The meeting was organized by a former intelligence director, Amrullah Saleh, and attended by Abdullah Abdullah, a former presidential candidate, and was a frontal attack on the current governments policies.
Speakers denounced both Al Qaeda and the Taliban. The organizers promised that if they were not listened to, they would go to the streets and protest.
Called A Gathering For Justice, the meeting was attended overwhelmingly by Afghans from the north and particularly from Panjshir Province, the home of the Afghan icon Ahmed Shah Massoud, who was a national hero for strongly resisting the Soviet occupiers, and who was killed by suicide bombers backed by Al Qaeda two days before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Panjshir is also the home province of Mr. Saleh and Mr. Abdullah.
[Ennahar] The CEO of the French domestic Central Intelligence Bernard Squarcini believes that the number of Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is about 400 men in an interview to Le Monde published Friday.
"We went in two years from 150 to 400 men, with a supply circle of 150 to 200 men," says Squarcini.
"Since its allegiance to Al Qaeda (2006), AQIM has increased its activities," he said, adding that "La Belle France is the leading the threatened countries."
AQIM held hostage since mid-September 2010 four Frenchieskidnapped in northern Niger, and an Italian kidnapped Feb. 2 in southern Algeria.
AQIM, formerly the Salafist ...Salafists espouse an austere form of Sunni Islam that seeks a return to practices that were common in the 7th century. Rather than doing that themselves and letting other people alone they insist everybody do as they say and they try to kill everybody who doesn't... Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) in Algeria, also has bases in Mali where it operates in several countries of the Sahel and is guilty of attacks, kidnappings - mostly Westerners - and engaged in various illegal trades.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2011 00:00 ||
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[The Nation (Nairobi)] Muammar Qadaffy's regime today reacted angrily to a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... -led decision to provide funding to the three-month-old rebellion against his rule in Libya, describing as "piracy" plans to tap its assets frozen abroad.
The fund, set up at a meeting of the International Contact Group on Libya in Rome on Thursday, is intended to provide an emergency lifeline to the rebels, whose provisional administration has no source of financing to replace receipts from oil exports which have come to a virtual halt.
It will initially receive international donations, while blocked assets -- estimated to be worth $60 billion (Sh4.98 trillion) -- will be used to finance it at a later date.
Italian Foreign minister Franco Frattini, whose government hosted the meeting, said $250 million (Sh20.7 billion) was available in humanitarian aid.
Wealthy Gulf states Kuwait and Qatar have pledged to be major donors.
The funds being made available are far less than the figure of up to $3 billion (Sh250 billion) that had been sought by the rebels but their leader Mahmud Jibril said: "It's a good start."
Jibril said the three-billion figure was in fact "a six-month budget".
French Foreign minister Alain Juppe said the new fund -- to be managed alternately by La Belle France and Italia, the two European governments which have recognised the rebel administration -- could be up and running "within weeks".
He acknowledged that it would take longer to tap Libyan government assets frozen abroad under UN sanctions to secure a longer-term credit line as sought by the rebels.
Unblocking the assets "poses legal problems," Juppe said.
But the prospect of seeing funds it regards as its own used to finance the rebellion against it infuriated Qadaffy's government.
"Libya still, according to the international law, is one sovereign state and any use of the frozen assets is like piracy on the high seas," deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim told a Tripoli news conference.
Kaim said there would no let-up in the government's attempts to block off the maritime lifeline to the besieged city of Misrata -- the rebels' last bastion in the west.
"We will not allow those ships to bring arms to the city and then to evacuate some criminals," he said, after an International Organisation for Migration ship on Wednesday offloaded supplies and onloaded refugees at the city's port amid shelling by Qadaffy forces.
Human rights watchdog Amnesia Amnesty International said that the government's two-month siege of Misrata -- Libya's third largest city -- might amount to a war crime.
"The scale of the relentless attacks that we have seen by Qadaffy forces to intimidate the residents of Misrata for more than two months is truly horrifying," said Amnesty senior adviser Donatella Rovera.
"It shows a total disregard for the lives of ordinary people and is in clear breach of international humanitarian law."
At the Rome meeting, the rebel leader outlined a political plan that would be enacted if Qadaffy leaves power in which an interim government would hold a referendum on a new constitution and parliamentary and presidential elections within eight months.
