[Quqnoos] President Karzai says he is mulling a return to a conscript army as he seeks to expand the Afghan security forces. That works if you're looking for quantity versus quality...
Speaking to 46th annual Munich Security Conference on Sunday, President Hamid Karzai said he wants to build an army and police force of 300,000 by 2012. "Right now we have a volunteer system, which means an army entirely paid for and professionals," Karzai said, but noted: "As in other countries, Afghanistan had a strong tradition of conscript army." The professionals were mostly in the KhAD. The cannon fodder got chewed up, along with their Soviet cannon fodder counterparts.
KhAD: according to Wikipedia, the Afghan secret police during the Soviet period, subsequently transferring its loyalties to the Northern Alliance.
He said community leaders had been advising "me to go back to some form of conscription for the Afghan army, so the young boys from the Afghan countryside can come to training centres ... and learn something, and go back home". The purpose of a military force is to defeat the enemy, whomever that may be. "Learning something" is a side benefit, the means rather than the end. But what do I know? I don't wear a cape.
Conscription for the Afghan army was compulsory in Afghanistan until 1992. Did a lot of good, didn't it? Look at all the guys who learned to shoot off ...
Karzai's remarks come as NATO and its partners strive to build the Afghan army and police up so they can gradually take responsibility for the security of their own country. "By the year 2012, we in Afghanistan we should have at least 300,000 of our army and police force that is trained and equipped, that is able to take leading responsibility in a greater part of the country," he said. "This also means that in five years, Afghanistan should be able to provide responsibility for its people, so we are no longer a burden on the shoulders of the international community," he added.
Afghan Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said last week there was no need for conscription as the army had no lack of recruits.
The comment comes as US military heading its NATO and Afghan allies are preparing to launch their biggest offensive since 2001 in the volatile southern Afghanistan. The NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen Stanley McChrystal, said the major offensive which is about to begin in central Helmand would send a "strong signal that the Afghan government is expanding its security control".
Thousands of coalition and Afghan troops are converging for the operation to capture the town of Marja, a Taliban stronghold and a key centre for narco-trade. Provincial officials said about 35,000 residents of Marja were taking the advice and heading to other parts of Helmand ahead of the operation.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/09/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Slavery for the Army is even more immoral than slavery for a less dangerous job.
#3
It's one way to present to most of the male population the ideas that "shoes is good", and "always wash your hands with soap before and after", and even, "there's your way, and his way, and the Army way". And if everyone has to learn enough reading and writing to send a letter home every week...
The question is whether he wants a conscript army or would like to engage in a bit of undercover social engineering while the volunteer professionals do the real soldiering. Remember too, President Obama is publicly committed to sending the troops home by a date certain, and the Europeans are unhappy about committing much in the way of troops at all, so Afghanistan is going to at least have to look like it can take care of itself in an unreasonably short period of time. The volunteer army won't be ready by then, however hard their trainers, and the professors at East Point, push.
[Bangla Daily Star] Twenty-eight Bangladesh Rifles members yesterday appealed to a Dhaka court to let them retract their confessional statements given earlier on the February 2009 at the BDR headquarters in Pilkhana.
After the hearing, Metropolitan Magistrate Dr Abdul Majid directed the authorities concerned to keep the petitions into the case file.
The petitioners alleged that they were tortured in custody during interrogation to give confessional statements.
During the hearing, the petitioners were produced before the court and they described what they went through during their remand period.
Earlier, 177 BDR men submitted similar petitions on different days.
Criminal Investigation Department had so far arrested a total of 2,190 BDR members including 30 civilians for their alleged involvement in the carnage.
BNP leader Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu and Awami League leader Torab Ali were arrested in the case.
Of them, a total of 2,151 members were remanded while 521 gave confessional statements.
At least 74 people, including 57 army officers deputed to the paramilitary force, were killed in the February 25-26 bloody mutiny at the Pilkhana in the capital.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/09/2010 00:00 ||
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The petitioners alleged that they were tortured in custody during interrogation to give confessional statements
say it ain't so! Hey...how's your liver feeling? Your heart?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/09/2010 19:15 Comments ||
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A STUDENT branded Scotland’s first home grown terrorist had his conviction overturned today at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh.
ASky News reported Mohammed Atif Siddique from Alva, Clackmannanshire, was found guilty of three offences under the Terrorism Act 2000 and a breach of the peace in 2007. He was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Last month, three senior judges ruled he had suffered from a miscarriage of justice.
The most serious charge at the the original trial, which accounted for six years of his sentence, alleged he possessed computer equipment and other material.
In these circumstances, it gave rise to "a reasonable suspicion that your possession was for a purpose connected with the commission, preparation or instigation of an act or terrorism."
The crime was an offence under the Terrorism Act 2000, but the law also recognised a defence of possession without intention to commit an act of terrorism.
