Three people have been arrested as officials probe claims that a paper mill in Afghanistan recycled copies of the Holy Qur’an into toilet paper, the attorney general’s office said yesterday. Around 1,000 angry demonstrators, some throwing stones, held a protest on Monday at the mill on the outskirts of Kabul, leaving the building partially destroyed. Copies of the Qur’an were found inside the factory, Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanikzai said, adding that no-one was injured in the protest. “The attorney general’s office and Kabul police have jointly tasked a delegation to investigate the alleged disrespect to our holy book in that factory,” a spokesman said.
[Tolo News] Central Bank Wednesday announced that Kabul Bank's licence has been submitted to finance ministry and that it will run under the ministry going forward.
Afghanistan's Central Bank (DAB) said from today on Kabul Bank's stakeholders will have no links to the bank and added that they should pay their loans and clean their accounts in a months time or face legal action.
Following President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai's ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... remarks suggesting reform in the bank, Central Bank of Afghanistan said today that the bank will be put out to tender in three months.
Head of DAB Abdul Qadir Fitrat said investigations have set Kabul Bank loans at $579 million and after Central Bank took over $47 million of that figure has been repaid.
Kabul Bank, the leading private bank in the country, was on the brink of collapse last year mainly because of mismanagement and substandard loans.
Mr Fitrat said 19 cases of fraud have been referred to Attorney General's Office and two large corruption cases have been sent to the High Office of Oversight and Anti-corruption.
Loans will be collected and "If anyone doesn't comply, we will take action. We will seize their properties at the order of the court. Even we are ready to confiscate their properties if they do not cooperate," Mr Fitrat said.
More from WaPo: the Kabul Bank will be split into two parts. That should fix all the problems right there.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2011 00:00 ||
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[Tolo News] European countries are in an effort to establish a business link with Afghanistan using middle-east railway networks. Sounds like high-speed targets...
At a conference on railway networks in Tajikistan on Tuesday Tadeush Shozda, Chairman of Organisation for Railway Cooperation, said Turkmenistan railway network is a suitable way to ship civilian commodities to Afghanistan.
But not military supplies? Still, that's one way to make sure foodstuffs don't rot, waiting to cross the Pakistani border.
Because of transit problems in Uzbekistan the European countries are looking into ways other than Uzbekistan to ship their products to Afghanistan, Tadeush Shozda said.
Tadeush Shozda said there are legal transit papers but European countries face some sort of problems to get their civilian goods transported through Uzbekistan's soil.
But railway officials in Uzbekistan see railway traffic as the only factor behind the problem.
Officials said more than 160,000 tonnes of commodities are shipped to Afghanistan through Uzbekistan.
Work on a railway initiative that will connect Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and China is in progress and primary estimation has put the cost of the project at more than three billion dollars.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
New meaning for "Terrorists on a train".
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/21/2011 10:43 Comments ||
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Given how their minds work, RJ, they'd probably start by blowing the train.
#3
Middle-East Railway to Connect Afghanistan with Europe
great , send everyone home , and then lock down . Hell , Id even throw in a few euros and a bag of rice if everyone from Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and China fooked off back to their sesspits
Posted by: Unuper Protector of the Hatfields6331 ||
04/21/2011 20:27 Comments ||
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#4
"Middle-East Railway to Connect Afghanistan with Europe"
Better to connect Europe to Afghanistan. One-way only. East.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/21/2011 23:28 Comments ||
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[Tolo News] Former Afghan Hajj and Pilgrimage Minister has denied charges of corruption after being accused by High Office of Oversight and Anti-corruption. "No, no! Certainly not!"
In a phone call to TOLOnews the former minister Mohammad Sidiq Chakari said the allegations are part of a political plot.
Chakari, who is living in Perfidious Albion, said he has discussed the case with President Karzai and it will be disclosed soon.
But the High Office of Oversight and Anti-corruption (HOOAC) said there is no political plot behind the case.
HOOAC said if he is clean he should prove it.
The corruption watch dog has urged British government to freeze all bank accounts related to Chakari and to submit them to Afghan government.
"Mr Ludin has accused me of embezzlement. I have no case in Afghanistan. All the cases are based on a political conspiracy and I will unveil it at the right time. I have also talked to Mr President about the plot," Mohammad Sidiq Chakari told TOLOnews.
Officials said if Mr Chakari claims he is not corrupt then he should come to Afghanistan and prove it.
Head of HOOAC Azizullah Ludin said: "HOOAC pledges a tough and serious fight against corrupt officials without considering their positions.
"I want to ask Mr Chakari where all this money came from. We went to Jihad only with our clothes, but where did 700 to 800 thousand dollars come from. It must have been brought from somewhere else," Mr Ludin said.
Mr Chakari was accused of flying money out of Afghanistan when he was running Hajj and Pilgrimage Ministry.
