[Al Arabiya Latest] The wife of a double agent who killed seven CIA officers in a suicide attack in Afghanistan said on Thursday her husband regarded the United States as an enemy and she was proud of his mission.
Defne Bayrak, the Turkish wife of Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, said she doubted he was working for the CIA.
"I am proud of my husband. He has carried out a very important mission in such a war," Bayrak, who now lives in Istanbul, told reporters.
"I think it's impossible that he was an American agent. He was too adversary to work for America. He only could have used America and Jordan to reach his goals."
Bayrak, a journalist who has written books including one entitled "Osama bin Laden: Che Guevara of the East", earlier told the newspaper Sabah she believed her husband was in Afghanistan to pursue his medical studies and she was shocked at news of his death.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
"Doubted he was working for the CIA" > thus of course, he weirdly and mysteriously, but only PCorrectly coincidentally deniably, worked alongside the CIA's VALERIE PLAME at PENN STATE...
#2
Bayrak, who now lives in Istanbul, told reporters.
Very interesting. Andrea, make sure this article is cabled to Istanbul and have them look into the point of origination of all Ms. Bayrak's recent and future electronic bank transfers please. We're all about looking after widows and orphans you know.
#3
How times have changed in Turkey. A decade ago Ms Bayrak would have been ashamed at her poor choice of husbands. How many other wives of Mr. Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi will rear up on their hind legs to claim their share of the fifteen minutes of fame, I wonder? And what will the CIA discover from their phone records?
#4
If the CIA is on the ball, she will have just signed her own death warrant. In this case, it would seem appropriate if she were to slip, hit her head, be unable to move, yet fully conscious, as she was eaten by a pack of dogs.
#6
'moose, that would require a competent CIA, capable and interested in defending American interests abroad. Sadly, I think Ms. Bayrak will be safe for quite some time.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Clashes erupted on Thursday as thousands of Coptic Christians in a southern Egyptian village gathered to bury six of their number gunned down on Coptic Christmas Eve by men believed to be Muslims, security officials said.
Officials and the local bishop said three men in a car had raked pedestrians with gunfire along a street containing two churches and a shopping precinct late on Wednesday. Bishop Kirilos said the victims were people who had just emerged from church after attending a Christmas Eve service, and the proximity of the shopping area might have drawn some of them to it.
Six Copts and a Muslim policeman were killed, while at least nine more Copts were wounded, two of them seriously, a security official said. The wounded were evacuated to hospital in the nearby governorate of Sohag.
An estimated 5,000 Copts attended Thursday's funeral in Nagaa Hammadi, 40 miles (65 kilometers) from the popular tourist city of Luxor.
Police said a group of protesters stoned cars as the dead were buried, and police responded with tear gas. The demonstrators chanted: "With our spirit and blood, we will sacrifice ourselves for the Cross."
They said Copts earlier stoned police cars and the hospital where the bodies of the six dead were held before the service, chanting: "No to repression."
An initial investigation reported that the gunmen opened fire as they sped along the street, killing and wounding people over a distance of 400 meters. As the car headed out of town the gunmen fired at a convent which also housed the bishop's offices before fleeing to a rural area near the town in Qena governorate, 700 kilometers (435 miles) south of Cairo.
Copts celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7 along with many other Orthodox communities around the world.
Bishop Kirilos told AFP on Thursday that he saw gunmen spraying worshippers with automatic gunfire outside the archbishopric after the mass ended the previous night.
"We concluded the mass at 11:00 pm (2100 GMT) and I was heading to the bishopric when I saw a man, in a car, open fire with an automatic rifle at Copts who were walking past the building," Kirilos said in a phone interview. "The gunman then continued to fire on Copts in the streets of the town," he said.
Witnesses, cited by local officials, earlier said the main gunman is a Muslim wanted by police and linked the shooting to the abduction of a 12-year-old Muslim girl in November who was allegedly raped by a Coptic youth.
"The first elements of the investigation, based on testimony of people on the ground, indicate that the main shooter is a town resident identified as Mohammed Ahmed Hussein, who is wanted by the police," one official said.
