officials, was sent to Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Aug. 30 and is now under review at the White House.
In an interview Monday with CNN, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said, "Where Gen. McChrystal is asking for more resources, in all aspects, to boost the effort against terrorism, he has our support there."
But Karzai added that the U.S. and its allies also need to "concentrate on the sanctuaries for terrorists outside of Afghanistan."
White House officials have made clear that Pakistan, where the U.S. cannot send troops, should be the top concern since that is where top al-Qaeda leaders, including bin Laden himself, are believed to be hiding. Very few al-Qaeda extremists are believed to still be in Afghanistan, according to military and White House officials.
There have been more than 50 missile strikes against Pakistan targets since August 2008, according to an Associated Press count. Two weeks ago, a U.S. drone killed a key suspected al-Qaeda recruiter and trainer, Pakistani national Ilyas Kashmiri.
#1
There is an argument that we should simply accept pacifying 40-50% of Afghanistan and let the rest of the country enjoy Taliban rule (this would mean families of Afghan military men would have to relocate and that is a significant downside).
Any international terrorist action in the Taliban area would be dealt with by Air assets or Delta force types.
After a few years of Taliban rule, another chunk of the country will be ready to join the pacified part.
Actually, I've been arguing this for about the past 5 years or so.
Posted by: lord garth ||
09/22/2009 14:10 Comments ||
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#2
Someone should write an editorial about that idea ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/22/2009 17:41 Comments ||
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Via Long War Journal
Six months after it announced its strategy for Afghanistan, the Obama administration is sending mixed signals about its objectives there and how many troops are needed to achieve them.
The conflicting messages are drawing increasing ire from U.S. commanders in Afghanistan and frustrating military leaders, who're trying to figure out how to demonstrate that they're making progress in the 12-18 months that the administration has given them.
Adding to the frustration, according to officials in Kabul and Washington, are White House and Pentagon directives made over the last six weeks that Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, not submit his request for as many as 45,000 additional troops because the administration isn't ready for it.
In the last two weeks, top administration leaders have suggested that more American troops will be sent to Afghanistan, and then called that suggestion "premature." Earlier this month, Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that "time is not on our side"; on Thursday, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates urged the public "to take a deep breath."
The White House didn't respond to requests for comment. Officials willing to speak did so only on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly.
In Kabul, some members of McChrystal's staff said they don't understand why Obama called Afghanistan a "war of necessity" but still hasn't given them the resources they need to turn things around quickly.
Three officers at the Pentagon and in Kabul told McClatchy that the McChrystal they know would resign before he'd stand behind a faltering policy that he thought would endanger his forces or the strategy. Given the article below, I'd say Gen. McChrystal's time in country is short.
Posted by: ed ||
09/22/2009 08:42 ||
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Congress will have to have their face time in committee hearings over this. If McChrystal is summoned to Washington, it should be very interesting. Is our Commander is Chief a bit indecisive? He has had McChrystal's report for a month. For God's sake put the report on the teleprompter.
#2
The worst thing is that his indecision encourages the Taliban and Al Qaeda. He doesn't seem to understand the mentality of these people. Showing weakness is like giving blood to sharks.
#3
David Letterman, basketball, golf and numerous TV appearances. Amazing. Our soldiers are putting their lives on the line and many have given their lives and what do they get? A commander in chief who is a community organizer. As a community organizer you would think he would organize something.
Posted by: Art ||
09/22/2009 10:48 Comments ||
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#4
sounds like General McC might do the honorable thing and resign if 0 rejects the request for troops.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/22/2009 10:51 Comments ||
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#5
As a community organizer you would think he would organize something.
Looking at some of the communities he has organized, I'd say "No, thanks!"
#7
As a community organizer you would think he would organize something.
Community organizers create demonstrations. What do demonstrators do? They stand around and spout slogans. As America's community organizer, Ogabe has done a pretty good job, if his objective is defined as getting people to stand around and spout slogans.
The Pentagon has told its top commander in Afghanistan not to ask for extra troops until the Obama administration completes a strategy review, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Army General Stanley McChrystal, the top commander of U.S and NATO forces in Afghanistan, warned in a confidential assessment leaked to the media on Monday that without additional troops the mission "will likely result in failure".
A senior Pentagon official said the administration had asked for the reprieve so it can complete a review of the U.S.-led war effort, the Journal reported.