Jibril said the rebels would soon contact the United Nations ...an organization whose definition of human rights is interesting, to say the least... to organise municipal elections in the cities it already controls as a way of showing its commitment to democratic change in Libya.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2011 00:00 ||
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HUNDREDS of Osama bin Laden supporters clashed with English Defence League extremists today as a "funeral service" for the assassinated terror leader sparked fury outside London's US Embassy. Police stepped in to separate the chanting groups amid threats of violence from both sides.
US leaders were branded "murderers" by radicals, who warned vengeance attacks were "guaranteed" and shouted: "USA, you will pay."
Yeah, yeah, yeah, say from your homeland and not in London.
Protesters carried signs declaring 'Islam will dominate the world' and Jihad to defend the Muslims' as well as banners attacking the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It was organised by controversial terrorist preacher Anjem Choudary, who told reporters after the 'service' that America had created a new generation of Islamic terrorists.
We did? We don't need to, he's doing a fine job all by himself.
He said: "There will be one million Osamas.
And they'll all be missing a left eye...
"Muslims will remember Osama as a great man who stood up against Satan. Many will want to emulate his acts.
Like dying...
"In Britain we have other options - like political action, but in other countries if your land is attacked or your family are put at risk you must defend yourself.
"We believe in the covenant of security that we must attack those we live with, but many do not."
The group began their march from the Regents Park Mosque where they tried to recruit some of the thousands who prayed there. Choudary said: "Who comes is who comes. I am happy if there was three of us. We would still have this demonstration."
Abu Muaz, 28, from east London, added: "It is only a matter of time before another atrocity - the West is the enemy."
Which is why you live in the West and not Pakistain...
However, another man who prayed at the Mosque said the group were a dangerous minority. He said: "They are crazy. They all benefit from UK education and UK benefits. They get everything for free and yet they still complain. They are not Islam, they are for Osama.
"You see the people walking past and ignoring them. Most Muslims have better things to do then this."
Great, thanks for that. Say, why don't you pick up a cricket bat and quiet them down for us?
Meanwhile, EDL members chanted "USA, USA" as Muslims knelt to pray for bin Laden at the opposite end of the highly-secured embassy, in central London. An EDL member slipped through police lines to unveil an effigy of bin Laden in the middle of the 300-strong group of extremist Muslims.
It prompted screams of "USA, burn in hell" and "Obama, burn in hell" from angry protesters.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/07/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
"New generation of Islamic terrorists" > that was bound to happen anyway given Islamic military history.
#3
Protesters carried signs declaring 'Islam will dominate the world' and Jihad to defend the Muslims' as well as banners attacking the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
#4
I hope MI5 learn their lessons from their failure to stop the attacks on the tube, drop suicidal PC, and photograph and track the f**K out of these non-British.
#6
They're just peeved because we moved their royal wedding off the front page.
Posted by: regular joe ||
05/07/2011 8:34 Comments ||
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#7
Moslems are a good choice for immigration. the EU certainly knows what their love of these kinds of immigrants is actually worth. Its a fine value system and they deserve the virtues it has encouraged.
Bend over, clowns.
Posted by: de Medici3489 ||
05/07/2011 9:57 Comments ||
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A Hamburg judge has filed a criminal complaint against Chancellor Angela Merkel for "endorsing a crime" after she stated she was "glad" that Osama bin Laden was killed by US forces. Meanwhile a new poll reveals that a majority of Germans do not see the terrorist's death as a reason to celebrate.
Schadenfreude, the enjoyment of others' suffering, may be a famously German concept, but it is apparently not a feeling that many Germans aspire to. The political and public fallout following Chancellor Angela Merkel's statement on Monday that she was "glad" Osama bin Laden had been killed was among the most hotly debated topics in the German media this week.
Politicians, including those within her own center-right coalition, said that no death was cause for celebration, and reproved the remark as un-Christian and vengeful.
Perhaps we pacified the Germans just a bit too much after WWII?
But Hamburg judge Heinz Uthmann went even further. He alleges that the chancellor's statement was nothing short of illegal, and filed a criminal complaint against Merkel midweek, the daily Hamburger Morgenpost reported Friday.
