Just how hated are the pirates of Somalia? This much: Chinas top general is suggesting that the rest of the world put aside their differences, and team up to launch amphibious assaults on the pirates onshore havens.
In comments at the National Defense University yesterday, General Chen Bingde, the chief of general staff of Chinas Peoples Liberation Army, called for military action against Somali pirate bosses on land, not just against their minions at sea.
For counter-piracy campaigns to be effective, we should probably move beyond the ocean and crash their bases on the land, Reuters quoted Gen Bingde as saying. Pax Kitai
#2
Too indiscriminate, not everybody is a pirate. However - parking a looking glass overhead and watching who goes where, and in which buildings, might provide a nice target list for some surprise visitors. Helicopter-borne if you're interested in taking prisoners, a frigate if you're not.
#3
This is actually a concern. If China decided to launch a unilateral action against these bases, it would change the military equation around the world, because it would amount to the first effective force-projection China had pulled off in modern times.
And force-projection is essential if a nation is to be recognized as a world power.
Were I in that general's shoes, and I had authorization, I would treat this minor activity as if it was D-Day, sending in ten times the forces needed, and just leave smoking craters behind.
The training and practical applications value of doing this to a military would be immense. The lessons learned would be worth a cross-the-board refit and upgrade of their entire military, the morale boost would be worth its weight in platinum, and the general responsible would be on the political fast track.
Chinese foreign policy would be on steroids for a decade, and popular sentiment would be through the roof.
#4
If I remember correctly the Western powers rejected this approach because of hostages still in pirate hands. Of course there aren't any Han captives, so no skin off the General's nose.
#7
Anonymoose, China's gotten a lot of mileage out of its "harmless but rich" economic-diplomatic stance in Latin America and Africa. That only works so long as they accept their half-junior-partner, half-rival hybrid status vis-a-vis the one superpower. They've been playing the economic role of imperial-era Great Britain without the colonial threat that came with that role, investing the proceeds of industrialization by buying up all the markers they could get in the resource-rich countries. Best of both worlds, really, because they could get away with being right bastards without seriously scaring the locals.
If they suddenly prove to be able to pull off an old-fashioned British imperial "butcher and bolt", then suddenly they're not just a neutered British Empire, they're an actual junior British Empire.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
05/25/2011 16:51 Comments ||
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Sudanese security agents have arrested a Christian woman in a Darfur refugee camp, accusing her of converting Muslims to Christianity, said sources who fear she is being tortured. Meanwhile in Khartoum, the Christian mother of a 2-month-old baby is has been left destitute and injured because she and her husband left Islam for Christianity.
In the Darfur Region, Hawa Abdalla Muhammad Saleh was arrested on May 9 in the Abu Shouk camp for Internally Displaced Persons in Al-Fashir. Abdalla has not yet been officially charged, but she is accused of possessing and distributing Bibles. She could also be tried for apostasy, which carries the death penalty.
Abdalla has been transferred to an unknown location in Khartoum, and there are fears she could be tortured as she was detained and tortured for six days in 2009. "There is no guarantee of her safety," said a source in Darfur.
In Khartoum, Omar Hassan and Amouna Ahamdi, both 27, said they fled Nyala, 120 kilometers southwest of El-Fashir, for Khartoum in June 2010, but knife-wielding, masked assailants attacked the couple on May 4, after relatives found out that they had converted. His wife was wounded trying to protect him during the May 4 attack.
"I have been in Khartoum for six months, with no job to support my sick wife," said Hassan. "Muslims invaded our house and, in an attempt to kill me, they knifed my wife in the hand."
Ahamdi said her brother had stabbed her three times in the stomach nine months ago, seriously injuring her spleen, after she told him she had become a Christian. "I feel pain, but my husband is alive, and we are praying that we get money for treatment for both my hand and the spleen," she said.
In the violent outburst, her brother also broke her left leg. She was rushed to a local hospital, where they were reluctant to treat her because of her conversion. Ultimately she was hospitalized in another hospital for three weeks -- where she met Hassan, another recent convert who had also suffered for his faith, who visited her after hearing about her plight.
