Separately, Afghan Education Minister Muhammad Hanif Atmar said the Afghan government was setting up its own madrassas, or religious schools, to counter the Talibans use of education as a weapon of terrorism. The first will be established in two months, with one eventually to open in each of Afghanistans 34 provinces, the minister said in an interview with AFP.
The enemies of democracy in this country, the enemies of stability in this part of the world, are actually using education as a weapon of terrorism. They have established for some time now across the border hate madrassas.
The enemies of democracy in this country, the enemies of stability in this part of the world, are actually using education as a weapon of terrorism. They have established for some time now across the border hate madrassas, he said.
Afghans from poor backgrounds who are enrolled into these free boarding schools are ripe for recruitment into the Taliban insurgency. They teach them hate and they teach them the kind of things that have no consistency with our religion. And as a result they get suicide bombers recruited from these madrassas and they get Taliban fighters from these madrassas, said the 39-year-old minister, one of the youngest in
The curriculum would produce graduates who are more employable than those from traditional madrassas whose students could only become teachers in religious schools, mullahs or even join the Taliban ranks.
President Hamid Karzais cabinet.
Atmar said it was now the governments ethical responsibility to offer a tolerant and modern Islamic education, as many parents wanted religious schooling for their children. The planned schools, which Atmar said should initially accommodate up to 50,000 children, are to offer 40 percent religious education, 40 percent general education and 20 percent computer science and foreign languages. The curriculum would produce graduates who are more employable than those from traditional madrassas whose students could become teachers in religious schools, mullahs or even join the Taliban ranks, Atmar said. The schools would be supervised by the ministry and community boards to ensure that teachers did not deviate from teaching a moderate version of Islam, he said.
This article starring:
Education Minister Muhammad Hanif Atmar
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2007 00:00 ||
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They teach them hate and they teach them the kind of things that have no consistency with our religion. And as a result they get suicide bombers recruited from these madrassas and they get Taliban fighters from these madrassas,
Forgot to mention that Saudi funds these hate schools!!!!
(SomaliNet) At least 29 migrants have died and 71 others are missing after smugglers forced them at knife-point to jump into the sea off the coast of Yemen, the UN refugee agency has said. Some of the 293 survivors said the smugglers ordered some 450 migrants to jump when their boats hit rough seas near the coast town of Ras al-Kalb.
Smugglers forced them at knife-point to jump into the sea off the coast of Yemen.
"We are horrified by this latest tragedy," said UNHCR's Assistant High Commissioner Erika Feller after returning from a visit to Yemen. "These brutal smugglers care nothing about the fate of the people they prey upon, both refugees and... migrants who are desperate to escape persecution, violence and poverty in the Horn of Africa," Ms Feller said.
Some of the migrants were attacked by sharks, and several recovered bodies showed signs of severe mutilation, the survivors said. The incident is the latest in a series of tragedies involving smugglers' boats carrying people across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2007 00:00 ||
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Migrants, eh? What kinda? I would bet Islamist migrants, scurrying from Somalia.
I am almost sure that the smugglers were religious too and after the migrant disembarked, they no doubt declared: "Allah will sort them out--Allah be praised!"
#1
It needs to be stipulated that "liberal" in ME/Arab context means "classical liberal".
"[Public] opinion likes simplification. Populism, which is becoming increasingly widespread, allows [public opinion] to avoid confronting the complexity of situations, and ignores those forces that entangle a coalition that should actually have gone home long ago [if that were not the case].
"So, 'U.S. go home.' It's so simple! And [saying this] makes one 'with the weak and against the strong' - just like in the good old days of the Vietnam War, of non-alignment, of anti-imperialism, of balcony revolutionaries, of good music, and of hippies."
#3
Ohhh those wacky French engineers they really are thrill seekers arent they? Im sure he just got bored back at the refinery shooting fireworks over the highly explosive liquefied gas pipes and needed a real adrenaline rush. Prolly said to himself hey, wonder what would happen if I desecrated this Koran in front of a bunch of these Yemeni rubes?
Work has begun on the construction of Qatar's first purpose-built church in the desert outside Doha, the country's capital. Although the country's native inhabitants are entirely Muslim - and are prohibited by law from converting to another faith - the new Catholic church will cater to the large number of Christian migrants who have come to the Arabia Gulf state in search of work.
Roman Catholics from all over the Arabian Peninsula - many of them migrant workers - are helping to pay for the $15m building, which is scheduled to open at the end of the year. Overseeing the church is Paul Hinder, the Catholic Church's Bishop of Arabia. A Christian in the heart of the Muslim world, his diocese is the entire Arabian peninsular, encompassing six countries. He oversees churches in Qatar, UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Yemen and even in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam where Christianity is practiced behind closed doors.
Speaking about the Christian communities in Saudi Arabia, he said: "It's not an open church. Privately the Christians may gather in their houses in a very discreet manner. Of course it's not easy to be a bishop here [in the Gulf]. But at least regarding the church life it is full of vitality."
Bishop Paul Hinder oversees churches in Qatar,UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Yemen and even in Saudi Arabia
Hinder said allowing Christians to worship freely could only bring benefits to the countries in which they are working. "The more they [people] are satisfied spiritually the more they will continue to help develop the country, it's obvious," he said.
Hinder told Al Jazeera that often people are more active Christians during their one or two years labouring in the Arabian peninsular than they are when they are back home. Certainly, turn-out at church services all over the Arabian peninsular is significant. Numbers in the congregations regularly beat those in congregations in Europe and even in the United States.
The majority of the two million expatriate Christians who attend these services are Filipinos, Lebanese and Indians who have come to the Gulf for work. "We have to accept that we are expatriates in every sense of the word. We are a pure pilgrimage church," Hinder told Al Jazeera. "The challenge is especially that we are a multi-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-racial church composed of faithful from more or less all over the world."
#5
Bahrain is the most progressive Arab state, but the Emir Hamad of Qatar is making sure his country is moving along the path of development. He took over the country in a bloodless coup in 1995, has built one of the most impressive air force bases in the world - complete with NATO standard NBC protection and aircraft bunkers, and hosts the US CENTCOM in-country on that base.
He also declared that women can vote in any of the local elections that are now permitted - without getting permission from any of the local mullahs. Troublesome mullahs tend to have "accidents" in Qatar.