Posted by: ed ||
09/22/2009 08:28 ||
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Waiting to complete a 'strategy review' my ass. The Liar-in-Chief has been busy...Letterman was waiting.
Somalia's hardline Islamist group Shebab has released a 48-minute video documentary in which they proclaim their allegiance to Al Qaeda supremo Osama bin Laden. The authenticity of the document -- released for the Eid al-Fitr feast marking the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan -- was confirmed by a Shebab official in Mogadishu.
Entitled "Labaik ya Osama" (At your service, Osama), the video was posted on Islamist Internet forums in recent days and is presented as a "gift to the lions of Tawheed (belief in the oneness of Allah) and the Muslims everywhere." Shebab fighters on Monday distributed the video in several Mogadishu neighbourhoods, including in Suqaholaha, where a public screening was also organised following the Eid prayers.
The video kicks off with an artistic animation of whirling flower tendrils and text in English and Arabic paying tribute to the mujahideen (holy warriors) in Palestine and the Arabian peninsula, as well as the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The slick video production marks a new level in the propaganda capabilities of the Shebab and is reminiscent of the videos made by As-Sahab -- Al Qaeda's media production company -- on Iraq and Afghanistan. The video is a sequence of fighting scenes in the streets of Mogadishu and elsewhere, training sessions and news commentary lambasting the president of Somalia's transitional federal government, Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
A Shebab official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the video was aimed at "persuading people to join the jihad and give youngsters a chance to see the real life of a mujahed (holy warrior)."
Two Afghan boys who were groomed by the Taliban to become suicide bombers revealed their determination to reach Britain today as they faced eviction from a notorious refugee camp in Calais.
The 12-year-olds are among 2,000 migrants who spent the weekend praying and dancing as they waited for bulldozers to move in to clear the site dubbed The Jungle.
Many of the migrants kicked out of the camp - an area full of refugees' improvised shelters - are now expected to launch desperate attempts to reach Britain.
And today the extraordinary story emerged of how two young Afghans who were targeted by the Taliban to become weapons against British troops are hoping to try to sneak into the UK to start a better life after their temporary home is demolished.
Fresh-faced Najib and Sajid - just 12 years old - were targeted by the Taliban because of their 'youthful glow'.
Najib, who has two sisters and a brother, said: 'It was not safe in my country because the Taliban were always trying to kidnap me and give me training for suicide attacks.
'They tried so many times to kidnap me. Luckily I escaped." His cousin, who has a sister and three brothers - one of them living in London - said they were desperate to get to Britain.'
He said: "My father wants me to reach the UK so I can get a good education and a better life. "In Afghanistan I cannot go out of my home because I am afraid of being kidnapped.
'If I get to the UK everything will be OK. I will be safe - and I will be alive.'
The boys will be among the many hundreds expected to have to make their desperate bid for the UK tomorrow morning.
Heavy duty riot police and soldiers are already mobilising at the French port amid fears the situation will get out of control as bulldozers move in to destroy the camp.
Home Secretary Alan Johnson said today he was "delighted" about the impending closure of the camp.
And he insisted that Britain has ruled out taking them in by saying that genuine refugees should apply for asylum in the country where they entered the EU.
Those who are not escaping persecution should return home, he said.
Speaking after talks in Brussels with his French counterpart Eric Besson, Mr Johnson said reports that Britain could be 'forced' to take illegal immigrants were 'wrong'.
EU justice commissioner Jacques Barrot has demanded a change in European law to allow a 'significant number' to be fast-tracked into Britain, it was reported.
Mr Johnson said'The UK has a robust system for dealing with both asylum seekers and immigration and provides protection to those who are genuinely in need.
'Reports that the UK will be forced to take illegal immigrants from the 'jungle' are wrong.
'Both countries are committed to helping individuals who are genuine refugees, who should apply for protection in the first safe country that they reach.
'We expect those who are not in need of protection to return home.'
Posted by: Fred ||
09/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Two Afghan boys who were groomed by the Taliban to become suicide bombers revealed their determination to reach Britain today/em>
I'm sure Brits will be happy to receive them---there being a shortage of native born suicide boomers.
The US military on Friday returned to Ecuador a base it has been using for a decade for regional anti-drug operations, as critics seethe over its controversial replacement in neighboring Colombia. Seething and gnashing of teeth.....