Jacob Zuma, the president of South Africa, plans to visit Tripoli next week to discuss a way out for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi with support from the Turkish government. Zuma's spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
Zuma will reportedly visit Libya after attending the inauguration of Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on May 29.
A senior EU diplomat said Britain, France and other European countries had backed away from the precondition that Col Gaddafi must leave power before there was a halt to Nato action. It was an attempt to help "mediation efforts" in Tripoli by Abdel Elah al-Khatib, the United Nations special envoy for Libya.
Coalition countries were now "more flexible with the timetable", the European official said. "More member states, including the most hard-line, are more flexible than before on the problem," he added. A British diplomat said officials were encouraging the Libyan opposition leadership of the Transitional National Council (TNC) to open talks with members of the Gaddafi government who "do not have blood on their hands".
As long as Col Gaddafi was demonstrably not taking decisions that affected the outcome of the talks and that the regime agreed the goal would be his departure, Britain would support talks, a British official said.
"As long as there is a ceasefire leading to a transistion from Col Gaddafi, we believe that talks could take place without Col Gaddafi leaving, though he could not have power over the negotiations," he said. "It needs a clear vision of a political process that leads to the demise of the regime."
"Abu Muslim al Djazairi", a member al Qaeda's legal commission, called Libyan militants to proceed with the formation of an armed organization and quit the opposition of the National Council of Transition, whom he accuses of allegiance to the West.
Abu Muslim El Djazairi, the number two in the commission Menbar Ettawhid wel Jihad, after Al Maqdici, considered an important member of Al Qaeda organization, responding to a letter sent by a Libyan insurgent who called himself "Abu Djendel Ellib" has advised him to proceed in the formation of an armed organization that would combine the real revolutionaries, saying that this should be done with the utmost discretion because the fight has not yet begun.
Abu Muslim advised the militants to coordinate their efforts with other terrorist organizations.
BENGHAZI, Libya In the days after Libyas rebels rose up against Moammar Gaddafi, they faced a vexing challenge: How do you pay for a revolution?
They figured that part of the answer could be found inside the secure vaults of the Benghazi branch of the Central Bank of Libya, where Gaddafis government held about $505 million.
So they broke in and took it.
Let me put it this way: We robbed our own bank, said Ali Tarhouni, the U.S.-educated finance minister for the rebels, who ordered the March heist.
By drilling a hole in a wall and hiring a locksmith to play with a safes combination, rebel leaders turned the Gaddafi governments own money into the lifeblood of their uprising. Now they are trying to do much the same thing on an international scale, asking foreign governments including the United States to use seized Libyan assets to fund a rebellion that in three months has evolved from political protest into a protracted military showdown.
On Tuesday, the United States emphasized its support for the rebels by asking them to open an office in Washington, a gesture just short of formal recognition. But as the rebels struggle to fund their fight, the United States and other Western powers have done little to help them financially.
The Obama administration and Congress have been deadlocked over giving rebel leaders any of the $32 billion in Libyan assets frozen in U.S. accounts. Even using the money to provide humanitarian aid to those affected by the conflict is legally complex.
This is a tough issue, said Jeffrey D. Feltman, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern and North African affairs, speaking to reporters in Benghazi. These are assets that were holding in custodianship for the service of the Libyan people, and were looking at how we might address the humanitarian needs.
The White House has asked the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to draft a bill to take a portion of the frozen assets $150 million to $180 million and put it to use in Libya as humanitarian aid. But the legislation faces stiff opposition from Republican Sen. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, who has serious concerns about the ramifications of taking the funds of what is still another sovereign nation, said Lugar spokesman Mark Helmke.
Lugar and other members of Congress are concerned about U.S. involvement in a Libyan civil war and the administrations lack of consultation with Congress. If the Obama administration wants to spend more taxpayer money and possible American blood, it has to consult with Congress on the ways and means of this war, Helmke said.
As the administration and Congress bicker, the rebels say they are running dangerously low on funds. They have asked for pledges of up to $3 billion in loans and aid, and have received substantial promises from Kuwait, Qatar and others. But international assistance has come up far short of what the rebels say they need.
