#1
Our biggest problem in Afghanistan was that we were unwilling to do the three things needed to restore it to order.
1) An aggressive attitude that everything they are and do is wrong, and everything we are and do is right. Therefore they need to be rewritten to doing things the right way.
2) Their wage is so low, we could have and should have employed every non-employed adult male and female, and put all children in safe, western style boarding schools.
3) Seal the border with Pakistan. It is only "porous" because we let it be porous. Too bad if Kabul wants an open border. The border must be closed. You are either an Afghan, and loyal to Afghanistan, or you are a foreigner, and get out.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/02/2009 8:15 Comments ||
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#3
For all the doom and gloom you'd walk away thinking everything is going rosy for the Talibunnies and AQ. It's not. Your adversary is having problems too. Never forget that.
#4
Steve White: I know that about half of Afghanistan's border is shared with Pakistan. However, there are only about six major, any vehicle, passes. Secondary passes suitable for rough terrain vehicles, perhaps two dozen, and foot or mule, another two dozen.
Otherwise, the rest of the border is impassable.
Pakistan offered to close a bunch of the lesser passes used for smuggling with multiple strand concertina and other reasonably effective means, but the Kabul government adamantly refused. Our permitting them to do so was a major mistake.
#5
Find a place on each trail to dig a big pit, somewhere there's NO chance to get around, THAT'LL STOP ALL CAR TRAFFIC then mine the surround. That'll stop any traffic, check periodically, making sure they didn't drive a herd of sheep through and boom all the mines. Reseed mines by air as needed.
Posted by: The Holy Reverend Redneck Jim ||
03/02/2009 14:02 Comments ||
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#6
we can't even seal our own border with mexico how do you suppose we seal one that that mountanous and the locals know all the little deer trails? first of all you have too stop these ROEs that are hindering our guys from killing the shit out of the talibunnies and al queda and bring back those pesky pesticides they banned in the late 80's that can really kill a poppy crop
#7
Legalize the poppy crop. Problem solved. Insurgents are defunded, and don't have any reason left to fight anyway. Young Afghans will get jobs growing crops instead of taking pot shots at NATO troops. Everyone will be too busy making money, buying goodies and saving to send their kids to a nice madrassa to pay any attention to the Pakis who are trying to foment violence.
#9
Our main problem in Afghanistan is that it doesn't have a port. Same problem the Kurds have. America wins wars logistically. Ports are a necessary but not sufficient condition for American victory. No port, no win.
#10
No port in Afghanistan, ya say? How 'bout a modern version of the PLOWSHARE PROGRAM? We'll need some 100 megaton plows to deal with some of the higher mountains.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/02/2009 21:41 Comments ||
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MONTREAL (AFP)--Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said, in an interview broadcast Sunday, that he didn't believe the war in Afghanistan would ever be completely won.
"We're not going to win this war just by staying," Harper told CNN television. "Quite frankly, we are not going to ever defeat the insurgency. Afghanistan has probably had - my reading of Afghanistan history is - it's probably had an insurgency forever of some kind."
Canada has 2,700 soldiers in Afghanistan whose mission is scheduled to end in 2011.
"What has to happen in Afghanistan is we have to have an Afghan government that is capable of managing that insurgency," the prime minister said.
Awami National Party (ANP) on Sunday appealed to the government stop attacks in Bara. The appeal was made in a meeting of the party's local office bearers. They claimed what security forces had targeted was a place where funeral prayers were offered, an Eid Gah and a centre for flour distribution at controlled rate.
They appealed to the government to stop use of force, which would further aggravate the situation. Meanwhile, leaders of Bara Peace Committee said the government was trying to break Bara peace deal.
Peace committee leader Haji Shaukat Khan Afridi and others told reporters that there was no reason for shelling on Bara and the government did not take them into confidence before the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2009 00:00 ||
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The government announced on Sunday it will appoint Qazis (Islamic judges) in Malakand Division before March 15 -- a deadline set by cleric Sufi Muhammad earlier in the day.
Malakand Commissioner Syed Muhammad Javed told reporters after a meeting with the cleric -- who is negotiating the truce between the government and Taliban -- at the Tableeghi Markaz in the main Swat town of Mingora that Sufi would himself interview the Qazis.