Experts said the government has not been able to try even one corrupt official in the past nine years.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2011 00:00 ||
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Piracy syndicates are selling shares in planned attacks, fueled by a surge of ransom payments that help attract investors, the U.S. Chief of Naval Operations said.
Piracy syndicates in villages, mainly in largely ungoverned Somalia, solicit investors who buy shares in the attack missions and gain a corresponding share of ransoms paid by the shipping industry, Admiral Gary Roughead said.
“The ransoms fuel the business, the business invests in more capability, either in a bigger boat, more weapons, better electronic-detection means to determine where the ships are,” Roughead said in an interview in Bloomberg’s Washington Bureau today. “So it’s a business.”
The average ransom payment rose 36-fold over five years to $5.4 million last year, compared with $150,000 in 2005, according to the Louisville, Colorado-based One Earth Future Foundation. The payments are fueling increased raids, adding at least $2.4 billion to transport costs because vessels are being diverted onto longer routes to avoid attacks off east Africa, the non-profit group said earlier this year.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- Hundreds of Eritrean exiles demonstrated in the capital of neighboring Ethiopia to protest their country's autocratic leadership.
Pro'ly safer for them to demonstrate in Addis Ababa. Not much safer, but safer.
Demonstration organizer Kebrom Sibhatu says thousands of Eritrean exiles participated in other parts of Ethiopia. He was among some 500 people who demonstrated peacefully in Addis Ababa on Wednesday. Ethiopia hosts about 60,000 refugees from the Red Sea nation.
Kebrom says Eritrea's authoritarian regime forcibly conscripts its citizens into the army and kills others. Ethiopia's autocratic government has an antagonistic relationship with Eritrea and gave the refugees permission to demonstrate.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/21/2011 00:00 ||
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I've got a sneaking suspicion that Israel is also supplying Gadhafi, just as it did Argentina during the Falklands war and will continue to do so until NATO comes to it's senses over Libya.
Out of principle, the German goverment refused to take part in military action against Libyan dictator Gadhafi. But it seems selling arms to both sides of international conflicts has never been a problem for Berlin
#1
Apparently, a lot of people won't be happy till the Germans are running tanks and marching in other people's countries again. Two hundred years of militarism and two world wars aren't enough. It's the same self appointed ruling caste with a blind eye to the 100 million dead upon the hands of socialism in the 20th Century as well. Germany is not alone. A good number of countries sale arms or at least try to compete in the market but don't participate in actual conflict.
#4
I feel strongly that we are doing it wrong.
A few Nukes and leave the ruins alone for a few years, If they dont "Quit that" then nuke them into the stone age, recheck in a few years.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/21/2011 10:48 Comments ||
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#5
DimPebbles, what are you talking about? Someone posts unsupported speculation and you're willing to condone genocide against a free, Western nation?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
04/21/2011 12:12 Comments ||
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#9
And what will we think if an EADS missile takes out a Brit helicopter or FO? I was just thinking about the amount of weapon system proliferation going on - from small arms and equipment ($25 us equipment to team rebel, how long before that stuff shows up elswhere like a fast furious), to warships, to wmd technology. What I do find interesting is that Europeans and many leftists in America demand you have few if any firearms, yet have no qualms about arming the masses of other nations.
Tipper, is that a suggestion that with a Team Daffy win, Libya II would force Egypt II look westward instead of a concentration towards Israel?
#10
Lets just say Israel lost my support. Not lifting a finger anymore to defend them.
Not the same thing at all. The Falklands are an isolated outpost of empire. John Glubb, who was subsequently appointed KCB in 1956 for his efforts, is the guy who single-handedly created Israel's West Bank problem back in 1948 - a problem that has cost the lives of thousands of Israelis since then, and essentially excised a fifth of Israel's tiny land area.
[Arab News] The Mohammedan candidate who lost Nigeria's presidential election is distancing himself from the angry mobs who have killed Christians and set churches on fire across the country's north.
Muhammadu Buhari called the violence "sad, unfortunate and totally unwarranted." He also said the election "is purely a political manner" and should not be turned into a religious or ethnic conflict.
On Wednesday, the cries of children could be heard at a hospital in the northern town of Kaduna, where maimed people lay outside the emergency ward.
Mohammedan rioters burned homes, churches and cop shoppes in Kaduna after results showed Nigeria's Christian leader beat Buhari in Saturday's vote. Reprisal attacks by Christians began almost immediately.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2011 00:00 ||
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Reminds one of Paleo leadership condemnations of terrorism.
A GULF plan to end months of bloody unrest calls for Yemen's embattled president to step down 30 days after the formation of a unity government, an official in his administration said today.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) proposal urges "the formation of a national unity government with 50 per cent held by the ruling party, 40 per cent by the opposition and 10 per cent by other parties", the official said.