For now, Tarhouni and the rebels are still relying on the remaining funds from the central bank roughly 150 million Libyan dinars, or $120 million, according to Sharif.
Ive been using this money in an almost magical way to run the economy, Tarhouni said. We needed to use this money to give it back to the people, to feed the people.
But aware that the money wont last much longer, Tarhouni is hunting for the really big sums that Gaddafi and his government placed in banks, investment firms, hedge funds and other institutions across the globe. Tarhouni estimates the assets could be worth as much as $165 billion.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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"I've been using this money in an almost magical way to run the economy," Tarhouni said.
So you see...it's not really stealing. It's more like...ummm....er...Quantitative Easing. Yeah...dat's da ticket.
Raging British Muslim activists held a protest outside of Downing Street over Bin Laden's killing during President Obama's visit.
Burka clad women, and loudmouths from Muslims Against Crusades, including attention whore radical cleric Anjem Choudary gathered outside the street to carry on about Obama's decisions 'against Muslims'.
Choudary stated that Obama has made himself a 'legitimate target' for Muslim extremists after the killing of bin Laden, and demanded that Obama be brought to justice before a sharia court for his role in the war in Afghanistan.
Calling Obama an 'even a greater killer of Muslims' than George W. Bush, Choudary said the US president is the 'number one enemy' for Muslims as bin Laden was for the West.
Choudary said, "He is a war criminal, it goes without saying. He has slain more Muslims than even his predecessor George Bush and has overseen the escalation of the war on Islam. He must be arrested and face a sharia court for his crimes."
#1
The schtick is getting old. And predictable. You're almost at the cartoonish stage, Anjem. Let's all point and laugh at the crazy Muslim.
But, if someone should cave your head in with a bat or push you under a subway train, I think few, outside of your freeloading layabout followers, would complain.
For a map, click here. For a map of Nuevo Leon, click here. For a map of Monterrey, click here
In a coordinated assault, armed suspects robbed four casinos in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon early Wednesday morning, according to the news daily Milenio.
The report says men dressed as local gang members and armed with assault rifles entered the four casinos in sequence starting just after 0200 hours, taking an undetermined amount of cash.
In the Hollywood casino near the intersection of Avenida Constitucion and Calle Degollado, armed suspects began shooting in the air as they cleared out cash registers.
The Casino Royale on Avenida San Jeronimo was where a person was reported hit by gunfire in the robbery, but paramedics could not find the wounded.
In nearby Casino Red patrons reported seeing assault rifles, but no gunfire.
At Miravalle Palace on Calzada Miravalle was also reported gunfire and damage, but no injuries.
Roman Silantyev, an expert on Islam, said, "Most of the Wahabis live in Dagestan (there are some 30,000 people there). In Ingushetia, there are some 10,000. One of the most problematic republics of the region is Kabardino-Balkaria. The percentage of radical Wahabis is high among the Muslims of the Stavropol Territory."
There is a war in Chechnya against Wahabis, but the problem remains. As for Wahabi sympathisers in the North Caucasus, "they are in the hundred thousands," he said.
"In general, the percentage of Wahabis in Russian Islam reaches some 5%, and in the North Caucasus it is 10-15%. When their number exceeds 40%, it will mean that they have won," Silantyev said.
About the radicalization of the Islamic clergy, he said there are no statistics on that, but he believes their number is "much less than a half." At the same time, some believe that the percentage of radicals among religious leaders is higher than among ordinary Muslims "because Wahabis mainly work with the clergy, and the percentage of imams who sympathize with them is high."
Many imams preach Islamist views "out of fear for their life and under pressure from bandits," Silantyev said.
When asked what could be done, he said: "We need to provide more effective physical protection to traditional Muslims and more effectively force people who don't want to live in peace and those assisting them to leave in peace."
#4
What is the West doing about the spread of Wahabis funded by Saudis
It strikes me as stuck on stupid that we are funding our own demise via the Saudis. Why don't we develop our energy resources and stop acting like idiots. Let the Saudis eat sand.
Well, it looks like he ain't ronery no more...