The elderly cleric had provided a list of Taliban prisoners that the government is yet to release. "After going through the list and fulfilling the necessary requirements, the government will release the prisoners," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2009 00:00 ||
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Defense officials slammed Egypt on Sunday for allowing Hamas No. 2 Moussa Abu Marzouk to enter the Gaza Strip last week following reconciliation talks the terror group held with Fatah in Cairo.
One official told The Jerusalem Post that Abu Marzouk, 58, spent nearly 24 hours in Gaza after entering from Sinai on Thursday night, visiting family and his parent's graves. It was his first visit to the Strip in 30 years. He was born in the Rafah refugee camp.
The officials said that while Egypt denied allowing Abu Marzouk into Gaza, he was in fact allowed to cross into Gaza above ground and not via a tunnel like some Hamas men have done in the past. "This is a slap in the face," a defense official said. "Abu Marzouk is a senior terrorist and Egypt is helping Hamas by allowing him into Gaza."
The decision to allow Abu Marzouk into Gaza was made without telling Israel and was understood in the Defense Ministry as Egypt's way of expressing its anger with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's rejection last month of Cairo's proposal for a cease-fire with Hamas as well as for using other channels to negotiate a deal with Hamas for the release of abducted soldier Gilad Schalit.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2009 00:00 ||
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United States (US) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in the Middle East on Sunday, delving into Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking for the first time at an international donors conference for Gaza, which is to be held today (Monday).
About 75 countries are taking part in the aid conference being held in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. The US is expected to pledge more than $900 million at the conference. Washington also wants the money to bolster Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and has stipulated no US funds will go through the militant group Hamas.
"I will be announcing a commitment to a significant aid package, but it will only be spent if we determine that our goals can be furthered rather than undermined or subverted," Clinton told Voice of America in an interview taped on Friday.
"All the pledges of aid this conference is expected to produce will be worth next to nothing if the donors do not demand that Israel open the borders to commercial goods as well as humanitarian essentials," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.
Clinton will be joined by a host of top world officials including UN chief Ban Ki-moon, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and EU foreign policy envoy Javier Solana. "We expect rapid international aid from all parties to completely rebuild Gaza," Abbas told reporters on Saturday.
After the conference in Egypt, Clinton travels to Jerusalem to see Israeli politicians trying to cobble together a new government after February elections. Clinton plans to meet Benjamin Netanyahu, the hawkish Israeli prime minister-designate who on Saturday abandoned efforts to form a broad coalition government with centrist Tzipi Livni, who has been involved in US-brokered peace talks. "This is a sensitive time in Israeli politics as they seek to form a government, but I will take the opportunity to reaffirm the strength of the US-Israel relationship and talk about the best way to move peace forward," said Clinton.
Palestinian groups are taking part in Egyptian-mediated reconciliation talks. Clinton, who will travel to the West Bank, said the US could only accept Hamas in a unity government if it met three conditions: recognise Israel, sign on to previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements and renounce violence.
"Otherwise, I don't think it will result in the kind of positive step forward either for the Palestinian people or as a vehicle for a reinvigorated effort to obtain peace that leads to a Palestinian state," Clinton said. After meeting Abbas in his West Bank office and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, Clinton will travel to Brussels to see NATO foreign ministers.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Waste of a trip. Send her home and save the hotel costs. Hamas will never recognise Israel, the only thing Hamas will recognise are the rockets inbound from Israel.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/02/2009 5:44 Comments ||
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#2
Send her home and save the hotel costs.
Why can't we just leave her there four years & save on the airfare?
Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed yesterday to hit back "severely" if militants in the Islamist Hamas-run Gaza Strip continue to fire rockets into Israel.
"If the rocket fire from Gaza continues, we will hit back severely, so much so that the terrorist organisations will understand that Israel is not ready to resign itself to this," Olmert said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.
"At the end of the week, 11 rockets were fired against southern Israel," he said. "Defence Minister Ehud Barak will give directions so that Israeli forces bring calm to southern Israel."
He spoke a day after seven rockets fired from Gaza landed in Israel without causing casualties although one smashed into an empty school, and a day before an international conference on rebuilding Gaza is to be held in Egypt.
President Shimon Peres told visiting Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere that the billions of dollars expected to be pledged to the Palestinians for rebuilding Gaza by world powers at the Egyptian conference should be given to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, not Hamas.