Kirilos also told AFP that for the past week some of his parishioners had received cell phone hate calls and threats alleging that Muslims "will avenge the rape of the girl during the Christmas celebrations."
Copts, who represent roughly 10 percent of Egypt's 80-million-strong population, are the largest Christian community in the Middle East, but they frequently complain of discrimination, harassment and sectarian attacks.
In November, hundreds of Muslim protesters torched Christian-owned shops in the town of Farshut, near Nagaa Hammadi, and attacked a police station where they believed the suspected rapist was being held. It was latest in a wave of sectarian tension between Muslims and Egypt's Copts.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2010 00:00 ||
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SANAA, YEMEN -- In its strongest language yet, Yemen's government declared Thursday that there are limits to its military cooperation with the United States, warning that any direct U.S. action in this impoverished Middle Eastern nation could bolster the popularity of Islamist militants.
"If there is direct intervention by the United States, it will strengthen al-Qaeda," warned Rashad al-Alimi, Yemen's deputy prime minister for security and defense. "We cannot accept any foreign troops on Yemeni territory."
They do, however, want us to save their asses ...
So long as we do it without mortifying them by visibly doing anything at all.
The statement underscored the rising concern among Yemen's leadership about a domestic backlash that could politically weaken the government and foment more instability. In recent days, top Yemeni officials have publicly played down their growing ties to Washington, fearing that they will be perceived by their opponents as weak and beholden to the United States.
Alimi, speaking at a crowded news conference Thursday, also said that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian who allegedly tried to bomb an American airliner on Christmas Day, had likely met with Yemeni American cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi. Aulaqi is also linked to Nidal M. Hasan, the U.S. Army major who is charged with killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Tex., on Nov 5.
Funny how all those names link together ...
Some news organizations reported definitively that Abdulmutallab had met with Aulaqi, while others translated Alimi's comments in Arabic to mean that the pair "likely met."
Discussing Abdulmutallab's stay last year in Yemen, Alimi echoed an account he gave The Washington Post in an interview last week. He said Abdulmutallab had traveled to Shabwa province, where he likely met with al-Qaeda operatives in a house owned by Aulaqi.
Abdulmutallab arrived in Yemen in August, ostensibly to study at an Arabic-language school in the capital, Sanaa. School officials said he left the school in late September, clutching an exit visa. But authorities believe that instead of leaving Yemen, he traveled to Shabwa. The Nigerian left Yemen on Dec. 4, Alimi said.
U.S. investigators say they think that the airliner plot originated in Yemen and that Abdulmutallab received chemical explosives and training during his stay in the country. But Alimi asserted Thursday that Abdulmutallab had received the chemical explosives for the failed attack in Nigeria. It was unclear how the engineering graduate could have received explosives there: Flight records show that he spent four hours in the Lagos airport on Dec. 24 before boarding a KLM flight to Amsterdam. He then boarded Northwest Airlines Flight 253 bound for Detroit.
Asked what proof he had that the explosives were obtained in Nigeria, Alimi replied: "That question should be directed at the Nigerian authorities and the Dutch government. It's not related to the Yemeni security apparatus."
Yemen has a security apparatus? Do they do anything beyond drinking tea, chewing khat, and swaggering to impress nearby shopkeepers?
They're pretty good at cracking open the heads of unarmed people ...
In an extensive accounting of a Dec. 17 U.S.-backed operation, the Yemeni government said its security forces "had seized a group of terrorists" in possession of the same explosives used in an attempted assassination of Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Nayef in August, according to a report published by the state-run Saba news agency this week. Investigators say they think such explosives were also used in the attempted airliner bombing, in which Abdulmutallab is charged with trying to detonate chemical powders that were sewn into his underwear.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/08/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
ION DAILY TIMES.PK > AID AGENCIES: AFRICA'S LARGEST COUNTRY SUDAN COULD PLUNGE INTO NEW WAR IN 2010 UNLESS WORLD COMMUNITY CAN SAVE PEACE ACCORDS.
* SAME > YEMEN: DETROIT BOMB SUSPECT JOINED AL QAEDA IN LONDON. AbdulMutallab also personally met with Radical Cleric al-AWLAKI].