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's fourth wife Kim Ok is among his entourage on a visit to China. A video clip posted on the Internet shows Kim visiting an LCD factory on the outskirts of the southern Chinese city of Nanjing. In the video, he gets out of a car and is greeted by a welcoming party, while Kim Ok emerges from the other side of the vehicle.
The bodyguard who opens the door bows to Kim Ok, who is wearing a light green top, black skirt and white shoes. It is rare for her to be spotted on the North Korean leader's overseas visits.
"Kim Ok played the role of North Korea's first lady by accompanying Kim Jong-il on both visits to China in May and August last year," a South Korean intelligence officer said. "The woman is clearly Kim Ok seeing as she sat next to Kim Jong-il and emerged from the car with him." Just goes to show ya, evil dictators need love too..
She apparently strengthened her influence after caring for Kim Jong-il when he suffered a massive stroke in August 2008. She was also present when Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun met the North Korean leader in August 2009.
Kim Ok majored in piano at a university in Pyongyang and was selected as part of an elite troupe of female entertainers in the early 1980s. Since then, she has been in charge of tending to Kim Jong-il's health, according to intelligence officials. Sounds like Suha. Make sure he tells ya where all the money is before he croaks. Makes things a lot easier...
One high-ranking North Korean official who defected to South Korea recently said, "Kim Ok wields considerable power in North Korea and shouts at high-ranking officials and gives them orders." "I'm Mrs. Kim, dammit!"
There are rumors that Kim fathered a son with Kim Ok who is now seven. She is believed to have married the leader in June 2004, when his third wife Ko Yong-hui died.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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china appears best of buddies with both north korea and pakistan
What's your assessment, Johnson?
There ain't any, sir...
A U.S. food assessment team led by special envoy Robert King heads to Pyongyang on Tuesday to evaluate a request for food aid from North Korea.
Last week, U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner confirmed King's visit to the reclusive regime, adding that the delegation will also raise human rights issues.
The team is expected to conduct field evaluations of food security needs in the impoverished nation, including areas beyond the capital, and meet with government officials. King, who handles humanitarian assistance in addition to human rights, is scheduled to wrap up the visit on Saturday, but the rest of the team may stay longer. See ya, boys and girls! I'm outta here! Enjoy your stay in North Korea. And have that report on my desk the day you get back.
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Federal prosecutors, with the approval of the Attorney General, want to force the author of a book about the CIA to testify at a criminal trial about who leaked information to him about the agency's effort to sabotage Iran's nuclear program at the end of the Clinton administration.
The writer, James Risen, a reporter for the New York Times, was served with a subpoena on Monday, ordering him to testify at the trial of Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA officer. Sterling was charged this year as part of a larger crackdown by the Obama administration on officials accused of disclosing restricted information to journalists.
In a motion filed on Monday, prosecutors argued the First Amendment did not give Risen the right to avoid testifying about his confidential sources in a criminal proceeding. The Justice Department argued Risen was a witness and should be compelled to provide testimony to a jury "like any other citizen."
Prosecutors think Sterling provided classified information to Risen that served as the core for a chapter in his 2006 book, "State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration."
The chapter describes an effort by the CIA in 2000 to interfere with Iran's nuclear program by sending a former Russian scientist to give it blueprints for a nuclear triggering device with a hidden design flaw.
Republican Dan Patrick, who was the sponsor of the bill in the Senate, withdrew it when he realized he would not have the votes he needed to pass it. There was a time in this state, there was a time in our history, where we stood up to the federal government and we did not cower to rules and policies that invaded the privacy of Texans, he said with regret, reports the Texas Tribune. No last stand for Texas this week.
After years in Boston, Pakistani rose to prominence in Taliban
SWAT VALLEY, Pakistan He lived the anonymous life of an illegal immigrant in Boston, sharing a Brighton three-decker with his countrymen from Pakistan. He painted homes in the morning and pumped gas in the afternoon. He earned a reputation for being reliable, industrious, and polite.
But after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Muslim Khan returned home and traded in that invisible existence for a certain kind of fame.
With a mastery of English learned in Boston, a festering rage against perceived injustice, and thousands of dollars saved from years abroad, Khan helped bankroll militants brutal takeover of his home area of Swat Valley. He helped orchestrate some of the Pakistani Talibans most vicious attacks and became a top spokesman for the insur gent movement.