Ecuadoran authorities took control of the US Forward Operation Location (FOL) at the Eloy Alfaro Air Force base in the Pacific port of Manta to Ecuador following a brief ceremony at the base.
"Never again foreign bases on Ecuadoran territory, never again a sale of the flag," said Foreign Minister Fander Falconi at the handover event.
Falconi blasted the Ecuadoran administration that in 1999 signed a 10-year deal granting US forces access to the site. "They had no scruples in subordinating Ecuador's sovereignty," he said.
The FOL takes up five percent, or about 38 hectares (93 acres) of the 755 hectare (1,866 acre) large air base.
The move culminates a campaign by leftist President Rafael Correa to get US forces out of Ecuador. Correa canceled the agreement in July 2008, and US forces launched their final anti-narcotic operation from Manta in July.
Searching for a replacement, Washington reached a deal granting US forces access to seven military bases in Colombia -- a deal sharply criticized by several South American nations, who fear US encroachment in the region.
Venezuela's leftist leader Hugo Chavez is most vocally opposed to the deal Washington reached with the conservative Colombian government of President Alvaro Uribe, fearing the bases could be used to attack his country. A fear not entirelessly unjustified, but possible, depending upon his behavior toward his neighbors.
"We will insist on guarantees" that the sovereignty of other nations will be respected, Chavez said Wednesday,"because if there is no guarantee, that means they will use those military bases against us." I wonder what constitutes a guarantee.
Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Bolivia have also expressed their concern of the US-Colombia deal, fearing that an expanded US military presence in Colombia -- ostensibly to fight drug traffickers -- could be used against neighboring nations, several of which have leftist anti-US governments.
Chavez, whose government almost went to war with Bogota in March 2008 after Colombian troops raided a border camp of leftist Colombian guerrillas in Ecuador, has frozen ties with the Uribe administration since July over the deal.
Ecuadoran Security Minister Miguel Carvajal told AFP the handover solidifies a government policy "that wants no foreign troop presence of any type or their installations" in Ecuadoran territory." What about guarantees that Chavez will not have a presence of his troops in Equador?
Separately, Ecuadoran prosecutors are investigating charges that US forces based in Manta were responsible for sinking Ecuadoran ships as part of the war on drugs with the loss of 15 Ecuadorans.
Washington had been authorized to station up to 450 military personnel and park up to eight military planes at Manta, aimed at tracking ships and submersibles transporting illegal narcotics. The planes covered a 6,400 kilometer wide area in the Pacific reaching from Peru
to Central America.
In coordination with similar US posts in Curazao and El Salvador, US forces operating from Manta have confiscated some 1,700 tons of drugs valued at more than 35 billion dollars, according to the US embassy.
Despite the heated rhetoric, Carvajal said the US pullout takes place "in good terms." [we hate your gringo guts] But thanks for the infrastructure.
"It is important to recognize this," he told AFP. "This has been an absolutely adequate, calm and positive process of transition. It is completely satisfactory for us."
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/22/2009 00:00 ||
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President Lee Myung-bak on Monday called for a "grand bargain" with North Korea to end the Stalinist country's nuclear program once and for all. "Now is the time to seek a grand bargain or package settlement. Through the six-party talks, North Korea would first dismantle the key elements of its nuclear program and then we would provide security guarantees and international assistance," Lee said.
He made the remarks at a meeting in New York hosted by the Korea Society, the Asia Society and the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations. "We must not repeat our mistake of the past 20 years when we allowed the North Korean nuclear issue to return to its starting point by agreeing to a nuclear freeze and rewarding the North for such an agreement while ignoring the fundamental issue of complete nuclear dismantlement," he said.
Lee first mentioned a comprehensive package in a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama in June. Working-level officials from the U.S., China, Japan, Russia and South Korea, except North Korea, have discussed the package behind the scenes.
But it was the first time Lee used the term "grand bargain" in an international forum. He apparently meant to give momentum to dialogue between the four big powers surrounding the Korean Peninsula.
The five nations facing North Korea in six-party talks -- South Korea, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia -- "need concrete discussions to reach a solid agreement on the complete dismantlement of North Korean nuclear weapons and work out action plans to attain this goal. An integrated approach is needed to find a basic solution to the North Korean nuclear issue," he said.