Throughout, Siddique protested his innocence, claiming that when he downloaded material from the internet he was motivated only by curiosity. He denied that he was planning any terrorist attack.
#1
Last month, three senior judges ruled he had suffered from a miscarriage of justice.
Look for the same thing to occur in the U.S. with the Obama/Holder law-and-order approach to handling these cut-throats. They probably will be released because they were not properly "Mirandized."
SEOUL, Feb. 9 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il Monday met with a senior Chinese official in Pyongyang, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday.
"Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, Monday received the visiting delegation of the International Liaison Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China led by its Head Wang Jiarui," the KCNA said. DPRK stands for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Wang flew to Pyongyang Saturday to help jumpstart the six-party nuclear talks, stalled over international sanctions on North Korea after the North's nuclear and missile tests early last year. Wang has met with the reclusive North Korean dwarf leader on each of four visits since 2004.
The KCNA said that Wang conveyed to Kim "a verbal personal message" from Chinese President Hu Jintao, without elaborating on the content, and that Kim "expressed thanks for this and asked Wang Jiarui to convey his regards to Hu Jintao."
After having "a cordial and friendly conversation" with Wang, Kim hosted a dinner for Wang and other delegates, the report said.
Wang's trip to Pyongyang comes amid a flurry of diplomacy to help revive the multilateral nuclear talks, which have been on and off since they were launched in 2003.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's special envoy, Lynn Pascoe, will fly to Pyongyang Tuesday for a four-day stay to discuss the North's nuclear ambitions, as well as providing humanitarian aid to the impoverished North and other issues. That will be the first bilateral contact since 2004, when Maurice Strong, then-Secretary General Kofi Annan's special envoy for North Korea, visited Pyongyang.
They'll consume more food than a hundred North Korean peasants. In a month.
Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, just concluded his trip to Seoul and Tokyo to reconfirm their pledge that they will not discuss easing sanctions and a peace treaty unless North Korea returns to the six-party talks first.
North Korea has demanded that, prior to the resumption of the nuclear talks, sanctions be lifted and a peace treaty be signed to replace the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.
Amid conflicting messages from North Korea, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley Friday expressed appreciation for China's effort to revive the nuclear talks. "The Chinese senior officials have regular discussions with North Korea," Crowley said. "We value that leadership by China."
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/09/2010 00:00 ||
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Kimmie has also repor pledged to CHINA his desire + suppor for complete DE-NUCLEARIZATION OF THE ENTIRE KOREAN PENINSULA.
Two key North Korean agencies threatened a "sacred war of retaliation" against South Korea on Monday. In a statement on Monday, the Ministry of Public Security and the State Security Department said what they claimed were South Korean attempts to topple the North Korean regime "have gone beyond the danger line." "A sacred war of retaliation to wipe out insidious elements has already begun," they fulminated.
The statement threatened "comprehensive measures to frustrate antinational and anti-unification maneuvers by the rabble" in South Korea "who are seeking to overthrow" the North Korean regime "and trigger internal disintegration." "We are keeping a world-class, ultramodern strike force and security tools that have not been disclosed yet," they claimed.
It was the first joint statement by the two security agencies and came even as officials from the two sides were talking about the resumption of lucrative package tours to the North's Mt. Kumgang resort. Already on Jan. 15, Pyongyang threatened a "sacred war of retaliation" while accepting 10,000 tons of food aid from Seoul.
In Monday's statement, the two agencies listed a slew of grievances, including a South Korean contingency plan in the event of regime collapse in the North, and a skirmish that ended in defeat for North Korean Navy near the Northern Limit Line, the de-facto maritime border in the West Sea, as well as propaganda activities by South Korean campaigners.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/09/2010 00:00 ||
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I think I've been missing their "cold" moments.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
02/09/2010 7:43 Comments ||
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Pyongyang threatened a "sacred war of retaliation" while accepting 10,000 tons of food aid from Seoul.
Who knew SK is shorthand for SucKer?
Posted by: ed ||
02/09/2010 8:37 Comments ||
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#3
I'm OK with that
Posted by: Hot and Cold ||
02/09/2010 16:06 Comments ||
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Posted by: Ebbesh Speaking for Boskone2051 ||
02/09/2010 07:29 ||
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Welcome to Protected Classes-101:
Civil Rights Act of 1964 - CRA - Title VII - Equal Employment Opportunities - 42 US Code Chapter 21
Religion The term "religion" includes "all aspects of religious observance and practice, as well as belief." 42 U.S.C. � 2000e-(j). The EEOC Guidelines state that protected religious practices "include moral or ethical beliefs as to what is right and wrong which are sincerely held with the strength of traditional religious views." 29 C.F.R. � 1605.1.
Sincerity of religious belief is an issue for the trier of fact. E.E.O.C. v. Ilona of Hungary, Inc., 97 F.3d 204 (7th Cir. 1997). The statute imposes a duty to "reasonably accommodate to an employee's or prospective employee's religious observance or practice" unless doing so would impose an "undue hardship on the conduct of the employer's business." 42 U.S.C. � 2000e-(j).