Two years ago, Pakistans military under heavy pressure from the United States took back the valley, scoring its most important victory in its war against extremists and putting Kahn, now 60, out of action and into custody. But fear of a Taliban return still grips this place. And disbelief still grips the Swati community in Boston, which is trying to come to terms with what Khan did.
He was just a regular guy, working 24/7, recalled Mohammad Khan, who owns a pizza parlor in Newton. He slept here and he ate here and he made money here. How could he go back and say America is no good?
Much more at the link about a local boy gone bad.But not because of the time he spent in America, which just enabled him to act on ideas he'd had before he left.
BEIJING: China said on Tuesday it had not heard of Pakistans proposal for Beijing to help it build a naval port. Oh no, course not, it'll be forced on them...
Pakistani Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtar said on Saturday that his government wanted China to build it a naval base at the deep water port of Gwadar, in the latest sign of moves to bolster ties with Beijing after strains with Washington over the US operation that killed Osama bin Laden.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said she had no knowledge beforehand of the naval port proposal and it had not been discussed during Gilanis visit.
Regarding the specific China-Pakistan cooperative project that you raised, I have not heard of it, Jiang told a regular news conference in Beijing. Its my understanding that during the visit last week this issue was not touched upon."
Analysts say Mukhtars statement seemed to be aimed at showing the United States that Pakistan had a diplomatic alternative in its old ally Beijing if its ties with Washington faltered.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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All together now, + let Al Bundy feel it - AAAWWAKKKWWAARRDD.
Abbottabad is already popular as an alpine escape from the summer heat. And a museum at the last stand of the al-Qaida leader could mine some long-term cash from the towns instant brush with notoriety. Maybe they could have rides? And all those cute little Hamas TV animal characters from Hell...
ANBAR / Aswat al-Iraq: Member of Anbar Provincial Council said that the stability in security situation in Anbar cities during the present time is due to Syrian occupation with its internal affairs.
Mizhir Hassan told Aswat al-Iraq that "the security situation in Anbar cities is relatively stable due to the events taken place in Syria".
He added that "Syria made great damage to Iraq and participated in the deterioration of the security situation through those who penetrated via its borders".
"The situation in Anbar is good in comparison with the previous years, which witnessed suicidal attempts and more killings on the Iraqi side", he elaborated.
Ramadi, center of Anbar province, lies 110 km west of the capital, Baghdad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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I bet that works with Iran too if American leadership had any cojones.
#2
ION FOX NEWS AM > Analysts = HEZBOLLAH [Iran] WILL NEVER ALLOW THE COLLAPSE OF THE ASSAD REGIME, as due to ASSAD REGIME = SYRIA being a vital part of Hezbollah receiving $$$ from Assad + weapons ala IRAN.
* IRNA > FM SPOKEMAN: IRAN WILL HELP LEBANON ESTABLISH ITS GOVT.
ARTIC = "Region" will never allow Assad Regime-Govt in Syria to collapse.
- Syria is key to Iranian power projection into the Mediterranean vee bypass of KSA + Suez Canal.
- Facil control of ambitions of Regional KURDS.
- Anti-Saudi, anti-Turkey, anti-US,Israel options vee non-Kurd Minority Groups, Regional Econ policies.
Featuring all the old favorites. Like "masked gunmen"!
On Saturday, 21 May 2011, two masked gunmen shot and killed 'Omar Hilwan in Beit Dajan village near the northern West Bank city of Nablus. This attack is another incident of violence resulting from the state of lawlessness and weapons proliferation plaguing the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT). So how many does that make? Nah. Just kidding. Don't freak out...
According to an investigation conducted by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), including eyewitnesses' testimonies, at approximately 08:15 on Saturday, 21 May 2011, two masked gunmen shot and killed Omar Hussein Abu Hilwan, 32, in the center of Beit Dajan village, northeast of Nablus. He was hit with several bullets. The attackers then fled the scene. Yeah, they'll usually do that...