"The president would transfer his powers to his deputy, and then the protests would end", as would the defection of military leaders and soldiers, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
And "the president would submit his resignation to parliament within 30 days", with a presidential vote to be held within two months.
Saleh has since January faced anti-regime protests calling for his ouster in which more than 130 people have been killed in clashes with security forces and rival demonstrators.
[Dawn] Iran should respect the unity of its Arab neighbours in the Gulf, the United Arab Emirates foreign minister said on Wednesday at a time of heightened regional tension.
"Iran should reconsider its policies in the region," Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahayan, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the Gulf Cooperation Council, told a news conference in the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi.
And it "should respect the unity and illusory sovereignty of Gulf countries," he said at the end of an annual GCC-European Union ministerial meeting.
"I'm trying to choose my words carefully. I don't want to act like some Iranian officials who throw their words in an abrasive and indecent way," Sheikh Abdullah said.
"All I wish for is that Iran view its neighbours with responsibility and respect." Tension has been running high between Iran and its Arab neighbours across the Gulf, with the two sides locked in a war of words since Shiite-led protests against Bahrain's Sunni dynasty broke out in mid-February.
A Saudi-led Gulf force including UAE police rolled into Bahrain on March 14, freeing up Bahraini security forces to crush the protest movement in the only Shia-majority Arab state of the Gulf, in a move condemned by Iran.
A joint GCC-EU statement issued after Wednesday's meeting backed the deployment.
It said the two blocs played up "the importance of respect for the illusory sovereignty of GCC member states and recognised the GCC is entitled to take all necessary measures to protect" their citizens.
On Monday, Bahraini Foreign Minister Khaled bin Ahmad Al-Khalifa said the Gulf troops had entered his country "to deter an external threat," a reference to Iran.
"We have never seen such a sustained campaign from Iran on Bahrain and the Gulf as we've seen in the past two months. Usually it's short-lived and then they back off; this time is something different," he said.
"We wrote a letter to the secretary general of the United Nations ...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating international security involve making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country... , and in that letter we have a full attachment on the threats and all the evidence we have against Iran and Hezbullies," the Lebanese Shiite group backed by Tehran.
And on Wednesday, Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Mohammed Sabah al-Salem Al-Sabah confirmed that Iranian diplomats accused of spying have been expelled, in another spat between Iran and its Gulf neighbours.
Iranian state television had previously said three of Tehran's diplomats and an embassy employee were expelled from Kuwait, but Sheikh Mohammed's remark on Wednesday was the first official confirmation from the Kuwaiti side.
Sheikh Mohammed had said on March 31 that Iranian diplomats were to be expelled for alleged links to a spy ring working for Tehran, reportedly ever since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.
The foreign minister charged the diplomats had proven links to a spy ring, three alleged members of which a Kuwaiti court condemned to death on March 29.
Strains in relations across the Gulf date back to the 1980s when the Arab states, notably Soddy Arabia, backed Saddam Hussein's Iraq in an eight-year war against Iran.
The GCC has more recently voiced concern over Tehran's alleged ambitions for regional dominance and its nuclear programme.
In other disputes, Iran has in the past claimed Bahrain as part of its territory and it controls three islands in the southern Gulf that are also claimed by the UAE.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
ARETHA FRANKLIN + "RESPECT"
versus
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > IRAN SEEKS SUICIDE BOMBERS AGZ SAUDI ARABIA | IRAN SEEKS VOLUNTEERS TO PARTICIPATE IN SUICIDE BOMBINGS AGZ SAUDI INTERESTS AROUND THE WORLD.
ARTIC = IRGC allegedly ordered to prepare OPLANS for attacks agz KSA establishments or targets.
* SAME > AMIDST THE CHAOS IN MIDDLE EAST, IRAN ADVANCES ITS NUCLEAR PROGRAM + CONTINUES ARMS SMUGGLING.
Thou shalt not waste a Good Crisis, or Several of Them.
* SAME > LIFT SANCTIONS OR FACE US$150.00 OIL, SAYS IRAN.
* SAME > IRAN + TURKEY COMPETE FOR HEGEMONY, in Asia Minor + Caucasus.
#2
WAFF > SAUDIS GIVE UP ON IRAN [ + POTUS Obama Admin], INSTIGATE GULF ACTION AGZ IRAN.
The threat can be considered serious when SAUDI KING ABDULLAH = PAN-ISLAMIC DEFENDER, HEIR-SON OF MOHAMMED formally puts himself at the head of anti-Iran Military, Contigency Planning Groups???
versus
* SAME > TURKEY [Formal Membership] OFF EU'S RADAR SCREEN UNTIL AT LEAST 2020 - IOW, NEVER???
British Prime Minister David Cameron ... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ... has been criticised for not keeping his vows as he should on immigration cut.
Cameron shocked Westminster when he changed a pledge to cut an annual figure from 200,000 to "tens of thousands."