Title VII exempts from coverage a "religious corporation, association, educational institution, or society with respect to the employment of individuals of a particular religion to perform work connected with the carrying on by such corporation, association, educational institution, or society of its activities." 42 U.S.C. � 2000e-1(a). Religious discrimination is also not unlawful under Title VII where religion is a BFOQ for the job in question. 42 U.S.C. � 2000e-2(e)(1).
#2
"All federal and commissioned officers take an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic, and that mandates a duty to be clear on who the enemies of our Constitution are, and a failure to know is a failure of duty."
LOS ANGELES, Feb 8 (Reuters) - An ex-Boeing Co (BA.N) engineer, found guilty last year of passing space shuttle secrets to China in America's first conviction under a 1996 espionage law, was sentenced on Monday to 15 years in prison. Dongfan "Greg" Chung, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was convicted in July of economic espionage and acting as an agent for the People's Republic of China.
In sentencing Chung to 188 months behind bars, U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney, who presided over the 10-day trial in Santa Ana, California, said he wanted to send a signal to China to "stop sending your spies here," according to prosecutors.
Chung, 73, the first person convicted at trial under the Economic Espionage Act, told the judge he was innocent. "Your honor, I'm not a spy, I'm an ordinary man," he said. "I was planning to write a book. Those documents were going to be used for my references.
"I love this country, my children and grandchildren live here," said Chung, who was born in China and lived in Taiwan before moving to the United States in 1962. "I beg your pardon, I want to live with my family peacefully."
In convicting him in July, the judge found that Chung had acted as an agent of the Chinese government for over 30 years.
Chung was arrested on Sept. 11, 2006, after federal agents searching his home found more than 300,000 pages of sensitive documents relating to the space shuttle, Delta IV rocket, F-15 fighter, B-52 bomber, CH-46/47 Chinook helicopter and other aerospace and military technologies.
Must have been a long book ...
They also discovered letters, lists and journals detailing Chung's communications with officials in China.
... with lots of co-authors ...
Defense lawyers said Chung was a "pack rat" who had hoarded documents at his Orange County, California, home but said he did not pass any classified information to the Chinese government.
"Mr. Chung betrayed his adopted country and endangered our national security," acting U.S. Attorney George Cardona said in a written statement. "This case demonstrates our resolve to protect the secrets that help protect the United States as well as the important technological advancements developed by scientists working for companies that provide crucial support to our national security programs."
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/09/2010 00:00 ||
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Chinese means Chinese. It is not a nationality, it is a race and a culture. Just because the guy carries a U.S. passport around doesn't mean jack shit. We're going to be unpleasantly, politically incorrectly surprised by many incidents like this in the future.
The greatest threat to the United States are not nuclear-armed countries like North Korea or Iran but "transnational non-state networks," namely Islamic extremists linked to al-Qaeda, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claimed Sunday.
Sorry, Hilde, there is no 'war on terror', no 'transnational non-state networks', and Guantanamo's current inmates are just misguided. Didn't you get the memo?
In an interview with CNN, Clinton said, "Most of us believe the greater threats are the transnational non-state networks, primarily the extremists -- the fundamentalist Islamic extremists who are connected to al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula or al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan." She said these networks "continue to try to increase the sophistication of their capacity. The attacks that they're going to make and the... biggest nightmare that any of us have is that one of these terrorist member organizations... will get their hands on a weapon of mass destruction."
But Clinton added, "In terms of a country, obviously, a nuclear-armed country like North Korea or Iran pose both a real or a potential threat."
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/09/2010 00:00 ||
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NOT TO BE OUTDONE, ION NEWS KERALA > seems INDIAN POLICE Commander thinks the NAXAL Threat is worse.
#3
Grom, not sure she meant it that way. And if so, she's stoopid. Iran may decide to do nasty by proxy to have a plausible deniability, instead of direct attacks.
#7
JohnQC, I don't think it would work. Were she quit a while ago, for reasons of disagreement, she would have built good credentials. But that time is in the past. She missed it. She's stained.
#8
She's also missing the fact that these networks "continue to try to increase the sophistication of their capacity" through the "transnational non-state networks," namely Islamic extremists linked to al-Qaeda. Iran Hezbollah) is using Nork technology, received from Pakistan's AQ Khan, and compartmentalizing ideaologies is failing to "connect the dots". However, I don't envy her position and would rather have her at the helm than Zero.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Rescuers hunted Monday for survivors or more dead in the rubble of a U.S. power plant after a massive gas explosion tore it apart and killed at least five workers as terrorism has been ruled out as the cause of the blast.
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) in Washington said it would send a seven-person team to the blast site. The team is expected on the scene midday Monday, the independent investigative agency said in a statement.