A woman who lost her husband in the 2004 Madrid train bombings displayed an infamous cartoon mocking the Prophet Mohammad on her T-shirt in front of 29, mostly Muslim, suspects on trial for the attacks on Monday. The woman's white T-shirt showed Mohammad wearing a bomb as a turban -- one of a series published by Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten which unleashed violent protests by some Muslims last year. Punk'd
#3
Love her! Seriously. And that likely hurt their islamic sensibilities -- an insolent woman. We need to clone 20,000 of her and arm them.
Posted by: Captain Lewis ||
03/27/2007 6:29 Comments ||
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#4
Pity she can't treat the muzzy scum the way Franco treated all those commies he caught. They deserve a little Spanish Civil War prisoner treatment.
Posted by: Mac ||
03/27/2007 8:12 Comments ||
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The woman sat in the front row of the court wearing the T-shirt for around half-an-hour before getting up, walking up to the glass cage containing the defendants and finally walking out of the court, judicial sources said.
The lead judge in the case, Javier Gomez Bermudez, asked security staff to identify the woman as she left the court. She later received support from psychologists drafted to help victims' families through the trial, Spanish media reported.
And if she doesn't "get better" she'll be sent away to re-education camp a long-term treatment facility for the victims of legitimate grievances of the victims ofZionist oppression.
#11
Better yet, Germany. Manfred van H. printed out sheets of toilet paper bearing the word Koran shortly after a group of Muslims carried out a series of bomb attacks in London in July 2005. He sent the paper to German television stations, magazines and some 15 mosques.
In an accompanying letter Manfred van H. called Islams holy unholy book a cookbook for terrorists. He also offered his toilet paper for sale on the Internet at a price of 4 euros ($4.76) per roll, saying the proceeds would go toward a memorial to all the victims of Islamic terrorism.
His reward? A german dhimmi court convicted him of insulting islam.
#12
My kinda gal! I'll go with Ice on this one and agree that whenever Muslims are on trial, people in the audience should wear Mohammed cartoon apparel. Anything that flusters the defendants or makes them more volatile is good for the Infidels. Imagine how bad it would look to a jury if the accused began making death threats right there in open court.
The Senate today narrowly endorsed a Democratic-led effort to set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq a year from now, voting down a Republican amendment that would have stripped the provision from a $122 emergency spending bill.
Senators voted 50 to 48 to reject the amendment, which was introduced by Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The vote came after the White House reiterated President Bush's threat to veto any bill that sets deadlines for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
In intensive floor debate before the vote, supporters of the amendment argued that including a deadline for withdrawal from Iraq -- even though it is put forth in the Senate bill as a nonbinding "goal" -- would hand victory to America's enemies, while opponents of it said it was time to stop giving President Bush a "blank check" to continue a failed war policy.
The $122 billion bill would fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this fiscal year and would provide about $20 billion in domestic spending.
The Cochran amendment would have removed language in the emergency spending bill that requires U.S. combat troops to begin leaving Iraq within four months of enactment and sets a goal of completing their withdrawal by March 31, 2008. However, the amendment would have left in place a set of nonbinding political and economic benchmarks for the Iraqi government. The benchmarks, originally put forward by the Bush administration, were added to the bill last week to win the support of a key conservative Democrat, Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.).
In a statement before the vote, the White House said the withdrawal provision and other components of the bill "would place freedom and democracy in Iraq at grave risk, embolden our enemies and undercut the administration's plan to develop the Iraqi economy."
But Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said the bill's language was needed to "send a message to President Bush that the time has come to find a new way forward in this intractable war."
In debate on the Senate floor, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) argued strongly against setting a timetable for troop withdrawal, saying a new strategy to secure Baghdad through a "surge" of U.S. combat troops is "succeeding." He told the Senate, "What we must not do is to give up just at the moment we're starting to turn things around in Iraq."
Setting a timetable "risks a catastrophe for American national security interests," said McCain, who canceled a series of fundraisers in Florida for his presidential campaign to return to Washington for today's expected close vote.
"This legislation is a plan for failure," McCain said of the underlying bill. "It demonstrates to the [Iraqi] government that they cannot rely on us. It tells the terrorists that they, not we, will prevail."
Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), another potential contender for the GOP presidential nomination, expressed strong opposition to the Cochran amendment, saying, "I will not support sustaining a flawed and failing policy in Iraq."
He lambasted the Bush administration for sending more and more U.S. combat troops to Iraq at a time when allies are pulling their forces out and for "taking us deeper and deeper into this quagmire with no exit strategy."
The bill does not cut off funding for U.S. troops and "does not impose a precipitous withdrawal" from Iraq, Hagel said.
"This idea that somehow you don't support the troops if you continue in a lemming-like way to accept whatever this administration's policy is -- that is what's wrong," he said, "and that is dangerous."
The House last week narrowly passed an emergency spending bill that includes a binding timetable for withdrawing U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the end of August 2008. Bush vowed to veto it if it ever reached his desk.
Traitors.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/27/2007 18:05 ||
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This could work for the good guys. Bush will veto this surrender bill, of course. But over in Iraq this vote does drive home that 2007 is Iraq's very very last chance. Bush can't bluff with the "last chance" stuff because he wants to win and everybody knows it. But the Dems? When it comes to CUT & RUN, they have all kinds of credibility. So in a perverse way, this vote could actually help us win in Iraq.
Brig. General Wormer: "Iraqis to be put on Double Secret Probation"...YJCMTSU...with Leaky Leahy and Chuckles Schumer and a presidential campaign involved, along with Baghdad Jim, how many nanoseconds would it be "secret"? Only Congress, White House and Iraqi Government Would Know Plan ooooooh!
In one of the more unusual proposals to emerge in the Senate debate on Iraq withdrawal, Sen. Mark Pryor wants to keep any plans for bringing troops home a secret. "so we can't suffer the consequences for our actions - til after the elections"
The Arkansas Democrat is a key holdout on his party's proposal to approve $122 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while setting a goal of March 31, 2008, for winding up military operations in Iraq. Unlike the plan's Republican opponents, Pryor wants a withdrawal deadline of some kind. He just doesn't want anyone outside the White House, Congress and the Iraqi government to know what it is. see snark above
"My strong preference would be to have a classified plan and a classified timetable that should be shared with Congress," Pryor said yesterday. A public deadline would tip off the enemy, "who might just bide their time and wait for us to leave," he said. "Then you'd have chaos and mayhem and instability." NO! D'ya think??