PCHR strongly condemns this crime, and calls upon the Attorney General's office to conduct a thorough investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice. We'll try, but we're pretty backed up thanks to you do-gooders always asking for all these investigations. I'm suprised we get anything done.
Up next, "Accidental Discharges From Mishandled Weapons"!
On Wednesday morning, 18 May 2011, Intissar Abu Rabei', from the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia, was killed by a bullet, which accidentally discharged from a gun that her child mishandled. Whaddya mean we're outta Twinkies, bitch!
According to an investigation conducted by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), at approximately 09:30 on Wednesday, 18 May 2011, Intissar Mohammed Abu Rabei', 41, from Beit Lahia, was admitted into Kamal 'Edwan Hospital in the town after she was wounded by a bullet that hit her face and ended lodged in her chest. Hmmmmmmmm. Kid fire from a grassy knoll maybe?
According to medical sources, she was in critical condition when she arrived, so she was transferred to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Whaddya think, doc?
Well, it's not a foot wound, so I can't help her. Better take her to Shifa. Maybe somebody over there knows what they're doing.
Medical efforts to save her life failed and she was pronounced dead in that afternoon. Mahmoud, call those bastids over at Kamal 'Edwan and tell them thanks for making us look bad.
According to Palestinian police sources, the bullet that hit Abu Rabei' was fired from a gun which was mishandled by her 15-year-old child. The gun belongs to the child's father who is a police officer. And a damn fine one I'll bet... Jeebus! 15 year-old kid "accidently" shot and killed their own mother. If true, and if the rascal weren't a raving nutter already, I can confidently predict total craziness in their near future.
...and, finally a twofer. "Masked gunmen" and "family disputes"!
At approximately 21:30 on Tuesday, 17 May 2011, masked gunmen opened fire at Saif Majed Abu Zakkar, 20, when he was near a grocery shop near his house in Block "H" in al-Shaboura refugee camp in Rafah. He was wounded by several bullets throughout the body. Hey, Saif. We been looking for youze!
Oh, shit! It's the "Masked Gunmen"!
BANGBANGBANGBANGBANG...
People in the area transported him to Martyr Abu Yousef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah. Ummmmmmm...can ya take me somewhere else?
According to medical sources, Abu Zakkar was in a serious condition, so he was transferred to the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Yunis. Thanks, guys..
Palestinian police sources stated that an investigation was opened into the attack, which they think was motivated by an old family dispute. Important tip to remember, Mahmoud. Never get in a dispute with the Masked Gunmen family. They got long memories...
PCHR is deeply concerned over increasing casualties resulting from the misuse of weapons ...as we always are
which is part of the state of security chaos and proliferation of weapons prevailing in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. I can almost hear Marvin Gaye singing "Make Me Wanna Holler"...
PCHR calls upon the Public Prosecution to seriously investigate such incidents and bring the perpetrators to justice. Hey! Ya think we don't?
JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- An armored truck carrying cash to Gaza returned to Israel without delivering its payload after activists sat in the road and prevented the truck from proceeding Tuesday, Israeli media reported. An Israeli armored car guard in Gaza. I'll be that's a fun job...
Activists demanding the release of captive soldier Gilad Shalit positioned themselves on the only road leading to the Gaza Strip crossing, surrounded the truck and chanted slogans, The Jerusalem Post newspaper reported. They chanted that "The money won't pass until Gilad is returned," the newspaper reported. There goes poker night at Hamas headquarters...
Israeli police decided not to disperse the protest, according to the report. Heh heh heh...
Israel is the only country that has guaranteed freedom of all faiths in Jerusalem, which must remain undivided, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told Congress Tuesday. In unusually strong language, he told members of Congress that Judea and Samaria are part of the ancient Jewish homeland that our forefathers walked in and that the 650,000 Jews living there "are not occupying the region. He strongly criticized the changed versions of history that are being promoted by others.
Interrupted dozens of times by standing ovations, after minutes-long applause as he entered the chamber, Netanyahu also said that there are 300 million Arabs in the MIddle East, but the only ones who are free are Israeli citizens.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu noted in his opening remarks that the "ground is still shifting in the Middle East and that the uprisings in the Muslim countries represent peoples demands for liberty.