* TIMES OF INDIA > REPORT: GULF STATES WARNED OF POSSIBLE ATTACKS; + TOP OBAMA OFFICIAL [John Brennan]:AL QAEDA IN YEMEN [aka AQAP] AN EXTENSION OF ITS CORE IN PAKISTAN, + among the most lethal of all the known AQ affiliates.
Yemen's government is to allow the US to set up a military base on its territory, a political analyst says.
The US can no longer rely on Yemen's government to fight al-Qaeda because it is losing its legitimacy and becoming weaker, Ali Al-Ahmed, a political analyst, told Press TV on Wednesday.
Al-Ahmed added that his sources have revealed that the Yemeni government has decided to let the US military establish the air base on an island called Socotra located off the coast of Yemen. According to the Saudi scholar, the island is a natural wildlife refuge. The information about the US air base will be made public in the next few weeks.
Al-Ahmed is the founder and director of an independent think-tank in Washington, D.C. focused on providing analyses and disseminating information on political issues in the Persian Gulf region, particularly Saudi Arabia, and the US's relations with the regional countries.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Muslim women who wear the full Islamic veil in France will face a possible 750-euro ($1,000) fine, according to a draft bill unveiled Thursday by the leader of the parliamentary majority.
Jean-Francois Cope, who heads the governing UMP party in the National Assembly, told Le Figaro newspaper's weekly magazine that men who force their wives to wear the burka or niqab could face an even heavier fine.
"The law will address an issue of security," Cope said in an interview with the magazine.
"The proposed measure would prohibit the covering of the face in public places and on the streets, with the exception of special cultural events or carnivals."
The draft legislation will be presented in the next two weeks and should come up for debate in parliament after the March regional elections, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
The french doing something right? What is wrong with this world. Please kill them or at the very least sequester them to the carnivals. Thank you have a nice day.
#2
European "tolerance" is miles wide and an inch deep. I've said for years that when push finally comes to shove they'll have a far easier time making the cultural adjustments necessary to counter Islamo-fascism than will the genuinely tolerant US. If, of course, demographics don't overwhelm them first.
#3
I agree AzCat. They're looking at their major urban areas and south to Spain and their previously prestine vacation spots and shaking their heads. I think the French have had a gut full of it already, and the Poms are not far behind.
A federal judge has tossed out most of the government's evidence against a tarrorism detainee on grounds his confessions were coerced, allegedly by U.S. forces, before he became a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay.
In a ruling this week, U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan also said the government failed to establish that 23 statements the detainee made to interrogators at Guantanamo Bay were untainted by the earlier coerced statements made while he was held under harsh conditions in Afghanistan.
However, the judge said statements he made during two military administrative hearings at the U.S. detention center in Cuba, where he was assisted by a personal representative, were reliable and sufficient to justify holding the detainee.
Musa'ab Omar Al Madhwani allegedly engaged in a 2 1/2-hour firefight with Pakistani authorities before his capture in a Karachi apartment in 2002.
The detainee says that after five days in a Pakistani prison, he was handed over to U.S. forces and flown to a pitch-black prison he believes was in Afghanistan. He says he was suspended in his cell by his left hand and that guards blasted his cell with music 24 hours a day.
He said that he confessed to whatever allegations his interrogators made and that harassment and threats continued after he was moved to a different prison in Afghanistan.
Al Madhwani said that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay on multiple occasions threatened him when he tried to retract what he now claims was a false confession.
The judge said he was particularly concerned that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay relied on or had access to the coerced confessions from Afghanistan made by Al Madhwani.
The logical inference from the record, said the judge, is that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay reviewed Al Madhwani's coerced confessions with him and asked him to make identical confessions.
"Far from being insulated from his coerced confessions, his Guantanamo confessions were thus derived from them," Hogan wrote.
The judge said the government presented medical records about the detainee's debilitating physical and mental condition that confirm his claims of harsh treatment during the 40 days he spent in Pakistann and Afghanistan.
Despite Hogan's concerns about the 23 statements, the judge relied on other evidence and three statements Al Madhwani made to a military tribunal and a review board to conclude that he trained, traveled and associated with members of al-Qaida, including high-level operatives. On those grounds, the judge ruled he is legally detained.