Pryor said a classified plan would be provided by the president, shepherded by Senate committees and ultimately shared with Congress and Iraqi leaders. He is confident that the plan would remain secret, because Congress is entrusted with secrets "all the time." Bwaahahaahaahahaa..stop it. You're killing me here!
What if the president's withdrawal plan didn't include a deadline? Or what if it leaked, through leaders in Iraq, to insurgents? All worth considering, Pryor said. But in the meantime, "at least you'd have a plan." Shades of Kerry '04
Pryor and Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.) broke with fellow Democrats earlier this month to oppose a nonbinding Senate resolution to withdraw from Iraq. Nelson has since fallen in line on the war funding bill, after nonbinding benchmarks for the Iraqi government were added. and pork....whores
Though Democratic caucus members have expressed skepticism about Pryor's plan, he has stuck to his guns, pushing for an amendment that would require the president to supply Congress with a classified plan for stabilizing Iraq, including benchmarks for withdrawing troops, within 60 days of the enactment of the funding bill, and a progress report, also classified, every 90 days afterward. so they become "the President's deadlines and benchmarks" when this blows up and thousands are massacred. Craven cowardice
"I've had a number of [Democrats] ask me why . . . but after I explain it they do understand where I'm coming from," Pryor said. Anyway, "This is not an opinion poll question." anymore...
Pryor's idea reflects frustration among Democrats over finding a consequence-free way out of a war that many are sorry they backed in the first place. But some experts question the possibility of keeping what would essentially be the entire Iraq war plan under wraps.
"It's not clear that's really workable or politically satisfying for anyone," said Steven Kosiak of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a defense-related think tank. "'really dumb' pretty much covers it"
At any moment before Congress, he said, "there's tons of stuff that's classified that is technical in nature -- particulars of different weapons programs and secret acquisition programs. But this is the major policy debate in Washington right now. To have a major part of that classified would be unusual, probably unprecedented."
Unfreakinbelievable
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2007 06:00 ||
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for fun and extra credit: read the comments at the WaPo link
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2007 6:18 Comments ||
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Dear God... the fool is serious, isn't he?
We've got exactly ZERO chance of prevailing in this war against Islamic totalitarianism-- or any other war, for that matter-- so long as these liberal morons are running around loose.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/27/2007 6:31 Comments ||
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Sure. Whenever I'd want to keep a secret, I'd entrust it to a congressman. Or the Iraqi government.
What was that sign over the door at British intelligence? "Two men can keep a secret if one of them is dead"?
#15
Interesting blog post, plainslow. Approval for the war in Iraq up from 30% in February to 40% last week, and the number who think going in was a good idea up while the number who think it a bad idea dropped -- very encouraging!
#18
#10 - plainslow - it'll hurt if he ever makes the connection.
Isn't that cognitive dissonance?
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/27/2007 11:51 Comments ||
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#19
I can help: the most secret decision is one that hasn't been made. There. Even the NYT wouldn't be able to leak that; they'd denounce Bush for not having made a decision.
Just fund the War, let POTUS run it, don't raise taxes, reduce pork, de-fund aid to foreign tyrants, vote to leave the UN, and quit turning health care into Soviet hell.
#20
to his credit, he acknowledges that a public deadline would be useful to the insurgents, and damaging to us. Hes right about that. And willing to say it despite the opinion polls and other political pressures.
Hes also right that pressure does need to be applied to the Maliki govt to do the right thing.
That he doesnt trust the admin to do that, is at least understandable.
OTOH in the past secret stuff before congress is usually confined to a single committee, like intell, or def appropriations, NOT shared among all 535 members. And in the exec branch, how could you keep to the WH, and not share with DoD, State, CIA, etc? And how far would it spread in Malikis govt? So I dont think this would particularly work.
And Id be against it anyway, as I think theres a real possibility that Maliki could meet all the benchmarks, and still not be ready for a US withdrawl in 2008.
But, while i dont support the plan, I can respect Pryors attempt to find a solution.
#22
Hell pass the bill but make the withdrawal date based on the Florida Lottery. There's a chance we might have to make a mad screaming rush for the border tomorrow, not a good chance, but a chance. It's fair and it appeals to fair play.
#23
D ***ng it, the Dems can't do that becuz Juan Williams + Colmes, etc. hzve been adamantly insisting the Dems have been misunderstood and are actually only for ending US combat operations, not bringing [most] of the troops home or pulling out completely from the ME. THIS IS AMERIKA, D *** it, NOT AMERICA, LIFE JUST ISN'T WORTH LIVING WID OUT UNIVERSAL, PERENNIAL POLITICAL CORRECTNESS-WAFFLE-ISM, FOREVER AND EVER AND EVERMORE.
AMSTERDAM Former MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali is now in danger in the US as well. Her security has been stepped up for the past three weeks. Because of concrete threats, she is now receiving the same level of protection as she previously needed in the Netherlands, the Volkskrant reports.
Hirsi Ali had more freedom of movement when she first arrived in the US last September. Her lack of freedom in the Netherlands was one of the reasons for her move.
The forced isolation made it impossible for her to continue in her position as MP at the time, she said. The Liberal VVD politician had to travel by armoured car in the Netherlands, accompanied by six bodyguards. In the US just two security workers, who kept an eye on her from a distance, sufficed.
Hirsi Ali's protection is carried out by American security personnel commissioned by the Dutch Justice department. Hirsi Ali works at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington DC, a think-tank that has close ties with the Republican party.
As in the Netherlands, the threats against her come from Muslim extremists. They are in connection with the lectures and media appearances Hirsi Ali has been making since the publication of the American version of her autobiography, "The Infidel," in January.
The book has sold 148,000 copies over the past two months and led to heated debate in the US.
Besides glowing reviews in The New York Times and other media, Hirsi Ali is also coming up against opposition because of her uncompromising criticism of Islam.