He said North Korea "should not misunderstand this process as a threat to its system or an attempt to encircle it. No nation on earth would antagonize North Korea if it abandons nuclear programs and joins the international community."
But he warned denuclearization "is the only way for North Korea to survive and develop itself."
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Hmmm Let's see how that "Grand Bargain" works,
China
"You Give up all nukes, or you die.
NORK
HELL NO.
(Big Kaboom)
China
"Want to reconsider"?
Repeat as needed.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/22/2009 17:43 Comments ||
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South Korea's Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said a North Korean atomic bomb is likely aimed directly at the South.
While speaking in front of business leaders at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Friday, Minister Yu said it would be naive to think that the North Korean nuclear issue is solely a U.S. problem, adding that the communist regime's nuclear bombs are intended to target the South.
The minister also noted that Pyongyang's real goal has long been to unify the two Koreas by force. He went on to say that the reason North Korea wants to have direct talks with the U.S. is to be recognized as a nuclear power in order to proceed with arms reduction talks.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/22/2009 00:00 ||
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[Kyodo: Korea] North Korea called on all citizens Monday to take part in a fresh 100-day campaign to rebuild the economy as it issued a report ""on the successful conclusion"" of a similar campaign that ended last week, according to the official Korean Central News Agency. The Central Committee of the Workers" Party of Korea said the new campaign ""is the final charge for glorifying this year as a year of great changes to be specially recorded in the history of the country and an offensive for laying a springboard from which to achieve greater success next year, the 65th anniversary of the founding of the party,"" KCNA said.
Amazing. It's the start of autumn. Soon there won't be any grass to eat, only bark and mud. It's not likely the cretin-worshipping generals or party hacks will overthrow the dying old tyrant, so let us hope he dies soon, enabling the world to move on.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/22/2009 00:00 ||
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After overnight arrests this weekend in the alleged New York terror plot, FBI agents believe an active terror cell directed by al Qaeda was preparing an attack on New York City, and authorities say they have yet to identify everyone involved.
Officials tell ABC News they know of three distinct teams of four men each, but there may be others linked to the plot that remain unidentified. Law enforcement agents say they're watching a number of people on round-the-clock surveillance who they suspect might have been part of the alleged terror cell.
The FBI is searching for a possible bomb storage garage.
Zazi is set to have a preliminary and detention hearing Thursday morning and will remain in custody at least until then. The government is not seeking to keep his father, who was appointed a federal public defender, in custody, but his travel will be restricted to Colorado and he'll wear an electronic monitoring bracelet. He will have to remain in custody for two days until the monitoring system is set up.
Zazi, who authorities say appears to be the ringleader of the alleged plot, has been tracked by the FBI and the CIA for more than a year, during which time he has traveled twice to Pakistan for explosives training from al Qaeda. In a criminal complaint, the FBI alleges they found nine handwritten pages on the manufacture and handling of explosives, detonators and the fuzing system in Zazi's possession.
Court records show Zazi ran up more than $50,000 in debt on 20 credit cards, leading to concerns he was preparing for a suicide mission. He declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Mar. 2009, and while he told investigators he had been traveling to Pakistan see his wife, he checked the "not married" box on his application form.
The source added that court papers released yesterday reveal only a "sliver" of the conspiracy.
"The FBI is investigating several individuals in the U.S., Pakistan and elsewhere, relating to a plot to detonate improvised explosive devices in the U.S.," the Justice Department said.
The FBI found an electronic "black scale" and batteries in the flat with Zazi's fingerprints. Scales can be used to measure chemicals for hydrogen peroxide-based explosives, which the feds suspect was the purpose.
Zazi, a Pashtun, used an e-mail address to send the images to himself under the alias "Kado Khan" - an 18th-century Afghan executed for plotting to kill a Pashtun tribal king.
Police sources said probers still have up to eight suspects in New York and several in Denver under watch.
The FBI and NYPD grew alarmed that Zazi and his pals might be planning an imminent attack when they found backpacks and cell phones in an apartment. They also learned Afzali and other Zazi associates tried to rent a 26-foot U-Haul truck the day before Zazi got to Queens.
The feds still don't know whether the chosen weapon was a truck bomb or backpack bombs.
[Dawn] Pakistan said Monday it was investigating a group of foreigners - including a Swedish man once held at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay - for ties to al-Qaeda after they were detained on immigration offenses.