Peres "detailed how the smuggling of weapons from Iran into the Gaza Strip has been renewed, and he requested that Europe emphasise that money for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip be directed to the Palestinian Authority and the bodies of the United Nations in order to best help improve the lives of Palestinian citizens," said a statement from his office.
"President Peres cautioned that in the past, a great deal of European money has been wasted in vain and diverted to supporting Palestinian terror activities," it said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
"ALL OF THE PALESTINIANS MUST BE KILLED;
MEN, WOMEN, INFANTS and EVEN THEIR BEASTS"
Rabbi Yisrael Rosen
Here is Rabbi Yisrael Rosen's Website
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3266113,00.html
"All of the Palestinians must be killed; men, women, infants, and even their beasts" cries the religious opinion of Rabbi Yisrael Rosen, the director of the long-established Tsomet Religious Institute. He wrote that Palestinians are like the nation of Amalekites, who attacked the Israelite tribes led by Moses on their way to Jerusalem. He stated that the Lord sent down in the Torah a ruling that allowed the Jews to kill the Amalekites, and that this ruling is known in Jewish jurisprudence (That's exactly what the Israeli Offensive Forces did in Ghaza.)
The Torah states: "Annihilate the Amalekites from the beginning to the end. Kill them and wrest them from their possessions. Show them no mercy. Kill continuously, one after the other.. Leave no child, plant, or tree. Kill their beasts, from camels to donkeys.." Rosen stated that Amalekites are not a particular race, but rather all those who hate and oppose the Jews; Christians and Muslims.
Many leading Israeli Rabbis support Rosen's views. Israel's former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu advocated carpet bombing of Gaza stating that "there is absolutely no moral prohibition against the indiscriminate killing of civilians during massive military offensive on Gaza" (The Jerusalem Post, 30 May, 2007). His son Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu amplified his father's genocidal call stating: "if they don't stop after we kill 100, then we must kill a thousand, then we must kill 10,000 and even a million"
Many Rabbis had argued that Palestinians in Gaza are not innocent civilians and that during war time it is not individuals but nations the Israelis are fighting. (It seems that Hitler had adopted this Telmudic teaching when he persecuted all European Jews)
Israeli educators, scholars, and politicians, openly, advocate the annihilation of all Palestinians. Dr. Nachum Rakover, a legal scholar, opined "They voted for killers and sent them to kill us. To call them (civilians) innocent is a tragic comedy civilians are partners of the killers" Eli Yeshai, Israeli official in the Orthodox Shas party argued that "extermination of the enemy is sanctioned by the Torah" Many other politicians called for the need for "wiping off Gaza from the face of earth", and "annihilating of every moving thing there." The right-wing Israeli politician Avigdor Lieberman proposed nuking Gaza following the US example when it dropped the atomic bomb on Japan during WWII.
This "ideology of annihilation" is by no means a minority opinion in Israel, but represents a mainstream in the Jews of Israel as well as Jews in the West (US). The popular attitude is "if it was right by God to order us to commit genocide during Biblical time, why can't it be right to commit genocide now. Has God changed his mind?" Indeed Judaic god is a racist genocidal god.
Watch and listen here to an example of how Israeli Jews are brainwashed and indoctrinated into the ideology of annihilation by their rabbis and scholars through Israeli media. Watch Max Blumenthal's videotape of a group of messianic Orthodox Jewish Chabad-Lubavitch exhibit this ideology in NYC in January 11, 2009.
The Israeli spokesman, Nachman Abramovic demonized Palestinian children stating "They may look young to you, but these people are terrorists at heart. Don't look at their deceptively innocent faces, try to think of the demons inside each of them I am absolutely certain these people would grow to be evil terrorists if we allowed them to grow would you allow them to grow to kill your children or finish them off right now? honost and moral people ought to differentiate between true humans and human animals. We do kill human animals and we do so unapologetically. Besides who in the West is in a position to lecture us on killing human animals. After all, whose hands are clean?"
Human animal mentioned by Abramovic refers to the Judaic religious belief that Jews are Gods chosen people; the elite and the pure-blooded, while all others (non-Jews, Goyims, gentiles) are animal souls incarnated into human bodies to serve the Jews. Killing a human animal is just a sport like hunting deer or birds.