#1
If America had any brains, they would realize just how valuable an ally Ms. Ali is and publicly fund around-the-clock protection for her. Anyone who threatens her needs to be scrutinized for terrorist connections and charged appropriately. Those that seek to squelch free speech are some of our greatest foes in the battle to expose Islam for the shitpot it is.
#2
Anyone who threatens her needs to be scrutinized for terrorist connections
It said in the article they were muslims. What more do you need to judge they're terrorists?
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/27/2007 14:44 Comments ||
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#3
This could be an excellent opportunity to nab some murderous fanatics in the US. Pure "entrapment", as it were.
First, advertise her giving some kind of public speech in which people can get close to her, but not close enough to use a knife. Just coincidentally on the grounds of a public school.
Federal law for possession of a handgun on school grounds is five years.
Plenty of publicity in Moslem areas, then have concealed metal detectors. When they find a gun, then whisk the bad boy away and wait for the next killer.
She gives her speech, or whatever, and you get one or more potential assassins who get to spend the next five years in a federal penitentiary. Not for doing their jihad thing, but for "menacing school children".
#1
But the hearing was dominated by legal debate in which Major Mori and Mr Dratel set out to discredit the new Military Commission process. Mr Dratel said he did not sign a letter of agreement regarding the new commission ahead of todays arraignment because it provides a blank cheque that draws on my ethical obligations as a lawyer
Mr Dratel told the judge: Im in compliance with the Federal Statute but not the unilateral rule of this authority.
Nice try asshole, but you're not in Massholeachusetts representing a purse snatcher
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2007 5:43 Comments ||
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#2
No need for lawyers now, he's pled guilty.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/27/2007 6:10 Comments ||
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#3
Nice acting for the cameras. Wonder if it will help his client draw a shorter sentence.
#6
One needs to have his commission revoked, the other needs to be forced to return to the US by swimming. Lots of sharks in those waters, and not all of them are fish.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/27/2007 14:45 Comments ||
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Indian Kashmirs 17-year-old insurgency has left 42,147 people dead, more than a third civilians, according to official figures released on Monday by the revolt-hit regions police. However, the latest report, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, did not include the people who have disappeared in the region since the unrest began in 1989. The government says between 1,000 to 3,900 people have disappeared, while rights groups say up to 10,000 are missing the majority of them after their arrest by security forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2007 00:00 ||
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In 2003, Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed moved to fill the fact void. In an effort to draw votes from supporters of the secessionist movement and win the support of the Hizbul-Mujahideen, Mr. Sayeed promised a full investigation into what he then characterised as large-scale killings of innocent civilians.
Within months, the government introduced numbers to the argument. In March 2003, Law Minister Muzaffar Beig announced that 3,744 people were missing from Jammu and Kashmir a figure that was seized on by activists to claim that their allegations of large-scale enforced disappearances had been vindicated.
Mr. Beig's figure was, however, only a compilation of the numbers of persons reported to be missing for any reason at all. Later that year, Chief Minister Sayeed declared that just 60 persons had in fact "disappeared" since 1990 or, put more bluntly, had been established to have been kidnapped and then presumably murdered by security forces.
Mr. Sayeed's figures came from scrutiny of a list of 743 provided to the Jammu and Kashmir Government by human rights groups, notably the Association of the Parents of Disappeared Persons. Led by Parveena Ahanger, the mother of one of those missing, and lawyer Parvez Imroz, the APDP had fought a sustained campaign on the issue.
Investigators first focussed their attention on the 84 disappearances human rights activists said had taken place between November 2002, when Mr. Sayeed took power, and August 2003. Of these, the Jammu and Kashmir Police discovered, the names and addresses of only 58 tallied with actual individuals.
For example, the lists put out by human rights activists contained the name of Mohammad Altaf Yatoo of Aripathan village in Beerwah. Investigators, however, obtained signed statements from Aripathan residents that no one of that name had ever lived in the village.
Of the 58 verifiable cases, the police said, 26 were traced to their homes a fact journalists were able to cross-check with relative ease. Another "disappeared" individual turned out to be in Srinagar central jail. Six others, the police said, had turned terrorists, while two were kidnapped by jihadi groups. Still others had been killed in exchanges of fire.
While human rights groups protested part of these findings, no full rebuttal was prepared. Given that organisations such as the APDP had long been claiming that between 8,000 and 10,000 individuals had been victims of enforced disappearances, the failure to put out a credible list of just a few hundred was a significant failure.
Posted by: John Frum ||
03/27/2007 7:09 Comments ||
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#2
Mr. Zahir-ud-Din's compilation suffers from its failure to draw distinctions between innocent civilians kidnapped and killed by security forces and terrorists who crossed into Pakistan individuals for whom the Jammu and Kashmir Government or Indian Army cannot reasonably be expected to account for.
For example, several independent media accounts have said there were thousands of young men from Jammu and Kashmir living in jihadi training facilities or refugee centres in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Others may have been killed while crossing the Line of Control but security forces would have no way of establishing their identity.
Posted by: John Frum ||
03/27/2007 7:09 Comments ||
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#3
When I read this story, I did find myself thinking that a lot of those "disappeared" J-K citizens are currently fighting in Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Chenya, Kosovo, Leeds, or Minneapolis. Possibly even laundering towels and kits for the Pak national cricket team.
#4
Thanks to the fence, with its US and Israeli supplied sensors, the average life expectancy of the jihadi infiltrator is now down to about six weeks.
Those that don't die on the fence are killed by Army or Kashmiri Police SOG units.
Native Kashmiris are now fairly adverse to jihad activity within J+K. They know all to well what happened to an entire generation of youth that fell under the spell of jihad and went over to Pakistan for training in 1988. They're pretty much all dead. Now Kashmir has a surplus of females in that age group.
One reason that Musharraf makes so much noise over demilitarization is that the COIN grid in J+K has so many soldiers and police that the average jihadi like span is now a deterrent to recruitment.
Perv even got Condi Rice to forward his request for certain regions to be demilitarized. She should have ignored her staff at State and contacted Pacific command (which gets briefings from the Indian Army) since the areas were known infiltration routes where the sheer Indian manpower (a couple hundred thousand men deployed) makes terrorist activity difficult.