Officials cautioned that they did not know how many people were in the Kleen Energy plant, which was still being built, and therefore they could not immediately account for everyone who may have been present.
"We know that 12 individuals have been injured. Five individuals are known to have lost their lives," Sebastian Giuliano, the mayor of Middletown, Connecticut, told a news conference.
Terrorism had been ruled out, according to the mayor, who said the accident, which broke the windows of nearby residential buildings and shook houses miles (kilometers) away, happened during a testing procedure.
Rescue workers helped by search dogs scoured the rubble at the plant where a brief, but fierce fire following the accident sent flames and black smoke billowing skyward.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/09/2010 00:00 ||
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Any construction project I have worked on, any testing or charging of gas lines is never done without clearing the site of everybody save the gas guys.
[Al Arabiya Latest] President Barack Obama Sunday acknowledged fierce opposition to his plans to bring accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to justice in New York, but would not rule out such a trial, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that al-Qaeda still poses a greater danger than nuclear Iran
The administration had hoped to prosecute Sheikh Mohammed and four co-defendants in a federal court in lower Manhattan, close to the site of the World Trade Center attack which killed nearly 3,000 people in 2001.
But the plan has faced blanket opposition from local lawmakers and authorities who have balked at the huge costs of such a trial, while others have warned of perceived security implications.
"I have not ruled it out, but I think it is important for us to take into account the practical logistical issues involved," Obama said in a live interview from the White House on CBS.
"If you have got a city that is saying no, and a police department that is saying no, and a mayor that is saying no, that makes it difficult," Obama said.
But he added: "we have not ruled out anything -- we will make a definitive judgment based on consultations with all the relevant authorities."
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg initially welcomed the idea of holding a Sept. 11 trial in New York, but reversed his position last month, saying that a military base would make more sense as a venue.
Sheikh Mohammed and the four co-defendants are currently incarcerated in the Guantanamo Bay U.S. military facility in Cuba, which Obama says he will close down, although he has missed a one-year deadline to do so.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/09/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Since the Pentagon was attacked on 9-11, KSM should be subject to a Military Tribunal. QED.
Aid groups in Pakistan need nearly $538 million over the next six months to help hundreds of thousands of people displaced by army clashes against the Taliban, the U.N. said in an international appeal Tuesday.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/09/2010 16:05 ||
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I'm sure it will be spent wisely.
sarc/off
Posted by: American Delight ||
02/09/2010 17:54 Comments ||
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And will free up Pakistani funds to support the Taliban...
[Dawn] Taliban militants are digging in ahead of a major Nato operation in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan.
"The Taliban are not going to leave Marjah. We have seen them preparing themselves. They are bringing in people and weapons. We know there is going to be a big fight," said Abdul Manan, a man from Marjah.
"The Taliban are very active in Marjah. They are planting mines there and in the surrounding areas," said villager Abdul Khaleq after arriving in Lashkar Gah.
Abdullah Nasrat, a Taliban commander in Nad Ali district where Marjah is located, told Reuters by telephone there were some 2,000 militants ready to fight to the death.
"We are well prepared and will fight until the end. We don't have sophisticated weapons like the Americans with tanks and aeroplanes, but we have Islamic zeal. That is the power we have to fight against the infidels," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/09/2010 00:00 ||
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Abdullah Nasrat, a Taliban commander in Nad Ali district where Marjah is located, told Reuters by telephone there were some 2,000 militants ready to fight to the death.
Great ! Fish in a barrel .. 2000 less
Posted by: Oscar ||
02/09/2010 3:23 Comments ||
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#2
Here, fishy fishy fishy . . . .
And let's not have any repeats of the house from hell in Fallujah. Give a loudspeaker warning and then drop an SDB or tactical nuke or whatever on anything that looks suspicious.
And those guys gotta eat or take a dump sometime, so I'll bet snipers and lots of night raids would be in order since it's basically a war zone and AFAIAC, if the civilians didn't bug out, they are giving their tacit approval for whatever tactics we see fit. War us not a gentleman's game in this corner of the world.
Posted by: Formerly Dan ||
02/09/2010 7:46 Comments ||
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I fear that what they mean by "digging in" is filling bunkers with women, children, and fluffy bunnies & painting big ol' "kick me" signs on the rooftops. With just enough gunnies to bait the traps.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
02/09/2010 7:47 Comments ||
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Keep the reporters out ( for their own good naturally) Then go in there and do what has to be done. Even the fluffy bunnies. Then police the place up for the meat wagon and put it all down in a basement somewhere and bulldoze it over. THEN let the Press in and let them wander around.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Monday he has received assurances that judges will resolve a simmering row over who can stand in Iraq's general election before official campaigning starts on Feb. 12.
Around 100 lawmakers had gathered earlier at parliament for an emergency session to debate a contentious decision to allow hundreds of candidates allegedly linked to executed dictator Saddam Hussein's Baath party to stand in the vote.