More here: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m42961&hd=&size=1&l=e
The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO) has issued a circular calling for the arrest of 15 top Israeli officials over war crimes.
At a news briefing on Sunday, Tehran's Public Prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, said that Iran had referred the case to the organization, known as Interpol, drawing on the Interpol charter and Israel's violation of the Geneva Conventions. "ICPO has notified governments of 180 countries to arrest the suspects," who were involved in the 23-day Israeli offensive on Gaza in December and January he said.
In December, Iran's judiciary announced its decision to set up a court to look into complaints made by the Palestinian envoy in Iran and wounded Palestinians delivered to Iran, against Israeli atrocities in Gaza, saying it was ready to try the Israelis in absentia. "In the current week, we have completed our investigation of about 15 individuals who were among those criminals," IRIB, Iran's State Television, quoted Mortazavi as saying. "Based on our investigation and according to article 2 of the Interpol charter, we asked Interpol to arrest these suspects."
Mortazavi said the charges included war crimes, invasion, occupation, genocide and crimes against humanity. The Iranian prosecutor was referring to Israeli strikes that started on December 27 on the densely populated Palestinian coastal territory and did not end until it had claimed the lives of more than 1,330 Gazans, mostly civilians.
Many international NGOs and human rights organizations, Palestinians wounded in the Gaza onslaught, more than 5,700 Iranian lawyers and attorneys in the Iranian Bar Association along with a large number of medics were also among those who filed complaints against Tel Aviv, Mortazavi added.
The list of Israeli war criminals includes:
1 Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
2 Defense Minister Ehud Barak
3 Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni
4 Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi
5 Commander in Chief of the Israeli Air Force Ido Nehoshtan
6 Commander of the Gaza war -- Operation Cast Lead -- Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant
7 Head of Military Intelligence Directorate Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin
8 Commander of Battalion 13 in the Golani Brigade Lt. Col. Oren Cohen
9 Deputy to the Givati Brigade Col. Ron Ashrov
10 Commander of the Israel Paratroopers' Brigade in Gaza Col. Hertzi Halevy
11 Commander of 401st Armored Corps Brigade convoy Col. Yigal Slovik
12 Commander of the 101st Battalion in the Paratrooper Brigade Lt. Col. Avi Blot
13 Lt. Col. Yoav Mordechai, who served as a commander of the Golani infantry brigade's 13th Battalion in Gaza
14 Givati squad commander Col. Tomer Tsiter
15 Brigade commander in Battalion 51 Col. Avi Peled
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
International Criminal Police Organization
Heh, Criminal Police Organization. Isn't that a self-snarking name.
#3
What it actually says is. Interpol begins studying Iran's request for the arrest of 15 senior Israeli officials over war crimes committed during the Gaza offensive.
Not the same thing. Yet. However, with USA a tranzi country, who knows?
#10
Yes, it's another scoop from Press TV Iran!
And it's BULLSHIT...
INTERPOL issues denial of reported Iranian request seeking arrest of 15 senior Israeli officials
Statement by INTERPOL General Secretariat headquarters, Lyon, France
02 March 2009
While INTERPOL does not ordinarily comment on false stories reported in the media, in light of the nature of recent erroneous articles reporting that INTERPOL is being used by Iranian authorities to seek the arrest of 15 senior Israeli officials on alleged charges of war crimes in Gaza, the Organization is taking the unusual step of making the following public statement:
INTERPOL has neither been requested to issue by Iran, nor has it issued on behalf of Iran or any of its 187 member countries any Red Notices for persons wanted internationally or other requests seeking the arrest of senior Israeli officials for alleged war crimes in relation to the Gaza offensive in December and January.
INTERPOLs Constitution strictly prohibits the Organization from making any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character.
All further enquiries should be directed to the source reported in the media. Since INTERPOL has received no information in relation to the alleged false claim, INTERPOL is unable to comment further on this matter.
#11
tu3013, i'm glad you cleared that up. An d hell they are just now getting around too prosecuting PolPots men from what 1979. and didn't milosevic die in prison waiting too be tried by them? Tu you get any snow in the ATL?
The international criminal court is considering whether the Palestinian Authority is "enough like a state" for it to bring a case alleging that Israeli troops committed war crimes in the recent assault on Gaza.