#1
No surprises here. Michael Scheuer author of book Imperial Hubris has been panting this 'Jooos are the problem' mantra for quite some time. He makes David Duke sound like a centrist. I personally feel he should be in jail, not for his anti-semitic views, but for his outing at every opportunity, his former employer.
"We're going to do things better". Boy howdy, how come no one thought of that before?
Because President Obama is smart, unlike that stupid Republican (but I repeat myself) George W. Bush.
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama ordered his top intelligence chiefs Thursday to patch gaps in the way terrorism intelligence is distributed, analyzed and checked against watch lists used to identify potential attackers bound for the U.S. It was his strongest and most detailed response to the Christmas Day attempt to blow up an airliner bound for Detroit. "We are at war," the president said. "We are at war with al Qaeda."
I thought they were just another man-made disaster ...
The White House also released details on how Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly managed to slip through the intelligence net, used cash to purchase a one-way ticket and, carrying a bomb sewn into his underwear, board Northwest Airlines flight with almost 300 passengers and crew. A "series of human errors" included the "delayed dissemination of a finished intelligence report" that might have helped intelligence analysts connect the dots and prevent the attempted bombing, according to an unclassified version of the White House review of the attempted Christmas attack. The "finished report," prepared by the CIA, contained background on Abdulmutallab, officials said.
A misspelling of Mr. Abdulmutallab's name contributed to the State Department's failure to revoke his visa after his father, a Nigerian banker, told U.S. embassy officials in Nigeria of his concern over the radicalization and disappearance of his son, according to the review.
The White House review also stated that personnel at the National Counterterrorism Center and the Central Intelligence Agency "did not search all available databases" to uncover critical information. To help prevent such lapses in the future, Mr. Obama said that visas issued by the State Department would be checked against extremist databases even after they are issued, not just at the time they are requested. Mr. Abdulmutallab already had a visa when he was recently added to a terrorism watch list.
Mr. Obama outlined changes not only to intelligence analysis, but also to the nation's second line of defense: airport screening. The president said the Department of Homeland Security would "aggressively pursue" advanced screening technology, including acquiring $1 billion worth of new technology, including bomb-detecting equipment and imaging machines that have raised privacy concerns because they can show a person's body underneath clothing. Before Christmas, the government had allocated $1 billion for such technology, including 300 body scanners to be deployed this year. That number might be expanded in the wake of the Christmas plot.
Mr. Obama said he would avoid policy changes that would curtail civil liberties or freedom of movement: "We will not succumb to a siege mentality."
With his remarks, Mr. Obama sought to strike a balance between toughening his response to terrorism and rebuffing critics who are demanding wholesale changes to his national security policies. "We will define the character of our country, not some small band of men intent on killing innocent men, women and children," the president said at the White House.
He also called for unity amid sniping over the effort to ignite explosives aboard a jet from Amsterdam to Detroit.
"Now's not a time for partisanship. It's a time for citizenship," he said. "That's what it means to be strong in the face of violent extremism."
Particularly when Bambi screws up. I remember how well the Dhimmicrats stopped the sniping when Dubya made a mistake over a terrorist act.
Under the president's orders, leads on terrorism threats uncovered by intelligence gathering efforts would be assigned to specific teams so they don't languish amid thousands of other, less urgent tips. Intelligence reports would be distributed more widely within the intelligence, law enforcement and domestic-security community. The criteria for moving an individual onto the government's terror watch lists will be strengthened, the president said.
Mr. Obama pledged to improve the government's ability "to collect, share, integrate, analyze and act on intelligence."
He also said the Department of Homeland Security would strengthen partnerships abroad to tighten security at airports with links to the United States, and he ordered the Department of Energy and its national scientific laboratories to work on a next generation of screening technology.
The president didn't call for the firing of any national security or intelligence official, even though he had pledged to hold accountable those who failed in their jobs.
Many had criticized Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center who didn't cut short a ski vacation after the bombing attempt. Counterterrorism chief John Brennan took personal responsibility for that decision. "I said you deserve this vacation. You should be with your son," Mr. Brennan said.