Posted by: John Frum ||
03/27/2007 16:07 Comments ||
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Outgoing U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad said he had held talks last year with representatives of major Sunni insurgent groups in a drive to bring them into politics, the New York Times reported Monday. "There were discussions with the representatives of various groups in the aftermath of the elections, and during the formation of the government before the Samarra incident, and some discussions afterwards as well," Khalilzad was quoted as saying.
Khalilzad was the first American official to publicly acknowledge such talks, the report said. A powerful explosion blew off the golden dome of a mosque in Samarra, one of the holiest Shiite shrines in Iraq on Feb. 22, 2006, further intensifying sectarian strife in the country. The meetings began in early 2006 and were possibly the first attempts at sustained contact between senior American officials and the Sunni Arab insurgency, according to the report.
Khalilzad flew to Jordan for some of the talks, including those with the self-identified representatives of the Islamic Army of Iraq and the 1920 Revolution Brigades, two leading nationalist factions. Khalilzad's willingness to approach Iraqi rebel groups seemed at odds with the public position of some Bush administration officials that the United States does not negotiate with insurgents. It was not clear whether he had to seek permission from Washington before engaging in such talks, the report said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2007 00:00 ||
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Was pretty widely reported at the time - and the embassy never commented on it. I never liked it. Take the war to them and, soon enough, the Sunnis would have been begging to talk to us. Zal was bringing a very weak hand (partly of his own creation) to bargain with folks whose continued existence is of no importance and whose reliability approaches that of the Palestinians.
2007 we've actually split up the Sunni anti-coalition block to a measurable degree.
To date a portion of al An-Bar's sheiks and tribal chiefs have come over and are fighting al Qaeda and the die-hard Batthists [in Ramadi for instance]. If you get a chance plz comment.
#1
That's nice. Y'all keep thinking that while turning the Gaza Strip into a larger version of the all against all hell that is Palestinian "refugee camps". In the meantime, we have a war to win against those who would establish a Muslim Caliphate. If the current situation in Iraq is any indication, we may have already set our feet on the path to victory.. while you wander in the desert waste of your own making.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2007 12:36 Comments ||
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#4
So I see Warty Boy's taken to the rubber chicken circuit since he's lost his job.
Good to see he still has his faith too, because if my God made me that ugly, I'd be really fuckin pissed...
#5
Islam will enter every house and will spread over the entire world,
Yeah, and Sherwin Williams vowed to "cover the earth" but they're still struggling against Fuller and Benjamin Moore. Pop a cap in this turd and be done with him.
#8
In order to survive, the West will be forced by Moslem atrocities and blood-lust into the following sequence of actions:
- raze Qom and Mecca
- nuke much of the Middle East and Pakistan
- kill Moslem leaders across the world whenever and wherever they voice support for jihad
Because, as Bin Laden explained, Moslems love death and can't tolerate that we love life.
There is no other end point possible. How soon it happens and how many Western cities are lost before we reach that point -- these are open questions. I worry about Israel's survival given their failure to decisively crush Hizballah in the last Lebanese campaign.
#9
Word, Kalle. I predict basically the same thing. Islam only hastens its own demise. Neither action nor inaction by the West will make a difference in Islam's eventual extermination, only the time frame. As Einstein said: "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." In that same sense, Islam's atrocities have no limits whereas the West's patience does. Saddest of all is how so many hundreds of thousands, if not millions, will have to die before Western leaders reach the exact same conclusion they could be arriving at right now.
#11
"Islam will enter every house and will spread..." seems I read an earlier article here that mentioned that very thing. Oh wait, that was the cesspool wall breaking and sewage flowing. Sorry, my bad, sometimes I get Islam and shit mixed up.......
#15
C'mon in and stay awhile, boys. Now, don't mind me while I switch on this gas oven and leave the pilot off. I'll be back in a few hours to open the windows and call the coronor.
#16
Idiot.
His own people are drowning in raw sewage and he dreams of conquest. He can't even fight Israel but expects to conquer the entire world.
Meanwhile his Arab brothers are making deals with the kaffirs of India...
With abundant cheap Indian labor, the Paleos won't even get laboring jobs on these projects...
Indian and UAE firms signed deals worth more than $30 billion on Monday during a visit by the ruler of Dubai, including plans to build two massive townships in India.
Indias largest real estate developer DLF said it inked a 20 billion dollar deal with UAEs Al Nakheel to build two townships in India, with an initial investment of $5 billion each in the next three years. We have signed a 50:50 joint venture with Al Nakheel to develop integrated townships with an investment of 20 billion dollars, said a DLF executive.
The executive, speaking on the sidelines of meetings between Indian business leaders and Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashed Al-Maktoum, said the townships would be full-sized cities covering 40,000 acres, 70 percent of which had already been bought. A press conference to announce the deal will be held at 1030 GMT.
Separately, Indias Hinduja Group, majority-owned by the London-based Hinduja brothers, said it signed a $12-billion deal with Nakheel to develop property in Dubai. In another agreement, the Hindujas signed a joint venture with UAEs real estate group Limitless to develop real estate for medical facilities with an initial investment of $1 billion.
Posted by: John Frum ||
03/27/2007 16:20 Comments ||
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#19
His own people are drowning in raw sewage and he dreams of conquest.
Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner!
Hardy, yawlz don't paint that well.
They need only look to their idol for a role model. As Franz Liebkin was so fond of saying:
"Hitler was a better dancer than Churchill; Hitler was a better dresser than Churchill; Hitler was a better painter than Churchill: he could paint a whole apartment in one afternoon, two coats!"
#21
Like every good housewife does when she spots a maggot on her kitchen floor, she should scrub that house top to bottom to rid it of any and all vermin-including Islam. Housewives in the Caliphate aren't as good at keeping houses vermin-free as housewives in the West are, though.
An estimated 1,000 Buddhists have rallied in Thailand's Muslim-majority south, calling on the government to do more to halt what they fear is becoming a sectarian conflict.
The rally took place in the town of Saba Yoi in Songkhla province, where three students were killed in a shooting at an Islamic school two weeks ago. Some Muslim residents have blamed the attack on security forces and want the government to withdraw its rangers from the district.
But Buddhist residents say that could create a security vacuum, and have demanded that the rangers stay in the district. The letter also called for more government forces to be deployed to the area to keep the peace, and for more weapons to be provided to a volunteer defence militia.