The meeting was triggered by Maliki after he branded as "illegal" a judicial panel's ruling that around 500 previously barred candidates could compete in the March 7 vote after all, subject to a post-ballot appeals process.
But the parliament meeting was called off when MPs were told the chamber had received a letter from Maliki that said a judicial panel would complete an appeals process by next Friday, more than three weeks ahead of polling day.
The letter specified that "the panel of judges decided to start immediately the study of the appeals," deputy parliament speaker Khaled al-Attiya told MPs.
A parliamentary official told AFP that the judicial panel had also written to parliament to say it will be able to complete its review of candidates by Friday, when official campaigning is due to start.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/09/2010 00:00 ||
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[Ma'an] Hamas will instruct its government in the Gaza Strip to release detainees held on political grounds and reopen the Fatah party headquarters within the next two days, a top Fatah official said on Monday.
Speaking days after his first trip since 2007 to the besieged coastal enclave, Central Committee member Nabil Sha'ath said Fatah officials were already permitted to visit without any special permit.
"I informed Hamas that I rejected their security escort or visits to their government offices, and I held meetings freely," he said following a meeting in Cairo with Amr Moussa, the Arab League secretary-general.
Sha'ath said Hamas requested that its members receive better treatment in the West Bank, and that he responded, "They have freedom of movement and they have no problems. When someone from Hamas told me a Hamas delegation wanted to visit the West Bank, I said: 'Welcome; I came here with permission from the occupying authorities, so whoever wants to visit the West Bank is more than welcome.'"
He said his main objective during the visit was to prove that the state of political division was not irreversible. "We do not want to deepen the division, which is why President Abbas decided that executive and legislative members should visit the strip to break the boycott," he said, pointing out that "this is no substitute for signing the Egyptian document," a plan put forth by Cairo to bring the two sides together.
"Failure to conclude reconciliation before [next month's Arab] summit will mean our participation will be for the purposes of reconciliation, but if there has been an agreement before the summit, it will allow us to demand political support to remove the siege and face the occupation," the Fatah official explained.
Asked about how he felt when he visited the site of his demolished house in Gaza, Sha'ath said that "the situation is sad; it's true that my house is destroyed, but the country is more important than my house."
In Cairo, Sha'ath said he and Moussa discussed efforts to secure fuel shipments to the Gaza Energy Authority to run its sole power plant. According to Sha'ath, caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad "has assured me that work is being done to provide electricity to Gaza to ease the siege imposed on its citizens, and other gestures from Fatah in order to encourage the Egyptian paper's ratification."
He added: "I spoke to Amr Moussa about the political process, the outcome of US envoy George Mitchell's visit to the region, and Palestinian steadfastness for [withstanding] pressure, as well as negotiations, pointing out that our stance needs Arab support in every respect."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/09/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
detainees held on political grounds
Wait a minute. I thought only evil types like juice or neocons did stuff like that. Someone call Amnesia International!
#2
There's your mistake, Spot dear. It's only evil when juices or neo-cons do it. When noble savages like Hamas do it, it is merely and expression of their nobly savage native culture, and thus A Good Thing.
[Ma'an] De facto Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said on Monday that the blockade and walls surrounding Gaza would not force Palestinians to submit to external control.
He was speaking at a reception honoring the Interior Ministry in Gaza City.
"Gaza is surrounded on three sides; north, east, and south; to make it raise a white flag," Haniyeh said, insisting that Egypt's underground wall would not have the desired effect.
"The escalation of the blockade and the siege is aimed at bringing down the government and making the Palestinian people kneel," he added.
First exposed by the Israeli daily Haaretz, Egypt has been constructing an underground steel wall to stem the flow of smuggling into the coastal enclave. First constructed to transport weapons, tunnels supply Palestinians with daily needs like food and fuel, necessitated by the ongoing military blockade.
Haniyeh said his government "is entering its fourth year in the next few days, and no one can deny the accomplishments and successes it made in achievements in security, stability, preventing chaos and restoring the rights to the people through courts and the judiciary."
In comparison to the West Bank's caretaker government, long accused of arresting members of Hamas for political reasons, he said, "We used force when it was necessary and in such cases it is limited."
The Hamas leader's remarks on stability came amid controversy, however, over what human rights organizations have termed an escalating "state of security chaos and misuse of weapons" in Gaza. Last week, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights called on the Office of the Attorney General in Gaza to open investigations into a series of bombings and arsons in recent days.
Even on Sunday, two unknown gunmen fired at a doctor in Gaza City while he was on his way to his work, the PCHR noted. He was wounded by three bullets to the leg and foot. Three days earlier, unknown militants abducted, tortured and shot at a man from Jabaliya refugee camp for reasons that were not clear.
"PCHR strongly condemns these two attacks, which represent part of the state of security chaos and proliferation of weapons" plaguing the occupied Palestinian territories, and called upon the attorney general to swiftly apprehend the assailants and bring them to justice.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/09/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
If I were betting, my stake is on Egypt, Hanny-eh.