Mr. Obama ordered changes at every national security agency involved with the Christmas Day bombing intelligence failure. He told the State Department to review the criteria for issuing and revoking visas and evaluate possible technology enhancements.
The Central Intelligence Agency must issue new guidance to ensure reports are distributed in a timely fashion and strengthen the procedures of handling terrorism watchlist data. CIA Director Leon Panetta ordered his agency to disseminate information on suspected extremists within 48 hours, review information on individuals to gauge whether they should be placed on a watch list, and boost the number of analysts focused on Yemen and Africa, said agency spokesman George Little.
President Obama ordered the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which manages the main terrorism watchlist, to review its terrorism database and determine whether known or suspected terrorists have visas to enter the U.S.
He directed the National Counterterrorism Center to prioritize and "exhaustively" pursue all terrorism threat tips, and identify follow up action to be taken by other agencies. The National Security Agency was ordered to train employees on the watch-listing process and how to work with the organizations responsible for watch-listing.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/08/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
A misspelling of Mr. Abdulmutallab's name contributed to the State Department's failure to revoke his visa
Whistle blowing, BS flag down:
Leanard, give me a US Visa name search. Last 12 months please, any combination, any sequence found in the name......Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Too easy boss, gimme 1 minute.
Also, cable all missions. This could be a Pan Am-103 redux. No sense our people taking any unnecessary chances.
#2
We have to protect our phoney baloney jobs here, gentlemen! We must do something about this immediately! Immediately! Immediately! Harrumph! Harrumph! Harrumph! - Governor William J. Le Petomane
No Mr. President. AQ just happens to be one of the most virulent strains of this plague. Based on grammatical precision, your decision to scrap the phrase War on Terror may have been justified. Yes, terror, minimally defined, is a tactic and therefore obfuscates the real threat. But, at least its understood to be a universal moniker albeit a vague one. However, this shift in nomenclature makes your statement even more absurd. No Mr. President, we are NOT at war with al Qaeda we are at war with Islamic Jihadists!
#4
Weak speech, weak excuses, weak response. "Shocking" my butt. It was obvious he had something more to say when they made the announcement that everyone's gotta watch because they're going to be "shocked", but I'll bet he decided not to pin the blame on those whose heads ought to be rolling right now, so he just amped up the words he decided to use to replace the substance of whatever it was he threw out.
I can't say I'm disappointed because I'm becoming all too-accustomed to his underperforming.
1) Al Qaeda will not be permitted to conduct operations when Obama or senior administration officials are on vacation.
2) Al Qaeda must contact the administrations prior to scheduling an operation to make sure that the timing is convenient.
3) Al Qaeda must provide a minimum of two weeks notice before conducting operations so that the Obama administration can prepare suitable public statements.
4) Al Qaeda must change their name, which sounds too much like 'Al Gore'. Obama suggests they call themselves 'George Qaeda'.
5) The Obama administration is deploying total body scanning devices in major airports. Initial implementation will involve screening of women only. Bill Clinton will be in charge of this part of the program.
#7
Initial implementation will involve screening of women only elderly women, WWII veterans in wheelchairs, guys in business suits, anyone with a John Deere or 'Navy SEAL' ballcap...
[Al Arabiya Latest] A Nigerian man accused of the attempted bombing of a U.S.-bound plane on Christmas Day was recruited by al-Qaeda in London and met a radical American Muslim cleric in Yemen, a top Yemeni official said on Thursday.
Yemen, the poorest Arab country, was thrust into the foreground of the U.S.-led war against Islamist militants after a Yemen-based wing of al-Qaeda said it was behind the failed bombing.
"The information provided to us is that Omar Farouk (Abdulmutallab) joined al-Qaeda in London," Rashad al-Alimi, Yemen's Deputy Prime Minister for Defense and Security, told a news conference.
Abdulmutallab, son of a prominent Nigerian banker, is believed to have embraced extreme religious views during trips to Yemen to study Arabic and Islam. He also studied engineering at University College London between 2005 and 2008.
Alimi said that Abdulmutallab had met Muslim preacher Anwar al-Awlaki during his time in Yemen -- a U.S.-born cleric linked to the gunman who ran amok at the Fort Hood U.S. army base in Texas in November.