Princess Madeleine is completely innocent in the matter. Dear Fred just likes her.
Three other Swedes were also detained last month, including a woman and her 2-year-old son, after they entered the country from Iran and headed to North Waziristan - a lawless, militant-riddled tribal area along the Afghan border - allegedly to join al-Qaeda operatives hiding there, according to a police report obtained last week by The Associated Press.
Also captured were seven Turks, a Russian, an Iranian, and a former Pakistani paramilitary soldier who deserted years ago.
'The indicators we have so far are they have been associated with al-Qaeda,' Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters in Islamabad on Monday.
Commenting on the Swedes, Malik added, 'They are Swedish nationals, but basically they are criminal and they were here on some other mission.'
The group was seized Aug. 28 on the outskirts of Dera Ghazi Khan town in Punjab province. They all entered Pakistan illegally, Malik said.
'Two of them have previously been linked to al-Qaeda,' he said. 'Obviously, we are treating them following all human rights rules, but they are under investigation.'
The group was wearing burqas - the all-encompassing garment worn by Muslim women - when they were stopped by police.
One of the Swedes detained, Mehdi-Muhammed Ghezali, was previously held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but was released in 2004. Ghezali, in his 30s, was part of a group of 156 suspected al-Qaida fighters captured in 2001 by Pakistani authorities while fleeing Afghanistan's Tora Bora mountains.
He has denied ties to al-Qaeda and said he was in the region only to learn more about Islam.
It was cheaper studying in Afghanistan than Egypt, Syria or Saudi Arabia, you see. He was a poor Swedish lad, he did the best he could.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/22/2009 00:00 ||
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[Asharq al-Aswat] Israel's military chief said Monday that all options remain "on the table" in dealing with Iran's nuclear program, indicating that the Jewish state has not abandoned the possibility of a military strike.
Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi's comments came a day after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Israeli officials assured him Israel was not planning to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. A senior Israeli government official also said the country's policy has not changed.
Israel accuses Iran of trying to build nuclear weapons. While Tehran has denied the charge, it continues to threaten Israel with harsh statements while developing medium-range missiles capable.
Speaking to Army Radio, Ashkenazi said the best way to deal with the Iranian nuclear threat was through sanctions against the regime. But he said Israel was preparing for every option to make sure the Islamic regime did not go nuclear.
"The possibility of Iran becoming a nuclear power is a threat not only to the state of Israel, but for the Middle East and the entire free world," he said. "Israel has the right to defend itself, and all the options are on the table."
Ashkenazi, who rarely gives interviews, essentially repeated Israel's formal position that Iran's nuclear ambitions should ideally be thwarted by diplomatic pressure, but a military option should not be discarded.
On Sunday, in an interview with CNN television, Medvedev indicated that Israeli President Shimon Peres assured him Israel would not launch a strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. It was unclear if he was also referring to secret talks in Moscow by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this month.
Israel's deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon, responded Monday, saying that the Russian president may have misunderstand or misinterpreted Peres.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/22/2009 00:00 ||
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Ma'an -- The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine on Monday called for President Mahmoud Abbas to apologize to the Palestinian people for buckling under pressure from the United States to meet with Israel's leadership in New York on Tuesday.
In a letter obtained by Ma'an, the DFLP urged Abbas to apologize in advance of the tripartite summit, which comes following his and the Palestine Liberation Organization's insistence that there would be no talks without an Israeli settlement freeze.
US President Barack Obama was expected to host both Abbas and Netanyahu on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York on Tuesday, although the White House insisted that American officials have no "grand expectations" for the meet.
The DFLP letter deemed pointless any talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has vowed to never freeze construction of the illegal structures being built in occupied Palestinian territory, despite pressure from US envoy George Mitchell for a temporary halt.
According to the leftist movement, the planned meeting sends a message to the general public and entire General Assembly of the United Nations that efforts to isolate Israel and particularly its right-wing government had failed. The letter added that the meeting would be used to as a cover for Israel's "aggressive and expansionist policies in Jerusalem and the West Bank, as well as its blockade on the Gaza Strip."
It further urged Abbas not to issue a statement announcing the resumption of negotiations, and instead suggested he take the opportunity to stand strong on settlements. There should be no negotiations without an end to settlements, the letter said.