The Prime Minister said the reduced migration figure in 1980s was not the government's policy and was an "ambition."
Coalition Lib Dems were angry with Cameron last week when he criticised Labours for the "biggest influx of migrants" in his speech.
"Calling it an ambition, an aim or a target is just classic slipperiness with words from David Cameron," Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said.
Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Business Secretary Vince Cable are happy to follow their attacks. The chairperson of MigrationWatch campaign also accused Cameron of backpedalling.
According to the polls, most UK people consider immigration as a crucial issue and therefore believe Cameron has betrayed them with breaking vows.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
What obligation does a country have to unrestricted immigration? Particularly if they are unfriendly to your culture and way of life? Cameron should have followed up with his pledge. Politicians must troll for votes everywhere.
#2
Geez, I wonder what led him to that conclusion?
I also wonder why it took him so long?
Of course, common sense and rational thought have never been a valued commodity in the State Department (which is the biggest den of leftists, commies, antisemites, anti American thinking in the US)
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/21/2011 10:22 Comments ||
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#3
Is this not common knowledge here at Rantburg amongst several former military and intelligence type posters? I recall reading it here what seems years ago. Perhaps Mullen should read rantburg.
Posted by: The Other Beldar ||
04/21/2011 10:24 Comments ||
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I also wonder why it took him so long?
He's just now been told he can admit it.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/21/2011 12:28 Comments ||
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#5
The accusation isn't new. What's new is his willingness to say it out loud, in Pakistan, to Pakistanis, in a public forum. This should happen every day.
Next he'll be informing us the ISI is conducting bomb making classes in Paki Madrasses, or funding suicide bomber recruitment and Taliban agent networks in Afghanistan. Why he might even go so far as to propose the Karzai government has links to the ISI. The man is off his rocker.
[Dawn] Lawmakers and elders of Kurram Agency ...home of an intricately interconnected web of poverty, ignorance, and religious fanaticism, where the laws of cause and effect are assumed to be suspended... unanimously decided here on Tuesday to take up the issue of 35 passengers kidnapped from Thall-Parachinar Road with the KP governor besides pressing the security forces for ensuring safety on the route.
MNA from Kurram Agency Sajid Hussain Turi told Dawn that this was for the first time that the two major tribes in the volatile Kurram Agency -- Turi and Mengal -- had passed on the buck to the government regarding safety of their rustics on Thall-Parachinar Road and many other issues as in the past, the two tribes were holding each other responsible for any untoward incident in the tribal area.
"The Thall-Parachinar Road was re-opened with the mutual efforts of tribal elders. Now the government and security forces were wholly responsible for safeguarding the road," the MNA said.
About Tuesday`s jirga, the politician said that about 30 tribal elders including MNA Munir Orakzai collectively decided to involve the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... government for peace in Kurram Agency.
Mr Turi regretted that the government had completely ignored the safety of passengers traveling on the route adding that the recovery of the 35 missing commuters was the duty of law enforcement agencies.
He said that both Mengal and Turi tribes would support military operation against the Death Eater group fuelling sectarian festivities in the tribal agency. "If the government keeps mum over the suffering of the people, then we have other options to force the government to take practical step for the peace in Parachinar," he said.
Mansab Ali, a tribal elder, told Dawn that a third force which had no affiliation with any of the two tribes was destroying peace in the tribal agency, adding that both the federal and provincial governments had completely ignored their responsibility to maintain law and order in the area.
Munir Orakzai said that KP Governor Barrister Masud Kausar would be requested to take up the issue of kidnapped passengers with the security forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2011 00:00 ||
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The top US military officer accused Pakistain's intelligence agency of maintaining ties to forces of Evil in Afghanistan during a trip to Islamabad on Wednesday that was focused on easing diplomatic tensions.
Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Pakistain's perceived foot-dragging in tackling strongholds in North Wazoo belonging to the Haqqani network and its continuing relationship with it was "the most difficult part" of the US-Pak relationship.
"It's fairly well known that the ISI has a longstanding relationship with the Haqqani network," he said in an interview with Pakistain's daily Dawn newspaper.
"Haqqani is supporting, funding, training fighters that are killing Americans and killing coalition partners. And I have a sacred obligation to do all I can to make sure that doesn't happen."
"So that's at the core -- it's not the only thing -- but that's at the core that I think is the most difficult part of the relationship," Mullen said.
Pakistain's powerful Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has long been suspected of maintaining ties to the Haqqani network, cultivated during the 1980s when Jalaluddin Haqqani was a feared battlefield commander against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.
"I don't know what kind of relationship he's talking about," a senior Pak intelligence official told Rooters. "If he means we're providing them with protection, with help, that's not correct. Even if you are enemies, you have a relationship."