The following are excerpts from a public address delivered by Iranian Leader, Ali Khamenei, which aired on Khorasan TV on March 21, 2007.
TO VIEW THIS CLIP: http://www.memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=1409
Ali Khamenei: "When the president of the Iranian people travels to countries in Asia, Africa, and South America, the peoples cry out slogans in his praise. They demonstrate in support of him. When the American president visits countries in South America, which is the backyard of the U.S.A, the peoples there welcome him by burning the American flag..."
Crowd chanting: "Death to America. Death to America. Death to America. Death to America. Death to America. Death to America. Death to America"
[...]
Ali Khamenei: "This means the shaking of the foundations of liberal democracy, of which the West, and above all America, claim to be the standard bearer."
[...]
"They talk about democracy, about human rights, about global security, and about the war on terror, but their evil inner self reveals how warmongering they are, reveals how they trample the rights of the peoples, and reveals their great desire and insatiable appetite for the world's energy sources. The peoples see these things. Day by day, the reputation of liberal democracy and of America - the vanguard of liberal democracy in the world - is diminished in the eyes of the world. At the same time, the reputation of Islamic Iran grows. The peoples understand that the Americans are lying, when they claim to be defending human rights."
[...]
"They threaten to impose sanctions on us. Sanctions cannot harm us. Haven't they imposed sanctions on us before? We achieved nuclear energy despite sanctions. We achieved scientific progress despite sanctions. We achieved the building of our country despite the sanctions. Under certain circumstances, sanctions can benefit us, because they intensify our will for effort and activity."
[...]
"Creating a fuss in order to pressure the Iranian people in this [nuclear] issue, using the U.N. Security Council as a tool, will only harm the forces confronting the Iranian people. I must say this. If they want to use the Security Council as a tool, thus ignoring this indisputable right... So far, we have done everything in accordance with international law, but if they want to violate these laws, we too can and will violate these laws."
Crowd chanting: "Allah Akbar Allah Akbar. Allah Akbar. Khamenei is the leader. Death to America. Oh noble leader, we are prepared. Oh noble leader, we are prepared. Oh noble leader, we are prepared. Oh noble leader, we are prepared."
Ali Khamenei: "Pay attention. If they want to use threats, impose [their will], and act aggressively, they should have no doubt that the Iranian people and officials will confront the enemies that want to attack us, and will strike at them with all our capabilities."
#6
I want to see these bastards strung up from a tree.
Posted by: Mac ||
03/27/2007 18:05 Comments ||
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#7
and will strike at them with all our capabilities
This overly swaddled rat turd had better pray five times daily that we don't reciprocate "with all our capabilities". Should America opt to do so, we could hit Iran so hard that you wouldn't even be able to find it in a textbook the next day.
However pathetic this whole situation is, at some point it will become necessary to make a demonstration of force. As Dr. John Lewis so capably illustrated, Iran is the nexus and pinnacle of Islamic theocracy which requires immediate attention. I'm still hoping that America will summon the courage to make a decapitating strike against Iran and thus avert far more devastating measures.
Should we fail to do so, it only hastens the time when several major MME (Muslim Middle East) capitols will vanish in high energy plasma. Islam refuses to comprehend anything but the right of might through violence. If they are so blinkered by this sort of triumphalist myopia then we will necessarily have to land something within their limited field of vision that they can recognize.
The almost congenital psychopathy exhibited by these violent Islamic fanatics literally guarantees that whatever steps are finally taken against them will be irreversible and fatal. For how many others around them remains the only question.
PM Tony Blair puts Iran on notice. I wonder if he might pull a Maggie Thatcher on Iran if the sailors are not released soon. PM warns Iran over Navy captives
Efforts to secure the release of 15 Royal Navy personnel held by Iran will enter a "different phase" if diplomatic moves fail, Tony Blair has said.
Downing Street said the UK could end up releasing evidence proving the group had not ventured into Iranian waters.
Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett has called for their "speedy return".
Meanwhile, the family of the only woman detained, Faye Turney from Shrewsbury, Shropshire, has said this is a "very distressing time" for them.
The BBC has been told the group are being held at an Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps base in Tehran.
Iran says they were trespassing in Iranian waters when they were seized on Friday - but the prime minister said the group were in Iraqi waters under a UN mandate.
#1
From the BBC: "The prime minister's official spokesman said Mr Blair's remarks about a "different phase" did not refer to any extreme diplomatic action, such as expelling Iranian diplomats from Britain or military action."
#5
Oh, don't be so snarky. A 'different phase' means sending diplomatic messages on the expensive stationary. You will know the situation is coming to a head when they start writing with the serious pen nib.
#6
If I weren't so saddened by it, I'd be intrigued by just what the Brits think they're doing with their inept "go softly" b.s. It reaches ridiculous lengths - in B'dad I had one former British officer educating me on how the .50 cal was inappropriate armament for convoy gun trucks (too big for an urban environment, you see). He didn't propose bean-bag rounds to stop large explosives-laden trucks, but that would have been consistent with the spirit of the lecture.
The US and Brits are to be lauded for their (secret, judging my media "reporting" on kinetic ops) incredibly cautious approach to use of force when non-combatants may be at risk - though that has also clearly gone much too far in some cases.
But how is allowing your military forces to be unlawfully seized by other military forces, leading to a huge international confrontation, a savvy move to avoid "escalation"? As I've whined here forever, the US has out-smarted itself in many ways in fighting managing experimenting with conducting the war, but this particular British incompetence is embarrassing.
Great allies and a fine military, and a generally savvy player on the world stage - let's hope this incident may lead to a posture allowing the Brits to again apply their great capabilities for their own and the west's benefit.
Azar Nafisi, the author of Reading Lolita in Tehran,' quoted a former colleague in Tehran who compared dealing with the Islamic Republic to playing chess with a monkey. In the middle of the game, the monkey picks up your queen and swallows it,' she said. Then what are you going to do? You are dealing with a country that is not going to follow your rules.'
#9
"In the middle of the game, the monkey picks up your queen and swallows it," she said. "Then what are you going to do?"