"I am a law-abiding citizen and as a judge, sworn to justice and law," the 54-year-old told the paper, adding that Merkel's words were "tacky and undignified."
I didn't realize that being a tacky, undignified politician was a legal offense...
In his two-page document, Uthmann, a judge for 21 years, cites section 140 of the German Criminal Code, which forbids the "rewarding and approving" of crimes. In this case, Merkel endorsed a "homicide," Uthmann claimed. The violation is punishable by up to three years' imprisonment or a fine.
"For the daughter of a Christian pastor, the comment is astonishing and at odds with the values of human dignity, charity and the rule of law," Uthmann told the newspaper.
He's projecting just a touch, isn't he...
While the judge's reaction may seem extreme,
Now that you mention it...
his sentiments are apparently shared by 64 percent of the German population. That was the proportion of Germans who said bin Laden's death was "no reason to rejoice" in a poll published by broadcaster ARD on Friday.
Among respondents who said they identified with Germany's three main opposition parties, an even greater proportion were disgusted with the jubilation over the al-Qaida leader's death. Their views mirror recent comments made by opposition politicians on the issue. But even among supporters of Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and their junior coalition partners, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), barely half of those polled said they empathized with Merkel's view.
The chancellor has declined to withdraw her statement, but the outcry prompted government press spokesman Steffen Seibert to defend her on Thursday. "The reason for her happiness was the thought that this man would no longer pose any danger," he said, adding that her statement had been reported out of context.
Seibert added that Merkel "appreciates that those who heard only this sentence ... might have found the combination of the words 'death' and 'glad' in one phrase to be inappropriate."
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/07/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Not just any complaint, but a 'criminal complaint!'. An article linked by the original quoted a German saying But it was only a small number of Americans who demonstrated their feelings so openly [after OBL's death], just as in 2001 it was only a few Muslims who were happy about the thousands who were killed in the terror attacks
German popular opinion is barely in touch with reality on so many levels. Never tell Germans that old Texas proverb about 'some people need killin', or else Deutsche Köpfe könnten explodieren. I suppose there are places where opinion is even farther from reality, as mentioned by Blackfive: When I was in Iraq, there was a widely held belief that VBIEDs were manufactured on our US military base in Ramadi, and that the guys with beards (like me) were actually Israeli agents driving in HMMVs with the Star of David on the door.
#4
What's with the daughter of a pastor argument. Germany is home of the 30yrs war. Luther would have never held his children to the standard these guys want. Hell... Luther would have said the same or worse then Merkel.
Proof was King of Sweden and the Pope's armies dis-engaging so that Vienna could be defended from the Turks.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
05/07/2011 1:13 Comments ||
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#5
Chancellor Angela Merkel is the only real good thing Germans have done yet in this century. If you have a long history memory - Germany started with that A-hole profiteer off of the oil for food scam with UN guy and that other mess with their "contractors" selling equipment.
Germany is going downhill fast and forgetting that "they ain't all that" and a bag o chips.
Two world wars they have brought us and I am not counting the previous periods of being stupid but brutal Hunns, with Saxtons and the rest.
Your people better get Judges like this under control (FIRED) and educate your populace profusely because I do not like what I see.
This chump OBL was personally involved with killing your Citizens. Heck, yesterday - the 74th anniversary of the Hindenberg disaster, you had to run 256 of them off of a train for this very guy your "Justice" protects.
Any triumph of good over evil is cause celebre'.
Polly vou happy?
Sprecken zie Justice?
Dast is good, no? Ja, Ja!
#8
I wonder if had Germany had been attackeded on the same scale as the U.S. On 9/11, the judgess might have viewed OBL's death and Ms. Merkel's statement differently?
#9
PUBLISHED German popular opinion is barely in touch with reality
Much like in America, then?
The Speigel journalist is mistaken about Schadenfreude, though. Schadenfreude is a small emotion, for private relationships. Triumph over a self-declared enemy of the nation is something else altogether... and it's sadly typical that a journalist would attempt to conflate the two.
Posted by: de Medici3489 ||
05/07/2011 9:51 Comments ||
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#11
Miau?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/07/2011 10:59 Comments ||
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#12
German law can be bizarre. Remember how Gerhard Schröder successfully sued several newspapers for libel because they published that he dyed his hair?