The deliberations would potentially open the way to putting Israeli military commanders in the dock at The Hague over the campaign, which claimed more than 1,300 lives, and set an important precedent for the court over what cases it can hear.
As part of the process the court's head of jurisdictions, part of the office of the prosecutor, is examining every international agreement signed by the PA to decide whether it behaves - and is regarded by others - as operating like a state.
Following talks with the Arab League's head, Amr Moussa, and senior PA officials, moves have accelerated inside the court to deliver a ruling on whether it may be able to insist on jurisdiction over alleged war crimes perpetrated in Gaza, with a decision from the prosecutor's office expected within "months, not years".
The issue arises because although the ICC potentially has "global jurisdiction" to investigate crimes which fall into its remit no matter where they were committed, Israel - despite having signed the Rome statute that founded the court and having expressed "deep sympathy" with the court's goals - is not a party.
The ICC, which has 108 member states, has not so far recognised Palestine as a sovereign state or as a member.
The latest moves in The Hague come amid mounting international pressure on Israel and a growing recognition in Israeli government circles that it may eventually have to defend itself against war crimes allegations. The Guardian has also learned that a confidential inquiry by the International Committee of the Red Cross into the actions of Israel and Hamas during the recent conflict in Gaza is expected to accuse Israel of using "excessive force" - prohibited under the fourth Geneva convention.
The Red Cross has been collecting information for two parallel inquiries, one into the conduct of Israel and a second into Hamas, both of which will be presented in private to the parties involved.
In the case of Israel, the Red Cross is expected to highlight three areas of concern: the Israeli Defence Forces' "use and choice of weapons in a complex and densely populated environment"; the issue of "proportionality"; and concerns over the IDF's lack of distinction between combatants and non-combatants during Operation Cast Lead. Hamas is likely to be challenged over its use of civilian facilities as cover for its fighters; its summary executions and kneecappings of Palestinians during the campaign; and its indiscriminate firing of rockets into civilian areas.
Meanwhile, sources at the ICC say it is considering two potential tracks that would permit it to investigate what happened in Gaza. As well as determining whether the PA is recognised internationally as a sufficiently state-like entity, the head of jurisdictions in the office of the international criminal court's prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, is looking at whether the court can consider war crimes allegations on the basis of the dual nationality of either victims or alleged perpetrators whose second passport is with a country party to the court.
The court's deliberations follow more than 220 complaints about Israel's actions in Gaza. "It does not matter necessarily whether the Palestinian National Authority is in charge of its own borders," said a source at the court. "Right now the court is looking at everything from agreements it has signed on education to the constitution of its legal system."
Yesterday, Ehud Olmert, Israel's prime minister, warned Palestinian militants their continuing rocket attacks on Israel would not go unpunished. He said further strikes would "be answered with a painful, harsh, strong and uncompromising response from the security forces". More than 100 rockets and mortars have exploded in Israel in the six weeks since it ended its air and ground assault on Gaza, to which the government has responded with airstrikes.
Olmert's warning came as Israel's attorney general notified the prime minister that he was considering indicting him on charges of allegedly taking cash-stuffed envelopes from a Jewish-American businessman. Five corruption cases are pending against Olmert, although he has denied all wrongdoing. His spokesman said yesterday the charges against the prime minister would "disappear in the end".
Posted by: john frum ||
03/02/2009 00:00 ||
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#4
If it is enough of a state to sue Israel, then it is enough of a state for Israel to declare war on if the rockets continue. After a formal declaration of war, Israel should then go Roman and level the entire "state", destroy anything remotely military, and roast all the baby ducks.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/02/2009 19:50 Comments ||
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#6
Perhaps the esteemed judicial wankers of the ICC would like to hold their deliberations in Sderot or Ashkelon. I hear the western Negev is lovely this time of year. Mind the falling rockets, though!
TEHRAN - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday called for a stronger alliance with Syria in a bid to resist Israel and its allies over the Palestinian crisis.
In a meeting with visiting Syrian Prime Minister Mahmoud Naji Otri, Ahmadinejad praised the two countries position on the international and regional issues, particularly the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. Recent developments in the world proved that Iran and Syria were moving on the right track insisting on the need of resistance against enemies, the Iranian leader said.
Tehran does not recognize Israel and is the main supporter of the Islamist Hamas movement which controls Gaza. Israel and the United States have accused Iran of training Hamas militants in Gaza as well as providing them financing and weapons. Tehran however insists it only gives spiritual and political support to anti-Israel militia groups both in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon.