He said that Pakistain had attacked Haqqani's positions and raided his mosques in the past. "Right now, we are not attacking him because we are fully engaged against another group, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP)," he said.
Pakistain has been criticised in the past for distinguishing between "good" Talibs and "bad" ones, with the Haqqani network falling squarely into the former category.
While based in Pakistain's wild North Waziristan area on the Afghan border, Haqqani refrains from attacking the Pak state and is seen as a way to maintain Pak influence in any future political settlement in Kabul.
The TTP, on the other hand, is a declared enemy of the Pak state and has been at war with the its army since 2007.
Before the trip, Mullen acknowledged that "we've had a very turbulent time," but added that despite the tensions, all sides acknowledged the relationship was vital.
"I think that all of us believe that we cannot afford to let this relationship come apart," Mullen said, referring to US and Pak military and intelligence chiefs.
"It's just too dangerous. It's too dangerous, in each country, for each country. It's too dangerous for the region."
He acknowledged that the relationship was difficult, but added: "We walk away from it at our peril, quite frankly."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2011 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] The US will maintain its drone programme in Pakistan but the way forward will be determined by both sides, an unnamed US military official has said.
The issue has been a bone of contention between the two nations, with some Pakistani officials calling for sharp cuts in drone attacks.
"The [programme] is something that we have said we go ahead on. The question is how," the official said on condition of anonymity.
"And that process is going to be something that's going to be one of the main tasks that our intel and our military guys have."
The matter was raised last week in Washington in talks between Leon Panetta, the CIA director, and Lieutenant-General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the chief of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.
"I'll pause from my normal optimism and say this is a tough one. This is a real tough one," the unidentified US official said.
"Because that has been so inflamed in the public that the ability of our intelligence and our military guys to get together and say 'what's our common ground here?' is limited."
Under pressure
The long-running issue of the US drone strikes on targets in Pakistan's tribal areas has kept tensions high between the two countries regarding the US' role in the region.
The covert drone-launched missile strikes that target fighters in Pakistan's lawless border areas have stoked anti-American sentiment among the populace, even though it is widely believed that the strikes occur with the tacit consent of Islamabad.
Publicly, Pakistan's leaders have insisted that the drone strikes stop and that the US share the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology with Pakistan so that it can take operational control of them, but US officials say operations will continue in order to achieve US security objectives.
US officials have privately said in the past that Washington would not consider demands by some Pakistani officials for sharp cuts in drone attacks.
Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said the remarks about continued US drone attacks came as a surprise especially when the strikes are widely unpopular in Pakistan.
"Right now the issue is being taken up even at the International Court of Justice because the government officials and some major leaders of religious parties are saying that the Americans have no mandate to cross into Pakistani sovereign territory," he said.
"There is a lot of top talking to do and a lot of protests expected over the continued US policy on drone strikes."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
I think we show a picture of Mr. ten percent to a drone and let it loiter over the capital for a few days...maybe he'll come to his senses.
Of course, ISI is so cancerous, anything to shift course and really go after the Taliban and their minions in Pakistain will get Mr. Gilani assassinated.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/21/2011 10:26 Comments ||
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[Arab News] The top US military officer is visiting Pakistain at a time of tensions over America's role in the region.
The US Embassy says Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will spend Wednesday and Thursday meeting with Pak leaders.
Mullen is a frequent visitor to Pakistain, and reportedly has a good relationship with Pakistain's army chief, Gen.
Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... The United States needs Pakistain's cooperation to help end the war in Afghanistan.
But tensions between the two allies have spiked this year after an American CIA employee shot and killed two Paks he said were trying to rob him.
A March missile strike ostensibly targeting the Taliban also angered Kayani, who said dozens of innocent rustics were killed.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2011 00:00 ||
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ISLAMABAD—Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Pakistani news channel Wednesday that links between Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence military spy agency and the Haqqani faction of the Taliban were continuing to strain relations between the countries.
Adm. Mullen's comments to GEO TV, a private network, signal that the U.S. is not backing down from an increasingly hostile battle with Pakistan over how to combat Islamist militants who operate on the border with Afghanistan.
Adm. Mullen is viewed as one of the most ardent proponents within the Obama administration for dialog with Pakistan. He has spoken highly of Gen. Kayani in the past and the two are said to have a strong working relationship.
Despite problems in the relationship, neither side is willing to jettison it completely. Pakistan relies on billions of dollars in U.S. military and civilian aid.
It will be a while before the Gulf countries' rent-an-army payments added to the income sent home by the rumoured (per Debka) 20,000 Pakistani prostitutes even begin to approach America's jizya payments. How much would the sale of a nuclear device or several to Saudi Arabia bring in?
The U.S. needs Pakistan to continue to fight militants, and it uses Pakistan as a transit route for supplies to troops in Afghanistan.
BAGHDAD — An Arab League summit planned for Baghdad next month was postponed again Wednesday as political unrest continues to roil the Middle East.