The letter concluded by calling on Arab countries to stand unified behind the Palestinians by rejecting calls for normalization with Israel. It also urged them to insist on an Israeli withdrawal from all Arab and Palestinian territories occupied in 1967.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/22/2009 00:00 ||
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[Straits Times] JEMAAH Islamiah (JI) militant Mas Selamat Kastari is happy to be detained in Malaysia, but he hopes to see his wife and five children during the Hari Raya celebration, according to Suhakam (Malaysia's Human Rights Commission) vice-chairman Simon Sipaun.
Tan Sri Sipaun told The Straits Times that Mas Selamat, who is currently detained under the Internal Security Act, did not have any complaints about the detention centre in Kamunting, Perak, when he visited him on Friday.
'He said he did not get tortured or beaten in the detention centre,' he said, in a telephone interview on Sunday 'He only wanted his family to visit him, but so far, they have not visited him yet.'
Maybe they don't love him any more. I certainly wouldn't.
Mr Sipaun said Mas Selamat, 48, looked calm and happy. The latter believed that the Singapore authorities had confiscated his family's travel documents; hence, they could not leave Singapore, he said.
Mr Sipaun said Mas Selamat also claimed he had been drugged while he was in detention in Singapore. He said he did not feel normal most of the time and was always dizzy.
According to Mr Sipaun, he met Mas Selamat for half an hour as part of Suhakam's routine checks on the detention centre.
Suhakam is a human rights commission headed by government-appointed commissioners. Tan Sri Sipaun was once the Sabah Public Service Commission chairman. Suhakam carries out regular checks on detention centres and prisons throughout the country, to ensure there is no violation of human rights.
Home Ministry secretary-general Mahmood Adam confirmed yesterday that his ministry would allow Mas Selamat's wife to visit him in Kamunting. 'We have no problem. As long as she has the proper travel documents, she can visit him anytime,' he said.
But Singapore won't give Mrs. Selamat her documents, so the point is neatly moot.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Maybe they don't love him any more. I certainly wouldn't.
More likely they think it would be a one-way visit.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/22/2009 17:48 Comments ||
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The United States believes Iran's Revolutionary Guards are providing training and weapons to Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan to help them fight Western forces, U.S. counterterrorism officials said on Monday.
The alleged role played by the Revolutionary Guard's shadowy, elite Qods force in helping the Taliban, and the extent to which the Iranian leadership may be involved, has been hotly debated within the Pentagon and the U.S. intelligence community.
In a confidential assessment of the war, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Army General Stanley McChrystal, said Iranian military assistance was not an immediate threat to Western forces but could become one in the future.
A counterterrorism official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the degree of Qods assistance -- supplying arms and providing training to Taliban elements -- had reached "very troubling" proportions, underscoring heightened concerns within the intelligence community. ...
Posted by: ed ||
09/22/2009 06:35 ||
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Thanks again to History's Worst Monster. At what point do we finally respond?
[Iran Press TV Latest] After the Russian leader talked of an assurance given by Israeli President Shimon Peres about the lack of a plan for a military strike against Iran, a senior Israeli official moves to dismiss the remark, saying there exists no such guarantee.
"Liar, liar, pants on fire!" Or the diplomatic version, which goes, "I believe the gentleman is mistaken about his facts."
In an interview with the US news channel CNN on Sunday, Dmitry Medvedev said that Peres made an important assurance during a visit to Russia in August. "When Israeli President Peres was visiting me in Sochi recently, he said something very important for all of us. 'Israel does not plan any strikes on Iran, we are a peaceful country and we will not do this'," Medvedev said, according to a transcript posted on the Kremlin's website.
It's true. He did say that. President Medvedev, I mean.
While the Israeli president's office declined to comment on the remarks on Monday, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said the comments were "certainly not a guarantee" that there would be no military action.
"I don't think that, with all due respect, the Russian president is authorized to speak for Israel and certainly we have not taken any option off the table," Ayalon said.
Israel -- the alleged sole possessor of a nuclear warhead in the Middle East -- accuses Iran of conducting efforts to develop a nuclear bomb, maintaining that a "nuclear Iran" is the prime existential threat to its security.
Tehran, however, denies seeking nuclear weapons and has called for the removal of all weapons of mass destruction from across the globe.
In separate remarks, Israeli Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi reacted to the development, saying that a nuclear Iran would be a threat to the Middle East and "the entire free world" as well as Israel.