He thanked the United States for helping Israel reach its defense capabilities despite the tough economy. He jokingly said that the United States doesn't have to help build Israel--it is already built. More seriously, he said that the United States doesn't have to send soldiers to defend Israel, because Israel defends itself.
The Prime Minister did not change any of his policies, and put paid to rumors that he was going to announce new concessions. He expressed his policies in down-to-earth and homey language that clearly enthused the legislators. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was on the podium to receive him. U.S.
He made it clear that he is willing to agree to borders for a Palestinian Authority country that would place some Jews outside of Israels borders, but did not mention that this would be only in settlement blocs and gave the impression of giving up less, rather than more.
Netanyahu also stressed that the borders must be negotiated because Israel will not return to the indefensible borders of 1967. He relied on his interpretation of U.S. President Barack Obamas statement that any future borders of Israel will not be identical with the 1949 Armistice Lines that existed until the Six-Day War in 1967. He repeated his insistence that the Jordan River have an Israeli Army presence, remarking that in the MIddle East, peace depends on the ability to defend oneself.
The president has called for land swaps, a concept that Prime Minister Netanyahu did not mention and one which has little chance of getting off the ground because Israeli Arabs have little interest in giving up their freedom and economic security as Israeli citizens.
The vast majority of Jews living beyond the 1949-1967 borders live in greater Jerusalem and greater Tel Aviv, the Prime Minister said in his address. These areas and other places of historic, strategic and national importance will be incorporated into the final borders of Israel," he asserted.
Prime Minister Netanyahu also buried the issue of refugees, meaning the Arabs who either fled Israel in the wars in 1948 and 1967, or their descendants.
"Jews around the world have a right to immigrant to the only Jewish state, and Arabs around the world should have the right to immigrate to a Palestinian state. he told Congress.
In case anyone doubted his intentions, he added, This means that the refugee problem will be solved outside the borders of Israel".
Repeating that the obstacle to peace is not the creation of a Palestinian State to which six successive Israeli Prime Ministers agreed, but the Palestinian acceptance of the existence of a Jewish State, Netanyahu called to Abbas to tell Palestinians clearly that Israel has a right to exist. Meanwhile, he said, incitement continues in PA school curricula, squares are named after terrorists and the only reward Israel got for leaving Lebanon and Gaza was 12,000 rockets fired at its children.
"Imagine a siren sounding and giving you 60 seconds to find shelter before a missile strikes. You couldn't live with that. No one can live with that, " he said emphatically, adding, "Israel is not what is wrong in the Middle East. Israel is the only thing that is right in the MIddle East."
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IIRC Benji had also argued on TV News that iff Iran gets Nukes, THE "ARAB SPRING" WILL BE REPLACED/SUPPLANTED BY THE "IRANIAN WINTER", + that the World will thence be witness to the beginnings or advent of NUCLEAR TERRORISM [which I presume for Benji to mean GLOBAL Nuke-WMDS MilTerrorism].
With Muhammad Ali at their side, the mothers of hikers Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer on Tuesday called upon Iran to release their sons after 22 months in captivity. Under a banner with the words "662 Days Without Freedom," Laura Fattal and Bauer's mother, Cindy Hickey, stood with the boxing icon and American Muslim leaders to stress the pair's innocence. They face trial on charges of entering Iran illegally for espionage.
Their plight brought Ali to Washington from his home in Arizona. With his speech impeded by Parkinson's disease, his wife, Lonnie, spoke for him. The hikers reminded her husband of himself as a young man, "a citizen of the world" with a thirst for knowledge of other cultures, she said.
"After reading about Shane and Josh, he felt . . . these were two young men - who regardless of what international policy says, regardless of what politics says - wanted to experience the world, wanted to experience other cultures, wanted to experience other people," she said. ". . . That's a good thing."
On Tuesday, an official from the Iranian Foreign Ministry said that calling the pair "hikers" was a "joke," and suggested their prosecution would proceed. Laura Fattal said, "Iran's indecision and delay have taken a terrible toll - on them and on us."