(N.B.: I have long been suspicious that Reagan suffered from lead poisoning after years of using Grecian Formula, which has lead acetate as its active ingredient. Canada and Europe previously banned the product because of its use of lead. However the formula has now been changed to use bismuth citrate for those countries.)
#13
These people would have rallied to make sure Bin Laden got three nice hots, a cot and a life time supply of Qurans if Bin Laden had been taken alive. Forget all the murder and mahem he is responsible for.
Surely if the PKK were capable of a great war, they'd have been doing it already.
[Al Jazeera] Kurdish separatists have grabbed credit for an ambush on a police convoy in northern Turkey, and warned the country's government it faces a "great war" if it fails to enter "meaningful negotiations" after next month's elections.
Wednesday's attack in the northern province of Kastamonu left one policeman dead and another maimed.
"A retaliation attack was carried out by our snuffies on a police car that was part of a convoy...the attack only targeted police. It is not an attack on civilians or the prime minister," said a Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) statement on the Firat news agency website.
The group's jugged leader, Abdullah Ocalan told Firat that "all hell would break loose" unless Ankara opened talks with Kurdish groups within six weeks, and within days of the country's June 12 parliamentary elections.
"June 15 is the deadline. Either a meaningful negotiation process will begin after June 15 or a great war will start and all hell will break loose," Ocalan said via his lawyers, Firat reported.
Earlier on Friday Turkish police tossed in the calaboose up to eight people over Wednesday's ambush in which gunnies opened fire on a police car escorting a ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) campaign bus from an election rally by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Edrogan in Kastamonu.
Erdogan had left the rally by helicopter before the attack occured. TRT news said eight people had been jugged during police raids in Ankara, suspected of planning another attack.
Speaking to news hounds after visiting the maimed officer on Friday, Erdogan said the attack bore the hallmarks of the PKK and accused the group of targeting his party, which is expected to win a third consecutive term in next month's vote.
"We knew that the separatist terrorist organisation would use these undemocratic methods ahead of the elections," he said.
The PKK ended a six-month ceasefire in February and there have been fears of rising violence before the election.
"This attack is a message to the AKP to withdraw its police who suppress Kurdish people. As all know, the police have carried out very harsh interventions on Kurdish people recently," the PKK statement said.
More than 40,000 people have been killed in a separatist conflict in southeastern Turkey since the PKK took up arms against the state in 1984.
PKK operations are generally focused on the mainly Kurdish southeast, but there had been prior warning of possible attacks in the Black Sea region.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2011 00:00 ||
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Interesting article. Some extracts.
Panetta designated Navy Vice Adm. William H. McRaven, who had headed the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) for nearly three years, to devise a boots-on-the ground plan for the special forces that became known as the McRaven option.
McRaven had increased the intensity of Special Operations raids, especially in Afghanistan. During his first two years as head of JSOC, the jackpot rate when the strikes got their intended target jumped from 35 percent to more than 80 percent.
His decision to assign the operation to the Navy SEALs, a Special Operations unit with extensive experience in raids on high-value targets, was critical. SEALs have a tradition of moving in and out fast, often killing everyone they encounter at a target site. Most members of the SEAL team in the bin Laden raid had been deployed to war zones a dozen or more times.
A pattern of life study of the compound by intelligence agencies showed that about a dozen women and children periodically frequented it.
Specific orders were issued to the SEALs not to shoot the women or children unless they were clearly threatening or had weapons. (During the mission, one woman was killed and a wife of bin Laden was shot in the leg.) Bin Laden was to be captured, one official said, if he conspicuously surrendered.
The longer such raids take, the greater the risk to the SEALs. One senior official said the general philosophy of the SEALs is: If you see it, shoot it. It is a house full of bad guys.
..When bin Ladens corpse was laid out, one of the Navy SEALs was asked to stretch out next to it to compare heights. The SEAL was 6 feet tall. The body was several inches taller.
After the information was relayed to Obama, he turned to his advisers and said: We donated a $60 million helicopter to this operation. Could we not afford to buy a tape measure?
[Dawn] Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has said that Pakistain`s illusory sovereignty should not have been violated keeping in view the longstanding relations with the United States.