What you do is hoist the monkey up by its ankles and apply some piñata therapy for half an hour until it burps up the queen. Then you take that as a lesson to never again play chess with a monkey. Like the old saying goes:
Never try to teach a pig to sing; it frustrates you and annoys the pig.
Britain must abandon its futile hope that Iran is ever going to join the choir.
#11
The State Department stupidity that "everything can be solved by diplomacy" has gotten more US Marines killed than any "enemy" in the last 30 years. The Brits just showed they're not immune to this tranzi bs. Start breaking harbors and oil facilities and see how fast you get your troops back. If the Iranians try to escalate, refresh their memory who's the baddest by nuking a couple of cities. In the end, they will either surrender, or there won't be anything left TO surrender. That's called "armed diplomacy". It worked until Truman decided NOT to win in Korea. Since then, the world has gone to sh$$. The US needs to return to Teddy Roosevelt's "big stick" approach, and teach these wannabees how things are done. Start with a couple of Marine divisions flushing State. In Britain, the Royal Marines need to flush Whitehall.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/27/2007 14:59 Comments ||
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#12
if they ARE going to do something militarily, is there any necessity to do it immediately? You do it immediately, it leaves a good part of the world thinking the Iranians were right, and your military isnt ready either (and Im willing to bet the Iranians had been planning this, so they are already ready) Why walk into an ambush, and look like the "aggressor" (to half the world, anyway) while youre at it.
When the Argentinians took the Falklands, the Brits did plenty of diplomacy, talking, offering Argentina a chance to back down peacefully. Meanwhile the Royal Navy got ready for action.
Last I heard, not many folks speaking Spanish in the Falklands.
In addition, it would not be wise to take actions that unnecessarily undermine the coalition for sanctions.
OTOH for the benefits of poorly planned hostage rescue missions in Iran, check Jimmy Carter. If hes not to busy plugging his book.
#13
if they ARE going to do something militarily, is there any necessity to do it immediately? You do it immediately, it leaves a good part of the world thinking the Iranians were right, and your military isnt ready either (and Im willing to bet the Iranians had been planning this, so they are already ready) Why walk into an ambush, and look like the "aggressor" (to half the world, anyway) while youre at it.
When the Argentinians took the Falklands, the Brits did plenty of diplomacy, talking, offering Argentina a chance to back down peacefully. Meanwhile the Royal Navy got ready for action.
Last I heard, not many folks speaking Spanish in the Falklands.
In addition, it would not be wise to take actions that unnecessarily undermine the coalition for sanctions.
OTOH for the benefits of poorly planned hostage rescue missions in Iran, check Jimmy Carter. If hes not to busy plugging his book.
Chile's consul in the Syrian capital of Damascus was found dead at his home on Monday, the victim "of a criminal act," the Foreign Ministry said. A brief communique from the ministry did not provide details about the death of Hector Faundez, but said "Syrian authorities have vowed to diligently investigate the facts to determine the circumstances under which his death occurred." The diplomat's body will be brought back to Chile for burial, the communique said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I bet it's all because of cartoons of Muhammad - the guy apparently was taken as one of Danish. Both embassies are under the same address in Damascus - a year ago the Chilean one was burned there by mistake ...
Posted by: Matt K. ||
03/27/2007 0:28 Comments ||
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#2
diligently investigate the facts
congenital liars + facts + do diligence, yea right.
A top European envoy on Monday renewed an offer from six world powers to talk with Tehran over its nuclear ambitions, and a senior Iranian negotiator agreed to stay in contact in an effort to find common ground. European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana's telephone conversation with Ali Larijani, Tehran's top nuclear negotiator, was the first exchange between the representatives of Iran and the international community since the U.N. Security Council toughened its anti-Iran sanctions because of the Islamic republic's refusal to freeze uranium enrichment.
Solana spokeswoman Cristina Gallach emphasized it was not a negotiating session but more a message to the Iranian side that the international community was interested in "renewing ... talks and solving in a negotiated matter" differences separating the sides. The conversation, which Gallach said lasted nearly an hour, came amid signs of impatience from Russia and China, Iran's traditional allies among the five permanent Security Council members.
The presidents of the two countries, whose resistance to tough penalties against Iran have forced the United States, France and Britain to accept watered down U.N. sanctions, jointly urged Tehran to fulfill council demands.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2007 00:00 ||
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EU, Iran seek common ground on for nukes: Israel.
Iran said Monday it was questioning 15 British sailors and marines to determine if their alleged entry into Iranian waters was "intentional or unintentional" before deciding what to do with them - the first sign it could be seeking a way out of the standoff.
The two countries continued to disagree about where the military personnel were seized Friday, with Britain insisting they were in Iraqi waters after searching a civilian cargo vessel and the Tehran regime saying it had proof they were in Iranian territory. Britain's Defense Ministry said they were seized in the Shatt al-Arab, a waterway flowing into the Persian Gulf that marks the border between Iran and Iraq. But the dividing line in the waterway, known in Iran as the Arvand river, has long been disputed.
The Iranian emphasis Monday on the detainees' intent was a noticeable pullback from the certainty expressed Saturday by Iran's military chief, Gen. Ali Reza Afshar. Afshar said then that the 15 confessed to "aggression into the Islamic Republic of Iran's waters." Other Iranian officials suggested afterward that the Britons might be charged with a crime - presumably espionage or trespassing - for knowingly entering Iran's territorial waters.
Deputy Foreign Minister Mehzi Mostafavi took a softer line Monday while saying that the 14 men and one woman were still being interrogated. "It should become clear whether their entry was intentional or unintentional. After that is clarified, the necessary decision will be made," Mostafavi said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2007 00:00 ||
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"It should become clear whether their entry was intentional or unintentional. After that is clarified, the necessary decision will be made."
Neither. Even saying it was "unintentional" gives credibility to the Iranian claim that the sailors were in Iranian waters, which I doubt they were. I wouldn't give this claim any traction because they can use it against anyone they want to in the future for whatever purpose they probably have in mind now.
I don't regard this as a "softening" except in the mind of someone who is naive. It seems to me that the strategy they are employing is to initially ask for way more than anyone thinks they have a right to, so that later when they ask for what they really want it seems more palatable. What they really want is probably multidimensional, too, including building internal cred, which hurts western efforts by building nationalism and thereby taking some of the pressure off the Iranian government.