The delay was not unexpected, but it drew protests from Iraqi leaders, who had argued that the summit could give Arab countries an important first chance to discuss the changes taking places across the region.
Iraq lawmakers said the forumÂ’s second postponement also indicated that neighboring Arab leaders intend never to hold the conference in Baghdad, which, although safer than in recent years, still struggles with near-daily incidents of violence. An aide to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said on state-run television Wednesday that representatives of the Arab League would meet May 15 to choose a new date for the conference. It was not clear whether Baghdad would remain the venue.
The deputy secretary general of the 22-member organization was quoted by Agence France-Presse as saying that unrest, not the security situation in Baghdad, has led to the delay.
“The public mood in the region is transitional, nervous and rebellious, which leads us to ask whether it is wise to hold a summit in this period,” Ahmed Ben Hilli said.
Several experts have speculated that Arab leaders might not be willing to leave their countries for months for fear their absence could encourage protesters.
Bingo. Though Ben Ali and Mubarak stayed in town for all the good it did them.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/21/2011 00:00 ||
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A top politician in Iraq's Kurdistan region has offered to resign from the party leadership following weeks of anti-government protests in the semi-autonomous region.
Criticizing lack of freedom in the region, Kurdish regional Prime Minister Barham Saleh said on Tuesday that he made the decision after finding the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan unable to control the situation in the region.
"The current leadership of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) is not able to go along with the new situation," Barham Saleh wrote in a letter to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who is the secretary general of PUK.
"I am ready to resign from the leadership of the party in order to renew it and the political bureau," Saleh said in his letter, a copy of which was obtained by AFP.
He also urged Kurdistan's ruling parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), to carry out a complete ministerial change to end mass street protests.
"The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party must carry out a complete ministerial change and form a technocratic government," he added.
Protesters in Iraqi Kurdistan are calling for an end to official corruption and the resignation of the regional government.
PUK and KDP, the two main parties that have ruled the region for decades, are now accused of nepotism and corruption.
On Tuesday, at least 75 were maimed in Iraq's Kurdistan after military forces attacked student protesters near Sulaymaniyah University.
Press TV's correspondent says more than 300 students were also tossed in the calaboose.
Since the beginning of protests in Iraq's Kurdistan region, at least three people have been killed and many others injured during festivities with security forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2011 00:00 ||
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Iraq's influential holy manMoqtada Tater al-Sadr ... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah... has taken a swipe at the government, insisting that imposed ban on public protests in Iraqi capital of Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... is "undemocratic".
Sadr's remarks came after the Iraqi government barred public rallies across the capital.
Last week, Iraqi authorities announced that the protesters were only allowed to gather at three football stadiums in Baghdad since shopkeepers in the city's main Tahrir Square, the epicenter of protests, complained of losing business during weekly protests.
"The government claims democracy, and this is undemocratic," Sadr declared in a written response to queries about the protest ban from his followers, AFP reported.
"I think this decision shows the government's fear of demonstrations. The move is ridiculous and meaningless," leader of Sadr Movement added.
Since late February, massive groups of demonstrators have staged weekly protest rallies in major Iraqi cities, including the capital Baghdad, protesting against corruption, unemployment and poor government services.
The protesters, however, do not seek regime change but merely reforms and better living conditions.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth had turned a paler shade of blue. Star-A-Star had struck again... around 150 people were maimed in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region after security forces opened fire on a group of demonstrators in Sulaymanieh on Monday.
Protesters in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan have been calling for an end to official corruption and the resignation of the regional government since February.
Following the violence, authorities in Sulaymanieh announced a ban on unauthorized protests.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2011 00:00 ||
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Multiple warnings received by Israeli security agencies indicate that Arab terror groups like Hamas and Hezbollah will attempt to abduct Israelis vacationing in the Mediterranean region.
The warnings prompted the Counter-Terrorism Bureau, a government body, to issue a travel alert on April 10, before the Passover holiday.
Thousands of Israelis travel abroad during Passover every year, including more than 3,000 who flew to Turkey or Greece a few days before the holiday began and some 25,000 tourists who were expected to head into Egypt at the Taba border crossing.
Terror groups are motivated to abduct Israelis by the prospect of securing the release of hundreds of prisoners in a swap with Israel, an appetite that has been whetted by previous abductions - including that of captive soldier Gilad Shalit, who Hamas has held in Gaza since 2006; and of reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, whose remains were returned to Israel as part of a 2008 swap with Hezbollah that resulted in the release of hundreds of Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners.
Hezbollah is also interested in exacting revenge for the February 2008 assassination of senior official Imad Mughniyeh, which the Shi'ite Muslim organization attributes to Israel.
Since his assassination, Hezbollah has made approximately 10 attempts to carry out a revenge attack on Israeli targets abroad, but failed in its efforts to abduct Israelis and to set off car bombs near the Israeli embassy in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku.