A Yemeni security official said last month that Awlaki may have been killed in a strike on al-Qaeda militants, but other reports say he escaped and is on the run.
Yemen, located on the Arabian Peninsula's strategically important southern tip, is trying to fight a threat from resurgent al-Qaeda fighters as well as quash a Shiite revolt in the north and separatist sentiment in the south.
The authorities launched an operation this week to root out al-Qaeda militants who they said were behind threats that forced Western embassies to close on Sunday.
The raid, which killed two militants, allayed U.S. concerns and allowed the heavily fortified U.S. embassy to reopen.
Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi told CNN that fighting al-Qaeda was "the priority and the responsibility of our security forces and the army."
Asked whether it would accept direct U.S. intervention, he said: "No, I don't think we will accept that. I think the U.S., as well, has learned from Afghanistan and Iraq and other places that direct intervention can be self-defeating."
The foiled Christmas Day bombing has turned a spotlight on the growing prominence of al-Qaeda in Yemen and the expanding role of the U.S. military and spy agencies in fighting it.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2010 00:00 ||
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Bosnia's foreign minister called his Israeli counterpart last night to personally protest Avigdor Lieberman's statement on Tuesday that the global jihad movement has made inroads into the Balkans, particularly the Muslim-majority countries of Bosnia and Albania. Lieberman's remark was widely reported in several Balkan countries, including Bulgaria, Macedonia and Bosnia, and by Wednesday, Balkan embassies in Israel had started calling the Foreign Ministry to ask on what information Lieberman had based this assertion.
Then, yesterday, Bosnian Foreign Minister Sven Alkalaj - who is Jewish - called Lieberman personally to protest, saying the minister's remark "damaged Bosnia's reputation." He added that his own country's intelligence service believes there are no global jihad cells or training camps in Bosnia, and if Lieberman has evidence to the contrary, he would like to know about it.
Lieberman's original assertion was contained in a press statement that his ministry issued on Tuesday following a meeting with Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski. "Current information clearly shows that the Balkan region is the next destination of the global Jihad, which aims to establish an infrastructure and recruit activists," the statement said. One such indication, it added, is that Muslim charities that previously "transferred money to Africa and South America for this purpose" are now sending money to Bosnia and Albania.
Since taking office last spring, Lieberman has been seen as working hard to improve ties with the Balkan states, and has visited three of them - Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia. The Foreign Ministry's view is that all the Balkan states, which either already belong to the European Union or are likely candidates to join, constitute potential Israeli allies within the EU. Yet his remarks on Tuesday appear to have increased tensions with Bosnia.
Senior Foreign Ministry officials stressed that Lieberman's assertion was based on intelligence information, not mere press reports. "We've received requests for clarifications, and that's natural," said one official. "Our goal is to share the information we have with everyone."
#1
Uh, I've been to Bosnia. I've seen Sarajevo with its huge, Saudi funded mosque, I've seen all the women in hijab. I've seen the bustling Iranian embassy there.
Alkalaj doth protest too much.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Hamas is not seeking any escalation in tensions with Cairo authorities and is looking for a peaceful solution to the issue of underground steel wall that Egypt is building on the border with the besieged Gaza Strip.
"The situation on the border with Egypt and the incident of fire exchange between some fighters and the Egyptian border police was a spontaneous outcome of the anger felt by the Palestinians as Egypt is building the Wall," the Spokesperson of the Hamas movement, Sami Abu Zuhri, said on Wednesday.
He added that the incident which involved opening fire at an Egyptian border guard took place during a protest on the Egypt border. He further elaborated that the tension broke out after the Egyptian officials refused to permit peace activists and their cargo reaching Gaza.
Egyptian forces shot and wounded dozens of Palestinians on Wednesday during a protest on the Egypt-Gaza border. The protest was against an underground steel wall Egypt is building to block Palestinians supply tunnels into the coastal sliver.
The shooting erupted after scores of Palestinian protesters hurled rocks at the soldiers, witnesses and medical officials said.
The Egyptian state television said that gunfire from the Gaza Strip killed an Egyptian border guard.