Talking about the Abbottabad operation by a US team of Navy Seals, he said the issue of violation of illusory sovereignty was a matter of concern for Pakistain in view of cooperation with the United States in intelligence and defence.
"There was no need to a shortcut or to bypass Pakistain," Mr Gilani told news hounds accompanying him on his three-day visit to La Belle France.
He said that relations with the United States had seen many ups and downs and it would take some large amount of money time to fully normalise relations between the two countries.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Like I said, it would be wise to lay off of Pakistan right now. Breathing room is required after this event. We have the data already.
#2
He said that relations with the United States had seen many ups and downs and it would take some large amount of money time to fully normalise relations between the two countries.
Follow-on installments will be forthcoming as discussed, provided you keep your nutjobs and media on short leash. Once again, thank you for the time slot and flight corridor. In the meantime, we'll be sticking to our story, ie, you were careless and we were the violators who acted unilatorally.
[Dawn] Jamaat-i-Islami will stage protest rallies across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... today (Friday) against the US attack on a compound in Abbottabad, according to a blurb.
This was decided at a meeting held on Thursday and chaired by Senator Ibrahim Khan. It was decided that protest rallies would be organised in small and big towns.
Senator Ibrahim would lead rally in Abbottabad after Friday prayers. The meeting termed the raid an attack on the country`s illusory sovereignty.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2011 00:00 ||
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In 2005, when I was working for a local monthly magazine, Herald, we sent a reporter from Peshawar to cover a drone strike on a militant training camp in North Waziristan - a rare occurrence back then.
He came back with a picture that showed the destroyed camp at the foot of a small hill. At the top of the hill was an outpost of the paramilitary Frontier Corps.
Last year, local people in the Kurram tribal region led me to the remains of the Taliban's main command-and-control centre at a village called Bugzai, which tribesmen had overrun and destroyed.
For years prior to its destruction, Bugzai served as the permanent base of militant leader, Hakimullah Mehsud. It was from there that he ordered the continuing blockade of the main Kurram road.
Bugzai was barely 1km (0.62 miles) down the hill from the main Frontier Corps base, inside a British-era fort, which was responsible for security in the lower Kurram valley.
Few of these people are surprised that Bin Laden was found in a military cantonment, not far from Pakistan's top military academy, in Abbottabad.
Posted by: john frum ||
05/07/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
The Pakistan military sure can play the Tuba though. oOOmpah-pah. snurkSnork Ooompah-pah. Splutzzz!
Posted by: de Medici3489 ||
05/07/2011 10:01 Comments ||
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#2
I wouldn't consider the Frontier Corps as "military".
#3
Hey, they were masterful in their battle against the Balochs and in getting Nawaz Ackbar Bugti.
For a country that doesn't really have a together government or military, that is. It's almost like they care about some things but not others, but I'm sure that's just a coincidence.
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Several were injured late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning as celebrations marking the end to Palestinian political division went on late into the night in Gaza City.
Families and groups of young men let off fireworks and gunshots during the festivities, which head of ambulance and emergency services in Gaza Adham Abu Salmiyeh said resulted in the admission of three residents to hospital with light injuries.
Witnesses in Gaza City's main hospital Ash-Shifa said dozens trickled in throughout the night seeking treatment for burns, with one man reportedly wounded seriously.
[Ma'an] Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh ...became Prime Minister after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank... in Gazoo said Thursday that he would not serve as the future unity government's premier, offering a clean slate to those "who want to serve their people."
"Let the new guy deal with those West Bankers, not to mention losing the next war with Israel. Under the new rules it's not going to be fun any more... and open trade with Egypt will end the tunnel vigorish."
In remarks in Gazoo City, Haniyeh said the international community should respect the agreement and avoid making mistakes of the past, referring to a boycott of a 2007 Hamas-led government.
Hamas and Fatah leaders agreed to accelerate efforts to form a transitional government, in their first private meeting since the signing of a unity deal in Cairo on Wednesday, which formally ended the split between the factions.
Member of Hamas Politburo Izzat Ar-Risheq told Ma'an on Wednesday night details of the meeting between President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... and Hamas leader in exile Khalid Mash'al.