#3
Do the Gaza folks ever wonder why nobody likes them? Or , for that matter, why nobody even respects them?
And does it ever light the bulb dimly that everyone CLOSEST to then builds walls and sprays disinfectant on them when they stand there waiting to shake hands?
#1
I know this may be my first redacted comment but I just had to put this up. "The U.N. Speech You Wish George Bush Had Given." (heh!)
Posted by: War On Terror ||
02/09/2010 11:30 Comments ||
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OTOH GUAMPDN FORUM > CVN-21 BATTLESHIP [Battleship-Carrier]??? Ala proposed USN dredging of Guam's APRA HARBOR for CV berthing, SUBBY opines that perhaps a covert reason for the CVN-21's expanded ammo compartment designs is that the USN may emplace a EM RAIL GUN COMSYS ABOARD SHIP, WID AIR OPERS MANNED ANDOR UAV, SECONDARY OR COMPLEMENTARY TO LR RAIL GUN SATURATION OR PRECISION FIRE SUPPORT.
SUBBY > "WHAT COULD DEFEAT SUCH A SHIP - NOTHING! ... WUDDA THUNK, THE BATTLESHIP IS BACK" [new form]!?
** Lest we fergit, THE SIMPSONS' NED FLANDERS [paraph]= "ALWAYS REMEMBER, MY SONS, UNITARIANS ARE THE ENEMY"!
Posted by: Ebbesh Speaking for Boskone2051 ||
02/09/2010 07:07 ||
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ION TOPIX > RUSSIAN EXPERT: IRAN WILL ANNOUNCE NUKE. Iran's moves as per new 20% Uranium Enrichment + new NucPlants is leading the Middle East on a path towards inevitable War + Conflict.
The United States and France have called for fresh sanctions against Iran after Tehran formally said it would begin enriching higher-grade nuclear fuel to a level of 20 per cent. Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, and Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, said Iran should face "strong sanctions" over its nuclear programme, a French official said following a meeting between the two men in Paris.
PJ Crowley, a spokesman for the US state department, told Al Jazeera that Washington was "looking at how we can apply pressure on Iran, on the government itself".
"We have no interest in creating additional hardships on the Iranian people but we'll be looking at a variety of options particularly focused on the Revolutionary Guard Corps that's played an increasing role in not only Iran's security but also its economy.
"We should try to support the Iranian people but certainly we have to look at ways in which we can apply pressure on the government and its various entities so that should Iran continue to act in contradiction to UN Security Council resolutions, that it will pay a price for that intransigence."
Recognising that "there is a legitimate humanitarian need in having additional fuel that can provide the Tehran research reactor the ability to produce medical isotopes that have a valuable role for the Iranian people", Crowley said the US had not "given up on engagement".
"We're willing to sit down with Iran as we did last fall in a good faith effort - Iran has to be willing to meet us halfway," he said.
Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, said on Monday that he did not believe Iran had the ability to raise the enrichment level of its uranium and that the move by Tehran was "blackmail".
"One could call it diplomacy, but if that is what is then it is truly negative," said Kouchner.
Gates also said more pressure had to be applied to the Iranian government. "The only path that is left to us at this point, it seems to me, is that pressure track but it will require all of the international community to work together," Gates said. "We must still try and find a peaceful way to resolve this issue."
Asked about the possibility of an Israeli strike on Iran over its nuclear programme, Gates said: "Everybody's interest is in seeing this issue resolved without a resort to conflict."
Kouchner said all the major powers apart from China were in favour of a fourth round of UN-backed sanctions. However, he said there was no deadline for reaching an agreement and added that he did not fear that any Israeli action was imminent.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/09/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
TOPIX > WHILE WORLD [+ Obama] DITHERS, IRAN MOVES CLOSER TO NUCLEAR BOMB + IRAN MOVES CLOSER TO NUCLEAR BOMB CAPACITY.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that Iran's enemies will not be able to block the country's scientific progress.
In an address to the Second National Festival of Innovation and Prosperity in Tehran on Monday, Ahmadinejad said that young Iranian students would continue to attain great achievements in various technological fields.
The Iranian president also said the enemy assassinated Iranian particle physicist Massoud Ali-Mohammadi but added that such attacks would only strengthen the country's resolve to strive to attain even greater scientific achievements.
Members of the Ali-Mohammadi family attended the festival, which was held as part of the Ten-Day Dawn celebrations commemorating the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.
Professor Massoud Ali-Mohammadi was killed by a remote-controlled bomb that was detonated in front of his home in the Qeytariyeh district of northern Tehran on January 12.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/09/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
MOUD is repor threatening to set up TEN NEW ENRICHMENT PLANTS widin the space of a year iff nuke talks fail.