No, no, and no. They have no proof other than a hazy claim that they were in "Iranian" waters which they can use to back off at any moment if they really wanted to without hurting themselves too badly. No.
#2
I think discussion of intent and borders is totally moot. This was an act of war and should be treated as such. Quibbling over the details cedes the debate to Iran. Iran's government is totally illegitimate and represents and evil ideology. I could care less if Royal Marine Commandos with lit firecrackers up their arses were across the border on a mission to loot Persian corner-stores. We would still be right and they would still be wrong.
#3
Something significant is happening behind the scenes, IMHO. The price of a barrel of crude oil skyrocketed to $69 temporarily at about 5PM.
Perhaps Tony Blair's mild rhetoric about his countries negotiations with Iran moving to a "different stage" correspond with military maneuvers to place pressure on Iran to release their sailors. Or it might be that Iran has shown greater truculence in the face of sanctions than many thought they would and has done something else to raise the stakes in that confrontation.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2007 00:00 ||
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Something doesn't quite add up: in the video he mentions being involved in things that he loses sleep over, things that he can't talk about. And yet it was the actions of others, on 7/7, that finally made him change his position. (Unless this is an oblique way of confessing that he was connected to the 7/7 bombers in some way.) He doesn't look particularly wracked with guilt, but OTOH he does use very strong language to condemn the problem of Muslim violence. All in all, a very strange episode.
"Wed talk about the suffering of the Muslims all over the world," Butt tells Simon. "We were very well-versed in the Koran, in the verses of the Koran, in the sayings of the Prophet and show that how it was permissible for people to go around killing innocent men, women and children."
"You would explain to them why it's permissible to kill innocent men, women and children?" Simon asks.
"Well, a better way to put it is, we would take away the innocence from the person so they were no longer innocent men, women and children," Butt explains.
"So, men, women and children would become non-innocents?" Simon asks.
"Become non-innocent and hence, combatants and allowed to be targeted," Butt says.
#5
#3 Even a blind hog...at CBS...finds an acorn every now and then.
I figured that was a Rosie reference, but then remembered she's at ABC. BTW - She thinks the Brit soldier kidnapping episode occured in Iranian waters and called it Gulf Of Tonkin II. The truth never gets by her....nor the pastry cart
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2007 10:55 Comments ||
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#6
To be honest this guy is the real deal as i remember reading/watching him during the Afghan war.
He was one of the most extreme characters in the UK ie a taliban recruiter so if he can change his views there is some hope out there!!!!
He needs to reach out to the Asian youngsters in the Cities of the UK who are unemployed,fed up and exploited by the extremist.The IRA did the same thing in the 70's/80's brainwashing youngsters to carry out their evil deeds!!!!
U.S. Northern Commands new boss said hes learned tough lessons from the Iraq war that will help him better protect America from attack and aid civilian officials in responding to disasters.
Air Force Gen. Victor E. Gene Renuart took over Friday in a ceremony led by the secretary of defense and attended by more than 20 generals and admirals. In 2003, Renuart was in charge of planning and executing the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the humanitarian effort that followed.
Critics say the Iraq invasion, although initially successful, ran into trouble because government agencies such as the State Department lacked a solid working relationship with the military. State couldn't find their ass with both hands super-glued to it while they are giving hummers (not the vehicle) to the insurgent leaders. That is why they don't work with the military Renuart says that wont happen at Northern Command.
I think I have learned some lessons from my previous experience, most importantly it is to keep an open dialogue with each of those interagency relationships, he said.
Renuart focused on Northern Commands tight relationship with the Department of Homeland Security.
We need to be transparent with them, and we need to share information with them, he said. Those are all things Ill try to do to ensure we dont create surprises at the point of execution. You need to do your fucking job despite the whining from the liberals.
In his new job, Renuart also heads the North American Aerospace Defense Command, a joint American-Canadian effort to defend the continent from aircraft, missile and maritime attack.
Renuart replaces Adm. Timothy Keating, who will be installed at the helm of U.S. Pacific Command on Monday.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates praised Keating, lauding the commands response to Hurricane Katrina and its work to prevent terrorist attacks on America.
Gates also praised Renuart, who has worked as the secretarys top military aide.
I know the defense of our homeland is in good hands, he said.
Renuart said hed stick with a Keating program that pulls most Northern Command military personnel from the underground command center at Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station.
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.
A woman who lost her husband in the 2004 Madrid train bombings displayed an infamous cartoon mocking the Prophet Mohammad on her T-shirt in front of 29, mostly Muslim, suspects on trial for the attacks on Monday. The woman's white T-shirt showed Mohammad wearing a bomb as a turban -- one of a series published by Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten which unleashed violent protests by some Muslims last year.
AMSTERDAM Former MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali is now in danger in the US as well. Her security has been stepped up for the past three weeks. Because of concrete threats, she is now receiving the same level of protection as she previously needed in the Netherlands, the Volkskrant reports.
Indian Kashmirs 17-year-old insurgency has left 42,147 people dead, more than a third civilians, according to official figures released on Monday by the revolt-hit regions police. However, the latest report, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, did not include the people who have disappeared in the region since the unrest began in 1989. The government says between 1,000 to 3,900 people have disappeared, while rights groups say up to 10,000 are missing the majority of them after their arrest by security forces.
The following are excerpts from a public address delivered by Iranian Leader, Ali Khamenei, which aired on Khorasan TV on March 21, 2007. 
A top European envoy on Monday renewed an offer from six world powers to talk with Tehran over its nuclear ambitions, and a senior Iranian negotiator agreed to stay in contact in an effort to find common ground. European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana's telephone conversation with Ali Larijani, Tehran's top nuclear negotiator, was the first exchange between the representatives of Iran and the international community since the U.N. Security Council toughened its anti-Iran sanctions because of the Islamic republic's refusal to freeze uranium enrichment.
Iran said Monday it was questioning 15 British sailors and marines to determine if their alleged entry into Iranian waters was "intentional or unintentional" before deciding what to do with them - the first sign it could be seeking a way out of the standoff.
U.S. Northern Commands new boss said hes learned tough lessons from the Iraq war that will help him better protect America from attack and aid civilian officials in responding to disasters.