Following the formation of a transitional government, the leaders said an agreement on a leadership framework would be reached, setting out the agenda for the new cabinet.
The agenda is nominally laid out in the Egyptian Unity Paper signed Wednesday, but the document mandates the approval of this agenda by the secretaries-general of all Paleostinian political factions.
Third on the agenda was an agreement to release all of the political detainees in the West Bank.
The unity document requires the formation of a committee to review the cases of alleged political detainees, and ensure that no prisoner with criminal charges is released.
Ar-Risheq said factions would meet this week to lay out the follow-up to the agreement.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2011 00:00 ||
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[Ma'an] Even as Israel slammed the door on any dialogue with the Paleostinians after a unity deal with Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, the Islamic group has been slowly inching its way toward a tacit acceptance of Israel.
Despite being officially dedicated to "liberating all of Paleostine," in recent days Hamas leaders have spoken of accepting a Paleostinian state in the 1967 borders, effectively alongside Israel.
Sure, but they mean the pre-June, '67 borders, which even the U.N. thingies said at the the time were unsustainable.
Speaking to AFP in Cairo on Thursday, a day after the ceremony to sign the surprise reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah, Hamas chief Khalid Mash'al said there was a broad consensus on the 1967 borders among Paleostinian groups.
Hamas "agrees to the the establishment of a Paleostinian state within 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital, without settlers and without giving up the right of return," he said.
In other words, the Palestinians get Palestine plus sending four million hate-filled Palestinians to live among the seven million Israelis (one million of whom are Arabs) within Israel. What they accept -- tacitly -- is the temporary existence of the Jewish state until it's destroyed from within. How clever those Hamasniks are, to be sure.
That implies, at least initially, a tacit acceptance of a Paleostinian state alongside Israel.
"Initially" being the key word of that sentence. The Ma'an journalist is clever, too
.He made a similar statement at Wednesday's signing ceremony.
And while Hamas has indicated it would support such a position in the past, such public, high profile endorsements give it added gravitas.
"There is a consensus on it among the majority of Paleostinian political forces, which can be the basis on which to build," Mash'al said, calling for the development of a "common vision."
But a tacit nod to Israel's existence is not enough for Tel Aviv, which has said it will not have any dealings with a Paleostinian government that embraces Hamas unless it renounces violence and explicitly recognizes Israel as a Jewish state.
"If [Paleostinian] national unity is unity for peace, then we would be the first to support it," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday after meeting French President Nicolas Sarkozy ...23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit... in Gay Paree.
"But if it's unity to move away from peace, pursue the battle for Israel's eradication, then obviously we oppose it and so should everyone else."
Netanyahu has been meeting European leaders in a bid to convince them not to support a unilateral declaration of statehood from the Paleostinians and to oppose the unity deal for co-opting Hamas.
Some European leaders, including Sarkozy, have warned that they might recognize Paleostinian statehood without waiting for a comprehensive peace deal, and a UN resolution to confirm it.
"If Hamas adopted positions of peace in the unity government I would say great, let's negotiate," Netanyahu said in an interview with CNN. "But in fact the opposite has happened."
European leaders reportedly told Netanyahu they endorsed the conditions for dealing with Hamas -- first laid out by Quartet ... The Quartet are the UN (xylophone), the United States (alto), the European Union (soprano), and Russia (shortstop). The group was established in Madrid in 2002 by former Spanish Prime Minister Aznar, as a result of the escalating conflict in the Middle East. Tony Blair is the Quartet's current Special Envoy.... of the United States, the United Nations ...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involve making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country... , the European Union and Russia.
But they also indicated they were willing to give the new Paleostinian government time to prove itself.
Mash'al rejected Netanyahu's stance, saying the Israeli leader was using it as another excuse to avoid real peace talks.
"When we were divided Netanyahu did not give Abu Mazen [Abbas] or the Paleostinian Authority anything and I am sure that after the unity he will give us nothing," he told AFP.
Peace talks between Israel and Abbas ground to a halt weeks after the began in September when Israel refused to renew a partial halt on West Bank settlement construction.
The Paleostinians said they would not continue talks as long as Israel was building on land they want for a promised state.