#2
Talks will fail. Not a bug, but feature as Iran is concerned. I hope Russians are not stupid and have some sort of an override on the SS300 they are supposed to deliver (whenever that is, there seems to be things interfering, causing delivery delays thus far)
[Iran Press TV Latest] Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the Middle East is the region that "will determine the fate of the world."
"The Zionist regime and its allies are on the losing side, and the free nations' resistance is empowered," Ahmadinejad said in Tehran on Monday during a meeting with Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Secretary General Ramadan Abdullah Shallah.
The Iranian president also advised all nations and resistance movements to maintain unity.
Shallah said the world's oppressed people are following the example set by the Islamic Republic of Iran in confronting the arrogant powers.
"The Palestinians, too, as soldiers on the holy path, along with other forces in the region, stand beside Iran against the arrogant powers," he added.
The Palestinian official also held separate talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.
During the meeting, Mottaki said that jihad and resistance are the keys to success for the Palestinians in their struggle against Israel.
He also stated that Tel Aviv will not be able to realize its goals in the Gaza Strip.
And Israel will never dare to attack Iran because the consequences of such an act "would be unpredictable," Mottaki added.
Shallah briefed Mottaki on the latest developments in Palestine and said that Israel is the main reason for instability in the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/09/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
"FATE OF THE WORLD" > Lest we fergit. NOSTRADAMUS QUATRAIN says "...NONE SHALL SEE THE POWERS/FORCES OF ASIA DESTROYED UNTIL SEVEN = THE SEVENTH HOLDS THE LINE".
#5
Well, lets just get on with it, and give them what they seem to crave.
Posted by: Dave UK ||
02/09/2010 9:41 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Hillary needs another memo, with Ahmanutjob calling for unity between nations and extremists, even claiming they have already been "empowered". February 11th is fast approaching....
#7
"The Palestinians, too, as soldiers on the holy path, along with other forces in the region, stand beside Iran against the arrogant powers," he added.
"This is a verdict from Israel, not America. The anger should be directed where it belongs," Siddiqui declared after the court read the judgment against her.
#9
In the immortal words of FRED FLINTSTONE > KKKKKKIIIIIIIIIIIDDDDDDDDZZZZZZ...
* X-MEN'S MAGNETO, Master of [Electro] Magnet > "YOUNG PEOPLE"!
See also TOPIX > POLITICAL SCIENTIST GULUZADE: TURKEY MAY CUT OFF RELATIONS IFF US RECOGNIZES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE, US TO TARGET TURKEY AFTER IRAN.
* SAME > NICHOLAI BORDYUZHA: NEW MILITARY DOCTRINE [Preventive/Preemptive Nuc Strikes] CONFIRMS RUSSIA'S ALLIANCE OBLIGATIONS WIDIN CSTO.
* SAME > RUSSIAN FM LAVROV: OSCE HAS FAILED/SHATTERED EUROPEAN SECURITY IN ALL PARAMETERS.
ONCE AGAIN, RUSSIA > Among other, deems any Terror Attack invol NBC-CBRNE WMDS agz It + any Lessor Member State of the CSTO-SCO as a DE FACTO ATTACK AGZ RUSSIA, to which Russia reserves its right to use NUCLEAR WEAPONS IN RETALIATORY MILITARY RESPONSE.
IOW, RUSSIA MAY UNILATER PREEMPTIVELY ATTACK THE USA WID NUCLEAR WEAPS IFF IT BELIEVES THAT A MAJOR TERROR ATTACK WAS LAUNCHED AGZ IT AS ORDERED/SPONSORED BY THE US, DIRECTLY ANDOR INDIRECTLY; OR IN THE ALTERN WAS ABOUT TO BE LAUNCHED AGZ RUSS + CSTO-SCO BY SAME.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Britain's official inquiry into the Iraq war for the second time linked the conflict with Iran at a session on Monday dedicated to further investigate the invasion's legality.
The former foreign secretary and the incumbent justice secretary, Jack Straw, reappeared before the Downing Street-selected committee investigating the build up to the 2003 war and denied "ignoring" legal advice that war would be in breach of international law without a second UN Security Council resolution.
During his testimony, however, Straw ventured to mention Iran, this time with a view starkly opposing those expressed by former Premier Tony Blair, who urged strong international action against the country over it energy nuclear program.
"Iran have not invaded any other country," the Times quoted Straw as saying Monday during the testimony.
"They [Iran] couldn't stand al-Qaeda ... or the Taliban anymore than we could," said the British minister who asserted that the country's inclusion in former US President George Bush's "axis of evil" incomprehensible.
"I think it's simplistic to regard Iran as a bogeyman," Straw said.
An unrepentant Tony Blair, the prime minister at the time of the Iraq war, portrayed Iran as nothing short of a growing threat during his evidence to the Chilcot inquiry two weeks ago, as he veered off the Iraq question to argue that al-Qaeda's 9/11 attack in the United States had been the major factor that balance the scale towards acting on Iraq.