Multiple warnings received by Israeli security agencies indicate that Arab terror groups like Hamas and Hezbollah will attempt to abduct Israelis vacationing in the Mediterranean region.
The warnings prompted the Counter-Terrorism Bureau, a government body, to issue a travel alert on April 10, before the Passover holiday.
Thousands of Israelis travel abroad during Passover every year, including more than 3,000 who flew to Turkey or Greece a few days before the holiday began and some 25,000 tourists who were expected to head into Egypt at the Taba border crossing.
Terror groups are motivated to abduct Israelis by the prospect of securing the release of hundreds of prisoners in a swap with Israel, an appetite that has been whetted by previous abductions - including that of captive soldier Gilad Shalit, who Hamas has held in Gaza since 2006; and of reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, whose remains were returned to Israel as part of a 2008 swap with Hezbollah that resulted in the release of hundreds of Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners.
Hezbollah is also interested in exacting revenge for the February 2008 assassination of senior official Imad Mughniyeh, which the Shi'ite Muslim organization attributes to Israel.
Since his assassination, Hezbollah has made approximately 10 attempts to carry out a revenge attack on Israeli targets abroad, but failed in its efforts to abduct Israelis and to set off car bombs near the Israeli embassy in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku.
Multiple warnings received by Israeli security agencies indicate that Arab terror groups like Hamas and Hezbollah will attempt to abduct Israelis vacationing in the Mediterranean region.
The warnings prompted the Counter-Terrorism Bureau, a government body, to issue a travel alert on April 10, before the Passover holiday.
Thousands of Israelis travel abroad during Passover every year, including more than 3,000 who flew to Turkey or Greece a few days before the holiday began and some 25,000 tourists who were expected to head into Egypt at the Taba border crossing.
Terror groups are motivated to abduct Israelis by the prospect of securing the release of hundreds of prisoners in a swap with Israel, an appetite that has been whetted by previous abductions - including that of captive soldier Gilad Shalit, who Hamas has held in Gaza since 2006; and of reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, whose remains were returned to Israel as part of a 2008 swap with Hezbollah that resulted in the release of hundreds of Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners.
Hezbollah is also interested in exacting revenge for the February 2008 assassination of senior official Imad Mughniyeh, which the Shi'ite Muslim organization attributes to Israel.
Since his assassination, Hezbollah has made approximately 10 attempts to carry out a revenge attack on Israeli targets abroad, but failed in its efforts to abduct Israelis and to set off car bombs near the Israeli embassy in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku.
Israel secretly supplied arms and equipment to Argentina during the Falklands War due to Prime Minister Menachem Begin's personal hatred of the British, a new book discloses.
#1
I'd be more concerned about Obama's personal vendetta. As another post down below points out, Obama.2011 has been something else--testy, petulant, impatient, arrogant and increasingly a divider. I wouldn't put it past the man to maneuver the Brits into a bad position and then leave them hanging in the wind.
Let me have men about me that are fat,
Sleek-headed men and such as sleep a-nights.
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look,
He thinks too much; such men are dangerous.
The French sold Exocets to the Argentinians before hostilities broke out. Once fighting began, the French embargoed Argentine requests for replacements, which is probably why Argentina had to turn to Israel (presumably for the French items in Israel's inventory).
Israel flew the Mirage III and a bootleg copy of the Mirage V. After the French embargo, the IAF continued flying both planes, presumably with bootleg Israeli parts (created from stolen or handed-over blueprints - depending on whom you believe) that would have been made available to Argentina, if the Israeli cabinet so chose.
#6
And how did Israel get into the business of bootlegging French aviation parts? The story of the Kfir (Israel's Mirage V clone) is an interesting one:
The development of this aircraft has been attributed to covert action on the part of Mossad. After General De Gaulle embargoed the sale of arms to Israel, the IAF feared that in the future it would no longer have an upper hand over its regional adversaries that were being re-equipped with more advanced Soviet aircraft. The bulk of the Israeli Air Force had been locked into the Mirage but was quickly facing problems because it had been severely depleted after the Six-Day War. They did not have a better alternative than the Mirage. Mossad was able to acquire the plans for the Mirage III, which were used directly in the design process of the Kfir aircraft series. The Israelis are unwilling to give details on how they acquired the enormous documentation that was needed. In a work of fiction carefully written in the style of a historical narrative, Mirage, James Follett estimates that the Israelis received 150,000 drawings of press tools, jigs and piece parts; 400 main airframe drawings; 50,000 instrumentation drawings; and 4000 engines drawings, in addition to some 50,000 documents covering testing and service specifications. This is probably close to the truth - and it gives an idea of the enormous scale of this espionage coup - but it seems likely that the Israelis received all that from a variety of sources, not from a single source as in James Follett's book. The engine drawings did come from a Jewish Swiss engineer named Albert Fraunknecht - re-named Albert Heinkein in James Follett's book - as the Swiss were building Mirages under a licence from Dassault, but the rest is conjectural. It has been speculated that part of the documents came from accomplices within the Dassault company itself, but nothing has ever been proved. Similarly, Dassault is rumored to have violated the embargo by providing the Israelis with two Mirage 5 airframes, something Dassault denies to this day. Only one thing is certain: James Follett was right to write that "in sheer volume of documentation, it was the biggest espionage coup in history, and will probably remain so."