Abu Zuhri went on to add that the Palestinian police and security forces tried to push the Palestinians away from the border in order to avoid confrontations with the Egyptian border police.
Egypt has been cooperating with Israel in its 28-month blockade of the impoverished coastal sliver of Gaza.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2010 00:00 ||
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British lawmaker George Galloway says no more aid convoys destined for the besieged Gaza Strip will pass through Egyptian territory as its authorities caused troubles for Viva Palestina convoy to enter the Palestinian enclave.
"I cannot see any more visits to Egypt since we find it very difficult to deal with the officials who cheated us. They signed a binding agreement with us in Aqaba, Jordan, and they broke it," Galloway said in an interview with Press TV on Thursday.
"There are other ways into Gaza and we are exploring them. You'll see Viva Palestina coming from all corners of the world," he added.
The British anti-war activist added that the third international convoy organized by the British-based group Viva Palestina arrived in the Gaza Strip with no more than three quarters of what the organizers had planned.
It is believed that the remaining quarter of the humanitarian supplies, intended for impoverished Gazans living under crippling Israeli siege, will never reach its intended target in the Gaza Strip.
The Viva Palestina aid convoy entered Gaza Wednesday, after it received the approval of Egyptian authorities to bring into the blockaded coastal sliver of Gaza several tonnes of aid supplies. The activists of the pro-Palestinian movement had earlier entered the Egyptian port of al-Arish in order to get access into Gaza.
The third international convoy to Gaza departed from London on December 5, 2009. The convoy was made up of volunteers from Britain, Ireland, Belgium and Malaysia who had raised hundreds of thousands of pounds in their local communities to pay for ambulances, minibuses, vans and lorries. These vehicles were then filled with medical and other aid supplies desperately needed in Gaza.
The Gaza Strip has been under a complete Israeli siege, with full cooperation of Egypt, ever since the Hamas resistance movement, which does not recognize Israel as a sovereign state, won parliamentary elections in a surprise victory in 2007.
Israel's three-week offensive against Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009, which left more than 1,400 Palestinians dead, deteriorated the already dire situation there.
The Israeli assault led to the destruction of schools, mosques, houses as well as UN compounds, inflicting $1.6 billion damage on the Gazan economy.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
somehow i don't see ol George going through Israel... so lets hope he keeps his word
Posted by: abu do you love ||
01/08/2010 1:07 Comments ||
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#2
Hes just been deported from Eygpt
Posted by: Oscar ||
01/08/2010 4:45 Comments ||
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#3
They signed a binding agreement with us in Aqaba, Jordan, and they broke it,"
#4
Ugh! Could you find another image of Galloway? I'm feeling rotten enough as is with a winter cold, I don't need raging nausea thrown on top of the headaches and chills.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
01/08/2010 15:10 Comments ||
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#5
I hear you loud and clear, Mitch H. Here is a more flattering pic for you, just the thing to perk up your spirits.
Senior Palestinian Hamas leader Ismail Haniya (R) greets George Galloway (L) during a rally honouring international peace activists in Gaza City
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/08/2010 21:48 Comments ||
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Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, after a meeting with his Iraqi counterpart, stressed that Tehran's relations with Baghdad is cordial and based on mutual respect.
Those who want to benefit from damaging Iran and Iraq relations will fail, Mottaki said after a meeting with Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari in Baghdad.
Mottaki's remarks came in response to the recent hype by some American and Arab media outlets which claimed that Iranian soldiers had crossed into the Iraqi territory and seized an Iraqi oil field.
Iran rejected claims that its armed forces had taken control of the oil well within Iraqi borders, stressing that the well in question is not located on Iraqi soil.
The Fakkeh oil field is one of the many joint fields that Iran shares with Iraq. Iranian and Iraqi oil officials have concluded agreements over the past months to develop joint wells including Paydar, Paydar-Gharb, Naftshahr, Azar, Dehloran and Azadegan.
The two countries have recently agreed to set up an arbitration commission to clear up the misunderstanding over the borderline well.
Mottaki went on to say that Tehran and Baghdad will hold talks on border demarcations from next week.
"There will be a meeting within a week between the two countries about the borders," Mottaki told a news conference in the Iraqi capital.