Blair mentioned Iran 58 times during his appearance and argued that he now sees the same justification for invading Iraq about Iran.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/09/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
An almost eerie comparison to a prewar Hitler apologist.
#7
I really don't think it matters what a blathering former UK pol says. I suspect a limited scope strike against Iran, with a stronger backchannel warning to follow, will soon be forthcoming. The 12-24 hour ball will then be squarely in their court. If they retaliate, all hell will break loose. The next few weeks should be quite interesting.
#8
I seem to recall Debka or some similar source reporting Israeli predictions that the Iranian nuke program would reach a critical mass (so to speak) by Feb 2010 if it weren't stopped. Looks like they were right, given the recent announcement of higher concentration uranium processing.
Straw was one of the pooh-poohers of that prediction, a man who treasures his stripped morning suit and the formal occasions on which he is able to wear them.
US conservative darling Sarah Palin says she thinks President Barack Obama should declare war on Iran.
The one-time Republican vice presidential candidate said in an interview with Fox News that Obama should play the war card if he wants to get re-elected in 2012.
"Say he decided to declare war on Iran or decided really to come out and do whatever he could to support Israel, which I would like him to do," she said on Sunday.
The military attack "changes the dynamics in what we can assume is going to happen between now and three years," Palin added.
The former Alaskan governor also noted that she does not think the US president would be re-elected if he ran today.
She made the remarks as the US and its allies have been flexing their muscles to impose a new round of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday ordered the country's atomic chief to boost uranium enrichment up to 20 percent while adding that talks were still possible on a nuclear deal.
Tehran says it needs the enrichment as thousands of patients will suffer if domestic production comes to an end when a research reactor in Tehran runs out of fuel.
Iran has requested the International Atomic Energy Agency to arrange for supplying of the fuel to the country. The West has been pressuring Iran to accept a UN-backed draft deal which requires Iran to send most of its domestically-produced low enriched uranium (LEU) abroad for conversion into the more refined fuel that the Tehran reactor requires to produce medical isotopes.
Iran says its concerns over the proposal, which was first floated by the US, should be heeded. The development comes as Tehran has been trying to find a middle ground with the West over the nuclear swap.
Washington, however, has insisted on the imposition of fresh sanctions on the country.
Three sets of sanctions had already been imposed on Iran. Despite other countries which have veto power in the UN Security Council, China has insisted on continued dialogue to resolve the issue.
The US, which has accused Iran of developing nuclear weapons, has also threatened the Islamic Republic with war to force Tehran into halting its nuclear activities.
The war drums are being beaten as new reports have revealed that the Israeli navy has dispatched two ships armed with missiles into the Persian Gulf.
Tehran which has been under various US sanctions since the Islamic Revolution toppled a US-backed monarch in 1979 rejects the accusations as politically motivated.
Iran's nuclear program was launched in the 1950's with the help of the US as part of the 'Atoms for Peace' program. After the 1979 Revolution, Western companies working on Iran's program refused to fulfill their obligations even though they had been paid in full.
Iran is a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and, unlike some of its regional neighbors, has opened its enrichment plants to UN inspection.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/09/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
OTOH TOPIX > A DEVASTATING WAR BETWEEN ISRAEL AND HEZBOLLAH IS ON THE HORIZON [may occur ina few months time], + BEWARE THE COMING WAR.
#3
Of course Iran has been beating the drums of war for a long time, well before they funded and directed military operations in Iraq against the UN mandated forces, let alone the continued and strident declaration of the destruction of another sovereign state.
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.
[Quqnoos] President Karzai says he is mulling a return to a conscript army as he seeks to expand the Afghan security forces.
SEOUL, Feb. 9 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il Monday met with a senior Chinese official in Pyongyang, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday.
Two key North Korean agencies threatened a "sacred war of retaliation" against South Korea on Monday. In a statement on Monday, the Ministry of Public Security and the State Security Department said what they claimed were South Korean attempts to topple the North Korean regime "have gone beyond the danger line." "A sacred war of retaliation to wipe out insidious elements has already begun," they fulminated.
LOS ANGELES, Feb 8 (Reuters) - An ex-Boeing Co (BA.N) engineer, found guilty last year of passing space shuttle secrets to China in America's first conviction under a 1996 espionage law, was sentenced on Monday to 15 years in prison. Dongfan "Greg" Chung, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was convicted in July of economic espionage and acting as an agent for the People's Republic of China.
[Al Arabiya Latest] President Barack Obama Sunday acknowledged fierce opposition to his plans to bring accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to justice in New York, but would not rule out such a trial, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that al-Qaeda still poses a greater danger than nuclear Iran
The United States and France have called for fresh sanctions against Iran after Tehran formally said it would begin enriching higher-grade nuclear fuel to a level of 20 per cent. Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, and Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, said Iran should face "strong sanctions" over its nuclear programme, a French official said following a meeting between the two men in Paris.