On Sunday, the two were allowed five-minute phone calls home - for the first time since Nov. 27, and third since their arrest. Josh Fattal told his father he was "honored" Ali had taken up his cause.
The Islamic representatives who joined the mothers - from the Islamic Society of North America, the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, the Universal Muslim Association of America, and the Council on American Islamic Relations - sent a letter to Iran's Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pleading for "compassion and mercy."
"After listening to the families, we believe that these Americans did not seek to cause any problems between the United States and the Muslim world . . . but were in the region for the opposite purpose, to promote dialogue and understanding," they wrote.
NICOSIA Syrian opposition leaders are to hold a conference in Turkey next week in support of two-month-old protests against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, one of the organisers told AFP on Tuesday.
The Syrian opposition will organise a conference in Antalya from May 31 to June 2 in support of the revolt in Syria and claims of the Syrian people, Ammar Qurabi, president of the Egypt-based National Organisation of Human Rights, told AFP.
The conference will be open to all supporters of the opposition, independent personalities and representatives of all faiths, he said, referring to a group of reformers who called for democratic changes in 2005 under a statement known as the Damascus Declaration.
Since the outbreak of anti-government protests in mid-March, at least 1,062 people have been killed by Syrian security forces, according to Qurabi. He said 10,000 people were arrested during the protests against the autocratic regime of Assad, who succeeded his father Hafez in 2000.
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VIENNA - A Syrian site bombed by Israel in 2007 was "very likely" to have been a nuclear reactor which should have been declared, the UN atomic agency said in a report, an assertion which may lead to Damascus being referred to the UN Security Council. Ooooooooooooooooohhh...
The confidential report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), obtained by Rooters, threw independent weight behind Western suspicions that Syria was secretly building a reactor at the Dair Alzour site in the desert.
The United States and its European allies may seize on the report's finding to push for a decision by the IAEA's 35-nation board, meeting on June 6-10, to report the Syrian nuclear issue to the U.N. Security Council. Sally, take a "strongly worded" letter.
Should I just pull the template, sir?
It would reflect growing frustration in the West over what is seen as Syria's stonewalling of an IAEA probe into Dair Alzour, which U.S. intelligence reports said was a nascent North Korean-designed reactor intended to make bomb fuel.
Israeli warplanes wrecked the desert site in September 2007 and Syria has allowed IAEA investigators to visit it only once, in June 2008, rejecting repeated requests for further visits
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.
Sudanese security agents have arrested a Christian woman in a Darfur refugee camp, accusing her of converting Muslims to Christianity, said sources who fear she is being tortured. Meanwhile in Khartoum, the Christian mother of a 2-month-old baby is has been left destitute and injured because she and her husband left Islam for Christianity.
BENGHAZI, Libya In the days after Libyas rebels rose up against Moammar Gaddafi, they faced a vexing challenge: How do you pay for a revolution?
Raging British Muslim activists held a protest outside of Downing Street over Bin Laden's killing during President Obama's visit.
Roman Silantyev, an expert on Islam, said, "Most of the Wahabis live in Dagestan (there are some 30,000 people there). In Ingushetia, there are some 10,000. One of the most problematic republics of the region is Kabardino-Balkaria. The percentage of radical Wahabis is high among the Muslims of the Stavropol Territory."
Republican Dan Patrick, who was the sponsor of the bill in the Senate, withdrew it when he realized he would not have the votes he needed to pass it. There was a time in this state, there was a time in our history, where we stood up to the federal government and we did not cower to rules and policies that invaded the privacy of Texans, he said with regret, reports the Texas Tribune. No last stand for Texas this week.
With Muhammad Ali at their side, the mothers of hikers Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer on Tuesday called upon Iran to release their sons after 22 months in captivity. Under a banner with the words "662 Days Without Freedom," Laura Fattal and Bauer's mother, Cindy Hickey, stood with the boxing icon and American Muslim leaders to stress the pair's innocence. They face trial on charges of entering Iran illegally for espionage.
VIENNA - A Syrian site bombed by Israel in 2007 was "very likely" to have been a nuclear reactor which should have been declared, the UN atomic agency said in a report, an assertion which may lead to Damascus being referred to the UN Security Council.