"We all understand that the best way of coping is through international sanctions," he told army radio. "I hope that Iran will understand this."
"I think that if not, Israel has the right to defend itself, and all options are open. The IDF's (Israel Defense Forces) working premise is that we have to be prepared for that possibility, and that is exactly what we are doing."
The reactions by the Israeli officials come as former US National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski said earlier that President Barack Obama should warn Israel that in case of an attempt to attack Iran, the US Air Force will go all out to stop any such move.
Explaining that Israeli warplanes would "have to fly over our [US] airspace in Iraq," Brzezinski said, "We have to be serious about denying them [Israelis] that right. That means a denial where you aren't just saying it. If they fly over, you go up and confront them."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Sounds to me like the Isrealis are playing politics correctly on this issue.
And Zbiggy might want to check a map. Iraq doesn't surround Iran. No wonder he was a foreign policy atrocity.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
09/22/2009 1:12 Comments ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Syria charges Israel with dumping nuclear waste near the Syrian border, in territories occupied by the regime during the 1967 Middle East war.
In a report titled The suffering of Syrian citizens in the Golan and submitted to the United Nations, Syrian officials have stated that the Israeli regime uses tunnels in the Golan Heights to bury nuclear waste, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram reported.
The report also charges that Israel has dug a tunnel in Mount Hermon to hide its nuclear warheads. According to Syrian officials, Israel has booby-trapped the nearby region and planted tactical nuclear mines in the area.
Syria had reported earlier in 2003 that Israel was digging tunnels in Mount Hermon to bury waste from its Dimona nuclear plant.
Tel Aviv has acknowledged that it was digging tunnels in the region but claimed that they were anti-tank ditches.
The United Nations, however, under dominating influence by the US, has yet to investigate or even consider looking into such reports. The US has always used its veto power in the UN unreservedly to provide total immunity for Israeli atrocities and war crimes against any binding actions or even criticism by the world body.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Meanwhile, back in Portland, Maine
Don, now chain-smoking 40 packs of cigarettes a day, sits at a local bar and has a few beers with the regulars. Bored, everyone's attention turns to the television set that just hangs from the wall. ("Welcome to Bowling for Dollars"). Suddenly, a news broadcaster bursts onto the screen:
Unknown gunmen have assassinated 30 Mahdi Army commanders in the Syrian capital Damascus. The killings, made in the past few weeks, were all made "quietly, inside the victims apartments", said an unnamed source in the Sadr movement. The source added that among those assassinated was Laith al-Ka'bi, who commanded the Mahdi Army in the Palestine Street neighborhood in eastern Baghdad. The report adds that large numbers of Mahdi Army operatives left to Iran out of fear the assassinations wave could expand to target them.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday that he was proud of the anger he had caused by calling the Holocaust a "myth," just days before he is due to address the United Nations General Assembly.
"The anger of the world's professional killers is a source of pride for us," the official IRNA news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying, in an apparent reference to arch-foe Israel and the United States.
Western governments expressed outrage at the Iranian president's remarks, made during a keynote speech on Friday to an annual mass rally in support of the Palestinians.
"The pretext for establishing the Zionist regime is a lie... a lie which relies on an unreliable claim, a mythical claim, and the occupation of Palestine has nothing to do with the Holocaust," Ahmadinejad had said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/22/2009 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Obama may change course again as the war worsens in Afghanistan, steering away from the comprehensive counterinsurgency strategy he laid out this spring and toward a narrower focus on counterterror operations aimed at al-Qaeda.
President Lee Myung-bak on Monday called for a "grand bargain" with North Korea to end the Stalinist country's nuclear program once and for all. "Now is the time to seek a grand bargain or package settlement. Through the six-party talks, North Korea would first dismantle the key elements of its nuclear program and then we would provide security guarantees and international assistance," Lee said. 
South Korea's Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said a North Korean atomic bomb is likely aimed directly at the South.
[Dawn] Pakistan said Monday it was investigating a group of foreigners - including a Swedish man once held at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay - for ties to al-Qaeda after they were detained on immigration offenses.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Syria charges Israel with dumping nuclear waste near the Syrian border, in territories occupied by the regime during the 1967 Middle East war. 
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday that he was proud of the anger he had caused by calling the Holocaust a "myth," just days before he is due to address the United Nations General Assembly.