"We have nothing to lose and we don't expect anything else from Netanyahu," Mash'al said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2011 00:00 ||
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#7
Abbottabad, where ol Binny was killed, was reported to only have 600 in attendance. Somehow I think Binny became a non-factor and even traitor to alot of Muslims. Not because he killed Americans, oh no. Because he brought Us onto their doorstep they hate him.
Posted by: Charles ||
05/07/2011 13:13 Comments ||
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#8
yes pakistain is evil but it is only imported from Saudi Arabia. That is where a young bin laden was turned from a promising civil engineering student into a 14th century radical islamist foaming at the mouth
[An Nahar] U.N. Secretary General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon remains convinced that the disarmament of gangs in Leb, in particular Hizbullah, can best be achieved through a political process, a U.N. front man said.
"He calls on Lebanese leaders to reconvene the national dialogue under the auspices of President Michel Suleiman," the front man Farhan Haq said.
The U.N. chief also emphasized that the proliferation of weapons outside the State's control and the presence of heavily armed militias were a threat to the country's peace and prosperity.
In a report to the United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... Security Council on UNSCR 1559, Ban also said that increased tension in Leb was "fueled among other things by speculation and public pronouncements concerning the proceeding of the Special Tribunal for Leb," according to Haq.
Ban warned that increasingly entrenched positions for and against the tribunal were polarizing the country, Haq added.
The tribunal's prosecutor, Daniel Bellemare, on Friday filed an amended indictment based on further evidence in the probe into the 2005 liquidation of Leb's then prime minister Rafik Hariri, his office said.
The indictment, which is being kept confidential, has to be examined by Belgian pre-trial judge Daniel Fransen, who has the responsibility of confirming it before arrest warrants or summonses are issued.
Hizbullah argues that it needs its powerful arsenal of weapons to defend the country against Israel.
The gang has let it be known repeatedly that disarmament is not on the table for discussion.
Israel, which fought a month-long campaign against Hizbullah in 2006, says the party has accumulated 40,000 rockets including some that were capable of striking Israeli urban centers.
Paleostinian factions based in refugee camps in Leb, which the Lebanese army does not enter, are also armed.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
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#1
Ban been trying out the agricultural products of the Bekaa Valley?
Posted by: Water Modem ||
05/07/2011 1:15 Comments ||
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#2
Posted by: Water Modem ||
05/07/2011 1:18 Comments ||
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#3
Getting to know you, getting to know all about you
Getting to like you, getting to hope you like me...
[An Nahar] Radical holy man Omar Bakri, on bail in Leb on charges including incitement to murder, has called for prayers to mourn the late Osama bin Laden ... who is currently rooming with Hitler and Himmler... in Leb and outside U.S. embassies around the world.
"We call on our followers in Europe, Canada and especially Perfidious Albion to pray for his soul outside American embassies," Bakri, who was based in Perfidious Albion for nearly two decades, told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"We will hold prayers for his soul in the Khulafa al-Rashidin mosque and receive condolences here in Tripoli, and there will be prayers for his soul in mosques in Beirut and Sidon," added the preacher, who is now based in Tripoli, Leb's main northern city.
Bakri was banned from returning to Perfidious Albion in 2005 under government curbs introduced following the London underground and bus bombings that year.
He earned notoriety by praising the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and hailing the hijackers as the "magnificent 19."
Last November, a Lebanese court sentenced him to life in prison on charges including incitement to murder, theft and the possession of arms and explosives.
But a retrial was ordered as he had not been present in court and the 50-year-old was released on bail.
Bakri has appointed Hizbullah Member of Parliament Nawwar Sahili as his defense lawyer and has appealed to the leader of the Shiite group Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah for help.
The Syrian-born holy man, who also holds Lebanese nationality, has denied he has any links to al-Qaeda although he says he believes in "the same ideology."
The al-Qaeda leader was killed in a U.S. Special Forces raid in Pakistain announced by President Barack B.O. Obama in a late-night White House address on Sunday.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
They can say anything they like just so long as they keep right on losing.
Posted by: de Medici3489 ||
05/07/2011 9:53 Comments ||
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[Al Jazeera] A political dispute between Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's supreme leader is reported to have intensified.