He noted that Iranian forces are stationed in "their original places" at the border, adding that the oil field offered an "opportunity for joint investment."
"The border forces of the two countries returned to their places and after the meetings of the technical committees ... everything will revert back to normal," Mottaki added.
On his part, Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari emphasized that Baghdad is determined to expand its ties with Tehran.
He added that Tehran and Baghdad agreed to "normalize border conditions and put back things as they were."
Regarding the Iraq-based terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), Zebari said Baghdad has no tolerance for any armed group using Iraqi soil to attack Iraq's neighbors.
He added that Baghdad has taken a series of measures to promote its sovereignty over Camp Ashraf, where the terrorists are based.
The MKO has been blacklisted as a terrorist organization by many international organizations and countries including the United States.
The terrorist group targeted Iranian government officials and civilians in Iran and abroad in the early 1980s. The group also attempted an unsuccessful invasion of Iran in the last days of the Iraq-Iran war in 1988.
The MKO was also involved in the massacre of Iraqis under the Ba'athist regime of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
Mottaki is scheduled to meet with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and other senior leaders during his one-day visit to Baghdad.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2010 00:00 ||
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Iran and Syria should help create new world order by increasing cooperation.
President Ahmadinejad made the remarks in a meeting with visiting Syrian Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Abrash in Tehran on Thursday.
"Iran and Syria have a joint mission to set up new world order on the basis of belief in God, justice and humanity," said the Iranian president.
He added that "the future of the world depends on the developments in the Middle East."
President Ahmadinejad stressed that the two allies should boost bilateral cooperation at the present juncture.
"Iran and Syria have similar viewpoints, interests and enemies," he said.
"The resistance of the nations like those of Iran and Syria has caused the global arrogance to reach a dead end in its Middle East policies," the President said.
For his part, the Syrian speaker said that Tehran and Damascus, in a united front, would side by side continue resistance against the global arrogance.
He added that the two countries should boost ties in order to defuse the plots hatched by the enemies against their respective nations.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
To Mr. Ammadinjehead:
The New World Order shall have your Iranian citizens free from your fascist power grab and you to suffer the same fate as Mussolini.
Gas station included.
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
01/08/2010 0:28 Comments ||
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I have a cabin up in Lumpkin County with a sheltered entrance porch where you can change your boots when coming in out of the cold, even has a stone fireplace for drying your coat and gear.
I remember seeing beetles coming out of holes in the firewood when you place the logs in the fire.
They crawl out as the log begins to heat up and burn. I dont know if that hissing sound is the moisture in the cold wood or the beetles screaming. Do I care if they are screaming as they burn? From 35,000 feet up do you care if there is screaming as the city down below burns?
Its too bad about Iran. But there is more where that all came from....what if we finally have a world war as they hope? By 2016? 48 million dead Moslems by 2025?
It could be the moisture in the wood hissing....possibly.
An Iranian lawmaker says former Tehran's Chief Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi has ordered the transfer of those arrested in post-election unrest to notorious Kahrizak detention centre.
"Existing evidence and documents and even Judge Haddad, who is directly evolved in the case, all point to the fact that the order to transfer detainees to Kahrizak was issued by Mortazavi," Tehran representative in Majlis, Zohreh Elahian, said on Thursday.
She went on to add that legal action must be taken against the authorities involved in the controversy surrounding the Kahrizak detention centre which was declared a 'sub-standard' facility.
"We are not of the opinion, that a few police officers and colonels who served there must be tried and punished, rather authorities directly involved [in Kahrizak] must be held accountable."
Elahian also praised the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei's positive role in resolving the controversy surrounding the issue.
"The Kahrizak atrocities saddened many [Iranians]. However, we must not forget this incident was resolved with the guidance the Leader of the Islamic Revolution. And it was the Leader's direct order that led to the closure of the Kahrizak detention centre," she stressed.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2010 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Bosnia's foreign minister called his Israeli counterpart last night to personally protest Avigdor Lieberman's 
British lawmaker George Galloway says no more aid convoys destined for the besieged Gaza Strip will pass through Egyptian territory as its authorities caused troubles for Viva Palestina convoy to enter the Palestinian enclave. 