Multiple warnings received by Israeli security agencies indicate that Arab terror groups like Hamas and Hezbollah will attempt to abduct Israelis vacationing in the Mediterranean region.
The warnings prompted the Counter-Terrorism Bureau, a government body, to issue a travel alert on April 10, before the Passover holiday.
Thousands of Israelis travel abroad during Passover every year, including more than 3,000 who flew to Turkey or Greece a few days before the holiday began and some 25,000 tourists who were expected to head into Egypt at the Taba border crossing.
Terror groups are motivated to abduct Israelis by the prospect of securing the release of hundreds of prisoners in a swap with Israel, an appetite that has been whetted by previous abductions - including that of captive soldier Gilad Shalit, who Hamas has held in Gaza since 2006; and of reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, whose remains were returned to Israel as part of a 2008 swap with Hezbollah that resulted in the release of hundreds of Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners.
Hezbollah is also interested in exacting revenge for the February 2008 assassination of senior official Imad Mughniyeh, which the Shi'ite Muslim organization attributes to Israel.
Since his assassination, Hezbollah has made approximately 10 attempts to carry out a revenge attack on Israeli targets abroad, but failed in its efforts to abduct Israelis and to set off car bombs near the Israeli embassy in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku.
[Ma'an] A Democratic Front for the Liberation of Paleostine ... a breakaway faction of the Pöpular Frönt för the Liberation of Paleostine. The are regarded as the most intellectual of Paleostinian fedayeen groups, smoking cheap cigarettes and drawing heavily on Marxist-Leninist theory to explain their crappy lives. They can occasionally be seen strutting through the streets of Paleostine, dressed up like soldiers and lugging firearms, though they seldom manage to hit anything and then usually by accident. This may be because of their habit of wearing black masks that cut off most of their vision. That would also explain their habit of occasionally walking into walls, which is a well-known attribute of those immersed in true understanding of the dialectic... leader returned home Wednesday after decades in exile.
Ahmad Abed Al-Aziz, 63, a DFLP leader who was barred for 40 years from returning to Deir Al-Balah, lived in Libya until this week.
Abed Al-Aziz, who sustained injuries defending refugee camps in Leb, was met by a delegation from the secular Paleostinian faction after he crossed through the Erez terminal on the Israeli border.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2011 00:00 ||
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Next month, the Army is going to start sending the "ballistic boxers" to soldiers in Afghanistan, and the Marines intend for each of their troops there to have four pairs of the "protective undergarments," as they are formally known, before the end of the year.
The heavy silk boxers, which look like shorts that professional cyclists wear, won't stop a bullet or shrapnel from an IED. But the silk can stop small projectiles like those kicked up by an explosion.
"It is expected to prevent fine sands and particles that are thrown up by explosives, so that the tissue wounds are cleaner, less ragged and easier to treat," said Lt. Jamie Larson, a Marines Corps spokesperson. And since the silk is treated with antimicrobial agents, the boxers help protect injured troops from wound infections.
Genghis Khan was once said to have issued all his horsemen with silk vests, as an arrow hitting silk does not break it but ends up embedded in the flesh wrapped in silk, allowing the arrow to be removed by gently teasing the silk open, as opposed to the usual method of removing barbed arrows, cutting them out or pushing them right through an injured limb and out of the other side.
#9
It is expected to prevent fine sands and particles that are thrown up by explosives, so that the tissue wounds are cleaner, less ragged and easier to treat... since the silk is treated with antimicrobial agents, the boxers help protect injured troops from wound infections.
Considering that Marines tend to ignore the "little hurts" and that they're out in the field for weeks, it'll probably cut down on a lot of incapacitation due to infection.
Not to mention making my FMF corpsmens' work a bit easier.
My grandfather talked of how the Japanese used silk in WWII to hang down at the entrance of caves to protect the men. The Americans would shoot at the mortar and machine gunners and the silk would catch the M1 bullet, tumble it down the silk and have it drop harmlessly on the cave floor. They could see the silk sheet flip with each bullet.
The Americans had to use HE shells to clear the caves out.
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.
[Tolo News] European countries are in an effort to establish a business link with Afghanistan using middle-east railway networks.
David Cameron
Kurram Agency
Wazoo
Moqtada 
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Paleostine