Ahmadinejad is said to be contemplating resigning after Heidar Moslehi, the intelligence minister he had sacked, was reinstated by Khamenei.
The president is understood to have shirked some of his duties and skipped cabinet meetings for the past ten days in anger over the decision.
Mehrdad Khonsari, an analyst with the Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies in London, told Al Jizz on Friday that the dispute, which began last month, had become "serious".
"It shows the level of disunity at the very top of the Iranian [political] hierachy [with] Ahmadinejad having already polarised the internal political scene as a result of fraudulent election results that were announced more than 20 months ago," Khonsari said.
"He is now beginning to encroach on the powers and privileges vested in the supreme leader, and he and his constituency - mainly among the Revolutionary Guards - have tried to do this.
"And, of course, the supreme leader has tried to make a stand and in this stand he has been joined by many people from the ruling establishment who have been cast aside by Ahmadinejad."
Khonsari said that since the president came to power "powerful people like [Akbar Hashemi] Rasfanjani and ... [Mohammed] Khatami and many of the key reformers as well as the president of the current Council of Experts" have been sidelined.
"This is quite a standoff," he said. "Ahmadinejad, I think, at this particular time, has bitten more than he can chew and has been forced to essentially step back, but the fact [remains] that both he and the supreme leader are damaged as a result of this conflict."
Although speculation continues that Ahmadinejad may resign, Khonsari stopped short of hinting at the possibility of him quitting and instead said the dispute would lead to "further polarisation; further disunity [and] rivalry ... within a state structure that's already fractured".
'Grave economic issues' Al Jizz's Dorsa Jabari in Tehran quoted an MP as saying that Ahmadinejad had asked the supreme leader to step down as he insists he cannot work with the intelligence minister.
Khonsari said upheavals in some Middle Eastern countries could spread to Iran if the rift continued.
"You have to bear in mind that what we're witnessing in the Middle East it all started with events in Iran some 20 months ago and Iran is not immune from the global cts from what we're witnessing as a result of this Arab awakening," he said.
"Peple in Iran are conscious there are grave economic issues; grave foreign policy issues confronting the Ahmadinejad government and the last thing he needs is to be in disarray with the supreme leader in a fight over a situation that's totally impervious to the wishes and aspirations of the general majority.
"There's no question in the minds of Iranians that this is going to be a very hot summer coming up."
The supreme leader wields more power than the president and appoints military leaders and the council that passes laws.
The dispute has led to the arrest of several close allies of the president, including Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, the chief of staff.
Mashaei and others nabbed have been accused of invoking djinns [spirits].
Ahmadinejad's administration has been dogged by allegations of a fraudulent election, which handed him a second four-year term in office in 2009.
The conduct of the vote led to protests which ended in a deadly crackdown and the detention of key opposition figures, including Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi.
Iran has also been hit by a wave of sanctions by the US and the European Union over its nuclear programme, which many Western states suspect is intended to make an atomic bomb.
Tehran says the programme seeks to develop nuclear energy for solely civilian use.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
It will crack, and all kinds of trouble will be abound.
The Pentagon has released home videos seized from Bin Laden's secret compound in Pakistan where he was gunned down by US special forces last week.
The tapes show him watching himself on television, and making a video message addressed to the US. The Pentagon released a propaganda video recorded by Bin Laden as well.
In total, there were five videos seized during Monday's raid.
#4
comments on australian news sites are now consistently saying the people don't believe bin laden is dead and that these are just propaganda films made up by the CIA.
I no longer think releasing pics of the body would help. THey would say this anyway.
ironic isn't it? you kill bin laden, and nobody believes it.
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.
HUNDREDS of Osama bin Laden supporters clashed with English Defence League extremists today as a "funeral service" for the assassinated terror leader sparked fury outside London's US Embassy. Police stepped in to separate the chanting groups amid threats of violence from both sides.
A Hamburg judge has filed a criminal complaint against Chancellor Angela Merkel for "endorsing a crime" after she stated she was "glad" that Osama bin Laden was killed by US forces. Meanwhile a new poll reveals that a majority of Germans do not see the terrorist's death as a reason to celebrate.
Quartet
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
Radical 
Mahmoud 
Khonsari said upheavals in some Middle Eastern countries could spread to Iran if the rift continued.