If Iran and Syria have an eminent position in the region, it is because of their resistance based on their correct decisions, Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the website of state television IRIB.
Iranian Vice President Parviz Davoudi, in a separate meeting with Otri, urged Damascus to be more on alert about their political enemies tricks, saying: Both countries (Iran and Syria) should be active in supporting unity among all Palestinian groups and the reconstruction of Gaza.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/02/2009 00:00 ||
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A landmark international tribunal to try the suspected killers of Lebanon's former prime minister Rafiq Hariri got under way on Sunday with pledges to provide justice to the victims of terrorism.
The chief prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (SPL), Daniel Bellemare, said the new tribunal constituted the world's first anti-terrorist court.
Bellemare was speaking at a special ceremony to inaugurate the tribunal, set up four years after Hariri's assassination in Beirut in 2005. "By the very nature of its mandate, the SPL is the first international anti-terrorist tribunal," he told reporters.
He said the court was set up not to seek revenge, but "a justice that ensures everybody is treated with dignity and respect".
Under the terms of the tribunal, Bellemare has 60 days to apply to the Lebanese authorities to have four generals held over the killing to be brought to The Hague to face trial. The four include the former head of the presidential guard. Three others, civilians suspected of withholding information and misleading the ongoing probe, were freed on bail by Lebanon on Wednesday. The Canadian prosecutor gave no indication of a date when the tribunal would hold its first trial. "Indictments will be filed when I am satisfied I have enough evidence," he said.
He emphasised the tribunal's independence, asserting that its workings "must and will be above politics".
The tribunal, located in the suburb of Leidschendam, was created by a 2007 UN Security Council resolution and will apply Lebanese law. It has an initial, renewable, three-year mandate. There was no indication of a date for its first trial. The identities of its 11 judges, four of them Lebanese, are being kept secret.
The opening ceremony, attended by UN officials and diplomats, was held at a former gymnasium at the headquarters of the Dutch intelligence service, where the court will sit. The tribunal's registrar, Robin Vincent, told the opening ceremony, "We're not here for the perpetrators of crimes, but for the victims of crimes."
Lebanon's ambassador to the Netherlands, Zeidan Al-Saghir, said the court was a step towards the Lebanese people's belief "that they can reconstruct and rebuild what has been destroyed by war". "What Lebanon is asking you is to serve justice. Justice is our request," he said.
Welcome: The United States welcomed the opening of the Special Tribunal, saying it was "a clear signal that Lebanon's sovereignty is non-negotiable".
"We hope it will help deter further violence and end a sad era of impunity. Too many Lebanese families have never seen justice for the murder of their loved ones," said State Department spokesman Robert A Wood.
Bellemare has hitherto led the international investigation into a series of attacks on Lebanese political and media personalities, notably Hariri's assassination in a car bombing in February 2005 that also killed 22 other people.
The attack on Hariri on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since the 1975-1990 civil war and led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops after a 29-year presence. In its early stages, the UN probe into the murder implicated top officials close to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Damascus has consistently denied any involvement.
A lawyer for one of the generals held in connection with the crime, Akram Azuri, said last week the tribunal held no fear for the suspects. "They have a clear conscience, they have no problem with the tribunal. They are impatient for it to get underway," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2009 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.
MONTREAL (AFP)--Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said, in an interview broadcast Sunday, that he didn't believe the war in Afghanistan would ever be completely won.
Awami National Party (ANP) on Sunday appealed to the government stop attacks in Bara. The appeal was made in a meeting of the party's local office bearers. They claimed what security forces had targeted was a place where funeral prayers were offered, an Eid Gah and a centre for flour distribution at controlled rate.
United States (US) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in the Middle East on Sunday, delving into Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking for the first time at an international donors conference for Gaza, which is to be held today (Monday).
The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO) has issued a circular calling for the arrest of 15 top Israeli officials over war crimes. 
TEHRAN - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday called for a stronger alliance with Syria in a bid to resist Israel and its allies over the Palestinian crisis.
A landmark international tribunal to try the suspected killers of Lebanon's former prime minister Rafiq Hariri got under way on Sunday with pledges to provide justice to the victims of terrorism.
